ImageX

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a web development shop based in Dallas, Texas. I’m the chief financial officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We became busy with some large projects, so we were looking for additional resources in order to scale up quickly. The idea was to partner with someone to help with overflow, but they had to be experienced with Drupal.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ImageX has provided third-party work for one of our clients. We have worked exclusively with two backend developers from ImageX's team. We weren't sure how they would mesh with our own team but came to find that they were very well-trained, knowledgeable individuals. They were also very good communicators.

We've used ImageX for a second, smaller engagement, with only 1 resource. They exceeded our expectations there as well.

We have used ImageX's developers on two projects. Because they were capable, we've shifted them to more urgent work.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Our owner knows ImageX's team well, given that we work in the same business space. When we needed additional resources, we reached out to ImageX in order to see if we could leverage some of their people. We did consider other North-American companies, but in the case of 2 of them, it became clear that their knowledge and workflow practices were not on-par with our requirements. We had very specific processes using Git repositories, development, and testing environments, and so on.

How much have you invested with ImageX?

This is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with ImageX a year and a half ago. The project ran for longer, but their involvement lasted for 6-8 months when the client was looking to speed up the level of output. I would have loved to use ImageX's resources more, but they were expensive. That said, this works fine for high-level work which can support additional billing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Even though I can't provide solid numbers, a general indicator of ImageX's performance is that we were able to not only reduce our timeline backlog and get back on track but to also exceed the client's expectations.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We use a combination of tools for project management, including Basecamp for client communication and repositories, Harvest for time-logging, and Pivotal Tracker, which is used for user stories and backlogs. We also use Git for versioning control.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

Some developers, even though they may be technically competent, shouldn't be brought to a client meeting. ImageX's team can communicate well, even at the client level, taking complex ideas and translating them into everyday terms during conference calls. ImageX's resources were very capable of being team players and didn't try to stick to their own way of doing things.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

The cost was a little high, but there were no issues with ImageX's work. They did a good job for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Rail Digital is a web design and animation company. I am a project manager for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We have been dealing with web development for a few years and have recently outsourced our team elsewhere. When that group started slacking on their end, we needed the help of a stronger dev team. We prefer this approach to using single developers because we know that, if someone becomes unavailable, someone else can pick up the pace.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We picked up a client who came to us with Drupal development needs. ImageX worked as an alternative to our regular team. They're competent in JavaScript injection and picked up the task along the way.

The client didn't provide a full list of requests, so we approached ImageX about this. One of their lead developers stepped in, took control, and came up with solutions quickly. There were also other resources in the background on ImageX's side. The client ended up working with ImageX directly, which saved the project.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

We found ImageX through Clutch. There were a few other considerations, some with very low Drupal development costs, but they didn't seem very knowledgeable about what they were doing. Especially since we'd had a poor interaction with the former offshore team, we didn't view many of them as trustworthy. Having a Canadian-based developer who could actually speak with us was very helpful. We could communicate within our timeframe.

How much have you invested with ImageX?

The initial quote for ImageX's services was around $2,000, but it extended into the $4,000 to $5,000 range. The cost was on the smaller end of what we were expecting.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in June 2016. We interacted with ImageX for around a week, showing them what problems we were facing, and the whole project took a month to complete. The timeframe was extended by the client dragging their feet and coming up with more tasks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The client had a new landing page with a search function for their database of companies. The system started working immediately after ImageX checked in, but they've had to impose their own approach in order to make the design functional.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

There was a lot of middle management in the beginning, but we eventually put ImageX in direct contact with our client in order to exchange requirements and have discussions.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

I appreciated how knowledgeable ImageX's staff was and how professionally the team was handled, in comparison to other teams we've worked with. The project management was great.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

No. ImageX knocked it out of the part.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a food policy research institute working as a non-profit. I am the web communications manager of the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We needed to redesign our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially worked with ImageX 4 years ago on a WordPress template design and development project, and have since engaged them for various other tasks. We also have a Drupal platform and ImageX has helped us perform usability studies for it. 

