The BHW Group

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Leaf is a tech company that specializes in agronomic software. As the product manager, my responsibilities are to drive development and to discover and resolve customer issues.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The BHW Group?

Some of our projects require a larger development team than we have in-house, so we searched for a company that could operate as an extension of our team to assist with projects we can't handle ourselves.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Most of our projects with BHW involve frontend and backend development, but they also review our wireframes and provide general design consultancy. One of our first collaborations entailed implementing React on the frontend to initialize accounts and manage assets. From the end user’s perspective, farm and personnel assets appear categorically on the app. They developed the app's backend with Go. We plan to build a similar Android app within the next month.

What is the team composition?

Their two partners act as our main points of contact.

How did you come to work with The BHW Group?

Our head of engineering met one of their partners at a networking event and was thoroughly impressed by their confidence and expertise in software development. Their positive interaction influenced our decision to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent nearly $100,000 working on various projects with BHW.

What is the status of this engagement?

We established our ongoing partnership with BHW in April 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We developed a GPS-dependent app that requires users to store their devices inside tractors for extended periods of time. Exposure to extreme temperatures and high energy usage overheats the devices, so we asked BHW to make the app more energy-efficient without sacrificing its functionality. They're still testing the app, but energy usage has already decreased by 30% while in use; energy usage dropped by 60% while on standby mode.

How did BHW Group perform from a project management standpoint?

I act as the project manager, so we only expect them to provide the hours their engineers are available. Slack, Jira and Google Hangout are our primary methods of communication, but we make an effort to meet in-person at least once a month.

What did you find most impressive about them?

BHW is confident their team members, which is incredibly comforting for us. If their junior developers are experiencing issues, their senior staff members are intimately involved with the project and can jump in if necessary. Agencies that I've worked with in the past oversold the quality of their services, but BHW consistently follows through on their promises.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their proximity to our office is outside of their control, but it would be nice to meet with them in-person more often.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Plan well and articulate your expectations at the beginning of the project to avoid confusion later in the project. Put everything in writing, and they will follow your instructions word for word.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We help companies across many industries understand their customers. By giving them the answers they need to grow, we enable our clients to make the best possible real estate, marketing, and operations decisions. I am the lead developer for our local store marketing solution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The BHW Group?

The BHW Group has been fundamental in the development and design of our local store marketing solution. In addition, we have used their developers to support other software solutions and back office initiatives.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to design and develop a cutting-edge web application to satisfy our business objectives, with an emphasis on time to market.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

This project is a high priority, requiring rapid development and deployment. We interviewed several vendors for this role, and The BHW Group was up to the task.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They have helped our internal engineering department design, develop, and deploy a software solution for our clients. With their help, we established the systems and processes necessary to manage and grow this new product and team.

What was the team composition?

At its peak, the team consisted of five full-stack developers, several UI/UX designers, and multiple QA engineers. They also provide project managers and stakeholders, along with several supporting members in customer support and operations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our executive leadership works directly with The BHW Group and considers them an integral part of the success of the product. We continue to work and have a very positive relationship with them.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their project management is great; they're resourceful and thorough.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The BHW Group's leadership and talented developers separate them from the competition. Our company is a challenging and fast-paced, always pushing the limit of what can be achieved. Most vendors cannot maintain that pace.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Our expectations demand that they continue to deliver at the highest possible level of quality. I would like them to continue improving their endurance and stamina. We need them to stay in great shape!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a medical management platform. We’re developing a software-suite of applications that function as convenience tools for medical patients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The BHW Group?

We needed to engage a mobile app development firm to help create our software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired BHW to design and develop various aspects of our software. They were willing to work with us and take our initial wireframes to the next level. Their open mindset and valuable input allowed us to further refine our app’s mock-ups. Then, they designed our logo. With a more defined vision, we continued to partner with BHW and develop the mobile apps for iOS and Android. The apps are live on The App Store and we’re currently in the early rollout phrase.

