Symetris

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Philly Marketing Labs, a digital marketing agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with Symetris?

We needed a Drupal-certified partner to build a series of websites.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were exclusively focused on the development, but they worked closely with our designer to make our vision a reality. It was one Drupal engine feeding into the frontend of about 40 branded websites. They also had to work with multiple third-party vendors to handle the integrations.

After that, they helped us migrate from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 and now Drupal 9.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with a project manager, and they had several other teammates

How did you come to work with Symetris?

We did a quick Google search. Symetris is Drupal- and Acquia-certified, so they were the best fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $500,000 CAD (approximately $390,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2019 and the project is ongoing.

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

We’ve retained them for maintenance and expect to have a long-term relationship with them. They offer a quality service for a reasonable price.

How did Symetris perform from a project management standpoint?

By keeping the project on-scope, they kept up with the timeline and delivered in line with what was projected.

Every week we go over how the project was progressing. On top of that, we communicate over a shared Slack channel and via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our project manager is extremely friendly and calm. He does well under pressure and never gets frazzled. As a result, we developed a great relationship with him.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could scale up by building a bigger team. They’re becoming very successful and need to add new team members.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

New clients should be very clear about their expectations when it comes to design. The team is knowledgeable about the technical aspects, but their clients need to have their design and marketing components figured out before they start working with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a solutions manager at a software and services company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Symetris?

We hired them to partner with our team to deliver a solution for our end customer.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Working under our leadership, Symetris helped us implement a complex marketing and e-commerce site for a telecommunications company. It was developed for the sale of a new product line that was being rolled out by our customer. We primarily worked in Drupal, and there was an integration with the Etiya e-commerce solution.

What is the team composition?

We worked with about six people. We had a project manager, front- and backend developers, and QA leads.

How did you come to work with Symetris?

Upon winning the business with the customer, we identified that we needed some additional capacity to deal with the product. We looked at some partners available in the area, and Symetris came up as a company that had worked with the customer themselves previously. The customer recommended we talk to them, and we ultimately decided they were a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $500,000–$1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from November 2018–September 2019.

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

Their work rolled up directly into our work, so we were tracking it at the program level across the entire project. We were pleased with their contributions — their skills and abilities made sure no issues arose around delivery.

How did Symetris perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was excellent. Symetris came to us with a good foundation for software development practices, and they were able to really leverage that and integrate it into our defined processes very well. The strength of their soft skills, like communication, were also very strong.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very flexible and creative in working with us to meet the customer’s needs. They put a high priority on customer success and customer satisfaction.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their team was in high demand, and sometimes their resources were pulled in a couple of directions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To get the most out of any project, be dedicated on your end to having the necessary people and assets available, so that the Symetris project team has everything they need to do their work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of IT and digital technology for a telco company. We provide various telco services like Internet and television.

What challenge were you trying to address with Symetris?

They were originally brought onto the project as a Drupal development partner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team handled the Drupal development work for a site component. Later, they took on a complete overhaul of one of our company websites. They completely redesigned that site from us, using a framework from the first project they did with us. However, most of the platform needed to be worked from scratch. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with five individuals, including a Scrum master and developers.  

How did you come to work with Symetris?

They were brought onto a project by another one of our partners that handled a major implementation project for us last year. I continued the relationship with them for various initiatives.

How much have you invested with them?

The first project was $110,000, and the second project cost $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The projects lasted from December 2019–April 2020.

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

It was a pleasure to work with them. They’re very knowledgeable about everything relating to Drupal and always delivered quality products. They succeeded in building our site on a new technology. 

How did Symetris perform from a project management standpoint?

This was a high visibility project that they handled fairly easily and with flexibility.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility stood out. When we had issues, they worked to accommodate us to meet requirements in creative ways. They made sure we met timelines and budget needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it was a pleasure working with them.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We had frequent conversations with an executive contact on their side. That helped us address issues early. Build a close relationship with them to pinpoint problems and proactively solve them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

OPAL-RT develops real-time simulation platforms (software and hardware) for power systems, power electronics, aerospace, and automotive sectors. As a digital marketing specialist at OPAL-RT, I'm responsible for the creation and deployment of digital marketing campaigns.

What challenge were you trying to address with Symetris?

The objective of the project was for Symetris to take over all existing OPAL-RT's website assets as well as to fix bugs and increase our website performance and security.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were looking for a partner to address the technological recovery. Symetris responded quickly to our requests from the beginning. After a few meetings, Symetris proposed an action plan comprised of four measures: creating environments; technical documentation; analysis and writing of test plans; and deployment.

