Web Development for Fitness Company
- Web Development
- $50,000 to $199,999
- Dec. 2016 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"Ignitho’s communication has been second to none."
- Healthcare
- United Kingdom
- 11-50 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Ignitho provides scalable resources for design and development on various fitness and health platforms. The team works on both the backend and frontend and provides all graphic design work.
All deliverables have been within budget and on time, often meeting strict deadlines. Ignitho worked overtime to provide the best quality of work, communicating daily and solving problems. They have great business governance, treating medium to small clients as enterprise businesses.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
My role is that of IT director for all British Bodypower operations. We operate a number of businesses in the UK and across other parts of the world, mainly in Asia. Our biggest revenue streams are from Expos; we run the biggest health-and-fitness Expo in the UK and Europe, and possibly the world. We also have similar shows in Mumbai, India, and China.
Off the back of this, we also run a chain of gyms in India and own a company which sells products online, called The Supplement Store. We also own a company which produces and delivers fresh foods to customers, called Yolo Food Company. We are extremely influential in the fitness industry. I am responsible for all IT systems, the website and a lot of the marketing and digital services, working with an internal team and with third-parties.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Ignitho Technologies?
As with any business, the challenge was resourcing. We are a subject-matter expert in our area, but we are a small business. There is a need to iterate fast, and projects tend to come to the table quickly. With this comes the challenge of being able to scale resources up and down quickly according to the project. There are extreme costs around resourcing, either by contract or on a permanent basis, and finding resources which are capable of delivering at the right speed and pace is also a challenge.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Ignitho has worked on all our open-source technologies using PHP, MySQL and Semplice Linux. We initially used them to build web platforms, but I’ve given them more projects recently. They have made all the visuals for new websites we’re building.
What is the team dynamic?
Ignitho has been running between 3-6 projects concurrently at any one time. There have been 10-15 people working on various projects, including a range of frontend and backend developers. Other resources have included project managers and business analysts assigned to the project for general organization and communication.
How did you come to work with Ignitho Technologies?
I was working with a partner called Crimson, who was developing our CRM platform. They suggested working with Ignitho Technologies, so we started a conversation, primarily around being able to offshore development resources. I worked with them in a limited capacity, on a very small, low-risk/low-value project in order to gauge how they would work, and what their business process was. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ignitho was clear in terms of project deliverables, worked quickly, and had reasonable prices that were within our budget.
How much have you invested with them?
The total cost has been between £60,000 and £80,000. [$77,500 - $103,000]
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with Ignitho around 8 months ago, at the end of 2016. The collaboration is ongoing.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The websites have been developed much faster than what our internal resources were capable of. Deliverables on all projects are increasing in terms of quality. Ignitho has been producing some fantastic graphic design results that are universally better. There have been definite improvements in our visual mock-up process, through to the actual delivery of new sites. Compared to my internal developers, Ignitho’s work is well-written and thoroughly-documented. In terms of the quality-control process, I have no questions about the delivery. It’s very good.
How did Ignitho Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?
I enforced the project management process. We have our own toolset, around which Ignitho molded their own processes. There was a project manager on their side who kept things on track and delivered updates. We knew exactly where they were, and any red flags that appeared were brought to our attention. Rather than just sending us the problem, Ignitho came up with solutions for getting past it. They almost over-communicated with daily status calls, but this was good since we are a smaller company with limited projects. Ignitho’s communication has been second to none, from what I’ve experienced, better than any supplier I’ve ever worked with.
More often than not, we’ve had tight, challenging deadlines. Ignitho worked as many hours as needed in order to finish particular projects. Their actual developers are in a different time zone to us, in southern India, but they are willing to work through the night and over weekends to make sure that the delivery is on time.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their business processes are very good. The thing which struck me was that they brought the skills, experience, governance, framework, and organization of an enterprise-scale company, and applied them to our medium-to-small business. We’re nowhere near enterprise level, but I want to run things at that level. Ignitho has the knowledge to run large projects and handle the business analysis side, and they have the ability to scale to the other companies they’re working with as well. It simply works—there is a lot of governance, there is clarity, and people know what they’re doing. Things run slowly at the enterprise level, so I was surprised that Ignitho managed to apply those processes to the small-business market, while still retaining the speed of delivery.
Are there any areas they could improve?
On the first couple of projects, we were finding our feet, and even though many things went well, there was a lack of understanding around how I wanted something to be built. I had it clear in my head how I wanted something to be done, but that didn’t really translate in the first instance of working with Ignitho. This is not a single-sided criticism; it came from both sides. We needed to be clearer on our side as well. Ignitho assigned an architect to our account on their side in order to resolve this. That person can fully understand our requirements and knows exactly what we’re talking about. They can quickly translate this into their internal systems and processes, and make it work.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
"The pricing is correct and the quality is good. In terms of overall service, it couldn’t get any better."
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
"They’ve met all deadlines. We needed to push them at times, but this is true for anyone, and we overestimated timelines from our side."
-
Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"They provide good value for money, and basically operate as an outsourced provider, giving us the flexibility of ramping up or reducing the workforce."
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"I have done so many times, and have no issues recommending them.