On Friday, August 13, 2010, we passed the 3-month mark of starting the company.

It’s been one hell of a ride.

We’re frequently asked where our office is located and how exactly we get things done, so I thought we’d share.

Our Principles

• Treat everyone in the company like family
• Create outstanding projects
• Work on things we love
• Keep it lean and mean (run a small shop that creates SUMO-sized results)

Our Culture
We have no formal office – we work remotely – mostly from our homes, client offices, or at one of our favorite ‘conference rooms’ – Bohdi Coffee or Dark Horse Pub. People ask us if clients have an issue with us not having office space, and if it creates a problem. The straight answer is that it’s never been a problem. We’re very upfront with new clients as to how we work, and at the end of the day it’s the result that you produce, not the amount of Aeron Chairs or fancy espresso machines you have (plus, I’m sure clients like knowing that they’re not funding these sorts of things!).

We know it takes a certain mindset to work this way. Some need the comfort of an office and a ‘place to go’ everyday. Our team and our developers have been working virtually in their own spaces long before we started this company, so there really was no ‘cubicle culture’ issue to deal with.

Our Tools
Working the way we do requires a set of specialized tools tailored for remote workgroups. Here’s a few of our ‘tried and true’ applications:

1. 37Signals Campfire – To us, Campfire is the most important communication tool. The three of us are in the “Water Cooler” chatroom all day . It makes checking in easy. Working through an issue is painless when we’re sharing screen comps or writing quick drafts of documents. And it’s great on long client calls when we need to communicate something to each other.

2. 37Signals Basecamp – What can I say… every single project that we are working on – internal or external – gets a project within Basecamp. All of our clients use it and so do our vendors. Quick tip: When you set up one of your vendors you can give them permission to post private messages. This way there can be a conversation between us and the vendor.

3. 37Signals Highrise – I use the tool most often but it keeps every contact that we have and what conversations we’ve had with them. It also serves us as a deal flow system. We have a contact form on our site that uses a WordPress plugin to push new inquiries from our site to Highrise. It also sets tasks for me for the next day to make sure I follow up.

4. Skype – This is our voice and video communication tool. We use it as a regular phone to talk to customers. We also use it talking to each other on video while doing work. There are times that we are on Skype Video for few hours while working on a specific project. To us it feels like we are in the same office. We are currently testing the beta version of Skype on Grandstream phones to see how it works out.

5. Google Voice – Google voice serves as our company phone number and general voicemail. The number rings our Skype and our cell phones so we are never out of reach. Plus, we get emails when we are in client meeting with the voice mails just in case there is a big emergency.

6. Google Apps – We use Google mail for our mail as well as Gtalk for a lot communication. Gtalk is very useful with our development team. We are considering moving all the developers to Campfire. Since we are virtual sharing document could be a chalenge so we write all of our documents in Google Docs. We like to keep everything simple and Google docs gets us 90% there.

There is also DropBox for company files, Right Signature for contracts, Xero for accounting, internet connections, cell phones, a few Apple products, and the determination to make all this work.

This is just a quick summary of how we make stuff work with no office, a lot of time zones, determination, and the love for what we want to accomplish.

We’ll continue to share the things that work and don’t work for us.
If you have any tips or tools not shown here, feel free to share!

There will always be hosted, closed-source systems. They have their place, pros, and cons. The cons – that’s where open source systems come in. Right now Magento is eCommerce. That’s been proven.
Generally, the platform doesn’t matter. As a programmers and business people, we take many options into consideration when reviewing a client’s existing systems. Are they running an ERP? Are they a .NET shop? Custom? It all goes into the mix. Most of the time, you can’t make a hosted solution bend. For instance, if they have no support for WorldShip, you have two options: 1) Don’t use the hosted solution -or- 2) Don’t use WorldShip. That’s not a big deal for new companies; you can explain for hours on end different systems, pricing, pros / cons. The situation that calls for something different than a hosted solution is an existing company. There are business processes in place, and you can’t walk into a company who has been doing business a certain way for 20 years and completely interrupt their process. That looks bad for your company and it makes your client feel bad, and feelings are important. If you’re a business that’s a year old, you can’t waltz into an established corporation telling them they’re wrong.

That’s where open source systems come in – particularly in eCommerce.

Until Magento, there really weren’t any impressive open source eCommerce systems. I wouldn’t punish the devil himself with osCommerce, I think he would cry. ZenCart is really just osCommerce in better clothes. Seriously now – if they are any good then why has development pretty much stopped since the introduction of Magento? (I’d love to hear from the developers on that one.) There are a few other open source (and partially open source) systems, but none are particularly powerful or fast. If they’re PHP, there’s definitely some encrypted code that relies on ionCube Loader and if it’s a .NET system there’s compiled DLLs that you’ll pay thousands of dollars for the source on top of Windows licensing. Oh yeah – and I forgot Java; if you’re not a bank, school, or confused government agency then you probably have no use for Java.

