EIGHT25MEDIA

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Fortfire has been providing information security work for enterprise customers for the last 15 years. I am the CEO and founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We wanted to find a responsive partner who could understand our needs in a short time. The challenge was updating our web presence: what we did and how we presented not only our company but also my own personality. Our user base is comprised of 500-plus large and mid-sized customers and prospects in the Bay Area.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After an initial phone call, their team came on site and talked to me for a few hours, finding out what we did, what we wanted to do, and what we wanted to portray. They understood our company and me, as a person, over a series of interviews and presented multiple options based on this. Their involvement for understanding facts and getting things ready was intense—they didn’t waste time.

The new site was built from scratch, with no representation of the past presence. I believe the platform is WordPress. They handled the web design and development. The number-one feature was simplicity. Our Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts were integrated with it.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked directly with Rehan Fernando [Founder, EIGHT25MEDIA] for the first few meetings. I was also assigned a main project manager.

How did you come to work with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We interviewed around three companies referred to us, and theirs came up with good idea proofs. We liked their communication and presentation style, so we did business.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of the site development was between $30,000 and $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2015 and finished in October of that year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t use the website for e-commerce; it’s more of a marketing and branding tool aimed at a certain group of people. Multiple customers, prospects, and general visitors have said good things about the site. It matches what we do and who I am, syncing everything.

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform from a project management standpoint?

I needed to make quite a few changes and was busy with the company, but they were flexible, worked with my schedule, and delivered accordingly. We had work here and there after the project was done, and they always completed it quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I liked their experience, flexibility, and vision for the future. With current technology, it’s important to anticipate what could change in six months or a year, and they were on top of that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

On the futuristic side, we talked about automation components, and they were working on this. They have tools in place already, they just need to do more.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be as open as possible in the initial discussion, and build a trust. Being apprehensive about what can be shared is not recommended. Any issues should be mentioned so the developer can understand the scope. This has been beneficial for us, and it enabled them to become a part of our team and know our business.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We offer virtual and augmented reality courses and training to working professionals and companies. I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We needed an agency to help us redesign our website and boost our online strategy. We had an existing website, but we wanted something more professional.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In our initial calls, they learned about our business model and our goals for the site; then, their strategy and development team built a proposal. They included the technology that would go into the site, our goals and roadmap, and all the other aspects of the project. After we agreed upon the budget and timeline, we provided a series of sample sites we liked. They responded with wireframe mockups and their strategy for moving forward. From there, it was an iterative process with open communication. They sent us their progress, we provided feedback, until we cycled into design and development of the site itself.

We built a custom site on a WordPress platform in PHP, with WooCommerce plugins. We have a lot of integration with our CRM [customer relationship management], and are trying to automate our marketing and sales tasks to improve the functionality of the site. Other valuable features include the site’s data collection and visitor tracking.

What is the team dynamic?

We initially spoke to two strategists, and were assigned an account executive, Maria [Client Services, EIGHT25MEDIA]. The team also had a designer, lead and secondary developers, and perhaps one other person helping with e-commerce and sub-design.

How did you come to work with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We ran a Google search for web development agencies. I reviewed 20–25 agencies and sourced rough quotes from about five of those. We ultimately chose them because of their understanding and insight into other strategic add-ons to the site.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began work in February 2017, with a late-November launch. We hoped to launch sooner, but we needed to make mid-project changes that extended the timeline.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site improves our entire company’s image. We are just about to launch, so will have better quantitative results in the future. It should facilitate purchase, imbues brand trust, and gives us a boost in CRM. The integration the site provides is important to us. Automation will save us time in billing and invoicing, marketing, and customer data management. Connections to the backend will make our teams more productive, and we hope to see increases in conversion and revenue, and other positive ROI [returns on investment].

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform from a project management standpoint?

Maria, our account executive, was patient. She listened and adapted to meet our needs, and she always communicated the timeline and expectations through what became a ten-month process. She provided top quality service, and brought in their development team whenever something needed technical explanation. Originally, we used Basecamp and Google Sheets, but switched mostly to email. Overall, the process was great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really valued their understanding of internet business strategy. So many companies can develop or design websites, but their strategies are a differentiating factor in the market. They provide helpful specifics, like video testimonials on our checkout page that improve our conversion rates. They give tactical advice we can actually implement and measure. That knowledge really sets them apart from their competitors, and helps us meet our goals.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a partner in a retina physician practice. There are five of us that take care of patients with retinal issues.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with EIGHT25MEDIA?

