Praxent

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Information Officer of Triad Financial Services, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Financial services and lending for manufactured homes, RV, and Marine

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Custom build retailer partner portals
• Document the unknown for previous3rd party dev vendor
• Modernize the code stack to microservices, and cloud development

SOLUTION

How did you find Praxent?

Used at previous firm

Why did you select Praxent over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fits our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Praxent were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Migration of legacy custom development from 3rd party vendor to in-house Azure tenant. 
• Documentation of legacy code to understand how we will modernize and break out the code base in new Azure Service / Function / API model. 
• Rebuilding in the new model based on the set strategy. 
• provide maintenance and support for new structure, as we grow to support new partners.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• codebase migration. 
• documentation repo and wiki being created and evolving. 
• API library being developed.

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

They are always on time and in good spirits. Love the folks we have on our project

What was your primary form of communication with Praxent?

Virtual Meeting

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

Praxent sources quickly, communicates well, and the resources we get are top notch.

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

None that I can thnk of

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of (a/an) Legal

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Mandatory legal malpractice provider for lawyers in private practice in Oregon.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Build software to capture contacts and interactions, manage tasks, and run reports

SOLUTION

How did you find Praxent?

Referral

Why did you select Praxent over others?

• High ratings
• Referred to me

What was the size of Praxent’s team?

6-10 Employees

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

Integrate with our existing database to import contact information into new platform; design/build platform to track contacts and capture relevant data about contacts and specific information related to office closures, and to allow task management with predesigned and customizable tasks templates; generate reports.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• We met weekly to go over the progress of the project, and Praxent team demonstrated the functions and features they have built out so far and any issues they encounter along the way.

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

Praxent team is very responsive, professional, knowledgeable, and simply great to work with. They are great at updating us on the status of their work and where we are on the timeline. They are responsive to our needs based on their understanding of our goals. Overall, they have been on time on the overall delivery timeframe. We are not absolutely strict on the timeline ourselves, so that gives Praxent some wiggle room. I think a bit of flexibility is good for both sides.

What was your primary form of communication with Praxent?

Virtual Meeting

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

I was impressed by their organization, professionalism, knowledge, and responsiveness in communication, their effort to understand our needs and wants, and quality of their work. And everyone on their team is nice and great people to interact with.

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

There are some features that I think should not have been considered enhancements that should have been part of the original design. They were features that were fleshed out as the platform started getting built out and demonstrated. They are sort of essential to the functionality of the program. It's hard to know exactly how a function will work until it's built and demoed, and from there, we tweak that function. I don't see it as an enhancement at all.

So that is something that Praxent should be up front out about at the beginning. Or at least define what enhancements are and why they will be come at add'l costs. There may be also some issues in the backend in terms of integrating with our existing database, but I am not familiar with that, as someone else in my company is handling that, so I won't say anymore.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a solutions engineer for a small business data API; we provide connection services to business accounting, banking, and commerce data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We wanted to enable better and easier conversations with prospects. We hired Praxent to help us design and build a demo-facing UI. We were looking to build what looked like a revenue-based financing journey because we had software that we wanted to show off in the context of revenue-based finance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave them a general outline, and our goal was to make this feel like any revenue-based journey in the market. We didn’t want it to be cutting-edge because we weren’t looking to outcompete any of our buyers, but we wanted potential buyers to recognize the platform was almost state-of-the-art when we were showing off the demo. The design was completed using Figma. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with two project managers, three engineers, and two designers. 

How did you come to work with Praxent?

I believe someone at our company met someone from Praxent at an in-person event. Our company came to the conclusion that this would be a good way to build our relationship. We thought this would provide us with an asset, and if we decided to work together in the future, we would already know how to work together. Praxent would also have experience using our platform at that point. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $35,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between July 2022–January 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were looking for three things from this project: a landing screen, an authentication screen, and a load option screen. Once those three things were delivered, we considered the project a success. 

