IVN (formerly Ivision.pl)

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a Project Owner of Deccoria.pl, portal about interiors and decor, used by millions of users each month. It belongs to Interia Group which is a leading player on the Polish media market of a new generation. Every month, there are more than 20mln people using it to find the latest information and curiosities. They use it for entertainment & communication goals as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ivision.pl?

Our business goal was even greater expansion, reaching more users and ensuring the security of the portal's daily operations. We needed to rewrite deccoria.pl and transport all the current content to the new version of it. The previous portal has been existing for 12 years and it didn’t have a mobile version.

Supporting it was very difficult, unsafe and unprofitable. Due to the business needs of the Interia group we had to develop new functionalities. The previous portal did not allow this because of a technological debt. That’s where ivision.pl came in.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have a new portal with new features functioning without any problems, what was essential for the business goals we’ve set. We needed to be able to edit content easily and we wanted to be sure that transporting all the data would be carried out professionally.

The migration of data included: 80k users, 1mln photos and over 1mln records of other data. Those numbers were huge and we were looking for experienced people who would take great care of it. We wanted something safe and functional.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We sent an inquiry including technical specification and mockups to a few companies. We got some answers and the offer from ivision was the best one (price-quality ratio). After having few meetings we decided to work together.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They built a new portal with PHP Zend Framework 2. They prepared CMS system for managing all the users, roles and content from users and moderators. The team made sure that all the data from the previous platform would be migrated safely to the new one.

Portal’s architecture has been designed to work on distributed network and it is currently launched on over a dozen hosts including application servers, database servers and other services hosts like elastic search, file storage, node.js, redis, gearman. The aim was to provide maximum security and high availability/efficiency for the portal and its users.

What was the team composition?

We had a lot of contact with Account Manager and Project Manager. Moreover, the team consisted of Team Leader, few Programmers and Testers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We see constant and steady increase in traffic. We used to have decline trend when it comes to the mobile users, but with a new website we reversed it. Our seo position is also much better right now.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had a daily phone/mail contact and meetings once a week. The meetings included representatives of our IT and security departments. Our specialists of seo, ux and promotion were also engaged in the project. We wanted to be sure that everything was going smoothly and as we wish. 

Their project manager was always available when needed and controlled the whole process very well. If it was necessary, we could count on the advice and support of other team members. The project was implemented iteratively, which allowed us to constantly monitor the progress of it.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

For sure it would be the developers’ knowledge, they really know their job and they take great care of code quality. It’s easy to work with them - they find good solutions and communicate well.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I don't think any other company could deliver better solutions in that timeframe and costs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

JAM is a global music creation community on a mission to enable people anywhere to make amazing music & share instantly with the world. Everyone is a creator – and now anyone can make great sounding tracks by using our service. We make it easy. We are a team of die-hard music fans, technologists, designers, coders & musicians who take a ‘creator first’ approach.

We are rapidly developing innovative new experiences to deliver to our global community, enabling unlimited creativity & tapping into a world of undiscovered talent. My position is Product Owner of the Music Maker JAM app with more than 15Mio Downloads world-wide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ivision.pl?

Ivision helped us in bringing our web presence to a modernized standard and lifting us to the next level. Additionally, the team supported us in building a new web platform for our large music community. Ivision worked very closely with us and shared their knowledge to improve the web experience for our user base.

What were your goals for this project?

Bring our mobile music community to the web and help new artists in bringing their music to our platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Based on web research for cost-efficient web agencies with a good reputation.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Ivision provided the frontend/backend solution for our web projects building upon our APIs.

Technology:

• HTML5
• HTML5 Canvas
• CSS3 (SASS)
• JavaScript (Webpack)

They guaranteed equal web displaying in all most common web browsers:

• Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera
• Safari
• Google Chrome

Backend Technology: - PHP 7 (PHP Zend 2 Framework)

What was the team composition?

• 1 Account Manager
• 1 Product/Project Manager
• 1 It Team Leader
• 1 Backend Developer
• 1 Frontend/Javascript Developer
• 1 QA team member

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Not yet.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had one dedicated project manager that was supporting our projects from start to finish. He was very efficient and managing our dependencies and giving us a regular status update. We were very happy with the transparency about the work progress and clear communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Very efficient and professional in bringing the projects to a successful end. Highly agile and open about improving the experience and sharing their knowledge with us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are more than happy to work with Ivison and will continue in the future.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Ocean Media Group is a publications, events, and digital websites company. My job is project and products manager on the bridal portfolio, which covers wedding dresses and bridal fashion accessories.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ivision.pl?

