Helio Interactive

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The business provides ideas and inspiration for a plant-inspired and gluten-free diet.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Helio Interactive?

I had no idea how to develop a website so I needed to hire someone who did.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Helio built multiple sites for us, including YumUniverse.com and GlutenFreeBakingAcademy.com. They incorporated e-commerce functionality and membership capabilities for running an online school. They integrated our mailing list, added membership plug-ins, and built other custom plug-ins. They’re currently building another online school website as well.

What is the team composition?  

I work directly with Heather (founder & solutions engineer, Helio Interactive) and she works with other people on her team.

How did you come to work with Helio Interactive?

They were a referral from a friend that is a social media expert.

How much have you invested with them?

I've probably spent $80,000–$100,000 but I’m not entirely sure.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together about 10 years ago and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

GlutenFreeBakingAcademy.com is extremely successful because of their work. They built YumUniverse.com and have helped me continue to evolve that site. The new site they’re building is an even bigger online school with a more complicated capability that will hopefully launch in the fall. Anything I need for my business, they help me create, find, or build.

How did Helio Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

Heather is very proactive. If there's ever a potential issue, she brings me the solution before she even tells me about the problem. We use Asana for project management and her attention to detail is excellent. She's always available and has excellent communication skills. I've worked with other developers, but I don't want to ever work with anyone other than Helio again.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They don't rest on their laurels. They're constantly continuing their education and then bringing that knowledge to their clients. They're the best.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really don't have anything to say that I would change.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you're communicating your needs clearly. Also, it's important for clients to know at least a little bit about everything that's involved with their site.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and chief technology officer of a web design development and internet marketing consulting organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Helio Interactive?

They provide us with design and development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They partner with us to provide graphic design and web development work for not-for-profit and for-profit companies. Generally, we’re taking over a failed operation and rebuilding it to provide a good foundation and infrastructure for future growth.

Helio primarily uses PHP, Javascript, HTML, and CSS for coding. For work methods, they are very flexible and can work either Waterfall or Agile.

What is the team composition? 

We work with anywhere from one to three people from their team at a time — usually a designer and developer.

How did you come to work with Helio Interactive?

I’ve known Helio’s founder for many years. We’ve worked together in various capacities and hosted a number of events together over the years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2015, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While working with them, we’ve increased revenue, sales, and lead generation for a variety of websites.

How did Helio Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is clear and concise, whether we speak over Slack, Asana, email, text, chat or phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Helio has a unique ability to craft solutions for complex problems, including the ones the client didn’t anticipate. They don’t wait to be asked to find a solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

None that I can think of. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I represent two different organizations that have used Helio. First, I’m the president of Kalipr, which does digital marketing for healthcare companies. Second, I’m a senior strategist with Incognito Design, a general branding and marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Helio Interactive?

Both Kalipr and Incognito Design do website design and development as part of their service offerings. We hired Helio for site programming and to help us think about this at a more strategic level.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve used Helio for WordPress sites and have done a website, analytics, and email projects with them. When we start an engagement, we share general ideas about what we want to do with the technological solution. They would help us work through the overall strategy, then we’d take over the design. They would review the designs and, once complete, we’d hand the designs over to them to build and test a final product.

What is the team composition?

I typically interact with a senior person, either a developer or the owner.

How did you come to work with Helio Interactive?

We were referred to them by a friend.

How much have you invested with them?

I'm guessing between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together for about a year and a half. It’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve worked extensively with Helio to measure the results of what we create together. I’ve been really happy with the work they’ve done. If I’m the final decision-maker, then the metric would be how pleased I’ve been with their performance – and working with them has been top-notch.

How did Helio Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via email and phone and they also use project management tools. I have access to senior people and they're always responsive. Whether it’s quoting an engagement or managing an engagement through its lifecycle, they've been great at staying on top of deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say their passion for what they do and their attention to detail.

One of the other things that Helio does really well is to help us think through how development can take place at a more strategic level. They're great at helping to think through the overall development strategy. That’s what differentiates them from other developers.

I would feel very comfortable using Helio for an e-commerce or WordPress site. They have a particular skillset around WordPress as well as strengths in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. They also did really well with mobile design and development and with email.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don't just look at them as a developer because they have so much more to offer in terms of overall strategic counsel.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Brand Manager for digital marketing at Bosch. We are one of the leading power tool producers and automotive suppliers in the world, among other lines of business. I run all of our social media, online advertising, SEO, and our online community, BethePro.com.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Helio Interactive?

