Netgen

Please describe your company and your position there.

The company is a publishing house, consisting of several publishers in different categories. I'm head of e-commerce, and product owner for five e-commerce and marketing sites for our various products.

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

We're currently in the process of updating all company sites, building a common platform to streamline development, operations and maintenance. For this, we use both Netgen products, and their developers in several key areas.

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

We've been using Netgen for ten years, and are very satisfied with the work they have done for us. They know our products well, and their developers integrate fine with our own team.

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

We're building the platform using open source Sylius e-commerce solution, with Akeneo as PIM, Algolia for search and recommendations, and Netgen Layouts for building the template based front end.

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

We currently have nine people from Netgen in our project. Some full time, some add their specialist knowledge when needed. They are mainly backend and frontend developers. We also work closely with their manager to advice on the project and help us make the right choices.

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

The project is currently in the early phases, and no measurable results are produced.

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

The developers from Netgen fully integrated into our team, which is organised using SCRUM. We mostly communicate via Slack, and meetings in Teams. Netgen fits well into our system and contributes to making it better.

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

From a product owners perspective, I'm impressed with they ability to find solutions, take responsibility, and smoothly work along side our people despite us working in different places, both geographically and culturally.

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

Their solutions sometimes suffer from too much optimism on the time scale.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a director of research and development responsible for developing new company products. We are an IT company that creates advanced ICT solutions that positively impact businesses and society. We make it easy to operate and create added value for our customers, motivated by the desire to build a connected and digital future together.

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

We hired Netgen to implement our new brand vision in the form of a new and rebranded website. We wanted a website that would display our work and our core business and, at the same time, give a touch of the modern and friendly work environment we live in every day. Netgen entirely delivered our vision into a form and improved it on so many levels.

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

We wanted to give a job to a company from our country, and Netgen was an absolute winner after all our research. We needed a supplier with a lot of experience building large, modern, and structural websites. They are severe but modern. They are an "old" business, with as many talented young developers as a respected senior developer. And because we are an IT company (dedicated to building web applications, not websites), we immediately knew that Netgen is our best and only choice.

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

The project started with a discovery phase in which project goals and objectives were defined. Principal user personas and customer journeys were produced during UX workshops, and finally, our new website was envisioned with wireframe prototypes. Branding and visual identity elements were then applied to make the final interactive prototype which we tested for several days with sample users from identified customer groups and iterated upon. Used technologies were: PHP, Symfony framework, CMS, JS, CSS, React JS, and others.

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

I worked with an entire team from the Netgen side, including a dozen people from various departments (project manager, UX and UI designers and QA, front-end and back-end developers).

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

The measurable outcome of this project is on our new, modern, and appealing company website. Netgen is the representative company to work with. Their service and deliverables are in the range of the world's best companies, they deliver on time, and the price is excellent for the customer's value.

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

Except for the already mentioned technologies for creating our website, for communication and management, we used: JIRA, Confluence, Figma, Slack, and Zoom as communication tools. The atmosphere was more than just a professional, sterile relationship. I think we connected on another level, and this project was born with new friendly-professional relationships.

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

They were very open about everything. If something is wrong, they will acknowledge this and not try to hide it. I respect that in business, and I admire them for that.

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

I really can’t write anything at this point. Maybe it is, but it is definitively forgettable because I can’t remember.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a private pharmaceutical company operating in a total of 50 markets worldwide. My role is global, I work as a Director of Digital Business

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

We needed a website that would synthesize much of the accumulated content in one place, which would also serve as the main platform for other brand websites in the upcoming phases. As an international company that operates in many different markets and offers numerous products, the product portfolio needed to be collected and presented in a multilingual, simplified, but also still sufficiently informative manner.

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

We recognised Netgen as an IT agency with significant international experience and strong references that worked on many projects such as multisite and multi language websites, that also included various integrations and customizations. This type of previous experience and specific knowledge suited our needs and assured us that we would speak the same language.

