July Rapid

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a media company in the sports space that publishes content digitally and is a primarily digitally driven business. I’m the director of business development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with July Rapid?

We needed the ability to scale into the mobile space. We relied on them to support and provide additional resources to the business overall.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided mobile site development which included changing designs to optimize for mobile and delivering an end product that worked across all devices. This included everything from design through product release and quality assurance. They also did seasonal products along the way.

How did you come to work with July Rapid?

They were hired before I came on the team.

How much have you invested with July Rapid?

We spent more than $200,000 a year with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them almost ten years. Our relationship was finished this year when we brought all of our work in-house.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The success can be seen in the longevity of the relationship. There are a lot of things that need to be done and work according to plan. Their success or failure was based on them being able to implement what we asked, and they were able to do that on a consistent basis.

What did you find most impressive about July Rapid?

It was a general understanding of the vertical that we were in, as well as being easy to work with. Once established, that ease and experience grew which led to our long-term relationship.

Are there any areas July Rapid could improve?

I think there’s always ways to improve but I don’t have anything specific to mention.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a multinational agricultural corporation. We bought a startup company in 2013 that builds advisory bases for agricultural best practices, and we use them for imaging agricultural technologies.

I am the senior manager of product development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with July Rapid?

I was deeply involved in the development and product management of the advisory bases for customers on mobile devices. We were looking for market players who could help us develop and deliver the value internally for the app to offset some of our internal challenges. I came across July as one of the outstanding players in that space.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided the graphics simulation libraries for both iOS and Android. They developed the open source libraries on the latest version of the mobile platforms, tested them, and integrated them with our application. Then we took the app into production with our internal developers.

How did you come to work with July Rapid?

I had 20 or 30 metrics that I used to compare various vendors. I evaluated each vendor based on references from people who have used them before as well as an analysis of their trustworthiness, delivery of service, and diligence on small details. I was very happy to pick an agency like July Rapid. They educate their customers and really challenge them to be the number one player. I also compared vendors based on cost which was tough. But the value July provides for the cost is phenomenally high, so I had to pick them.

How much have you invested with July Rapid?

We spent around $50,000 to $200,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the things we set when we made the contract was to make sure they wrote out everything they were going to deliver. As the development goes on, they engage themselves to write the documentation and educate the customer regularly. They do tests regularly during the product development, and integrate them into the automation so that any bugs are captured as more code is added. Their test integration into the main app has delivered an element of quality that is more than the satisfaction levels we defined.

What did you find most impressive about July Rapid?

July Rapid really cares when it comes to their business relationships. They really dig in into the relationship and take a sincere interest. They actually brought in one or two people from India to partner in early discussions about the project before the contract was even signed. We were solving one of the hardest problems, and their innovative team spent extra time to learn everything so they could do a better job and deliver on time.

Are there any areas July Rapid could improve?

One of our challenges was finding a way to adjust to different time zones for conference calls. July’s office actually runs a little late to meet the US time zones. You can get their ear pretty much every day if you want to know how things are moving. Being in the Pacific Time zone, the communication is the hardest part of dealing with offices in India because it’s on the other side of the globe. I’m lucky that they met our time constraints.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization. What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m a partner at a small mobile agency. We do a combination of mobile marketing consulting and application development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with July Rapid? Please describe the scope of their work.

We typically work with outsource development partners like July Rapid to do the actual development. We work side by side with them through the product definition and requirement gathering and development. The specific challenge was application development. We don’t have a lot of true coding expertise. We have a lot of technical people, but nobody who could really sit down and write code for an application.

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting July Rapid with which to work?

We had worked with July Rapid's VP of business development at his previous company. We developed a great relationship with him before he moved to July Rapid. We had conversations and based on the strength of that relationship we decided that we would work with July on this first project and potentially many more.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

This is ongoing work. The completed project will fall between $50,000 and $100,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Are you satisfied with their performance?

July Rapid's performance has been very good. The caliber and quality of their development is great. They’ve been on time, on track, and on schedule with what they committed to. This was our first project with them. I know the first one is often the bumpiest. The relationship is off to a good start, and I’m optimistic that it will only get better.

Is there anything unique or special about July Rapid that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

What sticks out most is the quality of their development.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

A couple of things. We had anticipated a much higher rate of product discussion and interaction prior to going into sprint development. Interaction would include working through some of the more complicated details of the user experience, the more complicated details of the architecture, and the more complicated details of how the product would work. We didn’t get that. Once we got into the sprints, many of the issues we experienced could have been discussed and hopefully resolved in a pre-sprint planning session. 

BACKGROUND

Please give a brief description of your company.

We are a specialty retailer.

What is your role at the company?

I am the Vice President of IT [information technology].

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached July Rapid?

We were in need of a mobile application platform that would improve our customers’ mobile experience. 

SOLUTION

Can you talk about the scope of the project?

Our initial partnership started in 2013. This is still an ongoing partnership.

What was your process for selecting July Rapid with which to work?

We used an RFP [request for proposal] process and felt that based on July Rapid's size they would best fit our needs.

Can you give a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms or personnel work hours?

I don’t have a dollar amount to share but our partnership with July Rapid is of a very significant magnitude.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project, and are there any metrics you can share?

There are no specific metrics to share but, overall, we are very satisfied with our partnership with July Rapid.

When working with them, was there anything unique or special about them compared to other companies with which you may have worked?

July Rapid is a much smaller shop than we typically work with, which allows for a more flexible and responsive partnership.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that they could improve upon or that you would do differently?

Their nimble team makes for a very responsive partnership. However, the delivery process that July Rapid utilizes could use a little more structure.