DevTalents

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Fareloom is a new startup established in Melbourne, Australia that offering an online experience and other events to help them connect with food, family, friends through their recipes and memories of food. One of the ways that we do this is through the Fareloom app which helps our community to record all their favourite recipes, create and collaborate with communities and, allow our community to print their collections to their own cookbooks. My role is as a co-founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire United Ideas?

We didn’t have any expertise in app development but had background in IT development, just an idea, concept, requirements and a budget. We needed a team who would take care of the whole process of web and mobile development according to our concept and requirements. Preferably a team who would let us be involved in the process.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to develop a new mobile and web application that not only functioned as a good recipe keeper but we wanted to provide the ability to share and collaborate with friends and something beautiful to use and look at. As a startup with a limited budget we also wanted to deliver on time and budget and work with a good team.

SOLUTION

How did you select United Ideas?

First, we wanted to know we can trust the chosen company but also had enthusiasm for the idea for the whole project top to bottom. We had no experience in app development but some in IT development in a corporate environment. The initial budget was all we had for the project, so there was no room for error. We wanted the app to be done well, within the budget and true to the initial idea.

Because of that, we knew that we needed to find a talented team with excellent communication skills. One that would guide us through the process and explain all ins-and-outs. After our conversation with Olga, a project manager from United Ideas, we knew we found a company with skills we were after and we could work well with. They also provided a couple of reference clients we could talk to about their experience.

Describe the project in detail.

In the beginning, we had a couple of meetings to discuss the idea and explain in detail how we want each element of the app to work. We provided a high level conceptual document to detail the high level requirements. Afterwards, they gave us a timeline for the development process. We were invited by United Ideas to join their communication channels and workflow boards. They thoroughly explained how the Scrum process works.

We were very happy about the transparency of it because we were constantly reassured that we’re going in the right direction. We knew we could trust them with the technical side, but there was still a design aspect to take care of. We were very ambitious about it, the app was supposed to be the most beautiful but also be easy to use. Their designer, Ania, took this crazy challenge seriously and made our app into something lovely to look at with her design and illustrations.

What was the team composition?

3 developers, 1 UX designer and project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app was just released and it is lovely to look at and to see our idea really come to life and starting to be used by our community. We are looking forward to the coming year and its success - fingers crossed.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We made it very clear in the beginning, that we want to be very closely involved to make sure the project is shaping up correctly. United Ideas guided us through the Scrum process, which we were aware of from previous work and invited us to their chatrooms. Communication flow was ongoing and we had plenty of opportunities to give feedback, which made the cooperation convenient for us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Many companies would have delivered something that perhaps functions and works according to the requirements but when working with food, loved ones and their memories we needed something with an emotive element. Something that is lovely to look at, easy to use and something that you are happy to share.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Originally a PWA solution was proposed which was attractive from a time and cost perspective but part way through the project there were concerns about this approach for a number of reason. For this reason, a Flutter solution was proposed which impacted on the cost of the project and the scope of the requirements we could deliver with our budget. At the time of estimating this was not forseen in the first instance but impacted what we could deliver, our timeframes, quality and costs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Straal is an international provider of payment, optimization, and fraud prevention solutions for future-minded businesses. The company offers a comprehensive suite of products that make accepting digital payments easier, as well as more effective and secure.

I work as a Marketing Communications Specialist and I'm responsible for B2B marketing & PR projects and I became a product owner of this project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our website was built in a problematic CMS that was a nightmare to edit and absorbed too much time from our devs. We needed a completely new version that could be handed over to our marketing department. The new website had to be easy to manage, multilingual, safe, and SEO-friendly, and provide better product exposure that will result in collecting more leads and increase sales volume.

SOLUTION

How did you select United Ideas and what were the deciding factors?

We found them on Clutch, reached out, scheduled a meeting and it was clear for us that they are exactly who we needed for the job. We knew that recently they've experienced a very similar project with their own website and they assigned the same devs to our project. They impressed us with their insight and we felt absolutely confident that they’re the right team for the job.

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

We agreed to build the new website in WordPress. United Ideas team was responsible for the development side. The design for the new website was previously delivered by a third party company, so they had to adjust it to WordPress.

Throughout the process, United Ideas team came up with a lot of UX/UI improvements for example in terms of the website’s multilingual aspect and conversion rate.