Our current website was inoperable and based on an old flash-based system. We wanted to update our website to improve our marketing and to make information available to our patients and referring doctors.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We reviewed some of their other projects, and we were happy with them. I had an idea of how I wanted the website to look because I had used comparable websites for other private retina practices throughout the country, so we accumulated those ideas.

We had a price range that we were looking at and parameters that we hoped to maintain. We weren’t looking for ongoing maintenance because we're not planning to do a lot of updates to the website on a regular basis. They understood our requests and goals and worked on them.

The site is built on WordPress. There's not a lot of user interaction; it's mainly to provide information about us. We wanted our visitors to have the ability to change font size because our patients are elderly with blinding diseases and people with poor vision. It was very straightforward and clean.

They also included links to PDF files for referring doctor forms and patient information forms that people can download before coming for their first visit.

We also wanted our patients to receive information about our facilities, locations, and our physicians. Everything is in drop-down menus that don’t require a lot of clicking; you click on one menu, and it opens everything up for people to review. We wanted the experience to be simple and not have a lot of subsequent pages.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with Maria Miranda [Client Services, EIGHT25MEDIA]. She was my point person. I also worked with a couple of software engineers periodically.

How did you come to work with EIGHT25MEDIA?

I found them on Google and saw online reviews. We’re in the Bay Area, and they’re in the San Jose area. We thought the closeness would be nice in case we needed to touch base, but most communication was done over the phone and email.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from September 2015 to January 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Patients like our website. It has all the information, and it's very easy to navigate, which is what we care about. We refer our patients to it because there is an information section that has information about diagnoses, treatments, etc. Our main goal was to make it functional. We didn't have a functional website before, and this was a step in the right direction.

I looked at Google searches to make sure it doesn't fall off the first page. We optimized SEM wording to make sure that we have higher hits.

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform from a project management standpoint?

They were good about giving me access to a domain while they were working on it. InVision was where we would work on it together. Initially, I populated the information on my end. This was all clinical information, so I gave them the diagnoses, and what we wanted to be in each section, etc. It's all our original content. It took an effort to put it in, but this is all information that I put together.

Once the content was there, they put it together quickly, and we had a few sessions at the December period to get everything where we wanted it. It was good having Maria as a point person, and Rayhan was the other person that I worked with. We usually had an engineer on the calls when we were discussing it to make sure that everything made sense. It was good communication and good feedback.

We had regular feedback sessions to show the layout and how it would look and share my ideas. Via WebEx meetings, they reviewed what they've worked on. When they were constructing the layout, there was a month where they were just working on it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're a hard-working group of people. The small team that worked with me regularly was responsive. I could call them or email them at any point, and they would give me feedback or respond to me quickly, within the day. That's important to me.

Because our contract is for building the website, and not maintaining it, they taught me how to do basic changes to WordPress. It was good that they went through that with me. Even if I have questions now and I want to make changes, they don't charge me for their time. I messed something up on the page one time, and I asked for help. They fixed the problem and didn’t charge me for it, which was very kind of them. This was 6 months after the website was done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One thing that they could improve upon is to understand that people are not always on the same level. Sometimes, it was hard to relay how I wanted things because their understanding of the process is different. I didn't understand SEM, and I still don't. If they had explained that there were more aspects of the project that we needed to have in the beginning when we were creating the budget, we could have been more inclined to incorporate them. But, it was not bad because they still worked with me on it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a multi-million dollar mobile gaming company. I am the technical project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We were trying to solve how to create an engaging front-facing website to tell people more about a messaging platform we created. We're not necessarily in the business of making websites, so we wanted to work with the best in the industry. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to be able to create a website that not only generates leads but also provides information for potential new clients. We gave them a high-level review of what we wanted, and they were able to create the architecture information from there to build something that was engaging for our user base. They used PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to develop the site.

The website was real-time; we were able to deliver messages within milliseconds and at scale as well. No other platform offers this kind of service; that sets us apart from other messaging systems out there.

What is the team dynamic?

The size of the team varied. Sometimes, we needed more engineers. It depended on what part of the deadline we were running up to. I had the CEO and one of their project managers always meeting with us at least once a week to go over our compressed timeline. I talked to at least 2 other engineers at the same time, going over any issues and bugs.

