ROSSUL

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO at Human Automation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We wanted to outsource the UI of our SaaS app from start to finish.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL was very process-driven. We had a few user stories that they took and executed the full design of the app and UI. First, we had to make sure their team understood the user stories and their meaning. After walking through the concepts, they started with rough drafts and wireframes, talking us through that process. Based on those conversations, we were able to flesh out our user stories more.

After several reiterations of that, their team built multiple iterations of hi-fi prototypes. Beyond what we provided their side, they added concepts and functionalities to our app. After the final handoff to our developers, we coded it.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two designers.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

I found ROSSUL on Clutch. I narrowed it down a global search to three or four companies that I ended up reaching out to. I received a proposal from two of them. ROSSUL’s fast response stood out. I talked to the owner about my concerns and questions, which he addressed. He also led me through their InVision app to showcase their previous designs and examples that mirrored my user cases.

How much have you invested with them?

The work cost around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We finished the project in July and started the process about eight weeks earlier than that. It went longer due to changes on our end.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Even after the project was completed, their team insisted we have a final meeting to provide additional feedback. They didn’t have to follow up, but they felt the need to make sure everything was done correctly. The design looks great and functions well. All of our prospects and customers present during the demo seemed to have liked it. It’s easy-to-use and intuitive. There have been no negatives so far.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style was exceptional. On our end, we used phone calls and emails for correspondence. We communicated with the designers twice a week. They were open to using our Jira with our developer. We also used InVision heavily where we would comment on work and reply to notes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

ROSSUL has a thorough team that keeps timelines moving. From a project management standpoint, they were also very strong. The team at ROSSUL was invested in delivering a solid UI.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. For us, it was a lot of money, but that was the proposal we signed. Everyone wants more for less, but there have been no issues whatsoever.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

ROSSUL does an excellent job of leading customers through everything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the principal of The Future of Publishing, a consultancy and market analysis firm. We study and advise those in the publishing industries, including books, magazines, newspapers, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ROSSUL?

We hired ROSSUL to create our website. We needed about 24 minisites with anchoring features.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted the site to help us establish our firm as a leader in the publishing consultancy field.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I followed a recommendation from a trusted colleague who had a successful engagement with ROSSUL in the past.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

I worked with ROSSUL to define the scope of the project. Once we decided on the structure we wanted for the site, Elia (CEO, ROSSUL) translated our ideas into a platform and focused on UI. They also incorporated a blog. Our site is now over 12 years old, but ROSSUL continues to refresh the platform and enhance its responsiveness. We’re currently working on a redesign with them.

What was the team composition?

I primarily work with Elia and Tom (Lead Developer, ROSSUL).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

ROSSUL has helped transform our company from a concept into a business with a strong position in the market. We’re able to be a leader in the field of analysis. Our credibility has significantly improved since beginning the work with their team.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We’ve had no challenges in how they manage the project. Everything has been delivered on time and within our budget. Their team is transparent about any offshore maintenance and they’re very responsive to our needs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

ROSSUL continuously finds a solid balance between their UX design and pragmatic mindset. They maintain my inspirations and ideas while bringing them into reality.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Some of the initial architecture limited me to needing expert support, but it was the right approach. The structure has evolved with technology over time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the SEO and SEM specialist for a travel insurance company. Our customers visit our website to find the best travel insurance plans for them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL? 

We needed to redo our website because the look of it was a quite dated. We want to have a modern site that is full-width, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

ROSSUL helped us redesign the entire website, including the UX/UI. They created wireframes in Adobe InDesign and then shared them with us through that platform. We were able to go in and make comments on the different designs and where things need to be fleshed out. 

They actually went ahead and helped us to code the frontend (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) as well. They also helped with gathering images for our blog. Once the code and the design was complete, they it passed off to us and we took it from there. We integrated it with our backend and got everything up and running.

What is the team composition? 

