MentorMate

BACKGROUND

Could you describe your organization?

I work for 3Wire Group Inc. We are an international supply chain solutions provider for aftermarket parts, focusing on the food and beverage equipment industry.

What is your position?

I’m the vice president of technology solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with MentorMate?

Our end customers are ultimately service agents or service technicians that are the guys in the van similar to [the] HBAC [Group]. If you’ve ever had a furnace, I’m not sure where you live, furnace air conditioning, that type of thing. Half of the time when they go on a service call, and they need a part to fix an issue with a piece of commercial equipment. This kind of equipment is in commercial kitchens, restaurants, and commercial beverage devices. Those customers, there aren’t very many because in the beverage side of the world, instead of the restaurants calling the service agent, usually it’s either Coke or Pepsi that comes and fixes their own equipment. Ultimately, the service agent is the end-user. They were experiencing some pain points that we wanted to solve, specifically around visibility and control of service parts in their vehicles and their peripheral locations. We had identified these pains and felt that a Web service with a corresponding mobile application would be a perfect way to solve the issues.

Think of it as launching a new revenue-generating service. We’re launching a new business product. Think of it as a software service. It is something that we will sell. It is available on a Web browser for log-in. Service technicians will download the app either on Android or an iOS device and use it to manage their inventory. All of that activity rolls to a backend website where the manager or the owner of the company approves and manages different inventory levels for each of the trucks and then does automatic electronic ordering to various suppliers. All of this is integrated into one backend system and process seamlessly, which makes it easy to track, monitor, and organize.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the project?

We provided them with our requirements and the scoped the project out for us. We started from scratch. They have built all of the entire solution in collaboration with us from conception. We’ve basically launched the system, including the marketing site. The tool is called 3Plenish.com. You can go check it out. They built the marketing site as well as the native applications for iOS. We’re about to release an Android version in about a month, and then the entire backend of the SaaS [Software as a Service] offering, too.

How did you select MentorMate as your solution partner for this endeavor?

We operate out of Minneapolis. There really are only a few companies that are strong in this particular area. If you pay any attention to mobile development, which I do in the Twin Cities, MentorMate is near the top or is always in the top tier because they sponsor MobCon. If you Google it, you’re going to find them at the top. I have also some friends of mine that are CEOs of companies that MentorMate has done a lot of work for. Their reputation really precedes them in this area, and since we were searching for a local vendor, it made perfect sense to go with them.

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

I’d rather not disclose that information, but it was a substantial investment for us.

When were the Web and mobile applications completed and launched?

The application was launched around the first of April [of 2014]. We started the project about nine months ago.

Honestly, I’ve been head of technology organizations, and I’ve been responsible for development of a variety of different ways. I’ve been on the marketing side of software companies. I have been extremely happy with MentorMate. I have no trouble holding them accountable.

A lot of times you need to measure how good somebody is by how they respond to your concerns. They’ve been fantastic. I’m not just saying that. I’ve used other vendors for similar types of projects. We use another vendor in town for a very significant website and mobile app projects. It’s not necessarily an apples-to-apples comparison. MentorMate is the shining star in my mind.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or anecdotal feedback you’ve received from end-users that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work delivered?

We’re literally in the very first stages of launching this, and we haven’t made it public in our marketplace yet. We’re gearing up for that. It’s hard for me to give you metrics other than all of the big potential clients and customers that we’ve demonstrated it for throughout the deployment process have been very excited and impressed.

When working with MentorMate, is there anything you’d consider special or unique about approach or development methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors?

They have a very effective model for offshore development. They’ve managed to eliminate the language barriers that would typically arise during most offshore scenarios. The leadership that we liaise with face-to-face are located here in Minneapolis, which means we receive great project management attention in addition to high-quality, cost-efficient custom development.

In retrospect, are there areas you think MentorMate could improve on as a service provider?

