Pixo

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Assistant Dean, Mktg & Communications of University of Illinois | College of Applied Health Sciences

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The University of Illinois College of Applied Health Sciences' mission: To promote culturally relevant individual and community health and well-being across the lifespan, facilitate optimal living with disability, and foster the development of livable communities in a diverse society through learning, discovery, and engagement. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Interview AHS stakeholders for a better understanding of desired outcomes for a website redesign
• Conduct a content inventory on our college's website (including academic departments)
• Provide our team with a site map and other information architecture recommendations for next steps

SOLUTION

How did you find Pixo?

Referral

Why did you select Pixo over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Pixo were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The general project scope was to conduct a full content inventory of the College of Applied Health Sciences' website and offer suggestions for next steps. The site was sorely out of date and a fresh approach to content and UX was needed. 

Pixo interviewed stakeholders, conducted a content inventory, held at least two workshops with the marketing team and other participants regarding content creation, and presented a site map and other recommendations to a larger group of stakeholders, including the college's dean and department heads, among others. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their recommendations and site map are the blueprint for the websites we're currently developing with the university's new Web Center of Expertise. 

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

Pixo's team was very organized and ready, always, to work with us (if anything, our team were the ones needing to be kept to a schedule!). They were knowledgeable, the deliverables were extremely useful, and their team had a sense of humor about this rather culturally complex project.  

What was your primary form of communication with Pixo?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The project with Pixo was one of the few experiences I've had working with a team exclusively in a virtual environment where things ran smoothly. There were few, if any, misunderstandings, miscmmunications, or unnecessary meetings. I have no doubt whatsoever that they are equally as effective in person, but the virtual nature of the project absolutely worked for us. 

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

Pixo did the best possible job with us and the (very) small team we had at the time. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Engineer of an engineering company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a Pavement Engineering firm that does pavement evaluation and design, pavement testing, pavement management, develops training courses, and research for Federal and State organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Pixo has provided us with as-needed web development programming and support. Specifically they have developed a web tool building framework for us that we use to deliver engineering results and data to our clients in the form of web-based data visualization sites.

SOLUTION

How did you find Pixo?

• Online Search

Why did you select Pixo over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Pixo were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

As an Engineering firm, we found it difficult to keep qualified in-house programmers to support our project needs. Therefore, Pixo has provided us with as-needed web development programming and software support since 2016. During that time, our main project with Pixo has been their development of a web tool building framework and components that we use to deliver engineering results and data to our clients in the form of customized data visualization websites.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Using the framework that Pixo has developed for us, we have been able to deliver online data-visualization web sites/tools for over 50 clients over the past 7 years. This includes 9 commercial airport clients, 17 state departments of transportation, and numerous cities and municipalities. On the airport side, our airport-based visualization tools are making our engineering results and pavement management data accessible to over 1200 individual airports in the US and other countries.

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

Pixo has always been very responsive to our needs. And since they have provided us with on-demand programming support, they have allowed me to be part of the development and creative process from day one.

What was your primary form of communication with Pixo?

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

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

The people are definitely the most impressive part of Pixo! They are very knowledgeable, responsive, listen, and are overall great to work with!

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

The only downside over the years is that there has been some employee turnover that has caused changes to the project team. But I understand that as they are in a competitive business. But Pixo always made sure that our team was restocked with talented people.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Editor, Bibliography of Asian Studies of

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The Association for Asian Studies is a vast, international professional association for all scholars of Asian Studies; it is also the publisher of the online Bibliography of Asian Studies, of which I am the Editor, with 6 other employees in the BAS, and which utilizes PIXO as our programming partner to create, enhance and maintain our online distributed bibliographic production platform for the BAS

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To migrate the distributed work of the BAS bibliographic and editorial production team from an antiquated system (FileMaker) producing records on individual PCs to then be sent by email for central editing, compilation, and export in CSV, into a modern, streamlined production framework with a centralized controlled-access web-based interface to increase producitivty of the team and of myself as editor, with XML output compatible with our online hosts (EBSCO)

SOLUTION

How did you find Pixo?

