CobbleWeb

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Switch2Zero helps business and individuals understand, reduce and offset their carbon footprint. Making it easy, affordable and rewarding. I'm a co-founder and the CEO of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

CW acted as a core part of our team, working with our developers, designer and product owner to design and building out the technical solution for our platform.

SOLUTION

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

A lot of Googling and research to shortlist. We liked them because of their marketplaces and ecommerce experience and then Ramdane nailed it when he spoke with us and gave us the confidence we needed to proceed with CW as a key partner.

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

It was a full front end and back design and delivery in partnership with us. The key milestone recently achieved was the go live of our MVP, a global offset solution for ecommerce, businesses and consumers accepting payment in over 135 currencies worldwide. The stack built and designed is a highly sophisticated and scalable modular cloud based stack with a headless CMS and ecommerce platform sat on an AWS foundation with a proprietary front end and externally exposed APIs

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

It varied throughout the project based on our needs and timeline. Ramdane acted almost as the product manager working closely with me, while Paul worked closely with our CTO, Tom on the technical architecture and delivery. CW supplied design, frontend and backend talent throughout the programme.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It's too early to see impact. It's the launch of our MVP. It's a complex solution delivered to great quality in less than 6 months E2E. Having been an exec in the banking world for 25 years, this execution was at twice the speed with half the resources and delivered to a similar quality.

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

We had weekly phone catch ups, demo sessions at the end of epics and regular contact by email, slack and VC when ever we needed. The CW team we're really responsive and accommodating to our needs but also happy to challenge us where they felt we were creating inefficiency. Jira, confluence and gitlhub were the primary foundational workflow tools.

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

Can do attitude, very organised, came with lots of ideas not just 'order taking'. Challenged our thinking a lot. reacted quickly to our requests, pivoted quickly when needed. Kept a sense of humour when things got tough. Focused on the solution not the problem.

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

This is difficult to answer as it would be very specific to our needs and level of sophistication. What I would say is CW are happy to learn and evolve and responded well when we made suggestions and requests to evolve how we work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a neobank. We provide MasterCards with bank applications for immigrants. We also white-label our cards for distributors, like gasoline companies. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CobbleWeb?

We used to have internal IT and development services, but we decided to outsource to CobbleWeb. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CobbleWeb provides us with IT and development services. Over the years, they’ve provided website and app, end-to-end, and backend development services. For website development, I know they’ve used WordPress and AWS. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around €300,000 (approximately $299,000 USD) 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement began in October 2019. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve continued to work with CobbleWeb because they know our company and product well — they offer great services. They’re clear about their results and move their work into production quickly. 

How did CobbleWeb perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team provides us with roadmaps for each project. They follow deadlines, which is very good. Most of the time, we communicate through emails, text messages, phone calls, and Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

CobbleWeb is a good developer. Their CTO sits down with us to talk about their outputs — I have a really good relationship with them, which I appreciate. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m happy with the partnership we have with them. However, my shareholder told me that their invoicing could be better. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

New customers should collaborate with CobbleWeb’s C-level leadership. They’re not only good developers; their team also provides great advice. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Nestify, a real estate management company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CobbleWeb?

We needed help with software development to increase our productivity.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CobbleWeb developed our website and an app for iOS and Android. To start the project, we explained CobbleWeb what we wanted and had a couple of meetings over the phone.

They finished the deliverables in March 2018, but it’s an ongoing project. There are always upgrades and improvements to make.

What is the team composition?

We work with 4–5 people. We speak with the project manager, a lead developer, and the head of the company.

How did you come to work with CobbleWeb?

I was introduced to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2017, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The retention rate is better, and we’ve got more users on our mobile apps and website. We also spend less time educating them because our digital presence makes it easy to understand how we work. Overall, CobbleWeb has been good for us.

How did CobbleWeb perform from a project management standpoint?

When we have an issue, they take care of it. The team is transparent, and they don’t hold information from us. All in all, it’s quite easy to work with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They know the technologies, so they know which solution is best for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can always reach them, and everything works well. I don’t have anything bad to say.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You can count on them. They won’t try to take advantage of you. We’re happy with the return on the money we spend.