DevsMonkeys

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Special Learning, a global e-commerce company. We sell training and education videos to people who work with individuals with autism and other mental health challenges.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevsMonkeys?

DevsMonkeys helps us with our web development needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’ve worked with DevsMonkeys throughout the course of many years, ever since I founded my company. They were the ones who developed our original website in PHP from scratch. Since then, they’ve become the backbone of all of the technology needs for my business. Currently, they provide us with custom software development, and they’re responsible for our server management in AWS.

Our site started out as a simple information portal/e-commerce site. There, we offered training videos and downloadable PDF tools like PDF materials and more, so it was a relatively easy site. Since then, DevsMonkeys has helped us evolve it, and we’ve become a continuing education platform.

Our current site has a WordPress frontend, but the store part of it and everything else has been custom-developed by them.

As continuous education training has become a large part of our business, DevsMonkeys has needed to meet very specific requirements so that we can provide our users with more complex tools like quizzes. Thus, they’ve helped us build an entire educational system. Additionally, they’re continuously in charge of our platform’s maintenance and hosting.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with DevsMonkeys’ principal. Additionally, we have 2–3 developers working on various projects at any given time.

How did you come to work with DevsMonkeys?

Originally, I found DevsMonkeys’ principal on Upwork, back when the site was called differently. He was a developer part of a larger team, but he continued working with me throughout the years.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent between $500,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around June 2010, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Considering the complex development work behind our site, it is very stable, and its uptime is excellent; it very rarely goes down. Additionally, the level of support I get is excellent. They’re very responsive and have great problem-solving skills. Furthermore, I’ve found them to be an exceptional strategic thinker.

Whenever I’m conceptualizing something, I run it by them, even though I already have an idea for the solution I’m looking for. Still, They’re always able to refine it better, and they know how to use technology to solve our challenges.

Creating our site’s WordPress frontend and custom backend has been a long project, but we’re now working on our site optimization. As a result of this effort, our traffic has increased, as has the total number of visitors to our site. We see great metrics, and they keep increasing.

How did DevsMonkeys perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s hard to provide feedback on DevsMonkeys’ project management because we’ve been working for so long that I don’t oversee projects anymore, and we work on multiple projects at the same time. For example, we’ve been trying to launch a new website for some time now, but the deadline keeps getting delayed.

However, those delays are caused by internal priority changes. If I were to leave DevsMonkeys alone to work on that project, I’m confident that they would meet the set deadline. Unfortunately, the issues are internal and go beyond them.

We’ve used various tools to manage our projects, including Monday.com, Asana, and some tracking tools. We also use Microsoft Teams to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

DevsMonkeys is highly ethical and probably one of the most honest vendors I’ve ever worked with. I no longer consider them a vendor; I now consider them a partner, and I trust them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be nice to have more proactive communication about project statuses. I know that when I assign a different task to them, it impacts their work on our core project. Thus, I would like them to communicate exactly how working on a new task will impact their productivity; it would be very helpful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don't treat DevsMonkeys as a simple development shop because they’re exceptionally strong at problem-solving. Spending enough time upfront in getting them to understand your business and the entire project’s scope will ultimately benefit the outcome you desire.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of an internet retailer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our website has been created organically over time and had become outdated and difficult to work with. We don't have in house developers so we hired DevsMonkeys to improve the structure and design of the website and to restructure the back end of the website.

SOLUTION

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

I searched for website developers on Upwork and my final selection was based on the experience of the team and the quality and timeliness of their communication skills.

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

I explained what my goals were and perovided graphical presentations that explained this to the team, then a project tracking tool was used to track the progress of each of the deliverables with the design team. We are currently in the process of migrating the website to Laravel

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

A project manager worked with me throughout the build and I also had access to between one and two full stack developers depending on the quantity of the work required.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website is now much more streamlined and easy to use and there has been an improvement in user metrics.

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

The project was managed through regular communication with the project manager and development team and the use of the redmine communication tool and skype for day to day communication.

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

They were available at short notice whenever I had a problem no matter the time of day.

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

I'm very happy with the work they have done.