ImageX

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the associate vice president of digital products and innovation for a large nonprofit entity in North America. We’re part of a loosely federated organization that’s driven from the bottom up; we have over 800 locations across the United States, and each is independently owned and operated. Our network includes 900 different websites. I answer to the SVP of all of digital items, who answers to the chief experience officer.

My job is split between working on projects specifically for the Twin Cities market as well as working on this new distributed initiative. I’m responsible for leveraging digital resources and making enhancements to serve our audience in the best way. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

As an internationally recognized nonprofit, we can’t operate with the strength of a cohesive unit to capitalize on our 2,200 fitness facilities and 20 million gym members in the United States. We’re spending a lot of money on duplicating digital efforts 800 times over. This means we have less money to invest in what’s core to our mission, which is fostering Youth Development, Healthy Living, and Social Responsibility.

It is essential that we invest our capital in a way that fostered collaboration across our network to bring down costs. We wanted to drive a philosophy of sharing and open collaboration. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re helping us build a solution. ImageX is one of the lead agencies on our collaboration platform. ImageX has been our thought partner in creating a system of choice with different technology providers.

ImageX is closely aligned with our mission, produces great quality, and is a fantastic partner. They recognize that we’re a nonprofit. They know we don’t always have robust technology teams and we often need a lot of help. Nonprofits can have half of the available budget and twice the needs of a for-profit organization.

ImageX’s role mainly involves our distribution in Drupal, which allows any of our locations to get an enterprise-grade, fully responsive, mobile-optimized website within a few minutes through just a few clicks. They’ve helped us to determine a long-term approach from a strategy perspective in tandem with a few other agencies.

ImageX also provided code for our open collaboration specifically. We launched the distribution publically in January 2017, and then we worked with ImageX to develop specific code for social media integration and search engine optimization (SEO). They built some innovative integrations with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager that make it very easy for a content admin who may not have any technical expertise to get started with Google Analytics, allowing them to view site performance in real time.

ImageX is impressive because they delivered great quality on time, within our budget, and with no issues or defects at all. Working with them was an absolute pleasure. In addition, I asked them to collaborate with our other agencies, and they did phenomenally well. As you can imagine, collaboration between agencies could have introduced a variety of potential conflicts, but that didn’t happen at all. If we had any issues, they openly and with transparency communicated with other agencies to find the solution and resolve the problem. I did not see any friction between ImageX and the other agencies. We liked them so much that we’re looking forward to working with them further on our open distribution in addition to those other agencies.  

How many resources have been assigned to your project?

I don’t know exactly how large the team was. I’ve worked primarily with a lead technical architect, Yuri, and with Brent, our account leader. They give suggestions to guide our long-term strategy. I also worked with a project manager to make sure that the work was on schedule and that we were invoiced appropriately. I’m sure they had a handful of developers writing code at the direction of Yuri.  

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Yuri actually used to be at another agency that was an original founder of the project. When he moved to ImageX, we followed and started talking to ImageX. We had a summit in Houston, Texas in February of 2017, and we invited partners that were interested in our open platform. Brent and Yuri came to Houston to meet with us. Once we learned that they were interested in working with mission-driven organizations and were aligned with our goals, it was clear that they’d be a great partner to try. We started by asking them to write a bit of code. What we got was great, and now we’re planning to have them do more.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February of 2017, and the work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve gotten good press because of the quality and the caliber of the partners writing the code. ImageX is among the top providers that we’ve worked with. The number of associations that are either interested or are committed to this initiative is growing daily. Right now, different locations are in various states of launching new websites. Many sites are in development and will launch this year. Another 25 associations have committed to either launching a site in the imminent future or leveraging a portion of the open code to augment their current web stack.

Because they wrote code for a distribution, the work from Image X will not have the standard KPIs associated with a web project. Instead, we looked holistically at the open platform itself. One of our associated locations in Seattle has 19 different branches. They spent 6 figures when building their initial site, which was an early prototype of our open platform. With the new distribution and working with partners like ImageX, our associations have been able to reduce their costs by up to 70% and increase their speed to market by 75%. Some of our associations don’t have the funds to set up a Google Analytics account that integrated with their website. That’s why we have our out-of-the-box solution that enables easy setup and integration via the interface that ImageX built.  

Over time, each association will gather usage information to continue to optimize their experiences at lower costs than using a proprietary platform. Through ImageX and the other agencies, everything worked properly. We didn’t have to go back to them with bug defects or things of that nature, so it saved us a lot of time.  

Did ImageX make themselves available to organizations that had questions about their work?

Our organizational movement in Australia has 34 associations. They just recently voted to consolidate 99% of those locations. Because they’re looking for a new web platform, I connected a decision-maker with Yuri at ImageX, and he helped them build an entire prototype site to be shared with their leadership. It’s important to be aware of the time difference between Vancouver and Australia. Yuri made himself available for hours at a time, often late at night, giving essentially free consulting to make sure our Australian counterparts were set up for success. ImageX showed that they believe in this platform. It was fantastic to connect a colleague with a partner like ImageX and know that they were in good hands. Our Australian colleagues had only positive feedback after their interactions with ImageX.  

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

The productivity gains and ease of management are impressive. It was so easy to work with them. We truly feel like they are a partner. If we ran into an issue, they made it easy for me to trust them. Their communication was proactive from the start.  

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

It’s been great so far. We’ve only been working with them for about 6 months, but I haven’t seen anything concerning.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for PABCO Gypsum, which is a division of Pacific Coast Companies. We make drywall and advanced soundproofing materials for buildings. I’m the head of the marketing department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

I had a team of developers working on some upgrades to our Drupal CMS sites, and I wasn’t happy with the level of attention and quality they had. I was struggling with them a bit. The ImageX guys came highly recommended, so I gave them a shot. They were on-point to pick up where the previous development team had left off.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had an existing Drupal site, and it lacked a little bit of style and pizazz on the frontend. More importantly, we have an advanced dealer locator, which uses the Google API. The previous developers were trying to get that all to work, and it was just littered with bugs and wasn’t working right. We couldn’t get our database to load. We couldn’t get the GEO coordinates accurate. It was just a whole slurry of things.

The guys from ImageX came in and cleaned everything up. They gave the site a bit of a shakedown because I wasn’t very confident with the level of work the previous team had done. They kicked some of the gremlins out of the basement, if you will, and addressed potential security problems, and proposed some updates to it. Now it’s pretty polished and solid. It still needs a little bit of TLC, but it’s all fine-tuning from here. Before, it was just breaking.

We don’t have an e-commerce module built on the site. We have a dealer and distributor channel to which we refer all our customers. There are three sites I control; pabcogypsum.com, quietrock.com – which is the site I really wanted some focus on – and pabcobuildingproducts.com. All three of those domains are under my control.

ImageX worked with all three, with more focus put onto quietrock.com because of my sensitivity about that site. It had come a long way, and we left that site hanging when we were in phase two of development. So, most of their focus had been on quietrock.com. Some of the security updates and proposed fixes did get applied to the other domains as well. A lot of the bling, the stylizing, and the work done to that locator module was all on quiestrock.com. It didn’t affect the other sites.

I didn’t ask to select their developers. I was told they had a fine group, and they were already primed by the person who recommendation them. They already knew a bit about my projects before they started. They were on-point to do all the heavy lifting for the development work. The site was already built, so they didn’t work on the design.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

They were a referral from another company I’d worked with in the past.

How much have you invested with ImageX?

We’ve invested around $20,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January of 2017, and our relationship is ongoing. I was so pleased with their work that I decided to hopefully enter a service agreement with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

More people are using the dealer locator, and I’m not getting any errors coming through on the backend, so that’s good. It’s been a combined effort, through marketing and stuff, where people are going to that dealer locator now. I’ve been marketing it a lot lately, and luckily for me, people are actually getting into contact with dealers and buying the product, so that’s pretty substantial. I would say it’s improved by about 20%.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. There was a guy I was working with specifically over there, Leslie Cordell [Web Developer], and he’s been a rock star. He’s been a pleasure to work with so far. We mainly use email and phone to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

I’m a bit of a geek, so I could actually look at the code itself. I can say that the code is really clean. There’s not a whole lot of junk or residual copies of style sheets referencing a new entry somewhere. Sometimes developers make a copy of it somewhere and rename something, just to keep the ball rolling. The quality of the code is really spot-on. The level of detail is really spot-on. They’ve met every single requirement I’ve had. They’re very punctual. When they say something will only take about an hour or two, they mean it. There were no surprises. When they said it would take an hour, it never took four. Their estimations were spot-on. I’m very pleased with their dev team all around. It was awesome.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

No. I can’t think of anything. I’ve been really stoked with the work they’ve done.

Do you have any advice for potential clients of theirs?

When selecting a development team, you should get your head around your project before you start talking with them. It’ll speed things along and make the whole process a lot easier. People often don’t know what they want. ImageX is pretty good at talking through some of that stuff. They’re good at communicating with their clients, but the more the client knows out of the gate, the better. I think that goes without saying for any development group. It’s kind of a ‘No duh!’ but a lot of people don’t get that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a management consultancy business where we work with clients to help them with their management processes. I’m the operations manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We were unhappy with our previous developer and the hosting setup we had. We’re a Drupal based shop and we moved to Acquia, which is the primary Drupal host.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first Drupal website ImageX built for us was a hackathon site which was a public website. It was a social collaboration website where people could come to the site and post challenges and people would respond to the challenges and post reviews and ratings. The last couple of years we’ve moved to doing systems that live inside client networks. They’ve been our ongoing development partner ever since. Every time we go in with a client, we develop new software for the client based on Drupal and that’s the work ImageX does. They serve as our development team and we’re the link between our client and ImageX. We’ve been extremely happy with the work they’ve done. The largest team that we’ve had work on a project has been five or six. I have a very good relationship with the lead developer.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

We asked Acquia for suggestions of developers and ImageX was one of the suggestions they gave us. We interviewed three companies that Acquia recommended and gave them each a proposal. ImageX had the most in-depth responses and the most reasonable rates to the proposal.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them six years ago, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re very pleased with how the public site turned out. The bigger successes are the projects we’ve done in recent years where they’re for internal clients. We’ll work with a large company and get several thousand people participating on this platform to move new ideas forward and creating new processes. One of the clients had 5,000 active engaged users on the platform. The platform we’re currently working on will have upwards of 65,000 users when it’s done. Our previous developer did not provide deliverables in a timely manner and didn’t have a good grasp of the technology. When we switched to ImageX, things went much smoother and much faster. They are more reasonably priced and much more responsive.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

I have access to the software inside their system.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

In my world, we work with high-level executives and deadlines can be really crazy and the clients don’t want to accept delays. Sometimes the situation seems impossible to get done in time, but ImageX has always pulled it off. They’ve been incredibly responsive in really demanding deadline situations. I know many other developers would not be as responsive.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

No. I’m a super happy customer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager at a technology company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

For our own internal projects, we generally have a program manager, who in this case is me, and then also a technical architect. We then hire partners to come in and help with the day-to-day activities and the development. That is true of all of our larger projects, and that was the case with this particular one as well. ImageX got involved with a project for an end-customer of ours. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ImageX was part of our initial kick-off meeting, and that’s where we gathered a lot of the requirements. ImageX was involved from the initial client meeting to the end of the project.The site has been in Ektron and the client wanted to move to a new CMS. ImageX built the site in Drupal 8 and they were specifically working on the frontend and backend development. They weren’t just working on basic pages and press releases, but also helped with important functionalities like translation, and if somebody was coming in from a certain region, for example, being able to figure out kind of what language the site should show up in. ImageX worked with our team and also the client. They provided one project manager, two developers and one person for QA. It took a week or two to put the team together.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Our director of professional services was the one that suggested ImageX. She knows of their work and speaks of them very highly. Generally, we go to the partner firm and say this is who we’re looking for and then they’ll put together some resumes and we actually go through and interview them as well. Our company had worked with them in the past but this was the first time I personally had worked with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in January 2017 and was completed in three months

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We talked to their management team about their work ethic and from a project management perspective, their project manager was extremely thorough. I never had to worry about anything. There are times, honestly, where we kind of have to look over somebody’s shoulder to make sure that they’re doing what they need to do but she’s very self-motivated and self-starting and I would say that same feedback for their development team and for their QA. They don’t just take requirements and do exactly what you say. They really think through the process. They throw back ideas of things that could make the project better. They’re willing to get involved with the client and help them along with what they need and really motivated to do the best job that they can. I feel like they went above and beyond my expectations. We did not experience any turnover in the team. We use JIRA as our bug tracking software. The project was remote.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

I have worked with several different firms throughout my career and I see ImageX has a willingness to learn. For example, we have a brand-new system of doing work technologically at our company. They were able to dive right in and figure out exactly what they needed. This is the fastest ramp-up for a project that I’ve had.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

Even when we talk to their management team, some of it was just getting used to our process, but that’s true of anybody. If I was thinking about constructive criticism, I don’t think there’s anything that I would say ImageX, in general, needs to improve on. I think they’re a really strong company and we were extremely happy with the work that they did for us.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with ImageX?

I would say ask for references to see if they can find anybody experienced with auditing code. I think sometimes you can see a website someone has built that might look great from the outside but it’s not really built well on the inside. Asking for those examples to get that information would be helpful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

RESolutionsTECH is a consulting firm specializing in Raiser's Edge. It's one of the more popular fundraising databases that many colleges, universities, and not-for-profits are using. I’m the senior account manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We focus specifically on the Raiser's Edge side, a fundraising database, but there are other tools and products that relate to Raiser's Edge on the website. If an organization is looking to do fundraising, one option is to purchase one of these products that allows donors to go online, complete a donation form, and go through that whole process. Their contact information, their amount of donation, and what kind of campaign it came through, then goes into Raiser's Edge. We were searching for a partner who could assist on the more advanced technical aspects of the web design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The way our system works is that myself and another technical person on my side have a weekly call with them to discuss the projects taking place, how they're progressing, the amount of time spent, and where we are in terms of what was originally laid out in the project plan. We're just making sure that there aren't any changes from that perspective. The ImageX team is working directly with our clients on a daily basis on particular projects. If there is a question, clients will post it to an online ticket system portal, and then ImageX has that communication with the clients on an ongoing basis.

This is a steady format that we have. For any new client that comes on, we assess their needs, share that with ImageX, and they'll give us their thoughts on the scope of the project. Once we're up and running, it's a collaborative effort of us and ImageX communicating with the clients.

There are three to four staff members with different roles from ImageX working with us. We are assigned one account manager. Depending on the type of request that comes in, it’s divided out to those other staff members.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Our specialty is the Raiser's Edge, but we're lacking expertise on the web development side of things. That's where we started reaching out to potential organizations that specialize in web development. We came across ImageX and were happy with their reviews. They sent us references, and we reached out to them. We had a few preliminary calls, and those discussions went well. That’s when we decided to ultimately partner with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We finalized our agreement with them in early February 2017 and started rolling things out from there. The work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our experience with ImageX has been nothing but positive. We had an email from one of our clients saying they were extremely happy with the interaction, expertise, and responsiveness so far with ImageX. That email was a big thank you letter for introducing us to them and getting the project up and running. We look forward to a long-term and successful partnership.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Basecamp for managing projects between ourselves and ImageX. We also have an online portal system through Salesforce. All of our communication with clients is through the platform. We get updates on a daily basis and an overall recap of what's taken place on a weekly basis. They’re on top of their documentation.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

The thing that stands out to me the most is their responsiveness. We've had partnerships with other clients or organizations where we sometimes don't hear back for a couple of days, but ImageX is always very quick to respond. Within a couple of hours, they're responding to emails or requests. Another thing is their level of expertise. We've been blown away not only by their expertise, but also their willingness to share it with us. No other partner has gone to that level in terms of sharing their knowledge.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

There isn't anything that comes to mind yet about any issues we’ve had with them. We've been really happy with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a web development shop based in Dallas, Texas. I’m the chief financial officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We became busy with some large projects, so we were looking for additional resources in order to scale up quickly. The idea was to partner with someone to help with overflow, but they had to be experienced with Drupal.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ImageX has provided third-party work for one of our clients. We have worked exclusively with two backend developers from ImageX's team. We weren't sure how they would mesh with our own team but came to find that they were very well-trained, knowledgeable individuals. They were also very good communicators.

We've used ImageX for a second, smaller engagement, with only 1 resource. They exceeded our expectations there as well.

We have used ImageX's developers on two projects. Because they were capable, we've shifted them to more urgent work.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Our owner knows ImageX's team well, given that we work in the same business space. When we needed additional resources, we reached out to ImageX in order to see if we could leverage some of their people. We did consider other North-American companies, but in the case of 2 of them, it became clear that their knowledge and workflow practices were not on-par with our requirements. We had very specific processes using Git repositories, development, and testing environments, and so on.

How much have you invested with ImageX?

This is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with ImageX a year and a half ago. The project ran for longer, but their involvement lasted for 6-8 months when the client was looking to speed up the level of output. I would have loved to use ImageX's resources more, but they were expensive. That said, this works fine for high-level work which can support additional billing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Even though I can't provide solid numbers, a general indicator of ImageX's performance is that we were able to not only reduce our timeline backlog and get back on track but to also exceed the client's expectations.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We use a combination of tools for project management, including Basecamp for client communication and repositories, Harvest for time-logging, and Pivotal Tracker, which is used for user stories and backlogs. We also use Git for versioning control.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

Some developers, even though they may be technically competent, shouldn't be brought to a client meeting. ImageX's team can communicate well, even at the client level, taking complex ideas and translating them into everyday terms during conference calls. ImageX's resources were very capable of being team players and didn't try to stick to their own way of doing things.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

The cost was a little high, but there were no issues with ImageX's work. They did a good job for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Rail Digital is a web design and animation company. I am a project manager for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We have been dealing with web development for a few years and have recently outsourced our team elsewhere. When that group started slacking on their end, we needed the help of a stronger dev team. We prefer this approach to using single developers because we know that, if someone becomes unavailable, someone else can pick up the pace.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We picked up a client who came to us with Drupal development needs. ImageX worked as an alternative to our regular team. They're competent in JavaScript injection and picked up the task along the way.

The client didn't provide a full list of requests, so we approached ImageX about this. One of their lead developers stepped in, took control, and came up with solutions quickly. There were also other resources in the background on ImageX's side. The client ended up working with ImageX directly, which saved the project.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

We found ImageX through Clutch. There were a few other considerations, some with very low Drupal development costs, but they didn't seem very knowledgeable about what they were doing. Especially since we'd had a poor interaction with the former offshore team, we didn't view many of them as trustworthy. Having a Canadian-based developer who could actually speak with us was very helpful. We could communicate within our timeframe.

How much have you invested with ImageX?

The initial quote for ImageX's services was around $2,000, but it extended into the $4,000 to $5,000 range. The cost was on the smaller end of what we were expecting.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in June 2016. We interacted with ImageX for around a week, showing them what problems we were facing, and the whole project took a month to complete. The timeframe was extended by the client dragging their feet and coming up with more tasks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The client had a new landing page with a search function for their database of companies. The system started working immediately after ImageX checked in, but they've had to impose their own approach in order to make the design functional.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

There was a lot of middle management in the beginning, but we eventually put ImageX in direct contact with our client in order to exchange requirements and have discussions.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

I appreciated how knowledgeable ImageX's staff was and how professionally the team was handled, in comparison to other teams we've worked with. The project management was great.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

No. ImageX knocked it out of the part.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a food policy research institute working as a non-profit. I am the web communications manager of the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We needed to redesign our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially worked with ImageX 4 years ago on a WordPress template design and development project, and have since engaged them for various other tasks. We also have a Drupal platform and ImageX has helped us perform usability studies for it. 

The size of our team will vary depending on the work. There are usually 4–5 people from ImageX involved on any specific project, including a creative director, a project manager, a designer, and a developer. I make sure that a project lead from ImageX's side is directly involved, but I also interact with designers and developers directly. When I need to, I will also contact the COO [chief operating officer] and president of ImageX, who have responded well. If for any reason, we don't receive a quick answer from a resource, we have additional channels available.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

We were looking for vendors willing to work on smaller projects. Our institute has several Drupal and WordPress platforms, but we don't have a full-fledged development shop. We looked for a stable partner for a long time. My former boss came across ImageX's name while we were approaching other companies. We gave ImageX a small project and they delivered. It was a smooth ride afterward.

How much have you invested with ImageX?

The total cost of our company-wide work with ImageX has been in the six-figure range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with ImageX for 4–5 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started our work 4-5 years ago, with one website. By the time we had 3–4 pages, ImageX was brought in to redesign one of the templates we were using extensively. We now have over 40 microsites on it, which proves its impact. Some of the work I've done with ImageX early on has helped make our platform what it is now.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Basecamp for all of our communication and document-sharing with ImageX. We have used version-control systems and collaborative platforms in the past, but we now exchange code directly.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

ImageX is very responsive and accessible. I can always reach their president, COO, program leader, and developers over Skype. ImageX is a smaller company, and I've appreciated being able to reach out to anyone on their team.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

ImageX is a fairly good company, and I only wish I had more money for keeping their team more involved. Being a non-governmental organization, we don't have a large budget.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy offers undergraduate degrees in: Emergency Management, Energy Systems Engineering, Facilities Engineering, International Maritime Business, Marine Engineering, Marine Transportation, and Marine Safety & Environmental Protection. We also offer graduate programs in Emergency Management and Facilities Management. As the Director of Enterprise Systems, I oversee the campus systems and project manage many of the IT projects for our division.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We did not have the man-power to build a new website on our own. We needed to find a company that could help us with the development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We created the design and editor roles in house. ImageX handled the actual design of this plan in a timely manner. We were able to stay interactive with ImageX on each stage of the development through scrum meetings. After development was complete, the Academy completed all content migration. ImageX came out for an in-person training session, which was great for our editors across the campus.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

ImageX was referred to us from Acquia. We considered 5 other options. ImageX stood out to us through its specialty in higher education and their commitment to working within the decided budget. We really appreciated the open conversation about what we needed to compromise on throughout development to keep within our budget.

How much have you invested with ImageX?

The total cost of our project with ImageX was under $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The new website was launched in August 2015, while the actual development took less than a year. Now that the big development piece is complete, we still have a small yearly package with ImageX to work on smaller projects as they arise. I'm happy we're still able to work with the lead developer who was on our original project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The reaction to the site as a whole has been very positive. We did a usability study at the end of 2015 and it went very well. Participants included prospective students, current students, staff, alumni, prospective corporate partners, and prospective continuing maritime education learners.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

Being included in scrum meetings was very helpful for us to stay interactive and engaged in the process. We always knew where the project stood.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

A small anecdote that expresses their professionalism and collaboration is our brief on-campus discovery session. We were able to confirm what the priorities were for the project, and they really instilled a lot of confidence for our staff that the project was in good hands. They listened to ideas and encouraged creativity in this planning process as well.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

Now that we work with ImageX on much smaller scaled projects as they arise, it's not always clear when these will be completed, because they are a lessor priority than a large scale project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide a free competitive intelligence platform which helps people uncover the latest news and alerts. Our clients gain insights which can help in terms of their competition. I am the head of marketing for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We needed help in remediating a Drupal development project. It had gone off the rails with our previous firm.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a fully-implemented design as well as a partial codebase. The integration with another technology wasn't functioning properly and ImageX was able to resolve this. We only had contact with one developer, but he may have had support in the background.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

The firm which wasn't able to take on the project referred us to ImageX.

How much have you invested with them?

We worked on an hourly contract.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work was completed in August 2016. The project was supposed to take only a few days but ended up taking one month to complete. It proved more complicated than ImageX anticipated. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

ImageX was able to get the integration working, which was a key part of our project. It had been completely derailed but ImageX got it to the finish line. Our homepage is currently live. Everything has gone according to plan in terms of quality and bug resolutions.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated with our developer using Slack.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

It seems difficult to get honest communication from some firms about Drupal development. They typically outsource the work after claiming to take it on themselves. In the case of ImageX, they were honest and true to their promise. Our developer was solid, which I appreciated.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

It would have been better to get a sense upfront of the total number of hours our project required. It ended up costing more than I thought. A part of this was on our end since we were trying to achieve something very complicated. Outside of this, I was happy with their work.