UXM Studio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We manufacture personalized jewelry and watches. We also market diamond jewelry.

What is your position?

I’m the Chief Executive Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with UXM Studio?

We had wanted to develop an iPad based tool to assist salesmen in presenting our line of products. In the jewelry category, product is marked with little tags and when you sit down and go through a line, there’s a lot of handwriting of information to try and keep track of what a buyer has selected. So we wanted a tool to assist a customer to look through the line, to identify things that they are interested in, and then process a sample request or an order.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

This was an iOS app that we worked on. We were sufficiently pleased with it, that we actually launched a separate business to try to market it in the incentive and recognitions space.

How did you come to work with UXM Studio?

My decision was based largely on my confidence in Marc Cain [Managing Partner, UXM Studio]. In most professional engagements, whether it’s a lawyer or accounting firm, I focus on the individuals because your experience is as good or as bad as the people you have working for you. The leadership team at UXM Studio is very diligent, hardworking, and creative. They worked hard to get our product completed. He was a pleasure to work with. So much so, that when the whole thing was done, we became friends.

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

Our project was under $200,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

There isn’t a success story that I can discuss. The product turned out as good as we had envisioned it, but it just wasn’t the right time for the product in the market. The development experience was a success.

What distinguishes UXM Studio from other providers?

I can speak mostly of Marc Cain [Managing Partner, UXM Studio] because he’s the one that I worked directly with. He was very methodical. When we were in the conceptualizing portions of the project, he was quite creative and came up with some suggestions about user experience and functionality that were quite helpful. At the time, I was not that experienced in mobile. That was helpful. The guy seems to work 24 hours a day. It was a very interesting and great experience for me. I wish our business was as big as it was then.

Is there anything UXM Studio could have improved or done differently?

In the partnership, no. Our business changed right around us so the tool ended up being used differently than we originally expected. The last several years have been very disruptive in the jewelry industry because of the economic climate. If I had known in 2010 what I know in 2016, we probably wouldn’t have done the project just because our business shrank. But that has nothing to do with the software, that has to do with the industry.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a heavy home manufacturing company. 

What is your position?

I'm a project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with UXM Studios?

UXM had been managing our crisis management plan website for quite some time. We started to realize that if people had to evacuate the building they wouldn't necessarily be able to get into the website because there were passwords and other barriers. They wouldn't think to grab their materials if they're racing out of the building. We needed people to have the ability to have access to their crisis management plans for their specific location regardless of where they were and what their Internet connectivity was. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We got in touch with UXM and asked if they could help us create a native app for all of us to have on our phone and contain all of our information. Even if our users don't have Internet connectivity they can still see what their crisis management plan is and what they need to do in an emergency with appropriate contact information. It was a very important function that UXM helped us with.

How did you come to work with UXM Studios?

They already were dealing with our website. We had some good experience with them and felt comfortable with them. When I contacted them, they were already familiar with what I was talking about, and their pricing was amazingly competitive. 

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

The native application with UXM cost us $10,000 to $50,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I can tell you that once UXM turned the file to our IT [information technology] department the person that's in charge of the company phones was able to deploy it to all the phones without any issue at all. It was a very quick turnover process. We had phone conferences with some of our IT team and UXM went through our validation process. We have to vet people out before we let them into our IT resources and UXM passed the test. They were so accommodating and happy to meet with everyone. It was a very easy process. Our app is user friendly. As I have updates, it's a very simple process to make corrections and push the app back out to everyone. It's a great design.

What distinguishes UXM Studios from other providers?

UXM was very responsive. It was very rare that I couldn't get in touch with them. They got back with me as soon as they could. They always addressed my concerns. They were very nice and easy to work with. It was a good experience.

Is there anything UXM Studios could have improved or done differently?

If I was closer to the process, I might have one or two things, but I can't think of anything at this point. The app works so well, and everyone was so impressed with it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are CorpTrav Management Group. We are a corporate travel management company, so we take care of clients' employees travel and lodging arrangements.

What is your position?

I am the director of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with UXM Studio?

Our relationship with UXM goes back more years than I've been with the company. The company had a need for a website and didn't have the staff with any knowledge how to build or maintain it. Now that I'm here, I do some of the easy stuff because I have experience with website development and maintenance, but we use UXM for the hard-hitting stuff.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

UXM has provided website development and design for us through the years.

How did you come to work with UXM Studio?

They used to be part of a larger hosting and design, but UXM split off and doesn't focus as much on hosting. 

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

Annually, we spend around $10,000 with UXM. 

What is the status of this engagement?

It's an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

One of their main guys is my ace in the hole. Anytime I need something, I can reach out to him, and he's real quick to respond. I'm one of those guys that wants to learn how to do it as well. They're great with helping me to learn. Many companies won't give you that type of relationship. They just want to do it. UXM is interested in their clients' success as well.

What distinguishes UXM Studio from other providers?

For me what sets UXM apart is their responsiveness. We'll have clients that need mini-sites built for large event registrations and things like that. They'll come back and want to change the font color, and they need it right away. I always know I can reach out to UXM and ask for help. They're great with dropping everything and jumping in when needed.

Is there anything UXM Studio could have improved or done differently?

The only thing I have to say is when they first had that transition from Boulder to UXM, some minor questions fell through the cracks. But, after reaching out to them, the responsiveness came back.