The main app enables medical patients to organize their health care provider information, set appointment reminders, and take notes to keep themselves organized. The patient app is free, but they also helped us a build a subscription-based app that targets healthcare providers. This app allows providers to broadcast their live wait times to mitigate patient frustrations and drive client satisfaction. The app also supports a web-portal admin system so providers can access information that way.

We also utilize a subscription model to sell an iPad-only version of the app to hospital. This system communicates with the free patient build so that surgical teams can provide real-time updates to patient’s families during lengthy procedures.

What is the team composition?

We often work directly with a project manager, a lead designer, and a lead developer. Beyond that, a team of designers and developers work on the project and we speak with them intermittently.

How did you come to work with The BHW Group?

We worked with several international companies in the past, but they didn’t meet our standards. We considered both local firms and companies from other areas. Eventually, we decided BHW would be the best fit.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2016. The project is complete, but they’ll be providing ongoing developments.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don't have exact statistics at this time, but the user base is growing daily. We only recently launched and started marketing the product. The reception from patient and physician communities has been overwhelming. The app generally receives positive feedback.

How did The BHW Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve met with BHW in person, but primarily communicate through email and keep an open dialogue. We used InVision to work on designs together. They stay organized throughout the various stages of development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of communication is tremendous. They're very prompt when answering any questions. We established a close relationship with them, so working together is easy. We're fairly detail-oriented customers, but they never act like we’re overburdening them in any way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have suggestions regarding our specific project. It’d be great if they grow bigger, thus creating more development resources.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the co-founder and product manager of Visit Widget, a software and service provider for tourism and destination marketing organizations. We provide an interactive mapping experience for clients to embed directly on their websites, bundled with branded apps. This enables a cross-device experience for their customers, from planning a trip from their desktop to utilizing an app upon arrival at their destination.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The BHW Group?

Our existing mobile app technology stack was built on Cordova, which lacked the data and functionality in the performance we required for end users, including quick loading times. It also didn't provide useful, detailed analytics.

We initially engaged BHW to rewrite and adjust the design of the user experience for the apps we provided our clients, using a new technology stack: React Native.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially provided their team with an overview of the existing functionality of our app service within Cordova. Their technical team discussed requirements of the project and put together a fixed fee estimate to deliver the statement of work (SoW), which we iterated on until it met our exact needs.

From there, we had an in-person kickoff meeting to go over API specifications and how our teams would collaborate on the process moving forward. BHW setup a timeline, including benchmarks, and got started on app development using React Native.

Their team provided feedback and collaborated with our team on the overall design components, including a location-based messaging feature that triggered relevant content when a user is nearby a point of interest to encourage discoverability of certain attractions.

What is the team composition?

Clayton Anderson (Partner, The BHW Group) acted as our project manager and senior developer, managing two additional resources who completed the majority of coding. He reviewed their code before presenting each iteration to us.

How did you come to work with The BHW Group?

I had been searching for candidates through Google for quite some time. We chose to interview a handful of vendors based on their search results performance.

BHW's team exceeded the competition by far, despite being one of the slightly more expensive options. It was very apparent that their team had a high-level of expertise in React Native. We also interviewed some of BHW's previous clients who provided great feedback.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial project was about $75,000. We've since set up an arrangement to allocate a set number of hours each month for $10,000-$15,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our initial project started in September 2017 and was delivered on time in late December 2017. We continue to work with them on a monthly basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BHW's work has dramatically improved the performance of our previous mobile app offering. App loading times that previously took over eight seconds now take less than two seconds. 

The new iteration has brought engagement up from an average of three minutes to five minutes, and increased page views from eight to about twelve per session. We attribute increased performance and engagement to faster loading times that encourage users to return to the app and spend more time using it.

Furthermore, the flexibility and scalability of their team as allowed us to forego plans to hire an internal full-time developer.

How did The BHW Group perform from a project management standpoint?

Their work is streamlined and highly organized. Although we have direct access to their team through Slack, the majority of communication goes through Clayton.

They've been responsive and in touch with us on a daily basis through instant messaging and weekly meetings to go through any feedback we may have on deliverables. They've been great about getting us feedback on our API and letting us know how to make adjustments to ensure performance optimization.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're thought leaders and experts when it comes to the React Native space. They've done a great job providing their own feedback to improve user experience design components.

