Ascendix Technologies

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior VP of Technology of ROI Revolution

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a digital marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ascendix Tech to accomplish?

• Review current CRM implementation
• Implement new functionality to capture client details in the CRM

SOLUTION

How did you find Ascendix Tech?

Online Search

Why did you select Ascendix Tech over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Ascendix Tech were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Ascendix reviewed our CRM implementation and provided a detailed readout of opportunities for improvements. They also worked with us to identify requirements for adding detailed client information to our CRM system. 

This work included implementation descriptions and estimates. They then implemented this functionality and kept us apprised of progress through weekly check-ins and ad-hoc discussions as necessary. They guided us through user acceptance testing and successfully deployed the solution to production.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

A report on our CRM implementation and recommendations for improvement including a live presentation to our senior leadership team. Implementation of CRM enhancements to incorporate client details into the system. Deployment of the subsequent implementation to our production environment.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

All items were high quality and delivered on time, and proper adjustments were made when our requirements shifted.

What was your primary form of communication with Ascendix Tech?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They have great Microsoft Dynamics 365 expertise and very strong architectural capabilities.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Ascendix Tech could have done differently?

None that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Engineering Manager of Advanced Kiosks

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We make kiosks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ascendix Technologies to accomplish?

• Outsource software development
• Video Chat Kiosk
• Facial Recognition Kiosk
• Payment Kiosk

SOLUTION

How did you find Ascendix Technologies?

• Online Search

Why did you select Ascendix Technologies over others?

• Great culture fit
• Other

What was the size of Ascendix Technologies’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We first approached Ascendix to rescue a major project. We needed two (2) NodeJS developers in a hurry. We had evaluated many vendors, and were having a hard time finding the right technical folks who understood our architecture and technical direction. After the first few meetings with Ascendix, I was filled with confidence. The developers we hired from Ascendix took our platform to task. They shipped our Video Chat Kiosk on schedule.

This kiosk used Webex Meetings, Google Firebase, NodeJS, NWjs, React, Material UI, and more. The Ascendix developers work very well with our in-house engineering team to understand our principles and code design patterns. In addition to the Video Chat Kiosk, they also delivered a Facial Recognition solution using Google MedaPipe. With their help, we also shipped our "Lobby Attendant" and "Office Extension" kiosks.

The quality of their PRs is outstanding. Their developers communicate efficiently with our team. They have done an excellent job at adapting to our chaotic office communications and product direction. Their estimates are always on point.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• The pace at which our dev team shipped features to QA increased dramatically shortly after hiring Ascendix

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Project management is good, though we only contracted with Ascendix for two FTE software engineers. We did not hire a project manager, but were assigned one anyways. Every week, we get a clear snapshot of the teams progress with ticket numbers, time spent, blockers, etc. The project manager regularly reaches out to me to ask how things are going, and how well the developers are working for us.

What was your primary form of communication with Ascendix Technologies?

• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Technical prowess, first and foremost. We contacted many firms about outsourcing our software development. Our codebase is a very modern JS/TS monorepo, and we care deeply about the quality, size, and shape, of our modules. When I explained our architecture to Ascendix, they understood me. That was the single-most important factor in my decision to hire them.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Ascendix Technologies could have done differently?

I can't think of anything. We're getting exactly what we wanted and happy to continue paying them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

mployee is a Salesforce ISV partner that delivers Salesforce solutions to staffing companies. I'm the company founder and Head of Product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ascendix Technologies, and what were your goals?

We needed immediate help with developing a major functionality for our core Salesforce solution. It was necessary to deliver a well-tested solution in the short term.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ascendix Technologies and what were the deciding factors?

I’d heard positive feedback about this Ascendix before contacting the company. I knew from people who worked with Ascendix that they are providing high-quality resources for a reasonable price.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They developed a custom application within Salesforce managed package using Apex, Flows, and metadata configuration. The team was working with the git repository, task management was in JIRA. The developers were flexible and proactive with clarifying requirements and suggesting implementation options. Their QA engineer tested everything thoroughly asking questions if something was unclear.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were 3 people including Team Lead, Salesforce Developer, and QA Engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Despite the urgency and multiple challenges, the team was able to understand the current solution and adjust it in time and within the planned budget.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

As a project supervisor, I was very satisfied by communication with the team, they were replying rapidly, stand-ups, and other meetings were well-structured and effective. We used Slack, JIRA, and Google Hangouts as communication tools.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Proactivity, readiness to help, and customer-oriented approach

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

It is hard to find any gaps after a 2-month collaboration. I would say they should move towards creating their own set of Salesforce custom components and libraries, to reuse them for future projects as a toolset for custom development.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Brillium is a software application and services provider that helps organizations answer vital questions by distilling people’s knowledge, opinions and beliefs into meaningful and actionable information.

