Xumulus

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Pioneer International, and we sell optometry equipment to students, doctors, and residents all over the US. I’m responsible for a lot of things from customer service and sales to website creation. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Xumulus?

I’ve been working on putting a new website together. Our company needed a bundling extension to put packages of ophthalmic equipment together. We post these packages online so students can go and buy their equipment all in one place.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We use a bundling extension that Dan (Founder & CTO) created for all our school specials, which we use to sell to universities all over the country. 

Our company also uses Xumulus for other services outside of the bundles. They help us when something comes up or breaks on the website. Dan maintains it for us. If we want to add something that we can’t in-house, we go to him. We do have plans to add a few little updates here and there. 

What is the team composition?

I work with three people from Xumulus, with Dan as the main point of contact. I’ve also worked with two coders.

How did you come to work with Xumulus?

We initially had a website developer who brought Dan to our attention for the bundle extension he created. It was something we were looking for in the student packages we were putting together. As soon as it was brought to our attention, we liked it so much that we completely switched developers. We’ve been working with Xumulus ever since. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $10,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We engaged them in December 2019, and the partnership’s ongoing. 

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

Dan is a pro at the bundling extension he created. Within our website, we’re now able to launch either individual or bundled products. We’ve used these bundled products for school specials and university students all over the country. The site’s like a one-stop-shop where students can come and buy everything that’s in the kit, and then they’re good to go for the year. 

Dan even made special engraving and customization boxes for lenses that can be customized through our website. He’s done such a great job for all the personalizations, images, coding, and other features that he’s put into it. 

We reached out to our students throughout the US who used these bundles. They always talk about how much they like it. They don’t have to go to five million different places to find their equipment. We’ve heard nothing but good notes and good recommendations from students and even doctors and residents that have been to our site. 

How did Xumulus perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re on a ticket system, so we open tickets and give Xumulus a deadline based on what we need to be done when testing needs to be done or when we have a sale coming up. We try to give them a little bit of leeway because technology doesn’t always go our way when we want it to.

Dan and his team have always been great about hitting deadlines. Every once in a while, there are hiccups that come up, but they work late at night and early in the morning to make sure they get things done. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their efficiency is impressive. Dan gets back to me really quickly, whether about a question or a ticket, a phone call, or a voicemail. He gets back to me and lets me know he’s on it and taking care of it, which is nice to know.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s better to cut to the chase and not make things overly complicated. Simplify what you need from them and make everything as simple as possible to help them understand what you’re trying to do to prevent back-and-forth confusion. Stay as simple as you can. Even with the addition that we’ve made to the website, I try to be as descriptive as possible, but I make it simple that we all are on the same page.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We sell custom wheels and tires for trucks using our website and mail orders. Our team also has a showroom.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xumulus?

We’ve had a website since the 1980s, so we’ve changed it several times as we’ve grown as a business. The last website we had was through Magento, and it didn’t work so well for us or our development partners. Their team was brought on to move our platform to BigCommerce. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the start of our relationship, they recommended that we switch to BigCommerce, as it would provide a more stable platform. We ended up scrapping our old site because it would’ve been just as costly to correct the older one. From there, we’ve worked in phases of development. Our first goal was to mimic our old site in BigCommerce, but we wanted the site speed to be faster.

They moved the database from the old site, completely starting from scratch otherwise. It had the same look and feel at first, but their team quickly modernized it. They also integrated Hawksearch for advanced site navigation. After that was accomplished, we entered phase two. This phase involves making the platform more custom to our business. We’re in the middle of that effort right now. Next, we’ll move into more of a maintenance phase with them. 

What is the team composition?

I worked most closely with Steve (E-Commerce Solutions Architect) and Dan (Founder & CTO). There’s a larger team working behind the scenes, though.

How did you come to work with Xumulus?

Through our network, we were recommended to Xumlus. After speaking with them and reviewing their proposals, it sounded like they were experts in the field. We showed them various sites that we liked as inspiration, and it seemed like they could take on the work.

How much have you invested with them?

Breaking the budget into phases, we’ve spent about $48,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.  

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

Traffic has definitely picked up since we started our engagement with them. Everything loads much more quickly on this site, so users are staying engaged with content for longer periods of time. Everything is going exactly as we hoped. 

How did Xumulus perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was wonderful. We spoke with each other at least 4–5 times each day over email. They follow through on their promises and answer questions quickly. We have Zoom meetings 2–3 times each week. They mapped out each project phase from the start. Everything has stayed on schedule.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They react quickly to our suggestions, implementing them in a timely fashion. Sometimes, they provide recommendations for improvements, and other times our team takes the reigns. They’re great to work with, and our collaboration has been smooth.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any constructive criticism. This has been the easiest site to integrate into our operations. It’s also gone the fastest of all of our past website projects. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep in communication and be willing to share your thoughts with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of an online electronics store.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xumulus?

