HestaBit

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Manager of Keyhole

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Keyhole - is social media reporting & analytics tool used by global brands & agencies to make data-informed decisions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Hestabit Technologies to accomplish?

• Implementing Linkedin Publishing

SOLUTION

How did you find Hestabit Technologies?

• Online Search

Why did you select Hestabit Technologies over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Hestabit Technologies were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Project involved integrating LinkedIn's publishing capabilities into the Keyhole platform, a real-time social media tracking tool. The end goal is to allow Keyhole users to seamlessly post content to their LinkedIn accounts without leaving the Keyhole platform. This implementation will require software development, testing, and user training.

• Requirements Gathering: Understanding the specific functionalities and features that the Keyhole platform needs to provide for LinkedIn publishing. This will involve discussions with both Keyhole's product development team and its end-users to define precise requirements.
• Key Deliverable: Requirements Document API Integration and Development: Development work will focus on integrating LinkedIn's API into the Keyhole platform. This will require writing code that can interact with the API to post content to LinkedIn, and creating an intuitive user interface within Keyhole for this functionality.
• Key Deliverables: Integration of LinkedIn API, User Interface for LinkedIn Publishing on Keyhole Testing: Extensive testing will be carried out to ensure the new functionality works as expected. This will include both unit testing during the development phase and user acceptance testing once the feature is ready to be released.
• Key Deliverable: Test Plans, Test Reports, Signed off UAT

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Adoption Rate of the New Feature: This is a direct measure of how many users start using the LinkedIn publishing feature after it's launched. A higher adoption rate would indicate a successful integration that meets user needs.
• Decrease in Posting Errors: A lower rate of user-reported errors or issues when posting to LinkedIn via Keyhole after the project implementation would indicate the feature is working as intended and providing a smooth user experience.
• User Satisfaction: Conduct surveys or solicit user feedback to gauge satisfaction with the new feature. High satisfaction scores would suggest the project has successfully met user needs.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Communication was via email. We received updated regularly.

What was your primary form of communication with Hestabit Technologies?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• Open to Feedback: An openness to feedback is a rare and valuable trait. It demonstrates the company's willingness to learn, adapt, and grow. This adaptability can lead to continuous improvement, which is key to staying competitive in any industry. By being open to feedback, the company shows that it values different perspectives and is committed to making changes that benefit their customers, employees, and overall business operations. 
• Easy to Communicate: Ease of communication is critical in today's fast-paced, interconnected business world. It streamlines processes, fosters understanding, and ensures everyone is on the same page. A company that prioritizes clear, concise, and open communication can increase efficiency, reduce misunderstandings, and improve overall productivity.

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

All good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a social media platform that helps content creators share and sell valuable content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Hestabit to create a bespoke website from scratch with complex features.

SOLUTION

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

We came across Hestabit online and decided to send them a message with our ideas. Someone got back to us the same day to arrange a call.

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

We contracted Hestabit to build us a website from scratch using HTML, CSS, JAVA SCRIPT, PHP & MYSQL. Features such as; messaging system, media sharing, subscribing, blocking etc were all included. The idea of the website was for it to act like a social media platform, similar to Facebook.

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

We only spoke with around 5 people briefly for our project. We spoke with one person who was our main point of contact throughout the project. They were all either developers or managers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Hestabit managed to most of the features coded in but unfortunately they made a mess of the code with many inconsistencies which has left us with a website we can't do anything with.

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

The management and communication at Hestabit is done through WhatsApp or email, but is absolutely appalling. A website that should've taken 4 months took a total of 15. None of the deadlines were completed on time and communication was very poor. Sometimes we were left waiting hours for meetings which were scheduled for specific times and most of the time we were left wondering where pieces of work are.

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

There is nothing impressive unfortunately. They are unique in that I have never dealt with such an awful company before.

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

Hestabit need to brush up on their English skills because there are a number of spelling errors within the code of my website and displayed on the user interface. Hestabit need to employ developers that work together on a project to prevent inconsistencies in code rather than asking developers to work independently.

Hestabit need to manage and schedule calls properly and make sure they are not double booked or in meetings when they schedule calls with customers. Hestabit need to stick to contracts and complete work within a timely manor. My project took almost 4 times the time it should have. This is unacceptable. Hestabit need to brush up on their manors and respect.

