Computan

Please describe your company and your position there.

I lead the digital marketing team at a PR and marketing firm. My team works primarily with B2B technology clients, helping them to improve their online presence through SEO, branding, content creation, and website design.

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

We have worked with Computan for many years on a variety of website development projects for both WordPress and HubSpot. They have become our preferred development partners in delivering projects on time and within budget.

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

We originally chose Computan because of its proficiency in HubSpot development. Their capabilities across both WordPress and HubSpot were a great match for us, as our client base predominantly uses one if not both of these platforms. The Computan team has been timely, empathetic, and regularly goes above and beyond for our clients, factors that have brought us back to them time and time again.

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

For each project we work on together, we provide an overview of what is needed and designs if applicable. The Computan team will come back to us with an estimate and any questions they may have. Once the project has been scoped out, the Computan team will work according to the timeline we've set, often coming back to us sooner than planned. From there we'll go through a few rounds of revision until we are satisfied, and share it with the client.

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

Depending on the project, we will work with a variety of folks from Computan. This is usually based on specialty. Overall we work directly with 5-10 different folks.

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

Computan has helped us to deliver websites that score well on common website performance metrics, especially loading times.

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

Generally, we have one individual who is the main point of contact for a project. We typically set the timeline from our end at the start. I have found them to be ahead of schedule for the variety of our projects, and willing to jump in quickly for urgent, unexpected needs.

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

Timeliness, accountability, and flexibility. Anyone who has been involved in a website project knows that they can be incredibly painful and usually take twice as long as planned. We are able to take the pain out of this process and a lot of that is thanks to our partners at Computan. They have been a true partner to us - often completing work ahead of schedule, always making amends for any mistakes or miscommunications, and willing to jump in if issues arise unexpectantly.

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

Nothing comes to mind! Whenever we had an issue, the Computan team always worked through it with us and resolved it quickly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’ve worked as a VP and a COO at a different dietary supplement and wellness company during my partnerships with Computan. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

I hired Computan for website development. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’ve worked with Computan on two major projects. For both projects, their team migrated WordPress websites to Shopify. They consulted with our team on how to conduct the migration and provided a thorough scope of work. Computan’s team customized the website’s themes, integrated apps, and completed custom CSS and backend development. We also utilized Computan hosting services. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about six teammates from Computan across both projects. 

How did you come to work with Computan?

We were referred to Computan’s services. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $100,000 with Computan. 

What is the status of this engagement?

My partnership with Computan began in December 2019, and it’s ongoing. 

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

We measure Computan by the speed at which they accurately complete development tasks. Preferably, without a lot of back and forth with our team. Computan understands the tasks at hand, provides solutions, and executes them quickly — our partnership is a success. We’ve seen increases in our site speed and conversion rates since migrating to Shopify. 

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

Computan manages projects well in Freedcamp and Jira and follows our schedule and budget. Computan is very communicative and easy to work with — they’re always available. Typically, we’ll have video conferences, schedule phone calls, or exchange Slacks and emails to discuss the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Computan is solution-oriented and executes projects efficiently. Also, their services are a great value for my investment.   

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing for Computan to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise customers to communicate clearly with Computan and provide clear instructions. Also, customers should be able to accommodate time zone differences.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of digital marketing for a SaaS company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We needed someone to provide us with web development and maintenance.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Computan is helping us with web development and maintenance services focusing on UI/UX design, as well as other digital marketing tasks such as social media, email marketing, and SEO.

We mainly use WordPress as our main development platform and build everything that requires coding like landing pages, and email templates.

What is the team composition?

I mainly work with an account manager, customer success manager, and a product manager.

How did you come to work with Computan?

I came across Computan through Clutch.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested about $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in January 2021.

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

They presented us with a fully optimized website that speeds up the entire web experience for our customers. We went from a failing grade to an A in terms of web performance.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job of adhering to timelines, budgets, and keeping up with communication. The Computan team is also very responsive despite the fact that they’re from a different time zone, and they’re completely adaptable in any situation they’re in.

We primarily use Slack and Microsoft Teams to communicate and use a tool called Freedcamp to manage the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their ability to work with agility and flexibility to handle any situation in the development process.

Additionally, they bring a lot of knowledge, ideas, and recommendations to the partnership to improve certain processes and keep us from making mistakes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be a little more proactive when it comes to communicating the progress of the project but other than that, I’m very satisfied with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise you to get the right communication and project management tools in place at the beginning of the partnership, and I would also recommend scheduling regular meetings with their team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of operations at CenterPoint Group, a consulting firm and a purchasing organization. We buy marketing contracts that we pre-negotiate with key suppliers — all driven to improve our service levels and save our members’ money and time. I work with our suppliers and in marketing to ensure that our client base is happy with what we put forward and in the relationships that we’ve established for them.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We needed to update our website and improve its functionality. We also wanted to standardize our messaging to our existing and potential customers. The team then worked on everything from color schemes and the website’s look and feel to our marketing, emails, and blogs. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Computan initially ran through what our website looked like in relation to our goals per page. The homepage served as our key page, while other pages had their own purpose. That could be to drive visitors to certain pages or drive them to a sales representative, account manager, or the customer service team. 

From there, we asked Computan to create mock-ups of what they thought the updated website should look like in terms of being modernized. They provided those mock-ups. We did some tweaks to their design, but we went with the general direction that they wanted us to take. They then implemented their suggestion through our CMS, which allowed us to do our own internal tweaks without needing to go through them or someone else. 

In terms of website features, the site had calls to action that were designed to grab attention without being intrusive. There were also embedded videos and ROI calculators. The goal of these elements was to make the website more user-friendly and interactive. We wanted to reach a standard that most people were used to when it came to competent websites.

What is the team composition?

Based on our back-and-forth communications, various people were involved in the project. They ranged from project managers to specialists in different areas like graphic design and coding. People responsible for QC also worked on the project.

How did you come to work with Computan?

Our company moved our CRM to HubSpot, and Computan came recommended by them. They were in HubSpot’s ecosystem. We also talked to a couple of companies and thought that Computan was the right fit for us. Then, they helped us migrate our systems over to HubSpot; they also ensured that everything was functionally working on the platform and that we could update the site easily. As a result, they were the first team that we thought to go to when this particular project came up. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $5,000–$10,000 on this project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This specific project lasted from October 2021–March 2022. 

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

We previously had next to nothing in terms of website traffic. After Computan updated the website, we saw a whole lot more activity. It hadn’t been live for long, but we were getting more targeted responses. People were going to the pages that we wanted them to go to, and a lot of that could be attributed to Computan’s guidance and design work.  

Anecdotally, the team was highly communicative. They were upfront when telling us about costs, and their resources were reasonable when it came to staying within our allocated budget. Moreover, their members were good in terms of showing us their previous work, which allowed us to see what might be the best fit for us. In other words, they planned the direction of the project truly well. 

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

Computan’s project management was great. We told them what we needed to do, and they outlined the steps. When we asked for budget estimates, they provided us with the work they could do within a specific timeframe along with its costs. They also stayed within their estimates. If we needed to do some tweaks, they didn’t nickel and dime us. Moreover, the team stayed on track; they made sure that our team stayed on point to meet the deadlines we were setting for the project. 

To communicate, we did conference calls and check-in meetings when we needed to discuss things that couldn’t be explained through emails or other messaging platforms. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Computan was highly flexible, and they could quickly adapt to our needs. We’d asked them for a standardized approach and a set theme across our channels. We also asked them for templates we could use internally to make our lives easier going forward — they did a fantastic job here while also upgrading our branding.  

Moreover, during our prior iteration, they were able to work within our bounds, especially as we were migrating and becoming comfortable with the new environment. It also helped that they were experts in HubSpot. Overall, their work was clean, replicable, and free of any errors that would pop up in weeks, months, or even years down the road.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could always improve the visibility of the work they were doing. That way, we’d know what was being done. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should definitely work with Computan — you’ll be pleased with the end results. To get the most out of them, be as detailed and upfront as you can be. Come with examples of what you want your website to look like. Then, ask them about their best practices in terms of what they see in the market. Listen to what they say, and take their advice because they know what they’re doing in terms of finding the most efficient means to getting your message out there. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing and communications supervisor at an accounting firm that also has a wealth management division.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We had some challenges using Drupal, so we engaged with Computan to move both our wealth management and accounting websites from Drupal to WordPress.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we met Computan, we already wanted to move to WordPress, but they still explained to us the benefits of doing so. Then, they walked us through how that process would look like, doing a great job communicating everything in a simple manner.

Once they completed the migration process, we continued working with Computan on both websites. Additionally, they gave us training on how to use the new CMS.

Besides answering our questions, they helped us with cybersecurity, maintenance, and updates, as well as with installing new plug-ins whenever we had a new need or wanted to showcase something different.

What is the team composition?

I communicated with Sajeel (VP of Operations) if I had a new project or request. Towards the end of our engagement, I was mainly working with Muhammad (Project Manager) and a few other people in the background.

How did you come to work with Computan?

We met Computan at INBOUND, the HubSpot conference. We did some due diligence, talked to a few of their clients, and liked what we heard. During this process, they stood out for their responsiveness. They were really helpful when I tried to get in touch with their clients to learn more about them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around March 2018, and our collaboration ended in June 2021. We ended our relationship because our company went through a rebranding process that included the redesign of our websites.

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

Computan was a helpful asset to us regarding web development and maintenance, and they helped us stay on top of our security.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

Computan performed well. We were very clear with them about deadlines and expectations, and they helped us make our collaboration easier. Additionally, they offered very quick turnaround times, and they were also very accommodating.

Sajeel was extremely helpful; I really enjoyed working with him. We communicated via email and phone calls, and I copied him on most emails to ensure that everyone was aware of our requests. Overall, they did a great job.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Computan was really helpful from a cybersecurity standpoint. One time, we had a crisis during a holiday, and I was very impressed with the fact that they helped us that day.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be good if they had a direct account manager. However, we weren’t on a retainer, so it was understandable that our requests were never consistent or scheduled.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It is always important to set deadlines to ensure that both parties, client and vendor, are getting what they need. This will make the collaboration easier.

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the senior manager of business improvements and strategic initiatives for the facilities and services department at an educational institution. We run all operations, electrical, mechanical, policing, caretaking, moving mail, grounds, and a number of other services such as property management for about 120 buildings on our campus.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?
We had never had a communications expert on our team, and our website was out-of-date. The site was built more as a content management system. We hired an internal web designer who took a UI/UX approach to redesigning the website from the client's perspective.

We needed a very competent developer to help us build it in WordPress. Our team engaged Computan to handle this. We asked them to build the website from scratch based on the specifications and design we created. Our team also wanted them to help us test and refine it.

What was the scope of their involvement?
After we designed the new website in Figma. Our team created the wireframes and content. We selected the photos and identified what interactions we wanted from links, animations, and pages. Computan’s scope of work was to build the website on WordPress. They did some custom development because some of the features needed to be coded in the backend. Their team also selected a number of plugins and brought the design to life within WordPress. 

We had a separate project that involved creating a page that was built outside of WordPress. We needed to take a report and create an interactive, engaging digital version of it. Computan was kind enough to support us very quickly. They brought another developer on board who developed everything from scratch. We gave them the design and requirements, and then they coded everything.

What is the team composition?
We have primary contact with our project manager. There’s also a main developer who worked on our website and another developer who handled the separate page project.

How did you come to work with Computan?
At our university, we go through a fair tendering process for major projects. Essentially, I did my research because we need an external consultant to support us. I identified the best-reviewed vendors online and connected with a number of them to describe the scope of work and request a quote.

Computan was able to demonstrate their ability to deliver and could start working quickly at the most competitive cost. What really stood out to me were the reviews they had online. I conducted a client reference call with one of their current clients, and the review was very glowing; it was reassuring to me. Additionally, Computan’s portfolio looks really good. We liked the examples of the other website they had built. 

