BrokenRubik

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of DecksDirect

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

DecksDirect is a leading online retailer and distributor of premium deck materials, specializing in railing systems, decking, lighting, and hardware.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire BrokenRubik to accomplish?

• The main objective of the project was to integrate NetSuite with AfterShip in order to automate shipment tracking and returns management, improving the post-purchase experience for customers while increasing operational efficiency for the internal supply chain team.
• This included synchronizing product catalog data, orders, and item fulfillments from NetSuite to AfterShip so customers could receive real-time shipment notifications and track their orders through an integrated tracking page on the company’s website.
• Another key goal was to implement a self-service returns process, allowing customers to initiate and track returns through a dedicated Returns page while ensuring that all return requests remained synchronized with NetSuite for operational control.

SOLUTION

How did you find BrokenRubik?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select BrokenRubik over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from BrokenRubik were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The purpose of the project was to integrate NetSuite with the AfterShip platform. This included both the core AfterShip module and the AfterShip Returns module.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The integration improved customer experience through real-time tracking and automated notifications, increased supply chain visibility with delivery analytics, reduced manual processes, accelerated return processing through NetSuite–AfterShip synchronization, and improved communication with customers

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Broken Rubik exceeded my expectations for this project.  Communication was timely and clear. Deadlines were made, and the business requirements were fully met.   Most issues that we ran into were limitations in Aftership's API.  When those issues were encountered, Broken Rubik suggested and implemented elegant workarounds to the extent possible.

What was your primary form of communication with BrokenRubik?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Broken Rubik has very deep NetSuite ERP expertise.  Internally, they appear to communicate very well. When faced with a challenge, the resources on my project knew exactly whom to contact internally to get the answers they needed.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP Engineering of ICRealtime

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Founded in 2006, IC Realtime has spent over two decades designing and manufacturing professional video surveillance solutions built for real-world use. Headquartered in South Florida, with a major operational presence in Goodyear, Arizona, the company has grown alongside the integrators and businesses it serves—adapting to regional demands while maintaining a national footprint. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire BrokenRubik to accomplish?

• Success was measured through faster page load times, improved LCP and CLS scores, and reduced Total Blocking Time. These improvements resulted in smoother navigation, improved site stability, and a better user experience for customers browsing the online store.
• Reduce layout shifts and improve visual stability during page load by defining explicit dimensions for images and optimizing rendering behavior, improving the CLS metric and creating a more predictable user experience.
• Improve frontend performance by optimizing CMS usage and minimizing JavaScript extensions, reducing rendering delays and improving key performance metrics such as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Total Blocking Time (TBT).

SOLUTION

How did you find BrokenRubik?

• Online Search
• Referral
• Other

Why did you select BrokenRubik over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from BrokenRubik were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

1. Project Objective

The primary objective of this engagement is to resolve significant performance bottlenecks on the IC Realtime SuiteCommerce site. The project aims to improve core web vitals (LCP, CLS, TBT), enhance the user experience (UX) to drive conversion, and recover SEO rankings penalized by slow load times.

2. Detailed Work Requirements

Phase I: Technical Audit & Benchmarking

Conduct a deep-dive technical audit of the existing SuiteCommerce architecture.

Establish performance baselines using Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix, specifically targeting Time to First Byte (TTFB) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).

Phase II: CMS & Theme Streamlining

Content Cleanup: Identify and remove deprecated or unused content blocks within the NetSuite CMS.

Style Migration: Extract CSS/styles currently residing in the CMS and migrate them into the core Theme files to reduce render-blocking requests and ensure global style consistency.

Phase III: Frontend Rendering & UX Improvements

Perceived Load Speed: Eliminate the "initial blank screen" (white flicker) during the boot sequence.

Sequence Optimization: Configure the site to render key visual elements (above-the-fold content) immediately to improve user retention and engagement.

Phase IV: Advanced Image Management

Dynamic Resizing: Implement the NetSuite Image Resizing feature to automate the delivery of appropriately sized assets based on the user's device.

Responsive Delivery: Utilize media queries to ensure high-resolution images are only served to desktop users while optimized versions are served to mobile users.

Layout Stability: Apply explicit dimensions and prioritize visible content to minimize Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Phase V: Script & Extension Optimization

JS Minification: Minify all custom JavaScript extensions to reduce total file size and execution time.

Blocking Time Reduction: Refine script execution logic to lower Total Blocking Time (TBT).
Third-Party Audit: Review and provide recommendations for the reduction or deferred loading of third-party scripts that delay page rendering.
 
