RaftLabs

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the operations manager for an influencer marketing agency based in Ireland.

What challenge were you trying to address with RaftLabs?

We were operating for a good few years without any sort of IT system in place other than email and Google Docs, and we wanted to enlist an agency to help us see what other solutions were out there. We contacted RaftLabs to basically improve every part of our process.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first discussed our initial issues and situation with RaftLabs. We mapped out our internal processes, for which different members of their team made different suggestions for improvement. They came up with two potential plans that we could go with. One was a custom-built IT solution, and the other was sort of a no-code solution with existing tools. 

We chose to go down the road of the custom-built IT solution to understand what that would be like. RaftLabs built out a product roadmap and four iterations of it that focused on four different aspects. All of the iterations centered around one team. 

We didn’t end up going with the fully custom-built IT solution though, mainly because we felt it was probably two steps ahead of where we were at that point. We had no IT, so we didn’t want to jump into something custom.

What is the team composition?

I was initially in contact with two members from their senior management team. I went on to interact with a total of six people, but I was constantly in contact with only 2–3.

How did you come to work with RaftLabs?

When we were searching for an IT agency, RaftLabs was recommended by Clutch. We did contact a bunch of people, but RaftLabs was the one we eventually filtered down to. They’re one of the more affordable options, which is also why we went with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of getting the product roadmaps was around €1,800 (approximately $2,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started communicating with them in October 2021, and the work was completed in the middle of December 2021.

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

RaftLabs really gave us a picture of what we have to do in terms of building out and improving our processes. They walked us through how we should think about our business as well. We got a lot of intangible benefits from the process.

How did RaftLabs perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed incredibly well. They really understood the issues that we presented to them, which isn’t easy since our industry is quite specific. 

They did suggest that we use Asana, but seeing as we didn’t get to the actual project execution phase, it wasn’t really necessary. All of our communication was positive and fast and was done over Microsoft Teams and email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

RaftLabs has the ability to drill out the core of our issues. Even for our relatively new industry, they proposed a lot of different solutions. We had always struggled to find something that really fit what we needed, but they were able to bring up the basics of what was required. They really helped us frame what we should do going forward and what our first steps should be.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In hindsight, maybe they could’ve pushed us towards doing a non-custom solution. To be honest, though, I don’t even know if we would’ve said yes because we were very much leaning towards doing something custom. Overall, no, there’s nothing they could’ve done differently. I found them great to work with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get in touch with their team. On top of their affordable services, they’re very honest and upfront. It’ll also help to let them know that there isn’t just one way to move forward because they’re open to finding multiple ways to solve a problem.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Head of Finance for the India Business Unit.

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

We wanted to build an ecommerce analytics web application that allows us to monitor the pricing and other related information of our products and compete on various 3rd party commerce marketplaces in real time. The goal was to identify a team who understands this space, has knowledge on building enterprise systems with security, integrations and support required in place. Also we had certain needs of processing a lot of data at scale so having everything on cloud was a must.

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

Background in building enterprise apps. Understanding about the design usability aspects and sound knowledge of the space of e-com market place, cloud understanding and ability to build tools that can process lots of data in real time.

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

We reached out with a problem statement. They helped us come to a scope of the solution with every single item required to arrive at the goal and objectives we had. They helped us in building app scraper utilities and tools that pull in data of the shortlisted products from various ecommerce marketplaces.

The data would be then dumped in the central data store and reports being generated in real time. The analytics dashboard was super intuitive. The technologies used were a combination of cloud and web based frameworks.

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

I believe there were mostly 2 backend developers and 1 frontend developer. There was a BA professional involved when required. One of the core founders would check in with us when needed.

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

- Project was rolled out on time and the quality of the build exceeded our expectations. Team was able to make quick changes to the system and iterate effectively. The project helped us to keep tabs of competitor actions in a real time and also quicken our response to them.

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

They use good project management tools like Asana with weekly sprint reviews. Plus most of the team is available on demand basis in case we need immediate support. Their responsiveness and clarity of communication was commendable.

