Last Call Media

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the data integration architect at a liberal arts college. I'm responsible for the technical overview of our website that is now mostly in Drupal. I’m also the primary point of contact for Last Call Media for the school.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Last Call Media?

We hired Last Call Media originally to fill a gap after we had a web developer leave on short notice. We also needed help with the architecture of moving to Drupal. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Last Call Media helped us deepen our technical base for the launch of our Drupal site. They assigned developers and talked us through what our choices were in terms of architecture and launching our site. They did some development work and a lot of bug fixes, as well as adding new features to our site. During the transition, they added custom modules to our Drupal instance such as a connection to our API for our credit card vendor. This was extremely helpful. Previously, we were doing that in PHP and whatnot on our old web server. We don't really have a service level agreement with them, so our goal is to give them things that aren’t super time sensitive so they can fit them in when they can. We handle a lot of troubleshooting and coding internally.

How did you come to work with Last Call Media?

Last Call Media was recommended to us by our cloud hosting vendor, Acquia. We have several other vendors who do work on the site occasionally. In addition, we had a different vendor that did the actual implementation and building of our site. We’re using Last Call Media as a backup to make sure that the technical side is handled as well as the design side.

How much have you invested with Last Call Media?

We purchased a set number of retainer hours and we’re about to buy more. For the development work on the payment module and pre-launch preparation we purchased a sprint. Since then, we’ve worked off of retainer hours.

What is the status of this engagement?

Last Call Media started working with us in late March or April of 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m tracking the depths of our move into Drupal. We still have a significant presence outside of Drupal and their work has helped us consolidate our various digital properties into one unified platform. My goal is to get all of our stuff off of static pages and into our new Drupal site, and their work has helped us start to get there. We still have more work to do.

Compared to what we expected from any supplier, I'd say they've more than delivered. They bring confidence and expertise to each brainstorming session we have and they help us define what's most important to our core objectives. Accomplishing what we are would be tremendously difficult without their support. We're very grateful. 

How did Last Call Media perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a multi-site so there are different stakeholders on campus who are using their services. I coordinate the overall engagement with Last Call. They are responsive and thorough in their interactions with us. Last Call uses a ticket tracking system that works quite well in terms of communicating on bugs and other issues. We do meet on site with them. One great thing about working with them is that they’re about three blocks from my office. Their location is highly convenient.

What did you find most impressive about Last Call Media?

I find them to be extremely technically competent. They’re willing to work with our system, which is less than ideal at times. It’s also helpful to have their technical background for using best practices. They've been able to help us think through things in ways we hadn't beforehand. They definitely pay close attention to detail and ask important questions. I appreciate that approach because it forces you to define exactly what it is you want. It's too hard to build something right with only a concept, so that really helps organizations like ours.

Are there any areas Last Call Media could improve?

No, I don't have anything in specific in regard to Last Call Media. The only areas I would improve all have been things that I wish I had done differently, in terms of my interaction with our stakeholders on campus. If I had been able to keep an eye on their requests somewhat, I would have been able to filter out some of that and save us all some time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Haverford College is a liberal arts college outside Philadelphia. I am the director of web communications. I oversee all aspects of the college’s website, our main .edu site, third-party sites, and other digital communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Last Call Media?

We were looking to transition an existing, custom-built site to a content management system [CMS], specifically Drupal. We wanted a company that was an expert in Drupal to help us determine what we needed in order to build the site and the type of customization needed so that we could transition into a CMS since our previous website was all hand coded. It was extremely important that we retain most of our core features and all of our records. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Before hiring Last Call Media, we engaged a different firm for strategy work, which assessed what type of platform might be best for us, and that resulted in us moving towards Drupal. Since Drupal was the product we wanted to use, our initial work with Last Call Media was adding to our strategy work to figure out what do we need in order to attack the problem of building the site. We wanted them to help us transition into Drupal and do the development work, too. We did not ask them to do any new design work since we were happy with our web design and existing branding.

