Future Expert

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We organize camp safaris for people interested in wildlife photography and nature. NatureHook.com is a community website we’ve created in order to allow similarly-minded people to contribute their photos and articles. We have used the portal for promoting our tourism offer. I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Expert?

We needed to develop a website similar to Facebook, where people could create profiles, upload photos, post articles, comment on other posts, like, and share them. We didn’t want to go for a ready-to-use solution—it needed to be fully customized.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Expert developed our solution in .NET per our requirements. The main functionality was allowing photographers to upload content taken from high-tech cameras. The typical file size was large—around 15 MB—so one of our requirements was that, instead of sending the images directly to our servers, their size should be reduced at the user side beforehand.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with four or five people from their team, including a designer and two or three developers. We generally communicated through Skype video calls.

How did you come to work with Future Expert?

We searched for local companies in Ahmedabad using an online directory and asked for proposals from various companies. Future Expert was one of the candidates; they had a good portfolio and the lowest price.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work has been around 20 Lakh rupees. [2 million rupees or $30,000]

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Future Expert three years ago, around 2014, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site is currently live and it's working well. We haven’t begun the full-flight promotion effort for it; the site has only been shared within our circle.

Just through word-of-mouth promotion, we’ve attracted over 1,500 users to the site. It’s running smoothly, and there haven’t been any complaints.

We have begun email marketing with the users already registered on our site, and we are getting more people interested in our services.

How did Future Expert perform from a project management standpoint?

The process was very good and they had a flexible team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They converted whatever requirements we had into reality, without any objections. There were certain complex tasks, like reducing image sizes at the user side, but they did it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Everything was good, they understood our requirements well, and produced good design.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the sole director of an online service in England.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Expert?

At that time, I was looking for the best way to develop an online presence for my website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Expert built a bespoke website from scratch based on a server they host. Initially, I received a design brief for the website. The technology discussion came afterward, and we exchanged ideas. However, the project did not include marketing services.

What is the team dynamic?

As far as I understand, there is a single person operating under the Future Expert name.

How did you come to work with Future Expert?

I gave a design brief to three different companies. Each responded with an explanation of what they could do, and Future Expert’s email responses were reassuring. He came across as someone who understood what needed to be done.  

How much have you invested with them?

The total development cost was around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Future Expert in May 2016. The main contract has been completed, but I can still go back to them if I want to make small enhancements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website appeals to the organizations we targeted. It has attracted as many people as we could market it to. Around 10 companies have signed up for a subscription on the site, but this has more to do with the marketing of the site.

How did Future Expert perform from a project management standpoint?

The process went well. Everything was done by email; we never had to talk over the phone. This process was good for me, especially since we were working in different time zones. He replied effectively and was highly responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve only used one developer, but he grasped my concepts better than others I’ve tried to work with. He was able to get on with the task straight away, compared to other people who came up with flimsy excuses.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They need to be more proactive in creating bespoke elements on the site and suggesting better enhancements.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s good to have a clear scope in place when pitching the product since we can’t expect other people to understand what it is we want to create. I’ve preferred to produce mockups of the website—even if they’re only PowerPoint presentations—in order to show how the website transitions from one page to the next.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a drop-shipping e-commerce platform selling Chinese goods. It’s a multi-seller marketplace. We allow other sellers to list their items on our website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Expert?

We needed help with designing and developing our site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Expert was involved in the design, coding, and deployment. The site was developed completely in .NET using a customized shopping cart platform called nopCommerce. Future Expert created a responsive design that works on all devices. The site has an admin panel from which we could manage all orders and forward them to shopkeepers by email. We also wanted the ability to sell digital products like PDF files and software.

Another feature we wanted was the ability to operate the site across two domains, which took more time to build. We had purchased the VolPol.com and VolPol.in domains, with the former being a global site and the latter aimed at the Indian market. The .com site displays prices in dollars and the .in site displays them in rupees. These domains have different payment gateways as well: PayUMoney for .in and PayPal for .com.  

What is the team dynamic?

I communicate exclusively with Avtar Mori, their CEO. There were around four developers and designers on the team.

How did you come to work with Future Expert?

We contacted a number of local agencies, but we liked that Future Expert offered a reasonable price. I had seen their earlier work and was impressed by it.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, the total cost has been $25,000–$35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Future Expert in April 2016. The project took six months to complete, but we started discussions one year earlier. We have a continuous relationship as we are adding new features. They also provide maintenance and address any bugs. We’ve just started the marketing and search engine optimization phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I am not a technical person, but Future Expert fulfilled all my requirements. I am impressed with the results.

How did Future Expert perform from a project management standpoint?

It was very good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of Future Expert’s code is good and I rarely found any bugs after the site was deployed. The price is also very reasonable, compared to other agencies. The number of features they provide for our budget is outstanding. No other agency can offer this.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, it takes them longer to reply to my emails, possibly because they’re busy with other projects. Improving the reply times would be good.