How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested approximately $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?
Our ongoing engagement started around November 2020. We’re very close to launching in the next couple of weeks.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 
Working with Computan has been an absolute pleasure. Their team is responsive to our needs and actively listens. They’re patient with us when we ask a lot of detailed questions. On the relationship front, it’s been very successful. They’ve met all of our requirements, which is an indication of success. Computan builds and develops everything we needed and wanted in a reasonable timeframe. They’ve provided us with some creative solutions and workarounds when we couldn’t get what we wanted in a straightforward way. 

Our project manager has been great. He’s always staying ahead and asking about what we need to plan for or consider. They’ve adapted very well to working with an institutional client because we have a lot of restrictions and internal policies around who can go into the backend or get access as well as what types of approvals we need for plugins. We needed to go through a number of steps, and they were very supportive. In general, we got what we wanted and it looks the way we want it to. Nothing’s broken and everything is working as it needs to.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?
We have stand-up meetings every day. They’re efficient at going through their tasks. Their communication is great around clarifying as well as giving us updates. We primarily communicate through Microsoft Teams and Slack. In between meetings, we send each other files, recordings, photos, links, content, and feedback through Slack. As we got closer and closer to the final product, we started using BugHerd to leave comments on where things needed to be tweaked or fixed. Their developers were great at constantly checking BugHerd and completing or making the fixes.

What did you find most impressive about them?
They’re incredibly customer-centric. Computan is easy to talk to and jumps to action when we need them to. Their team really works to understand what our needs are — from the developer to the project manager to one of their co-founders.

Are there any areas they could improve?
More timely invoices would be great. That’s the only thing I’ve had to follow up with them on. Other than that, there’s nothing. Computan is great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Have your design ironed out and your requirements very firm. That’ll help you work with a developer such as Computan because it’ll give you a really good sense of your expectations. Then, they’ll do what they’re best at and go on to ask you prompting and clarification questions. The more detailed you are, the better Computan will be able to work with and support you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a video platform. We enable our customers to send personalized videos on their tablets to their prospects or customers from a web portal.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We needed help with web and mobile development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Computan helped us build our web app and customer portal, as well as the mobile app for the tablets. We met with them a little over a year ago when we were a new business and hadn’t built what we needed on our platform’s backend. They came back with a plan and provided an estimate for all of our requirements and deliverables.

We provided Computan with some wireframes for the development, and they started working on it. They’ve effectively built our entire platform’s backend. They’ve used a wide range of technologies for this development. For the mobile app, they use React Native, and for the web development, they use PHP. However, I don’t know enough about other technologies and languages they’re using.

Computan has helped us a little bit with website development, but they’ve mostly supported us with backend web app development.

One of the features they’ve helped us develop is that, when a tablet is sent to one of our customers’ contacts, a video plays automatically. We can track every event from that mobile app and send it back to our customers’ dashboard. We’re tracking how many sends, deliveries, and views the videos have — we’re collecting responses directly from that tablet app.

We also enabled our customers’ prospects to book a meeting, so there’s a Calendly integration directly on our mobile app. After the prospect watches the video, they’re prompted to book a meeting in our customers’ calendar via Calendly, which is pretty unique. We also have a FedEx integration to the shipping carriers API.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with around five people from Computan. Rashed (Software Engineer) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Computan?

I worked with Computan at one of my previous companies, which was a sales and marketing agency. I was first introduced to them at a conference in Boston for HubSpot. We worked together on a few projects back then.

When I started this new business, I felt they were a good fit because of their experience with sales and marketing technology.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2020, and the engagement is ongoing. We’re now on phase two of development, and we’re actively selling our product at the moment.

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

We have a working product, and it’s starting to generate revenue — we’re happy with it. It has been a long and challenging year for everybody. We’ve worked through so many unique challenges because it is a relatively new concept, and we’re learning in a lot of areas.

Computan’s communication and responsiveness have been very valuable. They’ve been very clear in what they’re building and how it’ll work. The support, time, and attention that we’ve received from them have been what led us to take this project through to completion.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

We use a tool called BugHerd to track any issues that we see through the platform, and it works really well. Computan is able to fix issues relatively quickly. Within a few days, they fix the tasks that we identify issues with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Computan’s accountability, communication, and organization structure are impressive, and the team works really well together. If there’s a team member on their side that can’t show up, there’s someone else that carries the team forward.