I've worked in software development for over 10 years, so I've worked with a handful of vendors who exceed production costs up to twice the agreed upon price. That wasn't the case with BHW; their team was transparent about changes made to the scope. They delivered at only 5% above the original price, but notified us prior to implementing any changes and iterations we had requested, so it wasn't a surprise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We've been very pleased overall. Coming in slightly over the project estimate isn't ideal, but due to the number of changes we requested, it was perfectly reasonable.

They've handled difficult feature requests and provided great feedback on features they didn't think were necessary. They've been great to work with, which is why we've extended the relationship.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Having a well-defined scope for our project made the process much easier. If possible, provide the most detailed mockups for their team. They also offer design services and are great about providing feedback to get you to a more effective end product.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work in the food service industry as a lean consultant to improve the elimination of waste at our support center as well as in our restaurants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The BHW Group?

We wanted to create a platform where restaurant owner-operators and their employees could share ideas, best practices, and resources on how to adopt and apply lean principles to their business. We decided a native app would best allow the sharing of those ideas.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave them the concept and a very rough version of a wireframe, which was basically just some drawings on a whiteboard. BHW coded and developed iOS and Android versions of the app, and worked with us to make sure it incorporated all of the details that we wanted.

The two main features of the app are a sharing function and a gamification piece. The app allows users to quickly and easily share or post an idea. A leaderboard and a point system were created based not just on the number of ideas shared but whether an idea was liked or shared by other users.

We had an existing platform that didn't allow us to sort items, so the app also gave us the opportunity to sort ideas faster and more strategically. Not part of the scope of work, but BHW also provided us some really nice images that we could use to present the app to other departments in our team.

What is the team composition?

I primarily worked with two partners at BHW. Three team members came out to our office for the initial visit and I met with at least four team members when I visited their Austin location. They definitely provided the necessary resources to help us.

How did you come to work with The BHW Group?

I started with a Google search and called several companies that had good reviews. BHW came out to our office along with other vendors. They explained their services, timeline, cost, and scope of work. We ultimately selected BHW based on their customer service, the ability to tailor the scope of work to our needs, and a low price.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial conversation was in late 2016 and work began in early 2017. They delivered a fully-functioning app 45 days after work began, with some ongoing work needed for minor changes or modifications.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app was never moved onto our platform due to issues outside of BHW's control, so we don't really have any tangible results or metrics. However, we hope to build off of the platform that they provided once we get approval from our IT department.

Everyone at the office has been impressed by the quality of their work and that they created something that I could actually play around with in just 45 days. I've suggested that BHW would be a good fit as an outside partner to another department.

How did The BHW Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very communicative and made sure we could reach them at any time. I got several emails from them over the weekends or in late hours of the night when they were working on the project. Probably 75% of work was done over email and 25% by phone call or text.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I know it's not true, but BHW gave me the feeling that my project was the only one that they were working on. The team is professional and dedicated, and they were always available to discuss the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure the scope of work is extremely detailed and that the estimate lists out several line items. This helps avoid hidden costs. Some of the other vendors didn’t do that but BHW is very transparent. Also, leverage your IT department during the information gathering phase.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) provides nurse practitioners with a unified way to network and advocate their issues. AANP remains the largest national membership organization for nurse practitioners of all specialties, representing the interests of the more than 222,000 nurse practitioners currently practicing in the US. AANP is constantly growing, with over 60 employees in the Austin and DC areas.

As the application development manager, I oversee all web and mobile application development for the company. With an internal development team of two, including myself, having a reliable, trusted development partner is crucial to our success.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The BHW Group?

The challenge was to create a mobile conference app that could be reused for multiple conferences throughout the year. This app should be available in all major app stores, along with a web-only version. We also requested that a specific mobile framework be utilized for this project. This application is used by over 8,000 attendees each year. In past years, we had outsourced our mobile app to Event Mobile App specialty vendors. However, we always had to live within the constraints of a common template.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The BHW group was able to provide us with a mobile app that would be both reusable and customized to our specific needs. Requirements for the app were handed to The BHW Group, and they built the application, including any additional APIs and single sign-on processes that were necessary. The app was handed off to an AANP team to test and debug. Finally, BHW assisted us in publishing the apps to the various stores.

