Imaginary Cloud

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Head of Product at Confinze. Confinze offer a complete financial service package for SaaS startups in Denmark.

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

We wanted to develop a standardized BI platform for SaaS companies displaying metrics, KPIs and financial figures.

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

We search the web for different providers. In the end we found Imaginary Cloud on Clutch and decided to reach out. It turned out to be a perfect match.

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

Until this day the project has primarily been frontend focused since we already had a data model in place. From the start Imaginary Cloud has been excellent in project management and very clear about deliveries, milestone etc.

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

In average the team have consisted of 4-6 people. Hereof 4 devOps and 2 designers.

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

As of today the web-application still undergoes the final testing. Therefore we haven't gotten any actual customer results/feedback yet. Internally within our Group we have received lots of positive feedback and people can really connect to how the application can solve lots of pains.

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

We have had 1 dedicated Project Manager associated with the project since day 1. Timelines, progress etc. have been reported in Google Sheets to monitor in real-time. Besides that we have also held weekly status-meetings discussing backlog, buglist etc. Daily communication and coordination has been in Slack and GitHub.

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

Their way of structuring it's projects. Their framework is super unique and something I haven't seen before. There employees skill-level are impressive.

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

Nothing but perfect.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of an education platform that enables tuition between qualified tutors and students across the UK. I am the founder and principle web developer of the platform

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

Tuition can be in-person or online. We needed to integrate video conferencing for online lessons. This was for safety reasons - recording sessions to ensure student wellbeing and uphold teaching standards - and to guarantee tutors were not taking students privately via Zoom, Skype or similar. We also wanted to use video conferencing to offer free consultations with tutors and the possibility of providing group tuition when student demand increases.

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

I searched through Clutch and contacted the best reviewed companies in web development. ImaginaryCloud were the quickest in getting back to me, looking to get things started, understand the size of my business, and trying to find a way to realise the project. In short, they put in the most effort by far.

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

We had a meeting where the web developer Ricardo provided a breakdown of the best video conference software to choose from. The site uses Wordpress and predominantly uses PHP and JavaScript. We decided to use Twilio and he then spent the first few weeks understanding the API and creating a test version of my platform. Ricardo then moved towards integrating it to the site when the conferencing system was in a finished state. The integration took a while as I have a complex platform and Ricardo was able to add further functionality e.g. when the tutor ends the meeting, they will be prompted to invoice for the lesson, which fits in to the existing billing system.

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

We worked with a web developer daily during the project. ImaginaryCloud recommended using a project manager but agreed that we could remove the additional cost provided we were willing to work directly with the developer every day. This worked very well as I have developed my platform so it was beneficial of both sides me being more involved.

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

The project has just been finished so it's too early to answer this question. However, the key reason for adding it to the platform now is to have the platform ready for students when the company is more visible in search results, which we expect by year end. Essentially, this was the final piece towards realising the platform.

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

We had daily meetings with the web developer, where he filled us in on the progress and asked myself technical questions about the platform. We used Slack through the project duration to keep in touch and report progress during the day.

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

The web developer delivered a really high quality video conferencing system within a very short period of time. As a developer myself, I was really impressed with how quickly he managed to create the system and how effectively everyone was in communicating with me. I also can't stress how pleased I was when we were allowed to go forward with the project without having a project coordinator - it made a huge difference to cost.

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

I would query having to pay when there was a bank holiday, which meant no work took place. I understand this is normal in other countries but as a self-employed individual in the UK, I wouldn't expect to be paid when I don't work. It seems you need to be lucky when you start the project regarding how many bank holidays may fall within the project duration (we had 3 days).

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am funding an online awareness initiative in support of the people of Ukraine.

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

I needed to have an interactive website built very rapidly, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. My goal was to launch it within days. I hired Imaginary Cloud to build and launch a basic website as quickly as possible, and then make ongoing enhancements over the next few weeks.

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

Compared to other vendors, Imaginary Cloud was the most responsive and had the most capable staff.

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

I built out some very rough sketches of what I needed, and the Imaginary Cloud developers turned them into a working prototype within two days. The original site was built on React, powered by data residing in Google Sheets.

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

2 web developers. 1 project manager.

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

The website became the leading information resource of its kind on the Internet. We generated several thousand visits per day, only a few days after launching the site.

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

We used Slack for most communication, although we also jumped on video conference meetings as needed. We also used an online to-do list that was updated daily.

