Edvantis

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.:
As a custom software development firm founded in 2001, we have spent the last two decades delivering development services, testing services, DevOps consulting and Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery implementations to companies ranging from the Fortune 100 companies to startups. We have an unparalleled success rate of delivering on- time and on-budget about 95% of the time - 3x the industry average. We use a blended, local/remote model where Solutions Directors, Architects, and UI/UX Designers are on staff in Austin, Texas, and our 10 US and international partner companies provide us a bench of over 10,000 developers and testers. This blended model allows us to provide our customers with exceptional teams at competitive rates.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address?
We werelooking to expand its development footprint in Ukraine, in order to keep up with the needs of our customers by providing highly skilled resources at cost effective prices. We already had one Ukrainian partner, but were looking to be able to tap a broader base of talent with another.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement and team dynamic?
Edvantis joined us on a critical project for an international organization as we re-wrote their member-facing portal and registration systems. We managed the project and provided direction, while Edvantis provided the resources to do the work, and manage the team.

What's the status of this engagement?: 

That specific engagement lasted 12 years - long after the product was delivered, the customer was so enamored of the blended team we had with Edvantis that they kept us around to run other projects as they came up. We have since moved on with Edvantis as our development partner o a dozen or more other projects with other customers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with your partner evolve?
Our relationship with Edvantis began as a point-solution to a specific problem for one customer. With that customer, the scope expanded to a dozen or more people, many of whom stayed on the project for a decade or more. Over time, Edvantis evolved into a strategic partner for us, not only providing top tier software development resources, but often engaging with us while still in the sales cycle with a customer, assisting with our sales efforts.

In what ways can they improve?

Everyone can always be faster/better/cheaper - but honestly they're among the top of the dozen or so remote partners we engage with.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Edvantis is a great partner. As with all such engagements, relationship is key. Don't be a customer. Be a partner.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on 5/14/2020
Co-Founder, Custom Software Provider
IT Services

Austin, Texas

51-200

Dec 2011 - Ongoing

$1,000,000 to $9,999,999

Verified

Project summary
Edvantis created a custom certification management tool for a third-party client. The solution could accept applications, process test results, and bill members for services.

Feedback summary
The end client has continued the engagement for nearly a decade, in large part due to Edvantis' performance. Their work has resulted in millions in revenue. While they would benefit from investing in becoming familiar with Scrum project management styles, their quality of work makes up for it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We were founded in the early 2000s with a mission to help companies improve their software quality. We hold several patents on development processes and tools, but over the years have evolved into a services company, delivering complex software applications to customers in the US and worldwide, with an on-time and on-budget delivery rate of over 90%. I am a co-founder and serve as CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Edvantis?

An association that manages certification programs needed a new tool to manage the process: from taking applications to processing test results and billing their members for the services.

What were your goals for this project?

On-time, on-budget delivery of a system that would provide them a quantum leap in their ability to manage the certification process.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We use 8 partner companies around the world, including Edvantis. We asked 3 of them to propose a team to assist with this project, and interviewed the candidates presented. We were most impressed with Edvantis' proposed team, and their price was reasonable for the skills provided.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The Edvantis team worked with our architect, project director, and UI designer to finalize the project architecture, then develop, test, and deploy the code. The project was finished on time, and the customer was so happy with the results that they asked us to continue with the maintenance and upgrades to the delivered system.

What was the team composition?

We began with 2 developers and a tester, working with our team. The team has varied in size from 3-6 as the needs have changed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The customer has been a continuous client for the past 9 years, in large part as a result of their satisfaction with the Edvantis team. This has resulted in millions of dollars of revenue for both us and Edvantis.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We managed the project. At one point, we wanted to have more management on Edvantis' side. They were reluctant. For about 2 years we got them to provide a Scrum Master, but he was essentially a senior exec, and Edvantis wasn't really set up for that, and he was ultimately pulled. That's the main reason we brought a 2nd partner into the project. They're still there.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have high-quality resources at reasonable costs.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Other partners provide us with full teams - Scrum Master, developers, testers, devops. We have been unsuccessful at getting resources other than straight development or testing in the past. I'm told that's changing.

STAR RATINGS

Overall rating: 4

Quality: 4

Cost: 4

Schedule: 4    

Willing to refer: 4    

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Product Manager of an information technology company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provides data integration and management solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Edvantis to accomplish?

Performance Testing

SOLUTION

How did you find Edvantis?

