Iktomi

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder and CEO of an indie bookstore. We are a retailer and wholesaler of books and it's supplementary products such as stationary.

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

We have an ongoing website development project with Iktomi. They were hired to design the UX and UI of our website as well as integrate SEO functions and e commerce functions into the website. Since we are a bookstore, we asked for a custom Bookdata API to search and browse books easily and add them onto our database.

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

I browsed and hand meetings with different agencies, Iktomi's quality, personalized customer relationship management, and readiness were the deciding factors

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

We had a kick-off meeting then a timeline and proposal were presented and approved off. After that we had a series of weekly calls to update and progress through the project. Google meet, Craft CMS, Google Workspace, Slack, and Mailchimp were all platforms used within this project.

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

I had two main points of contact: Maarten who has head of strategy and Kerem who was head of tech and digital. We worked with Alessandro who did the creative directing in the beginning and throughout we had consultation meetings with Nader.

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

Since we haven't officially launched it's tricky to provide success metrics but through focus groups and ongoing supervision we can confidently say that the website is visually well designed and the user experience is positive as well.

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

We had weekly meetings, and consistent emails back and forth. Timelines were updated accordingly and a new document containing a new timeline is sent. Tools used were mainly emails.

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

I found the "overachiever" mentality in them admirable. They executed our intended goals and made our website visually appealing.

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

Making clear which items were part of the original quotation and which are add ons.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the head of eCommerce for the company

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

We launched the brand's first website in 2020, however, it was developed in a rush and a poor job was done. We needed a new face of our company.

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

We searched online and through our professional circle and shortlisted around 4 vendors. Finally we decided on Iktomi based on their past projects, design skills and previous client reviews.

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

The key deliverables included the development of a new website on Magento adobe 3.0 framework, UX/UI design, Magento-odoo integration, and timely delivery. Steps included proposal submission, design proposal & finalization, development phase, UAT, QA & Launch.

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

2 project managers 3 people on website design 2 website developers 1 SEO consultant

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

After launching the website, we saw incredible reduction in the bounce rate and increase in the conversion. The customers really liked the new design of the website and how easy it is to navigate.

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

we had weekly update meetings to discuss the project timelines, the blockages or updates. We coordinated via Slack, Asana & emails. They adhered to the final timelines.

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

They showed amazing capabilities in understanding our criteria, the overall look & feel how we wanted to rebrand our .com store. They had a lot of experience with luxury designs and catered to our needs. Iktomi is very organized and they set out proper timelines and manage their tasks in a timely manner. Their management, project managers are very approachable and flexible.

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

We had a little bit of confusion due to different time zones, but they were quick to adapt to that. The communication channels could be integrated into one channel.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Managing Director of Prompt. We are a creative agency specialized in 3D images, animation and visual communication.

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

After ten years, we had the need to redefine our positioning in the local and global markets. We hired Iktomi to help us define the new positioning and the visual identity, including a vast set of communications and marketing materials.

How did you select this vendor?

Iktomi has been referred to us by one of their previous clients. Once we interviewed and heard the team’s proposal, we went with IKTOMI because of their communications and creative skills, and general expertise.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

To start they interviewed key members of our team. Once they had a firm understanding of our brand and company values, they created an entire brand package for us. This included a new logo, tagline, a vast set of communication templates and marketing materials, and different collaterals, all included in an extensive brand manual.

Once the entire project was delivered, they helped us with the doubts and the implementation of this to our normal workflow, resolving doubts that we had.

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

We worked directly with the project manager and the creative director.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Customers consistently compliment our logo and branding materials, so we’re happy with the final products.

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

We had weekly meetings with the project manager to go over progress and next steps. Additionally, we communicated over email regularly, and they gave us frequent updates. For each step ,they asked for our feedback and implemented it real quickly.

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

Their commitment to learning about our business and doing the necessary research at the start was impressive. It felt like they truly cared about our needs and wanted to help us reach our goals. Also, their creativity was remarkable.

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

For our part, we should have dedicated more time to progress faster in the realization, on another occasion we may have to be more rigorous with the calendar. However, sometimes that flexibility came in handy for our work. They were always attentive and respectful with our doubts.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a material science company and global producer of low-impact, high-quality recycled cotton fiber and fiber blends. One of the main tasks I was hired for was to update the company's website.

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

We hired Iktomi to handle the UX, UI, Design, Development and Technical Support for our new website. The new website needed to show a clear and detailed description of what we do, our mission and vision, of our range of products and services, our contribution to a more sustainable fashion industry.

The website also needed to be easily managed internally and have an option of maintenance + support in changing our CMS and Hostage services. Being in B2B competitive field, our website needed to be optimized for Lead Acquisition and have a strong and unique branding.

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

I pitched several web agencies for the project and reviewed their respective proposals. Iktomi seemed to be the most qualified to do the job, with a good balance between design and tech knowledge, which tipped the scales in their favour. They also took the proposal very seriously and delivered a very detailed document.

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

Iktomi's solution approach for our web project included 4 phases:

• Phase 1: Project Kickoff (scoping & planning the project, etc.)
• Phase 2: UX & UI Design (working closely with our graphic designer + myself)
• Phase 3: Actual website development
• Phase 4: Quality Assurance + Deployment.