We started out working with Eli (founder, ROSSUL) and the head designer. They had several other team members working behind the scenes. A few developers came onboard when we started the web design portion of the project, so we worked with a total of seven people. 

How did you come to work with ROSSUL? 

We looked at a number of different firms at a variety of price points. ROSSUL was an amazing fit due to the price that they offered and the work that they were willing to do. All the other firms were more expensive, and we weren't too impressed with their portfolios. ROSSUL has a great portfolio and the price was right in our budget. 

How much have you invested with them? 

The initial project to have 40 pages redesigned was between $20,000–$25,000. After we onboarded a couple more projects, the total price a bit more than $45,000. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

The work took place from March–November 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new website just launched. In addition to making our site the leader in travel insurance, it's very important that we're relevant to our customers. The most important KPIs are bounce rate and time spent on site. Our bounce rate has decreased from 46% to 35%, which is great. Time spent on site has doubled. While being brand new might lead to more time spent exploring, users are consistently spending much more time on the site. The conversion rate has gone up as well. We're really excited by these early results. Every metric we’ve seen so far has been impressive.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint? 

ROSSUL was able to meet our demands very quickly. We mostly communicated through email. They used Google Calendar for setting up meetings, and Google Hangouts for our calls. They were always available to discuss any sort of issue that we had. They’d quickly get on the phone with us to address the problem. ROSSUL used their expertise when we were at an impasse and didn't know what to do next. They led the project forward in terms of what we needed to do to get through those crucial points. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

ROSSUL had an impressive ability to solve problems. If we didn’t like something about the design, they were able to quickly come up with a new design that we thought was really awesome. Previous designers would only be willing to make a small change, such as to a button. ROSSUL would make significant revisions if we asked them to. Then we’d work together to determine what looked best. They provided a lot of variety in their designs, and their opinion was really helpful. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

Nothing comes to mind. We had a great time working with them, and we'll definitely use them again in the future.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of a fixed-income inter-dealer brokerage.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We’re building a trader application, and needed a professional partner to design the proper visuals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL met with our stakeholders to understand our challenges and asks. They sent us a set of questionnaires that my team filled out to identify our use cases and personas. They quickly put together a prototype using InVision. We use Google Hangouts and in-person meetings to give them feedback and help them understand our capabilities. We repeated the process until we had a working prototype. They’ve been patient in tweaking things and reaching our goal.

What is the team composition?

Three people are involved in the project, and their CEO steps in whenever a decision needs to be made. A couple very professional designers do most of the work.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

I’ve known their owner for over 10 years. I’ve been following his career, and he has worked for us for some time.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with ROSSUL in February or March 2018, and we finalized the initial scope last week. We are working with them in support mode to explore the possibility of contracting them for a few more tasks. We’ve been very pleased with the service.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All feedback so far has been internal. They’ve expanded the work to provide the exact feedback we want. Before starting the project, ROSSUL asked us for metrics. We mentioned contrast, compactness, and the ability to find things on the screen. We run through all these metrics internally on a regular basis. The deliverables meet them. Our team, and everyone who’s used a demo of the product, has given similar feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are professional and knowledgeable about design. Their CEO has taught a UI course at the University of Toronto. It’s rewarding and pleasant to deal with an expert.

They go out of their way to understand us, spending extra time to read about our business and understand what we do. They approach it from the perspective of real users, which is always refreshing.

