How a Website Redesign and Technology Upgrade was a Game-Changer for C3 Constructions

Company Profile

Industry: Construction

Company size: 16

Location: Sydney, Australia

“As a manager, it’s hard to know what to do about every aspect of the technology we use. Frankly, it was taking time away from our core business. Our website needed to be more responsive and tell our story better. Our other technology needed an upgrade to be easier to use and more secure.

“Now we have a beautiful website and new technology that lets us get on with our busy jobs and get back to concreting and landscaping.”

— Gabby Eason Maclean | General Manager, C3 Constructions

C3 Constructions and Their Vision

C3 Constructions is a fast-growing Sydney-based concrete contractor business with a team of 16 experts. They provide a complete range of specialist concreting, landscaping, and excavation services for commercial and residential clients.

The C3 office operated with old technology, and they sought a technology partner to help them organise and modernise their business. By migrating to a more modern workplace, C3 wanted to reduce their operational cost and increase their cyber security, efficiency and productivity.

A polished and professional website

C3 wanted to upgrade their company website to stand out from their competitors and attract new clients.

The new website needed to be user-friendly with fast page loading, a fresh look, and intuitive navigation. The goal was to increase the site’s visibility through good SEO foundations, ensure easy accessibility for all potential clients across various devices, and provide compelling information about C3’s business.

Modern workplace technology

C3 wanted to replace their aging technology stack with systems that could keep up with them as they transform into a modern business.

The new technology needed to be cost-efficient, secure, and unified to allow for better staff collaboration and productivity.

Challenges

C3 was working in a disjointed technology environment that was fast approaching end of life. They’d outgrown their hardware, email, file storage, backup, productivity tools, and website arrangements which were complicated, difficult to keep track of, and dispersed.

C3 office staff perform administration, job coordination, and business management duties. They were also wasting time printing out documents and performing other manual tasks.

These manual tasks, along with C3’s technology setup, were getting in the way of the team doing their work properly – productivity and efficiency were suffering. 

Old website

C3’s website was dated and not mobile-friendly. It wasn’t optimised for accessibility, modern browsers, and search engines. The overall experience wasn’t user-friendly or responsive and the site was difficult to maintain.

Scattered technology

Over the years, C3’s technology setup became increasingly complex. The location of domain, hosting providers, and standalone applications was unknown.

C3’s business operations were impacted by:

• Disseminated hosting – C3’s email was hosted by a web host provider while their domains were hosted elsewhere. This meant different renewal processes and different customer portals to get familiar with.
• Lack of dedicated mail server – C3’s web-hosted email was affected by performance issues, including:
  • Risk of data loss and corruption.
  • Dependence on the host’s server. If it went down, so did C3’s email.
  • Business growing pains which meant mailbox management and security became a nightmare.
• On-premises infrastructure – Company files were saved locally on an old iMac using Time Machine as the backup system. Connectivity issues and disk errors were common occurrences.
• Hardware deterioration – The iMac ran slowly with compatibility issues when it came to newer applications. The loss of important company information was a real threat.
• Lack of standardised environment or latest software – This resulted in limitations and inefficiencies in running C3’s office, as well as issues with licence compliance and the security risk of out-of-date software.

Solution

C3 asked Panoceanic to facilitate a seamless transition to a more modern workplace, entrusting us with revamping their website and their technology upgrade.

Following discussions with C3 management, Panoceanic recommended that C3:

• Migrate to Microsoft 365:
  • Collaboration tools
  • Cloud services
  • Email services, and
  • Security features
• Replace the old iMac with a new laptop running on Windows 11 Pro with Microsoft 365 pre-installed.
• Redesign their company website from scratch and:
  • Create Google Business Profile, and
  • Create Google Analytics.
• Update their current logos to a high resolution.
• Consolidate all their services to Panoceanic, including:
  • Transfer their domains
  • Web hosting
  • Scalable backup, and
  • Standardise email signatures.

The Panoceanic team successfully completed a full migration from C3’s out-of-date and dispersed technology to Microsoft 365 and a brand-new website. The project ran from discovery to design to implementation, with no downtime or disruption to employees’ work.

Website redesign

Panoceanic designed and built a website for C3 that showcases their brand and the projects they’re proud of.

The project included digital strategy formulation, SEO consulting, UX/UI design, WordPress customisation, professional copywriting, and web development.

Design

Panoceanic created a bespoke, eye-catching, and uncluttered design for the new C3 site.

Company information is provided in a logical, sequential way, on one clean, high-contrast page. The thoughtful use of space gives the site a sense of balance and breathability.

Text, images, and other visual elements like icons are positioned to bring C3’s expertise front and centre.

Style

Panoceanic went with a look and style that’s true to C3’s brand and expertise as a concreter and landscaper.

The text is written with a minimalistic font, General Sans, and conveys just the right amount of information about C3’s offerings, while imagery is allowed to assume the spotlight in telling the company story.

The menu is designed to resemble a concrete wall, created by pouring concrete in a downward direction.

Panoceanic selected a palette primarily consisting of green, light, and dark colours. This evokes the idea of beautiful landscaping and stylish concreting – C3’s core business.

Responsiveness and accessibility

The website Panoceanic created for C3 has been designed to be fully responsive, regardless of the device or browser used.

The site is optimised for search engine discoverability leveraging strategic placement of keywords, headings, links, and images. The site’s thoughtful design allows for rapid page loading, regardless of fluctuations in web traffic.

Additionally, C3’s new website was designed with accessibility in mind. This includes optimising the contrast between text and background colours, providing alternative text for images, a consistent layout, and ensuring ease of navigation, with or without a mouse.

