Custom Software Solutions, Inc

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of G&M Compliance. We essentially help manufacturers of electronic products to get certifications worldwide so that they can sell into different international markets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Custom Software Solutions, Inc?

We hired them to develop our websites, one of them was a cloud database site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The online database is basically where we put some of the reports and certificates of our third-party client's products or applications. It also serves as an alerting system that notifies us when our stakeholders’ certificates are going to expire. 

Right now, they’re also helping us with our online marketing efforts. They’re using Google Ads. We also have Pardot — part of Salesforce, and we use it as a marketing solution. Custom Software assists us with all of the three things mentioned above. 

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with Allen (President), and then he has other support programmers that we also interact with occasionally. 

How did you come to work with Custom Software Solutions, Inc?

We found them through one of our contacts. We had tried others in the past that had done a good job for us, and we were willing to try Custom Software because things weren’t working out as well as they could be. In the end, they happened to be a good fit for us.  

How much have you invested with them?

We've probably spent over $100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We probably started working in February 2014, around 6–7 years ago. Our relationship is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve definitely performed better than our previous partners. We’ve seen more robust websites and we’ve noticed that more people are visiting our site and clicking on things. We’ve also noticed a few folks coming to us because of our campaigns. We have an uptick in web traffic and that’s helping to drive new business to us.

We’re still in the process of refining our metrics. It’s never easy to keep track of things and to know exactly where people came from, but we will get there. 

How did Custom Software Solutions, Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

When we give them something to work on, they definitely do it. While waiting for inputs from us, they’ll keep things moving along, so I would say that’s their strong suit. They’re also good at following up and being organized. We have monthly meetings where we review things.

We have a loose time frame on deliverables, but as far as timelines go, we don’t have hard deadlines to meet. Usually, we’re the ones holding things back because we’re not getting enough information soon enough. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to follow up and get things done has been impressive and makes a whole difference to prevent things from getting dropped through the cracks. They are more organized than most of the other providers we’d used in the past.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could probably benefit from narrowing their scope down to a few things that they see growth potential in. That way, they can become an expert and pursue a narrow scope of work than what they currently take on themselves. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you want somebody who’s going to be organized and can help you stay on task, then Custom Software can really be a good fit for you. Above all, they’re very easy to work with.