Tiki Tech

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Hydro Building System is a part of Hydro group. Hydro is a Norwegian company. Hydro Building System is in the business of architectural aluminum in middle east.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Tiki Tech?

We hired Tiki Tech for a website development for our Seminars. We conduct seminars across many countries named as World of Technal. Tiki Tech also helps in ticketing portals for all the seminars.

What were your goals for this project?

To get a back end ticketing portal system which is linked to a front end Seminar Website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Online / Reference

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Customized the ticketing portal with a scanning app as per the requirement, an option of accepting / rejecting the registrations. Auto emails for the registrations, Registration forms , e mailers, calendar invites, and fully developed website which is due for going live.

What was the team composition?

The project had a lead who was our single point of contact, a manager who was part of initial discussion and a technical team who works at the backend.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We as a corporate company, wanted to conduct our seminars in a very professional way. The portals with auto emailers and the website is the right tool which we needed. The tools not only eased our work but also was one of the reasons for the events to be successful.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It was very impressive, all the small and quick changes/suggestions and requests were responded instantly and was very effective. The time line was also well maintained.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by the responsiveness and tailored solutions provided by the company.

Are there any areas for improvement?

All good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're a commodity price reporting company that organizers industry events as well. I am the CEO and Director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Tiki Tech?

We hired Tiki Tech for multiple services primarily to assist us in developing an event website for marketing, registration forms etc. We design regular promotions and newsletters with them as well. Apart from the web and email development services, Tiki tech helps us with the graphics and print designs for our projects.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to have the right combination of good quality and timely web development, email promotions, graphics and print designs to effectively market the industry event.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have worked with them in the past and have been very satisfied with their quality and services.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They developed our website, designed our email promotions, helped us with our graphics, social media promotions and our print designs. They have provided backend support for some of our other projects as well.

What was the team composition?

The project team had around 5 to 7 people working on different aspects based on our requirements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their high quality development coupled with prompt designs helped us achieve our goals and targets. With their services, our marketing efforts and plans were more effective allowing us to achieve the desired results. We were able to grow our business with their support.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was smooth and impressive. We were regularly in touch with their team. Communication was easy and any changes in schedules etc were informed to us in advance. We used multiple communication tools to stay in touch regularly to get good quality work completed on time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The overall experience has been very positive as we were happy with the communication, quality and prompt delivery of services.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are very few suggestions for improvements. We hope to do new and bigger projects with them and one suggestion would be to have new plans clearly outlined before hand if the projects are more complex allowing us to make an informed decision on how to proceed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of All Things Nice. We provide consulting and strategy services to brands in the luxury sector, as well as wine and spirits, financial products, real estate, and restaurants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tiki Tech?

They’ve been our service provider since our company started in 2010.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tiki Tech handles all our creative and HTML work as well as website hosting and maintenance. They also created our website many years ago. All our creative content is done through them. We have a very large emailing list, and they help us navigate and communicate with our audiences, which are spread all over India. Our team heavily relies on their advice and consultations.

If we have a service or event that’s happening, we need to cultivate email communication that can be sent to our members. These members are quite large in number, so we need something that’s good, clear, and will get delivered into their inbox. Tiki Tech receives information, images, and other content from us. Then, they put everything into HTML format, adding creative input.

For the initial website development, we gave them all the required information. Their team then gave us wireframes and went forward in building the website. They developed it many years ago, and have been also asking us to change it for many years.

In terms of website maintenance, Tiki Tech hosts our website on their servers. All website changes that need to be done occurs through them. We have quite a bit of media, and they often update it for us. They also update the work we have coming up and the work we’ve done so clients and potential clients can see what we’re up to.

What is the team composition?

I don’t know how many people from their side are involved. We communicate what we need to one person, but the deliverables come from multiple people. Our team is handled by one person who then directs what needs to be done to whoever is available in their team.

How did you come to work with Tiki Tech?

I started my company in 2010, and we immediately starting working with Tiki Tech. My wife was the head of one of the world’s largest exhibition companies. The person who started Tiki Tech was a colleague of hers. My wife’s company used to have an in-house team for all their communication and online activity. The company shut down temporarily in India, so everyone started their own businesses. This was when her colleague started Tiki Tech.

When we started working together, Tiki Tech’s founder did everything we wanted perfectly. We’ve been with them for a long time, and we’ve never had any rebuilds or changes.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $10,000–$50,000. This is tough to answer because it’s not something I look into personally. My company does a lot of creatives, and every single one is done by Tiki Tech. I’m not sure how much work we give them in a year. We ourselves are not a very large company. We’re an asset-light business, and our own team is the most expensive part of whatever we do.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership began in October 2009.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We rely on people reading our emails in a creative HTML format so they can sign up for what we provide. Besides social media, it’s the only communication tool we use, so what Tiki Tech does for us is extremely important. If they get it wrong, and the creative doesn’t look good or doesn’t go into email inboxes, then people won’t see us.

