LookFar Labs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Department EVP of Priority Transportation & Language Services

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide transportation and language services to injured workers within the work comp space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LookFar Labs to accomplish?

I wanted to increase the competitiveness of my company by creating a custom integration between my claims management tool and an existing client's claims portal to allow for seamless service and real-time data transfer.

SOLUTION

How did you find LookFar Labs?

Referral

Why did you select LookFar Labs over others?

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

How many teammates from LookFar Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Scope of Involvement/ Summary of Key Deliverables:

• 3rd party tool analysis (Knack) 
• Technical Architecture Diagram for a custom API integration with TerraConnect 
• Data model design (tracking referral data including related entities such as claimant, adjuster, appointments, employer, etc.) 
• New screen mockups + user stories (which defined how to build out the portal within Knack) 
• Knack portal development 
• API backend including migration to a more robust hosting provider to accommodate the security requirements of TerraConnect 
• Referral report with scheduled SFTP transfer to CCMSI 
• Team-wide training for PTS staff on new portal functionalities

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Ability to generate more leads with top client 
• We achieved a first-mover advantage within our service niche with this client 
• Enabling us to productize this service and pitch it to other clients

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

They were on point and very aware of our time and budget.

What was your primary form of communication with LookFar Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The knowledge and expertise of the staff.

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

I think all went well with the initial time expectation, the project was initially estimated to take 90 days but has ended up taking about 6 months to complete.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of Extractomatic

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Data integration for US hospitals and health systems

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LookFar Labs to accomplish?

• Develop custom software solution to our specifications for a specific customer.

SOLUTION

How did you find LookFar Labs?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select LookFar Labs over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from LookFar Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Read and understand our source corde in a proprietary language
• Port the process into NodeJS
• setup and manage AWS cloud services (RDS Postgres, EC2, SFTP, S3, Lamda, SQS, key store)
• design and develop an data ingestion and management process
• error reporting
• progress reporting
• testing
• ongoing data operations after go-live

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• maintaining progress according to the overall project plan
• accomplishing milestones within the time and budget
• demonstrating positive customer test results during testing phase
• productive and effective technical communications with developer during code review
• assignment of dedicated resources that did not turnover during project (we'd rather have breaks for vacation and sick days, than have to coordinate numerous different developers).

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

LookFar Labs has been flexible to our changing requirements, and we work together collaboratively to prioritize client and our requests, as well as time crunches from any re-development from failed test or unforeseen design issues. LookFar always had a dedicated senior partner / owner available to us to discuss scope, budget, and timeline. We did not encounter any major issues or staff challenges.

We worked virtually for the entire project and this did not present an issue; team members were open to using our email, Slack, and Zoom apps for collaboration. They were available to meet in person should we need to (we never did).

What was your primary form of communication with LookFar Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I appreciated the small size and maintaining relationships with the same people throughout the project. We did not have any turnover and the team members were sharp, accountable, and did not require any staff managing. I appreciated that they were a lot like our firm so we had similar values and got along well.

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

A better view of the overall project (a roadmap) and how much we had completed vs left to go. However, we took on project management (primarily with the client, not internally) so this is just as much our responsibility too.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Project Management of PETERMAYER

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

An experienced creative agency that uses data and ingenuity to unleash brand joy, unlocking the moments people crave.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LookFar Labs to accomplish?

Collaborate with a website development partner who can turnkey all elements of UX and digital development for our clients' website needs

SOLUTION

How did you find LookFar Labs?

Referral

Why did you select LookFar Labs over others?

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

How many teammates from LookFar Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

As a marketing agency that focuses on brand strategy, paid media, and creative services as our core disciplines, we sought a digital development partner that could serve as a subject matter expert on digital and website UX strategy and technical requirements while also turnkeying website development tasks on our clients' behalf. Key deliverables included: 

• Consultation on Client website requirements and best practices
• UX strategy, content strategy, and information architecture
• Front-end and back-end development
• Quality Assurance Testing
• Ongoing site maintenance updates

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• High client satisfaction 
• Projects completed on time and within budget 
• Incremental client scopes of work following successful completion of initial scopes of work

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

LookFar is a pleasure to work with as our go-to software agency. They are collaborative and thoughtful in their approach and meticulous in their planning. They deliver tasks in a timely manner, quickly respond to any inquiries, and provide frequent and thorough follow-ups to keep us abreast of progress and developments.

