ImageX

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a private Christian university. I'm the IT [information technology] director of the organization. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We had decided on the Drupal platform for our website after researching technologies, but our own technology department did not have the time or resources to handle our project in the timeframe we wanted and, as a result, we decided to bid the work to external suppliers. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

ImageX designed our new website, using the Drupal platform. One of our top priorities was meeting the needs of prospective students. When they came to our website, the experience needed to be intuitive and it was important that they found the right information, presented in a pleasing way. One of our strategic objectives is to increase enrollment. We needed a better way of managing and governing content, so the tools used by the people in charge of this needed to be easy to use. Not all of them are technical. The people who develop copy and take pictures won't know how to program a website, so they needed the right tools in place.

We also wanted the ability to test the design with respect to navigation and resource accessibility. I wanted to make sure that we had a way of making decisions based on data versus the opinions of the web services committee. In the past, we'd had trouble with getting a consensus. One person may think that a certain design or structure is good, while someone else may not like it. I wanted to leverage our user base for making decisions. ImageX provided a solution for capturing that kind of data. Whenever we had a decision to make, we could use data to show if the users agreed or disagreed with a certain approach.

Another requirement was making sure that the new website was mobile-friendly. Our data showed that many of our students were browsing the site using mobile devices.

There were probably more resources on ImageX's team behind the scenes, but the core people that I'm aware of included our project manager and another person who was involved in the proposal process as well as a graphic designer involved in the user-interface kit. She was incredible in providing the design for our new website. We also worked with a programmer who was involved in the more technical issues, helping us develop many of the back-end requirements we requested. My internal team was responsible for providing copy and images for the website.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

I went on to the Drupal marketplace and chose 12 different vendors, based on their profiles. I contacted them for proposals and received five to six interesting replies. We started talking with the remaining candidates. We had not had the time to flesh out a full request for proposal. ImageX proposed helping us with putting one together. I sent that proposal to all the vendors and received the best proposal from ImageX.

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

Drafting our RFP [request for proposal] had a cost of $13,000. ImageX provided some work at that stage, which would have been done whether we chose to work with them or not. The actual project had a cost of around $110,000. We received an additional proposal at the end for enhancements that were not included in the beginning. It was for an additional $20,000. We haven't used up those additional resources.

What is the status of this engagement?

We're still working on additional enhancements with ImageX.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Using our testing and feedback processes, we engaged users at several points during the discovery phase. We created focus groups featuring both prospective and existing students. They had a big contribution in determining what our website would feature. It was no surprise that, once we implemented those specifications, we received a lot of positive feedback. We were giving them what they wanted. Furthermore, we received a lot of feedback which was strictly voluntary, and which was overwhelmingly positive. The new site was a big, positive change compared to what we'd had before.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

With respect to the work process employed by ImageX, we started out with storyboarding and used different elements, which eventually turned into a RAID log of issues. As the project moved along, items disappeared out of that RAID log and were marked as complete. During the process, whenever we had questions, wanted changes or needed clarification, whether in terms of functionality or design, ImageX provided revisions, which showed that they listened to what we told them.

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

ImageX proved to have a good understanding of overall issues so that, even with our poor articulation of the requirements, the problems were executed beyond our requests. Throughout the process, ImageX has been very professional. Not every issue has been resolved to perfection or to our exact specifications. ImageX warned us at times that, even though they could implement something, it would be costly due to the work required. ImageX asked us to prioritize tasks and decide what was or wasn't worth doing. We sometimes went to the second-best alternative and used the additional resources on items that were truly important. There were certain realities that we had to deal with respect to cost, but we ultimately prioritized things to our satisfaction. The most important problems were resolved.

Is there anything ImageX could have improved or done differently?

ImageX could have done a better job at reporting how resources were being used. We were a bit surprised to find out that we had used up our resources toward the end. It would have been nice to get precise hourly reports, showing us how many hours had been used up and how many we had left. ImageX did do an audit of our project after the fact, and they refunded us for quite a number of hours, enabling us to do things for which we were trying to find the necessary budget. I was very pleased with how ImageX's principal [president and CEO Glenn Hilton] handled our contract after it was completed. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a non-profit product developer working in the HIV prevention field.

What is your position?

I work with the communications team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We were looking to upgrade our website to the newest Drupal version and customize the modules we had.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

ImageX handled the Drupal upgrade for us. Since they were already working on it, we engaged them in making a few improvements to the site, too. They mostly amounted to small visual upgrades and some performance improvements.

There were also some elements in the content management system that we wanted simplified. I had been frustrated, for example, by the fact that I couldn't change image sizes by dragging them with my mouse. ImageX was able to add that functionality, which is helpful. Certain changes come automatically with the newest Drupal version while others had to be customized for us.

