Enplus Advisors, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of a machine learning technology startup. I focus on the product and technology implementation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Enplus Advisors, Inc.? 

We’re in the early stage of the startup, and none of the founders are engineers. We needed to hire an external resource for technology leadership, strategy, and design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Enplus Advisors, Inc. have been providing technology architecture, design, and product strategy. They make sure that we've got the right architecture in place so that we can build to the right marketplace.

They’re also helping us think through what components should be included in our technology stack and how that should operate. They've not implemented anything into production as we're not yet at that phase. It's more an overall product design strategy at this point. 

What is the team composition?

We work directly with Daniel (President & Founder, Enplus Advisors, Inc.). 

How did you come to work with Enplus Advisors, Inc.? 

We did a lot of research and talked to a number of firms. We have very specific needs around machine learning as well as implementing for large financial services companies. Enplus Advisors, Inc. has a great combination of expertise, access to top-quality engineers, and experience in implementing in our target sector. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began about a year and a half ago and the engagement is ongoing. Work is not on a continuous basis, but we continue to rely on them heavily.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Enplus Advisors, Inc. has proven to be helpful and great to work with. They produce very good quality work. Daniel has participated in investor meetings and customer discussions, and we've gotten good feedback from those encounters as well. 

How did Enplus Advisors, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint? 

Enplus Advisors, Inc. is highly responsive. We use email and phone to communicate, and project delivery is always on time.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

They get that startup development is very different from enterprise development. Enplus Advisors, Inc. understands the particular challenges that startups face around technology development. We've found that to be most helpful. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No, we haven't seen anything yet that they could improve. They've been good partners for us. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No, nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Tripod Education Partners LLC. We collect and report survey assessment data from key stakeholders in K-12 school districts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Enplus?

We needed help with some software development involving the large amounts of multi-level service data that we survey. We reached out to Enplus to assist with our scoring algorithms and engine, as well as some of our data management protocols associated with our scoring methodology.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Enplus writes and tailors code for our scoring engine built on Python. They've also launched the engine and support some of the database design and development related to the flow of data through our scoring process. They've also provided operational support as we serve large-scale clients, implementing cleaning requirements, anomalies, or troubleshooting data as needed.

What is the team composition?

We work primarily with one data scientist/developer.

How did you come to work with Enplus?

We were introduced to them by another industry professional. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've probably invested somewhere between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around June 2014, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Enplus helps us successfully score a very complex data set with just the click of a button. We're able to deliver at scale, using the software code that they developed for us. One of the best measurements of their success is that they're helping us deliver information to clients in a timely manner.

How did Enplus perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very organized and able to effectively scope out our requirements and deliver on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their capacity to both execute and understand the broader context of what we're doing has been very valuable to us. They have a deep understanding of our business requirements and have been effective and efficient in helping build out a platform that is both stable and highly functional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They've always been very responsive and realistic about meeting our needs. Sometimes we wish we could have more capacity when we need it, but that might not be a realistic expectation. They've never underdelivered or overpromised, but it feels like there's just not enough time in the day.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Although Enplus handles ambiguity well, you'll get the most out of the relationship by being as specific and detailed about project requirements as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of a FinTech company. We help investment managers with their research data. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Enplus Advisors, Inc?

We brought Enplus Advisors, Inc in for multiple services. Most importantly, we had them help us build a data pipeline we can use to gather and process data to put into an analytical or modeling tool. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We presented a general idea of what we wanted rather than specific requirements for what to build. Daniel (President and Founder, Enplus Advisors) first asked to see any existing code or prototypes we had. He helped us sit down with the customer to gather requirements and understand the need. We created use and test cases before starting to build a tangible prototype. One they brought back the first version to show my customer, we iterated until the client was happy with it overall. 

Another well-defined, tangible project Enplus Advisors, Inc conducted really well was containerizing an application within Docker over the course of a couple of weeks. We needed to port our existing application to run it in different cloud environments. It included several parts including a NGINX frontend, a Gunicorn middle-end and backend, and a Postgres database. Enplus Advisors, Inc created containers for each one of those components in a way that lets us easily distribute our workload from web requests that come onto Kubernetes. They’ve done so for multiple other applications.

What is the team composition? 

In this case, I worked with one developer from Enplus Advisors, Inc. I know they have other specialists on their team. Dan (President and Founder, Enplus Advisors, Inc) provides both development and project management. Unlike large consulting companies, they didn't have excessive staff. 

