Intuz

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an e-learning portal for medical students in India and across the world in the form of a website and a mobile app, providing video excerpts for medical courses. We currently have more than 3,500 users subscribed to our content. I'm a co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intuz?

They've developed our mobile apps. We started with Android because it has a larger audience in India.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intuz has developed two Android mobile apps for us. The first is focused on gynecology and designed to help students practice multiple-choice questions as part of their preparation for entrance exams. We provide a specific dashboard that can help them practice.

The second app is a video-content directory for Android mobile phones and tablets. These videos were previously available only through our website, but we decided to also make them available on mobile.

The crux of our business is protecting video content from unauthorized downloading, and we use specific DRM-based streaming provided by a third party. Intuz has had to integrate the video-streaming SDK into our mobile app to provide specific features like blocking screen recording and any type of attempt at downloading videos.

The video app also handles our pricing model. We provide set amounts of viewing time to students. The subscription has specific limitations on how many minutes or hours of content can be viewed, and this had to be included in the mobile app.

What is the team dynamic?

We had a dedicated project manager from their side, who was in constant touch with me.

How did you come to work with Intuz?

We found them through an acquaintance. I knew Pratik, [Head of Strategy, Intuz] who described their company and services. I shared the requirements I had for our first mobile app, put together a contract, and started the work. It was our first app experience, and we decided to go with them for the second one as well.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of development for the first and second app was around 6.5-10 Lakh Indian rupees [$10,000-$15,5000 USD].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2016 and finished the first app in one and a half months, from conceptualization to launch. This was followed by four weeks of support. The second app started in June 2017 and took a bit longer to complete, around two months. It also had a one-month support period.

The Android versions are live, and we're planning to start development of iOS versions in a couple months. We've just started enhancements for the video app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a web portal in place for our video content. More than 70% of its active users have also started using the mobile app within the first two to three months. We can see the value, and our iOS version plans are at the request of our users.

After starting to use the mobile app, most of our users tend to favor it over watching videos on the website. Considering that the price of a subscription is 20,000 rupees [$300 USD], the number of downloads we have is sizeable.

How did Intuz perform from a project management standpoint?

There's a CMS in place that records all our communication, files, and development progress. All requirements are documented clearly at the beginning of the project, so there's no confusion around timelines and milestones. Once the project is delivered, they maintain ongoing support and promptly act upon any bugs or complaints.

We've never missed a deadline for going live or fixing a bug, and they even work on weekends during support.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Overall, the clear communication of the scope has led to the on-time and on-budget completion of the project. There were no change requests. This is required for any application development, and it’s something they've done well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s always good to have more options in terms of design wireframes, but to stay within the timeline, we opted for a limited number of choices. The layout or aesthetic part of the app could have been better, but Intuz conformed to our brand guidelines and color scheme and did a good job.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

DigiGift Australia is developing a brand-new application which will facilitate giving digital gifts, as opposed to physical ones. We are promoting things like Kindle books, music through Amazon, as well as things like Xbox, PlayStation and Wii games, trying to separate the gift giving process from the physical shopping experience which everyone hates at Christmas. I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intuz?

We were looking for them to do the coding work for an iOS and Android version of the app. We were trying to enter straight into the mobile space, and were looking at a more native, mobile-first format, rather than a web-based one.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intuz has developed a fully-working MVP for the iOS version, but we’ve run into a bit of trouble with Apple. They don’t like our business model and are trying to shut it down. We’ve had an Android version in the works as well, which, was originally less functional than the iOS one. The iOS verson ran off of Apple APIs, which were good and covered a broad range of products. As we got to the launch phase of it, Apple rejected the business case, and wanted us to drop the whole concept. I’ve had to shift focus to Android. The Android version is basically waiting for launch; we’re doing a couple of product modifications and adding more content. It was originally limited to Kindle books and music, but we’re adding the functionality to put Xbox, PlayStation and Wii games onto it. We were heavily using the search APIs embedded in iTunes, as well as gifting functions.

