Rave Digital

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Medcare is a national DME (durable medical equipment) company which enrolls patients across the country and ships medical supplies to their homes. One of the most important aspects of the business is the data management, making sure we don’t lose data or let it drop off.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rave Infosys?

At the time, I was a new customer of Salesforce, and I was using a third-party vendor to build it out. They were very corporate, and I don’t like dealing with corporate. I prefer to deal with a business that provides a more personal touch. I needed assistance across multiple aspects of Salesforce, but data management was the most important part. Medcare has a large call center, so we needed a system that could integrate all the different campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rave Infosys enabled integration within a new system, building out workflow. We never had anything on paper, as we’d just done it for a long time. This required us to put it all on paper. The system was integrated with Five9, which is a call center software. Rave helped us implement dozens of workflows.

Getting the whole process on paper, and carefully vetting through it, really opened our eyes to how proper communication really goes a long way. It helped us simplify things, to say the least.

How did you come to work with Rave Infosys?

I found them on LinkedIn. I chose Rave specifically because they seemed to fit all the criteria we had at the time. When I spoke to them about Five9 and Salesforce, they just had so much experience. They even had experience in the space.

How much have you invested with Rave Infosys?

We invested $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around May of 2015, and the project was completed about six months later.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It helped our business processes and made the workflows more efficient. We were going through a whole company revamp at the time, so it’s tough to give an accurate perception. We ended up not even moving forward with Salesforce after everything.

The quality of the work provided by Rave was great. If we had stayed on the same business course, we would have been great. We just had to go a different road.

How did Rave Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication and timelines were great. [Respondent has Monica, who was the project manager, provide the following.] They were giving us weekly updates, as well as biweekly face-to-face meetings. They set up a dashboard to update us on any changes or roadblocks.

What did you find most impressive about Rave Infosys?

It’s probably their overall knowledge on all the systems. It’s rare that you get a company that has experience with a call center environment, technology, and CRM’s. They understood our business and not just the technology that supports it.

Are there any areas Rave Infosys could improve?

No. I’ve never thought of anything they could do better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing manager for a health supplement company called Nutri-Health. We have a parent company called Wellnext, which currently has 12 or 13 different brands under its belt. We both manufacture and sell a wide variety of health supplements, vitamins, and related products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rave Infosys?

We needed a development company that could assist us with both frontend and backend development. Our team had been basically broken apart, and we needed an expert in Magento, as we had recently migrated over to that platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At first, it was maintenance and fixing bugs the previous developers had left on the site. At that time, we weren’t looking for anything major because we had just gone through a major migration from a different cart system onto Magento. We didn’t have an in-house expert to handle all the things that were needed. There were some pretty deep development needs, which Rave was able to take over and assist us with right away. Throughout the two years that we were with them, they were always able to take on any challenge we had and deliver.

We had an auto-ship system in place that worked on a totally different CRM [customer relationship management] system. One of our biggest challenges was that when we did our migration, that part was never fully completed and was not operational. Rave basically helped us to get the two systems talking. Our CRM was separate from Magento, and the majority of our orders were offline. Rave created that connection and made sure all the auto-ships were properly processing online and then feeding into the other system. They got that system up and running so we didn’t have customer service or call center-related issues. They helped us save one of the biggest parts of our business, which is our continuing or auto-ship customer base. They also helped us optimize our website for speed, navigation, and mobile-friendliness.

How did you come to work with Rave Infosys?

I was looking for Magento experts, hoping to find a local firm with whom I could meet and build a relationship. I did a search and found Rave, as well as several other companies. We interviewed three companies, and when I met with the Rave team, they came across as very knowledgeable, confident, and willing to work with us. After reviewing the various companies, I personally felt most comfortable with Rave because of the way they approached everything and the way they saw things. Our president met with them as well, and we agreed they were the best fit for our company and our needs.

How much have you invested with Rave Infosys?

We’ve invested around $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first started working with Rave in May of 2015, and our collaboration ended in April of 2017. After they got going and we saw what they were able to deliver, we kept them onboard instead of hiring internal resources. They were basically our developers for almost two years. We recently ended our relationship with them only because we’ve moved off the Magento platform. We’ve migrated to a different company who has their own team of developers. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t tracked any statistics or metrics, as their work didn’t involve anything that needed to be measured. If I were to dig into it, I’m sure I could pull up statistics in terms of our site speed and optimization work they did. Other than that, I can’t think of anything where we tracked the work they did, as it was ongoing development work and improvements.