Other people were coming in as needed, but the core team we mainly worked with was of three people: a project manager, senior developer, and junior developer.

How did you come to work with Last Call Media?

We wanted to work with a company that was local, so that if we wanted to get together face-to-face, then we could do that. We went through the process of finding the right partner and did not find one that clicked with us. But when my team and I went to a Drupal camp in Philadelphia, one of the sponsors were Last Call Media. After the camp, we looked them up. Even though they were not local to us, we loved their website because it was in Drupal 8, which was years before anybody was building anything in Drupal 8. We thought it was interesting and wanted to talk to them. I reached out, and we started talking. We felt we clicked with them and that they understood what we were trying to do.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first contacted them at the end of 2014 and started working with them early 2015. We launched the site in August 2015. Since the launching, we have continued to work with them but not as intensively as it is on smaller projects or problems that have arisen as my team learns more about Drupal.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We get a lot of feedback from users emailing us to say the site looks great. Since a lot of the changes were behind the scenes, many people do not realize that something has changed, which is a great thing to me. That was one of my team’s goals: our audience should not notice that something changed because it should still look like our original website.

We know internally that our site is faster and more flexible. We can deploy changes site-wide that we could not have done in a timely fashion without a CMS. As an example, we redesigned our homepage and overhauled our site-wide navigation and search. Once we did the work internally, we launched that site-wide because of Drupal. We would not have been able to do that two years ago without a CMS. Coming from no CMS into a CMS is life-changing.

How did Last Call Media perform from a project management standpoint?

Since we did two-week sprints, it felt like a whirlwind because we were moving at such a rapid pace and so much was happening, but everybody that we worked with was responsive. The communication was good. Throughout the main part of the project, we were in touch multiple times a week.

We spent a lot of time working together via email, but we also did check in using Google Hangouts. They use a system called Redmine for project management. Through Redmine, we submit tickets or support requests and discuss different options for using modules.

What did you find most impressive about Last Call Media?

We were working not only with the project manager but with the developers as well. Being able to talk directly with the developers was a pleasant surprise. I have had experiences with other companies where the project manager is the shield or wall between the developers and the client, so working directly with both of those roles was unique and enjoyable.

Are there any areas Last Call Media could improve?

I don’t think so since we had a really good experience. But for us, doing an Agile project was a new experience, as we were used to traditional web projects. At the end of our project, we internally set aside time to do cleanup and fixes, but in hindsight, had we known, it works better for us to do these tasks throughout and not until the end. But for me, that’s an experience thing since we had never done this before.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a refugee-protection agency working all around the world. We resettle refugees in the United States. Our organization was established over a century ago and is one of the oldest groups worldwide working to protect refugees. I am the senior director of communications for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Last Call Media?

We needed to make some improvements to our website. For example, we were experiencing some processing performance issues on the backend because of some poor coding. We also had some recurring bugs that needed resolving. The list went on and on, but we couldn't fix any of it without help. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Last Call Media has worked on aesthetics, as well as adding functionalities to our Drupal website, improving its overall usability. We've recently launched a new events management section on the site; it was one of the bigger projects we undertook in 2016. Last Call Media has also helped us switch to a new hosting provider recently. Doing this has saved our organization a lot of money.

We have worked with a number of developers, an information architect, and different managers from Last Call Media's team, during different phases of our project.

How did you come to work with Last Call Media?

We had been working with a different agency for a couple of years but felt that that relationship had run its course. We wanted to have some fresh eyes on-site. I had worked with Last Call Media before at another job, so I knew what their capabilities were.

How much have you invested with Last Call Media?

The cost of Last Call Media's work has been around $80,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Last Call Media at the beginning of 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Switching our site to cloud-based hosting has been a big win for our group, saving us a lot of money immediately. It's a much more flexible and robust solution, at a fraction of the cost. Last Call Media has made recommendations and helped us migrate.

The events section built by Last Call Media has worked well and gave us a capacity that we hadn't had before. It's now much easier for us to manage publishing new events content on the site.

