Smartistack

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company helps growth-stage and enterprise companies identify and fix demand generation issues by providing clear insights into brand performance across paid, affiliate, organic, and AI-driven search using their proprietary platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Smartistack to accomplish for you?

Our primary goal in hiring Smartistack was to strengthen our software engineering capacity and accelerate delivery across several digital initiatives. Specifically, we engaged them to support full-stack development for our internal marketing technology platforms, enhance system scalability, and modernize portions of our legacy infrastructure.We also wanted to improve API integrations between our data sources and third-party platforms, streamline campaign management workflows, and implement more reliable cloud deployment pipelines. Beyond execution, a key objective was to work with a partner who could proactively recommend architectural improvements and help position our platforms for long-term growth.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Smartistack was engaged as an embedded engineering partner supporting both new development and ongoing platform enhancements. Their scope of work spanned full-stack software development, cloud infrastructure support, and systems integration.

On the backend, they handled API development, microservices architecture enhancements, and performance optimization across several core applications. This included building and refining data pipelines, improving system interoperability, and strengthening security and access controls.

From a frontend perspective, their team contributed to UI/UX improvements within our internal dashboards and campaign management tools — focusing on usability, responsiveness, and data visualization.

On the DevOps side, Smartistack supported cloud environment configuration, CI/CD pipeline implementation, automated deployments, and monitoring setup to improve release reliability and scalability.

Key deliverables included:

• Custom API services and third-party integrations
• Enhanced campaign management dashboards
• Cloud infrastructure configuration and documentation
• CI/CD pipeline setup and deployment automation
• Performance optimization and system refactoring
• Technical documentation and knowledge transfer materials

Overall, their team functioned as an extension of our internal engineering group, delivering both project-based milestones and continuous platform improvements.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 2–5 teammates from Smartistack.

How did you come to work with Smartistack?

We found them through an online search. We chose them because they had high ratings, their pricing fit our budget, and they offered good value for the cost.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000 and $49,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August–December 2025.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We saw several measurable outcomes that demonstrated clear progress and success from the engagement.

From a platform performance standpoint, page load times and API response speeds improved significantly after Smartistack optimized key services and refactored portions of the backend. This contributed to a noticeably smoother experience for our internal users and reduced system latency during high-volume campaign periods.

Operationally, their work on CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation shortened our release cycles and reduced manual overhead. We were able to push updates more frequently and with fewer post-release issues.

They also helped stabilize multiple third-party integrations, which improved data accuracy and reduced sync failures across our marketing platforms. This had a direct impact on campaign reporting reliability and decision-making.

In addition, the UI enhancements they delivered led to better usability across our internal dashboards, helping teams navigate workflows more efficiently and manage campaigns at scale.

Overall, the engagement resulted in improved system performance, faster deployment velocity, stronger integration reliability, and a more scalable foundation to support our continued growth.

Beyond the technical performance improvements, we tracked several operational and business KPIs to evaluate the impact of Smartistack’s work.

One of the most meaningful outcomes was increased campaign throughput. After the platform optimizations and workflow enhancements they implemented, our teams were able to launch and manage approximately 25–30% more campaigns within the same operational window.

We also saw a measurable reduction in system and data-related error rates. Integration stabilization and validation improvements reduced sync and reporting discrepancies by roughly 35%, which significantly improved data reliability for our marketing analytics.

From a user experience standpoint, internal satisfaction scores improved as well. Based on post-release feedback surveys, platform usability ratings increased by about 20%, largely driven by faster load times, clearer dashboards, and more intuitive workflows.

Additionally, deployment-related incidents declined, contributing to stronger platform uptime and fewer disruptions during peak campaign cycles.

Overall, Smartistack’s contributions translated into higher operational efficiency, improved data accuracy, and a better experience for the teams relying on these systems day to day.

How did Smartistack perform from a project management standpoint?

Smartistack’s project management was structured, transparent, and highly collaborative. They operated within an agile delivery framework, aligning with our sprint cycles, backlog priorities, and release planning processes.

They maintained clear communication throughout the engagement — providing regular status updates, sprint demos, and proactive risk flagging when dependencies or scope adjustments arose. Their team was responsive across Slack and scheduled stand-ups, and they consistently came prepared with progress reports and next-step recommendations.

In terms of delivery, they were reliable against agreed timelines. The majority of milestones and sprint deliverables were completed on schedule, and when timelines needed adjustment, it was typically due to evolving business requirements rather than execution delays. In those cases, they were flexible and worked with us to re-prioritize without impacting overall roadmap momentum.

Overall, they demonstrated strong ownership, predictable delivery, and a level of operational discipline that made them easy to integrate with our internal teams.

What did you find most impressive or unique about them?

Overall, our experience with Smartistack was very positive, and there weren’t any major gaps in delivery or execution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At times, as the project scope expanded, more proactive forecasting around bandwidth and resource allocation would have been helpful — particularly when multiple parallel workstreams were underway. While deliverables were ultimately met, earlier visibility into capacity planning could have improved sprint forecasting on our side.

Additionally, as new engineers were onboarded, there was a short ramp-up period where deeper platform knowledge transfer would have accelerated productivity. Once fully embedded, however, the team operated very effectively.

To Smartistack’s credit, they were highly receptive to feedback and quick to adjust processes when opportunities for improvement were identified. Their willingness to iterate on communication, documentation, and resourcing approaches reinforced the strength of the partnership.

Overall, any improvement areas were incremental rather than structural, and they did not materially impact project outcomes.