Icreon

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and owner of Work, Train, Fight. We're a unique company. People call us a gym, but we're really a boxing/spring training facility. We use boxing as the main cardio modality and combine it with strength training. We do that for personal training as well as small and large group settings. At the same time, we rent space to the fitness industry. For example, personal trainers and overall fitness instructors pay us to work out of our facility. That's what we do, instead of hiring trainers, giving them clients, and paying them directly. It's almost a barbershop type of deal, but one where the barbers rent the chairs instead.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

The very first time I approached Icreon, I was looking to eliminate paperwork in our business. I realized we were using actual papers for nonstop waivers and sign-in sheets. Storage was a mess. We couldn't find or track anything. I was also trying to do the right thing for the environment since I'm a big animal lover. Once we got a taste of the tech bug, I realized the possibilities. When we were developing the first app, we continued moving to what's next. How else can I make my business easier? How can I make this business plug-and-play for the employees? I was personally not satisfied with the fitness software that was out there. The existing third-party software did not seem to fit my unique business model. You could tell the other ones weren't built by fitness professionals. They were built by software engineers who saw a gap in the market. They truly didn't know everything, the A to Z that was needed in the fitness industry.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our very first software with Icreon focused on replacing paperwork with a virtual system. We still use that iPad app today. They used either Ruby or PHP for that. We went to a much bigger project then. I asked them to create a Work, Train, Fight software with our own app, not a third-party app. The software had to be visually appealing and customized to the fitness industry. It allowed us to do many things with marketing, such as offering promotions that would only show up one time and vanish. The system doesn't allow the user to use the same promotion constantly. It also allowed us to offer monthly recurring packages or memberships. Our system included details that were specific to the fitness industry, like where the waiver should show up, and the ease of creating an account. This project is big because now it's an app with a front-end and a back-end. It stores credit cards and rings up everybody at the first of the month. The system also manages packages, tracks accounts, and makes the checks all at the same time.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

We found Icreon using a typical Google search. I then called them to make an appointment. Before I went to their office for the first time, I went through their website. It seemed like everything they were doing was clean, sexy, and smart at the same time. That's something I take a strong approach to with our training procedures, from lights to the trainer themselves. Being smart, being confident, and looking good are important. I wanted our software to take the same approach. I spoke to a few different companies and met with them. But, once I met with Icreon, it was smooth. They understood it. After meeting with them, it's as if we immediately started.

How much have you invested with Icreon?

We have invested $50,000 to $200,000 with Icreon.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we started working with them in the summer of 2010. Our app was launched in January of 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Thanks to Icreon's first software project, it is now extremely easy for us to find waivers and sign-in sheets. We just log into the app and search as it's stored in our black space. It made everything quicker, cleaner, and more organized. It also improved our user experience. Our clients were like, "Wow, this place is legit." At first, Icreon's second project looks similar to what's already out there. In my eyes, it was death by a hundred blows that made a difference. It provided tons of small things the other software didn't. It might not seem like much, but something as simple as having our name in there instead of a third-party app – that branding makes us look stronger.

One of the biggest impacts of our engagement is that it allowed me to sleep at night. Because of the software, our Bootcamp revenue stream is now bigger. When I first opened this location, I was almost strictly renting space to personal trainers. As we began developing our own classes and personal training, we knew that was the real following. Once the app was completed, we were allowed to market ourselves and do whatever we wanted with promotions and sales. Previously, the Bootcamp earning stream was at 15 percent of our business. Now, it's 70 percent of our business. Our revenue stream for Bootcamps was about $4,000 a month. Within three months of the launch of our technology, it went to $19,000 a month. It's allowed us to open more locations.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

If there was a problem with project management, it was my fault. I was always adding stuff. There were never any issues regarding guidelines. It was nice to work with different people with different perspectives in regards to the software. Meetings were smooth and consistent.

What did you find most impressive about Icreon?

I think what set them apart was their ability to make technology functional and sexy. It was nice working with them because, sometimes, you work with people who have limited imaginations. I never felt like that with Icreon. You say something crazy, and they say, "Yes. Of course, we can do that."

Are there any areas Icreon could improve?

