SYDCON, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of an international commerce facilitator. We’re a B2B enterprise that handles the distribution of rewards and incentive programs for various companies, non-profits, agencies, and merchant brands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SYDCON?

We needed to outsource market-facing product IT and application development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SYDCON has become a key partner in building custom platforms, client ordering portals, and more. They’ve created over a dozen of our key cost systems, and they’re constantly working on new projects and enhancements to existing systems per our technology roadmap.

For example, they developed a bulk ordering platform system for our larger clients, as well as a system that helps us with the inventory management of all of our product. They also developed a platform that allows us to activate and pull products from the source. We’re then able to pick, pack and ship those products out to users in SLA-focused turn-around time.

What is the team composition?

We work closely with Dave Devitt, the owner of SYDCON, and his team of talented developers. We’ve worked with nearly everyone on his team each week in our engagement with them.

How did you come to work with SYDCON?

Our CEO reached out to a list of developers right in our local area, explaining our needs. Dave responded, and he and our CEO discussed our needs in more depth. We then decided to move forward with SYDCON.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership 10 years ago, and we continue to work together on new projects and enhancements to older ones.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our latest ordering system that Dave and his team helped build is considered an industry gold standard. Although the client we built it for had worked with other vendors in the past, they said since working with us, they couldn’t imagine pushing their orders anywhere else.

We’ve continued to work with SYDCON for all these years because we haven’t lost a single client due to a platform malfunction or instability. Their systems play such a critical role in making sure the right products go to the right clients in the right time frame, and they’ve done amazingly well. Our clients are always pleased with the product Dave and his team produce.

How did SYDCON perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve become more than just a vendor — they’re a partner to us. Dave sits in on our IT planning committee and has a voice in what we’re working towards because we value his expertise. We’ve evolved together on the project management side, and while there’s always room for improvement, they’ve kept up with our growth as a company.

We have a platform to manage and track changes we make to a project. We also communicate with them over email and in-person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very innovative and nimble. We both started out as small companies, but as our businesses have grown, we’ve had to create a more rigid project management structure and adhere to stricter timelines. That has the potential to stifle creativity for everyone, but SYDCON has been able to work in the confines of the new and evolving arrangement.

They’re also strong partners because they’re client-centric and price competitive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t really have a critique. I’d say that we’re constantly evolving and improving to meet client expectations. We could always be tighter on rolling out project plans and testing products, but we haven’t had any major issues or problems.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

SYDCON has always met our growing demands and tightening timelines, but they are a small business. Make sure you have a full understanding of your needs and relay that to them to ensure they can meet your needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the Marketing Director for RESTORE, a Chicago-based company that provides an outpatient procedure for hair regrowth. We do a lot of print and online marketing. Some of our celebrity endorsers include Brian Urlacher and Deion Sanders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SYDCON Inc?

Originally, we had our website built by a high-end web developer. Whenever we needed to make changes, big or small, the pricing was out of control and the code was inaccessible to edit on our end. We needed a vendor who could help us make continuous changes to the website affordably.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SYDCON made many changes to our original WordPress website using CSS. They continue to work with us on a day-to-day, project-to-project basis.

What is the team composition?

We've only worked with a handful of people, including the owner and a web designer.

How did you come to work with SYDCON Inc?

The company that helped build our original website referred us to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested in the range of $50,000-$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since January 2014 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On the day we revealed the updated website, we had 31,000 sessions. Last month alone, we had 25,000 sessions and 19,000 users. Our bounce rate is only 30%.

Even though we're a bigger company now and can afford a more expensive vendor, we prefer working with SYDCON and will continue to do so.

