Animink

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Lifestyles by Design is an exterior design firm specializing in space planning, sourcing, and installation for commercial and high-end residential outdoor and leisure projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Animink?

We needed help building and hosting our company website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Animink has designed and developed our company website and continues to provide hosting, ongoing maintenance, and site updates as needed. The team has built the website from the ground up. We supplied some rough ideas and collaborated closely with Animink. The team has brought the ideas to life and made many great suggestions throughout the process.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from Animink.

How did you come to work with Animink?

We found Animink through a referral. We chose them over other options because they had high ratings.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Animink in May 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main outcome of our project with Animink is a professional website that reflects our company and our work. The site has continued to function well over the years, and Animink handles updates and changes quickly when needed. We’ve received calls from potential clients who mentioned that they had visited our website, and we’ve received positive feedback on the site and its design.

How did Animink perform from a project management standpoint?

Animink’s project management has been very good. The team is extremely responsive via email and messages, completes our requests quickly, and always follows up to let us know when the work is finished. Animink has consistently delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Animink’s responsiveness and follow-through are impressive. The team is very easy to work with, quick to respond, and always completes our requests promptly and thoroughly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of marketing and communications for Geenex. We develop large-scale solar, battery storage, and advanced nuclear energy projects, partnering with communities and landowners to deliver reliable power, economic benefits, and sustainable energy solutions across multiple states.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Animink to accomplish for your marketing and communications efforts?

We needed support for website design, hosting, and administration for our numerous project websites, which are all individual LLCs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Prior to my arrival at Geenex, Animink also supported a corporate and project rebranding effort. Animink continues to support the administration of ~10 domains. The team has created new logos, provided a brand guide, and updated websites to reflect the new branding. Animink also handles the technical hosting, security, and ongoing administration of sites, including DNS records and Cloudflare management.

What is the team composition?

We work with 2–5 teammates from Animink.

How did you come to work with Animink?

We found them through a referral. We chose them because they were close to our geographic location, their pricing fit our budget, and they offered good value for the cost.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2024, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We didn't have established metrics for success. However, people like the new look of the rebranded websites. They function well, and Animink is flexible and responsive when we have unique one-off requests for one of our websites, such as adding functionality to run a letters of support campaign. The sites are easy to navigate and find content people are looking for, such as contact info and grant applications.

How did Animink perform from a project management standpoint?

Animink is responsive and continues to manage multiple workstreams and project streams for Geenex. Our primary forms of communication are virtual meetings and emails or messaging apps. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They tolerate our chaos, which is appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be helpful to have a single sign-on for all our WordPress sites. It would also be helpful if Animink tracked our requests in a ticketing system and proactively managed our requests. We shift focus and priorities quickly, and it's easy to lose track of what we've asked them to support.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Outside sales Rep of Transmission Exchange Center

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Wholesale distrubitor for automotive transmissions and drivertrain units.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Customize our existing Zoho Books module to meet our specific needs
• Customize our existing Zoho inventory module to meet our specific needs
• Integrate our existing Zoho CRM, Books and Inventory so that each module seamlessly moved from adding a customer to the CRM, to creating a quote, a purchase order, sales order and invoice
• Educated us on the capabilities of Zoho and the possibilities that the Zoho Modules provided

SOLUTION

How did you find Animink?

Online Search

Why did you select Animink over others?

They listened to our goals and offer reasonable solutions

How many teammates from Animink were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

They did a customer development of our existing Zoho moduals to create a system that worked. Prior to their involvment we stumbled through our own attempt to customise Zoho CRM, Books, and Inventory to create a system that would for us. We found the customer support group of Zoho had little to no experice in our specefic industry therefore was often not a lot of help.

 Our partnership with Anamink has changed everything. We are now developing not stumbleing through the process. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have created a custom designed system that works for not only us, but also for our customers. Allowing customers to get their own lookups, check pricing, and inventory from all of our vendors. Customers and access their accounts to see invoicing, statements and credits.

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

The team members at Animink are alwwys very upfront with the estimated time to complete a tast, and deliver on that estimate.

 They are very good at communiating, prompt to answer questions and requests and have shown a great pride in understanding our goals, meeting our expetations and creating a collaborative enviroment.

What was your primary form of communication with Animink?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They listened to what we were trying to achieve, which impressed us. Made great effort to understand how we needed a system to work and became invested in the finial product. All without ever showing any level of frustrations from our lack of programming knowledge or when we needed to make "one more little change".

