Paradem Consulting

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director, Learning and Engagement of Humentum

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provides support for improving operating models of Non-profits

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Paradem Consulting to accomplish?

• Create a portal that would allow our systems to connect easily for the user
• Providing hosting and support services to ensure that our online portal is always opreational
• Consultancy services for design and implementation of the portal expansion

SOLUTION

How did you find Paradem Consulting?

Previous projects

Why did you select Paradem Consulting over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Paradem Consulting were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Designed and built a portal that allows that streamlined the user experience. This included design, testing and implementation, this then moved to maintenance. They are now working with us on phase 2 of this project and also provide ad hoc consultancy services

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Number of user issues raised through the ticketing system. 

Number of bug reports that were raised by the system

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They have a clear plan and team responsibilities. They are on time with deliverables and very inclusive with us as the primary stakeholders throughout the project building in an interactive and agile way. They were responsive at all times to challenges we raised in the design phase and also adjusted the design and build based on our feedback. 

What was your primary form of communication with Paradem Consulting?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The ability to understand and collaborate with us. They didn't go off and build they worked with us and their values and approach matched to what we ourselves strive for. 

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

None that i can think of. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Technology Officer of SAGA Wisdom

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

SAGA Wisdom is a digital learning company tailored to those seeking continuing education within the energy industry. We maximize ROI by offering cost-effective, high quality, and relevant content from today’s experts while optimizing efficiency and engagement using innovative technology and focusing on our customers’ business needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Paradem Consulting to accomplish?

• Backend / Frontend Development for Scoped project
• UI/UX overhaul and revamp

SOLUTION

How did you find Paradem Consulting?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Paradem Consulting over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Paradem Consulting were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Analytics - Backend development, UI/UX to display analytics, Design and development. 
• UI/UX - Mocks, Sketchs, and Development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

For scoped projects, we maintained a structured and transparent workflow with regular daily and/or weekly sessions to ensure alignment and progress. All work was meticulously managed and reviewed through pull requests, ensuring high-quality deliverables and seamless collaboration. This approach not only facilitated clear communication but also provided measurable checkpoints to track progress and maintain consistency throughout the project.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes, Paradem was always responsive.  They are master's of their craft.

What was your primary form of communication with Paradem Consulting?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Paradem was consistently responsive and proactive in meeting our needs. They are true masters of their craft, delivering high-quality work on time with a well-structured and organized project management approach. Their commitment to best practices and clear communication ensures a smooth and efficient collaboration throughout the process.

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

Keep doing what you're doing! ;)

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager of a consultation company that develops digital products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Paradem Consulting?

Paradem Consulting has been our software development partner for years.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We usually partner together on projects and they mostly provide us with custom software development.

One of our most recent projects was building a data platform with the idea of storing and visualizing data. Users can access the back- and frontend at the same time. We usually discuss the requirements while they provide us with their approach in terms of what technology to use, or what architecture to build the software upon.

Apart from that, they’ve also provided us with design and hosting services, but we usually outsource those to a third-party vendor nowadays.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 4–5 people. There are two backend engineers, a frontend engineer, a project manager, and a UX designer. Our main point of contact is Kevin (Developer & Founder).

How did you come to work with Paradem Consulting?

The relationship had begun before I joined the company, but I believe the owners knew Kevin through their previous working relationship.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve probably spent around  $200,000 USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in February 2014, and it’s still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our success is based on our client's satisfaction so if they’re happy, then that means we’re providing them with high-quality solutions. We always enjoy working with Paradem Consulting because they’re a friendly and professional group of people.

How did Paradem Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

We haven’t had any issues so I would say their project management is very good. We use Slack, Notion, and Zoom to communicate, and Google Docs, Calendar, and Drive to manage the project and keep track of our files.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their transparency and communication skills. Whenever there’s a challenge or issue, they easily address them without any drama.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing in particular comes to mind because they address our concerns right away.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to work with them and collaborate. They have a lot of knowledge and experience so instead of going to them with ideas or solutions, provide the problem and ask them for their expertise. — they’re great at providing different approaches and ideas on how a certain problem can be solved.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a workplace platform, and I focus on our product design and engineering side.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Paradem Consulting?

When we hired Paradem, we were growing, so we were looking to augment our engineering capabilities to develop our product further.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a variety of pain points that we were looking to address, and some of them involved changing some of our product architecture to prepare it for said growth. Paradem helped us re-architect some of our processes on the engineering side. Additionally, they’ve helped us augment our engineering team to develop more products and get a faster time to market.

We’ve been working together for many years, and we’ve continued our collaboration. The end result would be getting to a position where we can get multiple engineering teams on board and have a process in place that can accommodate that.

What is the team composition?

Kevin (Founder & Developer) is our main point of contact. Additionally, we have a dedicated project manager from their side who works with us on our different projects.

How did you come to work with Paradem Consulting?

I came across Kevin through word of mouth. We knew an engineer who had experience working with Kevin, and we got introduced to him. We started our conversations, and we developed a proof of concept for some of the work together.