One of the challenges we had early on was that, when a product is gifted to someone on iTunes or Amazon, although the documentation said we should be able to launch directly into the gifting screen, the API in iTunes wasn’t working correctly, so we worked with Apple, trying to get them to fix the bugs in that API. Ultimately, they refused to do so, so the Intuz team had to come up with a workaround, basically resolving the issue. Another technical difficulty was that we couldn’t get a return [verification] if a customer launched from our app into iTunes or Amazon, and see if they actually bought the product to update our database. We had to work through different scenarios on how we could execute that resolution. The workaround created was a popup when they returned to the app, asking them to confirm whether they completed the purchase or not.

There were other normal technical details around getting the product feeds right, particularly on Amazon, which is not very user-friendly when trying to execute product searches and feeds. They use quite a cumbersome and complex system to manage the data in their system, given that the platform is so large. We had to make a few compromises here and there, in terms of simplicity of execution, since we were still considering this as being an MVP, and didn’t want to put heaps of money into complex code for managing the data-flows. We worked together with Intuz well, figuring out from a customer perspective what we could compromise on in order to keep costs down, without making the system difficult to use.

What is the team dynamic?

I didn’t interact with the coders very much. I did interact with the designers in the initial phase to get color schemes and the design brief right. We had a few sessions with the architecture people, going through different options in terms of how we would set it up and run it. We also interacted with the sales team.

How did you come to work with Intuz?

I first found them on Clutch. I had started development with an Australian-based app company, which created an initial proof-of-concept. As we were moving through the project, their costs were ramping up exponentially, so I started looking for a more competitive option. I decided I would go directly to an Indian app developer, and started researching on Clutch.co and a few other websites, in order to shortlist a few names. I got quotes from a number of them, and got started with Intuz.

How much have you invested with them?

Intuz’s total cost has been around $30,000, covering both the Android and iOS versions.

What is the status of this engagement?

We made the initial quote in January 2017, and kicked off development with Intuz in March. We completed the project in July, and have been battling with Apple and a few other companies since then. We’re undergoing a last round of tuning on the Android version, and will hopefully have it launched on Google Play and Amazon Underground in the next couple of weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our original intention was to have a full proof-of-concept and MVP with Apple, but they’re unfortunately not keen on our business model. We’ve had to find another avenue which excludes Apple. We’ve done a bit of beta testing, most of it with the iOS version, unfortunately. I’m based in Australia, and, because of limitations with Amazon, the Android version doesn’t work here. Quite a lot of people liked the concept and operation of the app, but, as we decided to move forward more with Android only, the funnel of users went down.

How did Intuz perform from a project management standpoint?

Before Intuz, I was working with an Australian-based company with a local project manager and an Indian app development team. I was basically managing the Indian team directly, so converting to working with Intuz directly was easier. Their project managers were just as good as the Australian ones, and everything was well-organized. I liked their format as well— Intuz was more formalized in terms of what the content of the app needed to be, and delivering to that brief. The original company followed the Agile methodology in order to allow for flexibility in the development, but it was driving the cost up quite a lot. I was a bit more comfortable operating in Intuz’s style, since we were a bit more certain in terms of what the outcomes would be.

In terms of tools, Intuz used a project management website, Active Collab, and we had Skype calls if we needed to interface verbally. The written communication was done through Active Collab, and larger files were transferred through Dropbox.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been good at keeping us up-to-date, with clear and reasonably-concise communication. I am not a tech person, so, if I had issues in terms of understanding some of the system accesses, or other things we needed to set up (particularly for Amazon Web Services, which is where most of our database and app feeds run from), Intuz took the time to explain what I needed to do on my end. In a few instances, if I still didn’t know how to do it, they set it up for me.

Price-wise, they’re very competitive. Intuz cost less money than what I was paying the Australian-based app company for a proof-of-concept. We’ve had some troubles with iTunes, and had to make modifications, but all the updates were also cost-competitive. I didn’t feel I was being roped in with a low price, only to be stung every time I wanted to make a change. I do quite a lot of work outside development with Indian teams and they usually try to water-down expectations around difficult tasks. Intuz was always proactive in meeting them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In terms of project management, most of Intuz’s systems and processes are good and standardized. They’re not doing anything particularly outside-of-the-box. I struggle to find anything they could do better. Intuz was always proactive in trying to come up with opportunities to resolve our issues, but we, unfortunately, got to the point of not wanting to spend any more time on the Apple side. We will try and push forward with the Android version, and go from there.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our aim is the development of desktop and mobile applications based on artistic concepts. I am an artist looking to translate concepts from this area into applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intuz?

