Case study
A chartered accountancy practice
The situation
An established firm of chartered accountants had a website pointing at a host that no longer existed, DNS sitting on an orphaned zone nobody controlled, Microsoft 365 managed through a third-party reseller, and marketing material that disagreed with itself on basic facts. The principal wanted a credible online presence and to take control of the firm's own infrastructure.
What we did
- Research and positioning: a competitor review, a structured client interview and a shift in positioning from "local practice" to a cloud-based firm serving clients across the UK at a lower cost base than practices absorbed into larger groups.
- Copy: a full set of page copy for more than twenty pages, every unconfirmed fact flagged for the client rather than assumed, iterated with the client until approved.
- Design and build: a fast, static site generated from source, with several design directions deployed side by side for the client to compare on a live preview rather than described in a document.
- Imagery: AI-generated decorative imagery to avoid stock-licence risk, with real photography reserved for people and premises.
- Infrastructure: a hosting account created in the client's own name with the principal as administrator; a full audit of live DNS and email records; a go-live plan that recreates the email records first and can be rolled back with a single nameserver change.
- Compliance: a tracked-changes review of the firm's terms of business and engagement letters against the professional body's current guidance, so each change could be accepted or rejected individually.
The result
A preview site approved in wording by the client within a few weeks, ready to go live on infrastructure the firm owns, with a documented plan for email, DNS and Microsoft 365 that any future supplier could follow.