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

Their ability to understand the problem statement and come up with effective solutions was commendable. They were highly efficient. As a lay man to the technology side, I found it very easy to communicate with them which is seldom the case when you work with experts in the field.

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

Their QA processes could have been a little better.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of SURU Together, a company that develops SaaS solutions for civic organizations like local government agencies. 

What challenge were you trying to address with RaftLabs?

We were a part of an EU accelerator program, and our company received funding to build our MVP. As a result, we engaged RaftLabs to help us build our product. We had specific and hard deadlines for our demo day. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

RaftLabs helped us make sense of the tech stacks that we’d need in order to build our product. Based on that, they provided us with the scope and quote of the work. We then provided them with a text document previously written by another independent contractor. The document contained information about who we were and what we needed to build. The team reviewed and validated it. On top of that, we also gave them a clickable prototype of the website’s wireframe. They iterated off of that to build the actual platform. 

The platform contained an algorithm that tracked all activities on it, and we gave it to RaftLabs. We asked them to implement that algorithm in our product. Audio chats were also one of the key features of the platform. Simply put, we asked their resources to build a website with audio chat functionality; people could click into separate audio chat groups similar to Zoom breakout rooms. 

Moreover, RaftLabs thought deeply about the platform’s user flow to help us understand how people would go from onboarding the website to going into the audio chat rooms. This way, we learned various critical actions from the end users. In relation to that, we collaborated to make the UX design more understandable. We theoretically had a good product based on research, but RaftLabs worked to help us understand if it had a truly good UX design. 

On top of that, RaftLabs collaborated with our legal experts to understand the intellectual property (IP) aspects of the product. Our lawyers spoke with RaftLabs about the technical implementation of our designs to ensure they had the right IP information. After that, the team gave us a 20-day window to bring up support queries and fix issues when things didn’t work properly. They tackled usability issues and implemented improvements based on user tests. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with 5–8 people assigned to the project, and Nirav (Co-Founder) served as the project manager. He took our requirements and made decisions around which team members would deliver parts of our requirements. 

How did you come to work with RaftLabs?

I searched online for development agencies focused on media platforms. It was a difficult process because the agencies’ previous works were mainly for e-commerce clients. Meanwhile, RaftLabs mainly focused on building audio-visual platforms, so we went with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our budget was between €25,000–€30,000 (approximately $29,000–$35,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first engagement lasted from June–September 2021, but we engaged them again for additional work on the platform in October 2021. 

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

Because of the platform that RaftLabs helped develop, we’ve gone to our next accelerator program with a focus on bringing the product into the market. During the interview stages of that accelerator program, we demoed the product. If the product wasn’t a good fit for the stakeholders, we wouldn’t have moved on to the next stage of the accelerator program. That was our main success metric — RaftLabs helped us get to the next level. 

How did RaftLabs perform from a project management standpoint?

RaftLabs’ project management was great. Our budget was extended but only because we had additional requirements that we didn’t put in the original contract. In relation to that, their team had a transparent process in measuring how much the engagement would cost and how much extra time they needed. 

When we had questions, we normally went to Nirav. Then, he’d forward our queries to the right member of his team. From there, someone from their team would respond to us. All of this was done via Asana, which also allowed us to see the entire sprint development process. We knew what had been completed or had fallen behind and what needed to be done in another sprint. From my perspective, it was truly nice to see how things were going according to plan.

Apart from Asana, we also used emails and weekly phone calls every Thursday to communicate. During such calls, they showed us what part of the product had been deployed and demo it for us. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

What distinguished RaftLabs from other providers was their fantastic ability to build real-time engagement-based products. We wanted to build a platform that was partly a social media channel and partly like Zoom where people could interact with each other in real-time, and they did an awesome job doing that. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

RaftLabs the UI design side of the engagement. It wasn’t their strong suit, though it also wasn’t an explicit part of our engagement. Their technical implementation and build were phenomenal, however. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Participate in RaftLabs’ weekly calls, and use that opportunity to ask questions and double-check whether they understand your requirements. That way, you can stay on budget and on time. On top of that, don’t wait for the weekly call if you have questions; no question is too small for the RaftLabs team. They’ll get back to you quickly. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the co-founder of the product

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

We had an idea of building a referral marketing product for marketers. While finding the right team to build this product from the discovery phase till the launch, we came across RaftLabs via their website. After few initial calls, we decided to move ahead with them. They helped us with designing the product, creating a beautiful interface with usability at the center and a scalable server.