How did you come to work with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We took a look at the top websites that we liked and narrowed our search down to agencies that worked on similar products. We also left our review process open; we were talking to people who didn't work on similar products but created cutting-edge websites that were in line with our cutting-edge technology.

Ultimately, we found that EIGHT25MEDIA had the most breadth of different products that they've worked on, and their story was compelling. What they wanted to bring to the table and the questions they asked were far beyond what we received from others. They were eager to set our business goals as well as timelines. We were encouraged that they would be really good partners to work with, which is true from my experience.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from February 2016 to May 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We really enjoyed working with them and appreciated the work that they've put in, but we ended up not launching the product due to differences in opinion from upper management.

We use the website internally as a reference. It's extremely helpful for being able to codify a lot of our messaging that we would later use to rebrand. We also used the website for a lot of learning and beta testing for potential clients.

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a good job of being able to pull us in. They utilized Basecamp as an external project management tool. They had their own internal project management tool as well, which was a really good tool for us to be able to communicate assets, websites, etc.

I also had a project manager on call at any time. If the current project manager had any issues, I would be able to contact the co-founder or another project manager who also knew about the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their eagerness to be able to work with new technology was great. They were quick to try to understand who our target audience was. They were quick to want to execute on anything that we can give them.

Their turnaround was quick as well. We are very strict about our security on apps, and they allowed themselves to integrate with our development operations team and our applications security team to make sure that they were delivering code that was compliant, as well as addressing any security concerns. They figured out how to best organize information for us to be able to deploy it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were very flexible with us. I feel they should've been a little bit less flexible with some of the requirements because that did impact the timeline, but that was to our detriment because we didn't provide the information they needed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Morro Systems is a cloud-based storage solution for small to medium sized businesses. We have on-premise devices as well as cloud-based servers and management systems. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with EIGHT25MEDIA ?

We have a portal that we use to manage our system for both cloud and on-premise equipment. We needed a good user interface, and we were looking for ways to manage the complexity with ease of use.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We spent a lot of time discussing the specs, the architecture of the UI and selected Material Design as the design language. They did the mockup and the initial proposals and then went ahead with the implementation. We used React which is a specific platform for different devices from PC to mobile.

How did you come to work with EIGHT25MEDIA ?

When I talked with EIGHT25MEDIA, I was impressed with their approach to solving problems. They took a user-oriented approach rather than just asking what we need. In our discussions, I could tell what their experience and perspective on development was. They did quite a bit of research with us. Their pricing was reasonable.

How much have you invested with EIGHT25MEDIA ?

Over the course of our relationship, we spent under $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship started in the third quarter of last year and was completed during the first quarter of this year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The users of our system like our management interface.

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform from a project management standpoint?

We were assigned a dedicated manager to work with us, and he was very responsive. Anytime we needed to make changes; they were receptive to those changes. They’re professional and personable, and we appreciate that. We used a tool called Envision to review the mockups.

What did you find most impressive about EIGHT25MEDIA ?

I was very impressed with their approach which includes marketing as well as implementation. EIGHT25MEDIA finds a unique and sensible approach for the product rather than merely providing information.

Are there any areas EIGHT25MEDIA could improve?

Considering it was a joint project, I’m still pretty happy with the communication. There were times they ran into resource issues, and that slowed down the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Sunset Music Festival was started in Sri Lanka in 2011. We brought down artists such as Dash Berlin and Avicii. I am one of the co-founders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with EIGHT25MEDIA?

Facebook’s fan pages and advertising were still brand new. Since we were such a new event, we were unable to get a radio partner, which is one of the key ways to market on the ground. We contacted EIGHT25MEDIA to set up our Facebook page and spread the word about the event. A lot of people were surprised we used social media instead of traditional radio marketing. We had the biggest event at that time in Sri Lanka ever.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

EIGHT25MEDIA designed our website and Facebook page. They also helped us figure out how target our marketing to key parts of Sri Lanka based on various interests like the type of music people listen to. They did SEO work as well. We didn’t have any marketing material at the time.

They also helped us build a platform for a company called Phizuu. It was a service that allowed musicians to get an app from scratch in 15 minutes using an online wizard. Some of our clients were really big artists - Hardwell, one of the artists from Swedish House Mafia. They built a CMS using PHP where artists could log in, create and update their apps. They also built iOS and Android apps for us, which was a good experience as well.

