Trust Sourcing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We were a startup company building a social network with a number of advertising and communication components for the home remodeling industry. We had a good idea, but didn't quite know how to approach it. We started seven years ago when mobile was just in its very beginnings.

What is your position?

I'm one of the founders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge you were trying to address with Trust Sourcing?

We had an in-house designer to start with, so we would develop the ideas and the logic here in the U.S., then we would send the design collateral and technical requirements to Trust Sourcing in Ukraine, and they would go ahead and program from there. Basically, we're an ASP.NET platform, and they have a lot of expertise with Microsoft technologies, which we were trying to leverage.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Probably about a year and a half or two years ago, we needed to modernize our site. After a few years, it started to have an older look to it, so Trust Sourcing came up with some ideas to redesign our pages, and update our content layout to make it more Web 3.0 or 4.0. We got rid of our own designers and use them now.

I don't remember whether we had 11 people or 19 people, or somewhere in between working strictly exclusively on our project. The number would go up and down based on our needs. There have been times where there would be hefty groups doing nothing but QA [quality assurance], and fewer developers. Then, there would be other times where we had just a load of developers and no QA specialists. We preferred to have one project manager at any given time and let them serve as the quarterback on the football team and call all the shots.

They did both front-end and back-end work. We did develop two iOS apps with them. I know at one point in time, we migrated all of our multimedia files from our own server to Amazon Web Services, which required additional assistance because it was an enormous project. We had millions of photos that had to be moved and resized.

How did you come to work with Trust Sourcing?

I don't even know exactly how it all started with Trust Sourcing, but we got involved with them for a long-term relationship. It's actually still an ongoing relationship.

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

I'm a private company, and I'd like to keep that confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We went live about six years ago, but it's never really completed. It changes so much each day. We're rebuilding most of the site, databases, functionality, and search so we can enhance the overall user experience and drive more business.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback from this engagement?

Again, because we're a private company, I'm not comfortable giving you any real statistics from our business or operations. I can tell you that they were very orderly. At the end of each day, they would report to us by email their status report. We'd wake up with their report, we'd get a midday report, which was the end of their day, and it'd usually be filled with questions for each one of our departments. I was very pleased with the workflow that we established, and I never had problems with the quality of Trust Sourcing's work.

What distinguishes Trust Sourcing from other providers?

We had originally started with another company. We would send them pictures of what we wanted, and they built it, but they never gave us any input. When we switched to Trust Sourcing, we'd come up with an idea and send it to them. A day later, we'd get this phone call from them offering suggestions on how to do it differently. About 90 percent of the time they did that, they were right on with their suggestions. The added value that came from Trust Sourcing was their ability to look at something and make it better, drawing on their collective experience. We weren't paying them for that type of advice. It ended up just being part of the package, kind of a bonus. 

We tried developing a chain of microsites for cheap, and we decided to outsource the job to an Indian company. It turned out to be a disaster. Trust Sourcing went ahead and rebuilt each of the microsites for us.

The only reason we went to the other company to begin with was because it was slightly cheaper, and we didn't want to wait for Trust Sourcing to be able to pick up the project. We assumed everybody was going to treat us like Trust Sourcing, but that was not the case.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

The 10-hour time difference between us isn't really Trust Sourcing's problem because we choose to be here. There are times when you get frustrated because you want something done right away. We've woken them up at three in the morning, and they've done stuff, or they've stayed in the office all night long to accommodate us on a launch or a new publication. It took us a long time to get used to the time difference. In the end, the cost of using a team at Trust Sourcing was cheaper than me hiring a top-level one-man developer in Los Angeles.

Our screw up as a company was that they would send us questions, and we wouldn't respond for two or three days. We weren't thinking about the fact that they were sitting there waiting for us to answer before they could to the next thing. We were actually more of a hindrance to our own productivity in the beginning than they were.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

Have your requirements straight when you send them to Trust Sourcing. They trained us to give specific directions, and we all got better as we gave them better information. What we learned was, the tighter requirements we gave them, the more things picked up.

BACKGROUND

Please provide a description of your company. 

We're a clothing retailer that specializes in women's lingerie and body shaping wear. In addition to our e-commerce platform, we have several brick-and-mortar locations.

What is your role at the company?

I'm the marketing and sales manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached Trust Sourcing?

We needed an e-commerce site that was aesthetically pleasing, but also highly functional.

What were your company’s business goals for the project?

