RMG

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of technology at a grocery company that has been around for over 100 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with RMG?

I needed to quickly pivot our technology from an entrenched, old-school SaaS player to an open-source, in-house solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to bring what is typically an in-store experience online. We needed to bring that CX online and heavy integrations into our legacy systems. They used Magento 2.

What is the team composition?

There were around 13 people.

How did you come to work with RMG?

I've worked with them in the past and had a lot of confidence in them. We’d met at various industry trade meetings and have kept in touch with them. We brought in several technology vendors on the software side and determined that we would want to go forward with Magento 2 because it’s open-source and extensible.

I had a lot of confidence in RMGs ability with Magento 2. They knew what they were doing and had reputable clients for references. We were moving on a fast timeline and I liked their development philosophy. They were informative but they spent a lot of the budget actually doing versus talking.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from October 2017–January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to quickly get a POC up with a new theme, and look and feel. I was able to roll out the features and approximate the date users will be able to see it. I was able to share the product in demo mode with the executive team as well. 

The milestones were more or less on target. After every sprint, we were able to use the software that they created. We had a few key milestones along the way like the catalog and search function.

How did RMG perform from a project management standpoint?

I had an assigned project manager. We were able to get direct access to Jira. I had access to the same things that their team did. We got weekly reports on where we were on target or off target and if so, by how much. We got defect rates along the way and were able to look at the user stories.

They also created Jira reports for us and burned down dashboards. We were able to visibly see the board itself as the work materialized from planning and scoping to in-progress to approved. We were able to sign off on most of the big FX decisions along the way. We were able to follow their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We didn’t leverage their marketing services much because we have a pretty substantial marketing department, but I wish we had. They had some really good advice on marketing against our competition. Similar to their development process, they’re able to show us Google Analytics, bids, and conversions. I wish we had leaned in there a bit more.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I had a little bit of difficulty rolling it out to the senior leadership team. They’ve been there for 20+ years and they’re used to seeing more Excel and printed reports. RMG was more modern and agile and they don’t have those types of things. It would have helped internally if they were able to provide those reports in a more traditional manner for our executive team. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d start with a smaller, tangible project. I recommend creating a major new feature or a prototype to make sure you’re able to work with the team. They work at a rapid pace that's very agile in nature. Make sure you are comfortable with that approach.

It would also help to have enough concrete evidence and you can demonstrate success along the way for your executive team.