Kogifi

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Hey, I’m Managing Direcotor of an industrial automation company and we are subsidiary of a global technological company specialized in CNC and Industrial Robots. Daily I work mainly with Sales, Technical and Marketing Teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Kogifi Digital?

Kogifi support us with understanding of the Digital Marketing world. We prepare the general strategy for Polish market and then start campaign with usage of different tools. We also create together special tools for Sales Teams which support them during sales process.

What were your goals for this project?

1. Generate sales leads
2. Promote our technology at “green field” markets
3. Build company brand
4. Increase sales process efficiency

SOLUTION

How did you select Kogifi Digital?

Get reference from the market and check them based on actually done projects.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

• Digital Campaign on social media -> regualar meeting and set up of targets with reporting of results
• Webinars coordination and promotion -> coordination of webinars, registration tool and promotion thru Social Media and landing page
• Sales/Quotation tools developed

What was the team composition?

Both sides set up teams responsible for specific projects and tasks. Regular meeting build the full understanding of objectives and working results. Whole project was managed in JIRA software with easy access for everybody.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

70-80% increase of sales lead generated via online campaign

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Thank to regular meeting and managing projects in JIRA software it was very easy to drive the projects

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Preparation to work and understanding the customer needs before the projects starts.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There was always the project manager person responsible for specific are, but it would be good if this person has a backup.

BACKGROUND

Please provide a brief description of your company.

We are a full-scale IT-service provider for the conception and implementation of corporate websites—Internet, intranet, extranet, and information portals—and the development of customized business applications.

What is your role at the company?

I am a business unit leader.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge you were trying to address when you approached Coders Center?

We were given the assignment of migrating the website of a major footwear brand from Drupal to Sitecore.

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Coders Center to work with?

Coders Center is known for being a Sitecore expert in Eastern Europe. We had worked with them on another Sitecore project recently, and had excellent results, so we were excited to work with them again.

Can you give us a general estimate of the size of the project in dollar terms?

We have spent somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 working with Coders Center on this project.

What was the timeline of the project?

The project started in October of 2015. The first milestone was at the end of that year in December, and the final milestone is set for the end of May, 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Coders Center successfully completed the technical migration of the website from Drupal to Sitecore. In addition, they implemented some major improvements for managing product information. Our primary metric is that our client is satisfied with the outcome of the project.

What distinguishes Coders Center from other providers?

I liked that I never had to micromanage them. We could speak in very general terms about the Sitecore work we wanted done, and they just knew how to go out and do it.

Is there anything Coders Center could have improved or done differently?

We should have involved Coders Center at an earlier stage in the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a digital agency based in the Czech Republic that specializes in delivering large-scale web solutions for enterprise and mid-size businesses. In terms of specialties, we primarily work with Sitecore, Kentico, and Telligent.

What is your role at the company?

As a delivery manager, I'm responsible for resource management, planning, and project supervision.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Coders Center?

We brought them on to augment our development resources for a large Sitecore project. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The client we are working with serves more than 21 million customers, and has a presence in more than 25 countries. We are building a new global website for them on Sitecore 7.5.

How did you come to work with Coders Center?

We initially connected with Coders Center at an industry convention. After interviewing their developers, and agreeing upon terms of contract, we began working with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project has been ongoing for more than two and half years at this point. Currently, we work with a team of 10 from Coders Center.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Currently [as of October 2015], we have 16 of our client's country specific websites running on Sitecore. By quarter one, we plan to have all of the remaining live as well. The feedback from the 16 that are live has been very positive, and we are all very satisfied with Coders Center.

What distinguishes Coders Center from other providers?

What I value most is trust and honesty of the Coders Center's team. This is a large project, and it's essential that we be very open with one another. If we didn't have the level of trust – both in who they are as people and in their skill as developers – it would be a nightmare.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

No. We haven't experienced a single problem.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a web consultancy. We deliver custom-built websites for various clients primarily in the United Kingdom.

What is your position?

I'm the head of project management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Coders Center?