The size of our team will vary depending on the work. There are usually 4–5 people from ImageX involved on any specific project, including a creative director, a project manager, a designer, and a developer. I make sure that a project lead from ImageX's side is directly involved, but I also interact with designers and developers directly. When I need to, I will also contact the COO [chief operating officer] and president of ImageX, who have responded well. If for any reason, we don't receive a quick answer from a resource, we have additional channels available.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

We were looking for vendors willing to work on smaller projects. Our institute has several Drupal and WordPress platforms, but we don't have a full-fledged development shop. We looked for a stable partner for a long time. My former boss came across ImageX's name while we were approaching other companies. We gave ImageX a small project and they delivered. It was a smooth ride afterward.

How much have you invested with ImageX?

The total cost of our company-wide work with ImageX has been in the six-figure range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with ImageX for 4–5 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We started our work 4-5 years ago, with one website. By the time we had 3–4 pages, ImageX was brought in to redesign one of the templates we were using extensively. We now have over 40 microsites on it, which proves its impact. Some of the work I've done with ImageX early on has helped make our platform what it is now.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Basecamp for all of our communication and document-sharing with ImageX. We have used version-control systems and collaborative platforms in the past, but we now exchange code directly.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

ImageX is very responsive and accessible. I can always reach their president, COO, program leader, and developers over Skype. ImageX is a smaller company, and I've appreciated being able to reach out to anyone on their team.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

ImageX is a fairly good company, and I only wish I had more money for keeping their team more involved. Being a non-governmental organization, we don't have a large budget.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy offers undergraduate degrees in: Emergency Management, Energy Systems Engineering, Facilities Engineering, International Maritime Business, Marine Engineering, Marine Transportation, and Marine Safety & Environmental Protection. We also offer graduate programs in Emergency Management and Facilities Management. As the Director of Enterprise Systems, I oversee the campus systems and project manage many of the IT projects for our division.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We did not have the man-power to build a new website on our own. We needed to find a company that could help us with the development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We created the design and editor roles in house. ImageX handled the actual design of this plan in a timely manner. We were able to stay interactive with ImageX on each stage of the development through scrum meetings. After development was complete, the Academy completed all content migration. ImageX came out for an in-person training session, which was great for our editors across the campus.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

ImageX was referred to us from Acquia. We considered 5 other options. ImageX stood out to us through its specialty in higher education and their commitment to working within the decided budget. We really appreciated the open conversation about what we needed to compromise on throughout development to keep within our budget.

How much have you invested with ImageX?

The total cost of our project with ImageX was under $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The new website was launched in August 2015, while the actual development took less than a year. Now that the big development piece is complete, we still have a small yearly package with ImageX to work on smaller projects as they arise. I'm happy we're still able to work with the lead developer who was on our original project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The reaction to the site as a whole has been very positive. We did a usability study at the end of 2015 and it went very well. Participants included prospective students, current students, staff, alumni, prospective corporate partners, and prospective continuing maritime education learners.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

Being included in scrum meetings was very helpful for us to stay interactive and engaged in the process. We always knew where the project stood.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

A small anecdote that expresses their professionalism and collaboration is our brief on-campus discovery session. We were able to confirm what the priorities were for the project, and they really instilled a lot of confidence for our staff that the project was in good hands. They listened to ideas and encouraged creativity in this planning process as well.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

Now that we work with ImageX on much smaller scaled projects as they arise, it's not always clear when these will be completed, because they are a lessor priority than a large scale project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide a free competitive intelligence platform which helps people uncover the latest news and alerts. Our clients gain insights which can help in terms of their competition. I am the head of marketing for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We needed help in remediating a Drupal development project. It had gone off the rails with our previous firm.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a fully-implemented design as well as a partial codebase. The integration with another technology wasn't functioning properly and ImageX was able to resolve this. We only had contact with one developer, but he may have had support in the background.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

The firm which wasn't able to take on the project referred us to ImageX.

How much have you invested with them?

We worked on an hourly contract.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work was completed in August 2016. The project was supposed to take only a few days but ended up taking one month to complete. It proved more complicated than ImageX anticipated. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

ImageX was able to get the integration working, which was a key part of our project. It had been completely derailed but ImageX got it to the finish line. Our homepage is currently live. Everything has gone according to plan in terms of quality and bug resolutions.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated with our developer using Slack.

What did you find most impressive about ImageX?

