Caffeine Interactive Technologies

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of a company that runs a private membership model and does consulting projects in web development and design.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Caffeine Interactive Technologies?

We needed consulting in web development and design projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We've worked on large consulting projects with Caffeine Interactive Technologies for various years. The team has supported us in managing and developing our landing pages for marketing. The last project we worked on with the team involved web design and development, mostly using CSS. Prior to this project, Caffeine Interactive Technologies worked on a more complex and advanced consulting project. Caffeine Interactive Technologies provides web maintenance services on an ongoing basis.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with 3–4 teammates from Caffeine Interactive Technologies, including Danielle (Director of Client Services). 

How did you come to work with Caffeine Interactive Technologies?

I met Dustin (Co-Founder & Technology Consultant) around 10 years ago through different private communities of which we were both members.
How much have you invested with them?

For the last project we worked on with Caffeine Interactive Technologies, we spent less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Caffeine Interactive Technologies in 2016, seeking support for an end client's project. The team finished the last project we worked on around two weeks ago, which lasted for a couple of months. Our engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Caffeine Interactive Technologies has helped us build a new and fresh look for our brand. The team meets my expectations and delivers on the scope of work. 

How did Caffeine Interactive Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Caffeine Interactive Technologies delivers work on time and on budget.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I want to highlight Danielle's work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Caffeine Interactive Technologies delivers on the work they commit to, which is the most important thing for me. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything for Caffeine Interactive Technologies to improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I suggest being clear about your project's requirements. I've sent Caffeine Interactive Technologies hundreds of thousands of dollars in business through referrals because they deliver what they commit to, which is essential in a development agency. Caffeine Interactive Technologies doesn't overpromise. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development for Brixbid, a real estate company. We have multiple LLCs performing under the company name. I also work for Pioneer Acquisitions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Caffeine Interactive Technologies?

I came into the role not having any experience in the tech world; I just had real estate experience. We were developing a website; a different developer in New York had already built the site’s core. However, I wanted to change developers when I was brought on because the core product’s foundation wasn’t ideal.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked closely with Caffeine Interactive Technologies for several years. Initially, they came in and audited our existing website to give us recommendations on the changes needed to accomplish our goals. We didn’t know how to explain a lot of stuff.

Caffeine Interactive Technologies took our vision and the limited information we gave them to build a custom site with a lot of functionality, an entire backend, and an admin panel. They explain everything in plain, non-technical language and follow instructions to produce a product that meets our requirements.

The platform has a lot of extensions and communicates with other software; Caffeine Interactive Technologies has done a lot of integrations. We’ve given them some materials, including logos, imagery, documentation that breaks down what we want to see, and any supporting documents we can.

On the Pioneer Acquisitions side, they’re rebuilding our entire corporate website, so we’re working on separate projects.

What is the team composition?

We have five teammates, but we communicate 90% of the time with two core people: Dustin (Co-Founder & Technology Consultant) and Danielle (Director of Client Services).

We can reach out to Dustin for high-level questions. Additionally, Danielle is our customer service specialist, a mediator between their developers and us. She listens and translates what we want to the development team.

For five years, we’ve had access to Danielle and the founders.

How did you come to work with Caffeine Interactive Technologies?

The original website was built in 2015. We had the concept but wanted to overhaul everything. Moreover, we needed to make it work within our budgetary constraints because we were bootstrapped and had limited resources. I got in touch with Dustin and started working with Caffeine Interactive Technologies.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $250,000 over six years.

What is the status of this engagement?

I came into the company in January 2018. We went into the engagement thinking we would work with Caffeine Interactive Technologies for 1–2 years, but we continue to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Caffeine Interactive Technologies has done so much for us in the last six years; it’s hard to sum it up in one particular thing. First, they were able to solve our initial problem. We knew we wanted to do certain things but had no idea how to go about them. They followed our directions and researched for background information to come back with possible solutions.

For example, we wanted to connect the website with Yardi, a property management software, through their API. At that point, we didn’t know what an API was; we just wanted to be able to aggregate listings on the site. Caffeine Interactive Technologies took the limited information and worked to accomplish it within our timeline and budget.

Ultimately, the platform wasn’t successful, but it had nothing to do with Caffeine Interactive Technologies and their development. Our resources ran dry, so it solely had to do with our resources and the amount of money it takes to launch a website like this for real estate properties.

How did Caffeine Interactive Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

The whole process has been seamless. They have a Freshdesk account; we can submit tickets, and sometimes the developers ask basic questions in response.

They’re always open to negotiating the budget. We always want something affordable, so they send us different proposals of what they can give us. One level meets our budget, but we know what we can get if we spend more.

Moreover, they’re one of the most honest companies I’ve worked with in the past years. They break down their billing by every 15 minutes of billable hours. None of our other vendors do that; they just send us a monthly invoice with the total hours. With Caffeine Interactive Technologies’ invoicing system, we know exactly how they spend the time on a particular project down to every 15 minutes. Since we can concisely track the hours, there’s no room left for questions on our behalf.

They only miss deadlines or our budgetary restrictions when we don’t respond fast enough. The team usually needs constant communication to get our input and approval, and sometimes there’s a delay because we take time to decide what we want to do.

The same goes for budgets. We sometimes increase the scope of work, so the cost increases. Nonetheless, Caffeine Interactive Technologies always presents us with the level of effort (LOE) for every project. If we want to do something on the site, they present the LOE explaining how much it’ll cost and why, which is super beneficial.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I’d like to give a shout-out to Dustin and Danielle. He has created a great environment; it has been a great experience across the board.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re one of the best vendors we’ve ever used, which is why we continue to use them. I love Caffeine Interactive Technologies as a company. I also love their ownership and partnership; they stand out among many developers because they want to see the website succeed as much as we do. Even though they’re a third-party developer, they really treat the engagement as a partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any complaints. We rarely stick to a vendor for several years, but Caffeine Interactive Technologies shines among all the developers we’ve worked with. I honestly don’t have anything bad to say about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Before you work with a company to develop a website, you must take time to think about the features you want. The only time the costs and timelines spiraled out of control with Caffeine Interactive Technologies was when we changed what we wanted, were unsure, or hadn’t thought through the scenarios. In the long run, not thinking through everything cost us more money.

In many cases, Caffeine Interactive Technologies came back and told us the potential issues they saw for our business as a result of our request. They also presented the possible problems with what we wanted to do. Many times, there were a lot of things that we hadn’t thought about from a technical or business operational standpoint.

Although I had worked on that website every day for five years, Caffeine Interactive Technologies knew more about the ins and outs of the site than I did. They obviously had a technical background, but they even knew the core functionality and what we were trying to achieve as a company better.