Addact Technologies

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Blue Fountain Media, a global digital marketing agency. We’re a part of a larger company called Pactera Edge, a website design and development shop. We create, design, and develop custom websites for large clients across the globe. 

I’m a senior account director, so I’m the main conduit between the clients and the Blue Fountain Media team. I’m ultimately responsible for the success of all the projects. I coordinate the deliverables for any particular phase of our projects, such as design and development. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Addact Technologies?

Addact is a Sitecore specialty development team, and one of our clients needed a website built on Sitecore. We don’t have many Sitecore developers in-house. 

The website’s for a global nonprofit membership organization that provides resources for benefits and healthcare managers within Fortune 500 companies.

This client’s website was outdated and not easy to use. They originally reached out to have us create a new digital strategy for them. In the process of creating a digital strategy, they also tasked us with design and development. 

For the scale and scope of this project, we essentially outsource the development portion of the website to Addact. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Addact works with our in-house developers to develop and host the website. They work on the backend, and the Blue Fountain Media team handles the frontend design and development. 

Our in-house developers worked on the website for the first couple of months of development when Addact started. When they were onboarded, they took over all of the Sitecore development tasks.

What is the team composition?

For the most part, we work with two people, including Ketan (CTO). He comes in when there are major stumbling blocks that we have with the customer, or when the client needs a certain piece of functionality. 

How did you come to work with Addact Technologies?

We initially looked for other development shops for about two months, but their work was worse and their cost was higher. Addact reached out to us and then took over the backend development. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $175,000–$180,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We officially started working with them in November 2019, and the work is still ongoing.

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

They’ve been great, and they’ve created very good work at good speeds. Feedbacks have been anecdotal. We do look at the metrics within Sitecore and Google Analytics, but we don’t really use those as success measurement. It’s much more anecdotal. 

How did Addact Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve been very happy with their response times, project management, and communication. I talk to the client on a weekly basis every Thursday morning, and we have a  continual feedback loop from the client about things that are or aren’t working for them and their members. When they have information, they pass it along. 

For every single one of our projects, there’s a counterpart to me who’s a technical project manager overseeing all development resources. There’s somebody within our team who works most closely with the Addact team, and he’s the link between me and them. 

If I have something come up that the client sends by email, I email our project manager and Mitesh (Sitecore Lead) from their team. I email them together, and half of the time, Addact directly responds. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication is most impressive, and they’re very good at turnaround times with the information. I understand emailing me answers isn’t their job; it’s coding at the end of the day. However, they do respond very quickly. 

Addact responds very clearly, and they have been very helpful to the client, who has never used Sitecore before. They’re very helpful in putting together step-by-step guides, such as Word documents, screenshots, and explanations to help ease the client into using Sitecore. They’ve just been a great asset for that since I’m also not good at Sitecore. They’ve just been great at explaining how everything works. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve hit some roadblocks, and we’ve been having some frustrations with getting things to work the way we want them to. However, now it seems that those are actually Sitecore issues and not any of the code that Addact creates. 

They’ve tried plenty of solutions, and then we have to go to Sitecore directly to have their team support us. The Addact team has been very good at trying to find fixes themselves, but at this point, I don’t want to keep churning out money trying to fix something that may ultimately be a Sitecore issue. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It helps expedite communication to have a counterpart who’s able to stay online at the same hours as the Addact team every day. It’s been very helpful to have somebody on our team who's closer to Addact’s timezone. 

It means that when I sign on in the morning, I can reach out to my counterpart in India who works for us. He will have already spoken to them multiple times throughout the day because they’re finishing up by the time I’m getting online. I overlap with them for a few hours a day.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as the managing director of the company, overseeing the project and acting as stakeholder to ensure the outcome meets client expectations.

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

We worked with Addact to support our development team for a large corporate website, the site was built on sitecore and had many micro applications within the main platform. Our goals were to provide changes, fixes and features for the platform.

How did you select Addact Technologies and what were the deciding factors?

Addact were selected through a competitive tender process and were head and shoulders above other partners due to their responsiveness, knowledge and professionalism.

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

Setting up various servers and versions of the software, building new features and developing code, using a code repo, deployments etc. Web technologies and CMS Sitecore.

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

5 all senior members of the development team so architect or lead architect.

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

Difficult to share quanifiable outcomes but Addact were always 100% reliable with their work and attitude to supporting our efforts for the project.

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

Always responsive and professional. Deadlines were set and met and we had constant communication either via IM, Email or calls.

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

Their willingness to help and professionalism were very impressive. Nothing is too much trouble for them and it's clear they genuinely like what they do.

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

Nothing.