Netgen

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Web and IT Coordinator of a nonprofit

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A non-profit intergovernmental organisation that provides its members a platform for exchanging experiences and best practices on important issues and current developments concerning practical aspects of tax administration.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Enhance User Experience
• Boost Performance
• Integrate Advanced Features

SOLUTION

How did you find Netgen?

Open tendering

Why did you select Netgen over others?

Good value for cost

How many teammates from Netgen were assigned to this project?

14

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

• Requirement Gathering: Conduct thorough requirement analysis and documentation using Waterfall methodology to ensure all project needs are clearly defined and understood.
• Implementation: Execute the project in iterative cycles, incorporating Agile practices such as sprints and continuous feedback to adapt to changes and improve outcomes.
• Testing and Quality Assurance: Perform rigorous testing at the end of each iteration to ensure quality and functionality.
• Documentation and Training: Comprehensive documentation and training materials, ensuring they are updated throughout the project lifecycle to reflect changes and improvements made during Agile iterations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Improved User Satisfaction
• Improved Search Engine Rankings
• Training Completion

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

Scope changes caused some delays in the final completion of the project. As long as we could move within the scope of the changes, they were very flexible in responding to all requests and changes. There were extra cases where we really went completely off the original concept, and even then there were not always extra costs.

What was your primary form of communication with Netgen?

Virtual Meeting

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

• They had impressive flexibility and adaptability
• Customer-Centric Approach
• Expertise and Professionalism
• Collaborative Spirit

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

As with everything in life, there is always room for improvement. Netgen has certainly learned lessons from the project and will implement the identified observations in their future work. Regarding the joint work, our comment is that it would have been beneficial to involve the project manager in the discovery phase.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Board Member of Ramiro Ltd

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Since 2002, Ramiro is one of the leading Croatian consulting companies in the field of organizational development and human resources management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

web design

SOLUTION

How did you find Netgen?

Online Search

Why did you select Netgen over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Netgen were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

The team at Netgen did an exceptional job designing and developing our new website. Their UX design was top-notch, creating a seamless and intuitive user experience. The website's visually appealing design perfectly captures our brand identity. Additionally, the development team was highly skilled and delivered a website that is both fast and responsive. I was impressed with their communication and collaboration throughout the project."

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Significant increase of visits to our web page and number of subscribers to our newsletter.

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

Actually we were the reason of postponing the project and based on some unclear expectation which Netgen helped us resolve so we could continue with the project. 

What was your primary form of communication with Netgen?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Netgen strongly focuses on creating user-friendly and engaging digital experiences. They use a user-oriented UX methodology that combines research and business objectives to create functional and effective solutions.

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

Not that I would know

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Business System Analyst of Links d.o.o.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are IT retailer with an online store and currently sixteen retail stores in Croatia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Netgen to accomplish?
Webshop design

SOLUTION

How did you find Netgen?

Online Search

Why did you select Netgen over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Netgen were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

1. Discovery phase (deliverable presentation)
   1. Discovery workshop 
   2. Interviews with stakeholders
   3. Analysis of users and statistics of the existing store
   4. Survey of existing users
   5. Defining user groups and personas 
   6. Defining typical user journeys
   7. Defining the business objectives of the project 
2. Architecture and prototype (deliverable, architecture, and UX prototype)
   1. Prototyping with a focus on the most important user journeys (mobile first access)
   2. Prototype testing with typical users
   3. Detailed investigation of all necessary integrations
   4. Solution architecture
   5. Data migration planning 
   6. Determining the scope 
3. Visual design (deliverable, design)
   1. Creating a visual design based on a prototype and a book of standards, up to 2 iterations 
   2. Selection and processing of graphic materials (pictures, etc.)
   3. Design testing with typical users

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• detailed presentation of the discovery phase
• disovery and prototype of new webshop design
• visual design (UX/UI)

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

All phases of the project were completed on time. All materials were delivered on time. The complete cooperation on this project was beyond all expectations. Their speed, quality, and promptness were really at a high level, and it would be a pleasure to work with them again in the future.

What was your primary form of communication with Netgen?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Netgen is a team that devotes itself to the project as much as possible. From the quality workshops where we discussed our needs, the discovery phase in which they reviewed our current solution in detail the delivery of the materials we requested, and the complete UX and UI design of our new web store. The team members are extremely quick in responding to inquiries, dedicated to providing quality solutions, accessible in communication, and simply a top team for providing solutions for everyone's needs.

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

Not that I noticed. They were extremely dedicated to the project, and it was important to them that we would be satisfied with the quality of their solution in the end.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The company is a publishing house, consisting of several publishers in different categories. I'm head of e-commerce, and product owner for five e-commerce and marketing sites for our various products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We're currently in the process of updating all company sites, building a common platform to streamline development, operations and maintenance. For this, we use both Netgen products, and their developers in several key areas.

SOLUTION

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

We've been using Netgen for ten years, and are very satisfied with the work they have done for us. They know our products well, and their developers integrate fine with our own team.