We worked with one lead developer. I assume that he had help, given that our project was bigger than what one person could handle. But for the most part, we only interacted with him.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Our organization has previously worked with ImageX when they helped us redesign our site a few years ago.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was completed around April 2016. We have a few more tweaks to take care of, but it's largely done.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Because it's an upgrade, it's hard to attribute any metrics directly to their involvement. The launch of the new site went well. We had one significant bug at launch, but ImageX was able to address it quickly. They were responsive in terms of answering questions and requests from us and always kept us in the loop when unexpected things emerged.

Even though the main thrust of the project has been completed, we still have issues and questions for which we contact ImageX. They're still paying attention to us, which is nice.

There hasn't been a huge need for making changes to the site since the upgrade. Everything has been working smoothly, so I have no complaints.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We started the project in December, near the holidays. At the beginning, I found myself requesting meetings more than ImageX. They could have been more proactive in this sense, but I’m guessing this had to do with the holiday schedule. Once we started the work, it went smoothly.

They’re extremely reliable and qualified collaborators. The developer we worked with was very helpful with suggesting resources and approaches that would make the upgrade go smoothly (and that we would not have known to ask for).

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

Project management was one of their strongest attributes in terms of keeping to deadlines. They also have a lot of deep technical knowledge of Drupal, which came in very handy in terms of helping us with module customization.

Is there anything ImageX could have improved or done differently?

No. ImageX was very knowledgeable in all of the areas in which we needed help. I felt that I could trust them and they were very responsive to our needs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an education technology company working with several different product lines.

What is your position?

I am the co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We've developed a custom application for the state of Texas. We've collaborated with ImageX in creating a request for proposal for the delivery of online instructional materials to five million teachers and students throughout the state. It's an extremely ambitious program, one of the first of its kind.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We have very strong in-house design and UX [user experience] talent. We've primarily relied on ImageX for looking at architectural issues regarding scaling the application to meet the needs of five million users. It was a significant step up for us and we didn't have the required Drupal expertise.

Architectural questions like this one lead to strategic questions. Their lead architect was tremendously helpful with adopting a strategic approach to the way in which we solved a number of problems. They offered us advice on things that we hadn't even considered beforehand. ImageX helped us create a long-term vision for our product and a roadmap to success.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

I met their team at an Acquia conference in Boston a year ago. Their lead architect and co-founder didn't try to sell me on their services. He was more interested in solving problems. We had a great conversation and talked in a free and open manner. When we came to need a partner, I went back to ImageX. They were by far the most responsive company that I interviewed. I was very cautious in starting our relationship, wanting to make sure that they understood our culture, language, and the way in which we worked. I initially gave them a low-risk project, which they delivered without a problem. That success led to their expanded involvement. 

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

The total cost of their services has been $50,000 so far. We're now working on a project for developing the contents of our syndication program. With that, the overall engagement cost is expected to be around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first got in touch with ImageX in November 2015. We had a meeting with them on December 23rd. We started our work the weekend after Christmas. They understood our urgency level and made sure that they'd be properly staffed during that time. We’ve been collaborating with them ever since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We already had much of the solution in place when starting the work with ImageX. When we brought their team on board, it was for doing a code audit and review of the vulnerabilities that would arise with scaling up. ImageX finished that work under-budget, under-time and they over-delivered. Through their results, we identified some options for improving the product, not just simply scaling it.

We're now entering into a third phase which is looking into how we should move beyond our current platform into content syndication throughout the state and beyond. This long-term API vision is largely due to ImageX's effort and we're extremely grateful.

A lot of the work was behind-the-scenes. An important part of the effort was getting our product to an enterprise level and making sure that we were prepared for the kind of growth and scale required. It was a critical launch for us. We only had one chance to make a good impression with our new brand for the new commissioner of education, as well as the five million users within the state. ImageX made sure that our architecture and caching strategy were built to meet future demand. They were essential in setting up our Acquia solution.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We have an Agile development culture within our company. We use certain tools and methods for getting our work done. ImageX was willing to work around those methods. Their whole team was on board with us within a day, culturally speaking. It was as if we doubled our team overnight, without missing a beat. When it comes to meeting deadlines, they were spot-on every time. Not only have they never missed one, they've been very responsive to change requests.

I made sure that they understood our expectations from the beginning because we have to work with a government agency. Sometimes, we get requests that don't make a lot of sense. They're driven more by policy than necessity. ImageX was very flexible in keeping development going and allowing the changeover to be a back-channel type of process. Change is a linear process and every modification has to be taken through a specific procedure before even getting started on it.

We use Jira for project tracking and ticketing. We've set it up in a way which enables our project managers to coordinate closely with the ones from ImageX. Often times, this can be a bottleneck or a source of conflict, but the project managers from both our teams have been excellent. They've amounted to a unified front of highly competent people.

Slack is our primary communication tool. We've rarely had to use email because there was someone available for us directly most of the time. When we were going live, ImageX were by our side the whole time, including on weekends.

We've also used Basecamp for more formalized communication concerning specifications and exchanging documentation. It's better suited for this than Slack.

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

The level of trust we've established with ImageX made it seem like we were one unified team. The back-office work was handled fluidly throughout. They were constantly on time, within budget and were always flexible with us. They were a pleasure to work with, and I couldn't ask much more from a partner.

People like ImageX are hard to find. Whenever a developer becomes too big, the type of customer service we seek out goes away. We've worked with them for a period of time and hope that their culture will be maintained in the same way.

Could you share any tips for potential clients?

Any startup looking for this kind of work should look for a developer  able to recognize that company's sense of urgency. There needs to be an understanding of what is truly important. Traditionally, different service or development shops tend to treat everybody in the same way, but ImageX was very good in recognizing our specific context. This is especially important for a young company: taking care of priorities and aligning towards the overall goal.

Looking for someone that is a good cultural fit is also important. We're a fluid and Agile shop, highly confident, transparent in our communications and fast-paced. We demand this from the people with which we work. ImageX has been a great fit for us.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated on April 16, 2019, by the client. New content is below.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CIO of Trinity Education Group, a design and product solution company for K–12 education clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We initially hired ImageX to develop a custom application for the state of Texas. However, the scope has expanded to include more complex and new architecture.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ImageX developed a service-based architecture for the Drupal-based CMS, providing a large ecosystem of services for the state of Texas. The team uses PHP to execute integrations and frontend development.

What is the team composition?

The team includes two project managers, two designers, 1–2 architects, at least six developers, and testing and QA resources.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $500,000 annually during the last few years, which brings our total investment to the $200,000–$1 million range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2015 and the partnership is ongoing.

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

The solution won a highly prestigious industry award for educational technology. As a partner, ImageX understands our customers’ functional needs, which enables us to focus on our core services. We consider them an extension of our team because the partnership has been consistent and scalable as we’ve grown as a company.  

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

ImageX has earned our trust by delivering on their promises and meeting expectations. Communication is fluid on Slack, Jira, and a design platform. We interact multiple times per day as we are continually scheduling meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a very close collaboration and continue to improve the rapport between organizations. Our team couldn’t deliver on time and budget—or even have the predictably for our end clients—without that excellent culture fit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, because we develop tech stack on an ongoing basis and the builds are rock-solid. They’re a great group to work with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should prototype a solution quickly with ImageX because it will benefit their long-term objectives.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a small liberal arts and sciences college with select pre-professional programs in San Antonio, Texas.

What is your position?

I am the associate director of Web and creative services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

Our work with them was centered around our .edu website and all of the subdomains and directories associated with it.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We have a developer on-staff who is familiar with our institution's guidelines and overarching communication and marketing goals for the site, plus the general maintenance done through our on-campus resources. ImageX stepped in to help us with all of our backend needs, including Drupal and module development, as well as a lot of the business objects and logic behind some of our new projects. They've helped us iron out requirements and figure out how to implement ideas realistically, while also helping all of the clients who would benefit from the project to reach their individual constituencies' goals.

We use Acquia as a hosting platform for our Drupal solution. As an Acquia-approved vendor, ImageX have worked with us in determining what it can support and in integrating our existing usage into platforms like Open Edu. Being able to merge Acquia's capabilities with Drupal for our existing development has helped us make implementations in accordance to our custom specifications.

Our college has four web-centered team members, including a web communications manager, a web producer, a frontend developer and a web director. Our frontend developer and web director are in charge of most of our collaboration with ImageX.

We've worked with multiple developers in ImageX's team, depending on particular aspects of our project. Altogether, we've collaborated with between four and six people. ImageX has developers with expertise in specific areas but, in terms of day-to-day conversations, maintenance, bug fixes and pushing new minor features to the site which don't require a new scope of work, we work with a single service agreement developer. We've had a fantastic working relationship with this person. We communicate our needs in as accurate and developer-specific language as we can and he translates them into what Drupal or Acquia can do for us. He's been an amazing partner as a go-to developer.

We do have a project manager with whom we have bi-weekly updates. Since we have a frontend developer on staff, we work better with ImageX when we are able to communicate direct feature requirements or bug issues with them in order to have as little information lost in translation. Most of our communication is done through Basecamp or Google spreadsheets.

It is a tremendous help for us to have a person who speaks the technical language on-staff. If we didn't have this resource, we'd be relying more heavily on our project manager.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Our university did a request for proposal for a complete website redesign in March 2013. ImageX were one of the vendors who replied to it and submitted a proposal, but we didn't choose them for our initial redesign. We parted ways with the partner that we ended up choosing a little earlier than we'd have wanted to. We realized that we had a need for continued backend development almost instantly.

We had been impressed with ImageX's proposal, including their backend knowledge of Drupal and Acquia, as well as their knowledge of best practices and open source code sharing. Our theming, branding, creative concept for content and user experience had all been completed, but we now needed a lot of help on the backend, including cleaning up some of the junk that our non-Drupal-savvy vendors provided us.

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

Our total development cost for the work with ImageX has been around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

There are two very strong points that make me continually satisfied with ImageX. The first is the fact that they are as committed to education as we are. Being an educational institution, we were looking for a partner who wouldn't just do some work, hand it over and not continue to assist us with it. As part of our relationship, we placed a huge emphasis on making sure that our frontend developer received training and documentation on the choices that were being made in Drupal. ImageX didn't provide specific PHP training, but rather showed our developer why they wrote the things that they did. This type of educational partnership has grown our success exponentially. When we need to lobby or advocate for new projects or new services, we're able to because we have this extended knowledge of the reasoning and logic behind the projects that we're creating. When we need to quickly troubleshoot something, we will at least know why that element isn't working, even if we won't have the ability to fix it. This has built up our on-staff knowledge, which we find to be extremely valuable, even if it's not something that can be quantified.

The second point is that ImageX built a set of customizable templates for faculty members on campus. This will allow us to essentially bring back faculty members who have not found a home on our main website due to the difficulty of editing it. They've come back to our domain, making our site as a whole a lot more leadership-oriented, providing a lot more content expertise.

For example, we have a group of humanities researchers who used to have their own website for their research lab. It had been built on Wordpress and was completely separated from our college. It only showed our logo at the bottom of their page. Moving back to our main domain, every hit that one of their research papers receives is additional traffic for us. We've become the home of these humanities researchers, being their founders and supporters at the same time. We're able to lock into that content and own it as much as they do, which is important to us as a university. We continually try to showcase the research and scholarships of our professors.

We will continue this project by opening our templates to student organizations and alumni chapters. We're working to get organizations across the world a presence on our .edu domain. We're receiving an increased viewership and audience which have also helped with our bounce rates and engagement. All in all, our work with ImageX has helped us increase staff education as well as increasing the number of quality viewers on our website.

Previously, there was no way for faculty to engage or to house content on our domain unless they were able to hand-code their own HTML and in-line CSS in a directory to which they had access. Now that there is a system in place, we have happy faculty and staff who are able to showcase their online presence through our site.  

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We had some issues with deadlines at the beginning of our relationship, but I think those were due to some staff turnover within their company. This is not something that should be passed down to the client by any means, but we have ironed all of those issues out and have developed a somewhat robotic system for keeping track of the work. It may seem that checking in twice a week regardless of the work that's being done is excessive, but it's definitely worth doing. An open line of communication helps us identify problems way before they become unmanageable.

Most of our communication was done through Skype, at our request, because it was important for us to keep all of our communication on the same platform. Screen sharing, conference calls and chatting are all done in one place. ImageX has been very responsive to this. I keep an open line with my project manager all day. Even though we have regular check-ups, I can ping her at any other time. She usually responds within ten minutes.

Could you offer any tips to potential clients?

Any prospective customer should engage in as much communication as possible and make sure that the questions asked are well thought-out. This may be a general user experience matter, but it's important to note that a vendor's staff is not physically a part of your company. The problems that a client conveys needs to be formulated clearly, with this in mind. In our experience, we found that, even though conversations on a daily basis may not be necessary, frequent communication and the tiny questions we've asked along the way helped build a better, more comprehensive product.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

USMP is a manufacturer of custom display solutions including LCD and OLED displays. We are a leader in the wearables market, but we service many different industries like gaming, medical, military, industrial and automotive, among others. We provide displays for anything ranging from a smart watch to an ultrasound machine or a helicopter’s dashboard.

What is your position?

I’m the strategic IT marketing manager. I’m still managing the web projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We had had a website with the same design for 3 years and we felt it was time for a redesign in parallel to the rebranding effort. We saw that we needed to create a new website, something more dynamic and interactive. We were working with a freelancer but he was really busy and not always available and responsive.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We started with a smaller project with them in which we were testing them out to see if we could work well together. That project was pretty successful and we were very happy with the results. We went ahead and did the whole website redesign and right now we’re basically tweaking things, adding some features and resolving a few bugs discovered on the backend.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

I did some research on Google to see what companies specialized in Drupal. I narrowed it down to five and we were working with another company that was involved in the Drupal community so once I narrowed it down, I asked for references, and they spoke very highly about ImageX. I reached out to them and started a conversation, got to know them better and liked them. They seemed to have a great and well-structured approach to project management. We met in person and they seemed like the right fit for us.

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

$55,000 to $60,000

What is the status of this engagement?

They are done with the website but we’re still working with them. They just rolled out some changes this past Friday.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I don’t have any formal feedback but we’ve been getting a lot of comments on how nice the new website looks and how clean it is compared to the last one. I have also noticed an increase on the web leads. We don’t have a contact form. We ask the people to write us an email with a description of what they need.  We’ve been getting a lot more email inquiries. Our bounce rate went down as well.

We didn’t add too many new features to the site; it was more of a new theme as opposed to new functionality. We have restructured our navigation and we created new content but that was on our side not on theirs. 

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated primarily through Base Camp. They use an internal ticketing system for keeping tracking of bugs and change orders. At the beginning, everything was done in Base Camp and we had weekly calls. But then their project manager and I added each other on Skype so that was a lot more efficient. I got answers right away and she was usually - she’s still pretty available to answer questions or if I want to submit a new ticket or something. That has worked better for us. The nice thing about Base Camp is that there’s documentation about the changes and everything is in one consolidated place. 

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

Their team is really nice and they’re pretty responsive. We had a rocky start but it seemed to me that they were a little short staffed and then they assigned more people to the project now. After they did that the project went very smoothly. We divided the project into phases and they finished the phases on time and under budget. That’s a big deal. We needed the website redesigned by a certain date and that was non-negotiable. 

Is there anything ImageX could have improved or done differently?

We are extremely happy with ImageX and their results. I really can't cite anything they should improve upon. 

Do you have any advice for future clients?

Overall, it was a very positive experience. I would do it all over again with them. I highly recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a software security company. We develop security software to protect video content for pay TV operators worldwide. For example, operators like DIRECTV or Time Warner Cable need to protect their content and, sometimes, they cannot acquire content from content providers if they don't have the right security. They need to add software to their boxes, devices, or players to make sure that content is secure, avoid piracy and protect their content and their revenues.

What is your position?

I'm the product marketing manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

In 2012, we wanted to redesign our site, and ImageX completed that project. Now, after three years, we felt like that site was kind of old and outdated. We wanted to do a complete redesign and modernize the site. We figured we would give ImageX another chance to overhaul the site since they performed well the last time. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

This project was a complete redesign, with a completely upgraded Drupal instance, everything from scratch. We needed it to be mobile responsive with a clean, modern design and very interactive usability. When we create content, we wanted it to be easy to create and easy to populate throughout different sections and pages. We wanted to be able to share our content in social media easily and have easy navigation and menus. We wanted videos and visuals to be very prominent on the site.

On the ImageX side, we had a project manager, a QA [quality assurance] person, a creative director, a couple of developers, and then a systems architect. They were collaborating closely with us throughout the whole thing.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Our company first worked with ImageX back in 2012. I wasn't with the company at the time, but they did research on different agencies. They decided to go with a Drupal-based agency because of the flexibility. After selecting three or four candidates, ImageX became the strongest one. For this recent redesign project, we actually opened another RFP [request for proposal] process but, in the end, we decided to go with ImageX again.

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

The total cost is between $80,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off the project at the beginning of June [2015], and we launched the site on September 9. Right now, we're still fixing some bugs. We have a service-level agreement with them, and we have requested additional hours to work on some improvements and to finish some things we were not able to complete the first time around. Our project was very time sensitive, and we had to launch before our biggest show of the year, so we had a very hard deadline.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I would say it increased the share-ability of content in social media. The way we create new content is now much faster. We can create content tiles with predefined images, titles, and copy much faster; and it's faster to populate, too. It also looks better. We've only been using the site for a month, so we don't yet have any representative or meaningful statistics. I would say the usability of the site has definitely improved. The menus and the way you interact with it have improved quite a lot.

In general, the users like the look and feel more than our previous site. It looks much more modern, and it makes the company look more global and up to date. We still have a little bit to do, to fix some of the issues, but I think we're going in the right direction there. There are always challenges, but working with ImageX, I think we will be able to solve them.

Overall, I think ImageX was a great choice for us, and I would encourage other companies to work with them for either a new site or a redesign. ImageX has a good group of people who are going to work very hard to try to meet those requirements and expectations, and to develop a nice website.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

This was a time-sensitive project which created a fair share of hardships in terms of the budget and workload on both our side as well as at ImageX. We were able to meet our desired launch date by going marginally over the original stated budget. From a timing perspective, the project was managed very well.

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

I would say it was their flexibility to meet our requirements, especially their main developer, Gray Sadler. He went above and beyond to meet our deadline and our expectations. He was fantastic.

Is there anything ImageX could have improved or done differently?

Due to the crunch at the finish to complete the project in the final days, a small overage in the budget occurred which we didn't get sightline on until after the overage occurred. ImageX worked with us on the matter and gave us some of the hours back, and a plan to complete additional feature requests over a period of time. We felt this was a fair compromise on their part.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The company has been around for 51 years in British Columbia, and we provide senior housing and care. We've got a range of communities, from lower-income, subsidized rental housing, all the way through to complex care, which would be very similar to the United States model of a CCRC [continuing care retirement communities].

What is your position?

I am the vice president of marketing and communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

ImageX built our first site approximately six years ago, and we went from a very dated site to a Drupal platform at that time. Six years later, it was definitely time to redo the site and have a mobile site as well. It was initially going to be a window dressing upgrade, and we went a little bit deeper than that. They created our original site, and then we brought them back in to redesign our site.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in more detail.

We really wanted a website that was easy to use in terms of content upgrades and migration – all of that. It needed to be intuitive on the back-end. We're a large organization with a small team – it's myself and an assistant that manage the website. We worked with three individuals, the project manager, and two other people who worked on the development side.

Our user-base is pretty broad. We have seniors of 80 years-plus, so the site needed to be simple, clean, and easy to navigate. Then, we also have their children that are coming to the site. Now, we have a demographic that's around 50-plus. We also use it to engage team members and partners, so in that respect, the audience is wide open. We needed something that is super senior-friendly, but that also would be visually appealing for the younger audience and easy to navigate. It was also important that we could build something that was scalable, that we wouldn't end up with a clunky structure later on, as we added more to it.

We had a search functionality before we did the redesign, and it was usable. The "Donate" function is new to our site. While we launched the site a couple of weeks ago, we weren't set up to do the online transactions yet. We wanted to build it so that we could scale it up. That's part of our second phase. At this point, it's reply with an email, but it's something that ImageX will be working to implement.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

When I first started looking for a company to work with – in Vancouver, there's a lot to choose from – I started looking at sites that I liked, and coincidentally their office at the time was in a community near where I lived. I would drive by and I thought, "That's kind of curious." I kind of stumbled across them, and then started looking at the work that they did, and I was impressed with their range of experience.

When we first worked with them six years ago, I interviewed them and went directly to ImageX. I had certainly worked with others in the past. This time, I actually went to two organizations and eventually selected ImageX.

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

It was $30,000. We stayed within budget and timeline.

What is the status of this engagement?

We launched the new website on September 2, 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

There were key points throughout the process, and we certainly met all of those. Because it was such a small team working on our side, the ImageX team was good at coming in and working right alongside us, and helping us understand things. We weren't super sophisticated in terms of what we needed on the back-end, so much as what we wanted it to look and feel like from the users' point of view.

I don't have statistics on user engagement yet because it's so new. I certainly will be doing that, and I do work with another organization that manages that portion for us, and I get monthly reports. I'll be able to look at that in terms of where we were at the end of August with our old site, and then what we're looking at by the end of this month [September 2015]. Anecdotally, we've had a lot of great feedback from people who like the site. I'm looking forward to having that impression kind of reaffirmed through some more concrete statistical data.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We stayed within the agreed upon timeline and budget. ImageX was great to work with. I was happy with the whole process.

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

Having not worked with another development company for a number of years, I think what was great with how they actually managed the project through Basecamp. There was instant feedback and bilateral dialogue. When we were doing meetings, whether it was in person or over the phone, all of the notes from the meeting were then posted to Basecamp right away, any sort of actions, conversations, or threads. It was great to know where we were at in the project constantly, and then to be able to go back. Even now that we're into it and we're having questions in terms of back-end how-to, a question goes up and their responsiveness is so fast and thorough. We feel very well supported.

Is there anything ImageX could have improved or done differently?

Maybe the only thing – and I shared this feedback with them as well – was partly a function because we were doing this during the summer months, so vacations sometimes hit both on our part and their part. Sometimes, it was a little bit hard to know if we were still on track, even though we were on track. If somebody said, "Are you still going to be ready?" I'd be like, "I hope so." There were only a couple of times like that.

Then on my part, I didn't do a good job of saying where we were at in terms of hours and budget. Again, they were super confident in managing the timeline and the budget, but I didn't ask, and that was something that they've acknowledged that they could have given a little bit more progress reports and progress billing. Again, it was minor. Overall, we've been just very impressed by them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a membership organization consisting of three major groups: automakers, including Honda, Toyota, and General Motors, and state and federal agencies –for instance, the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation.

Our main goal is to commercialize hydrogen-cell electric vehicles. There are two main parts to the partnership. The first is the communication side. It's communication to a couple different audiences, but largely the general public and other invested stakeholders. The other side of the partnership is more of the technical side, so assisting with any kind of research that helps entire membership organization.

What is your position?

My official title is communications specialist online. That's consisting of any kind of digital communication, social media, web development, and anything that involved communication online and our digital properties.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

There are three things that we go to ImageX for. The first is that they're great at building visually outstanding websites, so we go there for a lot of their assistance with graphics, I would say, with usability for websites. The second is custom modules for Drupal, so we go to them quite a bit if we're in need for a special customization or any custom modules that need to be developed. The third is maintenance. If we have any kind of maintenance issues that we can't handle internally, or we don't have the bandwidth to handle, we rely on ImageX for that support as well.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in more detail.

We've been operating a Drupal website for about five or six years now. We have worked with ImageX to upgrade from a previous version of Drupal. We had quite a few different third-party modules that we had ImageX assist with making work properly in our system. We had a CRM [customer relationship management] tool that we had assistance with, and the other was an email blast system. I think those are the two that really come to mind at the moment. The third is Google's APIs [application programming interfaces], making sure that we can integrate Google Maps seamlessly into our system.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Originally, when we first developed our first Drupal website, we had a developer that worked on it. It functioned great, but it wasn't very user-friendly. We also had an intranet site that was functional but wasn't very user-friendly. We went through a few different vendors. Then we found ImageX and what we really liked about them is their ability to make sites that are very user-friendly. We had already completed the first website, and we actually scratched it, never launched it, and then launched the ImageX site.

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

I would say near $40,000 to $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I can't recall any specific results at the moment. Going back to the Google API, that was one of the major ones that we really requested help from ImageX. Originally, people would just come to our home page and we were seeing a lot of drop off after the home page. After the revamp from ImageX, our most hit page was our station map page. Many users found that page to be really user-friendly, and it provided pretty much all of the information that they needed. That was with a lot of assistance from ImageX. After the revamp, that became our number one hit page for about five or six years now.

We work with one of our members on a very custom module that ImageX built completely for us. The automaker has praised ImageX multiple times on the fact that they're able to respond very quickly to changes and requests made from the automaker, and even offering to buy him a beer if we ever ran into each other in person.

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

I'd applaud ImageX on their ability to make useful sites that are very pleasing to the eye and offer an intuitive interface for end-users.

Is there anything ImageX could have improved or done differently?

This is true for most developers, but on the documentation side – documentation can always be better from most developers. If there was any area that they needed to step up or improve on, I would say it would be documentation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are a management consultancy.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm a producer. I'm a contractor, so I'm not technically an employee. It's a very small company with a couple of people and then a handful of contractors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge that you were trying to address with ImageX?

We run several public websites, which ImageX have developed for us. We also use Drupal-based software on the management consultancy engagements we get into, which ImageX has helped develop for us.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work in greater detail?

We typically contribute the design portion of things, usually all of the visual collateral, including detailed wireframes and we have an in-house designer to help support the process, too. We give nice wireframes and mockups to them, and they build the functional components of the sites. They also do some project management when we're dealing with rather large or complex projects.

We've also used them to help set up servers within our clients' networks, interfacing with different IT [information technology] systems, and they've been very helpful in that regard.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Acquia referred us to them directly. 

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

That information is confidential.

Is the relationship ongoing?

Yes, absolutely, for three or four years now. We plan to use them in the foreseeable future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

I can't think of any specific metrics. We have been extremely happy with their performance. The development we've done with them, especially with client engagement, is all pretty custom and fast-moving stuff. We tell them what we need, and they help us figure it out and build it as fast as possible. We've done a few of those where it's worked out really well. We've got a very high level of confidence and satisfaction with their work. Our own end-customers have only expressed positive sentiments regarding the work we've delivered to them. Things work as they should. We test everything before we launch, and I can't think of any problems we've had where end-users have any kind of serious issues at all.

Is there anything that you'd consider unique about their practice that distinguishes them from other vendors?

I haven't worked with a lot of other companies in this space. We want to do Drupal stuff, and they're a Drupal focused shop, so that was why we went there. I think what I've been most impressed with is their speed and responsiveness, while being able to deliver high-quality work continuously. I've worked with other developers in-house who weren't as fast and weren't as clean. These guys just get it done quickly and relatively flawlessly. I'm very satisfied with those aspects of the relationship.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

No. Of all the developers I've worked with, they are head and shoulders above the others. That's why we intend to maintain the relationship in the long term.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

Spec your stuff out as much as possible in advance. That's something we sometimes have trouble with in our fast moving environment. Getting all your ducks in a row at the beginning is about the only piece of advice I would have, but I think that's general advice when working with any developer.

UPDATED REVIEW

The review was updated on April 10, 2019, by the client. New content is below.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the operations manager for Management Lab, a small consultancy.

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

ImageX develops the web-based tools that we use in our client engagements. Each engagement presents unique challenges.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Since 2015, ImageX has completed a Drupal 8 migration—from Drupal 7—for a client. Additionally, they rearchitected and redesigned a solution for another customer. Our team provides detailed specifications and mockups for each project. They provide recommendations and we sometimes implement those changes. Both sides do QA testing.

What is the team composition?

We work with one project manager and 2–3 developers.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $1–$10 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2012 and the partnership is ongoing.

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

We received lots of incredibly positive comments both from our clients and from the people working within our group. Their ability to rise to the challenges impresses everyone.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

ImageX resolves issues quickly. The team is responsive via phone, Slack, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

ImageX handles complex projects and delivers them in rapid timeframes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re happy customers.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

We’re one of the leaders in the enterprise performance management space for large-scale networks. We drive performance managements for some of the top companies in the world like Comcast and Verizon. We help them manage their networks and network performance. If they have an issue somewhere in their data center, we have an application and a hardware appliance that can alert them on issues before the end users are impacted.

What is your position?

I’m the director of digital marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges that you were attempting to address when you first approached ImageX?

We had an outdated and obsolete site that was just extremely cluttered. We had a whole lot of different resources, things like white papers and case studies, customer testimonials, user interactions, and all sorts of custom videos. It wasn’t well organized and hence very user unfriendly. We had drop-down menus, and things that were a mile long. We wanted to undo this completely by implementing a brand new responsive design, and updating the information architecture of the site. We wanted to be able to tell our story effectively and allow users to find the information they needed in an intuitive and convenient manner.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of work in greater detail?

ImageX came in and took us through the whole redesign and deployment. They were heavily involved in each and every phase, from inception to deployment. They flew down here during the RFP [request for proposal] process, and we discussed what our business is, and gave them a tour of the company, and gave them information about what exactly we do. They took that back with them and created a 37-page system requirement document. Then, we moved through the next discovery phase with them. They produced a 140-page document with all the navigation and features, and every single page across the entire website. Once we reached an agreement on the scope and deployment strategy, they began the actual process of developing our core components, testing them, implementing them, and enhancing them.

How did you select ImageX as your solution partner?

We were looking into a couple of different vendors. We were looking for those that were considered the top Drupal firms. We had talked with one locally, Lullabot, but they were way outside of our price range. There were a couple other creative studios that we looked at, too. We looked at some of the pre-existing templates for Drupal, and outsourcing it. We also considered doing it in-house, but our website is absolutely massive, and it would have been a daunting undertaking.

I had known a couple people who had designed some fairly large Drupal sites, and they recommended ImageX. They’d heard really good things. That’s when we decided to send them an RFP and have them look at our project. I had unknowingly been visiting some of the sites they designed for years, which were some of my favorites. Once we did the RFP with them, and saw their design style and what they did, we chose to go with them.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this particular engagement?

To give you an idea of a price disparity, a different company was going to be close to $120,000 or $150,000 for only mockups. ImageX was gave us the same estimate, but included the entire thing, from inception to deployment.

We went through an initial design, and then a redesign. The total cost of the site, had we avoided doing the redesign, would have been about $120,000 to $130,000. With the redesign, we went up to about $200,000. We also have ongoing contracts with them, and we’re doing more work with them right now. That’ll probably bring us close $300,000 by the end of next year. They’re worth every penny.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

On average, we’re seeing about a 30 percent drop in bounce rate. We’re seeing about a 35 percent increase in unique page views, a 40 percent increase in the average duration of users visiting our website. On average, we’re seeing about 30 percent increase in pretty much all of our numbers. It’s right about a 30 percent difference for goal completions, which is basically a conversion to us. It’s lead generation. We’re seeing about a 47 percent increase in new users to the website, compared to about two months.

When we went live, we kind of flipped the switch and we were up in just about two hours. The two-hour delay was kind of an internal issue here, nothing to do with ImageX itself. They also pushed us to host on Acquia, which they consider more than sufficient for large traffic websites like ours. We haven’t had a production down issue since we had the site up. It’s been fantastic.

On our old site, I would say we had about three hours a month of production down time. It was kind of nice not to have to deal with those emergencies. We have a production and development server now, which is a big help, but the fact that we’ve had 100 percent up time has been the best part.

When working with ImageX is there anything you’d consider unique about their strategic approach and/or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

For us, communication was pretty much paramount. We had a tight deadline on the last phase of the website, but they definitely kept up, which was very impressive. They’ve got some seriously talented developers and designers on their team, and it shows in the quality and consistency of their work. We were also very impressed with their response time. They seemed to always be available when we had questions, comments, or concerns.