Shockoe

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am an architect in the IT department at a utilities company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shockoe?

We wanted to put together a customer-facing app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Shockoe conducted research by reaching out to our customers to get feedback on the design process. They then provided design consulting, performed some project management functions, and worked with our team to develop the iOS and Android mobile app.

They added functionality that allows users to report electrical outages and get feedback on the restoration status.

What is the team composition?

Although we have a single point of contact, the team is made up of six members, 3–4 of whom we work with regularly.

How did you come to work with Shockoe?

They responded to a proposal that we put out and we chose them because we liked their expertise and approach.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested between $500,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2018. The bulk of the project was completed in November 2019 but they provide ongoing support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re in the process of gathering general user feedback but the internal response has been positive. The app has been running smoothly and we’ve had few critical needs.

How did Shockoe perform from a project management standpoint?

The team communicates effectively and does a good job of sticking to commitments. They also send us project plans through PowerPoint and Excel.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are a good partner to work with and we appreciate their flexibility.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there is nothing that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a strong partner in the mobile space but perhaps not in other areas of technology.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

SMARTBOX is a leading provider of portable moving and storage solutions to consumers and companies throughout the United States through our over 50 licensed locations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Shockoe?

We hired Shockoe to integrate, manage, and maintain our proprietary operations management software solution that manages all customer interactions including, CRM, scheduling, payment processing, document management, and reporting for our licensees.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to create a single system that allowed our contact center, licensees in remote locations, and customers to all interact within one system seamlessly and in real-time within a cost effective maintenance framework.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected this vendor through a vetting process and through referrals from other businesses that had worked previously with the company

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Converted existing customer data from a legacy system into the new operations management platform; developed APIs for work to integrate e-document management, texting, and website/e-commerce. General feature-set enhancements including integrated drip email campaigns, extensive reporting, and appointment management.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of an account manager, project manager and then several developers (coders, UI/UX ).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project has dramatically improved our overall business process both internally, and customer-facing.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was arranged by the project manager and leveraged Jira; process has been clean and efficient.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Shockoe has always provided realistic deadlines and met them, with little re-work required. If there were any change requests they were handled honestly and within a good time frame and budget. The company not only understands how to develop, but also makes an effort to understand our business needs first and the develops solutions based on our needs, not the other way around.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They have done a great job and been flexible and grown with our needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the knowledge transfer manager of a university. I work with a veterinary medicine research group that was looking into a cow disease called bovine mastitis.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shockoe?

We wanted to create a mobile application to facilitate the sharing of our findings to users, dairy producers, and veterinarians.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Shockoe provided the additional expertise necessary to organize the project and help with its development. Their team created the structure of the app, then defined the steps needed to complete each element. They used Appcelerator to produce an iOS and Android version. The platform’s main functionality is a tool that allows users to enter data to be stored in a larger database shared with third-party partners. Shockoe also developed comprehensive and accessible graphs to be featured in the app. Users can access this information via multiple screens and use it to diagnose their cows and decide the best path for treatment.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, graphic designer, programmer, and three initial developers.

How did you come to work with Shockoe?

Following a referral, we considered their bid along with a few from other companies. Shockoe’s proposal included using the Appcelerator platform to develop the app, which we found very impressive. We brought them on based on their innovative approach to the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $330,000 on this product.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from January 2016—March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our partners and stakeholders found the app revolutionary, accessible, and expertly developed. We hope its user base continues to grow amongst the community of dairy producers.

Shockoe’s organized approach to the project was key to our success. They were not very familiar with cows’ health conditions, but were still able to quickly develop an understanding of our needs and efficiently conceive the necessary functionalities. The team consistently provided valuable suggestions to optimize the app’s user experience and graphic design elements.

How did Shockoe perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management approach was orderly, yet driven. We discussed progress and updates at scheduled weekly meetings, but if we needed to reach them in the meantime, they were always responsive to phone calls and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed by their ability to quickly and thoroughly understand our needs. This allowed us to swiftly move through the projects initial phases.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more consistent with their billing methods. The gaps in between each bill varied for unclear reasons.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are T-Mobile USA. We are the number three wireless company in the United States, selling products and services, from devices to rate plans.

What is your position?

I'm on the sales and training side of things. My group trains on devices and systems for the retail organic stores. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Shockoe?

