Working for more than 20 years on some of the most complex and challenging front-end development projects around, Allan Walker knew there was a problem to solve.
So he founded Numeral – a company for those needing efficient front-end expertise at a reasonable price – dedicated to delivering projects on time and on budget.
“If you are on a deadline but with not enough front end developers to get it done you have limited options,” Walker says.
You can either hire a full time staffer – an expensive and lengthy process, try to hire a freelancer or two, or hire an agency – which have large overheads and are out of reach for most companies.
“This is where Numeral comes in. We fill a gap where all you need is highly skilled manpower to get a job done.”
Walker calls Numeral almost ‘an agency for agencies’.
“If anything is clear in today’s market, it is that it can be really difficult to find good developers and scale up quickly.”
That problem slows down delivering project goals and can lead to cost and time blowouts that are difficult to recover from.
Hiring out its team of skilled developers for short or long-term contracts, Numeral slips into teams where hiring a full-time staffer or conventional freelancer is too difficult or risky.
“That can come down to cost or it simply can be dealing with a freelancer who might not have the experience to get up to speed quickly, slot into a team, and work reliably to the company’s goals.”
Numeral doesn’t have project managers but the wider team and technical director do work together to give an extra layer of oversight to ensure that hiring organisations have confidence in the work to be delivered.
Pricing based on client brief, Numeral prides itself on agency-quality output, without the overheads or lock-in contracts.
Walker has 20 years experience in startups, scaleups, agency work, as well as government projects.
The New Zealand-based team he leads has decades of experience in development and senior management, working across all kinds of projects and organisations.
“We are here if your existing web team is light on resources, or if you’ve got a spike in workload and your project requires front-end development. We are here to support dev teams who need help through busy periods. We’ll join your team or work independently.”
The Numeral team are able to deliver projects ranging from e-commerce and marketing and promotional websites to SaaS Platforms and immersive experiences – and everything in between.
As the founder of the award-winning immersive storytelling studio, Vanishing Point, Allan is acutely aware of the struggles companies can face in hitting hard deadlines for challenging projects that can scale up at a moment’s notice.
As well as being recognised for numerous Webbys, known as the ‘Oscars of the internet,’ Vanishing Point also led a global team augmentation project for one of the largest consumer brands in the world. It was a job that required high skill and the ability to increase and decrease team size at a moment’s notice.
“I set Numeral up in part to help with the sort of challenges we faced as a studio. Then I learned this was not a unique problem to have.”
Coming on as Numeral’s Engineering Manager is Stuart Whitehead, formerly Head of Technology at Springload,
“I’ve seen the value and quality of Numeral first-hand – we actually contracted Allan and the team in my previous role. I’m stoked to share my agency experience with Numeral and our customers.”
Walker says the team is set up to hit the ground running, even in emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence.
“Often companies working in these fields have an incredible product but the User Experience is lacking because they lack the expertise to make it compelling for an audience.”
Walker says the success of such software relies on the ability of users to complete their goals.
“It’s been proven, even if a website is slow to load you can see conversion rates plummet. If people get frustrated they don’t complete what they need to do.”
So the investment on getting it right the first time is worth it, he says.
“The impact of neglecting that can be devastating to the success of a project.”
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