Algoworks

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the VP of software engineering for a software intelligence company until a month ago. A competitor recently acquired the company, so now, I’m the VP of software engineering there.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algoworks?

We were experiencing a significant turnover in our team, and we figured out that filling those deficiencies would take time. We needed to make sure that we had the engineering resources to keep the lights on, at least for maintenance purposes. Hence, we engaged with Algoworks to get qualified software engineers in India to help us with that situation.

We also wanted to supplement our engineering team to develop new features and functionalities. We were severely limited in terms of budget, so being able to access talent at a lower cost was a strategic decision for us — it greatly expanded our bandwidth.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Algoworks primarily provides software engineers in the DevOps area. The technologies that they use are Python, PHP, Node.js, React, and Salesforce. They use other technologies for QA automation and cloud technologies like Docker.

What is the team composition?

The team size has fluctuated, and we’ve worked with about 78 different people from Algoworks.

How did you come to work with Algoworks?

I’d worked with them around 2009 when I was in another position. Algoworks was smaller back then. We’d lost some Salesforce expertise and needed to make changes to one of our apps. We found out that local talent was pretty expensive, so we decided to try out Algoworks because they specialized in Salesforce technologies.

By the time we engaged with them, we hadn’t done any outsourcing successfully, so we had a trial period. Our director of professional services and partner integrations was very skeptical about using offshore resources, but that project went well. We were very happy with their work, so we decided to expand the team and include other resources and technologies.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $700,000–$800,000 over the last two years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Algoworks around October 2019. They’re still working with us, although their team’s size has reduced since our recent acquisition. The app that they’re helping us develop has changed, as well as the technology stack.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Some of my direct superiors have been very impressed with the skills of Algoworks’ team. One of their resources, in particular, has become our to-go person thanks to their skillset.

How did Algoworks perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve managed most of our engagement internally because Algoworks’ resources are integrated into our teams. They use the same set of tools as us: the Atlassian set of products (Confluence and Jira), GitHub, Slack, and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Algoworks' team has honesty and integrity, and they offer good value for our money. Often, when we engage with bigger providers, we won’t have the same level of engagement. However, we can pick up the phone and call Algoworks if we need more attention in a particular area.

The quality of their resources is great, and there was hardly any turnover in the beginning. There was some turnover later on, but they were able to bring in new resources and do the knowledge transfer themselves to make the lesser impact.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Algoworks’ team members used to be spread out across different teams, so there wasn’t much coordination, and COVID-19 had an impact to an extent on that aspect as well. We wanted to have more coordination between the team members so that, if something new came along, they wouldn’t be reliant on the managers and other members on our side to get up to speed. However, they’ve made some improvements about that.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

What you put in is what you get, so my advice is to fully integrate Algoworks’ resources into your team and have constant communication with them. You should ensure that they’re part of your meetings and processes.

Additionally, you should ensure that all the documentation is available, so Algoworks can come up to speed. This was a mistake from our organization; we lacked documentation and designs. Supplying that was a way to make sure everyone was on the same page. Once we started doing it, it became easier to integrate them, considering the time difference.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for one of the largest and probably one of the most well-known bearing manufacturers in the world. We’ve been around for 110 years, and we have about 44,000 employees and 100 locations worldwide. Basically, if it spins or turns, there’s probably one of our bears in it. We do everything from helicopters, jet engines, Ferris wheels, and cars to little components that are in medical devices and lubrication systems.

I’m the head of analytics and digital solutions for North America. I’ve been here for four and a half years, and my job is to use technology and data to help optimize everything that we do — find better ways to communicate, get more sales, increase customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and so on. Anything that we can use data or technology for, we try to solve problems with that.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algoworks?

We really had two problems, and they were kind of combined. One was that we didn’t have a good way to communicate with employees or customers, so we were trying to find a way to do that. However, when COVID-19 happened, we shifted the focus and realized that we didn’t have a good platform to get information out, get feedback, or just have general conversations internally.

