Oyova

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a virtual career coaching platform, I am the COO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Oyova, and what were your goals?

This is a start-up business, we hired Oyova to help us conceptualize the delivery of our coaching service - starting from a blank page, and working through launch.

SOLUTION

How did you select Oyova and what were the deciding factors?

We were introduced by a consultant we were working with at the time - Oyova presented themselves as having strong consumer engagement experience, and the ability to help us bring a vision to life.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We approached Oyova with nothing more than a half-baked idea for a virtual career consulting platform. We had no business requirements, no staff, no plans, etc. We needed a partner to work with us on every aspect of design, function, development, timing, cost, hosting, deployment, onboarding, etc., etc.

They served as our developers, our IT experts, our project managers, designers, creative director, and more.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Our direct interface with the Oyova team was with three primary partners, the senior implementation engineer, the lead front-end engineer, and our account manager. However, there were at least another two to five people working on our project, I interacted with a few of them from time to time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The site is just now launching, so we do not have data at this point, however, the usability testing we did was very successful, with tremendous response and feedback.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

The first few months were a bit random, as we figured out a working style, communication preferences, a plan..... We use Slack to instant message with the team, and hold weekly release and update meetings.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Oyova provided great guidance, ideas and direction. We worked very well together in discussing and debating ideas and visions, always coming out with a better solutions than originally presented.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Marketing Manager for iMethods, a Healthcare IT Consulting and Staffing Firm. We are a family of healthcare consultants who genuinely care about delivering exceptional results and building meaningful relationships with our client partners.

We are dedicated to exceeding expectations and ensuring alignment between customer needs and the resources we provide to meet those needs. We take the time to truly understand our clients, truly understand their challenges, and work diligently to help them achieve their Healthcare IT goals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Oyova, and what were your goals?

Our website was created by a creative agency in 2019, and when they no longer supported the website development and services, Oyova gladly took over those services we needed.

Our goals were to re-organize our website for an easier end-user experience. These changes are on-going with our business goals and objectives that are maturing and expanding. We also worked with Oyova on developing a new website for our non-profit foundation from idea to completion.

SOLUTION

How did you select Oyova and what were the deciding factors?

We were referred to Oyova by a different creative agency. We knew immediately after our introductory and discovery calls that they would be a great partner to have. They took time to understand our business, objectives, and vision.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

For our company website, we had a kickoff call to discuss the current state of our website. From there, we outlined our business goals related to the website and mapped out our priorities to achieve them.

Oyova worked hand-in-hand with us to achieve these goals and also were helpful in identifying gaps that we did not see. For our non-profit website, we had a kickoff call to discuss the vision and mission of our non-profit. Oyova worked with us to develop the big picture outline of the website.

We worked with them on creating copy, and they developed custom event pages, forms, and payments pages to support donation efforts.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A project Manager, Beth Rener, was the main point of contact for our team. We also worked with their developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The feedback from our website is overwhelmingly positive. We had a team do competitive website analysis and the feedback from ours outshined the competition. Given the ever-changing nature of our business, Oyova still works closely with us on these changes and updates.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Beth, our Project Manager, is always very responsive. She is organized and understands the priorities we are constantly working on. Our communication process is visual-based mockups and notes.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Communication is everything. In our past experiences, that was one of the most frustrating things working with other agencies. Beth is always communicating, even if there are no updates she will let us know.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of risk at an oilfield services company called Phoenix Services LLC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Oyova?

We were looking to update our website to make it look fresh and inviting.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Oyova did a complete overhaul of our website based on some of the content (e.g., logos, pictures) that we’d provided. We wanted our site to tie in with Indeed so that we could mirror the job openings directly on our website from our Indeed account.

We completed the bulk of the work years ago, so now they only do ongoing maintenance for things here and there. That’s included moving the domain name and changing some of the content.

What is the team composition? 

Beth (Account Manager) was my main contact, and I also worked with Ryan B. (Senior Implementation Engineer).

How did you come to work with Oyova?

I wasn’t the person who initially chose Oyova, but I believe we selected them based on the sample websites they had as well as their finished products. The cost was also a factor. They had competitive pricing.

How much have you invested with them?