I recently upgraded to Magento 2 Enterprise, but we were just running in place fixing bug after bug, trying to get through all these issues. I got tired of feeling like that was all I could do and not seeing a bigger picture.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They came in and brought us up to the latest Magento version immediately—which involved moving about six versions at a time, when my team could only move one. They also moved our hosting from platform.SH to eBoundHost, since they were familiar with both, and fixed a lot of bugs. After this, they optimized our loading times, reduced the amount of JavaScript on our homepage, and improved our UI/UX. Finally, they moved our blog from a subdomain on WordPress into our Magento stack, which is going to help a lot with SEO.

What is the team composition?

I worked with his entire team—probably three or four people. The Founder, Dan, will get involved if it’s high-level, but he’ll delegate otherwise.

How did you come to work with Xumulus?

I reached out to a couple of colleagues for referrals because I was done with the agency route. I was tired of them being good in one or two things but not good at another, and then paying too much for everything. When we were first talking with the founder, I immediately grasped that he understood a wider range of code and Magento and our hosting platform than the Magento people.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $40,000—$50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since April 2018.

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

May is generally a low-performance month, but this year, when they fixed a lot of problems, it was a blockbuster. I completely correlate that to some of those fixes. June was a blockbuster too, and July has been really good. We just upgraded the blog piece to be in our full stack, so I’m hoping that it will improve our SEO. We hadn’t been getting credit for the articles we’d been writing because Google couldn’t recognize that it was still our site, even though it was a subdomain.

How did Xumulus perform from a project management standpoint?

I talk to them weekly and as needed. Most of it is just checking in and seeing what they’re going to be working on next. I rarely have to follow-up about anything because, by the time I ask them about, they’re either done with it, testing it, or have just run into a small bug—but that’s pretty rare.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understood how different things affected one another; he saw things on a micro- and a macro-level. They’re always optimizing things I wouldn’t think about because I come from a different perspective. Their experience in working on larger sites gives them a knowledge base that they can apply to my current subset of issues.

They don’t act like the savior of their company or brag about how much they know, like other agencies I’ve worked with. They’re very knowledgeable and let that show in their effort and accomplishments. They’re definitely a partner in moving my business forward and helping us make more money. It’s a win-win. I’ve never had anyone so focused on being my partner; it’s been a real blessing. They have integrity.

Any advice for potential customers?

Tell them what your objectives and goals are, and they’ll align quickly with those. They’ll tell you if what you want is possible in the timeline you have and then will ask for whatever they need to achieve that.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the project manager of Stickit! Products. We develop unique consumer products to organize & decorate homes, dormitories, and offices, including dry-erase boards and cling frames that hang on most smooth, flat surfaces, and leave no residue or damage when removed.

For what projects/services did your company hire Xumulus?

We needed someone to redesign our website, engage additional social media channels, and build branding activities.

What were your goals for this project?

First, we wanted to increase website traffic. Additionally, we wanted to use and understand promotional and buying options on social media. We also wanted to dive into analytic information on these activities, so we could continue to tweak our strategies to enhance our brand.

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended to us by a colleague. After talking with them about our project, we felt that they really understood where we were and could help take us where we wanted to go.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

The initial project focused on redesigning our Shopify website. We’d just scratched the surface of what this platform offered, and in our consultations, they enhanced the look and feel of the site, taught us how to activate tools for data collection, and how to list our products for maximum advantage. Once the redesign was complete, Xumulus re-started our social media efforts to include additional channels, created content, and offered recommendations on apps that would meet our e-commerce needs,

What was the team composition?

We had one primary project manager, but our team consisted of about six people, most of whom were key for some parts and less involved for others.

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

The new website is pretty impressive. The look and feel went from rigid and obviously created by an e-commerce business person on an out-of-the-box platform, to a customized, professional and high-functioning shopping experience for our customers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was managed attentively, responsively, and proactively. The staff listened and worked to implement our combined vision, were available for questions, follow-up and updates, and offered an expertise that was really lacking on our in-house team. This management approach proved to be a pleasant and effective combination.

The project demanded an agile approach that was flexible enough to try certain strategies and shift towards those that were garnering the best results. Having the same project manager provided the agility and continuity we needed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I found the company's expertise, creativity, and customer-centered approach to be most impressive. Not only do they have knowledge of design, SEO, website functionality, and analytics (to name a few), but they are able to convey these complicated concepts in an understandable and meaningful way.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I can't think of any areas of improvements at the moment. We’re continuing our partnership with into the next phase of our project because we’re happy with the initial redesign.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of trade marketing for Jackson Family Wines. We have a portfolio of about 50 brands, including the Kendall-Jackson brand. Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay has been the top selling wine in the US for 25 years. My job is to make sure that the brand assets, the storytelling, selling, and all the tools that are used in the market are on the brand standard to achieve our goals. I interface with our distributor partners and sales teams around the world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xumulus?

Our sales reps and customers need to be aware of several thousand SKUs. We needed someone to design a digital asset management site. We had a previous solution that had been developed about 4–5 years prior. The old site was very clunky and not very easy to use. It required a user password setup, which was very cumbersome to manage.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed our digital asset management site. The site needed to be accessible around the world. Without training, users needed to be able to easily and intuitively understand the site, pull down the assets and the resolution needed, and easily upload new brand information.

We worked together to understand what we had to work with and how we’d best visualize it in a very easy way to use. All the assets of our internal enterprise CMS had to translate through, which added complexity on the programming side. We had to figure out how the transfer gets to the site, where the server is, where it stays, how it’s named, how it’s categorized, and how that information is updated onto the live site. There were several integrations on the backend.

They developed a highly-functioning site that met all the requirements. They did a lot of creative problem-solving. They made sure the images appeared correctly and that the various resolution options were available. They streamlined our work so we’d have less to do to make it all work in the end.

What is the team composition?

I only worked with Dan (Founder and Client Leader, Xumulus).

How did you come to work with Xumulus?

I’m assuming Dan reached out to someone in our IT team to talk about his capabilities. He was on a shortlist of people to consider.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was slated to be a six-month project from January to June 2013. The project was finished and launched on time.

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

We made a big deal about the launch because the old site was very clumsy. At our global sales meeting, I presented that we had a new site. We got a round of applause from the entire sales team. When your sales team is supportive and excited about a project, that’s a good thing. They were thrilled with how easy it was. There was no training. There was no need to log on. I’ve had customers, such as people that own a restaurant or liquor store, say the site is the best in class and the easiest site to maneuver through and they thank us for making it an easy process. Our distributor partners have been very supportive of that. It was a true success. It was a huge win for me personally as well as for our company in making it easy to use.

How did Xumulus perform from a project management standpoint?

There were some initial meetings at the beginning to assign the objectives. Dan worked directly with my IT team to learn the backend and how it worked. We had a series of scheduled conference calls to update each other on status. There were times he worked all night long to show us a cool feature he wanted to recommend. He was very available anytime we needed him. They were fantastic with project management. We mainly communicated through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The creative problem-solving to really understand what our business need was and to get a proper solution was most impressive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about your objective and business need. He’ll figure out a solution for you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing and IT at Rogers Enterprises, Inc. We’re a jewelry company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xumulus?

After taking down our old site, we needed a development firm to build and launch a new Magento-based website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We utilized a straightforward software development life cycle (SDLC) and collaborated throughout the process. First, we went through the old website to evaluate what we liked and what we wanted to change. After that, we designed the main wireframes and built the site. Once complete, we tested the functionalities and launched the site.

Using Magento 2, Xumulus built-out numerous features including a robust search function, account creation, and logins. While developing the site, they also made sure we could create templates for landing pages and track site data. Additionally, they integrated the site with Oracle to allow online sales to be submitted twice; once when the purchase is made, and again when the item is delivered. This feature helps us accurately identify revenue and efficiently process e-commerce.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, a UX designer, and a backend developer.

How did you come to work with Xumulus?

Once we decided to move our site to Magento, we looked at around six different partners. Xumulus was recommended to us by a family-related employee and went through our standard vetting process. Xumulus’s experience with Oracle made it possible to integrate our existing ERP (enterprise resource planning) and POS (point of sale) system with the new Magento site. We couldn’t do that on our previous platform, so their skill set was valuable to us. They also offered a competitive price and showed a commitment to growing with us. As a result, we decided to move forward with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $110,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place March 2016–October 2016.

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

We’re successfully integrated with our POS and ERP systems. That’s a huge step forward for us. Having Magento automatically process that information saves 2–20 hours of work per week, depending on the time of year. Since the engagement concluded, we’ve seen website growth increase exponentially, at times in the triple digits. This trend seems to be continuing, so it’s safe to say that moving to Magento was a positive decision.

How did Xumulus perform from a project management standpoint?

They were understaffed for the initial development phase. The project manager was the sole developer and it was too large a project for one person. He brought in a backend developer and things were much smoother. The speed of the project picked up significantly. I interacted directly with the project manager on a weekly basis at least. Certain parts of the process necessitated daily communication, but that varied throughout. We’d communicate through phone, email, or in-person meetings. However, we used Jira for all development parts of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their forward-thinking functionally installation and ability to solve integration issues were highly impressive. There were many times where we wanted to install new features and Xumulus would present questions we hadn’t thought of like, “How is this going to integrate with your stores?” or “What problems could we run into in the future?” This approach ensured we could expand their programming correctly after experiencing future growth.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took a while before we really established a project management flow. That’s partly due to the project manager having initial difficulties communicating project specifics to people without an IT background. While we overcame this issue, the project could have gone smoother if they were better organized from the start.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We spent a lot of time internally detailing the scope of the work and effectively communicating that to Xumulus. A clear understanding of the project by all parties led to a successful collaboration.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of enablement and initiative for a telecom company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xumulus?

Our internet portal was built on a Documentum platform that hadn’t been updated for a few years. The platform was 25 years old, pieced together through internal development work, and becoming an end of life product. In order to move the server, we had to update our portal, but we didn’t have a current version, a service agreement, a maintenance agreement, or any ongoing development. Our main challenge was to look at the current technology and determine how to recreate our internet portal.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our website provides HR functions for our associates and has key resources for supporting our customers. Roughly 500 retail stores access it in addition to several major call centers and external vendors. It’s a key knowledge content repository for our organization. We used Aviano, a systems integration consultant, to help us research technology options, establish user interfaces, and determine how we would carry out the portal migration. They were instrumental in helping us select our technology vendor, Xumulus, who helped us with the actual integration of technical pieces for our system. They helped us set up the IP addresses, define our domain, and develop custom coding to replicate our internal programs that needed to be converted into our new system.

I worked with four different teams, but Xumulus was responsible for all of our technical work using an Oracle platform. They developed our portal components that users were accustomed to, and they helped us configure our Lightweight Directory Access Protocol as well as integrate various modules. They were instrumental in helping our middleware team set up the system configuration and develop the mechanics for separating system access for our internal associates from our external associates. They worked with us on security, load balancing, and how to use different nodes. They also helped us distinguish internal configuration issues from Oracle bugs since we were working with Oracle version 12. We had a warranty period, so they stayed with us after implementation. After project completion, they moved from my team to our infrastructure group to train them on system operations and any necessary development work.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Dan [Founder, Xumulus] and three other people.

How did you come to work with Xumulus?

I had a short list of companies I was reviewing for hire, but I required someone who would work on our system from start to finish. I didn't want to have different consultants for system integration, UI/UX, and various technical aspects. I wanted content providers to be responsible for their own content, so we needed to build templates that were adjustable. Our systems integration company, Aviano, worked with Xumulus and highly recommended them. During our RFP process, we wanted to ensure that we contracted a company that understood Oracle, which is how we came across them. They had experience with Oracle, and their expertise was crucial for using the new version of the software.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent upwards of $2,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together December 2015, and we finished collaborating March 2017. They stayed on to help us with a 60-day training period after implementation.

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

The associates that view the portal on a daily basis have noticed the difference post-redesign and development. Our users and content providers have more control over updating their content. Our system's content conversion was made possible from their work on the system's security, integrating Google search, and using Google Analytics to identify which pages to convert. This resulted in a different look, feel, and UX for our portal. I don't have concrete statistics, but anecdotal feedback shows that the search function has made a big difference for us.

How did Xumulus perform from a project management standpoint?

We documented requirement sessions, project plans, and daily standup meetings to understand any issues or challenges that we had. I spent quite a bit of time working on the project with them. We had weekly project meetings, and I spoke with them on a regular basis. I had to adjust the timeline a few times, which led us to work within specific budget constraints. They understood the need for these adjustments and were extremely accommodating by doing what they could to stay within budget. They would listen to us and make note of how we operated before making recommendations. They were good at giving advice and helping me work through decisions. They clearly respected the people that worked for me and didn’t assume that we weren’t competent, unlike past consultants I’ve worked with.

They have a great work ethic. They worked long hours, sometimes on the weekends and over holidays. I never had any qualms about their attitude toward work. We also had project garages or project war rooms, which we found effective for different parts of the project because we all collaborated in the same place. They were always on time, and we knew where they were at all times. We required that they work on site with us, which was never an issue. They worked well, and I would use them again for similar work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical expertise, especially with Oracle systems, is extremely impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes Dan’s communication style could be very straightforward, and maybe a little too direct for some people. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very involved and understand what your final product is so that you can best support operations. It’s the same kind of advice I’d offer to anyone trying to complete a project with a consultant or contractor.