Ingage Partners

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a former project manager at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. We were a disability services department, and I worked for a program called Project SEARCH. This program helped young people with developmental disabilities train and prepare for employment. The program started at Project SEARCH but grew into many different hospitals and other types of businesses. It was headquartered at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and we managed all those other program sites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingage Partners?

We had about 800 program sites worldwide and needed help with the database and tracking outcomes in all those different program sites. We wanted to improve data entry and make it user-friendly and engaging, and that was the main goal: to make it a helpful tool for users to find everything they needed and to make the member portal a place where they wanted to go on a daily or weekly basis so that users receive reminders of their data entry.
Our big goal was to get all our program sites to enter their data. We had a crude database, and our other materials were scattered in different places like Dropbox folders. We had 3–4 different places where we had different materials. The website and the database were on different websites. We wanted to consolidate everything, so we went to Ingage Partners and said we wanted one-stop shopping for everybody to go to one spot to find everything they needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We've created a public Webflow website linked to a private login space. The private member-only space has been for people who have had licensed program sites with us because we've licensed our program model. We've had a website where people could log in, enter data, and access the materials we created for the program.

Ingage Partners' core work is the platform. The database has been SQL, and the interface has been a template. They've used different templates over the years.

What is the team composition?

Initially, we had a bigger team because we were kicking things off. We had a head developer, a few junior developers, and a scrum master who kept everything going in the initial build. By the end, the main person we've worked with has been Tony, director of employee engagement. When we started, he was a software developer and has kept that role with us. He has had a junior who has done much of the nitty-gritty work.

How did you come to work with Ingage Partners?

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is an organization, and getting approval to work with vendors is difficult. There are approved vendors, and Ingage Partners has already been approved at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. We've had other software developers who have also been approved vendors. We had a little job post and interviewed 2–3 vendors. We narrowed it down to a couple and engaged with one. We had interviews with them, our team, and their team, and we liked Ingage Partners.

We had a lot of materials that people would use to implement the program model. We wanted to promote communication and model fidelity and encourage them to enter their data so we could track our program outcomes. We had a relationship with Deloitte and Touche (now Deloitte) with people interested in our program model, and they donated some brainstorming time. We ended up with a document with the requirements for the system, and that was the starting point we handed to engage with Ingage Partners.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $200,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in January 2016 and is still ongoing. It has gone through different phases, and we were in phase six when I left.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The program has been implemented all over the US and different countries worldwide. When I left, 99% of the program sites would enter their data. That has been huge. Before this database, it was about 80%, and we always had to do fancy statistics to account for missing data.

How did Ingage Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

They've met deadlines, and we've used Trello. We haven't always been within budget, but they've been close. In the early days, we had in-person meetings all the time, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, we've used Google Meet and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We've worked with them for so long that they feel like an extension of our team. I worked with Tony for so long that he felt part of the family. I felt like I could call or text him.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We would have additional team members who were younger and moved around more. They were more fluid and got put on different projects. We would always have a big project where we would build some new features. There was a bit of tension in that after building a big feature; we wanted to take a break and be in maintenance mode for a while to let things settle out and have time to decide what we wanted to do next.

Sometimes, I felt like Ingage Partners’ schedule was driving our timing. They would say that if we wanted to keep a person we trained to understand our system, we needed to start our next big project. Otherwise, they would get put on a different project, and we would lose them. That felt like there was some pressure on us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with Tony. He’s the best.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director IT Business Analysis of Wright Patt Credit Union

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a credit union offering a wide range of financial services to members across Ohio.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ingage Partners to accomplish?

• identify areas of improvement for our Business Analysis team
• staff augmentation for SQA team

SOLUTION

How did you find Ingage Partners?

already an established vendor relationship

Why did you select Ingage Partners over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Ingage Partners were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The consultant, Laura Bachmeyer, joined our team with the goal of reviewing our current project processes from the BA perspective, assess opportunities for efficiencies and work with our team to implement improvements.  During the span of her engagement, she worked closely with the BA team as well as our PMO team and other IT teams.  As a result of her work, we implemented more streamlined processes for requirements documentation, created timelines around deliverables for providing the various types of requirement documents, current/future process maps, and other project related deliverables.  She expanded our knowledge of Microsoft office tools that augment and improve our processes.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• collaborated with the PMO and their consulting firm to align process between both teams
• identify current state for BA team...deliverables, collaboration techniques, project reviews, documentation approaches
• define improvement strategies and opportunities for the BA Team
• define roles and responsibilites more clearly
• identify key initiatives and dependencies
• develp and deploy overall implementation plan supported by change management techniques

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Laura was very hands on.  She includes myself and my manager in all processes and decisions.  She guided the team through several group exercises, making it clear this was their team and their voice was very important.  She shared her plan and kept the team on track, delivering on time.  She was receptive to our environment, helping to guide our team through implementation of our process improvements.  