How did you come to work with The BHW Group?

The BHW Group was already a highly-trusted partner of AANP.

What is the status of this engagement?

We continue to make changes each year with The BHW Group's assistance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The app has been used for several years now. As a developer myself, I have to say that the codebase they produce for us is simple to navigate and understand. Not only do we use it at our main conference, we have expanded usage to other conferences throughout the year as well. Attendees praise the app, including the ability to take their required evaluations and the maps that pinpoint the exact location of each session. BHW exceeded our expectations with the app and continues that effort each year as we make updates.

How did The BHW Group perform from a project management standpoint?

The BHW Group takes on large projects and runs with them. All requests were completed within the agreed upon timeframes. They are always available if the internal staff has questions about the way something works. The end results are always excellent.

What did you find most impressive about The BHW Group?

I have never worked with a more reliable, trustworthy development partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing is a full-service ad agency in Austin, Texas. I am the interactive producer, which is more of a digital project manager for all our web and app projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The BHW Group?

We’ve worked with The BHW Group on multiple projects. We reach out to them when we have a development that our in-house team is unable to take on due to scheduling or technology platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve been working with The BHW Group recently for Drupal projects. I provide the requirements, and they give me an estimate based on those requirements. For Drupal, they may suggest different modules or approaches that we may not have considered. They implement Drupal and work with us. A lot of our clients are in the government arena, so we often have to jump through some hoops to deploy these sites. The BHW Group is very patient, and they work with the end client and us to get the job done.

Also, BHW recently helped us update an app called Roadcents, as they do have app developers on their team. The client had a change in the middle, and BHW was very accommodating and made it work with our budget, which I appreciated.

Another project, which BHW completed in January of this year, was to provide an admin section for a website. They handled a community section where people can submit images and quotes. They did the backend for that. They also built a directory of consultants that users can access. All the projects they work on are on the development spectrum.

They also participate in e-learning, which is not an area that I manage. They do large, custom LMS [learning management system] type of stuff.

How did you come to work with The BHW Group?

We first learned of The BHW Group through a mutual client. Their developers helped us with a small piece of that project, and we ended up working with them more and more.

How much have you invested with The BHW Group?

The amount my department has invested is in the range of $5,000–20,000. I don’t know the budget for the LMS projects, but I know that those are $50,000 and up.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship with The BHW Group is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We rarely come across bugs after launch. Our stuff seems to work. Because we have government clients, we don’t have a maintenance period after the contract ends. It’s very important that we get it right. We rarely worry about things breaking with The BHW Group’s work. The few times that did happen, they were very prompt to fix it and didn’t charge us.

How did The BHW Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They don’t have project managers on their side, so I become their PM. I have to remember to loop them in on things, and that can be a bit of a communication challenge. They are responsive, and they get back to me promptly when I have questions or a challenge I need to work out. I get emails from their development team at all times through the day and night, and they’re always very thoughtful. They respond showing that they’ve been thinking about the problem. They’re very good at that level of communication, versus someone who’s just telling you what they think you need to know.

What did you find most impressive about The BHW Group?

Their flexibility in platforms is impressive. The BHW Group has done everything we’ve thrown at them; Drupal, app development, etc. We had to do some crazy IIS database technology that was 20 years old. Their developer opened an old textbook to figure out how to do the work. The only time they can’t take something on is if they’re booked up. They work on multiple platforms.

Are there any areas The BHW Group could improve?

The BHW Group doesn’t have a dedicated project manager; you’re working directly with the developer. You’re fine if you know that you need to work with that person as a member of your team, but if you don’t, you may not get the communication you get from a PM.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I serve as the digital marketing manager for Westlake Dermatology, a cosmetic surgery and dermatology group with nine locations in Austin, Texas. I pretty much handle everything that has to deal with the website, including social media presence, digital advertising, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BHW Group?

