Angry Creative

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for Lumesse Learning, a large learning technology provider with 3 business units, including talent acquisition, management, and development. I’m involved in the talent development unit. We have material learning products, and we also provide custom-built services, as well as advice and guidance services with learning strategy and implementation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pragmatic?

Initially, we wanted to bring our hosting costs down and replace our existing website support agency with better resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pragmatic was brought in for hosting and web support, but have since helped with other things.

We’ve moved on to website builds, and they’ve helped us build a site for one of our products called Me Time. The process was very fast and painless, because once we decided what we wanted to do, they put it in place quickly. They dealt with all the issues we had with various videos which we wanted to run on the page, and they were generally very responsive.

They steered us towards a particular WordPress theme which they thought would be useful for our needs. They also pointed us towards a guided tour called Cornerstone, which enabled us to build webpages in-house. We were able to do quite a bit of the setup ourselves, as well as the maintenance.

Pragmatic saw that this avenue would fit our needs, and since they introduced us and trained us to use this tool, we’re now able to go in and tweak things as needed. From our perspective, it’s been a very successful implementation, and a great idea. We get a lot of leverage out of the regular fee we pay in terms of retainer, because they do a lot of other things which are useful to us.

What is the team dynamic?

I initially spoke to David [Founder & Director, Pragmatic], and I’ve since also worked with Ian [Support Manager, Pragmatic], Ryan [Lead Support Developer, Pragmatic], Tom [Support Developer, Pragmatic], and Stephanie [WordPress Developer, Pragmatic]. If I’m ever unsure who a responsibility belongs to, I go to Ian, and he tells me who to talk to. When we implemented the website, I was mostly in contact with Ryan and Tom.

How did you come to work with Pragmatic?

A friend recommended Pragmatic to me, and also said wonderful, glowing things about them. Their founder, David, also initially impressed me with his attitude. Their name sums up their process well, because they get the job done.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2014, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Between Quarter 1 in 2016, and Quarter 1 in 2017, the website sessions increased from 2,800 to 8,000.

The core of what Pragmatic offers is support, maintenance, and hosting. They were immediately able to bring our hosting costs down, and they also provided us with better support and maintenance than we felt we previously due to their expertise and knowledge. They know what they’re talking about, and they do what they say they’re going to do on time.

How did Pragmatic perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was very good, and everything was brought in on time and according to budget. They were very responsive. We mostly communicated through JIRA, but we used email and calling as well.

Their team is also very observant. If I bring something up which they can’t fix immediately, such as a browser issue, they will continue working on it until it’s fixed. They will come back to me a week later, when I have forgotten about it, and present a solution. Things don’t get forgotten with them, which is a big improvement compared to who we were working with previously.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication, honesty, and efficiency have really impressed us. When they have had staff issues, they’ve been transparent about it, which I found to be really helpful. They are a fast-growing company, as we are, so we understand the pressure.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They are on an as-needed basis at the moment, but it would be helpful if we had regular calls with them to see how things are going, what may be coming up, or if they can help us with anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run a media and IT consultancy business that makes strategy recommendations for how clients can best proceed with their goals in internal and external communications, media orientated aims, global projects, etc. For multi-agency clients, I act as an independent contractor to manage them and make big-picture strategy recommendations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pragmatic?

We run numerous website for many different clients, and most aren’t Internet experts, so they need a support team to help maintain their sites. I wanted to offer those services for my clients, so I began to look for an external provider that could assist me.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Generally, I approach Pragmatic with a set of client goals and a verbal brief, and they decide if it’s good or needs to be refined, which is done via wireframes or just general discussions. Once we’ve determined the best plan, Pragmatic begins WordPress consultancy and development. All of their work is WordPress-based, and we have more than a dozen live sites right now.

My team takes care of site design, but we sometimes ask Pragmatic for their input and opinion. My clients often have marketing goals (e.g. achieving a certain number of users, reaching a specific audience, etc.), and Pragmatic has been helpful in suggesting technologies they can use to reach those goals.

