I had the pleasure of chatting with Bart Mroz and Bob Brodie of Sumo Heavy Industries, one of Philadelphia’s premier digital commerce agencies, about what got them where they are and how they’re keeping clients thrilled. If you want to understand how to make a digital commerce agency work, read carefully because these guys are top-notch.

Jon: SUMO Heavy Industries has quickly become one of the most respected agencies in Philadelphia. Can you tell us a little bit about how you started, and what led you to found SUMO?
Bart Mroz: Before SUMO, I had a small web development company and one of the things we did was commerce. At the start of the year my partner left and I needed to restructure the company. At the same time I was working on a project with Bob Brodie. We discovered that we worked really well together and decided to start SUMO. We also decided right out of the gate that we would only do commerce work. That was the best decision we ever made.

Jon: Your core philosophy, that eCommerce is its own category (rather than just a website with a shopping cart added), has helped define who you are and how you do things. Can you expand on this, and tell us what it means to both clients and yourselves as you develop new projects?
Bart Mroz: At some point we figured out that it is better to specialize in something instead of being a full-service digital agency. We decided to take on the commerce category because we see a lack of smaller companies in that sector. This is a large market with new ideas coming out all the time and we see a huge opportunity for growth. Our thought is that we can basically handle every aspect of our clients’ store design: from branding and design, to store development and building, to post-launch marketing. From the clients’ perspective, they appreciate that we do one thing and specialize in it.

Jon: Bart and Bob, I know you both bring different skill sets to the table. What specific expertise and experience do you each have, and how does it define your role with SUMO?
Bart Mroz: Besides being an awesome developer Bob has great business skills that work really well in our enviroment. John Suder, our creative director, brings the creative side to our small team and I get rest of the fun – like handling the bills and chasing new business.

Jon: One thing we have in common is our love for Magento. What brought you to Magento, and what does Magento provide to clients that other eCommerce platforms don’t?
Bob Brodie: We started with Magento when was first introduced as beta. One of our first clients actually told us about it. Magento is a very flexible system that can be adapted to a lot of situations. If you can put the time into learning Magento, it will let you do virtually anything you need to related to commerce.

Jon: How do you help businesses decide between Magento Community Edition, Magento Professional Edition, and Magento Enterprise Edition?
Bob Brodie: First and formost we are NOT a Magento partner. This keeps obligation off of our plate and allows us help our clients decide on the right solution. Sometimes we tell clients that Magento is just not right for them and we go with a different platform. For us it depends upon a client’s needs as to what version they should use. It’s all about the client.

Jon: You’re integration and migration experts. When it comes to migrating to Magento from other platforms, what advice would you give businesses considering a move, and what platforms seem to be the trickiest?
Bob Brodie: For us, it’s important to get full documentation of the what the client has before jumping in. The other big piece is that clients need to know what they would like and need. We have clients who have band-aids and workarounds on their current system to make them work. If they are going to choose a new system then why not fix all these things? That being said, business process is crucially important in integration and migration. The trickiest systems are the custom, in-house systems because the are proprietary by nature. An old system that is widely adopted is easier to move than a fully custom system.

Jon: Magento SEO is positively arcane at times. Do you see Magento’s built-in support for SEO improving? And what key areas do you address when looking at SEO for a Magento site?
Bart Mroz: We don’t exactly think its arcane. Magento does a pretty good job, but you still have to work on it. We see it as another marketing platform.
We do the basic SEO and then bring in an outside SEO company in the mix. We only use one that is local to us – SEER Interactive. We love those guys!

Jon: Of course, SUMO Heavy does a lot more than just Magento. Tell us about the other services you provide, and what categories you’re particularly excited about right now.
Bart Mroz: We provide multiple services to our clients, like branding, design, development, and marketing for commerce. We also consult companies in need of commerce direction. Right now, user experience and mobile platforms are two of many new exciting areas that we would like to expand our services to.

Jon: With dozens of first-class design and development firms and talent to spare, Philadelphia is much more than a poor man’s New York when it comes to tech. What do you think makes Philadelphia such a great city to live and work in?
Bart Mroz: Philadelphia is a manageable city. It’s the biggest ‘small city’ in the country. There are lots of things going here other than tech that gets us excited. You are also able to go to multiple events in one night because it’s a smaller city, and you don’t feel you’re missing anything – plus the community support is amazing.

Jon: How do you think tablets, phones, and other devices figure into the future of eCommerce? Are you actively designing and developing for these platforms?
Bart Mroz: Mobile is going to be huge in the next few few years. It’s uncharted waters and that excites us. We have a few projects in the works that touch upon mobile devices and we’re stoked to dive right into them.

Jon: Finally, what’s in store for SUMO in 2011?
Bart Mroz: Our first quarter of the year looks really interesting. We have a few big site launches coming up and are looking forward to them. We’re also looking at what we would like to make happen next year – just basic plans though, since our industry is on a constant change. We like to sit down and evaluate every 90 days where we are in the company, what challenges we’ve faced, what we did wrong and what went right, and where we want to be in the next 90 days. This business moves fast, so it’s hard to predict where we’ll be in a year.

Thanks again to Bart and Bob, it was a fun chat and I’m sure we’re going to see even more great things out of SUMO in 2011!