BACKBONE

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Managing Director of White Key Villas, the leading luxury villa rental company in Greece. We offer 360 of Greece's best villas for rent and complement them with high-end hospitality services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BACKBONE?

BACKBONE has been our digital partner since 2015 and we have worked together towards achieving a complete digital transformation of our company. More specifically BACKBONE has successfully completed our:

1. Website development
2. Custom integrations, including CRM
3. SEO for our website 
4. Design of multiple Digital Assets
5. Mobile apps – concierge admin app, a concierge visitor app 
6. Custom web apps
7. Digital Acquisition Campaigns

SOLUTION

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

We met with several IT consultants before selecting Backbone. What won us over was their simple explaining of complex technical issues, their "can do" approach and the deep understanding of the nature of our business that they got since early on.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Our cooperation with BACKBONE started with discovery sessions where they identified our needs. After that, they created a digital strategy and a roadmap for converting our traditional operations into a fully integrated digital experience.

Right now the booking process from both the client and the administrators’ side are fully automated and we are moving ahead to the next steps of the roadmap.

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

Since 2015 we have worked with 1 Account Manager, 1 Project Manager, 7 web developers, 4 web designers and 2 performance marketers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The online booking system has helped us do our job faster and manage our clientele more efficiently. Also, we have seen a significant increase in sales that is attributed to both digital acquisition campaigns and SEO optimization.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our cooperation with BACKBONE had been seamless throughout the years.

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

Their professionalism and the fact that they are always proposing state of the art technology solutions.

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

I’m sure there is room for improvement for everyone, but we had no particular problems with BACKBONE.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Communications & Marketing Architect at Commmunications and Corporate Affairs Division of EYDAP S.A. -Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company. I am leading the development team of mobile app "EYDAPP" and corporate websites, building brands or rebranding, coordinating video & photo productions. EYDAP is the leading company in the sector of water supply, sewerage and waste treatment in Greece, covering the needs of more than 40% of the total population of the country.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

BACKBONE had developed the first version of "EYDAPP", our Company's mobile app, in 2014. After 2-3 years, we started noticing errors/bugs in an essential and crucial section of the mobile app and as a result the application started to receive negative reviews and ratings. At the same time, our Company had implemented some new digital services for the benefit of our customers, so we wanted to integrate them into a new upgraded version.

We do not have in-house mobile app specialists, so we needed to outsource the entire redesign and rebuild. We wanted to re-engage our customers with "EYDAPP", we wanted to increase downloads and receive positive reviews and we wanted to increase the numbers of payments and inquires that we receive through our mobile app

SOLUTION

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

As I mentioned above, BACKBONE had already developed the first version of "EYDAPP" in 2014; This had an important role in the final decision. However, we followed the process, as always, by searching the market for a tech company that specializes in applications. We compiled and compared three companies in total, and we selected BACKBONE based on their willingness to work on this project again and improve it and their price point.

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

Once we selected BACKBONE, we had a series of discovery meetings between the vendor and our Department, IT Department, Billing Department, Customer Service Department, Data Protection Office and Banking Institutions, to discuss our goals and objectives.

We sent our Company's brand manual, as a guideline and some designs and elements from other mobile apps (mainly banking apps), that we found useful. Within 2 - 3 weeks, we received mockups and designs for iOS and Android. After an internal discussion, we finalized the designs and provided feedback. The vendor came back to us with wireframes and concepts for the rest sections of the app.

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

Our primary contact was the Account Manager. There was a team of 6 other people: a project manager, 2 developers, 2 designers and a copywriter.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has been recently launched and there is not much data available, however all the process went really smooth and there are no problems at the moment.

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

The cooperation has been amazing and the deliverables were met each time.

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

The fact that they perform numerous discovery sessions in order to identify the true clients needs besides the initial brief they received from our side.

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

None that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the marketing manager for a consumer products company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Backbone Technology?

They were originally hired to redesign our website, and they've been managing it since.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Backbone Technology maintains our website, using Expression, and is in the process of updating it with new designs.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with a project manager, as well as a web designer.

How did you come to work with Backbone Technology?

The advertising agency we work with referred them to us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them for about six years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website has been the same for a long time. Their team hasn't been as proactively involved in updating or improving the site as they should be.

How did Backbone Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

Due to turnover within their company, they've changed our project manager a number of times over the years. As a result, some things have slipped through the cracks and we've felt that they're not as proactive as they could be to ensure our site is up-to-date on a regular basis. We'd also like more feedback from their team on ways we could improve or update the site.

There was a period of time in which we didn't know when we'd be getting a new project manager, so it slowed things down quite a bit. We also tend to experience issues reaching their team during the holidays when they become less available.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Nothing comes to mind that stands out. Given the length of our relationship and how much we've invested in their services over the years, we'd like to see more effort on their part. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their team is aware of the improvements we'd like them to make, and we're hoping our current project manager will help them implement those changes.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We own and operate the a series of conferences and expositions.

What is your position?

I'm the chief operating officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Backbone Technology?

We hired Backbone Technology to develop our Globe 2016 website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They took over the development of our site. We haven't extended their involvement in other areas.

How did you come to work with Backbone Technology?

A member of our staff had used them in the past and recommended them highly. We decided to give them a try.

