Orases

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did so much and are phenomenal. We’re different from primary care veterinarians, so they did a lot of research to understand what a specialty and emergency animal hospital is and what our clients look like. We get a lot of our business from referring veterinarians. They also got to know us and our organization. They had a very good sense of the culture and spirit of our hospital. When they put the website together, it captured not only our specific business, but also represented us as doctors and technicians. They were able to take our language and put it into a website. We had group meetings with Orases and the external designer who was working on our new logo.

We use Orases’ proprietary software to log into the backend. This site was such a tremendous upgrade from our previous website. We were able to link to our Facebook, YouTube and Google+. We have the Google search functionality. We have a blog and the ability to upload in a very aesthetically pleasing way our YouTube videos. We were able to collect email addresses from the newsletter function we had running at one time. Orases was able to collect those email addresses and put them into Constant Contact for us. The optimization for the mobile and tablet was huge for us. There were also simple things like being able to click on the phone number and have it dialed immediately. These are things that are beneficial for our business because people are panicked and stressed and want to get us on the phone as soon as possible. We do a check-in call with them every once in a while. We subscribe to their ongoing maintenance program where we have money set aside for upgrades. We can also talk to them about SEO or organic search as part of that program.

How did you come to work with Orases?

We put out an RFP and had a handful of companies that we were looking at. The thing that stood out most to us was the way the Orases team worked with the design group. A lot of the other groups did everything in-house. What really sold us was Orases recognize they’re experts in the technology field, and what they do, they do extremely well. They partner with designers and we felt like we were getting the best of both worlds. We were getting top-notch firms from both a design and technology perspective.

How much have you invested with Orases?

We spent $40,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2013, and the project took four months. We continue to use them on an ongoing basis.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Orases helped with reporting, client management, transparency measures, and online learning. Each state has different licensing requirements for security officers, and every client has a different requirement. That’s why we needed the tracking side of the product. If someone didn’t show up for a class, the product would call or email the boss to report that. It would track officers to let them know ahead of time when their classes were coming up and which classes were available.

Orases also designed a portfolio that officers could go into, even after they left our company, to download their training. This is a huge help for us because, by law, we have to give people their training results. All of this information is auditable by the government, and we could face really big fines if we didn’t have this information accessible. Also, after officers finish their training and get their state licensing, the tool automatically reports their training to the state. As you can imagine, different states have various programs that they wanted their training uploaded to.

So, Orases had to come up with a solution for us that looked cohesive on our side but, on the downstream side, worked with each state. The product also had to stay up-to-date. When the states made changes, Orases ensured those appeared in the program seamlessly.

Then, we had our clients. Government agencies want to know that we’re actually doing what we’re supposed to be doing. Anybody can come up with a spreadsheet that says someone took training on a specific day. Orases made an easy-to-use tool for our officers. In their portfolio, the state gives each officer a license after he or she passes training. Previously, we’d have to get these licenses back from the officer in order to report it to the government. Orases came up with a way where the officer just uses a cell phone and uploads copies of the license to our platform, where it’s shared to the right authority automatically. A client could walk up to an officer in the middle of the night, type in their name or scan a QR code that Orases created, and pull up the officer’s entire training record and license on the spot.

Nobody else had a system like this that incorporated QR codes. The new product has so many safety checks in place for us, and it really helped us streamline our process. Our training efficiency boomed, and labor costs went down because someone didn’t have to enter all the info manually anymore. We were certifying way more people.

The product also helps our online learning element. I needed to create online learning, but all my officers were marine corps infantry, army infantry, and police SWAT. None of us knew about e-learning elements or HTML before this project. We could work a website, but we certainly didn’t know any code or anything. We asked Orases to develop a learning management system that lets us create online classes easily. They went to the range with us, sat in our classrooms, and watched how we taught. They created a product that fit the way that we work and saved us immense amounts of time.

