CognitiveClouds

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At the time of this project, I worked as a senior general manager for an automotive manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We wanted to build a digital mobility platform app that’s similar to apps like Uber but with features unique to the Indian market. The goal was to solve the mobility requirements of the Indian market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CognitiveClouds helped us develop a platform on AWS and a mobile app. The platform was built using Azure and Kubernetes, and they built an iOS and Android version of the app. After launching the platform in March 2018, we kept adding features to it. Some of the features included corporate mobility, last-mile mobility, and ride-hailing.

What is the team composition?

We worked with about 12 people from their side, including a cloud architect, iOS and Android developers, full stack developers, cloud developers, and front- and backend developers.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

We knew the problem that we wanted to solve for the market. We needed a team in-house with those digital capabilities. We looked into the market for the top companies within the cloud and mobile app space. We interviewed several vendors, and Cognitive Clouds was one of them. The process included brainstorming sessions to see if our vision matched some of their team’s capabilities. They had those capabilities, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $500,000–$1 million.

What is the status of the engagement?

We worked together on this project from August 2017–March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform came out exactly how we wanted it to be. In 2019, we were awarded the platform of the year in India, which was one of our key achievements.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn't have any issues with the delivery. They were great with communication and very quick with their responses. We used Jira and Bugzilla to track and manage the project. We used Microsoft Teams for communication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The platform was new to them, so we had to hire product managers to define all the requirements and ensure they were understood clearly.

Any advice for potential customers?

Have full clarity regarding what you want, the timeline, and what the market asks.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of vendi, a marketplace for new and used tech. We are headquartered in London and operate in the whole of UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to develop native apps for both iOS and Android platform to launch our first iteration - a peer-to-peer marketplace.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We searched online for reputable custom software developers based in India, specifically in Bengaluru. Speed of delivery, relevant experience, strong testimonials and ease of communication were our priorities in deciding on CognitiveClouds.

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

The goal was to design and develop native apps from scratch. Initially we had several design discussions where the vendor presented and iterated on app wireframes based on our inputs and suggestions. The next deliverable was the iOS App. Finally, the Android app was built. Native technologies were used to build the apps - Java and Kotlin for Android, Swift for iOS

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

There were 7 team members. 1 Project Manager who was our primary point of contact 1 Designer 2 Android developers 2 iOS developers 1 QA

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the iOS app in 6 months which was on par with their estimates and the Android app 3 months later. We had 1000+ downloads with 4.5+ rating on both platforms

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

The project manager communicated clearly and frequently with us. We had sprint check-ins every week on Friday. We used Slack to communicate asynchronously. We used Trello to plan the execute the sprints. Almost all sprints were closed in a timely manner and they were always upfront about blockers.

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

They had very experienced UI/UX designers with well-thought out design systems. Their deliverables were of high quality with very little bugs that we could report back.

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

We had a highly satisfactory experience.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of an online marketplace focused on connecting athletes with fans and brands for commercial opportunities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired CognitiveClouds to take on the full development of the MVP for my custom web application. We had previously developed the full UI/UX designs and technical documentation after working with a software design firm. We came to CognitiveClouds looking for a strong technical partner who could execute on developing a relatively complex custom software MVP, matching the polish and quality of the designs that I provided.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We did extensive online research to find a list of companies with quality work portfolios and previous experience developing SaaS (dashboard style analytics) and ecommerce that would translate to developing a custom marketplace.

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

I provided the technical documentation such as a detailed UX overview, user stories, user personas, user flow diagram, work breakdown structure, and full high resolution designs completed in Figma. We got kicked off on the project right away where the team came prepared with questions regarding UI/UX, specific plans for third party API's to utilize, and overall vision for the project.

The webapp is being built with NodeJS for backend and ReactJS on the frontent. We're building an disruptive marketplace where athletes are given a great degree of flexibility to sell a variety of products and services to their audience. The marketplace also enables businesses/advertisers to post sponsorship opportunities which athletes can discover and apply to with just a few clicks. The marketplace is heavily reliant on dynamic chat between athletes and businesses or fans.

Other features include:

• live video calling,
• automatic shipping label creation
• sales tax collection and remittance
• dynamic payment collection and  payouts required of a modern marketplace.

Throughout the project we have had a weekly full-team update call to discuss progress and answer any questions related to the build. We have utilized Trello very effectively throughout the entire project to track feedback on all specific items that go through QA or that have been reviewed by us (the client).

