Vardot

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

King’s Academy is a private, not-for-profit, co-educational boarding and day school (grades 7 to 12) in Madaba, Jordan. The school, which integrates the New England boarding school experience in the historical and intellectual context of the Middle East, follows an English-language, Advanced Placement curriculum. The curriculum includes an integrated co-curricular program of athletics, activities and community service, and students live in a nurturing residential environment that allows them to flourish personally and intellectually. In 2019-2020, King’s students numbered 630 and hailed from 36 countries. My title is Director of Communications and Publications

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Vardot?

We wanted a Jordan-based Drupal company to take over our website development and hosting and we chose Vardot for this purpose. We were already working with school-specialized Drupal website development company in the US, but were not happy with their service. We have both a public website and an internal portal.

What were your goals for this project?

--Transfer all work to Jordan and work with a company that was locally-based --Develop and grow the website and the internal portal

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We researched website companies in Jordan that work with Drupal and met with a few. Vardot's work and client list stood out from the start, so we went with them.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The provided support for our two websites (internal and external) and helped us develop the sites extensively over the four to five years we worked with them. They were also handling the hosting of our two sites.

What was the team composition?

Small team of dedicated people. I think we worked with around five to seven people overall.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our website and internal portal became stronger and better than they ever were prior to working with Vardot. We knew from the analytics that traffic was increasing to our sites.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Efficient, well-organized and responsive team. Ticketing system worked well. Nothing was ever impossible.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their dedication to our project, the personal attention, the follow-up, the can-do attitude, the amount of time they spent working on our project and our problems to find viable solutions to everything, the way they treated our project as their own -- as if they had as much a stake in its success as we do.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything was great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The ForUS platform/portal is a national initiative by the King Abdullah Fund for Development (KAFD) to facilitate career opportunities for the Jordanian youth and unemployed. Besides job vacancies; the portal features integrations with strategic partners that provide volunteering work, critical skill development courses and e-mentorship.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Vardot?

Revamping ForUs.jo Portal

What were your goals for this project?

- Revamping the portal - Implementing technical integrations with new partners - Introducing new services - Upgrading design and UX

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Tendering Process

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The ForUS platform/portal is a national initiative by the King Abdullah Fund for Development (KAFD) to facilitate career opportunities for the Jordanian youth and unemployed. Besides job vacancies; the portal features integrations with strategic partners that provide volunteering work, critical skill development courses and e-mentorship. The discovery stage was very quick and thorough in terms of gathering requirements and establishing objectives. We established strategic partnerships early on as well to identify all integrations required. The integrations were started as soon as we received and approved the wireframes and designs. An initiation stage was necessary due to the fact that we needed 3 of our team members to be trained by Vardot’s technical and project teams for the duration of the project delivery process. The website was developed and delivered on the timeline agreed between us.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed of a project manager who led communications and coordinations between ourselves and Vardot. The team of course included: 2 x Senior Web Developers 1 x Junior Web Developer 1 x QA Engineer Add to that; our own 3 trainees that received training from Vardot in Drupal and project management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We received positive reviews from all the early testing regarding the ease of navigation and user-friendliness of the UX across all devices. We were most impressed with the impact that the new Drupal CMS made on our on-site SEO performance. Our team is comprised of a number of users with various publishing permissions and with the new CMS installed the publishing process became more streamlined and easily managed.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The workflow was smooth and easy. The project manager communicated updates with us on a daily basis via BaseCamp and phone. Of course, our 3 team members communication in person with Vardot team throughout the project delivery.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was very impressed with their strict adherence to agreed-upon timelines and delivery deadlines. The project was delivered on schedule. The designs as well and attention to UX was impressive. Our team members also conveyed to us their joy at spending time within a large team and how much they benefited from Vardot’s expertise in Drupal.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As I mentioned earlier; the experience was both impressive and hassle-free. I highly recommend Vardot and will look forward to any future ventures that arise between us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're a digital transformation company with a focus on consulting, individual software development and integrating software into government and private core business processes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Vardot?

Building External Portal using Drupal 8

What were your goals for this project?

Mobile Friendly Drupal 8 as Tech Integration with MailChimp and Google Analytics Be centralized official portal for the client

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

There were 3 competitors Vardot provided client 3 UI designs templates and accordingly vardot was selected as best UI designs along with drupal.org for ranking

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

A complete CMS portal for the client which can they able to do the following functions:

• Posting News
• Gallery (Photos and Videos)
• Projects
• Interactive Map
• About gov page
• Contact us
• Twitter embded option
• BE systems for internal users
• Workflow and approval

What was the team composition?

