Project Summary
Florida’s Great Northwest turns to Bit-Wizards to boost web application access time and receives a 90% improvement, helping drive economic growth in Florida’s panhandle.
The Challenge
Florida's Great Northwest (FGNW) is a regional economic development organization representing 16 counties in Northwest Florida. FGNW’s Property Locator and Market Information site provides a web-based, dynamic search for available office, industrial, and non-retail commercial properties in Northwest Florida. It also provides the ability to download demographic, education and labor rate information in Microsoft Excel. The amount of information provided is extremely diverse and abundant and increasing on a daily basis.
The delivery of this content was proving to be too much for their web application and users were not receiving an optimal experience. Page load and access were limited by the application’s ability to deliver content, often taking 20+ seconds to display results. FGNW needed an optimized solution to keep up with their performance needs.
The Solution
Bit-Wizards first interviewed the FGNW to determine all areas of development and the scope of the project. Bit-Wizards reviewed the existing source code and compiled a calculated, in-depth analysis of the site and its functionality. The first step was transitioning the existing application to a more capable, enterprise-class architecture to hosting solution.
This immediately alleviated many of the performance issues and provided a solid foundation on which to develop and host the optimized application. From there, Bit-Wizards worked systematically through the code, analyzing the existing functionality. We then modified the application to ensure the logic was efficient and sensible as possible.
Additionally, Bit-Wizards assisted FGWN with design modifications to the way data is displayed to enhance the user experience. Emphasis was placed on usability, functionality, and logic to allow the application to deliver the tremendous amount of data logically and effectively.
The Result
With assistance from Bit-Wizards, the FGNW received immediate performance improvements. Page load times now take mere seconds, a 90% improvement from the previous application. The FGNW website’s new hardware architecture allows for scalability as their business grows in providing the community with essential demographic data. And FGNW’s site now delivers content in a more logical and effective manner.
The design modifications implemented by Bit-Wizards allow users to quickly access data and information that previously required several clicks and diminished the experience. FGNW now spends time more efficiently providing their customers with the valuable demographic data needed to help grow Florida’s economy.