Acre Technologies Website Portfolio

No.8 Tours is New Zealand’s premier travel club for Seniors. When we built their website, we were keen to make it easy for Seniors to navigate and use. One of the features we added was a ‘large type’ button so that those with failing eyesight could make the text larger and easier to read. We integrated the companies facebook page onto the home page so that visitors could read facebooks posts directly from the website and added useful suggestions of other tours that patrons may be interested in at the base of every tour page.

We worked alongside Donna at the New Zealand Hot Rod Association (NZHRA) to rebuild their website. The previous website was outdated and difficult to manage due to the sheer size of content which the website holds.

For this rebuild we had several goals which we needed to achieve.

Our major goal was to modernise the website. By modernise we do not simply mean to make the design look pretty. The website was in need of several modern changes including the integration of an eCommerce store which could handle credit card payments, a custom back-end portal which would allow the NZHRA to manage every important aspect of their website and of course to redesign the look of the website (making it look pretty).

An important goal of the rebuild was to structure this massive amount content in a clean and meaningful way. The NZHRA is a nationwide club which consists of more than fifty clubs, needless to say this club is very large! The previous website had become cluttered as the design struggled to keep up with the massive amount of content relating to the club e.g. Individual club details, club photo galleries, promotions, Club events, Merchandise, Club news. During the redesign of the site we made sure that important content became highly visible and visually appealing. Made sure less important content became less prominent while still being accessible and lastly we removed any unnecessary content making sure that only relevant info displayed on the site.

What we ended up with was a beautiful website which represents the NZHRA which also acts as a powerful marketing and administration tool for the staff at the NZHRA.

As well as looking after the I.T needs of the Action Equipment stores in Tauranga, Te Puke, Katikati and Hamilton, we work closely with Bruce on the Action Equipment website. The aims of the website are numerous. Though not a full e-commerce store, a primary aim is to inform customers who wish to understand more about the products they are interested when in they hit the stores. Customers can add items to a wishlist that gets sent to the store and the sales team can then return to the customer with advice on each product. Promotions are an important driver in customer choice and the front page shows the latest promotions with all, content being manageable by the Action Equipment Marketing manager.

“I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate Brad’s skill and understanding with our website development. When we have an idea for an improvement, Brad is very good at understanding what we want, suggesting related improvements, and developing and implementing the changes.

Many of the changes are to the CMS and are therefore invisible to visitors, but they make my content management so much easier, and add flexibility to UX behaviour. Our site is far superior to that of any of our competitors, largely due to the successful collaboration between Acre and Action Equipment on design and development. We have great plans for further enhancements over time, and I look forward to working with Brad on those as they come up.”

Bruce Carley – Group Marketing and Communications Manager

Turning Point Trust came to us wanting to upgrade their 15 year old website. What we ended up building for them is a clean, modern and vibrant looking website which looks great on the smartphone.

Turning Point Trust is located within Tauranga's Historic Village, it's a great looking spot. We curated many photos showcasing the historic buildings, natural scenery, art and culture they had on display. These photos are on the new site, they help showcase the amazing services Turning Point Trust offer the community and it's welcoming environment.

Branding NZ came to us with a website that loaded slowly and didnt reflect their high level of service and professionalism. We have rebuilt their website with a clean, modern and professional design which better represents who Branding NZ are and what they can offer their clients.

Over the years we have worked on several software projects with Branding NZ which includes simple websites, SEO campaigns and custom eCommerce platforms.

We look after all the I.T, Fibre, VOIP and Website requirements for Project Kitchens. They use their website to drive new business alongside social media, home shows and their kitchen showrooms. We use Google analytics to understand how visitors use the site, what they are most interested in, least interested in and what they like to go back to for more information. Using this info, we update the site regularly to improve usability and promote calls to action. We integrated a 3d design program so that customers can design their own kitchens and created a back end database behind the catalogue download page that supports the sales team following up initial interest.

“We have been long time clients of Acre Technologies, and they have helped us establish our digital phone network. They have also saved us significant amounts of money getting us onto Google Apps early on, helping keep things simple and cost effective for us. They offer a very personal service, and tailor the system to your business. They respond very quickly to any problems we may have and are very easy to get hold of and to work with. We also work closely with Acre on the Project Kitchens Website. Going through the analytics, making decisions that help build traffic and reduce bounce rate. We integrate our social media with our website to reach the optimum number of potential new clients."