How did you come to work with Enplus Advisors, Inc?

A friend of mine in the investment management space had worked with the founder before and gave us the recommendation for Enplus Advisors, Inc. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $100,000 in total. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2014. Our relationship is ongoing; we use the team's specialized support for projects that come up from month to month. At this point, they typically help us with particular problems or questions we have. If the opportunity arises, we will bring them in again for another well-defined piece of work. For now, we reach out to them as needed. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The DevOps project for app containerization Enplus Advisors, Inc. supported enabled us to scale up to dozens or even hundreds of nodes. Since we couldn't scale at all before, this was a great result to achieve. The second-best outcome for that particular project was the remarkable timeframe of 2–3 weeks in which they completed it. The quality of their development work is functional and reliable. 

How did Enplus Advisors, Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

Enplus Advisors, Inc was very good at project management overall. We typically communicate using Slack, Jira, and phone calls. 

I’ve never felt like they charged me for every last cent. Multiple times, months went by without any active development work, and they were willing to have quick phone calls at no extra charge. From a relationship perspective, this was a great approach. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Quality of work was the number one aspect that impressed me about Enplus Advisors, Inc. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there's nothing I can think of right now. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Pick a project where Enplus Advisors, Inc can show off their skills. I suggest scoping out a 2–3-week timeframe to test them out, but keep the bigger picture in mind. It's not necessary to provide a well-defined list of requirements. Provide a basic idea of what you want for the input and the output and the timeline you expect. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a senior scientist at a biotechnology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Enplus Advisors, Inc.?

We hired Enplus Advisors, Inc. for help with development. Our company had an existing module that was running too slowly.  We needed it to function faster and more efficiently. Customers use our platform to analyze single-cell genomic data. By improving the module’s pace, we aimed to enhance our overall pipeline.
 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Enplus Advisors, Inc. took care of the end-to-end development to revamp the module. They were responsible for testing and parallelization of the code. Along with the general requirements, we sent them the code we had in place, which was written in an inefficient programming language. We asked them to write the module in Python instead and make sure that it runs correctly. In addition to our requested technology choice of Python, they also used VShell. 

What is the team composition?

Dan (President & Founder, Enplus Advisors, Inc.) was our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Enplus Advisors, Inc.?

Based on our interview, we liked the founder hired Enplus Advisors, Inc.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around $25,000 USD. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September–November 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been very happy with the quality work we’ve received from Enplus Advisors, Inc. They completed everything we requested within a short amount of time. We were especially pleased with their prompt delivery. The code they wrote is efficient and simple to plug into our pipeline. It easily allows for later modifications if necessary. 

How did Enplus Advisors, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via Slack. The regular meetings we held were quite productive. Enplus Advisors, Inc. met with us in person, as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Enplus Advisors, Inc. delivered high-quality code. Their deliverables are ready to adapt to any changes we need in the future. This level of flexibility is important in the biotechnology field.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. We’re very satisfied with Enplus Advisors, Inc.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t have any specific advice for anyone.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a project lead for NCC Media, an advertising sales, marketing, and technology company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Enplus Advisors, Inc.?

A major component of our project involves ingesting large amounts of past and forward-looking TV ad sales data and applying machine learning algorithms to it to predict future TV ad sales. We hired Enplus Advisors to help us design the databases for this project, track analytics, collaborate for feature engineering, and help automate all of the core project functions—such as ETL (extract, transform, load) processes, machine learning, and monitoring.

What were your goals for this project?

We want to build and test our models in AWS and then automate the whole process.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I reached out through various contacts and selected a few candidates for this work. One of the contacts recommended Enplus Advisors, but there were also a few other candidates, both onshore and offshore. I interviewed all vendors and selected Enplus Advisors primarily based on their skillset and experience.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected Enplus Advisors, we started daily scrum meetings using Zoom to manage the project on a day-to-day basis. We also selected Thursdays to be our face-to-face meeting day in New York. From there, we tested the data and built a model, refined the model until we had the results we wanted, and then started automating all pipelines through Luigi.

What was the team composition?

