Their Problem
Cowboy Images was scheduled to launch a new website in 2008, however, in January of 2009, it became apparent that the site designer was not in a position to follow through with that commitment. Kerri Allardyce, owner of Cowboy Images, came to DakotaQ Internet Services on January 20, 2009 with a challenge to get the site up and operational by February 2, 2009. With just seven business days until the February 2 deadline, DakotaQ accepted the challenge and work began on January 22 to redesign the Event Photo section of the site. The site went live on February 2nd as scheduled and work continued as design changes were made to provide a robust database of event photos with enhanced categorization and search capabilities. In addition, an interface was fully developed that would allow the automatic order processing by the leading online photo lab in the industry.
Our Solution
After committing to the extremely tight timeframe for this monumental challenge, work began by creating a database to catalog images, rodeo events, and performances. Two windows services were developed which would recognize when new event photos were uploaded to the server. Their function was to automatically read image data and catalog the images allowing for easy retrieval from the website.
An interface to the online photo lab was developed and tested which allowed for online order submission bypassing the need to physically process orders. A complete shopping cart and user account management system was also put in place.
After the initial rollout, work continued to enhance the capabilities of the system, improve image processing capabilities, and develop an administrative interface.
The site continues to be in development today to keep Cowboy Images as the technology leader in Rodeo Photography.
What They Said
DakotaQ has been a business-saver for us, Cowboy Images. We were referred to them in a dire state. The previous designers had over-promised and gotten in over their heads. With just two weeks to complete the majority of the work, Rory rolled up his sleeves and made it happen.
Always prompt and professional, DakotaQ has helped us create more than a webpage; it’s our sales tool, marketing system, administrative hub, and more. We plan to utilize DakotaQ’s knowledge further by continually improving upon and adding new features to the site.
We have an ongoing business relationship with the DakotaQ team and consider Rory a valuable member of OUR team. We certainly wouldn’t be where we are at today without this wonderful custom product, it’s more than what we had originally envisioned. It’s exciting to think where we might be in five years!