Make It All Work

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Technology and Project Management for a large Jewish media nonprofit based in NYC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Make It All Work?

Make It All Work has been our ongoing IT consulting firm for many years. We don't have an in-house IT staff, so we rely on them for a variety of projects including security improvements, domain names, hardware and software recommendations and some web work.

SOLUTION

How did you select Make It All Work and what were the deciding factors?

As mentioned, they are our ongoing IT consultants and have been on a monthly retainer for several years.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We acquired another media brand at the beginning of 2021 and needed help migrating websites and consolidating ownership of domain names.

How many resources from the Make It All Work team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Our ongoing rep worked with us on the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

MIAW were helpful as always. They not only excel at the technical aspects of the work, but they're always willing to jump on a call and do whatever it takes to help us. They were invaluable to the smooth operation of our company.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was very smooth and effective. Anytime questions or issues come up, they're always willing and flexible to get the job done in the most efficient way possible.

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

I've worked with a lot of IT people who are great technically but lack the ability to communicate effectively with non-technical staff. MIAW prioritizes an easy and informal style of communication and are extremely helpful no matter the staff member's level of technical expertise.

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

MIAW has made improvements over the years and is always open to feedback. In this instance there isn't anything I would have changed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the executive director of a small not-for-profit

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Make It All Work, and what were your goals?

I use MIAW for all my tech projects at companies large and small. This project was targeted at creating traffic for a moribund site. The deliverables from MIAW were impeccable. I can't recommend them highly enough.

SOLUTION

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

I have been using this company for n15 years for all my varied tech needs, from network design and maintenance to huge construction cabling projects, I trust them implicitly.

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

we had a kickoff meeting to discuss objectives. they took it from there. I provided them with similar sites, they did the analysis and made their recommendations and they are guiding my implementation. Now they are analyzing my site, key vitals, etc. and making design recommendations.

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

three: the president, 2 key managers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don't have material feedback yet, but I should note in the past my teams have won 3 Webby's in a row with MIAW for projects built on shoestring budgets,

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

hands-on, fully accessible, easy to understand. they take ownership. i think of them as part of the team on every project.

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

The degree to which they are "teammates" in trying to reach objectives is unparalleled.

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

I don't know how they could improve, they are the most accessible tech wizards I have ever worked with over a 40+ year career.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the chief operations officer for a major donor organization that raises funds for academic accessibility.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Make It All Work?

The agency that developed our original site neglected their ongoing maintenance tasks, which caused the site to deteriorate over time. Make It All Work was already helping us with an email marketing project, so we asked them to provide routine support for the website as well. The scope of work eventually expanded to revamping the entire website and migrating it to a new CMS platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially reached out to Make It All Work to help create attractive new templates for our email marketing campaigns, but we went on to use their web support services as well. We realized that we would get the most out of their services with an updated site, so we asked them to develop a new website for our organization.

Devising a viable strategy was the first step in the site-development process. They visited our office and we discussed the project and our related business needs. After hearing our goals, they helped us define the necessary tasks that would help give our site a much-needed makeover. Since another company developed the original site, they had to reverse-engineer the old site. The CMS platform was migrated to WordPress and is hosted on CiviCRM. When we experience problems with the website, we report the bugs to them and they immediately resolve the issues.

What is the team composition?

We directly worked with two of their team members during the project. They took care of the project management and resolving site bugs.

How did you come to work with Make It All Work?

We discovered them through one of our staff members and brought them in for an interview. We were thoroughly impressed with their work, so we hired them to work on several online projects for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested around $90,000 on rebuilding our website.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2015 and we continue to use their email marketing and web support services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Prior to working with them, we didn’t evaluate the impact that our emails had on our outreach and donations. Subsequent to using their services, we started to measure our impact and discovered that more people were opening and responding to our emails, and we’re raising more funds than ever before.

How did Make IT All Work perform from a project management standpoint?

They pride themselves on their project management skills. They generated a timeline of estimated completion dates for deliverables, and they always had their work completed by the due date. Tasks were generally managed on a shared spreadsheet, but maintenance issues are reported through their online ticketing system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Make It All Work is an apt company name because they have a solution for any problem that comes their way. They take ownership of their work and their work is consistently remarkable as a result. Most of the vendors that we work with require close management but Make It All Work is the sole exception. They make an effort to understand the project’s goals and apply the best strategies to achieve those goals.

Settling for the bare minimum is not a part of their work culture. They provide a detailed scope of work to ensure that every aspect of the project is addressed and that potential technology and patch updates are accounted for. Whether we need them during business hours or after hours, they are always available to assist with urgent matters. We also appreciate their collaborative attitude when working with our other tech support vendors, which is rare for tech companies. There haven’t been any conflicts during our relationship with them so far.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our experience has been very positive, so there are no areas for improvement that stand out.