By helping organizations understand what people know, think, feel and believe, we help them answer pivotal questions, develop better plans, and create strategically better outcomes.

Brillium offers a broad range of standard and customized services that are seamlessly matched with customer goals and are powered by the Brillium assessment platform. Brillium services are delivered with the same commitment and focus that you would expect from even your best employees.

The Brillium software platform is utilized across a range of organizational areas such as learning and training, survey research, human resources, leadership, corporate strategy, marketing and content licensing and delivery.

Brillium Specialties: assessment, certification programs, exams, surveys, education-centric marketing, content licensing and delivery. My role with Brillium is the Chief Technology Officer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ascendix Technologies, and what were your goals?

To help us upgrade and modernize our security model in our platform. We have also advance our relationship with them to provide on-going development support for previous version of the platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ascendix Technologies and what were the deciding factors?

We interviewed several companies and narrowed the selection based on the alignments with our needs in the area of skills, cost and reputation. Ascendix meet all those criteria but was finally selected because of the similar company culture.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Do to competitive nature of this work, I am unable to detail out the specifics.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

8-10 over time

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The project is not completed yet but we are tracking to schedule. Although the complete requirements were not flushed out, the team has been flexible and providing recommendations/suggestions on design and user experience.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

The project manager is a seasoned and experience project manager. She is process centric, detail oriented, and excellent communicator. She has a very zen effect to keep everyone confident and in the loop of the project deliverables and risk and the means to mitigate risks.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their commitment of the team to deliver a quality product and confidence in providing suggestions is outstanding. Our culture is very similar to the point we feel like one organization meeting the needs of our customers.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None at the moment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm responsible for the IT project management at flibco.com. We are specialized in airport transportation and provide a personalized transportation service allowing our customers to reach the main European airport.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ascendix Technologies, and what were your goals?

The flibco.com front- and backend systems have been developed almost 10 years ago using Ruby On Rails in a monolithic approach. The company wanted to transition from in-house development to external.

The first smaller project that we kicked off together with Ascendix was an application for the bus drivers of flibco.com partners that allows the driver to onboard passengers, check passenger lists, and sell tickets.

After this project was completed successfully we decided to continue working with them. Since then Ascendix became our main partner for all development-related initiatives.

Later on, Ascendix helped us to migrate the complete existing system (including front- and backend) to a completely new infrastructure using new technologies and a microservice-architecture approach.

Also, Ascendix developed for us a completely new innovative on-demand transport service called flibco.com door2gate which helps to reduce the carbon footprint while being significantly cheaper than Taxis.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ascendix Technologies and what were the deciding factors?

One of our employees worked at Ascendix at the beginning of his professional career and initiated the contact.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Before we kick off a new project we discuss the project idea together with a project manager and solution architect. Based on the project Ascendix might decide to add other people from their side if needed.

Based on this first kick-off meeting a list of requirements is created. These requirements get redefined in separate calls and interview sessions.

Once everything is clarified an effort estimation is provided and if we decide to continue with the initiative the regular SCRUM routine takes place with its sprint plannings, iterations and review meetings.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Currently, we're working on several initiatives with Ascendix. For each one, we have the main contact person which is usually a project manager on their side.

In total the different teams on Ascendix sides that work on our projects contain around 40 people including project manager, business analysts, solution architects, developers, DevOps engineers, UX/UI designer, ...

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our mobile applications are much more stable, more intuitive to use, and enable our operators to sell even when they are offline thanks to technologies like FireDB.

Thanks to improvements on our website the jump off rate during the booking process could be decreased by over 30% and the sign up rate for our commercial newsletter increased by 280%.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We have weekly touchpoints to discuss on what work-item the team worked, what was achieved and if there were any extra ordinary situations. During the week there are several BA calls with businayy analysts on both sides.

In general, we can get as much feedback and interaction as we want. Ascendix is very open there. It just turned out that for me as a project manager weekly is totally sufficient.

For direct communication we use Microsoft Teams and E-Mail. Also we have Azure VSTS and Atlassian Confluence in place to keep track of all work items and the sprints.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The openness and work attitude is astonishing at first. Before we have worked mostly with local companies in western Europe and their rates are much higher while quality is less and/or their work attitude is way worse.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

So far nothing to mention here.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Project Manager at SLG, a transport, travel, and mobility company in Luxembourg.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ascendix Technologies, and what were your goals?

