OPTASY

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the technology manager for an artisanal shortbread business. During my time here, my primary task has been to create and maintain their website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OPTASY?

For general website development adjustments, we have an in-house developer. When we need work that is more extensive, however, we contract the work externally. This particular engagement was fairly small and just barely beyond the skillset of our in-house developer. We have previously used two other dev shops, and this was our first time engaging OPTASY.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After I first reached out to OPTASY, their owner got back to me quickly and said that one of his developers would assess our request right away. The quote they provided was exactly within the range of what I knew it should cost, and when I agreed to go with them, they gave us an estimate of three business days to complete the work. In the end, they were able to have it done within what amounted to a little over one business day.

Our website is a Drupal-based website, so one of the skillsets required for this project was a high level of experience with that specific open-source content management system. A fundamental aspect of Drupal is being able to either build or modify existing PHP-based modules and then put them into the framework. We needed them to take one module from our website and extend it out to give us more options, modifying it as per our use case, and then plug it back into the site. Once that was done, our project lead showed what it would look like to outside visitors, the backend for us and how to configure it as administrators, and the options we had for enabling or disabling it as a feature.

What is the team composition?

I am not sure how big their organization is because I only had contact with one person, our project lead, and he handed our task off to a developer.

How did you come to work with OPTASY?

Our online search focused on Canada-based, Drupal-specific development companies, and OPTASY showed up on the first page of results. After finding five development shops that reached our basic requirements, I reached out to around three for quotes, and the other two came back with prices that either exceeded or vastly exceeded a reasonable amount for the work we needed. I went with OPTASY because they responded quickly and with a reasonable price.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent less than $10,000 CAD.

What is the status of this engagement?

We engaged them last Friday, and the work was completed by the following Tuesday.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When the work was complete, they suggested we check their work and try out the solution, and I was able to go back to them after we had done so and say that it was exactly what we wanted. I have never been able to do that before while working with an external development company, and I would definitely go back to them again. Their success was in the simplicity of the work.

How did OTPASY perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project lead was quick to communicate about everything and ensured that the job was completed far faster than I had anticipated. When the work was finished, he provided all the information that I needed in order to assess both completeness and accuracy. I never had to ask any questions; he was good about anticipating what we needed to know. Even though the end product was a fairly simple piece of development, the turnaround was faster than expected and the communication overall was excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the most important things to me was that they understood the scope of the project and that they needed to come to us if they thought anything else needed to be done outside of that scope. Dev shops deciding on their own to do more work than we had agreed upon, and charging us for it, has been a problem for us in the past. When we first engaged OPTASY, I spoke with the owner and told him in no uncertain terms what the project scope was to entail, and they stuck to that.

In particular, I was impressed by both the exceptional pricing of the project and the speed of completion. Regarding the cost quote, I admired the fact that they were completely honest with me about how many hours the work would take, especially when one of their competitors gave me an estimate that was literally six times greater for the same project. The other dev shops assumed that I didn’t know anything about the work involved, and OPTASY never treated me like that. They were able to perform the work quickly and professionally and gave us exactly what we wanted, so they checked all the external contractor boxes. I would definitely recommend their services, and I would have no reservations about returning to them in the future for larger projects, given how well they handled this smaller one.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m not even sure that I would consider this a negative, but I feel that it is worth at least mentioning. Most contractors—especially for short jobs like this one—end an engagement by trying to sell further services to a company. OPTASY did that as well, but the way that they presented it did not feel like a “sell” to me. They offered it as a suggestion, in reference to certain aspects of our website that would benefit from being updated, and then immediately dropped the subject when I said that we were going to take care of that in-house. It felt to me more like a recommendation than a pitch, which I appreciated.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This advice is more general, in terms of contracting external development work: Make sure to define the scope of your work very well. A good contractor will see that and be able to work within your clearly set expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am one of the technology coordinators of a school division in Canada. I am responsible for educational technology, and I am responsible for updates, upgrades, and support for elementary school websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OPTASY?

We just moved to Drupal 8 for all of our elementary schools and will be moving to Drupal 8 for high schools as well. The migration from Drupal 6 to Drupal 8 was handled entirely in-house. We were looking for the ability to deploy content from a central communication website within the division and publish that content on the school websites.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Essentially, we wanted the ability to publish specific content to all sites or to a collection of sites. This would be for notices or information about particular events. We didn’t want to have to send it to a school and have them write their own content or deploy content we provided to them. We simply wanted to publish centrally and have it appear on all websites. OPTASY was selected to support this. They have a module they have developed along with utilization of modules that already exist for Drupal 8.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with 3 people on their team including the CEO and 2 developers.

How did you come to work with OPTASY?