The company is divided into administrative and manufacturing jobs. Office people have connections to a lot of systems, like emails and SharePoint. They get a lot of information and have access to a lot of things much easier than someone on the production floor. Therefore, we wanted to find a way that we could seamlessly talk to everybody in the same way and make it effective.

From there, we also wanted to see how we could connect those people to our customers because even without COVID-19, we needed a better way to bridge that gap. We wanted our customers to have an easier way to talk to customer solutions or an engineer. We were looking to create a mobile solution for that, and that’s why we approached Algoworks.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a very nebulous idea. We didn’t know what we wanted or what it would look like. We approached Algoworks with what we thought was important, and then we started to work with them on designing the solution.

We had a development team here, but they weren’t versed in mobile applications, since we do more web development, data science, engineering, and visualization. We do some work on responsive web apps, but nothing truly mobile.

Therefore, we worked with Algoworks to formulate the vision or strategy for the application. Some of the stuff that we did came from our systems and required information from us, so we broke up the scope. They worked on the frontend design and did all of the mobile technology, and my team worked on the backend. We took care of the APIs on that side, and they took care of everything on the frontend and some of the middleware. Then, we met regularly to pull all of it together and have regular releases.

The app was built in native script, so it natively renders the appropriate way on either iOS or Android. We used lambdas to do some of the work and APIs in between, and our information sits in AWS.

What is the team composition?

When we started, we probably had between 4–6 people, and it was a mix of different types of front- and backend developers. We had a project manager, a tester, and so on.

How did you come to work with Algoworks?

You can throw a rock on Google and you’ll find a ton of companies, but for us, it was about finding the right mix of attitude, amount of people, and type of work they’ve done, so we talked to a lot of companies.

I’ve been in development for many years now, and with some of the bigger companies you just kind of feel like a number — you aren’t going to get their attention. We knew that if we threw enough money at them, they would dump people on the project, but we had a really good feeling when we talked to Algoworks. Their rates were very competitive, they had the tools we needed, and they were able to be very agile, which was important for us.

Also, we talked to some other companies, but based on the location of some of the data that we could deal with, we didn’t feel comfortable with working with the development team of some areas.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial spend was around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2020, right before COVID-19 and the lockdown. The development hasn’t really wrapped up, but the actual release of the app was 2–3 months later. We’ve actually kept them on, and they’re an extension of our team now. We continue to enhance the app as they do other work for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I don’t think we could’ve done it on our own without them. They were definitely helpful. As for statistics, we started targeting the US market, which is about 4,000 people overall, and we have a 40% adoption rate. That’s pretty good because the app isn’t required for people to use and it’s a company-driven application, so people are skeptical.

We’ve also gotten feedback from our customers saying that they like using it and they want to see enhancements in the future. It could actually become the way they interact with us, so it has put us on the customer journey of how we do customer self-service.

How did Algoworks perform from a project management standpoint?

It was a mix of things at times. We had our own tools when we first started with them. We were using Jira and they were using Basecamp, but then we switched to Hive. Since we were already working with our system, we converted them over to ours so they’d use everything in our system. It made it easier, but at first we were moving so fast, we were just using whatever we could to get through the project.

In that sense, we were a difficult group to work with. We weren't good at writing down requirements or articulating what we wanted. There was a lot of stuff on the fly, change of ideas, and trial and error. We didn’t make it easy on them.

Algoworks assigned us a project manager to try and solve that, but somebody on our side was kind of doing that, so it was a little messy at times. We also traded requirements via a spreadsheet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For the size of the company, their responsiveness and skill sets really distinguish them. We talked to a lot of companies, and we got a pretty personalized deal with them. I spoke to the president many times, and if we had a problem, we could send an email and he would call us to try to help resolve things.

Even from the development side, I’ve worked with a lot of offshore teams in the past, and they pretty much only did the requirements and that was it. Algoworks went above and beyond; there were times when their lead would work all night to make sure that we hit deadlines or fixed a bug. That level of responsiveness was something really important to us, and they definitely came through on it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The first couple of weeks were a little bumpy, but I don’t think we made it easy for them.

