Itransition

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a managing partner at Referlock. We provide an online referral system for dental practitioners and specialists.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Itransition?

In general, dental professionals follow a pretty archaic referral process. We wanted to create a digital tool that improved and automated that process, so we needed a vendor to help us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Basically, Itransition was a one-stop shop for us. They handled the entire project from conception to execution. We followed a strict roadmap; each phase was clearly defined and priced to make sure we came in under budget.

We started with several discussions to conceptualize the project. Once Itransition had a firm grasp of our idea, they designed the UX/UI elements for each page of the web portal. After we gave our approval, the team wrote all of the code for the system, built it, and migrated it to a live production environment. The web portal allows dental professionals to send and receive referrals more efficiently.

What is the team composition?

Initially, we were in contact with a sales representative. After we signed a contract, they assigned a project manager, a web designer, and several developers to our account.

How did you come to work with Itransition?

We searched for vendors online. After reviewing websites and gathering some information, we put together a shortlist of about six candidates from all over the globe and reached out to each. Several of them responded, and we went through a small proposal process. After considering our options, we ultimately chose Itransition. Their website was extremely informative and displayed their experience, which seemed relevant to our project. Additionally, their sales representative shared some examples of their work that aligned with our vision.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent about $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project lasted from August 2018–January 2019. They completed the web portal a while ago, but we delayed the launch to make some last-minute changes. We plan to continue the relationship with Itransition.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Itransition successfully completed the project.

How did Itransition perform from a project management standpoint?

They were incredible. The Transition team was very responsive, despite being in a different time zone. They addressed our needs quickly, even during their region’s off hours. Overall, I’m very impressed by their level of customer service.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They charge a very competitive price considering their level of technical skill. It really sets them apart from others in the market. They’re extremely savvy, producing a great product at a reasonable cost.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I had a few concerns about communication going into the engagement, but they exceeded my expectations by a long shot. At this point in our relationship, it’s very difficult to name any areas of weakness.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a project manager for a global media company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Itransition?

We had evaluated several governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) tools, however, none quite met our needs, so we needed a vendor to help us build a custom solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Itransition developed the architecture of an AWS-based GRC tool, working off the requirements we provided. Their team visited our office in-person to learn about the company and the details of the project, including the high volume of data we had to work with. After they documented the requirements, they set up boards on Jira and Confluence for us to collaborate on and began building out the architecture in parallel with the development process.

Following two to three sprint cycles, they delivered a demo product that we were able to iterate on and present to upper management for approvals.

What is the team composition?

We primarily worked with four people, including an architect, business analyst, program manager, and a lead developer who interfaced with the rest of the team, although we frequently met with the whole team as well. They brought on additional staff as needed.

How did you come to work with Itransition?

They were among a list of vendors sent our RFP. After evaluating their responses and proposals against 11 other vendors, we liked their approach the most and felt their pricing was appropriate.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February to October 2017. Due to a change in leadership and priorities, we put the project on hold, but we may pick back up with them again in the future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Itransition successfully exceeded the expectations of deliverables set out in our original requirements. They incorporated additional features into the pilot phase and delivered a week ahead of schedule, despite the complexities of the project. We were not sure it was an achievable project, so we were very pleased with Itransition's ability to deliver.

How did Itransition perform from a project management standpoint?

We held daily stand-up meetings with their team as part of the agile process, which went very smoothly. Their team was great about communicating and documenting everything throughout the process. They were also able to plan ahead on staffing needs to have employees go through our background check and ID processes in order to work on the project on schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed by their high level of organization and their overall execution of the project. I've never worked with another vendor with a team as cohesive as theirs. They came to meetings even more prepared than we were.

I also appreciated how they were all extremely proud of the accomplishments they'd achieved for us–they felt like genuine partners in that sense.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with their team on an agile basis and be open to their feedback. Some of the insights they provided us from sprint to sprint were better than anything we could've thought of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of IT delivery at Forex Club, a financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Itransition?

From time to time, we use outsourcing resources to improve our team’s capacity to meet our customer’s business needs. This time, I wanted to develop and improve the products we were using for our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their developers became a part of our in-house team for the project, developing software for our traders using MetaTrader. They helped us develop and improve a set of services that provide our customers with extended functionality, which had, until then, been an unreliable and out-of-the-box solution. The most recent project they’ve done related to an income trading module.