It seems difficult to get honest communication from some firms about Drupal development. They typically outsource the work after claiming to take it on themselves. In the case of ImageX, they were honest and true to their promise. Our developer was solid, which I appreciated.

Are there any areas ImageX could improve?

It would have been better to get a sense upfront of the total number of hours our project required. It ended up costing more than I thought. A part of this was on our end since we were trying to achieve something very complicated. Outside of this, I was happy with their work.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a private Christian university. I'm the IT [information technology] director of the organization. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We had decided on the Drupal platform for our website after researching technologies, but our own technology department did not have the time or resources to handle our project in the timeframe we wanted and, as a result, we decided to bid the work to external suppliers. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

ImageX designed our new website, using the Drupal platform. One of our top priorities was meeting the needs of prospective students. When they came to our website, the experience needed to be intuitive and it was important that they found the right information, presented in a pleasing way. One of our strategic objectives is to increase enrollment. We needed a better way of managing and governing content, so the tools used by the people in charge of this needed to be easy to use. Not all of them are technical. The people who develop copy and take pictures won't know how to program a website, so they needed the right tools in place.

We also wanted the ability to test the design with respect to navigation and resource accessibility. I wanted to make sure that we had a way of making decisions based on data versus the opinions of the web services committee. In the past, we'd had trouble with getting a consensus. One person may think that a certain design or structure is good, while someone else may not like it. I wanted to leverage our user base for making decisions. ImageX provided a solution for capturing that kind of data. Whenever we had a decision to make, we could use data to show if the users agreed or disagreed with a certain approach.

Another requirement was making sure that the new website was mobile-friendly. Our data showed that many of our students were browsing the site using mobile devices.

There were probably more resources on ImageX's team behind the scenes, but the core people that I'm aware of included our project manager and another person who was involved in the proposal process as well as a graphic designer involved in the user-interface kit. She was incredible in providing the design for our new website. We also worked with a programmer who was involved in the more technical issues, helping us develop many of the back-end requirements we requested. My internal team was responsible for providing copy and images for the website.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

I went on to the Drupal marketplace and chose 12 different vendors, based on their profiles. I contacted them for proposals and received five to six interesting replies. We started talking with the remaining candidates. We had not had the time to flesh out a full request for proposal. ImageX proposed helping us with putting one together. I sent that proposal to all the vendors and received the best proposal from ImageX.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Drafting our RFP [request for proposal] had a cost of $13,000. ImageX provided some work at that stage, which would have been done whether we chose to work with them or not. The actual project had a cost of around $110,000. We received an additional proposal at the end for enhancements that were not included in the beginning. It was for an additional $20,000. We haven't used up those additional resources.

What is the status of this engagement?

We're still working on additional enhancements with ImageX.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Using our testing and feedback processes, we engaged users at several points during the discovery phase. We created focus groups featuring both prospective and existing students. They had a big contribution in determining what our website would feature. It was no surprise that, once we implemented those specifications, we received a lot of positive feedback. We were giving them what they wanted. Furthermore, we received a lot of feedback which was strictly voluntary, and which was overwhelmingly positive. The new site was a big, positive change compared to what we'd had before.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

With respect to the work process employed by ImageX, we started out with storyboarding and used different elements, which eventually turned into a RAID log of issues. As the project moved along, items disappeared out of that RAID log and were marked as complete. During the process, whenever we had questions, wanted changes or needed clarification, whether in terms of functionality or design, ImageX provided revisions, which showed that they listened to what we told them.

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

ImageX proved to have a good understanding of overall issues so that, even with our poor articulation of the requirements, the problems were executed beyond our requests. Throughout the process, ImageX has been very professional. Not every issue has been resolved to perfection or to our exact specifications. ImageX warned us at times that, even though they could implement something, it would be costly due to the work required. ImageX asked us to prioritize tasks and decide what was or wasn't worth doing. We sometimes went to the second-best alternative and used the additional resources on items that were truly important. There were certain realities that we had to deal with respect to cost, but we ultimately prioritized things to our satisfaction. The most important problems were resolved.

Is there anything ImageX could have improved or done differently?

