Nopio

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

World Politics Review is a publisher of online expert analysis on foreign policy and international affairs. I am the owner and founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nopio?

We had been working with a web development company based in New York which was using some Polish developers. That company went on to focus on bigger clients, so we couldn't work with them anymore. We needed another company which could handle our web development and ongoing maintenance. We are a small company with only 5 employees, most of them editorial. We don't have an in-house IT or development team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a custom CMS for our website built on .NET. Nopio handles any changes to the CMS, as well as providing backend and frontend web development. During our time with Nopio, we've had a complete frontend redesign, a project which they successfully led.

How did you come to work with Nopio?

One of the founders from Nopio had worked with our previous development agency.

How much have you invested with Nopio?

We spend between $20,000 and $30,000 per year on Nopio's services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing retainer with Nopio. They serve as our maintenance team through a minimum of 30 hours which we allocate every month. Whenever we have specific projects on top of that, we will have a separate negotiation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Nopio has helped us solve a number of problems, always going the extra mile. I'm not a technical person, but I can bring to Nopio a basic description of my goal, and they can provide me with the knowledge for building our systems. Nopio will typically provide us 3-4 different solutions, for which we'll have a back-and-forth discussion.

As a recent example, we wanted to gather more email addresses from visitors. We have a paywall site, so only subscribers can read entire articles beyond the first hit from Google. We wanted to offer users a way of trading a subscription to our newsletter for access to one free article. We were already using a system called Intercom, which is a customer communication tool. I wanted to know if there would be a way of creatively using their API in order to automate the process of exchanging an email address for an article. Nopio figured out a solution by which, whenever a user enters their email, they will receive an automatically-generated link to the article they were viewing. Nopio took an off-the-shelf system and modified it in order to do something which it wasn't designed for. It works very well for us, so Nopio saved us money by modifying something that we were already using, instead of creating it from scratch. The result of this was a dramatic increase in the number of newsletter subscriptions we received for minimal cost.

What did you find most impressive about Nopio?

Nopio is a very trustworthy and honest company. They aim to develop a long-term relationship with the client, aiming to save us money instead of overcharging for services. This helps in the long run, by getting Nopio repeat business. We've had such a close working relationship with Nopio that I've actually visited their offices in Cracow. Nopio is a team of good people which I highly recommend.

Are there any areas Nopio could improve?

I don't have any criticisms other than the capacity limitations. They’re a young company, and at this point, they're not an organization which can take on huge amounts of work from large companies.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

‎Solere Digital is an agency offering a staffing and talent management tool. We work primarily with freelancers and offshore development teams. Our company was formally launched in 2016. We're very young and work primarily in the content and commerce space, offering content marketing and strategy, as well as e-commerce strategy and platform development.

I am the Chief Executive Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nopio?

We needed to bring on knowledgeable developers with a broad range of technical experience. We also needed a company that we could trust and which would have a real presence at the table, not just take our specs and run with them, given that our tool would be central to the business. We needed a partner to work with us on user experience and the flow of the product, and wanted to be sure that they would not reuse our code for other purposes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Nopio helped build our tool. It involved taking our idea for a staffing and talent management solution and building out a scope. There wasn't an existing model for it that we could fall back on. We shared many ideas with Nopio in the beginning, created light specifications, running through user stories, shaping them a bit better, and going through prioritization and structuring.

Nopio built our platform using open-source code, with Apache Solr as the primary backend for searching and discovering talent. Nopio also helped with testing and built much of the user interface design through a dedicated resource.

We've also worked with Nopio on a project which involved taking an ExpressionEngine e-commerce platform and revamping its flow and user experience. We made several iterations and translated the US version into a Japanese one. Nopio was in charge of everything, including ideation and scope setting based on our budget and the available technology, as well as launching the platform and installing various language packs.

We used Jira as a ticket management system.

How did you come to work with Nopio?

