AUDAX

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Zeppelin an international dealer for heavy construction and mining machinery, Parts and Service, with many locations in different countries. I´m Head of Corporate Development, responsible for strategic forward development, entering new market and products, making sure, companies achieves competitive advantages.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We focused on 2 separate streams: - new innovative business model development; - advanced online marketing and lead generation entering retail market. We hired the Audax team as a core partner to help us to solve these challenges together. The goals were: - to launch our new innovative marketplace of used machines and start the MVP version in 3 months; - to audit and understand key issues with corporate websites and create an improvement plan with a clear target on lead generation online for used and new machines or spare parts.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We started a tender process and recognized that the AUDAX team showed key values that we search for in our IT partners, such as: - Overall business focus with clear understanding of core goals and requirements; - Broad expertise in different technologies; - Flexibility in providing the resources to rapidly scale the team.

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

For marketplace of used machines the scope of work included: - MVP launch and further development of the product - Used machines Inspection App launch and further development of the product - Market intelligence tool, which helps to estimate the fair market price, considering the level of competition on the market, the price of new and used machinery, the cost of repair, etc; - Integration with core classifieds to increase marketing activities.

For Zeppelin corporate websites: - UX and UI audit, with a clear improvement plan; - Redesign and relaunch the web version with a focus on customer experience and acquisition; - Development of a call center management program, which improves the speed of contact with the right person and increase customer's satisfaction; - Mobile CRM - Zeppelin Navigator.

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

Between 5 and 12 team members were involved in work on different stages of cooperation, depending on the amount of tasks

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Marketplace of used machines: - MVP launched in 3 months; - Cost of the launch was 30% less and 2 times faster, compared to in-house development; - Sales process was started, exact figures are on the NDA. We were extremely happy with the speed and proactivity of guys, they managed to deliver results even faster than our tight schedule and first sales happened way few weeks ahead of the original plan.

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

Audax suggested their standard project management approach which we were very happy with. Confluence, Jira and GitHub were used for traceability. Transparency and full engagement helped up to keep up to date with each and every step and get better understanding of each stage. We also had a brainstorming sessions when it was needed to find the best IT solution for the issue.

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

Their industry expertise and willingness to go deeper and understand our needs were impeccable. Their desire to find the right solution for us even when they had to convince and fight for it if they believe that it isn't an optimal one or they see risks in it.  Ability to speed up, scale the team and their flexibility.

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

We had a change of Product Manager after 2 years of work. It is always a bit complicated to transition from a person with whom you were working for 2 years. At the same time, the transition was executed well.