Perpetual

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior director at a prominent international media company. I look after new product development. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

I’ve hired Perpetual on numerous occasions, and we most recently engaged them for a UI/UX design project. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual worked on building a comparative analysis process for us, where they were required to do stakeholder and customer interviews to fuel their research. They also did an audit of our existing app while cataloging all of its existing components. As we finished the discovery phase, the team built user onboarding flows. They worked on how app features would work and how user profiles and settings were set; they had to design these things specifically for Android and iOS devices. Perpetual used Figma for this design work, but they also used Sketch and Abstract.

We also engaged them to redesign a section within our website. This project required a bit of customer research and content analysis. Their resources built new components that didn’t exist while documenting a library of components. Moreover, they worked closely with the engineering team to ensure that their designs could be converted into good code.

For ongoing projects, we usually take care of maintenance. However, I keep Perpetual resources around for post-launch. If we need any support or run into any issues, we call them. Moreover, they also usually do enhancements; they take an existing framework from us and add their flair to it. They build new modules and features for such frameworks. 

I’ve also brought them on for projects where they have to build something from scratch. In such projects, I don’t give them any design direction. Instead, they work on understanding our business requirements and do customer research to validate their designs. Then, they give us a vision of how we should build the project.

What is the team composition?

We work with around 10 people from Perpetual. Five of them work full-time with us. Then, they bring in experts that focus on particular aspects of the project. My main point of contact is Amish (CEO); I reach out to him when I have a specific question about the engagement. I also interface with Sarah (UI/UX Designer). 

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

Perpetual has done business with other parts of our organization. They were recommended to me by one of my colleagues, telling us to talk to them if we wanted an agency that understood our work. I gave them a chance, and that was when our engagement started. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Perpetual in June 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website section we’ve launched has been seeing great results in terms of engagement and traffic. I attribute some of that success to Perpetual’s work.

Anecdotally, I’ve worked with many agencies, and I tend to switch them up a bit to gain new and fresh ideas. I find my collaboration with Perpetual to be successful because they’re easy to work with and they come up with fresh ideas. Their team is open to feedback and highly collaborative, and my team enjoys working with them.  

Moreover, their documentation and handover process is unparalleled — that’s hard to find in any agency. Their resources are thorough and provide great post-launch support. They’re always ready to jump on the phone to work with us. On top of that, they’re highly knowledgeable not only about their business but also ours. That’s a huge plus for us. 

Overall, I’m extremely satisfied with Perpetual’s work. They’ve exceeded my expectation and set the bar high. Now, I’m looking forward to getting dazzled one more time. 

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Perpetual’s project management is perfect. They’re on top of the engagement, and the team is highly transparent when there’s a change in scope. Their team gets booked up fast with projects, so they actively ensure that everything is moving forward according to plan. 

Once they know who the stakeholders are, they engage those stakeholders directly with our permission. This is truly highly helpful because we don’t have a dedicated project manager; we only have product people who do their day-to-day work in addition to managing the product. 

In terms of tools, we use Jira to track progress and ensure that the work is cut out for them. That’s also our main tool for communication and project management. We also use Teams on a daily basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication skills are their strong point. I’d always pick an agency with a great communication style — this is key in all deliverables. Beyond that, the Perpetual team has a great work ethic and works fast. They have disparate teams that allow them to run a global operation. Their resources ensure that tasks are completed quickly. If we set our expectations ahead of time, they tell us clearly what they can and cannot deliver. Simply put, they always do their best. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

This isn’t an area of improvement per se, but I’m curious how Perpetual will perform if I simply ask them to build something that the world has never seen before. 

To elaborate, they usually have their task cut out for them — we provide direction and timeline, along with a budget. They’re great at that. Meanwhile, other agencies may not be as effective as them in terms of execution and communication, but those agencies can generate 5–10 great ideas and iterations for us. I’m curious whether or not Perpetual can perform well in that arena. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be transparent about your needs. Perpetual can turn around tasks quickly, and they do their part. As a result, do your part and be explicit about what you want; tell them where you want them to invest their time and energy. If you want the blue-sky thinking on any given design or topic, then be explicit about that — they’ll flex their design muscles. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a financial services asset management firm that manages about $160 billion in primarily public sector and institutional assets. The other side of our business — prior to being acquired — worked with municipalities and other public sector entities to issue debt.