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

We're building the platform using open source Sylius e-commerce solution, with Akeneo as PIM, Algolia for search and recommendations, and Netgen Layouts for building the template based front end.

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

We currently have nine people from Netgen in our project. Some full time, some add their specialist knowledge when needed. They are mainly backend and frontend developers. We also work closely with their manager to advice on the project and help us make the right choices.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is currently in the early phases, and no measurable results are produced.

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

The developers from Netgen fully integrated into our team, which is organised using SCRUM. We mostly communicate via Slack, and meetings in Teams. Netgen fits well into our system and contributes to making it better.

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

From a product owners perspective, I'm impressed with they ability to find solutions, take responsibility, and smoothly work along side our people despite us working in different places, both geographically and culturally.

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

Their solutions sometimes suffer from too much optimism on the time scale.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a director of research and development responsible for developing new company products. We are an IT company that creates advanced ICT solutions that positively impact businesses and society. We make it easy to operate and create added value for our customers, motivated by the desire to build a connected and digital future together.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Netgen to implement our new brand vision in the form of a new and rebranded website. We wanted a website that would display our work and our core business and, at the same time, give a touch of the modern and friendly work environment we live in every day. Netgen entirely delivered our vision into a form and improved it on so many levels.

SOLUTION

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

We wanted to give a job to a company from our country, and Netgen was an absolute winner after all our research. We needed a supplier with a lot of experience building large, modern, and structural websites. They are severe but modern. They are an "old" business, with as many talented young developers as a respected senior developer. And because we are an IT company (dedicated to building web applications, not websites), we immediately knew that Netgen is our best and only choice.

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

The project started with a discovery phase in which project goals and objectives were defined. Principal user personas and customer journeys were produced during UX workshops, and finally, our new website was envisioned with wireframe prototypes. Branding and visual identity elements were then applied to make the final interactive prototype which we tested for several days with sample users from identified customer groups and iterated upon. Used technologies were: PHP, Symfony framework, CMS, JS, CSS, React JS, and others.

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

I worked with an entire team from the Netgen side, including a dozen people from various departments (project manager, UX and UI designers and QA, front-end and back-end developers).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The measurable outcome of this project is on our new, modern, and appealing company website. Netgen is the representative company to work with. Their service and deliverables are in the range of the world's best companies, they deliver on time, and the price is excellent for the customer's value.

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

Except for the already mentioned technologies for creating our website, for communication and management, we used: JIRA, Confluence, Figma, Slack, and Zoom as communication tools. The atmosphere was more than just a professional, sterile relationship. I think we connected on another level, and this project was born with new friendly-professional relationships.

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

They were very open about everything. If something is wrong, they will acknowledge this and not try to hide it. I respect that in business, and I admire them for that.

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

I really can’t write anything at this point. Maybe it is, but it is definitively forgettable because I can’t remember.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a private pharmaceutical company operating in a total of 50 markets worldwide. My role is global, I work as a Director of Digital Business

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a website that would synthesize much of the accumulated content in one place, which would also serve as the main platform for other brand websites in the upcoming phases. As an international company that operates in many different markets and offers numerous products, the product portfolio needed to be collected and presented in a multilingual, simplified, but also still sufficiently informative manner.

SOLUTION

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

We recognised Netgen as an IT agency with significant international experience and strong references that worked on many projects such as multisite and multi language websites, that also included various integrations and customizations. This type of previous experience and specific knowledge suited our needs and assured us that we would speak the same language.

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

The agile approach to website development was organized in several phases with continuous priority revisions. The project started with discovery workshops to define user personas, and was then followed by trends research and testing to finally select overall solutions. After those phases, Netgen started with the development, during which the product information consolidation was implemented with Akeneo and Cloudinary. With the web platform now being launched, we will continue to work on further development that will grow through integration and visual consolidation of other brands’ websites.

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

The full team from Netgen side included ten people from various departments (UX&UI, project manager and front-end and backend developers).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The general outcome of the project is our new and amazing corporate website and the new web platform that we expect to grow in the upcoming phases. More than that, Netgen respected all the deadlines, which is a thing worth mentioning, considering the scope of the project.

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

The communication was done in person during discovery workshops and later through emails and Zoom calls. Jira and Figma were our tools as well. We were in regular contact with the project manager, and with other team members whenever necessary.

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

The Netgen team worked very closely with us during all phases of the project, with special emphasis on the discovery workshops that were oriented on defining user personas. The close collaboration continued to the next phases of the project as well, to market and trends research, UX optimization and development. At no point during the project are we misinformed or kept in the dark regarding the project's current progress.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Adriatic is an insurance company that sells all non-life insurance products in Croatia and motor car insurance products in Italy. I work as member of the board and director of IT department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our webshop was created long time ago and had become outdated. We hired Netgen do design and develop shop for us. We wanted it to be modern and fast, and something that will increase our webshop sale.

SOLUTION

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

We knew for this vendor and asked them to do an interview. After their presentation of the company and past projects they gave us an offer that we were comfortable with.

