AllianceTek

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP of IT at a technology company providing online and onsite software services to the tradeshow-type event industry headquartered near Philadelphia. Our company has 50+ employees and we serve associations and corporate clients all over the world. I oversee our digital products and vendor relationships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire AllianceTek?

Our company's first mobile application was created by another developer, but cost and schedule targets were not being met. At the time we didn't have an in-house mobile developer, so we needed to outsource the on-going enhancements.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted enhance the functionality, performance, and user experience of the app, and address any compatibility issues caused by new mobile platform OS releases.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My team interviewed and selected this vendor based on their technical capabilities, resource availability, project management process, price, response time commitment, and other metrics. Based on the quality of their final proposal, we moved forward with them.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected this vendor, we had a series of initial discovery meetings to discuss the app in detail and our goals and objectives. We then established a one-week sprint cadence for the implementation and delivery of new features for both iOS and Android versions of the app on an on-going basis.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager to support us and serve as the main point of contact throughout the project. There were two developers, and we eventually added a QA resource since we did not have one on our side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Revenue from the app and associated service grew steadily as the app was enhanced by this vendor, and we received positive feedback on the enhancements.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager that we were assigned was easy to communicate with and responsive to our requests. We connected over video conference at least once a week and used Basecamp for project management. Overall, I was impressed by the timeliness of the team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was often impressed with how quickly they responded with a schedule for and delivery of the enhancement or fix. Especially given the urgency of some of our requests and the time zone difference.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Having developers be responsible for full testing of their own work is never a good idea, and the quality of some deliverables suffered until we added a QA resource to the team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of NCIC IT.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We had a client with headquarters in New York City and six overseas offices. They thought their environment in New York was secure, but after Hurricane Sandy, their system was down for a week. They wanted to take all of their data and migrate it to the cloud, with a key component of that migration being Microsoft SharePoint.

My team had some SharePoint expertise, but not enough. The installation also needed to be completed within a short period of time. We were looking for a partner that could support us on the project. The partner needed to be experts on data migrations, SharePoint, and software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, AllianceTek did a thorough planning stage. They went over the client’s current infrastructure and data structure, not only for the New York office but also for their six other branch locations. There were a lot of details to consider.

The installation and data migration process took three months. This process included creating a proof of concept and making changes and updates. During this time, my team provided training in New York. We also did online training for the overseas offices.

After the migration, we gave the client and all of the users a 30-day trial period. Once they started using the platform, they came up with other functions and features that they wanted to add to the SharePoint site. We did a firmwide follow-up to gather feedback and information, and AllianceTek helped us implement changes and add features. 

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was Sunil (Founder, President & CTO, AllianceTek). I’ve also worked with Christopher (Project Manager, AllianceTek) and another project manager, who was very good. He worked closely with our team to ensure everything was going smoothly and as planned. If we had any challenges or issues, he connected us to the right resources from their team, and we got an immediate response or solution.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

My team did various online searches, and in the majority of cases, AllianceTek came up in the top 3–5 search results. We contacted several companies, and, after conducting interviews, my team felt that AllianceTek was a better fit for our needs and that of our client. We were also looking for a partner that could work with us for other clients in similar situations.

How much have you invested with them?

For this project, we spent within the range of $100,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project took place in 2016. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The client was very pleased with the outcome. They were also impressed that we were able to complete the project in such a short period of time. 

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

AllianceTek’s follow-up was excellent. Anytime we had a situation, whether it was expected or not, they handled it in such a manner that we didn’t have to worry about it. We felt confident that they had the project under control. 

Communication was also good. We mainly communicated via email, and then we also had bridge conference calls. Sometimes, we did web meetings. They were very flexible with all of that. Despite having team members in different parts of the world, they’d accommodate our needs and gather anyone we needed to communicate with on a call or via webcam.

There were a couple incidents in which the scope of the work changed, and they went above and beyond to resolve those issues and deliver the project on time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed by the way AllianceTek planned the project and gathered information, as they were able to properly prepare for the data migration and avoid any issues, delays, or surprises. It was also very impressive the way AllianceTek’s team worked hand-in-hand with us. They followed our timelines and procedures and met our requirements overall.

AllianceTek’s commitment and the quality of their service were excellent. My company has continued to work with them on other projects. We’ve worked with many other development companies in the past, and AllianceTek definitely stands out. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. We were very satisfied overall with the outcome and impressed by their professionalism.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront and open with them in terms of what your needs are. Also, assign a dedicated person from your team to work with them and be their point of contact. Having a single point of contact makes it a lot more efficient and less time-consuming.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a small capital investment management company and I am the vice president of operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We brought AllianceTek on to improve our sales reporting process in our CRM system, which is Microsoft Dynamics.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve built a technology solution that links up different databases and formats of data and plugs them directly into our CRM system. This way, contacts that are maintained by separate databases get updated directly into our CRM system, which makes sales reporting much more consolidated.