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

The people at Imaginary Cloud were both professional and organized. Yet, they were nimble and able to work with incomplete/changing requirements on a very fast-paced project.

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

I can't think of anything.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product at FarmLink Marketing Solutions.

What challenge were you trying to address with Imaginary Cloud?

We were designing a new product and platform, and we hired Imaginary Cloud to help us with UI/UX design.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Imaginary Cloud is helping us design the UI/UX of a mobile application using Figma. We also use Flutter and Vue.js. We required the design team to integrate into our team for them to understand the UX as a whole. 

What is the team composition?

We work with two UX designers.

How did you come to work with Imaginary Cloud?

They found us and gave us a cold call, which came at the right time; I had just transitioned into my role and started looking for UX developers. Imaginary Cloud gave us a couple of options, went over their previous experience, and talked us through their process. We also interviewed the UX designer that we selected for our team.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent over $100,000 CAD (approximately $80,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around September 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Since Imaginary Cloud improved our app’s UI, its usage has almost tripled. Additionally, user stickiness has doubled, meaning that people come back to the app and stay for longer. Another measurement of success is the readiness of all the features, and they’re always ready.  

How did Imaginary Cloud perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great at communication and meeting deadlines. Although they gave us an option to get a project manager, we decided to use our own since we already have scrum masters and project managers. We use Jira for collaboration and Microsoft Teams and emails for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by how timely Imaginary Cloud’s outreach was. Their business development team is very good; they continually check the project status. The team is very responsive and well-integrated with our internal team. Overall, Imaginary Cloud is very committed to their work and timely delivery.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything they need to improve at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust Imaginary Cloud’s business development team; they know what they’re talking about and have a very good idea of the resources and expertise you need. If you trust their discovery call and process, they’ll find a good match for you.

Could you start by describing your organization and position, please?

My organization is part of the Ministry of Education, more specifically the General Directorate of Education. This Directorate has several departments and I am integrated at the School Sports Department.

I am part of the DE Coordination and for that reason we requested the V / Services for a Site / Portal in this area, that is, the DE. In terms In terms of size, the DE is the largest national club, covering a percentage of significant number of students who are integrated into mainstream education in Portugal.

What platform / project did you develop together or for which were you hired and what were some of the business objectives with this company?

The project to be carried out was to develop a School Sports Portal / Site correspond to the needs of the development of this educational aspect, being A portal is necessary, as the basic platform for an information and communication system. communication between its internal stakeholders / stakeholders (structure of the School Sports:

National Coordination / CNDE, five Regional / CRDE and 23 Local Coordination / CLDE as well as students participating in the DE and their parents.

Allowing, on the one hand, the presentation appropriate messages to these audiences, effectively articulating with different social media supports and, on the other hand, access a platform to have access to a set of information management modules (databases of: plan / report of School School Sports / School Group, CLDE, CRDE and CNDE; frames competitive; training of teachers and supporting students; event management; etc.).

How did you get involved and what were some of the technologies you used in this project? Any specific technology that you would like to highlight or emphasize?

After we agreed on a contract with Imaginary cloud, we proceeded to carry out of a methodology: Briefing; Personas; User Journey; Decision Matrix; Wireframes; Style Guide; Grafphic User Interface; High-level prototype and architecture.

What were the dynamics of the team and how many developers did you assign to This project? How many people from this company work with you on this project?

Mainly 2 people were the main interlocutors, but were also other actors from the National Coordination and the National Coordination Regional.

How did you find it in the beginning and why did you decide to work with them? Because they were the best option for you?

We first made a selection of companies that seemed credible to us, and the from there we asked for the respective budgets. Of the 3 that were selected, the Imaginary Cloud presented the best quality / price profile.

How much did they invest in this collaboration or how much did the project cost (only one track would be good to have an idea only)?

For this project that essentially contemplated the realization of Design, the project cost us 7,400 euros without VAT.

When did the project start and when was it completed? Is it an ongoing collaboration? The Project started in September and ended in February.

What were some of the results of this project? Some general feedback from your company or platform users? What was the impact of your company?

The project had wide participation and was concluded with great success.

How did you act from the point of view of project management? You have some comment on your communications or skills to meet the deadlines of the project?

The Project was carried out with our availability and always with a lot of cordiality on both sides. Sometimes there were adjustments that were always well received by those in charge of Imaginary Cloud.