Referral

Why did you select Edvantis over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Great team

How many teammates from Edvantis were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We wanted to run performance tests against our new integration platform and also do a benchmarking. This required exhaustive exercise of identifying scenarios and evaluation metrics, implementing use cases, finetuning test configurations and executing tests with different variables. The scope of work included following but was not limited to:

• Preparation and Planning
•  Test Environment Setup
• Performance Testing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The measurable technical and business outcomes were as follows, but not limited to:

• Technical Outcomes: 
  • Transaction Throughput
  • Error Rate
  • Latency
  • Audit Trail Quality
  • Resource Utilization
• Business Outcome: 
  • Return on Integration Investment (ROII)
  • Time to Value

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

The team demonstrated exceptional project management capabilities that significantly exceeded our expectations. Their commitment to timely delivery was remarkable - they consistently met, and often beat, project milestones with precision and professionalism. 

What truly distinguished their approach was their proactive communication and remarkable responsiveness to our evolving business needs. Whenever we introduced new requirements or requested modifications, they quickly adapted their strategy, providing clear timelines and transparent updates. Their agile methodology allowed for seamless integration of our feedback, ensuring that the final deliverable not only met but substantially surpassed our original objectives.

What was your primary form of communication with Edvantis?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The team's combination of technical expertise, strategic thinking, and client-centric approach made the entire engagement not just successful, but truly collaborative and enjoyable. Their ability to anticipate potential challenges and preemptively address them demonstrated a level of professional maturity that is rare in today's fast-paced business environment. We were not just satisfied with their work; we were genuinely impressed and grateful for their outstanding performance.

The most compelling aspects of their approach included:

• Proactive communication
• Adaptability to changing requirements
• Deep understanding of our specific business needs
• Ability to anticipate challenges before they emerged

Their approach wasn't just about completing a project, but about creating a meaningful partnership that truly understood and addressed our core business objectives. They didn't just deliver a service; they became an extension of our team, bringing creativity, expertise, and a genuine commitment to our success.

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

None in top of my mind!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Product Owner of a software company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are developing, supporting and selling a b2b software product

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Edvantis to accomplish?

• helping our internal dev with building a new frontend
• supporting our QA to cover as much as possible with automation tests and carrying out manual tests.

SOLUTION

How did you find Edvantis?

Referral

Why did you select Edvantis over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Edvantis were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Edvantis is helping our company with developing a new frontend for our software product and upgrading from the outdated angular version to the current one. Also, Edvantis is providing automation and manual tests for our software, including big regression, smoke and sanity tests for releases.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have successfully shifted from a half-yearly release cycle to monthly releases - only possible with the excellent QA testing quality and speed and additional capacity in development with a excellent knowledge on frontend development.

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

Edvantis is adept at managing deadlines and proactive in communicating any concerns, including potential delays, well in advance. Their ability to adhere to project timelines has greatly contributed to our ability to meet our own deadlines and business objectives.

What was your primary form of communication with Edvantis?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Working together with colleagues from Edvantis does not feel like working with a remote external parter but they are part of the team, behave like part of the team - always at eye level and approachable.

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

Our overall experience with Edvantis has been highly positive. We appreciate the excellent work and commitment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Operate Technologies, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Field service software

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Edvantis to accomplish?

• Develop flexible user, organization registration, authentication/authorization services
• Develop automated CI/CD pipelines
• Develop automated DevOps workflows

SOLUTION

How did you find Edvantis?

Used on other projects

Why did you select Edvantis over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Edvantis were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

Edvantis worked with our backend development team to develop:

• our registration
• authentication
• authorization services. 

In addition, Edvantis helped us establish our microservices DevOps workflows.  The technologies used on the project included:

• Python
• Docker
• AWS Lambda
• AWS Cognito
• Terraform
• AWS EventBridge
• GitHub Actions
• Casbin Authorization Library
• FastAPI.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we started the project, we had nothing.  No code.  No development processes.  In fact, many of our architectural decisions had yet to be made.  Edvantis was outstanding in contributing to our selection process as well as adapting when decisions were made.  In the end, we have an automated DevOps workflow for our microservices environment and working registration, authentication, and authorization services that we're now using in the initial release of our application.

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

Edvantis was an integral part of our team from day one.  They attended daily standups as well as all relevant planning and design meetings.  While we did not use Edvantis for project management, per se, they blended easily into our own.

