Intelligenes Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of an educational technology start up based in Pakistan. We curate online courses for high school students. We launched in 2022 and have onboarded 14k+ students.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelligenes Inc.?

We were setting up our technology department and used their CTO as a service offering. Their consultancy services reviewed and validated our technology roadmap as well as our software architecture and advised us on our hiring plan. They also suggested an agile coach for the team to have them familiarise with the agile and scrum methodologies. They also advised us to enrol in the Microsoft for Startup Founders Hub that benefited us greatly.

SOLUTION

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

We were on the look out for a consultant that could validate our software architecture and Intelligenes was recommended by one of our angel investors.

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

Our system was built on Wordpress and we were looking to develop a mobile app. Intelligenes reviewed our technology stack and roadmap and familiarised themselves with our timeline and goals. We wanted to setup a scalable cloud infrastructure and Intelligenes advised us to migrate our Virtual Machine deployment to Azure's Managed Services offerings instead.

They also advised us on the migration plan from Wordpress to a custom software system. They reviewed the hiring plan and advised us on the number of people to hire and the profiles / skills to look for. They also recommended implementing a scrum framework and got us in touch with an Agile Coach for hire on a separate contract.

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

Their CTO Omair was our main point of contact.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to successfully launch our mobile app and web platform in time with their recommended roadmap. We also saved $30,000 in cloud credits due to their recommendation of enrolling with Microsoft for Startup Founders Hub.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We mostly communicated over Teams for a weekly sync and documented the meetings minutes over email.

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

I think that they were patient in hearing out our ambitions and were able to help us refine our technical goals without influencing or recommending a complete revamp.

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

I believe that they could have helped us with our hiring plan by recommending either HR resources or defining an interview process as we struggled with this later. However, it was officially out of their scope of work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

SABAQ is an EdTech initiative that is increasing student engagement and improving learning outcomes through high quality digital content making learning fun and easily accessible to millions. I am the CEO and founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelligenes Inc., and what were your goals?

We partnered with Intelligenes to implement best software development practices, build new features, resolve bugs and launch our mobile apps within our defined budget and time period on Android & iOS.

SOLUTION

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

We selected Intelligenes after they were recommended to us by some very strong references

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

Intelligenes reviewed our existing codebase and made necessary changes to permanently iron out many recurring bugs that we had been facing. On top of that, they worked closely with us to build new features that needed to be built in addition to what already existed. They also consulted and enabled our internal teams. We used to have daily stand ups to share the latest updates, they worked in sprints and released deliverables for us every 2 weeks for UAT. They incorporated all our feedback and ran multiple sanity tests prior to Go Live.

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

There were around 7 main team members, including:

• CTO
• Scrum Master,
• Account Manager
• Software developers
• Quality Assurance members.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Intelligenes, we managed to release our apps on the planned date which we initially feared would not be possible due to the issues we had been experiencing. We were very happy with the way Intelligenes helped us achieve such a challenging task in short span of time

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

the project was managed as per SCRUM based agile practices, deliverables were released to us after every 2 weeks with successful demos. We used Teams for communication purposed

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

their dedication to the project and their technical knowledge is what impressed us the most. They were very proactive and in control of every situation

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

not as such, we are very happy with the way they assisted us with their services and we are collaborating with them on multiple fronts due to their excellent work ethic

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of OrbisPay; we’re a financial services platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intelligenes Inc.?

We hired Intelligenes to help automate our business processes through software development efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intelligenes has helped us with several custom software development projects to help automate our business processes over the years. 

For the primary project, they designed and developed software entirely from scratch; they handled everything from creating the wireframes and building the project roadmap to developing the application. They provided end-to-end support and developed APIs. 

The Intelligenes team has also taken over another development project from an existing team. They’ve taken over the code for one of our databases and enhanced the capabilities and functionality to align with our needs. They’ve primarily used .NET and Python, and the database is hosted in Azure.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about 8–10 Intelligenes team members, including a product manager, UI designer, back- and frontend developers, and data engineers.

How did you come to work with Intelligenes Inc.?

We found Intelligenes through an industry referral. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested roughly $400,000–$500,000 in the project with Intelligenes. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with Intelligenes since 2015, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Intelligenes managed the initial software development project very well. They were thoroughly involved in the design and build process and created a functional application from scratch. We liked how they carried out our project, so we decided to continue working together.