ImageX could have done a better job at reporting how resources were being used. We were a bit surprised to find out that we had used up our resources toward the end. It would have been nice to get precise hourly reports, showing us how many hours had been used up and how many we had left. ImageX did do an audit of our project after the fact, and they refunded us for quite a number of hours, enabling us to do things for which we were trying to find the necessary budget. I was very pleased with how ImageX's principal [president and CEO Glenn Hilton] handled our contract after it was completed. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a non-profit product developer working in the HIV prevention field.

What is your position?

I work with the communications team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We were looking to upgrade our website to the newest Drupal version and customize the modules we had.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

ImageX handled the Drupal upgrade for us. Since they were already working on it, we engaged them in making a few improvements to the site, too. They mostly amounted to small visual upgrades and some performance improvements.

There were also some elements in the content management system that we wanted simplified. I had been frustrated, for example, by the fact that I couldn't change image sizes by dragging them with my mouse. ImageX was able to add that functionality, which is helpful. Certain changes come automatically with the newest Drupal version while others had to be customized for us.

We worked with one lead developer. I assume that he had help, given that our project was bigger than what one person could handle. But for the most part, we only interacted with him.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Our organization has previously worked with ImageX when they helped us redesign our site a few years ago.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was completed around April 2016. We have a few more tweaks to take care of, but it's largely done.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Because it's an upgrade, it's hard to attribute any metrics directly to their involvement. The launch of the new site went well. We had one significant bug at launch, but ImageX was able to address it quickly. They were responsive in terms of answering questions and requests from us and always kept us in the loop when unexpected things emerged.

Even though the main thrust of the project has been completed, we still have issues and questions for which we contact ImageX. They're still paying attention to us, which is nice.

There hasn't been a huge need for making changes to the site since the upgrade. Everything has been working smoothly, so I have no complaints.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We started the project in December, near the holidays. At the beginning, I found myself requesting meetings more than ImageX. They could have been more proactive in this sense, but I’m guessing this had to do with the holiday schedule. Once we started the work, it went smoothly.

They’re extremely reliable and qualified collaborators. The developer we worked with was very helpful with suggesting resources and approaches that would make the upgrade go smoothly (and that we would not have known to ask for).

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

Project management was one of their strongest attributes in terms of keeping to deadlines. They also have a lot of deep technical knowledge of Drupal, which came in very handy in terms of helping us with module customization.

Is there anything ImageX could have improved or done differently?

No. ImageX was very knowledgeable in all of the areas in which we needed help. I felt that I could trust them and they were very responsive to our needs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an education technology company working with several different product lines.

What is your position?

I am the co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We've developed a custom application for the state of Texas. We've collaborated with ImageX in creating a request for proposal for the delivery of online instructional materials to five million teachers and students throughout the state. It's an extremely ambitious program, one of the first of its kind.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We have very strong in-house design and UX [user experience] talent. We've primarily relied on ImageX for looking at architectural issues regarding scaling the application to meet the needs of five million users. It was a significant step up for us and we didn't have the required Drupal expertise.

Architectural questions like this one lead to strategic questions. Their lead architect was tremendously helpful with adopting a strategic approach to the way in which we solved a number of problems. They offered us advice on things that we hadn't even considered beforehand. ImageX helped us create a long-term vision for our product and a roadmap to success.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

I met their team at an Acquia conference in Boston a year ago. Their lead architect and co-founder didn't try to sell me on their services. He was more interested in solving problems. We had a great conversation and talked in a free and open manner. When we came to need a partner, I went back to ImageX. They were by far the most responsive company that I interviewed. I was very cautious in starting our relationship, wanting to make sure that they understood our culture, language, and the way in which we worked. I initially gave them a low-risk project, which they delivered without a problem. That success led to their expanded involvement. 

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total cost of their services has been $50,000 so far. We're now working on a project for developing the contents of our syndication program. With that, the overall engagement cost is expected to be around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first got in touch with ImageX in November 2015. We had a meeting with them on December 23rd. We started our work the weekend after Christmas. They understood our urgency level and made sure that they'd be properly staffed during that time. We’ve been collaborating with them ever since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We already had much of the solution in place when starting the work with ImageX. When we brought their team on board, it was for doing a code audit and review of the vulnerabilities that would arise with scaling up. ImageX finished that work under-budget, under-time and they over-delivered. Through their results, we identified some options for improving the product, not just simply scaling it.

