IBS International CEO, Dr. Donovan Moxey, PhD (middle) shows the Marathon Bahamas website to chairman, Franklyn Wilson (right) and Brian Moodie, president (left). (Photo by Azaleta Ishmael-Newry)

Nassau, Bahamas – Marathon Bahamas was the brainchild of Bahamian businessman Franklyn Wilson and the race was on for a quick launch to a superb finish in just under 5 months.   What a journey it was for the players involved and it ended on February 14^th in high glory due to the fact that it had over 500 registered participants including Grand Bahamian winner, Delroy Boothe who raced against seasoned local and international marathoners.  

Behind the scenes of the marathon was Integrated Business Solutions (Bahamas) Ltd. also known as IBS International.   This important player helped Marathon Bahamas stay in the lead with a high quality, interactive website that is on par with those of the Boston, New York, and Miami marathons.  

Donovan Moxey, PhD is the CEO of IBS International and a Bahamian who came highly recommended.   Dr. Moxey is a sharp, unassuming entrepreneur and former Junior Achiever in The Bahamas.   He started IBS International in 2003 and has strong ties with US and European partners for his business ventures.

IBS International is an international software development and consulting services company with expertise in custom software development, web application development and management and IT consulting services.   Marathon Bahamas and a number of Bahamian companies have engaged Moxey’s company to develop their Internet solutions.

Montague Group, a financial services company led by Owen Bethel, was Moxey’s first customer in The Bahamas and Moxey’s Bahamian portfolio has grown to include The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce, National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, The National Insurance Board, as well as other local companies.   The future continues to be bright for Dr. Moxey as more Bahamian businesses adopt and adapt next generation Internet-based solutions to support their business initiatives.

A website can be many things for many companies and in the case of Marathon Bahamas, it was the platform that not only showcased the event and told its story to the world but it was the catalyst that helped bring the new venture to a level of winning success.  

The Marathon Bahamas website was built to appeal to multiple audiences because it not only advertised the event but also The Bahamas and many of its sponsors in a very prominent fashion.    It also offered vital information and access to functionality that allowed participants to register for the event and book reservations for airline and hotel accommodations. There were just over 100 international participants in this successful sports tourism venture.

Marathon Bahamas’ homepage. Some of the key elements of the site included access to online registration, medical and volunteer information, integrated video content, including an embedded satellite map of the course that was tagged with markers and links to sponsor websites. (Courtesy of IBS International).

“Launching a custom website of this kind in just 5 weeks is virtually unheard of!” explained Moxey. “We took the client’s requirements and implemented all of them. We were up for the challenge and we delivered.”   One of the key benefits that IBS International offers its clients is an integrated content management system (CMS) that allows them to edit and modify the content on their website as and when they see fit.   Using the CMS is as simple as making modifications to a Microsoft Word or Powerpoint document.

 “The amount of information that we were able to get on the website was phenomenal and with IBS International’s help, the capabilities of the site were top notch,” explained Brian Moodie, president of Sunshine Insurance-Marathon Bahamas.   Some of the key elements of the site included access to online registration, medical and volunteer information, integrated video content, including an embedded satellite map of the course that was tagged with markers and links to sponsor websites.

While a website acts as a complete brochure and provides information, it is more than just the esthetics of the site that will make the viewer stay.   Wilson explained, “We wanted to create a world class event and a site to match. Each element had to be broken down into great detail. When you are trying to do a world-class event, it doesn’t mean you do eight things at a very high standard and do two things at a poor standard.   All have to be at a high standard. The website has to be more than a pretty site. You need to ask yourself the questions like, “Can I use it?   Is it user friendly and can I get the information that I am looking for? If it’s a hassle to get information, you’ll quit before you get far. Therefore, It’s a combination of attractiveness to get attention and user friendliness that are important for people who use the site.”

There are interesting challenges when setting up a website and one of those that was strategically solved was moving the ranking of Marathon Bahamas from the latter pages of the Google search results to the top spot.    Because this was a new event and due to the number of companies or organizations that had ‘marathon’ and ‘Bahamas’ associated with their web presence, this created a high hurdle to get over in a relatively short period of time.   A search request even pointed to the Mall at Marathon.   To address this problem, IBS International employed the use of search engine optimization (SEO) functionality that is an integral part of its website development platform, as well as the use of Google AdWords.   Veronica Duncanson who was responsible for the marketing of Marathon Bahamas and its website, worked closely with Dr. Moxey and they created keywords, meta tags and meta phrases that were the best fit for their campaign. The entire list of words and phrases had to be strategically chosen in order for Google to efficiently index them and provide the higher ranking.

 “To get a site like ours up so quickly and to iron out some of the kinks, took real knowledge and we were happy that we achieved the number one search for “Marathon Bahamas” in Google after a few adjustments,” stated Duncanson.

Another winning strategy was the utilization of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter that helped Marathon Bahamas reach a registration level of just over 500 in less than 3 months; this was a good accomplishment for an inaugural event. There are plans to fully leverage these social media tools as part of a comprehensive marketing strategy in order to develop a loyal following and attract even more participants to next year’s event. With the countdown clock ticking (check it out at www.marathonbahamas.com) and the publicity and the success of the race, it should prove to be an even bigger and better marathon in 2011.

Delroy Boothe winner of the first Bahamas Marathon hails from Grand Bahama. Shown in the photo, Boothe received a recognition plaque 2 days before the Marathon for his contribution to the sport of running. From left to right are Marathon chairman, Franklyn Wilson, Delroy Boothe, marathoner and Dr Donovan Moxey, PhD, sponsor of the awards plaques and CEO of IBS International (Bahamas) Ltd. (Photo by Azaleta Ishmael-Newry)

Chairman, Franklyn Wilson is thankful to all who made the marathon a success – from the board, to the participants, the volunteers, and sponsors.   A two-day Health Expo that was part of Marathon Bahamas was held at Atlantis and included an awards ceremony.   IBS International sponsored the award plaques that were presented to 25 Bahamian sport icons recognized for their contributions to The Bahamas in the field of distance running.   One of those awards went to the winner of the marathon, Delroy Boothe who finished the 26-mile course in just under 3 hours.

When looking for a business solution for a website, Wilson highly praised Dr. Moxey and IBS International.   “As with any relationship, organizations have certain intrinsic talents, capacities and resources. The real success though is the personality and communications skills of the CEO; his capacity to convey to the client, “What’s possible? How and why do we do it? I think it’s the personal level and the technical skills of Dr Moxey that made our site and partnership a winning combination.”

For more information on IBS International, please visit www.ibsinternational.com.