Computan

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the senior manager of business improvements and strategic initiatives for the facilities and services department at an educational institution. We run all operations, electrical, mechanical, policing, caretaking, moving mail, grounds, and a number of other services such as property management for about 120 buildings on our campus.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?
We had never had a communications expert on our team, and our website was out-of-date. The site was built more as a content management system. We hired an internal web designer who took a UI/UX approach to redesigning the website from the client's perspective.

We needed a very competent developer to help us build it in WordPress. Our team engaged Computan to handle this. We asked them to build the website from scratch based on the specifications and design we created. Our team also wanted them to help us test and refine it.

What was the scope of their involvement?
After we designed the new website in Figma. Our team created the wireframes and content. We selected the photos and identified what interactions we wanted from links, animations, and pages. Computan’s scope of work was to build the website on WordPress. They did some custom development because some of the features needed to be coded in the backend. Their team also selected a number of plugins and brought the design to life within WordPress. 

We had a separate project that involved creating a page that was built outside of WordPress. We needed to take a report and create an interactive, engaging digital version of it. Computan was kind enough to support us very quickly. They brought another developer on board who developed everything from scratch. We gave them the design and requirements, and then they coded everything.

What is the team composition?
We have primary contact with our project manager. There’s also a main developer who worked on our website and another developer who handled the separate page project.

How did you come to work with Computan?
At our university, we go through a fair tendering process for major projects. Essentially, I did my research because we need an external consultant to support us. I identified the best-reviewed vendors online and connected with a number of them to describe the scope of work and request a quote.

Computan was able to demonstrate their ability to deliver and could start working quickly at the most competitive cost. What really stood out to me were the reviews they had online. I conducted a client reference call with one of their current clients, and the review was very glowing; it was reassuring to me. Additionally, Computan’s portfolio looks really good. We liked the examples of the other website they had built. 

How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested approximately $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?
Our ongoing engagement started around November 2020. We’re very close to launching in the next couple of weeks.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 
Working with Computan has been an absolute pleasure. Their team is responsive to our needs and actively listens. They’re patient with us when we ask a lot of detailed questions. On the relationship front, it’s been very successful. They’ve met all of our requirements, which is an indication of success. Computan builds and develops everything we needed and wanted in a reasonable timeframe. They’ve provided us with some creative solutions and workarounds when we couldn’t get what we wanted in a straightforward way. 

Our project manager has been great. He’s always staying ahead and asking about what we need to plan for or consider. They’ve adapted very well to working with an institutional client because we have a lot of restrictions and internal policies around who can go into the backend or get access as well as what types of approvals we need for plugins. We needed to go through a number of steps, and they were very supportive. In general, we got what we wanted and it looks the way we want it to. Nothing’s broken and everything is working as it needs to.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?
We have stand-up meetings every day. They’re efficient at going through their tasks. Their communication is great around clarifying as well as giving us updates. We primarily communicate through Microsoft Teams and Slack. In between meetings, we send each other files, recordings, photos, links, content, and feedback through Slack. As we got closer and closer to the final product, we started using BugHerd to leave comments on where things needed to be tweaked or fixed. Their developers were great at constantly checking BugHerd and completing or making the fixes.

What did you find most impressive about them?
They’re incredibly customer-centric. Computan is easy to talk to and jumps to action when we need them to. Their team really works to understand what our needs are — from the developer to the project manager to one of their co-founders.

Are there any areas they could improve?
More timely invoices would be great. That’s the only thing I’ve had to follow up with them on. Other than that, there’s nothing. Computan is great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Have your design ironed out and your requirements very firm. That’ll help you work with a developer such as Computan because it’ll give you a really good sense of your expectations. Then, they’ll do what they’re best at and go on to ask you prompting and clarification questions. The more detailed you are, the better Computan will be able to work with and support you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a video platform. We enable our customers to send personalized videos on their tablets to their prospects or customers from a web portal.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We needed help with web and mobile development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Computan helped us build our web app and customer portal, as well as the mobile app for the tablets. We met with them a little over a year ago when we were a new business and hadn’t built what we needed on our platform’s backend. They came back with a plan and provided an estimate for all of our requirements and deliverables.