What is the team composition?

We use two to four outsourcing resources, most of whom are developers. There’s also one auto tester.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $750,000 so far—$250,000 on the first project and $500,000 on the second.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since September 2010.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We needed good results and we were willing to spend money, so we’re satisfied with them.

How did Itransition perform from a project management standpoint?

We use agile planning and a scrum approach with involves sprint deliverables. We also use story points and our internal project and task management bug tracking tool. Everything is quite precise.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have very good customer service. They try to solve all our issues and come up with solutions quickly. They’re senior level developers, which is very effective for us as company.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO for Elephants Remember, an online retail company with concierge services for gift giving.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Itransition?

We needed e-commerce development and a corresponding database.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We spent four months mocking up the website’s look and connection to our databases. Itransition obtained our approval before moving each component into development. During this process, we ran into several obstacles facing the UX. For example, if a concierge left a user’s account, that change needed to be seamless. Itransition produced solutions for each scenario in an iterative feedback process that also addressed our overall vision for the site. They developed with WooCommerce and Linux, and built custom plugins for functionalities that WordPress didn’t already support. The responsive web design enabled mobile access when we weren’t ready for separate mobile app development.

Development ran on a week-by-week basis. Our team did credit card authorizations with Authorize.Net and PayPal. Itransition helped us with those components, but we took responsibility for executing them. Once the team completed work in early 2018, we moved everything into the cloud environment.

They transitioned to an operations team that’s partnered with us since that hand-off. We have a separate marketing partner that has led on SEO, with some input on verbiage from both our team and Itransition.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager on the development side; he had a team working behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Itransition?

We sent out an RFP and interviewed about eight companies over a long period of time. After those conversations, we modified the RFP and redistributed it. Itransition had the best understanding of our requirements and came back at the right price.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2016 and development ended in February 2018. Currently, we’re in the process of selecting users for a friendly user trial. We’ve given a few people access already, but we don’t have paying customers yet.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have metrics because we didn’t track any of the project’s components.

How did Itransition perform from a project management standpoint?

We only met once a week during the development phase because we had only expected a six-month engagement. The delay was my fault because I didn’t press for additional resources to accommodate concurrent development tasks. But, they always had the right resources at the right time, which put my mind at ease. Once we had the demo site, I checked its performance and reported any issues via a ticketing tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The development team understood what I wanted for the modifications and interface.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Due to insufficient quality control, Itransition had misdated files when we moved out of the demo site and into the cloud environment. That mistake caused several problems, although the team eventually resolved the issues. Within two weeks, the development team reviewed the entire system and revamped everything to ensure its proper functionality. They then turned the site back over to us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm Head of Operations for a global media company. We operate on three continents and create editorial content for news organizations, media platforms, and broadcasters.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Itransition?

We’ve worked with a number of companies in the past on web development and exploratory technical projects, but found these external partners too expensive. We needed a company we could keep on retainer for a certain number of hours each month to provide IT assistance and explore new ideas.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had existing B2B and B2C platforms, and initially relied on Itransition to address any technical errors. They also explored further development and advanced the functionalities of those two platforms.

Beyond that, we began to work on a number of other digital properties, including app exploration. We’ve also rolled out Google News, Apple News, and Facebook News feeds, which required a high-level of coding skill.

We rely on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure tools, and use a custom-built Google CMS for our digital properties.

What is the team composition?

I work with a business partnership manager. There's also a project manager, as well as three or four coders and developers on the team.

How did you come to work with Itransition?

We engaged a web development consultant to find a company capable of accomplishing our tasks. He provided a list of options and I called each firm to get a sense of their business practices and costs.

I felt Itransition had one of the most relatable business models. It was simple, easy to understand, and I found them to be incredibly professional. We gave them a trial assignment and were pleased enough with the results that we locked them in for a year-long contract. We’ve just extended for a second year.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2016 and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve certainly saved us money compared with the external companies we worked with previously. They’ve also saved me a tremendous amount of time. While I previously put a lot of effort into understanding the minute technical details of our digital properties, I now trust Itransition to take care of those elements because of their knowledge level and skill set.