No, as I said, the biggest obstacle was my brain constantly jumping in with ideas.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder of this company, which is a leading provider of software for the compliance automation industry. We work with real estate owners, managers, tenants, and other people who work in the industry. Our services target those who are interested in compliance for buildings. This includes violations, inspections, complaints, and the like. We provide software for people who own, operate and inhabit buildings, helping them comply with the local law. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

When we first started our company, I wanted to round out a development team with people outside the US. I have a background in software development. For most of my 20-year career, I have managed programmers in hybrid teams of onshore and offshore resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborate with Icreon in order to create software. Icreon's team of core engineers and developers has worked alongside our internal team every single day. Icreon is involved to some degree in the majority of projects that we tackle. There have also been times when we would use a certain expertise or team from Icreon for consultation. In certain cases, we've been able to go outside of our core arrangement.

For example, we did that when we were looking at some server migration or database re-architecting projects. We asked for experts which we could bring in for short periods of time. They helped cover knowledge gaps and provided a different point of view. Most companies interact with developers on a project basis, like asking them to build a particular website. In contrast, Icreon operates as an extension of our core tech team. It has been fantastic. We got to know them as humans. We share work with Icreon, have code reviews and so on. Icreon is a great place for providing this.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

In my background of working with third-party technology companies, I've seen a tradeoff. It’s a choice between huge companies which have deep benches and amazing reputations, and the tiny dev shops which have unproven quality. A small startup like ours would become just a number for a large developer. That means we would not have direct access to the resources that ensures our projects are on time and within scope. Oftentimes, large companies are also expensive.

On the other hand, a small shop may not have a track record or client list which we can use for references. We went through a very extensive process of identifying the right partner. We interviewed dozens of companies, gave them requests for proposal, and evaluated them. From all of the candidates, Icreon was the clear winner.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship with Icreon. We started working with them 5 to 6 years ago. We work in a possibly unique arrangement since, for the greater part of 6 years, we have had staff in their office. They act as an extension of our team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

When we started working with Icreon, our company had 5 employees. We used one of their full-time resources for overflow work. Over the years, that one resource has turned into 24 people from Icreon rounding out our team. They handle the deep day-to-day project management. I don't have a specific success story, but the proof is in the pudding. Our company has grown and our interaction with Icreon has grown. They've become an important part of our ability to deliver reliable software to customers.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

We had to communicate software skills across multiple teams, projects, and resources. Not only did we need to deliver software on time and within budget, but we also needed to integrate our project management with theirs. We're an Agile shop which uses scrum methodologies, and we're heavy users of Jira. We're not using any specific project management tools to oversee our relationship with Icreon. Rather, we use the tools to develop good software.

Icreon participates in our daily scrum calls and standup meetings. They're working with the same project management tools and are partnered with our internal developers.  We have a team in our office and a team outside of our office. These teams have to manage projects together using good Agile practices. Icreon also provides 24/7 support when there is a need to track issues, fix bugs, and so on. Having a New York shift and an India shift has been an advantage.

What did you find most impressive about Icreon?

When working with any vendor or partner, there needs to be a trusting relationship. Trying to find the sweet spot between a huge company that would treat us as a number, and a tiny one which isn't qualified, was a challenge. Icreon was in a very particular sweet spot, and they continue to remain there. They have a combination of experience and a large-enough dev shop that allows them to effectively cover many different disciplines. Icreon also has mid-range pricing, on par with the level of expertise brought to the table.

This sweet spot was critical to creating a successful project, in my point of view. Icreon is large and experienced enough to meet our very complicated needs. At the same time, they are also small enough to have c-level executives reachable by phone. We have conversations about specific project concerns and we also have great conversations from one executive to another. This made Icreon feel like a family. We're able to go beyond day-to-day interactions and work with their management team.

Are there any areas Icreon could improve?

There’s a constant area of improvement over which we've had discussions with Icreon. It’s not because they do a bad job, it's just a general part of engineering success. They need to improve the way large software teams across 2 different companies can communicate and collaborate.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Icreon?

