Smarttie

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO at a digital marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Smarttie?

We had the project of creating a company’s new website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Smarttie developed and designed the website. On a first approach, we started working with them as consultants so they’d help us define the project needs, the best technologies to use, and so on. Once we had the budget and everything defined, they implemented everything. They used PHP and an e-commerce platform for development.

What was the team composition?

We worked with four people, including a project manager, a couple of developers, and a UX designer.

How did you come to work with Smarttie?

We’d worked with them on other projects. When this one came up, we thought about them and ended up working as partners.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent about 800,000 Mexican pesos (approximately $40,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with planning and consulting around November 2018, and the development started and finished in December 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our client was very happy with the results — they especially liked the UX and how fluid and easy to navigate the site was. They were also pleased about the feedback and accompaniment they received.

How did Smarttie perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. The team provided constant feedback and had an excellent performance in terms of project management. We mainly communicated via phone calls and WhatsApp messages.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were great at strategic planning and resources assignment. We’ll hire them whenever we have any complex development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should evaluate more carefully the developer and designers they work with. At the beginning of the project, we had some setbacks because we weren’t completely happy with the design. They could've been aware beforehand if they’d made a closer evaluation.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about your needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Montecristo Data Mining, a data analysis company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Smarttie?

We had data covering a couple years related to transportation and wanted to know where people were boarding buses in the city. This would help us build up a better network of transportation. We also needed to install GPS in the buses and have an app developed for when people board the buses.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided the mathematics and the web service, which they used to get the information and the time of arrival of buses. They built the app for iOS, Android, and Windows, making it handy and nice-looking for users. When a user is waiting at the bus station, they can know how long they have to wait for the bus to arrive.

The first version was delivered in 2013, and there were two more versions in 2014 and 2015 that involved different requests and designs.

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with the CEO, who had one designer, two iOS programmers, and one Android programmer. I was sometimes in direct contact with the programmers to talk to them about specific things.

How did you come to work with Smarttie?

I met them at a conference.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from 2013 until 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m very happy with the application. It was pretty difficult to develop because it was very complex. My in-house team interacted with Smarttie, and there were some difficulties because our team was mathematicians and their team was not. We expected that going in and knew it would be a costly and lengthy project. We’re very happy with the results.

How did Smarttie perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via phone, Skype, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really easy to interact with. We sometimes had to explain in mathematical terms why the web service we developed had to deliver the information it did, and they understood because they had a couple of resources with physics backgrounds.

The interactions with our team to their team were really well received. Other companies only have programmers and don’t like anything about math and science. I liked that they behaved as scientists too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, because we expected some difficulties were going to happen. In the end, we were very happy.