I had worked with Nopio in the past and knew that they were very good. Their principal and I started working together when I was running the project management team at a different company. We kept in touch, and when I started my current company and needed development resources, particularly a company that would be able to scale the effort, Nopio was my only choice.

How much have you invested with Nopio?

Nopio has worked on projects of various sizes for us. The larger projects have been in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I assessed my success based on project delivery against the timeline and budget. Nopio consistently held up to both of those. Even when we had budget constraints, Nopio allowed me to scope the project in order to deliver within our limitations. The team has always delivered on time, and whenever something stretched out, we were kept informed.

What did you find most impressive about Nopio?

The reason for maintaining such a long relationship with the Nopio team was their attitude and personalities. Nopio has a work ethic which I haven't seen with other developers, even though I've worked with hundreds over time. Nopio's members have positive personalities. I've never had a difficult or negative conversation with them, which wasn't true for other vendors. Oftentimes, things got hairy in terms of timelines and budget, but there was an urgency for the communication put in place with the team, letting me know if there was a problem or if something was not technically possible. Every issue was brought up in a very positive manner, making it easy for me to work with Nopio.

Are there any areas Nopio could improve?

There have been 1-2 instances over all the projects I've worked on with Nopio over the last 8-9 years in which the project that we proposed wasn't achievable through the range of skillsets available. Examples include mobile iOS development or .NET. Without exception, Nopio found the right team or person, so we came to work with their partners in this manner. Nopio managed those partners, acting as a single point of contact. It was an overall positive experience, and Nopio has been able to handle 99% of the work we have sent to them, doing an amazing job.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I'm an executive at KJT

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Strategic market research, real-world evidence generation & medical/scientific communications for healthcare companies. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Nopio to accomplish?

• Re-design and re-launch website

SOLUTION

How did you find Nopio?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Nopio over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Nopio were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Nopio re-design and developed our website

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Successful relaunch of the website in 2024

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Nopio was very responsive, and their PM tool (Asana) was very helpful in staying on top of and organizing a variety of technical needs and updates. The project timeline did slip, but primarily due to delays on our side. 

What was your primary form of communication with Nopio?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I was impressed with the beautifully designed website they provided.

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

Some email-based communication was difficult for someone (myself) who is new to web design - would recommend they ensure they have a firm grasp/process for guiding someone new to website design & development through the process.  

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of (a/an) Design

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We're a platform for architects and designers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Nopio to accomplish?

• Created an amazing website
• Helped with design and product development

SOLUTION

How did you find Nopio?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Nopio over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

What was the size of Nopio’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Pinterest-style webapp, hosted in wordpress and AWS. Peter and his team did a great job building an image gallery that allows users to register, upload images and create moodboards.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Meeting project specification deliverables
• Weekly meeting to discuss progress

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

10/10 work. Great team to work with-- super professional, responsive and easy-going. I don't have a background in software and the Nopio team was critical to make and explain product development decisions to achieve my vision. Can't wait to keep working with Peter and the entire team.

What was your primary form of communication with Nopio?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email
• Messaging App

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

• Friendliness
• Software expertise
• Design, product and business development driven
• Knowledge in the US tech industry, despite being abroad

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

None!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a fashion company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nopio?

We hired Nopio to build an online store for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Nopio built our online store using WordPress. I gave them some suggestions of what I wanted the new site to look like. The goal was to make the site more user-friendly for customers.

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with 3–4 teammates from Nopio, though there might have been more people in the background I didn't know about. My main contacts were the project manager and some of the developers.

How did you come to work with Nopio?

I found them through a recommendation from a friend.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent about $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project lasted from August–October 2022. Currently, we're still working together on other projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Nopio’s work, our online store looks better and is more functional than our previous site. Moreover, we have more users and have received more orders.

How did Nopio perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication was good, and they delivered everything on time. The team worked really quickly and was very helpful. We used Asana to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everything Nopio did was good — we had good cooperation. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they didn’t need to improve anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I really recommend working with Nopio.