Here’s my advice to other people who are embarking on projects using dev shops. Make sure that they dot their i's, cross their t's, and constantly focus on how to connect the dots. They have to provide as much information, planning, and expectation alignment as possible. Icreon has been extremely receptive to being my partner, in this regard. I'm definitely a hands-on client, and Icreon has welcomed this. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an educational technology company focused on reducing or replacing costly textbooks. We work primarily within the K-12 segment, but also within higher education. Our company was founded 5 years ago after our founders saw a disconnect between the potential that the iPad offered and the resources actually available for it. I'm the director of marketing and chief operating officer. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

We needed development resources for our software. Hiring technical staff internally wasn't going to be possible, which meant we had to go out and find an external supplier with the various skills we needed to deliver a custom solution. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In working with Icreon, we developed a 2-part system consisting of a content management platform for teachers, and apps for iOS, Android, Chrome and the web. Icreon also designed our website using Drupal and provided management for it.

We have uploaded and sorted high-quality educational resources which teachers can mix and match. They can also upload their own material and create textbook replacement courses which are pushed out to the student apps. Our content can be downloaded to local storage and synced for offline use. Even though they're moving to the online world, many schools' Wi-Fi isn't up to speed. It's hard to watch movies and download material, so even though a lot of great content was available, teachers and students couldn't consume it. By being able to download the material, users could have access to it anywhere, in and out of the school.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

Figuring out which team worked best for us was a long process. Our co-founders interviewed 3 different firms found on the web, and gave each one a 2-month test project. They loved working with Icreon and found the work delivered to be the best.

How much have you invested with Icreon?

The cost of Icreon's services has been around $300,000 per year. Some years may be higher if we're building a new app.

What is the status of this engagement?

We work with Icreon through a monthly retainer which includes the management of all our apps. We have commissioned Icreon for one-off projects for the development of our apps and management platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our goal as a company is to empower teachers to offer the content that their classroom needs. Each case will be a bit different, so we wanted to be as flexible as possible. We have close to 5,000 teachers on our platform and around 6,000 courses which have been created and used. There are close to 20,000 resources available, which we've always tried to pare down. We want to offer the best resources possible and make them easily searchable. All the items that we offer are sorted and tagged by grade, subject, course standards, and type of media.

We've tried to maintain constant communication between the teachers using our platform and the project managers at Icreon, allowing them to give feed-back directly in some cases. Icreon has done a fantastic job at working with both technical and non-technical staff, explaining complex issues in layman's terms.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

Something which I appreciated about Icreon is the transparency which they offered for the work being done and any problems that came up. In the educational space, there is an incredible amount of nuances which wouldn't be evident unless someone is deep in that space. Icreon did a great job of doing a deep dive and understanding what teachers and students actually needed, giving us clear estimates for how long any task would take. There are many standards that need to be achieved for a product to be used in a school. This wasn't something that Icreon had had experience with in the past, so we learned the process together. The fact that we were able to talk to Icreon about this helped our project management.

We used did use a project management tool but I forgot the exact name. It was invaluable and definitely helped us manage their involvement. 

What did you find most impressive about Icreon?

Icreon has done a good job at managing multiple projects at once. They are in charge of our website, our content management system, as well as 5 different apps which all need maintenance and updates. Icreon has made sure that all our bases were covered. They want the best for their clients. Our previous website, for instance, was horribly outdated. Our co-founder didn't see it as a priority, but Icreon understood that our site was how teachers first made an impression about our company. They pushed our co-founder, explaining that it would impact sales and growth. We were able to develop a wonderful website as a result.

Are there any areas Icreon could improve?

Timelines got pushed back at times, but this critique is true for any educational development project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our business is a logistics and home delivery company. The scope of service includes last-mile delivery for furniture companies, assembly work for fitness installs, and point-to-point courier services.

What is your position?

I am the senior manager of integrations. I work on the software side, handling development requirements, and migrations from legacy systems, as well as client data integration. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

We have a legacy software system, which we are looking to move away from. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Icreon first duty was to handle the maintenance of our legacy system, which had been developed by a different team years ago and taken over by our company after an acquisition. Icreon became familiar with the system and has been maintaining it for over 3 years.

We decided to build our own solution in-house and decided to have Icreon help us build the software. They handled requirements gathering, business analysis, and other tasks, spearheading the initial process as well as the development.

Our platforms are order management systems for internal and external users. Clients send delivery orders that are viewed internally and assigned by dispatchers to different carriers and assembly technicians. The client can then log into their systems, view orders, and track them.

