Magora

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company produces technology conferences for developers.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Magora Systems?

They’ve developed two applications for us. One is a hackathon management tool. It enables us to manage the attendees and our sponsors of our hackathons online.

The second tool is an online platform for technology vendors to list their integrations and their consultants and cover new integrations to build out their integration networks.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They did the graphic design, the Web design, the front end and back-end, the database, and all maintenance so far.

What was your process for selecting Magora Systems with which to work?

I went on Elance. I did an RFP [request for proposal], and I chose them based on their responsiveness, their quoted budget, and their portfolio.

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

It was about $70,000

When was the work completed?

It’s ongoing. We started with them probably 10 months ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

It’s not launched yet, so no metrics currently.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

I would say they are the best outsourced firm we’ve ever worked with. Their project management skills are great – very transparent and very responsive to communication about fixes being urgent. 
They’re way above average in setting the expectations of how long a big project will take. They have way above average Web design skills. They have their own in-house Web designer.

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

They’re very accurate in their time estimations. Also, their Web design is much higher skilled than other teams abroad.

What advice would you give to future clients of theirs?

It’s useful to be semi-technical just because instead of them charging you for project management time. If you’re a project manager, it would end up making the project cheaper.

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

I believe we were their first large project using Angular.js. I didn’t know it would be so experimental. I think it took a few more man weeks than they thought to implement it, but I’m happy with the results. Using experimental technologies is a good and a bad thing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a director at Pilz

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide machinery safety solutions that include products, consultancy, training and engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Magora to accomplish?

• re-engineer an existing IOS app from internal use to external use
• Improve functionality and remove bugs from the existing IOS app
• Migrate the back end data store to another more resilient provider
• Re-design the associated website

SOLUTION

How did you find Magora?

Referral

Why did you select Magora over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Magora were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

1. Create a landing page with information about subscription
2. Rebuild an existing IOS iPad app
3. Build an SaaS architecture
4. Integration with one analytics third party tool
5. Integration with third party payment tool
6. Integration with one debugging/crashlytics third party tool

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Regular progress on the app development
• new feature functionality
• Web server live and updated
• New hosting provider engaged

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

Delivered on time, some delays due to third party issues.

Always responded on time and professionaly.

What was your primary form of communication with Magora?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their ability to understand our business requirements, and understand what we were trying to achieve.

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

No, everything went to plan.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Business consultant of a consulting company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Consultancy

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Magora to accomplish?

• Develop a webapp

SOLUTION

How did you find Magora?

Online Search

Why did you select Magora over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Magora were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

They developed for us a webapp, with a full account system, database, and custom backend scripting

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app got developed

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

they delivered all items on time, communicated well, and set expectations appropriately at all stages

What was your primary form of communication with Magora?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their communication was very good.

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

None that come to mind!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CMO of Daminion Software

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Daminion - AI-Driven Digital Asset Management (DAM) Solution Focused on Privacy and Speed

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Magora Systems to accomplish?

• update the code
• maintain the website

SOLUTION

How did you find Magora Systems?

Online Search

Why did you select Magora Systems over others?

Good value for cost

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

The Magora team successfully updated the code with everything we requested and maintained the site, which significantly improved functionality.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Increased functionality
• website speed

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

Yes, they delivered on time. Everything was good.

What was your primary form of communication with Magora Systems?

Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

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

Their speed of work and the balance of price and value were impressive.

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

Nope

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the design director of an international baby sleep company based in the UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to develop a mobile app for our latest IOT product, Misty the Smart Cloud. Our users would be able control the device from their phones and home smart speaker. Our goal was to have a user-friendly platform that made our user's lives easier, helped them create a better sleep routine and a safer nursery.

SOLUTION

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

We searched online for app developers and shortlisted 3. After interviewing them, we chose this vendor based on their past projects, professionalism, and cost estimate.

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

We had a series of discovery meetings to discuss our goals and objectives as well as introducing them to our hardware team. We provided their team with designs. Within two weeks, they delivered the first round of the iOS app. They incorporated our feedback and delivered the revised version. This was replicated for Android. Before launching, we ran it through stringent beta testing to ensure it worked not only through the mobile app but also through a smart speaker.

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

A project manager was assigned to be our main point of contact throughout the project. Due to the duration of the project two further project managers were assigned due to members moving on. Additionally, I mostly interacted with the lead frontend developers who leased with the backend developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is yet to launch due to development issues and the implications of COVID-19. We hope to see a positive response from our customer base when we launch the Christmas 2021.

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

The project manager was easy to communicate with and provided frequent updates. We mainly had video chats and phone calls, all feedback was documented through email. We utilised Trello and Slack also. Everything was delivered on time and separated into measurable milestones.

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

Their mobile app development skills were great. They managed to develop everything we initially requested. Since this was our first mobile app, they were also patient with our hardware team and willing to walk them through their process while they and us learned.

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

The only areas for improvement would be better communications with the development team. Due to them being based in Russia we kept encountering issues with email deliverability. We worked around this with Slack and Trello. Communications with the project managers was always on point and swift.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a co founder of a startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We approached Magora to help build an MVP for Web platform creation

SOLUTION

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

Based on review sites like Clutch

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

MVP build from scratch

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

Around 12 people from project managers, QA engineers, BAs, front and back end developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The initial BA team was great but as time wore on the team constantly changed and it became clear that Magora has a major talent retention issue. As a result Magora was unable to deliver the project in accordance with contractual obligations.

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

There are numerous examples of senior management making decisions that were not in our best interests as clients.

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

Frankly nothing

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

I wanted to give as strongly worded warning as possible to other startup companies about ever going anywhere near this company. There is no way for them to improve on a total failure to deliver work under contract.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Working as a solo entrepreneur

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Magora?

I worked with Magora to develop a clickable prototype for my prospective business venture.

What were your goals for this project?

I wanted to have a prototype to show to investors in order to secure funding, and to have a general understanding of the UX and user journey

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I researched at length over google

Describe the project in detail.

Development of a clickable prototype in Figma

What was the team composition?

I worked directly with a Product Owner from Magora who then lead a team of developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team worked extremely well and was able to take on board feedback without much pushback. In the end I was very happy with the result

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was smooth and rapid, the team were quick to respond to emails

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their attitude towards helping out even when my asks might have been outside typical remit

Are there any areas for improvement?

Increased accuracy in getting things right the first time round to avoid multiple rounds of feedback