What is the team composition?

We have one main point of contact there, but they pull one or two different developers into the project at various times to work on different aspects of the project. They’ve all worn many different hats to support the project.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

There aren’t a lot of support vendors for Microsoft Dynamics anymore, so we did a Google search and our CTO came across their company. When we reached out to them, they were extremely responsive and were very supportive and clear in their documentation of our expectations, so we decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with them?

I would estimate that we’ve spent a bit over $10,000 at this point.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2018 and are continuing to update and maintain our CRM system together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our system had a lot of issues prior to the work that AllianceTek has done. Their success was represented by our ability to reconcile all of our data within our CRM system. They’ve really managed to make data governance and the management of our contacts and transaction information totally seamless.

We’ve seen the number of phone calls and complaints related to our CRM system decrease pretty dramatically, almost immediately from when they developed and implemented their solution.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is extremely agile in their project structure. We met weekly to go over the requirements, and they always kept us abreast of any developments with a tool and web portal in SharePoint. We would share our requirements with them, and they would break those into individual tasks with different team members assigned.

In general, they were extremely responsive and set all expectations about the project upfront. We were very hands-on in managing the project, but they were very flexible in adapting to our management style. They run very leanly because they’re a small team, so we had a really good understanding of where each individual deliverable was at any given time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They occupy a really helpful space as a company. As I said, there are not many service providers that support Microsoft Dynamics these days because of other CRMs that have cropped up since then, so we are very happy with the support that they have provided to us. Their success was very much critical to our success, and they were so successful that we enlisted them for additional services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ll be honest, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Everyone’s goals and style are different, so it’s a little bit difficult to say that what we did would work for everyone. But we found that the hands-on, close cooperation style was very effective, so other teams might want to consider doing that as well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of AnnuitiesHQ

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We were trying to achieve automation of our CRM system, including automated dialing technologies and more generally keeping our business organized through our salesforce platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started by working through the framework of how we wanted our Salesforce implementation to go and determining what it would look like as an end result. They essentially helped us see the forest for the trees and break down each individual piece that needed to be completed and then figured out how we were going to incorporate several third-party technologies into that overall plan.

The biggest part of that, for us, was a way to systematically sort through a variety of variables to automatically assign which advisor of ours would receive which lead in real-time. They have a very well-established process that they take all of their clients through where you develop each component and get to test and implement one update at a time and ensure that everything stays functioning at all times.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with several individuals at AllianceTek over the years, including the owner and at least three other teammates.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

When I initially contacted them, I got the owner on the phone and spoke to me directly, answering a bunch of questions that I had. The fact that they were willing to provide that level of service really drew me in over some of the other firms I had looked at, and I decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, I’ve spent somewhere between $6,000–$12,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve been working with them since February of 2014, and we are tackling new projects on an ongoing basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work that they’ve done for us has been absolutely crucial in our daily operations, supporting our growing success over the last six years. I’ve stuck with AllianceTek the entire way through because of the consistency of the service that they’ve shown me, and the way they follow through with everything they promise. They’ve delivered on everything I’ve ever asked of them.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate mostly through email, but those will often lead to webinar meetings and screen shares. It’s a really helpful process because we record all of those meetings, and then the recordings can be shared with me or other members of our teams who weren’t initially on the call.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their rates are exceptionally competitive compared to some of the other salesforce implementation companies that you will see out there in the marketplace. They also have extensive knowledge in dealing with multiple businesses from different verticals, whereas some implementation teams will focus on certain industries. I know that some of the things they’ve done for other lines of businesses carry over to our work and that they’ll be able to apply that experience to improve our systems as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have to say, dealing with their accounts payable department is definitely something that could be improved. They use a system called Microsoft SharePoint, and unlike Salesforce it’s a nightmare to use. It was designed for their internal back-office operations, and they understand how it all works very well, but for a front-facing client, it can be very difficult to understand things like hourly rates without spending a while on the phone with them, even after you’ve already been quoted for a project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be attentive and know what you want going into the engagement. If you have a game plan of how to spend your time constructively, the project will get off to a better start and be more productive for everyone.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an IT manager at Dada Polymers, a plastics manufacturing marketplace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We wanted to build a platform that could be used by other plastic manufacturers where they could provide information about the services they offer. We basically wanted to create an alternate sales channel and hired AllianceTek for the task.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AllianceTek developed our mobile apps and web platform. The mobile apps were developed natively and are available for both iOS and Android platforms. We used PHP for the web platform. AllianceTek also designed the look and feel of the platforms.