Provision of new laptop

A business-grade laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano), complete with Windows 11 Pro, cloud access and a Microsoft 365 licence replaced the old iMac.

“Carlos is fantastic. Extremely helpful for me and our company, as I have no idea what I should have been doing with our computers – Carlos has set us up in a more professional way and has made massive improvements for our company. Thank you.”

— Gabby Eason Maclean | General Manager, C3 Constructions

Selection of our Elite Business and Growth Domain suite

All software offered in Panoceanic’s Elite Business suite was installed on the C3 computer and mobile devices. It was interconnected at the cloud level to standardise employee experiences and ensure all users have access to the latest Office and other apps.

Panoceanic’s Elite Business suite offers:

• Microsoft 365 Business Standard subscription.
• Microsoft Defender subscription .
• Cloud backup.
• Professional cloud email signatures.
• Managed IT services – Microsoft 365 administration, cloud backup services, mail signature portal, and domain management.

Panoceanic’s Growth Domain suite offers:

• .com
• .com.au, and
• .au domains names.

We also provide the following add-on services for C3:

• +DeviceCare – Routine maintenance.
• +SupportCare – Support block of hours per month.
• +WebCare – Website maintenance and security updates.
• +WebHome – Dedicated WordPress Enterprise hosting.

Results and Benefits

With the help of Panoceanic, C3 made a successful transition to a secure and productive digital workplace.

New website benefits

C3’s new website delivers:

• Increased page views.
• More organic search traffic.
• Website analytics.
• Trackable metrics.
• Improved functionality.
• Faster page loading.

• Reduced operational costs.
• Greater ease for updates and maintenance
• Better website security  with:
  • Hourly website backup
  • SSL Certificate, and
  • Multifactor authentication.
• Web content incorporating professional copywriting and keyword research.
• Full compliance with Google’s Search Essentials and Web Design Guidelines.
• Utilisation of Google Business Profile which enhances C3’s online presence. This makes C3 more visible on Google Search and Google Maps, strengthens local SEO, and fosters customer trust.
• A fresh, new bespoke design.
• Provision of high-definition logo files. These logos are used on C3’s trucks, machinery, website, and email signatures.

“I’m very happy with our new website, and I’ve already seen an increase in web traffic. The Panoceanic team worked closely with us to create a site that met all our goals. The result is a website that’s attractive, professional, and easy to navigate. The feedback from our clients has been overwhelmingly positive.”

— Gabby Eason Maclean | General Manager, C3 Constructions

Technology benefits

It’s easier for C3 to keep track of their technology because email, domains, and web hosting are now with the same provider, and they have one point of contact for all technology advice. And C3 now operates in a Microsoft environment set up for collaboration, productivity, and connectivity.

The Microsoft 365 migration project was delivered within the expected timeframe, within budget, and also before C3’s previous technology services reached end of life. C3 are up and running in a new environment and day-to-day business operations were never interrupted.

Some of the benefits our Elite Business suite bring to C3’s business include:

• Increased productivity and team collaboration – Powered by Microsoft 365 offering integrated applications that work how they’re expected.
• More apps – All C3 staff have access to the full suite of Microsoft applications and Microsoft Exchange Online on various devices.
• Ability to unleash the power of AI – Through Microsoft Copilot.
• Ability to work anytime, anywhere, powered by the cloud – With the new laptop and Microsoft 365 accounts, C3 office staff can access data and email at any time and place, from job sites to the office.
• Cyber risk prevention – No more incompatible, out-of-date software.  Multi-factor authentication and passwordless Microsoft 365 sign in is implemented. All data saved within Microsoft 365 is protected against malware, phishing, and spam, with mechanisms to detect and prevent identity and email compromise. Cloud backups are scanned using machine learning to detect unusual activity and potential ransomware attack events. The laptop is running Windows Security and has BitLocker enabled.
• Scalability and controlled costs – Our Elite Business suite is a flexible, subscription-based per-seat model. It lets C3 control their costs while still retaining access to all the applications in the suite, without having to fork out for expensive infrastructure upgrades.
• Steps towards paperless workflows – Decreasing ink and paper costs as well as the time spent on manual tasks.
• Stress-reducing managed services and advice – Panoceanic looks after the software and hardware we’ve provided to C3. We also provide advice about how to further improve C3’s business operations.
• Peace of mind with cloud backups – C3’s Microsoft 365 data, accounting software data, and the data stored locally on their devices are now backed up to the cloud and can be restored quickly.
• Process automation potential – C3 can use Microsoft Power Automate in the future to automate repetitive and manual tasks.
• Consistent branding – All emails sent from Exchange Online, regardless of device, have the same cloud-based, centrally-managed email signature design. This also allows C3 to use their email signatures as marketing tools.

C3 transitioned from a scattered technology stack full of aging equipment and software, much of which they didn’t know about, to a business with consolidated, modern technology.

“The migration to Microsoft 365 happened quickly and efficiently. Panoceanic understood our technology setup and ensured nothing was missed during implementation. Our new laptop was delivered with everything good to go and interruption to our office work was minimal.”

Thanks to these technology improvements, I’ve regained about an hour in my day and have the peace of mind that everything’s secure and operating as it should.”

— Gabby Eason Maclean | General Manager, C3 Constructions

Is your business due for a digital transformation?

From discovery to completion, Panoceanic will ensure a smooth transition to a modern business. We can supply, configure, and provide ongoing support for all your Microsoft and technology needs. And we can create the website of your dreams that’ll place you streets ahead of your competitors.

Connect with Panoceanic today to find out how we can help get you started on your journey towards a modern workplace.