FULLeSTOP

Please describe your company and your position there.

Owner / founder of Expert4Travel India Pvt Ltd.

For what projects/services did your company hire FULLeSTOP, and what were your goals?

Video consultaion Platform

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Found them through an already realised and similar website crosschecked witch clutch.co

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We gave them a briefing. they made a quote that was OK with us we signed and off it went they used PHP7 (instead of 8) and Laravel

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had a lazy and incapabable project manager plus a team of about 3

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our idea was to create a video consultation platform for the travel industry. We have chosen Fullestop over other companies because of their experience in creating such things. They proposed a good price for desired functionalities. The contract was signed and then we were assigned a project manager who, during the contract, proved to be lacking in communication and English skills moreover he was not the brightest candle on the cake. This slowed down the development. In the last phase of the project Fullestop tried to recuperate part of their initial price offering in trying to mark every single requirement as payable out of scope add-on.

To summarize, Fullestop should basically be qualified to do decent work (on paper). But be careful when putting down the requirements as not to miss on evident things (nothing is evident with these guys) also be aware of the project lead and have it checked in depth through references. For us as customers, it was a bumpy ride during which we had to cope with many shortcomings and untransparent behavior from Fullestop side. We never succeeded in creating any sense of urgency in them.

Except if it was concerning payments to them. The only thing you can rely on is their greed. This is why we sent them our bill according to contract for the massive project delay In short: Don't expect innovative ideas or good customer service from their team. Would we work with Fullestop again? not. Their business ethic is clearly out of scope. at the end of the project we ditched Fullestop and their botch-up job and handed the messed up project over for real completion and bugfixing to a professional company who now also does the maintenance and enhancement job.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

They did not have a structure

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Nothing. Not to be recommended.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Do not expect innovative stuff from their side., their overall customer commitment could certainly have been much better (as to none).

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of TalentEdge, one of the largest education companies in India. We work in executive education, online certification for degrees, and enterprise.

What challenge were you trying to address with FULLeSTOP?

We needed additional development help. Our product line is large, with a lot of automation on the backend and many different frontend learning environments. We were looking for a team to work on several different projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a simple user profiling project to organize the user data of our past students. They built a dashboard that allows us to explore this data. It uses distributed technologies—Angular, MongoDB, React, and PHP.

They worked on a voice quality project, which measures recordings of each of our call center events, scoring how the call went. It’s an AI-based system, which uses Google Assistant as a tool to interpret the voice into a text.

We’ve also developed a lot of things in-house, for which they audited our workflows and the products themselves. They built test cases and use cases for us, using a lot of automation tools to test our systems and check the load.

What is the team composition?

I interacted with four or five managers, the CTO, and the COO. For the audit work, they brought in one manager, one QA manager, and two QA resources to test the product.

How did you come to work with FULLeSTOP?

They were referred to us by one of our partner companies who spoke highly of them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2018, and the work is ongoing.

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

I’m really satisfied with them. When the work started, I was quite apprehensive about outsourcing, but since bringing them on board, I’ve not recruited a single person. Using an external agency is cost effective and provides a team with a range of different skillsets.

How did FULLeSTOP perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s a dedicated project manager, and the project management is good—it’s done through a digital tool. We have a daily standup meeting as well as a weekly review. Generally, we meet in-person every month, or month and a half.

The process is fantastic. They not only absorb the requirements, but they also bring a lot of knowledge from their past work. In our initial discussions, they listened to our problems and came with ideas and an approach. We agreed to the scope of work, then they made a full product roadmap diagram, with a timeline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very open for feedback. They come up with their own solutions and offer a lot of suggestions to improve our product. We’ve really benefited from their knowledge.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m looking to build a lot of things in AI with them, so I need to see what kind of data scientists they can hire. It’s an area that I’m looking forward to working with them on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No, I can't name anything.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an Australian-based jewelry store with an established network of brick and mortar stores.

For what projects/services did your company hire FULLeSTOP?

We hired FULLeSTOP to design and code our entire website. 

What were your goals for this project?

The end goal was a state-of-the-art website that facilitated multiple supplier integrations and online sales.

How did you select this vendor?

Few agencies were able to meet the complexity and sophistication of our requirements. Of the 20-25 companies I approached, FULLeSTOP—referred by a colleague—was the only one that satisfied all of our needs. Although initially hesitant to use a little-known overseas company, I quickly realized they were a hidden gem and became immediately confident in our decision. 

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Responsible for all web design and development, AdWords campaigns, and SEO, this company really did it all. They analyzed the scope I provided them and developed a much more comprehensive plan, detailing areas where I could expand creatively and be more adventurous with the site. 

What was the team composition?

FULLeStop’s owner served as the lead director. My primary point of contact was a personal manager, who also liaised with team members in expert-specific areas such as design, coding, and marketing. 

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

The website has exceeded our initial expectations. It features a flexible, scalable design that we can build upon and reinvest in for future phases. 

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

FULLeStop has remained engaged throughout the entire process, constantly keeping me informed. They promptly answered all Skype calls and emails. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Thanks to their exceptional coding talent, they are capable of tackling any challenge. They have delivered everything I asked of them and more. From the start, I have had the utmost confidence in FULLeSTOP and their capabilities, and I look forward to our continued partnership.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I have zero complaints.

Could you briefly describe your organization?

We’re an online retailer, selling baby and nursery products exclusively.

What is your position?

I’m the owner and founder.

Could you describe the business challenge that you were attempting to address when you first approached FulleStop?

We needed a qualified developer that specialized in Magento, and we’ve used them ever since. We made the decision to use Magento before approaching them because it’s a leading package, and we know we wanted a flexible, open source solution. Since we knew Magento was a large investment, we wanted to make sure our partner had a lot of experience with the platform.

Could you elaborate on the scope of their involvement?

We came up with the specs, and they performed the development work. So, they’ve done the information architecture, the custom development, the user testing, and the front-end implementation. We worked in conjunction with their team, offering mostly guidance and some designs.

How did you select FulleStop as your partner?

We found them through Elance. I believe they get quite a bit of their business through Elance. They were one of a few different firms we considered hiring. We felt most comfortable with FulleStop because they clearly had a lot of experience working with Magento, and they also had a lot of scale. We wanted a vendor that could grow their responsibilities as we grow our business.

When was the project completed?

The site was launched about two years ago. They’ve been doing some ongoing work with us ever since.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

No. We’ve had a number of ongoing problems with the site, which aren’t their fault. We’ve had a lot of problems with our back-end system integrating with the website. It looks great, but it’s been quite hard to get it up and running. That’s nothing to do with them. We use multiple providers, and this issue is with another provider. IT [information technology] projects are always difficult but they were professional, got stuff done on time. We’ve been pretty pleased with them.

When working with FulleStop, is there anything that you’d consider special about their approach or development process that distinguishes them from other vendors?

Not particularly. I haven’t used that many providers, so I can’t really make an educated comparison. They know what they’re doing, they deliver things on time, and the prices are reasonable for what we’re getting.

Could you briefly describe your organization?

We offer a social network. We have a lot of different tools that we branch out from that social pooling system, and some of those are what FulleStop has helped develop for us.

What is your position?

I’m the chief executive officer.

Could you describe the business challenge that you were attempting to address when you first approached FulleStop?

We wanted to drive traffic to our main domain site so we could get some testing feedback, basically like a beta launch. We had an event that was taking place in April of this year [2014] that we felt we could capitalize from if we built the right tool. We contracted with FulleStop to have them build a tool in less than a months’ time, to see if we could drive some traffic.

Could you describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail?

