Everestek

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

MoveHQ sells sales, CRM, and driver software for moving and storage companies. I’m the director of development and technical operations within the organization, so all of our development functions, DevOps, and infrastructure work go through my side of the organization chart.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Everestek?

We were generating a massive amount of electronic paperwork, and our customers still used a lot of printed documents, so we needed help with reporting.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Everestek provided us with an outsourced arm for some of the areas in our business in which we needed help, especially around reporting. For example, we took certain sets of documents that we needed to produce and outsourced them to Everestek. Then, they made those reports, increasing our output and allowing us to do more work.

Our group did peer review before rolling the documents out for production, so everything that they produced was first approved by us. We have mobile and web-based applications, and Everestek also assisted us with creating automated test scripts for our web-based application.

What is the team composition?

We typically had two developers assigned to us at any given time. Additionally, Chirag (Founder & CEO) acted as the project manager.

How did you come to work with Everestek?

Everestek was a warm market referral from a partner company to which we were involved, so we didn’t look for other companies.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent an average of $5,000 per month. In total, we invested around $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around January 2016 and stopped collaborating in December 2020. Our business changed in January 2021, so they’re not an active partner anymore.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Collaborating with Everestek was more efficient than hiring more staff, so they definitely saved us money. We didn’t measure their performance because their work was pretty streamlined; we just gave them documents to make the electronic reports.

How did Everestek perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a shared Slack channel with both Everestek and MoveHQ’s teams. The developers on both sides had weekly meetings to touch base, but all other communication was done through email and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everestek’s ability to self-manage and be self-sufficient was great. They were also great at communicating overall.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any constructive feedback for them. The fact that our relationship lasted as long as it did was a testament to their ability to deliver.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that the scope of your project is extremely focused and specific.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and CEO of a corporation that delivers technology solutions to the financial services industry. We focus on the voluntary beneficiary teams and businesses. We also provide services that allow the ecosystems to leak and communicate with one another — particularly datasets from different employer groups that need to interface with policy admin systems and insurance carrier legacy systems to consume and process business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Everestek?

We had the idea of a structure, set of capabilities, and several requirements to create a specific platform. We were looking at many sources to develop those capabilities and pull together the services that we needed, including the platform iterations and enhancements.

We had the vision of enabling the extension of our capabilities to a broader set of scenarios.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Part of the capabilities is related to the ability to ingest myriad formats of datasets on an EDI and API basis, as well as being able to consume data sets in a secure environment. Everestek built those capabilities and created user-configurable ones to enable the incoming data to be interrogated through workflows and data structures we call schemas. Ultimately, they were able to interface the policy admin systems to consume product rules simultaneously and use all the data and interrogation protocols to determine if data records were accurate, passed a set of rules and parameters, or needed to be tended for one or more reasons.

We’re a Python-based team, and they were able to leverage Python and configure code, which was important for us.

What is the team composition?

We have six people on the team. The actual day-to-day team consists of two developers, a testing engineer, a UX/UI engineer, an infrastructure lead, and a team leader.

How did you come to work with Everestek?

We were referred to Everestek by another of their clients.

How much have you invested with them?

It’s a multi-million dollar engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2020, and we’ve engaged them in a second project adjacent to the first one.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ll be cryptic, but we provided our platform’s full set of capabilities to one of our primary clients, and they publicly praised them. Also, it’s probably noteworthy that we’re already using them for a second project.

How did Everestek perform from a project management standpoint?

For the initial project, we established appropriate routines and executed traditional standing sessions. They met some pretty aggressive timelines, and they did so in a systematic way, delivering on a timely basis. It was also noteworthy that they were accustomed to operating in a virtual environment, which COVID-19 probably precipitated. We were definitely pleased with how they managed our project structure.

The team has been responsive across the board, and they’ve been able to accommodate our journey as we got more efficient. We perform in an agile environment, so we’ve been iterative in reviewing capabilities and supporting our clients’ needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say it’s their versatility. They’re flexible, and they’re up for the challenge. Everestek is our partner; they’re able to understand our vision and react to the opportunities as they’ve grown. Additionally, we’ve found value in the team’s ability to take a set of requirements and parameters to sequence services and support creative capabilities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re pleased.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Transparency is helpful. The more you’re able to partner with Everestek, the better job they can do at assisting you and supporting the bigger project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are Spraoi and we bring free products to the market such as a customer experience infrastructure portal, data infrastructure, and innovation as a service. We provide consulting services, process improvements, and data integration services. I’m the head of product in addition to leading a couple of accounts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Everestek?