Nothing gets missed or dropped, and the project is always moving forward. It has helped us, and it has been really good for their team as well. Quite a few members from their team are engaged in our project — that’s always nice to see.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Computan’s timeline estimates could be improved.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Provide them with good wireframes and a detailed list of requirements, and set clear expectations in terms of features and costs.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a commercial production company specializing in TV commercials and print photography for the advertising world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We were previously engaged with a vendor who built us a site using HubSpot's CMS. Unfortunately, it didn’t work the way we wanted it to, so we needed another company to fix it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had spent months working with another outfit that didn’t know what they were doing, and Computan saved the project. They basically took the HubSpot website and fixed everything to make it work as intended. Although the team did not do the initial UI/UX design, they helped me complete it and gave me some excellent tips on making it more efficient. The bulk of the work is finished, but it’s still constantly evolving. They're updating it as we go to keep it relevant and robust.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Sajeel (VP Operations), who put me in touch with the development team, and Bratislav (HubSpot Project Manager), the lead developer.

How did you come to work with Computan?

Computan was recommended as a HubSpot expert by a local digital marketing agency that works with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $12,000–$15,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

They took over in November 2020, and it’s still an ongoing project. The site was completed by December 2020, but the team is still updating it.

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

The project has been successful. Computan definitely rescued the project and got the UX to work the way we wanted. It’s functional and doesn’t crash, so I think they did a fantastic job. I’m very proud of the website.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

They stuck to the plan and are available when we need them. Whenever we had any problems, they were quick to respond. We used Zoom to communicate a few times a week. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Computan team is highly efficient and intuitive. They’ve also been honest about timelines. Overall, they’re a knowledgeable and trustworthy team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I was looking for a bit more design recommendations. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In every case, do your homework on the vendors you engage with. Word-of-mouth allowed us to trust Computan, and it ended up working out. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of VTR Learning. I oversee operations for the organization. We’re an online education company with a proprietary learning management system (LMS).

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

A few things that we were trying to address were systems development, bug fixes, website redesign, and blog migration.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Computan worked as a third-party developer for the marketing agency we were using for our rebranding. The aesthetics of the website came more from the marketing team, but Computan implemented everything on the site itself. We provided them with detailed mock-ups and a breakdown of what we were expecting. Overall, the whole website was meant as a rebrand, so it was built from the ground up on WordPress and JavaScript.

Over the last 6–9 months, we’ve been working directly with them as a third-party developer. We provide them a list of bugs and detailed MVPs. They do a lot of research to estimate how long it’ll take them to fix it, and then they’ll dig into our system and work with one of our developers to better understand it.

In terms of phases, we kind of give them a batch of bugs, new products, or new pieces to our site, and they implement those. We pay the invoice and start a new batch. For ongoing development in general, there’s a lot of little fixes, API implementation, and tweaks to our system.

What is the team composition?

There are 4–6 people on our team, depending on the type of project and amount of work involved. Sajeel (VP of Operations) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Computan?

We were working with a marketing agency that used them in our website redesign. After that project ended, we decided to continue working with them for ongoing development work. We had a really good experience with them when we were redesigning the website. They were easy to work with, and we liked the results of all of their work, so we just pulled them on board to continue working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working directly with them in September 2020, and we have an ongoing partnership.

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

Overall, they’re very easy to work with, and they’re flexible when it comes to changing our development, expectations, or what they’re working on. Also, they’re always really accurate in their project cost estimates and honest with the time they spend on each project. In that way, they’re very trustworthy. Most importantly, their project outcomes always meet, if not exceed, our expectations.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done great. We have two weekly meetings; sometimes as short as 10–15 minutes, but it's just enough to make sure that they have everything to produce what we’re looking for. We just kind of keep the ball rolling, which is always helpful. Neither team is in the dark throughout the process, and I like that style.

