Great bespoke service capability
What do you like best?
We had a custom mapping design developed and the CARTO team made this easier than I expected, with the end result produced in time and with continual communication between our management and the CARTO team. We were not able to implement everything we we wanted in the end, but through good communication and a clear plan the CARTO team were able to effectively deliver the vast majority of our requested depictions, and made changes we needed as development took place. Definitely the best bespoke IT development experience we have had thus far and with the large amount of data we use on a regular basis it is essential to have mapping that work with our data set in the way we want it go. The whole team doing the work for our bespoke requests are all very professional and we really have enjoyed watching our data become more effectively usable! Lucienne and Dani are both great and a pleasure to work with :)
What do you dislike?
The billing department is not easy to deal with. There are discrepancies in how the billing is conducted and a disconnect between billing and those doing the marketing and negotiations. We have had issues trying to chase up feedback and issues with billing. The marketing team has been great about providing pricing considerations, which we really do appreciate, but when it's time for regular payments or there is discussion, the feedback loop from whomever the final decision maker is can be long and at times not logical. The marketing team needs to have more leeway to make decisions and work with the clients they get to know.
The directions for how to imbed, make and alter maps could be easier for users. Our analysts have to get a mini crash course in programming each time there is a change.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Make sure to have someone with a relatively sophisticated level of technical ability, and programming experience is a big bonus. The mapping is not a simple thing to implement, but if you can get it to work it looks good. That said, if you go for a bespoke product the CARTO team can assist and make it work for you as you want.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
We needed good bespoke visualization for a significant amount of data and CARTO had suggestions to further enhance what we wanted to say in the data, in addition to just the basics of what we asked for. The method of depiction and integrating our information directly into the platform once the dashboard is completed will be a very valuable tool for our personnel to use the data and then present it in a visually effective way.