We have a growing research division within our company that conducts clinical studies. We’ve been doing more and more studies, so we needed a CRM [customer relationship management] system or database that would allow us to process and manage all of our incoming leads, i.e., people who are signing up or are showing interest in joining a study. We used to use a spreadsheet, but we wanted a CRM that would funnel and track all of the leads and content we received via web forms, which would let our reps track contacts and organize them into the studies they’re interested in or qualified for, and then generate reports so we could do future outreach. That way, when a new study comes out, we could easily grab contact data for users who are within a certain age range who may qualify for that study, and then we could do an email blast or conduct direct calls.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BHW Group took on the full initial development and integration and kind of ran full-scale, operating the dashboards and reporting. They developed the database and structure, and then connected that to the forms we already had on our website. Previously, we were just posting to a spreadsheet, and BHW Group gave us a better solution by developing and integrating it with our existing environment.

How did you come to work with BHW Group?

We had worked with BHW Group on a similar project previously, but every time our company has a new project, even though we have a history with BHW Group, I'm required to get RFPs [requests for proposal] from other firms. For this project, BHW Group was obviously in the running alongside about three or four other companies we solicited in Austin.

In the end, we chose BHW Group basically because of the success of our earlier project, and because they seemed to be in the best area in terms of general overall price. They also really understood what we needed. For instance, they asked how our clinical research staff would use the CRM differently from other staff, which was helpful. They helped us plan out some use cases that I hadn’t seen until BHW Group questioned them, which was great. Otherwise, we may have started development and thought, “This isn't the best way to do things,” or “Maybe the group would need this kind of report.”

How much have you invested with BHW Group?

I think we invested $2,800 with BHW Group.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started on the project mid-February 2017, and it took BHW Group six or seven business days to complete it. We’re not currently working together. If we have another project, I'm guessing that BHW Group definitely would be in the running, even though I’d have to put them through the whole RFP process again.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

BHW Group’s work is high quality. There was no need for a lot of back and forth in terms of revisions or anything. I think there was only one request for changes, and some of those changes were not a part of the initial brief; they were afterthoughts from the team. I think they completed those revisions within about one business day, and then they uploaded all of the data from our existing spreadsheets into the new database. We’ve been using the new system for about a week or so, and we haven't encountered any bugs or issues so far. One of the reasons I think we continue to choose them is because they’re responsive and ready to jump back in and help if there are any issues.

How did BHW Group perform from a project management standpoint?

BHW Group definitely performed well. Everything was delivered as promised. We discussed the deliverable and time estimates, and I think they hit both of those squarely on the nose.

We do have a web development firm that we use just for frontend stuff, and BHW Group did a great job of working with them to collect the technical settings of our website in order to integrate everything. I didn't really have to do anything other than introduce the two of them, and then tell our frontend web developers that they have the authority to request changes to make their piece work. It was a smooth process.

What did you find most impressive about BHW Group?

One thing that has stood out about BHW Group is how hard they work to find out our needs beyond the little three-page outline I provided to everybody. They took the time to ask questions and almost brainstorm the use cases, which, like I said, led to a couple of use cases I wasn’t aware of until I brought it to the clinical research team.

Are there any areas BHW Group could improve?

I can't think of any areas where BHW Group was lagging. The project was pretty straightforward, they delivered what they promised, and we haven't had any issues yet.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Docket Navigator is a legal analytics company. We take in information about litigation cases and populate our database using it. We sell subscriptions through which our customers can access our database.

What is your position?

I'm the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with The BHW Group?

Most of our content is delivered to customers either via email or via a webpage on which they log in. We had some users which asked us for alternative ways for accessing content, so we wanted to develop a mobile app for this purpose.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We wanted The BHW Group to build a mobile app which we could interface with our server in order to push data onto it. The app would then alert users that there is new content available for them. The content that we display also links to additional information on our server. The BHW Group had to coordinate with our internal development team in order to make the app talk to our server, and vice versa. Users would also be able to select the type of content and push notifications they want to receive.

The app itself is free, while the content is available through subscriptions. Being able to authenticate the app and to limit the number of devices on which it was installed required coordination between The BHW Group and our own team. They did a fabulous job of that.