I would say their work had a positive impact. Anytime we saw issues with our site, whether it was site load or completes coming from customers, Rave was always very willing, able, and quick to find the problem, get a resolution, test it, and make it live. They fixed the problems and improved things on an ongoing basis. They were always on top of their game and knew what they were doing. We always saw the results that you would expect. They always got to our requests in a timely manner. Ultimately, they were always diligent with their work.

How did Rave Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

I thought their project management was great for our needs. We were a small team, and a lot of the work fell on me. We didn’t necessarily have all the pieces in place that some companies may have in terms of reporting and project management tools. We had monthly catch-up calls, and Rave provided a monthly report of the work done. Anytime we had projects, we would open a ticket with them, and it was perfectly managed. We never had any issues. If we did have minor hiccups or things that were overlooked, they took care of it immediately.

They were always very good with project management. We used Basecamp for a little bit, then switched to Google Docs. I really liked that I could just pick up the phone and talk to one of the developers about what was going on. It would take maybe another phone call or an email to get it done, so we didn’t necessarily even need to track these things. Rave always had it all tracked with their monthly reports, and that was all we needed. It was almost like they were in the building with me, as if they were a part of the team.

What did you find most impressive about Rave Infosys?

They care. If we have a need, they take care of that need. They’re not just there to collect money from us like a lot of other development companies. When they say they’re going to do something, they do it. Other developers I’ve worked with in the past haven’t lived up to those standards. I ultimately think they’re very good at what they do, and they follow through. They care about the fact that they’re working on a business that faces our customers online, which obviously can affect our sales on a daily basis. They put in the time to care and be there for us, as if they were our employees.

Are there any areas Rave Infosys could improve?

They could be more proactive in suggesting things we could do to improve our business. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager for May Arts Ribbon. We’re an importer and wholesaler of high-quality ribbon for the craft industry, gift-wrapping, the floral industry, apparel use, and many other uses. We also have a small retail branch called Ribbon Resource, which is e-commerce only.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rave Infosys?

We have a WordPress website for our wholesale and retail sides, running WooCommerce. We had a lot of issues with the way that was set up initially. We needed a lot of work done to repair some broken functionality, as well as add other functionality on top of our existing websites. We also needed a lot of design change. This is a custom-coded site on WordPress, so we needed experienced developers and designers to work side by side with us to implement the changes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, the biggest change was on our retail side. The way the products were displayed was very confusing. It just didn’t work very well, and there was a lot of broken functionality and links. The way the products related to each other needed to be changed. We also wanted a lot of design changes. Rave Infosys also set up the ability for us to make changes ourselves to the banners or the way things are displayed.

For the wholesale side, it was the same type of issues. We had a lot of problems with people logging in and registering. We had design issues that they needed to fix, as well as functionality issues on the checkout process. They also helped us a lot with setting up our Google Analytics, our AdWords account, Facebook advertising, as well as how all that was tracked. They set up the backend for all that tracking for our online marketing. The work was mostly repairing the existing aspects of the sites. There were tons of small things.

We worked collaboratively on the design. I’m a graphic designer, so I could do Photoshop mockups showing how I wanted things to look. Rave would then go in and change the code, getting it to look exactly how I wanted.

How did you come to work with Rave Infosys?

I put out an ad on an online publication, and Rave called me. At the time of the call, I was in a moment of crisis, and my website was down. They helped me out at the moment to get my site live again. They asked me a couple of questions, told me what to look for, and fixed the problem right then and there over the phone. Obviously, that led to a longer relationship.

How much have you invested with Rave Infosys?

We’ve invested around $12,000 with Rave Infosys.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June of 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were seeing a downward trend in our online sales over the last five years, which is why we needed all this work done. We’re now at a stage where we’re no longer shrinking. We’ve evened out and stopped losing sales. We’re in the process of cutting back on expenses and consolidating our resources, to help the business even further. We haven’t grown the business exponentially since Rave Infosys came on board. They joined us when we were already in a bad situation.

