ParagonCET

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner-operator of a continuing education and training provider for healthcare and cosmetology professionals.

OPPORTUNITY

What challenge were you trying to address with FullStack Labs?

We’ve been seeking improvements for a long time. There are a lot of costs associated with any type of upgrade, whether it be vendor-provided or an internally-based service. We decided to look for outside help with our web app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We developed a learning management system that has a customer retention management system attached to the backend. We’ve held the intellectual property for over 30 years for this custom software and app. They helped us bring it out of the stone age in design and coding. We have one of the first dynamic databases which reigns in our market space. It was designed for specific use cases by our executive director. FullStack Labs is tasked with assisting us in steering into the best practices of that design with today’s best practices and coding.

We chose React.js as a frontend. The backend uses Angular.js and JavaScript. We use Postgres like any dynamic database system would. We’re also stringing up a few development stacks that they’re heading using Beanstalks. We’re using a series of proprietary deployment stacks for cloud-based service providers.

We’ve tasked them with building three major apps that support one avenue of business. With how we’ve built it, they’ve had to enable some internal behaviors that I doubt they’d choose.

What is the team composition?

We have two developers, one designer, and two frontend web developers.

How did you come to work with FullStack Labs?

When I started to uncover the world of the new marketing and SEO techniques, FullStack Labs had a very prominent ad placement in our area. Over the course of a year, David (CEO, FullStack Labs) and I had an email conversation regarding our company’s direction. We decided to move forward, and David positioned a team to assist us to meet some of those goals.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $200,000–$999,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They are spectacular in efficiently crafting the agile development plan. When it comes to our project, they have done very well. We’ve been very fortunate to come across their services. It’s been great. We’re remaining agile and producing very swiftly.

How did FullStack Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack. They’ve got an elegant safety net for how they develop technology. They do a good job of interpretation as well as communication, which is a rare quality in developers. When our lead developer came onto it, the use and the build case weren’t explained well. That could be in part my fault, but it had to do with the prototype build too. We spent a lengthy amount of time on the bulk of what the app was going to do for the end user, but there were important ends on it. I tried to emphasize those components to that designer, and that translated into some hiccups over the course of the build, which we ironed out very easily. Essentially, those hiccups could have saved us 3–7 weeks of build. It’s harder to go backward than it is to start over in some cases.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a set standard for their developers. Their developers make sure they’re up-to-date with their knowledge base. It’s a very symbiotic relationship because we know that we’re getting value for our money when we task a certain project or sprint. We have comfort in knowing they have standards. They’ve been very helpful in assisting in navigating uncharted waters. They’ve presented use case options that assist us in making decisions and present software that will help us reach our goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. It would be hard to find an area where improvement is needed.

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