Expansio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work at the Poznan City Hall. I am a coordinator of the +JEDEN collaborative workspace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Expansio, and what were your goals?

Our website was created several years ago and has become outdated. We don't have a team of developers, so we hired Expansio to design the site for us. We hoped to significantly improve the clarity of the site and make it easier for visitors to use.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Expansio worked with us on a previous version of the site. The cooperation was good, so we decided to renew contact.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

After an exploratory meeting to discuss our objectives, we were given suggestions for templates on which the website design could be based. Once we chose a theme, they prepared a first project of website, which we discussed. We gave some feedback and proposal to extend the website. Each step was consulting with us to get the best results.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

At the beginning we talked about general assumptions with CEO, Mateusz, and then all the details were discussed with graphic designer, Zuzanna.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The website management is now more simple and the layout looks more user-friendly. Site traffic has increased and we continue to hear positive feedback from visitors about the design.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The CEO was very friendly and open. The graphic designer was easy to communicate with and provided us frequent updates. We had online meetings, but most of the feedback was through mail. Everything was delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I think they have knowledge about good, transparent website design. We also appreciated the smooth communication and openness to the feedback and changes. We have worked with them in the past and they did not disappoint this time either.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Things could be done faster.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Owner of Fabryka Opowieści

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Expansio?

Our business challenge was to expand our website - create specialized landing pages or introduce changes to the existing website. Overall, it was a long-lasting cooperation and when summed up it was an advanced project with many subpages. During the process of building my website they also prepared the template of my newsletter and mobile version of the website.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal of this project was to create different landing pages or subpages on my website according the designs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Expansio was recommended to me by a friend. I was looking for someone which will support me in a comprehensive, professional way.

I was also searching for company which will personalize the project to my working profile and my character. And with whom we will share the same values and professional attitudes. Expansio is a company which I trust and can relay on. What’s more, they have experience in creating similar projects.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

During our long cooperation Expansio created multiple landing pages. Each of them encouraged potential clients to buy my products - online courses, workshops or books. Expansio also created the templates for my newsletter, which has been sent to a list of 10000 subscribers for past 6 years.

This newsletter is a part of the marketing campaigns to promote my products. Expansio also introduced changes to my main webpage, such as modifying texts, images or creating online forms. It was also important to create the mobile versions of the web pages.

What was the team composition?

The project coordinated Mateusz Jarus (CEO) and the software developers were: Marcin Kaźmierski (PHP Developer) and Piotr Biskup (Junior Programmer).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Online visibility is a very important part of my work. I sell my products mainly through the Internet, therefore the landing pages are essential part of my revenue generation. As the result over 500 people subscribed to my one year long online Masterclass of business storytelling.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The workflow was very effective. The process of creating website was divided into smaller jobs. The summary of the work (together with the current costs) was described in an online document. Expansio is also open to my suggestions of improving the cooperation. We were in close contact during the cooperation.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

As I wrote before, I appreciate the special, personalized contact with the clients. I felt they cared about my expectations and my opinion. Their services were of high quality and the result was more than satisfying. They are skillful workers and good people.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Our longtime cooperation shows that our cooperation was very satisfying. Probably one of the most bothersome part of the project for me was the price of the work - the costs could be lower.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner and the director of sales at Kompresyjni.pl e-commerce. Kompresyjni.pl sells varicose tights for sportsmen and other people that have problems with varicose veins.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Expansio?

The challenge that we faced was the development of an online shop. We did not have any internal capabilities to address the challenge (we do not hire any software developers).

Expansio created an online shop for our company. Our products may be searched by many filters, which is very comfortable and clear solution for our clients.

The filtering function implemented in our show is not a typical function that is available in other shops with similar products. It allows to specify multiple parameters that help to find the specific product.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal of this project was to create interesting, original online shop, which will encourage our clients to get to know our products. The shop was created based on a custom design. The shop was based on Presta e-commerce platform. Our custom requirement was an advanced filtering function.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have known each other for a long time - we already cooperated with Expansio a few years ago. We tried the implementation of the shop with another company in the beginning but after we weeks we quit the cooperation - we were not satisfied with their customer service.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The website contains many subpages in Polish language version. The products can be filtered using search engines. They are also divided into different categories, which makes searching easier. There is also a blog with useful articles. The user can create an account which helps buying our products.

What was the team composition?

