Intellias

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive for an AR startup; we create an augmented consultancy system to convey information between consultants and clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We are a relatively small startup with limited resources and changing requirements, so we engaged Intellias to provide valuable technical resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Since engaging Intellias, they’ve provided us with two technical resources to help with our development initiatives. Their resources have collaborated closely with our developers and become integral team members. We didn’t have much documentation to start with, but they worked with our clients to define the requirements and create extensive development documentation. The Intellias developers have built our web application's frontend, a windows-based AR system. We’ve taken care of the designs, and they’ve helped us implement them using an Electron framework, JavaScript, and React. Although they’ve assisted us with web development, the system doesn’t run as a web service; it runs locally on our proprietary hardware.

Currently, we’re only working with one frontend developer from Intellias because we onboarded more developers internally. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two frontend developers from Intellias. 

How did you come to work with Intellias? 

Our company started working with Intellias before I joined, so I’m not sure how we initially came to work with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested roughly 200,000 francs (approximately $200,000 USD) in the partnership with Intellias. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with Intellias since 2020 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we’ve integrated the Intellias resources directly into our team, it’s difficult to quantify the impact they’ve had. However, they’ve shared their strong frontend development expertise and brought great value to the project. We’ve really enjoyed working with them; they’ve been kind, reliable, and available partners. Our current developer from Intellias has fulfilled all our expectations so far, and he’s been a huge help to the team. Recently, he did outstanding work to help us reach a milestone that secured funding for the remainder of the project, so we’ve been very happy with the results.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

Even though we’ve been responsible for managing the project, our developers from Intellias have met deadlines and communicated effectively. Any time we’ve approached them with a suggestion, they’ve made it happen quickly, which I’ve really appreciated. They’ve met our expectations and been an excellent partner. We’ve operated in a scrum environment and used Jira to manage tasks. We’ve met for daily stand-ups and communicated regularly via Microsoft Teams, email, and Jira comments. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been impressed by how remarkably the Intellias team has conducted business during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. They’ve maintained open communication, and we haven’t seen any significant business impacts. They’ve handled the situation admirably well. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing Intellias could improve on; we’ve been happy with their work thus far.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO of a pan-European debt collection company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

IT is an extremely important component of our business. We can spend 40, 20, or 90 cents to collect €1 (approximately $1 USD), and our performance depends on how secure we feel when we buy new debt portfolios for banks. We needed extremely competitive IT, but it wasn’t within our business line, which is fintech and financial services. Therefore, we decided to outsource our IT.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intellias provides us with IT and development services. We’ve outsourced most IT management positions to them, and they’ve found teammates with experience in fintech and financial services for us. The team provides IT engineering and helps us with strategic planning, process standardization, and our enterprise architecture. They’re helping us with around 15 projects. 

Our company has moved into six countries, and the team has helped us deal with legacy IT networks and apps. They’re helping us aim for standardization and unification of networks and tools and are moving us into the cloud. We have niche vendors that provide collection systems in different counties, and Intellias is involved in implementing these systems. They help us communicate with vendors and drive these projects for us. 

Additionally, we’re developing our own product to find tech companies, and Intellias is building this product. 

What is the team composition?

We have various teams from Intellias working on different projects. So far, we’ve worked with engineers, business analysts, project managers, service delivery managers, and an enterprise architect. 

How did you come to work with Intellias?

I knew them from a previous job. Although I hadn’t worked with them back then, they participated in tenders for IT market benchmarks, and I remembered them as a very relevant provider. When we opened this company, I contacted Intellias. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent up to €3 million (approximately $2.9 million USD). We spent around €900,000 (approximately $873,000 USD) in 2021, and we’ll spend another €2.5 million (approximately $2.4 million USD) by the end of 2022. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started discussions in June 2021 and our work together around August 2021. Our engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started our company about 15 months ago, so it’s too early to speak about quantitative results. However, my success metric so far is that I’m completely happy with our progress and how Intellias implements our strategy. They’re reaching our plans and meeting timelines; we’re almost always within budget and plan, which is most important for us right now. 

