Grey Chain

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Violence Against Children Prevention Coordinator at Raising Voices, a Ugandan NGO working in violence Prevention.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain, and what were your goals?

We wanted a tool that could be used to implement and track our violence Prevention program in schools in Uganda at Scale.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I saw the work they did with IRC on similar apps and heard great feedback about working with them from IRC staff. They seemed like the perfect choice.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We consulted extensively to provide our wishlist for our app, refined key deliverables and cost, then we were led through a series of immersion workshops to understand how the app would be built and for Grey chain to understand exactly what we needed.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A project manager on our learning team who spoke to m&e needs, an IT manager for tech inputs, and two project officers who specialize in program content.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our app went live in time for school reopening in Uganda and has been well received by our technical assistance providers. Funders and partners are very interested in seeing the app and we have been invited to present on the same. The app is being used to collect data in 1000 schools across Uganda in 2022.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The Grey Chain team was responsive, helpful and immersive. They sought to understand our program and needs at every step of the journey. They have been timely in delivery and response throughout.

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

Their app development skills were extraordinary! They took the app to places we could not imagine. They were professional and friendly and a joy to work with.

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

Some technical issues remained in subsequent iterations of the app but Grey Chain did an excellent job addressing these upon request.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I an the CEO/Founder of Chicbee Trading w.l.l. Our headquarters are in Doha/Qatar

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain, and what were your goals?

Actually Grey Chain was our saver. After a very bad experience with a different company that did not deliver the products we payed for. Grey Chain was able to set a plan from day one and deliver not only one product but three!

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We searched online for similar companies and decided based on other customers feedbacks and also on the interview day Grey Chain stood out.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Since day one the Grey Chain tram understood what we wanted. We needed three products ( an APP/ website and an admin panel to run both). They proposed a plan in the next day, assigned a dedicated Project Manager her name is NEETU just for us and she was amazing, highlighted all the big milestones of the three projects and started working and delivering right away.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had a dedicated project manager NEETU who coordinated all our needs during the whole project was available always. We also had two developers Abishek and Dandeep working on the web and app development We had one dedicated developer just for our Online Payment gate who did wonder his name was Ankit

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We started noticing huge traffic towards our website within days of production. Even before we uploaded our products. These guys did wonders

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

I must say that whatever words i use here will not give this team justice. They had a management style that we cannot compare to any other company. the close to heart and always available style, the ready to use all their resources when there is problem to solve ( we saw that when we had the payment gateway issues)

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

They were PATIENT, very patient with us. This team even had the time to go on the phone with us to solve a computer issue we had on our end that had nothing to do with their tasks.

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

We would never change their management style or the way they developed our products because we could have never done them differently. They delivered 3 outstanding products

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Sr. VP (Technology Services) -Asia in our organization. We operate in multiple coutries acroos the globe. I am part of our Global Technology Leadership team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain?

Grey Chain Technology was brought in to help delivery our tech workstack having various products in the publishing domain. The work was targeted towards improving the overall user experience and increase the outreach.

The objective of the project was to deliver bug-free enterprise-grade software products with in agreed timelines for the end users. Key task for Grey Chain was to bring in though leadership, provide quality assurance services and extend technical expertise to ensure a smooth and defect free delivery.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

It was through detailed vendor selection process which included going through the company profile, past portfolio, existing client references. The process also included interviewing vendors to check the industry experience and knowledge on the subject. Grey Chain emerged as top 3 potential vendors. We made final selection on the basis of interest level, responsiveness and commercial value where Grey Chain was identified as a clear winner and the right vendor for our various tech needs.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The scope included analyzing the current set of requirements (which were fluid in nature to start with), helping the in-house team to identify the scope of work and provide dedicated quality assurance services to ensure the project is delivered as per the project plan. It also included identifying, recording and help mitigate the delivery risks in the early phases of implementation by putting preventive and detective quality checks.

Grey Chain Team was involved in various stages of implementation starting with the requirement analysis, development and most importantly in testing as quality assurance was the sole and key responsibility of Grey Chain Team.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Team size was different during the project lifecycle ranging from 4-7 members from Grey Chain team. Key team members included Account Manager, Scrum Master, Senior and junior member of Grey Chain Tech team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Phase 1 of the project is successfully delivered and the feedback from the stakeholders is extremely positive. This is a multi year programme having multiple milestones and phases and we are looking forward to continue this journey with the Grey Chain team.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team operates in complete agile fashion. There is a two-week sprint cycle having clear milestones and deliverables. The team has also laid down a steering committee structure which includes senior members from Grey Chain team to provide regular updates which include milestone plan, risk awareness, resource plan etc.

