Faber Music are one of the leading independent British publishers of classical, contemporary, education and media music. Faber wanted to expand their digital sheet music offering via a network of ePartners who will retail digital sheet music in exchange for a share of revenue, Faber Music had identified the need for an eCommerce platform to enable the bold aims of this ePartners scheme, but were unsure how to proceed - whether to commission a third-party company to build a system, or buy an off-the-shelf package, and how to approach the overall project to ensure success.

Release Consulting were engaged for a two week project to assist Faber Music with clarification of the requirements specification, the overall solution architecture and recommending an approach to delivering the project. The Release Consulting team (consisting of a lead consultant and a technical architect) worked with Faber Music and their main IT supplier to gather and document the requirements, and map out the overall solution. The team also used their deep technology expertise and experience in web and eCommerce applications to design a sophisticated and flexible architecture which would allow Faber to meet their goals of close integration with partner sites, whilst allowing smaller partners simple integration.

Following a series of workshops, Release Consulting delivered a requirements specification including wireframe sketches to illustrate key functionality and a solution blueprint document, together with a selection of project approaches based on different technology platforms (i.e. buy or build) and phasing approaches. Additionally, during the course of this the Release Consulting team raised many aspects such as SEO, Accessibility, Usability and Advertising integration which were not originally considered, but would add value for the client - many of these aspects being worked into the final solution.

As a result of the work performed by Release Consulting, Faber Music were able to understand what was needed to enable the ePartners vision, choose the appropriate build option and proceed with confidence.

Director of Digital Operations at Faber Music concludes: “Thanks to the work done by Release Consulting we understood exactly what was required and what our options were. They produced high-quality requirements and solution blueprint documents which have been widely used and a clear view of our options for moving forward. We wouldn’t hesitate to call on their expertise again.”