That’s a good question. I don’t want to throw anything out there that’s unjustified. There’s nothing significant at this point. My relationship with them is only less than a year old, but I’ve been very pleased with the experience and the work they’ve delivered. I’ve got an internal team of developers that I didn’t use for this project because I knew MentorMate would be able to deliver.

BACKGROUND

Could you give me a brief description of your firm and your role?

Sales Fitness is a scenario-based, e-learning, sales training, and product-training platform. We use a mobile app to access the cloud-based platform. I’m the CEO and president of the company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for the work with MentorMate?

The ultimate goal was to develop the mobile app and the backend content management system for the Sales Fitness app. We actually used MentorMate from the initial storyboard design all the way through MVP completion. 

SOLUTION

Can you describe the scope of their work in more detail?

MentorMate had a unique approach to the way they design and develop an app. They started with a storyboard session. That actually helped us lay out the system architecture and the initial concept of the user interface.

What made them unique is that they actually priced that separately; you had to pay for the whole project before you could start. We like MentorMate because they actually did the storyboard phase as a separate contract up front. After that meeting, we decided to engage them for the full project build.

What platforms were the app developed with?

For the minimum viable product, it’s just available for the iPad. It uses iOS 7. At some point in the next year, we hope to roll it out to Microsoft and Android.

What was your process for selecting MentorMate?

My business partner and I are familiar with the development shops here in the Twin Cities. Their name came up frequently in conversations as a key company in our area. We probably spoke with nine or ten different firms and then selected MentorMate.

Could you provide a sense of the size of the project with a general cost range or the amount of work hours they dedicated to the project?

I don’t know the specifics on either of those. It’s in the $100,000 range.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project? Do you have statistics or metrics you could share about the development?

They came in on time and slightly under budget. They have a unique approach in that their design work is done in the U.S., but the development work is generally done in Bulgaria. They manage that process very well. We are very pleased that we used the agile product design methodology since it worked very well.

We’ve had some experience with other firms that had done a little bit of offshore development and the communication was difficult. It was not so with MentorMate, they communicated very well.

How did MentorMate perform?

There were several things that we felt were particularly stellar. Their systems architect, Stephen Fluin, is a sharp, bright guy. He did a really nice job in helping us architect the solution. Because this is a sales/product training application, it’s a B2B [business-to-business] solution that we provide, their VP of sales was involved in a lot of the discussions and almost became an additional internal consultant that I could bounce ideas off of during meetings.

The project management was one of the best things they did. They just kept us informed and kept their teams informed. I just talked with the project manager recently and told her we felt like she was an advocate for us and yet, we also knew that she had to be an advocate for MentorMate. She was so dedicated to us as a client that it almost seemed like she worked for us rather than MentorMate.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that you think MentorMate could improve upon or something you might do differently?

Not necessarily, when you’re managing a project that was as complicated as ours, the communications were sometimes a bit delayed. It could be difficult to ensure we had everybody on the same page. But that was really quite minor.

One of the things we may have done differently had to do with the platforms that we chose. We realized that when we came up with our long-term systems, the systems architecture, and our porting process, the project became quite complicated. We didn’t understand the whole process at first.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your firm and your role.

We are a wine, spirits, and cheese shop. We started operations in 1959. We’re more of a specialty store. We’re not your everyday store. We have everyday items, but we really specialize in boutique wines.

We have a brick-and-mortar store and then an online store as well. Our online store is a really small portion. Our brick and mortar is what makes the business. We’re working to make the online business bigger and stronger. We are located in Minnesota.

I am a marketing employee that was primarily responsible for managing the project with MentorMate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for the work with MentorMate?

Our first goal was to build a mobile app. We have a rewards program called Club 44. Our club members receive a $25 gift card for our store in the mail, but most people forget them and put them aside. So, we wanted to build an app for them, which tracks all of their sales, their purchases and has gift cards appear on their phone. We looked at our clientele, and about 80 percent of our club members have iPhones, so we started with an iPhone app. It’s really brought in a lot more money because people are finding cards from three years ago on their phone. It’s phenomenal because they come in and spend more.

