Shopify Dev Staff Augmentation for Scenting Company
- $200,000 to $999,999
- Jan. 2022 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 4.5
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
“They don’t simply get things done; they do them well.”
- Other industries
- Miami, Florida
- 201-500 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Coderapper | eCommerce Agency provides development resources for a scenting firm. The team assists the client with development tasks for their brands and uses Shopify and Salesforce as their key tech stacks.
The client is impressed with Coderapper | eCommerce Agency’s work ethic and communication skills. Their developers ask intelligent questions and take complete ownership of tasks. The team has also been highly flexible in managing their timezone differences, providing great value to the client.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CTO of Aroma360. We’re a scenting company that does e-commerce sales and direct sales with contract subscriptions. We have everything from typical candles and reed diffusers to products for buildings, hotels, and businesses. Some of our devices are essentially mini-computers that pump scents into AC systems. Our tech stack is primarily Shopify and Salesforce, along with ancillary stacks.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Coderapper | eCommerce Agency?
The tech community in Miami wasn’t large, so we had difficulty hiring senior developers. We could easily get graphic designers and administrators, but people who could write code were hard to locate.
Moreover, remote work wasn’t a priority in our company, so finding individuals willing to sit in a chair in our office was difficult. However, by hiring Coderapper, our management wasn’t worried about the resources sitting in a chair since they were contractors.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
When sourcing candidates, we do phone and video interviews with Coderapper. The team tells us which candidates have more desirable skills, and they try to prove what the resources can do. They tell us if they think the developer is talented and then ask us to give them a trial project.
Regarding our requirements, we need resources that understand how to make beautiful things appear on screen while working on database connections to external tools. Coderapper talks to other companies that we need to connect with, and they write code with customized data.
Moreover, we have highly specific workflows at Aroma360 and associated brands, and Coderapper works on all those brands. For instance, when a customer asks us for scenting products for their entire house, we set up accounts on Salesforce and might even put them in our email marketing programs. We might create shipping orders alongside other things. The Coderapper team helps us with all that and our other unique workflows.
What is the team composition?
I work with two key developers and one QA specialist from Coderappers other than their management team. The QA specialist has been rotated a few times, but the two developers remain consistent.
How did you come to work with Coderapper | eCommerce Agency?
I’d already been doing business with Coderapper on their Salesforce side and met with some of their executives. Given that, I knew their work ethic was outstanding, and they tended to hire upper-end developers with a lot of experience.
On top of that, they had apps in the Shopify marketplace, so they clearly understood the hardcore development tasks we needed. As a result, we gave them a couple of trial projects before we set them loose on all of our projects. That was the start of this engagement.
How much have you invested with them?
We invest around $20,000 per month in their Shopify-specific team.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started the engagement in January 2022, and it’s ongoing.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
For success metrics, our code is checked on GitHub. We run our own tests before going into production, and there’s a user acceptance phase where stakeholders look into things before customers see them. Moreover, we constantly do code reviews and ensure check-ins are in place. Our team ensures that there’s documentation that says the code meets our requirements.
Anecdotally, I want communicative developers who know how to code in the language we need. I need developers who can ask intelligent questions and get into the specifics of the deliverables. Coderapper understands that, and they’ve given me resources with high-quality communication skills.
How did Coderapper | eCommerce Agency perform from a project management standpoint?
Our timelines are tight, but Coderapper has done a great job of managing our timezone difference. In fact, they make themselves available until about 2 p.m. EST, even though their developers are primarily in India.
They even accommodate us to make it until 5 p.m. EST by giving us access to a developer on the east coast of Canada. This flexibility has given us a lot of extra hours, and the developer in Canada takes on the responsibility of talking to the resources in India during off-hours. This has alleviated the burden of managing the team directly.
To communicate, we use Teams and Slack. Real-time communications are done through Slack, while get-together meetings are done through Teams. A lot of other communications are done through ticketing and sprints in Jira.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Coderapper’s dedication to tasks distinguishes them from other providers. I’ve been doing software development for decades, and many technical people simply ask for requirements and tell me they’ll get things done. By contrast, Coderapper takes more ownership over each task. They don’t simply get things done; they do them well. They often ask me if I’m happy with their work.
Are there any areas they could improve?
When we didn’t have the resource in Canada, accommodating our timezone requirements was challenging. They already solved that for me.
Meanwhile, we’ve also had cross-cultural differences. Fortunately, I’ve worked and lived in India for a few years, so I understand some of our differences on a personal level.
For instance, they have a dozen holidays that most of us have never heard of, and it sometimes seems like their important holidays always fall during days when we have problems. However, this is to be expected when using services outside of the US — they have independent states and their own holidays.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Coderapper isn’t going to solve your internal problems, but they’re going to do their best to augment and fill gaps in your schemes. If you have bad processes, remember that they’re not a consulting firm that fixes what you do wrong — they’re more focused on building and creating new things.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
4.5On time / deadlines
-
Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS