Zazmic Inc.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company at the time was a large multi-conglomerate Japanese e-commerce and marketing company. I was the vice president of business development and data innovations.

What challenge were you trying to address with Zazmic?

As a DSP [demand-side platform], or essentially an advertising-side platform, we were looking to get in front of as many marketing dollars as possible from the advertiser side. Video is a very fast-growing medium in advertising, so there is a very specific VAST or VPAID, a type of ad unit that is delivered via video into mobile.

Advertisers wanted to have the ability to bid and purchase video-enabled inventory, but our DSP was not video enabled. I brought on the Zazmic team to help track not just the data architecture, but also a major video initiative that we were working on at the time.

In essence, we had a mobile DSP which needed to be compliant with video standards, and we brought Zazmic on to fast track that roadmap both from a product and engineering perspective.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zazmic has provided a range of services, from product requirements, documentation, and scoping the work, to service level agreements on the process and structuring side and execution. Their work went into the actual implementation of those service level agreements and scope of work. Yann Kronberg, their founder, drove much of that for us.

The team took the business needs of our company where we would articulate what the business case was, and then they would map that out from the scope of work. Then, the team would be the one who executed, built and developed it.

On the demand-side platform, they built out the ability to deliver VPAID and VAST enabled ad inventory in a programmatic real-time bidding environment.

We worked with 10 people. Yann Kronberg was our main point of contact. However, depending on the day or interface, we could have been working with any number of people. It’s a very fluid process; it’s not static. On a regular day and basis, there’s a cadence and rhythm.

Zazmic created the wireframes for us. From start to finish, they were able to provide that. We used Agile methodologies and daily stand-up Scrum sessions. Zazmic did our app development with Objective-C and Java for both Android and iOS. Zazmic used Hadoop and Cloudera for analytics. All of that was plugged into through AWS [Amazon Web Services] and cloud web-based services, so they’re very familiar with that API as well.

How did you come to work with Zazmic?

I came to work with them through my knowledge of Yann Kronberg. He’s a very well-known entity in the land of product development in Silicon Valley. He and I have known each other for some time through various work associations. I did consider other companies at the time, but Yann is probably the most efficient and comprehensive product person I have worked with, and I’ve been in the space for 20 years. When I knew he was going to be the project lead, it was a very easy decision to make.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them from 2012 to 2016. I’m not currently working with them because I have moved companies. However, we’re already contemplating working with them at the new company to fast-track some of our things.

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

The fast tracking and their ability to work very quickly and effectively is tremendous. Another portion of it is the fact that Zazmic has a very intuitive design team that understands how to work quickly. We’ve never had any hiccups. The quality assurance process that they put through has been very fluid. Zazmic has an ability to do both front-end and backend with Java, Python, and Ruby.

How did Zazmic perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptional. Zazmic would usually deliver things before the actual date that we would layout. They under promised and over delivered. We used JIRA, Atlassian, and GitHub. We communicated daily or even hourly depending on the scope.

What did you find most impressive about Zazmic?

You could have an understanding of where you wanted to go in the project from a business and product perspective. Zazmic could work from a very small kernel of information and build it out very quickly. Zazmic never once missed a deadline.

Are there any areas Zazmic could improve?

I can’t think of anything. The process was always very fluid and Zazmic fast tracked our roadmaps every time we worked with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Boostr. We offer a CRM [customer relationship management] for companies in the media and advertising business. It’s a SaaS [software as a service] cloud-based platform. We’re the only company that has a forecasting solution for advertising businesses. We do opportunity and pipeline management, bringing in bookings from ad servers for digital ad based companies and offline bookings for print and TV based companies. We also do activity management, contact management, revenue management, and invoicing. We have a robust analytics BI [business intelligence] solution that’s part of the platform as well. I take on the roles of both the product owner and product strategist.

What challenge were you trying to address with Zazmic?

We needed to augment our in-house staff of 1 developer in order to enhance our MVP [minimum viable product].

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zazmic provides a high percentage of our engineering resources. They started by fixing and building a few things in our MVP, but the scope evolved to using them as a full-cycle development shop. We use their expertise for our UX [user experience] and UI [user interface] design, engineering, and QA. They’ve built several new modules, including Google Chrome extensions, and they’re currently designing an iOS mobile app for our cloud products. Zazmic has a great resource that does all the wireframing and UI designs. We have reskinned about 80% of what we originally built in the MVP using their UI designs.

How did you come to work with Zazmic?

I knew one of the founders from working with him in a previous company. After we met them and found out what their capabilities were, we gave them a 3-week trial. We were happy with the results, so we decided to expand the relationship since then. I had previously used other firms but got frustrated with their quality, pricing, and inconsistency.

How much have you invested with Zazmic?

We’ve spent close to $100,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2016 and we are continuing to work with them now.

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

We get great feedback from our customers about how slick our site looks now. Zazmic is good at what they do. They’re not the fastest firm I have worked with, but the quality is really high. I attribute the high quality of their work to the requirements we give them and how involved we are in the QA process. The team asks really good questions, are proactive, and predict the issues that may come up.

When we rolled out a new homepage with some analytics, one of the CROs at a big web company said the new UI looks really slick. We haven’t had any downtime or Priority 1 bugs as a consequence of their work.

How did Zazmic perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a part-time project manager who manages scope, budget, and schedule. They’re doing a great job. It’s above average project management, especially for an offshore firm. The team is very responsive, even during off hours. We communicate with them multiple times a day using Slack and Google Hangouts, with GitHub for the repository. We use Pivotal Tracker to manage the work. We have missed some deadlines, but not too frequently. Sometimes, the issue is that they don’t have a full set of requirements or the project has been more complicated than anticipated.

What did you find most impressive about Zazmic?

I like the fact that they have a diverse set of skill sets. We can also ramp up the team during peak periods to get more throughput. They have a flexible staff model, and they balance our budget and the demand we have to build products. They have some top-notch people with Java technologies and Ruby on Rails. They know the tools and are very customer-focused. When there have been resources who haven’t been up to the level of expertise I wanted, they are moved off the project quickly. Zazmic has even rolled people off who weren’t performing at their own level of expectation. They’re proactive in making sure we get what we need to make our business successful.

Are there any areas Zazmic could improve?

We did have some issues with the QA processes, but we were able to work everything out.

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

Anybody working with them needs to be involved in expectations on QA. Generally, if a client plans to outsource all of that, I think they’re putting themselves at risk.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My startup is less than a year old, and we have five employees. We are a field service management tool for any type of businesses that goes out into the actual work fields. It’s an easy way to monitor employees and manage time spent, jobs performed, quick dispatching, invoicing, expenses, etc.

I’m the chief executive officer of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Zazmic?

We needed some development for our mobile app, our website, and the communication between the two. We also needed to develop some additional features and functionalities for our product and platform. We have one resource of our own, but we brought Zazmic on to help us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our platform has an admin portal that managers or administrators can use to monitor all of the activity of their employees. They can see real-time where the employees are on the map, and they can dispatch the employees to new jobs that pop up on the map. Employees have a mobile device that communicates with the admin portal.

The mobile app for employees and web app for administrators have similar functionalities and features, but we needed them to be able to communicate in real-time together.

The main feature is the ability to do onsite invoicing, order changes, and payments. To make this happen, the platform is integrated with QuickBooks. Zazmic helped us develop all of the software behind that process.

Zazmic provided 1 project manager, 2 iOS developers, 1 or 2 Android developers, and 1 on the web interface. They also provided quality assurance. We provided some of the wireframes, so they knew what we were looking for. In terms of technologies used, they used WordPress for the web development. For the backend, they used Ruby on Rails and Python. They also provided suggestions on the development to make it a better product.

How did you come to work with Zazmic?

When I saw that we needed extra support for our developer, I did some research. Zazmic was highly recommended from some other businesses in our market. I interviewed Yann, their principal, and he explained their business. It’s been a great fit for us.

How much have you invested with Zazmic?

I prefer not to disclose this information.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship began in July 2016, and we continue to work with them on maintenance. As we grow, we might add features and functionalities.

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

We are in beta testing now and need to raise funds. When sitting down with potential investors and our advisors, they’re very impressed with the look and functionality of the product. The platform functions exactly how we need it to and is extremely reliable. We’re getting feedback from our beta testers of what they want to see or what they don’t need.

How did Zazmic perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very engaging. They are always available and work on a 24/7 basis, which is really important for startups. We communicated on a daily basis. They were able to provide demos whenever I needed it. The team was on time for deadlines. We had a weekly and monthly chart, and they were able to stay on the timeline.

What did you find most impressive about Zazmic?

They understood my product, provided feedback, and developed the product that I was envisioning.

Are there any areas Zazmic could improve?

I can’t think of anything. My job was done to the scope of work I specified, so I was pleased with all aspects of it. I had immediate access to the team. With other teams, you may have to funnel everything through the project manager, but this was much more efficient.