BangsLabs.com: New CMS for Bangs Laboratories

Ars Nova re-launched BangsLabs.com for its long-standing client, Bangs Laboratories, Inc. The new site is built on Drupal, a highly versatile content management system (CMS), with custom PHP web applications providing online ordering and various other functions.

Often, when a business makes the decision to use a CMS in the hopes of decreasing their maintenance costs, they forfeit flexibility. Despite how powerful CMSs are, extending them beyond the basic publishing functions can sometimes prove limiting and time-consuming. Many businesses already maintain their own products database and have their own way of presenting those products; fitting those data and presentation models into a pre-built product/ordering module is nearly impossible. The result is a generic, clumsy products section that necessitates maintaining two identical databases.

Bangs required a site that reflects their unique and offbeat personality — a site they can edit themselves and yet doesn't look like a template. They also needed secure online ordering, driven by their legacy database.

Ars Nova's solution was to develop the site itself in Drupal, and to create mini web applications that run alongside the CMS.

The results of this approach are:

• a site that allows the client to edit 95% of the content,
• a product database synchronized to Bangs' existing database,
• product search/display functions built exactly to the client's specifications,
• secure online ordering, without having to conform to existing CMS modules, and
• the potential for future expansion.

"Instead of having to recreate our information to fit a standard template, Ars Nova worked with us to incorporate our existing database structure into a user-friendly customized ordering cart. Maintaining and updating the new website is an intuitive process that is very simple to complete. Most importantly, our customers are thrilled with the new look, search functionality, and ease of use. Thanks to Ars Nova for a job well done!"
— Karen Gernert, Bangs Marketing Coordinator

Assessing a project of this magnitude entails first understanding the client's goals. Realizing those goals requires the vision and experience to blend technologies seamlessly.