Wide Open Technologies

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the software product manager for a franchise company that sells, installs, and services mobility and accessibility equipment. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Wide Open Technologies?

We outgrew the original developers of our custom software.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We offer custom software to our franchisees that allows them to manage leads and existing customers, quote, invoice, and manage inventory. As a franchisor, we use the platform to track their payments and collect royalties.

When we brought Wide Open Technologies onboard, they had to learn how to use our original custom code generator. The team had to maintain and make improvements on the software while also migrating the system from the code generator to a standard platform.

What is the team composition?

We work with three people: two developers and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Wide Open Technologies?

We searched online for local developers. I visited their location to chat with one of their project managers, and it seemed like a great fit. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a little over $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2016 and the project is ongoing.

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

We onboarded them with a system full of bugs and inefficient processes. Within a year, the inquiries we received from our franchise owners and their teams dropped significantly. We saw a reduction of support requests by about 90% after Wide Open Technologies worked to make the system more intuitive and accessible. The amount of time, money, and effort we spend supporting software is down significantly as well. In general, they’ve done a great job of making upgrades to help support our growing business.

The team has completely rebuilt the UI/UX components of the solution so our web app is mobile-friendly and responsive. It’s been a great sales tool, and we’ve been able to increase sales and revenue and close more leads.

How did Wide Open Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Wide Open Technologies is great at project management. I work very closely with their developer, and I feel comfortable reaching out with questions or to schedule a meeting at any time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re extremely easy to work with. I trust that Wide Open Technologies has our best interests in mind and that they care about our success. They take a lot of pride in their work, and it feels like we’re one team working together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They’re a small company with limited resources and they’ve always done a great job. If we need to increase the budget or increase hours, they always find a way to make it happen.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do what you can to work with them. Provide the information they need so they can come up with a complete solution. Also, have someone in place who can work closely with them to really maximize the project’s success.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a department within our greater sales organization which manages a network of licensed mattress stores across the country. I am the senior manager of operations.

What challenge were you trying to address with Wide Open Technologies?

We had been using another company for web development, but they were more of a design shop, and we needed some extensive custom work, including shopping cart design, and the ability for our various licensees to customize their portions of the website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Wide Open Technologies took our existing platform and rewrote elements in order to make it more usable by our 100+ dealers across the country, enabling them to manage product catalogs and so on. Our site was developed using the Magento platform. Wide Open Technologies is also providing ongoing support for the site.

We're now working with Wide Open Technologies in order to create a learning management system for dealers, allowing them to log in, take courses, have access to information about the business, take tests, and communicate with us.

How did you come to work with Wide Open Technologies?

Our previous developer referred us to Wide Open Technologies.

How much have you invested with Wide Open Technologies?

The total cost of our website development with Wide Open Technologies was around $50,000 and we have a monthly retainer set up with them to address new projects and needs.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with Wide Open Technologies since 2013. We have an ongoing relationship. Since our original mattress website project, we've had Wide Open Technologies put together an informational website for a convention, as well as a business opportunities page.

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

I don't have hard stats, but Wide Open Technologies has been great to work with. Our needs fluctuate; there may be a week in which I don't have any ongoing requests for Wide Open Technologies, after which I'll pepper them with a number of requests for changes, questions on the backend, and so on.

How did Wide Open Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a very good job of managing tasks in order to use up our allotted time efficiently, making sure that we don't overspend. For the most part, Wide Open Technologies is good and quick on requests. If I need to approach Wide Open Technologies for an update, they'll tackle it right away.

What did you find most impressive about Wide Open Technologies?

One thing that I like about Wide Open Technologies is that they are flexible and good at problem solving. There have been times when we approached Wide Open Technologies with something that we needed to accomplish, and they came up with a couple of different ways of doing it. Wide Open Technologies understands the programming and logic behind our site, so they can come up with ways of making our goals happen.

Are there any areas Wide Open Technologies could improve?

They are doing well as a company, and have a number of customers. Occasionally, we would have wanted to have more resources on Wide Open Technologies' team.  At one time, Wide Open Technologies was relaunching a big website, which was taking their focus away from other projects.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Broadfield Distributing and VideoGuys.com. I am the Marketing Director of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Wide Open Technologies?

We needed to find a Magento developer who could take the existing data from our previous custom-designed PHP website and integrate it with the new one.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Wide Open Technologies designed our Magento e-commerce websites, including initial designs, templates, and the entire check-out process.

We've also integrated a WordPress CMS [content management system} engine with Wide Open Tech's help, and we are using them for SEO services.

How did you come to work with Wide Open Technologies?

We were referred to Wide Open Tech by a vendor partner at the NAB Show.