Many of the employees can be very pushy when it comes to making payments or removing reviews. We have been threatened and patronised by Hestabit over the past year that we have worked with them. There are probably many more things they need to fix or do differently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at an IT development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hestabit Technologies?

We had a client who needed web development, so we needed someone to help us with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hestabit Technologies is developing and designing a web and mobile app for us, including the UI/UX and backend. In terms of features, they’re applying a survey-type quiz solution for the wellness space.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with a project manager, a technical analyst, and a team of developers.

How did you come to work with Hestabit Technologies?

We found them online, and I chose them because they offered end-to-end services; that appealed to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £5,000 (approximately $6,650 USD) with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The beta test on the website has received excellent feedback in terms of design and development, which makes us happy with their work.

How did Hestabit Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good, and they’ve met every deadline; we have a dedicated project manager who regularly keeps in touch with us and updates us on deliverables and milestones. In terms of communication, we use emails.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

They have a complete team that goes from designers to developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Try a pilot project first to see how your engagement works, but I’m sure they’ll deliver.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a data processing and data solution company. I'm the project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our client's website was 10 years old and not optimised with all new features and data processing. We are upgrading their site as well as set up better data structure. Because we are specialised in data we need someone to help get the other part of infrastructures right. Hestabit works on this part and our main goal is to get the upgrading and integration completed before we start working on data.

SOLUTION

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

We searched online for web app developers who can work together with our team. They need to adopt a flexible work pattern as well as good at communication. After interviewing them, we chose this vendor based on their past projects, good communication and teamwork and their skillsets.

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

We had a kick-off meeting to discuss our requirement and objectives. From there, we send all technologies used backend or frontend for them to start. They quickly get the concept and started working just the second day. After a few iterations and feedbacks, their team worked on our shell and developed an informational e-commerce site with full functionalities and services. They updated the content to reflect our client's business and created many new functions based on the new features to suits business needs better.

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

A project manager was our main point of contact throughout the process. There were also 1 full stack developer, 1 dev ops and a front end designer working behind the scenes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Clients love the updated platform and happy that they can now have more flexibilities on their website also get more from their user data. And they now have a better understanding of our services.

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

We create requirement sheets to divide requirements into small tasks for them to work on and track progress. We had daily stand-ups with their project manager, who communicated with the rest of the team. Their devs also attended our internal meetings to discuss issues, progress and tasks. We used Slack, Zoom, Jira, and GitHub to coordinate, and they worked well with our team.

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

They respond fast and I'm very pleased for the fast response especially for hotfix. They are very professional and known what they are doing. For some difficulties we encounter, the project manager suggested a team from them to involve, which in the end helped us solved the hidden issue.

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

When the site first launched, there were some minor bugs. I believe more testing is needed. When we let them know, they were quick to fix the issues though.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own a boutique marketing and design agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Working with a variety of clients we found ourselves in an unexpected upsurge of wordpress web development needs in a market in which hiring had become especially difficult.

SOLUTION

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

We looked on upwork at a number of candidates and found few with the right mix of communication, capacity, and cost. It seemed there were very clear trade offs in most every candidate and it was frustrating as I could not expose my client base to that kind of risk. Then we met Hesta. Hesta was clear, engaging, and capable, at a cost we could digest.

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

We developed several website with hesta, all within the wordpress framework, most of reasonable complexity. hesta is a professional team and handled the problems well.

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

We worked with two members of the team, a developer and a manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All projects were completed on time and clients satisfied.

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

Hesta was a great team member and met our requirements in every way. Notably they were adaptable to our team processes of the use of Harvest for time tracking and Asana for communication and PM.

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

Hesta provided a team member that truly became part of our team, which is a noteworthy accomplishment.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of a UK-based hiring platform called Gradbay. We have two sides to the business; a recruitment agency side and a DIY hiring platform, or a multimedia job board.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hestabit Technologies?

Hestabit has been helping us build our DIY hiring platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We focus on graduate hiring, which is a niche space in the UK. Our approach was to build a more interactive process, both for job seekers and for employers to find each other. It’s essentially a marketplace essentially for jobs — there’s one side for job seekers who are graduates in this case, and on the other side you have employers that are looking to hire them. Both groups sign up and there are dashboards, as well as a backend that they log into. 

