Aloa

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a fantasy games platform for reality television.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Aloa to manage the development of our new platform using their project management tools and outsourced dev resources. The goal was to create a brand new website and application that was user-friendly and scalable.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were recommended to Aloa through word of mouth; each of their previous clients we spoke with had nothing but positive things to say. After doing our research and due diligence, it was a no-brainer to choose them for this project.

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

The scope was to completely transfer the old website to new technologies and improve the infrastructure to make it easily scalable. Aloa oversaw the entire project using Aloa Manage, and their development partners used Wordpress, Ruby+Vue.js.

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

1 project manager was assigned to us from aloa, as well as 6 devs on the outsourced dev team

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our users love the updated design of the new site; Aloa was able to exceed expectations in terms of quality, cost, and speed at which the new platform was developed.

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

We had weekly standups with the Aloa project manager and regularly communicated through Slack and their project management tool, Aloa Manage.

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

Aloa felt like an extension of our own team. The personalization and commitment to making sure the end result was what we envisioned from the beginning of the project was second to none.

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

There was an improvement we suggested on the Aloa Management platform (copying to clipboard when revealing a credential) and no only did they listen to our feedback, they implemented the change the next week!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Founder/CEO of Farechild, an online event ticketing platform focused on highly regulated industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a fully built out ticketing platform for guests to buy tickets to their favorite events.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

My technical advisor recommended Aloa based on a good reputation.

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

We created the wireframe and design elements. The Aloa team completed the coding.

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

Two full stack developers and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site functions well and bugs are eliminated quickly. Good management team to help with any hurdles dealing with overseas coders.

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

Great communication primarily through Slack and their own CMS platform.

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

We are able to communicate with them seamlessly.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as an independent educational consultant.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aloa?

We hired them to develop our two platforms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Aloa built a platform that could help us scale a wellness-based curriculum to high school and college students.  They also created a platform that could enable us to compile data related to student interventions in the behavioral space.

The student wellness-based platform had a weekly landing spot where an interactive lesson was available for students to access on their own. Once students finished the lessons, there was a quick assessment which would be part of a student’s health and wellness grade. The purpose of the platform was to enable schools to monitor all the interventions that were implemented throughout the years, and it could be broken down into grade level, weeks, gender, and more.

They completed the first website in the summer of 2019, and the second platform was completed in February 2020. We haven’t worked with them for a while, but we keep in touch every now and then if we have questions. We also plan to work with them again in a couple of months to implement some integrations based on the user feedback we received.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two people, but we mostly collaborated with David (Co-Founder).

How did you come to work with Aloa?

Before working with Aloa, we worked with a developer in Chicago and spent $20,000 just to have meetings on what we wanted to build. Our previous vendor also sent everything off to a developer in India. In the end, it was a huge waste of money working with them.

After that, I talked to David, and he told me about his company. I used to be his swimming coach and he was one of my students back in 2014–2015. They offered us cost-efficient services.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from October 2018–February 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They successfully finished our platforms. We were satisfied with their work and compared to previous independent contractors we worked with before, Aloa produced the work we wanted. They implemented all the adjustments that we needed to implement, and all of our issues were usually solved within 20–30 minutes.

How did Aloa perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management process was super smooth, and they used their time efficiently. They set milestones throughout the project, and they were always ready to answer our questions. They also did a good job of communicating what the developer should do. Overall, they provided great support throughout the engagement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Aloa team really cared about us, and they helped us create the platforms we wanted to build. They were concerned about our project’s outcome, which was reflected in how they organized their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I couldn’t think of anything they could improve. Though we identified a couple of bugs during coding and development, they corrected them within 24 hours.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Jump on board and work with Aloa. If you collaborate with them, you’ll save time and money. At the same time, you’ll get the products that you envision.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the President and Founder of The Success Finder, a company dedicated to aligning Coaches, Entrepreneurs, and Communities with events, opportunities, and resources.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Aloa is developing a platform for our community.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

One of my business partners introduced me to Aloa.

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

Aloa walked me through the process to assess my needs and expectations, and determine which dev team would best fit my needs. They've monitored meetings the entire time throughout the process and audited the coding and products my dev team is developing. Aloa allowed us to find a dev team that did everything we asked them to do, in a timely manner.

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

The team I'm working with has between 8-10 employees.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We aren't finished with the project.

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

They were very hands-on and checked in with me frequently with status updates.

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

I am most impressed with their ability to determine what I need and identify the best team to deliver our product. They are masters at aligning needs with solutions.

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

No