SingleStone, a consulting firm based in Richmond, Virginia, specializes in helping clients create and implement meaningful customer experiences. SingleStone’s solutions drive improved customer attraction, retention, and ultimately top- and bottom-line business growth for their clients.
SingleStone was looking for a cloud-based MongoDB solution for their Sitecore client. Rather than setting up and maintaining their own instances of MongoDB, they were looking for something that was managed and hosted for them. “In the past, all of our bigger clients wanted to manage their databases in-house,” explains Jeff Hansen, Technical Director of Digital Engagement at SingleStone. This time, they were approached by a Fortune 200 packaging company that relied on using software-as-a-service for most of their business needs. “Everything from performance management to billing, they really liked having best-of-breed hosted solutions.”
Hansen started looking for a company that had a fully integrated solution offering for MongoDB. “For what we were looking for in terms of the security, the backups, the hosting performance, and being able to maintain it in the long run, we found that ObjectRocket had the most complete service offering,” said Hansen.
What impressed Hansen the most about ObjectRocket was the personal service he received “from the very beginning.” For example, product management was consistently available to discuss the needs and requirements for his client’s Sitecore implementation. “Derek (MongoDB product manager at ObjectRocket) was extremely upfront with me about everything. From when things were going to go live, to what some of the obstacles might be, the proactive communication was really refreshing. To work with a partner who has that level of transparency and overall willingness to work with us to customize a solution for meeting our needs is invaluable,” added Hansen.
“I feel like we’re getting the best of both worlds with a really solid vendor and platform.”
From a platform perspective, a huge selling point for Hansen was ObjectRocket’s new managed MongoDB on Microsoft Azure offering. “The ability to have MongoDB co-located in the same data center or region that we’re running the site was critical.” Hansen also considered price. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that running MongoDB on Azure was cheaper than hosting it elsewhere. “It’s always something to consider as you look for managed services because you have recurring costs,” said Hansen.
Not only has the experience working with ObjectRocket been very smooth, but SingleStone and their client are very happy with both the time and money they are saving by using a database-as-a-service provider. “From a pure financial play, it’s a no-brainer because it’s a significant cost savings for our client and saves us a lot of time. We get everything we need and it’s reliable. And it’s scalable. And it’s taken care of by someone else. Show me where to sign—ObjectRocket makes it so easy,” says Hansen.
Customer’s Business:
SingleStone is a consulting firm that specializes in helping clients create and implement meaningful customer experiences. SingleStone’s solutions drive improved customer attraction, retention, and ultimately top and
bottom-line business growth for their clients.
Challenge:
SingleStone was looking for a partner that offered a complete solution to help their Sitecore clients host and manage instances of MongoDB on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud to help companies easily ingest, store, and analyze a variety of data from billions of visits.
Solutions:
• ObjectRocket for MongoDB® on Azure®
Outcome:
Both SingleStone and their client are very happy with ObjectRocket’s efficient, friendly, and responsive service. SingleStone looks forward to a continued relationship with ObjectRocket to help their clients with Sitecore xDB data platform needs.
“I feel like we’re getting the best of both worlds with a really solid vendor and platform.”
Jeff Hansen, Technical Director of Digital Engagement, Singlestone
A common roadblock consultancies like SingleStone face is facilitating terms of service agreements between clients and vendors. “With any big company, they like to redline their MSAs (master service agreements) and often ask for a Word document so they can strike through and insert their own language. It can be quite the challenge” said Hansen. With ObjectRocket, SingleStone’s client accepted the terms without any changes. “It was a faster process than normal procurement for our client. ObjectRocket made it easier for us to do business.”
