Coherent Solutions

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO and CTO of a healthcare data solutions company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Coherent Solutions?

We needed help with custom software design and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Coherent Solutions provided UI/UX design, tech stack design, database design, and frontend development. We had a requirements document that I gave to them. We met and discussed the requirements, and then they went back and put together a proposal. Coherent Solutions designed and developed a patient portal for survey collection using Figma, which was branded for our customers. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a UI/UX designer, a systems architect, a project manager, and a frontend developer.

How did you come to work with Coherent Solutions?

I had worked with them at a previous employer. I knew they would do what they said they were going to do.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking to them in October 2021, and the project was completed in the second quarter of 2023. We’re still working with them on a different project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had very few bugs or rework during the development process.

How did Coherent Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They delivered the work on time and on budget and communicated well with us via Slack and email. We collaborated using Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Coherent Solutions has always been very responsive. If they don’t have someone currently assigned to the project who knows the answers to something we’re getting into, they’ll find somebody to pull in.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t really pinpoint anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a strong understanding of what you need to get done, your requirements, and the technology on which you want to build those.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr Director, Engineering of Lifetouch

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Lifetouch offers portrait services for families, preschools, schools, sports and special events

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Coherent Solutions to accomplish?

• Enhance the ability for customers to claim, view, and order school portraits on my.lifetouch.com

SOLUTION

How did you find Coherent Solutions?

Referral

Why did you select Coherent Solutions over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Coherent Solutions were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The team from Coherent Solutions have been invaluable for our project that focused on removing barriers and friction from the primary ecommerce website for Lifetouch.  They have:

• taken and implemented UX changes
• improved page load times
• resolved nagging issues
• worked with a high level of urgency that is greatly appreciated.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The outcome of their efforts have been very successful.  Authorization is up 5%, bounce rate is down 10%, and order customization has improved significantly.

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

The Coherent Solutions team has delivered on time with every ask.  And when it's critical to the business, they have really stepped up to ensure we're successful and put in extra time and effort.  I can't thank them enough for their partnership!

What was your primary form of communication with Coherent Solutions?

Virtual Meeting

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

The team is loaded with talented people with high critical thinking and ownership.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Innovation and Technology of CAPCA

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

CAPCA provides services to and represents the interests of California's licensed pest control advisers (PCAs).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Coherent Solutions to accomplish?

• Streamline the entire continuing education (CE) process for CE Sponsors.
• Create an intuitive and seamless way for CE attendees to have their credit tracked.
• Create a new recurring revenue stream for our organization.

SOLUTION

How did you find Coherent Solutions?

• Referral
• Clutch Site

Why did you select Coherent Solutions over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Scalable

How many teammates from Coherent Solutions were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

• Course and Session Management: CE Sponsors can easily manage their sessions, including attendance tracking, reviewing, and fixing any inconsistencies. The application allows them to submit this information directly to CAPCA, ensuring that all data is accurate and up-to-date.
• QR Code Scanning: A standout feature of the product is the ability to scan QR codes using a phone or tablet camera via the preloaded web application. This feature enables real-time tracking of attendees as they enter and exit sessions, ensuring accurate reporting of CE hours.
• Streamlined CE Course Application Process: The application simplifies the process of applying for CE courses, making it easier for sponsors and attendees to manage their continuing education requirements.
• Automated Reporting and VOA Certificates: The application automatically generates reports and issues VOA certificates to attendees, reducing the administrative burden and ensuring compliance with CE requirements.
• Retroactive Data Reporting: Users can report attendance data retroactively, which is particularly helpful during the renewal process, ensuring that all CE hours are accurately recorded and reflected in official records.
• API Development: Users' course attendance records are available to third-party organizations which keep track of the records as a service to their respective membership groups.
• Premium features: CE Sponsors can choose to purchase a subscription to enhanced premium features which provide greater flexibility, streamlined tasks, empower collaboration, and which promote their brand to attendees.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

1. Delivery of core features on time.
2. Delivery of core features on budget.
3. Reliability of production application.

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

The Coherent Solutions team is very professional in communicating accurate timelines, progress against timeline and budget, and the impact of scope extensions. Ultimatley, the first release of the core features was on a very short timeline and Coherent delivered.

What was your primary form of communication with Coherent Solutions?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The ability to work with a full-stack team of talent makes the creation of enterprise-grade software straightforward. With a team of business analysts, designers, architects, DevOps, developers and QA; Coherent provides all the resources for a product owner or product visionary to transform an idea into a reality. 

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

It is always difficult for a non-technical person to understand why a certain feature becomes so costly. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Application Development Supervisor of Schreiber Foods

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are primarily a private label dairy manufacturing company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Coherent Solutions to accomplish?