We never feel rushed, and there are no conflicts or edge cases. They’re always available. They always pick up the phone and follow up. They take just enough time to resolve any issues we might have. Overall, it’s been a positive experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve gotten all the attention we need, but I wish they had upward growth and hired more employees. The downside of this would be getting less time with the CEO.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Vista Health Solutions, which is an online health insurance brokerage. We serve individuals, sole proprietors, and small groups, operating primarily in New York, although we are beginning to expand nationwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We needed to set up an intuitive website that would allow our customers to easily understand what they need to do in order to generate a quote. I do not have a UI/UX background, and I have no experience with designing a website. Although I had a general idea of what I wanted, I did not know how to relate that to a developer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL designed and developed the entire website from scratch. The biggest challenge was for them to make sure that our users would go to the site and be able to generate a quote within seconds, which they were able to achieve. I am not the strongest with technology, so although I believe they used standard languages such as PHP, HTML, and CSS, I could not tell you more than that. The website itself includes such features as a drop-down menu, a zip code entry field, and a “go” button, all of which is geared to enable an easy quote request transaction for our users.

That simple concept has carried our business for over 10 years. The site has required periodic cleaning up and updating, but the main concept still feels fresh because it didn’t use one of those canned templates you find on a lot of other business websites. Once they completed that initial design and development project for us, we have continued to use their services for additional development work. We might engage them for site expansions in the future.

What is the team composition?

I interacted directly with Elia Kanaki (CEO, ROSSUL), who acted as our de facto team lead and project manager. I don’t know the composition of their development team itself.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

I was referred to them by someone who told me at length about Elia’s talent and skillset. At the time, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the idea of needing to design a website. When he and I had our initial interview, however, I got the immediate sense that he was able to visualize what I was trying to get across when I wasn’t even able to do that myself.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested somewhere around $50,000 USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first engaged them to design and build the website back in 2007, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although I do use Google Analytics to see our monthly page visitors, I believe the results from a different third party analysis service, which shows what buttons customers press, best demonstrates the impact of ROSSUL’s work. Those analytics demonstrate to us that the layout is intuitive and allows people to know exactly where to go on the site and what to do.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

Their approach to project management was very professional and was facilitated by the use of Basecamp. We also had regular meetings and a weekly phone call. We never had any problems communicating with them, although they are located in Canada while we are in New York. It never felt like their location was important. The most important thing to me was the initial phone call in which we learned about each other and built the level of trust and knowledge needed to successfully complete such an endeavor.

The steps Elia orchestrated for working on the project were well thought-out. At the outset, he asked me to condense what we needed into something between the length of one sentence to one paragraph. After that, he asked me about the overall market, the business and product itself, our own timeline, and, most importantly, for a distillation of what we were trying to achieve.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Elia knew what I needed when I didn’t even know it myself, which was absolutely amazing, and then translated that into the website’s design. He has a special talent for this business. Building a website for a health insurance brokerage is not the same as doing so for any other industry, and he was able to understand that and tailor the site to our specific needs. In my entire business career, I have never before encountered such a quick and intuitive design response.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Before the start of the collaboration, try to get across what you’re doing in no more than one paragraph. If you can’t distill your goals into something that length, then you don’t know what you need and you’re not ready to embark upon this type of project yet. As for ROSSUL-specific advice, just be willing to allow Elia to go through his process and listen to what he has to say. He’s very talented when it comes to being able to take your idea and bring it to fruition; you just need to let him run with it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of a startup. Our company has 40 members, and we’re headquartered in Minneapolis. We’ve built an industry-first cloud platform that’s proprietary and patented.

Our platform helps large organizations get a 360-degree perspective of the thousands of applications and databases available within their enterprise, allowing them to understand the dependencies between each, down to the code level. Organizations can then conduct impact analysis and assessments in real time around what would happen if they were to change one or more components. Our platform lets them see what else would be impacted within the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We had a running backend that was performing as expected, but we did not have a professional user interface for our technology. Initially, we had built one out ourselves to conduct tests and make an initial prototype, but we fully understood that it was not what we should be going to market with. We needed a professional design firm to help us create a frontend and help with user experience so that we could gain market acceptance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL designed a professional-looking UI for our technology and helped define our user experience. They had a good framework to start with, keeping in mind that startups are never good with documentation—much of the thought process was in the minds of the founders and the key engineering folks, but not necessarily on paper.