How did Itransition perform from a project management standpoint?

I've managed various projects for 30 years and Itransition is one of the most professional companies I've ever dealt with. While I was initially hesitant to work with a company so geographically distant, their excellent communication skills ensure complete transparency.

We communicate primarily through phone and email. We receive a weekly update and report, followed by monthly reports. Additionally, tasks are flagged as completed so that I can quickly hand out new assignments without wasting any downtime. Their effective scheduling is a major benefit to our partnership.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate the clarity of their communication and their ability to keenly grasp any new tasks or requests.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. Some clients may prefer more video conferencing, but that wouldn't work for my day-to-day workload. I’m sure they offer that option to other customers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of SEM Power. We're a solar electric contractor in the state of Florida, and we book some operations in the Caribbean.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Itransition?

We needed a professional website developed for our business. The website already existed as a gas generator specific website that was an off-the-shelf solution from Generac, who is the manufacturer of the generators that we sold. We decided to no longer offer generators to our customers and had a need to develop a solar electric website, and that's why we contacted with Itransition.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they did a detailed needs analysis and assessment of what our current website was, what our goals were, and what we wanted the website to look like. They asked us to provide examples of websites that we thought were professional and similar to the image that we wanted to project. Then, they came up with a cost estimate based on our needs and our desires.

They also helped us rebrand; they came up with brand guidelines for a logo. This was an added value benefit that we didn't even realize they could provide. We just asked them if they could do it and they were able to, and we were really pleased with the outcome.

We're still continuing to work with them through the process of custom tailoring the website to our needs. We're also still in the stage of developing a customer portal through our website and eventually, customers will actually purchase items on our website as well. We're doing it all in small steps so to speak so that we don't get overwhelmed.

The key features they developed would be the integration of social media in our website, integration of all of our job-specific job pictures and photos, customer testimonials, and reviews. They have been able to successfully integrate all of the essentials into our website.

What is the team dynamic?

There has been one project manager that has been with us throughout the whole process which has made for really good continuity. There have been various developers; based on our needs and our desires, they have a full team of talent that specializes in various aspects of website development.

How did you come to work with Itransition?

We Google searched for the best website development companies. From there, we selected three. Then, we started investigating what sites they had developed successfully. The price was definitely a factor as well; we weren't necessarily looking for the lowest price, but we were looking for a company that we felt could develop the website that we wanted for a fair price. We felt that Itransition provided a tremendous value compared to other website development companies that we evaluated.

How much have you invested with them?

My project manager sends me a weekly detailed Excel spreadsheet. To date, we have spent $33,629.18. which is under budget. We had originally budgeted around $50,000; they did all the website development and customization and we're still under budget, which is why I feel it's a tremendous value.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November of 2015 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Website traffic has increased to our site and we get a lot of positive feedback from customers or potential customers on the professionalism of our site. It makes us look like the professional company that we are and it represents us well.

There's still more work that needs to be done. Because we didn't do any website work prior to this, we relied on customer referrals and repeat business from existing sales and marketing companies that ask us to do fulfillment for them. But we're really pleased with the results in a very short time period. We're overall pretty satisfied.

How did Itransition perform from a project management standpoint?

They use go-to meeting so we can have conference calls to resolve questions in the most expeditious manner. Primarily, we communicate questions and answers via email, which is very efficient because there is a time change. Sometimes it is hard for us to collaborate at a convenient time for both of us because I they're in Europe, so we try to communicate with them via email if we can because that is the most expeditious way to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

To me, the most impressive thing is that they seem like a young, energetic team that's very talented and has the ability to be very efficient at what they do. For those reasons, we get a top quality website at a very reasonable and fair price.

Sometimes there are communication issues because some of them are bilingual and English isn't their primary language. But other than some small minor communication issues, they've been just outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything. To be honest with you, they exceeded my expectations. Even the weekly reports are beyond the detail that I require. They go above and beyond the call and expectations of our company. Overall, we were really, really pleased with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a development group, similar to Itransition. I’ve got a team of group members in Austin, Texas, and in Florida. I use different companies around the world to add to our staff, depending on our clients’ requirements. We started our company in 2011, and we’ve had year over year of growth. We do a lot of cool stuff from an e-commerce perspective. We use Magento. We’ve been focusing a lot on pay-per-view. I actually have ownership in a company that does a lot of cool technology in pay-per-view for concerts, sporting events, etc., and we’ve been growing on that side. We do a lot of value-add services that entail consulting resources, putting together different types of engagements, and delivering per our clients’ requirements. We’ve been able to get to this level by building relationships with firms like Itransition. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Itransition?

