Brimit

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO of Van Havermaet, a multidisciplinary accountancy and legal firm with around 5,000 locally-based customers, typically family-owned small and medium enterprises. 
 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brimit?

We wanted to engage more directly with our customers. We do a lot of document exchange, so we wanted to create a sharing portal for customers. 
 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brimit developed a portal where customers can share, co-edit, and co-create documents. Their team started from scratch. The backend is a SharePoint environment, and the frontend is React.

We’re using Azure AD as the central security system. Customers use their own single sign-on environment, which integrates with our site and the customers'. Users don’t need an extra account.

The platform acts as the day-to-day document management system for a lot of our customers. We’re also using it as a medium to exchange agendas and book meetings, and all our customers’ reporting needs are also addressed there as of late. 

What is the team composition?

I have two main points of contact. 

How did you come to work with Brimit?

I researched a few service providers in Belarus. I had a few interviews to see if they had the right domain knowledge. They needed to have a good architect that could understand where we were looking to build because it was non-existent on the market.

Brimit was very open in the conversation. They had a mentality that clicked with ours. It was easy to talk to them, and we could learn from each other. Since we didn’t have all of the answers or questions, in the beginning, that’s what I needed. 

How much have you invested with them? 

The cost was around $500,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Brimit around June 2017, and they’re continuing to maintain and expand the platform. 
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a delivery schedule, which wasn’t always easy to maintain, as a couple of resources shifted during the main project, both on their side and ours.

Ultimately, we measured their performance by the number of tickets being delivered in our DevOps environment. Since 2020, we’ve measured how many users are onboarded and how many documents are uploaded. 

How did Brimit perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re using Microsoft Project for DevOps tracking and Teams for communication. Before that, we used Skype. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their ability to think along with us. We’re not the easiest client to deal with, and we don’t ask for obvious things, but Brimit is willing to go beyond their skill, study new things, and try to give the right advice. It’s impressive what they can do. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The follow-up could improve. We have our own IT, but we primarily think from the functional perspective so Brimit could pick up and steer the project more. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Beyond their technology skills, cultural fit is the main thing that the client needs to check when outsourcing work in terms of management and communication.
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a digital agency. We help businesses and nonprofits solve problems with communications, marketing, automation, and data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brimit?

We have a lot of different clients and kinds of projects. For a specific set of Salesforce CRM projects that we’re working on with nonprofits, we needed help managing the data for the upload. We also needed help configuring the system to meet the needs of specific clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brimit filled the need for specific skill sets on these CRM projects. They custom configured the objects and fields. The team also touched base on the data that the client needed loaded in there, as well as some reports and workflows via the process builder and the flow generator.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with one person, Slava (Salesforce Technical Architect), but we also work with another member of his team, Vitaly (Salesforce Developer).

How did you come to work with Brimit?

We found them through Upwork.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company originally started working with them in August 2019, and they’re now working on their third project with us. It’s a project-by-project relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There can be strange things buried within client data. If you work with folks who are just technical, they’ll load the data as is, whereas Slava and his team ask the right questions. They do a really good job, and they’re inventive when they need to be. It’s always good to be creative when you’re working with moving parts.

How did Brimit perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done well. They keep us in the loop about how things are going and when things are ready to be tested. They communicate well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re smart, and they don’t waste your time. They do a good job of communicating what’s going on. We’re a few time zones apart, so they make themselves available, even when it’s not an optimal time for them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They do a really good job of understanding how clients use the software in order to identify other opportunities for improvement. Adding another layer of that would be great and make them even more valuable.

Any advice for potential customers?

It’s helpful if you’re clear about what you need and where you expect questions to come up. Leave the lines of communication open, and they’ll do a good job.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Imdad is a 30 years market leader in aesthetic medicine technologies distribution in the Middle East. I am B2B associate marketing manager & internal project manager for imdad.com

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brimit?

Company website development using Sitecore as CMS, the project included solution architecture, web design, implementation & custom developments

What were your goals for this project?