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

The total development cost so far has been around $25,000 - $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July of 2015. It's an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Backbone Technology is very good from a technical perspective. Our project was challenging because it wasn't started from scratch, but taken over. The website had already been developed in Wordpress. They converted it to Expression and further developed it.

In hindsight, I wish we'd started the work from scratch, but it was not possible. Being an events company, we have a tight timeline. We decided to take what we already had, convert it to Expression, and rebuild it as we go along. Because of its backend structuring, modifications can't be done on-the-fly.

How did Backbone Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

Deadlines presented some challenges. Being event planners, we need to have everything done yesterday. Our business model is very steep: we have one big deadline. Once it has passed, we will no longer need the site. They did a good job at understanding that.

What distinguishes Backbone Technology from other providers?

They draw on expertise which they garner out of South America, which is a very different market to the one in Vancouver. There is a different demographic, and there are different clients, so they have a contrasting international perspective compared to other boutique companies.

Is there anything Backbone Technology could have improved or done differently?

They suffer from the challenges of most small businesses. Having fulltime staff is expensive, so they need to contract it out. This means that their resources can be overwhelmed. I can't get the full attention of their people, but this is something to be expected in a small company.

Also, while they are very well-covered from a technical standpoint, Backbone Technology could use better talent on the design side.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a mining company.

What is your position?

I am in charge of the company's website and social media.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Backbone Technology?

We are a large and diversified mining company with operations across the world. Reputation management and adequately communicating with the communities in our areas of operation are important goals for us. Communication with investors is another important factor as well.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Backbone Technology designed and developed our website in partnership with a marketing agency. The site was developed using Expression.

How did you come to work with Backbone Technology?

We had been working with another company, and wanted to modernize our infrastructure. With the help of our advertising agency, we reached out to a number of vendors and asked for proposals.

I’d also worked with Backbone Technology since 2003 on various projects for other institutions, including information pages for government officials.

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

We’ve had a common budget for development and marketing.

What is the status of this engagement?

There will always be new updates and features added to the site, so we plan to have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The average time spent on our site has gone up from an average of 19-23 seconds to well over a minute and a half.

We've had to shorten our development time by 80 days. Backbone Technology came through for us.

How did Backbone Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

Since we've started working together in 2003, Backbone has never missed a deadline. Not only that, but they were 80 days ahead of schedule and 10% under budget on the last project. The website features around 3,000 articles and 200 photos, so it was a significant undertaking. In order to complete that project so early, we've had to work 15-hour days.

What distinguishes Backbone Technology from other providers?

Backbone Technology cares about the quality of a project. They don't need to be given any information twice. After a list of requirements is handed out, there's no need to spend time micromanaging them.

Is there anything Backbone Technology could have improved or done differently?

I've had a good experience with them, and have nothing to complain about.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a marketing agency.

What is your position?

I am the owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Backbone Technologies?

We needed to build a complex website that required a lot of backend tagging. It was meant to allow content to update itself based on specific user-determined parameters. A lot of the typical software like Wordpress couldn't offer the functionality that we needed. We were looking for a company that could provide a custom solution.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Backbone Technologies is my go-to agency. I have worked with numerous other web companies given the fact that each of our clients requires a website, and the norm in the digital world is to rebuild a site every couple of years, starting from scratch.

The major advantage that Backbone Technologies brought was eliminating the need to scrap the elements we were working on periodically. The site that they built is scalable, based on the concept of building a foundation to which new elements are added year after year. Even if the frontend design is changed, the functionality and fundamentals remain the same.

The first project we worked on was for a client offering different services to the market. It was very complex, featuring a lot of technical information. We had to find a way to communicate it in a compelling fashion that was both visual and retained technical aspects. Backbone Technologies managed the process very well, starting from the way in which they responded to the proposal requests, to every subsequent stage that we underwent with them. Their process is streamlined and efficient.

I've never run into a problem with any project that we've worked on.

How did you come to work with Backbone Technologies?

We found them through word of mouth.

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

The development costs for the websites they've made for us have ranged from $12,000 to $75,000 per project. Backbone Technologies recognizes that some clients can only afford a certain price range but, over the course of a relationship, the work can add up significantly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them four years ago. The relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

One of the most recent projects we've worked on with Backbone Technologies was for a website that was experiencing high bounce rates and short visit times. We rebuilt the site, evaluating its architecture and user experience, which was driven by the Backbone functionality. The bounce rate has decreased by about 50% and the time on site and user engagement has almost tripled.

Another project was a complex website construction for a forensic engineering company. No one in their industry had put any thought into their users' website experience. That company has come to be regarded as the standard to live up to in this regard.

How did Backbone Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They never missed a deadline. Any roadblocks we've ever come across that may have shifted timelines (normally because of additional functionality that we requested) were always managed very well by Backbone Technologies through open communication and weekly meetings.

What distinguishes Backbone Technologies from other providers?

They see us as a partner rather than a client using them to build websites. They help us manage the digital world because they have a better understanding of it than even me, as a marketer.

Is there anything Backbone Technologies could have improved or done differently?

Nothing stands out to me. I would like to say that there is, as there's always room for improvement, but they provided an excellent experience even in looking ahead. They're building new versions of their proprietary CMS [content management system], so by the time I will have gone to them and asked for a particular new feature, Backbone Technologies will have had it ready for us.