Extreme Networks

The Challenge
Extractable began work with a comprehensive analysis of Extreme’s business goals, target audiences, competitors and current site content, including multiple interviews with the firm’s management team and many hours of site analysis. The challenge that emerged was a need to better support a multi-stage sales process through targeted information delivery to several key audience segments with different roles in the purchase decision.

The Extractable team learned that most Extreme sales involve three distinct groups of decision influencers with very different roles and concerns. C-level and director-level executives need to understand Extreme’s overall value proposition—it’s end-to-end technology platform, fast deployment and swift return on investment. Manager-level customers need tactical detail on product categories, delivery timeframes and pricing. Staff-level engineers want technical specifications, performance benchmarks and after-sale support information.

Furthermore, each of these audiences needs to be addressed differently. Executives need a marketing-oriented approach to sell them on Extreme's solutions. Managers need fast product location, and engineers just want their numbers. Secondary audiences include existing customers with product support requirements and industry analysts.

The Approach
Extractable developed a segmentation strategy that provides each audience a clear navigation path from the home page to a content zone tailored to their interests and concerns. Site architecture is structured to track the sales process, with high-level solution information leading to increasingly granular product detail and technical support. Content strategies balance graphic and textual content, with separate templates for each audience.

From the home page, all Extreme customers can easily find information that speaks to their own requirements. Enterprise and service provider customers, in particular, are greeted with brightly colored copy blocks that highlight links into their contact areas. Each navigation path leads to a separate call to action, providing clearly segmented sales leads for the sales team. .Net version 2.0 controls for navigation, master pages, and internationalization make the thousand-page site manageable for Extreme’s business owners.

Support services for existing customers are organized around a product documentation repository and the use of XML to dynamically populate content, which dramatically simplifies on-the-fly documentation updates. The support section also offers direct access to Extreme's online help desk, providing convenient technical assistance while relieving the traffic load on Extreme’s call center.

The new site is highly functional, visually appealing, and a clear design departure from Extreme's past branding. The presentation is visibly mature, with brand equities centered on professionalism, quality, and broadband speed.