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed beyond expectations from a project management perspective. They were always clear about where we were from a development standpoint and had weekly status updates along with documented updates. When our company had to take action on a piece of the project, Praxent followed up with us in a timely manner. We connected their teams with our infrastructure via GitHub and communicated through phone calls and email.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team had a lot of enthusiasm, which let us know they were excited about the project. We enjoyed interactions with Praxent and communicated effectively. We were very happy with everything delivered, and they came up with a great design, given the brief we gave them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We wish they could have coordinated a deployment plan and timeline more thoroughly. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bring as much as possible into your specific requirements because they’ll consider that. If there’s anything specific you’re looking for, bring it up, and get input from members of your team to end up with the product that will meet most people’s needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a startup company. I oversee the day-to-day operations of the business and am the product owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

Another company had developed a very basic MVP of our platform, and we hired Praxent to take over.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Praxent provides us with design, development, and QA testing. They've taken our platform's MVP and gotten it ready to launch to customers. We already had a design baseline with the MVP, so Praxent has taken over our Figma files, enhanced the existing design, and created screens for new features.

They've spent about four months building additional key features, making enhancements, and updating the platform using Nest.js, TypeScript, GraphQL, and React. Praxent also has a QA pipeline and does automated testing to mitigate potential bugs. Our platform enables paying users in the commercial furnishing space to engage directly with their customers, run projects, and generate new leads through marketing efforts.

What is the team composition?

We work with around 10 teammates from Praxent, including a technical director, a QA specialist, a designer, a product strategist, a product owner, and development staff with lead and junior developers.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

We found them through Google. During our search, we spent a lot of time on different review sites, including reading Clutch reviews. Once we found Praxent, we researched them and interviewed the owner and their business development team. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $350,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Praxent has enabled us to get paying users into our platform, which has allowed us to generate revenue. They've built out features that attract new clients and keep existing clients on the platform. When there are bugs or critical enhancements, the Praxent team prioritizes and fixes them. 

They're a dedicated and true partner, and they care about the success of our platform and business, which they've demonstrated in a myriad of ways. Therefore, we'll continue to work with Praxent for the foreseeable future.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

They lead successful project management and budget management for the features we expect in our scope of work. They came in slightly under budget in the last four months. As for deadlines, we've had a couple of feature releases that took 5–10 business days longer than anticipated due to them learning the new platform. However, they've been communicative and worked with us to ensure everything is debugged and working properly for our user base. 

Overall, they're excellent and work well with my team and me, ensuring they adjust communication and expectations if needed. Slack is our main communication tool, and they're very responsive. We have all our meetings through Zoom. For project management, we use GitHub and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm impressed with Praxent's transparency about everything related to the project, whether it's budget, timeline, issues, or priorities. They're also highly collaborative and flexible. Their whole team has been professional and excellent to work with from the top down — it's been delightful. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything major they need to improve; we enjoy working with them. When an issue comes up, we work together to find a solution. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that you have a good collaborative communicator as your point person working with the Praxent team. This will allow them to work and move at the pace required for the project. Being decisive is also important; you'll have to make decisions about changes, bugs, or features when developing software. You'll help your product vision come to life if you're assertive and direct.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a marketing relationship manager for a credit union service organization. We primarily serve the credit union space and some community-based financial institutions outside fo that group as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We wanted to upgrade the visual look and feel of our mobile banking app. Our services live on a platform that provides mobile banking solutions for credit unions, and we wanted to customize our look their to be clean and modern.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They modified some of the code files to change our fonts, colors, and iconography. They were also part of our recent launch conference, presenting what they worked on to our customer credit unions and other fintech partners. Finally, they made a few recommendations that we’ll look at in the future to modify different areas of our platform.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

We ran into them at a conference while back and talked about their work.

What is the team composition?