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

We were in conversation with 3 different companies for this product. RaftLabs' expertise in the Marktech industry and hence their ability to understand our vision was the deciding factor.

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

We had a kick-off meeting after we both signed the SoW. They first designed the entire workflow using Balsamiq. We had a few back and forth call on this to finalize the flow. Once the flow was finalized, they designed the UI of the app. We gave them feedback on our branding and our taste. Once the UI was signed off, they started tieing it up with the server for us to see the live data. They kept deploying the stable version of the app every Monday for us to review the product and give feedback.

Their team was always active on the Asana tool that they internally use. We were added to their Asana so we can communicate with the team working on our product. We used to have biweekly demo call as well to see the progress and make sure we are on the right track. The product was almost finished 2 weeks before the launch date. The last two weeks were mostly minor tweaks and rigorous testing. Even after the launch, they were always available to help us with any technical issues raised by the customers.

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

1 Front-end Engineer, 1 Back-end Engineer, 1 Full Stack Developer, and a Project Manager.

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

We launched the project in mid-Feb 2021 and so far we have 3500+ paying customers on board. Whenever we had any technical issues raised by the customers, they were always ready to answer & help. They also fixed minor issues and made minor tweaks for the entire month post-launch.

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

They internally had daily stand-ups. I and my team were added to their Asana so we can give our feedback and communicate with them. Their team was very communicative on Asana. We also had a bi-weekly demo where they walked us through the progress and changes that we had requested and agreed upon. There was hardly any need for any ad-hoc calls except when we got closer to the launch.

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

Their communication and their ability to understand the product from the business perspective were impressive. In past, we have had bad experiences with other teams where they would stop responding but here no matter what the situation was, they were always communicative. There was one feature in our app which took longer than we had anticipated and affected the timeline.

RaftLabs was very proactive in letting us know about it and explained everything on why we ended up in this situation and what was their plan to make sure the timeline is not derailed and they delivered on it. Also, in past, we have experienced that the engineering team always over-engineered the product and did not focus on the business side of it which cost us a lot in terms of both time and money. That was not the case here which we are glad about. Part of the reason for that was that both the co-founders of RaftLabs are Entrepreneurs at heart.

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

There were a couple of areas where they could have taken a load off our shoulder like... - Mobile App Development - Translations We wanted to build a mobile app as well for our product but they did not have any free mobile app developer on hand. They referred us to another team in India but it was too much for us to handle along with our regular business. We requested them to take the project manager part of it but it didn't work out. Similarly, for the translation part, the translators they had hired had not done a great job of it at least in Spanish.

We had to bring in someone else who worked with their team to help us translate the software to Spanish. The translator they had hired did literal translation which did not make sense when seen in context with the app. But again, I wouldn't blame RaftLabs for it since they hired it from outside and it was not their native language. I could understand it as it was one of the languages I spoke. Regarding Mobile App, I would have been happier if they had taken care of it. If they had, we would have dropped that part of the project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a director in Brandfire and we are a customer loyalty and rewards agency.

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

We hire Raftlabs to build a B2B rewards platform for one of clients. We require a web based solution along with an app. Furthermore, members were required to upload proof of purchase. We also a required a points solution so that members were awarded a point for every proof of purchase uploaded.

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

We work with a number of web design and development companies. We provided a brief. Raftlabs response was by far the best both in terms of answering brief, suggestion other elements, and value of money

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

We have a kick-off meeting. The team provided wireframes, design mock-ups, customer journeys. We also had a number of integrations which we went through in detail.

