Locastic

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Program Development Consultant of Bene-Marc, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a sports insurance agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Locastic to accomplish?

• Create a web-based application for policy issuance, licensing and agent management.
• Create webiste for clients to purchase coverage 24/7

SOLUTION

How did you find Locastic?

Referral

Why did you select Locastic over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Locastic were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Bene-Marc is a leader in sports insurance working with hundreds of universities, schools, sports camps and clinics, leagues, and tournaments. Additionally, Bene-Marc has expanded as a premier leader in special event insurance as well as PTO and PTA coverage across the USA.

Our current application is no longer up to par with the company's current needs so we work with Locastic to help us improve internal workflow efficiency for our employees by automating various business processes, address ongoing operational issue and replace the internal database with an enhanced software solution.

The new in-house application will help us to increase overall user experience by developing an intuitive, web-based software interface that offers easy accessibility without requiring connection to a remote server. Policy creation is complex flow and all manual steps that can be automated help in streamlining operational workflows while reducing manual work.

Key deliverables are:

• Employee management
• Agent management
• Licence management
• Carrier management
• Client management
• Policy management
• Reports and certificates
• Activity log

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Consistent meetings, frequent updates on various stages of project, updates on where we stand with proposed timeline and budget.  Platform for us to test the parts of the project that are completed.

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

Yes, the entire team is very on-point with responsiveness, in-tune with our needs/goals and always deliver within the promised time frame.

What was your primary form of communication with Locastic?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They are a pleasure to work with. They are able to think "outside the box" and make suggestions to help us develope the best, most intuit program possible.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CFO of Litbit Finance

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

LitBit Finance is a leading decentralized fundraising solution, offering a secure and anti-whale Initial DEX Offering (IDO) platform, incubation services, and an autonomous presale platform on the Cronos, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon network. 

Our goal is to democratize access to high-quality investment opportunities, managed by dedicated professionals. Our IDO platform is designed to meet the needs of venture capital firms, community-driven venture capital groups, and self-incubated projects, providing a comprehensive solution for all fundraising requirements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Locastic to accomplish?

• Create website
• Create crypto utility
• Create safe database

SOLUTION

How did you find Locastic?

We know about them from their activity in IT community.

Why did you select Locastic over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Locastic were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

• IDO Pool Creation: Develop functionalities for creating pools for Initial DEX Offerings (IDO), including user interfaces for project owners to set up and manage these pools. 
• Token Vault: Construct a secure token vault for holding, distributing, and managing tokens associated with IDOs, including features for time-locked releases and participant allocations. 
• Staking Mechanism: Implement a staking system allowing users to stake tokens for rewards, including the design of reward algorithms and user dashboards for tracking staking performance. 
• Lottery System: Create a lottery system for fair distribution of IDO participation chances, incorporating a verifiable random function (VRF) to ensure transparency and fairness. 
• LitPower Dashboard: Build a comprehensive dashboard for IDO participants, showcasing upcoming IDOs, staking rewards, lottery participation, and personalized IDO recommendations.
• VRF Anti Whale System: Integrate a VRF-based system to prevent whale dominance in IDOs, ensuring equitable participation opportunities for all community members. 
• Key Deliverables: 
  • Fully functional Launchpad platform with IDO pool creation capabilities. 
  • Secure Token Vault for managing IDO tokens. 
  • Staking system with user dashboard for tracking and managing stakes. 
  • Lottery system for IDO participation with an anti-whale mechanism. 
  • LitPower Dashboard for comprehensive IDO participation management. 
  • This scope aims to deliver a seamless and secure platform for managing IDO processes, from submission to participation, ensuring a fair and engaging experience for all stakeholders.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Measurable outcomes would include the successful development and launch of the LitBit Finance Launchpad and associated utilities, enhanced platform security and user engagement through the Token Vault, Staking, Lottery, and Anti Whale systems, as well as improved accessibility and user experience via the LitPower Dashboard. 

These outcomes are indicative of Locastic's effectiveness in delivering a comprehensive solution that meets LitBit's strategic objectives, driving platform growth and user adoption. Locastic excelled in delivering high-quality service and outcomes, achieving beyond expectations with exceptional attention to detail and understanding of project objectives.