Jason Enright – Project Kitchens

For Regal Palms, we worked alongside Marketing consultants, Chatterbox. Chatterbox had been contracted to redesign the website and our coders brought their design to life. One of the greatest advantages of being able to write code that turns a blank page into a website is that we are never constrained by ready made templates. If you want a unique feature, the answer is always 'Yes, we can do that.'

We were approached by Kate from Journey South in 2017. She wanted to promote her Premium Travel business to specific demographics in the USA. Initially we built the website that we thought best fitted the brief, then we analysed who was visiting the site and how they were viewing it and made adjustments that optimised the viewer experience. We used all Googles tools to let Google know the type of person and geographical location of people we were aiming the site at, then promoted the site via Google Ads. Being able to specify who sees the ad down to the suburb they live in made this a cost-effective way of reaching targeted groups.

Kiwistow is a full e-commerce site that Acre provided all the videography and photography for. We have worked closely with this client on a number of websites over the past decade. Our understanding of their businesses aid us with our design. Small Minute long videos promoting the design features of their electric bikes makes it easy for visitors to appreciate the benefits of each model.

We just loved working with the late John Turner. John retired to a lime orchard in Te Puna but was not terribly good at being retired. He had big ideas for his lime orchard and began a successful branding exercise that lead to his limes being considered the best in New Zealand. We worked alongside John to create a logo, product photography and videography, a website, leaflets and flyer, a facebook page and product packaging for fresh lime juice. We focussed the facebook page on the end user by promoting recipes featuring Te Puna Limes or Te Puna Lime juice. Boosting posts and natural social activity ensured that the brand became familiar in its target market of ‘Foodie’s’ in Metropolitan New Zealand. When John called to tell us that he had sold his entire stock of fruit and juice for the entire season we were delighted for him.

Making Google understand the difference between a website promoting industrial battery servicing as opposed to all the other batteries out there was an interesting challenge. Using all the tools available to us we made the site and set up very specific. The result is that people looking for forklift and other industrial batteries find this site. We back up organic SEO with a light smattering of well directed Google ads each month. ' We are a minnow swimming with the big fish but Acre Technologies have made us a website that ranks alongside and often above the big corporates.'

Brian Hewitt

This is a site that does what it says on the tin. An earthworking company that moves the earth in Tauranga Katikati and Waihi wanted to promote their business to these marketplaces. So we wrote exactly that, right on the home page. No gimmicks, no blah blah blah. This is who we are this is what we do,get an estimate. Boom!. Some things just don't need to be over thought.

Their previous website was not responsive, and information was minimal. Their new site covers the range of products and also presents the company and it's thinking and goals. It's fully responsive and displays well on all devices.

Clinical and Corporate psychologists, Critical Thinking, are experts in behaviour change and use powerful psychometric tests to help businesses make good management decisions. We built an online psychometric testing and result system. Critical Thinking’s clients can log into the ON FIRE psychometric test and pay per test via credit card. Results are sent directly to the manager rather than to the person who takes the test. The rest of the site is a clean, simple brochure advertising the services of the business and features colours and graphics suit the image of the clients.

RoomMate Cabins is a franchise company which operates all over New Zealand.

Originally the local branch from Tauranga approached us looking for a software solution for a pain point within their business. The Tauranga branch were struggling with their paper based contracts. They came to us looking for a software solution which would streamline this business process.

The paper based contracts came with many limitations including: contract amendments were time consuming, different branches used different contracts, bad handwriting made processing difficult, small updates to contracts would require costly reprinting, the list goes on.

We worked with the Tauranga branch and successfully converted their paper based contracts into an easy to use online Contract Management System. The system has been a great success so far and has been rolled out nationwide to all 22 branches with over 500 contracts sent out to date.

The Contract Management System software we developed has saved the company money, time and also unified the contract management business process throughout all branches.

Te Puna Hunting and Fishing Club run the ever popular ‘BIG FOUR’ competition every year. Up to 100 teams compete to bring home 4 target species which are judged in different ways to gain the team points. The criteria to win is complex. (Which boar is the heaviest? Which boar has the best hooks? Which pheasant has the longest fighting spurs? Which trout is closest to the average weight? Which stag is the heaviest?) The judging and scoring was taking too long. We developed a scoring programme that works out the winners and ranks teams and individuals based on the info inputted. The judges have a much easier time and prize giving happens much sooner after weighing in than it did. Each year, the Te Puna Hunting and Fishing team come up with new features to make their job more straightforward. We implement the changes and suggest other changes that come to mind when they explain their latest challenges. Its great to be a part of local community groups. This is a group that we have supported and worked with for a number of years and we look forward to continuing to support them.