Moreover, when we need to replace a teammate who’s not performing well or to scale down the team for any reason, Intellias accommodates us even when it’s not in their business interest. Together, we’re looking into the future long-term, not just for next month. 

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management has met our expectations. We have a set mode of operations with face-to-face meetings twice a year where C–suite executives from both companies are present. In those meetings, we discuss progress, issues, and concerns. We also have regular and ad-hoc meetings with the teams to manage our projects together, and the team also presents weekly reports. 

Jira is our main project management tool, and we also use other elements of Jira, such as Confluence and Kanban boards. As for meetings, we use Microsoft Teams. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with Intellias’ trustworthiness. They always follow our agreements, so we trust each other. We’re looking forward to the journey in front of us with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could propose to market more products as a business strategy. As for the services they provide to us, we’re happy with them. Any issues we’ve had with them, we’ve resolved fast. The mark of good cooperation is how efficiently we can resolve issues, and we’re also satisfied with this aspect of our partnership. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to trust Intellias. We put a lot of eggs into their basket, and it was the right decision because they’re doing things right. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager for a mobile payment solution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We needed more development capacity.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intellias provides us with development resources. The team is helping us develop server applications that implement settlement and clearing processes behind our payment solution. This is an integration project, and the goal is to exchange data files with external partners such as banks.

Since these are processes running in the background, the UI is very limited. Intellias is developing an admin-facing UI that functions to monitor these processes. Although the solution is running from a data center at the moment, we’re in the process of migrating into AWS. 

What is the team composition?

We work with three people from Intellias, including two developers and a DevOps specialist. 

How did you come to work with Intellias?

My former boss found them. We often get offers from nearshore and offshore companies, and I believe Intellias contacted us. We chose them because they were promising and professional and because we don’t find development capacity in the local market. 

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m extremely happy with Intellias’ performance. I’ve been in the IT business for more than 30 years, and it’s the first time in my career that I have worked with developers who write nearly bug-free software. Although we have errors from time to time, it’s once every 1–2 months, which is exceptional. Whenever there is an issue, they’re prompt in their response. Additionally, the team has good expertise. 

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is more than satisfactory. We use the Agile methodology and Jira and Confluence as project management tools. Within Jira, we use the issue system and Kanban boards. Meanwhile, we use Confluence for documentation and requirements. 

We have a daily standup meeting where we talk about the previous day’s work and the plan for the following day. From time to time, we also have longer-term discussions about what will come next. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with Intellias’ professionalism, which distinguishes them from other companies I’ve worked with. The people they hired for us are at a high level of expertise, and they act business-like. The team is motivated and wants to achieve our goals. 

Additionally, the way the company communicates and their pragmatic approach to problem-solving are outstanding. I’m also amazed by how they’ve reacted to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine; they’ve kept cool and organized logistically to find solutions. They’ve even offered a possibility for their employees to migrate to other countries — they have offices in Poland. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although there are always details to improve, I don’t have any criticisms. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to explain your needs as explicitly as possible, and Intellias will tell you if they can or can’t meet them. You should know what you need very well and document it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO at a Legal Research Company. The company provides a legal directory and data analytics products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intellias?

We needed to quickly augment our internal teams with a flexible, high quality engineering and QA resources, to build a range of digital products.

SOLUTION

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

We wanted a geographically diverse workforce to enable us to scale rapidly in a high demand market place. Ability to scale, cultural fit, technical capability and cost were key factors in the decision.

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

Our business is a leading global legal research company, who research and rank law firms and lawyers. We have numerous websites showcasing legal directories and thought leadership.

Intellias provide Engineering, QA and Scrum Master resources across 3 scrum teams, developing and enhancing our legal directory proposition, creating new digital products for our customer to use, and transforming our data capture platforms. They work alongside other internal resources to create high performing teams.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We initially discussed the strategy for the business, team expansion and the individual projects, alongside the technical requirements for the resources. Intellias conducted first round interviews including technical tests we prescribed.