What is the team dynamic?

Our first contact was with Julien Linares, Account Manager, who led the first negotiations and took care of our account, and after we met at our offices with the whole Symetris’ team involved in the project (Project Leader, Developer, QA Specialist). Once the project started, our point of contact was Hubert, Project Leader. We also sometimes interacted with developers and with the QA specialist.

How did you come to work with Symetris?

Our marketing director had already talked with Symetris in 2016. Although he liked the company, the negotiations did not progress at that time. In 2018, we were looking for another web provider and we contacted Symetris again. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted for 2 months, from April–May 2019.

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

Symetris effectively managed the recovery of the website according to our business needs and following the action plan. Thanks to a rigorous and step-by-step methodology, the new technical recommendations, corrections, and improvements were made according to best practices. We’re very satisfied with their work and we rely on Symetris to evolve our digital projects and work in other projects.

How did Symetris perform from a project management standpoint?

Symetris was very professional and transparent about the necessary efforts the project required. We had weekly meetings with Symetris' project manager, we had 100% visibility of all tasks and their progress via their project management tool (Redmine).

What did you find most impressive about them?

Reactiveness; professionalism; ability to understand the client’s needs; transparency.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The company has high-level professionals who make great digital partners.

Introduce your business and what you do there.      

I’m the multimedia team leader for Garaga. We manufacture garage doors and distribute these products throughout Canada and the Northeast U.S., and we’re developing throughout the Midwest. We additionally offer marketing and communication services to our dealers, which includes websites.

What challenge were you trying to address with Symetris?

We had been using the platform Ektron CMS since 2011 for our web services and knew we needed to move to a new platform. We also wanted to make our website and our dealer’s websites responsive at the same time and decided to move to a Drupal platform. We needed a partner to help make all of this happen.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were responsible for the website development. They set-up the Drupal platform server, the template pages, and worked with us on solutions that would increase flexibility for the development of the webpages as we have a good internal team who can do a lot of work on the frontend. They added a responsive element and our in-house team is transferring over content, so they were generally responsible for the backend.

The corporate site has more than 1,200 pages in three languages: French, Canadian English, and U.S. English. They went through the steps with us for each challenge we might encounter of the development, as we didn’t want to perform a full redesign of the website. They kept the design generally similar to our previous platform. Again, we were really looking for flexibility and they were able to work well with in terms of options, support, and alternatives.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with a number of different team members, including the sales representative, account manager, project coordinator, and the lead programmer.

How did you come to work with Symetris?        

We had been looking for a possible CMS partnership for about a year, and when we decided to go with an open source solution we were thinking of using a much larger company. However, when we were ready to move forward that company couldn’t start for several months and they referred us to Symetris because they’re in the same building. We met with them, and they were a much smaller team allowing them to be more flexible in terms of timeframes. They also have programmers that they can subcontract if need be based on the project, and we decided to move forward with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in 2016, and the engagement is ongoing. We’re hoping to launch the website in January of 2018.

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

While the website isn’t launched yet, there is a QA system set-up for every time that they deploy corrections or new functionalities through their system. With a project as large as this sometimes things had to be returned but overall the approval rating was high. It’s totally understandable given the size and scope.

We were also following the number of hours invested per functionality, based on the budgeted time set at the beginning of the project. They have a warranty policy so that any new functionalities that aren’t to our satisfaction based on our initial demand, would be corrected free of charge. Overall, we’re very happy with the quality of the work.

How did Symetris perform from a project management standpoint?

They were responsive to all our needs and timely with all deliverables. Each week, we had a meeting with the project coordinator and lead programmer for updates on the project status, including hours invested and where, and what’s targeted for the next week. We were working in agile mode and the lead programmer was also a question period twice a week to train our in-house team on Drupal.

We were a test client for them, but they added us to their in-house project management system so we could communicate directly. We also used Slack for more immediate questions, and they would get back to us generally quickly or if they didn’t, they would verify the information and get back to us at the next meeting. We had a very close working relationship.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I found their customer service to be exceptional. As I mentioned, they’re really close with us and we’re having a good time working together. They want to stay on top of the project and it’s a good relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were somewhat a test client, so they’ve already upgraded their deployment standards based on their experiences working with us. Other than that, there’s nothing outstanding.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would suggest going into the project with a clear idea of what you’re looking for because the back and forth is the most complex part.