Build a strong digital presence for the company through a world-class website that will be the main communication point for our end customers. Reduce offline sales efforts by increasing brand & product awareness. Building a digital journey that enables customers to make buying decisions online.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A thorough analysis of the project plan, logic, team & requirements through meetings & a discovery workshop. Three companies were considered. Brimit was selected due to the technical capabilities & resourcefulness of their team plus the trackable record of success through provided references. Marketing, IT & CEO took the decision.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project was handled by internal & external project managers, 5 key milestones were agreed: Design signoff, Prototype, Implementation, content upload for English & Arabic versions, Go Live Imdad contributed to preparing FSD & was responsible for all content. The vendor was responsible for designs, implementation, custom & OOTB functionalities & features, consulting. The project was completely handled by vendor with the assistance of internal IT & Marketing teams.

What was the team composition?

6 types of fixed resources in addition to temporary resources: Project managers Backend developers Design lead Web designers Quality control Consultants The size of the team was changing in correspondence to the stage requirements & milestone completion

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Quantitative: Lead generation increased significantly Quality of leads improved significantly Traffic increased & time spent on the website A good percent of qualified leads were monetized Interactions on the website increased Qualitative: The website is considered the one source of truth to customers & employees

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Excellent

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The expertise of consultants in digital solutions especially Sitecore & Salesforce Ability to meet deadlines. A flexible team, they thought outside the box to achieve challenging customizations

Are there any areas for improvement?

More of opportunities to horizontally expand into new solutions rather than specific comments

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are developing and maintaining an inter-company connection hub web portal for all of the employees where the primary focus is on information sharing building company culture

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brimit?

We used Brimit as one of our contractors to supply us with Frontend and Backend developments based on our requests and proactive assessments.

What were your goals for this project?

To provide seamless implementations and new features without having as little as possible/no negative impact on the users' B.A.U.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Through assessment and example tasks

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Frontend and backend developments, analyses, brainstorms, proactive improvement collections, crisis management through their excellent problem-solving skills.

What was the team composition?

it varied over the years, usually 1 Frontend and 1 Backend developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We were praised by the users and clients of our solutions, response time, skill in execution and outstanding communication.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We handled the project with the Agile PM methodology, keeping the usual ceremonies with DSU-s. It was highly effective as both our- and Brimit's DEV. team had great communication skills.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their skill set, in-depth- and up to date knowledge of used technologies. Also client- and user friendly approach with awesome overall communication and good atmosphere through all our communication.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There were some substitute team members (only 1-2 people in 3 years) who's English/communication could be improved a bit, but the regular assigned team members were a joy and pleasure to work with!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a law firm based out of Calabasas, California. I’m one of the partners and a co-owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brimit?

We were developing a partner community in Salesforce, which is the system we use as our CRM. We wanted to build out a platform to be able to communicate and interact with some of the other law firms we work with, as well as provide access to certain data.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brimit created our customer community through our Salesforce account. We provided general guidelines, and the team implemented all of the functionalities and customization we requested. Our goal is to accommodate up to 50 users in the community.

The team created several custom reports and Visualforce pages before we began working together on testing. Once the product was ready, Brimit helped us launch, which we just finalized recently. 

What is the team composition?

I had one point of contact from the company. 

How did you come to work with Brimit?

We found Brimit through Upwork. We were impressed by their responsiveness and communication skills, as well as their specific expertise in the areas related to our product.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent approximately $2,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in November 2019, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform the team developed performs exactly as we anticipated. Internally, everyone is very impressed by Brimit’s final deliverable, noting the high-quality UI.  

The team was excellent in terms of listening to our feedback and implementing changes and tweaks along the way. They were dedicated to making sure the finished product met our expectations. Also, Brimit’s UI capabilities are very strong. 

How did Brimit perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated with their team via instant messages as well as Upwork. We had several phone calls and screen shares as well. 

Brimit was very thorough with communication to make sure everyone was on the same page as far as product requirements.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Brimit is both extremely knowledgeable about and skilled in what they do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We have no complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We definitely recommend partnering with Brimit given the opportunity. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a digital workplace consultant at a development shop that builds and integrates digital collaboration platforms. Most of our customers are companies with 200–4,000 employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brimit?

We needed additional support with development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Based on the specifications we provided, Brimit helped us develop a fully cloud-based collaboration solution for one of our customers. As a tool, it enables users to collaborate both internally with their colleagues and externally with people outside the company. Brimit developed large parts of the code.