The other goal is it tracks everything you buy. We also created an online marketplace that gives suggestions and reviews like Amazon. Users can search for wine, beer, spirits, or cheese; whatever products we carry that are similar. We did all of that on our point-of-sale system. We put attributes for every item we have. It’s really nice for people to have this feature in case the wine they want is no longer in production, they can hit more like this, it will bring up other options, and gives them a nice way to try. That was the main goal. We also like that users can use the app at the register, and it’s easier than remembering a gift card or having to find it at home. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work in more detail.

They developed the iPhone app and will do an Android app at the end of 2014. MentorMate redid our entire website last year, too. We’re doing a lot of projects with MentorMate. We’ve had such a good experience that we don’t need to go anywhere else. 

Why did you select iOS and Android as the development platforms?

Not many customers have Android, but we’ve had a lot of complaints, so we will port to Android later. We’re only going to do iPhone and Android. We’re not going to do anything else.

What was your process for selecting MentorMate?

One of the owners decided that I should find a mobile app developer. I Googled mobile apps in Minneapolis, and we met with MentorMate and with one other company. The third company never got back to me. We were really impressed with MentorMate right off the bat, and that’s why we went with them. They were very professional and very easy to work with from the get go.

Could you give us a sense of the size of that initiative with a general cost range or the amount of work hours it took them to complete?

I want to say the app was about six weeks and around $100,000.

When was the project completed?

March to May of 2013. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics you could share about the project?

I can tell you that people who are using the app are spending more money. We have 908 people, and you do not have to be a club member to use it. Anybody can download it and just use the app. It’s not strictly for Club 44 members. It does encourage them to become a Club 44 member, but you don’t have to be. You’ll get a record created for you. You can come in and shop, and it will still track your sales, but you’re not getting rewards points. Some people just like to play with it, just look at it, and find different recommendations, just see what we have. I can tell you that the people that are using it love it. In the fourth quarter of 2014, we’ll be doing an Android app.

How did MentorMate perform?

We are very satisfied. On a scale of 1 to 10, MentorMate is an 11.

What is unique or special about MentorMate that stood out as different from other companies?

They’re very receptive to our needs. That was really important because I’m not a technical person. I can run the mobile app and the website, and they made it very user friendly. Everything they do, you’re with them every step of the way. You have weekly meetings with them. Sometimes, more than weekly, but weekly with their whole team, and I’m included. Everyone was on the same page as to what our expectations were and they always met or exceeded our expectations.

Can you describe the meetings?

They were remote meetings because a big part of their team is in Bulgaria. There have a few employees here, but Bulgaria is where most of their developers are. We met with GoToMeeting. It worked out fine, and we used screen share. They’re very easy to work with and very receptive to every one of our needs. The changes that we made were not easy for MentorMate, we always had complaints and changed our minds.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think MentorMate could improve upon or something you might do differently?

No. There is nothing that I can mention.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are a retailer in the TV and online home shopping space.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the vice president of e-commerce, and I oversee our website, all of our mobile, customer analytics, and our IVR [interactive voice response] voice recognition or capture platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with MentorMate?

This was to create a mobile app. We’ve been working with them for two or two and a half years. Initially, we started out developing an iPad app that was a content-only app that we were building to support one of the segments of our business that has a large collector base of very loyal customers. That was our first foray into tablet app development. Since then, we've built two additional apps, one for iPad and one for Android tablets.

We’ve worked with them on quite a few projects during a long period of time. The goal for all of them was to create engagement for our customers, and there was a commerce component to it as well. One of the key factors was just to engage our customers with different content specific to the tablet form factor.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

From the beginning, they were great in terms of coaching us on best practices, going back two and a half years when we didn’t have a lot of development experience in tablet applications. They were great in guiding us and in developing a scope for the initial project that wasn’t too broad and expansive. They built a core set of capabilities and a roadmap for feature enhancements. Frequent updates and enhancements tend to work better with applications. They guided us on building that core set of capabilities and whiteboarding that out.

