EBS Integrator

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

We charge an upfront fee to download the app, and a strong indicator of satisfaction is based on how high user retention is. We also measured the net promoter score, which has increased past what we expected. We kept an eye on how often users engaged with the app after downloading it, and after obtaining those metrics, we launched a big marketing campaign to drive growth. One-week retention is an important KPI [key performance indicator], and ours is roughly 80%, meaning users come back within a week of downloading the app.

How did EBS Integrator perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly use Google suite, including Sheets and Docs. We also use Asana, which is basically a less technical version of JIRA.

Communication has worked great over the past 6 months, but what we enjoy the most is that EBS always provides honest feedback to our requirements.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve worked with many agencies and outsourcing companies, but EBS stood out because they care about the end product. They’ve remained honest with us, and they always deliver exactly what they promise on or before deadlines. I haven’t experienced this before, and especially not from an agency in a different time zone.

EBS has been extremely professional from the beginning with their client success team, to the development with the tech and product teams.

Are there any areas they could improve?

EBS has a strong hold on app development, but they could benefit from incorporating some design talent.

They are based in Europe, so time zones may be a challenge if you are far away. However, our account manager is available via Skype during most hours of the day.

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

Both app versions were created during the startup phase of our company. Our main goal was to create a product quickly, without any major bugs, while still having it look well-polished to end-users. I think that EBS Integrator did a great job within these dimensions.

Timing was the only aspect where EBS Integrator didn't exceed our expectations. They were slightly off, but only by a couple of business days. We appreciated the fact that EBS Integrator worked through weekends and at night in order to make the delay as limited as possible. Also, this incident happened partly because we didn't communicate our expectations well enough.

For our second project, EBS Integrator not only delivered on time but earlier than expected, giving us a product which was better than we'd hoped for.

There were very few bugs in our app, so we didn't have to go through numerous iterations compared to the apps’ functionalities. Because we were so happy with how they worked, we didn't reach out to anyone else for our second project. We went directly to EBS Integrator.

We've had very good app store reviews for our first app. It had a rating of above 4.5 for both versions. The second app has just been released, so it's a little early to look at its numbers. So far, people love the way it works.

How did EBS Integrator perform from a project management standpoint?

This is one of EBS Integrator's huge strengths. EBS Integrator is very good at handling clients. Their spoken and written English is good. EBS Integrator gave us a project leader who was able to speak my language, at a non-technical level, but also that of the developers. The team is proactive, responsive, and willing to work long hours. EBS Integrator usually starts work early in the morning, which is close to midnight in the US. When we wake up, they're still working.

EBS Integrator has a separate project manager and financial person, allowing the first to concentrate on delivering a good product for us. We were able to have separate discussions with them without worrying about our project manager being affected by us bargaining on the price.

What did you find most impressive about EBS Integrator?

I know that they have multiple projects running at the same time, but EBS Integrator gave us the feeling that we were their only client during our collaboration. The personal attention was a very nice advantage. Our products came out on time, looked nice, had very few bugs, and exceeded our expectations in functionality.

After talking to a lot of people, I found that in Moldova, and in Eastern Europe in general, the development quality is very high. That’s comparable to the US and at a much lower cost. It makes a lot of sense to work with EBS Integrator from a quality and cost perspective.

Are there any areas EBS Integrator could improve?

None of our teams fully understood the complexity of the math features in our social dining app. When creating a spot for dining or lunch meetings, displaying restaurants in a nice-looking way is a complicated task. Because EBS Integrator underestimated the complexity of our app, they overpromised in terms of time. This made the completion a few business days late. It doesn't sound like a huge deal, but it's still good to know that when setting a date, it won't be changed. EBS Integrator over-delivered in terms of time for our second project, so perhaps they've already made internal improvements.