Imaginary Cloud

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of engineering at an enterprise email platform that targets maritime supply chain and logistics companies. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Imaginary Cloud?

We engaged them to provide additional engineering support for a couple of initiatives, including engineering projects related to integrations. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Imaginary Cloud provides us with engineering staff augmentation. Initially, we talked through our requirements and the skill sets of the engineers we needed, including a certain number of years of experience and expertise in specific technologies. 

The team has suggested some resumes, which we’ve reviewed. From there, we've picked the engineers we wanted to work with, brought them into our team, and trained them. Currently, Imaginary Cloud’s engineers are executing the work for us. 

What is the team composition?

An account manager from Imaginary Cloud is our main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with Imaginary Cloud?

Someone on our team knew someone connected to Imaginary Cloud’s CEO, so we got in touch with them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of Imaginary Cloud’s work is good. The engineers have integrated well into our team; they’re a good cultural fit. We measure Imaginary Cloud’s success based on the results of the projects. Each project has target delivery dates and scope, so we measure against that and provide feedback every two weeks. Overall, we’ve had a great partnership. 

How did Imaginary Cloud perform from a project management standpoint?

Since they work remotely, we primarily communicate through email and phone calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Imaginary Cloud team is very easy to work with. They understand the roles we want to fill and the projects we want to complete and excel at connecting us with the right resources. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any particular weaknesses to call out. We’ve had to work through some issues, but nothing unexpected. Getting folks involved in a new team is challenging, so there needs to be a good feedback process, and Imaginary Cloud manages that quite well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure you engage with your Imaginary Cloud account manager effectively. You should treat your account manager as a partner who’ll work with you to get the right folks to complete your work. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at Pulsar Helium Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Helium exploration and development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Imaginary Cloud to accomplish?

• Investor awareness

SOLUTION

How did you find Imaginary Cloud?

Online Search

Why did you select Imaginary Cloud over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Imaginary Cloud were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Deliver a website that clearly communicates Pulsar Helium’s mission, converting users to buy shares. Work side by side with the client to envision requirements and shape the product to the best possible solution. Cover both design and implementation, in order to have a sleek interface and implementation via Webflow.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• A fantastic final product. Completing on time. Accommodating changes to the product, mid-design.

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

Delivered on time. Very responsive to our needs. Free thinking and coming forward with suggestions. Regular meetings and effective management. Accommodating to changes from the client.

What was your primary form of communication with Imaginary Cloud?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The web developer, Maria T. They were very skilled at their job and accommodating to our requirements. The regular communication using multiple communication channels was also a big plus, it gave comfort that our project was actively being worked on and a priority.

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

The project manager was perhaps not necessary throughout the process, Maria was capable and the added layer of management was superfluous.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a startup company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Imaginary Cloud?

We needed to employ cloud technology to carry out the first stage of our feasibility study, which included prototyping a software piece. Therefore, we hired Imaginary Cloud to help us out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Imaginary Cloud developed software for us from scratch.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a regular project manager, two developers, and a senior project manager.

How did you come to work with Imaginary Cloud?

We found them on Google. During our vetting process, I spoke to a couple of companies and ultimately chose Imaginary Cloud because of their pricing and the way in which they communicated with us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–April 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Imaginary Cloud’s work exceeded our expectations. They even accelerated our project, so we were very happy with their performance.

How did Imaginary Cloud perform from a project management standpoint?

Imaginary Cloud delivered on time and under budget. We communicated via Slack, email, phone calls, and virtual meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Overall, we were incredibly happy with Imaginary Cloud’s team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of AppTweak

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide a SaaS tool that gives insights and knowledge needed to help app businesses of all sizes drive downloads on Apple and Google Play stores.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Imaginary Cloud to accomplish?

• We needed to staff one of our development team very shortly
• We needed this support on very specific projects over a well defined period of time

SOLUTION

How did you find Imaginary Cloud?

Online Search

Why did you select Imaginary Cloud over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost

What was the size of Imaginary Cloud’s team?

1 Employee

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

Squads organize our Tech team. One of them was missing a frontend developer to help on multiple projects:

• Refactoring of the dashboard of our app
• Integration of a new insight made available by our Data Science team within multiple tool parts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• It was very successful. Everything that was planned has been developed and delivered on time
• We increased the session time on the new dashboard

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

The remote developer who joined our team was fully integrated into one of our squads. Thus, she followed our project management rules. However, in terms of deliverability, she reached our expectations and needs. We were thrilled with their work.

