NoA Ignite Poland (formerly Making Waves Poland)

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a technical lead at The Royal Mint, which is one of the oldest organizations in the world. It's 1,100 years old, and the organization builds currency coins for the UK as well as about 60 other countries around the world. Apart from that, we sell precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum.

What challenge were you trying to address with Making Waves Poland?

When we engaged with Making Waves, we were transforming our digital department and were aiming for a hybrid solution. Our internal developers worked with external developers to create products that delivered against business requirements. As part of this process, we hired Making Waves as our development partner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have helped us work within a hybrid model as a team. So far, we have delivered four projects with them. One of them was a total transformation of our website. It was a digital transformation, so we moved away from Angular to React.js on the frontend.

The site relied heavily on Episerver CMS and Episerver Commerce. This is one of the most complex commerce implementations around, so the initial task was really tricky.

Another project they helped us with was related to an implementation we needed for our site. We created new trading platforms for automatic trading. These are big, standalone features on our website. Making Waves built them.

What is the team composition?

We have a hybrid model, and they were very flexible. If we need a developer, they will arrange that for us after we communicate the need. We can work with the developers for four weeks, six weeks, or a month or two months— it just depends on our requirements. Then, they provide us with a developer with that required skill set.

The developers work in our team and sprints, but they cycle off the team when their work is completed. Sometimes, there were 4–6 developers, while other times there were only two developers. It varied across projects.

How did you come to work with Making Waves Poland?

We went through an extensive tendering process and one of the tenders was from Making Waves. That's how we selected them as our development partner.

How much have you invested in them?

It wasn’t a fixed-term project. When their developers started, we paid them per day, so the cost depended on how many developers were needed. I think we spent more than £300,000 (approximately $411,600 USD) in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with them began in February 2020, and this project only lasted three months. However, their developers still work with us.

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

As far as my team is concerned, the biggest metric is on-time delivery. They've done whatever we asked and delivered on time.

Their developers are talented and don’t need a manager to communicate with us. The projects they worked on are standalone features on the website, so it'll take some time before we know how successful they are.

However, it was a successful engagement without any sort of communication gap. They know what they're doing and deliver whatever they promised on time.

How did Making Waves Poland perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t need to involve managers and can directly involve the developers in our work. They work as a team in our sprint cycle, which is great. There is no communication gap, and no one needs to handhold.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their turnaround time is good, and they do everything they can to accommodate our needs. For example, if we need developers on really short notice, they will try their best to arrange it. We inform them a month in advance when we need extra developers, but sometimes a high-level requirement pops up that requires more resources than we anticipated. They arrange that within days.

Their developers did a tremendous job. They really know their field and are very strong in Episerver CMS and Episerver Commerce expertise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I think they are really good as far as their work is concerned.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I only worked with them on Episerver CMS and Episerver Commerce, which is a very niche. market, They know what they're, but I haven’t worked with them in any other technologies.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and founder of a renewables company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Making Waves Poland?

We tried to move a desktop application over to the cloud and make it web-enabled. We needed someone with web expertise.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided cloud consulting services using Azure. We defined an MVP, and they executed the plan. They recently delivered our MVP.

What is the team composition?

There are four people. On average, we have two full-time teammates. There’s a designer, a lead, a frontend developer, and a backend developer.

How did you come to work with Making Waves Poland?

We had a long-term relationship with them. After discussing our needs with them, we signed a contract with the possibility of terminating the project at the end of one month. Now, it’s been running for all of 2020.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about €200,000 (approximately $24,300 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020, and the project is ongoing.

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

We had an open contract and have continued on because we’re satisfied with the progress. They accept our changing scope throughout the development, knowing we'll set a final date as we approach the finish line.

How did Making Waves Poland perform from a project management standpoint?

They were in our office for a period before COVID-19, allowing us to collaborate directly. We used to have two meetings per week, prior to the pandemic. Now, we meet once each week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They pick programmers that are excellent within their field. The developers are skilled and efficient.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone has room for improvement. When starting a project like this and don’t know exactly how demanding it will be, it's easy to run into bottlenecks. I’ve been in software development for so many years and know that there aren't going to be easy solutions to our problems. Of course, we would love to be further along in the project right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend working with them. If I were to start this project over again, I would still choose the team they offered us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the digital communications manager for a global nonprofit organization that develops educational programmes and delivers assessment for students age 3 to 19. We support over 5,000 schools, in more than 150 countries across the world. It’s my job to maintain, run and publish content through all global corporate digital channels for the organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Making Waves Poland?

We needed someone to redevelop our public-facing website as well as the CMS.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope was very broad. They handled everything from the technical build to visual design to frontend development. Along with that, they conducted a number of business workshops across the organization. In their frontend work, they created a style guide for us to inform our design and development of other web properties. That way, our brand could visually align all other sites through UX. In other words, they created a target look and feel for our brand.

After a year of completely reworking the website, it went live. It’s still the site that we’re using today. Despite completing the project, they’re still our go-to site development and design vendor. We contact them to provide routine enhancements, adjustments, and IT support to the site.

What is the team composition?

There was a project manager, a technical lead, and a business manager on their end.

How did you come to work with Making Waves Poland?

We sent out an RFP for the work and began interviewing potential vendors. Our team ended up going with Making Waves Poland because they had the strongest proposition. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $500,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

The site redevelopment took place from June–December 2014.

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

The biggest success of the site what how comprehensive the change was. We reworked the technology in the background, visual design, interactive design, and even the governance that dictates the way we operate the site. Their team’s visual designs were particularly significant because they function as the face of the brand, most visible to our clients. Their work has contributed considerably to our brand’s look and feel. 

How did Making Waves Poland perform from a project management standpoint?

We have an open, transparent relationship with their team. That’s key to our success over time. They have a structured workflow and implemented tools to streamline our cooperation. We interface mostly on Slack and Jira to mitigate the backlog and stay on-task.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The consistency and quality of their support impressed us. We’ve been engaged with them for several years, working with many different account managers and personnel, but the quality of service has always been very high. The transparency with their team has created more of a partnership than a client-vendor relationship. They’re able to contribute to our strategic thinking as well as deliver technical developments or enhancements.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any solid criticisms of them. There will always be challenges when working with an external vendor, but it’s all about how you’re able to deal with them together. It all has to be dealt with openly. We wouldn’t have continued our long-term partnership if we had serious concerns or challenges. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend creating an open, collaborative partnership with them through meetings and conversations. Give them space to come back to you with strategic advice. It’s the same advice as I’d give to any other vendor.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is a Swedish-based global medical tech company. We have operations in about 140 countries and approximately 10,000 employees worldwide. My role as the director of tools and platforms within marketing and communications is to support the organization with resources that enable marketing, professional communications, and sales to be able to run their parts of the business effectively.

What challenge were you trying to address with Making Waves Polska?

Making Waves Polska has been our key technical and digital agency, so they are the supplier of all of our connected infrastructure when it comes to communication. Anything that’s related to a public website portal or external-facing platform has been at least in part developed by their agency.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our public web runs on a frontend server which comprises the core CMS system that we use and that Making Waves Polska is responsible for within our company. Whether its new projects, product integrations, or digital experience improvements, they’ll work on it for us.

Our most recent major project has been a digital experience platform. We wanted to make sure that any channel we need to use to communicate with the outside is directed through this platform. Making Waves Polska helps us with both strategy and development, making sure everything is on one platform and that the platform itself is connected to our digital assets management system.

What is the team composition?

We work with both Swedish and Polish members of their team, and I interact primarily with their client director in Poland, a project manager based in Sweden, and a few of their top developers. They usually divide the work on their end into teams with particular skillsets in front- and backend or analytics.

How did you come to work with Making Waves Polska?

We have been working with their team in some capacity since they before they operated under that name, as well as before I started with this company.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started interacting with them approximately two years ago in 2017, and we are still working together today.