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

The thought leadership and design thinking which they bring in to their deliverables. They truly partner with us like it is their product and they ensure successful delivery by exhibiting efforts and behaviors far beyond the committed work stack.

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

Nothing which I can think of at this stage. We are truly happy and satisfied with their service.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

ThotExperiment was founded in 2020 to liberate people from arbitrary and harmful restrictions by creating sex positive, inclusive and joyful platforms for sexual exploration and experimentation. Our first platform, Headero is the app for everyone, for one thing: people who love oral pleasure.

Headero was designed from inception for people of all gender identities and sexualities. Headero allows for fluidity in gender identity selection and allows you to connect with whoever you're down with at any time, regardless of your sexuality. I am the Founder and CEO of ThotExperiment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain Technology, and what were your goals?

We hired Grey Chain Technology to deliver on our product roadmap and produce our first application: Headero, the hookup app for oral pleasure. Our goal was to have a feature complete app launch that was reviewed and approved by both Apple and Google for their respective app stores.

The app includes a mechanism for Headero members to connect with each other based on proximity, to message one another (including picture and location messaging), to filter for other members based on member-attributes, and to input and share guideline-based ratings about one another. Our initial version had both a free and a premium service (Bliss mode).

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I undertook a vendor selection process, speaking with multiple software delivery vendors - including vendors across various geographies. I sought a partner with demonstrated technical excellence that took the time to understand our product roadmap and our desired outcomes, and that aligned with our company values. Grey Chain demonstrated alignment on each of these points in our discussions. I felt that they truly understood what we were trying to accomplish and were aligned on what we needed to do in order to get there.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The project was scoped for a feature-complete version of Headero, the first hookup app for people who love oral pleasure. The app included a mechanism for Headero members to connect with each other based on proximity, to message one another (including picture and location messaging), to filter for other members based on member-attributes, and to input and share guideline-based ratings about one another.

Our initial version had both a free and a premium service (Bliss mode). Our project milestones were based on items in our product roadmap, with the final milestone being app store approval for all relevant features. The technologies used were: Flutter frontend; Node.JS backend; MongoDB database; Kubernetes containers; DigitalOcean IaaS; Angular admin panel; AppsFlyer SDK integration.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Our project team size shifted over the duration of our development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our app is fully functioning and approved for both Apple and Android devices. Our product launch has been highly successful, with significant user growth for both our free and Bliss mode offerings.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We held regular meetings (bi-weekly) to discuss project progress and timelines. We primarily used Trello to show project progress.

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

Grey Chain’s technical excellence speaks for itself - we are very happy with the finished product and our ability to extend and scale our platform. They truly differentiated themselves by showing great care for our product and goals. Their investment in our outcomes was notable both for its sincerity and for the way it was reflected at all levels of the organization.

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

No notable areas of improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the project lead for a small business out of Melbourne, Australia which delivers mechanical investment systems for private investors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain Technology, and what were your goals?

We engaged Grey Chain for a new mobile app as our current iteration failed multiple business metrics. It was clunky, difficult to update, used a 3rd party platform with lots of custom code to work around the limitations etc. Our new app was to be built with modern best practice, as there was a significant amount of time between the 2 apps development. The new solution was to also introduce new functionality which we were not willing to expand the existing offering to cater for.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We googled for top development firms in certain countries across the world were we had a favourable exchange rate and then sent through a project outline, to understand their interest. Grey Chain presented us with a modern solution, a design refresh and pitched ideas at a competitive price with a can do attitude. Their focus on ensuring our product would be supported and open to change if we saw something did not work the way we envisioned with the new features.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The scope of our work was flexible as we did not really have a firm idea of what is possible in the mobile space and it was a ground up refresh of the product. We looked for iOS and Android support that would also engage a cloud database. It would also be open to data pushes from an instance of our product hosted in an AWS EC2 environment.

