Xibis

BACKGROUND

Can you give a brief description of what your company does?

Forte Lubricants is a company that sells engine treatments directly to the trade. Forte set up the Good Garage Scheme, which is an online network of independent garages where consumers can find a local trustworthy garage to service their car or repair their car or maintain their car here in the U.K.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We came into contact with Xibis first when a couple of the people in my company went to a course on website security, which Xibis had gone to. From there, we asked them to do the first project, which was the Good Garage Scheme app for us that went really well. From there in the past year, we asked them to design a new website for us, which they have done. So, they’ve done our Good Garage Scheme website, and they’ve also created a Forte website for us, which is still in the phase of development.

SOLUTION

What platforms have they developed the app for?

For iPhone originally, and then an Android phone as well.

Did they handle the visual design and the backend development and everything?

They did the whole project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How satisfied are you with the app, and the website they made?

We’re really satisfied with the app. Within the first year of its launch, we were voted one of the top 500 apps by the Sunday Times. We were in the list for 2011 and 2012. So, we were really happy with it. We were happy with it anyway. But, that was just an added bonus that it was voted for, too.

How about the website?

The website’s been really good. We were with one Web developer for a number of years, but he wasn’t moving things on. I approached Xibis to create a mobile website for the Good Garage Scheme, and then it turned out that they were able to offer us a content management system website where we’d have more control on what we added and changed on the website. So, we’re really happy with that as well.

When working with Xibis, is there anything that you find to be unique or special compared to other developers that you’ve worked with?

I think they’ve been really helpful. They’re always on hand if I need any advice, which is really important, because our website is really important for our company. With regard to the changes that we’ve asked them to do, they’ve done them quickly and efficiently. They’ve given us advice. What I also like about them is that they’re presenting us with moving the business forward as well. So, they’ll come to us with different ideas.

On the other side of that question, looking back on the projects they’ve done, is there anything you’d do differently a second time around or think they could improve on?

The one thing that happened that I wasn’t happy with was when they presented the website to us, I didn’t realize that, and this is not a criticism against them, it’s probably a misunderstanding on my part. Anyway, I didn’t realize that we would have to populate the pages of the website ourselves. I know that we had to do editing, but I thought that they were going to do most of the layout and everything for us. We had to do them ourselves. That was probably clear, but not understood to me, so it was a little bit of misunderstanding on my part, I think. So no, nothing.