Kilowott

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director at Hofgut Lilienhof, an event venue hosting company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kilowott?

We needed help developing software.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kilowott helped us develop cloud-based software to optimize event planning. They were responsible for both the front- and backend as well as the whole architecture. We only did the design and requirements on our side. 

We sell it to other companies in Germany as a white label solution. It’s a configurator for our customers’ venues so that guests can set up their own events. Our system helps minimizes the preparation time for events.

What is the team composition?

I’m in contact with three people from their team, including one of the founders.

How did you come to work with Kilowott?

They made me a good offer and I trust them. They had another project in Germany, in the Netherlands, and in Norway. I knew some other companies who had worked with them already. It was a good word of mouth.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2019 and it's ongoing.

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

I’ve received good feedback on the solution. It’s good working together with them. There are difficulties with any project but we have found a solution for everything. 

We have a friendly working relationship with Kilowatt. We’re very satisfied with the product and the work that they did. The software is working and we get customers who are satisfied as well.

How did Kilowott perform from a project management standpoint?

Our teams work together using Slack and Trello. Their project management works very well. If there are any problems, I just text them and they text back or we have a video call.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What I really appreciate is they try to understand our problems. They come up with ideas on how to make our solution better. I really like the friendly communication between our teams.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always points where everyone can be better but I don’t have a point I could say that’s improvable.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend working with them, especially if you’re a company in Europe, Germany, Netherlands. It’s not difficult working with Kilowott.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Business Manager at a funding company that provides trading capital for day traders.

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

We hired Kilowott as our main developer for online infrastructure. We have a remote business where all our operations are being conducted online. For these purposes we needed a high class webpage with connections to different third party software, that would ensure efficient and thorough process of receiving trading accounts for our customers.

How did you select Kilowott and what were the deciding factors?

We found them through a referral and considered them along with 3 other vendors. Because the project was such a high priority, we needed a results-driven partner that was committed to providing efficient solutions for our tasks and desired features. An other factor was the ability to receive constant support on the project.

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

The project has required implementation of different third party software in order for the offering to work properly. Some connections were more complicated than the others, but the vendor has done a very good job with all of them.

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

The is always a project manager that is working closely with the project and it's tasks. In addition, there are two developers working on the project full time. Also, there are two communication managers that are making sure we receive everything we need and that the project is moving in the right direction.

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

The team has been delivering features before deadlines and are often coming up with efficient solutions to issues and new features that we are desiring.

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

The communication goes via Slack in addition to weekly calls with walk through of the ongoing tasks. The team is on the line every working day if needed.

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

Their ability to provide human resources for our project.

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

We are happy with everything so far and nothing special comes to mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am head of digital business development at 4Cast Media AS. I am co-founder and product owner of a publish/CMS system called CON-TEXT.

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

We wanted to create an online system to write articles that our company produces to our clients. This was planned to be build from scratch in .Net. After feedback from the market, the product started to grow and expand month by month. This is an Agile project and we are still developing this product.

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

We selected Kilowott due to one of our previous colleague had good contacts in the company and we did not regret that decision.

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

The project had now goal or end plan in the beginning. We have weekly meetings to plan the sprints and how this project will be developed further. The system is coded in .NET.

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

There were about 15 people including the developers, testers, and the project managers earlier. Currently we have 4 people including 1 front end developer, 1 back end developer, 1 tester and 1 delivery manager.

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

After the system and website was live, we have seen a frequently increase in traffic and use. The number of users and readers of the platform has gone beyond our expectations.

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

The team follows an agile project management methodology. We plan the sprints along with the Kilowott team using Jira and they estimate the same and let us know the planned deadline. We meet weekly through Google meet to discuss the plans and updates.

They also provide constant updates on the project status through Slack communication. The team also accommodates higher priority requests and extends the sprints on the need basis. Bit bucket is the tool used for code repository management.

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

The team actively participates in product management, along with the development by researching and suggesting on the best possible ways to implement certain client requests, and they clearly communicate and explain the reasons and impacts due to which some of the features should not be implemented.

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

The number of bugs in the system have drastically reduced in the recent times. It could be further fine tuned. The application could be made more friendly and responsive to the bigger screens that we use here.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I´m the general manager of a web development company.

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

We use Kilowott as a development partner for Wordpress projects.

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

We have worked with several development partners and now use Kilowott as our main partner based on the quality of work they provide.

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

We hand over webdesign and have walkthroughs with Kilowott. They develop the websites with Wordpress (front and backend). We then do testing/QA together to ensure that the projects have the quality we need before handing it over to our clients.

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

We work with a business manager, project manager, developers and testers from Kilowott.

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

With Kilowott as a development partner we can deliver a lot more projects. We use them for projects we don´t have capasity to develop inhouse. This gives us a great flexibility.

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

We communicated with the project managers at Kilowott using Trello, Slack and video.

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

They are able to give us the quality we need together with a good price. And delivery model and the timelines we need for our projects.

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

We have an ongoing dialouge about things we can do on both sides to have a smoother operation and increase the quality of work.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Bold Digital delivers digital marketing, websites, videoproductions, photography and graphic design. I am a CEO in Bold Digital and our website is bolddigital.no.

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

We had a new graphic profile and a new name for the company. But we had no time to make the website ourselves.

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

We asked Kilowott to do it for us.

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

We had a tight schedule and a deadline that came faster than expected. Kilowott delivered the front-end design and development fast.

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

A project manager was our main contact. And it was a designer and a developer.

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

We are very happy with the result. Delivered fast, and as espected. Usually with other companies I have expierenced that they only deliver half of the things we agreed on. But Kilowott delivers all with perfection.

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

Very effective. The project start with a simple spec from us. Then we have a video call and set a timeline and a price. When accepted they update me every week on the progress.

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

The delivery. Everything is as we wanted it to be. Their designs are very unique and good looking.

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

I am very happy with the result and the process.