The site has been much more reliable and stable since Rave worked on the updates and fixes. We ran a survey to all our users, with Survey Monkey, and we had very positive feedback about the functionality and ease of purchase on the site. Just about everything on that list was what Rave had worked on.

How did Rave Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

Rave Infosys was fantastic. They have an internal program, but they stressed that they could use any project management tool that I wanted. My team already used Redbooth, so I set up an account for the Rave team. All I ever had to do was put in a test, or things I needed to be done, and they jumped right in, made comments on it, added files and screenshots, and worked within our existing system. I give them an A+ on that. I scheduled the deadline for a specific task, and it would be done. They also tracked their time through my software, so I could look in the backend and see exactly how much time was spent on a specific task.

What did you find most impressive about Rave Infosys?

The most important thing for me was their ability to be organized with how their time was being allocated. Also, their communication is fantastic. Rave Infosys is in my time zone, and their team was always readily available within moments anytime I had a problem.

Are there any areas Rave Infosys could improve?

Nothing comes to mind. I’m very happy with everything they’ve done for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

VMR Products is an e-cig and e-liquid company. We build appliances and devices for e-cigs and e-liquids. Our e-commerce site is number one in our industry in terms of volume and revenue in the U.S. I do the quality assurance testing, release management, and some project management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rave Infosys?

Our e-commerce site is international. Our U.S. sites were using Interspire to manage the e-commerce site, whereas everything in Europe was Magento. We wanted to partner with a company with expertise in Magento to build customized modules and extensions for Magento.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Magento website is fully customizable. We can manage the products on the site with tier-level offerings to our customers. In terms of pricing and managing the processes around that, taxes and fees, all that had to be managed. The site already existed, and we wanted Rave to look at how our recent upgrade was working, and customize some of the extensions. One extension, in particular, was for EET. Our site for Czechoslovakia was required by the government to have an EET code for every transaction. We had an extension customized and implemented for our business.  

We’ve since extended our contract with Rave. Whenever we need extensions, modifications, or customizations, we know we can depend on them to get it done. They’re very professional and always on time. They handle any defects. They’ve become one of our preferred third-party vendors. They’re extremely knowledgeable in Magento.

How did you come to work with Rave Infosys?

Our CTO did an analysis of firms that could provide us with the best support, and we chose Rave. They had credibility in the industry, experienced personnel, and they were flexible.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rave in April of 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our site is very demanding, and it requires a high level of speed and performance. The work done by Rave has improved the site’s performance by 20%. They’re good at what they do.

How did Rave Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

I can call their lead person, and he’ll answer the phone. Their responsiveness is exceptional. Their ability to get things done and work within our schedule is also exceptional. They’ve been able to integrate with our software development lifecycle. We use JIRA to run an Agile shop, and they’re able to interface with that. That’s usually difficult for third-party contractors, particularly when you’re running within sprints and you have certain deliverables for each sprint. Not only are they knowledgeable of that process, but they’re able to integrate into our product tracking system, our tickets, and our defect tracking system. They also have access to our Confluence. They provide content when we need it. They help manage the tickets and add hours to the tickets in JIRA

What did you find most impressive about Rave Infosys?

I would say their accessibility, flexibility, dependability, and professionalism differentiates them. I’ve called them on a Saturday when we had a problem with the system, and they’ve been available.

Are there any areas Rave Infosys could improve?

The only opportunity for improvement, and it’s not a huge problem, is more insight into their analysis. If I tell them I need a particular extension, they’ll give me five options. I trust that these are the five best options, but I’d like more details on how they choose those options. It would be interesting to see how they come up with their solutions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Director of Finance and IT for The Spice and Tea Exchange. We’re a nationwide franchise of retail outlets selling gourmet spices and teas. We also have an e-commerce platform. Our web footprint includes two separate websites: an e-commerce site selling directly to retail customers and a B2B portal where our franchisees place business orders. At the corporate level, we have 49 employees. Our franchise system consists of 54 stores, each of which has between five and eight employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rave Infosys?

We had a previous development partner, but they weren’t very proactive. When we provided a very clear and detailed idea of what we wanted, they would deliver exactly that. They lacked that extra nuance and understanding of programming, e-commerce, and general web design to give us recommendations. We were missing that, and that is the main reason we switched to Rave.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rave handles both websites, but our B2B site is pretty basic and doesn’t revolve around a lot of change. Most of their work has involved unwinding something was broken by the previous developer. It’s usually just troubleshooting the occasional glitch that pops up. The e-commerce was definitely our focus.

The first thing Rave did was a full audit on the code, security patches, and setup of our site. We use the Magento platform, and they were able to identify almost a dozen security patches that we needed installed. They also did a pretty comprehensive user interface update on various links and setups that were done incorrectly, which made them less stable. So, the original scope was for them to bring our site up to a secure status and fix any user interface problems.

The biggest change we’ve made so far is our shopping cart, which was behind the times. When Rave first reviewed our site, they told us our shopping cart involved too many steps. Users had to go through five pages to make a purchase. Rave redesigned that and created a single-page checkout, which has really improved our dropped cart rate right off the bat.

Rave is currently working on a project list that mostly involved triage and repair of issues, such as integration with our shipping company and integration with our enterprise resource planning. These things already existed, but they were sloppy and unreliable.

How did you come to work with Rave Infosys?

We interviewed almost a dozen potential partners. When we looked through Magento-certified developers, we found that a number of them worked for Rave. After researching more information on the web, we reached out directly to them.

How much have you invested with Rave Infosys?

We’ve invested under $10,000 to date. I suspect this project will end up in the neighborhood of $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with them in January of 2017, and the relationship is ongoing. They’ve essentially become a permanent partner of ours. They’ll be our primary resource for general web support and development going forward.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had a decrease in the dropped cart rate, a 70% decrease so far. Since we switched to Magento, errors would pop up that forced customer complaints or issues. They reached out to us for help through their transactions. We’ve seen that almost completely eliminated just through the work Rave has done to stabilize the UI and the processes in place on our site. We’ve probably seen a 90% drop in customer inquiries when they have trouble getting through the site.

This first project on the site security and user interface was their audition. The work Rave has delivered is great, and they meet every expectation. Rave did so well that we developed a relationship that we expect to continue into the future.

Our biggest considerations in making them a long-term partner for us are their knowledge, communication, and willingness to be proactive. We don’t have in-house expertise on Magento, but we previously had to direct every update or change to the site. Our development partner was essentially just a tool for doing the programming itself. Rave has been much more proactive. Just yesterday, without any prompting, they found a couple more user interface changes they wanted to make. They made recommendations to us and then implemented them as promised, which has made an impact.

How did Rave Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

They log everything in detail, using Teamwork as their project management suite. All the timelines are logged to a project, and they have clear and measurable deliverable dates. They haven’t missed any deadlines yet. As they’re making progress toward the deadlines, it’s updated clearly. The communication has been fantastic. They set clear expectations, and they meet them.

What did you find most impressive about Rave Infosys?

I’ve worked with many development companies in the past. The thing that separates Rave is their ability to communicate. They’ve been very proactive and very clear on everything. At all times, I have a good feel for what they’re doing, when they’re going to finish, what the investment is going to be, and what the result will be. That seems like it should be a simple thing, but it isn’t in my experience.

Are there any areas Rave Infosys could improve?

It’s a little early still. If they had fallen flat at this point, we wouldn’t still be working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a full-service marketing, branding, web development, and graphic design company. I am the president and CEO of the company. It started in 2004.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rave Infosys?

We needed help with developing specific platforms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rave Infosys is a certified Magento developer. For one of our accounts, they had to dive in and fix problems caused by the previous developer while also migrating to a better hosting environment. Rave Infosys has also built multiuser WordPress installations for a B2G client who had a need for five websites under one hood. Rave Infosys handled the full architectural configuration and training documentation on behalf of the client, allowing them to manage their own content going forward. The unique thing about that particular project is that the client needed content to be developed once and then broadcast across five different websites in an automated process. The system was built in order to save them time internally.

Rave Infosys is in the process of rebuilding one of our Drupal websites as well. We were using two Drupal teams, but have migrated all the work to Rave Infosys. They're taking a Drupal 5 website built a long time ago, which was approaching its end of life, and upgrading it to Drupal 8, the more current version. We usually work with one project lead and one programmer from Rave Infosys' side. I haven't experienced working with more than two people at a time.

How did you come to work with Rave Infosys?

