Zapbuild

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the co-founder of and chief creative officer at a cannabis company. We operate a direct-to-consumer cannabis platform that helps consumers discover products personalized to their specific needs. Users can purchase items and have them delivered directly to their front door.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd.?

Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. provides full-stack development for our web and native apps. Initially, we envisioned a consumer discovery platform that used personalization and recommendations to help educate consumers on cannabis products. Over time, we’ve expanded our solution into a full e-commerce platform.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals have evolved with the industry, but Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. has been able to pivot with us. Together, we can meet the ever-changing needs around legalization and capitalize on opportunities in the cannabis space.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were already working on the project by the time I joined the company. However, at this point, I wouldn’t consider changing vendors. Their mix of creative problem solving and low cost point has given us the ability to grow as a team. 

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We create the product vision and design internally and spec out our intended UX and integrations in detail. From there, Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. creates a plan of action, providing the resources needed as well as detailing the timing and strategy to execute. We then work together as a cohesive team to ensure that all details are covered.

What was the team composition?

Our team consists of a high-level project manager who oversees the web and native app solutions, two developers on each iOS and Android app, a team of six on web properties, and two QA specialists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Having Zapbuild Technologies Pvt Ltd. as a fundamental development arm for the last two years has allowed us to grow our business in a fiscally responsible and strategic way—the overhead of a stateside dev team would have crippled us long ago. With their support, we’ve had the extra runway to navigate a changing cannabis industry while we grow.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Everything we create is predicated on transparency and communication. Weekly sprint meetings, daily check-ins, a healthy project management system through Asana, and proper testing on staging environments all ensure that we produce the highest quality.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is not just a hired development house. They’re our partners. They continuously question our proposed solutions and are eager to find more ideal, forward-thinking alternatives at every phase of the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

When working with them, potential clients should build in realistic timelines that allow for proper review and QA. They are incredibly quick and aggressive with creating a solid foundation, but they could use an extra eye from time to time on the final polish.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Bounce Rental Solutions, reservation software for party equipment rental companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd.?

I wanted to create a user-friendly e-commerce platform on which customers could place orders while business owners could complete orders and process payments.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I presented Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. with my vision, and they built the software product using Ruby on Rails. Three months into the project, they developed a prototype that I tested and provided feedback on. They made the necessary modifications and delivered a final product.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a project manager, who oversaw the developers.

How did you come to work with Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd.?

While many of the developers I found on Upwork were individuals, I felt more comfortable partnering with a full-service, established vendor such as Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. They were also skilled in Ruby on Rails, which is what I wanted to build my platform with. Finally, Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. stood out because they provided a client reference. After speaking with the client, I knew Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. was capable of building the software platform I wanted.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The platform development began in November 2014 and ended in mid-2015. I still engage Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. to maintain the software.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After six months of development, I was able to use the product within my own rental equipment business. Shortly after that, I started bringing on clients. Many clients have chosen us over longer-established platforms because they find ours easier to use and more aesthetically pleasing.  

How did Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. perform from a project management standpoint?

Although I was in the U.S. and they were in India, Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. was responsive and met deadlines. They allowed me to choose the project management software that we used to communicate. We also communicated via email.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. built an intuitive and user-friendly product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Because we’re in different time zones, it would be helpful for them to have 24/7 customer support.

Any advice for potential customers?

Maintain project requirements but also be flexible to new approaches. As technical experts, Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. often proposed ideas that were better than my own.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the operations manager at Express DOT Service. We’re a DOT-compliance (Department of Transportation) company that works to keep hundreds of thousands of customers aligned with DOT standards.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zapbuild Technologies Pvt Ltd.? 

We’ve completed several technology projects with Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd over the course of our partnership. For this initial engagement, we needed to build a website around one of our services from the ground up.
 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. developed our site and web portal from scratch according to our requirements. The site featured a login portal that led to a user side as well as an admin portal where we could control the site and process payments.

Since then, we’ve kept them on retainer for ongoing support and maintenance. Being a virtual company means we’re constantly changing and need a provider that can accommodate that. If there’s a hiccup in our system or we need to make a change on a whim, their team is able to go in and quickly make any edits. This ranges from making simple tweaks to changing the whole look and feel overnight.

What is the team composition?  

We have about 12 people on staff at any given point, but they coordinate well. The great thing about working with Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is that their assigned project manager also handles our tech. As a result, we’re able to talk directly to the person who is responsible for building our site instead of having to go through a chain of communication. It’s an all-in-one solution.  

