Serfe

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Marketpage

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

MarketPage™ is a best-in-class marketing content technology that integrates with existing CMS and e-commerce platforms, but solves for all the problems those platforms have with large-scale, data-driven marketing efforts.  The platform includes multiple tools that massively increase market share and improve audience acquisition by creating data-driven content, pages or internal linking at scale. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Serfe to accomplish?

• Complete software development work for data processing pipelines used to deliver our Pages and Smart Content projects
• Develop and Configure widgets in our customized Pages product.

SOLUTION

How did you find Serfe?

Online Search

Why did you select Serfe over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Serfe were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Serfe has provided the following deliverables over the two-year engagement:

• Python / Airflow / Databricks software development to build data processing pipelines for customer data ingestion on many Marketpage Pages and Smart Content projects.
• Development of WordPress widgets
• Configuration of Worpress widgets
• Development of data API for Pages projects and Smart Content projects for multiple customers.
• Configuration of content that mixes variables and templated English language to create unique content for sites from 1000 to 16 million pages. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our company tracked project tasking in Jira. Serfe participates in our normal Software development sprint process.

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

Serfe developers were solid and were extremely helpful in augmenting our development team. Serfe developers responded and stepped up to increased requests and new development projects that they had less background in and delivered excellent results. 

What was your primary form of communication with Serfe?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Unlike many offshore companies, with Serfe, we can scale up and down the hours we use from the company with the requested hours forecasting we provide. Many operations want a commitment to full-time resources, which does not work for an Agency business model where the demand for services constantly changes. 

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

We're delighted with our continuous partnership with Serfe and are working with them to improve delivery and collaboration.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Operations of The Center for Guided Montessori Studies

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Online teacher training

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Serfe to accomplish?

• Complete a software project that another vendor abandoned
• Add new features to this project once completed
• Maintain this software project

SOLUTION

How did you find Serfe?

Online Search

Why did you select Serfe over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Serfe were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Serfe was selected to help us complete a software project that another vendor abandoned.They excelled at this. The project was a complex integration of an LMS package called Moodle with a bespoke subscription, CRM, and billing package. Deliverables included a custom Moodle plugin, server configuration, database design, and many milestones along the way to a fully functioning project.

This was 8 years ago, so some of the specifics escape me at this point. Serfe was the sole development team and worked with us to draw up specifications including user stories. We were highly satisfied with their approach to project management, their careful attention to details, and their communication skills.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A working subscription system that integrated a public facing web store, a user-facing subscription management system, integration with our Moodle LMS using a plugin, and various administrative tools and reports.

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

Yes. They were excellent at communication and meeting goals on time and on budget.

What was your primary form of communication with Serfe?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their communication skills are excellent. By which I don't mean that their english is good and easy to understand (it is) but rather that they are responsive, easy to reach, and provide ample regular updates about project status.

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

Serfe is not the cheapest software company out there as measured by their hourly rate. However, if I consider the number of hours it may have taken a "cheaper" company in India or eastern Europe to achieve the same goals, I am highly satisfied that Serfe is very cost effective. Every one of my coworkers that interfaced with them has shared praise. I cannot think of any areas for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of Local Galaxy Digital

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Wordpress and Joomla website design and cms development, digital seo/sem marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Serfe to accomplish?

• Resolve Bugs and Optimize Functionality: Identify and rectify bugs, such as those related to project sites, quizzes, and login issues, to optimize overall system functionality and provide users with a smooth and error-free experience.
• Revamp Content Management and Customization: Update website themes, alter reports, and manage content effectively to align with changing requirements, ensuring a dynamic and visually appealing online presence.
• Facilitate Learning Pathways and Certification Renewals: Develop and improve learning paths, renewals, and certification processes to enhance user training experiences, providing structured learning and streamlined certification renewals.
• Enable International Expansion: Implement a global map feature to facilitate international user engagement, focusing on Europe and the Americas, ensuring the platform's reach and relevance on a global scale.
• Enhance Data Management and Reporting: Cleanse data, add download functionalities, and customize reporting features to improve data management, enabling more robust and accessible reporting for stakeholders.
• Ensure Language Localization: Resolve language-related issues, such as Dutch and Spanish errors, to provide a localized experience for users, increasing accessibility and catering to diverse linguistic preferences.
• Strengthen Security Measures: Address permissions, logins, and security concerns to fortify the platform against potential vulnerabilities, safeguarding user data and ensuring a secure digital environment.
• Optimize Project Management and Documentation: Streamline project management processes, including documentation and communication, to enhance collaboration and ensure efficient progress tracking throughout the development lifecycle.
• Achieve Enhanced User Experience: Implement responsive design and accessible navigation menus to ensure a seamless and user-friendly interaction for visitors across various devices and abilities.
• Ensure Technical Currency and Stability: Execute upgrades, including Joomla 4 and PHP, to enhance system performance, security, and compatibility, maintaining a modern and stable technological foundation.