There’s also an onboarding process that asks those users to build their profile out depending on whether they’re looking for a job or looking to hire — with the job seekers, it’s an interactive experience. If applicants want to add video profiles or answer video questions that are pre-set by employers, they can upload those directly to the site or through WhatsApp, which links to the dashboard.

On the employer side, we built some tools to help with companies hiring diverse members of staff or at least a diverse network of applicants. When an employer comes along and they copy and paste their job ad onto the system, they can click a couple of tools that will read the job description.

Hestabit used JavaScript to build the website from scratch. The original complexity was that we had built an initial form of the site, so they had to come in and try to help unpack some of the work that had been done already.

They also made specific design suggestions based on the requirements we gave them — they helped design specific landing pages which are normally for a large enterprise client. On top of that, they did the user testing and built us an automated user testing tool so whenever we push an update on the site, we can instantly check that nothing is breaking as a result.

Moreover, we also had to conform to the data protection policies of a big brand group. They wanted to check if we had the right encryption levels in place for our servers, and requested a two-factor authentication for all users of the platform. Hestabit helped us integrate these requirements, and were more than happy to answer technical questions for the brief to get sorted out.

What is the team composition?

We have a business analyst who is also the project manager, a full-time backend developer, a UX specialist, a QA tester, and a designer. 

How did you come to work with Hestabit Technologies?

I started looking for an agency that would have more capacity to deal with what we needed and found Hestabit on a website called PeoplePerHour — they were rated highly on that platform, and I really liked some of the work they’d done. They had won an award but most importantly, the examples of dashboards they built and designed were very similar to what I was looking for.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around £115,000 ($157,100 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in August 2020 and it’s still ongoing. They provide us with maintenance, regular penetration testing, and quarterly reviews. They also monitor any kind of unusual activity on the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I would say they’ve had a 60–70% positive impact on our business since our user base has grown considerably. When they joined, we only had under 25,000 users but a year later, we’re now at 72,000 active users. Additionally, our clickthrough rate has increased to about a 65%, compared to the 9% we had before. That’s because our customers are easily associating our messages with the quality of the product.

The testing tool has been massively helping us minimize downtime because they took over someone else’s code. This means that we can move faster, as well as save money since we don’t have to keep spending when the team manually checks all of the codings. 

How did Hestabit Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very transparent, and they will always tell you in advance if they think that something needs more time or resources. They’re dealing with a startup where things are coming out of the blue, and I highly appreciate that. There have been times when something has taken them a week or two more than anticipated, but I don’t necessarily put that down to them — that has more to do with the fact that they’ve picked things up on the back of someone else’s work. 

We use Trello for project management and communication. We also have a WhatsApp group with the main principals and have weekly video calls to check in and discuss certain aspects of the project.

Furthermore, even though there’s a time difference between our companies, there have only been a couple of issues regarding communication. They’ve worked midnights and they always go above and beyond the scope without complaints — Hestabit is always happy to help and that alone makes them a really good team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with how much they get involved with us as a customer — they don’t see us as just any other project and from day one, their process has always had a personal touch.

On top of that, they take the ideas we mention in passing and improve upon them. They’re really passionate about our product and treat our company like it’s their own.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would say that their services could be more cost-efficient. I’m not a developer nor do I have their level of technical expertise, so I don’t know the quality of their work behind the scenes. However, the way I experience the product as a user, I can say that their process is really robust.

There have also been odd times when we would have miscommunications and details would get missed, but this is just a very minor issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re going to use Hestabit’s services, immerse them in your business as soon as possible. They have a big team and they can deliver certain tasks on numerous levels, so the partnership would work better if you bring the process under one roof.

Personally, I would use them fully or not at all, because it seems to work better when they’re a 100% partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of the company. We’re electrical contractors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hestabit Technologies?

They’re building our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hestabit Technologies has provided electrical installation work and created strategic locations within our website to help with SEO. It’s been a long process, and they’ve given us full attention and been thorough with their work.

They’re currently developing our website using a template with customizable pages, and the content is SEO-rich.

What is the team composition?

We have 4–5 people on the team. The project manager is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Hestabit Technologies?

It was a free, pay-per-hour freelance. They asked the right questions and showed they were flexible. Hestabit Technologies didn’t make any assumptions, and overall, they wanted to achieve our goal.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent $4,500.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in January 2021, and we’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s still a work in progress, so we haven’t had any results. Nonetheless, they’ve provided a good service, and the team is excellent. Overall, they execute the work and make sure we’re happy, which is great.

