QED42

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a product manager for a nonprofit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with QED42?

We needed to build a web platform from scratch to connect high-level education decision-makers with innovative educational technologies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

QED42 has designed and developed the platform, a website listing educational technology solutions and providers based on strict criteria. The team has used a headless Drupal CMS for the backend and a Next.js and React.js-based framework for the frontend. Currently, QED42 provides maintenance services as part of the contract.

What is the team composition?

We frequently, almost daily, communicate with the project manager and the technology team, which consists of different people depending on the project's timing. We also work with a UX/UI designer, some backend engineers, a few frontend engineers, and a QA engineer.

How did you come to work with QED42?

Our organization has long-term agreements with several digital agencies, and QED42 is one of those agencies. When we do a web product, we typically go through the LTA companies that have already been vetted. We reevaluated a few providers and selected QED42 in the end.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with QED42 in May 2024, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have launched the product's beta version, and the solution made by QED42 has been gaining traction from the target audience, which is the best metric we have to evaluate the project's success.

How did QED42 perform from a project management standpoint?

QED42 has met deadlines and stayed on budget. We use Microsoft Azure DevOps for project management and communicate via Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're impressed with QED42's responsiveness, quality of work, structured approach, implementation, and general professionalism.

Are there any areas they could improve?

QED42 could be more agile in their approach to software development and project management.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure everyone is aligned regarding the deployment processes and approach to deployment. In our case, we deployed twice, which was our preference; however, approach the project's development so you can find opportunities to deploy quickly, instead of infrequent, large deployments. Discuss this matter thoroughly at the beginning of your engagement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Research of Resolution Systems Institute

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We conduct research on alternative dispute resolution and provide program design and admnistration services to courts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire QED42 to accomplish?

• Design model court document, webpage and video that are aimed at individuals with low literacy

SOLUTION

How did you find QED42?

Referral

Why did you select QED42 over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me
• previous experience designing for individuals with low literacy

How many teammates from QED42 were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Design a 3-page notice that defendants would receive in the mail
• Design a prototype for a webpage that informs users about online dispute resolution
• Design a video that provides the same information as the webpage
• Design an interactive guide to help users prepare to use online dispute resolution
• Design registration pages

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Usability testing that indicated the designs were understood, instructions could be followed and individuals felt comfortable at the end registering for and using online dispute resolution.

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

The team was always on time and responsive to any changes we needed.

What was your primary form of communication with QED42?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They understood how to communicate with individuals with low literacy. They gave us advice when our content or ideas were not going to work and proposed design elements that were effective. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something QED42 could have done differently?

Nothing comes to mind. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder and CEO of Prette

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Consumer-facing e-commerce marketplace facilitator for selling and buying supplies for making clothes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire QED42 to accomplish?

• Discover, design and development of a new-to-the-world marketplace

SOLUTION

How did you find QED42?

• Online Search
• QED42 Blog post

Why did you select QED42 over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Trusted partner for Acquia

How many teammates from QED42 were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

I hired QED42 to develop a custom two-sided e-commerce marketplace, Prettesewing.com using decoupled Drupal. The website they created not only captures our brand identity but also offers unique experiences that reinforce our brand promise. Users describe Prettesewing.com as “fast”, “beautiful”, and “fun to use”. 

I am extremely pleased with the work QED42 has delivered.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website they created not only captures our brand identity but also offers unique experiences that reinforce our brand promise. Users describe Prettesewing.com as “fast”, “beautiful”, and “fun to use”.

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

The QED42 team is remarkably reliable and professional, making them a pleasure to work with.

What was your primary form of communication with QED42?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Throughout the project, QED42 showcased innovative thinking and creativity and proposed effective and suitable technology solutions. They introduced skilled contributors as needed at different project stages, maintaining momentum. Excellent communication was good for building trust, especially an 11-hour time zone difference.

Are there any areas for improvement or something QED42 could have done differently?

UAT testing on the client side was always time-consuming and laborious, because tickets were rarely problem-free. I wish the tickets were thoroughly QA tested before getting to me. Lack of automated testing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of development for Legal Aid of DC, a nonprofit. I have fundraising, marketing, and communication roles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with QED42?

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to get more legal resources to our client community because we couldn’t meet them in person anymore. However, we realized we could help them online, so we wanted to post fliers and how-to guides.

We hadn’t updated our website since 2010; it was designed as an institutional site to showcase what we did and get donations to support the organization. Therefore, it didn’t appear as a site where people seeking legal help could get assistance. We wanted the site to provide online resources or potentially free representation to people facing eviction from their landlords, domestic violence, debt, or any kind of lawsuit.

Moreover, we needed to make sure that the new website was accessible to people who speak a different language or have a visual impairment. We wanted to accomplish those goals with a redesign and create a new logo and look for the organization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

QED42 designed the new logo and chose the colors and fonts to create a brand guide. Initially, we gathered feedback from our users, and they did a focus group with members of the organization to define what we were looking for. Then, we had many video calls to review their questions list and drill down our priorities. We worked together intensely on those first two weeks, and then they started working on the ideas.

For the website, they added a search function and worked on the site’s structure. We also focused on the accessibility of the resources. Overall, they built everything on Drupal.

What is the team composition?

We usually had 3–4 teammates on the calls, and the lead was the technical project manager. They had more people involved in the project, but they didn’t put them all in front of us.

How did you come to work with QED42?

They’d already worked with a similar group in Chicago. We were impressed with their work and could use it as a starting point for our framework.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2022, and they finished the website in June 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s too early to say, but we hope it’ll lead to more people using our resources, contacting us for help, and using the website to donate.

How did QED42 perform from a project management standpoint?

They were communicative, especially considering they were based in Mumbai. We could send them our feedback notes at the end of the day, and we’d wake up to their messages. We often met in the morning on the East Coast time. We were worried about the time difference, but the team was great.

Also, their project manager responded to all our questions, made suggestions, and gave us accurate estimates when we made change requests. They managed us like we were their own team, which was unique. Overall, they were great at responding and sticking to deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First of all, they were affordable. Secondly, they did a great job understanding our needs. QED42 listened to us and made good recommendations about what would be best for our users. Moreover, they were creative and came up with good solutions.

Communication was also great because they were conscious that they were on the other side of the world. People might think they don’t respond because they’re 12 hours away, but they were always responsive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything. The team was professional and organized, and they did a great job listening and learning when encountering problems. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them as much information as possible. Being honest, transparent, and communicative with them really helps. They can take a lot of information, opinions, and thoughts and discern what’s important.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the product owner for the Doctor Engagement platform being built with QED team

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

We set off with an aim to build a world class engagement platform for HCPs across multiple Geos, and QED42 joined hands with us to accomplish this in our journey.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We compared multiple partners across different evaluation parameters and finally evaluated QED42 as they have done multiple such successful products in the past in Pharma domain.

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

Idea was to build it on Drupal as a component based approach so that it can be scaled easily to multiple Geos and at the same time ensuring country specific nuances are covered

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

It was a team of:

• Tech Architect
• Developers
• P.m.
• QA

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Team helped in creating a MVP at a much faster pace and the product was ready for Beta testing in almost 3 months. The product has been recently launched in Multiple Geos and will soon see a great footfall.

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

QED team believes in collaboration and thus follow best practices and right set of platforms for communication and coordination. Even when it comes to delivery the team is very diligent in it.

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

They have a great team of expert developers.

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

NA

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Rajasthan Patrika Pvt Limited is one of the biggest media houses of India that owns Newspaper, Radio, Digital Online, and Television. I am working here as a Business Head- Digital and mainly taking care of the PnL of patrika.com Digital Business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

We wanted to revamp the patrika.com website and we hired QED42 to work on the following

• Define the architecture of the patrika.com website
• Defining the integration with the existing CMS 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We hired QED for the followings Reasons:

• Cost
• Delivery Time
• The Proposed Architecture
• Team
• Most important the attitude to deliver.

It is not like to work once but the attitude of every person including the Sales team to make long term relationship on professional as well as the personal level which is a most important factor.

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

• Kick Off meeting for understanding the current workflow of the website which we need to revamp
• Teething problems of the existing CMS and how to use it optimally
• Defining the Next Architecture
• Working on different FE and Admin Modules
• Delivering the Admin and Front End
• Making every component as a modular component
• Tech used : React, Node, Mongo

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

• FE Developer
• Backend Developer
• Dev Ops
• QA
• PM

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Site Speed got improved drastically which is one of the most important factors for any media website due to SEO
• Modular component architecture help us to make changes on the fly
• SEO Web Vitals got improved

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

The website was professional and friendly at the same time. I never felt that I am working with a tech partner. I always got a feeling that I am working with my in-house team

• Slack
• Jira

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

Their Approach to the Project. I had worked with many companies in the past within the current organization along with my previous but what STANDS OUT QED is the approach. Most of the companies work on the assigned task but QED people suggests many things which I and my team missed and they go beyond their scope of the work

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an electrical company with a dedicated team of 9,100 people at more than 130 sites around the world. I'm the platform owner of the Drupal web projects in nVent.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

As part of our digital transformation in nVent, we are building our corporate and the brand websites in Drupal. The goal is develop/enhance/support and maintain all the websites in the Drupal(Acquia) platform. Also to support future enhancements/acquisitions under this platform with integration with other platforms like P360, Salesforce, etc.,

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

QED42 has worked in other projects with nVent previously. I got to know about it from my colleagues. I interviewed the candidates referred by QED42 and was very satisfied with the candidates I was provided.

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

We use JIRA for our project management. We use scrums for our sprints which is of every two weeks where we assign tasks to our developers and track everything there. Every bi-weekly we release code to production. All our websites are built using Drupal 9 and is built and maintained on the Acquia ACSF/ACE servers.