We worked primarily with four people: a project manager, a couple of engineers, and a designer.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $32,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–May 2022. As this was a project-based engagement, it allowed us to iterate on the deliverables We have conversations to this day and refer our clients to them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback we’ve received is that the app is much cleaner and more concise than it was previously. People have also said it’s much more consistent in terms of its look and feel. Our clients’ users think it looks great as well.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly calls with our project manager, as well as additional communication as needed. They also kept us updated with regular posts and reports in terms of our financials and what they’ve accomplished.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their focus on the fintech space stood out for us. Our project was even a bit different in that we had to work in the confines of our platform, but they’re also capable of working from scratching and molding it into the unified visual experience the client is looking for. I’ve never worked with a firm like them before that’s specifically focused on the fintech arena. This specialization allows them to engage with industry people and conferences and deliver better services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. It took them some time to ask all their questions in the beginning and get the right resources involved, but we had tight confines for them to work within. We’re certainly happy with the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the SVP of marketing at a cybersecurity and fraud prevention company. We aim to prevent cyber-attacks resulting from stolen data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We have some products that employ an interface or user dashboard and others that are just APIs. We wanted to find a way to demo the API products so that people could experience the power of our solutions in real-world scenarios. Praxent specializes in creating fintech applications, and they know how to use APIs, so we wanted them to help us showcase our data in a financial application and an ecommerce storefront.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Praxent built seven demo prototypes in Figma that look and function like applications. The demos serve as fake websites, showing insights into a consumer’s risk for fraud based on breach and malware exposures. The mock sites use real data to simulate an application without a live API call. 

Prospects can see how our data interacts with applications and how they would factor in the data to make business decisions. Praxent copied all the product files into our own Figma account so we could manage it going forward. We plan to utilize their development services for future technology projects.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 4–5 team members at Praxent, but we mainly interacted with a project manager and two designers.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

We found Praxent through an internal recommendation. One of our executives had previously worked with Praxent, so we met with them to discuss the project and their plans. We felt they would be a good partner, so we didn’t evaluate anyone else.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested roughly $30,000–$35,000 in the partnership.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in May 2022, and they delivered the final prototype files in July 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Praxent has given us an effective method to show our product to prospects in a relatable way. Instead of imagining how our data can affect their businesses, our prospects can see a visual representation of how our product can work to help them. 

Our non-technical employees can now demo our products using a simple URL, hugely impacting our business. Before, our employees faced several technical challenges related to APIs that wouldn’t allow our marketing staff or salespeople to demo our products easily. We wanted to demo use cases at events, and Praxent has allowed us to do that within minutes, which has been incredible. 

It’s been awesome to see a visual representation of our product and allow our employees to tell our story and show prospects how we can concretely help them.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

We had our initial kick-off call, and Praxent moved the project along quickly and flexed as needed. When we started working together, I wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to take the project. Our team went back and forth about building an API-driven application or a mock demo. Praxent advised us to make the best possible choice, which was helpful. 

Our initial statement of work (SoW) was only for two demos, but we kept adding work to their plate. By the time we wrapped up the project, they had delivered seven demos over three months, which is a significant accomplishment. 

They were excellent communicators and always kept us on track. We used a shared Slack channel to maintain contact, and they always responded to our requests in real-time. They made themselves available for calls whenever we needed to discuss certain project components. We created shared templates and a design language, which enabled us to move rapidly and scale the project quickly.

As we got to know each other, we developed a lot of trust in our working relationship, which enabled us to move more rapidly. They started to understand our needs and anticipate our expectations and feedback, which was incredible.

Praxent stuck to timelines and accomplished more than I ever imagined in the three months we worked together. The whole project was incredibly rapid, and we reached a point where we had a common vocabulary. They’ve been fantastic to work with, and we’ve since recommended them to many of our customers. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed by their flexibility. We kept changing our expectations and adding to their workload, which they took in stride. They never gave us pushback and were always willing to accommodate our growing needs. Once they started to get to know our expectations, they changed our billing method to accommodate us better. 

