About ComputerParamedic.online
Computer Paramedic is an IT services company located on the Ecuadorian coast. It is owned and run by Brian Liu – an expat now living in Ecuador.
With over 25 years of prior experience in an IT career in China, Brian’s relocation to Ecuador was a move toward early retirement. Finding lots of free time and a desire to help people with their technology challenges, he soon realized there was a gap in the market for a professional service offering within the expat community.
Ecuador’s expat communities are mostly made up of retired overseas pensioners, with a high percentage of them not speaking the local language. Finding and providing local expert services with competent professionals brings challenges. With Brian’s experience and ability to communicate well in English, his services are highly praised and sought after by expats with technology and communication challenges.
Computer Paramedic offers IT services, from hardware and software support assistance to network and internet services, enabling the expat communities to stay online and connected.
Project requirements / challenges
Business was booming after Brian’s successful website launch and targeted Facebook ads campaign. He had enough work through recurring clients and new business through word of mouth. Things were going great.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit! Brian could no longer conduct house visits, and his client-facing work was halted in early 2020. Despite having a trickle of clients who would figure out how to get their equipment to him to work his magic, he could still only service around 25% of the demand.
Pages That Convert discussed his dilemma and proposed building a platform and framework for remote control assistance would help him and his clients. Brian was sold on the idea, and we got to work.
Our brief for this design and remote control project contained the following essential requirements:
- Register and configure a new domain name.
- Provision WordPress shared hosting environment to host a new website and access to remote control platform.
- Procure and set up a remote control platform enabling our client to take control of MS Windows desktops, Apple OSX/iOS devices, Android smartphones, and Linux desktops.
- Design and style the website to adopt a clinical look and feel that matches the brand colors and business name. Including the additional functionality:
- Simple site, comprising: Home page, Remote control page, eCommerce product pages, cart and checkout/payment pages.
- A contact form that will email any contact messages submitted on the website.
- Stripe payment gateway integration for credit/debit card payments.
- Automatically email clients order details and receipts for payments.
- Integration with the remote control platform so clients requiring assistance can pre-pay for support and load the tool directly from the website.
- Responsive layout for portable devices.
- Implement security processes to ensure the site is up and available 99.9% of the time and to prevent unauthorized access to any administration controls.
- Offer ongoing assistance and support with design, back-end, maintenance, and hosting technologies.
Project deliverables and results
Below is an overview on how we helped deliver value to ComputerParamedic.online with tangible results.
Results for the business
- Registered client's desired domain
- Provisioned the WordPress hosting environment with sufficient server resources for our client's requirements and expected ongoing traffic.
- Evaluated, set up, and tested a remote control platform that gave us access to a wide range of devices to allow our client to offer remote support to his clients
- Designed and built the website following the web design brief, branding styles, and artwork provided by our client
- Provisioned a new Stripe account and configured payment gateway and integration with the new website
- Ran sandbox testing to ensure the online store, cart, and checkout process correctly working with test card data and client registrations within WordPress
- Tested and verified email notifications correctly working and sending
- Designed, built, and verified the email contact form for accessible communication while maintaining client privacy.
- Integrated remote control platform calls and embedded onto the remote control page
- Introduced standardized design templates and layouts to make further ongoing content publication conform with branding styles
- Hardened security throughout the site, including a two-factor authentication login process
- Added a new service section to the business's main website to offer the new remote control service, linking to the new eCommerce website and platform for pre-payment and remote control.
- Implemented a support retainer, including routine monthly maintenance and proactive monitoring. This gives our client peace of mind on continued website availability.
- The new eCommerce and Remote Control Platform website allowed our client to change his everyday working practices and continue supporting 90% of his client's demands.
- 2023 Update - We checked back in with our client to see how business was doing, and Brian advised that the remote control platform makes his job much more manageable even after the COVID-19 lockdowns were lifted. He reduced some of his hourly consultancy fees for remote work as it does not carry the same travel expense nor require time/effort to assist his clients. His clients appreciated him passing on the cost savings to them, and many prefer opting for remote hours vs on-site hours. Brian also has more free time to enjoy his early part-time retirement.
Technical implementations / actions
- Registered new domain
- Evaluated, tested and configured Remote control platform - Getscreen.me
- Designed and deployed site as per the site design brief supplied by customer. Design and styling included:
- Child theme with any customization required
- Default template designs and layouts for specific page / posts types and categories
- New site header
- New menu / navigation
- New site footer
- SMTP connection setup and configuration
- Contact form with Google reCaptcha config to combat spam entries
- Built pricing tables to accomodate 4 tiers of pre-paid service
- WooCommerce store setup
- Product pages setup
- Stripe payment integration and sandbox testing
- Embedded iFrame connection to Getscreen.me app for client connections
- Conducted on-page and technical optimizations, including:
- Image library optimization with introduction of WebP technology
- Image lazy load technology
- CSS / JavaScript load minify
- Font pre-loading
- Hardened site security, comprising:
- Full site security audit
- Removal of unused themes and plugins
- Software updates, where neccesary
- Introduction of automated daily local backups
- Introduction of automated offsite-backup policy to the cloud
- System to prevent brute-force attcks
- Introduction of 2FA for elevated users / admins
- Rolled-out deployment of enterprise grade CDN
- Introduced an ongoing monthly pro active maintenance and premium support retainer
A sample of the design and layout
What they say about us…
“After Pages That Convert helped my new IT services business gain some rapid momentum, I was at a loss when the pandemic prevented me from helping my clients.
The restrictions on movement and lockdowns almost meant I had to close the doors to the business indefinitely. I was so frustrated as I’d just got things running nicely. Then, I had a couple of calls with Gray.
He was confident he could set me up with a system that would not only have clients pay funds directly into my bank account but also give me back the ability to help my clients from the confines of a country locked down.
Gray and his team helped me see through the storm ahead. Without their help, I’m unsure if I’d still be in business today.
Exceptional understanding of my problems and solutions for how to overcome them. Thank you so much for all your advice and hard work to help me continue and grow”
Brian Liu
Expat IT Consultant
