DMI (Digital Management, Inc.)

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a Jiu Jitsu gym.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DMI (Digital Management, Inc.)?

We partnered up with DMI to run our email marketing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with them for six months. Bryan (Senior Project Manager) was a great help. Email marketing was the main thing they did for us and they optimized our email. They helped us with whatever we needed.

What is the team composition?

I worked with 4–5 people from DMI.

How did you come to work with DMI (Digital Management, Inc.)?

We found them through a referral.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around March 2020 and we just finished working with them this month in September 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I loved working with them and they did an amazing job. Bryan, who worked directly with us, and their team were super responsible, so we had a great experience. Everyone loved it.

How did DMI (Digital Management, Inc.) perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job. They were super organized and always on time. The schedule was always followed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with agencies before and they were not very responsible. Bryan followed up with the schedule and they did everything they said they’d do. Many times, in our previous experience with other agencies, they would overpromise and underdeliver, but with Bryan, he always over-delivered.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If anyone needs email optimization, I’d suggest working with DMI.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of the mobile division for Lycamobile, one of the world’s largest telecom players and MVNOs [mobile virtual network operators]. We have 20 million customers in over 20 countries, including the States. I’m also responsible for apps from end to end.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DMI?

We needed help designing and launching an app. We had the option to design internally or work with a reputable organization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DMI provided strategic input for our app’s user interface and user experience. Another supplier built the actual product. DMI is considered an expert in this particular area, so we let them design the app. Initially, they provided a robust market analysis. They looked at what was going on in the market and studied the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors’ apps. Since we already had a go at designing the app, DMI critiqued that as well. They pointed out what was working well and what wasn’t. DMI also researched about what our customers wanted through interviews. They developed personas and critiqued my work for the use cases. They clearly know what they’re doing.

It was quite a comprehensive involvement, so we divided the deliverables into phases. Phase one involved producing a minimum viable product based on market research. After designing the app, DMI went a step further and did QA. That allowed them to see if everything adhered to their design. Afterward, they rapidly delivered prototypes for us that we could test with customers. Since then, there has been a number of other phases. In order to produce a world-class app, we had a lot of features lined up. We optimized the product backlog so that there was a clear justification why they did what they did.

We talked to team members on a regular basis. Even though they’re based in Spain, they led the research in the UK. They flew over and spoke to customers and did focus groups. My main contact was Lydia, who was our account manager. I also had contact with Magnus, the CEO, who flew over on a regular basis. I got to meet the designers who were doing the UI/UX for our key operating systems—Android and iOS. I worked with two excellent designers, and I got to meet the chief strategist as well. I met about 20 people from DMI, which is really unusual.

How did you come to work with DMI?

We found DMI on the Internet by using specific search terms on Google. They were ranked quite high. We got them in and found out what they were about and what they could deliver. Although we went through a request for proposal process, we found DMI to be the best partner.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2015, and the work is ongoing. We’re in phase one at the moment, so there are a lot of amazing features that we need to add to the app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our key metric is downloads. That’s in comparison to the likes of WhatsApp, Skype, and Viber.  We went from a zero download base to about 3,000 downloads a day, and this figure is growing exponentially. In terms of engagement, about 80% of customers who download the app use it on a regular basis. We’re getting hundreds and hundreds of app top-ups a day. The average top-up would be in excess of $10 dollars, so the app is a strategic revenue stream. I can easily see a situation where we get 50,000 downloads a day. Without DMI, that would not be possible.

The app works flawlessly. It’s very responsive, simple, and easy to use. The approach we’ve taken is to customize it to the native operating system. If you use the iOS operating system, the app lends itself to that, and the same goes for Android.

We’ve received very positive user feedback. Our scores are in excess of four all the time. Every app attracts negative feedback, but I suspect some of that is from our competition, not purely from customers. Overall, we’re in a positive place, and I’m quite happy with the feedback that we get.

How did DMI perform from a project management standpoint?

They have excellent project management, and they’ve always exceeded our expectations. DMI works in an Agile way, which is a breath of fresh air for us. They have lots of experts in different areas of the business. They’ve got guys who focus on strategy, guys who focus on account management, guys who focus on UX, and others that focus on UI. I’m quite confident that DMI can deliver turn-key solutions, which is what they did for us.