We provided Computan with some wireframes for the development, and they started working on it. They’ve effectively built our entire platform’s backend. They’ve used a wide range of technologies for this development. For the mobile app, they use React Native, and for the web development, they use PHP. However, I don’t know enough about other technologies and languages they’re using.

Computan has helped us a little bit with website development, but they’ve mostly supported us with backend web app development.

One of the features they’ve helped us develop is that, when a tablet is sent to one of our customers’ contacts, a video plays automatically. We can track every event from that mobile app and send it back to our customers’ dashboard. We’re tracking how many sends, deliveries, and views the videos have — we’re collecting responses directly from that tablet app.

We also enabled our customers’ prospects to book a meeting, so there’s a Calendly integration directly on our mobile app. After the prospect watches the video, they’re prompted to book a meeting in our customers’ calendar via Calendly, which is pretty unique. We also have a FedEx integration to the shipping carriers API.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with around five people from Computan. Rashed (Software Engineer) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Computan?

I worked with Computan at one of my previous companies, which was a sales and marketing agency. I was first introduced to them at a conference in Boston for HubSpot. We worked together on a few projects back then.

When I started this new business, I felt they were a good fit because of their experience with sales and marketing technology.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2020, and the engagement is ongoing. We’re now on phase two of development, and we’re actively selling our product at the moment.

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

We have a working product, and it’s starting to generate revenue — we’re happy with it. It has been a long and challenging year for everybody. We’ve worked through so many unique challenges because it is a relatively new concept, and we’re learning in a lot of areas.

Computan’s communication and responsiveness have been very valuable. They’ve been very clear in what they’re building and how it’ll work. The support, time, and attention that we’ve received from them have been what led us to take this project through to completion.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

We use a tool called BugHerd to track any issues that we see through the platform, and it works really well. Computan is able to fix issues relatively quickly. Within a few days, they fix the tasks that we identify issues with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Computan’s accountability, communication, and organization structure are impressive, and the team works really well together. If there’s a team member on their side that can’t show up, there’s someone else that carries the team forward.

Nothing gets missed or dropped, and the project is always moving forward. It has helped us, and it has been really good for their team as well. Quite a few members from their team are engaged in our project — that’s always nice to see.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Computan’s timeline estimates could be improved.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Provide them with good wireframes and a detailed list of requirements, and set clear expectations in terms of features and costs.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a commercial production company specializing in TV commercials and print photography for the advertising world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We were previously engaged with a vendor who built us a site using HubSpot's CMS. Unfortunately, it didn’t work the way we wanted it to, so we needed another company to fix it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had spent months working with another outfit that didn’t know what they were doing, and Computan saved the project. They basically took the HubSpot website and fixed everything to make it work as intended. Although the team did not do the initial UI/UX design, they helped me complete it and gave me some excellent tips on making it more efficient. The bulk of the work is finished, but it’s still constantly evolving. They're updating it as we go to keep it relevant and robust.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Sajeel (VP Operations), who put me in touch with the development team, and Bratislav (HubSpot Project Manager), the lead developer.

How did you come to work with Computan?

Computan was recommended as a HubSpot expert by a local digital marketing agency that works with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $12,000–$15,000, but I’m not really sure. 

What is the status of this engagement?

They took over in November 2020, and it’s still an ongoing project. The site was completed by December 2020, but the team is still updating it.

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

The project has been successful. Computan definitely rescued the project and got the UX to work the way we wanted it. It’s functional and doesn’t crash, so I think they did a fantastic job. I’m very proud of the website.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

They stuck to the plan and are available when we need them. Whenever we had any problems, they were quick to respond. We use Zoom to communicate a few times a week. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Computan team is highly efficient and intuitive. They’ve also been honest about timelines. Overall, they’re a knowledgeable and trustworthy team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I was looking for a bit more design recommendations. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In every case, do your homework on the vendors you engage with. Word-of-mouth allowed us to trust Computan, and it ended up working out. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of VTR Learning. I oversee operations for the organization. We’re an online education company with a proprietary learning management system (LMS).

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

A few things that we were trying to address were systems development, bug fixes, website redesign, and blog migration.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Computan worked as a third-party developer for the marketing agency we were using for our rebranding. The aesthetics of the website came more from the marketing team, but Computan implemented everything on the site itself. We provided them with detailed mock-ups and a breakdown of what we were expecting. Overall, the whole website was meant as a rebrand, so it was built from the ground up on WordPress and JavaScript.

