Savas Labs

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the application analyst of a grant-funded program that does HIV/AIDS research and prevention in mother-to-child transmission.

What challenge were you trying to address with Savas Labs?

Our Adobe Dreamweaver website was built in 2013. It was thrown together using an existing site template. We wanted a completely new CMS and a refresh of our site.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Savas Labs built our new website in Drupal 9. They handled front-and backend development. We went through extensive design iterations. They connected the site to a SQL server database that we manage ourselves.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two frontend designers, two backend developers, and one project manager.

How did you come to work with Savas Labs?

We sent out an RFP and received a lot of proposals that we narrowed down based on technical prowess. Savas Labs had already done another project for our department successfully. Their project management skills and technical team also led us to select them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a little under $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019, and we launched in January 2021. We still have an active contract with them for small enhancements and updates.

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

Our internal team and external collaborators all love the website so far. Their design team was very responsive to our suggestions and changes.

How did Savas Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They used Teamwork for project management. We communicated mostly through their project manager, who was fantastic. They were always very responsive and quick to get things moving.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We looked at a lot of proposals for this project. Our SQL server database isn’t a normal part of the Drupal stack. Savas Labs was one of the few vendors that was able to clearly explain how they’d connect to our database.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. Their project management capabilities have improved night and day since the first time engaging with them five years ago.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to prepare to spend time with Savas Labs and be engaged. Give them real feedback to work off of.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of sales and marketing at a SaaS platform for product developers and designers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Savas Labs?

As a product company, we spend a lot of time focusing on our own products. It became challenging to find time to work on our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired a contractor to revamp our website but they weren’t able to finish. We hired Savas Labs to finish our site where the other contractor left off.

They migrated our React and Gatsby website to a WordPress platform. We provided the design but they built out the frontend and hooked it up to a CMS for us to use. They also provided project management over the developer that was doing the build.

It’s a standard marketing site with links supporting documentation, products, and legal terms. Visitors are directed to our sales team when they enter our site.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one engineer and one product manager.

How did you come to work with Savas Labs?

One of their founders worked at an agency with a friend of mine. My friend referred me to Savas Labs. We had a quick chat and it seemed like a good fit.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020, and we wrapped up in March 2020.

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

Savas Labs was able to deliver what we asked on time and on budget. We’ve gotten good feedback from the design and developer communities we’re a part of. Our customers were also happy with what they saw, too.

How did Savas Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Teamwork for project management to share documents and tasks. They were good communicators. The team was always clear, timely, and easy to work with. We also had a shared Slack channel.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re an easy-going team that understood what we were asking for.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did everything we asked them to do. They did a good job executing the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to have a defined brief so that both parties can be clear on expectations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I direct digital communications for a university’s office of alumni engagement and development.

What challenge were you trying to address with Savas Labs?

The university had a project concerning a new initiative. We needed a microsite that creatively presented information about our science and technology initiative. We needed independent support for my internal web development team, helping to build a starting point for learning about the topic. We wanted to start by building something simple but also supporting scalability. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Savas Labs helped our team build the website from scratch. However, we did use technology and tools throughout the project. At the base, we wanted to work against the WordPress platform. In collaboration with us, they created the concept and design. It was a comprehensive project, involving frontend and backend development.

What is the team composition?

At least 6–8 people from Savas Labs worked on this project.

How did you come to work with Savas Labs?

I was familiar with their founders and their previous work for the university. When looking for solution providers, I was able to connect with Ben (CEO).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the initiative in late October 2020 and finished on schedule at the end of January 2021.

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

They efficiently and creatively executed the project against a tight timeline. The site is new, having only been live for about a month and a half. At the moment, we’re just establishing a site launch baseline.

However, our numbers jumped from zero to substantial four-digit numbers within a few weeks. I expect that those to continue climbing upward.

How did Savas Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Basecamp-type tools while their team used tools like Teamwork. There was a whole suite of communication apps in play. The collaborative tools allowed us to efficiently work remotely during COVID-19. We ran this project like a normal engagement though.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Agility distinguishes Savas Labs from other providers. Their team was flexible and creative. They cohesively and capability put all of a project’s pieces together. Their team took a 30,000-foot view with us and saw the project’s nuances and put those pieces together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. Although we rely on internal resources and haven’t worked with too many vendors, Savas Labs was one of the top groups I’ve worked with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When you work with any creative agency, it’s helpful to give them the latitude to run with their ideas. It’s also important to give them the most information about content, style, and goals upfront. That gives them the ability to run ahead and come up with ideas relatively unfettered.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a program director for a higher education institution in North Carolina.