Using the mobile app, different companies can register themselves and add the products they manufacture. Users who want to purchase these products can register as well, see the product, and communicate with us to attain samples. We then reach out to the manufacturing company and share the lead information with them. Once we get a positive reply, we update the user and give them notice of when they can expect their samples to reach them.

All we did was share our idea with AllianceTek and they came up with several things we could add to the application. For example, they suggested that we could include ads. They gave us the necessary guidance regarding everything that we needed to do in order to bring the solution to the market.

What is the team composition?

We work with 8–10 people which includes developers, testers, business analysts, and a project manager that is our main contact point.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

We reached out to different IT service providers and discussed our idea with them. Almost everyone offered the services we were looking for, but not all of them. We chose AllianceTek because they had a 360-degree solution that includes wireframing, design, KPI development, web platform and mobile app development, testing, etc. They also acted like partners right from the beginning.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $15,000 on their work so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration started in August 2018 and we’re now working on some new change requests with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working with AllianceTek has been a great experience. It took them about six months to build everything, which includes the discovery phase. After that, we got the first build of the application for testing and deployed it by July.

The application is very successful and we haven’t heard of any crashes from our users. We’ve launched a marketing campaign and are currently reaching out to companies and informing them about what we do, which they find very interesting. Everyone likes that it provides a platform for them to showcase their products to the masses. It’s slowly but steadily gaining traction.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is great and they’ve been on time. AllianceTek takes charge of every activity and completes it on time. I’m satisfied with their communication, the timeline, as well as the delivery. We usually talk through telephone, Skype calls, and WebEx meetings, where they show us the demos.

What did you find most impressive about them?

AllianceTek acts as a partner, providing consulting on things that we haven’t thought of that would be good for the product. They helped us build an exceptional platform. I believe this is their strength because they see every product as their own, treating it with the utmost care and dedication. Their technical team is good as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve. They’re pretty good at everything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Use their consulting service, which will help clients in finding the optimal solution. AllianceTek gives the right guidance needed for a successful product launch and has great project management. I suggest hiring them for the complete package rather than one or two services.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We create a line of greeting cards written in a baby's voice and addressed to the mom. I'm a marketing manager and owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We needed them to help build different portions of the website. There were some complexities within the API, particularly surrounding online orders and shipping.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After we discussed the basic scope of work, they sent us a breakdown with timings and costs. They sent us estimates and followed up with us until the project was completed. A consultant showed us what we could do within our parameters, and they did all the technical work and design.

What is the team composition?

We interact with three individuals, including the owner and two other contacts.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

They came highly recommended through one of our employees. They jumped in on a smaller project and got us up and running. When we started this initiative, we went to them again.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've worked together for more than six years. This particular project occurred five or six years ago, and we're working with them now to upgrade our website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work is excellent. They go above and beyond to complete tasks, and they were always responsive to our questions. Communication is above par, and we really enjoy working with them. We've recommended them to several other companies.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

They're good project managers. Most of our communication is through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication, flexibility, and pricing are all really good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything they should improve. They exceed our expectations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as detailed as possible. That will help move your process forward.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the vice president of an engineering training and consulting company that serves large, medium, and small mechanical engineering companies and universities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire AllianceTek?

We wanted to convert our textbook into a digital app and hired AllianceTek for the job.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main goal was to use the app as a marketing tool and gain exposure. It would also allow us to serve the international community without shipping and travel costs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A friend referred AllianceTek to us.

Describe the project in detail.

AllianceTek converted our hard copy textbook to a digital app, making all the content indexed and searchable. The app also has a calculator section for converting engineering calculations and position tolerances for the standard hole and screw sizes.

What was the team composition?