Ravi, their president, was a Vistage member, as was I, so we met through the network somehow. Many times, when taking part in such a networking group, we will reach out and see who else is working in the same space. My company partners with other groups who provide specialty work since we don't employ all of those disciplines.

How much have you invested with Rave Infosys?

Rave Infosys will usually give me a flat project rate based on the projected number of hours needed, which is the easiest approach unless we have a scalable scope. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rave Infosys in 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The B2G site we worked on was handled by Rave Infosys from start to finish, so it's one of the better examples of their work. It was a very smooth process, and we experienced very few issues after testing it through our in-house QC [quality control] team. It was a value-added project since we didn't have to utilize our internal resources for tracking things down. Rave Infosys is a full-service provider, so we don't have to bring our people in to double-check the work.

How did Rave Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

Rave Infosys is very good at hitting deadlines. There were no projects that went on for longer than they should have. The exception was once when there was a miscommunication, so Rave Infosys didn't start a project soon enough causing us to miss our deadline. But they made up for it by overdelivering additional features at no additional charge to the client. 

What did you find most impressive about Rave Infosys?

For many other developers we've worked with, we needed to employ a full QC team, which is the main differentiator for Rave Infosys. The quality of the work itself is the number one reason we choose to use them for building new systems.

Are there any areas Rave Infosys could improve?

Scheduling is a bit tough sometimes since we're all busy and there is a difference in time zones. Communication, in general, is always a challenge in terms of conference calls and screen shares, but this is not specific to Rave Infosys. The problem exists across the board.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Saint Leo University is based in Florida, about 30 miles north of Tampa. We have about 16,000 students. We have a main campus in Florida and additional centers in six states, some of them on military bases. We’re a pretty complex higher education system. We offer on-ground, online, and blended courses, and we leverage technology extensively. We use collaboration tools, videoconferencing, and other tools for classroom teaching.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rave Infosys?

We have a custom-built system based on the Salesforce cloud platform, which we constantly leverage when interacting with prospective and current students. We take data from our learning management system and our student information system to create a predictive model based on certain student criteria. This helps us determine which students may be at risk of dropping out or failing. We try to engage the student to assist in overcoming any barriers to success. We spend a lot of money on advertising to recruit new students, so we want to do all we can to retain those students.

It's a complex Salesforce app and is used extensively throughout our university. It was built in 2010, and we’ve been upgrading it constantly. We were originally using the Salesforce system for our online offerings, but we wanted to leverage that to handle our physical locations as well. We needed Rave Infosys to customize the code and adapt the application to this new use.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We engaged Rave Infosys in two different capacities. The first was to help us with developing the process and documenting our existing systems for retention. The other area was to enhance our campaign management routines. They helped with programming, reducing the backlog, and new user requests. We created a new campaign, and they did all the workflows for that, making sure the system is being tested in our sandbox environment and then deployed to production.

How did you come to work with Rave Infosys?

I did a web search and talked with different vendors. I was very happy with Rave Infosys’ model. The pricing was very attractive, and they had good references on their website. I had a conversation with the owner of Rave Infosys, and we felt it was a good fit. They quickly picked up the nuances of working with higher-education, and they had the right resources for the project.

How much have you invested with Rave Infosys?

This information is confidential. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from November of 2016 to March of 2017. We have an ongoing contract with Rave Infosys.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This was a large project for a very complex system. There’s a steep learning curve, and Rave Infosys did a great job understanding what was needed. They came through and delivered what was assigned to them with no issues. We haven’t compiled stats, but it’s one of our major tools. The system is in constant use by over 80 people within the university.

How did Rave Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

Rave Infosys has a very good structure and approach. They visited our campus free of charge and talked to users to get a good understanding of the higher education business. They made sure the deliverables were well-defined, and the specifications were well-communicated. They tracked the progress and ensured things were done and tested, and then they moved to production.

What did you find most impressive about Rave Infosys?

Higher education was new to Rave Infosys, and they demonstrated a willingness to engage with their client and understand the business. They even offered some free documentation services, where they mapped all the processes to make future projects easier.

Are there any areas Rave Infosys could improve?

Rave Infosys is a young company with a lot of prospects. They have a long way to go, but so far, they’re on the right track, with a small team and the right approach.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have two sides of our business. One side deals with communication electronics. We service the local area, but we also ship communication electronics worldwide. The other side of our business does satellite communication. We provide and service equipment to people off the grid. I am the marketing manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rave Infosys?