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

A very project manager has been the main point of contact throughout the project. We have also had two frontend engineers, one backend engineer, and one QA specialist working on the project throughout. There have also been a few additional supporting staff that have assisted in various aspects of the development at different times.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The development of the webapp is almost complete, just working through some final features and clean-up. Deliverables have been very clean and high quality, and exactly what I had been hoping for. Hope to launch the marketplace within the next month and am optimistic that the compelling and high quality of the build will help attract and retain early users.

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

Main communication tools at the outset were email, slack, shared google drive files, Zoom/Google Meet, and Trello kanban boards. We mainly steered away from Slack and instead focused on email and other solutions based on my preference given my past experience.

The companies' communication style is very regular, timely, and open. The weekly calls ensure I'm always aware of what's being worked on, and our constant feedback loop on specific items to change/fix has been very efficient using Trello kanban boards. If I have a big question or item to discuss, I can just reach out and request a call for the next day. The team has also been flexible on multiple occasions to join calls at a relatively late hour in India with myself and certain third party software service providers.

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

The team's development capabilities are very high. They can get up to speed on complex topics quickly and execute. I have very been pleased with the value proposition of working with this team.

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

Overall project timeline has been a little slower than I initially expected, but granted we have had to work through some complex build aspects, we made a few enhancements along the way, and we've always been in very close communication regarding all aspects, so there has not been any big surprises. Otherwise, we maybe should have spent just a little more time at the onset of the project more closely examining the designs and understanding/reviewing documentation for assumed third party APIs which we planned to utilize. For instance, regarding building the chat functionality, we built-out the full front-end UI to match our designs before integrating with a third party chat API.

This chat API ended up requiring we utilize a less-custom UI with certain limitations. Regardless, we ended up getting to a workable solution, but we just could have potentially foreseen the hiccup if we looked a little closer at API's at project onset. But this is really nitpicking, as my experience has been hugely positive with the Cognitive Clouds team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the capacity operations lead at Builder.ai, a computer software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We hired CognitiveClouds to be our development service partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their work is mainly focused on mobile app development. The project we get from our clients is handled by our internal project managers, and the team is only in charge of coding. We have up to 300 projects running at the same time, and CognitiveClouds gets involved depending on our demand.

What is the team composition?

We're working with 15–20 people from CognitiveClouds.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

I found them on Google, and we examined their team’s developers and carried out our internet assessments. In the end, CognitiveClouds was pretty good, so we decided to onboard them as our service partner.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in December 2020, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our project managers have given CognitiveClouds good feedback. The team’s main strength is React Native development.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

We do project management on our own, and we have monthly meetings. We communicate through emails, phone calls, and other forms of communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Development takes a lot of work and there are many challenges. We have 120 partners that we’re currently working with and only 10–12 of them provide high-quality and bug-free code, and CognitiveClouds is one of them. What makes them different is their ability to tackle niche projects.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their communication system can be improved. They should open up a great communication channel so that they can reach out to us on a regular basis. When that happens, we can reach out to them easily, too. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

CognitiveClouds is the best company for your mobile app development needs. If you need to create a mobile app, reach out to them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Engineering Manager at a payment app and also heads the vendor Management for employees on contract role.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hire for multiple projects time and again for the company. We have used Cognitive Cloud to build our insurance and Mutual Fund products.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected this vendor based on their past experience is delivering quality candidates. Post that we had several round of discussion on quality and finally tested a few candidates before onboarding more.

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

Scope was to build a module on PhonePe App. Deliverables was critical category launch. Tech used was - Android and iOS

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

15+ engineers across Apps, backend and QA

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since our employees were also involved with cognitive cloud employees, it was a team work and joint delivery by both the teams.

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

Project management was mostly online due to covid and was in person before that. Timelines are discussed basis milestones. We use slack and gmail for communication.

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

The quality of candidate and turnaround time to provide quality candidates was good.

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

Lately quality has been declined and attrition rate has increased. They can provide better pay to retain candidates.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Marketing Operations specialist at a healthcare staffing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had an issue automating our incoming email leads. It was a manual process that took hours a day to complete. We needed to build a solution to be able to parse emails into a format our system could intake. The solution would need to be automated with minor upkeep on our end.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We found Cognitive Clouds through a recommendation from a vendor we were working with. They came with a glowing review and were what we needed to allow of vision to come to fruition.