I was looking to turn my concepts into reality, which they have done quite well so far.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intuz has provided design and coding for iOS and Android, based on my requirements. So far, we have developed 3-4 different applications together, and there are 3 others on the way. The advantage of Intuz is that they concentrate multiple services within the same company, including application hosting, promotion, design, and development.

My apps are social media platforms with a different angle. There are many ways to get in touch with other people within them, based not only on a profile picture. Someone could be looking for new acquaintances based on what people mean and think, what they want to do at a certain time, or their mood. This is one type of application I’m developing at the moment.

I’m also developing a physiotherapy platform with which users, instead of doing 1 hour of exercise per week, can have 30-second to 1-minute sessions hour-by-hour, and log the remainder on their computer screens. They receive pop-up reminders showing animations of the exercises users need to do. The app is aimed at people spending hours in front of their computers.

How did you come to work with Intuz?

I found them online and talked to other people who had used the company’s services. I contacted several companies, and I gave each one a blind test building one application. I was happy with Intuz’s results, and gave them more jobs. The communication with them has been very good. It was important for me to find a group which understood what I wanted and make it a reality, especially when working remotely. The process went extremely well with Intuz.

How much have you invested with Intuz?

Confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Intuz around February 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I haven’t tracked the usage of my apps. One of them has been live for a few months, while another one was recently released. I am currently working on marketing, so I don’t have any figures.

How did Intuz perform from a project management standpoint?

I couldn’t estimate the number of man-hours used for my applications. Intuz has given me estimates after requesting an application, which I approved.

The communication was very good. They have a project management tool, and we’ve communicated through that, as well as email and Skype.

What did you find most impressive about Intuz?

Intuz has done what was necessary in order to develop what I wanted, how I wanted. This is an achievement in itself, and it’s not always the case. I have approached companies which promised me things, only to end up with a nonfunctional application.

Are there any areas Intuz could improve?

With every experience I’ve had with development (and I’ve used a number of them), I’ve had a problem with the aesthetic design. I’m picky in this area, since I’m an artist myself. I have a clear and precise view of what I want, so it could be said that I’m a very difficult client. Out of all the companies I’ve used, Intuz delivered the closest to what I wanted, but I still have high standards around aesthetics.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Established in mid-2016, our company is a dedicated venture aspiring to provide innovative digital solutions. I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intuz?

We had a unique concept that we were determined to achieve that goes beyond existing social networking apps like WhatsApp and Facebook, with value added features and make the app more successful globally.

The project was very large in size with a lot of complexity and challenges that needed in-depth customizations.

The iOS and Android-based mobile app would have messaging capabilities which would offer a unique experience for users to communicate with their friends and families, and also share information regarding their life events, destinations, mood, time zone, and weather while empowering users to fully control their privacy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Being outsiders to this entire field, we had a unique concept and vision. The Intuz team really went beyond, acting as consultants and partners with a full commitment to materialize this vision. In multiple occasions, they proposed better solutions that what we had envisioned. Ultimately, with the enterprise level message aggregator solution developed by Intuz, we were able to achieve what we were expecting with a final product that we are really proud of.

How did you come to work with Intuz?

We did a lot of online research to partner with a reliable mobile app development company. We were looking for a company that would not just deliver a technical solution, but one which would also understand our business perspective and develop a custom solution accordingly. We aspired to achieve something greater than a chat app with highly dynamic customization, so we pitched several service providers and clearly the Intuz team stood out. With full confidence, we proceeded with Intuz.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with Intuz for little over a year now. The development part of our project has been completed successfully and to a satisfactory level. We are now working with them to perform enhancements on our app, as well as exploring app marketing strategies to promote our app across the United States and later across the globe.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

To facilitate users with quick, yet smooth communication, we needed to incorporate QuickBlox with high-end customization in the app. The readily available QuickBlox code was not supporting the exclusive customization of the app. Intuz communicated with the QuickBlox team on a regular basis to get permission for code customization, create the new code, get approval for the custom code, and ask them to deliver software development kits of the new code.