They helped us out with a few different projects. The most recent one was for a client whose websites integrate with a CRM [customer relationship management] system. They had updated their CRM system to Microsoft Dynamics away from a legacy CRM system, and Coders Center helped out with the development around that.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Coders Center helped us out with Sitecore development. Our client had a website built with Sitecore that was coupled tightly with an old CRM system that needed to be updated. The project was to integrate the site with a new CRM, Microsoft Dynamics, using .NET web services.

How did you come to work with Coders Center?

I wasn't involved in the selection process, but I know that we approached a number of similar offshore development companies and reviewed a few of them. We met with their senior team and some of their developers as well, gave them a bit of a grilling to make sure we could trust them with our project. They came out positively, and we decided to work with them. We brought their consultants into the office as well, so we were able to put names to faces.

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

I think it was around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started with us about six months ago, and the work is almost finished [October 2015].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The project's not quite finished, so I don't have specific data. In terms of quality of code that they delivered, I was very impressed with the consultant that they made available. He had a good understanding of the business requirements and was instrumental in moving the solution forward. The code was great. We tested it, and it was very efficient. There were a couple bugs here and there but, generally, it was a great bit of work.

How did Coders Center perform from a project management standpoint?

We managed the project internally.

What distinguishes Coders Center from other providers?

Coders Center has some good people that work there. In terms of technical knowledge, they are fantastic. I spoke with their senior team about my resourcing requirements, and not only were they knowledgeable, they were also very helpful and accommodating. I'd call them up and say I need someone in one week's time, and they'd do their best to accommodate that. I'm happy with the service they provide, and I'll certainly use them again in the future.

Is there anything Coders Center could have improved or done differently?

Like any other company, they have some less senior consultants. Sometimes, there can be issues around the type of developers that are assigned to your work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a digital marketing firm, serving clients in Poland and throughout Eastern Europe.

What is your position?

I’m one of the owners, and responsible for the technology team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Coders Center?

We had a project that required some very specific skills. We required a team who had experience with a Java-based CMS [content management system]. We had some small teams here in place, but we needed more, so we used them for support on this project.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Everything was managed on our side, we just needed some extra developers to work under our leadership. They were able to give us several developers who have worked on similar projects in the past. I was very impressed with their level of expertise.

How did you come to work with Coders Center?

It was not my choice. It’s hard to find people who have experience in Adobe Experience Manager. It is a relatively rare technology, here in Poland, and most of the developers work in one or two of the big companies that charge very high rates. We did some online research and found two companies that we considered. They were the only ones who could give us a team immediately.

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

This information is under an NDA [nondisclosure agreement] but, for the market here, it was a big project. It was between $75,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together for three or four months [October 2015].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any results or feedback regarding their work? 

In general, the code that we were getting from them didn’t require any big improvements from our team. We were working with several of their senior developers and the quality of the code was very good, and these guys were doing quite sophisticated stuff.

How did Coders Center perform from a project management standpoint?

Hard to say as we were the one's managing the project. 

What distinguishes Coders Center from other providers?

We utilized Coders Center strictly for hard skills, so I can’t say much about the company besides their coding. However, from a coding and development standpoint they were fantastic, we couldn't have asked for a more skilled team.

Is there anything Coders Center could have improved or done differently?

I think that in the very early stage of a project, they should ask more questions and try to see more risks in the project. Sometimes, they just say everything is possible and simple but, in the end, it’s not always like that. They can be a bit too optimistic, but it also depends on both sides, and our initial briefing could have been a bit clearer. I don’t see this as a big disadvantage, and it doesn’t affect the quality of their code.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We build web applications for various international clients. I’m the client partner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Kogifi Consulting Group?

We needed an Adobe architect, and Kogifi provided us with a very experienced one.

What were your goals for this project?

We had to deliver a proof of concept in a very short amount of time.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were already on the list of vendors that we worked with when I joined the company.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They provided consulting for setting up our product on Adobe AEM. They also offered best practices for developing the product.

What was the team composition?

There was one architect.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to prove our competency using Adobe AEM. Kogifi’s support was priceless.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was on our end.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very knowledgeable, professional, and agile.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Perhaps there is, I just don't know what.