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

The agile approach to website development was organized in several phases with continuous priority revisions. The project started with discovery workshops to define user personas, and was then followed by trends research and testing to finally select overall solutions. After those phases, Netgen started with the development, during which the product information consolidation was implemented with Akeneo and Cloudinary. With the web platform now being launched, we will continue to work on further development that will grow through integration and visual consolidation of other brands’ websites.

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

The full team from Netgen side included ten people from various departments (UX&UI, project manager and front-end and backend developers).

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

The general outcome of the project is our new and amazing corporate website and the new web platform that we expect to grow in the upcoming phases. More than that, Netgen respected all the deadlines, which is a thing worth mentioning, considering the scope of the project.

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

The communication was done in person during discovery workshops and later through emails and Zoom calls. Jira and Figma were our tools as well. We were in regular contact with the project manager, and with other team members whenever necessary.

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

The Netgen team worked very closely with us during all phases of the project, with special emphasis on the discovery workshops that were oriented on defining user personas. The close collaboration continued to the next phases of the project as well, to market and trends research, UX optimization and development. At no point during the project are we misinformed or kept in the dark regarding the project's current progress.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Adriatic is an insurance company that sells all non-life insurance products in Croatia and motor car insurance products in Italy. I work as member of the board and director of IT department.

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

Our webshop was created long time ago and had become outdated. We hired Netgen do design and develop shop for us. We wanted it to be modern and fast, and something that will increase our webshop sale.

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

We knew for this vendor and asked them to do an interview. After their presentation of the company and past projects they gave us an offer that we were comfortable with.

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

The project started with a discovery phase in which project goals and objectives were defined. Principal user personas and customer journeys were produced during UX workshops and finally, our new web shop was envisioned with wireframe prototypes. Branding and visual identity elements were then applied to produce the final interactive prototype which we tested with sample users from identified customer groups and iterated upon.

The development phase followed and the solution was implemented in the Sylius eCommerce platform and Symfony PHP framework in the back end with front-end built as a React JavaScript application. Development was done in agile fashion with multiple releases done in consecutive months. After the first release our cooperation with Netgen also included growth campaigns on Google and Facebook.

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

The full team included up to 8 people in different phases of the project, including: research and UX professionals, UI designers, backend developers (Sylius PHP framework) and frontend developers (React framework). The project was coordinated by a dedicated project manager.

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

Not really - because of the COVID situation it is not possible to objectively measure outcome in this phase. The first product that's been put online is travel insurance - for which is not really great timing.

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

Development was done in agile fashion with multiple releases done in consecutive months. We had regular stand-ups with their PM. The communication was done throught e-mail, as it was easier for us.

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

They were very professional in all phases of the project, from the discovery phase, to the marker research, UX workshops, development.

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

Can't think of it.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a digital agency located in Austria and I am the CEO.

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

The challenge was to develop an eCommerce site with full blown content management features for a client in the cosmetics business in a very limited time. Already in the pre-contract stage we discussed the project and decided on a technology stack based on Symfony, eZ Platform and Sylius.

Netgen should concentrate to the eCommerce side while we concentrate on the content side and the frontend.

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

We selected Netgen because we know the company and their lead staff since years from many eZ partner meetings. Trust in their technical capabilities on the one side and the personal relations on the other side were equally important to us.

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

In a Kick Off meeting we jointly split the scope, made a master timeplan and fixed the team members. From then on we intensively interacted using JIRA, Confluence and Slack because at many points our work had to fit together.

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

Apart from Ivo, the CEO who coordinated his team and was my counterpart we had up to 10 developers from Netgen involved. Mainly in the field of backend and Sylius development.

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

As we may not talk about financial performance figures of the project the only thing I can and must say that the technical solution provided by Netgen was solid and state of the art.

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

The project management style was driven by mutual respect and friendship. As alredy mentioned we used JIRA, Confluence, Slack and Zoom as communication backbones.

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

They don't take shortcuts! Whatever they do is a rock solid solution.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I kew about.

Please describe your company and your position there.

A telecom company that offers various services to end users. I work in the marketing department as Communication Specialist and website Editor.

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

We have expanded our sales portfolio with new services, such as mobile plans and devices which are part of another brand in our group. Our company website enables exploring old and new services and benefits of their combinations keeping at the same time separated brand experiences.