Phizuu was the larger of the two projects and was more technical. The Sunset project was more complex marketing-wise.

How did you come to work with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We reviewed their previous work. I wanted to get a company from the US involved to bring a different work mentality to Sri Lanka. They were the first company in the US that we’ve used.

How much have you invested with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We've spent more than $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started Phizuu in 2011, but because of regulations from the App Store, we closed shop. EIGHT25MEDIA helps maintain apps for several artists that still work with us. They continue to work on Sunset as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Phizuu had over half a million downloads across the platform. The Facebook page for Sunset has over 25,000 fans as a result of their marketing.

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been good. I’ve worked with a few different team members and I’ve had good experiences. They have a project plan, and they stick to it. I expect things to go off plan regarding project management just from experience in my technical history. Although, I do expect good communication and a proper mitigation plan. They’ve always provided that, and I’ve been satisfied with it.

What did you find most impressive about EIGHT25MEDIA?

They’ve been reasonable with cost, and the quality of their work has been very good. The user interface designs have been very high quality. They take pride. A lot of companies that do this type of work don’t have the passion because it’s not their product. That’s been a key thing with EIGHT25MEDIA. They’ve made every project their own and have always been passionate.

Are there any areas EIGHT25MEDIA could improve?

Not particularly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at NEXTracker, a solar company. We manufacture and design and engineer solar trackers. My role at NEXTracker is marketing communications coordinator. I work on the marketing team doing digital media, press releases, and internal communications. We have a very small team. There’s only about 3 of us, so we each play a big part in all marketing activities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with EIGHT25MEDIA?

Our company is about 3 years old. Our old website was 6 pages. It was put together just so we could have a website, but there wasn’t really any content on it. There wasn’t an SEO strategy. There wasn’t anything really of value to anyone that would visit the site. We were not quite as happy with our former web development firm. They designed and built our website, but at the end of that project, we decided we wanted to go with a different vendor for various reasons. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We designed and launched a new site in April of this year. It went from 6 pages to almost 90 pages. One of the things that we wanted to do was to make sure that we had a really robust and dynamic SEO program. I’ll start with EIGHT25MEDIA’s web development team since we worked with them first. Mainly, the web dev team has been doing a lot of fixes, things that we were unhappy with that our old firm had built and implemented on the site. For the past 6 months, they’ve been working on various fixes and like formatting, font consistencies, image size consistencies, those sort of things. That meant a lot of fixes. They did some backend technical things like redirecting pages from our old site to our new site. Those are all supposed to go live in the next couple weeks.

We got introduced to Veronica and her SEO team through what we were already doing with EIGHT25MEDIA. They’ve been helping us build an SEO strategy from scratch and we’re entering our third phase. We’ve been working with them for about 2 quarters now. They did some competitor analysis for us and came up with what they believed to be the best strategy to move up in our search rate teams. They provide some additional strategies that they thought would be best to increase our rankings. These are things like getting more referrals and backlinks.

How did you come to work with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We were talking to a few different people and someone referred us to EIGHT25. We approached EIGHT25 first because we were looking to replace our old web development company. We thought it’d be nice to have someone local and the EIGHT25 offices are quite close to ours in Fremont. If we had an issue, it wouldn’t be as difficult to get in touch with them. When we met with Rehan, we liked him and decided to give him a try. We started working with them first on web development, and then they mentioned that they also had a team that works on SEO strategy. That’s how we got involved with Veronica and her team.

How much have you invested with EIGHT25MEDIA?

Currently, I’m not quite sure. I know we had some initial upfront costs and I’ve seen a couple invoices come through. Our contract is a monthly flat fee. We’ve probably paid less than $15,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with EIGHT25MEDIA from May 2016 to November 2016. We launched our site in April. It was soon after that because our relationship with our former firm ended right after we launched. For now, we have them on a retainer agreement and we don’t have an end date in mind. Since it’s been six months, we’re doing an internal evaluation.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

If we’re just speaking about SEO, there has been an uptick in our referral source traffic. So I think the backlink strategy that we’ve begun implementing has worked so far. We did have some good results as far as increasing our rankings, like the search results showing up on the first page just this last week. There was a change in where we were appearing on the Google search, so that’s been a good result.

As far as increased traffic, I can’t really say. Based on our numbers, we compare a lot to our old site just because there’s so much more on our new site. We’ve been getting a lot more traffic. I’m not quite sure if that’s because the new site has so much more content or if it’s due to the SEO strategy in particular. It’s been pretty consistent at least. There haven’t been any drops in visits to our site. 