I know I can trust them to work on various projects; their input is valuable and welcomed. They also have access to great resources; their staff of project managers, designers, and developers is well-versed, and we can count on them to deliver quality work. I’m not easily impressed, but Praxent has been a fantastic partner, and we’ve had a great experience. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing Praxent could improve on; they’ve been easy to work with, and their outputs have been awesome. I only have the best things to say about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be engaged in the project; we invested in the relationship and worked closely with Praxent, which was our key to success. It’s best to invest in the relationship and the project rather than just handing it off to them and hoping for the best. 

We gave a lot of fast feedback and never let anything sit for long, which allowed Praxent to work quickly and deliver amazing results. Also, take their advice if you’re unsure which direction you’d like to take the project in. You can lean on Praxent to tell you the best way to do something, given your goals, timeline, and budget.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a 35-year-old software company with roots in the financial technology space. We’ve grown over the years through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth efforts. I’ve been working here for over four years, three and a half focusing on financial technology solutions, and I’ve recently moved into our healthcare technology solutions. My current work involves efficiency, health claims, and adjudication.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We acquired technology specifically for pharmacy claims adjudication and had several customers already. We had a mature solution in the market. Still, in July, we announced a new initiative with an existing client and a partner to fully modernize some of this technology for pharmacy benefits management (PBM). It was the next generation of what we already had in the market.

Since the technology had been around for some time, it was only being maintained. We didn’t have a new product development team in place nor the design capability necessary for that level of redesign. Additionally, we were coming from another modernization effort and didn’t have the in-house talent we needed, so I advocated for an outside consultant to augment our talent.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We built a team with Praxent to leverage production. Initially, we brought them into the fold and tried to identify a scope of work that made sense. They offered a broader spectrum of services, but we didn’t need them. We had a plan and technical staff to deal with the rotation side, so we hired Praxent to focus on qualitative and quantitative upfront pressure research with internal and external customers. Also, we wanted to emphasize thinking outside our constraints for more holistic experiences that would be driven by a workflow and understanding perspective rather than a functional interface.

What is the team composition?

Some of the firm’s partners were involved in the early meetings. Once we were established, we got a core team with a product manager that attended all meetings and gave us updates. Then, we had a primary researcher and designers in the background.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

Another colleague in the team was aware of them. We needed to move fast, and Praxent’s work was particular to the area of enterprise healthcare. We were impressed by their presentations.

How much have you invested with them?

Between the two statements of work, we spent probably under $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first scope of work lasted six months, from August 2021–February 2022. I hoped to keep them engaged seamlessly, but we had a couple of months of lags, unfortunately. Now, we’re in a three-month engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We agreed on a specific scope for a large project, and even that limited scope was really ambitious. However, Praxent was able to frame up well what they would do for the stakeholders who weren't accustomed to working with a design firm. Their ability to get people on board in various roles was helpful. Also, they structured some of the early research protocols and helped with interviews, getting quality information, and synthesizing that back to stakeholders in an organized way.

All in all, they came in and made sense of a lot of data flying around and came up with some core themes that we could latch on to. Then, they quickly followed our direction requests to cover a certain breadth of ideas and go deep in a couple of areas and some of the early wireframe prototypes, which helped get the teams aligned towards a shared vision.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was positive. We had weekly updates with the project manager, and they presented a common and constant framework, which was helpful for the people involved. Also, they were good at communicating if things were slipping. When they did, it was more on areas outside our control, such as scheduling and trying to get user interviews with people that were hard to reach.

We had a couple of areas where we had to tweak the scope a bit and consider the slight budget change. However, Praxent handled those communications well and with enough lead time so it wouldn’t disrupt the work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their general talent in UX research and design was their evident strength. Also, their understanding of the obscure industry was a significant advantage for this particular initiative. They were organized and transparent in their structure, and the team delivered high-quality artifacts that met people’s expectations and kept everything moving.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any strong criticism. The critical things were usually on our side.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about why you’re engaging them, where their work stops, and where your internal capability needs to take over — getting that upfront allowed us to make a lot of progress once we were engaged. Also, it was helpful that they were willing to invest the time to get the statement work right.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a registered investment advisor firm. We manage investments in the public equity market, predominantly stocks for institutional investors like pension funds and endowments. We manage about $15 billion in assets and have about 60 people on staff. Our company has been in business for over 22 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We had a proprietary research database, which we used to collect information on companies that we potentially might invest in and those we’d already invested in. The app was built over 10 years ago and had minimal functionality — it was starting to show its age and limitations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve engaged with Praxent to revamp and further develop the application. We’ve done it in two phases. First, they’ve rewritten the program using modern technologies and platforms instead of the .NET outdated version that we had. It’s an update of the underlying technology, and we also have done a facelift to make it look and feel like a more modern program. The next step has been enhancing the functionality to use better the data we collect and do things like charting, cross-referencing data, and more functions to help us leverage our work to make better investment decisions.

