Makalu

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Data Scientist, Agrotech Startup

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our website was more of a placeholder for the domain, and we were in a bad need for glamming up! In addition to making the website pretyt and welcoming, we wanted to ensure that it is straightforward for the investors and future clients.

SOLUTION

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

After extensive research, and after reviewing multiple offers, Makalu was the only "full-service" vendor, that had access to all the resources and additional services we asked for, that was in our price range, and with an excellent portfolio to support their previous work.

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

The whole project was led beginning to end by Makalu Project Manager. We asked for WordPress in order to make the website easily customizable for us afterwards. A web designer worked very closely with us to deliver the best possible go-by and promptly responded to all of our requests.

I should emphasize that we are in a different time-zones and that this has never been an issue in communication. We had another designer working on an animation that was not related to Makalu, but Makalu communicated and incorporated their work flawlessly into the design and the final product.

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

A project manager that was available to us for direct communication. A UX designer, and dev team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Clients and investors loved the new website, and we are sure that the site-traffic will just keep increasing from here.

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

All of the day-to-day communication was done via email. We had regular weekly and sometimes multiple times a week meeting via zoom/google meet.

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

They are a full-service vendor!

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

An occasional email had to be clarified, but other than that, everything went smoothly!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a taxi company with around 1,800 drivers. We’ve been in business since 1996, and we decided to go digital in 2012. My position is a mix of CTO and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Makalu?

We’d tried multiple developers in an attempt to make our system work, and we were unable to find developers that could understand the specifics of our work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first sent Makalu our requirements, and they responded immediately with some suggestions. They have developed an internal tool for our company in the form of a tablet app. We use it to allocate drivers to different parts of the city, depending on the demand — it contains visual representations of hot zones and our daily activity. Our drivers then receive fares from our dispatch center, which the team integrated into the app. It also gives us complete statistics and all the information we need for our internal archive. 

Aside from the app, they’ve also helped us with our marketing efforts and created our landing page. Makalu has updated our visual identity and how we appear on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and AdSense ads. We’ve mainly left those decisions to them.

What is the team composition?

I’m not sure how many people are working on our project, but I know they are a large team. 

How did you come to work with Makalu?

They were a referral. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $60,000–$70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Makalu in January 2015, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen steady growth over the last six years after we started investing heavily in Makalu to work on our IT needs and visual identity. It was slow in the first year, but we managed to grow. The COVID-19 pandemic skewed our results for 2020; however, even though the pandemic was catastrophic for our industry, we managed to get through it. We even grew a little bit in terms of customers and drivers.

How did Makalu perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication has always been flawless. I’ve contacted the team outside of working hours, and they’ve always responded quickly. Our business is ever-changing, so we have a lot of work for them. No matter what request we have, they mobilize immediately and do what we need. 

They probably use a management platform, but I’m mainly using pen and paper for myself. We’re primarily in contact with Makalu through phone calls and email, but we also use Viber when needed. To exchange data, we use Google Drive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are keen to learn new things. Our business is very unusual compared to others — none of the other providers I spoke to had any idea how a taxi company works internally. Makalu shows incredible eagerness to learn what we need, and they deliver very quickly. They’ve been very involved. We’ve had a long and fruitful partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t remember ever having an issue with them. The few missteps in the project were due to us not relaying the correct information. The moment we sent them the data, they delivered what we needed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The way to have a healthy relationship with them is to give all the information possible, even if they didn’t ask for it. If you present all our data and expectations, Makalu will deliver.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Senior Graphic Designer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Makalu has delivered exceptional front-end development and social media marketing services, over many years, working on various creative web projects. Always aiming to deliver the most effective solutions.

SOLUTION

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

I've been introduced to Makalu team by a company associate. From the moment we discussed the first mutual project / web-based library, they presented an outstanding knowledge and evolved with quite smart ideas.

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

Makalu team has it all! They are ready to create whimsical solutions for complex UI/UX requests, offering various programming languages skill/HTML, CSS, jQuery, PHP, followed by in-depth fundamental SEO experience and always delivering a high-quality result.