How did Last Call Media perform from a project management standpoint?

For the most part, Last Call Media delivered on time and within budget. These projects will typically take longer than expected to complete, but Last Call Media's performance has been reasonable. We have our own instance of Basecamp which has been used for the project to a limited extent. Last Call Media uses Redmine internally, for project management and incident tracking. It's a bit technical, so we don't use it as much ourselves. Basecamp is good for discussions and gathering requirements.

What did you find most impressive about Last Call Media?

I've known Last Call Media's principal for a long time, and I like his common-sense approach. He's easy to talk to and listens well to our needs. Last Call Media's process is not very different to that of other web shops I've used, but they're responsible, diligent, and things are generally kept moving.

Last Call Media is a no-nonsense and no-drama shop. There was never upselling of unnecessary services. Last Call Media has been accountable and diligent around the time spent. Anytime we've had a question or disagreed about an issue, Last Call Media was good at hearing us out and considering our perspective. I really appreciate this.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for the Center for Agriculture at the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It houses the research arm of the Extension Cooperative Service.

What is your position?

I am the Web designer and developer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Last Call Media?

About four years ago, the university adopted Drupal as the content management system to build out all of their department websites. The people who are involved in designing and building websites needed to get up to speed with developing on the Drupal platform.

I was tasked with developing the projects, and it’s just me in this capacity. I don’t necessarily have the capability to do all of them. In those cases, we are able to hire outside vendors. The other situation that compelled us to use outside vendors was with custom programming. We have zero code monkeys in-house, so we really had to find a development partner.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the project?

Because I’m able to build out a large part of websites except for the custom programming, I’ve used Last Call for the pieces where we’ve needed custom functionality. It’s been more of a collaborative-type workflow. They’ve worked really well in that capacity. It can be difficult to hire a Web developer who only handles certain components of the site. Last Call Media has been great with exactly that. They’re incredibly knowledgeable in the Drupal ecosystem, both the frontend and the backend.

I’ve also worked with them in the capacity of project management. They have a project manager on their end, and then I’m the one on the university end, making me the liaison between them and the client here at the university. They’ve taken the whole project from start to finish in terms of building up the design, functionality, and testing.

They were also incredibly responsible. As a state university, we have to stay within a strict budget. They understand that. They completely stayed within budget, kept in contact with us in terms of areas beyond the project scope, and organized the process very well.  

How did you select Last Call Media as your solution partner?

They’re heavily involved in the Drupal community, and they give back quite a bit. It’s an open source community, so it really relies on people giving back. They’ve built various modules for Drupal. They were one of several companies that sponsored a Drupal camp that was hosted here at the university. It was at that conference that I first became familiar with Last Call Media.

I decided to send request for an estimate to them and they responded with a decent bid. This was a project that I needed to collaborate closely with them. They were perfectly willing to work with our workflow, and provided some fresh insights into how to improve the process.

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

The projects they’ve done projects for us, it was anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000.

When was the project completed?

The most recent project was a couple of months ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics or metrics that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work Last Call Media has delivered?

One of the projects had a huge impact. We have a bunch of individual Drupal sites across many teams within our center. We want to share information between those sites, so that people could add content in one and specify where they want it to appear. That’s the piece of functionality that Last Call created for us. It’s made a huge difference. The feedback has just been overwhelmingly great for that.

When working with Last Call Media, is there anything you would consider unique or special about them compared to other service providers with which you’ve worked?

The thing that sets them apart is they’re very down to earth. They’re not hard sellers. They are very business savvy, but they are very personable as well. They’re incredibly professional.

In retrospect, are there any areas that you think they could improve upon, or are there things you’d do differently as the client before approaching this type of project?

There are certain things that we would do differently, but it has nothing to do with Last Call Media. It has something to do with them in terms of how we worked in the past, and their guidance for us to work more effectively. But, it’s not a negative against them. It’s certainly a new area for us in terms of working with Drupal vendors and sites of this capacity.