They built a genuine relationship with our team, which I credit as the reason for our project’s success.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take full advantage of their wisdom and actively listen to their advice. They are extremely knowledgeable in web development, so try not to be stubborn with your ideas if they offer a more effective suggestion.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the executive director of an educational 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. We provide legal counsel and support for students.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Make It All Work?

We needed to make our website look more dynamic and up-to-date, plus increase engagement and revenue from donations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Make It All Work and their related company, Mac Help NYC, have provided a variety of services, from mobile telephone and Mac support to web work. They are our only partners for strategic web and social media work. I don’t use them for IT support at my current company due to a pre-existing contract with another vendor, but we give them different projects to work on. For very large jobs, they're able to scale up their team with freelancers who work seamlessly with their core team. I don't do anything online without their counsel.

They’ve developed our WordPress website. I wanted the ability to embed video, set up RSS feeds, add blogs, upload slideshows, and so on. We also wanted the image on the main page to change every time the site was refreshed. Now, the whole site has a better and friendlier user interface and more dynamic audiovisual content. They’ve also built my award-winning campus site—which has a different look and feel—as well as our regional chapter sites.

They’ve become entrenched in my daily business, responding when we are in crisis mode. After we sold our building and moved to a new location, they helped in 2 major office build-outs. They handled cabling and audiovisual components for our video studio. I don’t handle anything technological without them, aside from an entrenched PC network support service that we’ve continued to use on a legacy basis.

What is the team dynamic?

I have interacted with 4–5 of their members. They communicate well with each other and with my staff members. Over the years, I've become good friends with their principal, so I can call him for different issues.

How did you come to work with Make It All Work?

I had used them for a previous organization, and I’ve been doing business with the group for over a dozen years. The company who was originally providing our network support services was doing a very poor job of it, so Make it All Work was brought in as a subcontractor in order to prevent a major and fatal systems crash. After I got to know the principal of the company, I initiated the discussion for them to take over the business.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work has been in the 6-figure range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2001. They continue to provide updates for the website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have won many awards together, including 3 Webbys. With their counsel, we went from 3,000 to 130,000 likes on Facebook within 1 ½ years. As an advocacy organization, we don’t buy advertising and we currently don’t have a lot of traffic on our site, so I don’t have metrics to share. We don’t have a lot of money for their work, but they will be factored into the 2018 budget. I consider them essential in helping us achieve our goals.

How did Make It All Work perform from a project management standpoint?

This is their strength—they’re responsive, cost-effective, pleasant, and helpful. They have a multilevel approach, with a tickets system that keeps everyone informed. I can call, text, or email anyone on their team, and they will know what we’re dealing with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their breadth and depth of knowledge is astounding. They're brilliant on the web, and their related company Mac Help NYS is the best tech support company I've ever worked with. They have the ability to take on projects of varying sizes and get things done. I don't think there are any limitations to their services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a boutique shop, so they can’t be all things to all people. I like the company more than I do my PC support people, but that group is 24/7. This would be hard for Make It All Work to do, though. More people on their team would be an improvement, but it’s not essential for them as a boutique shop. They are also cost-effective, so I wouldn’t want their rates to go up.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am part-owner and a de-facto Account Manager of ReCreation Dallas. We are an Advertising Agency that specializes in digital media. Our clients range from small and medium-sized businesses to large corporate organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Make It All Work?

We work in a pretty big co-working space called WeWork. One of our clients, Boston Pizza, had a bunch of web development needs, which is something we do not specialize in. We went to Make it All Work for help updating their site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project consisted of taking over the existing development of the website. While the website already existed, we had to transfer all the programs and repositories since our client no longer worked with the old web development agency.

Make It All Work took over the maintenance as well as any future needs for the site. They managed the transition from the previous web developer, and they now have full control over the site. The technology they used was Symphony.

Make it All Work also discovered the website was not ADA compliant, so there were a series of steps they went through to make the website compliant. They also identified other issues that would potentially affect their compliance in the future and went ahead and took care of those issues as well. In addition, they found a bunch of potential security problems that could potentially affect the site down the road, and they are currently working on making the site more secure.

How did you come to work with Make It All Work?

We put the word out through the WeWork app for people that were familiar with the web development needs that our client. We talked to the Make It All Work team, who also work out of WeWork, and liked what they had to say. We ended up hiring them on a provisional basis, and they now work with us regularly.

How much have you invested in them?

We have invested around $20,000—$30,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Make it All Work in May 2017. The work is ongoing on a project basis, as well as a monthly basis for site and server updates.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The nature of the work really does not lend itself to any anecdotal metrics. It was more of a project completion.

How did Make It All Work perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great and prompt, and there were no issues. We primarily communicated through email and had phone calls with them when it necessary.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have been really easy to work with. They jump in super quick, always respond when we need them to, and always get the work done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. They are doing what they purport themselves to do.

