designs.codes

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

inventory management for Controlled Substances.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire designs.codes?

Redesign existing software application from client Server model to Web based software.

What were your goals for this project?

New software must have the look and feel of existing system to make comfortable for existing clients while providing enhanced functionality in a web based platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Recommended to me by one of my shareholders. They provided a full team of software developers for a fraction of the cost to hire in the states.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They created the web based user interface for the new software, coded the web site, and established hosting with Amazon Web Services.

What was the team composition?

Software Designer - Myself Project Manager Lead Software Developer Software Developer / Coder Server Engineer Graphic Designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project has made it possible for us to offer our software to customers at a substantially reduced price while also providing enhanced functionality.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Series of weekly conference calls for status updates. Regular email updates. Language barriers were not a significant issue as the team I worked with had pretty good english.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Quality of work was very good. Proposed designs were generally acceptable without a lot of re-work. Finished modules had minimal bugs or errors and those that were identified were resolved quickly. Final Finished product has been in operation for approx. 1 year without any major issues reported by our clients.

Are there any areas for improvement?

More detailed communication during development has been something I have been working with them on. Communications are often minimal with only a sentence or 2 to document a days work. As a software developer myself, I can see the work completed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Growth marketing consultant

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire designs.codes?

To develop a new custom back-end system for our e-commerce portal.

What were your goals for this project?

A complete overhaul of our back-end web application for day to day operational ease and scalability.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Through online search.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We completely changed our back-end web portal technology along with database and the analytics tools to make the portal easy to use for our operations team. The analytics tools help us track our marketing efforts better and we also integrated a lot of in-built security checks in place along with layered access for our various team members. They took detailed notes of our requirements and came up with the solutions which were demonstrated to us before finalising on it. There were a lot of ongoing discussions and exchange of ideas with their business analyst and project manager throughout the project duration which resulted in a better outcome that we initially thought was possible.

What was the team composition?

3 developers, 1 quality analyst, 1 business analyst, 1 project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We changed our back-end technology completely and that helped us to move faster and align IT with operations better.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Weekly meetings and bi-weekly detailed reporting

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their in-depth knowledge of the technology and customer care stood out.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The cost structure could have been better.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder and CEO of My Style Authority, which is an elite beauty and fashion community.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire designs.codes?

We hired designs codes for website design and development, app development, and digital marketing services.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals for this project is to be the #1 beauty and fashion platform where dreams are born and needs are met globally.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I found this vendor via online search.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Designing the prototype, developing the MVP and to work on ongoing features, content creation, and distribution.

What was the team composition?

One designer, one developer, and one content creator + distributor as required. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We launched the MVP and gained traction in the market. We also had a few special events which required additional work beside the product. Overall after achieving what we set out to accomplish initially the vendor is working with us while we pivot the business for a better product-market fit. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It has been pretty smooth mostly. At times it could have been better with a couple of new team members joining in and taking time to settle down. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

1. Consistency and continuity. We are still working mostly with the same team members since the beginning
2. Proactive support and suggestions from the team
3. The ownership and accountibility of the account manager and others in the team 

Are there any areas for improvement?

They recently communicated their goal to enhance the service delivery and customer support system beyond 5 star quality. We feel that they are on the right track. Speeding up delivery further at times will be nice too. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of Lead Logistics, a small business in South Africa.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with designs.codes?

We’re primarily a logistics business with supply chains and warehouses, but we also have a software division. That division was growing beyond our capacity, so we needed a way to scale quickly and have competent resources to work on ongoing projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve been involved in a number of projects for us, mainly concerning the development of custom software. They provided full end-to-end coding as well as the design behind the coding from an architecture point of view. We then did the process and overall output of the design.

Our initial design was pretty light, mostly consisting of us describing the overall process to them sometimes using slides, diagrams, a Word document, or even an email. We wanted them to be able to do the design on and the coding from that very light brief.

What is the team composition?

We initially started with one full-time person and are now up to two full-time members from their team. There are probably another two people assisting in the background.

How did you come to work with designs.codes?

We scanned the existing players in the market globally who could provide the service we needed. We then shortlisted that internally, and I had an initial conversation with designs.code, then later with their technical director. We were impressed by some of their previous projects, their cost was reasonable, and they had the ability to ramp up resources quickly when available.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around $36,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the engagement in January 2018, and it is an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I measure them in terms of the quality of different chunks of work. We give them a task—whether it be a process within the system we’re designing or a new feature—then we agree on a timescale by which it should be done. Almost without fail, they’ve met those timelines and delivered.

The quality of the work has been a 5 out of 5. We haven’t presented them with a problem that they haven’t been able to put into code. Though entered this project with some trepidation due to a few issues that we couldn’t code before, they’ve exceeded our expectations.

How did designs.codes perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they’re reacting well to the chunks of work that I pass them. We don’t have an overall design timeline, and it’s more complicated than that, but I have a picture in my head of what the process should be. My job was to divide up the work and pass it across, so they can execute it.

We’ve used Hubstaff, which has allowed me to see their activity and the level of it. Most of our communication has been over Skype because we were in different time zones, and we meet online two to three times a week. More recently, we’ve been using a more formalized code exchange platform through Bitbucket.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For the last 18 months, we’ve had the same coder on the project, and he’s been as dedicated about finishing this project as I have been. He doesn’t understand have the subject matter knowledge, but he has the ability and desire to try and get the process right, so it’s been very good. In the past, I’ve experienced coders being pulled off halfway through a project, but this hasn’t happened at all with designs.codes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at this stage.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It depends on what skills the client has. If they can put together a decent brief, designs.codes would work faster and cheaper. On the flip side of that, designs.codes also has the flexibility to work with a loose brief, and can contribute that if necessary.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

ROAG is a sports event administration company. It is based in South Africa and Mauritius. I am the managing director of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire designs.codes?