We meet regularly to outline our vision for what the software should look like and take them through the existing system and some of its flaws and limitations. They’ve worked with us to understand the program and how it works. Then, they’ve spent an additional amount of time understanding what we want to get out of the end goal. We’ve talked about ways to break up the work into discrete sprints, which has allowed us to spread the cost of development over time. We make one sprint, digest it, and test it to let our users work the system. Then, we come back and do another iteration. Over a year, we’ve developed at our own pace.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What is the team composition?

We’ve been assigned a project manager who has shepherded us and been involved throughout the whole process. Then, they’ve brought in 2–3 developers to work with us.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

A developed on our staff found them. I believe it was through a recommendation from a colleague from his previous work. We also interviewed five other similar firms in New York, the US, and abroad. However, we clicked better with Praxent. They seemed to understand our needs better than some of the other companies, and their pricing was competitive. Overall, they just were the best cultural fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent about $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2020, and our relationship is ongoing. We’re getting to the tail end of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve rolled out features to users in batches over time, and we’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback from a practical level. We can now enter data more efficiently and faster, which has helped speed up our entry. Although nobody cares about entering the data into the system, it’s a necessary evil, so the fact that we’ve streamlined it has made fans out of our users.

Secondly, the project has been very impactful because we use this database to demonstrate how we think about companies to our prospects and clients. Therefore, it’s an excellent window into our investment process. When we present it at meetings, it comes across as more professional-looking and impressive than when the software was over 10 years old. Therefore, it has given us a lot of marketing cachet in addition to the pragmatic aspects.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent at communicating. We have regular meetings, and they stick religiously to them unless we ask them to postpone or move them. They’re available for everything and have been very responsive to communication beyond the weekly calls. In general, they’ve stuck to the guidelines. If there has been a significant deviation, it has been caused by us changing the parameters.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to understand is outstanding. Not only do they understand what we need, but they guide us to things that we may not have reached on our own in terms of layout and functionality. Praxent hears what we ask for, but they interpret that and make suggestions beyond what we want. We didn’t know we needed those things until we were introduced to them by Praxent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think about that, but I’m pretty happy with them. I’d be stretching to come up with something.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try to find someone you can partner with instead of just hiring someone to do a job. If you don’t come from a development background, you should work with someone who understands your business and needs — it’s important to find a partner that’ll guide you through the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the business system manager for a financial services company. We insure automotive loans for credit losses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We needed help with software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Praxent helped us develop a couple of services on our main platform. We’re still working together and we continue to assign projects to them.

What is the team composition?

We’re primarily working with their architect, business analyst, project manager, and two developers.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

My boss was the one that worked to find them. She was the one who decided to work with Praxent.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $300,000–$400,00.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They work faster than we are, so we’re just trying to keep up with them in installing our services and putting them into the production environment. Overall, they’re really good to work with.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

They have great communication skills. We use message boards, and we can always ask them any questions. Above all, if we need to do something different, they’re very proactive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Praxent team has been open and transparent about what they’re doing, making our job easier because we see where they are with the timelines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

To be honest, I can’t come up with anything they can improve right now since my focus is on our side of things.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared because they move fast and adhere to the timeline.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a programmer and the IT manager at Church Extension Plan, a nonprofit financial services company. Our company provides financial services to churches and ministries of the Assemblies of God. We primarily fund loans to churches and support them with various investment offerings, retirement account options, and estate planning services. We make sure our clients aren’t borrowing more than they can pay and support them if they run into difficulties.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