The first project we worked on with Itransition was an e-commerce platform built on Magento. We were taking an existing legacy system and moving it to a newer platform. I needed good individuals who understood the e-commerce perspective as well as our client’s specific requirements. We rely on Itransition’s services to make us look bigger, better, stronger and more agile. I have a small, agile ship, but with the help of companies such as Itransition, we can take on projects that are much larger, because we are able to get the right individuals, team members, and support for the specific requirements our clients have. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We originally got involved with a nationwide tourism company that had a number of legacy systems — they had 44 different sites across the states — and they wanted to tie all of the websites into one platform. When we first connected with Itransition, our goal was to maintain the old system and make some changes here and there, but it was like putting a Band-Aid on a cut. It was leaking and the company wanted to fix and change everything. From there, we decided to move onto a bigger platform, Magento. That was the initial stage. 

Then we built a white labeling environment, which allowed us to create one entity, one group of products, that could then work on smaller entities within the one city or different cities, but it all would come back to one bucket, which was managed by the tourism company itself. Itransition provided the thought process to help define the product with some of my guys. From that perspective, we created the plan, and we started migrating everything. We implemented one company on the new platform, then we moved it to two companies. About two years ago, we took all of their old companies and moved them onto this new platform. It was pretty intense.

Itransition was able to provide a good go-to team that is doing the majority of the development, which includes PHP development, the development within the Magento platform. We’ve also looked at potential Android development, WordPress, etc. Everything comes from my company, but I've been able to work with Itransition as a partner who stands behind me and helps me deliver the overall project.

How did you come to work with Itransition?

Itransition has an office here in Austin, Texas, and I had heard of them because they had connections with some of the clients that I had worked with in the past. I reached out to them and said, “Let’s see how we could interface with each other. I have a pretty good-sized project, and I’ll need developers.” 

What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in 2014, but I've interfaced with the company since 2011. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Migrating the old legacy system to the new environment went quickly and effectively, and we’re continuing to do additional projects because our company and the tourism company continue to grow. Itransition has also met every one of the customer’s specific guidelines, requirements, and timelines. The timelines are especially tricky because we both have to work around different time zones and holidays and cultural and language differences. Itransition has been able to continue to deliver what the customers want in the timeline they need. 

Itransition does good work. We’ve had a good team of high-caliber individuals since 2014. Everything has bugs, unfortunately, but the good news is that bugs keep me in business. Do bugs happen? Yes. Do I wish they didn't happen? I’m on the fence about that because of what we do. We don't create bugs, but we work to fix and change them. I've worked with many different companies from around the world — India, the Philippines, China, the United States, Russia — and the code that comes back from Itransition is at a higher level than all of the other companies I mentioned. Their code is more mature and their cycles from start to finish and from the QA perspective are much stronger. My team here works with Itransition in remedy any bugs. We help identify them, and we also work closely with the customer knowing that bugs will always happen. We aim to figure out what the right path is in order to squash them and avoid more in the future.

How did Itransition perform from a project management standpoint?

We are always in contact with Itransition via Skype. We’ve looked at Slack, but Skype is the quickest and easiest right now because it allows us voice communication, screen sharing, video conferences, etc. We also use Trello where we’re able to create different boards and project timelines. We’ve also used a tool called Phabricator in the past, which allowed us to check in and check out code and work from a timeline perspective. Obviously, we’re also using GitHub to keep the information in a central location, and we have used JIRA and Freshdesk in the past. I would say the biggest tools we use are Skype first and Trello second. Those two things tie together, and we can see what the developers are working on, what their timeline is, and what they’ve checked in. Then we obviously use the standard under-the-cover stuff like Git for the code repository.

What did you find most impressive about Itransition?