What is the team composition? 

One developer from Brimit is assigned to our project full-time.

How did you come to work with Brimit?

One of my colleagues visited several SharePoint partners in their area and thought Brimit seemed to be the best for us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since May 2018.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any specific numbers to share. The quality of work they delivered was consistently high.  Most of the team demonstrated great communication skills, especially the point of contact we worked with directly. Our collaboration was effective.

How did Brimit perform from a project management standpoint?

Brimit wasn’t in charge of project management; we handled that internally. We held daily and weekly meetings to coordinate the project. Concerning tools and technology, we used Skype, Jira, and Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The developers have very impressive programming skills. In fact, they always found a way to work around our problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We wanted to switch one resource in the middle of the project, but it wasn’t possible to because Brimit has a limited number of employees. It would have been nice to have the option to switch developers when we wanted.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communication is key.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company specializes in marketing and websites for the hospital vertical. We work with various clients across the country doing websites and services. The primary platform that we use is Sitecore. I’m a tech lead on the project that we worked on with Brimit, and I'm also a dev team manager at our company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brimit?

One of the core reasons that we used Brimit was their expertise with Sitecore. They were fully staffed with a whole range of Sitecore developers, and they allowed us to scale up and down as needed relative to our project flow. I’ve had previous experiences working with other offshore companies that do specific technical services and similar concepts in IT, but our company hadn’t used a supplier like this before our engagement for Sitecore. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brimit started with us during the last half of a project. We were already through the design phase and were ready to start with the implementation phase; that’s when Brimit was brought on board. Basically, they ramped up quickly and were able to carry the load immediately, even though it was a complicated project. They adopted it and did well.

The project was updating and improving a hospital’s website that was built on the Sitecore platform. The new website would replace the obsolete website they had. The hospital’s marketing department wanted us to make improvements to the platform so they could do better marketing going forward. Brimit didn't just replicate an existing site with new technology. They added functionality to the site and a whole new UI, content strategy, and approach. The bulk of the features that Brimit used in the project are common to this industry. There are some unique approaches that we developed, and the Brimit guys had to learn them quickly and then replicate them following our technical requirements. As far as features for the end user’s website, it’s basically a robust enterprise-level website for the hospital industry with the features that the industry often uses.

How did you come to work with Brimit?

I believe we found Brimit through a referral from a dev lead at our company, who had worked with or had known of Brimit while he worked at a previous company. There were a few issues that factored into choosing to work with them. They had the skill set immediately available when we needed it, and they were willing to work with our process. We do Agile, and the workers at Brimit were on the calls, they did the stand-ups, and they worked with our process entirely. Those were the factors that contributed to us deciding to go with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we started working with Brimit around October or November of 2015, and our relationship is ongoing. Since the initial project, we’ve moved on to 2 more major enterprise projects. They came in halfway through our first project in November 2015, wrapped it up, and moved right into the next 2 projects. We’re still working on wrapping up the third project.

All 3 projects were similar. They’re enterprise websites for hospitals, and they share similar functionality with advanced search and features like that. They were all custom built for each client’s requirements using Sitecore. The same core team from Brimit worked on all 3 sites, and they continue to work with us. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

We launched a bunch of phases throughout the last year and a half; working with Brimit and having their team help with development enabled us to meet our deadlines, which would have been a struggle without them. Their ability to ramp up, produce, and integrate well with our team has allowed us to get these projects to clients on the deadlines that were promised.

Brimit’s performance also has improved throughout the project. They have to use a lot of our proprietary processes and approaches to solve the problems and to meet the customer’s requirements. I noticed that they improved in learning our system, processes, and approaches; their knowledge level went up considerably over the years. Their level of English also has gone up from when we first started working with them. We now consider them to be almost like a local team, even though they are 8 time zones away.

Compared to other offshore companies we’ve worked with, Brimit’s dedication to quality and delivery is higher than anyone else’s. They put in whatever effort was needed to meet the deadlines. If we said, “We have to get this done,” then they got it done. They collaborated with our BAs [business analysts] and project managers to clarify issues. Traditionally, with offshore people, you send it over the wall and hope they do it. Brimit asks questions, makes sure they understand what they are delivering, and then deliver it. Their quality of work also was exceedingly better than other offshore teams.