When we first approached Rave Infosys, we wanted to revamp our the communication electronics side of the business. Our website was outdated, and it wasn’t providing us with the options with which we wanted to reach our target clientele.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In total, Rave Infosys designed and developed both of our sites using Magento. To start these projects, we had a few in-house meetings. We got to know their team really well. They learned our business and platform very quickly. After these projects were completed and we knew we could trust them, we started giving them smaller projects that were not Magento based, and they developed several solutions for us. Rave Infosys has helped us with any issues we have with Magento and with downtime. They also designed a few banners for us. They’ve been our go-to offsite webmaster for all of our issues. We continue to use their expertise to update our website.

How did you come to work with Rave Infosys?

We were looking for Magento developers in the South Florida area that we could have a personal, ongoing relationship with. Rave Infosys was the only team we found that was willing to come to our office. They came with ideas, and we really liked their work. We felt like they understood what we were trying to accomplish.

How much have you invested with Rave Infosys?

We have spent over $25,000 with Rave Infosys over the course of our relationship.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2014, and the work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're seeing that the customers are more pleased with the interactions that the website provides for them. We have a chat option on our website to be able to retain the customer once they do find us. Our customers are happy with the site and are able to easily find what they need. The banners they designed gave us a great starting point, and we used that to build on using our in-house design team.

How did Rave Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated in person to get the projects started and then we used phone calls, web conferences, and emails. We have had one project manager throughout our relationship, and he’s very responsive. Any issues we’ve had, he’s been able to get them solved quickly. Rave Infosys was great with deadlines. Any delays were because of our team.

What did you find most impressive about Rave Infosys?

Rave Infosys is always available. I don’t have to spend hours typing out emails to explain something because they know our business and platform so well. That’s worth millions to us.

Are there any areas Rave Infosys could improve?

We haven’t given Rave Infosys enough of an opportunity to show us everything they’re capable of, but I don’t know of anything they can improve on what they have provided for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company works in the paint body and equipment segment. We are a B2B supplier for what are called jobbers, who then supply all of our products to body shops. We supply anything needed to fix a dented car, whether it's paint, Bondo, sandpaper, or anything else.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rave Infosys?

When I started working for the company 3 ½ years ago, we had a proprietary B2B system. We didn't own any of the product content or programs. It was 8 years old and there was no development being done for it moving forward. The challenge was to move away from it and start our own system from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a significant project, including not only the software side of things but also creating all product content like descriptions and photos for 30,000 items. Once we decided on the Magento platform, Rave Infosys' team basically provided all of our client customizations. In addition to design and development, Rave Infosys came to the table with suggestions on what we needed to change.

We worked with one project manager from Rave Infosys, and their owner was also involved. I don't know how many programmers were assigned to the job, and I'm glad that I was shielded from that since I only cared about the work getting done. Rave Infosys also provides ongoing support.

They created integration between our backend database and the Magento system. As a B2B company, each one of our customers can have a different pricing tier for every different product. There is a lot of integration in order for them to have live information about our different inventories across multiple warehouses. This is accomplished through live calls to our backend, which are fed to the Magento platform.

We have 15 warehouse locations, and we don't stock all our products in each one. Because of this, there is an additional layer between the shopping cart and the actual checkout, which we call the "decision page". It's the place in which we determine the best way for shipping to a customer who is expecting the delivery during the next day, based on product availability and customer location. We go through a number of gyrations, telling customers which items will come from the primary location and which ones will ship from the next closest one. The client then has the option of placing items in the back order until they can get them from the primary warehouse. There is a lot of logic behind determining what a customer should get and when, as well as what they'll have to pay for.

How did you come to work with Rave Infosys?

We started with the typical RFP [request for proposal] and spoke to around 11 companies. Rave Infosys was the best fit and also located in our general neighborhood. We liked their services, understanding, and willingness to provide Agile development. We didn't wait to create a document, but instead had immediate conversations with Rave Infosys' team. Our RFP gave us a 10,000-foot view of what we were trying to accomplish. The old site was at least functional, giving us something to look at.