Referral

Why did you select Pixo over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• spcialized niche application workm similar to our's

How many teammates from Pixo were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

A customized 20-year-old application in FileMaker whose original programmers were long gone was being used by the whole team of Associate Editors of the Bibliography of Asian Studies published by The Association for Asian Studies to produce and edit hundreds of thousands of bibliographic records for inclusion in the online BAS hosted for subscribers on EBSCO. 

Over the years, the old system became less and less effective, productivity and accuracy suffered, data integrity was being lost, and our online database hosting service (EBSCO) was not able to assist in quality control, and was intending to migrate ALL of their databases to XML input, rather than the BAS's old FileMaker output in CSV. The parent Board of Directors of the AAS was losing patience with the diminishing quality of the product and the expense of producing it with such an ineffective production framework and tool. 

PIXO was contracted to work with us and with EBSCO to design a much more streamlined data production application (with controlled-access online data entry instead of individual PC-based FileMaker app), with a more efficient user interface for the Associate Editors and for me as the Editor of their records, that would maximize the value of each keystroke, use intelligent data validation in each field, create one-click data export from from the server to EBSCO, and improve our overall productivity of the whole BAS operation, with XML output compatible with EBSCO's data-integration setup for bibliographic information. 

In the first phase, PIXO worked with the existing dataset (over 130 fields of interlocking data in nearly 1 million records in FileMaker and CSV) to understand the field structures and dependencies, and modeled new data structures for us that better matched the bibliographic needs of BAS end-users and their searching practices. Then they programmed the new web application for us, provided our team training in its use, and ran pilot runs and testing in a Staging server, using all the re-mapped migrated data. The XML output of this pilot data was then tested by EBSCO and approved for compatibility. 

PIXO then launched our production server, which they continue to run on AWS on our behalf. Later phases included lots of debugging and algorithms for fixing internal problems in the legacy data and sessions with me and the Associate Editors team for tweaks to the UI to further improve everyone's efficiency. Although we have greatly increased productivity in the new Pixo setup, we continue to partner with PIXO for a large set of future enhancements and tweaks to optimize this complex system even further. S, and which utilizes PIXO as our programming partner to create, enhance and maintain our online distributed bibliographic production platform for the BAS

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Annual production (and accuracy) of records created for the BAS has skyrocketed since implementation of the system PIXO created for and with us. Board of Directors is very happy with the results and with the return on investment. End-users of the BAS are now getting more accurate and up-to-date research support bibliographic data from the BAS, and susbscriptions have increased.

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

We work collaboratively to establish specific sub-tasks and needs and to timeline each of them, and they always met those expectation and were proactive in reporting challenges or unexpected hiccups. They've been amazingly responsive whenever we uncover something that needs their attention outside the planned development timeline.

What was your primary form of communication with Pixo?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The BAS is a highly specialized product -- I was very impressed with how PIXO dove into the complex and interlocking data structures needed to make it work properly, and how quickly they grasped and even anticipated when those needs would turn into in terms of the application they have been building.

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

None that I can think of now

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Emeritus professor of University of Illinois

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The University of Illinois is a leading university in the US

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Design an academic website

SOLUTION

How did you find Pixo?

Did a drive by

Why did you select Pixo over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Pixo were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The website (which is still a work in progress) have six main pages: About, Publications, Projects (not published yet) Resources, How to, and Updates. The website is designed for fellow academics and graduate students in my area of research, which is called Conversation Analysis. Pixotech did the design of the website based on my ideas and I supplied the content.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website (which looks REALLY cool) is up and running and has already reached its target audience of fellow academics and graduate students. Several colleagues in different countries have recommended it as a resource for graduate students who are studying Conversation Analysis. I am very pleased with the results.

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

Yes, Pixotech's project management was always courteous, prompt and very efficient.This was a small project for them but I felt that I got the same amount of attention that a large company would expect to receive. Great job!

What was your primary form of communication with Pixo?

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

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

Quite apart from their professionalism, they were extremely pleasant and fun people to work with. When the project was over, I invited the team to a local bar for drinks and we had a really good time.

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

No, I don't think so.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of SaaS Startup

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a software service business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• To help design a prototype

SOLUTION

How did you find Pixo?

Online Search

Why did you select Pixo over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Other

How many teammates from Pixo were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Pixo helped me to design a prototype for my software service that I am starting. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Pixo was able to help me design a prototype. They were also able to help make great suggestions and help me work though in finding out what the most important features were.

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

Their project management was great, communication was great, and everything was always on time. At every meeting we had, if I ever had anything that I wanted to adjust or change, they were easily able to make it happen.

What was your primary form of communication with Pixo?

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

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

Their ability and desire to truely understand the purpose of this software and help to find out the best way possible to present it. There were many times where I had an idea for something and instead of just saying okay we'll do that, we would have a discussion about it and come up with an even better solution on how to incorperate it into the software.

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

Not in my experience. Communication was great, the whole process was laid out, and I always knew what to expect.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the President Emeritus of E3 Alliance

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Education Systems Change

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Revamp our entire E3 Alliance Web Site
• Follow Up request: Build a "lie site to link to a 3rd party partner

SOLUTION

How did you find Pixo?

Referral

Why did you select Pixo over others?

Good value for cost

How many teammates from Pixo were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

New web site linked to organizarion branding 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Yet to review final products, but will be basic hits and click throughs, increas in traffic over time

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

All good. Now bidding a 3rd project and their estimate was under our proposed budget because we had done previous work together.  Found them to be very responsive

What was your primary form of communication with Pixo?

Virtual Meeting

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

Passion and appropriate fit for needed deliverables. They never tried to oversell their services.

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

N\A until we finish

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Advancement of Cunningham Children's Home

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Through a range of services including residential treatment, special education, and community-based programs, Cunningham Children's Home empowers young people and families to realize their full potential, transforming lives along the way.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Website Redesign

SOLUTION

How did you find Pixo?

Contacted them personally

Why did you select Pixo over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Pixo were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Pixo guided us in these areas- it really was a collaborative approach:

• Content Strategy Development & Design, which including branding elements 
• Project management which included collaborative work sessions guided exercises with stakeholders regular demos test sessions with working software 
• Launch time line, fully supported by the Pixo team 
• Post-launch check-in

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Content inventory- spreadsheet was made to document exisiting pages 
• Content audit- led us in an exercise in which we assessed strengths and weaknesses of existing content 
• Organization exploration- audience workshop, stakeholder interviews, messaging exercise 
• Reimagining and reorganizing content by using a site map, content model and wireframes 
• Content plan for new site in wordpress- spreadsheet helped us outline content, making it fresh and streamlined

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

great collaborative partnership exceeded expectations on length of project professional took the time to get to know our non-profit organization great communication throughout the process smooth process enjoyable to work with when project manager Amanda said she wanted to "be the voice of our clients" we felt really good about choosing Pixo for our website redesign

What was your primary form of communication with Pixo?

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

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

Most of the heavy lifting was guided and directed by the Pixo team. They helped us stay focused, talk through our strategies and what was most important to us (audience- parents in a crisis, looking for help) and helped us see how best to communicate to our audience

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

can't think of anything

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Project Manager of an agriculture company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Research, education and outreach for the US Wheat Industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Pixo to accomplish?
new website for the National Wheat Yield Contest

SOLUTION

How did you find Pixo?

Referral

Why did you select Pixo over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Pixo were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

New Website

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

New website done within timeframe and budget

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

Very responsive On time, good communication

What was your primary form of communication with Pixo?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They cared about my goals and were very responsive

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

no, there's nothing they needed to improve on.