DOOR3

Please describe your organization.

The company was a not-for-profit affordable housing company.

What is your position?

I was the CIO.

What business challenge were you trying to address with DOOR3?

This was before the housing market crashed, and we were experiencing a real spike in mortgages and applications and things like that. We just couldn’t keep up with the paper-based system, so we were looking to automate that whole thing and get better reporting out of it, better statistics, data, that kind of thing.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They did the whole thing soup to nuts. DOOR3 came in; they did the requirements gathering, the design, they built it and they did the testing. They really did the entire scope of the project. It was a long project. Like most things, you built it and then you realize you want something more. We worked them for probably about three years and really what stopped it was the market turning around. We built a system for a business that was going up, and then all of a sudden, the business went down, and we had this really big system for something that we could actually handle on paper again. That’s what stopped the engagement.

I believe it was written in .NET, so in C#. It used pretty much the whole Microsoft stack: SSRS, SSIS, all that kind of stuff for reporting. It integrated with our existing mortgage management system. It really did a lot of things. It was really like a full ERP system almost by the time we ended because we built it for one specific area of the business and then other areas wanted it too.

The most useful feature, though, was definitely the closing board. It tracked mortgage applications and seeing which applications were coming in from which mortgage officer and for how much so we could see if they were meeting their goals and things like that. We could see what was in the pipeline coming along so we could tell what we were going to have in three months, six months, or nine months. The system that we had handled permanent loans very well, but it didn’t handle construction loans very well. That was one of the key things that we used it for, being able to see exactly how much an advance should be and to whom and when and being able to report on that. All of this was done on paper and Excel previously. To figure out how much money you actually dispersed and to whom and for what and for which loans and things like that were really difficult prior to this. It’s pretty hard to run a mortgage company when you don’t know who you’re giving your money to.

It was really revolutionary. Especially in our company, we were a small not-for-profit community-based lender, and we got pretty big pretty fast.

How did you come to work with DOOR3?

They were referred to us. It was our first big development project, so we definitely made some mistakes along the way, but they were there the whole time. They really helped us in every aspect of the development.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was several million. Basically, we outsourced our development to them. It was multiple smaller projects, but over the course of three to even four, five years, it was many millions.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s completed. 

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Nothing specific just because it was a while ago and I don’t remember. This was five to eight years ago.

How did DOOR3 perform from a project management standpoint?

Good. I was very happy with DOOR3. That was a project in and of itself, getting the right project management reports. We ended up building a project management tool just so we could see things in the way that my boss wanted to see them exactly.

What distinguishes DOOR3 from other providers?

One thing that many of my end-users and my subject matter experts commented on was just how quickly they picked up the business side of things, which is really important. DOOR3 were really good at the business requirements. I would say that’s probably their strongest suit. Multiple senior vice presidents came to me and said they were really impressed.

The first project that we did before we wrote any code is we did a bunch of dataflow diagrams and things like that just to really map out how the business works, and we used those things even outside of the software development project. That was a really useful tool. One of the things we discovered was one department would print out a form and walk it over to another department and hand it to them, and then they would scan it and save it in another directory. It was just ridiculous, unnecessary work that was going on that was uncovered by these guys. They didn’t have to do anything to fix it; we just told them look, just save a copy in this other folder. DOOR3's understanding of the business and the speed at which they understood the business was really impressive. I would say that was their number one quality for me.

Is there anything DOOR3 could have improved or done differently?

We took a while to get up to speed I would say, and I don’t think it was really their fault; it was really we had never done a development project before. Looking back on that whole project, if I were to do anything differently, it would be just to know what I was getting into before I got into it.

Again, that wasn’t really a knock on them. They would give their advice and then just the customer is always right kind of thing. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I lead digital strategy and initiatives for a major museum in New York City.

For what projects/services did your company hire DOOR3?

We needed DOOR3 to redesign our mobile-responsive website and develop an app with a digital ticketing function.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to outsource web and mobile development.

How did you select this vendor?

We evaluated their proposals against comparable firms. For their proposals, they went above and beyond to understand our organization.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

DOOR3 offered end-to-end software development services include design, development, and testing.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, account manager, designers, developer and testers.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

DOOR3's development work provided a modern digital experience for our audience.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their account manager and project manager achieved what I was looking for in administration, escalation, and problem-solving.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They resolved issues as they arose.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

There are things to improve in every organization. I would suggest a focus on scaling as they continue to grow.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the director of IT of TEI Group. We are an elevator construction, modernization, repair, and service company.

For what projects/services did your company hire DOOR3?

We were deciding between two ERP products. We brought in DOOR3 to determine which would be a better fit for our company.

What were your goals for this project?

We engaged DOOR3 to provide a vendor and product comparison of ERP providers.

How did you select this vendor?

I learned about the team through a mutual colleague in the industry.

Describe the project in detail.

DOOR3 held briefings with each vendor and then wrote summaries weighing the pros and cons of each product.

What was the team composition?

We worked with one person.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

DOOR3 brought much-needed clarity to our decision-making process.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The partnership was excellent.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ERP expertise was very thorough.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, we were very happy with their work.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Solution Delivery & Transformation Programme Director at an art auctioneer.

For what projects/services did your company hire DOOR3?

We wanted them to perform a complete digital transformation for us.

What were your goals for this project?

We hoped the work would transform our interactions with customers, prospects, and agents to provide a world-class user experience across all channels and geographies.

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended by a partner.

Describe the project in detail.

It was a multi-million-pound project that took place over 5 years and transformed all aspects of the business. Our aim was to retain our unique and historical reputation while moving towards more modern ways of interaction that was being demanded by customers. The overall program delivered online marketing and customer interaction tools as well as enterprise HCM, CRM, auction management, finance, treasury, and ERP solutions. All of these were rolled out globally.

What was the team composition?

The team had 40 to 50 team members in total, which included 5 from Door3. The team included consultants from one of the big 4 consultancies, a couple of system integrators and solution vendor staff, in addition to as my company's staff.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project was delivered successfully.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their team maintained excellent communication and interaction throughout the project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their expertise, creativity, and collaborative approach were all impressive.