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2024 Roundup: highlights from our best year yet

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2024 has been a huge year for Castlegate IT. These are the moments that made it so special.

For this year’s highlights roundup, we’re going to break with tradition. When things start feeling festive, most agencies will drop their biggest clients’ names, shout about the most competitive tender they won, or boast about a lucrative deal they’ve struck. And of course, we’re pleased to have worked with global brands, won new work and secured high-value projects. But what really matters to the team here at Castlegate IT – what makes it all worth it for us at the end of the day – is working on projects that mean something to us.

So this is a post all about celebrating the most meaningful moments of 2024, and sharing what they meant to us.

by Sunny Simmons 28 Nov 2024
An example of high end not for profit design visualised on a desktop device

Helping a global movement improve their members lives

Who we helped: Alcoholics Anonymous (‘AA’) is a trusted global fellowship of over two million members who attend regular meetings to stay sober and help others recover from alcoholism.

What we did: AA needed a website that would make it easier for their visitors to browse and choose meetings. To achieve this, we designed a site with a clear and intuitive user journey, and an intelligent search function that lets visitors find meetings by location, date, time and accessibility needs. The website helped AA double their organic traffic, improve engagement with the site and see a significant increase in returning visitors.

Why it matters to us: We’re proud to have worked with AA not simply because they’re a well known international organisation, but because they’re making a difference to people’s lives by connecting still-suffering alcoholics with help. That’s huge for us.

Read more about our work with AA

An example of high end not for profit design visualised on a desktop device

Completing an ambitious multi-site build for social care pioneers

Who we helped: Community Catalysts, a social care organisation that supports people to set up community focussed micro-enterprises and encourages innovative, inclusive approaches to social care.

What we did: Community catalysts challenged us to bring all five of the organisations in their growing family together onto one website. We rose to the challenge, replatforming their group of websites across an ambitious multi-site installation which has a cohesive look and feel, but still allows the individuality of each brand to shine through.

Why it matters to us: We’ve been working with Community Catalysts for over 16 years, making them officially our longest standing not-for-profit client. And the relationship is still evolving. Our developers have been busy working on the next phase of the project, developing cutting-edge functionality for their website that will launch in the new year. Watch this space.

Read more about our work with Community Catalysts

An example of high end ecommerce design visualised on a desktop device

Giving a local retailer the confidence to meet seasonal demand

Who we helped: Hebden Tea is a retailer of unique, high-quality teas from around the world. With two shops, a tearoom and an online store, they are passionate about making their extensive selection of leaves, infusions and blends available across retail and wholesale.

What we did: Hebden Tea wanted their e-commerce site to emulate the in-person shopping experience they have worked so hard to create. We built a WordPress and WooCommerce website that integrates seamlessly with their stock management system and dynamically filters products, making it easy for customers to order teas to their tastes.

Why it matters to us: Christmas goes hand in hand with tea-drinking, so it’s in the winter months when Hebden Tea’s versatile, robust and user-friendly e-commerce capability really gets the chance to shine. We’re proud to have given a local business the confidence to effortlessly meet the demands of the festive season.

Read more about our work with Hebden Tea

An example of high end academic network design visualised on a desktop device

Building a living legacy to support the transition to net zero

Who we helped: The Agri-food for Net Zero Network+ is an organisation of more than 2,000 people from across the UK agri-food sector, committed to identifying research gaps that need to be addressed for the UK to reach net zero by 2050.

What we did: For the AFN Network to live beyond its three years of initial funding, they needed a website to help them build a long term legacy for the project. To support this, we designed a website with an advanced member directory that would drive sign ups and encourage collaborations between members.

Why it matters to us: Working with academic networks to increase their influence and help them secure more funding is in Castlegate IT’s DNA, so collaborating with a high profile and progressive organisation like AFN Network, to increase awareness of their important mission, was both satisfying and enjoyable for our team.

Read more about our work with AFN Network

AfPP Homepage

Delivering more value for a leading medical association

Who we helped: The Association for Perioperative Practise (AfPP) is the UK’s leading organisation for medical theatre practitioners, and has been providing support and training to the sector for 60 years.

What we did: AfPP’s website was built on an off-the-shelf WordPress theme which did not give them the flexibility they needed. We took over the management of their website and, using our proven formula, incorporated custom functionality into the styles and layouts of the existing theme to promote job listings, add publications and introduce a “news” area to their website.

Why it matters to us: Our partnership with AfPP begun this year, and we are always happy to welcome new clients to the fold. To take on their established website, we guided them through our comprehensive process of auditing, updating and securing their site and we look forward to helping them get the most out of their website investment over the long term.

Celebrating the success stories of our clients

We couldn’t write a post about the work that matters to us, without calling out every single one of our loyal clients who have been with us down the years. Thank you to all of you for continuing to entrust your websites to us.

You know that it’s not all flashy new designs and cutting-edge functionality. The majority of our work goes on behind the scenes. Be it management, maintenance, hosting, cybersecurity, SEO, or technical support. It’s the day-to-day interactions and enquiries that really make our year. Solving problems swiftly, turning work around reliably, being a safe pair of hands at a moment’s notice – that’s what we find most rewarding.

So this year, let’s break with tradition and celebrate the beauty of The Ordinary.

Want to be on the list next year?

If you’ve got a website project you’d like to discuss, give us a call on 01904 654 036 or email the team on info@castlegateit.co.uk

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