E-Commerce Dev for Digital Services Company
- Custom Software Development
- $50,000 to $199,999
- Jan. 2023 - Jan. 2024
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"Their level of expertise was very helpful in guiding what became an incredibly complicated project."
- Other industries
- United Kingdom
- 1-10 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Interactivated Solutions worked with a digital services company on an e-commerce platform development project using Magento 2. The complex project required multiple plug-ins and API integrations.
Despite the complex and highly specialized project scope, Interactivated Solutions successfully worked with the client to take the project to completion. The team used agile practices and showcased impressive relationship management skills, demonstrating patience and very high professionalism.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the managing director of Coral Digital Limited, a small consultancy company based in the UK. In the past, we were a full service agency. Now, we specialize in project management and consulting for branding, marketing, and digital projects. I have a background of nearly 30 years in the digital online world.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Interactivated Solutions?
We often white-label our services and provide those to other agencies. For this project, we were contracted by another agency to service a very large retailer in South-East England that had 30 different branches. Due to the size of the project, we knew that we would need a high-level partner to work with us on it because it was above everything we had done in the past.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Interactivated Solutions helped us develop an e-commerce platform on Magento 2, the chosen platform for this digital project. This was a very customized piece of work, so we had to create plug-ins and APIs to interact with a POS software system.
What is the team composition?
We worked with 5–6 different teammates from Interactivated Solutions on this project, including Svetlana (Project Manager), with whom we had multiple video calls per day. Each team member brought a different level of skill, and Svetlana knitted everything together.
Svetlana handled the resources on their team and assigned those teammates to different parts of the project. The team included resources in charge of scoping and planning, developers, and QA testers. Additionally, we worked with a QA lead who oversaw everything related to the development work and was in charge of the planning. He worked with a couple of major developers and designed the routes the development process would take.
How did you come to work with Interactivated Solutions?
We found them on Upwork. When this project arose, we did our research and interviewed several different companies. Interactivated Solutions was the first company to contact us. They were very on the ball and very professional. In fact, I thought that they were too big and professional for us.
Their team demonstrated Magento 2 expertise and high reference levels during the preliminary interview meetings. They interviewed very well and were very professional, slick in how they presented their work, and helpful, allowing us to understand sprint-based and agile working.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent between $150,000–$200,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in January 2023, and the platform was launched around early January 2024.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
I was very happy with the work Interactivated Solutions delivered. This was very specialized work; there aren't many projects like this one that come through. Due to our extensive collaboration, I actually connected with Roy (Founder) on a personal level, and I still have an ongoing relationship with him.
How did Interactivated Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?
Interactivated Solutions helped us adapt to their way of working using sprint-based agile processes. It was a very robust and thorough process. Nonetheless, the team was very agile in the development of this platform. The end customer was very high maintenance, as he was a man who was used to having his own way on everything. Still, Interactivated Solutions was very good at managing the relationship.
For example, the customer raised issues multiple times, only to find out that those issues were always on their end and with their internal suppliers. Still, Interactivated Solutions never got upset or threatened to walk away despite the customer being rude and aggressive at times. Overall, this was a tough project, but Interactivated Solutions excelled.
The team was always available, no matter if it was morning, noon, or night, in different time zones, or on weekends. They were always there engaging directly with the customer, as I ensured that there was transparency about who I was working with. In addition to video calls, we used Slack as a communication channel. Additionally, they used Jira to record communication and track tasks. Every task was linked to a Jira card. Overall, the level of detail was very good.
As for budget management, our budget was constantly flexible, given that this was an agile development process; there was no fixed fee. We did have an outlined cost based on what we knew, but as what we knew changed, we had to reestablish the cost estimations. We had very live agile budget sheets detailing the outlined budget. As new pieces came in, they were added to the actual process.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?
Svetlana was an absolutely stunning and nice person to have on our team.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I'm very glad that we chose Interactivated Solutions as our partner for this project because their level of expertise was very helpful in guiding what became an incredibly complicated project.
Are there any areas they could improve?
There was nothing Interactivated Solutions could have improved on. Although they were from Ukraine and Poland, their level of English was generally very good. We had one developer whose English wasn't the best. I told them that we needed to be cautious with our communication, so when asked questions, he was thinking about how to answer them. The end customer was impatient with this, but there was no disrespect from the developer.
Overall, developers are not known for their communication skills; they're known for what they do. Overall, Interactivated Solutions' developers were great. Whenever we thought there would be a communication problem, we had another very good English-speaking teammate in the room to field the questions.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
Be honest with yourself about what's deliverable and what your reference points are. Spend plenty of time understanding the scope and making sure that everyone has asked all the right questions in advance. We didn't ask the right questions beforehand, and Interactivated Solutions didn't know what questions we were missing. Still, if I had to change anything about this project, it would have nothing to do with Interactivated Solutions.
Another advice is to ensure you really like and trust the customer for whom you will work on the project. Do a project for the right reasons and not because it's a glory project.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
"Timelines were flexible, but they got work done right everytime."
-
Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"They were expensive, but we were able to negotiate a margin discount."
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS