Praxent

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the creative services and web director for a professional liability insurance provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We initially hired Praxent to transform our website into a Drupal-based platform that’s responsive on mobile devices.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Praxent started the project by collaborating with myself and our senior web designer to assess our needs regarding the new website. That process included figuring out how to make a responsive site that’s also easy for our internal team to manage. After an internal change in direction on content management systems, our company decided to switch the website over to Hubspot. 

Praxent understood the shift and worked thoughtfully to restructure the website's code and delivered the necessary backend templates. Using the wireframes we developed with their help, they accommodated our requirements and implemented the site’s UI/UX. They ran productive brainstorming sessions and often convinced us to approach challenges with new strategies. They helped us rethink our navigation system and adapted it to a mobile responsive environment. Now, our interface is presented beautifully across both desktop and mobile.

What is the team composition?

We mostly communicated with Tim (CEO, Praxent), an assigned project manager, and one developer.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

They’d done work for us before I was a part of the company. Having heard positive things about them, I reached out once we started looking for potential partners. Tim has a compelling story to tell and quickly responded to my inquiry. Considering his team had been previously vetted by the company, hiring them was an easy decision.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our involvement with them took place from January 2015­–2016. The entire project took about a year to complete.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our corporate website was presented with an award by an industry group. We were one of the first companies within our industry to create a wholly responsive website. While the site functions as more of a brochure than a lead generation tool, Praxent’s work seemed to cause an increase in page views. That wasn’t one of our specified goals, but it’s a nice bonus. The finished product received positive feedback from multiple department heads regarding its attractive design.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project manager is wonderful. He kept us up-to-date regarding the project’s progression and ran efficient meetings. We ended up having quite a friendly relationship with their team. We looked forward to calls with them and always felt like each party communicated steps to push the engagement forward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciate their openness and dedication to pushing us in new directions. Praxent started the project by understanding our goals and letting industry-specific challenges inform their design decisions. They’re a responsive and thoughtful team. Also, we enjoy working with them because they take pride in each project as if it was their own. They care about their clients more than other vendors I’ve hired in the past.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their project manager struggled to coordinate some things, but that was a small issue overall. We were going through processes internally that likely kept us from communicating as thoroughly as we should have. However, the project wasn’t slowed down or hindered in a meaningful way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re willing to have fun and engaging conversations about how to improve businesses. Tim is passionate about learning the reasons why people build things, and I find that valuable. Future clients should keep in mind that their approach to challenges sets them apart from similar vendors.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of Senior Living Search. We're a placement firm for seniors that helps them find a retirement or nursing home.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We were doing due diligence and we needed a company to build a platform for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a lead generation and booking platform to help us manage inbound leads and track them all the way to placement into a senior living community. Initially, we were looking at doing disruptive marketing, but Praxent recommended that we didn't go that route. They built a different platform from what we initially planned, which saved our company. It's a workable demonstration platform that we can use as a template. They're very insightful and methodical in what they do.

What is the team composition?

We mostly worked with a project manager.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

I met Tim Hamilton (Founder, Praxent) through The Entrepreneurs' Organization in Austin. Several other members recommended him to me as a fantastic professional.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them between July–October 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They exceeded our expectations. Their work is exemplary and their designs are well thought-out. When we decide to launch the platform, we plan to engage them again to do the final pieces.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very professional. They're the only company I've worked with in the past 20 years that met all of my criteria for integrity. They fulfilled all their obligations, staying on time and on budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're innovative and think outside the box. They came up with great ideas for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. It was a great experience all the way through.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They'll take you outside of what you know about your product and enhance your ability to have a better vision.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of Unirithm. We provide automated decision making for the industrial laundry sector, specifically in the invoice-to-pay function.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

I had identified a problem in the industry that I thought could be addressed through an app or some sort of tracking software. I engaged with Praxent to validate that this problem actually existed and then develop a prototype that could be used to address it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In essence, the prototype included 15–20 screens on a mobile device that presented several use cases for the customer. For example, one function shows that the app can be used to point out discrepancies between what a vendor puts on an invoice and what services are actually occurring. Once completed, Praxent arranged several potential buyers to gauge their need in such a product. While many were originally hesitant to believe that this problem, and others, was occurring, they were much more open to the possibility when shown the use case in the application.