I was the senior marketing manager within our centralized marketing group. My general role was to work across the organization to build our strategic marketing plans and help business leaders execute on them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We’re using Perpetual for a number of projects, including redesigning two of our websites.

When our asset management business was acquired, we had to split our website from our old organization and build a new one based on an existing template. We also had to update, remove, and orient the old one for the successor firm that would spin off from the acquisition.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

To start, we created a carbon copy of our website, and Perpetual streamlined its content to use as a new framework. There were many differences, including removing content, creating content and building new sections and pages. Perpetual tried to repurpose as much of the site as possible but largely redesigned its backend architecture.

While they handled the technical development, we created the design in-house and worked with their team to implement it and build any necessary components. We’re using Sitefinity as the CMS. Notable features include a tool that transforms resumes into PDF files and a carousel on our home page that highlights our different products and services.

Perpetual also brought in a subject-matter expert to perform an ADA review of the website.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with 3–4 people, including Amish (CEO), Kumar (Project Manager), a systems engineer, and a few others depending on our needs, like a UI/UX designer and an ADA compliance expert.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

About one-and-a-half years ago we started a larger scale technology process across our larger business. After an RFP and due diligence process, Perpetual was number one. They did a phenomenal job building an online client access portal, so when we needed to do this website redesign project, we decided to call them. It was a no brainer.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $75,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since January 2021 and have a monthly retainer with them for support and ongoing management and development of the website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s ironic that we don’t have many statistics on the website given that we’re a finance firm, but the biggest plus about Perpetual is that we were able to successfully redesign, reorient, reimplement, and launch an entirely brand new website for a $160 billion asset manager during an acquisition process. The outcome of their work is self-evident of Perpetual’s quality. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done very well. Everyone I work with is sharp, organized, and willing to work and go the extra mile. Their team helps us keep a lot of things straight.

Perpetual is probably tired of me at this point, but we have weekly and bi-weekly check-in calls, as well as emails. They send progress reports and are effective at communicating across disconnects, particularly between technical people and design people.

In terms of tools, we leverage Figma and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s two-fold: their flexibility and adaptability. Perpetual is quick to jump in to find resources get the scope moving without issues. At the outset, they quickly adapted to our needs.

Based on different providers I’ve worked with, Perpetual invests the most in us as a client. In fact, they followed up with me four times to get this review call with Clutch scheduled. They’re incredibly client-oriented, and it shows in how they interact with us.

Finally, the amount of time they took up front to understand our business, qualify it, and understand what we were looking was great. It allowed them to accurately translate our requests later on in the project. It was a great discovery phase.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were times where they built something that was close to what we wanted but also didn’t quite work for us, and we had to go over it a few times. Because of the deadlines, we could have been more explicit with how we were communicating, but the nice part is that they’re extremely flexible.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to be open, honest, and transparent about pricing, scope, and budget. Tell them what you need and be deliberate on discovery calls, providing the required context. All their folks are open and transparent, so if you need something just talk through it with them. As a client of theirs, this method has allowed us to be very successful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a golfing application startup. We also have a podcast and a video series.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We wanted to create a mobile app for golf because it’s a complicated sport that doesn’t have great technology.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual is creating an Android and iOS mobile app for us. Everything started with tech discovery, where their team figured out the platform we wanted to build everything on and CMS we needed to employ on the backend. They did a full assessment of everything based on what they thought our needs and requirements were. From there, we started working with a branding agency that collaborated with Perpetual while doing everything from the UX to the development of the product.

