Buffalo Niagara Enterprise

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise (BNE) is a not-for-profit marketing and economic development organization dedicated to attracting jobs and investment to the eight counties of Western New York. Since 1999, they have assisted 251 companies in successfully expanding or relocating to the Buffalo Niagara region, translating into $2.4 billion in investment and a positive employment impact on the region in excess of 36,000 jobs.  Most recently, BNE has worked with companies such as Yahoo!, Linita Design & Manufacturing, Geico, NutraBlend Foods, and Electrosonic of America.

 

As a not-for-profit, BNE needed a powerful, yet cost-effective means by which to promote the Buffalo Niagara region to key industries and markets that best fit the demographics and strengths of the area. Each industry has unique needs, challenges and opportunities and the organization was looking for an option that could give them the ability to reach and speak to each of these industries with the specific business case that would appeal and resonate in their sector. 

 

BNE chose QuantumCMS as their content management software because it provides the organization with the functions and tools needed to build and maintain a web presence that appeals to site selectors and corporate real estate executives and is backed by Algonquin Studios' team of software developers, who are just a phone call or email away if advice or assistance is needed.

 

"We realized that QuantumCMS would allow us to make edits quickly, to keep our data current and our website relevant" said BNE's Marketing and Communications Director, Jennifer Kavanaugh. "Our staff would be able to add news articles, events, and marketing literature daily and, should we need support, Algonquin would be there to provide guidance and education."

 

In addition to the wealth of features QuantumCMS offers out of the box, Algonquin has worked on a number of custom applications for BNE, to meet the specific needs of the organization and its mission:

 

·         Custom PDF Builder - developed for the BNE site, the builder allows site selectors interested in presenting the Buffalo Niagara region as a location option to their clients to quickly and easily create presentation documents from information pulled from the BNE site. A user simply selects the pages of relevant information to be included in the document and the PDF Builder creates a document with a cover page, table of contents, and header and footer images/information that can be printed or emailed to parties interested in learning more about the region.

 

·         Mobile Site - allowing users to access BNE information while on the go, the mobile version of buffaloniagara.org was developed after extensive testing on multiple browsers and mobile devices, tackling design and coding issues along the way.

 

·         Mini Sites - created to support campaigns specifically targeted to certain industries, Algonquin helped BNE develop mini sites that are specially branded and offer language and content that speaks to the distinct needs of the site's target audience allowing, for example, site selectors from the Life Sciences industry to focus solely on information that's crucial to them, without the clutter of information related to the Hospitality or Agribusiness fields.

 

Algonquin has helped BNE stay ahead of their competition and reach their audience effectively and efficiently by developing the custom applications mentioned above and more, including the redesign of a jobs database, an incentives database, online event registration, and improved navigation for easy access to videos, brochures, and image galleries.

 

"Algonquin has been a great partner, helping us continually evaluate our competitive landscape, offering technical recommendations and assistance to reach our audience, and educating us on best-in-class web practices" said Ms. Kavanaugh. "As site owners who understand our audience and content intimately, QuantumCMS gives us the ability to make an immediate and direct impact on our website in a very cost effective manner. It's great to have our economic development professionals editing our website and not need to employ web professionals on staff but when we need them, Algonquin is there to provide guidance and reinforcement."