How did Intuz perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a clearly communicated process, which was one of the reasons we chose them. Intuz has an excellent team of project managers and developers. They are very prompt in responding and always try to understand more from a business perspective and convert that into technical solutions. They use a project management system software for communication, which is very easy and convenient to use. It allows clients to access the system, where clients can track the project progress and share suggestions as well as feedback.

What did you find most impressive about Intuz?

It is their project development process that sets Intuz apart. They had explained it to me in a very detailed manner before even the project was awarded to them. Secondly, I found the team to be highly responsive, accountable, and always ready to go an extra mile for the solution you want to achieve. They are truly an end-to-end mobile app consulting company that starts from detailed concept discovery and app consultation to app deployment and marketing.

Are there any areas Intuz could improve?

We are really happy with the quality of work and their interactive approach. I am quite impressed with the way they handled complicated parts of our project.

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

The client must be clear about their concept as to what exactly they want to achieve. They will perform a detailed discovery process to work upon the idea so as to craft a solution that meets your business and budget needs. They have a very good cloud and app marketing team to make your app very scalable and stand out in the crowd. I highly recommend them as being a one-stop shop for any mobile application project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are in the process of building our mobile application. I am a co-founder and the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intuz?

We had an idea which we determined was feasible based on market information. We wanted to link with an app development company that would execute on our vision, getting us to where we felt we needed to go. The developer needed to understand what we were looking to do well enough to suggest their own creative solutions to any possible problems.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially engaged Intuz for the iOS version of our app. They were in charge of both design and development, including the backend work.

Intuz has also handled the user interface/user experience side of the work. We have made different changes in terms of graphics and company logo. Intuz has been able to handle this in short order, which meant that we haven't had to go outside of their company for smaller work.

How did you come to work with Intuz?

I scoured the internet, made some research, and came to a site which listed top app development companies. Intuz was highly rated there, so I messaged them along with a few other companies. Based on our initial and follow-up conversations, we ultimately went with Intuz. We liked their willingness to engage us on ideas and to work with us in order to get to where we wanted to go. Intuz took an ownership role and helped push the project along since our early conversations.

How much have you invested with Intuz?

The baseline development of our iOS app had a cost of $12,000. We spent another $10,000–$12,000 for the Android version and for additional functionalities.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Intuz in September 2016. The first stage wrapped in mid-November or early December. We're currently in stage two of the project. Intuz continues to add functionalities to the iOS app and is building the Android version.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In each instance, Intuz under-promised and over delivered. They've blown past deadlines, and never missed one. We had an abbreviated timeline from the beginning, because of a conference which we wanted to attend. We wanted to get to a minimum viable product which we could present, and Intuz knocked everything out of the park, delivering exactly what we needed. At this point, we have a functional version of the app installed into a few of our devices.

How did Intuz perform from a project management standpoint?

Intuz is a very structured group, which we appreciate. Everyone in our local team has a day job, so we've appreciated Intuz' ability to keep us abreast and remain available. There is a time difference between our groups, but whenever we needed to chat with them, Intuz was there. They've checked in almost daily through a number of different means. We use a project management portal through which everyone in our team and theirs can ask questions and have a back-and-forth interaction. If anything more challenging comes up, we can schedule group calls.

It was also helpful for us to have the project broken down into milestones, with a delivery date for each one. Upon each completion, Intuz put together a demo video, walking us through what had been done to date. This was done whenever we asked, even outside of milestones. Intuz was very good at putting together material and giving us updates over the phone.

What did you find most impressive about Intuz?

I haven't been working in this space for very long, so I don't have a very good comparison point. One key point I did take note of when looking at app development companies was reliability, the ability for us, as a US-based company to communicate with the partner and push projects forward. Everything I read about outsourcing mentioned that the US team should make sure that the developer is constantly pushing towards goals. We haven't had that problem at all. If anything, whenever we spoke on the phone, Intuz suggested new things which we hadn't thought about. This was tremendously helpful.