Project team was about 10 engineers:

• 1 PM
• 1 BA
• 1 Frontend
• 2 Drupal BE
• 2 DevOps
• 2 Functional Tester
• 1 Non Functional Tester

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The project is for one of the a sensitive government agency which aim to help Yemen and do various reconstruction program from many perspective like Water , Electricity , Hospitals , Accommodations , Transportation ….etc.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project mgt was following Agile And we used Basecamp for management , Zoho Bug Tracker was using for Testing

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I'm impressed that they're ranked within the top 10 developers on Drupal.org.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Yes , having them here onsite during the project implementation atleast for the deployment phase

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of Mkateb.com, a one-stop retail shop offering stationery, office supplies, and digital printing services. Our platform also acts as a multichannel logistics hub and distributor.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Vardot?

We hired Vardot to improve our old website, which had a lot of technical bugs and SEO issues.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to launch an enhanced and professional e-commerce website that would be our main platform for online purchases and inventory. The old Magento platform was outdated and not mobile-friendly, resulting in poor customer experience and lost sales.

We wanted to have a site that was more visually appealing, interactive, and responsive. For example, we wanted to improve the site’s search functionality and product catalog. It also had to be compatible with social media and other modern technology.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We searched for reputable vendors in the Middle East that could provide e-commerce website design and development services. Vardot had the best portfolio out of four candidates with similar services.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Vardot redesigned and rebuilt our e-commerce site using Drupal. Initially, we had several rounds of feedback on the platform’s design to ensure that it would align with our objectives.

The team then seamlessly migrated our platform from an old version of Magento to Drupal, which is much more flexible. They were quite excited to show us the platform’s new features during our training sessions.

We asked them for features that would allow us to run better campaigns, such as discounts and coupons. After we edited the products, Vardot launched the website on a hosting server they manage. They continue to provide regular support and maintenance for the platform.

What was the team composition?

We work mainly with two people from Vardot, a project manager and a technical team lead. The team also included designers and developers and testers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our organic traffic has increased by over 600% due to better SEO. As a result, our sales have also gone up. Plus, we can easily run sales campaigns on the site with a quick time to market.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The engagement is going quite smoothly. We communicate online through a project management system that allows us to upload files, comment on discussions, and follow up on milestones. We also comment on designs using InVision. After we went live, Vardot provided an online ticketing system that allows us to report issues and specify their urgency.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We’re impressed with their passion for offering solutions. They anticipate problems and deliver well beyond the project scope. The quality-price ratio is also quite impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I have nothing to highlight for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of ProEquest, a horse sales company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vardot?

My website needed to be upgraded to a new version of Drupal.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did everything from design to coding of my new website. They transferred features from my previous site and supplemented it with some additional features that I wanted. They enabled mapping and added a feature so users can follow people. Videos can now be placed in the profiles. They also improved the payment system operating on the backend.

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with three people.

How did you come to work with Vardot?

They reached out to me and told me they were a highly skilled Drupal company. I responded back to them. We had an enjoyable conversation so I decided to work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January until December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a much better website. It looks great, and we’ve had no issues. They exceeded my expectations.

How did Vardot perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptionally responsive and easy to deal with. We used email or phone calls. Everyone was aware of what was happening.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They could find a solution to anything. I’m not a computer guy so I was especially happy to talk with them and to be able to understand what they were talking about.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I took a chance with them and liked them. I advise everyone to hire them. They do everything you want them to do. They’re easy to talk to.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the associate director of outreach at American Muslims for Palestine. I was one of two leads on the website project with Vardot.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vardot?

Our website wasn’t user-friendly, and we wanted to redesign it to improve user access. We also wanted our website to reflect our growth and brand evolution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did full-stack web development from our design specs, using Drupal on the backend and InDesign and InVision on the frontend. The new features include categorized content, a company description tab, a new color scheme, video display, social media integration, and a more prominent donate button. We also can now preview images for use on the site. They currently host the site and make any requested changes.

What is the team composition?

I interacted with two of the four people working on the project. One was a designer and the others were developers.

How did you come to work with Vardot?

I knew Vardot through a family friend and our team thought their professionalism beat any other vendor. They were also flexible with our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2015 and the engagement concluded in October 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They offered support for a year after launch, making changes and fixing bugs as needed. Even adjustments that weren’t originally budgeted were complimentary. We’re going to hire them for another site revamp to add additional features.

How did Vardot perform from a project management standpoint?