Over the last 6–9 months, we’ve been working directly with them as a third-party developer. We provide them a list of bugs and detailed MVPs. They do a lot of research to estimate how long it’ll take them to fix it, and then they’ll dig into our system and work with one of our developers to better understand it.

In terms of phases, we kind of give them a batch of bugs, new products, or new pieces to our site, and they implement those. We pay the invoice and start a new batch. For ongoing development in general, there’s a lot of little fixes, API implementation, and tweaks to our system.

What is the team composition?

There are 4–6 people on our team, depending on the type of project and amount of work involved. Sajeel (VP of Operations) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Computan?

We were working with a marketing agency that used them in our website redesign. After that project ended, we decided to continue working with them for ongoing development work. We had a really good experience with them when we were redesigning the website. They were easy to work with, and we liked the results of all of their work, so we just pulled them on board to continue working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working directly with them in September 2020, and we have an ongoing partnership.

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

Overall, they’re very easy to work with, and they’re flexible when it comes to changing our development, expectations, or what they’re working on. Also, they’re always really accurate in their project cost estimates and honest with the time they spend on each project. In that way, they’re very trustworthy. Most importantly, their project outcomes always meet, if not exceed, our expectations.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done great. We have two weekly meetings; sometimes as short as 10–15 minutes, but it's just enough to make sure that they have everything to produce what we’re looking for. We just kind of keep the ball rolling, which is always helpful. Neither team is in the dark throughout the process, and I like that style.

For project management tools, we use Windows Visual Studio.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They give us a lot of attention and man-hours as their customer, which is really just the reasonable and expected amount of development work. Furthermore, they spend a lot of detailed time, research, and their own resources to quote us for each project, and those estimates always tend to be very accurate in the end.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As with any developer, it’s important to be crystal clear with your expectations and try to determine any potential roadblocks rather than being surprised by them. For example, Computan might be fixing a bug or something related to the website aesthetic on the desktop version. Later, they complete it, and we find out that it wasn’t fixed on mobile. Since we didn’t make clear what we were expecting, it’s understandable. Therefore, sometimes you just have to be clear on all of that, because I wouldn’t expect them to just do more work than what we’re telling them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Similar to the previous question, when you create the stories for them to work on, be as detailed as possible. Have some screenshots, mock-ups, and just get everything sorted out upfront rather than have them do a first iteration and a lot of back-and-forth to tweak it some more. It saves time and money on both sides.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of growth of the company. We work with organizations on digital transformations; whether those are related to their CRM and financial capabilities, or to their frontend websites, including rebranding, development, implementation, and integration.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We work with Computan most closely for payment, CRM, and other integrations. We’ve done websites that have both e-commerce and donation capabilities.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked with Computan on full website designs within large, $200,000–$300,000 contracts. We do the entire branding, website mapping, and design. Once the ideation is approved by the client, we work with them to implement it, whether it’s a simple WordPress website or a more complex CMS, like Umbraco or Wagtail.

We’ve also done some small app development projects. The majority of our engagements with Computan are primarily related to website design. They look at the UX and interaction piece by piece, and design the actual website aligned with what the client is looking for.

Recently, we did a very large project with them. We were working with an older, legacy organization that wanted to completely rebrand. Computan came up with the ideation of the rebrand and logo concept, and they helped us implement everything we needed, from the website CMS to the payment infrastructure and all of its integrations.

What is the team composition?

We work with Sohail (Software Engineer), a developer, Habib (Project Manager), and one designer. Sajeel (VP of Operations) takes care of invoicing and things like that.

How did you come to work with Computan?

Formerly, I was the director of fund development and marketing and communications at a major NGO. We’d just launched in Canada, and we were basically looking to revamp our entire website, donor journey, and so on. That was the original engagement, and I believe that we heard about Computan through someone who’d used their services. I continued using them when I moved to the consulting world.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, the total cost is around $40,000 at my current company. I worked with them for two other organizations before this, and the combined cost was around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

At my current position, the collaboration with Computan began in February 2016, and it’s ongoing.