They initially were developing our tool to drive traffic to our main site. Basically, the tool was a live boxing scorecard tool, that allowed people to score fights live as the action happened, and comment, and converse with other people that are scoring the fight in real time. They developed that for us in about three to four weeks. At that point, they also worked on our main site. They didn’t handle all of the design for the main site, but they did for the scoring card tool. They also handled all of the server administration work, database setup, and so on.

What was your process for selecting FulleStop with which to work?

We went through Elance. I’ve worked with offshore developer teams for the last six to seven years, so I’m familiar with the process. I went through Elance and vetted a lot of different teams, looked at profiles and portfolios, spoke to some teams, and after a few interviews I selected FulleStop.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this particular engagement?

Less than $3,000 for initial development of the scorecard tool. Then there was the server testing, load balancing, so that probably took the cost to between $3,000 and $5,000.

What was the duration of this project?

We started working with them in October of 2013 on our main site. That work is still ongoing. The scorecard tool started in late February or early March of 2014, and was live by April 12, 2014.

We actually made the decision to work with another team that we felt might have more experience, but we’ve now decided that we are eager to get back to FulleStop. We realize that their work is unparalleled.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

No real hard metric data. Based on our marketing efforts, within 24 hours we had more than 21,000 users visit our scorecard tool. A lot of them have said that they absolutely love the tool, that it was amazing, so it was a successful event. They performed well above expectations. We came to them with a really strict timeline to get the scorecard tool developed and deployed. They claimed it could be done, even though we were somewhat skeptical. They developed the solution in three to five weeks, which is basically unheard of, for anyone to develop such a demanding tool in such a short time span. We were very impressed by that.

When working with FulleStop, is there anything that you’d consider special about their approach or development process that distinguishes them from other vendors?

I like that they provide input and insight. Often, when working with offshore teams, they take your instruction and that’s it. I’m always looking for a team that can provide input, rely on their expertise to give us ideas and innovation, and they do that, so I’m pleased with that aspect.

I also like that they handle urgent projects amazingly. They work on weekends when you need them to, which I appreciate, and they get stuff done. I recently had to call them in to get something accomplished at the last minute, and they did it for us three or four days ago. So, I really appreciate the fact that they’re there at the drop of a dime. They’re extremely available. They make themselves available for emergencies, which I appreciate. Having access to that support is a huge advantage for us.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think they could improve as a service provider?

Being in the United States, it would be nice to work on my time as opposed to working through the night. That’s also a part of the deal. I trade cost for that inconvenience to some extent.

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for a business services firm. We offer an online scheduling platform that allows professionals in various industries to efficiency schedule and manage their appointments. 

What is your position?

I'm one of the co-founders and the acting managing director. 

Could you describe the business challenges that you were attempting to address when you first approached FulleStop?

We were looking for an offshore partner to help us design and deploy our custom scheduling platform. This was back in 2012 and we had limited resources to get our solution off the ground. We needed a qualified technology partner that would be able to support our platform development and deployment, but at a reasonable price. 

How did you select FulleStop as your partner for this project?

We used a third-party service to do some research and identify potential vendors. FulleStop was one of several that we approached with our project, and their proposal was convincing enough to justify investigating them further. After some talks with them and going over our project, we decided we felt comfortable moving forward with development. 

Could you describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail?

Most of their involvement was strictly relegated to frontend design. The development was using PHP and MySQL on the backend, but they weren't too involved with that. We handled a lot of the functional work and architecture in-house. They did also do some database work for us throughout the project. 

When was this project completed?

It's still ongoing. We began work on the platform back in 2012, and we've been developing and improving it with FulleStop ever since. 

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback you've received that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

Unfortunately, I don't have any specific metrics of figures to share with you. I can tell you that, in general, we've been satisfied with the overall quality of their work. The fact that we've maintained our partnership with them during these past two years really demonstrates that we're pleased with their work. 