ROSSUL was able to quickly extract the knowledge and information that resided not only with me, but also with key members of my team. They translated all that into our technology’s look and feel. They delivered what we called wireframes or UI skins, which we integrated into the existing backend technology.

What is the team dynamic?

They assigned 3–5 members. I didn’t have an exact view of the total team size, but I recall a few names from our emails. We used JIRA for project management. The implementation was handled by our internal team.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

We created a shortlist of potential firms to help us do this. The initial list came from market research consultants who were helping us with business planning, the validation of our technology, and a few other things. Our consultants put together a list of 6–8 firms that could help us with UI design, and ROSSUL was one of them.

We reached out to all candidates and shortlisted three. After researching numerous UI design firms, we chose to go with ROSSUL. They had a framework and knew how to get the information they needed from us. The rest of the firms we evaluated were unable to commit to our timeframe.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was $25,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around the middle of March 2017. We were done by the middle of May.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Internally, the impact has been phenomenal. We accomplished a number of things we couldn’t approach before the UI design was implemented. We’ve also gotten good feedback from external customers. While our technology won’t be available for commercial release until October 15, it has already been demonstrated to a number of Fortune companies, around six so far. The feedback has been positive and encouraging from potential customers. We have also determined what can be improved in the next releases.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

We had no issues in this regard. ROSSUL was able to communicate with us during the RFP [request for proposal] phase that they would be able to deliver within 10 weeks at most.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The biggest advantage was that ROSSUL had a framework for extracting undocumented information and knowledge. From our perspective, this was one of their biggest accomplishments.

Eli [Founder & Creative Director, ROSSUL] and his team were very professional and had a plan to get started. We got a fresh, modern yet very simple and intuitive UI in less than 10 weeks. We are extremely pleased and will be happy to work with them for all of our future UI needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Creativity is an area where there’s definitely room for improvement. However, we knew from the start that implementing a UI for a technology as complex as ours would not be easy. It wouldn’t be perfect from the first pass. There would be additional iterations needed, but so far, so good.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Libro Credit Union is a credit union in London, Ontario that services southwestern Ontario. We have 31 branches. We’re a full-service financial institution offering all the products you would expect from any financial institution. My role specifically is digital banking manager. I oversee our online and mobile banking offerings that allow our current customers, which we call owners, the ability to log into their account and manage their holdings at Libro, pay bills, transfer money and all the things you come to expect from an online bank.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

When we first started working with ROSSUL, we had a very dated online banking system which hadn’t been really rewritten since 2001. We had some minor updates to it, but the user interface and even the backend technology was on a very old system. We were actually forced to update our backend because of a requirement. We decided it would be a great opportunity to rewrite our content as well. We struggled doing that internally, which is when we started looking for an external provider. They helped us rewrite our front and back, which we launched in 2014, and then, more recently, we decided to rewrite our mobile banking as well for consistency’s sake and because we were very pleased with the work of ROSSUL.

We looked to work with them again, and we just launched in the last two months, actually. We don’t have any user interface designers or user experience experts internally. What we were looking for from ROSSUL was someone to bring that expertise who would even help us test our prototypes before we actually went to market to make sure that we were more confident in them, and to give us somebody to help us create a design methodology to ensure that our interface doesn’t get too dated and that we can continue to enhance it over time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us rewrite our frontend and backend which we launched in 2014. It was a full rewrite of our online banking. At the time, users could go into a really simplistic website, pay bills, transfer money, edit future date of payment, and that was about it. There was no personalization to the website at all, and it was not modern by any sense of the word.

The work that ROSSUL did was help us create a more personalized experience, so users could see their own user profile, upload images of themselves, see images of their financial advisor, which we call “coaches” at Libro. They could more intuitively do all the payments and money transfers that they required.