What is the team composition?

I worked with the CEO, a managing partner, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

I found Praxent on Clutch’s website. I met with three agencies, but Praxent proved to the best at listening to the problem and finding the details of how it could be solved. I know every firm has to make a sales pitch, but there was a genuine feeling with Praxent that they were engaging with my passion to solve this problem.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from September–November 2017. Their team developed a brilliant product, and I wanted to move forward to develop the first technical piece of the solution, but it was too expensive. It was a reasonable price, but with my single-person startup budget, I couldn’t make it work. I ended up going elsewhere for the technical solution. However, I look forward to working with Praxent again.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Most of our research subjects held the disposition that either these industry problems didn’t apply to them or they would find a way to address the problems themselves. Once the click-through prototype was introduced, the entire panel changed their minds. They realized that the prototype was revealing information that they could not otherwise get.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

They adhered well to our timeline. I don’t think they ever missed a date. Overall, they communicated really well. Not long after the engagement started, they had a strong grasp of the industry vernacular I was bringing to the project. Being able to discuss the problem and solution through that language was advantageous.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I know that they're in business to make money. Still, I gathered that they were genuinely passionate about helping people fix a problem. They wanted to facilitate my ability to help businesses reduce their costs and have a better relationship with their vendor. I thought they identified that this was an ethical issue, and it resonated with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Considering that we’re working with a deep niche—industrial laundry—I think they did a good job of finding a sample of customers that could use this product. However, I wish they could have found more. We agreed that I wouldn’t be involved in that so that my bias wouldn’t cloud the research findings. To their credit, they found a good representation of consumers, but I wish we could have found more.

Any advice for potential customers?

When you first engage them, don’t worry about the solution. Don’t talk about your vision for the solution. Focus instead on the business problem and rely on Praxent to ask the right questions. From that, the solution will become more clear.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a principal owner of an economic consulting company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We wanted to build an online replica of our fiscal reporting spreadsheet.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Praxent used our existing Excel spreadsheets as a model to develop a web app with a UX optimized design and customizable admin features. Their team worked on everything from wireframing to front- and backend development.

What is the team composition?

We communicated with their founder during the bidding process, but one of their project managers assumed the liaison role during the development stages.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

They were one of the four local web developers that we reached out to. Their willingness to learn about our business greatly influenced our hiring decision.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project commenced in the fall of 2013 and concluded in May 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before we built the website, 30 of our clients were using the desktop tool to generate their financial reports. Now, more than 50 clients have upgraded to the online version. We’ve added a lot of new features to the platform, but its well-designed backend is still operating flawlessly.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

Although they worked at a slow pace, their management skills were satisfactory. They were excellent at keeping us informed during the biweekly meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Praxent’s fantastic team made the daunting project a pleasurable experience. They made it clear that our needs were their top priority.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The Pivotal Tracker software that they used to manage the project was too unreliable to keep track of their process. They should consider adopting new software that provides accurate status updates.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clearly defined business goals are the key to success when working with Praxent.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Keller Mortgage. We're an auxiliary business to Keller Williams, the largest real estate company in the world. We mostly work with Keller Williams agents and help their buyers obtain low-cost mortgages to buy homes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We were having trouble with both functionality and user experience of our online platform, so we were looking for a company to help us fix those issues. Also, our access to mortgage is through the Keller Williams smartphones. They press a button and it goes to our technology. We were trying to build that technology ourselves, but we realized we needed a professional company to build an app that would be superior in functionality and design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their development team did research and created mock-ups that had to be approved by our owners. Then, they wrote the code for the web application and implemented it. Keller Williams has many agencies and buyers that are looking for deals and loans, so we needed an app that was visually pleasing and worked well. Also, we were on a tight deadline. Praxent met all of our needs and created a wonderful user experience in a very short time.

What is the team composition?

