Chop-Chop

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Turbine Analytics is a developer of software-as-a-service solutions. We deliver solutions to institutional asset managers, including applications for fund management, risk management, investor reporting, and so on. We're based in Warsaw, Poland. We have a 40 percent share in the domestic market for what we do and are in the process of rolling out our product on an international scale.

What is your position?

I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Magently?

Our sales team has been focused on direct sales. We're investing in generating leads through the Internet and were looking for an internal solution similar to a customer relationship management system that would also enable us to manage pricing. We offer complex products, and unlike our competitors, we try to make quick pricing and product implementations. We're an IT-heavy company, but don't have a focus in this area, which is why we decided to outsource the development of our platform. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We had a precise idea of what the tool we were developing would look like. It was a CRM system, but unlike others that we could find on the market. Normally, with work tools, we chose off-the-shelf solutions like Slack or products from Atlassian. In this case, we couldn't find something that was suitable for us, especially in terms of pricing. It was also important for us to give custom access to our agents. We collaborated with Magently through a project management tool.

How did you come to work with Magently?

I found them online, through Google, while looking for help on another project. We didn't go through with the collaboration at that time, but we were surprised at how fast Magently was in giving us a quote and at how good their client service was generally. We have an IT [information technology] team of more than 15 people, but we focus ourselves on developing proprietary solutions as a key competitive advantage. Everything related to the website and the sales support systems is outsourced.

Magently advertises on an international scale but, because both of our companies are in Poland, it was convenient to work with them. They're used to serving demanding clients. We had some bad experiences in the past with companies that were not good timing-wise. Magently was good in communicating the amount of their workload efficiently. Their strength lies in assessing the amount of time needed for a task to be done. Being in the IT business myself, I know that it can be hard to determine precisely how big a project will be. 

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

Magently quoted us 350 hours for the project. The actual development time had a difference of only about 15 hours. This was good, especially given our experience with other companies that used waterfall methods. The differences would be huge in those cases. I don't have an exact financial figure.

What is the status of this engagement?

The development took two months. The work was completed at the beginning of 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Magently communicates a lot, which is important. They also produce good visual graphics for their products. Other companies can offer what the client wants on the back-end side, but Magently is versed in making things user-friendly. Their background is mostly in working on e-commerce solutions. They're used to working with the customer and creating good economics for their solutions. The internal platform we developed yielded a greater value than we expected.

What distinguishes Magently from other providers?

They're the only company we've worked with that was good at handling a remote project. We weren't in physical touch, but Magently was good at doing remote tasks, staying on top of things, getting feedback, and so on. Our normal experience consisted of having to meet with service providers, sitting on their backs, and making sure that they understood what we wanted. Magently's key strength is that they're used to working with people that are far from them. In our line of business, we deal with a lot of confidential information for our clients. We try to limit visits made by external parties to our office to an absolute minimum, so this collaboration worked great for us.

Is there anything Magently could have improved or done differently?

It was a successful project in general. We had a good experience. I could say that the pricing could be better, but that's true in any case.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an online retailer.

What is your role at the company?

I am the owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Magently?

We were in need of a Magento developer. We had previously worked with a couple of Magento developers that ultimately did not meet our needs or timelines.

What were your company's business goals for the project?

We have ongoing Magento development for our e-commerce site.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The original scope was to redesign our website to our new responsive theme.

How did you come to work with Magently?

Their sister company, The Rectangles, did a great job on our website redesign. They work closely with Magently, so it was a natural fit for them to apply the theme to our Magento website.

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

Magently has worked more 500 hours on our project, and it is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

What have they helped you achieve as a company?

Magently has been able to handle all of the challenges we've given them and has cleaned up and taken on the prior developer code.

How did Magently perform?

Magently have the best Magento development team we have worked with.

What distinguishes Magently from other providers?

They provide daily updates and granular details – if required – explaining current challenges and potential future challenges. There is never a question of where your project stands. Their communication is excellent.

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

I wish they had availability during United States business hours, even as an emergency option. There have been a couple of critical moments we needed someone to fix something on the website, but they were not available due to the time change.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Webdeveloper of Advant Sweden AB

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Communication and digital solutions 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Chop-Chop to accomplish?

• Implement predefined design with best practices
• Webdevelopment
• Technical knowledge
• Relieve workload

SOLUTION

How did you find Chop-Chop?

Online Search

Why did you select Chop-Chop over others?

• Good value for cost
• Other

How many teammates from Chop-Chop were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The project aims to redesign website. The company revolves around using forest resources to drive society towards a fossil-free future. The primary objective is to refresh the existing site.

• Code refreshed design version of website;
• Enhance the site speed and responsiveness, leveraging caching, and minimize script loading times;
• Guarantee compatibility with major browsers and devices. Testing across different platforms;
• Deliver ready to built product for Advant consisting full project package;

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Overall budget
• Performance metrics

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

Chop Chop exceded our expectations. Delivery was made in time and during the project they keept us in the loop on what they was working on. They're always accommodating to changes and if something didn't came out as excpected there was never any problem adjusting the product.

The level transparency and efficency in Chop Chops project structure is very impressive!

What was your primary form of communication with Chop-Chop?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The ease of communication and professionalism were impressive.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Project management, Consulting, Web development

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an advertising agency. We offer services in the field of print and digital media.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Chop-Chop to accomplish?

• Support Front End Development

SOLUTION

How did you find Chop-Chop?

• Online Search
• ChopChop is already known to us for several years

Why did you select Chop-Chop over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Quality

How many teammates from Chop-Chop were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We have created a screen design with Figma. After a short online briefing, the frontend was created without any major queries. There are about 16 pages with a large amount of different sections.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were informed about the project status. The developers kept me up to date. Previews of the work were provided.

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

The project management was great. Regular updates. There were several holidays during the project. All deadlines were met. There were no delays or problems.

What was your primary form of communication with Chop-Chop?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I have worked with several suppliers. The employees of Chop-Chop have thought along and presented proposed solutions. That is very rare.

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

I can't think of any suggestions for improvement right now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Marketing Coordinator at a venture capital and accelerator firm that focuses on videogames and related technologies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a Game Teaser website for one of our startup's upcoming game.

SOLUTION

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

Communication, timeline for the project and their assurance that they can deliver the result we were expecting.

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

We were continuously communicating to be on the same page about the project. The whole process of the development was a tight work between our team and Chop-Chop.

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

2 developers, 1 PM, 1 Onboarding Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've got over 6 million video views.

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

The guys use Active Collab task manager and time/budget tracking system.

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

They were amazing!

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

-

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

With Chop-Chop we worked together on few quite complex project which were delivered end-to-end.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The rationale for starting cooperation with Chop-Chop was their extensive experience and great approach in delivering new quality to product ideation process,. We worked together on web platforms development.

SOLUTION

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

Deciding factor was for sure pro active approach to solving the problem, clear and rational way of working and extensive background which could be used to deliver everything we could imagine with super quality.

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

Key deliverable were: - product /business consultancy including problem - solving approach and hunting for opportunities - design phase oriented towards value delivery, and providing the extraordinary user experience - development phase oriented towards iterative and high quality process

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

We worked in multiple setups, always including the PM which held all the operations in highly effective process mode.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The most important outcome was delivery on time, within the budget and considering reaching all the project's objectives

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

The entire process was executed efficiently. Weekly syncs and constant communication helped to understand where we are, what is coming next, potential risks assessment, and go to market planning

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

The most impressive is in general how things are happening. The whole process, starting from cooperation onboarding, through design phase & dev process, up to the go-to market help.

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

I cannot point out anything specific.