ROSSUL wasn’t tasked to create any new money movement functionality in any way. That’s not necessarily their job. It was really to make the features that we already had more intuitive. They reworked all the processes that the user was using. More recently, we decided to rewrite our mobile banking, as well, for consistency’s sake and because we were very pleased with the work of ROSSUL. We just launched that in the last two months.

Eli is the main stakeholder there and seems to do most of the design work. I know that they have a developer that I don’t believe is in the country. I believe the partner is situated somewhere else. I believe he has a couple designers, as well. With the mobile work, he introduced us to three new designers. One started off as kind of an intern and helped us do the user experience testing, who also ended up doing some design work, as well. When they worked on the first project, they had a user experience tester as well, at the time, which he contracted out for our project.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

I believe we originally stumbled across them through Google AdWords. We liked that they were local and we explored their website to see their previous work. At the time, we were slightly crunched, because we had tried to do the work internally at first. We were at a time where, without changing our launch date, we couldn’t go through an RFP process. We reached out to ROSSUL and got them to do a quote for us and pitch us without looking at anybody else. We did some reference checks on them and were satisfied with what we saw. We were also satisfied with their work.

In between the two projects, we did have the opportunity to work with some other providers, and it created more confidence in our liking for ROSSUL versus some other partners that we’ve used in the past. We like their methodology and their ability to stay on time.

Sometimes I find, internally, you can have this opinion that challenges your designers to step out of their comfort zone and not really do what they think is right, or not really have any kind of scientific backing, but ROSSUL has really pushed us to let the process work. We liked that, and it improved the results.

How much have you invested with ROSSUL?

We’ve spent between $300,000 and $350,000 on the two projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2013, and the work is ongoing. They are continuing to monitor and help us modify our mobile work. We just launched that at the beginning of the last month, and so they’re still on contract with us to monitor the feedback, make any changes, and fix any bugs. We are looking to work with them for another project in the future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The usage of our platforms has gone up tremendously since our rewrite in 2014. I don’t have any stats on the mobile project since it just launched. I receive all the negative and positive feedback on the project. The overwhelming testimonial at the beginning was almost all about time and relief. Our usage per user increased dramatically. We track user engagement and where we used to see around one login per month, we saw that get closer to three. There has been more for the user to engage with, especially in terms of messaging and communicating with their financial advisor.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

Between the two projects, it changed quite a bit. I’d say that the system that they used the second time around was better for us. They used a more visual Gantt chart for us to follow along, which it seemed like the whole team was utilizing. They also used JIRA, which was helpful. They’re moving more toward an Agile methodology. I don’t think they’re fully there, but they’re definitely using some of its best practices, which we’ve been trying to implement a little bit internally as well. I know that they use Slack between their teams, but they didn’t use Slack between the two organizations because we don’t use it internally.

What did you find most impressive about ROSSUL?

The one thing that’s always stood out for me is their honesty and their willingness to push us into directions that might not be the most comfortable for the organization, but just to challenge us to be a bit more modern. As a financial institution, we’re comfortable in being a bit more traditional, and we’ve needed a bit of a push. Being able to talk candidly and honestly with them has been refreshing, rather than just being a “yes” company and doing what they’re asked.

They are incredible designers. They do really strong work. We’ve worked with a few different agencies, and seeing their projects go from wireframing to life is something that’s always exciting to see. Their focus on the user is something that they’ve pushed on us. We've been told to ignore the internal reasons for why we think something should work a certain way, and instead focus on how the user is going to intuitively think about something. That’s been a good lesson for us and something that they’ve definitely taught us.

Are there any areas ROSSUL could improve?

We definitely saw some improvement over the two projects. Any missed deadlines were usually our fault. We have so many moving projects at the same time that it’s very often we can get ourselves off track. But their improvements in project management the second time around allowed us to see it more visually when we were getting off track, and allowed us to collaborate and make changes on the move. There’s probably still some progress to be made in their project management. I think he knows it which is why he’s been modifying his process over time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

APP Technologies sells software to the insurance and risk management industry. We also run a very large reporting platform for sending claims to the federal government for Medicare. I am the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rossul?

