Entropy

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CEO and founder of United Ideas, a web and mobile development company. We offer software and design consultancy for leading brands and big companies.

For what projects/services did your company hire Entropy?

Our client wanted to create two different web applications to support medical education among doctors. The first was an innovative way to explore data by making content more engaging and memorable. The second tested their understanding of a new medicine by setting learning objectives. We needed someone to develop navigable, intuitive apps in Ruby on Rails that offered rich video quality and required authenticated phone numbers to sign in.

What were your goals for this project?

These web apps were for a major client in the healthcare industry. We didn’t have the available resources to build everything ourselves, so we looked for an experienced group to help us achieve our goal: delivering our desired quality within the agreed timeline.

How did you select this vendor?

I’ve known Eddie (CEO, Entropy) for a long time. We worked together in the past on various mobile and web projects, so I knew I could trust him and his team 100%. He tackles the business reasons and needs behind a project and not just the development itself.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We sent them our scope of work and outlined specifications for the apps. They sourced it accordingly, conducted a penetration test, and then forwarded us their report and recommendations. The recommendations were quite useful, helping our developers fix the vulnerabilities within a few days. Then, we had a few Zoom meetings to discuss how to bring our ideas to life. They delivered their prototypes and options for review within our tight schedule.

What was the team composition?

Initially, we worked with 2–3 UX/UI resources to redesign the app.  Then we moved onto development, where we had three Ruby on Rails developers.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Both apps were well received in early-stage testing with doctors. They will now be expanded prior to rollout across our target market. Our clients love the new apps and are excited to debut them with their staff.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

In the beginning, we had weekly updates. As we got into testing, we touched base daily to go over defects. They worked with us in a collaborative fashion and had excellent communication skills. I could send an email and get a response within 15 minutes.  If we needed to change a deliverable, Entropy would be on calls with us at 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM. I feel like their phone is attached to their hip.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I appreciated their ability to come up with certain ideas involving newer technologies. They were also highly trustworthy and willing to go the extra mile to create the best prototype wireframes for us. We had a level of confidence in them we didn’t have with our previous vendor.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I didn't identify anything lacking in their performance. I plan to outsource a lot of my web development to them in the future.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former senior digital marketing manager at a publishing company. I brought technology to the academic and publishing side of the business.

What challenge were you trying to address with Entropy?

We needed a partner to take the DVD version of our fluid mechanics textbook and create a web-based version.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They managed a working set of pages to create a proof of concept we could take to our supervisors to get the green light for the complete project. We had a fluid mechanics DVD, and they replicated that in HTML5, converting the media and building a basic structure. They integrated a number of graphic and interactive elements, such as videos and graphs that users could change by putting in different variables. The website was like a print textbook with the added DVD extras.

What is the team composition? 

They provided one developer and one project manager, and we sometimes interfaced with the CEO.

How did you come to work with Entropy?

I’d met the owner before, when we were looking to do a different project. We kept in contact, so when this project came up, I knew they’d be a great fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project occurred in 2016. 

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

We didn’t track any metrics, but I was impressed with their work. They took complicated tasks and reproduced them well.

How did Entropy perform from a project management standpoint?

The team knew what they were doing and managed our relationship well. They had good communication, mainly via Skype but also a few face-to-face meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They did things that we couldn’t do ourselves and paid close attention to details. They had a great response time and quickly addressed our problems and goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Spend time with them and help them understand the project. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are the largest university press in the world. I am the director of our dictionaries division, and my responsibilities include overseeing all publishing, licensing, and data development within that group.

What challenge were you trying to address with Entropy?

A few years ago, we started working on a global languages program that is central to our mission. We focus on low-resource languages with millions of speakers but few written resources, dictionaries, or learning tools. We initially needed a team to help build consumer-facing websites for at least the first ten languages of an ambitious 100-language project. More recently, we needed a flexible and user-focused new dictionary editing system that could handle our new data model and data formats.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s a complex relationship, but they help in a variety of web-based capacities. We were keen to integrate tools and products for our new data model and data platform, so we worked with them via our APIs and built out from that. We already had a few websites for our English and Spanish language resources, but the sites for the new languages were mainly built up from scratch.

We typically work in sprints with our suppliers using an iterative process to build an MVP. The recent editing system for dictionary content has presented a number of challenges relating to highly structured data which needs to have multiple editing nodes, which means it's more complicated than a standard CMS. We’re currently in the third phase of this editing system, iteratively extending it from the data platform we’ve developed.

What is the team composition?

We work with a team of about 8–10 individuals, including the CEO and the tech lead. We also work through Entropy's project manager, but also have some contact with the wider team.

How did you come to work with Entropy?

Our technical team recommended them. They had a proprietary CMS at the time that interested us and were experienced in mobile-first design, so we included them in our tendering process.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015. The work is ongoing.

