The Case
Team Austin needed an app upgrade to help manage a tiered membership subscription and wanted a makeover on the design. We recommended that we build out an app to manage the subscriptions and bring in our UX designer to improve the design of the subscription application. The app upgrade and UX design was aimed to help them improve their image and increase membership.
BACKGROUND
Company: Team Austin
Founder: NIck Black
Founded: 2013
Tech Stack: HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL
Hosting: HerokU
Tools: Stripe
Devops Tools: Heroku CLI
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What business challenge were you trying to address with Gennovacap Technology?
As our organization grew, the WordPress website that we had became harder to manage. We needed custom-built portions on the site, such as a membership portal for managing auto-renewing and one-time memberships, so we wouldn’t have to do those processes manually. The entire back-end portal for registered members also needed development in different areas. We had pieced together a solution within the WordPress platform, but it wasn’t delivering a good user experience, and it was hard to identify all the benefits that customers could have.
SOLUTION
Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.
We approached Gennovacap with our problem, namely that we were using seven or eight services in order to provide just one service and needed a complete solution.
We were using a blend of plug-ins on our WordPress site, including one called Paid Memberships Pro. We also used content restriction and forum plug-ins. We needed to protect and encode pages and pull in information from other sources like events websites.
Gennovacap custom-built our new site using Ruby on Rails, incorporating all our solutions into one and developing scripts for pulling information from external sources and automatically placing them into the page. Before, we needed to apply 10 hours of manual work per week for the same tasks.
Gennovacap wrapped our membership fees into one tool, which was huge for us. We used to run into issues with upgraded accounts. Permissions wouldn’t be applied correctly, so we’d have to intervene manually. Gennovacap bundled the system together, making it work as a unified platform and allowing users to manage their own accounts.
How did you come to work with Gennovacap Technology?
I’d known of Gennovacap for a while. I met them through various business networking events in Austin, and I had actually referred several people to Gennovacap before I used them myself. When the time came to pull the trigger, I had a chat with Gennovacap’s principal [CEO Reza Piri]. Since we were a nonprofit, he helped us quite a bit in terms of cost.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?
The total cost of our development with Gennovacap was between $10,000 and $50,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started the brainstorming process with Gennovacap in October 2015. The work was started in March 2016, and our product went live in June.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?
I haven’t gathered much feedback from users, but the work done by Gennovacap has saved our internal staff 10 to 15 hours of additional work per week. This alone has been worth the effort for us. Our team is mostly comprised of people running side businesses, so they don’t have much time.
The user flow has a unique feel, which is great for our organization’s branding. Being able to offer a product that doesn’t feel like it was pieced together has added a lot of value for us.
How did Gennovacap Technology perform from a project management standpoint?
Gennovacap performed great in this respect. I didn’t have to manage anything, and everything was delivered on time with no setbacks. As long as I don’t have to be bogged-down with day-to-day things, I am happy.
What distinguishes Gennovacap Technology from other providers?
Not being a technical person, it’s always been hard for me to communicate issues with developers. Gennovacap’s principal is a developer, but he also speaks business very well. It was easy to convey what our goal was, without being bogged down in technical details. Gennovacap was able to craft a solution around our needs, compared to other developers, which required writing everything down exactly as it was going to be created. Gennovacap has been able to adapt to our organization very well.
Is there anything Gennovacap Technology could have improved or done differently?
No. It was great working with Gennovacap. They delivered exactly what we wanted quickly and the price was right.