9magnets

BACKGROUND

What is your position within the university?

I’m an associate professor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your main business objectives for undergoing this project?

When we started, we felt like we had a lot of great things going on here in the college, at the university and just weren’t doing a very good job getting it out to people. Our alumni perspective students, just the general public. So we wanted a tool where we could easily enter stories, photos, video, things like that and then someone on the phone—well, we started with the iPad. Now we have the iPhone and the Droid. They could follow us through that mobile device.

What was your process for selecting 9Magnets to work with?

We’re in a little interesting situation. Michael Phelps is Kim’s partner there, and they both went to school here. Michael was a mechanical engineering student, and I’m a mechanical engineering professor. They were students of ours, and they had done some previous work for the university where they were pretty happy with their work, so we knew them. We really didn’t investigate anyone else. We gave them the opportunity to bid, which seemed like a fair bid, and we used them. We try to support our graduates too.

SOLUTION

Can you tell me about the scope of the project?

It started out as an iPad app, and we asked them to do a few different things. We asked them to create a web-based content manager where we could easily upload the photos or the videos or create stories. We have four templates up there: two different story templates, a photo slideshow, and a video template. So we could go to the web, create these and then when you open the app, it would pull that content into the app. It would update every time we changed the story or added something.

Did you have any internal developers or designers to collaborate with 9Magnets?

I was involved as an electrical engineering professor as part of the main context. We would present what we represented the college. We presented to them what we would like, and Kim did all of the artwork. Then we took that artwork to our marketing department and have them approve the artwork. Once all of the artwork was approved and the layouts of the content of the app were approved, they did the programming. Then they interfaced with Apple to upload the program, get it approved, and all of the other steps. At the end, we populated it sample stories to make sure it works, and then we populated all the stories; we still do that.

How long ago was the most recent app completed?

The iPad app was completed in November. At that time, we hired them to do the iPhone and the Android apps, and they were completed in April of 2012.

Can you give me a general estimate for the project?

It’s $16,000.

It’s a very good price for all three of them.

Right. Actually, the Android app too—they actually hired someone to do the server part of the content manager, and we use the same content manager for all three apps. We were thrilled with the price.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How happy are you with the results of the project?

I can’t even tell you how thrilled we are. We’ve had over 500 downloads from 25 countries. Kim and Mike are really great to work with because they’re not like a 9 to 5 Monday through Friday team. If they run into a problem, they’ll stay all weekend and work on it. We’re so thrilled with them that my colleague has hired them to do an app for their sales people based on our recommendation.

Is there anything that stands out as being unique about 9Magnets compared to other developers you may have worked with?

I personally haven’t worked with any other developers because I’m a teacher. I’m not in our IT department, but the one thing that I thought was great—and it’s unique compared to other vendors that I’ve dealt with—is they’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done, and they take ownership.

Do you think there’s any area that 9Magnets could improve or do slightly better in?

To be honest, I really can’t come up with anything. The only issue we really had on the project was after we did the iPad. We had a few changes where we wanted to increase the upload or the download speed that they implemented for us, and we had a trouble with Apple. Apple tends to reject things. They’ll reject something that they approved a month before. So, we did have some issues with Apple, but Kim helped us work through it. We went through the appeal process and in the end, we got everything improved. It was just a little painful, but I’m not sure what Kim and Mike could have done about it. Sometimes we put one app in and it would be approved, and we put exactly the same thing on the iPhone, and it gets denied the first time.

BACKGROUND

What is your position with Valparaiso University?

I am the department chair of electrical and computer engineering, and I hold the title of associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were the university’s goals or objectives for doing the development project with 9magnets?

We had three goals. One was communicating the good news about the things that are going on at our institution to alumni, perspective students, present students, and parents. Our second goal was promotion and recruiting and, since we’re saying all of these good things, we expect that generates good press, and  good image and rapport with our perspective students. Finally, was to be leading edge. We feel that mobile applications are becoming the present big thing, but when we started the project it was like this is where the market’s going. We wanted to be on the cutting edge of technology, and we wanted an iPad app to promote our institution.

What was the process for selecting 9magnets to work with?

We knew them. I had actually worked with them before. One person at the company was a former student of mine, and I actually helped them put out their second app, Tap Blaster, but this was way back three years ago or so. They were getting started. I helped them get started. Then, on the business side of things, I helped them out for a little bit, too, so we had a working relationship with them. We knew they did good work, and we knew that they could deliver on their promises. So, we worked with them when we needed this app.

SOLUTION

Could you talk more about the scope of the project?

Basically, a newsreader and then a Web interface. I call it a backend, they called it a frontend, but a Web backend. We need to feed stories into a server, and then that server needs to serve up information to the application itself. A big thing was the graphic design. We needed this to look slick. It couldn’t look like some hokey patched-together thing, so we wanted a professional look and feel. They have a lot of experience with that, plus we have an integrated marketing team that’s just a bunch of colors and very totalitarian as far as what can represent the university in a visual image. Like the swoosh that we had was 10 percent too thick. They had to switch that, so they had to navigate a lot of different institutional barriers.

How long ago was the project completed?

We actually did two things. We did the iPad, and that was about a year ago. They’re finished about a year ago, but we are so pleased with that and the response that we had them do an iPhone and an Android app version. So, we wanted it to be available for all platforms and we are so pleased with the iPad that we went with iPhone and Android, too. So, it’s kind of the second project with us.

How long ago was the Android app completed?

About six months ago I think. These are real rough estimates because my days are like a blur.

Could you give me just a general estimate for the total cost for all three apps?

It’s under $50,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How happy are you with the results of the project?

We’re thrilled. The only barrier is our ability to get the word out about this app, but we’ve had dozens of countries telling all of these things. It’s just been great.

When working with 9magnets, is there anything unique or special about them compared to other developers you may have worked with?

Certainly. They gave us a great price. I think that’s why because we had a working relationship with them, but I would say their agility. It’s like they were able to adjust things. We had so many change orders, so they were pretty agile and responsive to our needs. We were a bit needy, and so they worked with us on all of that stuff. When administration would change the target, they had to change, and they didn’t stick us with change order bills. I think they probably should’ve. They worked with us, and I’d say agility is their best qualification.

The flipside of that question and, maybe you being overly critical, but looking back on the project, is there any area that 9magnets could improve or do slightly better in?

Yeah. I would say that their marketing manager is very aggressive and high energy. So, to that sense, I think probably a little less energy, a little more silence, and more sitting back and letting the customer explore the things that they want. I’m talking in the nicest term as possible, but that sort of thing. Very high energy. I’ll use the word localicious, so that’s what I would say would be mainly one thing that they could improve upon is maybe allowing the customer to express themselves more fully.