Answers to "10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Magento eCommerce Development Agency"

Aion Hill recently posted an article over things to consider before deciding what company to work with for your Magento development and other eCommerce service needs. They created a list of 10 questions specifically to ask, and we’ve taken it upon ourselves to give you some answers. Hopefully, they will give you an idea as to what you can expect from the team of Magento-certified developers and Magento catalog managers we have here at Razoyo.

1) What level of importance does Razoyo place on in-person meetings?

At Razoyo, we’ve met about half of our clients. We have had success with clients we’ve never met in person, but we respect the client’s preferences, so if they like in-person meetings, we have no problem setting them up.

We communicate with our clients in a variety of ways outside of in-person meetings (again, we try to work with whatever the client prefers). Some examples of ways we communicate include via telephone, email, Slack, the agile project management platform Jira, GoToMeeting, join.me, and Skype.

The frequency of meetings really depends on what the client wants along with how often we feel they should receive updates. With larger clients, Razoyo tries to hold a meeting with each at least once a week.

2) How long has Razoyo worked with the Magento platform?

Razoyo started working with Magento Go back in 2011. Before that, we operated as merchants only using ProStores from 2009 until we made the switch to Magento Go. However, we also provided support to other users of ProStores. In 2012, things really started to hear up for us, as we began work with Magento development.

While five years may not seem like a long time to some people, in the world of eCommerce, it is. We’ve been through multiple versions of Magento now, and started working with Magento 2 early this year. To date, we have already done four end-to-end Magento 2 store builds, and we inherited another build project from another development company. One of the five builds was a migration build.

3) What is the development process like at Razoyo and how long does it take?

How the development process works and how long it will take for a certain project depends on several things like what extensions you want, the level of customization you request, the size of your website, etc. We can, however, give you a few rough estimates for how long things will take:

• An average, basic build: 8-12 weeks
  • Add 1-2 weeks for Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration
  • Last two weeks of process usually for testing
• Migration build from smaller, simpler stores with a few hundred SKUs from platform like Shopify: about four weeks

For more information on how to ensure an efficient development process, check out our post Best Ways to Utilize Razoyo’s Magento Services.

4) What kind of support does Razoyo offer?

Razoyo offers ongoing support to clients on a support contract/retainer. Big projects like Magento webstore builds often come with a warranty, so if a client does not stay on retainer following the build, we will still offer support up to a certain point. For clients not on retainer but that need occasional help, Razoyo On Demand (ROD) hours may be purchased.

5) How does Razoyo handle quality assurance and perform tests?

To test to make sure everything on a website renders correctly across different devices, browsers, and operating systems, we use responsive design. Then, we use BrowserStack and its many emulators to test on individual devices and browsers across varying operating systems. In addition, we sometimes use Selenium in conjunction with BrowserStack to automate testing.

When we add a new extension or functionality to a website, we perform regression testing in which we check to make sure all links and filters work, pages show the correct number of items, images appear, checkout works, etc.

6) What can affect projects with Razoyo?

Sometimes, things can take more time than anticipated. For example, with Magento 2 builds and migrations, developers may run into new problems that take longer to address, because the community of Magento users may have not addressed the issues already. Thus, developers have to figure out solutions completely on their own, whereas with Magento 1, a wealth of information already exists for what to do when developers encounter problems.

When it looks like a client will go over on their hours for a certain project, we will warn them and gain their approval for more hours before continuing.

A project may also be affected by emergencies with other clients. If we need to direct our resources towards fixing something major for another client, your project may be completed later than originally estimated, though you wouldn’t necessarily go over on hours. In this case, if you wanted your project expedited, we may ask that you pay overtime hours. However, this occurs very rarely at Razoyo; it typically only happens once or twice a year.

Finally, holidays affect the amount of work and support tasks we can handle. Although we are closed during holidays, we do have support staff available to help you, though less people will be available to fix any problems you may encounter. For this reason, we ask that clients request any new projects in advance so we have time to get everything good-to-go for any spikes in traffic.

7) Who will you communicate with at Razoyo?

Although Razoyo has project managers that will help guide you through your projects, Razoyo really believes in open communication with its employees at all levels. With that said, Razoyo tries to put clients in contact with the person closest to the solution in most cases.

8) What types of Magento integration has Razoyo done?

Razoyo has completed the following forms of integration with Magento:

• Logistics solution OSCO with Magento 2 Community Edition
• SAGE, an accounting and ERP solution, with both Magento Community and Enterprise Editions
• Custom ERP systems on two separate Magento 1 sites

9) What experience does Razoyo have with Magento migration?

We at Razoyo have been responsible for about 30 migrations in our time as an eCommerce development agency. These migrations vary in nature as some were from Magento 1 to Magento 2, Magento Community to Enterprise, Shopify to Magento, custom platforms to Magento, etc. Really, we consider data and catalog migrations a specialty of ours.

10) How will Razoyo teach you to use Magento?

Here at Razoyo, we believe in empowering our merchants. Because of this, we offer Magento training sessions. In addition, we offer customized training for each client and its needs.