What was your primary form of communication with LookFar Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They have a unique approach to website development projects that is much more agile and efficient than the more traditional website projects I've been a part of in the past. I've particularly enjoyed having the opportunity to observe their own unique take on what I would consider client whiteboarding sessions for UX strategy that's both highly collaborative and yielded efficient but thorough results.

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

Nothing that comes to mind other than I wish we could find even more opportunities to partner on client projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Data Systems & Solutions Director

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A public school district in Orleans Parish

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LookFar Labs to accomplish?

• Develop and maintain an integration project to connect two data systems

SOLUTION

How did you find LookFar Labs?

Referral

Why did you select LookFar Labs over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me

How many teammates from LookFar Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Specific goals and objectives:

• Define business logic to consider during transformation
• Establish Salesforce object and field mappings
• Define iterative import workflow
• Create ETL script o Test/revisions
• Create documentation for the ETL script

Deliverables: A scripted ETL process that will read a fix-format file or files exported from the Avela application and restructure the data into a data and file structure compatible with the district’s Salesforce enrollment platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've balanced thousands of records across separate data systems in the absence of an API connection

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

Finding the right staff member and building our process into their schedule took a little time on the front end, but we'd work with John and Jeff again without hesitation. They've been very responsive to our team.

What was your primary form of communication with LookFar Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We typically work with large corporations with multiple offices across the nation. It's been great to work with their team of local developers who understand the why behind the work

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

We lost a little time on the front end of the project while we were trying to find the right staffing configuration for the work, and it would have been helpful to have had more leadership presence in the beginning, but our current developer assigned to the project is solutions-oriented, talented, flexible, and a pleasure to work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Project & Communications Coordinator of (a/an) Nonprofit

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Health promotion programs for Latino/Hispanic families and kids 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LookFar Labs to accomplish?

• Update look and feel of website
• enhance automation
• community utilization tool

SOLUTION

How did you find LookFar Labs?

Referral

Why did you select LookFar Labs over others?

Referred to me

What was the size of LookFar Labs’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

• Create a community service powered by WordPress following the workflows, design, and style guide approved by the organization
• The mockups are going to be reviewed by development to check feasibility
• Pages: Homepage Message Board Resource Library Events Calendar Subscription modal Contact Donate Become a Member Member Dashboard Mission Team
• The site will start with 14 predefined topics
• The topics will be the same for the filters on message board posts

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Our staff team using community tool 6
• 10 members signed up for use of tool

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

Meeting and management had a good cadence and delivery. We did have some adjustment initially with scope since our project was a custom tool.

What was your primary form of communication with LookFar Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They had the flexibility and ability to identify solutions to make our custom job work and make our idea happen. We also wanted a company that had worked on community driven projects before and they had the track record for it.

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

Yes, more time is needed during delivery to explain the full use of the new product when its a custom build. I am not sure if that was on us and we should have added more time for this in the scope of work or it should be standard? But it would be helpful if the hand off is to non-technical customer.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Creative Development Director of Tales of the Cocktail Foundation

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

As a local, national, and international non-profit organization, Tales of the Cocktail Foundation platform seeks to act as a catalyst to Educate, Advance, and Support the global drinks industry and the communities we touch.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LookFar Labs to accomplish?

• Technology Partner
• Assess pathways to improve our ticketing/application process for our events
• Help better build our technology investments to reach organization goals

SOLUTION

How did you find LookFar Labs?

Referral

Why did you select LookFar Labs over others?