We look for Canadian companies as 1 of the primary criteria, and in our province, there aren’t an abundance of companies that can do development work on specific things like Drupal. I did a search for companies in Canada that specifically did Drupal 8 work specific to module development. On Drupal.org, OPTASY was one of the companies listed as being a partner to Drupal.org. They met all the criteria we were looking for.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in October of this year, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provided a test environment before we signed the agreement so that we could see the solution in place and to fine tune. Within days, they put up two demo sites to see the modules and process working. We had a real-world example and were able to use that to make changes to the process. On a communication side, it also allowed for us to be clear about what we wanted it to do and what they were able to do for us. This has been important for us. These are still available to us, and we are still using them.

How did OPTASY perform from a project management standpoint?

I speak to their CEO daily. They set up a channel in Slack, and we have a continuous stream of communication going back and forth. The communication aspect hasn’t been a problem at all. When we approached them, they responded quickly with a demo and a solution already articulated. From day one, the communication has been the hallmark and has been phenomenal. There have been no issues whatsoever with project delivery as a whole. They are far quicker than other services we have been involved in.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication and response time have been the most impressive things about them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not so far. We are 90% done, and it will be interesting to see the back and forth about fine tunings once the implementation phase gets going. I can’t see it becoming an issue because we have already seen it work. Everything is going as planned or better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get in touch with them. The timeliness of their response means the faster you get moving with them, the easier the project is going to be.

Company Responses

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a Canadian sports and entertainment company for professional sports. I’m the technical product manager on the digital marketing team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OPTASY?

We were trying to solve some hosting issues as well as add a video section and improve overall speed performance of our fan engagement sites.

We needed to launch before the start of the next season, so everything had to be finished in 5 weeks. A few agencies worked on this project before, including Appnovation and Myplanet. The performance issues arose from Myplanet putting their code on top of what Appnovation had already done, then piling on 2 additional sites. OPTASY was responsible for breaking all of this down and splitting it up into separate sites.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had OPTASY recode all of our sites. We had them do a little proof of concept in terms of getting a copy of the database and the site, then taking the existing code and launching it through a different host. We wanted to compare hosting performance before we started the recode. Nothing got approved until the last minute, so we started the project on September 1.

Another agency was responsible for design. There are 2 sections to the site, including one for login, profiles, and access to contests. The second, newer section is for videos only. While OPTASY was coding the main login to match the existing site, the other agency was designing the video section.

We handed off the series and episodes designs September 20, which was 3 weeks before launch. The video platform has an initial landing page, then the user is taken to where they can click through the series and episodes. On September 25, we finished the landing page and a gameday module. It was all a very rapid process.

It’s not just a simple site. There’s a Janrain login, which connects directly to the API. We have user accounts and social login, and also a Vimeo API integration for the video section. There are also other basic page layouts. When there is a game day, the gameday module displays videos via a player. We also have original content series and another fan corner. We took different caching per module on the same page into consideration, so everything is cached at a different rate. Game-day videos are a little bit shorter versus the long-term content.

What is the team dynamic?

Adrian [Drupal Developer, OPTASY] was involved due to the timeline. We also had a project manager on their side, 2 backend developers (one of whom was the team lead), and 2–3 frontend developers. We had daily Scrums, and they ramped their resources up or down depending on what we needed. Based on the timeline of the project, we had a lot of things going on at once.

How did you come to work with OPTASY?

I did a Google search looking for someone with a local presence so they could at least come in for meetings. OPTASY had done some work with UFT University and Berkeley, so I checked the reviews. We used the proof of concept as a sort of test, then had an initial SOW [statement of work] just to move the current site to a new hosting platform.

If I’d known about Clutch, I might have been able to get in contact with some of their past clientele. Myplanet, Appnovation, and Therefore shows up when searching for Drupal providers in Canada. I actually received a referral for Therefore, but because of timing and price, we decided to go with OPTASY.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $40,000–$50,000 for the first part of the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are dealing with the NHL site, and we did our best effort to launch via iFrames, but it posed problems. We have legacy elements in terms of our Janrain login, which allows the cookie to pass through to login on older versions of Safari and IE 11. We are looking to move away from the NHL site, even though we just launched it.

The results are positive in terms of video views and percentage of videos watched. People are watching over 80% of videos that they start, which is also quite high. Our broadcast team only has 8 new shows, but we’re having a bigger launch on November 20 with external media, TV references, etc. We’re currently in the semi-soft launch phase. We did a press release and similar things on October 7, and there will definitely be a media buy-and-push once we get more shows on the platform.

We require logins in terms of broadcasting, so the main driver for someone to log in is content. We are waiting a little but on this, but it’s definitely positive in terms of feedback. There are some legacy login issues that they’ve had just because we have a Janrain login for mobile. It’s not necessarily OPTASY’s issue.

How did OPTASY perform from a project management standpoint?