• Front End React Development
• UI/UX Designs
• BAs and QAs for requirements and testing

SOLUTION

How did you find Coherent Solutions?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Coherent Solutions over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Coherent Solutions were assigned to this project?

15+

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

Helped us redesign a custom application as we moved from Oracle Jet to React. This was originally a like-for-like replacement, but we took this as an opportunity to make specific design enhancements. We also needed BAs to help us draft requirements and work with developers to make progress. Additionally, we required QA testers to help catch certain defects before our limited pool of product owners did the final testing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The scope of work was a set number of pages in the application to convert within the given timeline. They hit their original commitment, and we were pleased with their work, throughput, attention to detail, and the knowledge shared with our internal team. Therefore, we increased the scope of work to more pages and more responsibility. 

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

Project Management was better than expected. They came in and leveled not only myself up, but other partners at our company by sharing best practices and a deeper level of understanding of how to use Jira with multiple teams in different time zones to all work towards common deliverables. We even asked for more Scrum Masters to come in and join our other agile teams to level them up and reduce internal resoucing conflicts and constraints. 

What was your primary form of communication with Coherent Solutions?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their ability to self manage and call out gaps, concerns, blockers, and their ability to give recomendations how to solve and manage. Here is the problem - here is what we can do to midagate it. This was shown throughout the project in a varity of ways from technical work all the way to people management. 

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

Every request I have made for adjustments or changes, as well as any feedback I've offered, has been taken seriously and acted upon. At this point, there is nothing that stands out as needing last-minute changes; everything has been addressed appropriately.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO of a private company in the technology space. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Coherent Solutions?

We needed outsourced help for our engineering team, so we hired Coherent Solutions. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Coherent Solutions provides us with ongoing help in various areas of engineering. They work as part of our team, acting as a full-time part of our headcount. They do core software development, QA, front- and backend development, UI/UX designs, and customer support tasks. They primarily work remotely for us. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 10–25 teammates from Coherent Solutions.

How did you come to work with Coherent Solutions?

Our CEO knew some of Coherent Solutions' senior management. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2017, and the partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re impressed with the technical talent that Coherent Solutions has. They’ve contributed at a high level to our work, and we’ve always been happy with their talent level. Moreover, they’re cooperative — if the staff assigned to our account isn’t working out, they can make changes quickly to adjust to the situation. 

How did Coherent Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

I give them high marks for quality and timeliness. We have aggressive milestones, and the team cooperates with us to achieve those milestones. For tools, we use Jira to manage the project. We use Slack and email for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They manage staff to work proactively and cooperatively with us. It feels that they’re an extension of our team as opposed to just being a contractor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with the account manager assigned to work with your company. Be open and honest with that manager, and your experience will be great. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CMO and Product Owner of a roofing software company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We offer software such as a premier instant roof estimation and lead generation platform for roofing contractors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Coherent Solutions to accomplish?

• Web App Development
• Machine Learning
• Business Intelligence Through Data Insights

SOLUTION

How did you find Coherent Solutions?

Referral

Why did you select Coherent Solutions over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Variety of Services and Expertise

How many teammates from Coherent Solutions were assigned to this project?

20-25

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

Our project has ranged from a B2C web application that allows homeowners to shop for a new roof online, to a B2B SaaS platform that leverages proprietary instant quoting technology. The platform includes dynamic embeddable tools and a pro portal with contact, product, market, and user management. 

Our team has successfully integrated with a variety of large applications, including AI-powered seamless financing, detailed measurement providers, material ordering through large distributors, and many more. Additionally, we've developed an API for machine learning that amplifies the functionality of our instant quoting tool. Lastly, our team has powered business insights through big data.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Over $2M annual reoccurring revenue from our SaaS platform in just the first year, with a steadily growing user base. After a few years of bootstrapping, we received investment from two entities, one of the largest distribution companies in the US and a highly respected private equity firm.

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

The project management has been extremely impressive, from a deliverability standpoint and communication. The team is a well-oiled machine — extremely efficient.

What was your primary form of communication with Coherent Solutions?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The level of expertise from UX/UI design, business requirements, development, quality assurance, infrastructure and project management. We've received praise from our industry for the platform we've built.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of agile delivery at CleanChoice Energy, an energy provider that subsidizes electricity with clean sources of energy, such as wind and solar farms. In my position, I manage a team of three other Scrum leaders, and we host all the major ceremonies for our development teams and execute our quarterly planning.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Coherent Solutions?

We wanted to scale our development teams to support a couple of resource-invested technology projects, but we needed to do it in a less expensive way than hiring full-time employees. Thus, we decided to partner with Coherent Solutions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we requested frontend developers to help us build a website, as well as backend developers to help us build APIs for that website. Therefore, Coherent Solutions first provided us with a project manager who acted almost as our recruiting partner. This person helped us interview the team members who would join the project to assess their background, expertise, and coding knowledge. When he found people who were suited for the role, he helped us onboard them.