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

I've worked with 3 Makalu team members, all positioned as a web-developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Deep aesthetic understanding, sensitive to design details, building quality content management system, up-to-date with the most advanced technologies to guarantee the final outcome is future-driven.

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

Intuitive, friendly and witty conversation, via Slack, Gmail, Messanger, Asana, G-Drive, etc. Never disappointed with breaking a dead-line, nevertheless, the deliverables were coming before scheduled!

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

They have an impressive portfolio, development skills, and project management process. "Impossible" is the word Makalu team does not know nothing about!

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

I can't actually determine anything that I could suggest in order to improve their work since Makalu is always spot on and I find them a perfect tech/creative business buddy! It's like having your own coding genius - couldn't ask for more!!!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager for ITS Inbox. We are a mid-sized IT company from Serbia. We do a lot of different-sized projects for different kinds of clients. They range from small businesses to big projects for various types of platforms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Makalu?

We sometimes need to outsource our work because we’re a well-known company here in Belgrade and often have a large workload.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They often take the workload from us that we can't provide for our clients at the time. We have a very close relationship with Makalu.

The work is mostly web development, and their specialty is actually what we lack. They do web development in many languages including JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, jQuery, and all the modern web technologies. When we have an agency that requires things that need to be done in JavaScript, we outsource to Makalu.

What is the team composition?

I only work with two developers. They have a wider range of skills. We have a really close relationship with them, so an account manager isn’t necessary.

How did you come to work with Makalu?

We met at a convention. They had previously worked on some projects that we were aware of; those solutions were impressive. Their team is a pioneer in the space of when web design came to Serbia. They struck us as someone we could work with because they were already involved in the future of IT in Serbia.

How much have you invested in them?

On average, we spend between $25,000–$40,000 annually; the total cost is over $250,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the engagement in April 2014. The partnership is ongoing and will be for a very long time as far as I’m concerned.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In one of our projects, Makalu worked on a national television station’s internet portals. I don’t think their work contributed to a high number of visitors because those websites have a natural number of visitors because people are already interested. However, what I can say about their work is how good the optimization of the website is.

For example, if our in-house developer creates a website and it doesn’t have good metrics in terms of page speed, we’ll give that to Makalu and they create magic with it. The pages they have helped us with have scored very highly on Google development tools and other places — that is why we value them.

The UX optimization for mobile and other devices as well as for those who have poor internet connection is very good. It is perfect and the scores are incredible; they’re between 90–100 for the most part

How did Makalu perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re helping me a lot. Their team asks a lot of questions and additionally assigns tasks for themselves. From a project management standpoint, they’re great at defining what they should do. I highly rely on them for that as well.

They haven’t missed a deadline. That is how perfect they are. I don’t recall ever having any kind of fall out with the client because they missed a deadline or didn’t understand the requirements. We can communicate quite easily with them. We use the phone, email, Zoom, Discord, and Skype. Previously, we’d occasionally meet in person as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For me, it’s their love for optimization. I can give them any website and they’ll optimize it to the max. Makalu is aligned with the timeline and requirements. Here in Serbia, things come a little bit slower, but they’re on an expert level and can provide clients with the same level of quality as Western developers — that is what makes them stand out to me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Relax and enjoy the process. I’ve been able to experience this. I feel very secure when any project is in their hands because I know it’ll be done within budget and on time, with no misunderstandings or miscommunication.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Product manager in BalkanIQ. IT consulting, Product as a service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Complete UX and redesign of the existing solution. Frontend web development and resolving complex dependencies on backend. Full optimization and load performance.

SOLUTION

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

Recommendations. Our focus was mostly on quality and the easy communication.

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

Two kick-off sessions, agreeing on goal, objectives, way of work, tools, project team, release plan. The goal was to create the best and most functional IS for technical support and time tracking on athletic sport events in the region, with the prosperity to penetrate the global market.

We wanted to pack already existing functionalities and add some new ones (advanced table manipulation, advanced GPX processing, custom image creating and printing) into attractive look and feel, preserving the optimal load performance.