Pragmatic is involved in both the initial development of the websites as well as their maintenance and support. They keep the sites up-to-date and secure, and they perform minor upgrades when our clients request them.

What is the team dynamic?

The team changes often, but I consistently work with three key people, one of them being our project manager.

How did you come to work with Pragmatic?

I searched for an agency online for a long time. None of them were a good fit until I came across Pragmatic. They seemed competent and able to speak to me in a language that I understood, so I hired them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in October 2015, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Most of the sites we develop are brand new, so they’ve never been in the public domain before. However, we’ve gotten great engagement on those sites, and our clients are all extremely pleased with them. They haven’t had any crashes or bugs; they’re 100% reliable. Several of the sites, on average, receive 1,500 to 2,000 visitors every ten days.

How did Pragmatic perform from a project management standpoint?

If I ever have a question, they’re quick to respond. Their online helpdesk saves me a lot of time, and sometimes my issues are solved over a quick email. If not, Pragmatic will call me that day and set up a time to fix the problem. They try to remain as independent as possible, but they’re not afraid to speak up and ask questions if they need information. We typically communicate by phone, email, or their helpdesk, and we use Dropbox for file sharing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attitude is incredibly impressive. Every project has obstacles and problems, and they always positively deal with them. Some agencies get angry or impatient, but Pragmatic works hard and finds the solution.

They also listen to my ideas and offer solutions that I hadn’t thought of. They aren’t condescending in their expertise, but really try to work together to make our partnership collaborative and friendly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything's been great.

Advice for potential customers?

Pragmatic is a hidden gem. If I could do my timing over again and find them five years earlier, I would. I've reviewed a lot of agencies in the past and you don't often find an agency like this. Begin working with them as soon as possible, and count yourself lucky.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a private eating disorder clinic in Kensington, London. We help women suffering from types of eating disorders at different points in their recovery. My role is in communications and treatment advisory; so supporting people that access our treatment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Pragmatic?

We needed an iOS and Android app developed, but couldn't do it without help since coding isn't our background.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

The website was first designed with Pragmatic about five or six years ago now. Since then, they've supported us by managing the content remotely and designing new features. The mobile app we're doing now is the next biggest effort undertaken with them since the website project.

The app is an online resource for eating disorder recovery. It reflects our approach at the clinic, which is very holistic and quite unique in terms of what’s usually provided at an eating disorder clinic. It walks the user through the process, step-by-step. The app visualizes recovery to users at their own pace and essentially educates them about the whole recovery process, but specific to the circumstances on their account profile.

We also have a nurture log feature that lets users document their feelings throughout the day, kind of like a digital journal. We essentially went to Pragmatic with only an idea and had them help us realize it. The app itself is for iOS and Android devices. They built and launched both apps together only a few weeks ago.

How did you come to work with Pragmatic?

We had worked with Pragmatic previously on our website. We felt like they had a good understanding of our branding and our message and what we wanted to convey. And since they'd done the website successfully, it made sense to let them take a shot at the mobile project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them September 2016 until March 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did Pragmatic perform from a project management standpoint?

The team had about four people at one time; possibly one or two more. Tom [Account Manager, Pragmatic] was our project lead and he managed and oversaw every element of the work, which was extremely helpful. We used Confluence to help us track and document everything. That was a was especially helpful since the team was dispersed geographically. We’re in London and they’re based in Boston, so it’s not like we can organize meetings very quickly or easily.

I also found it impressive that they asked for feedback about their performance. As a result, we had fairly regular bi-weekly catch-ups about how we felt things were going and where things might be improved. The open dialog really contributed to a productive relationship.

What distinguishes Pragmatic from other providers?

Pragmatic really invested in creating a loyal and trusting relationship with us. For example, I really appreciated that when we were incredibly busy, they were highly responsive. They wanted to ensure that every feature and every element of the app reflected exactly what we wanted in terms of content, branding and messaging. I respect how involved they got. You don't expect that kind of ownership.