They used Basecamp and set us a work plan and a schedule. I found their project management very professional and they always kept us up to date. They responded to emails or messages within 24 hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They treated our project like their priority. When we had a DNS server attack, they quickly dealt with the problem.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I thought we didn’t spend as much time talking about the design and research as we should have. We’ll probably do that the second time around.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Customers should stay informed about what you want moving forward and communicate with Vardot constantly. A failure to respond will delay the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the executive director of PeaceGeeks. We are a nonprofit organization that focuses on technology for peace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vardot?

We needed a website for one of our projects as an inventory of content promoting peace, tolerance, and cohesion in the face of hate speech and polarization in digital spaces. We wanted the product to focus on reducing vulnerability to extremism in the Middle East by trying to change the discourse in digital spaces.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed the site on Drupal 8 based on our designs and concepts. We spent time discussing the site’s intended look, functionality, and content.

What is the team composition?

The project manager was our main point of contact. She was involved in the initial negotiations and various high-level milestone moments.

How did you come to work Vardot?

We submitted four cross-offers and Vardot offered us a 50% discount because they supported our work. Although the offer was still higher than we had budgeted, the team’s excellent national reputation made the decision a “no-brainer”. We made the budget work.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from January–May 2018. The website is launched and we’re now moving into a maintenance phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We can make improvements to strengthen the calls to action. However, that area falls under design more than content.

How did Vardot perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was professional and the project manager was easy to communicate with; we used Basecamp. Vardot did everything on time; there were delays, but those were on our side. Originally, we wanted the site ready for an event, but turnover made that target impossible. However, the team did everything they could to get it launched.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Vardot is a smaller organization with a presence in both North America and the Middle East. While there’s a lot of practices I’m already familiar with, the team knew how to engage audiences in the latter region and create right-to-left site content.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I was happy with the entire engagement and we didn’t have any problems.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be ready and get the content prepared early. Vardot will be ready to hit the ground running.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The mission of The Life Writer is to make life story writing easy, affordable, and available to everybody through technology. I’m the CEO and co-founder along with my wife, Teri.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vardot?

A big part of making life writing easy is to offer automatic voice transcription. The idea is that instead of paying somebody $50,000 to produce your story, you can do it yourself with our technology for $100. We've been through four different software providers over the years while trying to bring this product to market. Many companies said it can't be done or didn't even want to try.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The pre-existing version of the program was written in Drupal 6. In order to add automatic voice transcription required Vardot to update the program to Drupal 8.

Previously, we only offered clients the ability to produce a life story memoir like you see in the library. Some customers, however, didn't really want to write that much and would prefer using photos and describing what is happening in each one. Vardot created a photo book option that is landscape instead of portrait layout and much less dense with text.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with about five associates.

How did you come to work with Vardot?

We were reaching out to a lot of different companies trying to find one that was more capable than the previous firms and also a better value. I can't remember exactly how we got connected with Vardot. What really stood out was that they told us about a vulnerability on our website and advised us to get it fixed right away. I really appreciated that and it made them memorable.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project kicked off in early October 2017. Right now the product is 99% done. We're getting ready to launch the new site in the next 7–10 days.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They deliver value by keeping their costs on the lower end and working very hard. Other companies are quick to send a bill and deliver a piece of work that isn't done or isn't very good. It's been just the opposite with Vardot: the product is very high quality and a great value.

Working with Vardot has made a big difference in expanding our market through the products we offer. Many people feel they don't have anything to say or are intimidated by writing a memoir, but everyone has a box of old photos that they want to share and document somehow. After eight years of trying, it's finally about to happen and that’s because of Vardot.

How did Vardot perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re super responsive. Throughout the entire project, they responded the same day or the next day. Other companies we worked with wouldn't respond for days or weeks even on really important or time-sensitive questions. It's incredible how quickly Vardot responds; they’re seriously amazing.

We primarily used Basecamp to communicate as well as some video conferencing and email. One of our initial concerns about working with them was communication because they’re based in Jordan. In fact, communicating with them is easier than with many other companies we’ve worked with even if they were located down the street.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They try harder than other companies. We had so many requests for them to change things once they delivered the site and the book building app. They've been so good about listening to us and actually doing the things we ask. They're just so dedicated and I can't say enough about them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They pretty much nailed it. I don't think we've seen anything they could do better. We've been extremely impressed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

One thing that worked for us was taking a screenshot of anything that needed to be changed or fixed. We communicated back and forth via screenshots, which made it easy to understand exactly what we were talking about and really saved time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We offer an enterprise SaaS [Software as a Service] product where customers can log in and search for data on the companies that they currently or potentially will partner with.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Vardot?

We hired them to create a simple yet powerful website to be able to attract potential customers as well as help with recruiting efforts in the quickest time possible.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main goal was to have a nicely designed website that can attract customers and explain our product in a straightforward and clear manner.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I’ve known about this vendor based on other major projects they have worked on in the past. When it was time to select a vendor, they were one of the front-runners based on their experience.