What was your primary form of communication with Ingage Partners?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Ingage Partners is a community-centric company whose goals align closely with ours.  We have a great relationship with Leslie.  She is available and responsive.  On an individual level, she interacts very easily with my team and others on the IT team.  

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

I'm sure there are always areas to improve, but at this time, the interactions I have with Ingage are top notch.  Leslie and others are very responsive and always seem to understand what we are looking for.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager for a children's hospital. I work in the Department of Disability Services for a program that oversees and supports a workforce training program model for young adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities worldwide. We provide training and technical assistance and support to sites in 48 states and 11 countries, so we have approximately 800 program sites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingage Partners?

We needed help to build an online member portal and a public website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have tasked Ingage Partners with two development projects. The first is to design and develop our online member portal, which is password-protected and is a resources hub exclusive to members. It contains all updated materials and information related to the training programs.

In fact, the portal provides data about who is involved with each program and the interns related to them, their demographics, what internships they go through over the course of the academic year, and what jobs they get when they complete the program. It’s basically a two-way street: We provide information to our teams, and they provide information to us through this online portal.

In terms of the behind-the-scenes for the member portal, we use many different plug-ins. The team presents different looks and wireframes and explains what we need to provide in this section, how we want it to look and feel, and how we want it to function for our users. This is how we decide on design and functionality.

The second development project Ingage Partners helps us with is developing our public website. We’ve used WordPress for that and are now transitioning to a different platform.

Regarding hosting, it's worth noting that our member portal is hosted on our secure server at the hospital, so Ingage Partners works with the hospital to ensure everything, especially the data we collect, is secure. We’re also working with several countries, so we must meet different countries’ data protection policies. We have done huge strategic planning pieces with the team over the years.

To sum up, we have two different contracts with them. We have a development contract for the member portal and public website and a support contract, which merely deals with maintenance. This way, the team helps maintain the platforms we’ve developed with them.

What is the team composition?

It has varied. We have anywhere from 2–4 people assigned to our projects at any given time. We have worked with QA, UI, and UX people, developers, and scrum leaders. It just depends on what part of the project is active.

How did you come to work with Ingage Partners?

We found them through a local event in Cincinnati and have been working with them since 2017. My company chose them because they are an organization that gives back to the community, just like us. Their motto and mission match ours.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2017, and the engagement is ongoing. We almost always have some projects active with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ingage Partners has successfully delivered the member portal and website. We have 784 active program sites right now that all require using the member portal.

We collect data on probably 5,000 interns annually, which means collecting their demographics and information about their internship experience. We have managed to register what jobs they get, and then we can track them long-term. This year, we have about 5,000 interns. The program grows every year. Besides, the team has helped us redo all of our employment data collection section, which can be helpful for our 7,000 users.

The member portal has centralized hundreds of user guidance documents, including our curriculum and toolkit documents. The portal now integrates various features and plug-ins, such as online staff training, on-demand videos for people to watch, a calendar of events, and a video library that uses a YouTube plug-in to curate videos that adequately represent our program.

Moreover, the solution has successfully integrated a reporting feature with 11 pre-designed reports. This way, people can fill in their information for what sites they want to use and pull out those reports in either a PDF or an Excel. We have a chat board on there, but as I said, we’re transitioning to a different platform right now.

How did Ingage Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management has been wonderful, and the team communicates well with us. For example, when we ask our staff to look at different tracking dashboards with the current intern training work, the team develops and customizes every single dashboard. We've never had this project management style before, and it’s been huge.

We have a very good working relationship with Ingage Partners. We communicate via email and Trello boards, which we use to track our support contract. We also use Google Meet to hold meetings once or twice a week. Apart from that, we sometimes use text messages and phone calls.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I’d like to give a shout-out to Tony, the director, who has been working with us since the beginning. I also want to give a shout-out to Alyssa, who is a developer.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their biggest strength is customizing our platform to meet users' needs. We have multiple user strands, and the team has created something that really works for our program. It’s not like anything else in our field. This has been the best part of their work.

Furthermore, Ingage Partners hasn't given us an inside-the-box or cookie-cutter approach with which we must work. We’ve customized every piece of our deliverables with them, which has been great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t name anything they should change now. Everything is going smoothly. If things have slowed down, it has been due to us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be ready to make decisions quickly in order to keep the process moving. You need to be prepared to look at something, make decisions, and do not backtrack, so you don't make Ingage Partners redo work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital ministry solutions for a multi-site megachurch.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingage Partners?

We needed help with custom development, QA analysis, and automation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ingage Partners provides us with custom development, QA, and automation services. They've built our finance system from scratch, integrating our product with our business ledger product to get all the financial data into our general ledger. Ingage Partners has also provided us with ongoing development using Java and C++, including configuration within our product.

Ingage Partners has two automation testers and one manual tester. The manual tester does 99% of our manual testing, and the two automation testers will write automated scripts for us to run continuously against our database.