Being able to cover everything - from smaller races to Belgrade marathon with 10k+ contestants.

• HTML
• CSS
• JS
• PHP
• JSON
• JQUERY
• AJAX
• VUE.JS
• NODE.JS
• MYSQL
• XML

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

We worked with 4 people - Project coordinator, Senior web designer, Senior web developer, and Junior web developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It is very tough to estimate the results based on COVID year in sense of income / gross profit, but our market share went up from 45% to 85% this year, with the solid promise of further increment in 2021.

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

Project management on their part was done mostly at the beginning, as both companies are familiar with Kanban. We provided the Product owner, while the product alignment sessions were hold forthnightly. As far as tools are concerned, we used mostly Jira (Confluence included), Discord and Zoom.

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

It was so EASY to work with them. We had a feeling that as we start the sentence they are able to finish it into three different directions, for us to choose from. It feels that we actually saved some expenses as they always went to the right direction and proactively suggested what is the most popular and adequate solution on the market and beyond.

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

We see really no areas of improvement. Communication was clear, deliveries were prompt, and they were on schedule. According to the feedbacks we got from all the user layers (sport participants, race directors, local administrators) new UX is just great and overall look & fill is high above the competition.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the secretary-general for Tribe. We’re a sports club that does all sorts of outdoor activities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Makalu?

We needed to have some web development done.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created several websites for us, including our main base website and a website for our free climbing information. We wanted to introduce the sport to people. Another one of the websites is for our annual obstacle course made up of physical and mental challenges. We were looking to attract new competitors for this project.

There is also a website for kids, teaching them about free climbing and other activities we offer, as well as one containing a membership portal where we can see members and track their achievements and progress in sports.

They did some SEO and social media marketing for us as well.

What is the team composition?

I have interacted with the owner, a coder, and someone who does social networking. I’m not sure if there are others involved in the project.

How did you come to work with Makalu?

They were recommended by a friend, and I decided to give them a try.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around €11,500–€12,000 (approximately $14,000).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around July 2008, and it is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen a steady increase in contestants for the race each year, going from 150 up to 700. This year was on track for possibly 800, until COVID. We also saw a jump in kids’ participation when that website launched; 70% the first year and 25-30% each following year. Makalu took their time to meet the specifications for each website they developed for us.

How did Makalu perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed exquisitely. The communication has been flawless–clear and transparent. We mainly use phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are accessible, honest, and deliver what they promise. They’re very pleasant to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them; they know their stuff.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I have a small online firm that does marketing and online sales

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I decided to hire Makalu because I don't know too much about web development and I saw they have good grades. My goal was to get a good website in a short period of time

SOLUTION

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

I selected them because they are a 5-star rated agency and I liked their portfolio websites

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

First, we had an online meeting and I described the idea about my future website. Then, we had one more meeting after 4-5 day, this time they showed me wireframes and I said "yes, I like it, let's work!". We agreed about the scope, time frame and budget. They made me a custom WordPress site.

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

3 persons, Marko was Project Manager (very nice guy), Stefan took care of the Backend part and Nemanja was the Frontend developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was very satisfied because the traffic to my other sites that are connected with my portfolio went up around 15%

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

They suggest the waterfall method since it was a small project. We did use Slack for communication

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

The way they communicate, It was easy to work with Makalu.

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

Not in my case

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Destination management company , working as Senior project manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have hired them to bulid us a new web site and ceo

SOLUTION

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

Their offer was creative with excellent solutions that fullfilled our expectation. We got fast answers on our questions. Their were recomended to us .

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

We have sent the request for proposal and we have receievd 3 proposals. We chosed the most interesting one for our company.

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

3 persons: Marko was the project manager, Nemanja was the Senior developer. Stefan was the web designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our business partners are very satisfied with our new web site. We are receiving more online requests.

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

Their were very agile and time responsive.

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

They understood our wishes and fulfilled all our expectations. At the end we got the web site that we wanted.

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

Everything was just fine.