We’ve had to learn a whole new kind of workflow. We’ve had to learn a new method of collaboration in terms of implementing new code. That’s all been quite beneficial. They’re more than happy to offer that guidance to us, which has been fantastic.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

We’re an international nonprofit organization that works heavily in environmental conservation.

What is your position?

I’m the Web manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Last Call Media?

We were initially working through a middleman that was sourcing our development work to Last Call Media. Eventually, we commissioned Last Call directly and removed the middleman. It didn’t make sense to work through a separate contract, and we wanted to have the most effective relationship possible with our development partner.

Our initial challenge was to perform a Drupal upgrade to the latest version. We also wanted a new responsive theme for our website. Last Call Media handled both of those tasks.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the project? For instance, did it involve custom visual design, backend development, training, or support? 

The upgrade to the latest Drupal version was initiated with Last Call Media through the previously mentioned middleman. That required a significant amount of backend development. Implementing the responsive theme into our site was done afterward and without the middleman. That also required a considerable amount of custom development along with quality assurance/quality control and user interface/user experience testing. They also provide ongoing support for our Drupal platform.

How did you select Last Call Media as your solution partner?

We were originally utilizing their services through a middleman. We were rather displeased with the project management. However, were very impressed with the development work produced by Last Call. Eventually, we terminated our contract with the middleman and hired Last Call Media directly.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this project in monetary terms?

If I recall correctly, it cost between $15,000 and $20,000.

When was the project completed?

The Drupal upgrade was finished a year ago, and we still have several projects ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

It’s a little bit tough, because there were no frontend, visible changes. It was all work that was done on the backend, so there was no difference from the users’ perspective other than potentially some site speed improvements. They enhanced the fluidity of our functionality, which is hard to demonstrate without understanding our internal business processes. As for the responsive theme implementation, we’ve seen improvements in our bounce rates and especially for mobile.

When working with Last Call Media, is there anything you would consider unique or special about them compared to other vendors you’ve worked with in the past?

I would say that we’ve tried several Drupal developers in the past, but Last Call has been by far the best at communication. We have direct contact with their developers, and they’re extremely proficient at speaking to the layperson. They’re also very accessible. We never feel left out of the loop. They’re very flexible in terms of project management. We’ve been extremely pleased with their performance and intend to keep them as our development partner into the foreseeable future.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a Senior Web Developer for Smith College

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Smith College is among the largest women’s colleges in the United States.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Last Call Media to accomplish?

• Development and Technical Support

SOLUTION

How did you find Last Call Media?

Referral

Why did you select Last Call Media over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Last Call Media were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Last Call Media provides continuous support and application/module development for our Drupal and Wordpress ecosystems.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Last Call Media consistently provides exceptional support, security oversight, and on demand development for special projects.

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

Last Call Media is always responsive to requests and flexible with timing of deliverables relative to our academic schedule.

What was your primary form of communication with Last Call Media?

Virtual Meeting

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

Last Call Media has a broad spectrum of expertise and can always be relied upon to provide expert guidance and support.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Last Call Media could have done differently?

Last Call Media has been an invaluable partner in the support and maintenance of our CMS ecosystems.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a university medical school and healthcare provider. Our team develops and manages the websites for the campus.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Last Call Media?

We hired LCM to evaluate our profile system and assist in the selection for a replacement.

What were your goals for this project?

Gain a better understanding on how the existing product was being used so that it could inform our decision for a replacement.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were referred to us.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected the vendor we met to discuss the project in detail and make arrangements for them to meet with stakeholders. They conducted interviews across different departments and compiled their findings. Based on those findings they researched potential replacement tools and presented us the options with a breakdown of features and how they aligned with our needs.

What was the team composition?

They had a team lead and an analyst.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The outcome was extremely helpful for us to build a business for the replacement of the tool.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were very organized and made sure to communicate with us every step of the way.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were extremely thorough in both their approach and their documentation.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None, their work was great.