Our executive team and board recognized that having a mobile app would afford us trust and prestige. Although we had a website, we also wanted to give our existing customers an app option to have on their phones. However, we didn’t have the time or resources in-house to create an app ourselves, and the board wanted it developed relatively quickly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Praxent designed our mobile app. A developer from their team helped us think through the design and how it would influence the build down the road. Additionally, they delivered a design for our responsive desktop web portal. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with two people during the sales process. When we moved to the design stage, we had a project manager, someone overseeing the project, two designers, and a third one shadowing the process. One of the original designers gave birth near the end of the process, so the third designer took over for her. We also worked with the developer who advised on design. In total, we worked with 5–6 people from Praxent. 

How did you come to work with Praxent?

We did Google searches, reached out to app development companies, and Praxent was one of them. We had ongoing conversations with 3–4 developers. While others were content to take our existing portal and cram it into a phone shape, Praxent asked questions about the value of professional design. Others did very little to recognize our lack of expertise. Meanwhile, Praxent paid attention to our needs during the sales process. They wanted to ensure we got what we needed and not just what we asked for. 

They requested our design documents, which we didn’t have. So, they suggested pausing the development process and designing the app first. In our initial conversations, they were very transparent about their prices, and they were out of our range for development. However, their design prices were a bit lower, and they had compelling arguments for starting with a professional design, so we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2021–March 2022

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The response to Praxent’s work has been almost universally positive. Everyone in our company, including our board members, thinks the design is fantastic. This is a hard consensus to achieve, and it’s helped us feel comfortable that we chose to go with them. 

I’m very happy that they steered us toward designing first. Initially, we were putting the cart before the horse, and we would have ended up with our customer portal scrunched up into a phone shape. Praxent made sure we thought about the project from both a customer experience and UI point of view and that we had the design nailed down before going further. 

Their expertise has been valuable to us. They were happy not just to design the app but also to coach our team on why they made certain decisions, how things were used, and why they were important. They provided a lot of experience and insight that we didn’t previously have, both from a design and a technological perspective; Praxent’s work involved bringing us up to speed on UI design. 

The team had some really valuable conversations with our technology team that helped us think about the technical challenges of an app in a new way. Even though we’re going with another company for development, we’re in a stronger position to tackle the challenge thanks to Praxent’s help. We closed the engagement very amicably, and they offered suggestions and help to pick another vendor and even offered us their employees at an hourly rate. 

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was very effective. They delivered either on time or within a week. Even though we had holidays and someone giving birth through our engagement, Praxent found ways to connect and make sure the process was seamless regardless of any issues. For example, the transition to the third designer went very smoothly, and we didn’t experience any interruptions in the workflow.  

The sales team threw in the portal design near the end of the sales process, and the team was very realistic about how much time that would add to the plan. They were very good about delivering on a reasonable timeline and within the budget set at the beginning. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with Praxent’s transparency. We had very few surprises, and there wasn’t any dishonesty involved. As a result, we felt pretty comfortable being open with them about our budget, timeline, hang-ups, and slow-downs. The team was very transparent about everything from costs to what they wanted or didn’t want to do. 

Additionally, everyone on Praxent’s team was really kind. Although they were professionals, they were also friendly, and we enjoyed talking to them. Their skills were also impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had an issue with miscommunication during the sales process. After a casual conversation, I thought we’d agreed to one thing, and they thought we’d decided on something else. However, we were able to rewind and locate where the communication had failed, so we got through it. Although nailing down specific topics could have been better, the team fully recognized that and worked on it going forward, so no hard feelings were left. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Praxent can take a holistic view of your project even if you don’t have the experience to do so. My advice is to lean on their expertise, even to help figure out what stage of the process you’re actually in. You can trust they have the skill and experience to find the best way to solve the problem and then actually solve it.