In terms of the app’s functions, we’re tied to a few private databases to pull in information related to golf courses. We’re also building out features for golfers to enjoy themselves through these courses — it’s a new product that competes with the very few golf mobile products out there. At the moment, we’re preparing to launch a beta version of the app to collect user feedback and launch publicly after that.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working directly with around five people from their team, including a product lead, a UX lead, the person who acts as the liaison between tech and product, and Amish (CEO). There’s a development team working on our project, but we don’t interact with them, and that’s fine by me.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

I used to have an agency myself, and I met several people in the industry. One of those people was Vishal (Managing Partner), and when I started this project, I sent them the RFP. I chose them because the first chats went great, I worked closely with Vishal in the past, and they hit the timing and budget perfectly — they had a nice initial approach.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $200,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re in the alpha phase now, so we have a few people testing our app. We’ve been receiving great feedback, like the app’s fantastic stability.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re fluid and transparent, which is nice. Their team is also working with modern tools that are easy to use, like Sigma, Slack, Jira, and Google Docs — that help us see where the project is going.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to quickly scale up their team is outstanding. Our app grows along with its features and functionalities outside the original scope, but Perpetual’s team efficiently provides the workforce required to get the work done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could change their presentation of their deliveries, but I already gave them that feedback, and they started presenting everything the old-school way, which I like.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Public Financial Management (PFM) is an institutional asset management organization oriented towards servicing the investment needs of governmental-related entities like state and local governments, bridge commissions, and turnpike authorities. We help them with their funds' investment for short-, mid-, and long-term needs.

I’m the director of application delivery and support, so I’m responsible for all of the applications that are run to support our organization, including a line of business, back-office, and enterprise applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We had a legacy client portal, which had been in place since first crafted 12–14 years ago. It was very outdated in terms of its UX, technology, and capabilities. Our goal was to address this and upgrade its technology, capabilities, and UX to bring it up to date and make it modern.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our platform previously used a Microsoft.net web form technology, and the application directly interacted with our back-office databases. Perpetual has been developing a modern portal using React.js, and we’ve added APIs to connect to our back-office databases. Our databases have stayed largely the same, but we’re essentially enhancing our front-end and middle-office technologies.

Perpetual helps us with a mix of design activities that are largely wrapped up; we’ve completed around 90%–95% of the job. Currently, they’re focused on frontend development, and they’ll hand the work off to my team, who will connect it to our APIs.

What is the team composition?

We work closely with three people from Perpetual, who are actively involved in the design activities.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

I found Perpetual on Clutch. Initially, I was overwhelmed by the number of digital design agencies, and I was just looking for those oriented towards financial services. I used Clutch to narrow the options down and identified eight potential candidates.

I had interviews with various agencies and narrowed our options down to three. Then, we went through an RFP process with all three agencies, and we picked Perpetual based on their responses. Our selection criteria included evaluating their comfort level with financial services, previous experience, cost-effectiveness, and overall cultural fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $125,000 up until June 2021, and 85% of that amount has been invested in design services.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first invoice was generated in February 2021, and our engagement is ongoing. We’re now contemplating using them for other projects outside of their initial scope.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback from everyone has been really positive, not only on the work product but also on the interactions with Perpetual. Everyone is very happy with the people that we’re working with, as well as with their demeanor, approach, knowledge, and experience. We’ve had very solid feedback so far.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

We initially had biweekly meetings calls which then moved down to weekly calls. We’ve also used Excel to manage our sprint cycles for the development activities. Additionally, Perpetual organized the design process into time blocks, so we knew beforehand that we would finish the design activities by mid-July 2021. In terms of accuracy, comparing what we expected to where we are, Perpetual has been spot on with minor variances.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual is courageous and challenges the status quo. On occasions, we wanted to do the design one way, and they provided us with reasons not to do so, as well as with recommendations.

Although they push back, they know how and when to do it. In other cases, as we knew our user base better, we still needed to do things our way. Ultimately, we’ve always landed on a good solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be good if Perpetual had a clear picture of the extent to which their resources are being allocated. We ran into situations where we weren’t getting the velocity that we needed, so I had to raise my hand and tell their principal that we weren’t moving fast enough. However, he quickly addressed the issue and augmented their team’s capacity.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be involved, knowledgeable, empowered, and decisive. Bring top-notch people from your team who know the subject matter and participate in the process; this will help you move forward quickly and efficiently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a Commercial Arts and Entertainment company, working with major clients on everything from creative development, production and post. I am the lead producer at Special Operations, oversee various projects thru completion.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Perpetual to help with the UX Design, Development and Build for a client's new website. The redesign required an updated, clean layout and color scheme, incorporating requested elements, enhancements and opportunities to display original content while minimizing the need to reformat existing posts, photos, videos, etc.