How did SYDCON Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is very responsive to emails—by the time I wake up in the morning, requests are often already completed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're not a huge company, so they treat you like you're part of their team. We don't feel like we ever have to wait around to get help—they're quick to respond when we need them. On the day of our big reveal, for example, our site couldn't handle the surge in traffic, so SYDCON's team immediately jumped in to help.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We're still working with them, but there's nothing they could improve on yet.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don't second guess them. Give them a try!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is a startup insurance brokerage firm that allows users who lease safe deposit boxes to purchase insurance on their contents through a web-based underwriting platform. Functionality of the platform included purchasing and issuing the physical policy online or making one of several endorsing transactions without having to go through an agent. I was the senior vice president of operations, and was project managing the process of establishing our website footprint and company infrastructure and processes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SYDCON?

We were looking to create an e-commerce site to support our underwriting and sales platform. We were dealing within a very minimal budget, so cost was a key driver. My background is in systems development. I had produced over 1,000 pages of wireframes and functional, technical and system requirements before engaging with an outside development company. We needed a group that understood server configuration and web and web-based application development and could execute on a very limited budget.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope of SYDCON’s involvement was two-fold. Deliver a SEO optimized website with a Content Management System and then develop a scalable web based underwriting application to issue policies directly to customers on that website.

We needed a firm that was also knowledgeable and could guide us in building an e-commerce website on cloud based servers.

Dave was able to refer us to vendors which he has successfully implemented web sites in the past. He referred me to an established cloud server vendor that was very cost effective for the services they provided and we were able to bundle our merchant account with them with interchange plus pricing which meant no discount points being charged for credit card purchases. He also referred us to an established and affordable vendor to process all of our e-commerce transactions completed on our website for both credit cards and ACH transactions. All companies we were referred to by Dave were SSAE 16 compliant.

As part of the underwriting application build, SYDCON also delivered reporting functionality out of the CMS and via a user interface that allowed us to run reports for our monthly financial closes as well as monitor the status of policies sold and inforce.

What is the team composition?

Dave was my point of contact in the beginning as the project ramped up and then I later worked directly with a dedicated developer on his staff.

How did you come to work with SYDCON?

Working with a very minimal budget, we talked to a minimum of three firms, including SYDCON. We found the cost structure of the bigger firms located in downtown Chicago was much higher than the costing that Dave had offered us. Dave’s location in the northwest suburbs of Chicago made it convenient for me to work with as our company was also in the suburbs. There were a large number of great referrals he received from other companies too.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested over $60,000 between the website and underwriting application development work and additional follow up. There was minimal scope creep on this project with SYDCON

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working on the project in October of 2012 and concluded in February of 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The backend databases allowed us to quickly and easily access/analyze policies that are sold, in-force and canceled. We are able to effectively produce analytical reports and perform monthly financial closes with the completed application. We are able to effectively and efficiently make changes to the website marketing content through our CMS.

There also has been a great deal of positive internal feedback on the layout and functionality as well as from customer on the ease of being able to purchase or make changes to their insurance policies.

How did SYDCON perform from a project management standpoint?

Dave was great to work with. I am currently planning another online project and he’s the first person I will go to with the idea. Everyone I worked with was competent and very professional. They enjoy the work that they do, and take pride in their work. During the entire development process we maintained a working issue log of all pending items to be cleared during the testing phases, Since Dave assigned a single developer resource to handle the project the development was seamless during the entire project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Dave does a great job at vetting his staff. When my prior developer eventually moved on to another position, we started working with another developer who seamlessly picked up where he had left off. The documentation within the code left by the prior developer greatly facilitated an easy transition to the new developer.

Dave also has extensive experience with e-commerce platforms and was able to provide input towards strategic and cost-effective solutions beyond the development phases to getting this website live. He connected me with the right vendors to make this implementation a great success.

Are there any areas they could improve?

On this project, no. I walked away completely satisfied with the product.

Advice for potential customers?

If you have someone that can write all of the business and detail requirements prior to the engagement, you’ll avoid scope creep and save some money upfront as it makes Dave’s job of estimating the engagement that much easier. This is ideal for startups operating within a limited budget. Dave is certainly capable of doing all of this work with you on your journey. Dave also does physical website design with his staff. In our case, we already had our branding and color schema in place before engaging SYDCON. I was not disappointed in my experience working with Dave and would recommend reaching out to him with your development needs.