AI, ML and BigData R&D center
DigitalMara provides dedicated developers and teams focused on web and mobile solutions development for omnichannel customer experiences.
We are a software development firm that provides dedicated teams with a focus on Java, Angular and React, among other technologies. As a vendor for largest enterprises, we've gained tremendous experience in omnichannel customer care and engagement solutions. We've also built a top-notch R&D unit to help clients adopt innovative techs like data science, AI, ML, chatbots and voice recognition.
headquarters
other locations
Focus
Portfolio
Automating the First Touch with Customers through a Dedicated Chatbot
The client’s sales team successfully leveraged a personal approach to convert their website visitors into buying customers. A specially-trained agent pitched in to increase the chances of a purchase just as a prospect was about to leave the site or appeared hesitant.
It soon became obvious that some of the agents’ early steps in establishing a visitor relationship were repetitive to the point that automation could be introduced. As chats are the main communication tool for the company, a customizable chatbot was clearly the most natural solution.
The client’s sales reps had already accumulated the most common customer doubts and concerns, so we had ample material to work with. We built the chatbot from scratch, equipping it with scripts that clarify the questions frequently asked by website visitors.
Today, the company’s sales reps no longer handle the endlessly repetitive requests visitors initially have. The chatbot processes website visitors until communication reaches the level where human assistance is required to complete the conversion. At that point, a sales agent steps in and closes the deal.
Since the client already had a working sales model, we had to properly understand and contextualize it before building a chatbot that would easily integrate with its human counterparts. Our project manager began by interviewing the client’s sales managers and agents to draft an early concept of the prospective product. Once it was approved, we put together a dedicated team.
The client expressed some initial concerns about the time difference between our offices. However, we acclimated to their business hours so seamlessly that this was quickly forgotten. Our team regularly touched base with the client using daily standups and weekly reports — the key practices of Scrum development.
- Chatbot handling the most common customer requests at first touchpoint
- Virtual assistant advising a sales rep on processing a particular customer
- Customer wait time decreased, raising satisfaction with the service.
- Sales agents spend less time converting leads into buyers.
- The least likely conversions are identified and handled before the sales team needs to interfere, saving both time and human resources.
Java, Flex, REST API
Upgrading a Sales Team Supervision System
The client realized the web application they were using to supervise their digital sales team needed serious revision. The technology stack it was originally built upon no longer met the requirements or demands of the business.
Our team began by analyzing the existing supervision system and assessing the business challenges it was failing to address. The client assigned an in-house product owner to work closely with our crew of six engineers directed by a product manager. This helped us quickly grasp the upgrade concept, and we were able to dive right in.
Throughout the project, we utilized key Scrum practices, such as daily standup meetings and regular weekly reports, keeping in touch with the client’s product owner. Doing so allowed us to realistically fill in any gaps between the team’s vision and that of the client early enough to adjust as needed.
- Authentication through SSO allowing agents to access all apps within the infrastructure by a single login
- Customizable statistics view providing supervisors with a full picture of sales activities
- Chat history to keep track of each agent’s communications with customers
- Conversation view for supervisors to analyze the most and least effective communications
- Data filters helping supervisors concentrate on the most relevant metrics
- Agent assistance on chat usage enabled by connecting to a more experienced colleague when necessary
- Alerting on statistics for supervisors to take action
- Supervisors see when each sales agent has logged onto the platform and all of its applications at once.
- The supervisory team can analyze sales activity down to granular details of customer communication. This allows managers to improve the model on a fundamental level, as well as each of its aspects independently.
- Statistical anomalies and anticipated statistical issues become visible to supervisors before they begin to inflict losses in revenue and cause other potential problems.
Java, HTML5, Native JavaScript, JQuery UI, SPA, Oauth2, SSO, Ajax, REST API, pub/sub, MySQL, Spring, Spring MVC, Jackson, XML, XSD, Hibernate, QUnit, JUnit, Mockito, Servlet, Resin, Tomcat, Maven, Ant, Git
Online Sales Toolbox for eCommerce
Web applications rust without constant updating. The client was using that ancient and obsolete technology, Flash, as the foundation for their eCommerce platform’s sales agent interface.
Approach
When we first met the client, they already had a long list of issues to resolve because of the outdated technology. They presented us with their vision of prospective upgrades, and this was enough for our team to draft a clear, developmental roadmap, and get going immediately upon client approval.
We split our development crew of ten into two divisions: one would adjust to the client’s business hours to ensure close collaboration, while the other tended to the tasks that were сlear enough to execute without real-time interfacing. This team structure allowed for intelligent distribution of resources as we proceeded with the Scrum model.
Key features
- Chat that enables communication between sales agents and website visitors
- Chat history allowing sales agents to pick up where they left off and analyze their successes and failures
- Social chats integrated with popular platforms (SMS, Twitter, Facebook, and ABC)
- Customizable functionality and user interface to adjust to changes with the business model as it continues to evolve
- AI assistance to support and improve agent communication with customers
Results
- Sales agents make decisions drawn on the history of communications with a particular customer, and insights derived from similar cases catered by the AI.
- Conversion rates increased by 32% as website visitors were followed up with and treated in a more personalized manner.
Technologies
Amber, JavaScript, JQuery, QUnit, Ajax, JSON, CSS, Node.js
Enabling Platform Management and Customizable Reporting
DigitalMara developed a system allowing the client to manage their web platform and customized reporting.
Key features- User management interface
- Website management interface
- Business Rules, an application behavior management interface
- Reporting through customizable graphic representations of stats
- QueryBuilder, a visual interface enabling statistical sampling
- ClientBuilder, a visual interface allowing customization of each website’s design
- The client can now configure their website without coding; this significantly reduces the costs incurred by hiring developers to execute minor tweaks.
- By managing user profiles, sales agents easily onboard digitally illiterate or uncomfortable customers and assist them on their path to purchase.
- The sales team is easily bolstered with new members, thanks to agent profiles that managers can set in a couple of clicks.
GWT, SmartGWT, AngularJS, TypeScript, JavaScript(EcmaScript 5, EcmaScript 6), Java, React.js, HighCharts, Spring, Spring Core, Spring Security, Spring MVC, Hibernate, DropWizard, MySQL, REST API, Swagger
A Complex BI Platform Using Big Data
DigitalMara developed a custom analytics tool that provides the client with meaningful insights extracted from big data.
Key features- Analytical data collection in one place
- Website analytics reports in graphical form
- Sales funnel KPI calculations
- Chat statistics
- Conversations as a separate entity
- Linking particular conversations with successful conversions
- Full-text chat search and language-specific search
- Chat transcript storage space and tools
- The company’s managers are now provided with a complete picture of sales performance, allowing for improvement strategies and accurate forecasts.
- Customer relations can now be tracked every step of the way, analyzed as needed, and implemented as useful training examples.
- Managers can identify the most productive sales reps and present their success stories as best practices within the company.
Reviews
the project
Website Development for Construction Reviews Platform
"We were really happy with the design and the ease of the UI."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the co-founder of TopOut, a construction reviews platform.
What challenge were you trying to address with DigitalMara?
We partnered with them to build our website from scratch.
What was the scope of their involvement?
While the work they did was a bid over our head, I know they used database technologies in AWS. They also used JavaScript on our actual site.
How did you come to work with DigitalMara?
We were referred to them by a mutual friend who had done business in the past with them. They came highly referred. After we talked to them, they seemed to have all the qualifications and understood the project.
How much have you invested with them?
It was in the $12,000 range initially. We’ve implemented additional features since then, and now we’re in the $19,000 range.
What is the status of this engagement?
I believe we began working with them back in June 2019. We’re still working together, we just completed a milestone a couple of weeks ago. The main project is finished, since then we’ve been making additional tweaks.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve been marketing the product since its release, and our feedback has been very good. We consistently gain new users. Google Analytics has shown usage increases slowly but steadily. As far as basic functionality, we’ve had to fix small things but overall, it’s been very positive. The site functions as we hoped it would.
How did DigitalMara perform from a project management standpoint?
They used GitLab to create tickets, answer questions, or query us. We had weekly meetings over teleconference, meetings that turned into brainstorming on the fly. Deadlines were often missed, not by a lot, but they were missed. Some are attributed to us requesting new features close to the deadline, but as we were flexible it wasn’t an issue.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They handled the UI and the design side for us. We were really happy with the design and the ease of the UI.
They’re also a far better value than any of their competitors. They were able to do the project for substantially less than anyone else.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I wouldn’t mind seeing more of a maintenance plan. That was a little vague. Seeing something a little more concrete regarding ongoing maintenance would be beneficial.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Make sure you have very clear specifications before engaging with them.
the project
Software Development for Customer Engagement Platform
"They possess and understand a creative, aggressive development strategy."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I held a couple of different positions while I worked with DigitalMara. I was at TouchCommerce as the CTO and worked with them for about nine years. After they were acquired, I stayed on and worked with DigitalMara further.
What challenge were you trying to address with DigitalMara?
We were building what we called a digital customer engagement platform, which is a solution that plugs into enterprise websites. Most of our clients were Fortune 500 types of companies, so the digital engagement platform was software that supplied a variety of different solutions to go above and beyond enhancing the customer’s experience when they go to a website.
