endorsedOngoing

Custom E-commerce Platform & Ongoing Offshore Development for NYC Media Retailer

Services Covered:

Website Development • DevOps • Managed IT Services

Industry

Media

Duration

185 months

Budget

1M - 10M

Start Date

1 March 2011

Team Size

Confidential

Engagement Model

Offshore

Project Capability Score (PCS)

75/100

Good

Project Capability Score (PCS) estimates how capable IT Craft is of successfully delivering a project like this, based on its past experience, track record, and ability to handle similar work. Learn more about PCS

Client

Confidential

New York City, United States of America

Project Summary

IT Craft developed multiple online stores and a custom, shared e-commerce platform for a NYC-based retail organization, taking over from a previous agency in March 2011 and maintaining an ongoing engagement. The vendor provided development, testing, continuous integration, and 24/7 monitoring while the client retained in-house project management, business analysis, and UX. The platform was rebuilt nearly completely and site performance improved significantly, enabling the client to deliver more projects on budget and on time.

Key Challenges

Replace an underperforming previous agency and establish a reliable offshore partner
Migrate and rebuild a single shared platform for multiple retail businesses
Improve site performance and reduce load times (targeted 50% reduction)
Scale and maintain high availability with 24/7 monitoring and data center support

Project Deliverables

Online stores
Custom e-commerce platform
Front-end rebuild for scuba diving site
Continuous integration setup
24/7 monitoring and system administration
Data center maintenance

Project Solution

The vendor began with a two-person engagement and expanded into a long-term offshore team providing .NET development, PHP support, continuous integration, testing, and 24/7 monitoring/system administration. IT Craft rebuilt the client's shared e-commerce platform from scratch, maintained a significant portion of the client's data center, and executed development, testing, and monitoring while the client handled planning, project management, business analysis, and UX design.

Project Outcome

Platform rebuilt to roughly 99 percent completion
Ranked #4 among U.S. online stores in 2014
Reduced average page load time from 6.85s to 3.9s
Delivered more than twice as many projects in 2015 compared to 2014
Consistently met fixed-price project budgets and deadlines; client satisfaction reported as 9/10

Platforms

Tech Stack

.NET

Client Endorsement

Overall Review Rating

4.88

Timeliness

Cost Rating

Willing to Refer

Quality of Deliverables

“The custom platform developed by IT Craft was rated fourth in the United States by customers. Site load times were cut nearly in half, allowing stafff to deliver more than double the anticipated amount of projects. The agency's industry expertise enabled them to deliver on time and within budget.”
Anonymous
Chief Technology Officer
Date: 10/19/2015