Describe the project in detail.

They designed and developed the website and created content for it. They also provided maintenance and were able to implement everything from A to Z, which was a relief for us.

What was the team composition?

I interfaced with the CEO and a project manager. I know that there were two developers and a quality assurance resource dedicated to the project, which was more than enough based on its size.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

We’ve received great feedback on the website from people outside of the company. We continue to obtain many leads and are able to track visitors thanks to the analytic solutions that Vardot implemented.

How effective was the project management?

They are a very responsive team and deadlines were always met. We used Basecamp for communication, which was very easy. They’re also fluent in English, making it even easier to talk with them.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It’s probably the best company I've worked with when it comes down to their knowledge of Drupal. Their flexibility, professionalism, and support are second to none—they really want to make sure you’re happy. Lastly, it was a great price for the amount of work involved.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

My advice to any potential client would be to be prepared with the content for your site. The more proactive we were as a client, the faster things progressed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're an intergovernmental organization based in Vienna, Austria. We work with the governments of Saudi Arabia, Austria, Spain, and The Holy See. We were founded in 2012 with a specific mandate to foster and promote inter-religious dialogue between representatives and followers of different religions and cultures. We do this through a number of different programs. We provide training and mediation services in conflict resolution. We develop resources and publications on the subject, and we work with partners in education and media.

What is your position?

My title is media officer, but I work more with the communications department. I oversee all forms of communication.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the challenge that you were trying to address when you first approached Vardot?

We were looking to redesign and relaunch our website. We had a basic and very static website, which was created in something of a hurry. So, we'd been working with that for a couple of years and were facing a number of problems. For example, it was built on a proprietary CMS [content management system], which meant that we couldn't edit the site ourselves. Also, the website had not kept pace with the organization. We have changed considerably since 2012, and the website no longer reflected the current reality of the organization.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the actual scope of work assigned to them during this engagement?

We were looking for development and design. They provided us with training on how to use our new Drupal CMS, which they carried out after the site was completed. They were also involved in the discovery phase. Vardot worked very closely with us from the beginning. When we hired them, we only knew that we wanted a new site. We had decided what we'd like to see, from a very non-technical point of view, and they worked with us very closely in the process of translating that into an actual website.

We had decided to use Drupal before Vardot was involved, though, and we contacted Vardot initially because they had really excellent credentials with Drupal. We were very clear that we wanted something that was intuitive, open source, and easy to use and manage. My supervisor and I have both worked with Drupal in the past and have been very happy with its overall performance.

How did you come to choose Vardot as your partner?

We had a transparent bidding process. As an inter-governmental organization, we had some pretty strict procurement rules, so we did a bidding process. I believe the initial bid went out to about 16 companies. After the bidding process, we had technical and commercial assessments, and Vardot was the clear winner in both categories. Also, we liked that they had a lot of experience with mobile development and Arabic fonts.

What were the results of the project?

The site was launched on January 21 [2015]. But now we are working on a second multilingual site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback that would demonstrate the over quality of their performance and/or the success of the engagement?

In the two months since the launch, we've seen between a 50 percent to 60 percent increase in the total number of visitors to the site. We were very satisfied with their project management capabilities, too. They were very responsive to our needs throughout the planning and development phases. It was very clear at all times who my contact was at Vardot. They were very quick to respond when we had questions or concerns. We have a fairly involved internal process of approvals, and they were very understanding of that. I liked the way we decided on timelines for delivery, and they stuck to those timelines. The product was launched on time, which is a first for us.

When working with Vardot, is there anything that you would consider unique about their practice that distinguishes them from other vendors?

What I really liked about the team from Vardot is the fact that they actually took the time to understand our organization. One specific thing was that there were certain parts of the content we had developed, but hadn't realized its full potential. They were able to point out that potential and encourage us to highlight the information. That showed that they were able to go above and beyond their role as Web development experts and advise us on branding and marketing. We really appreciated that well-rounded approach.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think they could improve as a service provider?

At the moment, we're going through the process of launching the multilingual site. We're launching in four different languages at the same time. Looking back, I think that maybe we should have been a little bit more realistic about the amount of work that was involved and the number of people we would need outside the core team. So, maybe a little more planning in that phase would have been beneficial. We both assumed that the process we'd used for the English version would work across all the languages, but we found out the hard way that was not the case.

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

If there's a multilingual aspect to the project, especially something outside of English and Arabic, both of which Vardot is very comfortable with, I would perhaps look at detailing what is involved a little more. I can't emphasize how important that planning phase really is before you begin to build.