Codup

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a manufacturer of custom tents and displays. I’m the marketing manager of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codup?

Our company has two websites — one is a corporate site and the other is an e-commerce website. I’ve been working with Codup for years, but, in regards to our most recent project, we wanted to redesign our corporate, public-facing website with a new theme.

Another project was for our e-commerce website, which is a private website for resellers. Codup developed a custom theme for it. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We already had mockups for the site and the custom theme that we were envisioning. On the e-commerce site, I wanted to present my product in a way that allowed people to select custom options.

Codup developed the website following the mockup design that we provided. The e-commerce site was built on WooCommerce.

What is the team composition?

We worked t together with around five people. There was a project manager, frontend developers, backend developers, and a manager for each development team.

How did you come to work with Codup?

We chose them out of a few other options.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $40,000–$50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2016–June 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I had a vision of what I wanted with the website and the features I wanted, and Codup made it come true. There were a few technical aspects that had to be changed based on what we could realistically achieve.

The e-commerce website is a fairly customized solution, as it sells custom-printed items and required a custom checkout and product pages. We’re satisfied with the quality of the work. the websites are stable and work well.

How did Codup perform from a project management standpoint?

This is one of their strongest assets. They are quick and have a good understanding of my requests. I never have to explain something twice. They keep me posted on the work with several project management tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have an impressive combination of responsive communication and high work quality.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes their answers are too broad for me to understand exactly what they mean. Their explanations could be a bit more thorough, but this happens rarely.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager at resqme; I’m in charge of growing our e-commerce sales on our website and Amazon.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codup?

We hired Codup to improve our website and make it easier for customers to buy products by refining what a previous agency had done by adding new features.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Codup has made several changes to the website’s functionalities. They’ve rectified our site bugs and are now monitoring the site to ensure it works properly. 

What is the team composition?

I believe 4–5 teammates are working on our project, but I only have contact with two teammates, including the project manager and a developer. 

How did you come to work with Codup?

We were referred to Codup by a consultant who’d worked with them in the past. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $15,000 with Codup. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Codup began in January 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m not sure I can provide any concrete metrics because we’re almost in the same spot with the site as we were last year in terms of site growth. However, Codup has implemented what we’ve requested, contributing to the site’s easy use. 

How did Codup perform from a project management standpoint?

We log tickets via Jira for Codup to rectify. Overall, Codup generally meets our project budget and deadline, but sometimes their timeline is slower. We have a call with them every week to check in on the project’s status and communicate regularly through email and their internal chat system. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Even though we were referred to Codup, we like their work enough to continue the partnership. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Codup could be more proactive about testing instead of waiting for me to remind them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend Codup to future customers because they’ll put in the work it takes to deliver.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of global technology for a business that deals with buyback and trade. We enable our customers and partners to re-use and re-sell highly desirable technology products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codup?

We had our own engineering team, but we needed to scale it rapidly to keep up with the changing demands of the market and our customers. Accessing resources with the right skills at the right cost was crucial to us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Codup provides staff augmentation services; they’ve helped us with the cloud space, software engineering, and QA. They allow us to scale up and down with resources as required, and their resources behave and act as members of our internal team.

Initially, we engaged with senior members of Codup, and they were very clear about what they could do for us. They took time to understand our needs and business challenges. Then, they gave us an appraisal of the market and clarified how they could help us. They spent a lot of time identifying the right people in their organization to engage with us and fill our needs.

They source the candidates, but they manage their ongoing development as well. Although they are Codup’s employees but we treat them as members of our team and are responsible for the day-to-day deliverables, management, and appraisal.

What is the team composition?

We initially dealt with one of the founders. Now that we’ve finalised our terms and conditions we also have an account manager.

How did you come to work with Codup?

Clutch had the reputation of being a platform where we could find service providers. We looked for global partners in specific countries and came up with a list of potential options. Then, we contacted several of them and conducted an evaluation and due diligence process.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our initial discussion was in December 2021. The first resource joined us in April 2022, and it’s a long-term engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve worked extensively to identify people who meet fit our team culture and have the right technical skills to join our team. These people are helping us to bring new features to market faster on SaaS platforms and services, enabling us to continue to deliver on our commitments to our customers externally and internally.

How did Codup perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. Codup doesn’t do any project management for us, but during the negotiations and ramp-up any time there was a commitment to a date to do some contract work or have candidates for us, they always met it. We communicate through email, video conferences, and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They put effort into the engagement and building the relationship. Moreover, they took the time to truly understand what we wanted and our business challenges and took a leap of faith with us, which was pretty important.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re very happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear on your business challenges and objectives and go into the engagement with an open and honest level of discussion to work with them as partners. People often use the word partner, but really mean supplier. Codup genuinely wants to be a partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a for-profit arm of the a national wildlife nonprofit. We sell native plants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codup?