What was your primary form of communication with Edvantis?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I have leveraged Edvantis on different projects and different companies.  I have used them for both staff augmentation and managed service.  In all cases, Edvantis has been flexible in meeting my needs across technology, budget, and project objectives.

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

Not from my perspective.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr. Manager of Database Development

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide multiple SAAS offerings to analyze a multitude of oil and energy market data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Edvantis to accomplish?

• Setup a level-2 tech support with 24-hour coverage
• The level-2 support team should help reduce the backlog of support tickets
• The level-2 support team should help reduce the turnaround time of resolving issues

SOLUTION

How did you find Edvantis?

Co-worker

Why did you select Edvantis over others?

• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Edvantis were assigned to this project?

11

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

We needed a 24-hour data support team built from scratch, Edvantis not only helped plan the scope of the team but supplied the people to fill the roles. They team learned our software and processes faster than we expected and they were already making an impact after just a few months. Within 6 months, our backlog of support tickets was gone and their ability to resolve new issues quickly has had a significant impact on our customer satisfaction. 

Over a couple years, the support team has been amazing and continues to grow their skills. They seem like more than just contractors, they collaborate on improving processes and have become an integral part of our department. In my 20 years working in tech, this has been my best experience with contractors by far.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Count of open data support tickets 
• Reduced time to resolve new data support tickets 
• Increased throughput of new dataset requests being implemented

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

Project Management was very proactive in making sure we were all on the same page, they would provide multiple options that we could discuss and determine which would work best. Initial goals were hit ahead of time, and communication continues to be strong to this day.

What was your primary form of communication with Edvantis?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We were impressed by the strong technical skills and experience of the support team members they provided. They can do more than just follow a list of directions, they participate in improving our processes. We can give them a bit of autonomy and know that we'll still get good results.

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

More in-person meetings in the beginning would've been nice, but that was really not Edvantis' fault, just the result of unfortunate global situations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Tapigo`

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Tapigo is a software service provider that provides a suite of mobile applications used by landscape service providers to manage inspections and maintenance of irrigation systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Edvantis to accomplish?

• Implementation of as set of web service applications to manage application data entities.

SOLUTION

How did you find Edvantis?

Referral

Why did you select Edvantis over others?

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

How many teammates from Edvantis were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Edvantis participated in the detailed designs and implementation of a set of microservices used to manage core data entities that are shared across a large software as a service product portfolio. Key deliverables for the project included implementation of shared libraries that were used within each microservice, CI/CD pipelines and automated tests.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This project entailed creating a new set of web microservices that exposed APIs that were deployed into lower and production environments that client web applications were able to develop against.

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

This project was managed with an agile process that included sprints that ran for 2 weeks. After a few sprints, the team cadence was consistent and predictable which allowed us to predict and plan for when new services an features would be available.

What was your primary form of communication with Edvantis?

Virtual Meeting

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

Edvantis was able to provide developers with specific skills and experiences that aligned well with the project and minimized the time required to onboard team members.

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

This project required coordination of tasks and deliverables across multiple software application development teams and multiple time zones. Communication and daily status updates are the areas that we need to continue to improve in order to maximize the throughput during the non-overlapping business hours.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Safety Media Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

With our mobile and desktop solution, we make it easy for property managers and owners to conduct their building inspections, maintain their equipment, and achieve compliance cost effectively.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Edvantis to accomplish?

• Improve performance of the solution - both front and back end.
• Enhance mobile experience on both existing and new features.
• Customer admin management of their solution.

SOLUTION

How did you find Edvantis?

Referral

Why did you select Edvantis over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Edvantis were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Enhance the performance and functionality of our Compliance Management System, C2020. The initial deliverables included performance optimization to solve memory leaks and improve site speed and a restructuring of the database to support new features. Due to the success of this initiative and the success of the development team at Edvantis, the project was extended to include a total customer self-management interface.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The initial project phase eliminated memory leaks, improved response speed, and provided structure and support for future features and functionality. The project's second phase has provided a fully functional, intuitive customer self-managed administration interface, and several user interface improvements.

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

We presented Edvantis with a high-level summary of our requirements for each project phase. They were able to take this, break these requirements into smaller development sprints and articulate the details in Jira. From this information, the team accurately predicted the development effort and timeline. When the team needed to be augmented to look at a specific task, they were able to bring in experts as required.

As each phase progressed, we met with the team twice weekly to review progress and adjust the schedule.