SOLUTION

How did you find Serfe?

Upwork

Why did you select Serfe over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Communication

How many teammates from Serfe were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Serfe has been providing custom website and application development services within open-source platforms for several years. The current project website has over 3,000,000 views and 25,000 users. Serfe always provides reliable service and top level, deliverables. Their project management system is top-notch, and communication is very reliable. During the pandemic we teamed up for a major project providing online training services to a Fortune100 Company. 
Our company has worked with many vendors over the years and Serfe stands at the top of the list for technical proficiency, communication and overall reliability and level of service.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• User Engagement Metrics: Increased user interactions and engagement on the platform, measured through metrics like page views, session durations, and quiz completions.
• Bug Resolution Rate: Successful resolution of reported bugs, measured by the percentage of identified bugs that have been addressed and fixed.
• System Uptime and Performance: Improved system reliability and performance, demonstrated by increased uptime and reduced page load times, ensuring a smooth user experience.
• Learning Path Adoption: Higher adoption rates for learning paths and certification renewals, indicating successful implementation and user participation in training programs.
  
  

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

The Serfe Ticketing system is excellent tracking for your project.

What was your primary form of communication with Serfe?

Email or Messaging App

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

Expertise, professionalism, and trustworthiness.

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

There's nothing they need to improve on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Digital Product Manager of Falabella.com

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The largest retailer in South America

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Serfe to accomplish?

• Develop plugins
• Develop SDK
• Provide technical support

SOLUTION

How did you find Serfe?

Other

Why did you select Serfe over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

What was the size of Serfe’s team?

2-5 Employees

What was your primary form of communication with Serfe?

Virtual Meeting

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

Development of 3 eCommerce Plugins, these plugins should be designed to seamlessly integrate with our platform (Seller Center) and enhance the eCommerce experience for our users. Provide technical support to our partners and self-integrated sellers. This will involve troubleshooting technical issues and resolving any problems that arise in a timely and professional manner. 

Maintenance of PHP SDK, ensuring that it is up to date and functioning properly. This will involve making updates to the code as needed, debugging any issues that arise, and ensuring that the SDK is compatible with our platform and other systems.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• 3 plugins developed 
• updated SDK 
• Helped key sellers to integrate with Falabella & Linio

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

Yes, the team consistently demonstrated a high level of professionalism in their work, consistently delivering top-quality results on projects. Their deep knowledge and expertise in PHP and React was invaluable, and they consistently went above and beyond in their efforts to solve issue and hard development tasks.

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

The team members

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

There was nothing they needed to improve on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a brick and mortar furniture store located in California, USA also supported by a e-commerce website. I am the owner and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our company hired Serfe.com to resolve a series of bugs and deficiencies left behind by the original (and horrible) developers of our website. Once these were corrected we have continued to work with Serfe.com on many major website improvements and ongoing maintenance and updates.

SOLUTION

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

I interviewed three companies. I was impressed with the timeliness and clarity of communication as well as there fair and transparent pricing structure.

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

Initial conversations were on scheduled calls all remaining (and continuing) communication have been through email and/or their internal work-flow cloud based software. Serfe has provided expert advice with all things Magento. From front-end design, layout and function to all types of backend operations including (but not limited to) extension additions/configurations/updates, custom coding to satisfy our requests, bug detections and fixes, SEO improvement and much more.

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

A project manager was assigned to us and has been with us since the beginning. A several senior developers, developers and junior developers have working on various aspects of the site. Task assignments were based on level of expertise needed to complete the tasks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Serfe has delivered on everything we have asked for. If we make a request, that request is acknowledged right away and responded to in a timely manor. Each response includes a clear estimation of the cost and timeline of that specific project. We have had many simple projects requiring only an hour or two of time and also several major improvement projects requiring 150-200 hours of work. Almost every project was completed within the estimated hours.

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

Serfe uses their own platform for creating, monitoring, linking and completing tasks. Any time feedback is required from my team, an email is generated and any reply is logged into their system. Communication takes place daily. (Mon-Fri)

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

We have been most impressed with the level of communication, quality of work provided, and overall cost.

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

I wish some projects could have been completed faster, but that is likely due to the fact that Serfe works within our budget parameters. We told them we were willing to spend up to $xxxx.xx per week for their services and they have always kept their billable hours within our budget.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a USA-based medical software startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We onboarded Serfe to add new functionality to our customer-facing web app and to make our backend more robust to support multi-tenancy, user privileges, etc.