Was there a strong lead during the collaboration or a strong lead? Something they did very well or in which they stood out?

From my point of view, what they did very well beyond the design of the Project, was the successive changes that occurred in the course of the project due to requests from other DGE stakeholders who were asked to give their opinion.

Some area of ​​improvement or something that they could improve on future projects to offer a better service?

None

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO of an e-learning platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Imaginary Cloud?

We needed frontend development and design services for our platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team from Imaginary Cloud was responsible for both frontend development and design. They collaborated with the internal team as well as our outsourced backend developers. The frontend language was JavaScript, and I believe they used Vue.js as well.

What is the team composition?

We started with two frontend developers and two designers. At some point, we also had a technical manager for the whole team.

How did you come to work with Imaginary Cloud?

I knew someone who used to work at Imaginary Cloud, so I knew of their business. We were shopping around for other providers, but when we contacted them and found out they could handle our project, we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere around the low $100,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2018–May 2019.

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

The end product works really well. They were very adaptive and always willing to make changes, which were taking place every week based on feedback from clients and our CEO. They responded well to the frequent changes in scope. 

How did Imaginary Cloud perform from a project management standpoint?

The team participated in all of our daily meetings and was very organized. Imaginary Cloud communicated well with us throughout scope changes and never complained. Everything was very smooth.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a small software house, and it’s clear they want to create a good working environment. They helped us grow professionally — it was very positive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a good conversation with them about what their capabilities are and what you want to build, so that there’s a common understanding of what can be done. Imaginary Cloud is a very serious software agency with a positive attitude and good skill set.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide a learning management system (LMS) for medium and large companies of 100–10,000 employees. The platform is addressed to HR and learning involvement departments.

What challenge were you trying to address with Imaginary Cloud?

We’re a startup, and the full design of the platform was done in-house. We found it necessary to bring in someone from the outside to conduct a UI/UX audit. The audit needed to identify problems and improvement points, and to propose solutions. We wanted to have a quick and targeted process so that we could start implementing those recommendations immediately.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided Imaginary Cloud with access to our platform. We asked them to use it as though they were end-users and to identify any problems. They did that for the first two weeks, during which time they only got back to us with 1–2 questions.

We had a meeting after that, where they presented a document with 60–65 suggested improvements that were organized by ease of implementation. They exposed both simple and more profound problems, all of them centered around our main goal of increasing usage. All issues were divided by habit formation, navigation, readability, visual aesthetics, responsiveness, how critical they were, and their level of impact.

Imaginary Cloud also provided a list of potential ideas, such as new features. It was a detailed report with a lot of ideas for us to work on in the next six months.

What is the team composition?

Their head of design acted as our project manager, and we worked with one of their designers on the details.

How did you come to work with Imaginary Cloud?

Tiago (CEO) is a member of Startup Lisboa, and I met him there four years ago. I learned about his work and talked to him about the startup business. I received an email from another company at one point offering UI/UX auditing services, and I liked the concept. I contacted that company as well as Imaginary Cloud, and we liked Imaginary Cloud’s proposal the best.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost was close to €20,000 (approximately $23,700 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Imaginary Cloud between June–July 2020. The whole collaboration lasted 4–5 weeks.

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

This was the first time we had professional designers work on our application. We’re currently implementing the corrections proposed by Imaginary Cloud. We’ve completed some of the quick ones already and shown them to customers, and we’ve gotten good feedback. 

I don’t know what the full impact will be. We’re launching the new version in September 2020, and we hope to see some results in three months’ time. I’m quite optimistic.

How did Imaginary Cloud perform from a project management standpoint?

They were flexible in including our additional requests, and their CEO phoned me regularly to see how the project was going. They were willing to do some extra work to ensure that the final deliverable was what we needed. The project was extended by two weeks because we asked for more work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This is the first UI/UX audit we’ve done, and it was quite comprehensive. They identified around 60 improvements, each one ordered by occurrence, impact, and cost and effort to fix it, along with some graphics.

We preferred working with professional designers because using focus groups would’ve been too complicated, and we were very happy with Imaginary Cloud’s delivery.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were always asking for more design options, but we’re happy with what they delivered. I’m happy with the results, and I plan to hire them to work on complete features.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Imaginary Cloud is a fantastic option for someone looking to do a UI/UX audit. I recommend talking to Tiago, who has a lot of experience working with large multinationals.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Oligo Swiss Fund Services, a company that specializes in going over the presentation and distribution of foreign investment funds.

