FAQs

At Olamalu, we offer a wide range of digital services, from consultation and design to full-scale development and client support. We are experts in web technology and can design and build websites, intranets, mobile apps and bespoke applications. We also offer in-house hosting and security maintenance backed by an ISO 27001 Information Security certification.

The Olamalu story began back in 2010, when it was founded by company directors Kate and Christoph. Since then, we've built a reputation for quality, reliability and responsiveness. You can find out more what makes us tick in the About us section. 

We work with a wide range of organisations including businesses, charities and educational institutions. Over the years, we have built incredibly strong relationships and networks within Oxbridge colleges, departments, faculties and research groups. Whatever the industry or type of business, what is important to us is that we work with customers who value having a long-term digital partner. 

We enjoy working with both! Our team can get to the heart of your organisation's story and needs, regardless of its status.

Absolutely, we are based in Witney, Oxfordshire, and many of our customers are based in the area, but we also work with organisations across the country and occasionally farther afield. We currently have customers in Cambridge, London, Bristol, Reading, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Brighton, Northampton and Leicester, as well as locations in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Surrey, and Gloucestershire. 

We pride ourselves on being a reliable, down-to-earth digital partner who is here to support your organisation for the long term. Our approach is underpinned by care and excellence throughout everything we do, and our approachable team of experts are always on hand to deliver the very best for you.

The timeline typically depends on the scale of the project itself. On average, a website can take 3-6 months to complete. Larger-scale projects can take 6+ months to complete, depending on your requirements. We pride ourselves on being a flexible team, adapting to your needs where possible. If you've got a specific timeline in mind, talk to us, and we'll work with you to see what can be done. 

At the start of every project, we like to take the time to get to know you and your organisation. These conversations ensure that we truly understand your story and what you're looking to achieve. This means that we can tailor the solution to your needs and deliver a project that really makes a difference. 

We like to keep you involved every step of the way! We believe that close collaboration with you leads to a result that's a true reflection of your organisation and enables us to build a lasting relationship with you. During a project cycle, you will typically meet with us at least once a week to discuss ideas and share progress.

Our project team consists of project managers, designers, developers and analysts. You will meet and work with these friendly faces closely throughout the project cycle and beyond.

We can give you an estimate of the project timeline as part of the project quote. Once a project is confirmed, we will plan out the timeline and milestones in more detail, working with you to incorporate any deadlines or restrictions your end.

We will usually allocate some of your budget to refinements, which will provide some headroom to make changes once the website has been released to you. For anything that falls outside of the project scope, we will provide you with a change request and quote, so that you can decide whether to go ahead with the additional work. 

We can certainly hurry things along, provided our resourcing can facilitate it. If you need things turned around quickly or sped up, then we will define what exactly needs to be delivered by the date you need. We will then make arrangements on our end to ensure that this is achieved either by phased releases or focused development sprints.

This can vary from £5,000 up to £50,000+ depending on the scale and complexity of the project. We can also produce technical solutions that fall below £5,000. 

When we quote for a project, we will generally quote you for a fixed amount. We understand the need to deliver to a budget and will make it clear what is core and what is optional. 

At Olamalu, we're very upfront and transparent with our pricing structure. Our fees are clearly stated in your project proposal, and we're more than happy to walk you through any queries you may have.

Yes, within reason, we can scale projects to your budget. Once we've established your requirements, we can pair this up with a solution to match.

We generally work on milestone payments tied to deliverables on a project, meaning that we invoice you for work completed. 

We don't offer a standard website package. Instead, we will prepare you a proposal that meets your needs and that will clearly outline what we will deliver. If you've got any initial questions, we're happy to talk those through with no obligation to you. 

As an agency, we primarily use Drupal and WordPress for our Content Management Systems (CMS) and also work with Headless CMS. We work with Vue, Node and React to create customised user experiences. We also use technologies like Tailwind, GSAP and many others. 

Absolutely, we have vast experience managing and developing complex functionality. From advanced invoicing systems through to bespoke venue management systems, we can help with anything you throw at us.

Testing and quality assurance activities happen throughout a project. Testing is not just about finding and fixing bugs, but about ensuring that an application meets the users' needs and meets expected standards including performance, security, resilience, usability and accessibility. 

We will always design for mobile, which feeds into the finished product, so you can rest assured that your site will be mobile-friendly.

Yes, we can support your hosting requirements. Our team of system administrators are experts in their field, ensuring your website remains secure and online. We can also help you set up your domain name.

We build sites to be search engine friendly, which means that search engines can easily crawl, understand and index it. SEO is the broader, ongoing process of improving the site's visibility, rankings, traffic and conversion. We can help you understand the basics of SEO, but we do not offer ongoing SEO services. 

Content management systems like Drupal and WordPress are open-source software, which means that the underlying code is used under a free open-source license. You are not tied in to us and can move your website to another hosting service. 

We run an Information Security Management System that is certified to ISO 27001, the gold standard in information security, cyber security and privacy protection. 