SOLUTION

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

We initially chose 3 web development firms to interview. Serfe was very responsive and addressed our questions immediately. They also provided references that I contacted before hiring Serfe.

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

We approached Serfe to update our web app MVP. When we began, it was lacking functionality, had bugs, and did not display appropriately on mobile devices. Our internal project manager laid out Jira-based sprints that we were looking for them to accomplish. Serfe reviewed these sprints together with our codebase, and pulled together a development plan.

We had an initial kickoff meeting, and then were in regular communication via Slack and stand-up meetings. For each sprint, releases were sent to our team to test prior to them being pushed live. We rarely found any issues in our own testing. Serfe was able to fully complete our project, including updating our web app UI and the backend to support it.

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

We had one project manager, one senior developer, and one junior developer working for us on this project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As an early-stage startup, Serfe's work has enabled us to begin demoing and deploying our solutions to early users.

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

Serfe communicates really well via written progress reports and Slack. Prior to each sprint, a plan was distributed with an estimate of total # of hours and # of weeks to completion.

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

Serfe has been the most professional software development firm we have worked with. They care deeply about quality and have robust internal processes to ensure that their development efforts work as intended.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder, owner, and CEO of the company. We’re creating an e-learning platform for educators and course creators to sell their exam prep courses online. With this B2B side, we’ll branch out to many more exam markets.

On our B2C side, we’re also creating our exam prep courses and selling them directly to students.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Serfe?

They provide web app development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Serfe has built our platform from scratch. They use AWS, Amplify, React, Material Design, Dynamo DB, and Node.js. We initially provided design documentation to start the project.

For the frontend, students can sign up, create an account, and have practice exams. Then, we have the study questions, which use a spaced repetition algorithm to deliver the same questions repeatedly. As students iterate through the questions, the frequency gets lower as they know the information better.

Creators can create their courses and upload content, videos, audio files, and PDFs on the backend. They can also launch their own branded website using our service as their subdomain. On the other hand, we can manage students through the administration panel.

Additionally, Serfe provides backup services, like server management.

What is the team composition?

We primarily work with the project manager. We communicate directly with a few developers, but there are probably between 5–10 people on the team.

How did you come to work with Serfe?

They worked for us at a previous company for about five years. We’ve had a long, standing relationship with them, and they’ve worked on multiple projects for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $200,000–$400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working on this project in June 2020, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our engineering team has worked with third-party contractors in the past, and they’ve had nothing but good things to say about Serfe. Since I’m not a technical person, I place a lot more trust in our technical team. It’s good to know that they’ve validated and confirmed that Serfe’s team is doing a great job.

Also, we’re getting a good ROI from them. They complete the work quickly and are very productive. On the other hand, we don’t have any specific metrics yet because we haven’t launched the platform. We’re still in the building phase and going through the QA process, and they’ve been good at fixing any bugs or issues.

How did Serfe perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done very well. Serfe does what we ask them to. They’re flexible, and they’ve worked with us on many different project management services. Right now, we use Jira and our GitLab repositories. We’ve added them to that and our Slack. Also, the team is willing to do an agile methodology. We have daily standups and weekly meetings with them. Overall, they do whatever we need in terms of communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We can rely on them. They’re consistent in their technical ability and overall work. The developers sub in and out, but they’re always able to pick up the project pretty seamlessly. We highly value our relationship with them — working with a good, reliable company like Serfe is one of our superpowers as a company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could give us a better heads up when they can’t meet a milestone.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Find out the project management system that works best for you and allow Serfe to conform to that. Also, communicate with them as much as possible and keep the information flowing between the two teams.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a commercial real estate agency in New York City. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Serfe?

We needed to develop a website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Serfe developed a WordPress website for our company that includes several plugins. They continue to provide maintenance and ongoing support as needed to keep the site updated. 

What is the team composition? 

We work with three different people on their team.

How did you come to work with Serfe?

We wanted to work with Serfe, because they were so responsive, professional, and courteous from the start. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've probably invested over $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since 2013, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Despite the highly competitive nature of our niche industry, the site Serfe built has served us well. I'm very satisfied with the ROI the website they've developed has generated. 

How did Serfe perform from a project management standpoint?

They use a unique online tracking platform that allows us to provide comments on features in a very organized, timely manner–I've never seen anything like it. They're also extremely quick to respond to any correspondence. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They never drop the ball, even as complexities arise within projects. They're good at coming up with solutions and are very persistent in problem-solving, which is rare in their industry.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

HomeJab is a real estate media and production company that offers photography, video, 3-D tours, and aerial drone shots. We produce content for real estate agents like property pages, materials, and download links.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Serfe?