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re extremely happy with Veronica’s team. I think she's really easy to work with. If we have questions, need help, or need feedback, she gets back to us right away. That is really, really nice. It’s great that we have a standing call with her every week. Even if there aren’t very many updates, it’s nice to just speak with her and get an update or follow-up on actions. I think that’s been really good. She’s been great about coming up with new strategies and helping us think outside the box when it comes to SEO, so we’ve been really happy with her and her team.

What did you find most impressive about EIGHT25MEDIA?

I don’t know if there’s anything particularly outstanding that is different. Like I said, Veronica is very responsive, which a lot of times with service providers and vendors isn’t always the case. I do really appreciate that about her. She always gets back to me within the hour, so I really like that. Being such a small team, we are so busy and are doing a lot of other things. I appreciate that they're always on top of it and keep the project moving.

Are there any areas EIGHT25MEDIA could improve?

As far as the web dev goes, I think that their project management could be improved. We did start out having a standing weekly call like we do with Veronica, but that fell off. I feel like I’m always having to ask for updates instead of them being, “Hey, here’s a weekly update,” or “Here’s an every other week update,” which would be nice. That could be improved upon. 

Just because we’ve been working with 2 different teams, it’s hard not to compare as far a project management goes. We did start out with a Google Sheet for both teams and then not really. It’s hard to keep track because everything is mostly in emails. It would help to have a more central location, system, or process for documentation. A way to see what’s going on and what’s been done, or what’s coming up in the plans would be great. I would say there could be an improvement on the web dev team side, but Veronica’s been really great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a touchscreen terminal manufacturer specializing in point of sales for hospitality, retail, healthcare, and entertainment

What is your role at the company?

I am the marketing communications manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We had an antiquated site that needed refreshing and one that represents that our company is the best choice for POS touch terminals. EIGHT25MEDIA was able to give us various options on how far we can take the site, based on our budget. We wanted to create a quick access experience for existing viewers of our site, and we wanted a clean look, simple interface for new viewers to our site.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Our budget was limited for this website update, so we wanted to maximize our costs, but still be able to produce a solid website. We wanted to mimic the look of our parent company's site, but still give our site some uniqueness and different features to set itself apart from the parent company. Because we had our old site for so long, we were concerned existing users would get very confused with the new site. EIGHT25MEDIA was able to address that issue by making the new site very easy to navigate.

How did you come to work with EIGHT25MEDIA?

We wanted someone local who also provided exceptional service and support. EIGHT25MEDIA reached out to us a few times before, and we reviewed their past work, which were impressive. Once we brought them in for a meeting, we were very confident they could produce an excellent site and within our confined budget.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was completed in October 2015

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform?

EIGHT25MEDIA performed beyond what was expected. The team was extremely helpful in answering our concerns and delivering quality work, sometimes even during tight deadlines.

What distinguishes EIGHT25MEDIA from other providers?

They were very accessible and able to work on smaller parts of our project immediately, even though we know we are only one of many clients that they need to work with.

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

No. They were attentive to our needs, and produced an excellent product.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I have my own marketing consulting business, a single person LLC. I work with small businesses primarily in the technology industry, mostly startups and nonprofits. I work with another person who runs his own firm, and together we offer marketing consulting services to people that don't necessarily have the budget to hire an entire marketing team. We become their marketing arm, and we offer services with a blended skill set. We essentially become a plug-and-play marketing department for our clients. Depending on the client's needs, we hire the vendors required for the project and manage them.

What is your position?

I'm the owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with EIGHT25MEDIA?

Most of the work they do for us is web design services. They also handle the maintenance for a few of my clients and, typically, the clients will want more content added after the first few months. Usually, it's a smaller update – not necessarily a single page update, but developing a section or revamping the website. At this point, I still have them doing maintenance for one of my clients.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

I've worked with EIGHT25MEDIA on three projects. For the first one, the company was in the process of launching a new product and revamping their entire website. The project was already ongoing, and I kind of came into the middle of it. Together with EIGHT25MEDIA, we worked with this client for about a year and a half.

Once I had a good sense of their capabilities, I involved them with a couple of other clients. I really like their design elements, and they were easy to work with. They were able to give individualized attention to each of our customers. We typically work with smaller startups or nonprofits, and startups can be chaotic. It's not necessarily easy to get information out of them, but they do have their deadlines to meet. I thought the team from EIGHT25MEDIA did a good job of meeting those sometimes hard expectations.