We have built a range of custom solutions like bespoke invoicing systems, venue management platforms and an online student learning platform, along with many others. We enjoy the challenge of finding a solution to a unique business problem!

Choosing a custom solution allows you to craft a product exactly how you want it. An off-the-shelf solution tends to keep you locked into a narrow window of functionality, limiting your options.

We certainly can; our technical team listen carefully to your requirements, your pain points and your goals. We then use our expertise to meticulously plan and define a new system, which we will walk you through to validate and refine. 

For sure! Our technical experts can suggest and tailor technologies to suit you. We will always offer fair and impartial advice to ensure you're getting the very best solution.

Typically, our senior development team lead the technical architecture in collaboration with our developers.

We can and have done for multiple customers. However, how well your current system is built will determine how effectively we can introduce new custom code. Our technical team will analyse your current system and advise you on the best approach to crafting a solution that can be successfully implemented. 

We are happy to help you define your requirements. We have years of experience of designing workshops to draw on the input of your team and, where appropriate, your customers. We can help you to prioritise requirements, explore options and work out the most effective roadmap. 

We're a flexible team and can adjust to your requirements as they change. We will work with you to understand the changes, and from there we will see if they fall within the scope. If they fall outside the scope or budget, then we will need to log a change request and quote for the additional work.

Over the years, we have built up the knowledge and skills to deliver projects on time and to budget. The biggest cause of project overruns are unclear requirements, scope creep, delayed decisions and insufficient testing.  To prevent this from happening, we work closely with you throughout the project to ensure that we stay on track. 

The cost of custom development is driven by the complexity of a system and the amount of work required to architect, design and build it. Clearly defining requirements is vital. 

Absolutely, we're a flexible team, and we do our best to produce a solution that works within your constraints. We can help you to scope a project so that it fits within a specific budget, and we're keen to help you to get the most out of the money that you spend. Where there is a hard deadline, we will be open with you about what this means for the project and the workload for both us and you. 

We aim to catch up with you at least once a week to share progress updates with you. As the project progresses, we will share work in development to get your feedback. 

A bespoke system is built off a functional specification that will determine the testing plan. Testing is multi-phase and happens throughout the build and importantly relies on users putting the system through its paces in real world scenarios. 

Don't worry; we have a dedicated friendly client support team on hand to help you if things go wrong. They're knowledgable and can be easily contacted ensuring that your system runs as efficiently as possible.

Of course. We build systems that you can manage and work with day in and day out. If you ever get stuck, our support team will be on hand to help!

We have a dedicated support team on hand to help all of our clients with their questions and requests, big and small. As part of our hosting service we ensure that site are kept up to date with the latest security updates. Our aim is to help you for the long term to ensure your digital solution continues to evolve with you.

Website maintenance includes backups of the site, security updates and TLS/SSL certificate management. 

We try to respond as quickly as we possibly can to your issues. We will aim to get back in touch with you on the same day the issue occurs, with a plan to implement a fix.

Yes, our system administrators take care of this for you and aim to swiftly implement patches and updates.

We offer a wide range of support services, so that you can access the support that you need. Our care packages give you a range of website care options, along with 10 hours of support. Talk to us to find out more. 

Yes, head over to Our Work section on our site to see some of the projects we've worked on.

References can be found on our case studies page here.

With nearly 20 years of experience delivering digital solutions for our clients, we've had the pleasure of transforming organisations. From ensuring colleges in Oxford and Cambridge can showcase academic excellence, inclusivity and community, to digitising an invoice system for a hotel service provider. These are just a few of the successes we've had over the years.

Long-term client relationships are so important to us. Some of our clients have been with us since the beginning of Olamalu, and we're delighted to continue to deliver for them. Our committed and warm approach to client relationships has enabled us to consistently deliver excellent customer service.

Yes. We are happy to put you in touch. 

Head over to our contact page here to get in touch with us!

Just a brief introduction to your organisation and what you're looking for from the project should do the trick. We'll then set up a meeting with you to discuss things in more detail.

Nope, there's no need for a deposit to work with us.

We'll set up a kick off meeting and get the project started!

During the project, we typically like to meet with you at least once a week. Outside of that, communications are usually handled via email, and we're always keen to share updates with you so you won't be left in the dark.

When the site is close to going live, there is usually a handover to our support team. Here you will meet the friendly faces behind support, who will take you through the support process. There will always be a point of contact for you after your site goes live, and we will be on hand to catch up with you every so often to see how you're getting on and where we can take things next.

We do indeed. During the project, we will take you through how everything works and also supply a user guide. We also offer refresher training whenever you need it, as well as training for any new team members. 

Whilst we don't usually create content or copy for our clients, we do have a number of contacts who are experts in the area, so we can point you in the right direction.

Our design team can help with the creation of digital marketing assets like social media post templates. We don't usually advise on strategy, but we have expert contacts within the industry who can help with that side of things.

We offer analytics reporting on your site, providing you with the insights you need to determine site performance and make informed decisions where you can make improvements.

If you ever have an issue, then rest assured someone will be on hand to help. Just get in touch with our support team, and we will take care of the rest.