Is there anything Pragmatic could have improved or done differently?

There were some minor changes at the beginning of the project because of how quickly the shuffle ended up being. Sometimes the team would shift a little bit, and that was confusing sometimes. In those earlier situations, more proactive communication would have been nice. Again, however, Tom, who was leading the project, was always there for us whenever we needed him. He was always honest about things whenever we had questions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We work in the food and beverage industry and our primary activity is selling drinks. We sell somewhere around 100 different global and local brands, including Bacardi, Martini, Grey Goose and Bombay Sapphire.

What is your position?

I'm the global IT and marketing operations manager within the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Pragmatic?

We have over 100 websites, all working with different content management systems. The idea was to unify them under a single content management system, and have one company to manage our websites. We wanted to build a standardized template that we could customize for each brand. We would then run each site on our content management system. In this way, we could reuse typical pages like ‘contact us’ forms, user registrations, and so on. It was meant to save costs in the long run, and to speed up our marketing efforts for different brands.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Pragmatic worked on both coding and visual aspects for our websites. Our sites were previously using different content management systems, which we are now converting to Wordpress.

The size of their teams varies depending on the scope of the work they're currently involved in. I generally work with their managing director and lead project manager. I also interact with their lead product developer.

How did you come to work with Pragmatic?

We ran a procurement process looking for a UK-based partner. We researched different companies through organic Google searches in order to see how their own websites were ranking. Each selected company was asked to run a proposal for a pilot website in order to see what their statements would look like, and what types of questions they would ask.

We narrowed our options to three suppliers, out of which Pragmatic was chosen.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost so far has been around $500,000. The future pipeline will go into the millions range, over the course of three years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September of 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We evaluate Pragmatic based on the speed at which they can build a website. The average delivery time is around four weeks, which is great. Another factor is the cost, which averages around $20,000 for a medium-sized website. This is also within our specified budget.

How did Pragmatic perform from a project management standpoint?

Our team has worked with Pragmatic for various brands and has given us feedback in terms of their general engagement, communication, and development speed. Everyone's pleased with Pragmatic's understanding of our brands and with the final results.

We use Jira for project management and Dropbox for sharing documentation. We're also implementing ServiceNow within our company, and will be including Pragmatic within the platform.

What distinguishes Pragmatic from other providers?

One of the things that convinced me to choose Pragmatic was their transparent and straightforward approach. Pragmatic is a trustworthy company. By being a smaller company, they also provided us with added agility and understanding. They were willing to go the extra mile to deliver the work that we needed, with not too much overhead.

While working with other companies, we noticed that too many people were involved in the processes. We wanted a team that we could meet in person and with which we could discuss any issues about the project.

Is there anything Pragmatic could have improved or done differently?

There are elements on which we've worked together to improve, like the QA cycle. Their performance in general has been very good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are Grumitt Wade surveyors, and we are building surveyors and architectural technologists. We have private clients and commercial clients. We carry out building surveys for them. We offer lots of different services: design services, extension services, building consent and planning. We also help with anything to do with the council.

We do project management as well, commercial and privately owned buildings. We offer maintenance services and professional advice. Maintenance involves preparing specifications, contract administration, and just general advice. We resolve dilapidation schedules, boundary and zoning disputes, and provide expert witness, so we can help in legal proceedings as well. We can perform access audits to help disabled peoples. We also do measured surveys for people.

What is your position?

I am the secretary and administrator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Pragmatic?

We needed a new website because our old one wasn't too great. We hired and instructed Pragmatic to help with anything we were unsure of with the WordPress program. We didn’t have the capabilities in-house to do this.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They did some training sessions, and from there, we were able to email them or call them whenever we had a problem with something that we couldn't do, such as custom coded things. WordPress was completely new for us, and they helped with everything. We have an external designer from a different company, and they worked with her to make it look how she envisaged it for us. Pragmatic implemented our designs and developed all of the functional elements of our new site.