How did you come to work with Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd.? 

At the time, we were getting quotes from multiple US-based companies, but none of them offered what we were looking for. We then considered Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. because they had helped out some of our sister companies. They had a cost-effective price structure and seemed capable of delivering solid work when we needed it.

How much have you invested with them? 

We’ve spent upwards of $250,000 over the course of a year.

What is the status of this engagement? 

This project lasted from January–February 2018, which was great because we expected it to take at least 6–12 months. Now, we have them on retainer for ongoing maintenance and support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Having worked side by side with them on multiple projects, I’m confident in saying that they’ve taken us from an emerging business into a multimillion-dollar company. Their work is top-notch without a doubt. Even if we found a local vendor, we would never leave them because they built our backbone. We trust them fully, and they’ll always have our business.

How did Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. perform from a project management standpoint?

We typically use Skype and WhatsApp to chat, but our main communication is through email. That way, it’s easier for us to type up a message for them to get to instead of spending hours on the phone trying to catch them. One of the biggest challenges is working through time differences because they’re based in India. However, they’ve always delivered whatever we needed when we needed it.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Compared to other vendors I’ve worked with, it’s clear that their heart is in our company. They do everything they can to ensure that we’re constantly running, even if it means getting up at two in the morning to get a server running. Their team cares about our company as much as we do, and they have the best customer service hands down. 

Another advantage is that their project manager is also a technical lead, which means we’re directly working with one of our site’s programmers. This has been helpful because he’s able to advise us on how to build our site efficiently by pointing out ways to streamline features and plan ahead. They tell us if a new task will interfere with an existing function and offer ways to work around it.

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No, I don’t have anything negative to say. I love working with them so much, and they’ve earned our trust.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any company, do your research to see what’s the best fit. If you want to go with an American company, browse around. But if you’re a growing business that’s looking for cost, quality, and speed, I’d highly recommend Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. They’re second to none.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

LoanSystems.com is one of several websites we developed and continue to host, specifically for the mortgage originators industry. It helps with networking and lead generation efforts in terms of clients and referrals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zapbuild?

We hired them to redevelop the site. There has been a number of issues with our prior development team and weren’t able to keep the site live. We went to Zapbuild for assistance in working those out, and to get the site to where we needed it to be, security- and functionality-wise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zapbuild’s services were sought to develop the backend of the site, as well as some frontend elements, making sure it had the right look. We have a database-driven site, and they made an administrative dashboard in-sync with our functionality and security requirements. We did most of the creative work ourselves, with Zapbuild’s recommendations on anything they thought wasn’t working properly. The site is responsive and hosted with AWS, due to its scalability, reliability, flexibility, and security. We still have Windows- and Linux-based servers elsewhere, as well as some cloud-based hosting.

Zapbuild helped us build out several functionalities in a seamless way. One is a web page providing mortgage originators with a prequalification form, a loan application form, a question box, and some other features to introduce their services. There’s also a loan referral feature, which provides unique links that show when a lead is coming in, in addition to details about the client. It permits users to have a high level of responsiveness to their clients and referrals.

The site’s been completed, and they’re continuing to work on social media and Google Ads. Zapbuild is assisting with these efforts, without handling them in full.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager on the site development. They’ve also put us in touch with developers and other people on the team.  

How did you come to work with Zapbuild?

I’ve used Upwork several times before, and Zapbuild was one of the developers we looked at for their referrals and portfolio. They’d worked on sites of similar complexity to ours, so we chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Zapbuild in June 2017, and the collaboration’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re pleased with the collaboration. The site is brand-new, so I don’t have a lot of metrics yet, but our extensive testing has returned praise for the site’s functionalities and its ease of use. It's a very good option for people who want their information out there, indexed in search engines.

The site is very customizable; the loan origination and concierge pages can be fully branded to the client’s color scheme, style, logo, and images. Everyone seems to be pleased with that. Zapbuild has provided our clients with a site they can rely on, with the speed and reliability that requires.

How did Zapbuild perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been available for conference calls with people in our business, to make sure the site works according to the requirements and specifications, and to make other recommendations.

We’ve used Google Docs for tracking development and testing, with Upwork to share documents. Much of our communication has been via Skype calls, screen sharing, or email. They’ve been responsive overall.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re based in India, and sometimes there is a language barrier with this, but it’s never been a hurdle. They’re fully conversant in English, compared to other groups we’ve worked with, which helps them stand out.