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

We’ve done a lot of work with Entropy improving sprint planning throughout the process, and they play a major part in tracking our success. We work mostly in an agile way, but put a certain amount of stage gating around our goals and finances. We measure our success in terms of how accurate our planning was for our high-level sprints. They have a track record of meeting our expectations, and we put a lot of store in the collaborative nature of the relationship and how this helps our negotiation.

How did Entropy perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent project managers, and they bring their top-class talent in for the complex projects. Communication is intensive and complex, especially as we’re doing some of the data management internally. Everything feeds into that platform, so our synchronicity depends on strong communication with their management team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility and their ability to strategize to fit our needs impress us. Several of the solutions they come up with are bespoke, and they’re very involved in our process. They attend strategy sessions and three-month planning sessions, and integrate completely with our team. This feels like more of a partnership than a supply relationship, which is key.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always areas of improvement with any relationship, and there are rare times that things fall behind. In general, we’re very happy with their work. They’re responsive and flexible, reliable and trustworthy, and they don't let us down.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Explain what you’re trying to do and what your goals are, then let them translate those goals into realities. If you take advantage of their abilities to complement your own, your project will succeed.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the global director of innovation for a British media company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Entropy?

We engaged Entropy to create a mockup of an application for one of our supermarket clients. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Entropy developed a mockup of a mobile app for a US-based supermarket in order to demo new features. Using existing code from the original app, Entropy created a functional app for iOS.

What is the team composition? 

I mostly work with the CEO, but we also have a couple designers and developers working on the project behind the scenes. 

How did you come to work with Entropy?

They were recommended by our head of mobile development internally.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about £15,000 (about $20,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since December 2017 and they built the majority of the app in a few weeks between May and June. They're now working on a second app for us within the European market. 

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

Our client was extremely happy with the mockup app Entropy delivered. It's almost identical to the fully functioning app, which allowed the customer to get a better sense of how the new features would work. We were so pleased with their work that we've decided to work with them again on another campaign in a different market. 

How did Entropy perform from a project management standpoint?

They're great to work with overall. Our project manager communicates directly with a project manager on their team, which makes the process relatively seamless. The majority of the mockup was built in just a few weeks, which is very fast considering the delays they faced on the client side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communications are clear, the quality of their work is strong, and they're competitively priced. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. The only challenge we faced involved managing communications in different timezones. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Our project was successful because we briefed Entropy thoroughly before going into development. The mockups and detailed information we provided them in advance allowed us to bypass a number of steps and save time. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing digital editor for LBC, the UK’s leading commercial speech radio station.

What challenge were you trying to address with Entropy?

We had a paid service that allowed people to listen to all of our podcasts on demand after they’d aired without advertisements. However, people could only access this service through our online platform. So, we engaged Entropy to create an iOS/Android app that would allow people to subscribe to and access our service using mobile devices.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, our internal team worked closely with Entropy to design the wireframes. They leveraged their expertise to advise us on the UX, helping identify what we wanted to get from the app and establish the different user flows. Once we completed the designs, they developed the iOS version before tackling the Android version.

One of our biggest challenges was getting the apps to integrate with our antiquated web platform. Because the original system hosted all of the podcasts and subscriptions, Entropy needed to ensure that the apps synced properly with the database. That way, users who subscribed through the web platform could access their subscription through the mobile apps, too.

The team also built in downloading capabilities, which allowed users to download and listen to podcasts without a mobile signal (e.g., subway). If a user encountered an issue, Entropy made it a point to include instructive error messages. These messages would explain why the user couldn’t do something and show them how to troubleshoot the issue themselves.

What is the team composition?

I mostly worked with Eddie (CEO, Entropy), who took a personal interest in the project, but there was also a project manager who kept us on schedule and tracked our deliverables.

How did you come to work with Entropy?

I’d previously worked with Eddie while at a different company, so I knew how reliable his skills were. Compared to the other agencies we’d considered, Entropy brought a high level of expertise to the table while still being a great value. I also liked that they were a slightly smaller agency, which meant they could provide a more tailored experience.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The main development lasted between 2014–2015, but they provided various follow-ups and updates after.

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

The app’s UX was much better than our web platform’s, and users could now download podcasts straight to their phones. As a result, our subscription number went up substantially along with our revenue.

Internally, we’ve seen very positive feedback overall. The apps worked exactly as we’d envisioned, and Entropy addressed all bugs swiftly.

How did Entropy perform from a project management standpoint?

The project ran smoothly, and the team was incredibly organized and efficient. They coordinated our tasks through Slack, communicating regularly to make sure that we provided the necessary materials on time and vice versa.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Because they had so much expertise in developing mobile apps, they were able to offer incredibly helpful advice on how to build the product. They knew what worked and what was feasible with our budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything. In the beginning, they suggested that we’d sign an after service agreement so that we could continue to improve the app down the line. We didn’t pick them up on that offer, but, in hindsight, it would’ve been useful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Organize a meeting with them, and you’ll see how impressive they are; I loved working with them.