AALOGICS

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own ListingBidder.com with a business partner, and I’m based in Pebble Beach, California. It is a website that was designed to bring equalization of the listing commissions that sellers pay in the marketplace through an auction process.

What challenge were you trying to address with AALOGICS?

I needed the website built based on my ideas. I had already worked out a database scheme and knew what the frontend was going to look like.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I specified the LAMP stack for the development of the web-based product. It was going to be hosted and had to have some fairly specific messaging functionality to it and some algorithms based on geography. I wanted something that would work both on desktop and mobile.

The core feature of the application is basically a platform that allows sellers to receive bids from local agents to list their property. There are features that happen automatically. Then, there are features that I use on the admin side of the platform. I use that information to actually go out and contact agents directly in the marketplace. AALOGICS built the whole admin side of it, which is now all that I use.

Ali [CEO and CTO, AALOGICS] is a PHP expert. He was on the PHP consulting team with Elance. Even within PHP, I think they used JIRA for the main framework. Within the LAMP stack, Linux is the operating system, and they used Apache and MySQL for the database. The PHP side is where all the work seemed to be. I outsourced the frontend design to another group, but that was only about 5% of the effort.

How did you come to work with AALOGICS?

I did a posting on Elance and got several proposals back. I then refined my proposal a bit. I was struck by AALOGIC’s response, which was specific to my project’s needs. I had a sense that the directness of their response was based on some deep underlying knowledge.

How much have you invested with AALOGICS?

I’ve invested between $10,000 and $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe the work began in August 2015 and was complete in February 2016. It took about four or five months.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

There would be no business if they hadn’t developed the website. The business has had varying degrees of success, but that was entirely outside the control of Ali and his team. In terms of delivering what I expected them to design, they did a great job. They also stayed within budget. As an offshore company, they did really well. The reliability and stability of the code are very good, and I have no issues with the site at all. I was heavily involved with them through the QA process. In the interest of time, I probably had them do less QA than they normally would.

How did AALOGICS perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication was very good. We did a lot of work on Skype and we used Bitbucket for a lot of the code control. It was a well-run project. I thought their project management skills were very good. There was a lot going on behind the scenes. Ali does weekly scrums, and he really knows his stuff. He’s the real deal.

What did you find most impressive about AALOGICS?

I don’t know how broad their expertise is, but within what I wanted them to do in a LAMP Stack project, I thought they were definitely within their wheelhouse. What they produced in the time that was given to them was very reasonable and met my expectations. The time zone difference wasn’t really an issue.

Are there any areas AALOGICS could improve?

I can’t think of anything. It was a good experience.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a one-man, independent consulting service in Newport Beach, California. I provide digital analytics and PPC services to small to medium-size businesses as well as large companies. I also do project management for web-based and SEO/SEM [search engine optimization/search engine marketing] services, and high-level overview of digital strategies. In my relationship with NDS, I’m the web project manager.  

What challenge were you trying to address with AALOGICS?

NDS had gone through several iterations with other support services, and they all seemed to drop the ball. I was the new guy who was brought in to facilitate and continue the relationship between NDS and AALOGICS. The gentleman prior to me had found AALOGICS and engaged with them.

What was the scope of their involvement?

All activity and all tasks are created based on NDS corporate and my insight into what their requirements and needs are. The requirements can be anything from website enhancements to broken issues on the site. AALOGICS also handles all upgrades to the site for content, SEO, and the Magento platform itself. They work on 5–25 support tickets at a time.

The big enhancement to the site was the installation and customization of a much more advanced search feature for the site. When people are searching for part numbers, videos, or PDF documents, the search results are accurate. They are also laid out correctly so that they’re visually friendly and easy to navigate.

AALOGICS has been good about making some recommendations on SEO. We have two other development sites for NDS that we didn’t want to be picked up by any search engine. They’ve been good about keeping that blocked. When we release new pages, it’s important that the SEO meta information is appropriately filled out, and we provide that to them. They do a good job of translating from English to their native language, and they get the importance of it.

How did you come to work with AALOGICS?

AALOGICS was already onboard and servicing the NDS account when I joined the project. There was a gentleman who was running a lot of the digital and web projects. He had made the connection with AALOGICS. As I was brought on board, he brought me into the fold with AALOGICS, and I just continued with the project workflow utilizing AALOGICS. It was a seamless integration and transition for both of us, and we were able to get comfortable with each other.

How much have you invested with AALOGICS?

Their monthly bill is about $3,000. It’s an open PO  and we burn through it. This month, we went over by about $400, which is fine because we’ve been doing a lot.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship began in October of 2016, and the work is ongoing.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I would think back to some of the search features. The search results have improved dramatically. We’ve seen some reduction in customer service calls looking for specific parts or support videos. Sometime early in March, we saw about a 10% increase in organic search results, people getting what they wanted. That’s probably the big thing.

AALOGICS’ resources are consistently available and very prompt. They follow through on all the tickets. Technically, they’re very good. They provide a lot of good technical capabilities within their staff, which is good in our situation. We’re across the board, and every day it’s a different curve ball. They’re very good at all the maintenance. I’m a Magento guy, but I’ve really tried to stay way out of the technical stuff. When I see problems, they’re very good about resolving the issues and knowing what to do. We have three different Magento environments, and they are good about babysitting all of them and keeping them up to date.

It’s reasonably priced, and we have no intention of leaving them. If anything, I’m afraid we’re going to give them more work. We have two dedicated people all the time, and we harp on them to have three. I think they have a hard time with finding talent in Pakistan for that third guy sometimes.

How did AALOGICS perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Assembla, which is an online ticket system. That’s the backbone of our whole process. Everyone has their own profile on there, so they’re all getting the emails regardless of who is updating it. They’re very good about responding and making sure it’s understandable in English. There’s rarely even a spelling error. They meet the timeline probably 95% of the time. We are the ones who come up with these fire drills, and they do the best they can with it.

We’re sensitive to the 12-hour time difference. If I have something pending, I make sure I’m up at 5:30 in the morning to communicate with them, and vice versa.

What did you find most impressive about AALOGICS?

I would say it’s their ability to make heads or tails out of our cryptic support tickets, and then the technical side. They’re very good at technical and programming work.

Are there any areas AALOGICS could improve?

I wish they were within about six hours, rather than a 12-hour time difference. Otherwise, they do a great job.