We reached out to them for help with Shopify development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They looked through our requirements and assigned a senior Shopify theme developer. We are region-specific with the plants we sell, so everything is able to be filtered on the website by zip code. They modified the entire theme to check for a person’s zip code.

Codup also created a product recommendation quiz for us.

What is the team composition?

There was one main developer that I dealt with; I don’t know how many people are on the backend. There was also an owner and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Codup?

We found them through Shopify. You can request RFP’s and solutions through Shopify, and it goes out to a large number of companies.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $10,000 together.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–April 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Customers couldn’t add anything to their cart without Codup’s work, and we would see those effects in the lack of sales, but customers are able to get into the website and check out as needed. They’ve certainly met our expectations.

There has been some extension in the timeline due to Ramadan landing in April and us losing some time overlapping with the developers. Everything moved very well up to that point. They did a good job.

How did Codup perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated over Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We got good quality development from them. Being able to go back and forth with them to find bugs and fix them was great. They were able to work with our developers’ skill level to help wherever they needed to deploy and test everything.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their QA could improve, but I’m not sure. I’m finding issues because I know exactly what the site should be and what issues would be while they’re a third party that wouldn’t really know what to look for.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Having someone who understands the technology being built and can work with the developers is helpful. This way you won’t release something that ends up not working later on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a promotional products company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codup.co?

We needed help with building two e-commerce platforms for one of our customers. One of these sites would provide them with solutions for their different locations and product distribution efforts. The other site would serve their internal staff, allowing them to order their own branded products, whether it be apparel or drinkware with their company’s logo.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, I provided Codup with some context regarding how our customer used their previous store, and I was in charge of the design work, but they developed both sites from scratch. For the B2B site, they also developed a budget management tool, which assigns the buyers a quarterly budget that needs to be refreshed after each quarter. This tool reflects the buyers’ amount of purchases and money spent without allowing them to purchase past their budget.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with about four different people from Codup, including Waqar (Product Manager) and 2–3 different developers. Initially, a sales representative also helped me get the scope organized very quickly.

How did you come to work with Codup.co?

I’ve worked with Codup before. This is the third project we’ve worked on, so they’re my to-go development agency at this point.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $8,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2021, and our engagement is ongoing. Although we’re close to finishing the project, we’re still making some final adjustments.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our customer has told us that their new site is more user friendly and a lot better than their previous site. Thanks to Codup, we’ve made the purchase process for the final clients easier, and the site is esthetically more pleasing for them than before. I have nothing but great things to say about Codup’s work; they’ve been incredible.

How did Codup.co perform from a project management standpoint?

Codup is very communicative and honest when managing expectations. Still, they’ve exceeded those expectations at some of the milestones along the way. Overall, they’ve done a great job managing the project.

Waqar is very attentive and responsive, and the developers are simply great. In the beginning, we had a tight deadline. Although Codup completed most of their work before that deadline, we convinced our client to give us a couple more months for testing, taking a cautious approach before launching the site.

We communicate via email and WhatsApp. Although Waqar has been on top of everything, he let us have a WhatsApp group chat with the developers to contact them easily.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Codup communicates very well. I’ve tried to work with other off-shore developers, but I was always hesitant about our collaboration because I lost some visibility into the projects. However, Codup has been available throughout the whole process.

Additionally, they work fast because they’re great at understanding what we try to do. They’re not afraid of asking questions to ensure they get our requirements right from the start.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Codup is very good, so I would only encourage them to continue improving their proactivity. Sometimes, I’ve come up with suggestions to find certain solutions, and although they’ve done that too, it would be great if they were the ones who came up with those solutions; that would definitely help their customers and improve their service.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have as much and as detailed information as possible before starting your project so that you can pass that information to the development team. Additionally, have weekly updates on the project’s milestones to prevent things from getting lost in translation. Many things are going on from both sides on these kinds of projects, so having weekly meetings is really helpful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Cyberize It, an online notarization platform. Clients can upload their documents, meet with a notary, and download a notarized electronic file using our tool.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codup.co?

We needed help in software development. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we brainstormed and researched with Codup.co’s team to find API vendors to house the different schematics needed for online notarization. After that, they proceeded with the actual development. We worked through wireframes, cause-effect graphing, user stories, formatting, and the final rollout. 

Our software communicates with four other solutions, and it brings everything back to one system. It’s integrated with IDology, a tool that validates a user’s identity. In addition, our app is integrated with Zoom, which the client can use to meet with a notary public after passing IDology. The entire system is hosted on AWS.  

What is the team composition?

I worked with eight teammates, including a project manager, website developers, and QA specialists. 

How did you come to work with Codup.co?