My only advice for people potentially working with Make It All Work is that there are a bunch of people out there that purport to do the same things that Make It All Work do. Make it All Work, however, is really good. They will respond quickly and get the work done for you. They know what they are doing, and I wouldn’t hesitate to work with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the office manager, and run the tech side of the company for Passover Vacations. Our organization is a high-end, specialty tour company. We have 10 full-time employees, and upwards of 100 employees throughout the season. We run somewhat of a niche product in that we provide very high-end vacation packages for modern orthodox Jewish families during Passover.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Make It All Work?

We had contracts with Everon and PlumChoice and found the big corporate company structures weren’t suiting our needs. On the flip side, we found Make It All Work was quite attentive to our needs and very helpful in projects we sent their way.

We contract Make it All Work to do almost all of our coding for our marketing blasts, web page work, and anything on the technical side.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Make it All Work helped with the development of the website, the coding of the backend, and provided SEO services. Because we were transferring the site from another site, we wanted them to take control and recode it to make it mobile friendly. We have even changed our host based on their suggestion, and they just implemented our SSL certificates for us.

They have also helped us with the coding for our digital email blasts. We can track these emails and determine how successful they have been using Google analytics. This allows us to see how many clicks we have on each page.

How did you come to work with Make It All Work?

We found them via word-of-mouth. An individual that works with us had experience with Jonathan, and we ended up having him come and consult with us.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent around $20,000. This will increase quite a bit as they are currently our primary source.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2015, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They implemented our call to action on our email blasts, which has really improved our incoming inquiries by 10%—15%.

How did Make It All Work perform from a project management standpoint?

They have performed very well and offer really good service. The management and tech individuals that come onsite follow through quite thoroughly. They give us plenty of notice and let us know what we need.

When they implement something, they implement it correctly. There are the occasional bugs, and when they deal with those, they do so professionally.

I work remotely a lot of the time; I am actually in Portugal, but our office is in New York. Communication with me is mostly through email, and Skype, in addition to the phone. Their response time is fast, and is almost immediate when I send an email or have an issue.

Furthermore, there is ease in working with them. It helps when you are able to reach the same person instead of a help desk where you are talking to someone different every time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a personalized touch. Their management came in to meet with us, and got to know all of our systems before making any kind of recommendations. They were adapting what we were used to doing, and modernized us in that way.

We previously ran on a big and clunky server, and they assisted us in going completely cloud-based, which has been very useful for our remote users.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Anything we have put their way has been good, and we haven’t had any issues since we have had them come on board. Any kind of snag we hit setting something up or with an email, was addressed right away. They test it, address it, and then they get it back to us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The organization stages a show and website called In Your Face New York. It’s a variety show that we put on periodically in New York with interesting performers and writers. I’m the president of the organization and the creator of the show.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Make It All Work?

I needed a website built from scratch where video, audio, and descriptions of the show could be posted. I needed a logo as well. I wanted to work with people who understood what I was trying to do and could make it look attractive.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They came up with a bunch of different logo ideas and I chose the one I liked. Then, when we did the show, I gave them video and audio clips to mount on the site. The site looked sparkly and the color palate was good as well. Each show takes a spot that supersedes the previous show, so the project amplifies with each show. They created a homepage that illustrates our upcoming show or the show as it’s just been produced. They also maintain the background of previous episodes that can be accessed easily. The project didn’t change so much as it grew.

What is the team dynamic?

There were about four people on the team.

How did you come to work with Make It All Work?

I contacted them because I liked the work that they had done on their site. I spoke to them and they were very agreeable and very positive.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent upwards of $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the summer of 2015 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The show is in its infancy, but it does well, and we get the audiences that we want. We’ve only done a handful of shows, so we won’t know what the statistics are until we produce more shows. People like the site and find it easy to navigate and easy to use. They find the quality of the images, the video, and the audio quite good.

How did Make It All Work perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. They understand the issues that I raise with them or have questions about. They are very responsive. They’re generally able to fix the issues within a few hours. We work things out via email or phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their enthusiasm for the project is impressive. They are interested and positive. They understand what I’m trying to do, and they’re eager to make things work in a way that I like. They also give ideas of ways to help the website perform well in ways that I don’t consider or am unaware of.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I’m really pleased with them and my working relationship with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

ERDM is a research firm which conducts specialized qualitative research to improve the customer experience of innovative brands. Clients include IBM, Microsoft, Shinola and MSC Industrial.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Make It All Work, and what were your goals?

Our web site was out of date and needed significant updating to reflect our new capabilities and the CX needs of marketers.

SOLUTION

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

We had worked previously with Jonathan and found his team to be smart and helpful.

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

Scope: cost effective and timely updating of the website look, feel and navigation.

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

Their project team included 4 people.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We tested the revised website among our key audience, which is comprised of CMO's from innovative brands. They loved the new look and ease of navigation.

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

Jonathan's team was proactive, creative and responsive.

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

They listened carefully and were focused on catering to our needs and the needs of our clients.

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

They did a great job.