OrbitLift

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Kooomo is a cloud-based e-commerce platform, similar to Demandware in terms of operations model and capabilities. We target the medium and enterprise sectors for standard, multichannel and omnichannel sales. We have the ability to combine physical stores with an online presence. I was the partnerships developer of the company at the time.

What challenge were you trying to address with OrbitLift?

OrbitLift has been working with us on a project for an Italian fashion brand.

What was the scope of their involvement?

OrbitLift was tasked with developing the entire front-end for the store front, based on our platform. They handled everything related to CSS, HTML, JavaScript and Handlebars.js development.

Our platform's backend functionalities are locked to outside parties, so all of the work was on the front-end. It was similar to Shopify development but on a higher level.

How did you come to work with OrbitLift?

Our first contact with OrbitLift was with one of their employees. I got in touch with their principal, gave them a demo of our platform, and eventually gave OrbitLift the work.

How much have you invested with OrbitLift?

The cost of OrbitLift's work was just below $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project has been completed, but we will consider OrbitLift for upcoming ones. We have signed 15 new brands for our platform, some of which will go to OrbitLift. They also have official reseller status for our platform.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I kept close contact with the internal project manager we assigned to our project with OrbitLift. There were some discrepancies with the common best practices we employ, but this is normal for a first project, and didn't escalate into any problem. OrbitLift covered their given deadlines and produced a fully-functional result, with no bugs or even minor problems.

How did OrbitLift perform from a project management standpoint?

OrbitLift was very responsive, and we had fewer problems than expected, for a first project. The platform itself is quite complex, with many variables that weaker teams would not have been able to cope with. The communication was carried out through our project manager.

What did you find most impressive about OrbitLift?

OrbitLift's principals were nice people to work with in general. They were responsive, highly professional, and never made us wait for longer than one hour for a reply, no matter what the case was. OrbitLift is capable of coping with even complex tasks, are easy to communicate with, professional and responsive. I've liked them a lot in general.

Are there any areas OrbitLift could improve?

We will need to run 1-2 more projects to get OrbitLift fully accustomed to the features of our platform. After this, I don't expect any other issues.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a new micro-lending service focusing on the Philippines and Southeast Asian markets. I am the head of operations for the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with OrbitLift?

Our goal was to reach an underserved market, without access to financial services. The people in our target regions don't have financial histories like the ones we're familiar with in the US and other, more developed economies. The challenge was creating an online platform that would be readily accessible to smartphone users, incorporating a new credit scoring algorithm based on behavioral factors, not just on financial history (which wasn't available for this market).

What was the scope of their involvement?

OrbitLift has been helping us develop a website for credit scoring and financial education, using a combination of MySQL and Python, based on our requests. OrbitLift has skill sets for other languages as well. Their team was helpful in bouncing back ideas regarding what would be required for our minimum viable product, in order to have a fast implementation and not make many compromises.

As soon as we laid down the groundwork for our project expectations, we started using Jira for feature and bug-fix requests. OrbitLift's team has been self-sufficient, not requiring a lot of guidance from us.

Besides my main contact, I worked with 5 developers from OrbitLift. Two of them were in charge of API integration, while the rest helped us setup the backend infrastructure, handle web design, and troubleshoot. OrbitLift’s team handled all development bases, starting from scratch.

How did you come to work with OrbitLift?

We had gone through a bunch of developers in different locations. We looked at local companies in the Philippines, but none lived up to the skill levels we required. We also looked at ones in China but found that they tended to work on a short-term basis, requiring a lot of guidance. A friend referred me to OrbitLift. We had a talk and found that the company offered a good balance of quality and cost. We decided to try them out, and have continued our engagement with OrbitLift ever since.

How much have you invested with OrbitLift?

We've had 3 different phases so far, each one with a cost of between $50,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The proof-of-concept phase has been completed. Because of OrbitLift’s familiarity with it, we've decided to keep engaging with them.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

OrbitLift is a very experienced group, going above-and-beyond in troubleshooting and making our client understand their own system better.

How did OrbitLift perform from a project management standpoint?

Much of our communication is done over applications such as Skype and Google Hangouts. We have a good amount of overlap in our time zones, so that hasn't been a problem. When it comes to workflow, we use Jira, while documentation is tracked through GitHub. These are all free tools and have worked well so far.

What did you find most impressive about OrbitLift?

OrbitLift is flexible to work with. They've given us a good amount of details for our project, in terms of what needs to be delivered and by when, also making sure that there will be staff available for the work. OrbitLift is also flexible enough to accommodate a more unpredictable schedule. We don't have a set roadmap, but OrbitLift has found the extra resources needed for any bugs or unforeseen tasks.

Are there any areas OrbitLift could improve?

Not off the top of my head.