Five2One

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Maoneng is an Australian-Chinese developer, owner and operator of renewable power generation assets. With a development pipeline of over 1 GW of solar farms within Australia, Maoneng sells energy and large-scale generation certificates to Australian businesses and governments through a combination of medium and long-term contracts. I am one of the Co-founders and Group Vice President.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Five2One?

We were looking for a company with full stack developers to build a blockchain platform as a solution for the different development phases of renewable energy projects.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for a multi-facted solution for our phase 1 of our full fledged renewable energy development platform , which allowed stakeholders to share, collaborate, develop and finance projects, using blockchain solutions to record every transaction while upholding the intergrity of the information.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were recommended 3 solution providers by one of our project advisors. After engaging with all 3 vendors, Vaibhav from Five2One was not consistenly the quickest to reply, he was also one of the most patient service providers I've personally worked with to this day in my professional life.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

After we had come up with the basic mainframe of the platform, they assisted in further design, development and creation of the blockchain platform. The project started with a discovery workshop, where Five2One understood our target user market, allowing Five2One to cleary understand what we neede exactly. Thereafter we went through a scoping phase, setting the clear mission and project milestones. We met with Five2One's team on a weekly basis every Friday, spending an hour for weekly summaries and setting the goals for the next week.

What was the team composition?

The project delivery team had about 5 people, certain team members would work on individual parts of the project when their skill sets were needed. THat being siad we did have Vaibhav as the point of the contact at all times, whom was was responsive at least 14 hours a day every day of the week.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The solution which was developed, due to the market situation has yet to been fully intergrated into our current business model, but it has been a very educational process and impactful experience for the whole executive team including myself, allowing us to think outside the box, where Vaibhav mentioned: "In code, anything is possible".

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We were introduced to using Trello for project management, Slack for the team communication and collaboration and Github for dev code management; these were all introduced to me by Five2One. The tools used allowed messages to flow smoothly between all team members across our company and Five2One.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We had near-instant access to every single member of the team who was related to our project. This was very critical to the whole project, as we had only 1 person inhouse which came from a native IT background, even so every team member was able to explain most things to us in everyday language.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There was very little they could improve during the process. My only suggestion for them would to have a clear billing timesheet system which could be viewed by the client at anytime, so for any client which is inexperienced in managing IT projects wouldn't get any surpise when it came to paying the bills.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and founder of a mobile app startup. We connect clients to qualified nurses and caretakers via geolocation and mobile technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Five2One?

Without going through an agency middleman, we wanted an efficient way to connect patients with medical professionals. I'm a physician without a technical background, so I wanted a developer who could help bring this app to the market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired a separate UI/UX designer, but Five2One did everything else. They developed the front- and backend, and they set up an admin panel on Amazon. The admin panel helps us manage the database of information that users submit through the app, and the system helps us manage our efficiency. They used React Native, which allows us to launch the app on both iOS and Android.

The app has two parts. One side is for clients looking for nurses and caretakers. Clients can post jobs to the app and select potential matches based on reviews, location, and schedules. They can then email nurses or use the integrated Skype feature. The second part of the app allows nurses and caretakers to build a profile and search for jobs. They can apply for jobs through the app and are paid through the app when they complete each job.

What is the team composition?

I work mainly with their CEO and founder, who is our main technical developer. I also work with two other members of their development team. Over the whole collaboration, I've worked with four or five people.

How did you come to work with Five2One?

I shopped around and considered a few developers. They were the best and most cost-effective way to build the app.

How much have you invested with them?

I've spent around $250,000 AUD (approximately $172,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2017. The mobile app is complete, but I just started working on an online portal with them in June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I'm very happy with the number of downloads and the user feedback we receive.

How did Five2One perform from a project management standpoint?

They do extremely well. They're always available, even late at night. I've had no problems dealing with them, and I'm particularly pleased with their founder.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The work they did went beyond our expectations and our contract. When we suggested features or changes, they did the work, even though it wasn't part of the original scope.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would appreciate more guidance from them, especially as I have so little technical experience. I had a little trouble initially, but I ultimately got a good grasp of what they were doing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO of Autotrader, a company that seeks to create transparency and trust in the Australian automotive market. I was responsible for ensuring that our technology was a differentiator and not just an enabler for everything we did.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Five2One?

We wanted to build a private party experience platform that would serve as the basis of continued investment. Five2One were responsible for the end-to-end engineering and the training of our internal team.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to accelerate the time to market, build it in a manner that could be scaled and maintained. We also wanted to upskill the internal team at the same time.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We needed excellent engineering expertise to build the product, and we wanted to partner with someone we could trust. After a tender process, we shortlisted Five2One and two other companies. Five2One impressed the whole panel, and it was an easy choice. 

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Five2One designed, built, and continued iterating the private party experience. They were responsible for code quality and best practices. Five2One had to meet the functional spec while working closely with our internal teams (e.g. on APIs). Their services included project management and quality assurance, which was a big plus.

What was the team composition?

The team provided was a set of excellent software engineers, all of a high caliber. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The private party experience was excellent and so was the speed at which it was delivered. We have met our goals to date for the solution provided, and now we have a solid base to build on. The relationship is ongoing, and their stature in our company speaks volumes to the work they’ve completed. 

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their project management was supplied as part of the engineering services, and it was excellent. We were always aware of what the team was working on.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have impressive domain knowledge. All the engineers were willing to contribute and learn. It’s clear they care about the consumer experience, and their enthusiasm is contagious. We wouldn't have been able to achieve our goals without them. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can’t think of any areas where they could improve.