Considering what we asked of them, and knowing they didn’t receive our mockups and wireframes until 3 weeks out, it was crazy that we managed to launch. They stepped up in terms of commitment. I didn’t even understand the hours people were working because they were always available. We communicated mostly via JIRA and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They weren’t involved on the design for the video section. That agency didn’t have a fully defined scope, but OPTASY was able to work with all of their recommendations. We scoped it so that we could have the best chance to finish, and OPTASY successfully pushed forward even with those extra features.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although we managed to launch, we had little UI bugs due to having zero time for QA. We launched on a Saturday, but I had just received final imagery from the agency for images on Friday. No videos had been uploaded to the video site as of that day. This was the general nature of the entire project, and everyone was rushed. We were coding up until the end. With the relaunch on November 20, we are dedicating 2 weeks to freezing the code and carrying out proper QA.

Do you have any advice for potential clients?

Let them lead the way. They were able to translate the designs into matches perfectly pixel-wise.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of digital media and development at Latina Media Ventures, a digital media and magazine publishing company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Optasy?

We had development challenges and were looking for expertise in the Drupal field. We had hired 3 other developers previously, but they were expensive, and I don’t consider them experts. Once we got in touch with Optasy, things started moving in the right direction. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done all the backend development work of all our Drupal-based sites—Latina.com and TheLatinKitchen.com. For Latina.com, they handled everything, including a Drupal 6 conversion to Drupal 7 as well as redesign, redevelopment, and restructuring of the architecture.

For our first project, we had a product manager and in-house designers and outsourced all the development work to them. That first project was pretty sculpted out. We did tests to make sure they could follow directions and deliver what we wanted.

The second project involved more ideation and management. We didn’t have a dedicated project manager. Adrian [Senior Drupal Developer, Optasy] offered recommendations for moving our architecture from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7, setting up the whole project management, and even tackling the frontend design as well.

They developed various custom modules. The first allowed us to record virtual page use and Google Analytics and offer some intimate galleries that automatically convert into the next slideshow. The second involved more complex advertising effects. We were using a Legacy ad server and mixing it with the newer DataStax Enterprise [DSE]. They were able to develop a module that allowed that operation to lodge in our CMS [content management system] and manage the ads. Later, when we reconverted to DSE, they updated everything to work directly with DSE and gave that operation functionality where it wouldn’t require further development. That operation is able to go into the CMS and make whatever changes they want, without having to bother the development team or the staff.

When we’re in full development mode, they assist us around the clock. Once the project is done, they’re pretty much on standby, and they bill us as we use them. Right now, we contact them at least once or twice a week for assistance.

What is the team dynamic?

For the most part, Adrian was our point of contact. I’m not sure about the number of resources on their end, but I’m sure other developers were involved. We never questioned who was working on the project. I spoke with Adrian every day. Because he was trustworthy, we didn’t feel that we had to know exactly who was working on the project. We had 15- to 20-minute calls, especially during development. Every Thursday, we would have an hour-long call about what was expected the following week.

How did you come to work with Optasy?

I posted on Drupal forums looking for a development team. Adrian responded to the ad, and we started talking. Besides their portfolio, Optasy also shared a letter of recommendation. We verified it and had some conversations with their previous clients. They had competitive pricing and were truly experts in Drupal. We considered 3 other companies as well. Before that, we’d tried 3 different development shops. No other company had the amount of experience or recommendations that Optasy did. That made our selection process easy.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since 2013, and our partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

During the first project, which was strictly development, Adrian tried to get us to migrate to Drupal 7, but we chose not to. Once we were done with the initial project and kept on using their services for maintenance and updates, he submitted a proposal explaining why we should switch to Drupal 7. Based on our good experience with him, we took his recommendation. After he made the switch, the site’s response time decreased by 53%. Immediately, the site started working faster. The dependencies that the site relied on went from over 200 to under 125. Overall, his recommendation made a huge impact on our business to the point that at the end of 2014, we grew by 400%. By the end of 2015, we were doing about 12 million pages with the website he developed.

How did Optasy perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed better than I did. Management is supposed to be my responsibility, but they were so much better at it and had so much experience dealing with this type of project. I just let them manage the development, for the most part. I focused more on the direction and the project timeline.

Everything was delivered on time and within budget. We never had any issues with delays since they would communicate any issues far ahead of time. Most of the time, any delays were because of our requests.

In the beginning, we were using Jira. From there, we’ve done 2 or 3 projects. We already had separate communications built, so Jira was more time consuming after working for 2 or 3 years. We switched between Trello, Slack, and Basecamp, depending on the task. A project tied to a marketing campaign would be managed with Basecamp to give our marketing team access. Anything else that has to do with position and site development is done via Slack and Trello.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really know their stuff in Drupal, more so than any other development shop I’ve worked with. That’s essentially what we were looking for because we kept working with people who weren’t necessarily Drupal experts. Based on all the previous projects we did with universities and other media companies, we realized that Optasy really knew what they were doing.

