Terranet

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide a platform for promoting local manufacturers and products in Moldova. It's an online catalog for a wide range of goods, spanning various industries. No similar solutions existed for our region, which is why we started the service. Our site is also an informational platform, featuring news and other resources related to multiple industries. Producers can register independently on our site and list their own products.

I am the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Terranet?

We needed to develop our main catalog website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Terranet developed our PHP website. We have worked with a designer, one frontend developer, and one backend developer, as well as a manager from Terranet's team.

How did you come to work with Terranet?

We found Terranet through a recommendation.

How much have you invested with Terranet?

The cost of Terranet's work has been over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Terranet in February 2012. The project is still ongoing. We are planning to launch an online shop at the beginning of March. Terranet is also providing support for our company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have been satisfied with the quality of Terranet's services, from the design to the backend and frontend development. We've made a number of updates since the start of our project. For every iteration, Terranet was open to making any corrections or modifications.

How did Terranet perform from a project management standpoint?

I handled project management internally for the most part. Terranet's involvement was fine. Our companies are located in the same city, so we've had many face-to-face meetings, although we've also used Skype. I've had a chance to meet Terranet's whole team and worked directly with their designer.

What did you find most impressive about Terranet?

Terranet's team is customer oriented and has found very interesting solutions for our project. They've been open to new challenges.

Are there any areas Terranet could improve?

Deadline management could have been improved. Clients always want the work done faster.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Terranet?

Terranet is able to do good work, and I'm very satisfied with their quality. I would recommend them to anyone.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

BayShop is the intermediary service for the purchases in online shops in the USA, the UK, and Germany. BayShop’s services open access to internet stores that don’t ship products to Moldova.

We provide services in buying and delivering goods from foreign stores. We also provide a virtual address to our customers that are living in Moldova but want to order goods in foreign stores, and we deliver these goods to Moldova for a fee. We have our own storage house in the USA and workers in both USA and Moldova.

I am the founder and CEO of BayShop.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Terranet?

We needed a convenient tool for users to make orders or register parcels and for us to be able to keep tabs on all the orders. All our business processes are connected through the website and administration panel. We wanted to develop a really great website which would be handy and understandable to people so that they would use our service constantly. Our business goal was to make a profit and to export as much as we can, so we can become the major participant in this market segment.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope of the work was to obtain a fully working system that will allow users to order goods from third party websites or use their virtual address to send orders to Moldova with the possibility to track their parcels and pay its delivery. For us as business owners, we wanted to have a tool that would allow us to manage these orders, get the necessary details to ship them, and to manage all internal processes.

Terranet provided us with full-stack services, including prototyping, design, frontend, backend, testing, and support. We were assigned four persons: a designer, a frontend developer, a backend developer, and a project manager.

The technologies that were used include ZendFramework, MySQL, Nginx/PHP-FPM, third party web services from Amazon and Ebay, Memcache (Cache layer), and shipping & payment systems integration.

How did you come to work with Terranet?

We made a list of the companies engaged in web development that we were interested in and asked each of them to present ideas on the project and give us an estimated cost for it. From all the candidates, Terranet made the best proposal of ideas, price, and terms.

How much have you invested with Terranet?

In 3-and-a-half years of work, the project cost has been over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project with Terranet began in April 2013 and it’s ongoing. Up until late 2016, we worked with Terranet on full-stack development. With the growth of the project, we decided to hire our own backend developer on a full-time basis. Terranet still provides us with frontend development services, though.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our business is online, and the greatest result is the growth of our company in earnings, employees, and weekly parcels. In the beginning, we were a small company that had big plans. Now our company grows each day thanks to our website and Android app. We try to implement improvements and new features every day, and that makes us stand out from our competitors. Our business fully depends on the website, and it shows that the development provided by Terranet has made a great impact.

Nowadays, we import to Moldova around 1–2 tons of parcels for clients monthly.

How did Terranet perform from a project management standpoint?

From the beginning, the project was seen in one light. Together with Terranet, we developed a technical specification and stuck to it. The price was fixed and the terms were limited. The first part of the project was delivered on time and followed the specified conditions. As a result, we got a fully working website, tested and ready to go. Terranet also helped with adding text to the website and provided consultation on how it should work.

As soon as the first phase was released and we began to work with orders, we began to think about innovations and some other things that could be useful in our business. Terranet helped us with support services. We provide tasks and Terranet performs them in order of priority. Any bugs found during production were fixed in a short amount of time. We had daily contact with the project manager from Terranet, who gave us details on each stage of the work and always made questions and suggestions. We were given reports weekly on the performed tasks and their cost.