It’s paramount for us to get our communication on time, and to get it in a format that’s email-friendly. What’s acceptable keeps changing, so Tiki Tech keeps changing it for us. This all depends on what the current global standards are.

Our audience isn’t based in India only. We provide a lot of services to companies and individuals from all over the world. Tiki Tech takes into account not only Indian standards of communication but also global standards. They’ve done a good job for us, and I have nothing to complain about.

How did Tiki Tech perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good. Their founder has always been available to us. Even now with the lockdown in India, it’s never a challenge to tell them what we need. Their team always gets tasks done. I would never leave Tiki Tech because when it comes to tech and communication, the quality of service they provide is over and above my expectations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their customer service is what impresses me the most. I can call them at 7 a.m., ask for something urgent, and they’ll deliver. If I need something crucial after working hours, they won’t ever tell me their office is closed and I need to wait. They always find a way to help me when I need them, and I’m always appreciative of their dedication.

Also, their problem-solving skills are excellent. Things will go wrong with our website; however, after we bring it to their attention, they fix it immediately.

We use Constant Contact to send out emails, and this is outside the scope of Tiki Tech’s work for us. One time, we had an issue and something we were doing wasn’t correct. Without any charge and just because we’d been their client for that long, Tiki Tech guided us through the process of correcting what was wrong.

They also gave us other options in case we had to stop our association with Constant Contact. Their team had nothing to gain from doing it, but they did it anyway. I think that’s something special. They charge us for their services, but they also go above and beyond.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From a business perspective, I’d like to utilize their services to send out emails as well. We outsource that to someone else, but I’d like to have a one-stop-shop for all of it.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I think clients will find that they have professional services. Tiki Tech has an office in Dubai as well if I’m not mistaken. They’re a professional company with a global presence, and they speak English fluently. Their team understands the tech world very well, and they’re good at what they do. I can’t speak to their pricing because I don’t know what people normally pay, but I’d recommend them without hesitation.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior marketing executive at an events services company. I’ve been working with the company for the past eight months, promoting different shows and events to their respective industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tiki Tech?

I worked with Tiki Tech on the first award show I’d ever organized, and it was also my first time working with them. This was the first time we’d tried to put on an award show of this scale and audience. Our major challenge was trying to position the show, given that there aren’t many awards that cater to this industry. 

We wanted to create a simple process because we assumed that the people participating in the award wouldn’t be that tech-savvy. Our primary objective and brief with Tiki Tech was to make a website that was as user-friendly and easy to use.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tiki Tech created a user-friendly website for us. As soon as a user gets to the landing page, they will go through a questionnaire with different questions about their agency.

They can also upload documents, videos, and pictures. It’s a five-step process, and users can save their forms and come back later to edit them if they wish. It ended up being a bit more cumbersome than we intended, but Tiki Tech managed to give us what we asked for. 

They also created a jury portal for us, through which juries could evaluate entries online instead of face-to-face.

They developed the website in PHP. We didn’t get into the technicalities of it. I was looking more at the frontend UI aspect.

What is the team composition?

There were at least 3–4 people working on this project. I mostly interacted with three of them, including a designer and Rakesh (Business Owner), who was our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Tiki Tech?

They were introduced to us by a senior manager from our company, who had worked with them at another organization. She told us Tiki Tech would be more supportive and agile when it came to delivering, for the budget we had in place. We had two options, and we looked at different factors, including cost and timelines. Keeping all of that in mind, we went ahead with Tiki Tech.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Tiki Tech in September 2019, and they managed to give us a full-fledged website by October, in about one and a half months. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our jury members appreciated that they could evaluate the entries from home, on their own time. The evaluation process is very smooth. The site was very user-friendly, from both the applicant and the admin end.

This was the first edition ever of the awards, so I don’t have any comparison stats. In terms of overall feedback, Tiki Tech was prompt to resolve queries and reply to us. They never said no to a request we had, and they made sure that there was a dedicated client representative for us, so there was never any lag.

How did Tiki Tech perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a pretty good job. They were prompt in their replies, although they could’ve been a little more proactive. On the whole, they agreed to whatever we asked from them. I’m sure we went a little overboard with what we wanted, but they never said no to anything.

They were supportive throughout the entire project. Even after the event was over, the aftersales services they gave us were pretty good. I’m still working with them to make edits to the site.   

What did you find most impressive about them?

We went with them because they were the more economical option, and they prioritized us more than the other vendor we were considering. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Since the website was created from scratch, there were a couple of technical glitches with the application process, which could’ve resulted in us losing out on a few applications and nominations. We’ll fine-tune the technical aspects going forward, with the next edition. 

Also, there were times when Tiki Tech took a bit more time than expected to deliver. They could work on that as well.

However, this was a new endeavor for both our parties. Overall, it was a very good experience, and we’re going ahead with the same developers next year. I’m sure it’ll be a smoother ride going forward.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They’re a very flexible and approachable company to work with, and they deliver quickly. They’re a good choice, especially for urgent projects. Tiki Tech has the skills and potential to deliver quickly, but the client has to tell them how they want to go about it.