We use a range of tools to address issues, including Zeplin. We also use Project, PowerPoint, Word, and other tools from Microsoft. We have calls on a weekly basis and talk with them on the phone. If I needed to escalate matters, I would contact Lydia, the account manager. She would listen and make sure that standards were being followed.

What did you find most impressive about DMI?

They are very proactive and always go the extra mile. DMI’s team keeps a finger on the pulse of trends in the mobile space. They deliver additional insights and best practices, which is something I welcome. We use some of their suggestions for short-term business, while long-term ideas stay on the back burner. We’re very fortunate to work with them. Over time, we’ve developed a close partnership with DMI.

Are there any areas DMI could improve?

Nobody’s perfect. Sometimes, we’re just not particularly clear in our communication. Sometimes, they just didn’t think things through 100% of the way.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a specialty retailer. We're the parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works.

What is your position?

I’m the Manager of the Customer Marketing Team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DMI?

We brought DMI in for our Shipping Analytics Project. The general intent was that we know shipping is one of the greatest barriers for our customers to comple their online purchase, especially for our Victoria's Secret brand. We wanted DMI to use our data and think in a way that we didn't think, potentially, to tell us if there's a better way to handle our shipping approach.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

DMI was brought in for data analysis. It was also to see them use their skills in some more hard data science and big data environments that we didn't necessarily know how to do, so to not only get that deliverable but to jump-start our knowledge on it.

How did you come to work with DMI?

We explored at least three agencies in total. I think it came down to the fact that DMI had the best understanding of the problem, the best value proposition, and methodology of all three vendors.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We had three or four of their consultants and at one point, probably five or six people here part-time, so I believe the cost is in the $50,000 to $200,000 range.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The biggest win we've been playing off of is that we've learned a big bit about how to do these sorts of analyses on our big data environment. DMI also gave us a good recommendation for how to approach the shipping problem. It's one we're still figuring out how to implement, but their recommendation was solid.

What distinguishes DMI from other providers?

DMI was easy to work with and very knowledgeable. They dropped into the project quickly, figured out how our business and how our data systems worked. I was the project lead so I was responsible for making sure they get their work done, and they didn't take a lot of effort from me to get them productive quickly.

Is there anything DMI could have improved or done differently?

In general, I think they were overall great partners.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a global property casualty insurance company. We insure mid-sized companies and above.

What is your position?

I’m the lead on the enterprise integration and data management team. We handle all the data warehousing, but also all of the back-end financials. We have portals that we give our customers so that they can look at their losses and dice their loss history.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DMI?

Typically, we outsource 70% to 80% of our development work to four primary vendors, Wipro, CSC, Cap, and Accenture, but there are times when we get projects or areas that aren’t their expertise, and we look for a boutique-type company. The one area that we don’t do a lot of development work in is on external portals. Because we don’t do a lot of portal development, there’s not a lot of expertise in our four primary vendors.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We brought DMI in and they redid an entire portal a couple years ago. They did an excellent job. Because we knew we would have projects coming up in the future, we actually got DMI set up with a master service agreement, so they’re not one of our four preferred vendors, but they are one that anybody within our group can now use.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It would probably be in the $500,000 to $1 million range. We may top $1 million though, on this current project.

What is the status of this engagement?

This is an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

If we go back to a couple years ago, the project was actually delivered ahead of schedule and under budget. Then from our customers and brokers, the new portal also got very high marks for the significant improvements.

What distinguishes DMI from other providers?

On the sales side, DMI has a very low-pressure sales team. I love that I don’t have them in my office, and they’re not calling me every week asking for more business, which I get from a lot of other vendors.

Additionally, the resources that we get from DMI are great. We’ve been doing this for a long time, so we’ve gotten very good over the years on how to do these types of engagements. One of the things we do with all our vendors is bring a resource in as if we’re going to hire them. We go through a whole review. With DMI, every resource they’ve ever given us has vetted really well, and we were able to bring them in. The last thing is that DMI works really well within our team. They’re very mature in what they do, and the DMI folks fit in really well.