We’ve frustrated them on occasion by missing some requirements, and they’ve been willing to rework things. They’re very flexible, adaptable, friendly people, and they’re also affordable. We’ve invested quite a bit in their services, but we could’ve invested quite a bit more in other providers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Zapbuild’s testing has been good, but we’ve also used an outside firm that has allowed us to identify a few elements that needed more attention. From our point of view, it was wise to use an independent tester. It validated the quality of Zapbuild’s work while also revealing some usability issues we needed to address.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Spend a lot of time with the requirements and choose a team with both subject-matter expertise and technical skills. It’s also helpful to find a team conversant in competitor products. The more conversancy there is in terms of what other products are used commonly in the industry, the better the product will be in the marketplace. It’s also important to be realistic with timeframes and keep an eye on scope creep.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of a marijuana technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd? 

We wanted to build an online platform that allowed retailers to purchase and sell their products easily. We hired Zapbuild technologies to build a website that featured menus, order tracking, delivery scheduling, inventory control, and pricing capabilities so that processors could seamlessly sell to retailers. To aid the B2C side of our business, we also allow retailers to embed a widget that shows their inventory and allows their customers to place online orders for in-store pickup.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zapbuild created a complex website that allows B2B and B2C purchasing to coexist on a single platform. They were instrumental in building everything, including the database, the menu system, the embed feature, and the API integrations that are integral to our success with third-party vendors.

What is the team composition?

We mostly interacted with their project manager, but we also had access to their web developers.

How did you come to work with Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd?

I was not a part of the selection process, but I evaluated the working relationship between our two companies when I came onboard and found that their competitors did not come close to matching their value. Like most software startups, we have a ton of needs with limited funds, and Zapbuild fit the budget and had the necessary expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent upwards of $120,000 on the website.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Zapbuild in October 2016 and our partnership is ongoing.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although we’re still in the rough beta launch phase, one major producer processor is generating $500,000 a month while selling exclusively through our platform. It’s a sign of success for us that our site has drastically improved their productivity and processing.

We receive more positive feedback than negative from our customers, despite the occasional bugs. In my experience, we are not experiencing an alarming amount of issues on the website, which is assuring.

How did Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd perform from a project management standpoint?

They are based in India, but they kindly accommodated our schedule by providing a daytime developer in exchange for the availability of one of our team members at night. We create Trello cards and discuss them via Slack or Skype. As long as we communicate our needs clearly, they always create exactly what we ask them to for.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If I present a troubleshooting issue vaguely, they are able to solve the problem on their end without asking for more detail. We are also astonished by their ability to complete large projects in less time than we would originally estimate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes the language barrier causes them to misunderstand our requests, which causes them to create a feature that we did not ask for. The wording they use in their error messages is also hard to decipher at times, but we understand that English is not their first language and that they rarely have someone on staff that can give them the proper verbiage.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They will help you meet your goals, as long as your instructions are not vague. Create a detailed prototype to best communicate your vision to them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am CEO of DOT Compliance Group, a compliance service within the trucking industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd.?

We needed a technology service provider for web development, database management, IT support, and general technological services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zapbuild Technologies works on a multitude of diverse technological projects as needed. They developed a website, created a custom back office, and produced a market/customer database management system so far. They also integrated DocuSign in our forms, created a random-testing program by data selection, and archived customer’s PDF documents. They are currently doing maintenance on our database. 

What is the team composition?

I work with 5–10 team members and a team leader.

How did you come to work with Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd.?

I found them on a third-party website and they were less expensive than American companies.

How much have you invested with them?

I invested about $300,000–$1,000,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2013 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I do not have any measurable metrics, but their products never have any major errors and function as requested. They quickly resolve any errors that may arise.

Their high quality and low cost was a major reason I could leverage my resources to grow my company a hundredfold.

How did Zapbuild Technologies Pvt. Ltd. perform from a project management standpoint?

They communicate regularly through email and sometimes by phone or text if it is urgent. The team built an in-house project management tool which we use to track their work.

Despite our different time zones, Zapbuild is always available during off-hours and even on weekends.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their services consistently produce higher-quality work than American companies at a fourth of the cost. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nobody’s perfect and whenever we run into issues like our language barrier or any technical errors, they work with us to fix it and move on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them a project to prove themselves and you’ll see in time that they deliver high-quality products at a low cost.