We were building an automated system that schedules, processes, and delivers orders after they're edited. When we first started working with Serfe, our main goal was to integrate our site with our editing partner that is based in Vietnam.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Serfe set up a basic API that populates photo and video files on our site once our editing partner completes tasks. After creating a property page, the system automatically delivers the final content to our customers without requiring manual intervention. They programmed our product in Angular.js on a Laravel framework. The platform is cloud hosted on DigitalOcean. Features include a Vimeo video player and Amazon S3 photo storage.

What is the team composition?

We had one main point of contact who worked with a team of 3-4 engineers during development. For our current maintenance and upgrade needs, 1-2 resources are involved with our project.

How did you come to work with Serfe?

I posted our project on UpWork and received responses from several teams. Serfe sent a specific price quote and detailed memo that overviewed their philosophy on how to program and work as a team. This thorough description of how they operate set them apart from comparable vendors who contacted me.

How much have you invested with them?

We initially spent $20,000–$30,000. At this point, we've probably invested over $100,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together at the end of 2015. Our project has been ongoing for more than two years now. Serfe has stayed on to maintain the system and add additional features.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Serfe built products that gave us the critical ability to automate most of our post-production process. It’s rarely been offline, and they quickly mitigated a security issue that arose.  Creating an automated system allows us to scale up our operation and do higher volume work to increase sales. We wouldn't be able to grow if we had to deliver everything manually and take care of the systems' functionalities ourselves.

How did Serfe perform from a project management standpoint?

Serfe has their own custom support ticket system that's comparable to email. It's very easy to get in touch with them. This tool allows us to follow progress and the dialogue. It organizes the project and lets us easily bring other points of contact into specific conversations. We've never had any issues with communication. Their entire methodology works very well for our needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They delivered our request for a relatively complicated system that’s intuitive to use. The team even built many additional functions after the initial project ended. Serfe put all the pieces of our complex software together so it runs smoothly. Working with them has been a very good experience overall.

Are there any areas they could improve?

More testing on their end before launching a new function would have been helpful and saved time. At times, having to do that myself was time-consuming, and there were some obvious bugs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-owner of Creative Countdown, based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We are an online site that creates custom countdowns. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Serfe?

Our site is built with CodeIgniter. Serfe played a key role in the backend, with the application part of the programming.

If someone comes to our site with a specific event they’re counting down to, it will calculate their event date and put the dates in. They can put entries on each page and pick a design. It’s a builder app that allows the user to create a printed countdown at the end and they put the order in.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve been working with Serfe for maybe two or three years and in that time, we’ve been constantly improving and adding features and details to our app.

Testing is a big part of what they do. They make sure that everything is correct before they put it up.

What is the team dynamic?

Right now, we toggle between two different developers that are familiar with our project. It depends on who is available because we’re not consistent in the workload and we’re not on a retainer for 20 hours or one person. One month, we may have a lot to do and the next month, we don’t.

How did you come to work with Serfe?

I came across Serfe through Elance (now Upwork), and that’s still how we work with them. We knew that we needed someone familiar with CodeIgniter and we talked to a few people. The time difference wasn’t that much, which was good. Their communication and English fluency is good as well. That made everything a little easier.

They’re also good at what they do and get it right the first time. That’s my big thing: Either do it right or don’t do it. I can’t stand having to go back through and QA and test.

How much have you invested with them?

Maybe $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is functioning more smoothly. I know this because I have a lot fewer clients emailing me that something wasn’t submitted, there was an error, there’s this, there’s that. Before Serfe came in, we had constant issues, and with new things coming out, there’s always going to be that one little thing or tweaks that we need.

How did Serfe perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been really good. They’re quick to respond, and when something is done, it’s done correctly. Their estimates are right on, so they don’t go over. We’ve been really happy. They’re very easy to work with.

Everything has been through email, and they’re quick to respond with any issues. When I submit an issue that’s come up or if customers suggest a change, they’re quick to make those edits and get back to me. There’s a tracking system they use through which we submit tasks. You can see whether they’re pending or in progress.

We’ve been through some other developers and it hasn’t been as successful. We’ve been really happy with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re meticulous. There have been a minimal number of issues after they’ve posted something.

Also, they aren’t afraid to ask me if something, some detail is confusing to them. Instead of posting something that they think is right to see whether it works, they confirm everything. That goes back to communicating what they’re doing, making sure that’s okay, and telling me how long that’s going to take.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any complaints.