We worked primarily with Daniel, the founder.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are able to ingest and host the data in AWS with the right level of security, access control, and performance. The initial models we built are able to predict future sales with the required level of accuracy. We then started the process of automating all pipelines and were able to hit our milestones.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have short lines of communication, and their team is very professional. Our workflow has been quite effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very experienced in all technical aspects of this project—including hosting and sizing databases, setting up security, feature engineering, and selecting technologies for automation and visualization. They are incredibly versatile and reliable.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, we are very satisfied with their work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a company called Passiv.AI LLC. We study SEC filings of large financial institutions to track attractive investment opportunities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Enplus Advisors?

We are trying to provide data to investors on stocks before they purchase them. They want to know the cost breakdown for different institutions and how much they are buying and selling stocks for. I wanted to automate the process of analyzing stock trends and systematically track changes and identify attractive investment opportunities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I identified with the founder and technical advisor, Dan, the type of web scraper that is necessary to pull out the data I needed to create a Master Table. Dan started to organize the data with me and help fill out the copious amounts of data, solve any issues, tweak code, delete any unnecessary data, and merge the data in a way that makes sense. Dan is very knowledgeable and knows how hit API and configure an AWS redshift database.

What is the team composition?

Dan Gerlanc, the founder and lead technical advisor was the only Enplus employee we were in contact with. He had a team of two other developers that worked on the project with him.

How did you come to work with Enplus Advisors?

I wanted to find someone local to work with me on the project. I searched online for developers in the Boston area and came across Enplus. After meeting with them, we determined that they would be a great fit to complete the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $40,000 and $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Enplus in December 2017. We finished our initial project, the Master Table, but we are still working with them on maintenance of that project and two more projects long-term.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

By myself, I could only clean up data on about 100 publicly traded companies and still make substantial errors. With Dan, there is no lapse in data and we are now analyzing 2,600 stocks. That’s a 2600% increase in coverage.

How did Enplus Advisors perform from a project management standpoint?

We did not have a regimented schedule. We talked on the phone when needed, which was about twice a week for only about an hour to clarify information. The majority of our communication was via email to send documents back and forth. There was very little miscommunication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It is not the easiest task to pull data and cleanly organize it. Enplus is knowledgeable about data science and can effectively troubleshoot any problems and make sense of data to create a great output.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I am very happy with the end result. We did not have many issues, and the few we had were not Dan’s fault. The one area of improvement would be explaining the big picture at the start of the project. He did help me understand a few engineering technicalities along the way, so I could figure out why some aspects of the project took longer than others.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

In general, I would come prepared because that is the best way to save money on the overall project. If you are prioritizing quality over quantity, I would recommend Enplus for data science projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of business transformation for Mediterranean Shipping Company USA. We are one of the largest shipping companies in the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Enplus Advisors?

We needed to develop a predictive analytics algorithm. We didn’t have enough knowledge to do this in-house and were looking for outside help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They came to see us on-site at our office. They coded predictive analytic algorithm in R programming language. They also sat down with our scientists and provided them with some training.

The algorithm predicts on the basis of past data correlations of dwell time for containers, which is very technical. When an empty shipping container leaves a port, it spends several days with a customer and then comes back to the port. The turnaround time is sometimes difficult to predict but is very important to be predictable. The algorithm helps us to predict the turnaround time.

It is 90% complete and we are now fine-tuning a few things. They are still supporting us on this project and other ones as well.

What is the team composition?

We worked with the founder and president of the company.

How did you come to work with Enplus Advisors?

We found them on LinkedIn. We took three other candidates into consideration, but we selected Enplus because they were the most professional when it came to specific logistics.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the project with them in November of 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a very pleasant experience from a human point of view. From a technical point of view, our counterpart was very knowledgeable, proficient, confident and did a very good job.

How did Enplus Advisors perform from a project management standpoint?

They delivered everything according to the deadline we asked for, and we are satisfied.

We had an initial phase with a couple of emails and phone calls, but they always came to the office for in-person meetings. They spend a lot of time with us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have been very good at understanding our needs and were able to cater all the output to our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no recommendations from this point of view. I think they are very good.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is a startup focused on providing a monitoring and control solution for plumbing systems that combines mechanical and cloud-based technologies to address leakage within residential and commercial spaces. At the time of the project, I was the Director of Product Development, and have since stepped into a consulting role.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Enplus Advisors?