Summary of Key Deliverables

Technical Audit Report
Optimized Theme Files
Asset Management Framework
Optimized CMS Environment
Third-Party Script Analysis
Post-Implementation Report
 
Business Impact

Revenue Generation: Direct correlation between faster load times and increased checkout completion.

SEO Recovery: Improved Core Web Vitals to regain search engine visibility lost to performance penalties.

Scalability: A cleaner codebase and optimized asset handling ensure the site remains performant as IC Realtime adds new products and features.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Success was measured through improved site performance metrics, including faster load times, improved LCP and CLS scores, and reduced Total Blocking Time. These improvements resulted in a smoother browsing experience and more stable page rendering.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Project management is one of the key benefits of the Broken Rubik team.

Their entire PM Office operates effectively and as a team.  We were assigned a dedicated Project Manager that worked weekly with us to track progress, explain the weekly progress, and also to call out any potential risks or concerns.

Items were delivered on time, and the deliverables exceeded what we were originally expecting.  On time and over delivery is rare to see.

What was your primary form of communication with BrokenRubik?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

You can find "hard skills" and tech expertise just about anywhere in the world.

This team combines the "hard skills" that engineering requires while also being human, caring, kind, and pleasant despite ithe challenge at hand.

Their CEO is caring and involved.  You can see the Top-Down Culture obviously.

Look to the Broken Rubik team as a true partner and not just a vendor.

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

Could not find anything if I tried.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT applications manager at Stinger. We’re a global manufacturer of mobile aftermarket technology, offering integrated vehicle solutions, high-performance audio products, and safety systems for consumer and commercial vehicles under brands like PAC, Connects2, Stinger, AudioControl, and EchoMaster.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire BrokenRubik to accomplish for your company?

We needed help maintaining and developing custom solutions for our two B2B websites. One site is for US customers, and the other is for UK and EU customers. Both have unique business requirements, including item promotions, a discontinued item section, content management, and a new customer purchase analytics dashboard.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BrokenRubik has developed a customer dashboard that requires purchase data broken into different periods. The dashboard also includes a pie chart view that displays purchases by product category.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from BrokenRubik.

How did you come to work with BrokenRubik?

Someone referred BrokenRubik to me. We chose them because their pricing fit our budget, they were a great culture fit, and their company values aligned with ours.

How much have you invested with them?

Confidential

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with BrokenRubik in November 2021, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BrokenRubik has delivered accurate data in a user-friendly format.

How did BrokenRubik perform from a project management standpoint?

BrokenRubik has conducted expedient discovery and on-time delivery. We communicate via virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

BrokenRubik has been presented with a new and unique challenge and delivered a solution with very little additional guidance. They also deliver work very fast.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the e-commerce business manager of a company that manufactures and sells compost bags.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with BrokenRubik?

We needed help with a wide range of IT and development projects, including a full-blown WMS integration with our NetSuite system, several NetSuite updates and optimizations, a B2B portal, and other subprojects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BrokenRubik has handled everything from beginning to end on some of these projects, including testing, project management, and development. The team has delivered a WMS integration into NetSuite, a Shopify B2B portal, several customized reporting options in NetSuite, and many other NetSuite optimizations.

What was the team composition?

We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from BrokenRubik.

How did you come to work with BrokenRubik?

I worked with BrokenRubik at my previous company and recommended them to my current company because of their excellent quality of work. We chose them over other options because they had high ratings, their pricing fit our budget, they were a great culture fit, they offered good value for the cost, and their company values aligned with ours.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2024, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BrokenRubik has gone above and beyond. We’ve seen increased sales due to the ease of ordering for customers and automations put in place for several teams internally on daily, weekly, or monthly processes.

How did BrokenRubik perform from a project management standpoint?

BrokenRubik’s project management has been great; they deliver on time. We communicate via virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed by BrokenRubik’s responsiveness, project management, and great quality of work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing they need to improve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of a digital marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to improve three website from several clients in order to accomplish their goals.

SOLUTION

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

We searched for a staff augmentation company/software factory and we found Broken Rubik in our country.

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

We had productive meetings and they didn't waste any time with anything and started to work. Technologies used in the projects: React, Angular and Wordpress.

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

A project manager and two developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After working on those 3 websites our SEO metrics improved and our site speed increased by 70%.

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

There were no delays. They can deliver propper work.

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

They didn’t waste any time. That's why we're going to continue our relationship with them.

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

No.