Programmers.io

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of H2O Fitness, a manufacturer of underwater treadmills for rehab and fitness centers. Our products are designed for both humans and K-9s, mainly focused on hydrotherapy. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Programmers.io?

We wanted to get our name out there and let people know about our services. We needed aggressive online campaigning. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Programmers.io modified our existing website, completely restructuring and remodeling it. They went back to the drawing board and pretty much redid the whole site because what I had before was obsolete in a technological sense. They also did some SEO, which is a constant process that’s being done even as we speak. They also helped with Google AdWords, blogs, and Facebook and LinkedIn marketing. They started putting in more filters when we realized we were getting better lead quantity but needed to refine the quality.  

How did you come to work with Programmers.io?

Their founder is a friend of mine, so I decided to hire his services and get this project rolling.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2014 and have been partners since. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the makeover, our site traffic has increased significantly. The quantity of leads has increased, as well as the quality. I like the website, and our customers have said they like it too. Programmers.io has contributed to our growth and sales in some ways.  

How did Programmers.io perform from a project management standpoint?

We have one or two Skype calls a week. I know of one person who works constantly on my project, but I think there may be a few others as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have come up with helpful suggestions, are proactive, and look at the bigger picture. They are always receptive to my feedback.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any suggestions at this time. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the development manager for a small software company in Boise, Idaho.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Programmers.io?

We have a bunch of internal developers and there are some side projects that we wanted to work on, but we just didn’t have enough specialized resources within our current staffing. It was easier to go out and outsource a few projects with Programmers.io than to try and hire a developer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Programmers.io does a little bit of everything. They’ve done a couple of projects for us from start to finish where they’ve been the only ones in charge; they turn in the work and we’ll maintain it going forward. They’ve also taken some of our software applications that we’ve written and added modules and other bits and pieces to our products and existing code base.

They created a REST API that ties into what we refer to as our flagship product; it was one of the bigger projects that they’ve done for us. They also created a couple of different integrations with HubSpot and Business Wise, writing some APIs in our flagship application. For HubSpot, they had to use their developer portal and build the webhooks so that HubSpot would pick them up, and then they also integrated some of our stuff with Zapier. They did some software development inside of our main product as well.

Everything they’ve built so far has been outward facing—for our customers’ use. One of the projects, which they’re right in the middle of right now, is an internal solution that will only be used here with our staff.

Right now, we have 2 developers that we’re using that are always developing for us and then they have a project lead over them that we work with.

How did you come to work with Programmers.io?

The owner of our company got a reference from another individual, so we started talking to them.

How much have you invested with them?

It has been around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking to them in December of last year. Most of the work has been done early this year, but we’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So far, we haven’t needed a lot of interaction other than weekly calls with them. They’ve been pretty good at taking projects and running with them. They’ve been very professional.

We have them focus the most on projects that don’t require a lot of business knowledge. Because we’re in a niche market, there’s lots of knowledge that is needed for the in-depth parts of our software, so we try to keep it generic for the projects that we give Programmer.io. We’ve had the same two developers working with us throughout the year, so maybe they’ll grow with us and get to know our ways better.

How did Programmer.io perform from a project management standpoint?

If they have issues, they email whoever they’re working with, whether it’s our developers or our customers. It has worked pretty smoothly, and they listen to the feedback. We also haven’t had any language barrier or issues.

It took us a little bit of adjustment to get the project management smoothed out just because it’s different managing outside resources versus people that you see every day. I’d say we have a pretty good process in place now. We communicate through email and share screens on Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve never used another company. This is the first time we’ve ever done outsourcing, so I don’t have anything in particular that distinguishes them from other providers or that they’re doing particularly well. Everything has always been done internally.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know how much it can improve, but the only inconvenience is communicating across time zones. You have to be online every day to answer questions because if you miss an hour, you can miss a whole day just because of the time zone difference.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an insurance marketing group, with about 100 agents in around 25 states. We have four different websites that I manage, most of them built in WordPress. Those are used for providing agent support, corporate identity, and lead generation. I have built, managed, and maintained those websites.

I'm a business development/technical specialist, but I’m not a coder. WordPress isn’t a problem, but when it comes to writing code or doing API integrations, that’s when I need to call somebody else in.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Programmers.io?

When I was on hiatus for about two years, the owner of the company purchased a piece of software that was developed in .NET. He was having some enhancements made to it through the original developers, which was a group over in Belarus. He wasn't getting what he needed out of them, so I ended up coming back in to help him with that project and a few other things.

The business challenge, when I came onboard, was dealing with a group of developers in Belarus who weren’t paying any attention and basically had the project held hostage. So, the challenge was getting a team of developers who would spend time on the project and do QA on it, so I wouldn’t have to go in and figure out where things were broken.

We basically went from a team that really made us feel like they could care less, to working with a team that I could tell cared about ensuring that we were successful with our project. It’s a rarity to find somebody who understands business logic and code and can put the two of them together. I’ve had the pleasure of working with a few people like that in the past, and I feel that’s what I found with Programmers.io. They weren’t just coding to the spec, but offering alternative ways of doing things.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They bailed us out big-time. We were basically in a situation where we’d spent about $35,000 and had not gotten near what we should have gotten out of it. AC and his team came in, were able to dive into the project, figure out what was going on, and take it over very smoothly. They got things finished up for us to where we got our minimum viable product done and launched. Now we’re continuing to add other enhancements to that software.

