Large companies, large web projects. Large agencies?
The question arises again and again – and I am glad being asked about it instead of a customer simply moving on to one of the big agencies and perhaps making an expensive mistake.
It all starts with: What is a really big project? Sometimes difficult for customers to judge. Often it seems big, but can actually be easily done by a designer, a photographer and a developer. These small providers often don’t even have to work together directly. Designer and photographer create their works, the developer makes the best of it. Most of the time there is exchange, but usually only a little and uncomplicated. Sometimes an SEO or marketing expert comes along. This is the exception for small projects, but no problem for large projects.
With standard websites for small businesses, it’s clear: Often a developer with some design talent can carry out the whole project on his own. The client saves effort, time and money compared to working with a larger agency.
In fact, even for really large projects, working with small agencies can be better. I’ll put together some advantages here.
In a large web project, many subtasks come together:
- Design / Photography / Video
- Information Architecture
- User Experience (UX) / Ease of Use
- Information architecture, Content, SEO
- Web Development, technical SEO
- Hosting and mail service
- Marketing / Social Media / Conversions
- Training and support
- Project management
There are agencies that offer everything and have their own employees or even entire departments for each topic. This has its price: All employees must always be paid, regardless of the order situation. Large office and infrastructure have to be financed. It needs its own employees for administration and acquisition.
The advantage for customers: he only works with this agency, only needs to look for one provider and concludes only one contract.
However, this is also possible with a small agency or even a sole proprietorship: The small provider, especially if he has been on the market for many years, has his own network. He knows his colleagues, has worked with various designers, photographers and other experts. He can put together a team for each project, combine all of the contributors in one offer for a project and take over project management. This is exactly how Webdesign Burgdorf works.
Of course, the customer always has the choice of placing his own orders for various tasks himself or completing subtasks in-house.
Hiring several specialized providers instead of a “one-stop-shop agency” can therefore have clear advantages, even for large projects:
1. Higher professional specialization
Agencies and service providers who only work in one area are often better specialized.
Examples:
- SEO agency: knows current ranking factors, technical SEO, content strategy
- UX-Studio: works with user research, usability testing, prototyping and knows what is important
- Web developers: pay more attention to performance, code quality, maintainability, compliance with standards, and often also have experience with technical SEO.
Anyone who has specialized in a system for a long time knows it particularly well. Agency employees sometimes change agencies and then need to learn new systems.
A full-service agency can rarely maintain a high level in all disciplines at the same time. Even if an agency has been active for a long time, this does not mean that all employees have been around for a long time and are really experienced in their field.
Reference projects show the quality of an agency’s previous work, but the quality of current agency employees is difficult to assess due to frequent employee changes.
Larger agencies need to keep processes efficient when working with multiple internal employees. Therefore, standard solutions are often used from design to development. This almost inevitably leads to less consideration of individual customer needs. (Hint: Look at various current projects of an agency – do you notice similarities?)
2. Better quality through independent perspectives
When several providers are involved, there is mutual control.
Examples:
- UX expert can criticize design and development
- SEO can challenge information architecture
- Developers can identify technical problems at an early stage, adapt the design accordingly and contribute their own usability ideas
A single agency might lack independent perspectives.
Short communication channels can be an advantage. Among colleagues within a company, however, criticism tends to be reluctant, and it is in the interest of the company to work quickly and reduce discussions.
With modern means of communication, the communication channels between several providers at different locations are also short. Smaller providers are used to working with colleagues from other companies. And it is in the interest of all parties involved to achieve the best possible result for the customer.
3. Flexible selection of the best experts
The customer can choose the most suitable provider for each task instead of accepting compromises.
Example:
- A designer who finds the right style
- A specialized SEO and marketing consultant
- An experienced WordPress developer
- Someone from their own company or association who contributes texts or even takes over project management
This is how a best-of team is created.
4. More competition and cost control
If services are awarded separately, then
- prices are more transparent
- offers are comparable for each area
- providers must justify their performance more strongly
With full-service agencies, costs are often more difficult to assess because services are bundled.
5. Lower risk of dependency
If everything is in the hands of one agency:
- Know-how stays there
- Data, processes, infrastructure and technical solutions are agency-specific
- Change will be difficult
With multiple partners, the customer remains more independent. Individual partners are easier to interchange than a large agency, especially if the individual providers work transparently and document their work well.
If you are working on a larger project with only a single agency and it disappears or withdraws (such as only recently the well-established agency Station in Zurich), it can be a disaster for the project. A new agency can’t just continue seamlessly.
6. Better scalability
A large project often evolves.
With specialized partners, you can:
- Add new experts
- Replace individual providers
- Redistribute tasks
… without having to set up the whole project again.
7. More realistic planning
Specialists often plan their area more precisely because they work within it every day.
Example:
- Developers estimate development effort more realistically than a project manager of a full-service agency
- SEO and marketing can better calculate content effort and adapt to customer requirements
- A marketing person or agency may be in charge of more than just the web project, knows the company or association well and can thus perfectly embed the web project in the overall concept
8. Project Coordination
Someone needs to coordinate the project:
- Project planning and management
- Coordination between work areas and subtasks
- Communication, Control and Conflict Resolution
This can be taken take care of by:
- an employee of the customer
- an external project manager
- an agency employee
A large agency promises better coordination, but in practice it depends a lot on the agency’s organization. In any case, you need a contact person within the customer’s business who understands the project and communicates with the provider(s).
Internal coordination is not automatically better
In a large agency, different people or teams work on a project. The customer sees little of this, but coordination can be just as difficult internally as it is between independent partners.
Agency employees and teams often have
- different priorities
- different workloads
- internal budget logics
If everything is in the hands of one agency, internal differences can arise. Sometimes decisions are made according to internal priorities rather than objectively for the benefit of the customer.
There are certainly agencies where it works well:
- Cross-functional teams
- Designers, developers and SEO work together
- Short decision-making processes
But some large agencies have organizationally separate departments, “profit centers” among which competition can arise.
Project managers as filters
In large agencies, the customer usually communicates mainly with an account manager or project manager.
Advantage: only one contact person (… as on request also with a small agency that puts together a team)
Cons:
- Information is filtered
- Technical details are lost
- Manager must consult with employees
- Decisions take longer
With specialized providers, you talk directly to the experts. And everyone who works on the project feels responsible directly to the customer, not to his boss in the agency, and certainly not to his shareholders.
Especially in web projects, it often turns out that better technical solutions are created when the design agency and developer are separate. The developer can say early on:
- what is technically easy to implement and maintain
- which solutions are user-friendly and will work reliably
- what might be problematic from an SEO point of view
A large agency can facilitate coordination, but it does not guarantee it.
More than the number of providers, the quality of coordination depends on:
- Project Management
- Decision Structure
- Communication
This works best in the interest of the customer if he has a competent person internally who can do this and is directly involved in the decision-making structure. Especially in large associations, the structures are often complex and competencies overlap. This is more difficult for outsiders to understand than for someone who is part of the structures themselves.
Conclusion
Large agencies have their place in web projects, alongside the many small agencies and sole proprietors in Switzerland. It is rarely clear at first glance whether a project should better be carried out by a large agency.
Some small businesses actually lack the expertise for complex, demanding projects. But often it is not clear-cut, and it can be worthwhile to talk to smaller providers even for larger projects.
Webdesign Burgdorf has accompanied many small businesses, start-ups and associations. And in addition, we have also created websites for international foundations, internationally active medium-sized companies with a turnover of millions and for national associations with tens of thousands of members.
Every project is different. We can’t do everything. But maybe we can do your project better? Talk to us: