Intellect Outsource

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a medium-sized home furniture brand, manufacturing and delivering home goods both B2B and direct to consumer. I am the Technical Product Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intellect Outsource, and what were your goals?

We initially hired Intellect Outsource in 2017 to help us with a platform change for our site. They were responsible for web development of the new site on Magento 2, which we were moving to because we felt the platform was a better fit for our products than any of the alternatives we researched.

We wanted to grow the business on a more sustainable and intelligent platform that could handle products with lots of variables and complexity. Intellect Outsource did such a fantastic job we realized we needed to keep them on to help us with future development projects for this site and any others we might develop in the future.

We also decided to hire them to help us manage product and order data. Our products are fairly complex and data for our large catalog is constantly changing, Intellect Outsource facilitates these changes much better than we could on our own in-house.

Most recently, in Q4 2021, Intellect migrated our e-commerce site from Magento version 2.1.9 to 2.4.3. Due to the complexity of our products and the state of some of our extensions, this was no small task, but they completed it handily and went above and beyond to support us along the way.

They also have helped us build custom extensions and code for our website, depending on our goals at any given time.

SOLUTION

How did you select Intellect Outsource and what were the deciding factors?

We searched online and reviewed dozens of development companies, and we ended up interviewing a handful of those.

Intellect was by far the most impressive team we interviewed; their deep knowledge of Magento especially was very encouraging but they also thoroughly answered all of our questions related to server-side management, security, third-party extensions, SEO, and product data (again, our products are very complex, and require a more nuanced understanding of how products are loaded to Magento).

We were very optimistic about Intellect and especially the project manager, who instilled so much confidence in us and then went above and beyond after we hired them.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Initial project was Magento 2 development for our B2B/B2C ecommerce site, upgrading from a different platform.

First, we created a timeline and rough plan of execution; we selected our Magento theme and gave mockups for customizations we wanted to see; and then Intellect team redesigned the site basically from the ground up.

Next, we purchased a number of extensions that we had Intellect install, configure, and in some cases customize so we would have the functionality we wanted. In many cases, they built new custom modules from scratch for us, because third party extensions just didn't get us the functionality we needed.

The site went live and they offered debugging and continuous support as we dealt with the issues you often deal with when you launch a new site.

Over the years as our needs have changed, our project manager has always been available and extremely professional and responsive in getting us what we needed, whether that was a new page template or a new widget or an issue with DDOS attack.

Honestly, there is nothing Intellect team has not been able to help us with. They are incredible partners for our business.

How many people from the Intellect Outsource team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We have hired one full time developer, a product manager, and a data loader. At various points in our 5 year relationship we have onboarded additional developers and data loaders as needs arise.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Over 300% revenue growth over 5 years of working with them, much of that attributable to their work on our website especially with product data management and developing modules, templates, and systems to streamline customer checkout, navigation, retention, and delight.

We have also been able to onboard dozens of new vendors who have easily been able to find and contact us on our new platform. We have expanded our product offerings by nearly 100% even with increasingly complex products.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

E-mail is our primary communication channel for development, security, and server issues. Our in-house product team primarily communicates via Email and a Trello board.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The incredible degree of professionalism. Our project manager is our main point of contact and he is extremely capable, intelligent, and responsive. The team always gets back to us quickly, and most projects are resolved within a short timeframe.

Whenever we have an issue, he is quick to address it for us. Another thing that impresses me is, unlike many many other developers (even in-house ones), our project manager is very PROACTIVE.

Sometimes he sees a problem and I'll get a message in my inbox from the server team that a ticket has been opened, working on a problem I didn't even know existed, because our project manager was so on top of things.

We trust this company and our project manager with all of our websites now, and know that they will get the job done.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I can't think of many areas that need improvement. I know our in-house product team checks the data team's work and sometimes finds errors or issues, but that's not at all unexpected; 100% accurate product data requires intimate product knowledge, which our in-house team has but Intellect doesn't necessarily (they have clients in many many niches).

And it did not really matter anyway because Intellect has always been quick to fix any data errors we have found. Over the years though, we have definitely noticed a huge drop in the number of product edits our in-house team have needed to make, as that product knowledge is now more or less there at Intellect, even though they've never actually seen the product!

Truly, we have an amazing team over at Intellect Outsource and we recommend them with our highest esteem.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CIO of a multi-channel website etailer. We have multiple websites in multiple retail and wholesale furniture niches.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intellect Outsource, and what were your goals?

We hired Intellect Outsource more than 6 years ago to migrate an older X-Cart website over to Magento 2.0 with a full website re-design. After that, we hired 4-6 staff members to help us with loading product data to the website as products and prices are constantly changing. Since then we have moved 2 other websites with them over to Magento 2 and we just moved a Magento 2.0 site to Magento 4.1. They also have helped us build custom extensions and code for all of our websites.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We searched online and interviewed 8 different companies. We have in-house staff that is well versed in the technology so we were able to test them and ask questions and see how they would answer. We put them through a rigorous interviewing process before hiring them to manage our multi-million dollar e-commerce stores.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

So far we have not found much they cannot help us with. We use them for everything related to coding, data, and website development. We outline our project needs and goals and then work side by side with them to get them accomplished. Technologies we have used with them:

PHP

• Java
• WordPress
• chat box
• web widgets
• Magento
• X-Cart
• Shopify
• Adobe
• FTP
• SSH
• Cyber Security
• Big Commerce and many more

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

• 1 full-time developer
• product manager
• 4-6 full-time data loaders

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We have grown with them from a $2M dollar company to now into the double digits. They are an important part of our team.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We mostly use email to communicate with them but have all used Slack, Trello, and video.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I am most impressed with their project manager. We have developed a great relationship with him over the years. He works side by side with us on everything we do. We can trust him with anything and know it will get completed.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No improvement on the website development side. On the data loading side we know our data is complicated and during bulk importing of large quantities of data I think they could check their work better. We do most of the quality checking and then notify them of issues we find. However, they are quick to fix any errors we find.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intellect Outsource, and what were your goals?

Intellect Outsource did exemplary work in helping us upgrade the website, manage our customer and listing new products. The ability to execute our processes and attention to detail are second to none.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We searched online for vendors who performed the management/tasks needed. We were very impressed with Intellect Outsources breadth of services and quality of work.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We provided Intellect Outsource with our processes, which included the project steps. They implemented the installation of new apps on our Shopify store, Excel work, and also worked with existing Shopify apps.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A project manager was our main source of contact. He Supervised all projects within the various departments of their organization making everything very easy to manage.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We saw a 20% increase in traffic and sale almost immediately. Substantially less returns as well.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

They timely reported to us daily and communicated any questions or impediments upon occurrence.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their professionalism is second to none.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I can think of no improvements necessary.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Be Visible Design & Marketing is a web design and digital marketing company located in the US. I am the owner and lead project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intellect Outsource, and what were your goals?

I hired Intellect Outsource to do WordPress WooCommerce data entry and product building projects. Their team helped me build out thousands of products for an industrial supply client. They also continue to do pricing updates and other tasks.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I found them online and took advantage of their trial offer to build some products. The work was detailed and accurate and done in a timely manner.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

I supplied them with manufacturer website and spreadsheets so they could go through all the products and add them into the master import document. They also did image collection and optimization. Once the master document was ready they integrated and imported all the products.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

They had about 5-10 different people building out products, collecting images and optimizing the products.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

They did a great job. Turnaround time was amazing. They continue to do follow up tasks and pricing updates for a couple clients. I will continue to use them for these projects and any new projects to come.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

My project manager Sandeep has been invaluable to the process. He keeps me informed and helps to clarify the tasks. He keeps the projects on his side on track and on time.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their efficiency and attention to detail is something that stands out for me. And they're nice!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Everything they've done I've been impressed with. I plan to continue working with them as needed.