SOLUTION

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

We have worked with Perpetual in the past and knew they had the team needed to make this a successful project for us and our client. They have access to great UX Designers, are excellent at communication and organization, and the expertise required to work on complete large projects like ours.

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

• Redesign the website (with an updated, clean layout and color scheme, incorporating requested elements, enhancements, and opportunities to display original content while minimizing the need to reformat existing posts, photos, videos, etc.)
• Make a Clean and easy-to-update way to display daily and weekly schedules.
• Integrated way to display schedules embedded within press releases
• Automatically add the date to Press Releases and Posts.
• Add link for visitors to share posts/videos/photos on their social accounts
• Make the Search Function easier to find on the site with better functionality and the option to search by relevance or by date
• Social pages should open in a new tab, build a social ticker on the page that is functional and not distracting.
• TECH FEATURES: Photos: External Change download function to instant for photos. Find an Easy way to embed native video files on site Upgrade the existing WordPress

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

We worked for 4-5 people from the Perpetual team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So far the site looks and operates beautifully and our client, is very happy. Perpetual helped the site integrate seamlessly and continued to provide their tech support as the site launched. If our clients needed help with their new site, Perpetual was there to make sure that the end client felt confident using the new site.

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

Vishal lead the project, kept us organized and on schedule and was great at breaking down each step to my team and the client, who are less tech savvy.

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

They were all amazing.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing and product development at Azul, a small research company focused on procurement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We built an app prototype using R, but we needed to be able to scale it in Python.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s basically a benchmarking app for procurement technology, so there was a large database on the backend, but there was no easy way for users to access that information. The app poses questions about core business problems, and then automatically pulls a shortlist of vendors that can meet their needs based on their most important decision factors.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a US-based Python lead, a UX designer, the CTO, two Indian-based Python engineers, a project manager, and a tech architect.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We used Clutch to identify firms we wanted to work with, and then we issued an RFP. Perpetual seemed to have the right background for the project. Their response was more detailed than any other provider we spoke to and they asked questions. They were comfortable using Python, while other firms just proposed other ways to complete the app. I also appreciated that they work in an agile manner. Finally, they were the most affordable option and they were able to start working on the project right away.

How much have you invested with them?

The project will cost $88,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in July 2020 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re entering the final user acceptance testing phases. So far, users understand how it works and like how they’re able to navigate the app. Perpetual has perfectly replicated the functionality and has even improved the design. They’ve met all of our milestones.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

It has been a very iterative, agile process, which is in line with how we work internally when developing apps. They’ve been very responsive; we have at least two meetings a week, but at the beginning of the project, we met almost daily to get the design just right. If they had any questions, they stopped to clarify what we wanted and didn’t make assumptions.

We used Jira and Slack to communicate but also used Figma for UX design mockups.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication and can-do attitude really stood out. They were flexible and made minor tweaks to the scope. We really valued their team approach.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The project has been delayed by about two weeks, and I would have liked to be on time. Otherwise, I have nothing bad to say about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Generally, new clients should make sure they have clear requirements and know what they want to do. They should be able to communicate their goals effectively so Perpetual can do their jobs well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the head of product for a small educational technology company called Books That Grow.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

Perpetual helped us in a number of ways over a period of time. The company was building a multilevel digital reading product for school and home education. It was a somewhat complex product, spanning different device types.

We knew a fair amount about the space but not about digital product development, so we brought Perpetual in to help us with the design process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual provided full-stack services, from design to marketing and business strategy and pitching. 

They designed and developed some prototypes that helped us refine and plan out an agile development process. They brought in and oversaw a development team that implemented those designs.

Once we got to that level, Perpetual helped us integrate the platform with other services, including Google apps and an educational technology service called Edmodo. A bit later, Perpetual helped us build an internal team to maintain the architecture and allow us to make the tweaks we wanted to make on our own.

They helped us prepare for a number of funding opportunities, including one that was quite large for our small startup. The marketing support was mostly done through the internal team that Perpetual helped us bring together. 