What challenge were you trying to address with Savas Labs?

We were tasked with creating an interactive research roadmap. We wanted to bring content from 30–35 offices, each having their own website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed and developed a Drupal website from scratch. The goal was to create one central website that would bring together information from all these different offices and be very interactive and engaging for users.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Chris (CEO), one program manager, one designer, and two different developers.

How did you come to work with Savas Labs?

We reached out to our procurement office, and they had previously done some work with other offices. They were highly recommended with the ADA compliance with the websites they’d done before. We reached out to them, as well as two other local companies, and got bids from all of them. We decided to go with Savas because we felt a lot more comfortable with the pitch that they gave us, we liked their aesthetic design style and a variety of other factors.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and we wrapped up development in September 2020. They’re still involved in maintenance and upkeep.

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

We’ve done a couple of demos of this site for our higher-level leadership, and we’ve gotten very positive feedback. People are very excited about how it meets our goals, it’s very user friendly, interactive, and easy to use.

How did Savas Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great with project management. Maddy (Full-Stack Developer) was our project manager and we met weekly. We got updates from her every week on the timeline and the budget. and they were flexible throughout our project, too.  They totally stayed within our budget and finished slightly ahead of time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team seemed very genuine and they were all good people. They were really fun, professional, and enjoyable to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not necessarily. We did have to do some tweaks afterward, but that could be because we didn’t explain it correctly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

 I’m the VP of client services at a strategy, design, and development agency. I oversee our project management and account management teams, along with project delivery.

What challenge were you trying to address with Savas Labs?

We have a long-standing relationship with the University of Virginia, and their Darden School of Business. For many years, they used Drupal as their platform, which isn’t a platform we develop in.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought Savas on as our partner to execute a re-design project. We did the content work and information architecture, and they took on the backend development work in Drupal. They were the CMS implementors on the project. Their work ranged from technical consulting, to integrating our frontend development files as templates in Drupal, and project management.

What is the team composition?

The core team was 3–4 people.

How did you come to work with Savas Labs?

Our offices are actually right across the street from each other. The COO at Savas was formerly a project manager at our company, too. We knew that they specialized in Drupal and that they’d done similar higher education work with Duke, so that’s how we vetted their work and brought them on as a partner.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off in October 2018, and we launched in August 2019. They provided support until October 2019.

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

The feedback that we got from the client is that the CMS hit all of the goals we were looking for. It was flexible, easy to use, intuitive, and they’ve also been able to take over ownership in-house.

How did Savas Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Since this was a multi-vendor dynamic, we ran into the most challenges with project management. The team was incredibly collaborative, and we both ended up being flexible on our timelines and budgets to come to an ultimate solution. This was probably the area of the project where we had the most amount of overhead, too. We used BaseCamp, Slack, and Redmine for project management and communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a trusted partnership with them and we know they can jump in and collaborate easily with our teams. They also give us recommendations and push back for the best technical approach, especially since they know the ins and outs of Drupal. They came through on that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The main thing that we both discussed was investing more time in technical discovery and feature definition. That way, we could’ve set the client’s expectations around how things would work in the CMS and what was possible.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re incredibly collaborative, open, and honest in their communication. Embracing them as part of your team and going all-in on that collaboration will yield the best result. The team is very solutions-focused and will get to an end result that’ll work for everyone.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Vintoux is a startup for myself and a few other entrepreneurs.

What challenge were you trying to address with Savas Labs?

We had the concept and some of the basic user flows, but we needed a company to build the app for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed backend database development and API integration. They worked with React Native.

What is the team composition?

Their team had a team of two developers. We had a project manager as our point person and a lead developer.

How did you come to work with Savas Labs?

We researched companies to work with. That involved a search in the Raleigh-Durhan area. I had a conversation with them and it was clear that we shared values in common. The local partnership and its transparency made it easy to connect.

How much have you invested with them?

It was between $50,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work went from November 2019 to April 2020.

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

The quality of the development work that we got was very good. They embraced the idea of collaboration and partnership. The collaboration was ultimately successful in launching the app. Any issues that we encountered, which were typically on our side, they jumped on the phone to help us.

How did Savas Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management involved a strong tool that they shared with us. The project manager kept everything well-organized. They were able to follow through and execute on deadlines. It wasn’t a problem at all.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their strategic abilities. Their thoughtfulness about user flows and presentation was great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I was very happy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We asked them to share their expertise and recommendations. We listened to it—I’d say we followed most of their recommendations. You should approach the situation with flexibility. We had some healthy debates on what made the right sense for our business. Let their expertise guide the path forward.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Marketing & Communications for a unit of Duke University that provides educational programs to gifted students in grades 4-12. Our student base is located across the U.S. and the kids we serve go on to enroll in a wide variety of universities.