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

Locastic's project management was highly effective, marked by a proactive approach to communication and adaptability. They consistently delivered items on time, demonstrating a strong commitment to meeting project timelines. 

Their response to LitBit's needs was commendably flexible; they accommodated changes to already agreed project details with efficiency, ensuring that any delays were minimal and solely due to modifications requested by LitBit. This positive collaboration underscores Locastic's dedication to client satisfaction and project success.

What was your primary form of communication with Locastic?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Locastic impresses with their precision in budgeting, adept time planning, and friendly, approachable demeanor, distinguishing them notably in their field. Their ability to adapt seamlessly to project changes, without the nervousness or disorganization often seen in smaller companies, speaks to their professionalism. 

Moreover, the diversity of services offered, acting as a one-stop solution for all project needs, underscores their unique position in the market, providing clients with a comprehensive, effective partnership experience. Given the positive experience, plans are in place to rehire Locastic for future projects shortly, affirming the strong partnership and satisfaction with their work.

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

Given the context and performance described, there aren't apparent areas for improvement for Locastic as they exceeded expectations. They not only met the required objectives but also went beyond by facilitating connections with potential partners, showcasing their commitment to adding value beyond the immediate scope of work. This initiative enhances their profile as a comprehensive and forward-thinking partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm CEO of TheGepek, a carpooling platform based on package delivery. We’re now in the MVP stage and beta version. We’re doing a model similar to BlaBlaCar but driving packages instead of people. It’s a two-sided platform with package senders and drivers. We offer package senders delivery within hours, 24/7 delivery, and weekend delivery.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Locastic?

We were trying to solve problems for drivers and lower the costs because gas prices were high. We already had a web-based MVP platform, but we wanted to test our model on the blockchain.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We contacted Locastic because they had experience with blockchain technology. They helped us build the MVP blockchain version. It was a web-based platform that was also mobile responsive.

We initially did some workshops to define the roadmap. After that, they did the UX/UI and provided QA. We defined the wireframes together, and they did smart contract development based on Solidity and provided UX designers, project managers, developers, QA engineers, and smart contract developers.

We’ll do more blockchain development with them in the future.

What is the team composition?

We worked with them remotely, but we had some meetings with Antonio (CEO & Co-Founder).

How did you come to work with Locastic?

Our blockchain consultants at the time referred them. They had some experience with them. Locastic was a well-known and active vendor in the developer community. Also, they were one of the main organizers of the biggest blockchain conference in the region. They were known as quality providers, so it was a no-brainer to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

The contract was for $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2021, and the project lasted three months. We’re planning to engage with them again soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work helped us raise funding from a new blockchain company, which was our main goal. We received a grant after they tested the MVP, and now we have 5,000 users. Overall, we were really satisfied with them. The MVP worked fine and did its job — we got users, direction, and funding.

How did Locastic perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve worked in IT for over 20 years, and sometimes estimates aren’t met. However, Locastic finished their work when they told us they would; they completed everything on time. Their CEO acted as project manager, running the team of developers. They had good communication with our team. Our meetings and workshops were online; we mostly used Slack and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their quality of work and ability to meet deadlines were outstanding. They were really fast and curious about the contract.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t skip any of the work at the beginning. Your results will be great if you follow all the steps needed for development. They’re very professional; they tend to prepare for the project very well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Splice is cultivating the essential ecosystem for music creation with innovative audio products that inspire and enable artists. At Splice, I am a Sr. Editorial Lead, spearheading the company's blog and editorial strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our goal with hiring Locastic was to make some updates to the infrastructure and design of our blog, from transferring hosting platforms to implementing new modules and features. Because our blog is hosted on a different content management system from the rest of our site, we lacked internal engineering resources to implement our desired changes and opted to reach out to an external expert to facilitate.

SOLUTION

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

We conducted interviews with several prospective vendors, and as a result found that Locastic felt both the most knowledgable and understanding of our unique needs and circumstances, while having a rate that was competitive.

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

After an extensive initial call, we tackled the project via a weekly report system, where we identified certain items to tackle each week and provided respective email updates on progress. Some primary goals included the transferring of hosting platforms, the implementation of custom modules (homepage carousels, author pages, related posts, etc.), and an audit of plugins, but they also helped out with numerous smaller enhancements and bug fixes as well. Primary technologies used were WordPress and Kinsta.