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

Timelines are very important with our clients, and so is staying within scope. We measure quality in various ways, but it ultimately comes down to working backward from customer expectations. We have review calls at the end of each project, looking at customer satisfaction from ideation to implementation — how the project was carried out, how it concluded, and how the client felt at the end of it. Computan works backward from our and the customer’s expectations, and we rate them very favorably on deliverables.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

Since we're a middleman between Computan and the client, we do a lot of the project management ourselves. I or someone on my team will handle a lot of the communication while the project is underway.

Computan has people assigned to look after, follow through, and ensure that things are done with quality and on time. They’re quite diligent in making sure that things are done according to our expectations.

They use project management software, but we don’t, and that’s our fault. They use Asana internally and always pressure us to use it, but we prefer email, text, phone calls, and so on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s their timeliness. Deadlines are a huge thing, and I’ve seen projects go off the rails just because of staff turnover and things taking too long. Once Computan tackles something, they get it done.

Also, they’re responsive and super helpful. Something we like about Computan is that they’re not penny-pinchers. If something needs to be done, they’re not going to sit on it and make sure it’s billable. They’ll just pick it up and resolve it. If we need to make adjustments, that can be done afterward. Computan gives us more than what we signed up for, which is always a good thing when working with a design or development agency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve had a good experience with them, and there’s not a whole lot to improve. The one thing I’d recommend them is for Sajeel to do biweekly check-ins on the project. It would add an executive eye from their end in order to make sure the project is moving according to the timeline. Also, if there are any special client requirements, Sajeel would be able to push things along a lot faster.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients need to be clear and direct in relaying their expectations, and always request a phone call when things aren’t aligned. Computan will make sure that the course is corrected.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of strategic communications at NGen, a government-funded nonprofit organization that supports companies in the advanced manufacturing space in Canada. We work with small, medium, and large companies on manufacturing projects.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We’re a new organization that has grown quite quickly over the last couple of years. Our website was significantly in need of an overhaul, so we worked with Computan to execute some design and development work for our new website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came to Computan with some UX/UI requirements and templates that were created by a different organization, and they worked with us pretty hands-on to determine what that would look like after developing the site itself and its functionality.

We had a few introductory calls with them in the beginning. Then, we set up constant check-ins and service standards, and we followed them over the course of six weeks to develop the website from start to finish. They developed the site on the HubSpot content management platform, so all the development was done within that tool.

Computan helped us implement an interactive map on our website that shows the impact our funding is having across Canada to help us tell our story. This was a feature that we didn’t have on our old website.

Computan also helped us design all the forms and lead capture the calls to action on our site.

What is the team composition?

We worked at several levels within Computan. We had a direct connection with the VP, who helped us manage the project. We also had a close relationship with a senior developer, who ran with the team. I’m not sure how many developers they had on their team, but they managed all of the communication — it was fantastic.

How did you come to work with Computan?

The organization that was helping us with the UX/UI designs recommended Computan. What ultimately led us to them was that they were really flexible in working with us to determine what we needed, and they delivered exactly that. They didn’t try to sell us other marketing packages that we didn’t need.

There were other providers that we looked over, but instead of just delivering on the website development, they were trying to sell us other services that we weren't interested in. Computan cut right to the chase and offered us exactly what we were looking to get.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $10,000–$15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in January 2021, and the project was finished in March 2021. The project is now wrapped up. However, we’re still working with them on a support contract.

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

We have a number of service offerings that have grown over the last couple of years. The biggest improvement that we were able to achieve, with the support of Computan, was to make those offerings much more clear and accessible to the people that come to us looking for help on their projects.

We’ve also gotten good feedback from our projects, and we’ve noticed that the people that come to our website are spending more time on it — that’s a significant improvement as well.

Computan was fantastic to work with. They were responsive to our edits and our needs as they arose.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

We were very clear upfront about what we were expecting in terms of timelines and deliverables. Throughout the project, we were always on track with all of those goals. If there were any changes or delays, we were made aware of them right away, and we were able to work through them in a way that worked for both sides.

Computan was very agile and respectful of our needs, and we had open and clear communication. It was a really good process from start to finish, and I was pleased with that.

We held weekly Zoom meetings where we ran through the status of the project. In them, we had contact with the VP and the senior developer, so we could take stock of our priorities and execute on them throughout the week. We also had ad hoc communication with the senior developer, so we could deal with any issues that arose during the week as they came up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was impressive how agile Computan was. We set our requirements at the start of the project, but as we were going through it, a few of our needs changed. Computan’s ability to react on the fly to changes that arose with respect to the project plan was absolutely a highlight.