In our Travel Agencies we were switching to a new Midoffice system. One of the services we are selling in our travel agencies is the transportation of our customers to the airport (Door2Gate).

Ascendix developed and continues to operate the platform for the Door2Gate service. The goal was to connect the new mid-office system to the existing Door2Gate system in order to simplify the booking process for travel agents

SOLUTION

How did you select Ascendix Technologies and what were the deciding factors?

There was no proper decision-making process as Ascendix is already the developer of the Door2Gate platform.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They have arranged the exchange with the mid-office provider and clarified all parameters to be transferred. On the Door2Gate platform they have integrated a reseller workflow that makes it easier for business customers to make bookings in the Door2Gate system.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were a core team of 6 people which includes a PM, BA, Solution Architect and Developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were very happy with the cooperation. All deadlines and outcomes were met.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

The project management was great. They were always available and very responsive to questions. It was clear at all times at what point we were in the project. For communication we used Microsoft teams.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

It was great to see how fast and above all structured the work was. I always had a direct contact person who discussed everything directly with his team and then came back to me.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

In my opinion there were no negative influences on this project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position.

I am a Managing Partner at SAB Capital, a commercial real estate investment sales and financing company focused on net lease real estate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what purpose did your company hire Ascendix Technologies?

We hired Ascendix to help us design a proprietary CRM system built on top of Salesforce.

What were your goals for this engagement?

Our goals were to create a CRM that would account for the intricacies of of business and help our agents better manage their client relationships.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ascendix Technologies?

We interviewed many Salesforce/CRM developers and decided to work with Ascendix based on their track record and specific experience working with commercial real estate platforms.

Describe the engagement in detail.

We first held discovery meetings to help Ascendix understand our specific needs. They have a fantastic turnkey product for commercial real estate companies, but given our unique needs we decided to engage them to design a proprietary system that incorporated some of their signature systems such as their mapping app.

What was the team composition?

For the most part we interfaced with Chris Petersen, who was beyond accommodating and quick to understand our needs. Occasionally she would include her development team on calls to go over product design, but she always led. I very much appreciated having a single point of contact to cut down on confusion and maintain accountability to timelines.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ascendix developed a fantastic platform that has significantly improved the way our agents interface with clients.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. Chris Petersen was extremely organized around workflows and making sure our team understood what was happening ever step of the way.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Everything the team did was impressive. From top notch communication to product development.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Menlo Group Commercial Real Estate is a full-service commercial real estate brokerage that services the industrial, retail, child care and general, medical and dental office markets in the metropolitan Phoenix area. I serve as the company's CTO and led this project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ascendix Technologies?

To help set up and launch the Ascendix CRM, including transitioning over all the data from our prior CRM, Pipedrive, and training our staff.

What were your goals for this project?

• To find a CRM which would help speed up our transaction process by at least 50%
• Establish a single source of truth/data which flows to all connected applications
• Automate workflows and business processes
• Streamline the document generation, requests, eSignature transaction process
• Provide process visibility to clients
• Provide customized reporting capabilities (i.e. Listing Report)
• Offer strong mobile accessibility
• Offer future lead generation integrations
• Provide marketing integrations

SOLUTION

How did you select Ascendix Technologies?

We conducted a "sprint RFI" with 5 related vendors so we could quickly identify the best vendor to move forward with and our leadership team was involved in making the final selection.

A few vendors offered their own OEM Salesforce solution, but in the end it was Ascendix experience and strong in-house developers that would support us during and post-launch that was the deciding factor.

Describe the project in detail.

Scope:

• Vendor will work with CTO to fully setup environment to client specifications before go live.
• Vendor will import and provide any data transformation required from existing CRM into new CRM. -Vendor will provide training to company staff before launch.
• Vendor will provide post-launch support. Timeline
• Conduct RFI (1 week) -Demos, evaluations, and follow up questions (1-2 weeks)
• Vendor selection, request proposal(s) (1 week)
• Planning and data organization (4 weeks) -Development and test environment (8-12 weeks)
• Go Live

What was the team composition?

We were assigned an excellent project manager named Chris, who we worked with for the duration of the project. She brought in a few additional resources as needed along the way, as long as a dedicated data import specialist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had no major issues at launch time and the transition was as smooth as a CRM launch can go. While any sort of change can be difficult on the users, our advisors have quickly acclimated and have each learned their preferred way of using Ascendix / Salesforce.