So take a system like Magento – well thought out, clean code, and built on top of a framework by a company who’s founders contributed much of the core of PHP. The toughest part with a system as complete as Magento is to find something it can’t do or integrate with. Customers don’t need to ask, “Can Magento do _____?” but rather, “I need features a, b, c, x, y, and z. What’s our timeframe?”.

I’m not a Magento fanboy. You have to take it for face value. Does it work out of the box? Yes. But really it’s the best eCommerce framework around right now. If something better came along tomorrow, would I push that? Yes. If it’s RoR, it’s RoR. If it’s .NET, it’s .NET. It really doesn’t matter because as long as I can make it bend, an open source eCommerce system will always fill the gap of hosted, closed source solutions.

In this forward-looking concept video from 1969, we see how the world of eCommerce might look through the not-quite-yet-invented Internet.

You’ll notice how they show the women doing all the shopping and the men paying for it – how quaint!
If only the creators knew what the internet would truly become (a world of pokes, piano-playing cats and male enhancement ads.)

The Kickmap App brings clarity to the intimidating (if you’re not from there) NYC Subway Map. It strips away much of the noise apparent in the current MTA map while remaining geographically accurate. Plus, it stands on its own as a beautiful infographic:

The designers also have a noble goal:

In summary, the user-friendly Kick Map has been designed to encourage subway ridership, for both New Yorkers and visitors, and thereby to reduce automobile traffic, congestion, and pollution – not to mention confusion – in our great city.

Check out the side-by-side screen comparisons or download the app at iTunes.

Another Friday afternoon video conference with the SUMO team.
Bonus footage: Pete Townshend wonders if his nose is too big.

Another Friday afternoon video conference with the SUMO team from SUMO Heavy on Vimeo.

The other day in Campfire chat, we were discussing the redesign of Zappos.com.
The site has come a long way since their “Zeta” (Beta Version) design. Oh, and they’ve sold a crapload of shoes, have legendary customer service and were just acquired by Amazon.com, so they must be doing something right.) As we were looking over the redesign (executed beautifully by Happy Cog™ Studios), I scrolled down to check  the footer.

Oh no…the dreaded ‘Fat Footer’.
This beast is over 1200 pixels tall.

I can just imaging the User Experience people in rolling fist fights down the hall with the SEO and Marketing people, all fighting for their pixels of real estate. Sadly, the reality is that the ‘Fat Footer’ is now fairly common in large eCommerce websites.
Putting that aside, I noticed above the footer a rotating set of ‘Zappos Family Core Values’ (like number 10: “Be Humble”.) These ‘Core Values’ are something that Zappos is known for, and they smartly use  it as part of their marketing.
I reloaded the page a view times to view some of the other ‘Core Values’, when I stumbled upon this one: “8. Do More With Less”…unfortunately perched right above their 1200 pixel footer.

Sometimes it’s all about the context, folks.

The Magento Team has announced the launch of Magento mobile, a new product that will allow Magento merchants to easily create branded, native mobile storefront applications that are deeply integrated with Magento’s market-leading eCommerce platform.

Here’s an overview of what Magento Mobile offers:

Seamless Storefront Integration
The Magento-mobile admin will allow you to bring the functionality of Magento eCommerce to your mobile commerce channel.

This includes full integration with your store’s catalog, checkout, inventory, reporting and more.

Easier, Hassle-free submissions
Magento manages and handles the App submission process, allowing you to focus on running your business.

Easily Manage Multiple Devices
One installation allows you to manage multiple devices.

Fully Customizable
Device-specific features and branded themes can be deployed with just a few clicks. Easily update the colors and appearance of your app with the new Magento mobile admin, even after customers have downloaded your app.

Smartphones are the best way to create deeper relationships with your customers. Combined with Magento’s mobile platform, creating apps for your storefront just became easier and more efficient.

SUMO Heavy Industries can help you lead the way with a custom Magento storefront app. Contact us to get started!

There’s a post this week over at TechnicallyPhilly about us. They give a glimpse into the history of the company and a peek at our future world domination plans.

In March 2008, Mroz co-founded round3media and by last November, Mroz had learned his greatest skills were focusing strictly on e-commerce site development. After his two partners in round3 wanted to work on different projects, Mroz started anew, launching e-commerce heavy SUMO with new partner Robert Brodie and creative director John Suder.

Check out the full article here.

Our first Philadelphia Magento Meetup was a great success!

Thanks to all the folks who came out to Dark Horse last night to share a beer or 3, talk Magento and hopefully make some connections. The Magento Worldwide Community is growing fast, and we plan on being a big part of it here in Philly.
We’re planning on another meetup in a month or two, so stay tuned.

Thanks again to Koby Oz from Magento, who drove 20 hours (ok, it was like 6) in insane traffic to get here to present, and to our other sponsor Julian Barkat from MJM Ecommerce.

We’ll see you at the next one.