We put out an RFP, and Codup.co won our bidding process. We chose to work with them because they were up to the challenge. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $80,000–$90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked from March 2021–January 2022.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Codup.co went above and beyond to ensure they delivered based on our specifications. They handled issues and misunderstandings so that their deliverables met our standards. Their team did a great job in terms of customer service. 

How did Codup.co perform from a project management standpoint?

Codup.co’s project management was organized. We utilized a tool that allowed us to monitor objectives, understand issues, and see our progress as a whole. They were very accommodating and created opportunities for solutions to be made. We collaborated through Asana and virtual meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Codup.co was very responsive — we appreciated that since we worked virtually. They never made us wait. If a task was urgent, they took care of it regardless of the time or day. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, their visuals weren’t cohesive and simple. They could’ve been more proactive with features as well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand the process, and think of all the ways it can break. Plan for the worst so you’re prepared for the best.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a third-party money manager for financial advisors. We put together different financial portfolios, and financial advisors throughout the country can utilize those of their clients.

I’m the operations manager within the organization, so I work with different financial organizations to onboard them and give them access to our strategies, among a variety of other tasks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codup.co?

We needed help with website development, but the real challenge was that we didn’t know exactly what we wanted yet. Our website was functional, but it didn’t have all the features we expected. Among those features, we were looking to improve our tracking and data collection more than anything, so we looked for something new in the marketplace and found Codup.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our former website was based on Salesforce, our CRM, but Codup built a completely new WordPress website from scratch. They’ve also helped us build different integrations so that we can pass data from our WordPress website to our CRM and use that data in a variety of different manners. Additionally, they’ve created integrations with our video hosting platform.

Since our industry is very compliant-heavy, we can’t show everything to the public, so we have to implement different log-in and sign-in credentials for our users. Codup has helped us with that part as well, making it very easy from the administration side to enable users.

Codup’s involvement has been mainly focused on development, especially on the backend. For the design, they used a WordPress theme, and we provided the content and pictures. They’re about to finalize the website development, and we will have a 30-day trial for QA to ensure everything works properly. After that, we intend to keep utilizing their services on an ad hoc basis when applicable.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with at least eight people from Codup. Ayaz (Project Manager) is my main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Codup.co?

I found Codup on Codeable. We started looking for website developers in September 2021, got some quotes and bids for our project, and talked to all the prospects. Codup’s relationship manager contacted me and took it from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around October 2021, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any quantifiable results to demonstrate the engagement’s success, but we’ve tracked the completion of the project’s milestones. Essentially, we test if everything works properly, and so far, our site has been working great.

Initially, we didn’t know what we wanted; we just had a general idea of what we needed. Codup worked with us to build our idea, and the result exceeded our expectations — I can’t say enough good things about their work.

How did Codup.co perform from a project management standpoint?

Codup has performed very well. We’ve gone a little bit over budget, but that’s probably on my end due to the different things that have popped up during the process. However, timewise, they’ve stayed on schedule.

Originally, I had the idea of getting my website ready by the end of 2021. However, some things came up, and around August 2021, Codup told me that the intended deadline wasn’t realistic. They estimated that the site could be ready by early February 2022. We still have a couple of weeks before that deadline, so we’re right on pace. They’ve helped us stay on schedule by insisting whenever we haven’t been responsive enough.

We mainly communicate via email, but when we’ve needed more in-depth conversations, we jump on a video call.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Codup’s strength is their ability to make the complexity of web development understandable. I have very little knowledge of coding and development, so when I ask them about what they’re doing, they think about it and explain it to me in a way that I easily understand.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any constructive feedback. The only thing I would ask Codup is to further explain how everything related to our site would work moving forward so that we can have autonomy and we don’t need to come to them with every little question.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come with a concrete idea of what you’re looking for. We didn’t do that, which led us to spend a couple of weeks figuring out where to start. If you can come to them with a clear idea, you will knock it out of the park.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the design and development director for a digital agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Codup.co, and what were your goals?

We have hired Codup to provide us with dedicated resources in order to develop highly complex websites.

SOLUTION

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

We have been working with Codup on a contract basis for years. By now having dedicated team members as part of our growing team/business we are able to ensure that we meet our client's expectations with their skills and expertise.

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

All projects are built from the ground up. We develop a plan that works within timeline and budget in order to meet project deliverables. We use modern technologies, specifically WordPress, to achieve our project goal. Other implementations may include API integrations with third parties such as payment processors, membership portals, video databases, and more.

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

We have worked alongside 6-7 team members including frontend developers, backend developers, QA testers, and development managers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching multiple sites, we have seen continued growth in our business. We are able to advertise more complex projects knowing that our team has the skillset to complete these projects.

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

To make sure we stay on track and on target, we utilize daily stand-ups and 2-week sprint planning meetings. Going forward, we are also implementing full project timelines to ensure we reach our anticipated launch dates. The tool that helps keep everything in order that we have adapted over the years is Monday.