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

The project started with a discovery phase in which project goals and objectives were defined. Principal user personas and customer journeys were produced during UX workshops and finally, our new web shop was envisioned with wireframe prototypes. Branding and visual identity elements were then applied to produce the final interactive prototype which we tested with sample users from identified customer groups and iterated upon.

The development phase followed and the solution was implemented in the Sylius eCommerce platform and Symfony PHP framework in the back end with front-end built as a React JavaScript application. Development was done in agile fashion with multiple releases done in consecutive months. After the first release our cooperation with Netgen also included growth campaigns on Google and Facebook.

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

The full team included up to 8 people in different phases of the project, including: research and UX professionals, UI designers, backend developers (Sylius PHP framework) and frontend developers (React framework). The project was coordinated by a dedicated project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Not really - because of the COVID situation it is not possible to objectively measure outcome in this phase. The first product that's been put online is travel insurance - for which is not really great timing.

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

Development was done in agile fashion with multiple releases done in consecutive months. We had regular stand-ups with their PM. The communication was done throught e-mail, as it was easier for us.

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

They were very professional in all phases of the project, from the discovery phase, to the marker research, UX workshops, development.

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

Can't think of it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a digital agency located in Austria and I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The challenge was to develop an eCommerce site with full blown content management features for a client in the cosmetics business in a very limited time. Already in the pre-contract stage we discussed the project and decided on a technology stack based on Symfony, eZ Platform and Sylius.

Netgen should concentrate to the eCommerce side while we concentrate on the content side and the frontend.

SOLUTION

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

We selected Netgen because we know the company and their lead staff since years from many eZ partner meetings. Trust in their technical capabilities on the one side and the personal relations on the other side were equally important to us.

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

In a Kick Off meeting we jointly split the scope, made a master timeplan and fixed the team members. From then on we intensively interacted using JIRA, Confluence and Slack because at many points our work had to fit together.

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

Apart from Ivo, the CEO who coordinated his team and was my counterpart we had up to 10 developers from Netgen involved. Mainly in the field of backend and Sylius development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As we may not talk about financial performance figures of the project the only thing I can and must say that the technical solution provided by Netgen was solid and state of the art.

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

The project management style was driven by mutual respect and friendship. As alredy mentioned we used JIRA, Confluence, Slack and Zoom as communication backbones.

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

They don't take shortcuts! Whatever they do is a rock solid solution.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I kew about.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

A telecom company that offers various services to end users. I work in the marketing department as Communication Specialist and website Editor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have expanded our sales portfolio with new services, such as mobile plans and devices which are part of another brand in our group. Our company website enables exploring old and new services and benefits of their combinations keeping at the same time separated brand experiences.

SOLUTION

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

We are Netgen`s client for many years. They developed our company website and they are maintaining it, so hiring them for implementation of new elements was our preferred solution.

We already knew their expertise and their business culture suits us. They understand our business challenges and they are able to respond well to them.

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

The displayed mobile plans of the another brand was very complex and with a large amount of content. We wanted to “duplicate” the already existing content from the website of another brand and wanted to avoid manual content updates for the future also.

Therefore, it was necessary to link databases from one website to another and provide regular content refreshments. We developed frontend with certain specific customization in design and structure and mapped content according to databases. For this integration of two offers/brands we used modal screens.

Used Technologies: PHP, Symfony framework, CMS, JS, CSS, React JS and others.

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

project manager, several developers, designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Deliverables on time and as agreed.

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

Due to the complexity of the project, it was implemented and published in two phases by agile method. Communication flowed smoothly and without interruption. We used Jira, e-mail, Teams and Zoom workshops, Figma, Slack. The challenge was to deliver a large volume of work in a very short and fixed timeline.

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

I would emphasize Netgen`s flexibility, true partner relationship. Ready to give optimal solutions for the client depending on the specifics of the situation, budget and timelines. Always ask them for advice, they are happy to provide it. Netgen does it their best.

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

In every project there are some unpredictable things and challenges. Clear expectations and straight-forward communication from both sides helps to overcome such things.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Ruđer Bošković Institute is regarded as Croatia’s leading scientific institute in the natural and biomedical sciences as well as marine and environmental research. Web editor, public relations department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Implementation of new CMS for company's main site. Maintenanance, development and integration with existing services. Builiding of rapid development system for websites with webshop and conference managment support.

SOLUTION

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

We chose them as best candidates among several companies considered. Key factors: based on OpenSource CMS, features of eZ Publish CMS, and support levels for eZ Publish.

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

Implementation of eZ Publish CMS (Symphony PHP framework) with continous support and development on request. multilanguage granular user management custom admin roles integration (LDAP, JSON, XML) custom templates, classes and landing pages SSO automated scheduling and unscheduling webshop event management

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

Varies throught the years - from 1 to 15+, from general managers to junior developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have the best (main) site in the country in this category. We are able to quicky depoly websites with webshop and conference management support.

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

From Basecamp to currenly JIRA. Skype for quick meetings. In person when discussing large developments as kick-off meeting.

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

Know-how of people employed. Easy to reach and talk to. Willingnes to support us. Long term partnership.

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

No, nobody's perfect but overall, they're a great company.