Following this, we reviewed technical tests and interviewed shortlisted candidates, selecting those who met our high standards. Intellias met the requirements and 2 years on, we are pleased with the team, whom are highly regarded and valued colleagues.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With their support we have built out an additional 3 scrum teams, and launched multiple product iterations to the market place, including enhanced profile proposition, re-brand of our website, new microservices and enhancements to our data capture platform.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Team work has been extremely effective, with daily stand-ups via Microsoft Teams, and engagement in the full scrum ceremonies. The team work from Jira and confluence, with delivery and code quality performance measured through JIra and Flow respectively. Regular retrospectives and health checks across the team identify strengths and improvements.

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

They provide high-quality resources and a cost-effective price, removing part of the recruitment overhead and looking after their staff proactively.

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

Nothing I can think of at present.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Intellias to embed our AI Algorithms into a scalable SaaS platform. Intellias helped us to put our AI into production.

SOLUTION

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

Intellias approached me an international Geo conference. All material they presented to me was very diligently put toghether. The business development people were very supportive to find out what our needs are. Intellias was very flexible to offer exactly the services that we needed and to share know how with us.

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

We hired Intellias to embed our AI Algorithms into a scalable SaaS platform. Intellias helped us to put our AI into production.

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

There were 8 people in the core team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Intellias delivered a very user friendly and stable tool to us, despite the project being technically very challenging.

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

Intellias has excellent project management. They use state of the art project management tools and technologies. They work very tranparent and it felt to be one team with our internal staff from the very beginning. Intellias colleagues are always willing to share knowhow and dont work like a blackbox.

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

The professional staff, independed of the role. Excellent results.

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

nothing

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of GetPongo Holdings, a Singapore-based holding company that's developing a B2B platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We needed help in conceptualizing, designing, and developing our product. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our platform is unlike anything on the market, as it integrates many different services. Right now, B2B platforms are fragmented, and they only offer standalone solutions. Through extensive research and analytics, we've come up with a system architecture that integrates various B2B solutions. 

Our app acts as a search engine for manufacturers. A buyer from any part of the world looking for whatever item can find it on our app, and we have millions of data points that include various product details. They can use that to buy products in bulk.

B2B buyers can visit our platform and use it to search products and acquire accurate manufacturer data. Once they purchase, they can also optimize their orders' packaging, trading unit, and container through the app. On top of that, users can track their purchases in real-time through our solution.

Intellias has supported our discovery phase. They've identified various personas that will use our platform, and they've figured out the systems architecture of what we want to accomplish. 

We established four basic protocols of how we wanted the information to flow. We had various progress charts, flow charts, and a systems architecture. Intellias has digested all our documentation — they've looked at it closely and worked with our team to bring our concepts to fruition. 

Additionally, Intellias is handling our app's UI/UX. They create designs that speak to the professionalism, look, and feel that we want on our platform. We want a clean, simplistic, and modern layout that has a lot of information. We want our platform to meet the demands of the future.

We've already ended the discovery phase, and we're currently in the actual development of the platform.

What is the team composition?

We work with a core group of 4–5 teammates. However, there are times when we have a certain specialist involved to provide assistance depending on a workshop's topic.

How did you come to work with Intellias?

We did a lot of research and due diligence. We interviewed various firms, and we felt that Intellias was the most well-rounded company we talked to. They were also very responsive, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent up to $30,000 for their discovery phase support, and we'll be spending $600,000–$1 million for the development.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2021, and it's ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everybody from Intellias has done a great job, and their work has received positive feedback from our team, investors, and third-party partners. They're a good company, and I've enjoyed their professionalism. They've done a great job with their reports and strategies. 

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

Intellias has met all our deadlines, and their communication has been on point — if they don't understand something, they ask for clarification. Their approach has helped us successfully put together our sophisticated platform. 