The problem the client was looking to solve was putting together an infrastructure portal that would allow consumers to be able to go online and purchase insurance products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

All of our infrastructure work is done using JavaScript and they do back- and frontend work as well. The developers use AWS for the most part, with respect to the technology stack. Additionally, they’re involved with the requirements through design, development, testing, and deployment of the artifacts.

What is the team composition?

The structure and number of folks involved in the project evolved over time, but when we first kicked off, we were implementing the entire gamut of base services with about six individuals — two were frontend developers and four were backend developers. As we did our first go-live, the team was allowed to ramp down. We now have one frontend developer and one backend developer, with the latter being responsible for deployment.

How did you come to work with Everestek?

Our founder and CTO have previously worked with Everestek and have known their capabilities. The team has not only worked with us on this engagement, but they've also worked on a couple of other projects, and everything that they’ve worked on has been exemplary in terms of delivery, communication, and documentation.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent just under $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off our partnership in June 2019, and it’s been ongoing since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve definitely received an email from one of our clients indicating how well the tech is being received. Quantitatively speaking, the Everestek team always makes sure the effort estimation is correct, and they always come under in terms of delivering early — whether it’s for defect fixes or first-time defect fixes. Additionally, not only have they always been available for on-call services, but they’ve also worked on weekends and weeknights to make sure the production is up and running.

When that issue became a user issue, they ensured us that they will always have an on-call team in place, so there’s always someone we can call whenever that happens.

How did Everestek perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve always done well in terms of project management, in terms of making sure that there’s always a dedicated tech lead sending daily status reports. Additionally, we have a separate and distinct admin system that the client has in place for us to talk with. The tech lead plays point on a lot of those sessions to make sure that they’re being a good liaison between us and the tech team. They work with a policy admin system in place and contribute to the status reports that I send out.

To identify risks and issues and managing our project board, we use Asana. It makes my life simpler because I’m not constantly making sure that we’re working on the right path. They’re very proactive at looking at the leader board and grabbing what they need to work on. They’ve just been really good in terms of status reporting and making sure we’re always informed and up to date.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I find their initiative to be the most impressive, because they’ve always met every challenge, and they always provide me with options to help me determine the best solutions for my clients. Apart from that, they’ve been true tech partners, and they always make sure I’m never caught off guard. They always help us shine through in our client relationships, by putting their best foot forward in terms of industry standards, security, and compliance.

More than that, they’re very good at stretching and flexing their time management despite working in a different time zone. I found Everestek to be flexible in terms of figuring out their work schedules, so that they can provide maximum coverage for our morning time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, nothing comes to mind because they’ve just been so exemplary throughout. When you put a vendor in front of a client, sometimes the challenge would be communication. However, that’s not the case for Everestek as they’ve been great with communication. Sometimes I even ask for them to be on client calls, because I feel like they can truly speak to the tech challenges and issues that might be discussed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would tell them to engage with Everestek, and include them in requirement calls and scoping discussions because I truly feel they’re a good partner. They’re a full-stack team that goes end to end whether it’s requirements or testing, they’re there to support you through the whole cycle.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a professional IT services organization that primarily focuses on the public sector. We offer all kinds of IT solutions from management and system engineering all the way up to cloud migration. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Everestek?

We had a client with an Active Directory and Microsoft (MS) Azure migration project. It was a homegrown solution that had a couple of middleware and software pieces. It was getting very complex, and the customer wanted to get away from it. Everestek had the appropriate experience and know-how, so we hired them. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Everestek was the lead technician for this entire engagement. They came in, looked at the environment, and took the lead while working with our client. After understanding all the technical issues and everything else that was going on, Everestek came up with a solution and documentation to help the client move away from the complex software. 

Moreover, we gave them plenty of other MS-related projects that we couldn’t accomplish internally. They also helped out in tasks like Windows updates and desktop management. Primarily, though, they helped our clients who were looking for app development services in the cloud. If customers wanted to migrate on-premise solutions to the cloud, the Everestek team could help them. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with a maximum of 10 people from the Everestek team, including project managers, technicians, and engineers. 

How did you come to work with Everestek? 