They’ve also done a fantastic job with the database project that they took over from our existing partner. That project has been complex because they’ve had to learn another team's code, which is no small feat. They’ve taken over the project beautifully, and we’ve been pleased with the results. 

Overall, they’ve provided us with what we asked for and more. Intelligenes has taken a thoughtful approach to developing APIs and made it easy for us to connect applications and deploy solutions. We’ve been very satisfied with the partnership. 

How did Intelligenes Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

The software development process can be challenging, especially in financial services. Sometimes it can be tough to uncover requirements during the discovery phase, but Intelligenes has been very involved and managed a rigorous process as best they can.

We’ve had no real issues outside of the discovery phase, and Intelligenes has delivered work on time and within budget. Intelligenes has dedicated a competent, efficient, and economic team to the project. They’re very smart, and we’ve enjoyed working with them.

We use Jira to manage projects, Microsoft Teams to meet virtually, and Slack to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve developed mutual respect over the years, and Intelligenes thoroughly understands our process, which is invaluable. Due to our longstanding relationship, we’ve familiarized ourselves with their expertise and vice versa. This has allowed us to build a genuinely collaborative relationship that would be hard to replicate with another partner. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always room for improvement when it comes to understanding the spirit of any given project and our goals. It has taken some time for Intelligenes to get to know our users and meet their needs, but they’ve done so. It would be great if they could continue educating themselves within the fintech space.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Senior Application Engineer, working at a medical device company from Michigan USA.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelligenes Inc., and what were your goals?

We wanted to develop a mobile application for our field team. From this application, the users can file complaints (tickets) and request replacement for faulty equipment, according to FDA regulations.

SOLUTION

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

We searched online for a company that can develop this application on specific platform (Power Apps) that can integrate to existing system we have. After an online search and interview with 3-4 companies, we chose Intelligenes based on their portfolio and cost estimation.

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

We provided their team a detailed spec and refined it after getting feedback. We had weekly meeting which we reviewed the progress. After a few weeks they sent us a demo version which we could test and send them our inputs.

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

Project manager and a few developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

we just launched it so there is still no impact on our team.

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

we had a weekly Teams meeting as well as constant communication by emails. respond time was very good.

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

They are very professional on the platform. They used and managed to solve each issue we found.

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

not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of DimeIn. It's a group payments / social payments app. It helps a group organizer collect funds from their group for outings, group gifts, etc. without the hassle of nagging people for payments, and it keeps it organized and efficient.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelligenes Inc., and what were your goals?

I hired Intelligenes to build the app for me. We utilize a web app that converts to a mobile app experience. When I initially was speaking with Intelligenes we were going to hard-code all of it. I came back to them with the challenge of doing it with no-code and they were excited to do it. The goal is an MVP I can go to market with.

SOLUTION

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

The CEO was very patient with me, answered all of my questions, was very flexible, etc. I built a lot of trust with him as a result. I scoured the internet to get in touch with some of their references and was able to. The experiences that were shared with me have been consistent with my own at this point.

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

The goal was to build a web and mobile app with no-code, which has cost advantages, and most importantly to me, the ability for me as a non-technical founder to both be able to verify their work, but also be able to make changes and updates to my own app if in the future I was no longer working with Intelligenes, or just needed to make some simple adjustments myself. We built this with Bubble, which is the market leader for no-code at the moment.

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

Once development started I don't really here from the CEO anymore, but his team is excellent. I'm sure he will pop back in as the project wraps up. I regularly work with about 3 or 4 points of contact there weekly, but I know there are several more involved behind the scenes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is almost done. They've been quick, responsive, and most importantly, they've done what they said they were going to do.

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

They're very friendly and knowledgeable. Ask great questions. Voice when they have questions or concerns, and typically pair proposed solutions with it. We do a weekly 15-30 minute meeting. A lot of comms via MS Teams chat. Occasional emails.

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

Mostly what I mentioned earlier, which was they've been quick, responsive, and most importantly, they've done what they said they were going to do. The project is on track, if not ahead of their proposed schedule. I think what is unique about them is that they can build projects in no-code, which is the future of where app development is going, especially with startups.

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

I've been very impressed and grateful with this team. If I had to try to point out one or two things that could be better:

1. the invoice payment process. I had to pay with a wire transfer and that was a bit of a headache. I anticipated this though in working with an international team. Truly not an issue.
2. would be the testing / QA phase. I would have hoped some stuff was better QA'd before being sent to me to QA.