The team created: Mateusz Jarus (CEO), Marcin Kaźmierski (PHP Developer), Gabriel Langier (Front-end Developer) and Wojciech Nowaczyk (Front-end Developer). The team size did not change over time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website was the main point to run our business. Now we notice the increasing interest of our clients, we also collect the first orders. The shop just started, we now focus the SEO, so the number of clients is not very high yet but it organically grows every day.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The workflow was very effective. The process of creating the website was divided into smaller jobs. What’s very important - we were always in touch with each other. We communicated over e-mail and phone. If there was any problem we could always call to the project manager from Expansio team. They are always ready to help us, they react really fast.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We appreciate the special, personalized contact with the clients. We felt they cared about our view, our expectations, and our opinion of their work. Their services were of high-quality and the result is satisfying.

We had a strong impression that we create the website together, we still can make some changes if there is such a need. The cooperation with Expansio is not finished yet. We still improve our products, company profile and the design so we still make some modifications in the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Our cooperation is quite long, we still work together. We believe we could improve the speed of introducing changes on the website. Expansio works in parallel on different projects. Sometimes we felt they could prioritize us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of car buying company. We buy damaged cars, repair them and sell again. We also offer towing services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Expansio?

My expectation was to create the website of my company - buying-up of cars in Piła. It was a relatively simple project with basic subpages, which was created to inform my clients about my offerings.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal of this project was to create a simple, transparent website to give an opportunity to advertise my company online.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My friends recommended me Expansio. They were satisfied with the quality of the work which Expansio has done for them. The company does also more advanced project that mine so I was sure that they will face that challenge without problems.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Expansio created a simple website - showcase of my company. They did the project from scratch, they also suggested \ the design. The website had some subpages, each of them presented one of my services - car towing, car sale and buying up crashed cars. The website presented all cars that I was offering, there were many photos with descriptions and prices.

What was the team composition?

There were two software developers: Marcin Kaźmierski (backend developer) and Wojciech Nowaczyk (frontend developer).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Building a website was an important step for me. My company could present the products and services online which makes it more available for the clients. I couldn't sell cars through the Internet, but the clients could watch them and read all necessary information which helped them make choices. It reduced the time of the selling process.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was very good and effective. There were two software developers: Marcin Kaźmierski (backend developer) and Wojciech Nowaczyk (frontend developer) and one project manager: Mateusz Jarus (CEO) who contacted me every day and informed about the progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I appreciate the short time of implementation, clear and transparent terms of our cooperation and open, friendly Expansio team. I was content with the effect of their work, it met my expectations.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I have no comments to the team and the result of their work. The only thing which was a small problem for me was the cost. I thought that kind of a simple project could be cheaper.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm one of coordinators of “+jeden” project which is another step forward in the process of supporting inventors and entrepreneurs in Poznań (Poland). It is a place of work, meetings and exchange of experiences. A place where people with a different perspective on business and the city get together. A place which uses human and idea diversity to build new value.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Expansio?

Web development of an existing website and generally IT consultancy services

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to maintain our website in best condition, add some functionalities and also to create a new subpage dedicated to our conference. We had terrible experience with previous software house that we worked with, so this time we wanted to get a partner who is reliable and we could work with him in the future. And as it turned out Expansio was a great choice.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We've known a CEO of Expansio for a long time. He's very proffesional, organized and trustworthy person. He always gave us his helpful hand when we had problems in IT matter - even before signing a contract. So that was important for us, but of course the price of services was as much important. So that's why we chose Expansio and not other company.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Update wordpress engine, making a daily backup for website, moving a page to a new server, purchase of hosting services on behalf of +jeden, IT support, creating a new subpage, website operation training

What was the team composition?

We have an account manager that we are in constant contact with, the Expansio's CEO is also very engaged in our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Many of participants of our conference told us that website is great. This was the 5'th edition, and till this year we didn't have a dedicated website/subpage to our conference. I think because of the website we had bigger interest in the event and also much more people attended Startup Poznań.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The communication between us and Expansio was remarkable. When we had any problem, they solved it just in few hours.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were impressed by their approach to clients.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't see any.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the MD of a startup organization called Go Out Out Ltd. We aim to provide users with a guide to events and venues that meet their requirements through an app

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Expansio?

Data was key to ensure users could receive updates and have confidence in the application. The biggest data set was with Facebook, so the logical point was to extract that through the Graph API and allow it to be customised for our end end users to benefit from

What were your goals for this project?

Obtain authentication from Facebook, create a the API, create a standard table and filter upon this

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Working with contacts at Innovate UK. After interviewing all suppliers, Mateusz and his team really grasped the issue and where extremely accommodating

Describe the project in detail.

Obtain authentication from Facebook, create a the API, create a standard table and filter upon this

What was the team composition?

