Endertech

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

The design phase was very creative in terms of formulating designs and an interface that were efficient, functional, and easy to understand. The challenges that arose during the development phase were minimal in terms of making the designs work, and we didn’t have to make any significant changes.

A thorough design phase with Endertech helped contribute to a well-defined project and good cost control upon entering the development phase. The end product didn’t have as many bugs as I had experienced with previous developers. There are new tools and frameworks to make it easier, but Endertech also did a good job of minimizing the number of serious bugs/flaws that can occur in a database intensive website. I was impressed. Once we did acceptance testing, we found a few non-functioning issues, but they were quick to identify and solve them.

How did Endertech perform from a project management standpoint?

They are a small company, 15-20 people on staff, and they did a very good job for their size. I appreciated the joint meetings on-site to overcome challenges during the process. Endertech is exceptional at face-to-face meetings, as well as being open to ideas and suggestions. They helped contribute to the formulation of the design and product. We had changes around the time of launch, but we sat down to review the scope of the changes and cost assessments and came to an agreement. They managed them within the timeframes they put forward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their coding was pretty good and relatively bug-free for database-intensive websites. If there were problems, they were very sincere in working through them in a reasonable manner from cost and timing standpoints. Gabe (Founder/CEO, Endertech) is very open to considering ideas for software. He is a thinker and contributes to the concept, helping to formulate ideas with the business and translate those ideas into software functionality with a UI that makes sense. A lot of companies don’t have offices or meeting rooms; Endertech has both of those things. That was something I was looking for: a place to work through problems face-to-face with actual people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They had some staffing changes, and the design was a little slower process. From what I’ve seen of recent work projects, they have some good design staff that has improved some of their productions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For smaller companies starting out, I definitely recommend considering Endertech. They handled pretty much anything I threw at them in terms of database functionality and getting that work into a web interface. I highly recommend their services. They can handle some good-sized projects. With the smaller company comes great personalized consulting services and prices that aren’t nearly what you’d pay with some other companies.

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

We’re in beta testing right now, so when they handed the site over to me, I took a couple of days and just ran it through its paces because I am essentially the avatar of the customer that’s going to use the site.

I’ve been in the business for 40 years, so I pretty much know exactly how the customers are going to need to use the site and was able to look through everything from that vantage point and make sure it was all good to go.

Everything looked good to me, so I had my broker friends upload information and use it as well, and they’ve so far reported 100% positive feedback about the design and usability, saying that it's very user-friendly. We did some preliminary testing and were receiving about 300 visitors per day and around 25 percent conversion rate from visitors, which are pretty outstanding numbers for this industry.

How did Endertech perform from a project management standpoint?

I don’t have experience with other developers, but I’ve done a lot of work with construction contractors for different brick and mortar businesses and Endertech is really more on top of their own work than I’ve seen in a third-party provider before. They demonstrated a deep knowledge of all the technologies we were working with and were on top of everything that needed to be changed at the end of our sprints and would always get started on things right away.

There was very little back and forth between us on what needed to be done, because any time I had concerns about specific functionalities or anything, they would take what I said it into account and have it ready to demo for me in the next meeting. Outside of those, we communicated probably two or three times a week in one form or another, either via email or telephone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Since I don’t have a lot to compare them to, all I can say is that from the first meeting I had with them to today I have not spoken to anyone who has communicated better or understood my project and my vision more deeply than their team has.

I met with a lot of developers who seemed competent, but when I met Endertech I immediately realized that this was another level. They were just sharper and smarter than their competition.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really don’t have any real criticisms. They were absolutely great in every respect, including communicating around any delays that we experienced.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take some time and write down, as meticulously as you can, what your vision of the site is. Once you get into meetings, off-the-top-of-your-head conversations aren’t going to be nearly as productive as going over the details of what you want for the site so that they can ask you much more pointed questions about them. It will allow them to understand better and allow you to get started much more quickly.

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

The website helped our company tremendously. I wanted the information to be easily extractable and the learning curve to be shallow. They achieved both of these goals. The website is user friendly and easy to operate.

The food safety regulations require us to have all the grower related documents available at all times. Thanks to the website, we're able to move more into compliance sourcing safety and have all the information organized in one place.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been on time or beat my expectations on all levels. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The system is extremely user friendly and easy to manage. They've been very accommodating and always willing to add extra features that had not been included in the initial build we gave them. Or, if we found a bug in the system, they addressed that issue immediately. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I've used them several times and they could not be nicer. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They're a great partner for data management and solutions. I highly recommend them.