FDS Group
CLIENT: FDS Group
SERVICES: Website Consultation, Design, and Development
INTRODUCTION
After working alongside The FDS Group for the best part of a decade, we have a fantastic working relationship and a good knowledge of their industry, making them a highly valued client at ExtraDigital.
When they approach us regarding the restructuring of their company, we provided consultation on the impact that this would have on their owned media and digital presence. We highlight the benefits that would come from restructuring, but also warned of the potential risk, and recommended appropriate courses of action to limit and detrimental effects it may have.
CONSULTATION, DESIGN, & DEVELOPMENT
The FDS Group decided to go ahead with the restructuring of their company. They felt this was essential to provide a superior service to their existing and potential customers.
Since its inception, The FDS Group operated as Fire Design Solutions and FDS Consult. The restructuring would split the service offering of these companies into dedicated business units that catered for each stage of the RIBA Plan of Work.
The revised structure would introduce The FDS Group as an umbrella company, comprising of three business units: FDS Consult UK, FDS Contracting and FDS Maintenance. With this change it was crucial that their digital presence and owned media reflected and conveyed the benefits of the new structure.
Previously, the group had been working off two websites, one for FDS Consult and the other for the Fire Design Solutions. We recommended the best strategy would be to transition these sites into dedicated offerings for each of the units comprising of:
The Consult UK site was fairly straight forward, it witnessed a few changes across this site with the introduction of new content and a slight rebranding. ExtraDigital managed the domain transfer and ensured all the necessary steps were taken to preserve the marketing value of the site.
The other sites required us to split up content from the existing Fire Design Solutions site. We opted to transition the existing FDS site into a WordPress multisite, creating unique offerings for The FDS Group, FDS Contracting and FDS Maintenance.
Each site on the multisite are networked on the same WordPress installation, sharing themes and plugins between them. There was a slight facelift for key pages, to ensure the information was clear, accessible and provided superior UX, but the crucial element here was to ensure that all new content was mapped correctly to the new sites and the redirects effectively put in place to retain SEO value.
Using the Fire Design Solutions site as the foundation for the new sites meant we were able to amend the homepage and branding to create the new FDS Group site quickly and effectively. As the new site would be for the umbrella business, it did not require the level of content which the individual businesses would need, but would need to show the size of the Group and link to the individual businesses.
FDS Contracting and FDS Maintenance followed, creating unique offerings for The FDS Group audience of architects, developers and contractors at each stage of the fire safety project lifecycle.
By creating independent companies for each stage of the RIBA Plan of Work, The FDS Group simplify the enquiry process for their prospects, creating a better UX for any lead generation efforts. The FDS Group can cater to for requirements at any stage of the project lifecycle but are adept at working from consultation to completion and into ongoing maintenance. This offers their client a Golden Thread of information throughout the project and the benefits of only dealing with one contractor for all their fire safety needs. A move that has been affirmed by the recent Hackitt report, which came in response to the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower Fire.
MARKETING
Alongside our restructuring consultation and development work, ExtraDigital provides a range of digital marketing services.
We worked alongside Bijan Fard, the Group Marketing Manager at The FDS Group to curate a raft of activity promote the restructuring and ensure their audience were aware of and understood the ins and outs of the restructuring and how it was designed to benefit them.
CONCLUSION
For ExtraDigital, it’s great to work with organisations that are at the top of their game, pushing the boundaries of their industry and taking a thought leadership role for their peers to follow. Ultimately, with the work they undertake, lives are at stake, so it’s certainly peace of mind to see a company at the forefront of new regulation, pushing for excellence.
We hope we can continue our successful work with The FDS Group to ensure they secure their position as the leading light in fire safety excellence.
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