What was the scope of their involvement?
The initial work was with Andrey [CEO, CimpleO]. He helped with the big picture stuff: the website updates, the move to Digital Ocean, and with customization and minor website tweaks. The move improved security as they pointed out things that weren’t secure and things that could be upgraded or updated. They also updated Drupal. There was a backlog of project ideas and things that needed to be improved upon and fixed.
We’ve also been working with Anton [CTO, CimpleO] and he’s helped with our scheduling module. We’re developing additional modules to expand the website’s functionality. One is for scheduling appointments, one is specifically for primary care, and one for immigration physicals. We’re now in control of the site and are looking and questioning if we can do certain things with it.
How did you come to work with CimpleO?
I found them on Upwork. I went through about 50 profiles and narrowed it down to three or four. CimpleO was the only one that was responsive, got back to me, and understood exactly what I was talking about. They had also worked with a lot of Drupal sites and had a lot of clients globally. I felt they’d bring some knowledge about trends and different ideas that people are using all around the world, in contrast to local companies that are cookie cutter styles of programming and website development.
We were nervous about working with somebody that we can’t meet with in person so we started slowly by asking questions and giving them small tasks. We told them if it all worked out fine then they would be our go to source for Drupal and custom modules.
How much have you invested with them?
We do both project-based work and hourly. For the website, it’s $50/hour. With projects, we pay half up front and the rest upon completion. With a lot of the U.S. developers and programmers that we’ve worked with, they’ll spec something out and charge for those hours even if it took less time. CimpleO is very honest. They will speculate the amount of time, but will only charge us for what it took. Not only do they charge middle of the road pricing, but they work quickly, so it's been very affordable.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in March 2017 and the work is ongoing.
The site has launched and meets client expectations. Staff members are able to publish content on time without hassle. Users responded positively to the change, appreciative of the new section added by the team. They were hard-working and focused, completing the project on a tight deadline.