I regularly spoke with a project manager and an app developer during the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have received many leads because of the app. It has also generated enough income on its own to nearly pay for itself in about a year on the App store.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

AllianceTek communicated with us regularly and provided downloads to test the app. We gave them our feedback over email so they could make the changes we asked for.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We appreciated their regular communication and patience to get things right. AllianceTek followed up after the project to make sure we were happy with the result.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It was hard to communicate the look we wanted for the app over email. An in-person meeting would’ve been nice, but with us being in a different location, we knew that it would be difficult. The end result eventually came together nicely.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a waste transportation company that specializes in the removal of various industrial and hazardous material. I work at the company as a project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

Our drivers collect waste from more than 150 locations every day, and each customer has unique requirements. We made individual Word documents to store all of the client information but managing the files became a cumbersome task. Our in-house programmer built a rudimentary access database to store our records, but we needed something more robust to accommodate our growth.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We partnered with AllianceTek to renovate our access database system. We’re not the most tech-savvy, so we created basic mock-ups of what we wanted in Microsoft Paint and Excel. Their first task was adding a quoting module on the frontend and building a scheduling module on the backend. Our client files were already alphabetically stored in the previous system, so they used the existing data to populate the names of our customers as we type into the database. They also built a tool to enhance our operations work order process. With this module, we are now able to print special forms with a simple click. Once the integrations were finished, they rewrote the entire program and converted the platform to SQL with a web-based Backbone.js framework. It was an iterative process, so they continued to tweak the platform until we were completely satisfied. 

What is the team composition?

The first person that we encountered was a sales representative who listened to our project idea and prepared an accurate quote. After establishing our scope of work, we started working with one of their project managers. There was a larger development team working on our account, but we only interacted with our designated points of contact.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

We found them while searching for vendors online. They were one of very few companies who knew how to build a completely proprietary system that wasn’t integrated with a third-party CRM platform.

How much have you invested with them?

The project called for three separate engagements, which cost between $50,000 – $80,000 for each phase.

What is the status of this engagement?

AllianceTek has been working with us since May 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AllianceTek has done a phenomenal job so far. They transformed our basic database system into an essential enterprise tool. We now use the platform to run every area of our business, from quoting to scheduling.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

They completed the first two phases ahead of schedule, but the last engagement has extended the suggested timeline. It was a bit more complex than they had anticipated, but they were very transparent about the setback. Their project manager is based in the U.S., so we can communicate during regular business hours. Meanwhile, their off-shore development team completes the work at night, and we’re able to review their deliverables the next day. We typically communicate over the phone and send files via email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

AllianceTek is very responsive to our needs, despite our long-distance partnership. We can always count on them to answer our calls at any time of the day.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, there was an issue with miscommunication due to our language barrier. However, it became easier to understand each other the more we worked together.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clear, detailed descriptions will always yield the best results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a leading provider of onsite equipment maintenance programs. We specialize in preventative maintenance for shopping carts, grocery cart fleets, rolling stock and material handling equipment for companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We hired AllianceTek to provide us with a solution to capture, gather, and manage survey data and images using the web and mobile apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Through the discovery and planning process, AllianceTek assisted us in validating our product concept. They developed a practical strategy and modernized our technologies, architecture, and network infrastructure.

Some of the features of the data collection platform include:

• Web-based advanced level photo/ data collection and reporting tool
• Virtual Tour and 360 Photo Viewer enhances the viewing experience
• Users can create unlimited survey templates and surveys to collect information related to specific points for any location
• Unlimited data and Media storage
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android platforms
• Offline access to surveys
• Geotag and Annotate photos
• Share reports and completed surveys with external users

What is the team composition?

Project Manager, team lead, designers, mobile and web developers, and various network, database, and QA engineers.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

We held a webinar for six software development companies. All the companies provided us with proposals but AllianceTek’s proposal stood out from the rest for product concept, vision, cost, and a shorter timeline to get the product out to market.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have partnered with AllianceTek for the last seven years. They have developed and completed several projects for us. We currently have two projects in the development stages with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our goals on this project were to increase our efficiencies, increase our margins, increase our data reporting accuracy, decrease our training time, and to improve our data integrity and AllianceTek delivered!

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

AllianceTek uses best practices in their project management style; they provide us with collaborative leadership and transparent communications throughout our projects. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are a creative, open-minded and a data-driven company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

With all projects, there will be minor challenges from time to time but AllianceTek does a very good job in resolving issues quickly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You will not be disappointed with AllianceTek as your software development partners on your next project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the president of a software development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

I hired AllianceTek to help us with the development lifecycle of one of the products that we support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We relied on AllianceTek to provide .NET development services to help support and maintain our tax notice workflow application, which allows corporations to manage their tax notices worldwide.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 2–3 people.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

I learned of them through online research. We hired them because of their knowledge, location, and the kinds of resources they could commit to the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2016–December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provided high-quality work, and they were quick to respond to all bugs.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

We operated well using an agile methodology. We used GoToMeeting and Skype to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated their willingness to take on any task I asked of them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they met our expectations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

AllianceTek knows what they’re doing, so they’re deserving of your trust.