What did you find most impressive about Terranet?

I would like to highlight the depth of their ideas and their consideration of the smallest details. This helped in achieving our desired results.

Are there any areas Terranet could improve?

It would have helped if we had known our project better from the start so that we would have spent less time on its implementation. A lot of time was spent later on improvements and refactoring.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company provides MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) services. We are a conference-center providing facilities and services, including technical equipment, catering, accommodation and event-management.

What is your position?

I am the marketing manager of the company. I have been with the group for 3 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Terranet?

We had 3 big problems, the first one being our website; it was very old, having been created in 2008, and it wasn't adequate for our needs and market. We had grown as a business, but the site was still old-fashioned. It's important for clients to see our rooms, fall in love and come to us. Everyone wants to have a professional and up-to-date online image.

The second problem was in terms of internal management. We were making reservations on paper, which is not a good solution in the present. We decided to create a web application for this purpose. The purpose here was to provide the same information for all our staff, at the same time. After making a reservation, I need to ensure that my colleague won't double-book the room.

Another issue was tracking the performance of our sales managers: how many people called, and how many actually booked our rooms.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Terranet developed a modern, simple and effective website for our company. The most important issue for us was design, but we also wanted to give customers a way to connect with us online. It has an inquiry form which, as well as a custom management tool.

Terranet also developed an online CMS featuring our booking schedule. It features all contracted services, and has a suite of reports with specific formulas, helping us see our rentability and the conversion rates of our sales force.

Terranet assigned a project manager who served as our main point of contact throughout the collaboration. We also worked with a designer for both the website and the management tool. I was in contact with a single representative of the technical team.

How did you come to work with Terranet?

One of our marketing partners recommended Terranet. We started the project with EBRD support, and Terranet was an approved European Bank company. It was a long process involving a lot of paperwork, and we came across companies which were charging even for these formalities. Terranet was willing to undergo this process.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost of Terranet's work was around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first contact came at the beginning of 2016, but we only started working with Terranet in the summer of that year, due to the complications with the European Bank. The website was completed, and the CMS is being tested. It's a 100% custom product, and we plan to expand its functionalities using Terranet's help.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I keep in touch with many of our clients, and they've told us that the new site is a big improvement.

The management tool created by Terranet has made it easier to book venues. I can even do it over the weekend from home, or at any other time when a client calls. We had looked for similar ready-made tools, but none of them were close to what we needed. Terranet's solution is simple and effective.

We can also analyze demand much better, looking at the types of customers calling us, and the products they require. I can use this data for marketing research.

How did Terranet perform from a project management standpoint?

I liked Terranet's team; they were very open. I've lost track of how many times I changed my mind, and brought new requests and ideas for the site and the management tool. Terranet listened and did it. We used Skype, Facebook and phone calls for communication, and also had face-to-face meetings. I was also given reports of the progress.

What distinguishes Terranet from other providers?

I haven't worked with companies of this type, but I enjoyed the simple communication provided by Terranet. I'm not an IT person, so it was important to have issues explained to me, in terms of how something would work, what was possible and what wasn't. I may want many things, but Terranet had to figure out how to implement those.

Is there anything Terranet could have improved or done differently?

There were a few missed elements in the project, but this isn't necessarily Terranet's fault. It's a very specific product aimed at conferences, which is different from hotel bookings. Everything I thought of and requested of Terranet, was done.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide a website dedicated to learning English and Russian. I am a co-owner of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Terranet?

We had an idea and needed help developing it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Terranet developed my entire platform from scratch using PHP, Java, HTML5, and a custom CMS [content management system]. We have worked with 3–4 developers and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Terranet?

My business partner is from Moldova and found Terranet.

How much have you invested with Terranet?

The cost of Terranet's services was around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Terranet around 2012. We have launched the Russian learning website a month ago, and are continuing to make modifications to it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I am quite satisfied with Terranet's work. There have been a few issues with the site, which was to be expected, but they were fixed.

How did Terranet perform from a project management standpoint?

I have no complaints in this regard. There were some difficulties in the beginning, but we've come to know each other better. Terranet stuck to our latest deadline.

What did you find most impressive about Terranet?

We've used freelance developers in the past, which wasn't a good experience. I prefer to pay more for Terranet's services in order to make sure that our deadlines will be met.

Are there any areas Terranet could improve?

Anytime there was an issue, we let Terranet's team know about it, so everything was fixed.