Our goal is to help them reach their full academic potential in the years heading up to college while supporting their emotional and social needs. In addition to program staff, we have a large research department that specializes in giftedness.

For what projects/services did your company hire Savas Labs?

We hired SAVAS to conduct a usability study of our main website. This was with the understanding that the usability study would be the first step in a re-design of our main website.

What were your goals for this project?

To see if our 4-year old website design still satisfied our needs and delivered our stakeholders the info they needed in a an intuitive, seamless way. In addition, because there were so many conflicting opinions within our organization as to how the website should be improved for the future, we felt bringing in outside experts might help settle some internal debates.

How did you select this vendor?

We asked for proposals from a number of companies, outlining our goals and needs. Three companies submitted proposals that put them in the final round, but SAVAS won out on the strength of their proposal. 

They had really listened to what we needed, created a proposal that addressed our concerns, provided a great deal of helpful background information as part of their proposal, outlined a specific approach upfront and really seemed to be listening to us.

In addition, their price for a usability study was very competitive. They were upfront about what we would get for our money, what might be needed in the future, and what could be cut if our budget needed trimming. Not once have they ever pressured us into contracting for more then we needed. In fact, their entire communication style is to be upfront, frank, and transparent. It is very much appreciated.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a website originally designed by an in-house university-wide team that served us to four years but nonetheless had created confusion among our stakeholders because of its architecture, design style (non typical treatment of links), and complexity.

We brought SAVAS in to conduct in-person and online usability studies and focus groups with our parent, educator, student, and alumni stakeholder groups. After conducting this research for us, SAVAS presented recommendations on what our actual users felt about the website along with recommendations for how we could prove it.

Their recommendations included things we could do internally at no extra cost, short-term strategies for improving the existing website, and a longer term plan for redesigning it.

What was the team composition?

On my end, my content manager served as point person for the project. i was heavily involved, and other team members rotated in and out as needed. Our Executive Director wanted to be a hands-on member of the project team toward the end and SAVAS accommodated her nicely.

From a SAVAS standpoint, I was aware of two SAVAS principals plus various developers, focus group and survey leaders, and support staff on the project.

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

They created a recommendations presentations that was incredibly helpful. They provided background and context, educated a lot of people on our end on the issues involved plus the terminology, then presented their findings in a very clean, prioritized way that addressed our budget concerns and manpower constraints.

They really got that we needed to work within certain parameters and respected that. I found their recommendations to be right on the money, presented in a way that made them palatable to leadership.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were great! They set up a special instant messaging channel for us, had an account manager, kept us updated daily, and responded to our questions in a very timely fashion.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

1. They way they really listened to us.
2. Their ability to put our best interests over their desire to land more projects from us.
3. The way they stuck to their deadlines and made every single one. When is the last time that has ever happened in any project?
4. The way senior SAVAS staff stayed involved in the project from start to finish.
5. The way they delivered exactly what they had promised they would.
6. The way they communicated with us in a very transparent,  non-B.S. way.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Honestly, I see no areas where they could improve. We considered tiny one man shops, huge ad agencies,and then SAVAS which turned out to be the perfect middle ground. We got personalized service with real, specialized expertise.  Their account service was great and their advice right on the money.  We will be using them again.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We were a design agency that hired Savas to supplement development work on a prototype that we were designing for the client, Videntity and the Alliance for Better Health. I am the CEO of the design agency, Clade Design.

For what projects/services did your company hire Savas Labs?

We needed a web app prototype in order to test our designs with various non-profit organizations in the Albany NY area. They were hired to build out this prototype based on our designs.

What were your goals for this project?

The Alliance for Better Health was working with Videntity on allowing the homeless or underprivileged community have access to their health information when working with these organizations. It was a system where all the organizations could share information about these patients.

How did you select this vendor?

Savas labs came recommended and was based in the same city as the client, Videntity.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They built a front-end web application with no back-end integrations. The purpose being that the client would use this front-end to hook in existing integrations. We needed an accessible design that looked good and reflected the design work that we did to a T.

What was the team composition?