We wanted to use data from web-connected telemetry to inform optimization over a set of parameters. We defined a model specifying how the data analytics architecture should function, but we needed someone to build the frontend for data processing and trending and the backend engineering to support the architecture.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dan wrote test code to validate the preliminary data modeling. Once everyone felt comfortable with that, he moved on to the integration process, converting the original code set to run on web services. Following that, we beta-tested and deployed the product for production. Those three stages were all tackled in the first three months of the project, and the subsequent time was mostly spent providing support and making minor adjustments to the model.

What is the team dynamic?

Dan was the only contact on the Enplus side, and he worked with Flo’s integration and architecture contacts and mechanical engineers participating in the data modeling and analytics work. Normally for the integration piece, an additional external team would have been brought in, but the size and scope of our project made it feasible for Dan to handle it himself.

How did you come to work with Enplus Advisors?

We reviewed three or four candidates. Enplus’ broader capabilities in data analytics, data coding, and deployment set them apart. Other companies had some of those capabilities, but not all three.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in May of 2016, and although the bulk of the work was completed in the first three months, they continued with support and minor adjustments through May of 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While we don’t have specific metrics yet, the engine they built is consistent and capable, and there haven’t been any issues. Generally, the project has been very successful.

How did Enplus Advisors perform from a project management standpoint?

Given the nature of startups, there was some difficulty with coordination of schedules and numerous deadlines, but Dan was quite accommodating. He managed to complete the project in three months despite a few speed bumps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical expertise and the ability to parlay that into a meaningful and deployed result was notable. That combination was quite valuable in terms of capability and stability.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only concern is the potential constraint of manpower. Dan has managed that by being upfront about availability, but sometimes, these types of projects can extend unexpectedly into longer commitments, and that might be an issue.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a full-service digital marketing company offering a full breadth of services to clients large and small in the digital space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Enplus Advisors?

I had a client that needed a lot of data wrangling. This included a lot of deep SQL work and analysis to help answer a lot of questions, both large and small. The data was not in great condition; it was very dirty. Enplus helped clean everything up and put us in a position to be able to answer those questions for them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

They provided database design to some extent, but most of the work has been coding analysis. Most of the work was custom R and SQL coding against the dataset we received from the client, and there were a couple of people working on this. Dan, [President and Founder, Enplus] partnered with a person on our staff, and together they put everything up on a cloud Azure environment, so it could be analyzed there. Enplus focused a lot on custom code writing to answer whatever questions needed answers. Both data transformation, as well as once the data was transformed, we had to figure out how to answer all the questions we were getting back from the client using that setup.

What is the team dynamic?

There were roughly 3 people involved in this project, and it scaled up and down depending on our need. When things were moving fast, we were in touch on a daily basis.

How did you come to work with Enplus Advisors?

I had worked with a couple of other people before and was introduced to a firm that finds new tech talent, 10x Management. I had explained the project and it’s challenges to them. They had already done some vetting and told us they had the perfect firm for this project. We hit it off with Enplus right away and started with a small project to kick it off. It went really well and so we kept it going.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent between $50,000—$199,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in November 2016, and we have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This relationship helped answer dozens and dozens of high-value business questions for our client, which put them in a position to make changes on their side, in terms of marketing and future data collection.  Part of our huge project was to understand the millions of people that this client was emailing. It was to understand segments and opportunities in order to go after them for higher sales and higher engagement.

Everything was delivered on time, and Enplus was really great at communicating. They produced really awesome written reports of their findings, in memo form. Even though we have been talking through the whole process via Slack and emails, I have it all in one place. I have a great summary of everything that I can then digest and reframe for my client, which has been really helpful.

How did Enplus Advisors perform from a project management standpoint?

One of 2 people at Enplus are running most of the project, but at the end of the day, I’m playing the role of project manager with my client. They gave me everything they said they would. We communicated through emails, phone calls, and we had a shared Slack channel going. Overall, communication was excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very detail oriented. I’d worked with some other firms before, and didn’t feel like they were going the extra mile to understand what I wanted. Enplus does, and I get the impression there is a lot double and triple checking along the way to make sure the output is as good as it can be. This is especially valuable when we know the input data is kind of suspect.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have been really happy.

Do you have any advice for potential clients of Enplus?

My advice for future clients of Enplus is that it is going to be a good experience. Defining your problem is helpful. This is something I’ve been trying to work on with my clients so that when I give Enplus direction, it is really well-defined. This helps the output to be even better, versus having nebulosity going on. I’ve been very happy, and you just have to jump right in.