We had an idea eight years ago to create a knowledge sharing community for trade professionals. We needed a solution outside of the Bosch content management system to do this. We didn’t have a template for it and needed to start from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Helio is our dedicated vendor for BethePro.com. They’ve managed the operation of the site from end to end since day one. They developed a BuddyPress site for us, which is a WordPress theme that they’ve optimized and customized for us based on our requirements. For example, we wanted our community members to be able to earn points for participation, like posting original content or comments and threads; they found a plugin with that capability for us.

What is the team composition?

I deal with Heather [Heather Acton, Founder and Technical Director, Helio Interactive] directly—probably because I've known her for many years—but I've also dealt with other people in her organization.

How did you come to work with Helio Interactive?

I had worked with Heather on multiple projects while I was with a prior employer before coming to Bosch. She’s one of the WordPress superstars in Chicago and, I would say, probably all the United States.

When we were searching the landscape of WordPress developers for a vendor, there were a million of them to choose from. We wanted somebody that had an excellent command of the WordPress content management platform and could customize it to our needs. When you narrow in on that, the universe gets smaller because there are very few developers who can do it consistently well.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2010 and its ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From a hosting and maintenance standpoint, the site rarely goes down. Its uptime is around 99.9%, which is our main KPI besides user satisfaction.

The BethePro.com community has grown to over 11,000 members. Our members have a thread to report issues or bugs, which is standard in most communities. I haven’t often had to use it. We rarely have issues and when we do, they respond immediately. If they’re going to make a change or implement an upgrade, they give us 2–3 weeks advance notice so that we’re able to let our members know. They’re very good about making sure that we’re well aware of any issues that come up and how they’re going to fix them, the scope and the timeframe.

How did Helio Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

We usually communicate via email or phone. Heather has been really easy to work with over the years that I've developed a relationship with her. We can talk very frankly about processes, additions, and issues that the site might have. They always come back to me with a well-done scope of work, change orders, or anything else along those lines. They’re open about what happens and give us an honest price. Everything's done on time within budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Customer service. Everyone I’ve worked with puts the client first. They’re one of the most responsive vendors that I deal with.

We've put our confidence in them because they've never failed to deliver. Whenever we request something or if there's a problem, they respond quickly, usually within minutes. There’s hardly ever an issue that they can’t find a solution for, even though we ask for some outrageous things. They’ve always been spot-on with everything that we've ever asked. They’re one of our best vendors when it comes to reliability. There are very few vendors that I feel as strongly about.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of any. We’ve had to decline some ideas for upgrades that they brought to us because they didn’t fit into our budget. But, other than that, Helio isn’t one of our vendors that I would suggest improvements to.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Helio is excellent at translating concepts into operational projects. If I come to them with an idea, they’ll come back to me with 3–4 options. They’re intuitive about the work. It’s a very symbiotic relationship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and creative director of C2 Creative, a branding and design company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Helio?

We hired them to execute technology and website development because we don’t have that capability internally.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over the years, they’ve developed everything from basic brochure websites, to e-commerce sites, to web apps. Whatever website solution our clients needs, they build it for us using various CMSs, backend and frontend software, etc. 

Their work method was generally agile because our deadlines are usually pretty short. But when we have a longer timeframe to get a project done, they’ll often use the waterfall method so we can plan our steps out more carefully. 

What is the team composition? 

It depends on the project size and expectations, but generally, we work with anywhere from one to three people from their team.

How did you come to work with Helio?

A mutual contact connected us.

How much have you invested with them?

We've consistently invested in their business over the last 5 years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them 2013, and we continue to work with them on a variety of projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Helio executes the work we assign them. As far as quality goes, I’m not a developer so I can’t offer a lot of technical insight into their coding, but unlike many of the developers I’ve worked with in the past, Helio doesn’t take shortcuts or over-build. They set expectations and deadlines, and they meet those expectations, ensuring they explain the rationale behind their decisions to us along the way.

How did Helio perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very flexible and always attempting to find the best solution for any given problem. On average, they’re usually pretty close to deadlines if not sometimes ahead of them.

To communicate, we use Slack. We also plan and strategize on the phone a lot, which distinguishes them from other developers who aren’t as willing to do so. For bigger, more complicated projects, where there needs to be more clarity on each milestone, we use Asana.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A lot of developers will take your direction and never question it, often coming back to you with a poorly developed deliverable that could’ve been much better had they been willing to question us a bit more. 

Helio, on the other hand, is willing to have upfront, honest dialogue about the strategy for a project. They ask questions and make suggestions to ensure they come back with the best possible outcome.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you come to developers with not just an idea of what you want, but a detailed plan to ensure your expectations are understood and met.