How did you come to work with Pragmatic?

I’m fairly positive that they were recommended. We were working with a 3rd party SEO [search engine optimization] provider and they said great things about Pragmatic. We checked them out and approached them with this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The website was completed this year on the 18th of June.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Since we launched the new site, we've actually been getting quite a few inquiries because we've got one of those ‘contact us for free estimate’ bars on the site. We've been getting quite a few from that, which is a lot more than before on our other website. From what I’ve heard here, everyone seems to think it's a lot better than the old one, and a lot easier, more formatted, and more structural. Overall, it’s a huge improvement over our previous website.

How did Pragmatic perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t have any issues from a project management perspective. They were always responsive to our requests. Sometimes we were quite hard on this end, but they were really flexible with us.

What distinguishes Pragmatic from other providers?

We've not used any other companies like them before, but they were always responsive, very helpful, and very detailed in their work.

In retrospect, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

We got the site live and the same day, everyone was looking through it and found a few minor problems. What would’ve been great is if we could’ve changed them on the WordPress site, and they change straight away. We've got a thing where they change it every month. It's not too much of a problem, but it would have been nice.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My business is UndertheDoormat. We rent out homes to business travelers and tourists who are looking for a more localized experience.

What is your position?

I'm the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Pragmatic?

Having an e-commerce platform is critical to any sharing economy business like mine. The challenge that we were faced with was how to transform a static website that we put up just to get business into a platform which we could use to scale our business going forward. The website was built using WordPress, and it was a joint decision.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We worked together with Pragmatic and another company. The two companies actually work together quite often. Pragmatic was responsible for the functional development side. The other company took care of all the visual design elements.

We were responsible for the project management. We hosted a number of joint meetings, and we had a 30-page brief on what we wanted, so that way everybody was clear about what it was we wanted to achieve. From that point forward, we worked with both Pragmatic and this other firm to build out the functional site.

How did you come to work with Pragmatic?

They were recommended to me by a personal contact.

Could you provide a sense of the size of the initiative in financial terms?

It was about £12,000 [$18,700].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in July 2014. The original timeline to have the site finalized was in November, but it was the end of January when the site was finalized.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I think the big challenge was we wanted to achieve a lot with a very small budget as I'm sure is common in most projects like this. There were a number of compromises that had to be made along the way, but there was never anything defective delivered to me.

I think, overall, both the design and the functionality of the site worked really well. We have more comments on the design, but that is because that's what the customer tends to notice more about the site. Overall, on both sides, feedback has been positive. We're always slightly disappointed when customers don't give us feedback but, when they do, their feedback is, "It just worked perfectly, and I got my confirmation." That's the best feedback you can get.

What distinguishes Pragmatic from others?

Pragmatic had a very good team approach. Of course, there were small bugs that you test, and they get fixed, but there was always a lot of ownership on their side to make sure that what they were delivering was the right quality, even if sometimes there were compromises on functionality.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

It's quite difficult for me to say because I come from a corporate background, and I'm also not on the tech side. In that sense, I don't really have much to compare them with.

The difficulty we had spawned from not understanding from the beginning that Puree and Pragmatic worked together a lot. It created project management complications on our side. Clarifying the roles and responsibilities for each up front was challenging for us. I think that would be the one area that could have been improved. I think my tech director would also agree that part could've been improved.

My clear recommendation for Pragmatic would be that in the future, they should really work together with Puree as one agency, integrating their services more smoothly. I'd be very happy to work again with Pragmatic and Puree, but I would like them to take more ownership of the integration. 

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

I think you should know what you want, have a clear brief, be as detailed as possible, and make sure that you're managing the project directly. That way, you're delivering on time so that you're not the bottleneck for them. Managing the project also gives you the power to push them if things are falling behind. I think in general on these projects, the better everyone in the chain is at project management, the more successful the project is going to be overall.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We provide professional development videos for teachers so they can improve their teaching.