Mateusz was the main contact, he managed the plan and kept me in the loop with his team

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We achieved everything that was set out in the statement of works. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was a good relationship that filled me with confidence throughout the timeline.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Coming into this, I was slightly concerned that language barrier may be an issue. This was not the case. I most impressed by the forward thinking of Expansio, the app has been configured openly to allow any other development team to pick it up and planned as foundation to grow upon. It was not a quick job to tick the box, real attention to detail was putting into the way it could be built

Are there any areas for improvement?

None from me

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the assistant to the plant manager for a major car company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Expansio?

The main goal was to improve knowledge regarding the ongoing industrial revolution. We have noticed that we have many employees who have worked for us for several years, and the activities they do now are totally different from what they will be doing in two or three years. The technology and development are so huge. We need people who are motivated and want to know what the production process will be in several years’ time. We wanted to find a company who could help us to develop software for a game for our employees to play to help build awareness internally about our innovation. It was the first cooperation we had with a company like Expansio so we learned a lot during the process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

During the cooperation with Expansio, we decided that they could be co-creators of the concept. We developed a game application for Android and iOS. Expansio helped us develop the details, such as the questions our employees could answer within the game.

The gamers are our employees, from the factory workers to those who do administrative work. We wanted to have three main levels, and the employees can choose to do all the levels or just the one they wanted to participate in.

What is the team composition?

We had contact with the project manager as our main point of contact. In the later phase of the project, we were also in contact with other employees from their team. I’m not sure how many people worked on the project in total.

How did you come to work with Expansio?

We searched startup companies located in Poland, and we came across Expansio.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from April–December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before we started the project, we asked several users for feedback in a test phase. They mentioned there were some things that didn’t work as they would have liked. Expansio was flexible and reacted quickly to that feedback and improved the software.

How did Expansio perform from a project management standpoint?

We were satisfied with the communication. In the hot phase of the project, we were in contact on a daily basis. When we let them know we needed more data, they provided us with it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing was their ability to be flexible. They truly understood our project, which was one of the reasons our cooperation was good. They were flexible to our needs, and it was a learning process for both sides. Also, they had expertise in how a company like ours works.

During the whole process, there was a common goal, and they were highly engaged. For me, it was important that they didn’t want to sell us a product that they already had. They wanted to develop the program with us. They asked us what we needed and tried to develop it according to our requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve when it comes to responsibility within the team. They had new employees, which was good for our project, but the responsibility within the team could be more efficient. It might be better if we had more than one contact person. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to give them clear goals and explain how you want things done. The more you let them know your expectations, the more they will know what they need to work on and develop to meet your needs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the owner of Yachting Software Ltd. We primarily develop navigation software for marine activities and solutions to increase fishing productivity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Expansio?

We had an existing app that had been built by other developers, but we needed to integrate it with another application built with the Navionics Mobile SDK.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to seamlessly connect the Navionics app with our Yachting Software app before a fixed deadline.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We provided specifications to an EU-funded organization, and they selected Expansio.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

First, Expansio examined the Yachting Software app’s functions and interfaces and analyzed the Navionics app. Then they put together a plan to connect the two. Once that was finalized, they integrated the applications into one. We had a public demonstration scheduled in November, so they worked quickly to finish the project before that deadline.

What was the team composition?

Expansio provided a team of developers who collaborated with our internal software team and the app’s original developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

By combining our flagship application with the Navionics app, we have the opportunity to grow our customer base.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Expansio was responsible for the largest portion of the project. They really took the lead collecting information on the functionality of both the Yachting Software and Navionics app and defining the project requirements.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They understood our programming requirements and adjusted their approach to accommodate our needs. They analyzed the application from the user’s point of view, which helped them deliver a high-quality experience.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

SeniorSkep sells medical products via online stores. I’m a vice president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Expansio?

We cooperate with Expansio on many projects to have them develop simple website solutions for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The most recent project was called Organizer, a solution to organize work in our company. It's one of Expansio’s products, though we're still discussing how it’s going to work in our company. The project is completed, but we're not using it in full functionality yet because we haven't had time to implement it in our work. They use WordPress and Java for the product.

What is the team dynamic?

We are in contact with one person from their team all the time. My friend works closely with them on this project.

How did you come to work with Expansio?

My friends recommended them. We tested many people, and they're the best programming company I've worked with, due in part to the close contact we have.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $7,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The Organizer project started in April 2017, and we are still not finished. Our people still need to get used to it and start using all its tools.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Besides Organizer, they created a file-transfer solution that’s been productive for our company. This is our only method of transferring files, and we are very happy with it. There are other small solutions they’ve done for us.

How did Expansio perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through phone or Skype. When we have a problem, we call them to fix it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their friendly contact, fast solutions, and useful knowledge set them apart. It’s easy for them to find solutions to problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.