MTR Design

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a project manager for Reach Advance, an online marketing company that specializes in social media management for real estate agents.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MTR Design?

We hired MTR Design to build our proprietary social media management platform from scratch.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were highly recommended by the CEO, who has worked with them on previous projects.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Reach Advance is a web-based platform written on PHP/Laravel/Vue.js that combines social media posting & scheduling, image/video content creation, turnkey websites, and email & SMS marketing all geared towards the real estate market.

What was the team composition?

I work closely with the director, lead programmer, and web designer. I've worked 3 other developers as well on some of the platform's microservices and backend structure. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The Reach Advance platform has a rapidly growing user base and really enables our clients to successfully market themselves during an economic slowdown caused by COVID-19.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was and continue to be very impressed with the level of communication from all team members, quick turnaround and their drive for finding solutions that work best for our timeline and budget. I am also impressed with the foresight they've shown in structuring the backend and microservices so we can easily scale, avoiding painful server issues down the line.

The team is passionate about what they do, and it reflects in their work.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None whatsoever. I truly enjoy working with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Executive Director at Institute for Market Economics (IME). We are one of the first independent economic policy think tanks in Bulgaria, and our main activities are analysis of the economic dynamics and independent assessment and analysis of government policy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MTR Design?

We hired MTR Design to create a project - dedicated website for our first "Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development” analysis. It is a part of a ten-year project financed by the America for Bulgaria Foundation and collects economic, regulatory and social data about each of the 28 regions of Bulgaria.

Services provided by MTR Design were responsive web design and UX, custom built CMS and post-launch support.

What were your goals for this project?

We hope our study will be of use to businesses, researchers, decision-makers, journalists and we expect it to become an effective tool to promote market economy and private sector development, to advance liberal thinking in important areas of public life and to influence public debate, strategic planning and policy making.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We've worked with MTR Design before on a few projects including our own website, so it was a logical step to commision this project to one of our trusted vendors.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The design they created is stylish and clean, with well-presented information and graphics. A central place takes an interactive map of Bulgaria split into regions, where each region is colored according to its assessment in that category.

The study itself is based on a large amount of statistical data for the last 12 years (there are 62 indicators grouped into 12 categories that assess the economic and social environment in 28 regions in the country) so that the Content Management System which they had to create, should be flexible enough to meet any changes in methodology.

What was the team composition?

Our main point of contact was one of their project managers, and their team comprised a designer and two full-stack developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We’re very happy with the website, it works exactly as designed. And the feedback we receive from our users is very positive - all they say the website is easy to use and has great visuals. Each year after our new study is presented to the public we have more than 50 publications in leading Bulgarian newspapers dedicated to the study.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They are responsive and easy to work. We had weekly calls with the team and used Basecamp and email to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

At the discovery stage of the project, MTR Design took the time to really understand the unique challenges that we face with the project. We have worked on a tight timeframe with a strict deadline, but the website was delivered on time and on budget.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No - I'm very pleased and will use this company again.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

StageFaves is a unique and pioneering concept in community building, dedicated to the musical theatre sector. It brings together Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram handles and feeds for leading West End and Off-West End actors and actresses, shows and theatres in one place, as well as tickets to West End shows and other relevant digital links, biographies, agent contact details and fan fun. Plus, we offer the UK's only extensive, performer-centric UK musical theatre merchandise shop.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MTR Design?

MTR was appointed to design, build and host the Stagefaves CMS and website. Services provided included architecting the website from wireframes provided, layout and brand design as well as all coding and API integrations.

What were your goals for this project?

The site needed to be fully integrated with various social media, ecommerce, ticketing and ecommerce platforms as well as be intuitive to use by performers and fans.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I have used MTR on numerous occasions for different web development projects as have always delivered a high quality service at a great prices and deliver on time.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

A project brief and wireframes were provided to develop the Stagefaves platform and website. MTR used Basecamp as their project management and collaboration tool, which worked well. MTR provided designs for Stagefaves.com page layouts, logo and branding. MTR design and built the CMS and database from scratch in PHP/Java, implemented the API integrations for each social media, ticketing, merchandise ecommerce and content feeds. MTR host the Stagefaves website on their dedicated servers.

What was the team composition?

The team had 3-4 people working on the project that included coding, site design and branding/page designs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Stagefaves is unique in the theatre sector where is provides a single point of access for fans to view all social media feeds, read relevant content and buy theatre tickets and merchandise. The content automates the linking of content to specific performers making it easy and resource light to manage.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The MTR team are brilliant to work with. They're a proactive development team and felt like they were our in-house team. If there was a better solution to the ones that we had asked for, they would discuss and implement. Communication was excellent on all fronts with regular Skype calls with sprints being updated on Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

MTR have a combination of techical and design talent that is difficult to find. We were initially only going to contract them to do the site tech design and build, but when we say their creative designs for the brand and website, we added that to the project. They are incredibly reliable and produce neat, high quality code. It was important that we could bring in our own CTO/coder to take over the daily management and future build requirements of the website and MTR made this very easy.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't think MTR could have done anything more to improve their quality of service or what they delivered. They over-delivered on what was briefed and will definitely be using them again. I am always recommending them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Product Director of a Global Freight and Logistics company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MTR Design?

Front end development using React

What were your goals for this project?