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

What was the size of LookFar Labs’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

LookFar Labs was originally engaged to help us develop a virtual cocktail tour with a Progress Maps plug-in for WordPress. The experience led us to begin a conversation about coming on as our Technology Partner, which included taking over our website maintenance from another vendor and helping the Foundation scope and build towards some of our larger goals in a digital space.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Virtual Cocktail Tour
• 2023 Tech Strategy
• Review existing tools, costs, and pain points
• Ongoing Maintenance

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

LookFar has incredible project management skills. They understand that my time is often limited and have not only set clear deadlines but offered themselves to help accommodate the needs or see how they can remove work from my end to reach our goals. Additionally, whenever I do contact LookFar – I hear from them promptly. They are excellent communicators.

What was your primary form of communication with LookFar Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email
• Messaging App

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

There is a drastic difference between the communication, level of professionalism, and general customer service of LookFar and our previous partners. LookFar Labs is incredibly empathetic and approaches each project as if it were our mutual goal to achieve.

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

I can honestly say that LookFar always delivers much more than my expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the office manager and executive secretary for an environmental services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LookFar Labs?

We contracted with LookFar to help improve our hurricane weather forecasting Web App.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

LookFar has improved our website using JavaScript and Django. In terms of functionality, the product is a hurricane weather app-some of its features include dropdown menus, registration, credit card payment integration, vortex features, and wind and storm surge depiction.

What is the team composition?

We work with 4-5 people from LookFar. They keep someone available for the project at all times. Among the people we've worked with are Jeff (Partner Software Engineering) and John (Senior Software Developer).

How did you come to work with LookFar Labs?

We searched the web for local Web App Developers in the greater New Orleans area. LookFar Labs LLC., was highly rated and well respected.

How much have you invested with them?

$100,000.00

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with LookFar in February of 2022 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've only recently launched the product, so we don't have numbers for success metrics yet. So far, everyone is pleased with the web app's functionality.

How did LookFar Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

LookFar successfully met our June 1 deadline, the start of hurricane season.  We will continue to upgrade the product over the coming months. To communicate we mainly use Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication skills are their strength. The team is upfront and open about everything, we can communicate at any time of the day. Their response time is quick and their members are knowledgeable. Overall, their ideas helped us implement our vision.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a great line of communication going with the members of the team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Myxstem, a music technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LookFar Labs?

I’ve worked with LookFar Labs for over ten years. Originally, we started working on a music technology platform that eventually became my current company. Now, we work on interactive educational media for music education.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

LookFar Labs helped us create a platform for delivering music in an interactive format. In this platform, our users are able to isolate the stems of a particular song and listen to the individual instruments separately from one another.

Initially, they developed one of our first platform versions for iPad, and we’ve had a great working relationship ever since.

What is the team composition?

On this particular revision, we’ve worked with 3–4 people from LookFar Labs, including Jeff (Partner & Software Engineer), Johnny (Senior Developer), and two other people that were brought in on short-term contracts to work on specific parts of the engineering. Johnny is the original engineer of our software’s first version. Additionally, we’ve had contact with Chris (CEO & Founder).

How did you come to work with LookFar Labs?

Chris was my mentor when I started developing software, and later, we became partners. Working with Chris and his team was a natural fit from the beginning, so our mentor-mentee relationship grew into a professional partnership.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve been working with the same group of professionals for over 10 years. We started working together around September 2010, and our relationship is ongoing. However, their current name, LookFar Labs, was established a few years after we initially engaged as part of their rebranding.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

LookFar Labs’ team is very fast and efficient, and they’ve saved me 2–3 times more time and money than other developers that I’ve worked with.

How did LookFar Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

LookFar Labs has always performed perfectly. They educate me on things that I don’t fully understand, and we work together very fluidly. Additionally, they always get back to me with the answers that I need.

Overall, we have a very smooth working relationship, and we communicate via email, Slack, and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

LookFar Labs doesn’t sugarcoat anything in any way, and neither do they try to dodge getting tasks accomplished. A lot of other companies tend not to provide a straight answer. However, that’s not the case with LookFar Labs. I never have to question where I am with them, and I always feel that I’m in good hands.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve known them for so long that I don’t have any constructive feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be mindful about the hours because, every time you have an additional requirement, they have to spend time working on it. LookFar Labs’ team is always working hard, and because they’re good at their work, you might think that they can get the job done quickly. However, some things take time, so be disciplined with the tasks you ask them to do. They’re always honest and fill their hours with integrity.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm COO and Co-Founder. Manager all product, operations, and finance.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire LookFar Labs?