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

The team is very dedicated to making sure the problem is solved correctly. They are organized and plan ahead to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

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

Whenever introducing new resources to a project, it takes a little bit of time to understand how each member operates. After figuring out everyone's skill set, projects have run a lot smoother.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own a small marketing consultancy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codup.co?

One of my clients needed a new website. Though I’m very familiar with that process, my development skills were quite lacking. That is why I sought Codup.co’s help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Codup.co migrated my client’s existing website over to WordPress. They also made a few functional changes to the website, but the main issue that they were addressing was the huge time crunch. My client had set their expectations in terms of the timeline, so the team needed to be able to migrate the website in accordance with it. 

What is the team composition?

I’m not sure how many people were assigned to the work because I talked to various members while we were laying out the initial pages. I did work with Zaheer (Project Coordinator) consistently once we moved into actual development. 

How did you come to work with Codup.co?

I have a lot of local connections, but I couldn’t find anyone who was willing to take on the work given time constraints. I eventually wound up on Codeup.co’s website where we arranged the contract and everything.

How much have you invested with them?

I invested around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I first engaged Codup.co in July 2021, and the migration project was completed in November 2021. I still reach out to them whenever I need help with something.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Codup.co did a really good job of meeting the tight timeline. Even when I wasn’t able to give them what they needed in time, they made sure to follow up to keep us on track of the deadline. We did end up needing a two-week extension on the project, but that was through no fault of theirs. It was simply due to my client not providing their feedback in the time they were supposed to. 

How did Codup.co perform from a project management standpoint?

I appreciated how, despite being in a different time zone, they made themselves available during my business hours. That would’ve been nighttime to them. On the other hand, I didn’t like how I was bounced around different people. It would’ve been better if they assigned a single point of contact for me. Then again, I was only there for the development and I’ve managed this type of project before, so I didn’t really need to rely on that as much.

We normally communicated via email, but we used Google Meet whenever we needed to discuss our feedback and share screens.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What really stood out about Codup.co was their eagerness to do custom work. Their equivalents here in the US are less inclined to do custom web development work, but their team really tried to build everything themselves where they could. This is possibly a testament to their technical knowledge and expertise. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything was moving so quickly, so I understand that the project wasn’t very ideal. One thing that could’ve improved the process, however, is if they laid out a timeline of what they expect to receive from their clients. There were instances where I received an email from them requesting that I provide feedback for a specific portion of the website within 24 hours. As a business owner, I can’t just open my day up for something like that. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Stay on top of the project, follow up on anything that you don’t understand, and keep in close contact with your developer. Scheduling calls will also definitely help, and doing video calls and screen-sharing will get you a lot farther than emails will. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own RJ Design, and we offer photography, graphic design, and layout services. Sometimes, we also offer web development work.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codup.co?

I had a longstanding client that had a unique set of criteria for their existing website. Our client offered their particular products from three different overseas suppliers. As a result, if our client had customers or distributors who wanted to purchase something from them, the products would come from one of the three suppliers. The challenge was to keep the aesthetics consistent across three different components — the front- and backend and the e-commerce aspect of WooCommerce.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Codup.co built the front- and backend of our platform, and there was a portion where our system had boilerplate templates. The team ensured that our client’s system was automated, so depending on the product that was ordered, PDF files had to be auto-generated to each one of the people involved in the transaction.

The team authored several plugins that were designed to work in conjunction with WooCommerce. They also expanded their plugin offerings based on the requirements we had because they saw how the circumstances played out for some of our potential clients.

What is the team composition?

I worked with several people from Codup.co, including Asim (Co-Founder). We also collaborated with their developers, coders, their business manager, and more.

How did you come to work with Codup.co?

I updated WordPress and added some plugins. While doing so, I chanced upon Codup.co’s ad banner on WordPress and once I clicked it, I saw what they could offer. In the end, we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $6,200.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September–December 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were impressed that they quickly understood how all the different project components were going to play together. We didn’t launch the platform yet because we’re still in the beta testing stage and our project continues to evolve, so there are a lot of gray areas that have yet to be solved.

How did Codup.co perform from a project management standpoint?

They had an exceedingly good project management process. On a 10-point scale, I’d give them almost a perfect score. We used a workspace portal to ensure that all the files we needed as well as all of our communication were in one location. As a result, we didn’t have to scramble around trying to figure out if we had the right email address. Despite that, we occasionally used Google Meet, Zoom, email, and text messaging.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes the contact information they gave us was a little bit confusing. For example, when they gave us a certain contact, we weren’t really sure if we were talking to the right person. On top of that, we had cultural differences and language barriers.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more you dig, the more likely you are to find your answer. In our case, we saw Codup.co through their banner and coincidentally found that they could help us with our project.