Cyber security and education specialist, 9ine sought a website provider who could supply them the means to tell their unique story. With the academic year providing a timely factor, they required the launch of their new site just in time for the beginning of the academic year. With special details such as scrollytelling, mega menus and subtle animation, Struto handed the 9ine team a website they could take ownership of maintaining without any coding knowledge required.
Background
9ine is a UK-based organisation bridging the industries of security and the education sector as specialists in data privacy, cyber security, incident response and risk management. A global leader in its field, 9ine provides schools with the tools to create secure and efficient IT systems, all while implementing privacy and safeguarding considerations.
From humble beginnings at a kitchen table in London, 9ine has scaled to become a business of 60+ experts, with four offices (in the UK, India, Canada and Singapore), and a footprint covering every continent, supporting 300+ schools in over 120 countries.
Situation
Struto were invited to tender for 9ine’s original digital transformation project back in 2021, as they sought to obtain the means to tell their story in the digital landscape.
Struto were awarded the tender, due to the positive relationship achieved between the two companies where they saw eye to eye, the full scope and serviceability of Struto and their portfolio and team experience in website builds. This was not a price-based decision to go with Struto, as even though they were not the cheapest bid provider, they were still awarded the project.
The 9ine team had designs they were keen to use and required the development and build on the technical front to make their designs a reality. The project was time-pressured, with a launch date required at the beginning of the academic year.
"We've used three different HS agencies with Struto being by far the best. This isn't to say that we didn't have any challenges in delivering projects together, we did. However the difference between Struto and other agencies is that there is a willingness to have a conversation on the challenges (and resolve them) as one team rather than allow a divide... For this reason they get five stars. Their technical HS and Website dev teams are excellent and a great team of people to work with."
Solution
Taking 9ine’s designs as inspiration into the foundations of the project, the Struto team set about bringing their visions to life with a hybrid approach to the website design build.
Not only was a solid foundation for a website established but also some cool features such as a mega menu, content-rich navigation, carousels and the use of ‘scrollytelling’.
The Struto team built in a range of interactive elements including custom animation with asset movement initiated by the website visitor, for a vastly more improved user experience to the website.
The 9ine website was built with a primary focus on making website edits as easy as possible so that any one of the in-house team at 9ine who isn’t a developer and doesn’t possess coding knowledge can manage and edit their website with ease. The end result being a very modularised approach to the website architecture, with intuitive drag-and-drop features and ease of use at its core.
Challenges
The project was pressured due to time constraints as there was a hard deadline for the start of the academic year. The UK-specific school calendar had an impact on 9ine’s requirement of time to launch, so they could ensure that their products were in the market and available to their customers in time for the new school year, which put some significant strain on the pace of the project.
The deadline was successfully met due to implementing and structuring project deliveries in a timely way, with prioritisation management conducted from the outset. The hybrid approach to website design also helped in the pace of the project as the use of templates had a positive impact on the lead time.
“Struto built a very strong foundation for 9ine to expand on. We were able to hand over a solid website with modularised components, scrollytelling features and a unique structure and layout so that going forward, 9ine can feel empowered to take ownership of their website” 
Anders Grové,
Head of Websites at Struto.
Outcomes
As well as the use of modules in the build, intuitive drag and drop functionality was enabled, making it simple and straightforward for the client’s in-house team who might not have coding experience team to produce all their own edits and manage the website themselves well into the future.
Subtle animations that were not part of the initial scope were added with Struto’s compliments which only helped to enhance and elevate the user experience.
The website design approach used in this project provides further evidence of the suitability of the hybrid style in modern website design. Using templates in some places, and building in bespoke customisation for a completely individual website unique to the client makes the process of building a website much more manageable, time and cost-effective.
Results
The end result of this project was a meeting in the middle between two organisations who brought their own expertise to the table. 9ine had their own designs which were fit for purpose and the website team at Struto supported 9ine in bringing these designs to life with some added customisation extras to really make the website pop and increase the user experience going forward.
The website built for 9ine was bespoke, fit for their crossover industry of security/education sectors and helped them to achieve their number one priority at the outset of the project tender, which was to tell their story.
"Struto and the team from 9ine worked collaboratively to tell their very important story of cybersecurity for the education sector. The timing was critical, with the website successfully launched just in time for the new school year."
Sean Fowles,
Head of Customer Success at Struto
Future Scope
There are ongoing enhancements to the elements on the website, including continuous optimisation and development to remain relevant and at the forefront of the security/education industry.