We were launching a new product line that included a mobile app for processing transactions utilizing a QR code and mobile payments. . LooksFar Labs lead all front-end initiatives for the project including UI/UX and native frontend development.

What were your goals for this project?

Build a clean and easy to use MVP mobile app to enable the company to launch the new product line and begin market testing. The MVP application will serve as foundation for future product initiatives.

SOLUTION

How did you select LookFar Labs?

We had been in contact with LookFar Labs and their team for many years and were familiar with the services provided. The project was scoped out by a number of local and international companies and we decided to partner with LookFar Labs due to their proven skill set and our previous history together.

Describe the project in detail.

Project started with a strategize phase to get both our teams on same page and establish best path forward for the product. Next was build phase where LookFar Labs worked directly with our back end developer to build the full software platform. Beyond frontend development, LookFar supported with a number of items including user experience best practices and QR code integration. Final testing was completed, product launched, and Look Far continues to support with ongoing development.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with a product manager and front-end developers. Additional resources, including graphic design, were brought in as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product was succesfully launched on-time and within budget with minimal issues. We are continuing to expand our market footprint and LookFar is working with us on additional projects.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Workflow was excellent. We had regularly scheduled meetings as well as direct daily communication via Slack.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

LookFar has a broad skill set and experience working on a wide range of projects. They are able to support any development project leveraging their extensive team. The team is diligent with understanding the project and clearly laying out deliverables. They are always available to support us with anything that we needed. And the quality of work is superb.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were very satisfied with the work performed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Feels. We’re a for-profit consumer goods company. We have technology through QR codes that attach to any product out there. Our consumers can send a present and also attach a QR code to the gift. It’s basically money that goes to our platform that can only be given to charity. The recipient of the present chooses what charity the money goes to.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LookFar Labs?

We brought them on to build our mobile app. Overall, the objective is to bring charitable giving to the front of retail.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re developing our platform for iOS and Android. We started out with an MVP model. As we went along, we put more money into it to make it a fairly robust app. The search functionality is one of the app’s key features. Our backend has 1.5 million charities that consumers can choose from. Users also have the ability to share their activity with their friends.

What is the team composition?

We work with Lindsay (VP Sales & Brand Strategy), Chris (CEO & Founder), and M’Elena (Product Strategist).

How did you come to work with LookFar Labs?

I found them online on a platform similar to Clutch. I spoke to Lindsay on the phone and had an in-person meeting at their office.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their ability to help stretch every dollar and value engineer here and there to help us give the best scope that we can is excellent. But they also take into consideration that we’re a startup with limited funding. We’ve shown the app to some family and friends and they understand it and are excited about its potential. Our first beta test is in a few weeks, and we’re hoping to launch in June 2020.

How did LookFar Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

M’Elena is very diligent. She meets deadlines and is flexible with call times. LookFar Labs’ communication skills are very strong, especially M’Elena’s. We utilize Slack.

Chris is great as well, and Lindsay always checks in. Lindsay has approached us with ideas and people we can partner or work with locally after the app’s launch. They go above and beyond their scope.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand the risk that we’re taking and will do anything to help us succeed. That can range from helping to identify a photographer or designer as well as finding some help with content. LookFar Labs goes the extra mile and doesn’t nickel and dime everything. They sincerely try to be as helpful as possible

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a little bit of change at their company at the very beginning of the pandemic so a lot of challenges were rooted in not being able to get in a room together. We wanted someone local for this very reason. They’ve had some organizational and structural things that weren’t as refined as they needed to be.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Company culture is huge. Make sure that whoever you choose fits with your cultural beliefs and how they live their life. We got to know LookFar Labs before the project started and were happy that they were a great fit.