They were able to accommodate all of our needs and pivot really quickly when it came down to crunch time. That flexibility around our needs was their best attribute.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The entire process was flawless. If anything, an earlier introduction to the senior developers, so that we could have set our expectations with them as well as with the senior managers, would have been great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as clear and concise as you can about your needs on the project upfront. Also, be as transparent as possible about the probability of your project changing over time. Computan was very flexible and accommodating. As long as the people that are looking to engage with them be clear about that up front, they’re set for success in any project that they take on.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lead developer at a CBD company. We sell injectables and topicals with or without CBD.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

I’m the only developer on staff and we needed more help with our development projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Computan is our outsourced development partner. They provide custom code, troubleshooting, and Shopify app development. They also work on page creation and solution development through apps and custom JavaScript code.

What is the team composition?

We work with 5–6 people from their team.

How did you come to work with Computan?

I came into my role after we’d hired Computan as a partner.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2020, and our work is ongoing.

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

Computan does great work. They work well with our company. We’ve gone through quite a few implementations of solutions where they’ve been thoroughly successful.  

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

They meet their deadlines and communicate well through email and our ticket management system. We use Jira for project management in an agile format.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Computan delivers great quality of work. Their communication is very good, too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is a bit of a language gap. Their English is really good but there have been a few times where they haven’t been able to understand my accent. They’re also on a different time zone. Aside from those two hurdles, everything else is great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to go for it. Take the leap and understand that they’re a great company.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal of Sherpa Business Development, which is a marketing consulting practice.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We hired Computan to handle some of the more technical aspects of website design and maintenance for our clients. From there, we extended into some SEO and general online marketing help.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Computan designed several WordPress sites for my client using provided brand guidelines and client preferences. For some of those engagements, they created and implemented the designs while we delivered the final result. Other situations were more retainer-based where, after the design and roll-out, Computan continued to maintain the sites.

What is the team composition? 

I worked with 6–8 people over time. My main point of contact was a project manager based in North America, but there were also other project managers who coordinated the work that needed to be done. Besides them, they had distinct design and implementation individuals.

How much have you invested with them?

Over the years, we spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them consistently between September 2016–February 2021.

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

Computan gave us the ability to offer a more complete suite of services. Prior to working with them, our agency didn’t offer web design nor maintenance, so they really enabled us to go to market as a more complete digital marketing agency. This allowed us to quickly add $20,000–$50,000 per year in sales.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

At first, I was worried that they would be hard to manage because of the time difference. Their team was based across Southeast Asia and Central Europe, so they couldn’t just come over and hash things out with us. 

However, it was a pretty seamless process. They plugged into our Trello board, which was where we tracked everything that we were doing for our clients. That made it easy to hand over assignments, exchange materials, and track metrics.

The team was also very communicative, and it was nice to have a project manager to deal with. If I ever had anything that seemed to be progressing slowly, especially considering the challenges caused by the pandemic, I could always ask him for an update.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were flexible enough to work with us in the way that we wanted to engage. That mechanism made it easy for them to become a piece of how we function. Secondly, their web design capabilities went beyond my expectation. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they were perfect for what we needed at the time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

While it might not be feasible for you to have real-time conversations with their designers and developers, Computan isn’t really structured for that. Instead, you should take advantage of their assigned project managers because they’re more customer-focused. I didn’t always recognize how useful it was to reach out to them to catch up, but it really did help.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital marketing at a mobile managed services provider for large enterprises.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

As digital marketing director, I wear many hats. One of them is managing our website, but also our marketing automation system, which is HubSpot. I brought Computan on board to help specifically with our HubSpot development needs. We're a very small marketing team, so we didn't have the ability to hire a development team.

For our customer holiday messaging, our team wanted to do something a little bigger this year. Because of COVID-19, we couldn't send out gift baskets or anything like that, but we still wanted to do something personalized.

We decided to send everybody a holiday video message. Originally, we were just going to do some Zoom recordings, but we wanted it to be a little bit more special. 2020 was a hard year for everybody, and we value our customers, so we wanted to thank our customers for sticking with us throughout everything.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We work with them on a project by project basis when I need development support. They’ve worked on creating landing pages or emails, as well as other development tasks such as video production, multimedia, and form building. They serve as our development team without being part of our organization. 