Is there anything DMI could have improved or done differently?

That’s a tough one. It’s one of the few I don’t think about too often because our partnership just works. Everything always goes really well. I can’t think of any time we had to kick any one of their resources out for any issue. The rates are fairly good. We’re always looking for better rates, but the quality we get for the price we pay is very fair. I really don’t have anything negative to say.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a payments technology company. We process debit and credit cards. Our area of focus is the technology and analytics around payments. We do a variety of innovative things to bring faster, smarter, and easier payments to market.

What is your position?

I'm the Senior Vice President of Product within the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DMI?

There have been several challenges but the first was one around mobilizing our data to make better and smarter pricing decisions.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

DMI helped to provide a very service-oriented item, in which they assisted in performing the analysis and also automating some of the decision making that we used to price and reprice our various products. Their role has expanded to be more of a retained service, as we've stood up our big data environment, and built a variety of tools and reporting capabilities off of that.

How did you come to work with DMI?

It was fairly customary. We explored three traditional consultancies as well as marketing boutique agencies. It was very clear from the beginning that DMI had listened and read what our requirements were, and understood what we were looking for. The responses we got back were not a cut and paste or cookie-cutter approach to help us solve our problem. It was clearly a personalized discussion and an actual presentation document. The statement of work they provided backed and reflected that they were interested in getting really intimate with our business and in coming up with a solution that was tailored to us. That ultimately won the day and has been the case ever since.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The expenditure has grown over the last four years from under $10,000 to now greater than $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's been an ongoing partnership that has expanded greatly. In a nutshell, the first engagement was on pricing. It expanded into a small retainer, where we leveraged their capabilities and a data scientist or two, to provide ongoing automation of our pricing process and related reports. That has also expanded into more of what I think you'd characterize as a larger IT outsourcing program where we leverage their data scientist, data architects, and database analysts as an extension of our team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The first point of a success is from a process standpoint. Our manual pricing process was ten business days' worth of pulling data from different databases. DMI was able to get that down to less than two minutes through automation. Literally ten days into two minutes!

DMI became extremely valuable. That ten-day reduction process needed to happen for our customer portfolios, especially since we have hundreds of customer segments. What we knew was that there was not enough time because there were ten days and there certainly weren’t enough bodies in the organization to be able to perform this exercise across our entire customer base before automation. DMI was able to bring those processes down to a matter of minutes, which allowed us to perform these exercises across all aspects of our customer base.

What distinguishes DMI from other providers?

DMI really immersed themselves in our business and provided a tailored approach. The best quality of their team members is if you were to walk in the building, you wouldn’t be able to differentiate a member of their team from a member of our team. They’ve partnered side by side with us. The fact that they can seamlessly integrate with our team to drive impact is the biggest litmus test of their success here.

Is there anything DMI could have improved or done differently?

The one piece of advice I would have for them would be to continue to work to anticipate client needs and proactively bring new ideas to the table because it is certainly welcomed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an information and data analytics company. 

What is your position?

When partnering with DMI, I was managing marketing for a specific division.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DMI?

When we first approached the Pappas Group, now DMI, there was a desperate need for a rebrand and we didn't know where we needed to go with it. We had seen their fabulous work with another product of ours that we actually just acquired. My team thought that DMI could help us rebuild this brand and get it to our consumers while also retaining the customer base we already had.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They were in charge of a full rebranding campaign of one of our products.

How did you come to work with DMI?

There are actually very few companies that can market our product which actually puts DMI/Pappas in a league by itself. I could name, on one hand, the companies that can actually market our product well, and DMI is one of them. We actually looked at three agencies but DMI really had us, hands down, because they had just launched the most successful campaign of a product like ours

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

This project was over $200,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I can't really give you stats but I can tell you that because of the work that DMI did with us, we were able to obtain successful deliverables that contributed greatly to an existing contract.

What distinguishes DMI from other providers?

The great thing about DMI is that they are very flexible, talented and very creative. Their work might be edgy at times but we needed it to still be very warm and personable. I don't know if it's because it's popular or not but everything that they do touches on a personal level when you look at it. So it's very impactful, and that's what we needed.