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

I can not think of one single criticism.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Information Technology of Mississippi School Boards Association

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Train School Board Members and District Superintendents in the state of Mississippi, while providing multiple add-on services including software and technical expertise.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Serve All Districts in the State of Mississippi by Maintaining, Supporting and Coding our Online Paperless Board Meeting System.
• Ensure our system functions optimally and support our member base.
• Ensure our member base is satisfied with our software's function and operation.

SOLUTION

How did you find Animink?

Online Search

Why did you select Animink over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Experience withour Technical Stack

How many teammates from Animink were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

They stepped in to replace our original development team to support, debug, code, optimize and test our statewide paperless board meeting system.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our system continues to function and receives consistent and timely upgrades and updates.  Bug counts continue to decline and functionality continues to improve.

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

They are exemplary at managing the project; timely and responsive.  In any emergency they have stepped up and made our issues their top priority.

What was your primary form of communication with Animink?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I am extremely happy with this company, their skill level, efficiency at project management, timeliness and cost.

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

I can see no areas in need of improvement. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Program Coordinator of a nonprofit company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A non-profit organization providing ongoing and accessible physical therapy for individuals with neurological mobility challenges. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• build out a 100% customizable scheduling platform w/ confirmation text messages
• interactive database that complies all of our program's data and can be pulled into a report
• streamline out reconciliation process with automated invoices

SOLUTION

How did you find Animink?

Online Search

Why did you select Animink over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

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

Animink met with us almost on a weekly basis during the discovery process where they explored exactly how our program currently operates and understood where our program is looking to improve our processes with their services. Animink built out our ZOHO CRM to include a 100% customized scheduling platform with the ability to send out confirmation text messages. 
They also understood the many different data points we are responsible for tracking and built out our ZOHO reports to pull exactly what we need. Lastly, they streamlined our reconcilation process for our HR and accounting team to make the monthly invoice processess much more efficient. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We would meet almost weekly where they would show us what they are building in the "ZOHO Sandbox". Here we could see progress and make changes as needed. Then once we approved, they would push the function to be "Live" and we would have access to use the new function as designed. Anytime we had questions, the Animink team guided us in a timely fashion. 

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

We were highly impressed with the level of care and attention they provided us with. I often told them, we are not professionals in this area of work so they would always listen to our questions and guide us through the coding terminology that would otherwise be a second language to us. They were very timely when we would contact them with questions and they would teach us how to use every function that they built specifically for us! 

What was your primary form of communication with Animink?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The President of Animink was on just about every virutal meeting we had set up, cc'ed on every email regarding our project, and played an extremely active role in monitoring the project delivery from his team. Markus was always up to speed on our project needs and timeline. 

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

A few functions we rolled out needed to be adjusted a few different times due to glitches in the coding, but they were always very responsive when working through a glitch. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Manager of YouScience/formerly NC3T

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Support schools with Career and Technical Education, particularly around employer engagement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Design an initial website
• Develop the site over several years
• Assist with customer support and management

SOLUTION

How did you find Animink?

Online Search

Why did you select Animink over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Animink were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We were education consultants, no technical experience, and we had decided we needed an app to help high school educators manage their work-based learning activities. Our initial product needed to address the following: 

• Provide EVENT MANAGEMENT for work-based learning activities, including assisting in the development of partnership agreements and needed materials (parent waivers, etc.) as well as scheduling each activity and sending calendar reminders 
• Offer TRAINING and other support, including links to how-to videos and guides for both teachers and their business partners 
• STORE DOCUMENTS, including partnership agreements, advisory board minutes and bylaws, etc. 
• Provide REPORTING for educators, including tracking hours of business partners and students and demonstrating outcomes for these activities.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Launched the initial product on time and within budget, with very positive feedback from the initial set of users. Over course of several years they continued to develop new features and product areas working closely with our team and went above and beyond to create a quality product within estimates.

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

Yes, they work very quickly as long as they're provided with good feedback. While we were not technical people they brought us up to speed on their project management/Agile system so we had full transparency. Every product is going to have hiccups, but whenever an issue arose they were very responsive and collaborative and worked hard to correct things as soon as possible.

What was your primary form of communication with Animink?

Email or Messaging App

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

First, an understanding of how to meet user needs. They did not have the expertise we had in the education space but their designs and product flows are excellent in terms of meeting the expectations of our educator clients. And next, just the working environment they created, it was very collaborative and open, a great experience for several years.

