Mentone Grammar School

Mentone Grammar School (MGS) is a prestigious independent coeducational school located in metropolitan Melbourne's bay side. MGS required the design and development of a public website to provide information to future parents and existing user groups regarding school information and policy. Alaress was commissioned to design and develop a stunning new contemporary website interface was designed with a fresh, clean interface that is easy for users to navigate and locate information. The project highlights our integrated approach to web design and development resulting in a best practice solution that exceeded the clients’ expectations. The new MGS website showcases the quality learning and infrastructure available and accurately represents MGS prestigious standing within the community. Success was measured on the following key components of the project. • Alaress to extract maximum value for Mentone Grammar’s online presence by developing a website that is fully integrated with Mentone Grammars’ internal database and relevant existing software. • The website has a Content Management System (CMS) that enables internal content management that is easy for MG staff to administer and can: o Easily refresh or change the ‘look’ of the MGS website o Be regularly updated internally so that the website is not at risk of becoming out of date and therefore a poor investment in the longer term. Alaress utilised its proprietary CMS A’Presto framework that provides a platform for developing dynamic, content-driven web sites that can always be easily managed. Utilising open-source software, A’Presto is both flexible and cost-effective. We eliminated the need for specialised hosting arrangements and perennial licensing fees for MGS. MGS enjoys the advantages of a customised CMS that is exactly suited to their needs. • Maximise the value of the website overall for the whole school community. Throughout the process, Alaress was able to add value to the customer by recommending additional functionality to enhance the user's experience. • Throughout the project, manage key stakeholder relationships and ensure clear lines of delineation between marketing and IT in the website decision-making process. Working closely with the key stakeholders, Alaress isolated new core functionality that would enable each of the target audience groups their most relevant information. Alaress developed a custom built content management system to deliver a feature packed administration system. • To ensure the highest probability of high level organic ranking through SEO Alaress built the MGS website using clean efficient code that allow search engines to easily index and sift through the website and provide relevant results Alaress continues to act as a catalyst to ensure initial enthusiasm for the website is constantly present and to ensure ongoing support to help Mentone Grammar stay on top of the website making sure the site continues to drive communication across the Mentone Grammar Community.