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

We worked primarily with Antonio, the CEO of Locastic, with additional support from Leonardo.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Locastic met all measurable outcomes we were hoping to meet with the project. Many were binary in nature (ex. X bug safely resolved), but we also saw lifts in engagement and site performance as a result of their work.

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

The Locastic team was highly proactive with communication (which we largely conducted over email), which was much appreciated. Their proposed weekly report system ensured that we were always discussing changes before they were implemented, and we could work through any problems as we encountered them in real time.

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

The Locastic team was really thoughtful towards and respectful of our vision, which made working with them a great experience. They certainly challenged us and provided feedback in the areas where they were the experts in, but ultimately consistently came alongside us in our journey.

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

Nothing comes to mind at the moment—we were happy to have worked alongside them and are already initiating discussions for potential future work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of development at Centaurus, a food delivery service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Locastic?

All of our orders from restaurants were on paper — someone would call and their orders would get written down. After that, it would then be transferred to the commercial services. They then send it to the warehouse so they can supply the restaurant with the products. We wanted to create a virtual bridge between us and the customers to diminish the need for paper.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us develop a custom software for restaurants to place their order. The order is then placed on our server, to which our warehouse will manage the completion of that order. They made a web application full of data and full of products. 

Our customers are able to see the personal price list for their company, and after they’ve completed their order, it will appear in our business software. Our warehouse then prints the orders to complete them. We use the software on our website, mobile phones, and tablets. It works on every platform, and while it may look like a part of our website, it’s hosted in Germany on a server.

It was a bit of revelation for me when I saw how they do their work. My colleague and I and their team did a series of workshops with us, which were pretty intuitive. They wanted the right answers from us in phases, as they’re not the type of company that would rush anything — they wanted to know our true needs. They had a meeting with my colleague and me about 10-12 times and they insisted that they talk to the person who runs the warehouse. 

They spoke to the person who does the orders physically because they wanted to know the complete steps that are needed for a customer’s order to be placed and received. After the workshops, they started working on the background and on the user roles. They completed the development of the application at the correct time and there weren’t any postponements from their side — they took a very professional approach.

Right now, they’re finishing up some things we didn’t manage to do before, such as working on connectivity problems.

What is the team composition?

We worked with the most experienced team. Most of our communication was with the head of projects and a backend developer. They had support from other sides including a frontend person, and a system engineer for connecting their system to our server — there wasn’t much communication with them.

How did you come to work with Locastic?

Croatia is a small country where everyone knows everybody — if you do quality work, people will know. I asked around about who was the best, the second best, and the third best. The owner of the company and myself did a series of talks with different companies including Locastic, and found that they were one of the best companies in Croatia. We were impressed with their presentation and their approach, which was simple, fast, and professional. We chose them over the others because they deserved it.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $110,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and the partnership is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re very satisfied with the working relationship, as they’ve completed everything we wanted from them. We’re a big company that works with a lot of restaurants, and Locastic understood what we want even when we didn’t know what we wanted. The workshops were an excellent idea that they did them astonishingly well. The result they came up with is now an application that actually works on a daily basis.

How did Locastic perform from a project management standpoint?

We have good quality communication with them, so we didn’t experience any issues. Communication is very fast and there weren’t any delays — they did everything day by day without postponing or slowing down the work. They even helped me complete the documentation for things that weren’t even in the contract because they wanted to help. We communicate mostly through Slack.

The biggest challenge was starting at the beginning to work with the application. We then noticed some things we couldn’t anticipate earlier, but they were very supportive. Postponing the development for a short time was the most difficult part of the development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their professionalism and understanding of what we need are impressive. They do it at the highest level which is why the project was such a success — they knew how to reach the level of information to help us build the application.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They did a great job so I’m a happy customer. I’m looking forward to doing different projects with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You need to take it step-by-step and think about every move. There must be a strong will to complete the assignment and the person involved in management needs to be motivated and know what they’re doing — plan every step as we planned with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a team lead for mobile development projects at Corvus Info. We have 28 employees, and we provide online payment gateway services to web shops.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Locastic?