Is there anything DMI could have improved or done differently?

No, I don't think so. I don't work with them anymore because I now manage a different department. One thing I admire about them is that they push back and most agencies don't really push back. We're pretty creative on our side but we feel like we know best and sometimes we don't. So it was really good to have the push back where we needed it. I would encourage them to spread their wings on social media if they want to actually continue to grow in that space. If their goal is to maintain this awesome energy with creative stuff and making things beautiful then they're set. It's a part of them that's just amazing. If they really want to get on the campaign social media side of it then they're going to need to strengthen that side. That’s not a ding at anybody doing social media now. It's just something from an outsider's perspective looking in.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are the portfolio brand for a large amount of hotels. We have about 4,250 hotels, which represents about a million rooms.

What are your position and responsibilities?

I work in the mobile and digital guest services team as the user experience and design lead. The products that fall underneath my purview are our native mobile apps, tablet apps, and wearable apps, as well as a lot of the on-property experiences: high speed internet access, property portal, welcome site, guestroom entertainment, interactive set-top box, Windows platform, Windows phone, and iOS and Android, as well as interactions with hardware on property, such as using your phone as a key, or ordering food and beverage on your phone, and the associate base and software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Pappas Group?

When we first approached Pappas Group, we were looking for a design and development shop to handle our user experience design, functional specifications, and exploration. In the visual design of our Windows app experience, Microsoft is a big partner of ours, so we had to create an enhanced experience for the Windows mobile platform. We engaged with Pappas Group in October 2014 to work on that project.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Pappas Group provided user experience, wireframes, mood boards, design frames, user experience flows, functional specification documents, and engaged in a minor amount of usability research.

How did you come to work with Pappas Group?

We found Pappas Group during a search for agencies in the area that had experience with mobile, and they came up in a network search.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

This engagement was in the $50,000 to $200,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We engaged with Pappas Group in October 2014, and the collaboration is still ongoing. After the conclusion of the Windows project, we continued to use Pappas Group for some of their other mobile expertise, and leveraging their agency expertise to help us manage some of our workflow processes. We've got several members of their team working with us on building processes inside Confluence and JIRA, and other project management tools, to make sure that we are able to insert innovation, and have appropriate time and resources allocated towards user experience design, visual design, product discovery, and trying to move towards a more agile practice. The other thing I should note is that our native mobile practice is very new. We've only been doing native mobile for about two years, and our mobile team has grown substantially. One of the things we've leveraged Pappas to do is help us with that growth, help us meet the capabilities and needs of our partners while we grow.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our Windows app was the first of our native mobile applications to receive a four-star rating in any of the native app stores. I think the user experience and design of the project certainly contributed to the transition of a hybrid build to a native build inside Windows. The users in the Windows App Store really appreciated it and rated it very high. It was also a featured app in the Windows Mobile App Store, and I think it's still in the top of the Travel category as one of the best apps.

How did Pappas Group perform from a project management standpoint?

The quality of the work and the project management was fantastic. Nothing but good things to say here about Pappas Group.

What distinguishes Pappas Group from other providers?

I think one thing they tend to do because they also have marketing resources and marketing projects that they do internally, they tend to think about the end product as a more marketable product. They don't just look at achieving the KPIs [key performance indicators] of the product owner here internally, but also looking to provide fantastic feedback in terms of how certain features or functions can be marketed. I think they put a little bit extra design juice into the things that they do, knowing that they need to be marketed more easily.

Is there anything Pappas Group could have improved or done differently?

No. Looking back on our experience, for a lot of the stuff that we had done there was a lot of back and forth about what our process could and should be internally, and in all aspects of that Pappas Group rolled with the changing landscape very well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a media and technology company.

What is your position?

I am president of the membership division.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Pappas Group_DMI?

We have worked with Pappas Group_DMI in two capacities. One, help with marketing and branding and then they're helping us with ideation on some new possible business ideas. The challenge for us right now is finding growth, and for us that is product innovation.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We have, for a lack of a better term, an R&D [research and development] team that's looking at product innovation internally, and they're good, they've had some success, but it's a very difficult challenge and we have very limited resources. Having Pappas Group_DMI who actually have this expertise, allows them do things a little more quickly in terms of some of the experiments to verify if those products fit the market. Pappas Group_DMI helped us accelerate that process significantly.