I mostly worked with Kevin (CEO, Praxent) who had a team underneath him.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

We were referred to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between January and March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was assessing them on the quality of work, affordability, customer satisfaction, and timeline. They exceeded all four of my metrics.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

Their job would have been a lot easier if we had known what we wanted. But we didn't know what we wanted, so they guided us through the process very professionally and helped us find the answers to our questions. Also, they always delivered on or before the deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated their urgency. They worked fast and got an amazing amount of work done in a very short period of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything. It was a great experience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of World Champions Rodeo Alliance (WCRA). We produce events in a competitive system within the rodeo business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

The rodeo industry is a bit behind in terms of embracing technology the way other sports have. We hired Praxent to create mobile platform solutions for some of our challenges and increase our efficiency in administering events nationwide.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our initial goal was to create a native app platform for utilizing this data but during our discovery process, Praxent recommended a mobile web platform that ended up being a better decision due to the short length of our project timeline.

We have a large database of information related to the rodeo industry and our goal was to provide a mobile platform where users could access that and also input further information. The app allows them to share dates of upcoming events, final scores, and so on. We also used the data to create a leaderboard that calculates and awards points across to competitors numerous disciplines in the sport. In addition, users have the ability to purchase memberships, pay entry fees, and register for events from within the app.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

We received a referral from other members of the tech community in the Austin area. We interviewed six different prospective companies and selected Praxent because they seemed like the best fit for our organization in terms of approach, professionalism, and presentation. We also liked their confidence in their ability to deliver under a tight deadline.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $200,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2018 and launched in early May 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve introduced brand new tech-related concepts in the industry, which has been rather groundbreaking. Adoption has been steady and increasing, so all indications suggest that we’re on a good upward trajectory.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job of communicating at every level, whether it was related to budget or development. They have effective processes in place that allowed us to closely monitor the project and were very transparent in their approach. We gave them a tight budget on this project and they managed to come in below it — while launching ahead of schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very easy to work with, thorough, stuck to our budget, and delivered everything promptly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of an energy consultant firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

My business utilizes an enterprise management platform that was built by a freelance developer. Once the freelancer became unavailable, I needed another developer to provide additional functionalities and updates.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

No one had worked on our system in two years, so it needed many feature improvements. It’s a client-facing software that uses both Heroku and Amazon Web Services as cloud computing resources. I use the software to manage the business and in addition to clients, it also interacts with my partners and suppliers as well. I used GitHub to request specific bug fixes and list new developments. Praxent worked on the existing code to fix landing screens and sort orders. They programmed new functionalities that gather, analyze, and report relevant data. After experiencing project management difficulties, they taught me to utilize Kanban to create more descriptive user stories and expedite development time.

What is the team composition?

I spoke with Kevin (Managing Partner, Praxent) when initially reaching out to Praxent. Then, I worked with a project manager and two developers over the course of the engagement.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

I attempted to find a replacement freelancer and considered 3–4 candidates. However, our unique technology suite made it difficult to find an adequately-skilled developer. Then, I searched online for a local development firm with Python expertise. I narrowed the search down to Praxent and three other companies.

Praxent seemed to best comprehend the needs of my business. The other firms wouldn’t work with existing code and wanted to rebuild my entire platform. Kevin understood that I didn’t have the budget for a rebuild and just wanted to improve the current platform. His willingness to operate within my business methodology was the main reason I hired them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from December 2017–April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m thrilled with the developer I ended up with and the quality of work that was done. Once we learned how to work together, we had tremendous success. Ultimately, they closed 140 tickets in GitHub.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

The initial developer they assigned wasn’t well-suited for the project. I expressed my concerns and they quickly appointed another developer who did great work. I was initially hesitant to learning Kanban, but they politely insisted and now I see great value in the process. Additionally, I’d attend daily standups with the project manager and developers. It was a lot more involvement on my part, but the communication led to better utilization of the developer. I’d request difficult tasks and could rely on them to present several actionable solutions. From that standpoint, they did a great job managing the project and me as a client.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The developer’s client-focused approach proved to be invaluable. If the developer isn’t engaged or committed, the project won’t succeed. Praxent found the right developer to match my expectations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The onboarding process could’ve been better. They struggled setting up a development environment for two weeks before communicating the challenge. To be fair, the initial roadmap I provided them was lacking. These issues caused the project to go over budget by about 20%.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Faculty Director for the Center for Leadership and Ethics at the University of Texas at Austin.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

Our website was difficult to navigate and featured an outdated design. We engaged Praxent to create a new site with a fresh look and clean organization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They sat down with us to go over our existing site. We also showed them a few sites with aesthetics we admired. We then began to outline the project. They told us what was expected from our end–content, text and graphics approval, etc.–and outlined a schedule and budget. During this phase, they offered their own suggestions for the project based on their expertise.