What challenge were you trying to address with Imaginary Cloud?

We needed help developing proprietary tools of our own.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired them for several projects, including web design. They analyzed the tools we had. They also provided us with algorithms for statistical analysis, project management of our IT systems, and web hosting management. They did everything related to portals and our internet connection. 

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with at least 12 people. I worked directly with their CEO and project manager of the web design team. We worked with a person that manages the host system, a PHP developer, a Ruby on Rails developer, and a java developer that specialized in algorithms and statistical analysis.

How did you come to work with Imaginary Cloud?

I worked with them when I was at another company for all our webpage designs and investor portal. When I founded my company, we reached out to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May 2013–January 2020.

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

I’m very happy with them. The quality of their work is excellent. We will definitely use them for any projects that we need.

How did Imaginary Cloud perform from a project management standpoint?

They use an online tool that we can use to see the status of our project and who is assigned to each task. They review the tasks on a daily basis and we have weekly calls with them to see where the project stands. We’re always informed because they're so on top of things. They make sure that we know if there are any issues or if something isn’t working as it should. They meet deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The design process they put in place is very good. They have a very good approach to how they design the graphical interface and the UX. It’s integrated well with their development team. The project management is very good as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If they had a couple more people, it would help. When we have a new project, they may not immediately have the resources we need right away, but they do make a huge effort to try to find people to work for them really quickly. Once they engage with us, there are no issues with timing or deadlines.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go for it. Don’t be afraid to work with them. The quality they deliver and their engagement is very good. They are ready for challenges. They like complex projects that allow them to think out of the box. If you try them once, you’ll use them for the next project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The platform is a digital, personalised, family health platform to help them care for themselves and their loved ones by placing them at the centre of their own Circle of Care. My duty as product manager was the management of the health platform. • Elicitation and analysis of their requirements; • Management of feature’s life; • Features specification and testing; • Management of the daily stand-up meetings and feature development according Agile principles.

For what projects/services did your company hire Imaginary Cloud?

Develop the platform.

What were your goals for this project?

Launch the platform in Ireland.

How did you select this vendor?

I had worked with Imaginary Cloud and they delivered high quality software.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They worked in the back-end and front-end to launch jinga life platform, from the infrastructure to the production deployment. They designed, developed and configured all the platform according the specified requirements.

What was the team composition?

3 Developers 1 UX/UI Designer

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

Despite the short development time, they delivered a high quality product on time to the launch.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They demonstrated good communication skills to understand the requirements and adapt the work as needed. We worked in a 2 week sprint system and met daily to discuss the work done and next the requirements to develop.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The agile skills and ability to adapt to a new condition or requirement were impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No. They are an excellent team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of an organization that wanted to reuse AI and cognitive modeling to support strategic business decisions.

What challenge were you trying to address with Imaginary Cloud?

At that point in time, I was responsible for global services and strategic pricing. I required a significant number of data points to make pricing decisions. We cramped the data into an Excel spreadsheet.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Imaginary Cloud supported with frontend and backend development, helping us to put our data together in a way that worked. We provided them with mockups. They built the frontend as a way to check the data consistency with each input. Their team helped us with processing activities and sure that the data quality and consistency were good.

What is the team composition?

We had a main point of content. I also kept in close contact with the project manager and the CEO of Imaginary Cloud.

How did you come to work with Imaginary Cloud?

I got to know Imaginary Cloud through a colleague because Lisbon, Portugal is a small, big city. I spoke with the CEO many times and saw their previous work. They were reliable and cost-effective, so I tried them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $200,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project around 2014. Their work continues, but I left the function.

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

The feedback was positive. We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish with the difficulties of organizational transformation at that point in time. Their team was trustworthy.

How did Imaginary Cloud perform from a project management standpoint?

We used a tool to keep up with the project, which was completed on time. We had delays on our side, so we were happy to have them keeping the drum beating. We didn’t exceed the budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s impressive how they’ve been able to grow but also keep close to their customers. They grew and remained agile.

Imaginary Cloud focuses on the customer experience side of products. UX design is their key value proposition. UX design and development are part of their culture.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m not in a position to say what they could change.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise them to say what they need and what they want. Imaginary Cloud will tell you if they can or cannot complete the project.