What is your position?

I'm the digital marketing executive.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge that you were trying to address with Pragmatic?

We wanted to have control over our own website. We were using another agency that built the site about a year and a half ago just to get it up. So, we were visible online, but it was a custom-designed content management system, and it was really limiting. We really needed to build a new website pretty much from scratch.

We now have the resources to put a lot more thought into the website. We wanted a content management system that was open source, and we wanted to work with someone who was local, someone we could meet with and get a feel for, someone we could establish a strong working relationship with. We had a few people come in – a few freelancers. The guys from Pragmatic came in, and it was a great fit.

Were you considering any other open source solutions other than WordPress?

We went with WordPress just because of how many people use it and how well documented it is. It is well known, and I'd kind of dabbled with it a bit before. So, it just made sense, rather than go with something that we didn't know too much about. It's something we've heard a lot about, that other people had used, and that people were specializing in. There were a few companies that we heard about who worked only with WordPress. Going with WordPress just made sense for all these reasons.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of their involvement in detail?

We did a lot of planning and research beforehand, so we had a good idea of what we wanted, how we wanted the site laid out and how we wanted it to work. We wanted a company that we felt could deliver our plan. We wanted expertise both in terms of the more technical aspects of the project and in design work. We wanted people who could build the site technically, but also could handle the design and creative aspects. We knew that would be difficult to find, but we definitely didn't want to manage two separate providers.

Did they provide hosting services as well for you?

Yes. We were deciding whether we were going to host the site ourselves. We've got the U.K. site, and we've got the U.S. version of the website. We spent a lot of time talking with Pragmatic about whether we should host the U.S. site in the U.S. for SEO [search engine optimization] purposes, but it turned out this was not massively important, so we stuck with them doing the hosting. We didn't have any problems with their hosting.

Do you keep them on retainer for maintenance and support?

About a month or two ago, we signed a SLA [service-level agreement] with them, because we wanted to rely on them a bit more for ongoing technical work. Part of the reason we chose both WordPress and a local company was because we knew there was going to be a lot of iterations in the development cycle. We assumed that it would actually be something that we would be constantly building on and improving. So, we eventually got around to signing the SLA with them for a couple of hours a month.

Can you provide a general cost estimate for this engagement?

We have probably spent about £15,000 [approximately $23,200] working with Pragmatic, but that's a broad guess.

This is an ongoing relationship, correct?

Yes. Definitely.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

I couldn't give you a number off the top of my head, but I would estimate that the number of website leads the business is now getting has more than doubled. In 2011, before the new site was built, we had about 13,000 visits for the entire year. We now get that number, on average, every month. In some months, we get up to 26,000 visits. I think that speaks volumes about what kind of work they did, and we did together. It's having a massive impact on the business.

Were you satisfied from a project management perspective?

Oh, definitely. There is no question about the quality of their work. It's always been great. Pragmatic has a couple of development people who have been amazing in terms of answering questions in layman's terms. We'll even have occasional debates with them and my colleagues about what the best thing is to do. We have had some genuine conversations that have been invaluable. There's been a couple of times when we've had to wait around for bits and pieces of work, but I think that's acceptable when you're relying on third-party plug-ins and things like that. We certainly haven't had any sort of major catastrophe.

Is there anything that you'd consider unique about their practice?

I've worked with two Web agencies locally, and the difference is the speed with which Pragmatic responds. We have an account manager who also does a lot of development work, and I know that they're constantly, constantly busy, which is great for them. Yet, that doesn't seem to have ever prevented them getting back to us the same day, and that was even before we had the SLA in place. They would always get back in touch in a reasonable timeframe. They're really friendly and accessible. What's really great about them is they're always learning themselves, they're always trying things out, and they don't seem to be afraid to try new things. They're really innovative and just very friendly. They are really very nice people to work with.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or are there things that you might do differently as the client?