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

Three people have worked with me on the project. Their positions being Back-end/Front-end Drupal developer and QA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As we use JIRA for our sprints and project planning which is of bi-weekly. We track team velocity which is measure of the total number of tasks(in Hours) committed into the sprint vs completed at the end of the sprint.

Till now the review is very satisfactory for the QED42 developers. The response we got from our shareholders and segment leaders are very positive and they are happy with our performance.

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

We use JIRA for our project management. We use scrums for our sprints which is of every two weeks where we assign tasks to our developers and track everything there. Every bi-weekly we release code to production.

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

QED42 has a large pool of resources and a great feedback approach.

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

Only one area where I think I was struggling to get a resource was QA which should have some expertise or have relevant experience in the Drupal technology. Other than that I'm satisfied with the resources I have got.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Lead, Digital Consulting

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

Design and Development for Drupal applications

SOLUTION

How did you select QED42 and what were the deciding factors?

A full range of services and their established relationship within the Drupal community

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

We needed to create a Drupal website from scratch. In the design phase, there was creative exploration which led to logo and design comps. Approved comps led to the development of the Drupal application. We split this into site building and theming. We then established the hosting and built a DevOps platform for deployments and automatic updates. Finally, we entered the content.

How many people from the QED42 team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Five different people: two designers, two engineers, one PM.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was deeply impressed how quickly they worked and with how high the quality was. It was built well and they delivered as expected. A lot of this was able to happen with a high degree of autonomy and minimal feedback through technical and website reviews.

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

Work was planned in a backlog and performed iteratively to gather feedback at various points in the process. Communication was primary Slack, commenting on tickets, and email. They are well-organized and professional in all phases of the project. They delivered faster than expected, which was surprising as corners were not cut on quality.

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

They are very flexible to work with you in creative ways when needed. Also, as mentioned, they delivered a high quality product that met the standards set by the open source community. They did not need much guidance as they knew what was needed and they met it without hand holding.

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

Incorporating higher fidelity content earlier in the process could have helped to clarify some of their design direction. But, it was readily explainable and easily corrected.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

The Bombay High Court instructed the Government of Maharashtra to give this project to IIT Bombay. The dissemination of the latest acts to the general public had large delays due to the asynchronous nature of the publication and approval process. This makes it difficult for the courts to rule judgements based on the latest acts and policies of the government. IIT Bombay designed workflow and outsourced complete development to QED. This includes, workflow automation and management, UI/UX design for online editing, conversion to XML standards for export and import, formatting for publication, as well as public view.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

• Talented team with quality experience in web development
• Open to working with academia and new technologies
• Flexibility in working hours and easily approachable
• Responsive to suggestions and corrective actions

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

• Development of a system for data-entry of Bare Bills (new bills) that can convert to various formats (print and web)
• Must be capable of concurrent insertion/editing of different paragraph levels by different persons (similar to the real time collaboration in google spreadsheets where each cell is locked by the person editing it, but other collaborators can edit other cells)
• Sections and paragraphs must be numbered according to standard conventions.
• Must allow for footnotes and margin notes (see sample Bare Act attached)
• Must allow for entry in any language of choice, at least English and Marathi must be supported for the language of the content.
• Must be saved in an XML format with appropriate annotations
• Must provide a PDF output in the format of Bare Acts (sample attached) for proofreading (double spaced) as well as final format.
• Proofreading PDF must optionally show revision edits (difference between current and previous version of the proof). Eg. what was included or replaced and what was deleted. Must allow for version control (like git) commits at the level of changes to a paragraph.
• Cover page must contain metadata information (dates, status, revision overview, digital fingerprint, etc)
• Must provide a stylised HTML view of the act for the use on mobiles or tablets in the Legislative bodies (Assembly and Council)
• Must allow for a secure and authenticated workflow management between various divisions: LJD, Printing Press, and Legislative Secretariat Workflow must adhere to the current process (described in the as-is schematic)
• Workflow must provide user level audit trails of changes made to the document
• Web portal for public display of approved Acts
• Approved Acts must be displayed in an HTML view (responsive)
• Various pages and sections must be easily navigable (particularly for large acts)
• References to other sections of the act or other acts must be correctly hyperlinked
• A fast and predictive semantic keyword search must be available across all acts in the system.
• Portal must also provide a facility to upload existing acts (PDF version) that have been created outside the new system.
•  The search facility must also index the content of the PDF files

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

One Solution Architect, One Technical Architect, Three programmers One Designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project deliverables were slightly modified in due course, as per the change requested by the Maharashtra Government. QED accepted these changes and provided the solution in time. The solution is not yet deployed due to reasons of delays in procurement of the hosting architecture from the government side and due to the pandemic of 2020.

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

Agile, regular meetings with daily standups and weekly reviews with solution architect (during the critical phase of development)

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

They're a flexible, open, and talented team.

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

None I can judge