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

2 full-stack devs, 1 PM

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main goal of the whole project was to create an easy CMS for the website, one that could be used by the marketing team with no support from our devs. That's why we chose WordPress and I can confirm as a member of the marketing team, that we don’t bother our devs anymore and we're 100% capable of implementing changes to the website.

As a result, the devs have much more time and can really focus on their actual tasks and what's more important, the marketing team can easily manage their content.

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

We agreed to weekly updates meetings where we were given progress updates and summaries. In addition, there was a dedicated Trello board where we could track tasks and accept/decline changes. Depending on the phase of development, we would have one or two Zoom calls per week to make sure everything is going exactly as planned.

Overall communication was really impressive, United Ideas always responded to our questions and they were patiently explaining all the dev-tech details to the Marketing Team.

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

Their approach to UX-friendly solutions, creativity, and the mindset to such a challenging project - given our B2B goals, niche industry, etc. Their expertise in WordPress is also impressive.

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

They could've been more strict to the schedule at some point because the final adjustments took them a bit longer than expected due to the main dev’s limited availability. On the other hand, missing the deadline isn't something unusual for this type of project and they quickly resume working. We're 100% happy with the final result.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We’re a leading Swedish real-estate company, offering property management services to tenants and landlords associations. We are also a SaaS provider for property management. My role is marketing manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our internal IT department is mainly focused on the growth of our web application. However, our website needs to be constantly developed too, and splitting our developers’ focus between the app and the website was problematic. We didn’t want to hire a full-time developer, so we started considering external support in this area.

SOLUTION

How did you select United Ideas and what were the deciding factors?

Our CTO got an email from UI’s CEO, Lukasz, who asked if we need any help with our web application. He declined, as our strategy is to keep its development internally. A few days later I, in the marketing department, happened to have RoR programming needs and he forwarded United Ideas to me.

Over the first telco, we presented United Ideas with a long list of new features and improvements to the website, which they went through in detail. They did an estimation of the cost and time and we got to know the developer responsible for the project.

They left a great impression on us and we started the cooperation right away.

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

Since the beginning, United Ideas has been providing us with on-demand IT support for the marketing development of our website. They were and still are responsible for implementing analytical features, adding new modules, dealing with marketing agencies, and taking care of all marketing-related tasks.

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

For almost a year now we have been working with the same 4 people: Szymon and Bart are the 2 Ruby on Rails Developers, Wojtek is a Marketing Consultant, and Mat is the Account Manager and our first line of contact.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are able to optimise our website for a better user experience, higher conversions for product landing pages as well as having an overall SEO optimised website. United Ideas are able to provide us with all the development competency that we might lack in-house.

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

Communication is efficient and quick. We never had any complaints and were always happy with the way they handle tasks. Their developers’ accessibility is great and whenever we need their help, we get it quickly.

Additionally, our website is in Swedish and even though they don’t speak our language, we never noticed any troubles getting the development done. They deliver all tasks successfully despite potential language barriers.

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

What struck us the most from the beginning, was United Idea’s proactiveness. Many of the ideas and improvements came from them, not from us. This is exceptionally important for the company because we don’t need to worry about the marketing development of the website and we can leave this area to United Ideas.

They have been great at handling pre-planned tasks as well as adhoc issues quickly and efficiently.

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

Sometimes we need to wait up to 3 days for the cost estimation and the project’s realization. I wouldn’t call it a problem though, rather a reality. We’re hiring them part-time, so this is understandable.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Managing Director at a Nonprofit organization that helps elderly.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We brought United Ideas in to help us build the application for our volunteers. We were trying to figure out how to simplify our data collection and increase the engagement of volunteers.

Our staff spent many hours every month collecting manual data about volunteer activities. There was a tremendous burden on our volunteers to maintain communication with organization coordinators.

Our goal was to create a single, mobile-friendly communication platform for our volunteers and coordinators. That’s why we decided to make use of the PWA approach. They suggested a progressive web app that could more effectively support Android and iOS devices. That was one of our most important criteria because a PWA means we don’t have to build independent native mobile apps.

SOLUTION

How did you select United Ideas and what were the deciding factors?

I wasn’t involved in the selection process, but we found United Ideas through a referral from our product designer. She spoke good things about them, and once we were looking for vendors we reached out to United Ideas among other IT companies.

We interviewed a variety of firms, but decided on United Ideas due to their PWA experience.