Our legacy system has been built using .NET. The newer software we have been developing is a mix of Java and other technologies.

I don't know what the exact size of our team from Icreon was. We interacted directly with Icreon project manager as well as having a manager internally.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The scope of our project with Icreon was in the $2 million range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2013. Our relationship with Icreon has transitioned since we were acquired by another organization. They have taken on Icreon as another development resource for our internal systems. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

One of the biggest strengths of Icreon has been taking our business context into account and considering the wide range of users who will not be interested in the technical side of things. I appreciated the end-to-end of the requirements gathering done by Icreon and being able to come in and meet with a technical person while also getting into the lowest end of our needs as dispatchers and customer service representatives.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

Icreon has been on track and organized, which is another thing that struck me from the start about their company. We used JIRA for project management and Unfuddle for systems support. Icreon used GitHub in order to check in code. Icreon was very flexible in terms of the tools to be used for the project.

What distinguishes Icreon from other providers?

I appreciated Icreon's ability to work with all parts of our business and understanding our context. Icreon has also been good at working with other development partners and vendors. Prior to our acquisition, all of our development was done through third parties, so collaborating with other teams and connecting disparate parts of the business was a piece that impressed me about Icreon.

Is there anything Icreon could have improved or done differently?

No. Icreon has gone the extra mile in assisting us. During the Labor Day weekend two years ago [2014], which is an important period for our business, there were auto-email installations that broke in the middle of the night. Icreon stepped into the system and manually sent our 3,000 or so emails. This happened with our old system, which Icreon inherited. They have tried to improve it as possible, keeping it running even though it hadn't been built or documented well, coming from a mom-and-pop shop. We've had some hiccups like this one, but Icreon has always been there for us. Their level of attention and contact has always been amazing to me.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do.

The company manufactures different fabrics and textiles. I was the technology manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

We initially needed Drupal development resources for our digital presence. We have an informational website with no transaction capabilities. Additionally, we were trying to do a better job of streamlining our digital marketing and branding by simplifying the content management portion of the website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Icreon built our website in Drupal. They were also tasked with an intranet integration using CakePHP, with a MySQL backend. It was run on an Apache server with UNIX.

The size of the team from Icreon varied depending on our needs, but I always had availability to at least 4-10 developers. We had 2 lead developers, one for CakePHP.

Beyond the pure execution, their team was involved in the Information Architecture, wire-framing, design direction & deployment of our new systems. They’ve also provided continued support for both our platforms.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

I was familiar with Icreon and knew their work ethic. There were people that I trusted there, which gave me some comfort in the sense that I knew who I was dealing with.

Our scope of engagement was gradual. We initially started working on a small retainer project together, and over time, we worked on larger and larger projects together based on the fact that our business had a number of digital projects we needed to complete

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total cost of Icreon services was up to $350,000 when I left the company.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Icreon 2 years ago. Icreon still has a relationship with the company since the website, intranet & API stack went live.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We had been talking with another agency for developing our website, who told us they could complete the discovery process for it under a tight 8-week timeframe. We needed to complete it within 4 weeks to meet our original project plan. Icreon stepped in and had a solid performance and was able to deliver the work wire-framing work in the given 4-week timeframe.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

Icreon used Basecamp as a generic project management system and Unfuddle as a ticket tracking tool. Internally, our company used SharePoint.

Regarding scope changes, we always had a set of back-and-forth discussions in terms of managing timeline and any scope creep-age. Any scope creep-age was on our end. For their part, Icreon was on time and responsive. They did what was needed in order to complete the project at the end of the day. I was constantly kept in touch with around 10 people from Icreon.

What distinguishes Icreon from other providers?

Icreon Tech will always emphasize the product over the process. It’s not that they’re not process driven – but whether it was a milestone, a key executive presentation or a pressing business date, they stressed about getting things live based on our business constraints. Communication was always free-flowing and agile. It was comfortable to work with them.

Is there anything Icreon could have improved or done differently?

There were slight amounts of attrition within our project. It wasn't because of staff turnover, but rather decisions made by Icreon to assign more experienced people to our team for components of the project that were unusually challenging.