They also provide product managers. One of them is working on a large project right now for volunteer check-in, but it impacts all nine of our campuses and every single ministry that works on the weekend, which is most of them. It's an enormous rollout, and they're probably halfway through it now. We're hoping to go live in March.

Ingage Partners is leading everything from all the decisions that need to be made and getting them to agree, as well as what the product configuration is going to look like, how we're going to use it, and what the processes are going to be; a lot of change management and communication.

What is the team composition?

We work with seven people from Ingage Partners, including two product managers, three QA testers, one developer, and an operations manager who leads the operations side of our product, which is any ongoing ministry because we repeat our rhythms every year.

The operations team is responsible for the ongoing ministry maintenance and supporting them with our year-over-year rhythms and ensuring all the setup is there, that the system is up and running, that we're keeping the data clean, and that we're making minor iterative improvements year-over-year.

How did you come to work with Ingage Partners?

I wasn't at the company when they were hired.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent between $7 million–$12 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

They had been working with us for about eight years, but we started this project in March 2023, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ingage Partners has helped us successfully convert 60,000 users from one platform to another in two days. Since then, we've only made little adjustments to that product.

How did Ingage Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

Ingage Partners is good at project management. They update us on what's going on, the roadblocks, and where they're headed. We use Asana and Slack for project management and Zoom for meetings.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

We want to give a shout-out to Angie. She requires almost no oversight and only comes to us when she hits a roadblock or needs us to work on something higher in the organization that she can't do as a contractor.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their management team is impressive. They're good at keeping in touch with us and having regularly scheduled meetings to check in. They're always open to feedback and willing to work through any issues. We have open, honest conversations with them about really everything.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's nothing we can come up with. I have nothing but good feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don't be afraid to say no to people and ask for a different resource. Lean on the management team because they're there to help you and guide you to the right resources.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior staff software engineer at GE Aerospace. I lead QA software testing and automation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingage Partners?

We needed a resource partner. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ingage Partners provides us with staff augmentation and consulting services. We have a surge capacity contract with them, so when we’re developing or enhancing custom software and applications, and we need to bring on developers, Scrum Masters, software testers, or automation engineers for our internal projects, they help us with that need.

Ingage Partners also has an apprenticeship program where we bring in people just entering the IT career for the first time. We've coached them and prepared them for the work we need. They have been happy to engage in our needs and have done a great job.

Most of the resources we've gotten from Ingage Partners have been QA and software testing engineers. Every once in a while, we've also gotten a software developer or a Scrum Master who has helped manage the teams and assisted them with their Agile implementation.
We've both recouped resources at the same time. Then they've interviewed them, and because they're the preferred vendor, they could offer a job at Ingage Partners to work at GE from day one. Sometimes, we've interviewed full-time consultants, and the other hires have been contracted hires, and there has been the incentive for them to work hard in the hopes that they get hired directly. 

What is the team composition?

We have nine different resources from Ingage Partners working here at GE. Over the years, we’ve worked with over 30 people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced a drop in resources, and then we could bring back some.

How did you come to work with Ingage Partners?

My manager at the time had a relationship with one of the co-founders of Ingage Partners. It started as a word-of-mouth referral. They’re a reputable B Corp company in Cincinnati and do a lot for the community. They’re employee-owned, so they definitely shine on that side.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They've taken care of all of our Ingage Partners resources. They've come in eager to work at GE and brought their A-game daily. They have exceeded our expectations this year. I’ve had nothing but praise from all the managers, teammates, and colleagues who've worked with us on different projects at GE.

Ingage Partners helps us deliver better software every day and develop better applications. Our projects have been accomplished on time and on track. We’ve had a longstanding relationship, which has been beneficial, and it’s definitely ongoing; they've been high on my praise list. We can shuffle the same resources to different projects as needed.

How did Ingage Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

Most teams have been remote, depending on the team and how the management has been led. Sometimes, they meet once or twice a week in person, and sometimes, they do it once a quarter to plan and engage. Their services have been seamlessly and easily integrated into our business operations. For example, our developer—we brought him for his skill set—has done his work, and Ingage Partners has charged us for his time at our company. 

They've understood our business and that sometimes getting resources in the door of a big global company like GE takes time. Our partnership has helped us evaluate resources quickly, assess them, and fully onboard them quickly. It’s been really hassle-free with Ingage Partners.

They've been really good about getting well-prepared and vetted people in. We've used Rally for project management and ticketing. We've communicated through email, Zoom, Google Meet, phone calls, and SAP as CRM and database to see the workers' profiles.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ingage Partners has done an outstanding job behind the scenes in continuing to mentor their resources. They've provided many training opportunities and helped GE's resources be well-informed and feel supported. For a smaller company, they do that really well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing they can improve on. They should continue to do what they’re doing to support their resources. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be yourself. You don’t have to be perfect. Just be honest about where you’re at and ask questions, and you’ll do great.