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

United Ideas is developing our progressive web app. It’s for internal use only, for both field volunteers and their supervisors. It involves many third-party CRM integrations with data systems used by the organization.

By combining volunteer list segmentation with emails and text messages, we can be sure to communicate the right message at exactly the right time. This delivers better event attendance and happier, more engaged volunteers.

Each volunteer has his or her own unique username and password, streamlining the update process and alleviating the administrative burden traditionally placed on your staff. At the end of the first development phase we decided to convert the web app into a progressive web app instead of creating an Android and iOS app from the beginning.

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

I mostly interacted with the project manager. A lead Ruby on Rails developer attended some of our meetings as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application has already launched and at the moment is available in stores for iOS and Android, but we haven't reached out to many of our volunteers yet. We first want to make sure everything is working fine, so only a small group of people have it now.

Once we launch the platform for everyone, it will be an absolute game-changer. By reducing the administrative work the platform is going to save a significant amount of time in terms of contacting our volunteers about what is and isn’t required.

The current iteration is complete, but United Ideas continues to create and implement new features and minor fixes. We’ll likely be contacting them in the future when we start developing the next phase.

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

We held calls anywhere from daily to every two weeks depending on where we were in the project. For certain deliveries, we even touched base 2–3 times a day. Our project manager provided weekly project updates and whatever is pending, they highlight the roadblocks properly.

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

Their communication skills are good across the board and they’re very proactive. I’ve seen it at the engineering level, to the account manager, up to their CEO and they’re very forthcoming with anything.

If there’s any issue, they’ll tell you about it and try to find a solution. Our current plan is to continue using United Ideas for the next version of our application.

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

We didn't have any problems with going over budget, or unresponsiveness. The application could have been delivered a bit sooner, but it's hard to say as we also requested a lot of changes along the way. Projects like CRM integration have a tendency to be delayed because they require a lot of communication with other providers.

Nevertheless, any delays were always reasonable and we could have honest and open communication about any problems.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Digital Project Manager at a full-service marketing agency specializing in social media, performance marketing and brand consulting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired United Ideas to help us build sharp, fast and SEO optimised websites for out clients. I wanted a sleek and eye-pleasing design with strong focus on the user experience. An easy-to-access and browsable website. Easier said than done.

SOLUTION

How did you select United Ideas and what were the deciding factors?

We searched the web for developers and started interviewing companies that seemed to be a good fit. We were looking at a variety of factors, including pricing, understanding of our goals, reliability, trustworthiness, and previous work. United Ideas seemed to be the company that was most aligned with our goals. They asked the right questions, their proposal was very professional.

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

The scope of engagement included ux research, web design, rebuild, setting up the architecture and other factors. Up to now they have custom developed three websites for our clients and helped with a number of backend API integrations along with ongoing technical support.

All of them were fast and mobile-responsive websites with an intuitive UX and that was our primary goal. Their forte is in Ruby as a programming language and React and Vue as the frontend framework.

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

I am mainly in touch with two people from United Ideas. I have a project manager assigned to me, who coordinates the work and is responsible for the rest of the team.

She engages the right people to collaborate to complete the sprints. There is also a development lead engaged in technical conversations when needed. I’m not sure how many people in total were working on the projects, but I’ve met some of them along the way.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re happy with the appearance of the website and how user-friendly it is. They saved us money by dissuading us from going into a more complicated process for the architecture. It was a great first impression. There were some bugs at the beginning, but United Ideas was able to fix most of them as part of an ongoing maintenance process.

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

Olga worked with her team on all tasks, which in turn minimized the time going back and forth. Having only one point of contact for all communication was very effective.

We chat on Slack alternative and sometimes use Zoom for a quick call. They have a project management system that’s different from what we use internally. Across our collaboration every interaction I’ve had with their team has been pleasant.

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

The breadth of scope they cover. There seems to be nothing they can't do. I also liked that United Ideas took the time to understand our company and how we set ourselves apart from other agencies in the industry.

During the interview phase, I felt that other companies already had their own ideas about us and our projects. Most of them didn’t pay too much attention to what our company is about or what our goals are.

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

Occasionally, around holidays or time-off, there were minor miscommunications between our teams. This wasn’t a significant issue since we had direct contact with the engineers, but those specific instances could have been improved.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a Project Manager at a software development agency. I work directly with the clients making sure the assigned team delivers quality work while balancing a budget and sticking to a deadline.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I needed assistance with web development because we had new initiatives and back then our in-house IT team was fully booked.