We had a legacy application which needed a refresh. We were putting out a brand new version of this longstanding system and wanted to have a user-interface which stood out from all others. It was during a search for firms that had UI/UX expertise that we found Rossul.

Our end-to-end claims management system allows claims and risk managers to track information related to insurance claims. It is the operational system which is used by these professionals for every minute of the day at their jobs. We need to manage all their documents, keep track of notes, and provide the ability to manage the workflow, financials, and reporting. It's a comprehensive system with a broad base of capability. We were looking to deliver all this functionality to our users in an elegant way from the cloud.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We engaged Rossul for the development of our userinterface. That involved looking at our current product, helping identify the different personas of users. Rossul spent a lot of time thinking about our user base, what their motivation is, and what important information they need to deal with. They crafted different narratives around each of these different roles. We gave Rossul access to our current system and they created wireframes in order to give us a look at the new user flow. We were focused a lot on the UX aspects and, once we locked all of that down, Rossul designed a colorized, fleshed-out version for us. We continued to work with them on HTML and other coding assets, which we could hand directly to our developers.

This is a new product but the software that inspired it was developed completely in-house, and we've been working on it for the last 14 years.

I worked closely with four key people from Rossul's team, including Elia Kanaki, their founder. He also had a developer and a couple of designers involved.

How did you come to work with Rossul?

We knew what kind of service we were looking for, and spent a lot of time online looking for possible partners. We narrowed our list to four companies. There were some groups who made very sleek presentations and had distinguished names headlining and advising for the company but, at the end of the day, I was convinced that Rossul was the right choice. This was partly based on the portfolio on their website: there was a degree of polish and beauty to what they did that was unique from other groups. I got in touch with Rossul's founder and liked his approach and his way of thinking. I specifically asked him to be a part of our project and he had no problem leading the work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rossul in December 2015. The project wrapped up in September 2016. We've reengaged with Rossul for logo and branding design for our company. We've also had them design a new website and a tradeshow display. We've kept going back because the quality is just great. The partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our application is still in development. We're in the process of preselling it, so there will be another six to twelve months before we will see any hard, statistical information in terms of before-and-after sales data. But I would say that I've been delighted with the attention and care provided by Rossul during our project. Elia has an uncommon intuition around design and the team is extremely versatile. We would sometimes be in the middle of a design discussion and I would suggest some changes. Rossul could gently but firmly point out why my thinking wasn't in the users' best interests. I've often been persuaded to Rossul's point of view but they've certainly listened and gotten creative when it was clear we needed to go deeper in some area based on what I wanted and stated. They have a very good sense of what will and won't work. It's been great to have a partner whose recommendations we can trust.

How did Rossul perform from a project management standpoint?

I feel that the projects we've worked on with Rossul have been managed very well. Like any project, there were a few snags, but, in general, Rossul has been very good about communicating how things are going, where expectations need to be realigned, and so on. They've been very good overall in terms of communication and making sure that everyone understands where they need to be and what is expected of them. Rossul has made sure that there is a high degree of collaboration, so that the project will keep moving forward.

What did you find most impressive about Rossul?

Everything I've mentioned so far I would classify as unusual characteristics. I don't think that there are very many companies which really take an interest in aproject the way Rossul does. I was convinced that the work done by Rossul was about more than making a buck. They were invested in a quality outcome for our project. They take pride in their work because their name is associated with it but Rossul also genuinely wanted for us to put our best face forward. I would say that there was a personal stake put in by Rossul in order to help us deliver a standout result. I've been in business for 15 years and have found few companies which have that kind of interest in forging a really good partnership.

Are there any areas Rossul could improve?

