[BNM] Looking for development partners for a nice project

[Nick Bennett]

Hey Guys,

    I've been told this is the place to ask if you want informed 
professional opinions on anything New Media in the area, so here goes.

I've recently started doing the design for some clients on behalf of a 
marketing company in Surrey.  As I have worked with programmers and techies 
alike in some london New Media companies (and can therfore speak the lingo), 
it seems like I've accidentally walked in to being a technical consultant as 
well!

I'm trying to find a high quality and reliable development company to work 
on a fairly decent sized project that I'm designing with them at the moment.

The brief, in short, is this:

The client is a fair sized chain of health clubs and gyms,  who currently 
have a very limited web presence and no real web commerce strategy.  As I'm 
sure we've all joked about, many people join a gym for a few months and pay 
membership, before realising that they never actually turn up and cancel 
their membership.

The client wants to draw upon the interactive and community nature of the 
web by providing an online service that:

  1.  Attracts as many new customers as possible and allows them to sign up 
for various types of membership online.
  2.  Reinforces the benefits of the membership to existing members, to keep 
customer retention as high as possible.

They see that if they can improve their customer retention rates by even as 
much as 10-20% it will have a significant impact on their business.

Various features that it will include, for example but not limited to, are:

  1. On-line sign up for new members.
  2. Integration with one of the main banks merchant accounts.
  3. Sign up payments, recurring fees, refunds.
  4. Payments for individual items such as merchandise, one off classes, 
sports equipment, beauty therapies, etc.

  5. There will need to be an end user interface for all accounts (change of 
address, etc).
  6. There will need to be some kind of 'services/events' directory (say, 
'yoga class') with prices, dates and availability.
  7. There will need to be a product catalogue, with the usual features.
  8. Mailouts for existing customers (outputted in both email and PDF for 
postal).

  9. An intranet view of the whole site (this will provide account 
management, etc, in the reception areas).
  10. Some kind of business analysis (for review of the success of marketing 
campaigns, retention, reports, etc).

There's more, but there is no point in me going into this now as I'm mainly 
looking to see who would be interested in taking on a project of this scale.

If you are interested, could you privately mail me with a link to/example of 
your portfolio and some kind of description of why you're business is 
suitable for this contract.

Initially it will be a contract for a set amount of work, but in the long 
term I realise we'll have ongoing development and support needs, so I would 
also need to know your hourly/daily rates and whether you offer the option 
of a retainer and it's terms (don't worry, I'm realistic about these things, 
having worked in London for a while, and I'll have to pass it on to my 
client anyway).

Hope someone can help, look forward to speaking to you soon!

Cheers,

    Nick

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