Modus

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a retail alternative financial service provider. We process about 17 million transactions annually. I’m the CIO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Modus?

Our POS systems were not connected and we didn’t have a central database. So, if there were fraudulent checks being cashed on one POS, that person could go on to commit fraud at multiple locations. We wanted to create a centralized hub that connected each POS.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Modus developed the platform that acted as our centralized hub within our host of apps. They’ve continued to develop solutions that build upon this hub to better connect our POS systems and securely store data. The hub allows better tracking of compliance requirements, underwriting for checks, and fraud prevention, among other things. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a few project managers over the years. We had a team of about nine people that worked through one project manager. 

How did you come to work with Modus?

They had experience working on other POS systems. They offered a streamlined approach that helped us get the most bang for our buck. We also liked that they were local to us since they’re also based in New York. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2011, and they’re continuing to provide updates and maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The solution they developed helps us minimize fraud, reduce labor costs, and operate more efficiently. We can use the data from the platform to optimize our staff scheduling because we can see when different locations are busiest. 

We’ve saved millions of dollars as a result of their work. 

How did Modus perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had about four different project managers over the course of our eight-year engagement. Some of the project managers have been better than others, but overall I’ve been very pleased with them. We primarily meet over video-conferencing, but I can meet with them in person when needed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think they’ve done a very good job of keeping the core nucleus of the engineering team together. A lot of times with vendors, you interface with the people onshore, but you never get to see how the sausage gets made. Our main point of contact is the project manager, but we also have direct contact with the developers. Their team is well integrated with our in-house team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think overall, the main downside has been the turnover of project managers. However, I’d say I’m being nitpicky by pointing that out. It didn’t really affect our ability to get tasks done. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

It depends on what you’re looking for from the engagement. We use them primarily as a development partner. Under that lens, I’d really focus on understanding the quality of the development team and how you can leverage that. Build a strong core team that you can work with longterm. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of technology for a real estate company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Modus?

When I first arrived at the firm, I needed to do an assessment of the various inhouse technologies we had. I was looking for a technology vendor to help me with that technology audit.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Modus helped diagnose and diagram where all of the technologies lived, what the various backend systems were, and how they spoke with each other. From there, they laid out what the problems were with the current system, and made recommendations to improve them based on what we wanted to do.

To inform their roadmap and specific recommendations, we provided them with a couple of surveys as well as feedback. The team also interviewed several of our team members to get an idea of some of the problems we were facing. Based on their findings, they gave us a plan of improvements to implement over the course of the next 12–24 months.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Mike (SVP Client Services), who was involved with the major decisions and major milestones throughout the project. There was also a project manager, some design folks, and some business analysts and developers when necessary.

How did you come to work with Modus?

I’d worked with them previously in a prior role. I had a great deal of positive experience with them, so I went back to them for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from May–September 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Modus gave us eight priorities on their roadmap, and we’re currently on the fourth. We took their priorities and aligned them with our strategic plan, so we’re slowly working through the list they gave us. 

How did Modus perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was particularly good — it’s one of the reasons I went back to them. I tend to run a fairly lean organization, and I appreciate the outsourced project management capabilities of Modus. 

They have an intuitive ticketing system that they use internally, which we appreciated. It made tracking timelines very easy, and they were very diligent about keeping us on track with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Modus does a particularly good job of listening. That’s really important to us. They’ve also helped us avoid mistakes that we would’ve made without their assistance. Their ability to tell us when we’re wrong in a nuanced, professional way is one of their unique skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing that comes to mind is elicitation of requirements from their customer. It’s a two way street, but they could work on really pulling all the information out of the customer at the beginning of the engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Being very upfront and doing the work at the beginning will make the end results a lot cleaner, clearer, and better. The level of effort you put into at the beginning will pay out when the project is completed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Solace Brands. We build hemp-derived, CBD product portfolios.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Modus?