The key deliverables were the UX Designs for Desktop and mobile; The Concept Designs, The UI Designs, The frontend and backend Development of the website, the set-up of the new Content Management System (Craft CMS), the Quality Assurances and test, deployment to new serves + source codes after the launch.

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

Iktomi deployed a large team for the project, including 2 projects manager + executive producers, 1 Creative Director and 1 Graphic Designer, 1 UX Expert and several developers for the frontend and back-end development.

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

General feedback from our team + industry was quite positive. Overall the website met our expectations and is easily manageable through our new CMS.

We maintained a strong relationship with Iktomi and will keep working with them for future web updates and improvements. In terms of metrics, we started with marketing campaigns cross-channels when we launched the new website, the data is thus not only related to the project. In any case, the first month, umber of content views grew 209% and time on site 58%.

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

We used Asana, Email and Whatsapp to manage the project. One of the main challenges of the project was the time-sensitivity of it, we needed to launch the new website ASAP. We decided to delay the initial launch date to not compromise the overall quality of the new website and let time for their team develop the front-end and back-end.

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

I appreciated their versatility. They adapted to our needs in terms of design and technology and handled last-minute changes smoothly.

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

The first concept designs were not of our taste, but they redeemed themself with the second concept designs they delivered. They were sometimes hard to convince for some designs/UX related matters, but we always found a common ground.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Blue Coast Brewing Company is a independently owned craft brewery located in Nice, France. I am co-founder.

For what projects/services did your company hire Iktomi?

We commissioned IKTOMI to create a partially animated website for our craft brewery. The brief was to create a clean, animated bilingual platform including an online shop. IKTOMI worked with us on every step of the way, often finding cost effective solutions that brought added value to the website. Actively present and supportive, the site building was fluid and intuitive. We are very happy with the website and we would recommend working with IKTOMI.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for a dynamic and professional team who would understand the challenges we faced and goals we needed to reach.

How did you select this vendor?

IKTOMI came too us highly recommended from a past client who was delighted by their work.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We needed a clean web site for our users to discover our products and stay tuned with our events and social media while offering the possibility to purchase online.

What was the team composition?

The team was comprised of approximately a dozen of attentive and dedicated people.

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

Once the web was up and running we noticed a great deal more email questions and interaction with clients

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Very well managed. All questions were answered practically immediately.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The ideas and suggestions were always spot on and quickly implemented. Their presence was also appreciated. Once web was created we had a training session to familiarise ourselves with the back office. The appropriate amount of time was spent and all questions answered. We were handed over a clean project with the tools to support ourselves from then on.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Happy as is.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is called Veridian Ventures. It’s a partnership of angel investors that invest in startups. We engaged with Iktomi when we were starting up the company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Iktomi?

When we first started the company, we didn’t have much of an online presence or external-facing presence. We only had a logo, and we wanted to build our presence based on that.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed and developed a website and a CMS for us. In the beginning, we gave them the logo and told them we wanted to create an online presence. We also gave them very simple guidelines.  For example, we wanted our website to follow a certain color scheme, and we had a rough skeleton of how the website should operate. 

We wanted various pages, including a home page, an about page, and pages describing our value proposition. We wanted there to be a couple of forms on the website where investors and startups could submit information. We also wanted a section that would display our latest activities. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from their team. One was an overall project manager, one was their lead designer, and the other was their technical head. 

How did you come to work with Iktomi?

We found them through a personal recommendation. I went to business school with one of their founders. We wanted to minimize the risk of a vendor not being able to deliver, so we only considered companies that we had positive feedback about.

We ended up going through an RFP process where we requested quotes from five different companies. We put two companies through to the second round, and Iktomi was the company we ended up choosing.

Our decision was a combination of the design they submitted, the pricing, our confidence that the team could deliver, and the functionality they proposed. Also, they proposed suggestions that weren’t in the brief. That showed that they really thought about our project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested less than $10,000 with the team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November of 2017, and we finished working with them in July of 2018.

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

The quality of their work was really high. The number of errors we found during the initial user acceptance testing was very low, which was quite unexpected. They tested it using different devices, different formats, and different links. 

Even after the user acceptance testing, they were still willing to make changes for us. We found there was one thing that didn’t work exactly how we wanted it. Even though it wasn’t in our specifications, they rectified that very quickly and easily. 

For the last two years, we’ve been able to manage the website easily using the easy-to-use CMS they developed for us. 
 
How did Iktomi perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication style was very good, and they provided us with a project plan. We’re quite satisfied because they kept all their deadlines. The timelines weren’t met, but that was completely our fault. We caused delays, and they were flexible enough to accommodate them even though it put some strain on their team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From a design perspective, their website designs were quite superior to all of the other designers we considered. We decided to go with them, even though they were a bit more expensive than the others, because their designs were that much better. 

We also really appreciated their flexibility, especially given the delays that were generated by us. They were understanding and willing to make things work. They were dedicated to delivering high-quality results even though our project plan got compromised due to our delays.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have been better at gauging our level of understanding of how websites are built. That could have avoided some of the delays from our side. Even though they did tell us about the requirements they needed from us, we didn’t understand what they meant.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t go for the cheapest price that you get bid on. We paid a higher price for the Ikomi team, and it was well worth it. It was absolutely the right decision to make.