Margins

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of the Croatian Academic Sports Federation (CASF). We’re the umbrella organization for university sports in Croatia. We run sports programs and projects in more than 20 sports for over 20,000 students each year.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Margins?

We hired Margins to build UniSport Digital, the central information system of CASF. Our main goal was to digitize and simplify all processes in university sports at both the national and local levels. We wanted to replace fragmented, manual workflows with one integrated platform.Specifically, we needed:Beyond the internal efficiency gains, a key objective was to give all our stakeholders (CASF staff, member associations, student athletes, and relevant institutions and governing bodies) fast and easy access to information about our core activities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Margins has handled the project end-to-end, from initial analysis and system design through development, launch, and ongoing maintenance. They’ve worked closely with our team to map the existing processes in university sports and translate them into a unified digital platform.The main deliverables have been:Since launch, Margins has also been responsible for hosting, maintenance, and continuous improvements to the platform.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 10–15 teammates from Margins.

How did you come to work with Margins?

We found them through a referral. We chose them over other options because they had high ratings, were close to my geographic location, had a great culture fit, and had company values aligned with ours.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

UniSport Digital has fundamentally changed how university sports are managed in Croatia. Today, all registrations, accreditations, competitions, and results for more than 20,000 students across 20+ sports each year run through a single system, both at the national level and in our 24 member associations.Some of the most visible results:Since implementing UniSport Digital, our administrative processes have become around 80% faster. Registrations for competitions, which used to involve collecting forms and checking data manually, are now completed significantly faster. Any changes, such as updating rosters or correcting athlete information, can be made instantly within the system instead of through a chain of emails and phone calls.We’ve also seen a major reduction in the volume of day-to-day communication with our member associations. 
Most of the information they used to request from us is now available directly in the system and the mobile app. For a team our size, that has freed up a lot of time that we can now spend on organizing and developing university sports instead of on paperwork.Our internal estimate is that administrative tasks related to registrations, accreditations, and competition management now take roughly a fifth of the time they used to. What once took our staff several days around each major competition, such as collecting entries, checking eligibility, and making corrections, is now mostly handled within hours.
Member associations have seen a similar change. Instead of sending documents and following up by email and phone, they enter and update data themselves in the system, which has noticeably reduced the back-and-forth with our office.We’ve received positive feedback from athletes and member associations. Our member associations most often point out how much faster and simpler everything has become. Registrations, changes, and checking data no longer require back-and-forth with our office, and they have a clear overview of everything in one place.
Athletes especially appreciate the mobile app, where they can follow competitions, schedules, and results in real time and access their own information whenever they need to. For many students, that has made taking part in university sports much easier and more transparent. Overall, both groups see the system as a big step forward compared to how things worked before.

How did Margins perform from a project management standpoint?

Margins’ project management has been excellent. They deliver on time, even though the scope has changed several times compared to our initial plan as new needs have come up along the way. Instead of treating those changes as a problem, they adapt quickly, help us think through the best solutions, and keep the project moving without compromising deadlines or quality.Communication is clear and regular throughout, and we always know where things stand. For a system of this size and complexity, with many different modules and users, that kind of flexibility and reliability has made a real difference for us.

What did you find most impressive or unique about them?

What impresses us most is how well Margins has come to understand the world of university sports. Our system is quite specific, with a national federation, many member associations, thousands of student athletes, and very different types of competitions. Margins has taken the time to really learn how it all works rather than just building to a spec. Because of that, the solutions they propose often anticipate needs we haven’t fully articulated ourselves.We also value that they act as a long-term partner, not just a vendor. They’ve built the entire platform in-house, they know it inside out, and they’re genuinely invested in its further development, which gives us a lot of confidence as we plan the next steps for UniSport Digital.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an owner and CEO of the company dealing with rural development in Croatia, particularly with agriculture products produces by a small family farms and rural tourism.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Locavore is a unique marketplace for connecting customers with independent local food suppliers, including farmers. I am the founder and CEO of the company. At the initial ideation phase of Locavore, we reached out and hired Bebabit to help us with idea validation and creating the first prototype of Locavore.

At first, our goal was to validate the idea as soon as possible and test out the MVP with first users.

SOLUTION

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

We had a shortlist of 4 Desing and Development Agency. After engaging in talks and initial conversations, we decided to go with Bebabit, as they were very professional, detailed, and from the very first start, it seemed to me that I can trust them to do the job. I didn't regret it once.

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

After our first kickoff meeting, Bebabit organized a 5 sessions long Desing sprint workshop. At end of this, they have created a bunch of analysis and supporting documents and proposed the very first UX(user flow, sitemap etc). After we confirmed this, the clickable prototype was prepared and validated.

When all was set, they started the actual development of the first MVP.

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

There were 4 people, Project Manager, 1 Designer, 1 Backend Developer, and 1 Frontend developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results are amazing. Only one and a half years from launch Locavore is already the largest Croatian Local food e-commerce platform. We are still developing the platform with Bebabit even further and have big plans. I'm very proud of how happy our suppliers are with using locavore, and the word of mouth growth is amazing.

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

The PM did a fantastic job. Very honest and transparent communication. We communicated daily through google meet, Slack and email. In every moment we knew the progress of our project and whent to expect the next delivery.

Also, it was great for us to see the live progress on the tasks in Trello where we were leaving comments and our feedback.

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

Reliability, honesty, great communication, and transparency. They guided us on every aspect of the product features throughout the whole process. The team helped us out in avoiding some of the post problems.

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

no

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the co-founder of the web app in development Social Droplet, which will help social media managers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Bebabit is our partner for developing the whole custom web solution for Social Droplet, the wep app that will help social media managers with ideas for their daily content.

SOLUTION

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

We seleced Bebabit based on the great recommendations from their previous projects.

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

We went through the whole design process step by steps, with workshops for every next step., where we discussed and agreed upon the visual identity, UX, User interface etc.

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

A project manager is our main contact the whole time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is still in progress, but the outcame so far is amazing. For the first stage before launching, we made a waitlist for the future users, and the initial goal is overdelivered so far by 50%.

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

We had weekly follow-ups of the project, and used Trello for team colaboration. The communication is very smooth, and the tasks were always completed before the due date.

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

Their enormous level of knowledge and dedication that we couldn't get from a bigger agency impressed us.

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

If something is wrong, like a bug or glitch, they immediately notice and fix it.