SOLUTION

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

We had to quickly compose the team for one of our clients. The goal was to get a working service up and running quickly. We had a clear concept and mock-ups and agreed on the initial budget and deadline.

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

They provided staff augmentation, specifically Ruby on Rails engineer to build the website for one of our long-time clients. He worked alongside our in-house team.

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

Our COO got acquainted with Mat through Facebook. He connected us with their available developer and from there, our conversation progressed enough for us to choose them as a partner. United Ideas was chosen based on knowledge of frameworks and skill sets that we prefer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve been working directly with the Ruby on Rails engineer we hired from United Ideas. He had a strong SEO background which is rare for backend developers - that was very valuable.

He also accompanied me during the calls with customers, providing technical expertise and a wide range of potential solutions. My account manager is always around, constantly in touch and checking if everything is going alright.

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

We don't have any metrics, but I’m very happy with the work. They have met the deadline and a lot of ad-hoc requests have been all taken care of swiftly. We’ve never had an issue and they’re incredibly flexible whenever we need to move a meeting or push something back.

It took us a couple of days longer than expected, but they've been able to postpone other projects to make sure we finish our engagement.

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

I can’t think of anything. I already asked for their support with another urgent project we work on.

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

None, all good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO & Founder of a startup that eliminates last-minute restaurant food waste. Our mobile app connects customers to restaurants that have unsold food hours before they close, for meal discounts as high as 50 percent.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire United Ideas?

We hired United Ideas to develop, maintain, and update our mobile application and related Ruby on Rails back-end systems. Our main challenge was hiring a reliable and long-term development partner to stabilize our app and ensure all bugs were resolved to guarantee a smooth transition to the app store. We had bad experiences with previous vendors.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a new development partner. We specified the work scope, budget, and deadline for the first tasks. Our priorities were iterative speed, communication, and hustle. We're a lean startup and wanted to collaborate with a company that shared our hunger and passion for building quality products and doing whatever it takes to deliver. The main goal was to make the app easy for users to navigate and provide the best possible experience adding new features.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were searching Clutch.co for developers that could offer high quality, rapid development with a competitive price and excellent project management. Beyond a partner that met our cost and quality requirements, we wanted someone to challenge our ideas, and respectfully proposes alternatives. We didn't want them to build everything we asked without question. We interviewed several different vendors, then selected some of them to speak to over video calls. We provided them with the documentation and design guidelines to them; then, they worked on the solution, timeline, and cost estimates. Along the way, we get to know the team we work with today. United Ideas team is nimble, agile, and incredibly responsive. Also, they were able to work with our tight budget, so we chose them. I gave them basic ideas and drawings of what I had in mind, and the project evolved from there.

Describe the project in detail.

United Ideas successfully took over the project from the other software agency. They prioritized quality frontend development, access to native device features, and a polished UX. They added critical features (multi-login, pagination, admin panel improvements, email automation, better notifications) and helped us test the app. What's more, the mobile developers proactively refactored some parts of the app that required fixes and optimization. After that, we've seen a huge improvement when it comes to loading time and user experience. The updated app is now available in the stores, but we are continually turning out new features as well. We can always go back to them if we want to change any features or if there are any bugs.

What was the team composition?

They assign resources to match the size of the project. We had a team of four: iOS and Android developers, Ruby on Rails engineer, and PM/Account Manager. We also thought about adding dedicated QA to the project over time. I collaborated with developers and the project manager via their company web chat. They maintained efficient, casual methods of connecting with stakeholders.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project ran smoothly, with some minor issues that were quickly fixed. We were able to launch the app on time, which is somewhat unheard of. The updated app is now in both stores and working properly. Thousands of people use the app, and our business has been growing month after month. Also, we've received very positive press and app reviews. We're evolving very fast as a company, and we require that any updates or changes happen quickly. They've never failed to deliver what we've asked of them and had a suggestion for every potential problem we faced along the way.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The overall experience was good, even though we still look for improvements in terms of planning, communication and project management. We communicate over chat, email, and Trello and work in a waterfall methodology. I also remain in regular contact with all developers - they are very collaborative in their approach, and they've done a great job of balancing their recommendations with our opinions. Thanks to our frequent discussions, we were able to choose the best way forward together. The whole team is very flexible and understanding, along with development, and made sure to make the app exactly how I envisioned it. Needless to say that they completed each feature on time and stuck to our initial contract.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're a small team with many capabilities. At the beginning of our cooperation, we specified the budget for each task and feature. Needless to say that United Ideas delivered all of the agreed features within the most optimistic hourly predictions and on time. Besides, working with the whole team is fun, and their price is competitive. I appreciated that United Ideas helped me with the learning curve and provided all the information I needed to make me feel comfortable and make better business decisions.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Each project has its difficulties, but we managed to solve them all, learning on the job. They could do more QA as there were some issues or bugs that I found during testing, but there was nothing critical. It's also understandable when you take over a project from a different vendor.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a custom development group. We mostly work with finance & insurance companies, media, banks, and publishers. Overall we hire over 300 engineers. As a Scrum Master, I'm leading a team of 25 developers working on various projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire United Ideas?

I have a reasonably sizeable internal team and wanted to add ten backend developers to the current contract. We didn't have free engineers on our side at that moment.

What were your goals for this project?

I had to grow my team with staff members who were easy to work with to minimize software defects while continuing to move at a high velocity. We were looking for a vendor that could help us with staff augmentation for various software projects. We needed to get a lot of talent working with us quickly to staff up our internal teams. Our primary goal was to build a long-term relationship with an outsourced team that could supply qualified, experienced team members.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I worked at United Ideas as a Scrum Master before my current employment, so I knew their CEO. During one of the conversations, we realized that they might be able to help us with the recruitment deadlock. When the need arose, I contacted him along with three other companies, and we ended up choosing them for the work.

Describe the project in detail.

United Ideas provided us with reliable software development support. Every engineer and developer who joined our team is vetted through a series of phone screens, on-site interviews, video conference calls, and technical tests.

Unlike some other companies that have developers lying around, United Ideas finds the right people for every project. They rigorously screen their developers, so I can trust that each person working on our projects is top-notch. That and the fact that we're allowed to interview and screen the candidates, has been great.

What was the team composition?

Throughout different projects, we've worked with 12 developers so far. Their engineers are as integral to my team as my engineers in the office. I liked the fact that when you give them a task, they'll come back to you with questions for clarification and with examples and suggestions of how to do it better. That is truly professional. They don't just take what you've given them; they take ownership. They bring attention to detail and a high level of knowledge to the task.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their developers are excellent, and the quality of the code is really good. That was one of our initial concerns because remote teams sometimes don't provide good quality. Fortunately, we've been amazed by their skills and feel confident about giving them projects that involve our core business.

United Ideas not only provides backend development services, but they also help us sustain and assist in engineering support for our clients. Thanks to this support, we're able to react quickly to our clients' needs. If it weren't for their team, we wouldn't be able to do nearly as much as we have been over the last few months

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project management is split between the two teams. Their project management is as good as what we have here. We pride ourselves on how quickly we can execute what's important and impactful.

They've been flexible and adapted to using tools we prefer and are proactive about keeping an updated calendar listing the availability of all the developers we work with. I've been delighted with the arrangement and communication so far.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their key strength is their people. They are a good fit with our culture and collaborate well with our internal teams. It's really fun to work with them, and we feel that they are part of our team. They're great at catching and fixing bugs, especially when we rush things through.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything has been good. We have identified points of improvement in terms of team collaboration, but we are continually working to improve the things we recognize. The legal process is a challenge for smaller organizations like United Ideas.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m General Manager of the MB Motors Piaseczno - one of the biggest Mercedes-Benz dealer in Poland

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire United Ideas?

We searched for a digital agency to re-design our lead generation process and enrich collected data. We had concerns that our competition had caught up to us in this area. We wanted to land more quality traffic for the car model configurator on our website. We had an idea to create interactive banners and integrate them to the Landing Pages and CRM.

It became clear that our old ways of reaching potential buyers wasn’t good enough to achieve the level of customer satisfaction we needed to deliver at early stage of the buying process. Nor was it driving sales or generating leads to my sales force.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to generate leads/customers for test drives, that’s the highest quality lead in automotive industry. Therefore, it’s imperative that we provide an excellent experience for our customers, across whole customer journey.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found them through a referral. Someone in my network was a client of theirs and recommended them to us.