I have a team in the Philippines I use for frontend design and user experiences, but they don't have the knowledge or experience to build do the backend heavy lifting. Itransition has been able to do that heavy lifting. They have a good talent pool; they’ve been able to find the right individuals. Everyone they have found who has worked with us has approached the project as though they understand the bigger picture. They’re not just coding for a paycheck. Our guys work close to New York hours, which is quite late for them but they’re committed, oftentimes checking in on the weekends. They’ve taken a vested interest in the project and have seen it grow. My clients look at Itransition as an extension of their team. We’ve been with them for six-plus years, and they’re not looking to oust us. The projects keep coming, they keep expanding, and they’re doing newer systems. Their coding skills are phenomenal. They have a good understanding of the core areas behind building sound technology that grows, expands, and scales up. The team in New York is picky, and the way my team and Itransition have been able to learn how those individuals work has been really good. Itransition has also been accommodating. We get along well, and they’re committed and know their stuff, which is important. They’re part of our company’s family, so they’re part of the group itself.

Are there any areas Itransition could improve?

No, not really. They’re great developers, but English may not be their first language. I know that internally they do a lot of self-improvements. They have classes and they’re teaching different areas of English communication, written and oral. They have gotten much better from where they were years ago, so that’s something that I think they should continually improve upon. It also would be great if they could continue to adjust their working schedule for the different time zones, which they may already do. Those are the only two things. I’ve had a good relationship with them, and we’ve done a lot of business together. Everyone’s happy with Itransition, from my team members here in Texas and Florida to the groups that we outsource to.

BACKGROUND

What is your position [and responsibilities]?

AsiaXPAT.com is an online portal catering to the English speaking community in Hong Kong. Our users are comprised of expatriates and locals and are typically high net worth professionals and executives.

I am the general manager and one of the shareholders of the business. Given that our company is quite lean in terms of staffing, my responsibilities are rather encompassing. You can say that I touch all areas of the business from Operations, HR, IT—infrastructure and development, Vendor Management, Project Management, Business Process Enhancement, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Itransition?

Given that we are a purely online business, we require the necessary skills to ensure our websites are available to our users as well as the ability to develop and enhance the sites. Unfortunately, as an SME we do not have the resources to hire all the necessary skill sets to manage the sites internally. Therefore, we needed to seek out a partner who was able to provide the full cycle for software development.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Itransition provides a full range of development services to us, however, the focus has been development with some architecture and design services.

How did you come to work with Itransition?

I was introduced to them via an agency out of Lithuania.

What is the status of this engagement?

This is an ongoing engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

There are no real stats to share.

How did Itransition perform from a project management standpoint?

They have performed very well. Tasks and projects are delivered within respectable timeframes.

What distinguishes Itransition from other providers?

For us, it was working with a partner who was not only proficient in software development but also had to have a high level of English proficiency.

In addition, we had their test code verified independently here in Hong Kong and the results came back very favorably.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

At this point in time, nothing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The International Coach Federation (ICF) is the largest executive and life coach credentialing organization in the world. 

What is your position?

I'm the director of coaching science.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Itransition?

The ICF hosts and publishes numerous coaching-related research materials and had a desire to improve the user interface available to users of the site as well as significantly add to the amount of references available to them. It was a complex undertaking, and we didn't have the in-house expertise to tackle the challenge by ourselves. We decided we would find an external partner with experience working on similar projects and began our search. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in more detail.

The ICF conceived of a new user interface and crafted a comprehensive set of requirements for a new research portal to be made available through the website. Itransition turned this design into reality and delivered a turnkey solution to the ICF. Itransition chose the technologies to use for all elements of the site. They were responsible for all technical and design-related builds and implementations. We worked in tandem with their project lead and developers to ensure that that our key features and functionalities were successfully tested and implemented. 

How did you come to work with Itransition?

Once we decided to find an external partner, we went through the process of creating a short list of vendors we thought might be capable of delivering our solution successfully. Itransition was one of several potential companies under consideration and they were selected based on their previous experience and their approach to development. It was important to us that whomever we chose had a record of developing similar solutions within the agreed project requirements. 

When was the last milestone completed?

Our most recent deliverable came in at the end of July [2015], but we maintain an ongoing relationship with them. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback from this engagement?