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

They designed and developed a SaaS solution which allowed us to automate our processes. We walked through our vision, and they followed along, making recommendations throughout the process. We needed to connect to an existing internal API and parse a wide variety of email and text formats (HTML, CSV/PDF attachments, etc.). They delivered on-time and on-budget.

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

There are 4 people we work with. A VP of Business Development, and 3 developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We could not do our jobs without the product they built and run for us. The emails come back as a JSON file, which our system can intake and distribute across our internal systems. Cognitive Clouds helps us save hours of time, and took a manual process, making it 100% automated.

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

Communication is vital in any project, and Cognitive Clouds nails it every time. They work through issues in a timely fashion, making my job less stressful.

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

Cognitive Clouds has worked through an insane amount of challenges during the project. They've been on top of all of them and do it with a smile. It's hard to find consistency in tech. The folks at Cognitive Clouds are able to see future uses and provide excellent feedback to get there.

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

They've taken everything in stride. They've taken feedback to their team and worked through any issues which have arrived.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a Human Capital Management brand providing SaaS solutions for online learning, compliance and performance management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our Development Goal was to build an application from grounds up, designing the workflow and UI design then onto building an SaaS application

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Factors were - Experience and ability to build a SaaS application - Technical Skills - Good Customer Relationship - Competitive pricing

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

Initially UI design followed by system development and testing of the application before rollout.

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

4 to 6 depending on the stage of the project. Developers, UI designers and Project Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Project Phase 1 completed and Phase 2 design and development in progress.

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

We had twice a week call and used tools like Invision and Figma for design review. We had a testing region for application testing. We followed Google sheets for issues review

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

• They are a genuinely nice professional team
• Their ability to take feedback and work through issues is impressive.
• Good communication process and protocol.
• Dependable management.

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

A tighter control on testing at the developer level would have helped in reducing the turn around time

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the solutions delivery manager for an art marketplace startup. We started doing custom art installations in different spaces. Since then, we’ve expanded to offer a digital art casting service that’s compatible with streaming devices as well as a physical art sales service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We were looking for developers who could build the app for our streaming service.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve built our Apple TV and Google TV apps and are now working on our Amazon Fire Stick solution. Their solutions are native to the respective platforms, with the Google TV and Amazon Fire Stick apps both being based in an Android environment.

What is the team composition?

They provided us with a scrum project manager, a designer, and one developer for each platform.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

One of the investors in the company referred them to us. After meeting with them and reviewing their track record, we felt like they were a sensible partner who could do the job well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $30,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since November 2020. They’ve accomplished what we initially set out to do, but we’ve found more work for them and extended the contract.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We recently had the opportunity to show the platform to major investors as well as a potential partner of ours. They were all impressed with the polished interface and how well the solution displayed fine art. CognitiveClouds’ team understood the more design-related aspects of the project just as well as they understood the code behind the platform.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s worked out pretty well. We use Slack to communicate, which has helped us quickly and easily reach their team. For project management purposes, we’ve used Jira. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were easily able to digest the uniqueness of our product and the importance of design to its success. Their understanding of our needs was clear from the first wireframes they delivered. Other vendors we’ve worked with have struggled in this area. The experience they’ve been able to build for Apple TV, which was the main platform we focused on, has been really impressive. They were willing to work around us and used the tools we wanted with no friction.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. They’ve been great so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Being able to articulate what you want out of the user interface early on and asking them to test their code thoroughly throughout the process would be helpful. They work in the evenings as well, so make sure you’re aware of any challenges this may present before entering into the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Dragon Slayer. We’re a travel company that originally focused on the discerning luxury traveler but now serves the travel agent community.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

In the beginning, CognitiveClouds came on board to develop our travel app. We’ve retained them to update our solution as we pivot our business around COVID-19.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Cognitive cloud developed our travel solution, which consisted of iOS and Android for travelers and a web app version for travel agents. 

The original app targeted travelers who didn’t always know where they could visit. We noticed how several popular apps had a clean, simplified design, so we created mock-ups that met those standards.

Having a straightforward design was crucial because the functionalities were quite complex. Users could chat with their travel advisors through the app, exchange information and feedback, and even view analytics. There was also a closed social media portion where communities could converse about their travels.

The product launched officially in December 2019. But, due to complications from COVID-19, we had to pivot the app to meet market needs. 