Right now, they’re doing everything. I’m not a coder or a server maintenance guy, so we have an ongoing relationship with them on that piece of software. They are continuing to do development in .Net, C, MongoDB. The server doesn’t need a lot of management, but they set up the security on the server and did all that for us. They set up to where we’ve got backups and all that stuff configured.

The software has multiple functions. It aggregates all the financial data from a user’s bank accounts and investment accounts, and then brings all that in. You have a dashboard to see where you are with all your accounts. On top of that, we have a debt elimination piece of software in there. You can take four different approaches to getting out of debt. You can choose to pay off your highest interest rate debt, or your largest payment, and it will chart and graph, showing you exactly how quickly you’re going to be able to pay that debt off with just doing a roll-off strategy, or you can apply additional principal to it.

It also gives you the ability to accelerate your mortgage payoff, if that’s something you’re interested in doing as well. It has a goal-planning feature set in it as well. It’s basically an overall, debt-elimination, financial management tool. We are more responsible for the content, and they’re more the development.

How did you come to work with Programmers.io?

It was a referral from a referral. Their ability to communicate with me was a deciding factor. I felt like there was some compassion there because we were just not in a good spot. We were months and months behind on trying to get a product launched, and they made time for us. They figured out where we were and helped get that project completed. They offered detailed accounting and fabulous communication with the team. I just felt they were organized.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re probably approaching right around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in April of this year. I’m now working on a membership site I’m building in WordPress, where we’re integrating some services from third parties. I’m getting ready to engage them in doing the API integration for those third parties, which shouldn’t be a big project. It’s that piece that we don’t have in-house. We’re never going to have a developer in-house, we’re not that big of a company and we don’t have an ongoing need. I can do the basic stuff with WordPress, plugins, marketing, and SEO. When it comes down to an API that needs to be integrated, and we need to create a single sign-on, that’s not what I do. Having him and his team able to take care of that is excellent.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We just did a soft launch one-and-a-half weeks ago, so I really don’t have much in the way of user statistics. I did find a couple bugs after we went live, but it wasn’t anything on their part. It was more left over from the previous developers. Programmers.io jumped on it and had it taken care of for me within 24–48 hours. I think I have seven or eight users on there right now—just a soft, internal launch to make sure we get the bugs worked out. The people who have used it so far are very pleased with it.

They helped us build one of the components with an additional tool. The software serves two purposes; one from the client’s side to track all their finances and go through a debt elimination process, but also for the agents to sit down and use some of the tools. I’m integrating calculators and a quick analysis tool that Proframmers.io built for us. It’s a great prospecting tool that I’m getting really good feedback on so far.

How did Programmers.io perform from a project management standpoint?

We were in a tough place, and they put in extra hours. He had people working over the weekend and stuff for me. I had to do a demo on a Saturday, and they brought a couple extra people in to get stuff taken care of to meet that deadline. I’d give them 11 out of 10 on that. The communication has been excellent. I’ve got an open window with them on Skype. If he has a question, he pings me. If I need to give him some feedback, or I think of something else, I ping him. I feel like I’m part of the project versus getting an update once a week on where we’re at. I may be a little different than some clients because I am still doing non-coding development on the WordPress sites.

What did you find most impressive about them?

To me, success in business is about clear communication. I’ve felt that they have been extremely clear in their communication. When they’ve done an estimate on hours, they’ve been very close to those hours. With the previous developer, I was experiencing situations where they gave me an estimate of 50 hours, and I get a bill for 125 hours.

Programmers.io came in close to their estimates, which means a lot to me as a client, as it helps me budget. I’m not sitting here with a million dollars in my budget; I’m trying to build a small company. Most companies our size are not investing the kind of money we are, but we’re trying to grow. The owner of the company, Scott, is learning slowly that owning a piece of software is not always necessarily what it’s cracked up to be.

I’m extremely pleased with them, to the point where I want to give these guys more business rather than going through some of the other resources I have. I feel like I’ve developed a relationship with them. They’re like my in-house developers. I think their team now is close to 70 developers, and they cover a wide array of different skill sets. When I called them last week to ask for some help in integrating an API, he checked is one of his people was available. Ten minutes later, we were on Skype together. I explained to him what we were doing, he put together the spec, and they’re going to start on that piece for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there is. In a perfect world, they would have had more bandwidth when I came to them, but that’s not their fault. He let me know upfront that he didn’t have a lot of bandwidth at the time. He could put one person full time on it and have a few other people work some extra hours. His plate was pretty full when we came to him. I’ve got nothing but great things to say about them. They’re excellent to work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I manage Geraci Media, a marketing and design agency catered to the private lending industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Programmers.io?

To assist with web development projects, internally and externally.

What were your goals for this project?

Revamp, remodel, and design. We have also used the team for SEO work.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Referral

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Ongoing maintenance, website design, SEO

What was the team composition?

Project Manager to Design Team

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

I really enjoy working with Pixere. They are responsive and produce quality work. If you are clear with your end goal, they will have no problem making it come to life.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Amanda. Very effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Quick turnaround time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Attention to detail and innovative ideas.