Two back-end developers, two designers, and Savas provided the front-end developer.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We were successful in the initial launch, but the client was unsure if they wanted to move forward after seeing the prototype since it infringed on another product that they owned.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We managed Savas lab's employee. She was very effective in her communication and timeline.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of work and knowledge was exceptional. Even though this was a smaller project, they handled it like pros and executed a prototype that was fully fleshed out and realized.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I witnessed.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the cofounder and CTO of Killer Aces Media. We run one of the top personal finance sites in the world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Savas Labs?

Our company has been working with their team for over a decade for all of our IT consulting and assistance that we need. Our most recent project was the overhaul of our entire server system.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were seeing a lot of outages across our system and wanted to get our uptime to 99.95%. They overhauled our server system to do that, instituting technologies like Varnish and Long Train, and eventually achieved over the 99.95% uptime goal that we had set.

Since then, we have kept them on retainer for 5-10 hours a month to monitor the servers and provide upgrades or updates as they need to happen. All of that has been on top of the work they do maintaining our Drupal website, helping us to upgrade that as needed and occasionally implementing custom modules as well.

What was the team composition?

For the server overhaul project, I mainly worked with three people at Savas, including a main project manager who came from an engineering background. The main guy doing the work was one of the senior engineers, and occasionally one of their directors would consult on various components.

How did you come to work with Savas Labs?

We talked to them about this project, received a few RFPs from their team and several others, but decided to hire Savas Labs for the work in the end.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, the project cost around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This latest big project ran from February 2017–May 2018, but we have continued working with them on a retainer basis.

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

The quality of their work is really great. I trust their team completely, which is one of the most critical contributors to our success. They do highly in-depth research both on the technology itself and to understand our business needs so that they can deliver the most comprehensive proposals possible.

How did Savas Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

One of their biggest strengths is the communication either from the directors or from the engineers directly. They give incredibly honest feedback on the context of why certain things are good decisions based on the cost of the solution versus the severity of the business problem.

Their project manager is always on top of our weekly calls and provides really thorough updates on our progress and plans for the upcoming week. They have given me the ability to log in and monitor the results myself as well, which I really appreciate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think their culture really starts from the top. Chris really cares about the clients he works with and is very passionate, and that attitude spreads down to the rest of his company. They really care about providing a quality product to their customer rather than just serving as a factory production line.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Because I do have such a relationship of trust built up with them, I keep asking them to provide more services, and I sometimes wish they had a broader offering in that regard. But everything they do, they do extremely well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest with them about your needs. They are on the expensive side for providers, but you get quality for that price, and they are more than willing to work with you to adjust the work order to make sure that it fits your budget. The more open you are about what you’re struggling with, the better they will be able to help you find a solution for that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the technology director at Omega Institute. We’re a holistic learning center.

What challenges were you trying to address Savas Labs?

We’re brought them on to build a new Drupal 9 website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re helping us transfer from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9, ensuring everything is up to speed. They’re working with us on architecture, UX, and web design. We want to launch more robust online learning, so web development is essential. In the near future, they’ll also be helping us with improvements to our e-commerce platform. 

 We’re a multi-faceted organization, but they’re helping us make the best choices for our site and the institute as a whole

What is the team composition?

We have 6–8 people working on the project including a project manager, UX designer, front- and backend developer, and a designer. There are also internal resources from my side that are working with them. 

How did you come to work with Savas Labs?

My web consultant attended a Drupal conference and connected with them there. Their mission aligned well with our values, so we had a lot of respect and understanding of one another. Their time feels like part of my team. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested well over $1 million dollars. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our first big project with them around July 2017. Our work is ongoing, and they’ve worked with us on several web projects.

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

They’re really clear and are willing to be in a negotiation about what’s possible. Their team manages their hours and scope so that we can stay within budget. It feels like a partnership, rather than just a client-vendor relationship. They want to understand us. 

When we’ve had times where things didn’t go as planned, they were always willing to help us fix issues with long term solutions. 

How did Savas Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve had several project managers with them. Both were really on top of it. Originally, we used Redmine, but they’ve since switched over to Teamwork. The communication is clear and constant. They provide a lot of detail and documentation, so it’s easy to revisit information if necessary. 

We have a weekly check-in meeting to go over hours, budget, and plans for the week. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Savas Labs has been the best experience I’ve had with any web design company. They’re truly about being a partner in how one plans their technology. They’re willing to do research to help us see things with a fresh perspective by providing us with options. Their team values being part of our strategy. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Initially, there were a few problems with project management. However, as our relationship has grown, those issues have dissipated. They’re growing as a company and are learning how to navigate it all, and they’re very self-aware. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Be willing to be in a relationship with them. This means being communicative and letting them know what you need. The best way to be successful is through transparency.