What was your primary form of communication with Imaginary Cloud?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email
• Messaging App

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

Flexibility and availability. We needed extra resources for another project. They selected the profiles that could meet our needs and added them to take on our case (programming challenge allowing us to evaluate candidate skills and behaviors). This saved us a lot of time. Finally, we just had to review the cases and meet candidates we were interested in. And that was it. Their manager André is available whenever we need them and is very accommodating.

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

Until now, nothing to say or share.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager at FlippedNormals ApS, an online marketplace. We sell training and resources for creative people who want to learn how to create art for video games and films.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Imaginary Cloud?

We had a WordPress website that couldn’t keep up with our user traffic, and where we couldn't add new features due to bad and unstable code, so we needed a custom-built solution for our own marketplace.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Imaginary Cloud provides website development and production management for us. They’ve taken over the work that another provider was doing for us — Imaginary Cloud’s team is rescuing us by coming in, finalizing the site, and doing data migration.

Regarding the process, the first thing they’ve done is data migration; they’ve transferred everything from WordPress to Ruby on Rails, including information about users, products, and earnings. This has been a challenging task due to WordPress’s structure, but Imaginary Cloud has tackled this by writing custom scripts to separate each table and move them smoothly to the new database. Consequently, they’ve done an entire AWS setup for us and ensured that we’re running on Amazon servers. In addition, Imaginary Cloud’s team has launched the site and switched the domain to the new one.

They’re currently doing SEO, optimizing the site, adding sales and discount features, integrating PayPal for payments, as well as integrating Trolley into the platform to enable our sellers to get paid via bank in more than 200 countries.

What was the team composition? 

We’re working with around ten members of their team, including João (Head of PMO), André (Senior International Business Developer), Rodrigo José (Development Team Lead), Tiago (Senior Software Developer), Filipe (Developer), Luis (Developer), André (QA Engineer), Inês (Developer), and Alexandra (Growth Specialist).

How did you come to work with Imaginary Cloud?

We found Imaginary Cloud via Clutch, and we chose them based on their good reviews and the great initial calls we had. Imaginary Cloud seemed like a responsible team to work with and set boundaries and expectations from the beginning. Imaginary Cloud’s team was willing to hold themselves accountable if anything went wrong, making us feel safe that they were the right people for our project.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent $120,000–$150,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2022, and the engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product that Imaginary Cloud is developing for us works reliably, and the code is solid. We rarely find any bugs after a feature has gone live, and when we do, it's usually minor. Additionally, the amount of customer support we receive continues to decrease. The work Imaginary is doing is simply amazing.

How did Imaginary Cloud perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is excellent; Imaginary Cloud’s team has been proactive in adapting their resources to fit our needs in the best way possible, looking out for our best interests. The teammates that they’ve assigned to us are committed to meeting deadlines, staying on budget, and communicating clearly with us to avoid unpleasant surprises. Regarding tools and communication, we use Slack and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Imaginary Cloud’s structured communication is outstanding and unmatched; we have daily meetings, and they’re great at providing estimates on deadlines and budgets, so their team always delivers upon their promises. We’ve worked with several developers, but Imaginary Cloud is the only partner that does what they say they’ll do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on, and I have nothing negative to say about their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that they assign a good production manager to your project. We can highly recommend working with João (Head of PMO)

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a business associate at Labor Services International. We help farmers in the US get legal foreign workers through the H-2A visa program. The government runs this program, but we’re an independent agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Imaginary Cloud?

Our current processes were very manual, so we needed a total digital transformation. Thus, we needed Imaginary Cloud to do a complete overhaul and create an online platform for our customers. On this platform, customers would have access to their documents and exchange files, and we would be able to send information to one consolidated location.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Imaginary Cloud has designed a custom web application for us, which they’re now developing from scratch. The design process included outlining all the features, defining the most important ones with a design matrix, and developing prototypes. Additionally, they’ve helped us redesign our entire website.

By using this app, new customers will be able to request to create an account for our company to approve, after which they will go through a questionnaire. All the documents needed for us to create the account on their behalf will be populated within the platform so that users can download them, sign them, and re-upload them for us. Additionally, we’re implementing a calendar feature so that customers can add items to their calendars related to the H-2A filing process.