How did you come to work with EIGHT25MEDIA?

Initially, I was introduced to them through a company in the machine analytic space. EIGHT25MEDIA was handling their website, and I went there as a marketing consultant. For a year and a half, I was handling their marketing activities, so that's when I was introduced to them.

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

The projects EIGHT25MEDIA has been involved with are generally in the range of $10,000 to $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in early 2013, and I continue to bring them in on projects for my clients. I usually bring them in when I believe that the client's needs and budget are a good match for their team. I also do many referrals for them when I come across people in need of a web design firm. My ongoing engagement with them right now is primarily maintenance for a couple of clients. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from your work with EIGHT25MEDIA?

In one case, they created an identity for a nonprofit, and I thought they did a fantastic job. With some of the nonprofits, a website is not high on their priorities. They underestimate how important it is to present the image of a major brand when trying to get fundraising. The client's budget was limited, but they did a fantastic job of projecting the image of that organization as a top-notch effort powered by some of the best minds in the field. I was impressed with that.

EIGHT25MEDIA does a fantastic job of staying on top of the latest designs and technology, including responsive modules and analytics. They understand all the elements that need to be part of marketing a website.

Another case that I worked with them on was launching an open-source website – the project needed to be done in six weeks. I was impressed with the speed with which the EIGHT25MEDIA team responded. They were able to get that site launched in time. Their speed of response has been great, and their design sensibilities are excellent.

What distinguishes EIGHT25MEDIA from other providers?

The best aspects of working with them are their ability to understand a client's requirements, to deliver the most optimized site with good design and to do all that within the client's budget.

Is there anything EIGHT25MEDIA could improve on or do differently?

I think they could use a top-notch project manager, so that their owner [Rehan Fernando] does not have to get involved in everything. They have some good people on their team, but I think having an extra project manager could help them go a long way.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an app company that is developing a phone book app, which will be what we call a collaborated phone book. The whole idea is that people can create lists and share their phone books, thus creating group phone books. Everybody in the group can access each other’s number.

What is your position?

I am one of the co-founders of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with EIGHT25MEDIA?

Currently phone books are static. Basically, those same static phone books have been entered in our smart phones. At the most, what happens is that social media sort of links the numbers in our phone books. The whole idea behind our startup is that it’s very difficult to quickly find the person you are looking for. There are a lot of people who are named John Smith, but how do you know that the right John Smith is calling you? The app will basically categorize a person’s phone book into different lists and provide more contextual information about the person. When someone’s calling you or you’re trying to call somebody you know you’re calling the right person.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

EIGHT25MEDIA was instrumental in developing the user experience. In fact, before meeting them, we had sort of a prototype, and it was not very effective. They converted that prototype into a very user friendly and very clean interface. In fact, the first response from users was very positive; they saw that we were doing something very different and that we had a very clean interface. That interface was actually the result of our discussions with EIGHT25MEDIA, and it was for both Android and iOS. We had similar flows on both platforms.

How did you come to work with EIGHT25MEDIA?

I wasn’t involved in the selection process. What I understand is that my co-founder met EIGHT25MEDIA while he was in the United States. He talked to several different possible partners and found that EIGHT25MEDIA understood our product immediately. They are UX/UI experts, and they were very up-front in telling us the exact direction we needed to go. EIGHT25MEDIA knew exactly what we wanted and exactly how to get there.

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

We have spent somewhere between $10,000 and $50,000 working with EIGHT25MEDIA.

What is the status of this engagement?

The actual project is finished but we’re still receiving support from EIGHT25MEDIA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

We’re more than satisfied. EIGHT25MEDIA understood the product and what we wanted to do. The app has a very clean look and is very user friendly.

We had last met with EIGHT25MEDIA about eight weeks ago, and we incorporated their final comments into the app, which has helped produce a better product, although I don’t yet have any user metrics or data.

What distinguishes EIGHT25MEDIA from other providers?

I think most importantly is that they are very focused on the user experience. It’s not just about beautiful buttons. It’s about how do you minimize the clicks. That’s something that we learned from them. It’s been a huge learning relationship for us.

Is there anything EIGHT25MEDIA could have improved or done differently?

No. There’s nothing that I can think of.