Sometimes, the state systems would go down while we’d be trying to upload training. On these occasions, Orases actually had to create a new solution for us. Once, a state system went down, but nobody realized it. Schools across the state had been trying to upload training and didn’t realize that anything was wrong. Orases actually figured out that the state system was down and let us know, called the state, and figured out a fix where we just hit a button. We could resend all the documentation from a certain date, which the state loved because they didn’t have to input everything again. It made us look really good to them.

I was impressed with Orases’ original concept, their implementation, and the support they provided to make sure that the product still worked. Everybody’s needs evolve, and so do ours. It’s probably the best vendor story that I had in my career.

The product was completely custom-built. They made it compatible with what we needed and integrated what we asked for, but it was based on their proprietary solution called 24Watch.

They did discovery, but the project took longer than expected because we didn’t know what we were doing. Orases wasn’t creating course content; we were doing that. They had their stuff up and running, and I probably cost them money because then we had to do our part, which slowed down the process.  

We had meetings with their president, the project implementation manager, and possibly 6 developers. Different people assisted when we asked for upgrades and things like that.

How did you come to work with Orases?

I wasn’t in the computer community, so we went to the big players—Oracle, Adobe, and Microsoft. They told us that we had to adapt our needs to their product. A friend of mine is an IT guy who worked with Orases for several clients. He said they were great.

We solicited pitches from large companies and some smaller ones. Orases had the most comprehensive product at the beginning. Honestly, we decided to take a chance on them. They actually came through with what they said they could do.

How much have you invested with Orases?

The initial project cost $200,000. We added tasks later on, which cost probably double that amount.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial project took 5–6 months. We’ve worked together for 6 or 7 years on updates and maintenance. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Orases built the custom CMS which allows us to efficiently process orders online, and provide the entire backend operation we need for customer management. The backroom platform consists of our database and website update and modification panel. It’s the place through which we can post information for subscribers.

There is a 24Watch ® Business Suite for our database, as well as a system for integrating it with our website and payment system.

We have a niche business with a narrow target audience. Orases presented alternative designs for our goal, based on the information they had about our company, graphics and previous online activity. This was integrated into all the visible materials on our website. Being nontechnical people with a small staff meant that Orases wound up doing everything for us. They were patient enough to get us well-educated, and bring us down the path.

How did you come to work with Orases?

They were recommended to me by a former business associate from my previous career in the advertising business. He ran an advertising agency, and told me that Orases had done terrific work for some of their clients. I contacted them, and we’ve been exceedingly pleased with the selection.

How much have you invested with Orases?

The cost of Orases’ work has been around $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Orases in 2007. The largest project took place in 2011. We are still working with them.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’m a huge fan of Orases and Nick, the CEO. We started talking to them about building a website, and we ended up adopting Nick as our CTO. We had several meetings with him and his team each week talking about everything e-commerce. Orases helped us develop our overall digital marketing plan and competitive strategy. I truly view them as a strategic partner, and that’s been extremely valuable to us. We’ve gotten a tremendous amount of education from them. They’ve saved us from making expensive mistakes.

We originally engaged them to design a website, but then we quickly shifted that to a consulting basis. We really wanted him to be involved in all the different aspects of our emerging business. Nick helped us think creatively and strategically about how we wanted to compete.

Orases is currently involved in the discovery stage for developing our website. Once that is complete, we’ll actually construct the site. Orases truly has their customer’s best interests in mind, and they want to add value. Although they are contracted to build the blueprint for our site, they are perfectly fine with putting the development up for bid after that to ensure we get the best product. When you do that, you create a connection with the customer, which makes the work you do together even better.

We’ve mostly worked with Nick, but we’ve recently engaged a designer and a developer, who are now spearheading the discovery process.

How did you come to work with Orases?

One of my partners knew of Nick through mutual acquaintances.

How much have you invested with Orases?

The whole project will probably be $100,000—so approximately $75,000 to build the site and $25,000 for consulting.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in December of 2016, and it will probably last for about 6 months. I imagine we’ll continue to work with them on some level going forward. I feel that we get a tremendous value having them as partners.