The site was built using WordPress and essentially serves to convey information to students and potential donors. Praxent helped us organize strategies for different pages, landing spots, and backend analytics before working with us on the design elements.

We worked together closely as they began populating the content, providing edits and feedback. Based on our suggestions, they worked to reconfigure the strategy around each page.

While creating a visually appealing site was our primary goal, we also wanted it to be intuitive so our in-house staff could make edits easily. Praxent provided training to ensure our team members understood the system.

Having completed version 1.0, they’re currently building the second iteration with more complex features.

What is the team composition?

There were three people in total. Kevin (Hurwitz, Managing Partner, Praxent) connected at the beginning and end of the project. I worked primarily with a project manager and a technical specialist who built the site and provided the training.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

They developed a complex web project for another department at the University of Texas. They came highly recommended as competent developers who could deliver on time and on budget.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017 and our relationship is ongoing. Having completed the last round a year ago, we’ve engaged them to help with the second iteration of the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m much more comfortable showing the new site to potential donors. Our advisory council members think the site has an improved, clean look and find the content clearer. A colleague who teaches communications also gave positive feedback, saying the site is clean and to the point, with no wasted space or excess text.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent across the board. They clearly articulate their strategies and communicate their progress. They create a detailed schedule and meet every deadline on budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I don’t have a lot of experience working with developers, but I was very impressed by the level of attention they devoted to us. I know they have bigger clients with bigger budgets, but they worked hard to deliver our project on time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Development of version 1.0 went very smoothly, but I would like to hear more strategic input as we move into version 2.0. I’m not tech-oriented, so it would be nice if they gave more detailed suggestions about what functionalities are possible under different budgets, and the pros and cons of each.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of e-commerce solutions for an auto parts company. We provide technology, marketing, and product services for a group of distributors in North America and China, and we offer options like e-commerce and supply chain integration, as well as a number of marketing solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We were looking for UX design expertise. We felt like our own shop was lacking in ability to implement an effective user experience, so we wanted to augment our resources in order to tackle some important projects in our pipeline.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired them to help us with a new B2C commerce site. It's a hybrid of our existing services and some new ones we built from the ground up, and it will also enjoy many of our existing backend integrations.

We divided this project into frontend/backend segments, and Praxent assisted with UX on the frontend so we could ensure that we weren't leaning too heavily on older services we'd already deployed. This project used the Greenfield platform, and it needed to walk through four or five user journeys, e.g. arriving at the store, and then shopping for, searching for, or purchasing a product. Praxent's job was to create that experience for our site. We're still in the process of developing it now.

What is the team composition?

I have a project manager, and then the other members of their team switch in and out at different phases of the project. Normally there's one or two of them helping out at a time.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

I did a bit of web searching, but I live in Austin and my network here contains quite a few strong companies that do a lot of this work, so I asked for personal recommendations. I was interested in US-based companies, preferably local, and I received three good candidates. After meeting with Praxent's managing partner, I felt like it was a good fit and we moved forward from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent somewhere between $50,000–$100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2017 and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project isn’t finished yet, but one of the things they did was help revise the checkout process on our new site.  We debated it quite a bit, and I was both impressed and surprised by the richness of their discussion regarding specific implementation styles. I thought I knew my way around those UX areas pretty well, but Praxent brought a depth of understanding and an ability to tactfully discuss the tradeoffs of different approaches. They really helped us clarify our thinking and led us to the right choices for our particular UX.