It was about $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They did the project between February–May 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We wanted to get buy-in from everyone at our company who wasn’t part of the project, and we got that for the most part. After the site was completed, 10–15 key people in our organization reviewed it and signed off on the project.

How did Oyova perform from a project management standpoint?

I appreciated their responsiveness and professionalism. They got back to me immediately, filling in gaps for anything that I didn’t understand. Even though I wasn’t an IT person, they made it easy for me to grasp the process and work with them.

As for project management tools, they used Basecamp to track their work. I could go in there and tell them what I wanted done, including how important something was. Then, they’d immediately put that request into the queue, and I could see the schedule. We also communicated via calls and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Oyova was really easy to work with — a big part of that was due to their responsiveness and professionalism. The fact that they got back to me right away and took their time to explain what I needed to do, what the implications were for that task, and how to do it was great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Depending on the project, it’s a good idea to have a general understanding of what needs to be done. They’ll work with you to fill in the gaps.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a residential land survey service provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Oyova?

We were trying to create a comprehensive online platform to help manage our daily operations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope of the work was to create an online platform that users could enter to order our services. There are about ten steps users have to follow to complete the order.

We’ve continued to engage them over the last seven years to enhance the original platform.  

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with 5–6 people including the owner, a developer, and a deployment team.

How did you come to work with Oyova?

They were referred to me by the client. They were the only partner I considered.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in 2014 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Clients have provided feedback on how easy the platform is to use. It has definitely had a positive impact in the field, which is why we’ve continued to work with Oyova to enhance it.

How did Oyova perform from a project management standpoint?

On a ten-point scale, I would give them a nine. They’re good about keeping a task list and checking through it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were able to learn about our business in a fairly short time period. I also appreciated that they were based in the US.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m not sure how they could improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When working with any programmer, you have to have a well-defined description of what you wanted to achieve. You’ll have less back-and-forth if you can provide a scope of work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Photolucida is an arts nonprofit based in Portland, OR. Our mission is to connect emerging and established photographers with industry professionals through online and in-person professional development events.

I am the Program Manager and I run Critical Mass, a juried online photography review, as well as help facilitate our biennial Portfolio Reviews event.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Oyova, and what were your goals?

We hired Oyova to help us run an existing custom-built online program that hosts hundreds of entries, thousands of images, and two stages of jurying. After the first year, Oyova thought it would be easier on everyone involved to rebuild this program into our Wordpress site.

This is a fairly complex 3-part program that requires a lot of accuracy in the way the information is portrayed, which varies between each stage. There are also time-sensitive deadlines between each phase.

SOLUTION

How did you select Oyova and what were the deciding factors?

Oyova was recommended to us by our previous programmer when he retired.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

After running through the existing software in 2017 and having a multitude of issues relating to messy coding and some crossed wires about what the program was actually supposed to do, we decided that Oyova would build the program from scratch through our existing WordPress site.

This would simplify the program and allow for us to have a more hands on approach to the programming instead of relying on programmers to handle each step of the program and any malfunctions.

This involved entry forms, a dashboard page that entrants could login to and edit their entry, a randomized 2-part jurying page where jurors can vote on each entry, user-specific payment links sent via email, ranking all entrants by scores, the ability for jurors to save their scores, and a final Top 50 entrant page that exists on the website forever.

In 2018, Oyova built this software as the stages of the program were taking place...this worked in most respects but meant we were in constant communication when something wasn't working as expected. Lots of video calls and emails, but they were very attentive and on top of our issues quickly.

In 2019, the program ran much more smoothly, only experiencing minor issues at the beginning of each phase - a lot of which I could fix myself through WP. And in 2020, past the 'testing phase' most of the program ran without needing intervention from Oyova. Woo!

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Beth has been with us since day one - she is always quick to respond to our emails and makes sure the team is working on our requests. Ryan worked with us closely the first 2 years, helping build the program and giving us face time in video calls. Ian and Justin have probably built the bulk of our program and Ian is usually the one to answer my questions via email.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

After a rocky start (working with an existing program they did not code and knew nothing about), we all got on the same page about this program and how best to implement it.

Now that the program build is paid for and we are back to just paying for Oyova's time, our costs related to this program are significantly less - and that is directly because of their suggestion to build it into our WP site allowing us to handle much of the work on our end.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

They are very communicative and flexible. Beth always gets back to my emails quickly with a confirmation that she received it and has the team on it, which I very much appreciate.