We started that first engagement working with very few people, but we’ve scaled our development teams since then. Now, we have about 11 different software development teams, all working together on various programs and products, and Coherent Solutions takes part in all of those teams.

Whenever we need new resources from Coherent Solutions to join our teams, a local lead developer helps us onboard them. Additionally, they join our assignment sessions where we discuss the work we need to tackle in the next sprint so that they understand the work they need to do. Their management provides those resources with their own laptops, and they also install all the software that our company uses so that they can integrate seamlessly with us.

Thus far, Coherent Solutions has helped us with a couple of major development projects for our platform, the first one being the introduction of something we internally called our multi-project platform, which we abbreviated as MPP.

We used to sell only one product on our website, but we then started offering new tools for product data storage, Salesforce integrations, and new APIs we were migrating for Microsoft Azure to AWS. For this project, we used a lot of resources from Coherent Solutions to get our MPP platform live. Additionally, they’ve helped us revamp an older product we had almost decided to sunset, and they’ve created a new retail portal where our retail customers can see graphs of their energy impact.

What is the team composition?

We work with many developers from Coherent Solutions with different areas of expertise; all of our development teams have some form of Coherent Solutions’ support. Some teams have 1–2 engineers, while others are completely comprised of Coherent Solutions’ engineers.

These resources range from regular developers, QA engineers, and testers to business analysts and project managers. Initially, we worked with around five people from Coherent Solutions’ team, but they now provide us with around 50 resources.

How did you come to work with Coherent Solutions?

Our CTO used to work with them at a prior company, 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around June 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Coherent Solutions, we’ve been able to get our MPP live; we wouldn’t have been able to do it without their support because it was a massive project. Moreover, the product they revamped created a new profit stream for us. Overall, we’ve gone from offering one product to three in a totally updated stack.

As a result of their efforts, we’ve seen an 11%–20% increase in sign-ups. Additionally, the retail portal they created has helped us improve our retention rate. Other impactful results include an increase in customer sales and a decrease in the manual effort needed to support our products.

How did Coherent Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Coherent Solutions is incredibly reliable and responsive, and they always look to help us deliver projects. Additionally, they seem to be very passionate about the work we’re doing. I’ve seen a lot of effort from their engineers in trying to understand the business value they’re providing, and they’ve even celebrated how much impact their work is having.

Coherent Solutions is also very flexible about the working hours. We’ve never seen a critical bug after a product release. Still, after every release, their team has stayed after hours to help support in case something got reported, which is nice.

We facilitate our collaboration through Zoom conversations and use Slack for regular communication. Additionally, we use Google Calendar, Google Drive, Jira, and GitHub for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The people at Coherent Solutions are very nice and passionate about what they do. One of my favorite things about working with them is that they create small development teams of 6–7 people, and we do a lot of work together every single day. Additionally, their approach has added a lot to our team culture because they’ve created a more fun working environment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. Initially, we had a couple of issues understanding the background of the people they assigned to our projects because we didn’t have clear visibility into their resumes. However, once we asked them about that, they changed their process and made it more transparent, which was great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hire them! They have great talent, and they’ll be passionate about your company’s mission statement. Other than that, be prepared to work with a lot of really productive people.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a contract for difference (CFD) derivatives trading platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Coherent Solutions?

Our company needed some help with web application development. We had been working with another development company, but we were looking to change.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Coherent Solutions has taken over our web application development. The version they inherited was working but not reliable. Therefore, they’ve helped us address many issues and bugs. The team has also handled third-party APIs for us to be able to function.

In addition to our web app, they also assist us with CRM development, which is also in-house. They handle all of the integrations to our trading platform and how the CRM interacts with that platform, the client funding, and withdrawal elements. Since the trading platform is a third-party product, the main area the team works on is integration into that platform, which is available for iOS and Android, and it’s a web-based app as well.

Additionally, Coherent Solutions is assisting us in developing a crypto exchange project which is quite different from the CFD project and very technical. They’ll help us integrate custody-based solutions and build an in-house CRM.

What is the team composition?

We currently work with a team of six people for the web application, and we have a similar-sized team for the crypto project.

How did you come to work with Coherent Solutions?

I believe we found them through Google. We spoke to 3–4 different provider options; we had calls with senior management to discuss what they could do for us. In this process, we found Coherent Solutions’ team to be the most capable and the ones we were most impressed with. Additionally, we gravitated towards Eastern Europe because agencies there provide good quality. We also chose Coherent Solutions because our previous agency had a similar corporate structure. 