How did you come to work with Pappas Group_DMI?

We actually did a bake off for the first project, which was the branding and go-to-market initiative, Pappas Group_DMI helped us with a couple different things. Then on the ideation segment, their team came in and pitched us. We were looking for some help on ideation, but we didn't know they actually did a lot of ideation work so they came and pitched us on that.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

For our current project, it was about $200,000 plus.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started work with Pappas Group probably two years ago, and we've done subsequent re-engagements with them. This most recent engagement probably started two or three months ago, and it's ongoing. We've worked with them on and off for two years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

This project they're working on now hasn't launched yet, but we've had probably four or five check-ins, which is part of the process that we all laid out before. The results so far have been great, but we haven't yet launched the product, so there's no real KPIs [key performance indicators]. The prior place that we worked with them it's hard to say because it was mostly marketing and branding. The results were great, but it's hard to say what the KPIs are. They are very collaborative, they move quickly, they have very talented people - I think those are the KPIs we care about. Then, the ultimate success of the initiative is our ability to both build it and then market it successfully.

What distinguishes Pappas Group_DMI from other providers?

I would say, before DMI, Pappas Group was a really talented boutique that could spend the right amount of energy, really worked collaboratively, and was both creative and on top of all the latest technology trends. With DMI, I think they've expanded their repertoire. Not that Pappas couldn't build things, but I think they've got far more capabilities now as part of DMI, where they can pull on the resources from a broader and bigger organization, to actually build things more rapidly. They're very mobile-centric, which I think is something we wanted for our innovation practice.

Is there anything Pappas Group_DMI could have improved or done differently?

I can't think of anything specific.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are the financial services arm of a large automotive company. We support financing, leasing, and vehicle protection – ancillary product sales for the larger brands.

What is your position?

I am the marketing manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Pappas Group_DMI?

I wouldn't say that there was a specific challenge. We have a lean marketing team here. At any given time, there's probably five to seven full-time employees on the marketing team, so we're more on the business side and managing, working with our brand partners to promote brand campaigns or for internal purposes, internal communications. Also, dealer marketing is becoming a focus. What we needed, since the team is so lean, is a full-service agency to help with the strategic thinking and marketing as well as execution, and that's when we approached Pappas Group, now part of DMI.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Our relationship has been going strong for about five years now. As far as services go, it's been a cradle to grave sort of marketing strategy, as well as strong execution. We do a lot of print point of sale, so in-dealership materials. We do a lot of digital. We starting to do more in the way of digital campaign management as well, and Pappas Group_DMI has assisted us there.

Our focus is becoming more in the lines of thoughtful, long-term customer experience, a CRM [customer relationship management] sort of marketing approach, and figuring out what are those tactics along each of the customer life cycles stages where we see areas of opportunity. Pappas helps us to identify those areas of opportunity, and then put a tactical plan against them.

How did you come to work with Pappas Group_DMI?

I know that the relationship began five or six years ago, before my time. I did go through an RFP [request for proposal] process with them, so from a procurement perspective, we wanted to secure an agency partner, an agency of record, for a longer period of time rather than renegotiating every year. So, we went through an RFP process in the fall of 2013. We had a handful of vendors and Pappas Group still came out on top.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was definitely $200,000 plus on an annual basis. It really fluctuates based on need. It can be anywhere from $700,000 to $1.3 million annually.

What is the status of this engagement?

For 2014 through 2016, our contract states that they will be the agency of record, and I think there's an optional fourth and fifth as well. I assume we'll go through the RFP process when the time comes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We recently went through a rebranding effort, and that launched in April of this year. We wanted to provide a seamless customer experience that is brand aligned. We started at the root, and we wanted to go through a rebranding effort. Pappas helped us to define a value proposition for both our end customers and our dealers, both of which are our customers. Pappas Group_DMI identified taglines for each, to give both brands a bit more personality.