We use Slack, Jira, and Figma to collaborate. Their team is personable and kind.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Intellias' communication skills are fantastic. I'm working with various agencies for this project, and some of them don't communicate at all. If Intellias doesn't understand something, they ask questions. They are able to work through various issues and problems by being outstanding communicators. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have clearly defined goals and expectations, and understand what you want. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CTO of a transportation company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?
We were searching for a partner to design and develop our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
Their team developed our website. Most recently, they’re doing a little bit of web design work. It’s a workflow engine built with Java. Since Java is our stack, we thought this was a good choice. They’re doing the front- and backend. We give them our requirements and do most of the research on our side.

The website is an onboarding platform for QIC and QIB. We get information about drivers and companies through this platform. This includes their driver’s license, insurance, and information about the company. Instead of doing this process manually or via email and phone, the platform allows us to do it. The end-user is the one who’s going to input the information. There are a lot of steps that are automated. For example, we’re able to get all the information about a company just by inserting the registration number or we can get information about a person by uploading their driver’s license.

What is the team composition?
There are 5–6 people on the team, including a frontend developer, three backend developers, one architect, and a business analyst. The team lead is one of the backend developers.

How did you come to work with Intellias?
We did research online and selected several companies. Our team was looking for a company in Ukraine or Belarus because all of our developers are there and they speak Russian. We were looking to integrate with the team we had already. Our company did an RFP process with the best four companies and decided on Intellias. 

We had a feeling they were more mature in comparison to the other companies. They have very nice offices in Ukraine. Their team did a very good job answering all of our questions when we went to visit them. They set up a round table with some of their experts and described what we needed to do with our current challenges. Intellias was proactive and professional so we ultimately chose them.

How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in November 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve had some problems along the way, but Intellias has been able to overcome them all. I’m happy with their work so far, and the product is turning out well.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?
Our team does most of the project management. They have a delivery manager on the project that we don’t pay for right now. We communicate via Slack and Microsoft Teams. Together, we work in a scrum methodology. The product owner communicates with them every day. I have a catch-up meeting every couple of weeks.

What did you find most impressive about them?
Intellias has a greatly structured process for the recruitment of resources. They have a well-defined process for development and are well-organized.

Are there any areas they could improve?
The main problem we’ve had is that two people left their company and had to be replaced. This caused us to lose time. It’d be helpful if Intellias could retain their resources. They’re too expensive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Have someone in your company who is overviewing and reviewing the architecture of the product. This goes for any company you choose to work with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager of an information services company that provides locational data of different retailers and points of interest around the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We were trying to add additional data to our datasets such as store size and other attributions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Intellias is helping us expand and manage our dataset. Using their own proprietary technology and the UI that we’ve built, they’ve helped us incorporate Google Maps into our product. They now research specific locations to attribute them with store sizes and other information. They send over the metadata via Google Sheets, input it directly into our UI, and do additional QA services.

What is the team composition? 

They’ve assigned an overall project lead who manages 12 senior members and 20–25 non-senior members.

How did you come to work with Intellias?

We first came across Intellias while searching for companies that specialized in geographic information system (GIS) mapping for Google and other search engines. They really sold us on their sales pitch presentation. The team put together a comprehensive PowerPoint PDF, breaking down the deliverables and coming up with several great questions about the scope of work. That just went to show how much attention to detail they were giving us.

How much have you invested with them?

Our run rate is about $18,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in October 2020 and is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve worked with about 4–5 companies in the same capacity, and Intellias has gone above and beyond. Every week, we have two meetings with them on edge cases and specific scenarios that we want to review. It’s clear that they do the best job at being accurate in terms of what we’re looking for, and they really feel like part of the team.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re able to automatically see their throughput throughout the day since they’re inputting data directly into our UI. As for communication, it’s been very fluid. They mostly use GoToMeeting or Zoom to screen share. We have daily updates, biweekly meetings, and monthly reviews.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A lot of our data has to do with American retail. Even though a lot of their team is not from America, they’ve come up to speed very quickly and have acquired a knowledge of the sector that many Americans would not have. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re the best company we’ve worked with in this capacity, but there’s still a degree of human error that we’re continually trying to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should facilitate a level and cadence of communication like we have because that’s what’s given us the best results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an engineering director with Omio, which is a travel aggregator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We’re using their services to extend our software development capacity for projects related to maintaining existing systems. When we have an immediate business need to scale beyond our momentary engineering capacity, we also leverage Intellias’s services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intellias mostly maintains our systems in the Java infrastructure. Their team makes sure that our systems work as expected and address additional requirements originating from our business partners. For example, they help integrate travel suppliers into our system.