How did Brimit perform from a project management standpoint?

We initially started working with 3 of Brimit’s developers (a lead and 2 additional developers). I think we had 6 developers at the peak of the project, and then toward the end of the project, we were back to 3. The initial developers were brought to the project under Brimit’s recommendation. Then, as we added more members to the team, they ran their selection process past us, and we got to interview them and decide if we wanted them to be on the team or not. That worked well for us.

For task assignments, we used JIRA. We also used email and instant messaging on either Skype or Slack. Our platform has changed a few times. We also did daily stand-ups where they called in.

I was consistently interacting with the wider team. Leads handled most of the stuff, but if the leads were unavailable or if the schedule didn't work because of the time difference, then the teams would step in and handle whatever communication was needed. Everybody handled everyone’s stuff well.

What did you find most impressive about Brimit?

Brimit’s work ethic and level of effort ensure that they produce quality products that meet our requirements. Even if we have a misunderstanding, Brimit puts forth the effort to correct any mistakes and make sure they’re made right. They have a strong drive to make sure that what they deliver is high-quality. It’s hard to come by people—vendors and employees—who have Brimit’s level of desire to make a quality product.

Are there any areas Brimit could improve?

Our day was their evening, which made it hard to coordinate sometimes; they get to have a personal life too, right? They tried really hard to be available all of the time, but sometimes some of the guys couldn't make it, and they also neglected to let us know they couldn't make it until the next day. I know it’s extremely hard from their end. The only thing I’d say they could improve is their consistency in communicating when they’re not available for a call. Of the team of 6, a few of them were always spot on and would always, always communicate. If they were away on vacation or something, sometimes the backup guys would not be as communicative. 

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

We provide online language tutoring and examination prep services to children and young adults. Our services are done entirely online. 

What is your position?

I'm the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges that you were attempting to address when you first approached Brimit?

We were trying to build a new custom site that would allow us to offer our various tutoring programs to end-users. We had a lot of custom requirements that had to be met, and a fairly aggressive deployment timeline. None of our team members had the skills necessary to build the site, so we knew we needed to find external developers. 

SOLUTION

How did you select Brimit as your partner for this project?

They came recommended by another business partner. He had previous experience working with Brimit, so he knew they had the skills needed and a good reputation. 

Could you describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail?

They were mostly responsible for the technical elements. We had a good idea of how we wanted the site to look, and had very exact technical requirements when we approached Brimit. We collaborated on the site architecture and refined the scope before they started the actual coding. They performed the functional development and took care of the testing and quality assurance. 

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this site deployment?

[It was about] $100,000.

When was this project completed?

The site was finished in the beginning of March [of 2014].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

I can't share any specific metrics with you because of privacy, but I can tell you that the functionalities have worked exactly as we had planned. We haven't had nearly as many support issues after launch that we had originally anticipated since we were building a very custom site. They developed some very high-quality code for us. 

When working with Brimit, is there anything that you would consider special about their approach that distinguishes them from other vendors?

I don't have experience with other IT [information technology] vendors, so I can't make any real comparison. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The core direction of our company is staff recruitment. Salesforce is used as a CRM. My role is an analyst.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brimit?

We have collaborated on expanding Salesforce functionality.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goals were: Extensions of CRM functionality; Setting up the dashboard.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Great experience, convenience and speed of communication, openness, value for money.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Brimit has optimized the architecture and back-end logic of the analytics app, customized front-end that allowed more sophisticated filtering and as a result we got possiblity to produce new tables and charts.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of Salesforce developer and Salesforce architect.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Now it is much easier to analyze the results of work

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was excellent. All was clear and on time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their experience and competency led to pleasant collaboration.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't think. Everything was good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Account based intelligence for Salesforce

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brimit?

We needed to develop our MVP. It was Salesforce app

What were your goals for this project?

Working MVP

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We got recommendation from our friend

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

It was outstaffing service. They had provided us to developers with whom we developed our MVP.

What was the team composition?

They had provided us to developers with whom we developed our MVP.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

They helped us with awesome development resources.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Everything was good

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They always do what they said

Are there any areas for improvement?

no