They were referred to us by a client that they’d worked with in the past. I also knew Chirag (Founder & CEO) from past engagements. Overall, our client’s recommendation and prior work experience led to our decision to hire them for this project. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent less than $10,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from July–December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We didn’t have deep product expertise in migrating Active Directory solutions to Azure. As a result, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver what the client needed without the Everestek team. Overall, this engagement was dependent on their expertise. In the end, our customer was absolutely happy with what they delivered. 

How did Everestek perform from a project management standpoint?

We handled the management for this project, and the Everestek team was great. They were as easy-going as our organization, so we worked very well together. Overall, they were a pleasure to work with.

We used MS stack solutions to communicate, including MS Project, MS Planner, and SharePoint. They were also on the Google platform, so we used it as our secondary environment for project management. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge set them apart from other providers. Other organizations liked to sit down and claim that they had cloud expertise and that they’d done such projects here and there. However, Everestek was the only organization that managed to do this project. 

We’d never seen anything like our customer’s requirements before, so we had to come up with out-of-the-box solutions. Everestek was able to think outside the box and handle that. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. Everything was perfectly fine. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront about all your requirements from the get-go so that Everestek can give you a fully detailed plan. In the deep technical app development world, you must be open and honest about every requirement that you have so the team can fulfill them. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the co-founders of Spraoi. We are a machine learning and data infrastructure company founded in 2017. We were just acquired by a bigger company based out of Ireland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Everestek?

We were trying to figure out a working model between North America where we’re situated, and India where our development center was at the time. We didn’t have the ability to hire people as quickly as we were getting clients so we approached Everestek to quickly onboard a team of 2–3 people, and put them to work immediately whenever we had an uptick in clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first project we gave them involved modernizing our entire DevOps stack. Our entire DevOps pipeline wasn’t great because as a startup, you usually do what you have to do to get things working. Everestek has done a phenomenal job of creating and maintaining our pipeline to make sure that all the services that we own, follow the same template on how it should work — they also come up with ideas on how to make this as seamless as we possibly can.

Our entire tech stack is based on AWS and they implemented the entire CI and CD for us (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery). We have our code in GitHub and we use a microservices architecture of about 40–50 different repos, which are all being deployed at different times by different developers. Every time a piece of code gets committed to any of those repos or once a PR gets merged, we get a circle CI job. 

When that gets triggered, the tool actually builds an image, runs the test, and it automatically deploys into a development environment. Once that gets approved, it gets pushed to a QA environment, and then to production. All of this is done in a way in which we can repeat the process over and over, and that’s one of the things Everestek did. Additionally, they converted the whole stack we have from manual deployment to an infrastructure-as-code project — in other words, they basically codified everything that we used to do, in terms of the VPC with three subnets, networks, security groups, and network architecture. 

Everestek also set up a release tracking mechanism where you can actually package multiple microservices into a single release for deployment. The package that they developed using terraform ended up being a release management process, and that’s what our organization uses today for release management.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about 10 people altogether. Four or five are in charge of backend and DevOps, three or four are in frontend roles, and two are tech leads that run our products.

How did you come to work with Everestek?

I was very picky during the selection process and ended up going through 3–4 vendors. We fired all of our previous vendors because their work didn’t have the quality we expected. We ended up connecting with Everestek because their founder was a friend of a friend. We reached out to them and the relationship evolved from there. This is the type of talent that’s really hard to find, especially outside of the US.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $300,000–$400,000 USD so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together for the DevOps work in June-July 2018, but our initial contact was in early 2018. Our collaboration is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The person that led the project from Everestek is still one of the top guys that we work with, and he leads the DevOps efforts for us to this day. While we do have DevOps specialists from our own in-house team, he’s the one that manages all of them for us. The work they’ve done is an integral part of how our product works today. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without Everestek.

How did Everestek perform from a project management standpoint?

Their approach to project management is one of the best things about them. I get an email from them every single morning about the status of the work, what their plans are, and the obstacles they face. If there are things that they’re not able to make progress on, they make sure to inform me and try to figure out a solution. Solutions aren’t something that we just come up with, but rather Everestek presents the options for what they can do, and asks me what the right thing to do would be. Overall, their tech leads are excellent at managing the process and I lean on them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with their talent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend having someone technical involved with their team from the beginning, so that you can find the right team that works for you during the interviewing process. Treat that team as an extension of your organization and include them in your stand-up meetings so that they have a little more context.