How much have you invested in them?

We spend about $50,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in Q3 2020, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Coherent Solutions has helped improve the functionality and reliability of our application quite drastically. They've also improved our reliance on third-party platforms. Previously, when a third-party API went down, the system would crash and be unable to process deposits or receive applications. Now, the team has ensured that the app doesn't completely break when one element goes down. As a result, the wheels are still in motion when there's an issue, and we can still take clients.

How did Coherent Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We have quite an informal development process. Since my co-founder and I manage the web application project and don't come from a product management background, we tend to write the scope informally. We don't set hard deadlines, especially because we're chopping and changing tasks constantly. However, when we set a deadline, the team rarely goes over that date. Meanwhile, from a business requirements perspective, we both have a formal design process for the crypto project. Coherent Solutions have been relatively honest with the deadlines there, too. 

As for communication, we have status update calls with them every Monday and Wednesday. These meetings are a good forum for us to discuss any roadblocks that they might have or other issues we need to hash out. Besides those meetings, we operate through Slack on various channels and interact through Confluence and Jira for the project management side of the equation.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Coherent Solutions' most impressive feature is their excellent problem-solving. There haven't been many things where they haven't been able to find an appropriate solution. For example, we have the challenge of being a 24/7 business, and because they're in Eastern Europe, no one is available if there's an issue in the middle of the night. 

The team came to us with a solution for how they could provide 24/7 service through an emergency line that would wake up a team member. We would also see them acknowledge the request, and then they would quickly resolve the issue. This was something I wouldn't have thought was possible, and it turned out to be an amazing solution that gives us the confidence to know any issue will be fixed no matter the time, without us having to hire extra people. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything they should be doing differently. The only criticism I can give them is that sometimes when we need extra people, it's difficult for them to find more resources. However, this isn't a reflection of their capabilities but of the market at the moment. 

Additionally, there has been a bit of turnover with staff members leaving their team. Not having that continuity isn't great because we lose people with good experience with the application who can step up when needed. In fairness, this is also due to the development market being quite tricky at the moment and to the movement of people around Eastern Europe due to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The structure Coherent Solutions provides really works for us, and they came to us with that solution. Therefore, they'd probably have a similar model for any new client.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the lead for the software test team at Cellares; our organization builds instruments, including its software, focused on cell therapy solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Coherent Solutions?

We needed help with test automation for our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Coherent Solutions is doing API testing and automation for us; they have developed great solutions and frameworks. Their team is testing the software we are building at our company and does that by creating test automation scripts that run as a regression to ensure that no new bugs are introduced into the software because of new development.

They are automating the manual test cases that my team is writing and developing improvements and optimizations for speeding things up and having better quality software. They do a large amount of testing and create many tests, resulting in high-quality coding.

The software we build runs the instrument creating drugs to treat cancer — a cell therapy solution. The software we make has different subsystems for our customers to develop their processes and then run them to manufacture the drug.

What is the team composition?

We work with eight people from their team, including a lead from their side.

How did you come to work with Coherent Solutions?

One of the team members on our team had a project with them in a previous company and was very happy with their work. We decided to interview them and engaged with a person from their team, and after that, they started building the staff for the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in August 2021, and it is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work is impressive. Everyone makes mistakes here and there, which is why we have peer reviews so they can correct the problems. It is normal for software development as you can never have it bug-free; there is no software without bugs.

Nonetheless, they're very proactive, and we haven't had to handhold them — they have very experienced, top-level engineers on their team.

How did Coherent Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They are never behind, meet deadlines, and sometimes are so proactive that they let us know if they're running out of things to do when our developers don't implement new features fast enough to start automating the tests. 

They have their lead that breaks things down and reviews the work, and we collaborate and meet with the team biweekly. They are located in Belarus, so there is a time difference, but they are very good despite that.

Regarding tools, we use Azure and have our boards with all the tasks. We also have a chart showing the progress regarding the number of tests they are automating and the pass rate. These are all created by them so that we can see the progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge and dedication are outstanding — they are very interested in working on the product. In my 20 years in this field, I've never seen an outsourced company interested in what they are doing and even give solutions to some issues. They offer suggestions for what they can modify to make things faster and optimize things better.

Normally, when companies outsource, they tell them what to do and check their work, but I trust Coherent Solutions 100%. Sometimes I do a spot check and perhaps find something incorrect and give them suggestions, but I trust them. Compared to who I used to work with, they are outstanding. Even compared to people who were local employees, their quality is something I haven't seen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything they can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don't micromanage them; I've heard from them that they are so interested and creative here because we don't restrict them. You aren't as engaged or interested when you only do what you are told to do. Of course, it depends on what employees they will get and the cost, but you shouldn't micromanage people with real creativity.