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

I mentioned earlier that they started working on a connected personal experience platform. As an example of the effect their work has, that project has allowed us to meet our internal business stakeholders and launch websites much faster than before. Thanks to their development work, our processes are able to run at a much more rapid pace across pretty much all of our departments.

How did Making Waves Polska perform from a project management standpoint?

The best model for us so far has been to scale up and down our involvement with different teams within their company that have different areas of strength. When we request a certain skill set they are very quick to respond and propose individuals who are particularly well-suited to that project.

We have a meeting before every quarter where we plan our priorities for different projects, which gives them time to plan accordingly. Once the projects actually start, we have weekly standups, and my team works even more closely with them by communicating through Jira. That also helps us to have more visibility on project progress and can move through different phases more easily.

One area we’ve made progress in is connecting everything in one place so that all the suppliers and other companies we work with on certain projects can effectively collaborate. They’re very flexible, so the focus of their work is generally on helping us with whatever our biggest needs are, and overall it works out really well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It feels like we are an important customer to them and they’re really making an effort to help come up with solutions. The Making Waves Polska team is far more responsive than I’m used to, so I’m very happy with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The recent change in project managers we had in Sweden slowed down our progress. I think that transition could probably have been managed a bit better or more quickly, but that is the only thing I really think could be improved.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Any time you try to engage with an IT partner like Making Waves Polska, it is better to make sure it’s a partnership. If you have an attitude from the beginning that you are not just coming to them with a final solution and getting it delivered exactly, but that you have a back and forth that benefits both companies, it will lead to a better final result. You have to leverage the competencies that they have to try to form an alliance as partners on a project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of digital for MatPrat, a company that works for Norweigian farmers and promotes their products through three websites for different target audiences.

What challenge were you trying to address with Making Waves Polska?

We wanted to create a hub to gather all our different websites and systems. We wanted one company to be in charge of everything digital, instead of needing to shop around all the time.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They began by migrating our main website to them, then later to Episerver. They made major changes to the main website, doing all the backend and frontend development, and added a log in section where users can create their own content, as well as an integration with a system that hosts our images and videos. They later developed our two other websites from start to finish, including graphic design, UX-design, backend/ frontend development, and digital advisors. They’ve also developed our chatbot and voice for Google Assistant.

What is the team composition?

We have a full-time core team of two backend developers. There’s an extended team that is available when we need them which includes a project manager, a frontend developer, a designer, and a third backend developer. We also have a bigger resource pool, if we need a digital advisor or other competencies, plus we stay in close contact with the manager.

How did you come to work with Making Waves Polska?

We did some research, but I don’t remember exactly how we found them. There was a large process with several companies involved. We ended up with three and then chose Making Waves Polska.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in 2014, and the work is ongoing.

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

We’re really happy with all the work they do; it’s a good solution and much safer. The website is improved and combined with our SEO work, we’re at an all-time high on Google. Everything is integrated and all systems are talking to each other. The team is proud of what they do, and they deliver good technical work, setting up a system that can handle traffic peaks.

They also make little improvements all the time that are really good, giving suggestions on how to do things differently. We get a lot of good feedback which just gets better and better; they’ve allowed us to maintain our position as the leading food and recipe site. Developing our chatbot was something they’d never done before, but instead of getting something off the shelf, they built one from scratch really well.

How did Making Waves Polska perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything is very transparent. We work closely with them and they’re like full-time colleagues now. We mostly use Slack and have meetings on Skype with their project management. It’s been a very smooth, long-term collaboration even though we’re located in different countries. We thought it would be a challenge, but the communication has been easy with both project managers. There’s also a lot of contact directly with the developers, which is good and prevents things from getting lost in translation.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We no longer have to worry that something might go wrong. There’s no stress, and everything just works. All the systems are up, working, and ready, and their team is so easy to work with. If something does go wrong, they fix it instantly no matter the time of day. They’re very competent people and it’s very reassuring to have them as a partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. It would be nice to be in the same country to work more closely and spend more time with them, but it’s already set up well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would highly recommend them to contact Making Waves Polska, and give them a chance. You will not regret it.