This meant APIs had to be built to accommodate the data flows. Other requests were flexible push notifications, user accounts, permissions of app functionality based on account permissions, biometric login support and app usage analytics from our existing customers. The apps extended functionality would include a portfolio manager so financial formulas had to be established in the app and refined to standard across numerous possible interactions related to stock market investing.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We knew of 4 resources (although more worked on the product behind the scenes) including accounts, project manager, technological architect and developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Not available at this time as the app launched a week ago.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We used trello & an instant messaging application that our business requested (Skype) to be able to understand the workflow and progression of the app. They were extremely responsive with realistic timelines, including when deliverables would be delayed and how long due to external causes.

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

They had a really solid grasp on the fundamentals of modern app architecture and other systems. Confidently discuss the pros and cons of different approaches and reply in a confident, quick timeframe to ensure that the project followed best practice. We could never fault them on this.

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

This is a minor issue to us. Sometimes when we mentioned bug fixes, other areas would be broken in the process requiring some repeated devt to fix. We have a very niche, complex product within a niche, so the level of product knowledge and understand of interactions never really developed. Grey Chain keeping a log or document of business rules for developers / internal testers may have helped made their quality of work flawless.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of HomeMe, LLC. A real estate startup with a mobile marketplace for home buying, selling & mortgage services

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain Technology, and what were your goals?

Greychain provided application development and guidance. Our goals were to create a 2 app platform for home buying, selling & mortgage services.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I searched online for the top developers and came across Greychain and after meeting with their team I immediately knew they were a great fit for the project

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Real estate applications, Android and iOS development.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

4-5 plus, and have an ongoing management team through Grey Chain I'm very blessed to have!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Overall we have received amazing feedback from potential users, consumers, and other notable professionals.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Very hands on approach, walk you through every phase of development, implementation, design to launch.

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

The experience overall was the most impressive. From day one, they worked out every detail and spec of the development. They guide us to make the smartest decisions that are cost-effective.

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

No, they have an amazing team that is adapting to the ongoing demand of mobile apps and they excel at their work!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager at UNICEF.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grey Chain Technology?

They built the iOS version of an existing gamified period tracker app we designed for adolescent girls. It has a prediction engine and a tracker, as well as information on menstruation for girls.  There’s also a symptom tracker, daily diary, and more. The app was designed for very high security and privacy as well. We already had an Android version and needed it ported to iOS.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We built an Android app last year. It was built by a different vendor in React Native with TypeScript. Grey Chain Technology came on and took the original Android code and build an iOS version using the existing codebase. All the UX/UI was already complete, they just translated it to iOS. The challenge was translating that UX correctly.

What is the team composition?

We had a main point of contact, but we had calls with their development team as well.

How did you come to work with Grey Chain Technology?

They were already working with our UNICEF colleagues on a different app. We liked that they were verified by UNICEF already and financially competitive.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked from November 2020 to March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t measure success by downloads. We value success in that the app matches the UX of the original version and is free of bugs. They accomplished that.

How did Grey Chain Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great. We had a Skype and Slack channel. They’re very responsive. They always kept me up to date on when we have versions to test.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have quite a few tech vendors, but Grey Chain Technology stands out with its customer service. They always wanted to improve themselves and their work. They went well above and beyond with their commitment to us and our project.

They also offer a 90-day support period, which is very unique in the industry. We really appreciate that, because although we haven’t encountered issues yet, we know they’re there if we need them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did everything we ask for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Dr.Randhawa’s Institute of Ultrasound Training ,an institute dedicated to teaching and training in diagnostic medical sonography.The Institute was established in year 2000 and has thousands of alumni all across the globe. It is affiliated to Jefferson Ultrasound and Radiology efucation Institute,Jefferson University Hospital,USA.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain Technology?

We were looking for e learning solutions for our online classes for national and international students and decided to finally get an app developed for mobile as well as a website for e learning.

What were your goals for this project?

To get an easy to operate simple and smooth functioning app to facilitate distance learning.

SOLUTION

How did you select Grey Chain Technology?

Searching and researching over the internet and then personal interaction with the team

Describe the project in detail.

After a lot of research and deliberation I chose Grey Chain technologies as app developers for developing distance learning app for my Institution. I was very apprehensive in the beginning as being a doctor I had minimum technical knowledge related to this .However,in my first interaction only with the team my fears were allayed . It was a smooth ride thereafter

What was the team composition?

There were five members of the team with whom we interacted although I understand there were many more behind the scenes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Currently the app is working fine and smooth and has remarkably eased out our work

What did you find most impressive about this company?

