Q1 has been an exceptionally busy time for us. Within the last 75 days, we’ve added two new team members, launched three new websites, and joined forces with a new client.
But we can’t do this alone. Our agency aligns with top-notch partners who provide us with the software, insights, and expertise to help take our clients to the next level.
Our Kentico Gold Partnership
It’s no surprise that Ntara likes to build things. We are digital craftsmen who take pride in creating unique solutions for our clients. And our development team has been putting in long hours to continue earning our stripes as a Kentico Gold Partner with .NET based content management system (CMS) platform, Kentico.
As a content management system hyper-focused on support and quality product releases, the Kentico platform builds tools that clients love, integrating the best that other platforms have to offer. The Kentico product is built entirely on its own infrastructure, and they’ve skillfully extended the .NET framework making it an extremely flexible offering.
We enjoy working with Kentico because it truly is a strategic partnership—we actively participate in events together and work to constantly improve the product and position in the market. As a top-10 long standing Kentico Gold Partner, we’re part of an esteemed Partner Advisory Board. We’re on the inside track to learn how our clients can benefit from new product releases, and we often help shape what future product offerings include.
But perhaps the best part of the Kentico Partner Network is that we can learn—and excel—based on what other partners are doing in our community. It’s a huge, collaborative system that elevates our work, as well as the work of our fellow comrades outside Ntara.
Our clients like Kentico, too. It is one of the only products in its space that has open pricing models without having to contact an account rep for pricing. Hallelujah. To boot, we’ve also never seen another CMS platform with a better support policy, offering a 7-day bug fix guarantee. As third party validation, Kentico was named in the 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management and Horizontal Portals.
An extremely pure extension of the .NET platform, Kentico is built from a foundation that is completely customizable. Extreme foresight and planning went into creating this incredibly usable CMS platform. And Ntara’s approach to doing, consulting, and building is what sets us apart from other Kentico Gold Partners, and ultimately, other digital agencies.
Ntara cultivates robust and intentional Development Operations. There’s a reason that half our team are of Front- and Back-End Developers, Business Solution Architects, and Quality Assurance specialists. Our shop holistically owns any software we work with, top to bottom. Our development team attends coding and platform conferences; engages in constant reading, research, and discussions; and most importantly fosters an environment of learning for our Junior Development staff. We strive to analyze, mold, and improve the technologies we’re using to benefit our clients.
To further prove our expertise, we’ve been stacking up the competencies and certifications on the Kentico platform. This is no easy feat—only Kentico Gold Partners are eligible for these accolades and it’s uber time consuming. But totally worth it. Third party validation and the success of our development staff provides peace of mind and confidence to our clients. We win when our clients win.
Ntara’s Kentico certifications
Kentico Quality Expert
Think of the Quality Audit as a huge performance-based exam—your score is based not only on your institutional knowledge, but also your ability to use what you’ve learned in application. Essentially, we submit a site of our choice and members from the Kentico Software team independently conduct a comprehensive audit evaluating our practices and methods in deploying the project. They assess things like native functionality, implementation of .NET best practices, performance, and code quality.
Our team members spent upwards of 200 hours participating in interviews about the project, a holistic analysis, and review.
The result? Based on the findings from our Quality Audit, our team has now developed an application prototype that provides Google PageSpeed Insights scores for each individual page on any domain. We’re now able to provide better caching, faster sites, improved user experience, decreased site lag, advanced image compression, script optimization, and the list goes on. We were able to take valuable insights from our Quality Audit, and we’re now applying these learnings as best practices for our clients across the board.
What’s also very cool is that there are only 10 Kentico partners in the world who have passed the Quality Audit, which means we’re in very good company.
Kentico Development & Integration Competency
To earn this competency, we had to complete at least two projects that include deep, technical integrations with third party systems such as ERP, CRM, DAM, or a LMS or leverage the use of a custom module built within Kentico.
Our team submitted case studies for our work on Hunter Fan and Custom Casablanca. We’re proud to have garnered this competency, as less than 1% of all Kentico Partners have it.
Kentico Ecommerce Competency
Similar to the Development & Integration Competency, our team had to complete at least two ecommerce implementations and submit case studies to earn this competency. Our team was also then required to complete an exam to prove our chops.
Kentico Certified Developer
Currently, our team has six Kentico Certified Developers, and we have several others in the process of completing the stringent testing process. The exam asks difficult, compounded questions that test operational development mastery.
According to our dev staff, it’s one of the most challenging development exams they’ve ever completed. Simply training on Kentico and studying the provided documentation does not guarantee a passing score—the nature of the questions requires the participant to build multiple sites within Kentico.
Because of our expertise and level of integration with Kentico, Ntara is helping the Kentico Software team develop future testing practices. Our developers are proud to earn this certification because it shows individual competency, quality of knowledge, and skill.
Kentico Certified Marketer
We like to think of a site like a race car, and our Integrated Marketing & Insights team are the pit crew that keep it fueled, functioning, and on the road. Part of our pit crew is a Kentico Certified Marketer.
Passing the Kentico Certified Marketer exam successfully proves Ntara’s dedication to marketing excellence. Participants are required to demonstrate knowledge within Kentico’s product, its online marketing functionalities, and demonstrate overall experience in digital marketing.
Kentico Hosting Partner
Our Development team utilizes Kentico-specific hosting environments that are already configured for integration. As a Rackspace Hosting Partner, our team offers co-selling options and shared offerings that are tailored based on client size.
This offer is backed by 24/7 support where we provide all updates, a secure, physical and network infrastructure, and monitor all sites we create and host, from start to finish. As a Kentico Hosting Partner, Ntara is capable of providing reliable and scalable options for your digital needs.
We foster a data—and performance—driven culture at Ntara. We really like receiving certifications and competencies—but not just because it makes us feel good. It provides the proof in the pudding that confirms the quality and performance of our projects, making us AND our clients feel really good.
Considering the Kentico platform? Currently using Kentico, but need a new top-notch partner? We’d love to chat with you. Drop us a line.