In addition to the automation gains we've made, the biggest (and unexpected) gains have been in the way we organize our commercial real estate data. It makes sorting through current and past transactions much easier and is opening opportunities to do things we've never done before.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was excellent and we were in constant communication, with weekly touch base meetings. The software itself is largely production ready which made things much easier.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They truly focus more effort on improving their product and supporting current customers than just selling and marketing which is rare these days. Too many companies just try and make the sale and then pass you along down the chain with often some missed expectations.

That never happened with Ascendix and they worked with us every step of the way until all our objectives were completed which is why the launch (and the 4 months since) have been so successful for us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

While it worked OK without it, maybe a PM tool to outline where we are at in the timeline and exchange documents. For our needs, this was never an issue, but some clients might like it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Vice President of Land for Source Energy Partners, an oil and gas mineral and royalty acquisition company in Dallas, TX.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ascendix Technologies, and what were your goals?

We were using disparate systems for our customer resource management and project management. Ascendix offered a real estate geared CRM that was attractive to us. After extensive conversations, Ascendix created a custom salesforce environment for us that integrated customer relationship and project management.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ascendix Technologies and what were the deciding factors?

Their existing AscendixRE software and knowledge of the Salesforce platform.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Ascendix took all of the framework from our previous CRM and our previous project management tools, consulted with us on streamlined ways to improve, and integrated the best components of each system into their offering on top of the Salesforce platform.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with several people on the team ranging from principal/owner, to project managers, administrative executives and software developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our incoming acquisition opportunities are identified and logged into our system at 2-3x the rate they were using previous tools.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Ascendix ran nearly the entire project through the Microsoft Teams platform, which was incredibly easy for us to collaborate on files through, conduct meetings, and submit questions and comments with ease.

We typically scheduled discussion calls at specific times following development sprints. There was never a meeting just for a meeting's sake/regular scheduling. Everything had a specific purpose and it drove development effectively.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The ability to build something unique for us. They took the foundation elements of their highly successful product but applied it to our business (which has many stark contrasts to real estate) in very effective ways.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a Los Angeles-based real estate capital advisory firm, helping our clients structure their capital for their commercial real estate assets. We provide advisory services for debt and equity.

As the VP, I work for some of our managing directors in addition to being a field manager, client manager. I also support our technology implementation team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ascendix Technologies?

We’ve been around for quite a few years, so our database is one of the most important things to us. That’s why we hired Asecendix Technologies to set up a new database solution within a tight timeframe.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Ascendix Technologies developed a custom database solution for us that would serve as a project management tool. First, their team built out the base-level functionality to ensure that we could use the new system. They then worked to transfer over 15,000 legacy contacts to the new system.

Since then, we’ve done monthly iterations to improve the database, ranging from customizing the interface to cleaning up the data in a quick, concise manner.

What is the team composition? 

Working with Melissa (Application Developer & Consultant) has been key to hitting our deliverables. She’s willing to jump on the phone at any time to explain aspects of our system. What’s more, she’s so knowledgeable about our project that I don’t feel the need to interact much with other members of the team much.

How did you come to work with Ascendix Technologies?

After evaluating 30–40 groups, we felt that Ascendix Technologies offered the best combination of money for the work, high-quality database services, and project management services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work started in November 2019 and is ongoing. The first four months were particularly intensive, but they’ve since transitioned into more of a maintenance and improvement role. Our database system is always expanding and evolving, so we’ll continue working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Currently, we’re tracking 52–53 out of 55 employees on the system, which indicates a high user implementation rate. Over 90% of our employees are using the system at least once a week, whereas our previous database only had a 20% user activity rate.

How did Ascendix Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the biggest joys of working with Ascendix Technologies has been having a rep who responds almost immediately in a clear and concise way. Not only that, but Marissa is able to interpret our communication in a way that makes sense for her team.

We used to engage them multiple times a week during the initial implementation work but have slowed down to once every two weeks. Our primary lines of contact are phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Like I’ve said, Marissa is fantastic. She’s willing to jump on phone calls and will rearrange her schedule to make our system as fast as possible. 

Getting into the system itself, it’s clear that they spend a significant amount of time developing our database. They understand our business and know how to drill into it, which is why they’ve designed the solution to be easy to customize and adapt.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This is less about them and more on our side. They’ve done such a great job of interacting with the system that we’ve relied on them as a clutch. We haven’t spent enough time becoming true administrators to our own system. In that sense, it would be helpful if they could wean us off to make us more self-sufficient.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re contracting Ascendix Technologies, you need to have dedicated individuals who can work with them consistently during implementation and customization. I don’t think our engagement would’ve been as successful if we didn’t have a core internal group dedicating time to the project.