We have our own creative team, and we thought we would have them do most of the design. As we got into the design piece of the project, we started going down that path. But, MentorMate started showing us some of their ideas. Their creative was so good, and their UI [user interface] was so good that we eventually decided to go with their creative. We have worked very closely with them, but at the end of the day, their creative has turned out to be just outstanding.

They always come to the meetings with great ideas, great solutions, and they’ll present multiple options or suggestions that they have. They tend to be very innovative and, at the same time, they don’t sell you a Cadillac when you need a Chevrolet. Or, maybe you start with a Chevrolet, and they build a Cadillac in time.

In addition to the applications themselves, they’ve built us a content management system to fuel the content into the apps as well. They’ve really built us an entire solution: A content management system, and we're using racks-based servers. At this point, it's all done outside of our firewall. They’ve really provided us with an end-to-end solution.

What was your process for selecting MentorMate with which to work?

We found several different companies that we brought it in pitch us. We didn’t go through a full RFP [request for proposal] process because it wasn’t that large of a project at that point. We settled on them because we liked their working style very much. They guided us as they operated, and we are both based in Minneapolis. That was great because they could come out for an onsite meeting, and we could discuss things face to face. That was helpful. We interviewed four or five different options and settled on them.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

The projects that we have done are anywhere from $100,000 to about $300,000 on each of the various apps. We are constantly making enhancements to them.

When was the latest milestone completed for that work?

We launched two new apps in the fall of 2013, which was a major milestone. We worked on that for about six months, maybe a little longer to get done. There has been constant work on enhancements since then, and that’s been ongoing. They have been mostly large enhancements to the functionality. We launched our initial apps in September, and then we launched some functionality. We're like QVC; we're live TV retail 24/7. We have live streaming video in all of our mobile applications. We launched some functionality in November, a major release that we call Second Screen. That allows us to deploy synchronized content in the app, and it's synchronized with what is being broadcast on our TV network at that time. That was a large release, and now we're working on some enhancements to that functionality.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

We have full analytics in all of the applications. We can look at downloads, and we can look at page views and type of thing in the apps. We can also measure the revenue coming through the apps. I can’t share the figures with you, but we’ve been very pleased with the results.

How did MentorMate perform on a day-to-day basis?

MentorMate's performance is outstanding. They are probably about the best vendor that I’ve had the opportunity to work within this space.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

Their speed, responsiveness, and innovation are unique.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No, they were good. Anything I might have done differently would be on our side as opposed to theirs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are an advertising firm for mobile apps based in the United States. We help mobile apps sell and market their advertising space. We offer the leading mobile app advertising platform. We have about 100 employees.

Our job is to help companies monetize their apps. We have offered these services for 14 years or so, a very long time in this space. We have three offices in the U.S., but are based in Minnesota.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the CTO. I am responsible for leading the engineering group. I also oversee many MentorMate resources that staff different internal teams at my firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for the work with MentorMate?

We needed to add staff members for a variety of different work teams we have. We decided to do the staff offshoring route for a number of reasons; the first is cost. Also, our business fluctuates every month. It would be difficult and costly to hire people since we don't always need a larger team.

MentorMate offered skilled resources at a lower cost since they are based in Bulgaria. They also have a tremendously diverse skill set and service line offering. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They do a lot of different things for us. At first, we gave them simple projects to assess their skills. After they completed those with ease, we decided to work with them as an ongoing partner on an indefinite basis. They provide resources for our BI team, software development, backend coding, and other groups.

They actually changed their office hours to accommodate our work. They start work at noon in Bulgaria, so we have four hours of overlapping work hours each day. This is a major engagement for both companies.

What was your process for selecting MentorMate?