We were quite a small team, and we needed a professional to give us guidance on a new UX for our system. Before working with Locastic, all development was in-house. We didn’t have someone who could look at it from a customer point of view, so the UI/UX of our service wasn’t satisfactory.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Locastic’s assignment is to propose UI/UX designs for our mobile application. They also did the development for Android and iOS, because we had some problems with our internal resources. 

The biggest challenge is making the onboarding process as easy as possible. It’s been difficult, confusing, and with a lot of data to fill in. We also have a wallet functionality for storing credit card and international bank account number (IBAN) data. 

We launched the mobile app in October 2020, and we’ve made a few updates since then. We have some brainstorming workshops to explain our main goals. Locastic makes a few design proposals and prepares detailed mock-ups. We’re near the end of phase one; phase two will include a redesign of the web interface and some new functionalities.

What is the team composition?

We work with three designers from Locastic.

How did you come to work with Locastic?

Locastic was recommended to us by a company that Corvus was working with at the time, and it ended up being a very good decision.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost so far is $57,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project with Locastic started in May 2020, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My best measurement is that we have an application in production, and I’m very satisfied with it. However, we’ve had a lot of challenges on the backend and other areas.

It’s very difficult to measure the success at this moment. The app we’ve built with Locastic is just a part of our payment system, so it’s difficult to say how much impact it has on our services and our new customers. There are a lot of other factors at play, the biggest one being COVID-19. Everything’s going online, so business has been going quite well in the last few months.

How did Locastic perform from a project management standpoint?

Depending on the phase and need, we have daily and weekly coordination sessions, most of them online. We’ve used various project management tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about Locastic is how much dedication they put into our project. I sometimes get the feeling that they are working exclusively for us. They completely understood our business strategy and vision, and they proposed improvements. Then, we defined the scope together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t found any improvement areas. They’ve respected the goals and timelines we set completely, but they can’t always jump in with a quick solution right when we need it.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

No, I don’t have advice for other clients. Locastic has given us advice. It’s a pleasure working with them, and everything they do is professional. They have answers to all of our questions based on their experience with other customers.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Damir and I’m the COO at Kruna Mode, a Croatian fashion chain with more than 40 years of tradition.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The first project was a B2C webshop with a loyalty and sponsorship system, and the second project was a B2B webshop for selling our fashion brands directly to other retailers. We still have an ongoing collaboration for general maintenance, support and custom upgrades.

SOLUTION

How did you select Locastic and what were the deciding factors?

Locastic is a well known company in our region and we got a recommendation that they are the right team for the job. Also they have a good and well respected list of the projects and the clients in their portfolio.

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

For the first project, the B2C webshop, we needed an online store for selling our fashion brands directly to our customers. Besides the usual features of a webshop (such as the product catalog, discounts, brand overview, sales funnel, news, etc.) there were a few specific requirements:

• A loyalty system based on purchases and coupon conversions
  • Customers buy products and collect points from each purchase
  • They can convert those points into actual coupons in their user profile and get discounts on future purchases
• Specific discounts based on different customer groups - VIP, Sponsors etc.
  • We have specific customer groups that have custom discounts (both for products that are already on discount, and those that aren’t) for the whole collection
  • Countdown promotions with custom banners
  • We needed the ability to create custom banners and place them on the webshop with a countdown timer (for example Black Friday sales or Christmas sales)
• Multi-level sponsorship system with invites and custom points
  • Meant mostly for influencers who can create traffic to our website in exchange for points that can be used as coupons or actual payouts
• Multi-currency support for sales outside of Croatia
  • We plan on using the webshop to expand our sales internationally to new markets so we needed multi-currency support (as well as shipping integration). So far we added EUR and HRK but other currencies can be added as well
• Fully integration with our inventory in stores and our ERP system
• Store locators The second project was a B2B online store where we sell product packages in bulk to other stores and businesses. Even though this store shares a lot of features with the B2C one we had some custom requirements:
• Selling packages in bulk
  • We needed the option of selling our products in larger quantities based on different sizes, as well as creating custom packages of different products that can be sold at a special price
• Stock and Presale shop
  • The goal was to split the shop into two sections - The Stock section is for products that are already available on the regular B2C shop but at wholesale prices and the Presale section is for upcoming seasons and new products that aren’t yet available in retail
• Custom order exports
  • As B2B clients purchase a larger quantity of products in general, the usual order confirmation is not optimal, so we wanted a custom xlsx/csv download for a better overview
• Order grouping
  • We needed a way of grouping orders from different b2b customers based on brands and sizes so that our order and shipping process is more efficient
• Fully integration with our inventory in stores and our ERP system

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

1 PM & QA, 1 UX/UI, 1 Frontend, 2 Backend

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As I mentioned before, the main goal was to get closer to our target audience, and we succeeded in that. We have yearly growth of approx. 15% and we are planning to invest more in online stores in the future. As we assumed, this was a good step and great investment in the future.

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

The project was managed by Danilo. We have an open Slack Workspace with Locastic where most of the communication is done. Also we did a bunch of workshops and meetings in real life, same as online video meetings.

When we were working on new features we had workshops and meetings in their office where we discussed user scenarios, reviewed wireframes and designs, etc. They informed us about releases on a regular basis with a list of tasks that were done.

Even though some deadlines were missed they always delivered what was promised and written in our project specification, and they added extra miles so all sides will be happy.

Also they recorded all kinds of videos to educate us about the platform, process and how to manage all the things. They are always available for any issue or question.

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

The biggest challenge we faced on this project came from the fact that at first Locastic chose a technology stack that wasn’t able to deliver some of our custom requests during changes in strategy of open source solution that was used back in time.

At the start of the project, it seemed like the Sylius webshop option they chose would have support for the loyalty and sponsorship modules, but that wasn’t the case which became obvious in the implementation phase. They were very transparent about it and gave us two options:

1. Custom development of those features - a lot of additional working hours and costs
2. Transfer to PrestaShop We went for the PrestaShop implementation which proved successful and they were able to deliver all of our requirements.

Even though this switch to a new technology caused a lot of extra hours for Locastic they did it free of charge. It showed us that they really do care about our product and don’t quit when things get tough.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Since we have been working together for almost 4 years, I can notice that they are improving each day and I can only wish them to stay on the same track. Although this was a hard long project, they were always professional and they always cared about delivering the best possible product and results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the Managing Partner at the Setono development agency based in Aalborg, Denmark. I was in charge of developing an eCommerce website for an external client and for the project in question, I decided to bring in some help from Locastics backend team

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

They were in charge of building a backend and frontend system based on the Sylius framework together with me and another programmer. The goal was to develop a new online store to distribute fashion products by the local Danish brands and create a trendy website with attractive UX/UI design and top-notch performance, optimized for all devices: desktop, tablet, and mobile.

SOLUTION

How did you select Locastic and what were the deciding factors?

Locastic is a well-known agency in the eCommerce world, a software team that’s listed as an early adopter and a professional solution partner for the Sylius framework. They were certified as an officially trained partner for Sylius and we received great feedback from their previous clients, so we decided to hire them to work on the store in question.

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

Since we already had the designs worked out, we needed a reliable team for the backend and frontend implementation process, which was kind of tricky considering that we had a few B2B features that required custom development.

Besides multilingual support for all the Scandinavian languages, Locastic did the integration with ElasticSearch and implemented Microsoft Business Central as an ERP system.

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

I was in charge of project management, actively working with their two team members - one PHP/Symfony specialist and one Frontend developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We needed a development team that could be productive and add value from day one, and the Locastic team was exactly that. They are easy to work with and they understand requirements very well. This resulted in good development processes that required little project management.

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

Project Management was done on our side and I was personally in charge of planning, hosting, daily standups, handling the GitHub ticketing system, etc.

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

We were really impressed with their systematic approach to developing webshops and taking the extra mile to understand our business goals. The collaboration went really smoothly and the communication with Locastic developers was top-notch.

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

They are a really talented team of software experts with well-polished development processes, and I would recommend their services for future projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Slaven Ivan Kalinski, Portal and Webshop Development and Operations Principal at A1 Hrvatska, which is the part of Telekom Austria Group. We approached the Locastic team to improve the UX and performance for our Homebox product and after a successful endeavor, we hired them to reshape our mobile communications brand - A1 Tomato.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

For the first project, we required software prototyping workshops, discovery phase, UX/UI design, and front-end development services on A1 Homebox.