I’d like to see some additional services or areas that they cover, but that wouldn’t be for this project, that’s for other needs that I have. Aside from that, I think they did a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s good to have a clear idea of what you need because they can help you figure that out, but you’ll get to the solutions faster. We kind of fumbled through that and had a serious time crunch.

Additionally, talk to them and find out what they can do because it wasn’t until later on in the conversation that we realized that they had a UX department. Thus, getting them involved and understanding the full breadth of their services earlier on might be more helpful.

In a similar way, setting up the rules of engagement might be useful. In the beginning, we were probably the cause of some of the slowness and back-and-forth. If we would have agreed on how we were going to work, everything would have been smoother.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of web strategy and operations for a NoSQL database provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algoworks?

We wanted to scale our web development team. We wanted to build out web development and QA resources to stay within our budget.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Algoworks supplements our in-house web development team. They also offer QA resources that we don’t have in-house.  

What is the team composition?

We work with 7–8 people from their team at any time ranging from full-stack developers, QA leads, frontend developers, solutions architects, and backend DevOps specialists.

How did you come to work with Algoworks?

I’ve worked with them in the past through other companies. We also did a full RFP process and a POC to see if they could deliver. From there, we started off with them as a backup component.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $500,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They help us scale at a lower price. We were able to double our team hours at three-fourths of the cost. Algoworks also completes all tasks on time.

How did Algoworks perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Jira and Slack to manage the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility and ability to find the right resource stands out. They were able to find and onboard a full-stack engineer to support our project management platform.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have their own project management tools, rather than relying on the ones we provide them. It would also be great if they could offer more flexible hours, too.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to give them a shot. Make sure that they have the resources that you want and need. You’ll be able to scale and build a relationship with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a company called WorkFront. We’re a marketing works management company. We track the work that marketing teams do. I’m our senior technology manager for the customer experience team. I handle all the technology for our customer support, customer success, professional services, and training teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algoworks?

In early 2020, we transitioned a bunch of our web properties — our support site, training, and customer community — to the Salesforce Community platform. Our community came from a different platform, and one ability that Salesforce was lacking was robust weekly and daily digest functionality. It didn’t include posts that had been applied to today but were created on a different day, or it didn’t display all the content. A lot of the customers didn’t like these new email digests, and we started to see community usage trail off. We reached out to Algoworks to create a new system for generating and delivering digests.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The deliverables were functional code we could implement into our production environment that would take all the required posts and send those to whatever customers signed up for them.

What is the team composition?

We had 4–5 people on our weekly calls ranging from a project manager and developers to members of the sales team.

How did you come to work with Algoworks?

Someone on our business development team had worked with Algoworks at a previous company. We solicited quotes from 4–5 different partners, and the way that Algoworks talked about the project and understood what we wanted to achieve stood out. Their cost was far and away the best as well.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $15,000 with them on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on this project from September 2020–January 2021. Since then, they’ve completed one other small project, and we’re currently working together on a larger project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We saw a 10% increase in community engagement after rolling out the new email digest.

How did Algoworks perform from a project management standpoint?

We used a combination of tools. Because WorkFront is a work management platform, we used our own tool for tracking the project. It was out of the ordinary for them, but they were happy to do it. The communication around progress and bugs happened through there. We also had a weekly call, as well as as-needed email communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were a lot more affordable than other options. Additionally, they had a strong technical understanding of Salesforce and were able to handle issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish they’d had a better handle on our project management system. I really have to dig for something because they’re very good. This would be the only area to improve in.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront with your expectations. They were prompt and forthright with what was possible and what they could accomplish.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a lead solutions architect at an energy solutions company. I support our commercial and special services organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algoworks?

We needed generate transactional net promoter score customer surveys (TNPS) to our customers.

We had an extremely manual process where we extracted information from our cases in Salesforce.com as well as our service projects from another application.

We also needed to determine which customers needed to receive a survey project based on the last time they were surveyed. Then, we needed to collect their responses and calculate a TNPS score. We were having issues sending out the right number of surveys. We were also having issues with customers sending back responses.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Algoworks was our partner to migrate our entire survey process from our existing third-party platform into Salesforce.com. First, they generated a full document with multiple solution approaches. They set up the timelines for when we could expect deliverables.