On the administrative side of this app, we also have a calendar feature and a full customer database containing information pertaining to each customer. In addition to that, we have a list of all of our contracts and a database for the workers assigned to those contracts. Moreover, Imaginary Cloud has implemented a notifications feature for both sides, as well as an online payment feature using a Stripe integration.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with six people from Imaginary Cloud in total, including André (Senior International Business Developer), a project manager, two designers, and two developers.

How did you come to work with Imaginary Cloud?

When we knew we needed a digital transformation, we started doing research in the field. Given that we’re a small business, we had a very clear idea of what we wanted, so we tried to do as much research as possible.

Ultimately, we went through a vetting process with three different development agencies. We found Imaginary Cloud and another agency on Clutch, and we got a recommendation for the third one. For this process, we interviewed the three agencies, obtained proposals from them, and evaluated them. Finally, we chose Imaginary Cloud.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ll spend around $145,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We officially started the project in November 2022, and our engagement is ongoing. We’re expecting to wrap up the project in March 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have a finished product yet, so I don’t have any metrics. However, I can say that Imaginary Cloud’s design process was very thorough, and thus far, the product functions as we planned.

How did Imaginary Cloud perform from a project management standpoint?

Imaginary Cloud’s project management has been phenomenal. They’re extremely organized and adhere very strictly to budgets and timelines. Whenever they have a target and a goal to hit, they hit it on the day.

Moreover, Imaginary Cloud is excellent at communicating. They schedule meetings in advance and answer our questions quickly. Given that we have tight timelines, we also have to be responsive from our end regarding approvals. As for communication tools, we use Slack, email, and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Imaginary Cloud’s project management has been impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our biggest concern starting this project was not fully describing and developing the scope because we were inexperienced with the development process. Imaginary Cloud did their best to be thorough and ask the right questions. However, it would have been helpful if they had provided more support in determining the best fit for our business and looking at different resources. Still, it wasn’t an expectation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Sustainable Prosperity - People, Planet, Profit. Neither is more important than the other - each must receive equal emphasis and priority. Ecolibrium is here to create a sustainable balance between forward progress and future well-being. At Ecolibrium, I head Strategic Initiatives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to improve modules of our UI and UX to include several new features.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We searched online for the top vendors in Portugal. We looked for known contacts with skills in the top 3. We got quotes from all 3 and then chose Imaginary Cloud because they seemed competent across all dimensions - location, talent, pricing.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Imaginary Cloud's team were very excited and enthusiastic to our idea even though they did not have much knowledge about it. They were not averse to research in a technical domain of engineering and did all the knowledge gathering in a very short time. They then designed a Figma output based on our new visual identity guidelines and incorporated levels of feedback to perfect the user design.

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

We worked with two designers who were both senior.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work is a great starting point for us to take it forward to other stakeholders and get validation checks. We have already received many positive points of feedback based on the work done by them.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team was very easy to work with and very communicative.

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

They are very knowledgeable about their core domain - they will tell you what they can and cannot do. They are also very open to learning new ideas.

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

I don't think so - We would absolutely work with them again.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the IT Project assistant an at the moment taking care of the website and web related projects at Eurofound.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The agency sought to procure web development support services for the development of a web application based on a Python web framework. Project description • Eurofound intends to build a front-end interface for its ‘platform economy database’. The purpose of the interface is to make contents of the qualitative database easily accessible to its users.

SOLUTION

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

We send the request to four different companies, and they send their proposals. ImaginaryCloud's was outstanding, they demonstrated understanding of the assignment and a clear proposal for the project execution.

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

Deliverables and deadline:

• Kick-off meeting, 9 September 2022
• Weekly catch-up meetings (approx. 30 minutes), By the end of each week until 20 October
• First prototype / proof of concept, 29 September 2022
• Technical documentation, 20 October 2022
• Final product, 20 October 2022 -
• Build in Django and Azure App service
• Hand-over meeting, 20 October 2022

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

Four different people were involved. International Business Developer Head of delivery Associate Developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are very satisfied with the work done by ImaginaryCloud, the schedule was perfect, the work will be finalized within the proposed schedule and at high standards.

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

We conducted a weekly cat up meeting and there was a thorough and closely follow up on the issues and backlog by the Head of Delivery and proper execution by the Associate developer as of tools they were very flexible and adapted to our means of communications.

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

Their professionalism, high level of involvement and follow up on the project.

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

Nothing it comes to mind right now.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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).