We also set two deadlines in 2017 for Praxent to have sandbox pages ready to present at our stakeholders’ meetings, and not only did they meet both of those delivery milestones, their work helped us sell our design approach to our stakeholders. Prior to those meetings, there'd been some question as to whether our in-house team could produce this new website since software design isn't our specialty. We were able to demonstrate not only that our guys had what it takes, but also that we knew how to bring in a strong collaborative partner who helped us make robust advances to our products.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

Their productivity really impressed me. They check in with us regularly and they keep up with granular details like the function or story point. They've also done a great job meeting specific objectives as we march through the design iterations. Everybody on their staff has been on point.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm very happy with the quality and completeness of their deliverables. We're asking for developer-ready components and content, and they didn't just provide wireframes, but products that were finished and ready to code.

I'm also pleased with the overall project management. It's easy to see how well we're doing and they maintain a good pace. In fact, they push us. When you offload something like this, it’s ordinarily a challenge to keep that external team fed and ready for the next project, but in this case, we had to work hard to match their ability to produce. It's a nice problem to have.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Praxent is able to quickly digest what we give them and start making products that meet our requirements, so I would recommend being thoroughly prepared ahead of time in terms of your goals and your schedule. They're highly active, communicative partners, and we didn't have all of our UX plans decided ahead of time, so keeping pace with the decision-making was a challenge sometimes. We didn't outsource that part of the process as much as we could have.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a risk engineer at Kinder Morgan, which specializes in the pipeline transportation of oil and gas, among various other infrastructure interests.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?

We needed to build a new application for our risk and pipeline integrity management system. Our internal tech team does not have the necessary skillset to build the type of application that we needed, so we went in search of vendors that could provide us with the capability and expertise to help us achieve our goals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our current applications are all separate and designed to address specific needs, but none of them are connected or integrated. Looking forward, we want to have one application to address all the previous requirements that were met by the disparate apps, and for it to also have the ability to include risk algorithms. Praxent’s primary objective is to build the user interface of the application and to incorporate the ability to display geospatial data via a map representation of the pipeline. So far, we have worked with them to create a prototype, and we have recently begun our collaboration on the full version of the app.

How did you come to work with Praxent?

We did research online about them and the last project that they spearheaded. Seeing a diversified portfolio of work was important to us. We needed a vendor that specialized in UI development and also had experience with utilizing geospatial data. After we worked on the prototype, we conducted a review of them and our other potential candidates. They needed to demonstrate both the technical capability we sought and the ability to understand our specific business needs quickly. Once we agreed that Praxent met all of our needs, we engaged them to begin the project in earnest.

How much have you invested with them?

The three-week-long work on the prototype cost us $15,000. The cost of the full project has yet to be determined.

What is the status of this engagement?

The prototype was completed during July 2017, and we made the decision regarding the full project in October of the same year. We have only just begun work on the actual application.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It is too early in the process for us to have any concrete metrics about their impact.

How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?

We have worked with two separate project managers during our collaboration thus far. During the majority of the work on the prototype, we worked with one person, and then after that we continued with Deanna, our current solutions architect. She is very intelligent and was able to grasp the technical concept of our product quickly. Additionally, she is pleasant to work with, and ultimately she was one of the main reasons that we decided to work with Praxent. We communicate through email, regular in-person meetings, WebX meetings, and the occasional weekend conference call. Their communication so far has been great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Three weeks was not much time to develop a functional prototype, but Praxent was able to deliver in that timeframe. A truly impressive feat, however, was that when we indicated that we were dissatisfied with the very first version of their prototype, they were able to rework the whole thing within two to three days. That kind of adaptability and rapid turnaround time is exactly what we had been seeking. During that trial period, they demonstrated that they had the capability and talent in their team to ameliorate any issues we might have in the future. They have proven that they are capable and quick learners, especially when compared with other similar vendors. The company has a good focus, the right mentality, and an effective development methodology.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although the price for their three weeks of work on the prototype was reasonable, their overall quote for the project is quite high, especially when compared to other vendors. The hope is that we are paying a higher price for a higher quality product.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This is true for all development work, but you would do well to know your business requirements and project goals upfront. That will make the process much easier and more efficient.