CUSTOM CLIENT PORTAL

Custom Client Portal App for Building Products Company

We've worked alongside VENT Systems for close to two years. What started as retainer work has grown into something broader: we help James with his customer experience end to end, from the way people first find VENT to what happens after they've bought. The fortnightly catch-up is where most of the good ideas surface.

One of those catch-ups, James described a problem he'd been living with. Distributors wanted brochures. Roofers wanted installation guides and the odd video. Architects wanted CAD details. Building surveyors wanted compliance tables. Every one of them got what they needed by emailing someone at VENT, who would go and find it, and send it again next month. The files existed. Getting the right ones to the right people was the job nobody had time for.

He wanted one place where every customer could sign in and see their files. But not everyone should see everything. A stockist and an installer both deserve a good library. They don't deserve the same library. We said we could build that.

Client: VENT Systems
Sector: Building Products
Engagement: 2+ Years

THEIR OWN PRIVATE LIBRARY

WHAT WE BUILT

The VENT Systems Client Portal is their private client library with a sophisticated front door. Customers sign in and see folders of brochures, specification sheets, technical drawings, photos and installation video, laid out the way VENT Systems organise their own thinking.

CUSTOM BUILT PORTAL

SO MUCH MORE THAN SHAREPOINT OR ONEDRIVE

Three things make it more than a shared drive with a logo on it.

The part that matters is what happens behind that.
VENT decides who its customers are, in broad strokes: which kind of business they run. Then VENT decides which folders each kind can see. That's it. When a roofer signs in, they see the roofer's library. When an architect signs in, they see theirs. Nobody at VENT is maintaining a list of names, and nobody's emailing files around.
Nobody gets in until VENT says so.
There's no automatic sign-up button. Customers ask for access, show they're a real business, and VENT decides whether to let them in and what they should see. When VENT says yes, an invitation goes out. When VENT changes its mind, access changes with it.
Search that goes beyond tags
And because a library is only useful if you can find things in it, search actually reads the documents. Type a product code and it turns up, even if it's buried on page four of a brochure. Adding a new file takes about as long as dragging it in, because the portal suggests a description and you just check it.

THE ALTERNATIVES

But Why not SharePoint, or a Google Drive?

Because they're built for teams, not for customers. A shared drive gives you folders and a list of people, and someone has to keep that list right, by hand, forever. VENT's situation is the opposite: lots of outside businesses, in a handful of clear groups, each of which should see a different slice, with VENT holding the keys. That's not a folder-permissions problem. It's a "who are you, and what should you see" problem. The portal answers it once, and then keeps answering it.

“I have been working with Taylor and Anne-marie for over 15 months now. The results have been nothing short of amazing. Every aspect of my marketing has improved exponentially. Content, web design, content, social media engagement, i could go on. We have launched new services, conceptualised and created from the ground up with Taylor and Anne-marie. A great team to work with, they are more than partners, but more an extension of my business and team. I can not recommend them highly enough!!!!!”

James Johnston, Manager Director

WORK