We wanted a competent web engineering firm that could customize, integrate, and do all the things we needed to do to get our portfolios online.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Modus has done all the web work for our portfolios. For our first major portfolio, their team was intimately involved in the design as well as implementation, maintenance, and major upgrades. We’ve also worked with them on smaller projects where they focus less on design and more on implementation. They’re going to build the branded site for our second major portfolio in the future.

What is the team composition?

I have a day-to-day contact and another contact for relationship management. It’s unclear how they allocate work in their organization.

How did you come to work with Modus?

We met with 4–5 firms to find the right partner, and someone we knew knew Modus. We found them to be competent in all the categories we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Modus in late 2018 or early 2019 — for the better duration of the company. They continue to manage and update our first major portfolio’s site and will build our second portfolio’s site soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s not a day-to-day partnership, but when it comes to all site-related functionality, upgrades, and management, my experience with Modus has been steadily very good.

How did Modus perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really responsive. The final product is almost always on point. My CTO directly interacts with them, but we connect via email and over the phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Having worked with a lot of agencies, I’d like to highlight their responsiveness. Modus is more responsive than nearly every other agency I’ve worked with. It’s easy to work with their team, and the partnership has been super smooth.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their pricing could be more competitive, but we get what we pay for. They run a big agency and attempt to accommodate the full-time resources they have on their team.  

Any advice for potential customers?

One of the great things about Modus is that you chart the course and they run with it. They give you buckets they need answers to, and if you just respond to their questions and describe your needs accurately, they’ll go from there.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

I work for the world’s largest payroll and human resource company.

What is your role and responsibilities?

My role is the director of digital marketing, Web marketing is my specialty, so I work on Web pages for marketing purposes. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Modus?

They helped us with everything from messaging look and feel through to architecture, user experience, design, and development, and usability testing. They really helped across the board and provided a full-digital marketing solution. The overall goal was to help drive incremental sales leads and to address client support issues for our products.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

It was a multitude of services. Their work stretched from strengthening brand voice, understanding of mission, vision, values, to the way we want to position ourselves in the marketplace, absent of traditional advertising.

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

I think it was a combination of a longstanding relationship with prior organizations and working with them and our experience with them, and general dissatisfaction with the current agency. So, I don’t know that there was a competitor, but they came before my time. I’m not sure if there was a competitive audit performed.

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

I really can’t provide a figure. I can’t provide financials and they’re on a per project basis, so it’s not a retainer, so it’s difficult to quantify. It varies based on the project workload that we have at any given time with them. The projects range from large, impactful ones to quick down and dirties, where we love to utilize them most are large engagements.

We’ve redeveloped the site from the ground up with their help and it’s still in progress. It’s a three-year project and there’s still more to do, so it’s a good deal of work. The work we have with them is ongoing, as long as my budget stays robust, I’ll be working with them. Other parts of the business work with them as well. There are no plans to change the structure of our partnership. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project?

I’m extremely satisfied with their performance so far.

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

I don’t know the key metrics, but they’ve had a dramatic impact. I wish I could give specific percentage or dollar figure increases, but based on the major goals we’ve set out, if it was reducing support calls, we’ve accomplished those metrics. I think it’s more than 40 percent reduction in service calls due to our work with them.

There’s been an increase in leads based on work performed by Modus both in digital marketing landing pages and on the organizing principles and clear calls to action and conversion focus on our basic corporate presence. Their efforts have absolutely increased the leads, visitors, returning visitors on a year-to-year and month-to-month basis, and then they’ve also helped us to architect, design, and develop a mobile website, which has increased steadily. I think the traffic is up on that site by 200 percent year to year.

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

Yes, they listen. They get it. The other unique thing is you’re dealing with the owners of the agency on any given project, and so you’re getting their best employees each time working on every aspect of the project. They have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of our business, I think sometimes they even understand better than we do and can help guide decisions given that knowledge across the spectrum of our product portfolio.

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

That’s the beauty of what we do. They’re tied into our analytics, so they understand metrics and performance. Modus helps guide projects due to their deep understanding of not only who the audience is, but then actually what they’re doing on the site, where there may be gaps or room for improvement. I wish they could replicate themselves and be infused in more of the business.