This wasn't really a big deal as well because I've been so excited to get my hands on this thing. I've spent a lot of time going through it at this point, but there were some simple things that could have been spotted and ironed-out before being handed over to me.

Again, not a big deal though, and they're getting this polished and finished for me. These guys have built for me something in 3 months that I've been trying to get out into the world for almost 5 years.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a manager at a union for public service employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intelligenes Inc.?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, our employees needed access to the office. We wanted a custom application for tracking our employees' whereabouts, vaccination status, and health status when visiting the office.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intelligenes Inc. developed a booking app that handles office visit approvals. The app also features questionnaires and employee tracking. The team used Power Apps and Power Automate. Currently, they’re developing another application for us.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with around five people, including developers, QA testers, a project manager, and a customer success manager.

How did you come to work with Intelligenes Inc.?

I searched online and came across Intelligenes Inc.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000 CAD (approximately $78,000 USD) on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Intelligenes Inc. has met all of our requirements and can adjust whenever they change.

How did Intelligenes Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They do really well regarding project management. The project manager consistently keeps us updated. We use tools within Microsoft to track tasks, specifically Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by their responsiveness and how quickly they can regroup and address issues or challenges — that’s what really made me go with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Intelligenes Inc. is doing a great job, and I highly recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a edtech startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelligenes Inc., and what were your goals?

We hired Intellegenes for a development of the MVP.

SOLUTION

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

I selected the vendor based on their past work as well as the professionalism. They were very thorough with everything.

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

We had a project to develop am Edtech app based on power apps that was for career counseling operations management for schools and colleges. This included a platform on the web app as well as a mobile app development side.

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

1 project manager, QA person, 2 development team people and then overall project lead.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had the MVP ready in about 5-6 months and then we had 1-2 months of post development fixes.

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

Overall was happy with the work and the timelines and how the structure was set up. We had regular weekly meetings where we discussed various topics

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

The constant communication with the team on Microsoft Teams was great. The response rate was high for all my messages and concerns and was addressed in a timely manner.

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

The quality of work was good but an area of improvement could be better documentation for each meeting e.g. meeting notes and transcripts.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of TwoFerry - a marketplace that offers vehicle delivery and designated driving services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelligenes Inc., and what were your goals?

I was working with another outsourced team to create my apps and backend originally, but that relationship eventually became strained due to increasing costs and missed deadlines. I was hoping to find a new team that could help get my software over the finish line, while salvaging as much of the existing code as possible. I also was looking for a fractional CTO since being a startup, I couldn't afford to bring on a full time tech leader.

SOLUTION

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

The CEO of Intelligenes actually found me on Linked in and his timing was perfect. They offered fractional CTO services and were confident that they could use most of the work that had already been completed. They provided references and after discussing their abilities with a few of their clients, I decided to select Intelligenes to continue my project.

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

Scope of work was to get the iPhone Apps completed and make some security and efficiency upgrades to the back end. Technologies used were Swift for the iPhone apps and Laravel, PHP and SQL for the infrastructure.

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

I mainly interface with my fractional CTO, Umer Nawab, and his QA team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Both the user and driver apps are now on the Apple App store which was the biggest milestone. We are still working through some bugs with the payment processing API, but once those are addressed, I will be able to fully launch and market the product.

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

Intelligenes uses Microsoft products to manage and communicate - Azure Dev ops and Teams specifically for communication and project management.

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

Umer and Omair are incredibly responsive and communicate well. They were able to find and subsequently manage a freelancer who was proficient in my existing code, saving over a year of development work. Umer is not only technically knowledgable, but also is familiar with the specific challenges of under resourced entrepreneurs and provided helpful advice and shared best practices in areas outside of his tech duties.

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

I have enjoyed partnering with Intelligenes, and they've done a great job. Perhaps the project would have gone a little more quickly if they had had expertise of my tech stack on their team, but we were able to figure out a solution in the end using freelancers.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO of HUB365 IT. We provide outsourced IT services and digital app development for companies in manufacturing and engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelligenes Inc., and what were your goals?

Utilize Power Apps to develop and replace our client's outdated busines process software system.

SOLUTION

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

We were introduced to Intelligenes via LinkedIn. Our key decision factors were experience with Power Apps as a Microsoft Partner, and low-cost development location.

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

Develop new business process software to connect field and back-office team, digital transformation of its business workflows using Microsoft PowerApps to improve efficiency.