Initially, we were put in contact with Edwin Huertas, the CEO of Shockoe, to do some training for us. Being a wireless company, you would assume that a lot of the training and information that we share with our groups would be done through mobile – through phones or tablets. That had not been the case for many years. We wanted to dip a toe into mobile app development. The idea being that we could package a lot of our training in the form of an app, send it out to our field, and they could take that on their personal devices or on demo devices in the store.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We made a partnership by which the Shockoe team would create some of these templates for us so that my team could go into the Appcelerator software and plug and play new content or graphics and produce an app very quickly without needing to know much code. We leaned on Shockoe heavily at that point just to be able to leverage the Appcelerator software.

How did you come to work with Shockoe?

We had done some research and had purchased software through Appcelerator and Edwin happened to be our trainer. They sent him out to teach my team how to leverage the Appcelerator software, and he spent a good week with us. During that week, he realized we didn't know anything about coding and things like that. By the end of the training, I discovered that he owned Shockoe.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative?

Our partnership went through the latter half of 2013 and cost somewhere near $300,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our relationship has since dissolved because the apps that we were producing and the metrics that we were getting back showed that our associates were not really leveraging them in app format. Our associates were still going to the traditional computer training. We decided that the cost benefit analysis was not matching up. We halted our Appcelerator license and dissolved any of the mobile app stuff we were doing. But, I would say that we did have some initial success when the apps first started going out. I can't put any numbers around that.

What distinguishes Shockoe from other providers?

Many times when you're dealing with a vendor, they have a certain kind of template in that you need to follow their process. With the Shockoe team, it was extremely open and organized. They knew what they needed to get done and by when. They knew what they needed from us and what we needed to learn. They were very structured but they were so incredibly flexible. Edwin Huertas realizing that we were all very novice at all of the coding very quickly had his team tailor their messaging and communications to us. Shockoe was also very flexible in terms of making changes. T-Mobile is renowned for making changes at the last minute. They were very flexible with that. I know there were often times where they worked many hours of which we were never charged. Often with vendors, you can't do maybe more than one or two projects at a time or they lose their bandwidth. With Shockoe, that didn't seem to be the case. There always seemed to be some new programmer that was able to help us out.

As we decided to go from just apps to creating a game on one of the tablets, they were also able to help us with that in parallel with the work they were doing with our training template. Shockoe knows very well how to speak to their clients, either highly technical or no technical expertise at all, and always are very responsive. Never did we have a question that wasn't answered within 24 hours.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

We really didn't run into any issues with Shockoe. They were extremely patient even when it came to payment. T-Mobile is renowned for being very late with their payments and that could have been a point where they may have stepped away from us, but they did not.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization. What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm the IT [information technology] manager of marketing systems for one of the largest grocery store chains in the Southeast. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Shockoe?

We had a new initiative to have a brand new mobile app to help customers to have an electronic reward card and to implement e-coupons. They can clip e-coupons on the mobile app and download them to their card, and they apply when they go to checkout. Also, if you spend a certain amount of money in the store, you gather fuel perks that you can spend at a Shell station. We wanted to be sure it was easy for them to get their fuel perks balance. 

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Shockoe?

We purchased Appcelerator, which is the mobile application development platform and one of their reps highly recommended Shockoe. The representative put us in touch with Shockoe for help on the mobile application development. We have developers, but none of them had done mobile. We had a tight timeline. We talked to Shockoe and they impressed us. They did great.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

It was a very large initiative overall. Just the Shockoe portion was $250,000-plus.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

There's mixed reviews on the app. The App Store review isn't representative of the actual overall quality and design of the app. We've gotten some bad reviews on the App Store that we didn't have certain functions that our old app had, but it has nothing to do with Shockoe. 

What differentiates Shockoe from other partners?

Shockoe is a relatively small company. Having the owner and the core team members being in on all the calls and really taking the time to make sure we were taken care of was very impressive. They were involved from the beginning and stayed involved throughout the process. The project manager was exceptional. Very professional and able to explain everything and give us good opinions on best practices on lots of different areas. Then, the actual development was quick and concise. We didn't have a lot of bugs. It was a good experience.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

Not a lot. We talked about trying to make my team self-sufficient so we could do some development on our own in the future. We came up short on time to do that. That's not all their fault.