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

There were 4 on Raftlabs team including project manager, designer and developers

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

Our main KPI was membership both on the web an app. To date, we have exceeded the target set out which is an indication of how easy it was for members to sign up and engage with the program

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

Mainly Asana which allowed for easy communicaiton and project management They also shared video on how to use the platform which was very helpful

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

Communicaiton was key. They provided ideas that we hadn't really thought of, which helped our program standout.

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

No. We had a few tiny bugs at launch which is to be expected and Raftlabs were on hand very quickly to solve and fix them

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Sr. manager for a global technology services company overlooking a major engagement program.

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

We wanted to build an enterprise communication app for our upcoming internal event. The app though was limited for the users, developing features like support for audio/video content, two-way video calling and chat amongst users was crucial to it's success. Since we had a fixed timeline to follow, we wanted to work with a partner who understands our challenges and builds custom solution with something as a base to effectively deliver value.

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

Background in building enterprise apps. Understanding about the design usability aspects and sound knowledge of video communication and media expertise.

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

They designed iOS and Android app with web based CMS that allowed us to manage the content from the web. These apps were lot similar to combination of zoom + slack. However we had lot of custom tweaks and enterprise workflows which team built for our needs. The core data was on our cloud account.

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

I think there 3 developers, BA and 1 manager involved on an ongoing basis. Founders too were involved whenever required. They would check in with team's progress and approach on timely basis which was great.

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

- Project was rolled out on time and quality of the build exceeded our expectations. - Team was able to make quick changes to the system and iterate effectively. - Project helped us save lot of time that otherwise would have spent in email and zoom comunications.

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

They use pretty standard project management tools like Asana, Jira with weekly sprint reviews. Plus most of the team is available on demand basis incase we need immediate support. I loved their responsiveness and clarity of communication.

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

Their ability to understand the problem statement and come up with effective solutions was commendable. They were highly proactive and saved us from lot of micro management. Their knowledge about video space and communication is amazing. We as technology company ourselves were impressed.

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

Their documentation could have been better. But again, we don't blame them as were really making changes faster and had really no time at hand for them to work on that.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm internal consultant of a small-med size business consultation services firm predominantly serving financial institutions and financial services

For what projects/services did your company hire RaftLabs?

The company was exploring a range of services to create a massive automation overhaul and strategy aligning with keeping no physical assets and resources. This required rethinking the current business progresses and its storage and to rebuilt a new infrastructure to support the high agility based automated solution.

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

RaftLabs played a pivotal role from design to implementation in giving us the solution which can allow the firm to move in cloud based storage with quickest time to market services for both internal and customer facing usage.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The design phase was critical as the CxO team was not highly technically adept and Raftlabs helps with providing a array of solutions and services to choose from, and they also provided extensive business analysis of the problems of current process for its limitations for both time spent and cost incurred.

The implementation was highly collaborative approach with their agile development strategy allowing us to make changes throughout the project life cycle.

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

The CTO commissioned a focussed team to manage our project and also provided a POC project manager to manage the cost, schedule and changes in the project from start to finish. The CTO himself spent time at different crirical checkpoints to ensure we had the support and quality of service.

He also managed to resolve any concerns or issues we raised along the path of the project to reaffirm the commitment provided in the sales and pre sales engagements.

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

The automation and cloud migration is successful and we are able to use a highly transparent (Cost) and efficient system which can we can build further with new services and offerings internally and externally. Raftlabs will continue to be our preferred choice of service vendor for creating new cost saving and cloud optimisation effort we plan for coming months.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Raftlabs team used extremely efficient tools and solution to ensure coverage and support from its global team. Their support models allowed us to work remotely with same level of collaboration and efficiency despite the lockdown.

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

Raftlabs approachs to work with the clients and own their problems, transparency and communication, extremely talented workforce and the strong management team makes them the best vendors in the market for us small-medium sized firms to work with.

I am sure they are very capable of serving any size firm but particularly firms of our size benefits the most with their bespoke solution and ability to work with non technical customers.

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

I think they are great bunch of people and as they are growing leaps and bounds with bigger clientele, I hope they get to continue giving the excellent service that they provide to us.