ZANZARRA

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m an independent marketing agency. I provide services from website development to print materials, branding, and UX design.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ZANZARRA? 

I know coding, but I need to focus on managing my business. I needed to hire an external resource to meet my clients’ web development needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

ZANZARRA predominantly works for me on the Drupal content management system. It's my preferred platform and it's what they specialize in. As long as Drupal is the right content management system, they work with my clients in industries ranging from finance to medical to a local newspaper. They’re able to operate at the root level. They can also set up the environment for me and do the installation. They build custom modules and create other customizations of the theme and the style. 

They support troubleshooting with the newspaper client in particular. I took that job on from someone else and it’s required a lot of cleanups. They've built sites from scratch for a financial investment company. I gave them the specs of what was required, including restricted access to certain parts of the site. They do custom work for the medical company on their website as well. 

What is the team composition?

I work with Alex (Account Executive, ZANZARRA). 

How did you come to work with ZANZARRA? 

They were a referral from another company. 

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent $7,500 to date. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

I've been working with them since January 2018, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I've not heard any negative feedback, which is important because I only get work through referrals. Their expertise in Drupal is efficient and sufficient for my clients. Being based in Ukraine, they're fairly inexpensive compared to what a U.S. firm would charge. It's a great opportunity to work with a talented team. 

How did ZANZARRA perform from a project management standpoint? 

It was a little bumpy at first. We started out just communicating via email, resulting in a bottleneck between me and the project manager. Alex recently integrated me into their job tracking tool. Now I can update tasks through the tool and see who's working on it. The project management software works really well, and now communication is quite smooth.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Their self-awareness of where their talents lie is excellent. I had a client that wanted a WordPress site. ZANZARRA had enough presence of mind to say that's not our strength so we can't support that project. It makes me feel confident that they only take on work in which they’re competent.

They also focus on the customer. There's a lot I don't know. ZANZARRA is good at educating me and being patient about explaining until I understand. They always come back with solutions whenever I pose a problem. Even though they’re 10 hours ahead, it’s amazing how often they have something ready for me the next day.

Are there any areas they could improve?

My only challenge was at the beginning with the lack of a project tracking mechanism. It turns out that they had a tool available and I just needed to ask. They’ve met every request I've had for engagement. I don't have anything to improve. They’re are working at maximum capacity now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

As with any project, clearly define the business needs. Once that's done, ZANZARRA can estimate properly to meet your needs. I don't think there's anything out of the ordinary that you need to do in order to engage with this team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the president of Envintix, a company that provides management consulting services as well as hosting and application services.
 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ZANZARRA?
We had a set of apps that we needed to transform over into more modern frameworks. We tried numerous companies, but all of them failed to deliver.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
ZANZARRA not only transformed some of our apps to a new framework, but they also collaborated on our business vision to create new apps and technology in a reliable manner. They migrated us from ASP.NET to Drupal 8, rapidly building modules and entire mobile apps using multiple languages (e.g., Ionic, C#, PHP, JavaScript). They designed an excellent UX and robust backend, implementing new technologies to enhance the services we provide, such as streaming, webinars, mobile apps, etc. 

We’ve worked on about five different projects with ZANZARRA, all customized to our end clients’ needs. For every product, they build a data model that works efficiently and enhances customer experience.

What is the team composition? 
The team depends on the project, but we’ve worked with various UX experts and developers.

How did you come to work with ZANZARRA?
They reached out to us on Guru. We’d worked with lots of companies previously, but none could deliver what we wanted on time and on budget. We partnered with them and they did good work, so our partnership has continued to expand.

How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent about $80,000 so far, but we plan to ramp up our engagement soon.

What is the status of this engagement?
We began working together in 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They accomplished tasks that no one else was capable of doing. We plan to be partners for the foreseeable future because they do such excellent work.

How did ZANZARRA perform from a project management standpoint?
We follow a scrum model, holding weekly conference calls to track project progress. They also have an intuitive system for us to see the work they’ve done and plan to do.

What did you find most impressive about them?
Their team is extremely talented, and everyone has lots of experience. They respect our timeline and budget, focusing on building a fantastic product and not necessarily on their bottom line. Unlike many other firms, they’re invested in our success and making our business better.

Are there any areas they could improve?
No. They've always been able to deliver a phenomenal product. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
They’re the experts, so let them manage the way they manage.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Digital Marketing Manager of an insurance company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Surety bond and insurance provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Web development
• Migrate to CMS

SOLUTION

How did you find ZANZARRA?

• Referral
• Clutch Site

Why did you select ZANZARRA over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from ZANZARRA were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Migrate our custom HTML websites to Drupal, and continue to maintain web development related tasks (e.g., content updates).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our websites were successfully migrated to Drupal, which allowed us to cut our on-going web development costs by 50%+.

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

The Drupal migration for both websites took about five months, and the team was very communicative throughout. 

What was your primary form of communication with ZANZARRA?

Email or Messaging App

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

The value, as their rate was very competitive in combination with their quality of work. 

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

I'd suggest hiring a design/UX expert if they are going to offer this service. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Director of the subsidiary that required this work. It is a B2B and B2C economic information platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a revamp of the frontent for our platform. New design, new functionalities and mobile design.

SOLUTION

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

Zanzarra have extensive knowledge of the platform front an backend we are using. Also they provide frontend design services and their portfolio matched what we were looking for.

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

Kick-off meetings about our needs and the way we wanted the project to be managed. All basic exchanges were done through Slack, and video conferences through Google Meet. Key deliverables were desktop frontend, mobile frontend, new layouts, new design.

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

4 people:

• General Manager
• Project Manager
• UI/UX specialist and designer
• Developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results are on par with our expectations. Zanzarra are professional and flexible.

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

We used Slack to coordinate between their developer and ours, and between our project manager and theirs. Also as mentioned did video conferences whenever needed.

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

Their focus is on customer satisfaction. That is great.

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

Bugs always arise in development projects, however these were handled accordingly and in time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an international digital agency specialized in sports, I'm the IT director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ZANZARRA?

We had various Drupal 7 and 8 based projects where we needed backend and frontend development.

What were your goals for this project?

Developing new features on these websites as well as regular maintenance.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They have been recommended by another company.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Creating layouts for events, building informational websites from ground up, creating REST API-s for JS frotnend solutions.

What was the team composition?

Full stack developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The impact is we were able to answer and deliver faster some solutions when our internal team was temporarily full, which is important.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had our own project managers on these projects.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They had a good sense of the IT requirements, easily understanding the tasks and delivering a good product.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As for any IT company there is always room for improvement, but there isn't any specific point I need to highlight.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Digital project manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ZANZARRA?

Creation of the drupal backend and integration of the front end

What were your goals for this project?

a modular system that would be flexible to create new courses

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

By references

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Creation of the drupal backend and integration of the front end

What was the team composition?

they were 2 developers and a project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

the school keeps growing and onboarding new students through the website

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

One project manager taking care of several developers

What did you find most impressive about this company?

There was very good communication and they respected the deadline.

Are there any areas for improvement?

we were pleased