Apptitude

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re the Houston Zoo. I’m the Senior Director of Technology. I manage the IT department and related things like the website. Prior to that, I was the Director of Interactive Marketing and managed the website and our app.

What challenge were you trying to address with Apptitude?

We recoded and redesigned our website back in 2012 with a different firm. The developer was a little out of bounds. He didn’t have a good grasp on clean and solid code, and our website hosting was pretty terrible. The site went down a lot. We called on Apptitude to help us with that.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They re-coded our whole website and they did a fantastic job. Everything was super top notch. It really helped us raise the bar from a technology perspective on the web. Then they redid our app because they did such a good job. We have a new app created from scratch thanks to them. It’s available on iOS and Android.

How did you come to work with Apptitude?

I personally knew the founder of Apptitude, Chris Boyd, previously. What I really think lead us to choose them was their flexibility, and their focus as a company on having really excellent service and really clean, modern, and easy design and development. Since then, the service we received has allowed us to keep them on board.

How much have you invested with Apptitude?

We have spent $10,000 to $50,000 per project. We’ve done several projects that size.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them for two, maybe three, years. We have a web administrator here on staff with whom they work. They are in charge of maintenance of the backend of the website and they maintain the app. They’ve also built a bunch of other stuff for us since then because they’ve done such a good job. They built a kids’ website, a couple of microsites, a dashboard, and a work order system - all kinds of awesome customized things. They even built the interface for our aquarium touch screens.

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

Prior to Apptitude, the biggest thing was the fact that we were experiencing a lot of slowness and downtime with our website. Once they re-coded the website, we have had no downtime. Occasionally, we’ll get a blip but you’re talking about 99.99% uptime. So that has been the biggest change - stability. Once you’re stable, you can start looking at other stuff. You’re not always in panic mode like we had been. The second thing we needed, that Apptitude gave us, was re-envisioning our app.

Previously, we were with this company that provided a canned, subscription-based platform. We needed something different. Re-coding our app gave us the flexibility to do our own thing and not have to follow the crowd.

How did Apptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

I think they have some very talented developers and designers on their staff. It’s cool that they have different resources that we can utilize depending on the project. Their project management is good. I don’t have anything negative to say.

What did you find most impressive about Apptitude?

They’re always on top of the latest technology and really forward-looking. We’re a non-profit and we have to have an eye on our budget. They’re very budget conscious. Also, while they’re on the leading edge, they’re not pushing solutions that are on the bleeding edge. So I trust that solutions are tested and will work if we implement them.

Are there any areas Apptitude could improve?

No. For us, I think a working relationship is just like any other relationship in life; you have your ups and downs, but overall, we’ve had a really great run with them and we’re continuing to add more stuff to their plate.