We're now entering into a third phase which is looking into how we should move beyond our current platform into content syndication throughout the state and beyond. This long-term API vision is largely due to ImageX's effort and we're extremely grateful.

A lot of the work was behind-the-scenes. An important part of the effort was getting our product to an enterprise level and making sure that we were prepared for the kind of growth and scale required. It was a critical launch for us. We only had one chance to make a good impression with our new brand for the new commissioner of education, as well as the five million users within the state. ImageX made sure that our architecture and caching strategy were built to meet future demand. They were essential in setting up our Acquia solution.

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We have an Agile development culture within our company. We use certain tools and methods for getting our work done. ImageX was willing to work around those methods. Their whole team was on board with us within a day, culturally speaking. It was as if we doubled our team overnight, without missing a beat. When it comes to meeting deadlines, they were spot-on every time. Not only have they never missed one, they've been very responsive to change requests.

I made sure that they understood our expectations from the beginning because we have to work with a government agency. Sometimes, we get requests that don't make a lot of sense. They're driven more by policy than necessity. ImageX was very flexible in keeping development going and allowing the changeover to be a back-channel type of process. Change is a linear process and every modification has to be taken through a specific procedure before even getting started on it.

We use Jira for project tracking and ticketing. We've set it up in a way which enables our project managers to coordinate closely with the ones from ImageX. Often times, this can be a bottleneck or a source of conflict, but the project managers from both our teams have been excellent. They've amounted to a unified front of highly competent people.

Slack is our primary communication tool. We've rarely had to use email because there was someone available for us directly most of the time. When we were going live, ImageX were by our side the whole time, including on weekends.

We've also used Basecamp for more formalized communication concerning specifications and exchanging documentation. It's better suited for this than Slack.

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

The level of trust we've established with ImageX made it seem like we were one unified team. The back-office work was handled fluidly throughout. They were constantly on time, within budget and were always flexible with us. They were a pleasure to work with, and I couldn't ask much more from a partner.

People like ImageX are hard to find. Whenever a developer becomes too big, the type of customer service we seek out goes away. We've worked with them for a period of time and hope that their culture will be maintained in the same way.

Could you share any tips for potential clients?

Any startup looking for this kind of work should look for a developer  able to recognize that company's sense of urgency. There needs to be an understanding of what is truly important. Traditionally, different service or development shops tend to treat everybody in the same way, but ImageX was very good in recognizing our specific context. This is especially important for a young company: taking care of priorities and aligning towards the overall goal.

Looking for someone that is a good cultural fit is also important. We're a fluid and Agile shop, highly confident, transparent in our communications and fast-paced. We demand this from the people with which we work. ImageX has been a great fit for us.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated on April 16, 2019, by the client. New content is below.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CIO of Trinity Education Group, a design and product solution company for K–12 education clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We initially hired ImageX to develop a custom application for the state of Texas. However, the scope has expanded to include more complex and new architecture.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ImageX developed a service-based architecture for the Drupal-based CMS, providing a large ecosystem of services for the state of Texas. The team uses PHP to execute integrations and frontend development.

What is the team composition?

The team includes two project managers, two designers, 1–2 architects, at least six developers, and testing and QA resources.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $500,000 annually during the last few years, which brings our total investment to the $200,000–$1 million range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2015 and the partnership is ongoing.

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

The solution won a highly prestigious industry award for educational technology. As a partner, ImageX understands our customers’ functional needs, which enables us to focus on our core services. We consider them an extension of our team because the partnership has been consistent and scalable as we’ve grown as a company.  

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

ImageX has earned our trust by delivering on their promises and meeting expectations. Communication is fluid on Slack, Jira, and a design platform. We interact multiple times per day as we are continually scheduling meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a very close collaboration and continue to improve the rapport between organizations. Our team couldn’t deliver on time and budget—or even have the predictably for our end clients—without that excellent culture fit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, because we develop tech stack on an ongoing basis and the builds are rock-solid. They’re a great group to work with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should prototype a solution quickly with ImageX because it will benefit their long-term objectives.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a small liberal arts and sciences college with select pre-professional programs in San Antonio, Texas.

What is your position?