We were really impressed with how well they understood our requirements, and how much effort they invest in usability testing and improving every UX aspect of our product so we decided to extend the collaboration for more projects. After this project, we hired them to reshape our mobile communications brand - A1 Tomato.

They did such an amazing job that the project won an award for the best website in south-east Europe. The product checkout process needed to be completely revamped, so we approached Locastic and Netgen to conduct customer research and create a sales-oriented platform, fully automated and integrated with our backend systems.

The ultimate goal was to improve the UX-process, boost online sales, and our conversion rates. After a while, we started noticing improvements - our mobile sessions increased by 31% with our mobile sales revenue boasting a whopping 160% growth!

More importantly, the team managed to improve our internal processes by simply automating a few things, which eventually led to saving 600 working hours for our team.

SOLUTION

How did you select Locastic and what were the deciding factors?

They are quite known in the domestic market as experts in the world of software, an agency that won some industry awards. We loved their work and after the first meeting we were impressed with their knowledge, so we hired them to work on improving our web and mobile platforms.

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

We did several workshops with the Locastic team to define requirements. We conducted a detailed discovery workshop, UX prototypes and usability testing with our customers, UI design, frontend and backend implementations.

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

So far we worked with the PM, UX/UI expert, and two frontend developers. The team I worked with was great at communicating information to both stakeholders and users and I’m excited to see what the future holds for our cooperation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the second platform (A1 Tomato) was delivered, they kept tracking our business analytics and improving the platform. Both sides understood that we always can measure and improve it more, and we are glad they are that kind of partner.

They are not classic software mercenaries, but more reliable, long-term partners. Locastic saved 600 working hours for our sales team, mobile sales increased by 160% and our conversion rates were sitting at 6% - which is twice larger than the industry average.

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

The project management part was handled by Vjeran and Marko, but we also communicated directly with their developers. They are really good at planning and deadlines, also they are good at detecting problems in the early phases which is very important in this type of project. We feel that they handled our products at the highest possible level.

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

The most impressive thing is that I never felt I was working with an external team, they took the extra mile to learn about our products and that made the comms much more smooth.

Locastic is a very creative digital team, ready to invest time into research, conducting customer surveys, and all once the resources are gathered - they apply everything they’ve learned into improving the software.

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

Locastic’s development process is well-defined and the team is always striving to deliver amazing digital products. As long as they can maintain the current team with their passion and dedication - the future is bright.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Ivan Burazin and I’m co-founder and CEO of Codeanywhere. Codeanywhere is a Cloud Integrated Development Environment. Our Cloud IDE saves you time by deploying a development environment in seconds, enabling you to code, learn, build, and collaborate on your projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Locastic to design a landing page for promoting our cloud-based IDE.

SOLUTION

How did you select Locastic and what were the deciding factors?

I worked with the team on the first few editions of the largest tech event in southeast Europe called Shift Conference that I founded. A few Locastic members were in the organizational team and during that project I noticed that their design work was top notch.

After receiving our initial investment, we instantly knew who we wanted to work with in the visual design domain so we got in touch and started working on the website.

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

As a kick-off meeting, Locastic hosted a workshop session where we defined our customer personas, project scope and UX prototypes. In the following stage Marko from Locastic created website designs after it was implemented (from our end), Locastic team was in charge of the testing phase.

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

We worked with Locastic’s lead UX/UI designer Marko.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started working with the team after securing our first major investment and we invested most of that amount into building the platform. Building an amazing website that will convert our visitors into our customers was a very important thing for us.

Once we released a new website, our conversion rates increased especially from mobile and tablet users, also we received a lot of positive feedback from our end-users. This directly affected our revenue and profits.

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

Project management was done on our end, since we already have a team of developers to work on the project. Marko (Locastic) joined our team until the project was released. He was easy to work with, very easy to communicate with and he always had solutions for any problem we encountered.

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

Their creativity was off the charts! The Locastic team did a great job with communicating ideas to stakeholders and most of the A/B testing we did resulted with more users, view and time spent on our platform.

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

Everything was great.