We did a lot of research before we landed on MentorMate. We needed a very diverse team that could offer resources in mobile app development, BI, software, and many other areas. We also liked their pricing. They also have a large office in Minneapolis, near one of our offices.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or personnel work hours?

I cannot give a dollar figure. I can share that the resources are scaled up and down depending on demand. Some months, we have $100,000 in business for them, but some months less.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How has MentorMate performed so far? Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement?

They have performed very well. Most of my feedback comes from other employees here. They all like working with MentorMate resources in the U.S., and the Bulgaria-based team as well.

We don't really track metrics like ROI or anything like that. I know that they are professional and skilled and can complete all of our projects on time. Our working relationship is strong, and we have grown with them as partners. They are more than a vendor at this point.

What is unique or special about MentorMate compared to some other companies that you may have worked with?

They are professional and skilled. They always work hard and work long hours to help us. They don't let the time difference affect their deliverables or timeline. They also are great about expanding their service lines. They know how to recruit the best developers that graduate from Bulgarian universities.

They even put their new hires through a boot camp of sorts. They want to make sure that all of their new employees can handle typical projects. They are great at producing new talent for mobile app development and .NET programming. They have a really strong pipeline of talent overseas. They keep adding quality resources.

Looking back on the project, is there anything that you think MentorMate could improve upon, or something you might do differently?

I am trying to think of something, but I really cannot. They seem to be competent in every aspect. Of course, they are not perfect but I am really satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Could you give a little background on your company? It appears to be mission critical communication for healthcare providers?

That is correct. We’re really focused on ensuring that we get the right information to the right individual at the right time on their preferred device. We have multiple modalities in relationship to communication strategies. A key area of that is mobile, and that is something that we have partnered with MentorMate.

What is your position within the company?

Vice president – product strategy and development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Before you started working with MentorMate, what were your business goals or reasons for undertaking this type of project?

We historically have communicated with our customers on pagers via texting and other methods. If you’re looking at more mobile, we received quite a bit of feedback from our customers in relationship to wanting to have secure messaging smartphones, and so we needed to develop a smartphone messaging application that interfaced with the existing secure and robust solutions.

SOLUTION

What was your process then for selecting a developer to work with?

I actually had a very rigorous process in relationship to looking at partners. We essentially had a set of criteria that we evaluated including who they were how long they’ve been in business, and what type of experience they have that was similar. We looked a lot at whether or not there was going to be a cultural set between resources. We utilized an agile development methodology look. We want to do embed resources within our team as opposed to simply sourcing something out. There’s multiple methods to interface, and that was something that they were supportive of until we went through and looked at all the criteria. I had a shortlist of three. I took all three through the same process. We actually not only asked them to respond. We gave them a definition in regard to the product we are looking to create. We asked them to give a response in regards to product architecture and directional guidance, we evaluated all of those responses, and then we did determination to go with MentorMate.

What set MentorMate apart from the other candidates? Was it mainly the factors you listed there?

Yes, and quite honestly for me, one of the other factors was that there was a core value alignment between our organizations and that there was a trust factor in relationship to they were going to say what they’re going to do what they said what they’re going to do. That they were going to fulfill the commitments that they made to the organization, and they absolutely have done that.

Could you talk a little bit about the scope of the project?

We have actually partnered with them across a number of projects, so we’ve been working with them for more than 18 months. The more mobile-oriented solution offering was something that they stepped into when we were partway through the process, but needed to ensure that it was an enterprise level architecture. It is a set of mobile applications that’s been the iPhone platform, Android platform and Blackberry platform. There’s a backend server. That backend server – actually, there’s two pieces. There’s a backend posted component, and then there’s a backend premise base server for our customers. They were involved in all of the components of the solution.

Do you think you could give me a sense of the size of the project in terms of the overall cost? 

Well, that can be difficult. That’s both internal and external resources, and so we started developing this in 2009 when we looked at the net total investment. It’s more than $1 million.

You said that you used Agile development throughout the whole process?