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

We worked with 6 key people: CEO, Business VP, 4 developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The end client is quite satisfied with the progress to create a replacement business process software tool. In particular, the client is complimentary about the development team's ability to convert client changes/requests into the software modules. We are completing our Phase 1 on time, and engaging with the client to roll-out Phase 2.

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

Project Management utilized the Agile Methodology for software development. Intelligenes are experts in this important process to reduce overall development time and deliver on-target customer requirements.

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

We are impressed by their ability to communicate with the client and convert requested changes into new content. the way the client wants it.

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

Not at this time

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and CEO of ES On Demand, an online provider of employee portal services that contributes towards the professional development of an employee base. We started our business as a full-service customer portal provider and had in-house programmers. Then, 2008 happened, and we decided to go international.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intelligenes Inc.?

We needed help with web and mobile application development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intelligenes Inc. took the portal that another firm couldn’t finish and built it. They helped us fix the software and get back into production. It was a significant platform, so it took them 4–5 months to run through it to understand what the previous team attempted. Now, they’re in the midst of building second and third mobile applications from scratch.

The first app will help sports and competitive shooters find ammunition in the caliber they’re seeking. So far, the team has worked on it for three months. The second app is a business application that was designed back in the mid-2000s to assist coaches in the professional development of high-potential people. It’s linear coaching, and we’ll provide a platform where coaches can get together and enjoy the structure of an engagement plan with timelines and video conferencing included. 

Initially, we gave them a detailed project plan with what we wanted. They spent a reasonable amount of time with the plan and came back with 20–30 in-depth questions that wouldn’t have come up if they hadn’t thoroughly understood what we were trying to achieve. Now, Intelligenes Inc. is using a previous version of the software to guide their understanding of what the new platform will provide.

They're using JavaScript and a database for the first app and Microsoft script and a MySQL database for the second app’s stack. Also, they thoroughly studied the previous version and sent us some images based on their experiences and what we were trying to accomplish. We shared them with our creative time, and it was a great start. We just had to tweak it and get down the road to add efficiency to the development project.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager as our primary point of contact, and there’s a web UI designer as the second project manager. Additionally, the two owners are also primary points of contact.

How did you come to work with Intelligenes Inc.?

First, Intelligenes Inc. built a platform for us in 2013. We felt comfortable with the company, but we had some issues unrelated to them. A middleman was creating those problems, so we got rid of him. In the process, we diverted to another development firm, but we weren’t satisfied working with them. Finally, we got back with Intelligenes Inc. in 2018.

What is the status of this engagement?

We got back together in December 2018, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had tremendous success with their team. We’ve been amazed at the accuracy and correctness of their products, and we think it’s all due to their upfront work. For instance, when we went through the resolution process of the prior platform, they spent 2–3 months studying it. Then, they came back and told us the issues they were seeing. Perhaps they missed 1–2 minor problems, but they weren’t necessary to the big picture, so they basically caught everything.

Also, we gave them a detailed workflow process with what we wanted to accomplish, and they’ve delivered everything on target. Now, they’re connecting the backend with the frontend of the ammunition app.

We anticipate that it’ll be the same as the other project. It’ll probably be a five-month build, and they just started last month. On the other hand, when we’ve worked with other teams, they’ve gone and built the product without asking questions, so they’d have to go back and make it again. We had the most challenging time getting them to understand our needs and objectives, but Intelligenes Inc. is different. They’re spot on, and we’ve been highly satisfied with their thoroughness.

How did Intelligenes Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

The team understands their role in development, so they’ve consulted and provided input. If the product owner comes up with something, they have even better ideas. As development goes on, they keep us updated with progress as often as we want. Right now, we do it weekly. When we give them what they need, they’re very timely and responsive to our requests. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do a fantastic job of asking questions and understanding the business model, opportunity, and environment. Intelligenes Inc. also helps us understand the innovations out there, providing alternatives for the process flow to yield a better outcome. Overall, we highly value our relationship with them as our high-level business partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’ve never had an issue or concern with our dealings. They typically wait on us, so they could’ve had a more responsive client.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Put your seatbelt on because they’re ready to go and ask tough questions. The team will study the business opportunity thoroughly and come back with questions to understand the scope of what they’re being asked to do. Also, they’ll probably provide consultative services and recommendations to improve the project further with ideas you might haven’t thought of.