One of the most hard-working, focussed, and cooperative team I have come across till date. Very accommodating,honest and dedicated to give their best.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a gender-based violence and emergencies specialist for a nonprofit that is dedicated to advancing women’s and children’s rights portfolio. I work specifically in relation to humanitarian response. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grey Chain Technology?

We had recently developed some guidance for working in very intense situations, either conflicted-affected settings or at international natural disasters. That guidance was related to dealing with disclosure of gender-based violence and in many cases, referral services weren’t available to help a person. It was initially in written form, but we asked Grey Chain Technology to integrate it into a mobile phone application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Essentially, the scope of work was to take the content that had already been developed and put it into a mobile phone application. What we were looking for there was having it as accessible as possible, and as immediate as possible. That’s why one of the features that we really needed was for it to be available online and offline, so even if a person doesn't have WiFi or mobile network, they could still access the app.

Once an end-user downloads it, there would be a few different menu options, and people could review the content of our booklet. There was another option with a help button that took end-users through a decision tree for ways to respond in the most appropriate manner.

It was initially launched in English, but then it got such huge demand around COVID-19. As a result, we recently released up to eight languages now. They’ve been doing additional individual languages and it’s still ongoing. 

What is the team composition?

I mainly interacted with Grey Chain Technology’s owner or director. Then, at different points, he assigned different colleagues to work on the project. In total, I collaborated with around five people, including a project manager. 

How did you come to work with Grey Chain Technology?

In the beginning, we got hooked up with the great team. They had done some work for an internal rescue committee previously and they were quite happy with the team’s work.

Then, we had some initial conversations about what we were looking for. Grey Chain Technology came back to us with what they thought they could do with some different options. We selected the one that felt like it was going to work best.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement ran from May 2018–September 2020.  The newer language versions started in April 2020 and they really worked fast on those. We released the first four in September.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our experience had been incredibly positive and end-users liked the app because it was easy to use. The app was functional even without a great connection. Colleagues were always excited and grateful to have the resource any time we introduce it to them.

The demand for additional languages also speaks to their work, and we do have some analytics about it. As we were going through the process of having the new language versions produced as well, they help us developed some more sophisticated analytics, but that was a piece I haven’t been as directly involved in.

How did Grey Chain Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

Once we had agreed on the terms of the collaboration and what the deliverables would be, we regularly kept in touch via phone and mail. They were incredibly efficient and I couldn’t think of a time where they didn’t deliver on time. The vast majority of their work had been delivered earlier than they promised.

They were just great to work with and the team was very thoughtful. Grey Chain Technology was proactive with communication and I just loved working with them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Even though it was clear that they had a lot on their plate all the time, they made us feel like we were a top priority client. They were always been available for last-minute calls even though the time difference was significant. We really appreciated that they kept in touch even in the middle of the night and they never made us feel we were inconveniencing them. Overall, their sense of customer service had been really impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, I don’t have anything that comes to mind in that regard. Perhaps, it may be because I wasn’t quite hands-on with all of the project’s steps to have observed that. I really can’t come up with anything that I will ask them to do differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Return the level of commitment they have with feedback, turnaround times, and more. They will definitely keep the project on track, so if you uphold your side, you’re going to come out the way that you’ve agreed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a child protection officer at UNICEF Cambodia. We have different programs to support children, including child protection emergency response.

We work to promote the healthy development of children, to defend their rights, and to help them fulfill their potential from early childhood to adolescence.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grey Chain Technology?

The coronavirus pandemic has been a challenge for the mental health of both children and their parents.

Since we couldn’t meet in person to offer support, we adapted our program to Facebook and Telegram groups. We also developed a mobile application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Grey Chain Technology developed the local version of an Android and iOS app that provides key information on gender-based violence (GBV) to our frontline workers. There was an existing English version of the app, which we translated to the Khmer language.

What is the team composition?

I had one main point of contact that coordinated the rest of the team.

How did you come to work with Grey Chain Technology?

They’d worked with a branch of our organization from another country.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost was around $2,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Grey Chain Technology between November–December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Khmer is a complicated language to work with, and the reason we went through multiple iterations. The specific Unicode is very difficult to implement on iOS. Grey Chain Technology was very supportive during this process.

We tested the app with many people in our team, and we found that it’s good in terms of translation quality.

How did Grey Chain Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

Email was the main communication method, and we also had Zoom and Skype calls to explain things in more detail.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Even when there was a lack of support from our side, their team quickly addressed any challenges we had.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they were very good.