For this specific project, we went through brainstorming with the team. They shared some prerecorded animated options that were available through some other websites. We then picked one that was really nice and fun, and Computan was able to customize it with our logo and messaging. 

We then did Zoom recordings with our teams. Computan took each of the generic videos with the holiday message, and they took the Zoom recordings and created 20 separate videos that we were able to send out to our clients. 

They helped us with cutting and editing. I’ve also worked with them on design, development, and editing. All of the publishing comes from my team, so Computan is really are our development arm.

What is the team composition?

I generally work with 2–3 different people on their team, depending on my request. Sajeel (VP Operations) is my account rep.

How did you come to work with Computan?

I found them a few years ago at a HubSpot inbound conference, and they were one of the vendors there. I met Sajeel, and Computan explained what they did. I wasn’t working at my current organization at the time.

I was playing with the idea of hiring a full-time developer, but marketing isn’t the most exciting place to be for a developer. When I spoke with Computan, I realized that what they offered was what I needed — a development agency to help with our various development needs.

I gave them a try when I worked at my former organization, and they were good. When I began working at my current organization, I brought them on board.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $85,000. We have them on retainer. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I began working with them in January 2018, and we’re still working with them.

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

Because we work on a project by project basis, we don’t have metrics. If they complete the work on time and without bugs, we consider it a success. 

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

Computan performs well. They meet their deadlines, and we don’t have any issues there. We communicate via email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their variability of work is impressive. As a very small marketing team, sometimes you really can't hire a videographer, an editor, a developer, a coder, or a marketing automation specialist. Computan has a lot of people on staff with various skills. 

They're an extension of our team, and they ebb and flow with us as our projects go up and down. With COVID-19, we had to reduce our hours with them, and they were fine with that. I like their flexibility.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could put some more project management tools in place so that we can see where things are. I'm fine with email, but that's always an area they can improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In order to be successful, when you put a request in, make sure that you explain in detail what you're looking for. They’re developers, not designers, so you really need to include adequate directions in your requests. 

That's why I work well with them. I have the exact idea in mind, and I just need somebody to build it because I don't have those skills. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a coconut oil skincare brand for babies and toddlers. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We’re a D2C brand selling through our website, so we were looking for someone who could enhance our website and make ongoing upgrades.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handle any needs I have with my Shopify site, after taking it over from a prior development team. Based on the season or upcoming sales, they provide an update to the site to showcase our latest offerings.

We have a designer who handles the wireframing process before handing the work off to them for implementation. After executing, we go through a few rounds of feedback and iteration. For instance, in the holiday season, they implement Black Friday sale messaging, sliders, and new headers. 

Aside from seasonal website changes, they’re staffed on general website optimization efforts. That includes developing custom landing pages to drive conversions. Additionally, they’ve implemented code needed for various Shopify apps and plug-ins.

What is the team composition?

There’s one project manager who coordinates the team. Additionally, there are a few developers off-shore. 

How did you come to work with Computan?

I found them through a marketing agency that I work with. They were referred to me, so I didn’t have to do too many reference checks. However, everyone I spoke with had a positive experience working with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $3,000–$4,000.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since around June 2020.  

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

The quality of their work is very strong and communication is seamless. They’re true developers, no designers. I make sure that their development work matches the design that’s been provided to them.

We’ve been happy with their knowledge of Shopify, and it doesn’t take them too long to find solutions. They’ve done a great job problem-solving until they’ve found the right answer.  

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a weekly meeting and use Freedcamp for requests for deliverables. I was able to input tasks with deadlines and priorities for their developers. We interacted through that platform throughout any given week. They posted links to their work, and I would respond with comments. 

From there, we would use our touch-base meetings to align on upcoming deliverables to stay completely aligned. They took feedback well and were willing to work on projects as long as it takes to find the right solution. Sometimes there are some project delays, but we’ve been very happy on the whole. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re great at understanding priorities and what’s necessary to move a project forward on schedule. If there’s a bottleneck, they’ll push for the information they need. They also take ownership of their work throughout the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I spend more time than I want running QA on their work from a design standpoint. There could be more of a QA check on their side for the look and feel as well as coding standards. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about deliverables. They’re an efficient team, so not giving direct information upfront may cause delays on your end.