That is correct.

It also sounds like they collaborated with a team you had in-house?

That is correct.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How satisfied are you with the results of the project?

We are very satisfied with the results. They have not only executed on what we’ve asked them to, but they are proactive when they look for areas of improvement. They will actually make those recommendations, and then work with us to implement those.

Do you by chance have any stats or metrics about improvements from the project?

I can pull those from the team potentially, but it was an immature product that we hadn’t released to market when they got involved, so it’s hard to do a before and after. Not only that their team members are they comparable but, in many cases, they actually exceed the velocity of our team members. When I look at overall quality, what I would say is that the quality of deliverable is on par or better than our own internal resources as well. The defects per feature and things like that are overall very low. They have worked with us very comprehensively to introduce unit testing to improve the overall quality further, and we’re not on the cusp of adding some additional automated test them to the overall solution offering.

Compared to the other people you worked with, is there anything unique or special about MentorMate?

They have created a great environment and culture where they partner very strongly with their customers. They are very open in the relationship to talking about where their areas of expertise are, and where they may not have as much experience, which is unique. They are very dedicated to the successful outcome, so they’re in most times when we got close to a deadline, and their folks rolled up their sleeves as much as our folks rolled up our sleeves, and worked with us as true partners to ensure that we delivered a quality product on time. All of those are differences from other organizations that I’ve worked with. The other piece of this is they have such a strong mobile presence and mobile practice that they are exceptional at helping with user interface, layout, and design. One of the things that they have done all the way along the way is when our product owner says, okay, I need a new function to do X, they’re actually able to help us determine the appropriate strategy for implementation amongst the different mobile platforms.

The other side of that then would be maybe being overly critical but, looking back on the project, do you think there’s any area that they might be able to improve a bit, or you’d do differently?

What I would say is that early on, they were very respectful and polite of our team members, and when we had strong advocates for one design model or implementation approach, they would sort of very politely say, “Hey, you might want to consider something else though.” The course of our relationship they are in now, they are more confident and willing to be a bit more assertive in regard to leveraging their expertise. So, they do this day in and day out. Just to sum it up, they didn’t push back quite as much at the beginning, and they’re doing more of that now. So in some situations, I would approach it such that I was giving them the confidence and assurance that that was something that was not only acceptable. It was appreciated by our organization.

BACKGROUND

Can you give an overview on what your company does?

We are a mobile application development company that has been focused on developing solutions in the healthcare, real estate and news industry. We are the largest delivery of news for mobile, and also for real estate in the market today.

What is your position within the company?

Chief executive officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your company’s business goals for undertaking the development project?

One of the reasons was, obviously, proximity. We knew people had used them before, so we knew of them from a reference standpoint and their ability to scale up. Their level of quality work very good. Capacity was the majority issue, but they did us some things outside of our organization that was beneficial. That wasn’t the main reason. The main reason was definitely to scale up quick.

What was your process for selecting a partner?

Word of mouth. We had reviewed other groups that were overseas, and were not real happy with what their outcomes were, so we decided to find somebody who had a reputable background.

SOLUTION

Could you just tell me about the scope of the project?

Pretty large scope. We deliver tied to infrastructure and backend. It’s really a platform, so there was a pretty large scope to this. There was probably about a four- or five-month intense development process and they’ve been still doing work with us for the last year and a half, so it’s ongoing.

How many developers are you normally working with from MentorMate?

Initially, we had probably nine. Now, we’re down to three.

Is there a specific model that you use, such as Agile, Scrum, or Waterfall?

We are a Waterfall. We square around the Waterfall approach.

With the projects they did for you, what were the main technologies used?

The iOS platform, Java, backend API stuff and RESTful APIs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How happy are you with the results of the project?

Very happy. They’re a great group of people, and produce excellent results.

Compared to other developers you may have worked with in the past, do you find anything special or unique about MentorMate?

Better design effort and capacity to do more advanced features going beyond the standard SDK stuff and that was really what we needed. We need somebody of that nature versus somebody who just does standard SDK type stuff. They know IOS platform, so we’ve been very blessed in that regard. That was the main reason. I have some guys – European developers – who can do it also in the United States, and both of them understand. The other thing is it’s easier for us to deal with them on a management standpoint vs. some groups that just don’t have that. Understanding our goals and accomplishments and they’re able to meet those needs without us having to repeat it 55 times.

Is there any area that you could see MentorMate might be able to improve or do slightly better in?

I think probably sizing the per-pricing model is a little better, and that’s always a tough gauge because you’re trying to gauge the requirements pricing. That, and just real date expectations and implementing some more test time, such as a pressure test. But, I probably think that worked. We worked through those now but I think, at first that was a little tougher.

I assume you’re continuing to work with them on other projects?

Absolutely. I love them. I couldn’t give them a perfect score just because of the timing of the first one. That’s something they’ll learn from, but since that made them great. I’d recommend them to anybody.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a digital product owner for Foss Swim School. We provide premiere swim lessons to people of all ages across 23 schools in 6 states (and counting!)

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our process for managing our customer enrollments and classes was not digitized, time consuming, and wouldn't support our needs as we grew. We needed a custom-built solution to support our processes - both in our customer management and our internal operations.

SOLUTION

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

N/A

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

Once the core requirements were determined, the design and development team partnered up to deliver an MVP, which launched roughly 4 years ago. The software serves two purposes, the first as a web page for customers to submit enrollment requests for our classes and manage their customer account. The second is for our employees in the schools.

They use the site to enroll customers, manage class schedules, schedule shifts and assign teachers to classes, monitor student progress through our curriculum, communicate with customers, and more. The instance is hosted by AWS. Since launching, we've followed an agile methodology to build new features, keep the coding language up to date, refactor the product to ensure a smooth experience on the front end, and offer other enhancements as the business deems necessary.

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

Our core team consists of 4 full time developers, 2 full time QA analysts, a part time Business Analyst, a part time Project Manager, and an additional part time QA Analyst. We have other team members on board as necessary for software updates, application support, data optimization, and design work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since 2016, the increased efficiency in our enrollment and class management has allowed us to open 10 new schools. The recent enhancements have led to an improved customer experience, as we've seen an over 20% increase in the number of customers who receive their first class choice. Our Enrollment Day is a crucial day for performance, and the software needs to support a volume of customers on the site (30x normal daily volume), and we now see great response time and performance on these days.

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

The agile methodology has been well adopted by all team members, and allows us to focus and work at maximum efficiency. We have an open line of communication, and trust that our Project Manager will appropriately ask questions and escalate within Mentormate as needed. Their responses to our questions and feedback are timely, and in cases of emergency, we've been able to quickly get in touch with the team who can help us get things back up and running.

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

Mentormate has been a great partner to us over the years, and we are impressed by their range of expertise in the technology development field. When we have a question about a particular functionality within a feature we'd like to consider, there's always someone we can connect with who has experience in the area we're looking for. We've been provided with both breadth and depth of knowledge from the Mentormate team.

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

Some of the proposals we've received for enhancements and software/coding upgrades have differed significantly from the time and cost estimates that the work ended up requiring. To mitigate this for future work, we've started involving our lead developer and QA analyst in the scoping discussions. We'd recommend Mentormate include the hands-on team in the development of their proposals, as these team members have the best sense of the lifts truly required for the work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a freelancer and I provide website designing services

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

One of my client's websites was created recently, and we hired them to make their website.

SOLUTION

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

Someone recommeneded them!

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

We had a meeting together, and we decided the project milestones.

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

A project lead was the main point of contact

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website was good and interactively designed.

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

Emails for communication and spreadsheets for work progress.

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

Their polite behaviour towards thier clients.

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

They always asked for feedback after every single milestone. This way, the project was welly managed without any failures.