This five-month project was completed within budget and on time. Itransition was very responsive and took advantage of the shift in working time zones by developing and fixing bugs after the ICF workdays. It was not unusual for Itransition to turn around a series of 15 to 25 bugs or issues with a resolution in less than 24 hours. All additions to the original set of requirements were well documented, delivered quickly and cost effectively.

Is there anything that distinguishes Itransition from other providers?

They are extremely well organized and their development approach is very flexible. Itransition takes feedback well and incorporates it into their work rapidly, then comes back with something testable. They also provide meticulously detailed documentation around processes, protocols, and troubleshooting, which has been very helpful to us.

What advice, if any, would you give to a future client of theirs?

I can't share anything specific to Itransition, but there are a few general things that those interested should be aware of. On a basic level, have your objectives and business logic documented in as much detail as possible. Think of scenarios that users might finds themselves in and how they might try to interact with your solution. These things can take some time and Itransition can definitely help with it, but you shouldn't' move into development until you have those things specified. You can always made adjustments to features afterward, but in terms of what the end goal should be, it really shouldn't change all that much. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is called Agora. We're a large company that serves as a holding company for a group of smaller affiliates. We are basically a publishing company. We produce newsletters, and we sell products – health supplements and things like that. We do our selling through direct marketing. What we try to do is get people on an email list, and once we get them on the list, we'll hit them with advertisements. We have a web presence as well. Each affiliate has its own website, and they do advertising on larger sites and through other affiliate networks.

What is your position?

I am the director of development for the IRIS application, which is the application that Itransition built for us.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Itransition?

We had started to develop this application, and it grew and grew. People started to like it, but we didn't have the bandwidth or the knowledge of newer code. It was developed originally in classic ASP [active server pages], and that was a dying language. We needed someone to help us switch our site to something more sustainable, to modernize our site and all of its various parts.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They started building the application in classic ASP, and then we converted it all over to .NET. Itransition was responsible for that conversion; they did all of the technical work. We started with a couple of developers, and things grew from there. Now, we have a team of five developers, two project managers, and a QA [quality assurance] team. It's really become a pretty robust team.

We've constantly expanded the scope of their involvement since we've been in business with them. We have also tasked their design teams now to redesign the visual layout of the site. We're working on several different projects in which the design team is heavily involved. We just recently brought on a new business analyst over there to help us with requirements gathering. The primary technology for our application remains .NET.

How did you come to work with Itransition?

It was actually through word of mouth. We worked with another person whom we advertise very closely with, and he had used Itransition to build up his application. He made the introduction, and that's how it all started.

Cost was a major driver for choosing Itransition as a partner. There is no way we could have a team here in this country do all the things they do for the price we pay. We evaluated mainly offshore companies to partner with, but, honestly, there wasn't all that much evaluation. Mainly, we worked very closely with the person who gave us the connection to them. We trusted him and it worked out.

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

Initially, it was probably in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, which includes all development, all the project management, all the QA hours – basically the full scope of the development project.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship with Itransition is ongoing and ever expanding. We're glad to be doing that because they produce great work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

In time, we've definitely become a well-oiled machine. In the beginning, there were obviously some bumps in the road, and we had several project managers come and go. But, we've had a pretty solid team now for more than four years, with the same project manager, who has built the team the way it needs to be.

We've switched development styles, and now we're basically focused on a scrum approach. Now, we're developing things in such a way where we're really hitting the dates that we set out, and we know what's coming. I think it's been an evolution. We didn't have any benchmarks. We just kept working at it and getting it to where it is today.

How did Itransition perform from a project management standpoint?

We started using Itransition, and then we've actually outsourced a lot of other projects that we have here to them based on the quality of work and how quick and inexpensive they are. Now, it's at a point where there are maybe two or three teams that are using their developers exclusively.

They're very timely. Sometimes, we do have bugs, like with anything, but that has also gotten much better as the QA team has gotten up to speed. They've always delivered things in a timely manner, so we have no complaints there whatsoever. As far as the potential language barrier, they find the people who can communicate well. That's not been an issue with our team.

What distinguishes Itransition from other providers?

I really haven't worked with too many other vendors besides them. I would just say that they're realistic, they specify the deliverables they'll give you at a certain date, and they always hit it. That's difficult to do on a regular basis with development projects, so we really appreciate that aspect.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

No. There's really nothing that I can think of.