In the new flagship app, I realized that travel agents had to be our main focus because people were now turning to travel agents to help plan trips. CognitiveClouds responded by shifting their attention to our web app and redesigning the solution.

What is the team composition? 

I work with about 8–10 people on a regular basis, including Ben (VP of Business Development).

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

I searched on Google for mobile app developers with a strong discipline in analytics. Once I narrowed my list down to a couple of vendors, I was most impressed with how CognitiveClouds approached my challenge.

Their team had decent screen scraping capabilities, which involves automatically ingesting information from other sites without using an API. That was really important during my first vision of my company.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost has been greater than $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them since September 2018 and are going to launch the second app in a few days. It’s been almost exactly two years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Not only did the original app have consistent uptime, but it also had a lot of positive user feedback. People were pleased that the design was so understandable despite how complicated the backend was. 

Kudos to CognitiveClouds for helping us pivot our business to our most recent desktop version. The current COVID-19 era is a very dynamic environment, so it’s important to have a flexible team that can help you stay afloat. CognitiveClouds is nimble and can react quickly, which is exactly what we need.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re learning about better project management practices, though there’s still room for improvement. The second phase of the project showed the most growth. While working on the web app, they introduced us to Figma, which streamlined the UI development. 

They also had the UI lead function as our project manager to keep things moving along. That’s been a key change for us because the UI lead is ultimately the person who’s developing the project all the way through.

What did you find most impressive about them?

While I haven’t worked with enough development houses to compare, I’d give CognitiveClouds a B+/A- score overall based on what I’ve read about other people’s experiences. There were some items that I felt should have happened more quickly, but I had very complex requirements. Other than that, the quality of the final product was strong — it just took time to get there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Returning to project management, it’s clear that CognitiveClouds is an expert at using an agile methodology. However, I wish they had more discipline to tell me what I can or can’t do in a particular sprint. 

They were often lax with us about our requests, and that’s where some of the scope creep and schedule slips came into play. It was pretty frustrating when they’d miss a delivery date, but I don’t know enough about software development to judge them too harshly. Having a project manager who could stay on top of that and prevent scope creep would’ve been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product development manager at Calculated. We design and manufacture handheld measuring tools and calculation tools for the construction industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We were designing and developing a SaaS product for construction customers to manage products out in the field. It’s a mobile SaaS product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborated with them on the design for the mobile side and the web side. The app is available on iOS and Android and the web. It also has a web administration tool. They did all the developments, technical design, infrastructure, and cloud service implementation on the backend. My company did a portion of the functional testing and user acceptance testing.

We had some general documentation at the beginning of the project and then they led us through screen designs for all three of our platforms. That detailed out a lot of our requirements.

What is the team composition?

From start to finish we probably worked with around eight people. There were a couple of people at the beginning on the screen designs and then we transitioned to developers and DevOps resources.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

They were responsive during the RFQ process. We liked their approach and that they let the screen designs articulate the details.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $60,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2019 until March 2020. We had six months of development and a few months of maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We put the product into beta, and that resulted in us not moving forward with the product. That’s not a reflection of them, however. Their deliverables were as we designed but the idea wasn’t one we could go to market with in the end. Generally, the people in beta groups liked how the app looked and flowed. The use cases ended up not being marketable for us.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

Our experience with them was really good. They’re very detail-oriented and they’ll continue to chase down something until they get it right. They’re relentless.

We had a lead person on their side for both the design and development work, and then there was only one person above that who we’d occasionally interact with. Their assigned leads were very capable and organized. It was very positive.

We used InVision on the design side and Trulioo (internally on their side) and Zoho on the development side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were our first experience with a cloud developer and the key point for us was that they came up to speed quickly. We also liked their development approach, which was creating the screen designs upfront and bypassing the traditional written requirements. Everything felt modern and agile.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have an opportunity to do better on the QA side. I mentioned earlier that we did some of the functional testing, and we even had to do some white box testing to see where some of the transactions were failing in the database. Perhaps they’re top-heavy on developers outputting functional things and are sharing testing resources across multiple projects. They just felt a little thin there. We absorbed some of that and gave the feedback to them to resolve. It would have been nicer and less costly for us if they could find the issues themselves.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We had a vision ahead of time of what we wanted to beta test, and you definitely need that going into a relationship with any provider doing this type of work. If you back into a vision then your expectations may not be met. They were very good listeners but you have to have something for them to react to. It’s probably true of everyone but they’re very good at absorbing information and taking action.