Most of the marketing we did was directly approaching schools and districts. We also developed content for our website and social media, along with more traditional copy for conferences and other events.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Amish (CEO), and there was one designer from Perpetual who was embedded with us for a bit. We also worked with another teaamte to support our marketing efforts beyond what Amish was providing. 

The development was mainly managed by Amish in India, and I believe we had 3–4 developers dedicated to us at any one time. There was some rotation, so there were about 10 developers involved in total.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

One of our company’s founders had worked with Amish in a previous position and knew of his strength. The relationship grew because it became clear that Perpetual was able to exist across the spaces where we needed support. 

My strength was in user insights, and they really knew how to connect that to the work of the design and development teams. We saw that in their early work, so we brought them on to do more work.  

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Perpetual between January 2014–March 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We got our biggest single investment through Perpetual of $250,000. That was very exciting for us, and we definitely couldn’t have done it without them. They helped us win other investments as well. 

Amish was able to think from a business perspective in a way we wouldn’t necessarily have expected from someone providing those kinds of services. We literally brought them to the pitch, and it made a huge difference. 

The code they wrote continues to run years later, despite all the changes that have happened on the web. That’s pretty impressive. The team understood our cultural needs, both the company’s and those of our clients, and they translated those for the India team. 

I’ve worked with teams from other countries, and it tends to be hard to do and exhausting. There’s usually a lot of overhead for that, but Perpetual did a good job of making it a seamless experience.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They were engaged and willing to meet face-to-face with us. The designer they assigned us was embedded on our team for a period of time, and Amish came to our office to support the internal team we hired. This was a totally different experience than what working with a team abroad usually entails.

In terms of deadlines, we did a lot very quickly on a tight budget. There were a lot of pivots, so it’s remarkable that we were able to stay on track and accomplish as much as we did.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The way they grew with us was really helpful. We started small, putting together the early design, and Perpetual helped us build a team after we got some funding. There were a lot of pivots. 

We were only focused on an iPad app initially, and we expanded to web and Chromebooks. That required making a lot of changes, and Perpetual adapted to those quickly and supported us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It was a good experience overall. There were times when we needed a stronger hand and more guidance from them. There’s always an opportunity to do a better job of helping the stakeholders help themselves.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I’d definitely try to take advantage of Amish. He’s a great partner to work with, and he has a great network and a lot of knowledge across a series of related spaces.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of an agricultural commission.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We wanted to connect our audiences. More people want to know more about their food. Our opportunity was to provide consumers with information about the farms that grow their products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We asked Perpetual to showcase different sections of the agricultural supply chain. Their team built a platform that allows people to easily locate different groups within the chain and learn more about them.

Their team developed a completely new website with a database. They helped us to identify the best way to display our information to prevent confusion. Their team created navigations for users to engage different datasets. They used Webflow as the hosting system.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and a developer.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We nitially worked with an individual who helped us find different firms. She found Perpetual through a designer website and found their previous projects impressive. She contacted them and discussed our goals. Their team was willing to work with our limited budget, unlike other agencies.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $12,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this project in April 2020, and it was completed in September.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We did a soft launch, and the feedback was positive. We heard that the website’s easy to use and it’s easy to find information. Those were our goals. Most people experience the site as we intended. A majority of people positively rated the platform.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They constantly communicated and asked questions. Their team spent time trying to understand what we wanted, which was hard to understand because our industry's unique. hey were well organized and precisely followed the plan. I was also happy with their ability to work with our budget and deliver what we wanted within the timeline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual actually conducted research to understand our industry, which enabled them to help us much better. Their team understood that every industry’s different and didn’t try to give us a cookie-cutter solution. They also took feedback well. T

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to say because we had such a small budget. If we had a larger budget, we could’ve worked on the design more. However, they set those expectations upfront.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them background on your industry to help them learn and understand what you want to get out of the project. If you don’t communicate what you want, the result will be on you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of an SEO technology firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We were a startup and needed a team to help build our platform from the ground up. We needed end-to-end product development services including UI/UX design, front- and backend development, and DevOps, among other things.