What was your primary form of communication with Edvantis?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The ability to listen carefully to our requirements and assign the right skills to the table to bring the project to completion quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. Their ability to bring top-level development talent, testers, and project managers was very impressive and unique.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Operations Technical Analyst of an information technology company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Help people get jobs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Edvantis to accomplish?

• Helped index and maintain jobs on our website.

SOLUTION

How did you find Edvantis?

Online Search

Why did you select Edvantis over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Edvantis were assigned to this project?

16

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

Mapped feeds using Regular Expression (RegEx) to collect as much data as possible. Maintained feeds by remapping data to be as accurate as possible. Helped with special projects to meet critical deadlines.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Kept queues cleared or manageable, showed progress in skills and knowledge with quality, cleared projects much sooner than deadlines presented.

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

Consistently communicated with us, asking what they could do to help, and always completed projects much sooner than our deadlines. Showed an eagerness to help and dedication to our projects.

What was your primary form of communication with Edvantis?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I really enjoyed working closely with the team leads, always keeping their team on task and consistently communicating with us on any updates or concerns. They showed tremendous knowledge and would brainstorm solutions with us.

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

Quality was not always consistent among all team members, but team leads would quickly address these issues and make team adjustments as necessary. Their dedication to improving their team and helping our project was always apparent.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering at Promenade Group. We provide solutions for small local businesses, including e-commerce services, POS, and general ERP services. We’re based in Los Angeles, although all our staff works remotely. For this project, I oversaw 4–5 engineering teams across the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Edvantis?

Our company started selling flowers, and we wanted to go into new verticals like alcohol, pet stores, butchers, and plant nurseries. We needed to grow our engineering team rapidly and decided to work with a development agency.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Edvantis hired a remote team of software engineers that developed a custom platform with the ability to schedule appointments, improve inventory management, manage curbside pickup, and automate taxes. We also had the functionality to buy supplies before charge, which means we authorize the charge before completing it to allow producers to change an order.

We use LAMP as our tech stack, and we asked Edvantis for software engineers experienced in PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and React.js, with the primary skill being PHP — Magento experience was a plus. 

We had seven road map features plus a bunch of additional features. We conducted several iterations during our engagement. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with 12 software engineers ranging from mid-tier to senior level. 

How did you come to work with Edvantis?

Our VP of engineering had previously worked with Edvantis. We had an initial call with Edvantis’ team to discuss our project and challenge, and they told us about their experience working as an outsourcing development agency. 

I told Edvantis I wanted the engineers to be like team members of our organization instead of working in an agency model, and they understood. We talked to 2–3 other companies to do our due diligence and chose Edvantis. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $500,000 with Edvantis. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Edvantis from October 2022–April 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At the beginning of this project, I was hesitant about hiring an outsourced engineering team, but Edvantis changed my mind. Our project ramped up quickly, and at some point, we couldn’t support the onboarding process and had to replace our approach. When new developers joined the team, they were working two days after joining.

We canceled the contract because of cost-reduction reasons, and our in-house developers were sad that we stopped working with Edvantis. Our developers had grown friendships and personal relationships. 

How did Edvantis perform from a project management standpoint?

Most of Edvantis’ developers were great at project management. However, three of them weren’t performing to our expectations, but I think that is a general issue with remote work. The majority of Edvantis’ team met and exceeded our expectations. 

We used Jira for project management and had a project manager per team and an engineering manager. We gave every member of Edvantis’ team a Google account, and each engineer had an email from our company and used our Slack channel. We had daily stand-ups through Google Meet to do retrospectives and planning. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by how well Edvantis treats their employees. I've worked with contractors in the past and had issues regarding time zone differences, lack of commitment, language barriers, and other things that caused me to hesitate to work with outside contractors again. Some of our engineering managers had been contractors in the past and confirmed that their employees are often not treated well. 

For instance, we started working right after a holiday that wasn’t celebrated in Ukraine, and Edvantis gave their developers paid time off anyway. Edvantis also protected their engineers because we were worried about the developers’ jobs when we decided to end the contract, but Edvantis assured us they would find them new positions. We hired engineers that were treated well — it was as if we had employees based in Ukraine. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Edvantis to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Edvantis can grow quickly, and you must be able to support that growth in your organization. If you can’t support that growth with onboarding training, I suggest hiring one developer at a time and working in a sequence flow. The key thing is to have close monitoring, and growing fast isn’t great — sometimes, it is better to grow slowly to ensure your product’s quality.