I appreciated the ownership shown by Intuz, in terms of completely understanding what we were trying to do and coming up with creative solutions. When we were not able to chat about an issue, Intuz' team went ahead and tried a few options by themselves, which saved us time. This was particularly helpful when we had an abbreviated timeline.

Are there any areas Intuz could improve?

I don't have a lot of experience in the field, but I haven't really noticed anything.

We have engaged with a third-party contractor for a different part of the project. Intuz has had a very good dynamic with the other group, making an effort to understand everyone's work style and availability. We are working with people from across the globe, so it's been a bit difficult, but this is more of a project management issue from our side.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of LifeOfU App and associated The Life Of HP, LLC. Life of U is a video marketplace that seeks to inform, entertain, inspire, and impress people around the globe. Our content comes from people who sell their life videos and earn decent money.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intuz?

At Life Of U, we had a unique concept of a video marketplace. However, it required real-time scalability and efficient storage management for large-sized media. We were looking for a solution that would be extremely flexible as our database increased, as well as smooth on our pockets for storing such a large volume of videos on the server. Another important challenge we wanted to address was that the latency of video streaming should remain the same—that is, very less—even if we enabled the app outside the US or even worldwide.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There is an entire cloud division at Intuz with certified pros who are excellent at their work. They deployed my entire cloud infrastructure in AWS. They used cost effective S3 storage for quick data access, scalable instances for uninterrupted performance, and security groups to avoid disruptions. Intuz literally implemented a single-click solution.

How did you come to work with Intuz?

I started working with them after going through a lot of companies. We finally decided to go with Intuz because they have a very well-defined process, a dedicated team, and a good portfolio. Plus, I already had a successful app development project done with these guys. My project managers and cloud tech leaders at Intuz were brilliant at coming up with solutions to my problems. Since they already knew my system in and out, taking the cloud services to them was a wise choice. 

How much have you invested with Intuz?

I would prefer to keep the financial terms confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project with them is complete and live. I will definitely work with them again for new ventures.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Intuz really helped me achieve my goals. The Intuz team was amazing at developing our entire project successfully. When it came to addressing our challenges and server struggles, it was like they jumped on the gas pedal and zoomed ahead of what we were thinking. They knew exactly how to resolve all those challenges with 1 answer: Amazon Web Services. The infrastructure needs definitely got very easy for me. I do not have metrics as of now for comparison, but I can update that after some time.

How did Intuz perform from a project management standpoint? 

The team at Intuz was extremely cooperative and always steered my project in the right direction. They always listened to my requirements and challenges carefully and executed it well. Throughout the project duration, they consulted me and honored my decisions. Their intra-team communication was smooth and I never had to explain myself twice.

What did you find most impressive about Intuz?

What I like about Intuz the most is that they are not afraid to give you suggestions and opinions, good or bad. Intuz saved me a lot of time, frustration, and money letting me know about future issues and taking care of them, even though they were outside the scope of work. They should continue with the amazing work they are doing.

Are there any areas Intuz could improve?

None. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a multidisciplinary creative design agency, nestled in a bustling inner Sydney district. I am a digital designer and am project managing our apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intuz?

We were looking at a long-term solution for its infrastructure needs and for aggregating its client projects on the best available cloud infrastructure, like AWS. Our main issue had been managing multiple accounts over different standalone infrastructure providers which was getting challenging as the accounts increased in number. We also wanted to make sure that we were scalable to our end clients and cost effectively address any infrastructure needs they had. Moving to cloud was the definitive answer to solving this issue. Cloud being out of our core competency, we needed the right consultants and solution providers to migrate.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intuz has been our development partner for mobile application. For this particular project, they have been the drivers themselves as it was their suggestion to migrate our projects to AWS. They started by educating us about the benefits of migrating to cloud. Intuz also introduced the AWS services that enabled great efficiency improvement regarding multiple account management. Then, they swiftly worked upon getting the configuration right for the process. Intuz started by understanding the current configurations of existing infrastructures of different projects, prepared our AWS accounts, and architected a perfect setup to migrate, manage, and maintain all our accounts in AWS.

