Homegrown Frederick Grows with Orases Technology
Raising awareness of Frederick’s agricultural communityHomegrown Frederick is a service of the Office of Economic Development's (OED) agriculture business development, focusing primarily on promoting agricultural opportunities and assisting agricultural businesses within the county. Services provided by Homegrown include permitting and zoning assistance, business plan development, and promotion and education of the industry.
Client
Homegrown FrederickProject Name
Homegrown Frederick WebsiteServices
The Challenge
Connecting the community with agricultural businessThe original Homegrown Frederick website was outdated and difficult to maintain. It wasn’t responsive and the content wasn’t focused on the local community that Homegrown Frederick serves. OED needed a site that would better explain their goals and mission, and make their information easily accessible and understandable for the agricultural business community, and the general Frederick County population.
Solution
Increasing return on investmentWorking in collaboration with OED, Orases created a well-organized site structure and a consistent, easy-to-use navigation menu system. This new information architecture allows users to get to any content within 3 clicks and fulfills the needs of Homegrown Frederick users. By using a predetermined and well-tested template, Orases was able to save OED money. This predetermined template and website modules created a great return on investment for the organization and made web training on the site easy since the OED staff already knew how the system worked from previous projects with Orases. The new site is much more organized and the content can easily be updated thanks to the new Content Management System (CMS). With the site’s Google Maps integration, visitors can search for and get information about local farms, farmers markets, wineries, breweries, and restaurants that use local ingredients. The responsive site also has an events section, so community members can stay up to date on local events.
Results
Encouraging growth in Frederick CountyThe new Homegrown Frederick site has proven successful for OED, agricultural businesses, and the community. Local farmers and restaurants get more customer referrals from the site than ever before, and visitors to the site can find information on Frederick’s agriculture faster and easier. The site has even brought in more agricultural business to Frederick County, including more wineries, breweries, and distilleries, which have increased visitors and tax revenue in the area.
45 %
Increase in Traffic
2 Hours Saved
On Website Tasks a Week
33% Increase
In Overall User Engagement
Our client relationships go beyond technology.
Marketing Director at NFL Foundation Logan Gerber
Orases successfully built efficiencies into our prototype and delivered a high-quality platform.See the project
VP of Communications Joseph Cephas
They’re so approachable and willing to go above and beyond.See the project
CEO John Dumas
I don't believe that we would have been successful without our collaboration with Orases.See the project
VP of Project Management Ken Isaacson
They plug in seamlessly to a team and can handle the full project end-to-end.See the project
President Matt Owings
They’re honorable, reputable, and easy to work with. They genuinely care about the outcome and want to do a good job.