We wanted a stylish site that reflected the attractiveness of the products we were selling. A big goal for us was to increase the number of return customers who purchase from us.

SOLUTION

Can you talk about the scope of the project?

The scope was pretty standard for an e-commerce site. We needed them to create different page layouts with pricing functions, customer information capture, and back-end user-friendly systems including credit card processing integration, gift cards, and reports.

What was your process for selecting Trust Sourcing with which to work?

I was introduced to the owner [Haroon Elsarrag] by a friend who has done several projects with them. 

Can you give us a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms or personnel work hours?

It was not clear. Given all the changes and feedback and updates I requested, their team probably worked on the site for more than 100 hours. The cost was very reasonable. 

When was the project completed?

It ended October 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project, and are there any metrics you can share?

We are just beginning our SEO [search engine optimization] efforts now and have not turned [Google] AdWords on yet, so the metrics are not where they will be. However, before the redesign, we were getting approximately 200 to 300 unique visitors a day to the site with only two or three sales per week. Now, we are getting less traffic, approximately 50 to 100 unique visitors per day, but selling eight to 10 items a week. 

How did Trust Sourcing perform?

They performed well and were generally responsive. The turnaround time once tasks were acknowledged was very quick. A couple times, my project manager was unresponsive for whatever reason. But when that happened, I was always able to get in touch with their owner, who was very helpful and always responded to my emails.

Overall, the quality of their work is fantastic. They care about the work they do both in functionality and in design aesthetics. They actually had one of their programmers learn how to code using the Joomla! system so they could create an e-commerce site for me.

When working with Trust Sourcing, was there anything unique or special about them compared to other companies that you may have worked with?

Outsourcing to another country can sometimes be a challenge with language barriers and time differences. I've worked with Indian companies who are very task oriented, but sometimes can't connect the dots of what I'm looking for, and that can be very frustrating.

Trust Sourcing seemed to understand what I wanted immediately, and always kept the big picture in focus when recommending a direction or design option. That's not always easy to find with foreign vendors.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that they could improve or you would do differently?

It would have been good for them to initiate a weekly update conference call so that I wouldn't have to track them down. I was given updates via email, of course, but a call would put to rest any potential confusion. Ultimately, I requested we start having calls, and they were amenable. While they weren't always responsive in this way, they always completed their projects on time.

BACKGROUND

Please provide a description of your company.

We’re essentially an online social network for the home remodeling industry, matching contractors with homeowners looking to remodel.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Trust Sourcing?

When we first approached Trust Sourcing, all we had was an idea. Our goal was to have Trust Sourcing bring our concept to life on the Internet.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They were responsible for everything from developing the wireframes and original architecture of the website down to building the databases, creating the search functions and the logic for all of that. The only aspect of the site they did not own was graphic design.

What was your process for selecting Trust Sourcing with which to work?

I was referred to them by a friend. Their CEO [Haroon Elsarrag] is extremely smart. After meeting with him, I felt very comfortable with the team he assembled.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It's been in the $1 million to $2 million range.

What was the timeline of the project, such as when it started, if it’s still ongoing, or when it was completed?

It's been more than five years since we began working with them, and the project is still ongoing as we continue to learn what people want out of our site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you talk about the results of the project and how you feel they performed, such as the overall quality of their work?

The work they provided for us was excellent. I would have had to pay at least 15 to 20 times more to get the same amount of work from U.S. developers.

Whenever there were hang-ups in the project, usually it was because they would send us something for approval, and we would sit on it, which stopped their work from moving forward.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

The best part of working with Trust Sourcing is I get feedback from them when something doesn’t make sense or if it could be done better. Often when you outsource, a company will just build whatever you tell them to build which is great as long as you give perfect instructions. Which, let's face it, is hard to do.

Trust Sourcing brought their own ideas to the table, and the project has been so much better for it. Looking back, whenever we disagreed with them, but went with their suggestion, they ended up being dead right.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

It can be a little disconcerting when your outsourcing a project, and you have big periods of silence from your partner. So, they could probably be a little better with communication. But, with that being said, they were always working, and they always met their deadlines.

What advice would you give a future client of theirs?

For anybody that wants to do outsourcing, you have to understand how it works. The truth is when we left them alone and didn’t bother them, they got their work done. Things only got hung up when we stuck our nose in. The bottom line is, if you hire them and they have a task at hand, just step away and let them do their job. They won't disappoint.