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

We are Netgen`s client for many years. They developed our company website and they are maintaining it, so hiring them for implementation of new elements was our preferred solution.

We already knew their expertise and their business culture suits us. They understand our business challenges and they are able to respond well to them.

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

The displayed mobile plans of the another brand was very complex and with a large amount of content. We wanted to “duplicate” the already existing content from the website of another brand and wanted to avoid manual content updates for the future also.

Therefore, it was necessary to link databases from one website to another and provide regular content refreshments. We developed frontend with certain specific customization in design and structure and mapped content according to databases. For this integration of two offers/brands we used modal screens.

Used Technologies: PHP, Symfony framework, CMS, JS, CSS, React JS and others.

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

project manager, several developers, designer

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

Deliverables on time and as agreed.

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

Due to the complexity of the project, it was implemented and published in two phases by agile method. Communication flowed smoothly and without interruption. We used Jira, e-mail, Teams and Zoom workshops, Figma, Slack. The challenge was to deliver a large volume of work in a very short and fixed timeline.

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

I would emphasize Netgen`s flexibility, true partner relationship. Ready to give optimal solutions for the client depending on the specifics of the situation, budget and timelines. Always ask them for advice, they are happy to provide it. Netgen does it their best.

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

In every project there are some unpredictable things and challenges. Clear expectations and straight-forward communication from both sides helps to overcome such things.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Ruđer Bošković Institute is regarded as Croatia’s leading scientific institute in the natural and biomedical sciences as well as marine and environmental research. Web editor, public relations department.

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

Implementation of new CMS for company's main site. Maintenanance, development and integration with existing services. Builiding of rapid development system for websites with webshop and conference managment support.

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

We chose them as best candidates among several companies considered. Key factors: based on OpenSource CMS, features of eZ Publish CMS, and support levels for eZ Publish.

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

Implementation of eZ Publish CMS (Symphony PHP framework) with continous support and development on request. multilanguage granular user management custom admin roles integration (LDAP, JSON, XML) custom templates, classes and landing pages SSO automated scheduling and unscheduling webshop event management

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

Varies throught the years - from 1 to 15+, from general managers to junior developers.

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

We have the best (main) site in the country in this category. We are able to quicky depoly websites with webshop and conference management support.

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

From Basecamp to currenly JIRA. Skype for quick meetings. In person when discussing large developments as kick-off meeting.

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

Know-how of people employed. Easy to reach and talk to. Willingnes to support us. Long term partnership.

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

No, nobody's perfect but overall, they're a great company.

Please describe your company and your position there.

 I am CEO of Best Advisory, a boutique strategy consulting company from Croatia. We are specialized in projects in the field of Digital Business Transformation, Strategic Agility, M&A and Energy Efficiency.

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

We successfuly partnered with Netgen to develop software solution named e-Guillotine. At the begining in 2006. it was designed as the structured data repository with some workflow and management features.

In the course of 14 years, Netgen developed a market leading platform for regulatory reform projects, initiatives for removal of administrative barriers, and regulatory impact assessment projects. Customized versions of that platform were developed and deplyed in six countries

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

People, people, people. Netgen was selected among number of other small development companies in Croatia because of two key differentiation factors: reliability and understanding of business context for the solution.

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

Netgen was selected to develop a simple but highly effective DMS which was continiouslly developed and customized for six countries - Croatia, Egypt, Vietnam (2), Aremenia, Kirgyzstan and Thailand. Each with different country and project specifics.

The deliverable was a SAAS that can be used for connecting G2G, B2G, and G2C i.e. as the platform with objective to create business freiendly regulatory environments. The technology that was used for development was eZ Publish.

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

The lead developer was Ivo Lukač (CEO) wsupported by 1-3 senior and junior software developers, depending on the size of the project/country and customization requirements.

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

The use of e-Guillotine platform has speed up the implementation time of regulatory reform projects by 20-40%.

It is the first and the best platform for regulatory reform in the world, and highly recommended by international financial organizations such as the World bank, USAID, IFC, SIDA, and many more.