Based on commercial needs and business opportunities, we occasionally need to quickly scale up the support for our engineering team. Intellias’s software engineers then quickly create data integrations to engage business partners in those opportunities. Their team works either independently or collaboratively with our in-house teams to develop and launch those projects.

What is the team composition?

We usually work with software engineers and team leaders. On average, we work with about 15 people, including a delivery manager.

How did you come to work with Intellias?

I wasn’t with the company when they selected Intellias.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Intellias in January 2017, and our collaboration’s ongoing. We extended it into next year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re satisfied with the quality of service that Intellias provides. They’re able to deliver against the expected quality metrics — basically no bugs or production incidents. We’re happy with their flexibility, which allows us to scale up or down when it’s necessary. In most cases, we received qualified contractors with a few exceptions. Overall, we’re satisfied.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

We usually have a project manager on our end who touches base with Intellias’s team daily. We follow an Agile methodology, which sets up a communication schedule. There rarely are problems

We use English documentation language. Their communication and knowledge are great. We haven’t had any problems with clarity or commitment.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I most appreciate their ability to quickly scale up or down the resources provided to us. That flexibility provides value. They’re a stable team working on projects that span multiple quarters. There isn’t often a change in the team’s set up or composition, which minimizes the cost of training and onboarding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Most of the time, we’re satisfied with the service.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know what you want to achieve and what specific skills you require. Intellias is flexible and will try to find the best solution for you. It helps to have a conversation about your expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is called PTV Group. We’re a software company based in Germany. We’re specialists in software for traffic simulation, traffic management, and logistics applications for trucking companies. I’m the director of engineering and logistics application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intellias?

We have some experience in development and we were lacking the next step, going onto the cloud. We decided to integrate all of our services into one new service holding. We needed some external help to speed up the development. We needed more knowledge for technologies our development team were unfamiliar with. We brought on Intellias to educate our team and help build up the platform.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re a Microsoft partner, so we needed to use Agile as a base for this new product. We were also thinking about Docker. We asked specifically for people with background in that area. We had some workshops in the beginning, going back and forth on ideas with them, just to see if it was suitable. Their deliverables were focused primarily on training our team.

What is the team composition?

Then they brought in two people, one developer, and one cloud architect

How did you come to work with Intellias?

We held an RFP process and several companies made us an offer. If the offer was fine, we decided to have a workshop and test things out with them. Intellias was recommended by another company that we work with.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in April 2018 and we finished at the end of June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our primary goal was getting our team up to speed, which we’ve achieved, so now we can continue on our own. By all means, it was successful. Now our team has the skillset we need.

How did Intellias perform from a project management standpoint?

They were attending our daily stand-ups, so it was very easy to measure the steps they were taking. They worked very closely with our team and communication was great because they talked several times daily. If something needed to be discussed, one of us would just pick up the phone and call. They even came and visited us a couple of times. Every two weeks we discussed progress, data, financial stuff, which helped everything work out well. They were very prepared and organized. It was a painless process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve worked with different external teams before, and in comparison, Intellias excels when it comes to management. They assigned us a personal manager that dealt with our account.

The second thing that impressed me was their enthusiasm. They really wanted to help us and bring us farther. It was extraordinary. They’re not only proficient in the services we needed for this project, but we were able to bring them on for other projects as well. They have a team with a broad skill set so we can bring them on quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t really name everything. It was a really good collaboration.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Generally, try to find out what each party really needs so you can understand each other. You want them to be invested in your project.