Then, we went through the full design and development phase. We jointly created a testing plan for our user-acceptance testing in our sandbox. Once that was complete, we pushed it live and they assisted with the documentation.

What is the team composition?

We had a dedicated project manager. We also worked with an account manager and 1–2 developers.

How did you come to work with Algoworks?

We found them on the Salesforce AppExchange. I reached out to multiple survey partners and Algoworks was the most impressive to me during the pre-sales process. I was impressed with how quickly they were able to grasp the details of the requirements based on my RFP and scope of work. They were able to proactively determine and fine-tune the scope prior to signing a contract with us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2020, and we wrapped up in January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We can send out surveys automatically now, which saves us two hours of manual effort per week. We’re also able to send out customized survey templates. Additionally, I was able to exit a $5,000 annual contract with another survey provider that I don’t need anymore. Finally, our survey response rate is much higher.

How did Algoworks perform from a project management standpoint?

We met multiple times per week until we completed development. They used BaseCamp to track bugs and I set them up with guest access to our Microsoft Teams environment.  Communication was primarily through email, instant messaging on Microsoft Teams, and phone calls. Algoworks made themselves available at any time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their professionalism and expertise stand out. I was impressed with the fact that they were able to present multiple solutions to my problem during the pre-sales process, too. They were the only partner that did that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I did have to reach back out to my project manager after the conclusion of the project to ask where some of the code was located. They could’ve provided that information beforehand. They were very willing to work with me after the project wrapped, free of charge.

Otherwise, nothing comes to mind. They were very forthcoming with any issues. If I had to do it over again, I’d do it the same way. I fully intend to reach out to them for some larger scope projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be sure of your scope prior to reaching out to any vendor. Be sure you’re fully aware of what your user requirements are.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager of Finexio, a B2B payment company focused on account payable.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algoworks?

We wanted to create some dashboards, features, and API calls, with the purpose of sorting data and refurbishing some of our data sets in Salesforce. We went to Algoworks because they specialize in Salesforce projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Algoworks handled several Salesforce and Formstack implementations. Several projects were for third-party API integrations, including Mastercard, probablepeople, and SmartyStreets. The latter is for validating and cleansing addresses.

What is the team composition?

There were two project managers, two QA resources, and several Salesforce developers involved. We had two sprint teams during the busiest moments, each with 4–5 members. There were around nine people from Algoworks involved in total.

How did you come to work with Algoworks?

They were already working with the company when I joined. I believe that the head of product at the time interviewed several contractors and found Algoworks to be the most competitive. Their company was less expensive than other providers, and they had a large team, not just 1–2 consultants. They were well-organized and able to run proper biweekly sprint ceremonies. I wasn’t the decisionmaker at the time, but that’s what I heard from my head of product. 

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was around $65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our main engagement was between October 2020–February 2021. We had some small projects with Algoworks before then. The project was supposed to take 7–8 months, but we reduced the time to five months. I worked with them for four of those months. We introduced two sprint teams to reduce the project length.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Algoworks did good work. They focused on the timeline and were well-prepared. We had some disruptions with an API provider, but Algoworks investigated the matter and communicated directly with the provider. I felt confident working with them, and it was a positive experience.

The delivery time was great and so was their accuracy, scoping skills, and ability to solve unexpected problems. The QA was good, and the quality of communication was good to great.

How did Algoworks perform from a project management standpoint?

The overall communication was good. We used Google Drive for lengthier documentation and Asana for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s their dedication and flexibility. Algoworks went above and beyond.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had an API connection issue but that was the provider’s problem. Algoworks spent time investigating the problem and found the root cause. Their general quality of service is quite fine. They could improve on the problem definition area. Our scope was confusing at times.

Even though they did their best, they could’ve asked more questions to clarify the problem and they could’ve provided more feedback. Usually, consultants aren’t very good at that, so maybe I’m expecting too much, but it would be excellent if Algoworks could improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Algoworks can be a great partner for someone who wants to develop something quickly and defines the problem well. We do need to do our own research because Algoworks very much depends on the client’s job description and intent.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the engineering and CX operations manager for a tech startup building an e-commerce marketplace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algoworks?