Their team was essentially available at any time to answer our questions, solve an emergency, or fix a mistake that we made. They got everything back online promptly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, we had misunderstandings. After a while, we realized these issues were due to the plans we were sending to them. They didn’t understand what we were asking. After a few conference calls, we figured out how to communicate what we want; in half an hour, everything was fine. I can’t really think of anything they need to improve.

Do you have any advice or recommendations for someone who is looking to use those services?

Be completely upfront with them. In certain situations, we were trying to convey an idea or request without giving them the full picture. That worked against us. Be transparent about what you want for the execution so that they can deliver. They’re going to give you exactly what was communicated to them. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide IT operations and staffing services. I am a recruiter for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OPTASY?

We wanted to perform some Drupal design work for a project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OPTASY customized some content tools for our site and provided AngularJS, CSS, and HTML coding. OPTASY also handled design for the page. 

How did you come to work with OPTASY?

We researched a Drupal marketplace site.

How much have you invested with OPTASY?

This is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with OPTASY in August 2016. The work was completed 2 weeks ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I have no metrics per se, but OPTASY was able to deliver on time, within the scope.

How did OPTASY perform from a project management standpoint?

OPTASY delivered on time and had good communication.

What did you find most impressive about  OPTASY from other providers?

There's nothing in particular.

Are there any areas OPTASY could improve?

No, everything was fine.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a Drupal development firm and Clutch member. I am a co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OPTASY?

We have a vendor relationship with OPTASY.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OPTASY has provided development services for our company, mainly Drupal, JavaScript, and PHP-related. We rely on OPTASY's principal for both development and architecture in certain cases.

How did you come to work with OPTASY?

I have been working with OPTASY's owner for a long time.

How much have you invested with OPTASY?

The cost of OPTASY's services has been between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship with OPTASY and started working together in 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We are satisfied with OPTASY. It's hard to provide feedback for the agency as a whole, given that we work with specific members of OPTASY. One of them is probably an A+ and is relied upon accordingly.

How did OPTASY perform from a project management standpoint?

OPTASY had excellent overall response times for all the work we've done with them.

Are there any areas OPTASY could improve?

Everyone can be more thorough and detailed, but OPTASY operates at a very high level.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with OPTASY?

I advise clients to work with OPTASY's founder.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company specializes in health portals. I am a marketing manager for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OPTASY?

The first version of our medical portal was built around 8 years ago, using Drupal 5. I had no idea what Drupal was at that point, but I came to like it. We decided to update the website 3 years ago to a newer version of the platform and approached OPTASY after seeing that they specialized in Drupal services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OPTASY upgraded our website from Drupal 5 to Drupal 7, as well as building custom functionalities for it.

How did you come to work with OPTASY?

I reached out to multiple companies but decided to work with OPTASY because the communication was better with them and we liked their portfolio. We started with a small online scheduling application, which OPTASY built for us.

How much have you invested with OPTASY?

I don't have this information.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our relationship with OPTASY around 4 years ago and worked together for around 2 and a half years. Our projects are done, but we'll reach out to OPTASY sooner or later in order to upgrade to Drupal 8.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

As a marketing manager, I've had to have discussions with OPTASY during the last part of our project, making sure that the website was SEO-ready. Our traffic increased after the upgrade, as well as our revenues.

How did OPTASY perform from a project management standpoint?

OPTASY respected our deadlines, and I didn't hear anything about going over budget.

What did you find most impressive about OPTASY?

OPTASY was very responsive, fast, and offered great communication.

Are there any areas OPTASY could improve?

No. I'm happy with our results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO/ Founder of a telecommunications company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Streamline the B2B and B2C process between wireless carriers and accessory vendors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Help us complete the development of our application.
• To make sure we're using every benefit of the CMS framework

SOLUTION

How did you find OPTASY?

• Online Search

Why did you select OPTASY over others?

• High ratings
• Company values aligned
• They took the time to understand or goals and mission.
• 
  

How many teammates from OPTASY were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

OPTASY was brought on board to handle everything dealing with our application. To look at the previous code work and make sure the code is streamlined and effective. Review and implement requirements, fix bugs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is still in progress but so far all deliverables have been met by OPTASY.

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

All deliverables have been met. They make sure they have a complete understanding of the request. If they have a more streamlined approach to implementing the request, they make suggestions based on their understanding of Drupal.

What was your primary form of communication with OPTASY?

• Virtual Meeting

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

Their attention to detail, and their vast knowledge of Drupal. They work at your pace, OPTASY is the company that you know will be there for you in the long term.

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

No