MUG

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

British American Tobacco - CHIC Group Retail Development & Activation Manager (OWN Retail).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

MUG cooperation was mostly aimed to set up and ongoing enhance our Retail activation and loyalty platform - e-Smoking Club.

SOLUTION

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

Based on flexibility in cooperation with previous smaller projects.

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

Set up of Loyalty Platform which connects all available touchpoints - SAP, Transaction System, CRM, and be able to properly map consumers, points balance, transactions vs. reward redemption.

Integration with Selligent Market - marketing automation, introduction and integration with Salesforce - migration have worked out so far system capabilities, development of new consumer activation paths, development of web progressive app.

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

Head of Technology and Senior Project Manager are key partners on a daily basis. More complex projects are also discussed during the kick off with managing director.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All projects delivered on time in full despite a lot of changes/Adhoc in scope on the way which was caused by Covid environment (lockdowns, limited retail footprint, changes in consumer behaviour). Key deliverables: higher turnover from activation, larger loyalty database, better ATV

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

Regular stand-ups/meeting with Activation team Project manager keeping the discipline of delivering key components from both sides. All teams involved in kick-off and post-implementation meetings to summarize work and propose further optimization on the spot. Always available in system crisis management. From my personal perspective - the comfort of being informed on time.

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

The whole MUG team is built from natural born solution thinkers. They were always keen to help in finding a better, quicker, and very often cheaper solution. Very flexible in changing environment and available for client when it's needed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

IDT Retail Manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MUG?

Loyality and CRM platform integration with global solution Saleforce.

What were your goals for this project?

Integrate two CRM platform to have one consumer view

SOLUTION

How did you select MUG?

MUG is our CRM platform supplier (development and support)

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Saleforce has been choosen as global CRM platform in the main BAT company. Poland retail as a subsidiay company have own CRM platform. Both have to be integrated to have one consumer view and use consumer journes basic on our current data.

IN cooperation with MUG we established interfaces to replicate data between our systems taking on mind business requirements in terms of data flow and replication. Middle ware to push consumer and POS data has been proposed by MUG supplier what was solved our global suplier limitations according to API communication.

What was the team composition?

MUG consultants and managers worked together with our global supplier Deloitte supported by Retail and BAT IDT managers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

All goals achieved, on time in full. Go-live date with cutover activities supported from early morning hours (5AM) to met business requirements. Analytics thinking and know how in terms of CRM platforms from MUG side avoided potential delays and issues during golive.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Due to 2020 lockdown all taks, meetings managed via MS Teams. They were cooperated well, open-minded, and supportive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

flexibility, predictive thinking, know how fro mlong years experience

Are there any areas for improvement?

nothing on my mind

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am working as a Digital Project Manager for the EEU Region and I am responsible for creating, improving and finding new digital products or solutions to improve brand awareness and sales level of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

For the upcoming Holiday Period we wanted to create a space where Clients could learn more about our brand, our hero product and feel the spirit of this special period. To fulfill those objective we had decided to create a landing page where we could locate all campaign content and MUG was hired to develop it.

SOLUTION

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

Mostly, their skillset combined with previous experience in previous companies. I knew that they are fully reliable and their service will exceed the design/development expectations but also they will provide me with all the extra support I would need from them at any point of the project.

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

The project covered the idea of how to "sell" the key message and business goals and then we went straight to the execution. Execution covered all stages from the UX, design to development and implementation to our internal system.

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

3 people: Designer, Developer and experienced Project Manager who had a great knowledge of the business we are running because of their previous experience.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In a very short period of time, MUG Agency not only delivered the entire scope of the project (landing page) but also supported us strongly in the stage of implementation.

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

Working in quick sprints, regular feedback meetings and quick expertize when we encountered any problem.

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

There are many companies on the market that could provide me with well-written code, but there is only plenty of them that could provide me with the business solutions, quick and high-quality support when something does not work. Also, they were not tired of the great number of questions I had.

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

Nothing I could think of

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager at REHAU, a global corporation located in Germany. We sell polymer products for construction sites.

For example, we sell window parts, water-supply pipes, and heating systems. As the marketing manager, I take care of new platforms and programs. My goal is to increase sales using Google, Facebook, and our own applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MUG?

We felt our company was far removed from the final customer and wanted to customize the UX to become closer to our end customer. To do this, we needed an application to market our products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MUG developed an app from the ground up using the Angular framework. It’s a configurator that allows customers to make an online offer by themselves in less than five minutes. Usually, it’d take six or seven hours. 