I am the associate director of Web and creative services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

Our work with them was centered around our .edu website and all of the subdomains and directories associated with it.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We have a developer on-staff who is familiar with our institution's guidelines and overarching communication and marketing goals for the site, plus the general maintenance done through our on-campus resources. ImageX stepped in to help us with all of our backend needs, including Drupal and module development, as well as a lot of the business objects and logic behind some of our new projects. They've helped us iron out requirements and figure out how to implement ideas realistically, while also helping all of the clients who would benefit from the project to reach their individual constituencies' goals.

We use Acquia as a hosting platform for our Drupal solution. As an Acquia-approved vendor, ImageX have worked with us in determining what it can support and in integrating our existing usage into platforms like Open Edu. Being able to merge Acquia's capabilities with Drupal for our existing development has helped us make implementations in accordance to our custom specifications.

Our college has four web-centered team members, including a web communications manager, a web producer, a frontend developer and a web director. Our frontend developer and web director are in charge of most of our collaboration with ImageX.

We've worked with multiple developers in ImageX's team, depending on particular aspects of our project. Altogether, we've collaborated with between four and six people. ImageX has developers with expertise in specific areas but, in terms of day-to-day conversations, maintenance, bug fixes and pushing new minor features to the site which don't require a new scope of work, we work with a single service agreement developer. We've had a fantastic working relationship with this person. We communicate our needs in as accurate and developer-specific language as we can and he translates them into what Drupal or Acquia can do for us. He's been an amazing partner as a go-to developer.

We do have a project manager with whom we have bi-weekly updates. Since we have a frontend developer on staff, we work better with ImageX when we are able to communicate direct feature requirements or bug issues with them in order to have as little information lost in translation. Most of our communication is done through Basecamp or Google spreadsheets.

It is a tremendous help for us to have a person who speaks the technical language on-staff. If we didn't have this resource, we'd be relying more heavily on our project manager.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

Our university did a request for proposal for a complete website redesign in March 2013. ImageX were one of the vendors who replied to it and submitted a proposal, but we didn't choose them for our initial redesign. We parted ways with the partner that we ended up choosing a little earlier than we'd have wanted to. We realized that we had a need for continued backend development almost instantly.

We had been impressed with ImageX's proposal, including their backend knowledge of Drupal and Acquia, as well as their knowledge of best practices and open source code sharing. Our theming, branding, creative concept for content and user experience had all been completed, but we now needed a lot of help on the backend, including cleaning up some of the junk that our non-Drupal-savvy vendors provided us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Our total development cost for the work with ImageX has been around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

There are two very strong points that make me continually satisfied with ImageX. The first is the fact that they are as committed to education as we are. Being an educational institution, we were looking for a partner who wouldn't just do some work, hand it over and not continue to assist us with it. As part of our relationship, we placed a huge emphasis on making sure that our frontend developer received training and documentation on the choices that were being made in Drupal. ImageX didn't provide specific PHP training, but rather showed our developer why they wrote the things that they did. This type of educational partnership has grown our success exponentially. When we need to lobby or advocate for new projects or new services, we're able to because we have this extended knowledge of the reasoning and logic behind the projects that we're creating. When we need to quickly troubleshoot something, we will at least know why that element isn't working, even if we won't have the ability to fix it. This has built up our on-staff knowledge, which we find to be extremely valuable, even if it's not something that can be quantified.

The second point is that ImageX built a set of customizable templates for faculty members on campus. This will allow us to essentially bring back faculty members who have not found a home on our main website due to the difficulty of editing it. They've come back to our domain, making our site as a whole a lot more leadership-oriented, providing a lot more content expertise.

For example, we have a group of humanities researchers who used to have their own website for their research lab. It had been built on Wordpress and was completely separated from our college. It only showed our logo at the bottom of their page. Moving back to our main domain, every hit that one of their research papers receives is additional traffic for us. We've become the home of these humanities researchers, being their founders and supporters at the same time. We're able to lock into that content and own it as much as they do, which is important to us as a university. We continually try to showcase the research and scholarships of our professors.

We will continue this project by opening our templates to student organizations and alumni chapters. We're working to get organizations across the world a presence on our .edu domain. We're receiving an increased viewership and audience which have also helped with our bounce rates and engagement. All in all, our work with ImageX has helped us increase staff education as well as increasing the number of quality viewers on our website.