How did you come to work with Intuz?

Intuz had been our long-term development partner working with us on multiple B2B projects and executing them as per expectations. With their dedicated cloud consulting division, well-defined processes, very enthusiastic, and experienced team, they were an easy choice for us.

How much have you invested with Intuz?

Since we are a B2B client of Intuz, we have maintained strict confidentiality in terms of finances related to all our previous and on-going projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have a good relationship with Intuz. We started working with them through good references and have successfully completed projects with them. More projects are already ongoing, and they will be helping us setting up cloud infrastructure for our future projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Moving to AWS Cloud has made things easy for us. We currently do not have substantial stats to show as the migration was completed just a couple of weeks back. But the project managers at Intuz made sure that we understood the AWS dashboard and basic operations. Our clients have had uninterrupted services. Managing multiple accounts has become streamlined. 

How did Intuz perform from a project management standpoint?

The Project Managers were extremely helpful in setting this up. In fact, as stated before, they were the ones who suggested us to migrate to AWS cloud after understanding our struggles. They educated us about the entire process, explained minute details of the cloud blueprint, and always advised in the right direction.

What did you find most impressive about Intuz?

I think it is Intuz team’s ability to listen and guide you when you are struggling, and accommodating resources if you need them. Those are the things that set them apart from other firms. Their certified AWS cloud team is super active and very quick at implementations. They setup, migrated, configured and got the system online in 48 hours! That too without much downtime.

Are there any areas Intuz could improve?

Nothing that we can think of right now.

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

They are excellent at what they do. The team is very tech savvy and deeply rooted to their domains. The project managers are a delight to work with and excellent advisers. We are already working on more projects with them, and we would definitely recommend Intuz to prospects considering working with them. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is Lyricnote. It’s an iOS application for songwriters. It’s basically Evernote for songwriters.

I’m one of the founders. My brother is also a founder. We’ve been around officially for two years. Our newest rollout which we rebranded, re-optimized, and redesigned has been in the last six months.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intuz?

Songwriting is historically done with pen and paper, and a lot of those ideas are stacked in classic technology. The problem is going from data laying around, to systems of record that are searchable and stable and stored in the cloud. We wanted to modernize the saving of that information with a bunch of swanky tools on top of that for the modern day songwriter. It’s gone well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done all of our development for us from the get-go. They’ve been a strong partner in helping us iron out ideas and set up the backend structure that we didn’t fully understand. We’re great at design and have a good idea of what we want to accomplish. They basically will tell us if it’s feasible or not and what best practices are when trying to set up an infrastructure of that type. They’ve been with us since the beginning of Lyricnote and with one of our previous applications as well. They’ve been reliable. It’s only available on iOS currently. It’s out in public beta. We’re tracking usage behavior, adoption levels, and AB testing some other triggers on how engaged the user is in order to get insight on what features are working and what aren’t. We’re currently building a web application with them. So the users will have the ability to write their songs on the web not just from their phone. Then we’ll probably go iPad and Android once we’re ready to go.

How did you come to work with Intuz?

Back then it was a simple Google search and their name was My First Mobile App. This was technically our first mobile app. We liked the newness of the name then. There was no question they could do large scale development and things like that. We ended up going with them because they were new. That’s what caught our eye. We had an early conversation with Simon and it was great. He was really interested in trying to get us where we wanted to be and at a fair price.

How much have you invested with Intuz?

We have spent between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been with them three years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I think, early on, if we had tried to develop ourselves with less educated developers, we would’ve made some core infrastructure mistakes. They knew the size we wanted to scale and directed us in the path to making sure we had the infrastructure to do so. Definitely a big win there. In terms of the application to our users directly, we’ve seen some great feedback with response time in terms of bug squashing. We did roll out with small bugs. That’s pretty common. Those were rectified and corrected pretty instantaneously. There was really no down time. The quality assurance process has been pretty thorough with them. If there was something wrong, it was probably a miscommunication of what we wanted from a design standpoint and not really in terms of coding. It could’ve been we just explained it incorrectly and then signed off on it out of haste to get it on the app store. When it comes to them wanting to build really well and fast and at a reasonable price, they were fantastic.