I know they're expanding and taking on more clients. The customers always want things done quickly, and Pragmatic does seem to be snowed under at times. If they had a few more developers or a few more staff, then maybe things could move along a bit quicker. But, as I said, that's never been a major issue for us.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

It's been really handy having them just up the road from us and being able to pop into their office, having them come into our office and being able to talk and explain things clearly. If we had a project that we wanted to work on, we'd have them in to sit down and show them what we were thinking.

I guess I'd say be as specific as possible. Have a really clear idea of what you want, even mock-up versions of what you want or examples of other web pages that you like. Provide a bit of idea of what you want and as many examples as you can. That speeds things up, because they will know what you want.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are a Web development company, primarily developing WordPress websites for businesses and other organizations.

What is your position?

I am a co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge that you were trying to address with Pragmatic?

For the last decade, we've been running a service called GPSurgery.net, which is a U.K.-based specialist website service for doctors working within the National Health Service. We had approximately 200 sites running on that system. For lots of different reasons, we wanted to transfer that service from its customized and rather obsolete content management system over to WordPress – a system we know a lot better and are more comfortable with. Because we're a small business, we wanted some technical support. Setting up a multi-site of that scale was not something we had any practical experience in doing, so we needed to leverage some additional developers with the right amount of WordPress experience. 

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of their involvement?

The majority of the services they provided were the technical PHP programming and their in-depth knowledge of WordPress. We provided more of the content – ideas, illustrations, text copy, and a lot of the design concept. The technical side was pretty much handled by Pragmatic. They did the architecture, the logic validation, the custom coding, testing and configuration. 

How did you come to choose Pragmatic?

We know some people in the technical networking group who are based around the Brighton area, and we asked around for recommendations for WordPress developers. Pragmatic came up a couple times since they've developed a lot of successful sites. We figured it made sense to approach them with our project.

Can you provide a ballpark figure for the size of the work that they've done for you?

We have spent something in excess of £10,000 [approximately $15,500] working with Pragmatic.

Is the relationship ongoing?

Yes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance or the success of this engagement?

The only quantitative information I can think of is that there's a service in the U.K., kind of a Trip Advisor for doctors. If a doctor wants to buy anything, they can check what the ratings are like, and we have a very good rating on that.

I'd say, on the whole, they're very responsive. They're very competent technically, in terms of resolving issues in a timely manner.

Is there anything unique about Pragmatic that really makes them stand out compared to other companies?

We've not engaged a similar vendor, so it's difficult to compare them. They are a very committed and very focused company. They seem to be WordPress to the core, so that's probably their most unique feature, compared to other companies that will develop in many different platforms.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

They have changed since we initially met, and they've been growing very quickly. Initially, some of the business processes were sometimes lagging behind the work. I think that has improved significantly since we started working with them.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

It would probably be good to spend more time in the initial phase of specifying and scoping out the project. Get actual face-to-face time if possible, making sure that the project specifications and scope are fully understood on both sides.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for a mental health care organization dealing primarily with people that have a whole range of eating disorders.

What is your position?

I'm a marketing assistant.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge that you were trying to address when you first approached Pragmatic?

In January [2015], we launched a brand new website. Pragmatic mainly did a lot of designing and coding – those sorts of things. We didn't have the expertise in-house to perform those tasks, but we did provide the strategic and creative guidance. We collaborated with them on a number of difference design options and eventually decided on one for them to implement.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They were responsible for the technical side of the projects. We managed the project internally and gave them guidance when necessary but, for the most part, we let them drive the technical build. They helped us with training and also optimizing our contents for search, and they provide ongoing support when necessary. 

How did you come to work with Pragmatic?

We had worked with them before on our old website. Our creative director was happy with the previous work they had done for us and decided that they could do the job again.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they've done for you?

I'm sorry, but that's confidential.

When was the project completed?

