Oak.Works - Out of Business

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Kelly Tours is a motorcoach charter and student travel business. We have our own buses organize group and student travels, as well as charter the buses. I’m the CIO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Oak.Works?

We were developing a booking platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Oak.Works developed a web platform from scratch, which we use to build tours, enter reservations, create online bookings from the customer and the staff end, take payments, and assign reservations to salespeople and drivers. It’s an all-in-one booking platform that’s both staff and customer-facing.

The platform was developed on JavaScript and Python. It integrates with our preexisting website and MailChimp, which we use as a CRM.

What is the team composition?

There are 2–3 people from Oak.Works involved. Rob (Founder) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Oak.Works?

They’re a local company, and I believe that our owner knew one of their co-founders and had worked with them.

How much have you invested with them?

A rough estimate for the development and maintenance would be $200,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Oak.Works early in 2016, and they’re continuing to help us maintain the platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m very satisfied. We don’t have to go to another software to make payments— everything is integrated into one. We can build tours and reservations. Our clients can make reservations and online payments. Everyone loves the product Oak.Works built.

We haven’t had any issues on the maintenance side, in terms of downtime. If it’s down, it comes right back up.

The platform’s improved our business significantly. People appreciate making payments themselves and being able to keep track of past purchases. I’d estimate that we saw a 200%–300% increase after implementing the software.

How did Oak.Works perform from a project management standpoint?

One thing I love about Oak.Works is that it’s easy to get a hold of them. I don’t have to send them emails and wait 24 hours for a response. They use Slack, so I can send them a quick message and hear a response within 15–20 minutes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s easy to work with Rob. He listens to what we’re trying to accomplish and follows through on promises. It’s been a pleasant experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I guess they could hire more people and get more projects. I don’t know what else they could do better. They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients need to have a clear idea about what they’re trying to accomplish with the software. They can advise the client in certain ways, but there needs to be a clear idea in place.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager at Procter & Gamble. I work in our oral care business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Oak.Works?

We were launching a new smart toothbrush system, and we needed a place to sell that device and tell the story of that device. They developed a customized website to showcase the new product. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided software development on our e-commerce direct-to-consumer store. We provided some initial designs, but they took our ideas and built on them. They did several backend integrations as well, including with our account management system and P&G analytics. 

What is the team composition?

I mainly worked with Steve (Founder) and Shane (Software Developer). 

How did you come to work with Oak.Works?

They were referred to us by another partner that we’d worked with in the past. They were also a software development agency, but they couldn’t take on our project, so they referred us to Oak.Works. 

How much have you invested in them? 

We invested about $80,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2019. We worked with them on the site until December of that year. We paused the engagement until we launched the website in spring 2020. They’re still working with us to make updates to the website. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team was outstanding. They took our ideas and turned them into a beautiful site that was more sophisticated than we’d envisioned. I couldn’t be happier with the engagement. 

How did Oak.Works perform from a project management standpoint?

They have an outstanding ability to meet deadlines. We added them to our company Slack, and we communicated seamlessly with them in an ad hoc manner. They let us know as soon as issues came up. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed by their commitment to not just doing what we tell them to do, but improving upon that. It’s a testament to their sense of web design. We were paying for development, but we also got a lot of helpful design input from them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. Any delays that happened were on our side, not theirs. They worked with us regardless of the changes we made to the project timeline. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Listen to their expert opinions. They know what they’re doing.