What did you find most impressive about Intuz?

It seemed like Simon is dedicated to our account. There’s one point of contact and I think that’s important. It really helps him wrap his head around what we’re doing. He manages the projects and picks out two developers as needed. It’s been pretty nice to have a single guy with a team behind him.

Are there any areas Intuz could improve?

I think it’s the same age-old thing - improvement requests in shared communication. There was a time they were going through their rebranding or something when things went dark for a bit while they were making that change. Now they have a sweet project management portal that we have access to. Before it was Skype and sending files back and forth through Dropbox. Now it’s more centralized into a project management portal. That improves communication. Instead of me waiting for them, it’s them waiting on me which is the way I like to see it. If there is any request, it’s just that they keep going in the direction they’re going.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

CXOTalk is a video interview site that brings together the most innovative people in the world for lengthy video interviews.

What is your position?

I'm the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Intuz?

The site is the public-facing part of our business. It's the core repository for the videos that we create, so having flexibility in the platform was extremely important to us. It was strategically important.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

This site was developed totally by Intuz – not all the design pieces, but certainly much of the design and all of the programming.

How did you come to work with Intuz?

Intuz was referred to me by a colleague. I actually didn't look hard at other agencies. I've done this before, so I have quite a good amount of experience working with third-party developers like Intuz. They were referred to me by somebody I trusted.

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

Our partnership has been going on for two years. I'm going to say in the neighborhood of $25,000 to $50,000 – something like that.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The product is stable and reliable. It works, and people like it. Those are the metrics that are important to me.

What distinguishes Intuz from other providers?

Much of what differentiates Intuz for me has been our experience with our project manager. We had an initial project manager who honestly wasn't so great, and he was eventually replaced with our current PM about a year and a half ago. To their credit, they have maintained this current project manager on our account consistently through time, he's been just outstanding. I can't speak more broadly to their project management except what we see through the face of the person who's responsible for my account.

Is there anything Intuz could have improved or done differently?

I think Intuz needs to beef up some of their design skills. They have design skills, and they've contributed much to the UX [user experience] design of our site. I don't mean the technical design. It would be good if they had higher-level designers.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a financial technology company based in South Africa.

What is your position?

I'm the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Intuz?

The challenge was to find a smart software company that could develop a world-class website and crowdfunding platform.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Our product is only available on the web.

How did you come to work with Intuz?

I chose Intuz because of the recommendations I saw online and the accolades they displayed. They seem to be caught up with all the latest technology in the financial services space.

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

It was less than $50,000. They were not expensive at all. I still feel they under price their resources.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I think Intuz's value proposition was that they went the extra mile and their communication is very astute. They are able to keep to a schedule, which is unheard of when it comes to software development. They're fast in executing.

How did Intuz perform from a project management standpoint?

In Africa, our financial institutions can be a bit backward. Intuz was patient with us in terms of communication and understanding the program scope. We didn't have a spec for the whole website because the previous developer had challenges in terms of executing on the job that we wanted. Our partnership with Intuz was based on communicating often to develop the website to our expectations. They did exactly what we wanted and spent more time than expected on a daily basis trying to figure out exactly what we wanted. We also made mistakes on our side, but they gave us additional time to rectify our mistakes and to maintain the website at no charge at all which I thought was a magnificent value add. They did not complain, and they proceeded as expected.

What distinguishes Intuz from other providers?

I think what made the project easy was that they had more than one developer on our project as opposed to working with a freelancer. They had promised me only one developer, but they appointed a number of resources to assist us given the magnitude of the problem, which made it a very easy and smooth process. We didn't have any hiccups at all. They trusted us to make payment after they had completed some of the tasks although at the initial stages we paid in advance. 

Is there anything Intuz could have improved or done differently?

I'm not too sure if I would change anything from what they are currently doing, but it would be great if they had an office in South Africa.