When we took them on board, we were looking at three different firms. We hired United Ideas because they had considerable experience with the automotive biggest brands and a wide range of technical abilities. We ended up choosing them not only because of the recommendation but also because they had the best proposal.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

United Ideas successfully created a fully-customized marketing automation system. They integrated Banner Ads with Landing Pages making sure to provide an intuitive navigation, which led to great conversion rate.

At the end of the day it reduced the number of repeatable tasks of our in-house consultants. The car configurator received a great deal of traffic from people willing to test our car models. We had a positive post-launch experience.

What was the team composition?

We worked most closely with Łukasz. Besides this, we primarily interacted with a core team of four (product designer and back-end devs).

They brought other people onto parts of the project as needed. The team’s experience with the automotive industry enabled them to make numerous suggestions and valuable recommendations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a digital piece of work, so it's easier to measure. We defined a few KPIs that provided good analytics of our work. However, what’s even more significant, the number of online leads doubled.

We have opened a whole new channel of potential customers and, actually, this is something we didn’t plan at all. It’s a lot more comfortable for people to start configuring their dream car right from their devices. The entry barrier is much lower, and it’s as simple as that. Moreover, we can capture these people now and convert into qualified leads.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We kept in constant contact and regularly gave them feedback during meetings in our offices. Project milestones were captured using Trello. Having access to all that information was useful for us as a client.

I never felt in the dark about our progress. The budget was in line with what we expected, and they were generally ahead of schedule. If there were delays, it was on our end, not theirs. They were always available for us and very professional overall.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Project management was good; they made it easy. There's a lot of flexibility, without the restrictions of rigid rules. They feel like a small business with very high standards. They kept to our budget and kept me informed through the entire engagement. We plan to extend our cooperation in the near future.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We ran into occasional scripts integration barriers along the way, but they were always flexible and came up with creative solutions to keep us moving forward.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work at Oriflame as a Digital Manager responsible for the 20 markets within the Central Europe region.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire United Ideas?

We needed a long-term partner who could do the interactive and visual design to address the ongoing marketing department needs. So far, United Ideas helped us with projects ranging from a simple one-page web application, promotional code generator to interactive banners implementations on the main page of our brand

What were your goals for this project?

I am actually engaged with them on several projects on behalf of my company. Usually, we work on deadlines and fixed price model. So the job is to deliver the project on time and within the budget. So far, they didn't fail us.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had a couple of upcoming projects and since my team values working with different agencies on different projects I was looking for an opportunity to establish a partnership with the new provider. It was about a time I got an email from United Ideas, they introduced their services and asked if there's anything they could help us with; the timing was quite fortunate since we needed someone to help us with the web application. After meeting with their team, we decided it's worth to give them a try.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We started with a mobile website, where promotional codes are distributed from our database. It went good. The other time they helped us with the application that allows uploading videos by users and is used to generate content on social media. There's also a countdown page prepared for the launch of our new product. Then three more times, I felt comfortable reaching out to them again to perform another digital project. We've been working together since the beginning of 2019 and have an active ongoing collaboration.

What was the team composition?

I had personal contact with United Ideas CEO all the time; he always responds immediately to my messages, sometimes stepping-in to solve minor bugs himself. We were assigned a project manager, and she was accommodating during brainstorming and quick to respond to any questions or concerns. Whenever we had an issue, she was able to provide a quick resolution for it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the projects had about half a million users in the application with monthly traffic up to 100k users. Other than that, United Ideas mostly has been developing custom products dedicated for internal purposes, so there are not many available metrics I can share. However, the quality of the products and their work has been excellent. It addresses all of our needs.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their communication was great. That was one of the things that I liked working with them in general. The involved team was always available, so I could always ask questions. They were still entirely consistent with whoever was on the project, meaning no turnover in resources. We exclusively used Slack alternative and email for communication. Everyone from the team was on the channel so we could ping anyone.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their communication was great. That was one of the things that I liked working with them in general. The involved team was always available, so I could always ask questions. They were still entirely consistent with whoever was on the project, meaning no turnover in resources. We exclusively used Slack alternative and email for communication. Everyone from the team was on the channel so we could ping anyone.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There were some issues with one of the implementations. The website didn't have all the responsive elements. There was a bit of friction there and took a few extra feedback rounds. Those iterations delayed the project a little bit more than we would have wanted. Luckily, we were not too rigid about the deadline on the milestone date. We were only off by an extra day or two, which wasn't a big deal for us. On the other hand, there were no issues once we went live; everything had been solved beforehand.