We attend bridal tradeshows, but we didn’t have a website to support us in our daily efforts to get brides into the store. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ivision.pl built a boutique platform for bridal retailers to showcase their dresses. 

For the first three months, we worked together on wireframing the site. We talked Ivision.pl through what we wanted it to look like and do. We showed them a similar site that had a similar format and basis. The site allowed users to place orders and have them delivered from warehouses to physical stores to be picked up. Similarly, we wanted to build a site that allows clients to order a dress from the designer’s warehouse. The bride could then go to a shop to try the dress and hopefully buy it.

We looked through the wireframes of the previous site we’d worked on and talked about what we wanted to remove and what we wanted to improve systematically. Ivision.pl worked on it for three months and then came back to us with an overview of what they were going to build, why they needed to build it, and how the site would differ from the one we gave as an example. I reviewed their work with my team and determined what we liked and didn’t like.

We provided Ivision.pl with the details of a third-party software solution that we wanted to involve called BridalLive. They consulted with BridalLive on how that software would fit into the website they were building. It enabled us to show hundreds of thousands of dresses and connect them to a boutique.

This was followed by 6–7 months of sprints to build the site. Ivision.pl excelled in that period. We changed some of the plans after we received bad feedback on them. Ivision.pl continually changed their work approach and end goals to meet our needs.

We had another four sprints of work after going live to maintain and improve the site’s UI/UX and compatibility. We’re using Magento, which has some messy pieces, but Ivision.pl has fixed those for us.

What is the team composition? 

I work with one project manager on their side who heads a team of 4–5 people. He doesn’t have a set team of 3–4 people working on it continually. They’ve sometimes sent us ideas that we didn’t like, so he’s brought in different people. If we needed a fresh idea, it came from someone completely fresh, as opposed to someone who’s already tried and shown us their best effort.

We had two initial three-month periods where we briefed them at the onset, and they developed it. Out contact during that time was once or twice per week. Once they developed it, they needed to show me how it worked, and we had contact every day.

How did you come to work with Ivision.pl.pl?

Our digital strategy director had worked with them before, and he recommended Ivision.pl as a team that was easy to work with and accommodating. They’d done a good job for him previously, and he knew their project manager. He felt it was a safe bet to work with someone that had delivered well in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re close to £80,000 (approximately $100,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Ivision.pl in June or July 2018. We spent a total of nine months, continually going back and forth and improving the site. Although we’re close to completion, we still rely on them for week-by-week help and administration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a big issue with site speed; it wasn’t loading quickly enough. Ivision.pl warned us in the beginning that it would be slow, and they told us we were trying to do too much at once. We told them that we needed to do it quickly. They did it against their better judgment, and the site suffered. The massive success story is the backend work they did to improve the site speed for us. Over three weeks, our load time went from 15 seconds to about one second on some pages.

Another success story is that Ivision.pl helped us with our UX and design. We were struggling with website signups with only a couple of thousand in the first two months. Ivision.pl told us that people were being asked to sign up for too many things. We might lose some of our marketing capabilities by removing some of those fields, but we would increase the number of people signing up, and we could remarket to them later. In the three months after that, we more than quadrupled the signups we were getting, and we kept most of those through remarketing.

How did Ivision.pl perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed to an incredibly high standard. Although they’re not always available at the exact time we need them to be, they’re never unavailable, and I’ve never had to chase them for anything. They’ve been fantastic in giving me time and efficiency.

In terms of design and ideas, we had a few issues with language barriers. They provided basic wording for us, which removed some of the work. Some of the wording wasn’t spot on, but they never pretended it would be, and they went with our recommendations. 

In terms of tracking and giving me a good idea of what’s completed or in progress, they’ve performed to a high standard as well. Things have taken longer than they said at times, but that’s the nature of the job. 

We contacted each other through Skype if we needed to speak or share screens, and we also used instant messaging on Slack when I needed help quickly. We used email for official matters that we needed to track. We also shared Google Docs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have great intuition about when I need or don’t need help. A big strength of theirs is supporting and helping me understand what they’ve built and how the software works. Working with them is like having a friend helping us. The way they’ve worked with me has been massively positive. They’ve created good relationships across our business, not only with me but with my directors and staff. Even if we had an issue with quality or delivery time, they were happy to admit it if that was the case or tell us that we were wrong. We’ve had a good understanding of what we can expect from the deliverables.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their design work could be improved. There were a lot of things they returned that we weren’t keen on. They could be more assertive in terms of brand guidelines. They took on a lot of work without fully understanding what we wanted. If they were stricter with what they need to deliver the work, they might be able to do a better job the first time around.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should speak to them on the phone or Skype and get to know Ivision.pl’s team. Talking with them made my job a lot more enjoyable. They’re a good group of people, and processes moved a lot faster and easier once we got to know them. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Big Rig World, a commercial truck dealership for a major manufacturer. We’re a blanket organization with five or six different divisions sitting under the main organization. One of the divisions is an online retail business selling commercial trucks and truck parts. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ivision.pl?