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

Netgen ih higly reliable set of people that understand needs of the client and can transfer those needs into the efficient solutions. COmmunication was open and Basecamp was used as the development tracking system.

Suprisingly for the industry, Netgen was able to meet all deadlines that were defined at the begining of every of sevsen projects we did together.

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

In comparison with many other IT developers we worked with, only Netgen was bele to sustain two key differentiation factors: reliability and understanding of business context for the solution.

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

We would be privileged to work on any other project with Netgen, whereby we could take a part on aspects related to strategy/management consulting part of the business context, and Netgen for UX and development side.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Group Online Manager in Kverneland Group. We produce farming machinery from several factories, mainly based in Europe. The company has around 1200 employees. We sell the machines via dealer networks around the world.

For what projects/services did your company hire Netgen?

We run 3 major brand websites, each including many language versions. All sites ran on an old version ez Publish CMS. Our old agency was not experts in the CMS, nor could they support us in our ambitions to perform better on digital in general.

We were looking for a partner that could help us move to en stronger setup in eZ, including a Webdesign brush-up. But more importantly a partner we could "play ball" with when we came with special wishes for functions.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main goal was to find a partner that we could trust. A partner that would help us move forward in a digital world. A partner that could help us be an industry leader with top-performing (and nice looking) websites. A partner that ongoing could help us adjust the sites to our needs and incorporate with tons of internal systems.

BUT also a partner that had the guts to say "NO - that is not a good idea. Let's do this instead" The admin side of eZ should also be improved, as we have 50 local editors, who need to work in the CMS. Some more. Some less. But it HAD to be easy and logic for them to work.

We have A LOT of existing content - and a lot of translated content. It was very important for us, that we could reuse the existing content and "just" present it in a better way. Use it in better and more logical setups. Make it much more user-friendly

How did you select Netgen?

We asked eZ Publish to located relevant agencies that had the know-how and expertise to help us not just use, but also improve our CMS setup. Netgen came highly recommended. We ended up using Netgen as a part of an agreement with another agency. Where Netgen was our tech wiz-kids

Describe the project in detail.

As our marketing is based in Norway and Denmark, we had project meeting online - slack and jira. The new design was developed in an agile process, with split goals and meetings. For us, it was important, that we could reuse elements across the 3 brands.

Netgen delivered a solution where the work in admin was very similar, no matter the brand. But look and feel in frontend was very brand-specific Along with a new frontend Webdesign we also moved the old eZ solution into Netgen's admin solution; Layouts.

A massive improvement for the work in admin. Here we needed to create new training and support material for our editors. "A website is never done" - after the launch of the new design, the real work started.

What was the team composition?

From Company side we had Group Online Manager, Central Publisher and Digital Marketing person From Netgen: Designer * Frontend dev. Backend dev.

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

We are VERY happy with the result. But moreover with the ongoing corporation with Netgen. We always talk to the same guys. Netgen became our "external webteam"

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication - both in writing and talks has been fantastic. The tone of voice is professional, yet friendly. The response time is fast. And information about key personals absence and who then to contact has always been good. In the end, I, as company responsibility, has always felt being in safe and competent hands

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're absolutely skilled. There is no doubt, that they know what they're talking about. For me, I think their "superpower" is to communicate their top-notch tech knowhow, in a language and way that can be understood by most. That is a rare skill, that I have not seen in many agencies. then I would mention the manager's proactive approach.

Reaching out with ideas on ways to corporate in the future. Systems and services that we could benefit from.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Grow - be a bigger company, yet keep the good atmosphere and personal relationship with customers

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of it consultancy

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

High-end web development

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

We hired Netgen based on impressive reputation and their direct and honest approach are highly valued by our clients.

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

Projects from 200-3000 hrs based on eZ publisher, Netgen Layout and cutting Edge frontend development

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

5-7 Developers

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

Transparent workflow and adding value to projects from day one. Highly skilled developers and very nice guys to work with.

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

Skilled in direct communication with clients, both online like Slack and Videoconf, and onsite with client. Unformal but professional style. Strong commitment to project business goals

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

The people and the way they blend in with the project teams is impressive. And of course the pure class in tech skills

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

Just minor stuff.