Pick up the broken pieces of a Front End development team and help create a robust and globally successful SaaS platform for freight booking systems and CRM. System included Order management, driver allocation and invoicing.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Came highly recommended by a senior Microsoft BI partner.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The platform we designed was (and still is) a complex API feed connecting various freight carriers ranging from TNT to localised services. The entire system is hugely complex and required rapid system services to provide quotes, delivery reports, driver activity (including exceptions) and customer relationship management tools. MTR were hired to liaise with product owners and back end development teams. We used MTR because of their expertise in streamlining the whole UX to API solution.

What was the team composition?

Project coordinator, Senior front end devs (experts in React) and various mid-level devs all highly competent at building what we the product team created in prototypes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Previous team got it all wrong. They didn't understand both the complexities of the UX or the API requirements. MTR did. Moreover, their ideas from certain senior devs provided better solutions than we could think of and in my experience, this is the mark of a first rate FE dev team. The app is now working extremely efficiently enabling the company to delivery product and grow components.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Very well. Structure was sound and needed little management. We set Sprints and they delivered on target.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I honestly cannot recommend them enough.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No. MTR designs lead by Milen are a first rate Front End development team. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of business development at Optimal Fusion. We are an online advertising boutique specializing in connecting advertisers with consumers. We work with both Fortune 500 and smaller companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MTR Design?

We used to have an old advertising platform that was not always efficient and had limited capabilities. We decided to build a brand new platform instead of fixing the old one, and the time we had to do so was very limited.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I worked closely with MTR to develop our new online advertising platform from scratch. 

MTR has managed everything including the database, front- and backend coding, and optimization. That platform was originally built using Python, PHP, and MySQL. They have helped us continuously develop the platform for two years now, adding more features, more power, and new innovative solutions to allow the platform to work seamlessly. Recently, MTR recommended switching to ReactPHP and Lua, both of which have helped us process more data and run the platform more efficiently. They also use AWS-Managment for server upgrades each week, and are getting ready to develop an SDK in order for our platform to work in mobile applications.

What is the team composition?

I work closely with the head of MTR and a lead programmer. I have also worked with server developers and am getting ready to begin working with a mobile developer as well.

How did you come to work with MTR Design?

A friend of our CEO recommended them before I joined our company.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our company began working with them in February 2014, and I still work with them every day.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform MTR helped us develop is currently being used by thousands of websites and has attracted top Fortune 500 companies. We have more than 6 million clicks a day and are now also entering the mobile app world.

How did MTR Design perform from a project management standpoint?

I experience amazing communication with them. We use Basecamp as our project management tool, and I have personally developed a close relationship with their programmers. They are very responsive even after hours. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

MTR has taken on the initiative of further optimizing the platform before we even asked them to. Recently their CEO told me they had an idea to help get the platform running quicker and, after I gave them my approval to work on it, they delivered an update two weeks later that has us running 10 times faster. All of this has been done at a very reasonable price, and in fact, our server management and programming costs have gone down while our profits have gone up.

The relationship I have developed with MTR is really amazing and based on my experience what I would describe as the ideal relationship between teams.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I think the team is doing great in all fields.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Not particularly. I would advise a company to know what they want when they are developing a project. MTR will deliver even if a company has no idea what they are looking for, but the more knowledge one has the faster the results. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for an online technology platform that gathers feedback and insights from groups by asking open-ended questions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MTR Design?

The main challenge was how to create a software platform that allows many people to give feedback and also produce a concise view of that group through a self-regulating system.

We needed help to create a PHP frontend for the software to allow for user participation and interaction, as well as with the administration of the system on the backend.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They mainly did development work but also did some design work on digital assets throughout the system (e.g., buttons).

MTR was involved right from the beginning of the development of the frontend, which needed to plug in to an API created by another contractor. As far as system administration, the development started in 2011 and continued through most of 2012.

After that, MTR was involved on more of a maintenance level. They participated in some additional development sprints, as well as the installation of the system in a couple of client locations.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Milen [Owner, MTR Design]. Over the entire engagement, there’s been 5–6 people assigned to the project.  

How did you come to work with MTR Design?

They were recommended to me by a business contact who'd used them before and was very happy with their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around April 2011. The project was finished around July 2013, but there's been continued involvement for support and maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback has been largely very positive, with a high level of user satisfaction. I’m also satisfied because there's been hardly any downtime, there haven’t been any catastrophic issues, and there have been only a few minor issues. The software hasn't needed constant readjusting, so it’s been a very satisfactory experience.

How did MTR Design perform from a project management standpoint?

My limited experience with their project management interface was absolutely fine.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team at MTR is very professional. Not just coding, but they’re natural problem solvers and technicians. I always had the feeling of being in very good hands.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing jumps out.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend time talking and planning with them before they start to code. They know what they're doing so if they query something or push back on a topic, listen to what they have to say.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a tech startup that produces and offers e-learning videos to individuals, companies, and universities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MTR Design?

MTR built our first initial minimum viable product (MVP). They continue to help us with monthly maintenance work and other developments.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to have an MVP that would help us secure new clients and further support their learning needs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended by one of their previous clients.

Describe the project in detail.

They designed, developed, and launched the entire backend system for us. They also designed and built our frontend website.

What was the team composition?

We dealt directly with two members of their team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

The project was delivered within budget and on time.

How effective was the project management?

The project management was effective. MTR uses a system called Basecamp, so we had good communication with our account manager. We were in regular contact with the team, who sent us updates. We always felt that they listened to us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were impressed by their ability to solve problems as well as their communication.