We brought on Ivision.pl to renew our website by fixing errors from previous web design providers. We wanted a website that could identify, display, and sell truck parts efficiently.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team provided design and development services. Initially, we gave them the choice of either creating a new website or rebuilding the initial platform. After considering our budget and which method would cause the least disruption to business processes, they decided to renew the existing site.

They built out standardized e-commerce functionalities and created custom features. For example, they built a custom feature to simplify a complex purchasing process for internal and external stakeholders. Another custom functionality they built enables us to track purchases through the Magento platform.

Since the site has launched, they’ve been implementing small tweaks to the system. After the platform is completely sustainable, we plan on working with them again in the future on Google AdWords and server management.

What is the team composition?

We’re consistently in contact with three specialists: a project manager, the main developer, and an account manager. All three are present on all of our communication channels. We also worked with two sprint teams containing up to 10–12 people.

How did you come to work with Ivision.pl?

A Polish developer from my previous job recommended the firm.  I reached out to Ivision.pl. in the process of gathering bids from six other vendors. 

We decided to hire Ivision.pl after considering their quality of service, pricing quotes, and their ability to meet our requirements. We also appreciated their excellent customer service throughout the lengthy selection process. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $60,000 with the team so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We received a quote from them in January 2018, began working together in August 2018, and we’re continuing to utilize their services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Due to the site’s increased accessibility, business has increased by about 30%. There’s been an increase in both site visitors and conversions. These results are solely attributed to the enhanced UX, as the SEO enhancements haven’t been implemented yet.

How did Ivision.pl perform from a project management standpoint?

Despite a difference in time zones, the team has excelled at keeping stakeholders updated and completing tasks in a timely matter. They regularly conducted weekly update meetings followed by an email summary. 

They were excellent at managing a timeline adjustment by communicating it to stakeholders and minimizing any disruption to the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their passion distinguishes them from other vendors. They’re detail-oriented, and they’re invested in delivering the best product possible. They aren’t solely concerned with the number of billable hours in a project—they want to build a long-term relationship with stakeholders.
 
Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have a faster billing cycle for the US market. Their partnerships are built on mutual trust, and that carries over into their billing. However, it would be helpful to have a running tally of our spend on smaller projects. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should deliver all relevant information up front, including a full overview of the industry and business processes. For example, we provided documentation of our industry, business, and project requirements. Then, they arrived with great questions to clarify and ensure they understood our processes.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I run a digital marketing and website development agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ivision.pl?

We outsourced our development needs to Ivision.pl.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a reliable, easy-to-update, manageable website that matched our client’s specifications.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We’d worked with them previously and had a positive experience.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Ivision.pl. built a fully functioning WordPress website that matched our PDF designs. We supplied the content and look for the platform, and they handled the coding and development work. They continually help us upgrade and maintain the site.

What was the team composition?

They provide a team to handle the coding and development needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Ivision.pl. delivered a fully functioning website according to the specifications and within the budget. Our client was delighted with it and remains satisfied with the engagement.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They are very well organized. We communicate via email and occasionally use project management tools. We’re always up to date on their progress and deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We appreciate that they’re transparent and always prioritize clarity. Every task we give Ivision.pl. is done right the first time. If they can’t deliver something on time, they’re honest and work with us to meet our deadlines. Overall, they’re pleasant, easy to work with, and responsive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Although they are sometimes too busy, it’s probably just because their skills are in such high demand.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Milastra

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Strobe is a ski wear brand selling mainly through e-commerce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire IVN (formerly Ivision.pl) to accomplish?

• Create an e-commerce site
• Maintain the e-commerce site

SOLUTION

How did you find IVN (formerly Ivision.pl)?

Referral

Why did you select IVN (formerly Ivision.pl) over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from IVN (formerly Ivision.pl) were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We wanted to create a website looking and working like our current Shopify site. After that, we have had several updates to improve the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

That the site looked and worked liked our previous site

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Product deliveries have generally been in time and communications have worked smoothly.

What was your primary form of communication with IVN (formerly Ivision.pl)?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The team can take on medium to large-sized projects while maintaining a personal touch in the communication.

Are there any areas for improvement or something IVN (formerly Ivision.pl) could have done differently?

From previous project, I am used to talking directly to the developers, so it was a challenge for me to go though project leaders.