Previously, there was no way for faculty to engage or to house content on our domain unless they were able to hand-code their own HTML and in-line CSS in a directory to which they had access. Now that there is a system in place, we have happy faculty and staff who are able to showcase their online presence through our site.  

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We had some issues with deadlines at the beginning of our relationship, but I think those were due to some staff turnover within their company. This is not something that should be passed down to the client by any means, but we have ironed all of those issues out and have developed a somewhat robotic system for keeping track of the work. It may seem that checking in twice a week regardless of the work that's being done is excessive, but it's definitely worth doing. An open line of communication helps us identify problems way before they become unmanageable.

Most of our communication was done through Skype, at our request, because it was important for us to keep all of our communication on the same platform. Screen sharing, conference calls and chatting are all done in one place. ImageX has been very responsive to this. I keep an open line with my project manager all day. Even though we have regular check-ups, I can ping her at any other time. She usually responds within ten minutes.

Could you offer any tips to potential clients?

Any prospective customer should engage in as much communication as possible and make sure that the questions asked are well thought-out. This may be a general user experience matter, but it's important to note that a vendor's staff is not physically a part of your company. The problems that a client conveys needs to be formulated clearly, with this in mind. In our experience, we found that, even though conversations on a daily basis may not be necessary, frequent communication and the tiny questions we've asked along the way helped build a better, more comprehensive product.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

USMP is a manufacturer of custom display solutions including LCD and OLED displays. We are a leader in the wearables market, but we service many different industries like gaming, medical, military, industrial and automotive, among others. We provide displays for anything ranging from a smart watch to an ultrasound machine or a helicopter’s dashboard.

What is your position?

I’m the strategic IT marketing manager. I’m still managing the web projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ImageX?

We had had a website with the same design for 3 years and we felt it was time for a redesign in parallel to the rebranding effort. We saw that we needed to create a new website, something more dynamic and interactive. We were working with a freelancer but he was really busy and not always available and responsive.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We started with a smaller project with them in which we were testing them out to see if we could work well together. That project was pretty successful and we were very happy with the results. We went ahead and did the whole website redesign and right now we’re basically tweaking things, adding some features and resolving a few bugs discovered on the backend.

How did you come to work with ImageX?

I did some research on Google to see what companies specialized in Drupal. I narrowed it down to five and we were working with another company that was involved in the Drupal community so once I narrowed it down, I asked for references, and they spoke very highly about ImageX. I reached out to them and started a conversation, got to know them better and liked them. They seemed to have a great and well-structured approach to project management. We met in person and they seemed like the right fit for us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

$55,000 to $60,000

What is the status of this engagement?

They are done with the website but we’re still working with them. They just rolled out some changes this past Friday.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I don’t have any formal feedback but we’ve been getting a lot of comments on how nice the new website looks and how clean it is compared to the last one. I have also noticed an increase on the web leads. We don’t have a contact form. We ask the people to write us an email with a description of what they need.  We’ve been getting a lot more email inquiries. Our bounce rate went down as well.

We didn’t add too many new features to the site; it was more of a new theme as opposed to new functionality. We have restructured our navigation and we created new content but that was on our side not on theirs. 

How did ImageX perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated primarily through Base Camp. They use an internal ticketing system for keeping tracking of bugs and change orders. At the beginning, everything was done in Base Camp and we had weekly calls. But then their project manager and I added each other on Skype so that was a lot more efficient. I got answers right away and she was usually - she’s still pretty available to answer questions or if I want to submit a new ticket or something. That has worked better for us. The nice thing about Base Camp is that there’s documentation about the changes and everything is in one consolidated place. 

What distinguishes ImageX from other providers?

Their team is really nice and they’re pretty responsive. We had a rocky start but it seemed to me that they were a little short staffed and then they assigned more people to the project now. After they did that the project went very smoothly. We divided the project into phases and they finished the phases on time and under budget. That’s a big deal. We needed the website redesigned by a certain date and that was non-negotiable. 

Is there anything ImageX could have improved or done differently?

We are extremely happy with ImageX and their results. I really can't cite anything they should improve upon. 

Do you have any advice for future clients?

Overall, it was a very positive experience. I would do it all over again with them. I highly recommend them.