We wanted it to have a very intuitive UX, and we wanted to be able to process large, diverse data sets, and be flexible to integrate third-party applications like Google Search Console and Google Analytics. We also needed to advertise great security because we’re targeting other companies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual developed our platform from scratch. They built the UI/UX and wireframing in Figma, and used some big data technologies like Snowflake. On the analytics side, they used Python and Node.js. 

The team also used business intelligence and visualization tools like Highcharts and Next.js and made sure they were all mobile responsive. In terms of the domain and SEO, they made sure it was relevant to that particular space and across industries to grow their audience. 

On the security side, Perpetual integrated with Okta and AWS Security Hub. We also want to apply continuous integrations with delivery processes and technologies like AWS Lambda and on a performance front, and we’re trying to implement different kinds of caching like Redis cache. 

They do our scaling to make sure that we can handle our final load. We had our MVP scheduled to launch in April or May. We still continue to expand our relationship with Perpetual, and we’re hiring more engineers with them.

What is the team composition?

We have a main point of contact who is a technical project manager. We also had a tech lead on the team, a UX designer, a couple of frontend engineers, some full-stack engineers, and 4–5 data scientists.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We did an extensive evaluation across five different vendors. Perpetual had prior experience working with our company, was the cross-functional team that we were looking for, and was much faster than any other vendors.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Perpetual was able to finish our MVP within a three-month timeframe. It’s been a phenomenal commitment to make this happen on time. They came up to speed with the technology stack that we had in mind. 

Additionally, we were able to sign up prospective customers. The quality, performance, and infrastructure are great. When we got stuck along the way in some areas, the team was able to bring us the help we needed. 

For example, there was an integration we were doing and someone within Perpetual was able to work with the team member and unblock the issues. This meant that we were able to deliver that integration on time.  

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been effective for us. We run in an agile and iterative product development cycle using Jira. We conduct our daily meetings over Google Hangouts and use Slack for active conversations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual has a partnership attitude and the ability to recruit highly skilled resources in a timely manner. They are also flexible. The other thing that sets them apart is that they have people in New York City which allowed us to work with their UX designer who did a fantastic job. 

Having a touchpoint in the US was a win for us and having a full-service offering that covered design, development, data services, DevOps was definitely important for us. They ramp up on new skills and technologies, and they go above and beyond.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Perpetual could have a greater focus on AI as there’s a lot of momentum there. It’s challenging to hire AI talent, so it would be good if they focused on that area.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In terms of resourcing and changing priorities, there can sometimes be a gap in finding the talent we’re looking for. Ultimately, the team regards all the talent gaps and maintains the momentum on the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product management at Star2Star Communications, a B2B communications company focused on software development for midmarket and enterprise customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We were looking for a new product in a newer product category that does video conferencing and working collaboration. And we also needed a redesign effort across all of our apps, as well as customer-facing administration services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided them with requirements and reference applications. Perpetual then did end-to-end UI/UX design, UX validation, and Figma design all based on requirements. The team also did UX acceptance and development cycles.

Most of the apps they built were web-based solutions for which they used JavaScript. On the portal side, the programming language they used was PHP. Additionally, they do reskinning work on mobile and desktop applications 

What is the team composition?

We have a main point of contact, and we also work with 3–5 designers or creative directors. 

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We did an RFP process. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in February 2020, and we’re still working with Perpetual.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At this point in time, we’re just getting into the development cycle. Anecdotally, the team was quick to understand our product, market, competition, and underlying value proposition.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Perpetual has been able to adapt to our needs from a process standpoint and in terms of how we prefer certain deliverables. The team is actually ahead of schedule, and they’ve done a great job of managing the budget thus far.

They provide us with a line of sight in terms of the progress, which allows us to easily communicate that to the executive suite. We communicate via Slack and have daily meetings. We use a scrum model, so we have staff meetings on a daily basis.

The team also manages resources well and is able to target particular UX design resources for each category of effort. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual has a good familiarity with communication technology.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Early on, I would’ve liked more inquiry-driven early strategies. The team could’ve also encouraged the target customer and provided quicker access to subject matter experts and then ensured faster knowledge transfer. This would’ve enhanced the experience for us.