BlueModus

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing for a food company. We are a retail solutions provider, and we offer retailers across the country fudge solutions for their business. Essentially, we’re a private fudge company, and we manufacture fudge-making equipment, fudge ingredients, and all items related to fudge sales for our retailers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BlueModus?

We were working with another agency in building our website. However, we experienced some challenges collaborating with them and getting the final result we were looking for. Having had a relationship with BlueModus in the past, we believed that they had the capacity in getting our website where it needed to be to launch it properly. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve developed and we’re getting ready to launch a brand new Kentico website, so we completely changed and overhauled everything that was on our existing website. We already had a content management system in place when BlueModus joined our project. 

We brought BlueModus to ensure that from a design perspective, the website would run smoothly and that it would look the way it should. We also hired them to make sure that from a functional standpoint — all checks and balances were made to ensure that our platform would run efficiently and effectively for our existing customers and prospective clients. 

The team started with an extensive discovery on our website and at the time we engaged with them, our website was 80% complete. They investigated and determined that there was poor implementation on our backend, and the BlueModus team made recommendations based on that. 

The BlueModus team didn’t do the original design, but they largely contributed feedback on the design we had. That allowed us to make changes to our platform. The team continues to assist us with some backend development work. 

What is the team composition?

We’re working with three primary team members, including Kate (Senior Director of Strategic Solutions), a senior solution lead, and a project manager. We’ve also worked with Anne (Creative Director) and a director of marketing technology (Martech) who was in charge of SEO.

How did you come to work with BlueModus?

We worked with them 3–4 years ago, and we knew that BlueModus was widely recognized as an expert on the Kentico platform, so we knew it was the best decision for our business to work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together on this recent project in July 2020, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work’s impact is hard to gauge at this point since we just executed a soft launch of our website. Previously, we had a platform that was extremely inefficient so our customer visits were limited but now we’re seeing signs of success on our new website.

I’m sure that BlueModus’ work has contributed to that success. However, it’s tough to measure their contribution because of the lack of performance of our prior website. 

How did BlueModus perform from a project management standpoint?

We have standing weekly calls at a minimum and in between those weekly Zoom calls, there have been quite a number of communication training sessions that have been conducted. We also have a status call weekly with BlueModus’ primary team of three. 

We have a project manager that is dedicated to our account, but we have one specific that keeps us in line, organizes tasks at hand, manages budgets, and manages our hours. Overall, our project manager has been an asset to our work. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I can probably go on with a list of 10 impressive things about BlueModus, but I want to highlight that they’ve always been willing to help and dedicate time to us. They’re extremely communicative and they always keep us in the loop as far as their progress on different tasks is concerned.

Moreover, they’re pleasant to work with and that’s extremely important in developing any relationship. Above all, they seem like an extension of our own business as opposed to a vendor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t say I have any critical feedback on anything that I felt was a shortcoming. Overall, we don’t have anything we’ve not been happy with. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate with BlueModus closely — have meetings and keep everyone in line with a weekly status at a minimum. However, the necessity to communicate depends on the project’s scale. In our case, a weekly status with BlueModus’ core team has ensured that everybody is doing what’s expected of them and that there are no surprises.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing coordinator at a rural healthcare facility.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BlueModus?

We wanted to have a user-friendly website, and we were looking for someone who could manage a Kentico platform.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BlueModus helps us maintain our website through Kentico CMS. Whenever we have issues with our platform, they perform troubleshooting. 

What is the team composition?

We work with three people from their team, including a project manager. 

How did you come to work with BlueModus?

They’ve been partnering with us longer than I’ve been here.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

BlueModus started working with us in October 2019, and it’s ongoing. They’ve been our web developer for a little over two years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I love BlueModus’ responsiveness whenever we have an issue. They always have our best interests in mind. However, we don’t have anything measurable metrics that can speak to their work. 

How did BlueModus perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira and Atlassian to manage the project. Our project manager is communicative, organized, and always on top of things for us. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

BlueModus is always ready to help anytime whenever we have problems, and they send an email back right away or set up a meeting to figure things out.

I feel confident that BlueModus knows what they’re doing, and that also makes me feel assured about my job since I’m the one managing the website, content, and more. Overall, I know that I can rely on them to do their job well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know anything they can improve. They’re fantastic, and we have a great relationship. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open and honest with them because they’re always willing to respond. In my case, I’ve always felt really comfortable reaching out to them whenever I have a question. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I manage the digital presence at a global medical device company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BlueModus?

We’re a small internal team and needed help managing our site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re basically our digital team since we don’t have one in-house. They do all of our web maintenance for our site and intranet on an ongoing basis.

Currently, they’re working on a web migration project. Since we’re a global company with a lot of support areas, we have different Kentico websites that our marketing team has put up over the years. BlueModus is helping us consolidate 130 domains into one corporate website. They’re responsible for the design, development, and migration of all of the sites.

What is the team composition?

I work with three people from their team, including Meredith (Director of Strategic Solutions), Matias (Solution Lead), and Mike (Senior Project Manager).

How did you come to work with BlueModus?

I did a search on the top-ranked Kentico development agencies. They were one of the top vendors on the Kentico website. We looked into other vendors but BlueModus seemed top notch and met the needs that we were looking to fill.

How much have you invested with them?

We budgeted $1.2 million. Our spend so far is about $250,000 for our maintenance agreement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2019, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re very skilled and I consider them an extension of my team. I look at our engagement across our sites and intranet and see if there are any issues. If I come to them with an issue for them to design around, they’ll redesign it. Then, we look at the usage and engagement after the launch to see how successful they were.

How did BlueModus perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very strong with communication. They clearly layout where they are in a project and use an agile methodology. We meet once a week for a status update. We have other check-ins to support the website migration project.

I’m in constant contact with Meredith via Slack and phone. She provides immediate answers to any questions I have. They’re very transparent and their project management is top-notch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really great at anticipating what our needs are and staffing on their side to support us. I don’t have to go to them, they’re really proactive and come to us with good ideas and new strategies. They do the heavy lifting and think through things very critically to make sure that what we’re building makes sense for our users and our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In a couple of cases, they’ve underbid a project. It doesn’t happen often. That being said, there are always unforeseen things in development; I wouldn’t consider it a dealbreaker by any means.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to lean on them as part of your team. Give them direction but don’t micromanage them.