The project was completed fully at the beginning of February 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance or the long-term success of this engagement?

We've been very satisfied with their work. All of our clients and our team said it was really well done. They said that it captured the feel of who we are much better than our previous site. They got our image across very well, and everyone loved it. Most of the improvements were functional in nature, but we made some more cosmetic updates, too. They were very easy to work with, and we found their insights very valuable.

When working with Pragmatic, is there anything that you would consider unique about their practice that distinguishes them from other vendors?

We worked really well with their project manager, who was just fantastic and extremely well organized. Whenever we had a problem or a question, we could email him or speak to him directly. He actually came to our office and gave us an in-person training session. We found them to be very accessible. Working with our project manager was great because he was able to explain things very well in lay terms, rather than droning on about the technical details.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think they could improve as a service provider?

Completing the website took slightly longer than we had originally expected. I think Pragmatic didn't realize the enormity of the task that they were facing when it came to our new site. At that specific time, they were saying they had quite a lot of other projects, so that slowed things down a bit. To be fair, that's not even entirely on them because we also underestimate the time necessary.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

I would recommend that people work with the same project manager we did.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We’re a charity organization, basically a local chapter of TED. It’s a team of volunteers, and we organize an annual event.

What is your position?

I'm the digital manager. I maintain the website and deal with our overall digital presence.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge that you were trying to address when you first approached Pragmatic?

It’s really having a good channel for direct communication with our attendees, and being able to promote our event and publicize both the event itself and the videos that we release after the event. We needed a consolidated site that could successfully reflect the event as well as help us orchestrate its execution.

SOLUTION

Could you describe in greater detail the scope of work assigned to them?

The site we built with them was our first website. They helped recommend a theme, and then made substantial modifications to that theme, specifically on the home page to highlight certain things. They worked with our staff to integrate Jet Pack, various SEO [search engine optimization] tools, and explained to us how to approach interoperability. When I took over from the previous digital manager, I had several meetings with them. They advised me on the best way to maintain and optimize the site.

How did you come to work with Pragmatic?

I took over from the previous digital manager, who had actually appointed Pragmatic. I’ve been working with them for more than a year, but I wasn’t the one who hired them. I think that they have a good reputation here in Brighton for WordPress development. We were keen to go with WordPress, as it would be easy for our whole team to edit and work with.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for the amount you’ve invested in their services?

I don’t have information on the initial cost. We do have a sponsorship agreement with them, so they do work in-kind. We promote them at our event, and we put their name and brand on our promotional material. I believe the value of their work is about £4,000 to £5,000 [approximately $6,100 to $7,600] annually, maybe a little more. 

Is this an ongoing relationship?

Yes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

I don’t have any actual analytics, but I can say that the site has been a key part in growing the event itself. We started off as a 100-person event, and now we’re at about 1,000 people last year. We expect the number to be about 1,500 this year.

Everything has run smoothly from a project management perspective. They’ve grown a lot during the past year or so, but even when they were smaller they were still able to dedicate enough time to meet the deadlines we had. David Lockie [founder and director at Pragmatic], who runs the company, has been very quick to respond and happy to get involved, and offers advice when we need it. We’ve been very happy with the relationship. We haven’t had any server issues that I’m aware of. We haven’t had any kind of bugs that have cropped up after the work was completed. If there have been any questions, they’ve been super quick to respond.

When working with Pragmatic, is there anything that you would consider unique about their strategic approach or development that distinguish them from other vendors?

I think they have a good focus on usability, and that’s something they push quite hard. Another key thing I know they do well is optimizing websites for search. Both of those things combined make a huge difference in terms of increasing baseline exposure and really engaging users once they land on the site.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think they could improve as a service provider?

I think they’ve expanded their design team recently. That was the only area where we felt there was slightly less strength than their development and maintenance.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

I don’t really have anything specific. I think that communication with them has never been a problem, and they’re very direct to deal with, so I don’t have anything specific on that.