Osellus Mobile

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

Compass is a calendar/registration tool. While their work hasn't increased the number of registrants, it made it a lot easier for those folks to do so and be more dynamic with it.

They’re able to develop fast and deploy quickly, but also turn on a dime when we need to. Over the years, we've had to remove and add capabilities to the tool. Sometimes, we need to do that very quickly because programs change, the fiscal year swaps, etc. Our company is a big brand, so when we call and ask them to change something, they're all hands on deck. That's an important factor for us.

They also take the time to understand what it is we're trying to do. They think through what they're doing and what impact it will have. You've got to take the time to understand the business and what we're going after, not just the technology of how the project should work, where the buttons should be, and what the technical functionality is. They've spent the time to consider our target audience, what we try to accomplish with the tools, and what the user experience will be. The project is to get our partners connected to the valuable offerings of our distributors, and they did exactly that.

People are more focused on the data inside than the app itself. It's not a game; it's an app to help you find which webinar you're going to go to next. The app works, is consistent, solid, and delivers them the information they want.

How did Osellus Mobile perform from a project management standpoint?

I have the luxury of working with a project manager who interfaces with all of the teams, including those at our company, and drives the whole project, which is one of the reasons we selected Osellus and continue to work with them. Their project management person is really good. He thinks about things that we hadn't considered. If we had to rate them on a chart, their responsiveness would be on the high marks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to extract clarity on what they need to build is impressive. They're like our architect; we tell them what we're thinking about, and they come back with a design that matches our needs, which is powerful. I've never written or created a wireframe. They did it all for us. They're able to do more than what I ask them to do. They give better ideas than I have budget for. Osellus is good at taking our vision and turning it into a series of mock-ups, then turning it into an app, and thinking through considerations we might not have thought of, on how things interact with each other and what the user experience will be. We found that to be great.

I've worked with a few outsourcing companies, and we keep coming back to Osellus and keep them on these 2 projects for that reason.

At our company, we have design standards. They're able to take those standards and ask questions in a WebEx session and get what we want it to look like, and start to draw it while we were chatting, which helped us drive what the thing would look like. We didn't have any structure in mind as to how this thing should look. We wanted to get their assessment of how the data could be arranged and best visualized. We didn't do any wireframes; they created them on the fly with us.

All vendors, when you outsource things, you have to manage them. We don't need to spend a lot of time managing when we work with them. We give them our budget and our scope, and I'm comfortable and confident to let them go and do the work. That's why they've been doing it for us for a while.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them time to listen to your business needs and be clear about what it is that you're looking for because they interpret that into a technology build.

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

We had some direct benefits from developing this app. We measured the monetary value and to reduce the number of physical demonstrations. The number of demos did actually reduce, but actually the savings from shipping that equipment out and having it returned back to us was more than enough to pay for the development. 

Is there anything unique or special about Osellus Mobile that really makes them stand out?

The approach Osellus Mobile took to understanding our needs. Osellus Mobile was very good at suggesting things that we hadn't considered. Like making sure content that was available to our reps was up to date, but not interrupting a demo from a client's point of view. Our actual thought was we wouldn't allow reps to get involved in the process. We have reps that have been here 30 years that say this is the best tool they've ever seen. We've had reps that have been here three months who've been through extensive training but, once they got the tool, they understood it. Now, we're using the tool as a training aid as much as a selling aid. This application is now used at every trade show. As we engage clients at the trade show, this is one of our primary tools that we use at trade shows to show our solutions to our clients.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

I think the only criticism is we've had some challenges with the Windows app. That's an area that took more time that we hoped to resolve. The mobile iPad app was very fast – developed very clean and elegant. I think the Windows environment just brings its own set of challenges. We resolved it, but it took longer than we wanted.