For project management tools, we use Windows Visual Studio.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They give us a lot of attention and man-hours as their customer, which is really just the reasonable and expected amount of development work. Furthermore, they spend a lot of detailed time, research, and their own resources to quote us for each project, and those estimates always tend to be very accurate in the end.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As with any developer, it’s important to be crystal clear with your expectations and try to determine any potential roadblocks rather than being surprised by them. For example, Computan might be fixing a bug or something related to the website aesthetic on the desktop version. Later, they complete it, and we find out that it wasn’t fixed on mobile. Since we didn’t make clear what we were expecting, it’s understandable. Therefore, sometimes you just have to be clear on all of that, because I wouldn’t expect them to just do more work than what we’re telling them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Similar to the previous question, when you create the stories for them to work on, be as detailed as possible. Have some screenshots, mock-ups, and just get everything sorted out upfront rather than have them do a first iteration and a lot of back-and-forth to tweak it some more. It saves time and money on both sides.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of growth of the company. We work with organizations on digital transformations; whether those are related to their CRM and financial capabilities, or to their frontend websites, including rebranding, development, implementation, and integration.

What challenge were you trying to address with Computan?

We work with Computan most closely for payment, CRM, and other integrations. We’ve done websites that have both e-commerce and donation capabilities.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked with Computan on full website designs within large, $200,000–$300,000 contracts. We do the entire branding, website mapping, and design. Once the ideation is approved by the client, we work with them to implement it, whether it’s a simple WordPress website or a more complex CMS, like Umbraco or Wagtail.

We’ve also done some small app development projects. The majority of our engagements with Computan are primarily related to website design. They look at the UX and interaction piece by piece, and design the actual website aligned with what the client is looking for.

Recently, we did a very large project with them. We were working with an older, legacy organization that wanted to completely rebrand. Computan came up with the ideation of the rebrand and logo concept, and they helped us implement everything we needed, from the website CMS to the payment infrastructure and all of its integrations.

What is the team composition?

We work with Sohail (Software Engineer), a developer, Habib (Project Manager), and one designer. Sajeel (VP of Operations) takes care of invoicing and things like that.

How did you come to work with Computan?

Formerly, I was the director of fund development and marketing and communications at a major NGO. We’d just launched in Canada, and we were basically looking to revamp our entire website, donor journey, and so on. That was the original engagement, and I believe that we heard about Computan through someone who’d used their services. I continued using them when I moved to the consulting world.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, the total cost is around $40,000 at my current company. I worked with them for two other organizations before this, and the combined cost was around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

At my current position, the collaboration with Computan began in February 2016, and it’s ongoing.

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

Timelines are very important with our clients, and so is staying within scope. We measure quality in various ways, but it ultimately comes down to working backward from customer expectations. We have review calls at the end of each project, looking at customer satisfaction from ideation to implementation — how the project was carried out, how it concluded, and how the client felt at the end of it. Computan works backward from our and the customer’s expectations, and we rate them very favorably on deliverables.

How did Computan perform from a project management standpoint?

Since we're a middleman between Computan and the client, we do a lot of the project management ourselves. I or someone on my team will handle a lot of the communication while the project is underway.

Computan has people assigned to look after, follow through, and ensure that things are done with quality and on time. They’re quite diligent in making sure that things are done according to our expectations.

They use project management software, but we don’t, and that’s our fault. They use Asana internally and always pressure us to use it, but we prefer email, text, phone calls, and so on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s their timeliness. Deadlines are a huge thing, and I’ve seen projects go off the rails just because of staff turnover and things taking too long. Once Computan tackles something, they get it done.

Also, they’re responsive and super helpful. Something we like about Computan is that they’re not penny-pinchers. If something needs to be done, they’re not going to sit on it and make sure it’s billable. They’ll just pick it up and resolve it. If we need to make adjustments, that can be done afterward. Computan gives us more than what we signed up for, which is always a good thing when working with a design or development agency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve had a good experience with them, and there’s not a whole lot to improve. The one thing I’d recommend is for Sajeel to do biweekly check-ins on the project. It would add an executive eye from their end in order to make sure the project is moving according to the timeline. Also, if there are any special client requirements, Sajeel would be able to push things along a lot faster.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients need to be clear and direct in relaying their expectations, and always request a phone call when things aren’t aligned. Computan will make sure that the course is corrected.