When working with FulleStop, is there anything you'd consider unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

They're really responsive, accommodating, and just very available. That's not always the case with offshore providers. Some aren't nearly as flexible and responsive as they might claim to be, but we haven't had too many issues with FulleStop. They also provided great documentation, which allows us to provide more effective feedback. 

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think FulleStop could improve as a service provider?

I would say that communication could be improved in the beginning of projects. There's always a learning curve to some degree with these offshore providers. It takes time to get used to the relationship, the timing, and the process. We had a few minor issues in the beginning, but then things got much better.

Please describe your organization.

I’m starting a social networking website. It’s just a small company. It will only be on the Web.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the founder.

What was your goal for working with FULLeSTOP?

They’re developing the full front-end and back-end of the website.

Please describe the scope of their work.

They’ve done research and development to produce the website. 

What was your process for selecting FULLeSTOP with which to work?

I put a job description on Elance. I wanted people who could code a social media website and they came up near the top because they’ve done so much work. They had really good ratings. I chose them because they had the most reasonable price and because of their ratings. 

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

They’ve put in approximately 100 to 200 hours.

When was the work completed?

It will be complete soon and then the work will all finished. We hope to be completed sometime in January or February.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

Not yet because we haven’t launched the company quite yet.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

I’m definitely satisfied. We’ve had great performance from them. It’s already very close to what I wanted. We’re getting close to the final stages and I’m sure it’s going to be perfect.

Is there anything unique or special about FULLeSTOP that really makes them stand out compared to other online marketing companies?

I like that they take specific direction well. They’ve done better than some other companies I’ve worked with. They’ve been the best resource that I’ve used.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

It’s slower than I thought it would take, but given the workload and the size of their firm, I’m more focused on the quality of the work than the speed it gets done. Sometimes, there was a lack of communication. Things could be set in stone more than they were. 

Could you describe your organization?

The company is an app development company in Calgary, [Alberta in] Canada. We create apps for the Web and mobile devices.

What is your position?

I’m the owner and founder.

What was your goal for working with FulleStop?

It was strictly technical development of applications.

Please describe the scope of their work.

I hire FulleStop to do the basic and programming for our apps. They’re responsible for the functional development, testing, and deployment. We provide the designs and the UI/UX [user interface/user experience].

How did you select FulleStop as your partner for this endeavor?

I heard that a good way to find programmers was through Elance, so I went onto their website and submitted a bid. I interviewed about two dozen candidates, and narrowed it down to six. I had some conversations back and forth via email, decided they were the ones I wanted to go with, and hired them. I wanted someone with experience, someone who could work within timelines and budgets that I had established for the project. I also wanted a team that had a good grasp on a wide variety of programming languages since my clients’ needs vary. Flexibility was a big deal for this project. 

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this project?

I spent about $12,000.

When was this project completed?

They’ve done three or four different projects for me now. The most recent one was a mobile app for iPhone, a music-related one. It took about six to eight weeks to complete, and it just wrapped up in the beginning of this month.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics or metrics to track the improvements associated with this project?

For the most part, the apps have been received very positively by end-users. The layouts have been very effective. What I’ve asked for, they’ve been able to accomplish. Everything works how it’s supposed to work. We didn’t track specific performance metrics in that way, but the functionalities have all been successfully tested and deployed. We don’t receive many support requests from users, and the ones we do receive are rapidly corrected.  

When working with FulleStop, is there anything that you would consider unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other vendors?

Communication was never an issue for us. I’ve worked with a couple of other vendors on similar stuff, but I found them difficult to work with because they weren’t getting back to me in a timely fashion. They always go above and beyond to make sure they’re accomplishing what I want. They’re not afraid to ask for clarifications. Communication has always been really strong, which isn’t necessarily the norm in this industry.

In retrospect, are there any areas in which you think they could improve as a service provider?

Making sure they stay on top of the latest stuff as far as programming. The latest app we did was for a bit of a different system, and they hadn’t learned it. They were able to learn it on the fly, which was nice, and they were able to figure everything out.

