• UTCFS Website | ROBRADY design

    Edwards UTCFS Website

    After the acquisition of Edwards by the United Technologies Corporation, the most visible and significant change was a re-launch of their website from a static to dynamic online presence.

Honoring the Past, Embracing the Future

Edwards’ rich 140-year history entered a new era after acquisition by United Technologies Corporation. For this venerable company, the most visible and significant change was a re-launch of its brands and a re-boot of their website from a static to dynamic online presence. With a Drupal platform, Edwards had direct control over their site, which reduced expense and upgrade time.

Edwards chose ROBRADY for the studio’s “data dictates design” approach. Edwards had many complicated and potentially competing information needs, but ROBRADY’s expertise and existing relationship with Edwards helped them meet these demands and the project could hit the information superhighway running.

Edwards’ revitalized site needed to incorporate familiar elements (e.g. news, contact information, featured items), but also be client updatable, searchable by all stakeholders, able to manage more than 6,000 products and usable by the sales force without creating conflict of interest between the channel partners that handle each of Edwards’ four different brands – definitely a multi-dimensional complex assignment.

After working with Edwards to cull various visual display ideas down to a select few, ROBRADY’s design team refined these further, creating quick-turn Photoshop mockups. While each concept for displaying data is visually different, each still presents a fresh take that reflects Edwards’ corporate design while complementing the identities of its many brands. In parallel, the software team reviewed each concept for potential problems and began preliminary coding to keep the schedule in check.

Successive iterations produced a final website that acknowledges the company’s history while equipping it for the future. A state-of-the-art Drupal backend gives the site powerful new usability that allows the client to perform updates and enables robust search capability. Customers can search products with a wide-range of conditions and the sales force can access documents ranging from manuals to requisition forms to logo samples—all without conflict of interest between the channel partners for each different brand. And, when needed, additional features such as login protocols and increased interconnectivity between different sites will be easy to bring online.

ROBRADY’s website solution for Edwards doesn’t just address needs, it anticipates them, which energizes this historic company’s future success.