This made Everestek really effective from our perspective because from the get-go, they were part of our organization and could make day-to-day decisions about what needed to be done — which made it incredibly helpful to scale with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Silver Eel Technology, and we’re a tech company that surveys the specialty insurance market with solutions to help them be more efficient, and operate in a more digital environment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Everestek?

Everestek has been working with us to architect, develop, and deliver our technology platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Everestek is developing a cloud-based platform that leverages Amazon Web Services. They’ve really been involved in all aspects of the project, from the design to the actual development. They’re responsible for the planning, staging, utilizing the technology tools, leveraging the partners, and choosing third-party solutions — they’ve been an integral part of the process from day one.

Additionally, they help us make decisions from a strategic level, such as determining a payment processor and integrating the tools we want to use.

What is the team composition?

I work with Chirag (Founder & CEO) on a regular basis, but I also work with project managers, scrum masters, and developers both for the front- and backend.

How did you come to work with Everestek?

They were recommended to me by someone who I’ve worked with in the past. I probably looked at half a dozen potential partners, but Everestek was the one that I felt most comfortable and confident with, because they understood what I was trying to do.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably invested north of $250,000 at this point.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership started in September 2020, and it’s still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been very pleased with the level of delivery and comprehensiveness of Everestek’s work. We go through a QA process, and there are inevitable items that need remediation, but they’re always handled when they occur. We feel very good about the progress we’ve made, and how they’re continuing to keep things on the right timeline — they’ve been able to do what they said they would.

How did Everestek perform from a project management standpoint?

We meet as a group every morning, and they’ve been very good about the communication. We’re in a very good meeting cadence, and we have a working relationship that facilitates getting things done. Moreover, they’re not afraid to tell us what they need from us in terms of requirements, and we’re not afraid to tell them what we need in terms of deliveries.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their positive attitude. When there are items that come out of the blue, they seem to be able to roll with them and take it as a challenge — which I think is refreshing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’ve been very happy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The communication mechanism needs to be there, so make sure to have daily checkpoints to keep everybody engaged and in touch with the progress.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of a mobile game startup, and our goal is to bring people together using their cellphone to play games, whether remotely or in the same room together. Instead of having a bunch of people sitting around in social situations and everybody’s got their nose on their phones and only half paying attention to what’s going on, what we’re trying to do is make the phone the center of an entertainment opportunity to bring people together.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Everestek?

We needed someone to help build our main product. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Everestek is helping us build the first phase of our app, which will give a critical integration between the game’s two main functions. The first function is the player who’s participating in the game and doing an active role — they’re either singing karaoke or dancing or taking a trivia quiz. Then, the second function is the people scoring, judging, and rating them. Everestek is currently developing both core functionalities, which will allow us to integrate them and do a test pilot. 

What is the team composition?

We work with a core team of about three people responsible for both technical and project management work. However, I’m sure they’ve got an even bigger team behind the scenes. 

How did you come to work with Everestek?

Everestek was strongly referred to us by an entrepreneur who also used them in building out their website. When we were just putting out the company together, we knew we needed a technology partner. We started with them just on a website development project and then moved into application development. 

We also did a mini-project with them that went very well. It was the precursor to what we’re doing today. Due to its success, we felt they were the best partner to help bring to life our product. Before that, we only had the vision, wireframes, and a demographic profile of who’ll be playing the game. 

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent around $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2021, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re delighted with Everestek’s work — we feel they’re a member of our team. When you’re starting a business from scratch, it’s always interesting to see how others outside of your immediate bubble view things. Not only do Everestek understand what we’re trying to do, they’ve also given us an enhanced perspective. They know that developing user-friendly environments where people can seamlessly use technology is essential, especially to a business like ours. 

How did Everestek perform from a project management standpoint?

Everestek is excellent at meeting deadlines and communicating, and they manage their milestones very well. In addition, they’ve got a very organized process for feedback that allows us to make the necessary changes in order to get to the next phase of the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everestek has taken everything we’ve envisioned and brought it to life, not only through the graphics and user experience, but the actual integration technology that will allow the game to work. Additionally, they are keeping up with our pace, which is, we’ve got the momentum, and we’re trying to keep things moving forward. They seem to be with our team every step of the way, which is all we can ask for. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate clearly with their team and be responsive, as it’s always difficult to wait for a reply from the other party. It’s easy as a customer to expect Everestek to be responsive, but I also feel that the customer must be equally responsive to keep the project going smoothly at all times.