We connected well on a personal and cultural level, and Paradem’s team was able to deliver, so we continued working together.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve worked together on various projects, but just to give an idea, we spent around $400,000 in 2018 alone.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around the third quarter of 2017, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The ultimate success metric is that we’ve continued working together throughout the years, and we’ve continued to augment our projects with them. Paradem has built very complicated enterprise applications and helped us scope out areas of technology that we want to experiment with.

It’s difficult to measure precise results because their work hasn’t been focused on taking us from X to Y. Instead, our business has continued to grow, and we’ve been working and growing with them. Overall, we’re very happy with their services.

How did Paradem Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Initially, Paradem brought a lot of their Agile processes, and we ended up adopting them. They introduced us to some really good processes, helping us achieve our goals. Additionally, they’ve been very collaborative since they came on board, and they’ve also adapted their processes to what works best for us.

Throughout our engagement, we’ve had in-person meetings, but we handle our day-to-day operations remotely. We communicate regularly and work in two-week sprints. We use Zoom, Slack, and email to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The best things about working with Paradem are the element of trust they bring and having Kevin’s stewardship. He’s unique regarding technology, representing his company’s capabilities and guiding us where we want to go.

Paradem has vast experience in different technologies, and they’ve helped us navigate through cutting-edge technology to see if it would be suitable for our needs or not. We’re frequently trying to accomplish things that haven’t been done in our space before, and having them guide us through what’s possible and what is not really distinguishes them from other providers.

Additionally, they have the willingness to take risks and navigate new territories. Oftentimes, other vendors won’t consider working on things they’re uncomfortable with, but Paradem is very good at that. They’re extraordinarily trustworthy in that regard, and they conduct themselves with great integrity.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Working the way we work has been a double-edged sword. On the one hand, we’ve explored new technologies, but on the other, we’re trying to maintain traditional timelines and stick to certain budgets. We’ve stumbled upon some challenges due to the uncertainty of working with unknown technology, but I’m sure Paradem’s work would be exceptional if we were on a more traditional track.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know what you want and communicate it upfront. The more information you can present them regarding your objectives, the more they will successfully help you achieve them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of the Office of Public Affairs for the Bahá'í Community of Canada

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our primary website was in need of a redesign, and Paradem helped us to conceptualize and design the new site. After rebuilding our primary website, we also worked with Paradem to redesign our news site and create a sister website. We wanted to create three distinct sites that were united by common design features.

SOLUTION

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

We sent out a call for proposals to several companies, and Paradem responded with a proposal that addressed our needs most directly. We have maintained an ongoing retainer with Paradem because of the excellent working relationship we have developed with its team.

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

At the beginning of our relationship, we had several meetings to consult about the purpose of our site, the nature of our audience, and how we wanted to engage them. Paradem produced a series of different wireframes and designs that helped to clarify our path forward. The relationship since then has been highly collaborative. We have suggested ideas for web development, and Paradem has worked closely with us to guide, direct and realize these new and ongoing projects.

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

A User Experience Lead has been our main contact with Paradem, and we have also worked with a Web Developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our main website attracts about 50% more users now than before it was redeveloped. The secondary websites have also seen new and increased traffic. The new sites are also more visually attractive, and it is much easier for us to keep them updated with new content.

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

The Paradem team is very responsive over email, and they have used a range of project management tools to facilitate communication between our team and theirs. At the outset of a project, we have used Zoom to brainstorm and share and discuss initial design ideas.

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

They developed beautiful and accessible websites that we have been able to update and grow over time. They've taken our abstract ideas and feedback, turning them into websites that have exceeded our expectations.

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

There are occasionally bugs associated with updating the sites, but we have always found them to be responsive.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Ventia

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Ventia provides essential services to make infrastructure work for communities in Australia and New Zealand.

We pride ourselves on safe and sustainable services for our corporate and government clients across a broad range of sectors, including transport, telecommunications, utilities, defence, water, energy, resources and social infrastructure. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Paradem Consulting to accomplish?

• We engaged Paradem Consulting to develop a new website for our company. Our objective was to enhance our online visibility and simplify the process for customers to discover and access our services.

SOLUTION

How did you find Paradem Consulting?

Online Search

Why did you select Paradem Consulting over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Paradem Consulting were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Paradem Consulting created an extensive strategy for our website. The work involved designing the website's layout, generating content, and guaranteeing mobile compatibility. The main outputs consisted of a fully operational website, optimization for search engines, and training for our staff on how to operate the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The results from the project are remarkable. We experienced a 50% rise in website traffic and greater interaction from our customers. Additionally, our online inquiries doubled within a few months.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The project was expertly managed by Paradem Consulting.  They were highly attentive to our demands and provided everything on schedule.  They were prompt in helping us whenever we required adjustments or had inquiries.

What was your primary form of communication with Paradem Consulting?

Email or Messaging App

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

The project was expertly managed by Paradem Consulting.  They were highly attentive to our demands and provided everything on schedule.  They were prompt in helping us whenever we required adjustments or had inquiries.

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

In terms of improvement, I think they could provide more ongoing support after the project ends. A few more check-ins would help us feel more confident in managing the website. Overall, though, it was a great experience!