We hired designs.codes to develop our new e-commerce website for us.

What were your goals for this project?

To launch a complete and functioning website and to continue to develop it based on our customers' needs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our old IT company had worked with designs.codes on other projects and had recommended designs.codes to us.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They developed the front end of our website and the back end admin section. Our website is an online race portal where our customers enter races, check out info, and see their results/photos after a race. PHP, Laravel, JQuery, CSS3, HTML 5, MySQL, KnockoutJS

What was the team composition?

One developer, one frontend designer, and one project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It is huge. Our core business is centered around our website so getting it right was essential.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Over time, an unofficial system was created that worked for both my developer and I. We always had a project manager who I worked with on the overall project and management of resources, and then I worked closely daily with our developer. Over the first few months, we figured out what was needed and to make the project work smoothly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very flexible and very helpful. They give a good personal level of service and you really feel that you can trust them. I felt that my developer cared about my project and would always go the extra mile. Overall I was very, very happy with everything.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing that I can think of. Maybe the only thing is that I would love it if designs.codes could take care of all of our companies IT needs. However, I completely understand that they are specialists in what they do. I believe that they are open to considering this in the future which is great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the web project manager for Alternative Agency, a media marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire designs.codes?

We needed help with website development for multiple projects.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a bug-free, fully functional CMS website developed from our PSD designs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found designs.codes through online portals.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

designs.codes developed, configured, and launched multiple websites for us with full CMS functionality. Each functional version was ready for user testing and feedback every 14 days. We made improvements during each sprint thanks to essential suggestions from their developers.

What was the team composition?

The team has about five people, but individuals come and go depending on the skills needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

designs.codes developed and launched the solution on time—a major achievement for leadership.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team’s project management is very impressive, especially compared to other vendors. They regularly comply with deadlines and always communicate delays well ahead of time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We have direct access to both project managers and developers behind them, preventing technical things from being lost in translation.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is very little they can improve. Potential customers should provide a detailed list of requirements to help move the development process much faster.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a director at a software-based tenancy services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire designs.codes?

We needed them to develop custom software solutions from the server to the client end, including key components, coded in a range of languages.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a state-of-the-art software solution.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We advertised online and they responded.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They built modules in PHP, HTML, WordPress, Angular, and JavaScript, along with APIs integrated with third-party providers, and systems administration. They also helped with research and development.

What was the team composition?

We used designers and mostly coders in the above languages. They provided an integrated service.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This project has enabled us to provide software services to large business partners in the insurance and real estate sectors.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We provided designs and they developed the solutions. It was very effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They constantly worked to understand our requirements. They’re determined to provide good service. They are friendly, efficient, skilled, reliable and at a very good price.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm am the owner of a speciality guest house for patients and their relatives visiting from neighbouring countries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire designs.codes, and what were your goals?

We hired them to develop a web application for our internal use. Since we cater specifically to patients and their relatives our inventory and booking pattern is different from a regular guest house. I needed an web based solution to manage day to day operations.

SOLUTION

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

I was searching online and found them on Clutch. I choose them since they were in the same city.

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

I wanted an application that could help us with daily operations so that we wouldn't have to do manual entries for everything. The idea and flowchart of what is needed was provided by me, they suggested the technology to be used, came up with the layout design and I approved it then they worked on development.

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

One frontend developer, One backend developer and one account manager. A QA was also involved towards the last stage of the product.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It has become easy for me and the guest house manager to track various inventory and add flexibility and modify booking changes easily which were used to be manual entries before.

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

Since we are in the same city, I initially met them a couple of times at their office. Then onwards we talked on phone and Skype as required. I received daily work update and there was a biweekly call with the account manager.

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

They delivered the web application with all of the features within the agreed-upon time and after providing detailed initial workflow and discussions I didn't have to correct them or ask for changes too much.

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

This was my first time developing something like this so I have no idea.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Distribution and sales of Microalgae supplements

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire designs.codes, and what were your goals?

Redesign, development and improve SEO ranking

SOLUTION

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

Posted project on Elance. After several contacts, DC reached out by phone and made several suggestions on how the project would be handled. I selected them among many, and they delivered accordingly.

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

I had an existing website but needed revamping/ updating onto Wordpress to increase functionality and visibility.

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

1 designer, 1 HTML coder, 1 Wordpress dev, and 1 dedicated account manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Increased sales by increased visibility

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

Mostly through Skype and email for project phase updates and version updates

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

Communication was comprehensive and frequent. They are very proactive and they coached me when needed to give me some autonomy. Responded well to questions.

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

Nothing up to now

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am managing director of the Equal Access Group and also manage all IT and web marketing for our various busineses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire designs.codes, and what were your goals?

This recent website is for our most recent business we will be commencing at the end of October.

SOLUTION

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

This is the seventh project I have used the services of Designs.Codes and I would not keep going back to them if they did not meet my expectations. I do not even both to look for alternative providers.

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

We required a full e-commerce website on the WordPress platform and using WooCommerce integration.

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

I deal with their account manager, their web developer, designer and HTML coder.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site has not formally launched however speed and performance is exceptional. Previous websites perform extremely well and index high in Google.

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

Very professional, excellent communication. Most directly with the developer via Skype.

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

I am impressed with their prompt service and deep understanding of my detailed brief and delivery of the completed website.

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

No, as I said its the seventh website they have prepared for me. I know how they work and they understand my demanding expectations.