How did Hestabit Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good. Hestabit Technologies’ team is honest, and they do what they say. The problem is on our end. I don’t have the necessary time to give them all the answers, which puts a lot of pauses in the project.

We typically communicate through WhatsApp. When we have meetings through Google, there are many team members within the call.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very responsive, and they’re always available. Moreover, they genuinely care about doing a good job.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t anything. They’re pretty good.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a clear picture of what you want. Otherwise, you’ll be there a long time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the director of Disabled United, providing online services for people with disabilities

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our website was outdated and we hired Hestabit Technologies to redevelop our website.

SOLUTION

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

We chose this company based on their portfolio of past projects, skills and cost estimate.

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

Some features of the Project included Speed optimization, implementing logics to show news and features sections and. enabling ads. The technology used is Meteor JS, Node Js, React JS, CSS

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

Two senior developers, One DevOps resource and One Project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A fantastic team to work with. They have been a revelation to us. We were struggling to upgrade our website but after choosing HestaBit Technologies all our worries were over. They always delivered no matter what challenges they were facing. They even worked on problems caused by other third parties or previous development and our seniors brainstormed and fixed them as well.

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

The project manager did a great job. Very communicative and quick response time. We used Skype and Slack. Timelines were well communicated and met.

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

Awesome to work with and excellent knowledge and communication

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

The technolody used on my webste is very outdated with many bugs and issues. They were quick to point out those errors and resolve them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a Digital Marketing Agency. We specialise in helping brands have an online presence.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to hire a team of developers to help us build a fully transactional website for a women's clothing brand. We wanted to build on the Magento platform and after reviewing quite a few companies Hestabit were within budget and we were confident that they could develop and design the website we needed.

SOLUTION

How did you select Hestabit Technologies and what were the deciding factors?

We searched online and also put out a proposal on PPH which they responded to with a solution and project plan in a timely fashion.

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

We had various kick off meetings via Google Hangout to map out the scope of work, we also introduced key milestones while also ensuring that our key objectives were met. A staging site was set up to ensure that all points were tested thoroughly.

How many people from the Hestabit Technologies team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had a UX Designer, web developer and a project manager where we had daily stand-up meetings to ensure all was on track.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching the website we had a great reaction from the clients customer base and sales started immediately which continue to go strength to strength.

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

Even though they was based in India and we were based in the UK. The communication was excellent and all key objectives were understood and we had daily stand up calls to ensure that all was on track.

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

Firstly, they had great experience in developing an e-com website. They were hands-on to deal with any issues in a timely fashion and resolve a few minor server issues.

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

No I think they handled the project very well and we are going to continue to work with them going forward on a maintenance contract.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We provide a SaaS compliance document solution to B2B customers in the trade and construction industry. I am the founder and managing director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Hestabit Technologies ?

We hired Hestabit Technologies to develop and launch a web platform with an API integration.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to launch the platform to our B2B customers. It needed to integrate with Stripe and a third-party SaaS company's API. The original codebase used React Native and Node.js, but needed a new architecture for file storage on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Creating a good solution was pivotal to the company's success.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I selected Hestabit Technologies after researching and talking with them. They understood our project's technical and business complexities. I also spoke with one of their long-term customers, who had a similar build and was impressed with their work.

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

The team turned existing code into a platform to support many clients. They created a subscription signup process that used Stripe and a project quota system. They also implemented email points using SES and set up the AWS platform with Elastic Bean and S3. I provided wireframes with the look and feel I liked, which we tweaked along the way. Their team continuously contributed new designs.

What was the team composition?

The team mainly consisted of the project manager and one web developer. Others stepped in for specialized roles, such as design, Stripe integration, and AWS development operations. The team stayed consistent throughout the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Without their relentless effort to launch this product, the whole business would have stalled. They invested in our idea from the beginning and exceeded my expectations.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was excellent. I communicated with my project manager on Skype almost every working day. We had no language issues, which was a welcome surprise.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I appreciated their dedication to providing the best solution possible. I was also impressed with their enthusiastic, skillful suggestions. They weren't afraid to push back if they thought something could be done better.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

They were great, so I don't have any complaints. They could use a project management solution like Trello to create a faster feedback loop.