Cubicfox

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a digital marketing agency called Social Media Direction. We’re a social media marketing platform for franchise and small business owners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cubicfox?

We needed their team to develop our company’s software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cubicfox has developed our software from scratch — they’ve created our server using AngularJS. As our custom development partner, they set up our entire cloud-based platform and continuously provide us with software management services.

What is the team composition?

We worked with around seven people from their team, including their developers and project manager.

How did you come to work with Cubicfox?

We initially hired a different development team to work for us, but they ended up not being able to deliver their services to us. Cubicfox then came into the picture when they were referred to us by a colleague. Coincidentally, their project manager used to work for us when he was still in a different IT company. After conducting interviews and finalizing our contract, we decided to give their services a shot.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $50,000 so far, and our yearly contract amounts to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in December 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve assigned a massive project to Cubicfox’s team, but they’ve developed the product quickly despite its challenging code work. This platform is integrated into our social media accounts and would’ve taken two years had another team taken the opportunity, but Cubicfox just delivers what we want while keeping their promises. We’re already looking forward to working with their team again on other projects that can open the biggest opportunities for our business.

How did Cubicfox perform from a project management standpoint?

Cubicfox members are professionals when it comes to communication and project management. They use a scrum framework to handle and allocate tasks among their team members. What I find more amazing is their ability to flexibly use different platforms to address any issues that may hinder the progress of our work. They’re also prepared with documentation and schedules that streamline the entire process — everything just flows smoothly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Cubicfox’s professionalism really stands out. They understand our needs, and they always go out of their way to support us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can point out at the moment. There was a minor issue at the beginning of the project when we had miscommunication problems, but it was easily resolved.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that you create decisions that are right for them. They’re a professional team, and while they may not have the most affordable pricing in the market, their expertise will highly compensate for that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

As partners, my father and I ran a general contracting business for almost 20 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

It became clear that we needed one centralised platform to keep track of all information about our projects, clients, and sub-contractors. The available CRMs couldn’t cover the specific workflow; we also needed some custom features. We needed one system that is perfectly tailored to our needs and automates our daily operations to make it possible that only the 2 of us can manage several projects on our own.

SOLUTION

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

I heard about Cubicfox from a friend whom they made a website before. We made a brief and sent an RFP to Cubicfox along with 4 other companies. At the very beginning, it was clear that they were absolutely professional. During our discovery calls, they explained the process and the important factors that make a development like ours successful, plus they came up with very useful ideas and suggestions. However, price-wise their quote was not the cheapest; we chose them because we got the impression that they knew every bit of their job and would guide us through this pretty technical process.

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

The project consisted of two distinctive parts: a planning phase and then actual development. We initially received a fixed quote for the planning part and a ballpark estimation for development. The planning phase included workshops; we received documents of their discoveries, a specification with technical details and a wireframe for the critical screens and workflows. After finalising the specifications by the end of this phase, we received a fixed quote for the development and started working on it with a new contract.

Step by step, we received UI screens, and then they released features by feature, starting with core CRM functionality, like contacts and partners, in about 3-4 instances. The last part was project management with sub-contractor management which included tendering features. We liked it because we could start using it earlier and had the chance to give proper feedback.

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

About 5-6 people on the actual development, including UI/UX designers and developers and a product owner, plus one technical person during initial qualification and a business development manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before we decided to go with development, we considered hiring one or two colleagues. The most visible outcome was that we didn’t need to extend the team with new members; moreover, we got some spare time every day compared to previous workflows, thanks to the automation and notification system. Just made this system more organised, saving us from stress and headaches.

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

Though we mostly communicated online apart from the workshops, it was very effective. Our dedicated product owner was very professional, a true asset that helped us to ‘translate’ our language and needs to the team. During the planning phase, communication was more intense; they scheduled demos for every milestone.

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

We liked the approach of how they discovered our specific needs. We felt at the same time that they are experienced and have done similar things but also want to deliver us something unique and perfectly tailored to us. Thanks to their ideas, the result exceeded our expectations by miles.

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

We were completely satisfied throughout the entire process. In the beginning, their communication was a bit techy for our understanding (my father was in his 60s then), but they soon realised that and explained everything in ‘our language’.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is Amazon Sellers' new guide for product sourcing. I am the co-founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Plan the stragey and design of our website. The goal was to aim for multinational clients in a broad industry.

SOLUTION

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

We did couple of workshops together before Cubicfox presented the desig they did. After a couple of iterations the design was finished and they were able to start with the development.

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

1. Workshops 2. Information Architecture 3. UX/UI Design 4. Development WordPress

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

1. Business Development 2. Product owner 3. Lead Designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A great website, which helped us to acquire new clients.

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

Scrum.

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

They kept us updated and held meetings frequently.

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

Not really to be honest.