Our timeline is usually set in stone from the beginning for a 5 month period, but this past year everything got pushed back at multiple points without much notice and they were very amenable to those changes.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I appreciate that they are adaptable. And that, even though we are a super small nonprofit and our program is probably small potatoes to them, we felt like they were happy to work with us and make this program the best it could be.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The only thing that has happened a handful of times that bothered me was that I would be waiting for an update on something time sensitive and the programmer working on the issue would leave for the day without updating me on the progress. We are on the west coast, so their offices close at 3 our time.

For a lot of these issues, I am the middle man between someone on our site and the programmer working on fixing the issue. So not knowing where we stood with the issue left me either having to ignore the customer for the rest of the day or let them know that there was nothing I could do until the next day.

Not a huge thing, it's just a nice courtesy to get an update when I am sitting in front of my computer waiting :)

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation provides emotional, financial, and practical support to families with a child diagnosed with cancer. My role is director of business operations, i oversee all HR, IT, Finance and special projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Oyova, and what were your goals?

We selected Oyova to be our vendor to develop our Patient Portal with the goal of creating a seamless way that families could requests financial assistance for household bills and be connected to the Jay Fund.

Goals were the following:

1. Create simple way for families to access portal to request assistance, it needed to be web-based, mobile friendly, and have simple user interface.
2. Needed to be scaleable and able to "grow" with the needs of the Jay Fund.
3. Needed to have company that could quickly address problems with the portal and get them resolved.
4. Needed to have company willing to work with broad range of people on Jay Fund team and with our hospital partners.

SOLUTION

How did you select Oyova and what were the deciding factors?

Oyova presented a strong case on knowing what we were trying to achieve with our goals and the portal. They also seemed the most agreeable to working with many different groups of people to build the porta.

Finally, they showed the most interest in working with families who have a child with cancer - they listened to what these families needed.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Project scope: to build a web-based portal platform that was HIPPA compliant and easy to use from the web or mobile platforms. Deliverables included the ability to upload, edit and comment on requests that were created by Families.

Delivery date was 18 months from start of contract, and they delivered that.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

2 people. Beth Rener, project manager and Daniel Rener, lead developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

They delivered an incredible product.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Beth stayed in constanct contact with the Jay Fund team on the project. She listened to our questions and provided quick responses. Daniel shared great knowledge of the platform we were building and suggested great ideas on things we didn't think we needed but ultimately love having in the Portal.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

For how small their office is, they produce a great deal of work that is impeccable!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

ERC is a web-based medical referral software system with document processing and signature portals. I am the project manager of development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Oyova, and what were your goals?

We were looking for a development company to enhance and make ERC user-friendly and time relevant to the medical industry with compatibility for private insurers as well as government-based agencies. Oyova had an experienced staff of programmers and designers to serve our specific needs for HIPAA compliance and real-time operational features.

SOLUTION

How did you select Oyova and what were the deciding factors?

We checked with references and had several web meetings as well as face to face meetings to converse with existing services and to inquire about our individual needs concerning database infiltration, email features, flags for guidance, signature acquisitions on iPads.and data retention with security measures built into the processes.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

As the project manager, I worked hand in hand with the ERC field team and determined what were their specific needs in a feature, outlined those needs with key elements to ask for quotes, questions, concerns from Oyova team. Once the outline and approval for each "project" we worked closely and tested internally as well as field-tested. Oyova would oversee any tweaks, changes, or suggestions. The changes or tweaks would be made prior to the sign off from the ERC team.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with several team members in Oyova, project manager, lead programmer, as well as other team programmers assigned to a specific section or task.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

ERC has been enhanced in the last five years to accommodate deliveries, reports, searches, as well as fine-tuning and enhancement of the referral process, patient assessments, and deliveries. We feel we chose the right company for ERC's needs and feel very satisfied with the elements of superlative customer service.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Oyova is a professional team of experts in their individual fields. They bring together a thorough product in a very friendly and fast responsive manner.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They seem very down-home with their patience and understanding the need to communicate on an everyday basis for a comprehensive interpretation of their intentions to make it happen.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I always hate to say there is no room for improvement in any instance, but I can say that our company hasn't found an instance where we feel Oyova didn't live up to our expectations and correct any miscommunication or error.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a digital transformation consultant and assist businesses with developing their digital roadmaps to automate internally and maximize their customer experience externally. Ultimately, I help them to gain a greater and faster return on their technology investment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Oyova, and what were your goals?

Our clients must have well-developed, beautiful, and fast websites. We used Oyova to build work from wireframes and branding guides and to develop custom components that could be used within a WordPress site.

The goal was to enable the client to build their own pages but have those pages properly branded and optimized for user engagement. Oyova developed a custom child theme with complex components on a designer framework with very complex responsive CSS.

SOLUTION

How did you select Oyova and what were the deciding factors?

I used Oyova for some smaller test projects first and then brought them on board for this major engagement. The deciding factors were their knowledge of WordPress, their design capabilities, and their ability to utilize frameworks to speed development with great coding.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Review of wireframes and branding guides. We worked from Sketch layouts and then developed the site page template by page template. There were some additional interactive elements that were written in JavaScript as well.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had an account manager, architect, and a few developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

After launching the site, the client was so satisfied that they have continued a direct engagement with Oyova.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We held regular meetings that reviewed deadlines, action plans, and progress with the client.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I am a long-time WordPress devleoper and understand the API and development framework. Oyova's knowledge is complete and surpasses my own. Developing in WordPress is only as good as the developers' knowledge of the platform and any hard-coding or shortcuts can lead to disasters.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I utilized my own project management system with Oyova. If they are using their own internally, it may be good to have a client-facing view of projects. To be clear, this wasn't something I requested... so I'm just throwing it out there.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I run an advertising and marketing agency in New York City. Currently, I am the Founder and CEO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Oyova, and what were your goals?

My client needed a website to be built and that is outside of the services that we immediately provide. So I reached out to Jon at Oyova To help execute this project. Our main goal was to create a WordPress site using a template to maintain cost efficiency but still keep the look of a fully custom Website

SOLUTION

How did you select Oyova and what were the deciding factors?

The most important part when choosing an agency partner for me was their reputation in my Network Combined with their work experience. Oyova excelled on both of those requirements

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The scope of our project included creating a complete WordPress site. Including choosing the template that would most mirror what my client was looking for, designing each aspect of the website, wire framing and figuring out the UX and UI.

The key deliverables in this project word to deliver a functional prototype to my client about 30 days into the project and then work with myself and my client to iron out any revisions as needed

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I worked with 4 people at Oyova: Ryan CTO, Beth Account M., Jon CRO, Ian Developer, and TonyDigital Strategist

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The team did an exceptional job on this project. Our client is very happy and we will work with them again

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Communication was done through a slack channel and they were all very available to chat with me and answer any questions as well as go through any needed revisions

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

What are the ideas that we have to launch my clients website was to hide an Easter egg inside on one of the pages. Ryan and Beth added a strategic element to help my clients invisibility on their most revenue-generating product lines

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing at all

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the project manager at a user experience design shop based in Columbia, SC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Oyova, and what were your goals?

We were implementing a new property search tool to the website of one of our clients in the real estate industry. Our goal was to help our client become an industry leader in the promotion of a new property category.

SOLUTION

How did you select Oyova and what were the deciding factors?

Oyova was referred to our team by a trusted network partner.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

After initial discovery and familiarization of existing code structures and frameworks (Sitefinity, .NET, Foundation), we worked collaboratively with Oyova to deploy a new property search platform with custom filters and dynamic data pulled from externally-hosted databases. This required regression testing and updates across several pre-existing page timeplates.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A project manager handled the business aspects (capacity planning, scheduling, invoicing, etc.) while a .NET developer conducted development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We launched today, so specific metrics are not yet available; however, we launched a great product on time and under budget, which is an excellent deliverable for any client team.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

The Oyova team is very responsive (we always received day-of responses) and flexible in terms of communication style. We conducted screenshare meetings if/as needed, but typically communicated status via email.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Oyova integrates seamlessly with our team. Great products and services are the ones that are reliable and non-disruptive - Oyova simply does exactly what is needed, without requiring significant time and/or hand-holding. They are professional and trusted partners.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Oyova provided the exact level and quality of support that our team needed.