I liked the culture and methodology used by Rave Infosys' team. Many other companies we consulted wanted to have a six-week study and draw the whole thing up. They wanted to employ change management and charge us every time we wanted to move a field from the left to the right. I didn't want to get bogged down into that level of change management. Rave Infosys allowed us to define the 10,000-foot level, create some basic wireframes and logic, and talk until we'd evolved the platform to where it needed to be.

How much have you invested with Rave Infosys?

The cost of Rave Infosys' work has been between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rave Infosys in January 2015. We continue to roll out quarterly updates on the site's functionalities.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With our old site, our company's growth was near stagnant and somewhat anemic, sitting at around 3%. That is basically cost-of-living, based on inflation. In our first full year using the new system developed by Rave Infosys, we went up to 17%.

Change is hard for everyone, so it can start out a little rough. After a couple of weeks, everyone came around and used our site. The bar had been set low with the previous page since it hadn't been changed in over eight years. Our B2B site looks a lot like a B2C one, which is what our clients are used to using.

How did Rave Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

The most important thing to share is that Rave Infosys' delivered on time and within budget. They did what they needed to do, actually making a huge change 60 days before our go-live date. I can't say enough about our partnership with Rave Infosys.

We're now undertaking a move to Magento 2, which will require a complete rewrite from scratch since the technology stack has been completely changed. I can understand this happening after the 10-year life of the platform, but we caught a bad break by going live one month before Magento made the announcement. I have enough confidence in Rave Infosys to start over again.

We used Google Docs and Microsoft Project, in order to keep track of what was going on. There were many customizations we didn't want to lose track of.

What did you find most impressive about Rave Infosys?

Rave Infosys is a partner, not a vendor. I think that this says it all.

Are there any areas Rave Infosys could improve?

Rave Infosys delivered on time and within budget. I can't complain against someone delivering what they promised to deliver.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an e-commerce company which sells replacement panels and new raised floors to data centers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rave Infosys?

Our first objective was to renovate the existing technology that had become obsolete. We were very early adopters of internet technology, and we put our first web page up in 1994. The scripts behind our website and our intranet were all outdated. We moved to a more robust application, and we wanted to fully upgrade everything electronic. We completely revamped everything we were doing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done a lot for us. We first hired them to redo our backend and our website. Since then, I have kept them busy on more projects because we’re always changing and updating. They moved us over to Magento and fully customized it to fit the way we do business.

We have a very advanced payment receiving system, as our customers have different payment options. The payments we receive then funnel into various reports. We also have a very intense email capturing system that works with Gmail. Rave Infosys did the system architecture, so we’re able to use our Gmail as a customer management system.

They also outlined a vendor management system. We’re now fully integrated with our shipping vendors and able to produce our own shipping documents. We’re also integrated with Amazon and PayPal.

How did you come to work with Rave Infosys?

I saw an ad on Craigslist. When I first talked to them, they told me that they had developers in the US and India. We realized that we were within 30 minutes of each other, and arranged an in-person meeting. Rave’s references were so amazing that I took a leap of faith, and I’ve been with them ever since.

How much have you invested with Rave Infosys?

This information is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first project started in October 2009, and the work is ongoing. We always have new development challenges, as we want to continue to grow.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before they redesigned our system, it took a lot more personnel to process orders. They’ve reduced our processing time and increased our profitability, which allows us to deliver a better product to our customers.

How did Rave Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent; I have no complaints. We developed an outline of what we needed to accomplish. When they had an issue with the code, they always let me know. I feel like I always knew exactly where we were. They kept me in the loop. We used Mantis for trouble tickets, and Skype was our primary method of communication.

What did you find most impressive about Rave Infosys?

Their principal is an amazing visionary. He helps us go in directions that we didn’t know would be possible. I also appreciate the high quality they deliver. There’s an excellence with Rave which I think is part of their culture. They’re all very willing to go the extra step.

We had a slight security breach once with PayPal on a Friday afternoon. Someone had taken a database of stolen credit cards and used our account to validate them, and we were getting hundreds of phone calls. Our project manager stepped in and was on the phone with PayPal until after midnight. I saw the true measure of Rave Infosys when we were under fire, and it was awesome. We got everything resolved thanks to their commitment.

Are there any areas Rave Infosys could improve?

I haven’t seen anything. Anytime I had a concern, they addressed it.