How much have you invested with Wide Open Technologies?

The price is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Wide Open Tech 4 years ago, and have an ongoing relationship.

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

The feedback from the industry has been great. Our catalog has grown to over 2,000 products, and we've had a huge success in reaching out to new vendors and product lines. We offer 1,000 downloadable software products, which we didn't have the capability for previously. Our business has grown by 30%.

How did Wide Open Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Unfortunately, nothing was delivered on time, given that challenges popped up left and right. Wide Open Tech's team did their best to work with us every step of the way. The largest challenge was integrating our previous website's data, without losing anything.

What did you find most impressive about Wide Open Technologies?

As challenges came up, Wide Open Tech brought additional people into the mix, helping us address them and adding further expertise, beyond the initial team.

Are there any areas Wide Open Technologies could improve?

No.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Connected Investors is a social network for real estate professionals. I am the Chief Technology Officer of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Wide Open Technologies?

We have the largest online network of real estate investors. We had a system that had been put in place years ago. It was a challenge for many reasons. From a technical point of view, it wasn't very sound, and it was missing many of the elements which are necessary within an enterprise software, in terms of maintaining engagement, built-in metrics, and general architecture. We wanted to gut what we had, and rebuild the platform using the right framework, with the right architecture and vision in mind.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Wide Open Technologies offered us some guidance initially. Our CEO [Chief Executive Officer] had an idea in his head, but he needed a group that could turn that idea into reality. As we continued, we came to the design of a social network and online marketplace, featuring integration with all kinds of third-party apps and tools, from CRM [customer relationship management] billing systems, analytics tracking, and other backend functionalities.

We also wanted to create a fully-functional mobile application. Especially within real estate, people will be on the move, so half of our engagements are from mobile devices.

How did you come to work with Wide Open Technologies?

They're local to our company. Our CEO called a few people, and Wide Open Technologies came highly recommended.

How much have you invested with Wide Open Technologies?

We haven't had a conventional project with Wide Open Technologies. Usually, when engaging a developer, the client will bring them fully-baked specifications, and ask for a budget. In our scenario, Wide Open Technologies didn't have this luxury, given that my company was unable to provide full requirements. Our CEO is a dreamer, and he saw different elements in his mind. We came up with our concept as we went, so we managed the work as more of a continuous evolution, than a traditional project.

Our project with Wide Open Technologies has involved the creation of our entire platform, along with its integrations.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our project with Wide Open Technologies 3 years ago. We continue to work together every day, all day.

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

Two years ago, when we brought our new site live, it replaced the old system overnight. In doing so, given that everything was new, I expected the house to be on fire for weeks. Everyone was on-deck, ready to jump in at any moment. When the site went live, everything worked. We did find a couple of bugs, but everything was fully-functional to the point of making me think that it was offline, given the lack of issues.

I've done this for a long time, but our site was the biggest turn-up that I've been a part of.

Another factor of success is that, with Wide Open Technologies' help, we have implemented some world-class metrics and analytics through which we run the business on a day-to-day basis. Because of the way in which we architected the site, we can see every detail of our business, and take action on it. I am willing to put our analytics against anybody else's, including much larger companies. This is in great part because of Wide Open Technologies and their efforts in helping us get the work right.

How did Wide Open Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We have implemented some processes in working with Wide Open Technologies, which have been helpful. We have an Agile scrum methodology, tracking and iterating tasks together with Wide Open Technologies. This enables us not only to make things happen, but also to manage the project. I have weekly calls with our project manager from Wide Open Technologies, during which we review the week and talk about the priorities for the following one. From a project management point of view, we've been very pleased.

What did you find most impressive about Wide Open Technologies?

Our CEO is the person who engaged Wide Open Technologies. He's somewhat of a dreamer, so as I said, we didn't work off of specs, but rather had many discussions and made multiple changes. Wide Open Technologies' ability to listen and help us create a product has been notable. Any development company can take up a task when they're told what to do. With Wide Open Technologies, the differentiator was that they understood our business to a level at which they could offer both taking a hill, if that's what we wanted, but also going around it, if that was the easier option. Because they understand our business, Wide Open Technologies can think of the right answer, instead of just listening to what we want them to do. We can be wrong, but Wide Open Technologies is very consultative in helping us at those times.

Are there any areas Wide Open Technologies could improve?

Anything that I could say about Wide Open Technologies, I could say about anyone else.

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

Whenever a client works with a third party which is outside of their company, there will be specific issues. The vendor's team will not be 100% dedicated to our needs, so we have to be sensitive to the fact that we can have our heads deep into a problem which needs solving, but our partner may need to jump off and solve other people's problems for a while.