They’ve been working on a Salesforce integration to support retailer management, order management, and inventory management.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re building customer support tools on Salesforce and integrating them with our proprietary CRM. In doing so, we don’t have to build them on our own site.

They’ve also designed a custom frontend UI inside of Salesforce for us.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with a project manager, two integration developers, a QA engineer, and occasionally a UI designer.

How did you come to work with Algoworks?

We were considering several affordable off-shore options and selected Algoworks because they were the most robust. They could do everything we needed to complete the project.

We liked that they asked questions and were very thorough in their proposal. They communicated well and understood our project. They were more affordable than other firms offering the same level of service.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They kicked off the project in July 2020 and we’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The quality of their work is very high and is comparable to our internal development team. We’ve found very few bugs during testing.

How did Algoworks perform from a project management standpoint?

We follow an agile framework and they’ve performed very well. It’s been a very collaborative experience. Generally, we write the requirements and they develop them into a solution. Then we provide feedback and go back and forth until we meet our final deliverable.

They’ve delivered everything on-time unless we impacted the timeline by changing our requirements. We use Jira and Slack to communicate with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their requirements definition process is extremely thorough. I’ve been really impressed with their suggestions because they go above and beyond our initial requirements. They always find the best way to go about solving a problem.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t anything they need to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

New clients can get things moving quickly by preparing ahead of time. They should be able to answer Algoworks’ questions at the beginning of the project because they go through a very thorough planning process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and operator of Scutella & Sons, LLC. My business isn’t directly related to what they made for me. It was an idea that I came up with, namely a booking app for service providers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algoworks?

I brought them on to create an app. The app was initially geared toward a specific business provider, but I thought that it would be more feasible if any type of service provider could use it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Algoworks designed and developed the booking app for iOS and Android. They worked based on my ideas and pretty much did it all. It was just for grooming services initially, but it has a broader range now. It’s basically a platform for any kind of independent service provider.

What is the team composition?

I worked with one of their members during the initial estimate, and I had another point of contact after that. I communicated with a couple of other people on the team.

How did you come to work with Algoworks?

I searched for app developers, and Algoworks had good reviews. They gave me a fair price, and I thought that they’d be a good company to work with.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $22,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Algoworks in June or July 2020, and we finished up in December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Algoworks did an amazing job of bringing my ideas to life. The only questionable part was extending their service time after the app was done. 

I know that they have maintenance contracts, but my lawyer pointed out that once the app was completed, I would need them to maintain its functionalities. I feel that offering six months of service would be warranted when someone spends that type of money. Everything else was amazing.

How did Algoworks perform from a project management standpoint?

They were good with all the deadlines. We communicated through email, we had Zoom meetings once a week, and we talked on the phone sometimes. We also used Basecamp as a collaborative tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creativity was impressive. Having an idea is one thing, but bringing it to life is another. Algoworks built the app as I wanted in terms of design and functionality. They did a good job of putting my words on paper and making it work.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

The after-service was the only thing that stood out to me. Because I was new to this, they were going to put me with a marketing agency. Having some kind of in-house marketing could be something for Algoworks to think about, strictly for the apps they develop.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Having a game plan in mind will make it easier for everybody. I went into this on a whim, so I made a lot of changes over the course of it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We specialize in the transportation of primarily refrigerated commodities across the United States. We also own a vegetable farm and technology startup that facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers. I was briefly CTO here but now am back into serving the company as an independent contractor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algoworks?

We needed to find development resources with a wide range of skills and bring them in-house to supplement the internal team. We were looking for teams with skills ranging from coding to solutions architecture to requirements gathering.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve largely used their services for Salesforce custom development, and they’ve touched a few other applications that interact with Salesforce in some way. Most notably, they built out an integration between our two Salesforce organizations: logistics and vegetable farm.

