Monarch Digital

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a web developer for a community college in Colorado.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monarch Digital?

We were getting ready to convert our website from Drupal 6 to Drupal 8. The previous company who worked on our website about 10 years ago was no longer in business, so we were in the market for a new vendor with Drupal expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Monarch created a new theme for our website in Drupal 6. Once we approved of that design, they migrated the website to Drupal 8. Most of the work involved backend development and minor changes to the frontend.

What is the team composition?

Initially we communicated mostly with the owner of the company who has since passed away. We also worked directly with a couple developers and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Monarch Digital?

We found Monarch through an online search for local companies in Colorado. They had great reviews from other clients of theirs, so we decided to reach out to them based on that.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The site migration project occurred between April and August 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're very happy with the Drupal 8 site—we haven't had any major issues with it.

How did Monarch Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn't really have a set schedule, but it wasn't necessary for this project. They were responsive and we mostly communicated through email, HipChat, or phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're Drupal and web development experts. I'm confident they could fix just about anything that's not working or crashing. They're also great communicators.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When I worked with them, some of the estimates they provided were broad in range, but they've since updated the way they produce estimates for more accurate numbers.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to communicating with them, even if you're not entirely sure what is that you want. They're great about working through issues with you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the office manager for the Nurses Christian Fellowship (NCF), a ministry for nurses and nursing students. About 20 years ago, we started a membership option that provides benefits, including access to our Journal of Christian Nursing and discounts on continuing education.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monarch Digital?

As our membership grew, we needed a better way of managing our database, maintaining member information in a secure manner, and allowing members to purchase products with greater ease. We were managing everything manually, which was time consuming and unorganized, so we were looking for an affordable vendor with membership management and Drupal experience.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Monarch developed a customized membership module on our Drupal website, including a new login for members and the addition of a Drupal Commerce shopping cart, which connects to PayPal.

What is the team composition?

Initially, I spoke with a sales lead who eventually connected us to their technical team to collaborate with our web team.

How did you come to work with Monarch Digital?

We found them through an online search and sent them an inquiry through their website.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $8,000 in total at $110 per hour.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from October 2017 to January 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven't received any feedback, which is a good sign; our members are struggling less to use our website and fill out forms. Monarch streamlined our entire membership process, saving us a significant amount of time. Our members now have immediate access to anything they submit: their application, member card, and benefits.

Monarch was wonderful to work with and highly collaborative. They helped us work through many challenges and set the platform up exactly how we wanted. It's been working smoothly ever since.

How did Monarch Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team was responsive and attentive throughout the engagement. They set up several Google Docs for our team so we could monitor progress. They were also great about staying in touch through email, phone, and weekly video meetings to go over updates and train us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate how easily they were able to take our ideas and run with them. Every membership service functions a little bit differently, but they understood how we wanted ours to work. Their expertise in Drupal was also incredibly beneficial to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I can't think of anything that they could've done differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Monarch did an excellent job on their end and were understanding of the limitations I had trying to anticipate the questions I should've been asking in the beginning. However, it would've been helpful to have the project manager on our team come onboard earlier. If you have additional project management staff on your own team, I suggest looping them in on the process from the beginning.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a global manufacturer specializing in specific electronic components. We have five product groups that range from small strain gauges to full systems. We’re in every market imaginable and have been the leader since 1963. I’m the senior website administrator who handles all the web development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monarch Digital?

We were migrating five antiquated products to a more robust CMS-driven environment, namely Drupal. I asked Monarch Digital to help us with those site migrations, as well as with our product catalog application (PCA) that has a Mongo and NoSQL database.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve coded the interface between Drupal and the PCA. They’ve also helped with our Elasticsearch, provided services around Angular, and assisted with styling our software as a service (SaaS) and CSS.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two developers. There’s also another team member who has been involved in every project to date. I can also speak with two of their other team members if needed. I talk to all of them as much as possible.

How did you come to work with Monarch Digital?

I met one of their representatives at DrupalCon in Austin, Texas and started talking with him about the opportunities Monarch could provide to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015 and currently have several ongoing projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any metrics at the moment since most of the applications are internal to our company. We only launched one of the sites a month ago, so I also don’t have metrics on that either. I can say that we haven’t experienced any sort of major roadblocks.

How did Monarch Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly use Jira. We also have a weekly meeting for at least one of the projects that last no longer than half an hour. We devote specific time to each project if there are multiple going on at the same time. Our regular meetings are more like quick standups, lasting no longer than 15 minutes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like Monarch’s ability to dive into problems to find solutions and produce something in a timely manner. I’m also able to speak about the development with them, so it’s been great in that regard.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are times when they try to solve a problem and think that their solution is the best option, even though there may be things they haven’t thought of. However, every developer I’ve ever met has had this problem.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re definitely willing to take on problems caused by other vendors. They mentioned to me early on that they’re not afraid to jump in and figure things out to get quick results.