Could you briefly describe your organization?

We were a crowd-funding website for films targeting college students. It was developed more than a year and a half to two years. I started developing it in July or August of 2012, then the Jobs Act happened, which theoretically opened up the gates, and all of a sudden there were a hundred or so crowd-funding websites being developed. Ultimately, the regulations from the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] never got promulgated in such a way to allow crowd funding as it was originally envisioned. As a direct result, I actually never got to launch the business.

You’re the founder, correct?

Yes.

Could you describe the business challenges that you were attempting to address when you first approached Fullestop?

I had a clear vision, but no technical skills to speak of. I had the business plan and the vision, and I needed to merge that with technical people. I modified my expectations of what could be done based on what seemed feasible, both from a time and a cost perspective, and a skill perspective on their side, too. I needed them to come in and build my solution; and then help me successfully deploy it.

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

I used them primarily for the design and development. Like I said, I don’t have the ability to do any of the programming. I had to rely on them to build my solution well and within the scope of the requirements. I supervised their tasks directly and provided guidance when and where necessary.

How did you select Fullestop as your development partner?

I searched the Web for a number of firms that I felt might be able to perform the custom development. They were on a couple different websites, and I did some interviews with people that worked with before. I think they were Microsoft-certified developers, and that was something I attributed some merit to. After vetting them, we went step-by-step in drafting a plan, and then ultimately implementing it.

Could you provide a cost estimate for this engagement?

In the range of $25,000.

When was this project completed?

The project was completed in a year and a half. I don’t recall exactly when it was completed, though.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that might demonstrate the quality of their performance?

I can’t share much, because we never really concerned ourselves with figures and numbers. The site was functional and did what it was supposed to do. The reality is, once the crowd-funding thing took place in the States with the Jobs Act, there were out of the box solutions that would have done the same thing, whereas I’d built something from scratch. That situation really made my platform irrelevant.  

When working with Fullestop, is there anything that you’d consider unique about their approach that distinguishes them from other vendors?

I haven’t really used another firm specifically for website development. I used some other folks for animation projects, also out of India. I generally had a lead contact that I worked with. There was an account manager, and then a technical lead manager. We’d have conference calls, and they’d bring in the guys who were actually doing the coding and development. They crafted the project plan, and progressed reasonably relative to the plan.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Fullestop could improve as a service provider?

Sometimes, they were a little aggressive in terms of what they thought they could deliver, perhaps even unrealistic sometimes. That would lead to some delays and missed deadlines, which they could have done a better job communicating. That’s my only real recommendation. If they could just improve their communication regarding timelines and adherence to the deployment plan, that’d be great.  

Please describe your company and your position there.

iDesignSimple is a web design company in Western Australia. I run it myself while working in other areas of the IT industry. Generally, I engage with companies to assist with bigger projects.

For what projects/services did your company hire FULLeSTOP?

I have a new client that’s starting up in the equipment industry in Mandurah. He wants a fully-automated system that has multiple offices so that customers can select locations, view the availability of equipment, and pay for it online. I hired FULLeSTOP to help me with this.

How did you select this vendor?

I researched a few companies that I could collaborate with for projects.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed and developed a mobile-friendly website from scratch with very little input provided by the client.

What was the team composition?

There’s a team leader that’s very helpful and guides the staff under him, which means that I don’t have to chase anyone.

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

The client has nothing and is running his business at the moment over the phone, with no real system in place. Having this website will mean that the admin work will drop dramatically. It’s linked to a national accounting service as well, which means that all that part of the work will be straightforward.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

All staff members have been approachable and were very quick at providing quotes. They regularly communicate via Skype and email.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

This company had all the documentation and a checklist of what they required for the start of the project. This allowed a seamless process leading into the development mode.

Are there any areas for improvement?

This project took longer than originally estimated; however, the scope of work was quite large.