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

None that come to mind - there were occasional issues, as there are with any project, but they were proactive wherever possible, very good at communicating solutions and timelines, and worked hard to make needed fixes.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Administrator of Duraflame, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We sell fire fuel and grilling products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create an online survey

SOLUTION

How did you find Animink?

worked with them before

Why did you select Animink over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Animink were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We were looking for an online tool to help us collect pricing surveys we conducted out in the field. We have various employees who collect pricing from a number of retailers and needed a way for them to easily submit this information to us. Animink helped create an easy to use site where pricing and pictures could be uploaded by various users. The best part is the website was set up for in house employees can design pricing surveys ourselves.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Checking in via zoom and email. Testing out the site with various in house users. We did some practice price surveys to make sure features we needed were captured in the new tool.

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

Yes, everything was delivered on time. Anytime there was a hiccup in the tool the animink team was quick to respond and offer a solution. Great team to work with overall.

What was your primary form of communication with Animink?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They were very easy to communicate with and willing to work with the timeline I had. They are upfront about costs and additional work something might take. Good communication and delivered a tool that we enjoy using.

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

At this time I can't really think of any. Anytime I've had a problem with the tool they are quick to lend a helping hand.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Lead Training Coordinator of Pathways Early Autism Intervention

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We train IDEA Part C organizations in our innovative, evidence-based, naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention parent training program that support toddlers who have or are suspected of characteristics of autism.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create a training database that is user friendly
• Create training certification tracking
• Create a way to collect records for many fields related to training

SOLUTION

How did you find Animink?

Online Search

Why did you select Animink over others?

• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Animink were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Animink helped us develop a training database where our individuals could track their training, certification and program materials.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were able to meet with us frequently to listen to our needs and desires and build our database from scratch based off ideas. They brought our ideas into an workable system that was efficient and systematic.

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

Their project management was delivered in a timely manner. They might not have corrected all system errors in 24 hours but gave time frames that were regularly met.

What was your primary form of communication with Animink?

Virtual Meeting

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

They've taken our ideas and brought them to life in a way that helps our clients have the best training experience.

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

We have seen areas of repeated errors but the Animink is always willing to continue to fix them in a timely manner.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the General Manager of Lowe Vintage Instrument Company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We sell high-end vintage and used fretted instruments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Build a professional website that showcases our inventory that could be easily updated in real-time.
• Help with SEO goals to push our site towards the top of search engine results.

SOLUTION

How did you find Animink?

Referral

Why did you select Animink over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Easy to work with

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

Animink was responsible for designing and building our site from the ground up, making it as easy for us to update in the back end as possible. We have gone through several changes over the years, and they have always delivered a fantastic product that we're proud to have our name on; we consistently get positive customer feedback on the site's overall design and ease-of-use.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We use Google analytics to measure monthly web traffic, bounce rate, etc. We saw a sizable increase in monthly web traffic once we implemented some SEO strategies suggested by Animink.

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

Animink and their team consistently met timeline goals, and often exceeded them. Markus, Dino, and Jason are all extremely responsive any time we had an issue or need to update something.

What was your primary form of communication with Animink?

• In-Person Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I liked that Animink listened carefully to what our needs were, what we were trying to achieve, and most importantly, our budget. At no time did we feel like they were trying to upsell us any services we didn't need; they're conscientious of the project parameters and have done a wonderful job sticking to them.

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

Animink delivered on time, on budget, and were wonderful to deal with in person and via email. I wouldn't change a thing!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an Officer at NC Transportation Museum

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The N.C. Transportation Museum provides educational and entertaining experiences centered on North Carolina's rich transportation history, while also preserving the artifacts and sites that tell the story of transportation in our state.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Improve website navigation & user experience.
• Create a cleaner, brighter visual identity for the website.
• Build a website with a user-friendly back end administration so regular updates could be made by organizational staff.

SOLUTION

How did you find Animink?

Online Search

Why did you select Animink over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Animink were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The scope of work was for a full build of a new website, including design and build out of key landing pages and all interior pages. Content for the new site was to be transferred from the old site, with additional content provided by the organizational also added. 
The site needed to have clean, user friendly navigation that would be adaptable as organizational needs changed. The site needed customizable contact forms and be built with a back end that could be edited by organizational staff with no or limited knowledge of web design.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Total visits to the site, length of time spent on the site by each visitor and the number of leads through completed contact forms increased significantly after launch of the new site. Organizational staff reported high satisfaction working with the back end of the site.

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

Animink was regularly in contact to make sure they received all organizational assets need to stay on the timeline. They met all project deadlines and returned revisions quickly. They were easily to adapt when project needs changed mid-project. We found them to be highly responsive at every step.

What was your primary form of communication with Animink?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Animink took the time to really understand our organization and our needs to make sure they provided the best solution for our situation and didn't try to oversell us. They were very flexible and responsive throughout the project.

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

N/A