The algorithm we developed together creates real-time calculations. Our clients and other companies then can make bids on an offer. So within just a few minutes, a final customer can have several bids. It’s a smart and unique app. The app is now available in seven countries throughout Europe.

What is the team composition?

This depended on our needs at different points in the project. There were several developers and individual leads working on the backend, project management, and graphic design.

How did you come to work with MUG?

We were deciding between two agencies and chose MUG. They had a good concept, and we liked them. That’s it. It wasn’t a matter of price.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership with MUG began in January 2017. They’re constantly developing solutions for our other services and several countries.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our company judges their performance based on UI/UX, measuring success based on our spend with Facebook and Google. The click-through rate on those ads to the configurator reveals our potential for growth and revenue.

In other words, it shows us how many potential euros could be bid within the application. Just in Austria, it was $50 million this year. That's a measure of success for us. This means we have 1,000 people who’d like to work with our clients. This is very good for Austria. 

How did MUG perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Trello and Wrike. Because we have several tasks amongst different countries and people, it was efficient to have the same structure on our Trello boards. Every two or three weeks we’d meet to discuss progress. Everything was organized and in one place. I’m glad we didn’t use emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

With MUG, it comes down to the quality of their people. They have heart and brains. Natalia (General Manager, MUG) is the heart and Derek (Developer, MUG) is the brains. These two, along with other developers and graphic designers, make a powerful team. We can talk about everything and they’re no problems, just solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve improved in the time we’ve been with them. Not only in capacity, but also in office size.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Approach the partnership as a friendship. Don’t impose deadlines, rather ask how long they need for a project. This is their business and you shouldn’t counsel them on what they should do. Rather, have open conversations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Volkswagen Financial Services is a company from finance and insurance industry. There are three branches - Volkswagen Leasing, Bank and Insurance. VWFS is a part of Volkswagen Group. Working as an Expert I was responsible for dealers network skills development in the area of financial services sale.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MUG creative software house?

We need to grow competences of dispersed dealer network in most efficient way. MUG developed modern training platform which enables remote learning, trainings organisation, employee skills tracking and monitoring the competences of teams for several thousand users.

What were your goals for this project?

To develop tailor made tool, fully scalable and elastic. Which will fulfill the need to rise competences of both - dispersed sales network and internal employees.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

MUG was recommended to me by the other team members who were satisfied from their services. They were invited to the tender process and won it.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They took care for the project in a complex way. They started from kick off workshops where they analysed our needs, they provided design (UX/UI) together with functional description, user journey and technology recommendation. After the basic agreements were done, they delivered MVP. They support us also in product development, new functionalities planning and delivering. We had a skilled project manager and production team to meet our goals.

What was the team composition?

The team was built from around 10 people. We had Product owner and Project manager to contact with. The production team consisted of UX/UI specialist, back end and front end developers, motion designers and QA specialist. So it was a multiskilled team, able to bring a real added value to the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before we launched training platform the sales network and internal employees were trained mostly face to face on stationary sessions. It was time consuming, expensive and what’s the most important - the monitoring of knowledge retention wasn’t tracked. After the training platform was launched we were able to collect users history of trainings and not to invest several times in one person to grow the same skills. So it was time and financial significant savings and improvement of trainings efficiency.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had in MUG product owner and Project Manager. They understood our business and could deliver a great value to the project itself. In operational project management we had dedicated PM who dealt with all production issues on a daily basis.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are highly elastic and keen to know the client's business, values and processes. They create solutions, overtake obstacles and find the optimal ways to deliver you the most fitting solution. They are real sparring partners - they have their own recommendations and their are open for discussions.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing that would be significant to emphasize.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of On Arte Sp z o.o.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an online platform allowing to buy and sell art.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Creating and developing desktop application

SOLUTION

How did you find MUG?

Referral

Why did you select MUG over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from MUG were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

MUG was responsible for designing and developing our website / desktop application. including: workshops, building a flow map, creating design, UX design, developing, testing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A ready to use platform that created a space for online art transactions.

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

The project was delivered to us in 6 sprints. MUG delivered on time or updated us in case they needed more time to finish.

What was your primary form of communication with MUG?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They were responsive, friendly, and professional.

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

SEO elements of our platform