Then, we went through some qualitative and quantitative research that Pappas Group also led. This was about a nine-month effort, with focus groups, mystery shopping, and then a quantitative survey. We called this effort "Brand Health," and Pappas led that from a strategic standpoint as well. We got to understand exactly where we're at today. I don't think that any of the results were extremely surprising, but what was really interesting was the lack of understanding of how the financial services arm is really associated with either the brands or the dealers themselves.

Through this research, Pappas Group_DMI was able to identify key areas of opportunity for us. I think that's going to be web content, and also dealer point of sale. Now, we're in the phase where we're actually identifying tactics, and we've been able to launch a few of those between March and May of this past year. We were able to launch a welcome campaign, and we were able to update our end of term campaign, which is crucial in retaining customers from a loyalty perspective. We launched dealer point of sale material. All under this new, rebranded identity.

I think that was really the first time that we had done such an effort, and we're just beginning to measure the impact. The brand health research I mentioned will lay the foundation, the baseline, and then the idea is to go back and revisit, and measure year over year. We also use research houses so that we can make sure that we're measuring across a competitive set as well. Pappas Group helps all along the way. They're involved from the research portion, all the way to the tactics, the execution, and then the measurements.

What distinguishes Pappas Group_DMI from other providers?

I think it's the people at Pappas Group_DMI. I'd have to say, first and foremost, the people. Everybody at Pappas Group who we've had the opportunity to work with is so very personable. You can tell that they actually know our business and care about our business. From any perspective, I think this is one of the keystones in building that long-term and ongoing relationship.

They're local, which helps as well. We're in Herndon, Virginia, and they're based out of Arlington, Virginia, and they're able to come over at a moment's notice and work through some problems, whatever the daily issues are. If we find out that we're launching a campaign within the next three or four days, Pappas is right there to be able to come to the office here and just sit down with us, whiteboard out a solution, and then go right into execution.

It's the people there – the personality of the agency itself. Also, it's their flexibility, and being able to work in an agile way.

Is there anything Pappas Group_DMI could have improved or done differently?

No. Not off the top of my head. I think that each initiative that we kick off with them is unique to itself. I think there are always some learning opportunities, when we find out whether there are additional stakeholders on our side involved. Or, perhaps we found out that it made sense, process-wise, to do A before B – those sort of things. I think we always learn from the previous project or initiative that we undertake with them, but I wouldn't say fundamentally there's anything I would change in the relationship.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The company is called Vection Technologies. We are a software developer of smartphone application software. Our first product that we released on iOS is called MyTikr. We have developed it on Android also, but have not released the product. It's a stacked digitized stock ticker tape that is live and interactive but we also use social media and news APIs [application programming interfaces] and RSS feeds to supplement the content. 

What is your position?

I'm the CEO and creator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DMI?

The pain point was we all lead active lives. We have a lot of things coming at us all day long, and I wanted to be able to dig into the things that mattered to me the most on social media and also news. I created a product so people could have an active and live feed of their most used applications, social media streams, and relevant news that they could access immediately and in one place. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

DMI has done the iOS development all the way through to release. They've done all the Android development all the way up to release. We need to make a few changes yet. DMI did our website and we're also putting together a plan for the Apple Watch, the widget technology and some other new features that will be included in the patent. 

How did you come to work with DMI?

My background was in software development and satellite development, but not dashboard and application development. I reached out to some friends who are in the business and they recommended Golden Gekko, which is a subsidiary of DMI. I was introduced. I had a great meeting with the CEO of Golden Gekko [Magnus Jern], and I felt comfortable with them as a larger team.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

With everything included, it was around $300,000 to $400,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What distinguishes DMI from other providers?

There are a lot of good things. DMI has a great team that communicates well in terms of project management and how they manage the resources across all the different departments. They were real good to me. I'm a startup – a young guy who is struggling to pull resources and finances together – and DMI has been really good to me. They're at the top of their game. I've worked in some pretty detailed software environments and DMI is right up there at the top.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

The only thing that I really had a tough time with was their global development presence At times, it was difficult to set meetings based on time differences, but it was just a minor issue. I don't have anything negative to say about the experience overall.