There’s a lot of organic lead information that can be shared between orders based on transactions that happen in one of the two businesses. For example, we may be shipping orders to an organization. That information will be shared with our vegetable farm business as well, letting the team know that this could be pursued as an active lead. If we had been delivering an order of carrots, for instance, our vegetable farm may pitch them on carrot sales. 

To create this, their team met with me to understand the requirements, mapped our solution design, and implemented the solution. They also made some recommendations on how to accomplish our goal based on their knowledge of the Salesforce platform. Then, they worked through deployment, training, and documentation. They contributed to just about every aspect of the project.   

What is the team composition?

One of their senior developers played a role in just about all of our interactions, whether it was development or scoping requirements. We also worked with an account manager, who was responsible for project management.   

How did you come to work with Algoworks?

We found them through Google searches for reliable, well-rated companies with offshore development teams. They came up in initial searches along with some other companies. We did scoping calls and received estimates from each team.

Their team aligned best with what we were looking for, offering the most flexibility surrounding the pace of projects, competitive pricing, and knowledge on the Salesforce platform. We felt comfortable moving forward with them.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $15,000–$20,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since around February 2020 and will be increasing their responsibilities moving forward.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

ROI was a general metric we’d use to evaluate their work, but there are so many independent factors affecting ROI in any of our projects. We’ve also looked at the ease of communication and execution of projects.

We didn’t have time to hold their hands and make sure they were doing a good job. They were very self-sufficient with requirements and could turn around high-quality work to free up our resources for other tasks. Their work had few errors and deployments went smoothly.   

How did Algoworks perform from a project management standpoint?

The dynamic of our relationship is built off a flexible model. Our deadlines were generally pretty flexible, but they certainly met our expectations when it came to deadline management and delivering quality within the desired timeframe. We used Google Documents to spin up shared documents as needed. Our teams communicated over email, ad hoc calls, and a weekly standing call. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility, ability to wear many hats, and willingness to follow best practices all stood out. They have a deep bench of resources available for us to pull knowledge from. That allowed them to accomplish and accommodate a very large scope. It was like having a full team of developers with only a part-time contract engagement. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was some miscommunication between what would be included in the scope. We were able to address this for the most part using SOWs. I’d recommend continuing to work at managing expectations with clients.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Quantum CRM Solutions, LLC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algoworks?

I’ve been working with them in several capacities for several years now. For this particular project, we hired them to develop a custom component for a Salesforce community implementation to help display clients' cases.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Algoworks created a component for Salesforce that would better display and filter client support tickets. The tool provides filtering functionality and more efficient ticket sorting. They wrote the component in Aura, a Java-based programming language that’s proprietary to Salesforce. The backend server side is written in Apex.

What is the team composition?

I interface with a team of two, but there are also other teammates behind the scenes. 

How did you come to work with Algoworks?

Prior to Algoworks, we worked with other hybrid vendors, but the quality of the work just wasn’t there. Algoworks is great at understanding our requirements and delivering a quality solution. 

How much have you invested with them?

This particular project cost $4,500.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working on this project in Q1 2020, and we have another project with them lined up. It’s an ongoing relationship on an as-needed basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Algoworks is great at taking the business and technical requirements and making sure that they use best practices and coding to come up with a solution and see the project to completion. The component was part of a larger project to rebrand and retool our customer process.

The initial beta feedback that we’ve received from the clients has been really good. The tool is much faster than the legacy in-house solution we were using, looks nice, and is easier to manage. 

How did Algoworks perform from a project management standpoint?

Most of the time, we don’t have to spend too much time worrying about project management because the team does it well and gets things back to us quickly.

The only thing that slows them down is the time that it takes us to test and provide feedback. Algoworks is good at getting work done and pushing it back to use for feedback and testing. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like the relationship we have with them. Algoworks is more than just a software partner; we have a personal and business relationship. Additionally, their coding is high-quality and so are their team members. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. They’ve been a good vendor.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’ll save you a lot of time and effort if you’re internally aligned first on the business processes and requirements so that you don’t have to go back and change things. As I mentioned, Algoworks delivers quickly, so if the target is continually moving from an internal standpoint, the team will have to make a lot more changes.