If you’re struggling to solve a problem via a website this would be a set of tools that helps you go further like an automated chat, a live agent chat, surveys, guided experiences, or videos. Pretty much anything that will help the customer get to a conversion event.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They were basically a core part of our development team during our time. Really, they did everything across the product lifecycle. They represented about 75%-80% of our team, including software development, QA and testing, and production service delivery.
We even went as far as to have team leaders for different areas. Our data warehousing and data management team lead was from DigitalMara.
What is the team composition?
We started off with three people, and when I left Nuance we had 110 people. During most of that time, we were between 50-100 people. The three initial people were sort of a test.
How much have you invested with them?
We were paying them around $10,000,000–$15,000,000 per year.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together from April 2007 until November 2018, when I left, but DigitalMara still has a relationship with them.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We were measuring the success of our development team as a whole, so we weren’t separating our DigitalMara’s people. We did track statistics, however, including the number of outages, total downtime, and the number of bugs found post-production.
I was extremely happy with their performance, and I don’t think TouchCommerce would have accomplished anywhere near what they actually accomplished without them. Our clients had extremely high expectations in terms of the quality of our solutions so we constantly endeavored to improve the quality of the solution.
How did DigitalMara perform from a project management standpoint?
Communication is very strong, so there aren’t any issues there. Deadlines, on the other hand, are always challenging for a software company. I treated them as a member of our full team, and we had both successes and failures. That’s just the way development works, though. Overall, they did a great job of driving our product forward. They were always upfront and forward about any issues they hit, and sometimes we had to adjust schedules to fit the practicality of the situation.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They were very flexible to our needs throughout and were able to quickly fill the roles we needed to fill. They also contributed to new processes as our company and client expectations matured. Also, they didn’t impose anywhere near as much overhead on us as a typical outsourced firm will. This allows them to offer more competitive prices. They possess and understand a creative, aggressive development strategy. Rather than requiring line-by-line code specifications, they get involved in understanding the project and contributing to specifications.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Generally speaking, communication can always be better with an outsourced team. They put a lot of effort into it but it always needs improvement. I don’t have a lot of negative things to say about the company.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Get clarity about the skills you need to accomplish the task and expectations. Those are two of the most important things. If you’re clear about what you need from them then they’ll do a very good job.
This review was updated by the Vice President, Communications Software Company on June 10th, 2020. New content is below:
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the vice president of global R&D of a communications software company.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with DigitalMara?
Our company has multiple tools and platforms, one of which is a digital platform that is used by customer service representatives to engage with their consumers through a variety of channels. The DigitalMara team has helped us to build out that product and its capabilities.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
The work that they’ve done for us has focused on the cross-platform integrations and APIs that allow agents and consumers to engage with one another. They’ve also helped to develop the tools that agents and supervisors can use to inform and make operational changes.
About 80% of the development of that full stack of technologies is currently being done by DigitalMara, and all of their work is being done entirely from scratch.
What was the team composition?
We work with their entire team, which has grown from about ten to over 100 people since the partnership began.
How did you come to work with DigitalMara?
They had been working with a company that we acquired since about 2010, and we brought them on in order to continue that partnership.
How much have you invested with them?
We spend close to $5 million a year, which comes to about $15 million in total with them.
What is the status of this engagement?
Their collaboration with Nuance started in August 2016 when the previous company was acquired, and we are continuing to work together.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We don’t have any specific benchmark metrics for them besides the measurements that we track internally as a team to test the health and usage of our tools. As long as our offerings are satisfying our customers’ needs, they are doing their job in supporting us, so we have been very pleased with that level of service over the years.
Their team has been able to deliver complex features that were fully integrated into our existing offerings within a matter of days from the initial concept. The level of technical skill that they demonstrate is consistently outstanding, and that is why they are involved in or responsible for nearly 80% of a nearly $100 million flow of business for our company.
How did DigitalMara perform from a project management standpoint?
DigitalMara does a great job of sticking to all of the deadlines that we give them and communicating about the challenges they face well in advance of them. They are also willing to provide very candid feedback about whether or not specific goals are feasible within the amount of time we’ve allotted to them, so there are never any big surprises in that regard.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their passion and consistency of quality are well above and beyond what you can expect from this industry. The whole team is committed to delivering the best work possible and will work extra-long hours without being asked because of it. They are driven, independent, and accurate in all of their work.
Are there any areas they could improve?
We have worked with them in a few areas, but they have always worked with us to improve in those areas and are committed to getting better all the time, so we don’t have any complaints about them.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
What I found successful was giving them a lot of freedom, clarity, and ownership. As long as you can give them a full understanding of what you want them to do, they are fully capable and deserving of taking an entire feature and breaking it down, executing it, and delivering it on their own.
Feedback on the site has been very positive. The UI is phenomenal. The team at DigitalMara is communicative and professional, although they could be better with deadlines. DigitalMara provides fantastic value in their work.