I could probably cherry-pick some isolated things along the line but it wouldn’t point to anything material. Any place where there was an issue, it was resolved quickly by Rossul. I can't think of anything negative.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the global discipline director for a privately owned, global engineering firm. We provide engineering and consulting services to the mining, metals, and infrastructure industries, and we operate on four continents. I’m responsible for the development teams here at Hatch working on custom-developed web applications, mobile applications, and third-party configurations and reporting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rossul?

We develop custom mobile and web applications here at Hatch, and we do a lot of reporting. We wanted to create a consistent UI across our applications and reporting. We recently went through a rebranding process, which was quite significant. We changed the look and feel for the organization externally to clients, and we wanted to incorporate that new image into our applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rossul helped us with incorporating the rebranding image into two things. One was a reporting and guidelines standard, in terms of how we develop and deliver static reports to the business, as well as analytics, graphs, and heat maps. We used the rebranding colors, positioning, and fonts to create a standard guideline for the organization to follow, to ensure a consistent look and feel for our internal reporting.

We then created a web application, mobile application, and UI design standard guideline based on the material design framework, using the same branding. We tried to create that consistent look and feel across our platform. Most recently, Rossul has helped us with user experience. They conducted a workshop here for our teams to get an introduction to user experience best practices and principles.

We’ve also worked with Rossul on a few projects around user experience. They helped to design mockups and wireframes of two things. One is an internal, SAP Fiori launchpad. They helped us create a mockup of a new image for that landing page, as well as our SharePoint homepage. Those designs are then given to our internal team to implement and develop.

Throughout our relationship, I’ve worked mostly with Eli. Recently, we’ve also been working with Will Patrick, who was engaged in the UX workshop and helped with the SAP Fiori launchpad redesign.

How did you come to work with Rossul?

I wasn’t involved at the time, so I’m not sure how the connection was made.

How much have you invested with Rossul?

We’ve invested $30,000-50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in 2015. As of last week, we finished the engagement for the SAP Fiori dashboard redesign. We don’t have anything upcoming, but we will continue to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have successfully implemented the reporting guideline standards, as well as the material design web application framework. We’ve had very favorable results within the organization compared to what we had before. The organization is now set on the right path, being able to provide a consistent look and feel now, which we didn’t have before.

Most of the work Eli does for us is internal. The feedback we received from the web redesign was very favorable. People are very happy with it. It’s very clean, and it follows our branding. The workshop was well done. The deliverable from the workshop was really an introduction, and they did that.

How did Rossul perform from a project management standpoint?

The projects we do with them are not that long, so we don’t go through project plans or deliverable dates. We flesh those out together. Eli is very attentive in terms of immediate response whenever I reach out to him. The turnaround time is very quick. I’ve never had a situation in which he wasn’t available to actively start working on it for us, which is a good thing.

What did you find most impressive about Rossul?

I haven’t worked with other design firms, so I can’t compare. However, I have nothing but good things to say about them. They’ve been very professional and attentive. Their designs have definitely met our needs, and I would definitely work with them again.

Are there any areas Rossul could improve?

No. I don’t have any concerns.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Customer data platform unified with marketing automation and reputation management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ROSSUL?

As a platform with multiple data inputs and a significant amount of functionality, we need easy-to-understand guest insights that show value in our platform and easy-to-use tools to use that data to shape consumer behavior. While in the process being very intuitive for the customer and self serve.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Through research and a recommendation.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

This is an ongoing project. The Rossul team is embedded in our development process. Meaning once a product requirement documentation document is created along with technical specifications, we bring in Rossul team to design the UX/UI for the functionality. We work with the team through the development and implementation of the new functionality. This includes ongoing iterations.

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

My team works directly with UX/UI designers to implement our projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Rossul is an extension of our team. They are timely, ask questions, and do amazing work. They are part of the reason why we have developed and continue to implement a world-class platform.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Seamless.

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

Rossul has in-depth knowledge and expertise in UX/UI. They go beyond the ask and expand on any requirement provided to their team.

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

No. They are a world-class team.