They built the app on a hybrid platform. I can't recall its exact name, but I can say that it works for iOS, Android, and Windows.

How did you come to work with The BHW Group?

We did some internet searches for agencies within the Austin area. We read reviews about people and looked at their websites. We also attended some web meet-ups and asked for recommendations and feed-back.

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

We met with The BHW Group at the beginning of our relationship and drafted a scope of our work. That scope was set just below $30,000. As we commenced with the project, we added additional requirements, based on opportunities we discovered for the app. The BHW Group was very flexible in working with us and conforming to the areas in which we expanded the project.

The total development cost of the project ended up being between $40,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them at the fall of 2015. We've finalized the mobile app and are now ironing out some development issues. It should be released within the next few weeks. We've enjoyed working with The BHW Group. They've been very responsive and helpful. As such, we will be expanding our relationship with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We haven't released the mobile app yet, but in terms of our own feed-back, as its beneficiary, I can say that we're very happy with the results. The BHW Group did an excellent job.

We had a collaborative effort, bringing in our own designer and backend team to the table. The BHW Group developed the app itself using our design and backend infrastructure.

How did The BHW Group perform from a project management standpoint?

I would give them a solid A on project management. From our side, as the customer, we always look for more responsiveness and speed. There were a couple of times in which I would have liked the process to go faster but, compared to past experiences, it was a good collaboration. I'm happy with the progress we've made.

What distinguishes The BHW Group from other providers?

They have a combination of skills, abilities, and good bedside manners. Other companies we've worked with have been friendly and generally nice to work with, but haven't gotten the job done. The BHW Group is very friendly and laid-back in their approach, but also technically competent.

Is there anything The BHW Group could have improved or done differently?

There's always room for improvement, but overall, I'm very pleased with the job they did for us. We're embarking on another project with them. The faster you can turn things around, the better. The BHW Group receives a solid A from me on that end. They could turn that rating into an A+, but I also know that a team like theirs always has to juggle different projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Lighthouse is a social network that centers on politics and is designed to cultivate civil discourse, tackling subjects which can't be talked about on Facebook, like social issues, politics, religion, and so on.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with The BHW Group?

We needed help in planning and developing our network. I don't have a tech background, but I had a tech idea which I wanted to create.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They've worked with us from the start of our project, helping us figure out how we were going to build the platform. We've built mobile apps as well as the website itself. It has been a complex project which we continue to work on.

How did you come to work with The BHW Group?

I found them through a Google search and had a conversation through the chat feature on their website. We set up a meeting and went from there.

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

The total development cost has been around $150,000-200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our conversations in June of 2015. The work started in July. The project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We've arrived at a minimum viable product for my network, which I couldn't be happier with. We've received constant compliments about it, although there are still things we're learning in terms of user experience. We continue to work on improving the experience.

The quality of the work and BHW Group's application of their skillset, gave me confidence in the path which we were taking. Our apps don't have bugs and, whenever something does come up, it's resolved quickly. I'm not worried about major structural issues which may hinder the product.

How did The BHW Group perform from a project management standpoint?

The work has taken longer to complete than what our original timeline was set for, but The BHW Group aren't to blame for that. We had an original feature-set on top of which we added additional items. It turned into a bigger project than what was originally scoped out. We didn't have any specific rules of engagement at the beginning of the project, but they've been completely transparent with me and have given me accurate information along the way with regards to how long things would take and what the budget would be. I've never once doubted their abilities.

What distinguishes The BHW Group from other providers?

When working with any type of partner, I look for someone that I can trust. The BHW Group have given me the confidence to sleep at night without worrying about issues on the platform. The biggest concerns about how we should proceed and what tools we should use have been handled by them. This was a big help, especially for someone without a technical background, like me.

Is there anything The BHW Group could have improved or done differently?

If I was to start the process over again, I'd use the same team and not waste any time calling other people. However, I would have built a better timeline in the beginning. It's hard to judge The BHW Group on this respect, given that we've built something that was significantly different from the initial scope. This is only a halfway complaint.