Maxiom Technology

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Megree is a startup in the enterprise social networking space designed to show how businesses are connected to other businesses. I’m the co-founder and CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Maxiom Technology?

We were building a web-based application, and we had some specific technical challenges around managing data and scaling the platform. We needed some technical resources to provide solutions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Maxiom focused on two areas in particular: the user interface and data management. 

We had a ton of data, especially around business relationships, but we weren’t sure of the best way to architect both the data and the software for extracting that data. Maxiom defined the use of a graph database to manage all of those data elements — the nodes and the relationships between all the nodes — and leverage the algorithm that would then return the path between two nodes, with a lot of other parameters associated with it. 

Beyond that, our other focus was on how to display that path to the user in a meaningful and useful way. 

What is the team composition?

There were one or two resources I communicated with on a regular basis, and I think we might have peaked at three people as we went through the engagement.

How did you come to work with Maxiom Technology?

I believe I was referred to them by a colleague. We looked at about three different providers, but they came with the right approach and showed they understood the problems we were facing.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was about $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January–July 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before Maxiom started on the project, it would sometimes take almost a minute for searches to load. After Maxiom, pages were loading within two or three seconds. That function in particular, which was the core of our value proposition, worked.

We were also constantly adding data as they were working, so the problem was getting harder as we went along. Their solution remained in place, and it was future-proofed. 

How did Maxiom Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. They clearly articulated a plan for what they were going to implement. It was an iterative approach with incremental deliveries on how they were going to build out the graph database solution. We talked regularly and had status reports on a monthly basis.

We typically communicated through email, over the phone, or in person. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical acumen and ability to solve a business problem with the right technical solution is remarkable. They didn’t come in with a predetermined approach. Maxiom made sure they provided the right solution for our problem. That was hugely valuable to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If anything, they could’ve brought on more resources a little sooner. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you define the problem you’re trying to solve. You can count on the Maxiom team to be a solid partner in finding and implementing the best solution for you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a consulting firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Maxiom Technology?

We hired Maxiom Technology to help a client of ours by building an enterprise relationship management system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The software includes telephony, CRM, and fulfillment management systems and features automated reporting and fulfillment. The platform also needs to be compatible with our phone system that had automated dialing. To implement this, Maxiom Technology created the scripts for us and are using .NET for the frontend and SQL for the backend. Now they’re providing break/fix support and adding features.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with Emad (Co-Founder & CEO).

How did you come to work with Maxiom Technology?

I’ve known Emad for a long time and have worked with him even before he started Maxiom Technology. He is a great partner and it was logical for us to work with him again.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2018 and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been excellent to work with. They deal with changes well and are very effective.

How did Maxiom Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

We have bi-weekly sprint meetings and follow an agile methodology. We typically use Jira to manage sprints, tasks, and tickets. We add things in there as we need.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their professionalism is great. However, I’ve been most impressed by their ability to pivot as needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t anything they need to improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any project, I would tell new clients to be ready to go when they contact Maxiom Technology. They should be clear on what their goals are and have a rough timeline for the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our organization is a small-to-medium-sized boutique law firm handling healthcare claims disputes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Maxiom Technology?

We were having issues getting payment data from our client systems.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were tasked with building a portal that could scrape clients’ financial payment information from any transactions that were connected to the accounts. The portal would also be able to compare the data against any recorded information we already had in our system before updating the system with the new, found transactions. 

We had a similar program in our system from another development house that wasn’t working. When we brought them onto the project, we let them direct what kind of technologies should be used. They wrote the code in C# within a Microsoft framework. There was a great deal of image processing work needed.  

What is the team composition?

There was a developer, project lead, CTO, and CEO.

How did you come to work with Maxiom Technology?

We found them through a Google search. We appreciated that they were local to our company.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–August 2020. We haven’t cut ties with their team though.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It used to take several days to do a complete run of this program, so our issue was speed rather than accuracy. They were able to significantly decrease the program’s run time from 5–8 days down to 2–4 days.  

How did Maxiom Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

They were pretty strong. While there were times we could have benefits from where they were from an hours perspective, they were great about progress updates from a technical standpoint. We communicated through video conferencing on a weekly basis and emailed intermittently. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They knew exactly how to correct the problems we were facing and communicated effectively with our non-technical team. We appreciated their technical expertise.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

We would’ve appreciated more updates on where they were with billable hours. Because we’re not a technical team, it was difficult to anticipate how certain tasks may affect hours. They did a great job of making sure we were comfortable with how much they were billing after the fact, however.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to their ideas. We may have slowed them down in the beginning due to some resistance on our end. They know what they’re talking about, so trust their expertise and make sure you’re on the same page.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was a senior technical resource and development manager for the American Water Works Association.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Maxiom Technology?

We needed assistance with a variety of custom software development initiatives, including business systems, CRM, and CMS integrations.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to complete a variety of projects, meeting our deadlines and staying within our budget.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

One of our software vendors referred us to Maxiom Technology.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

During my tenure with the company, Maxiom Technology helped us with a variety of projects for one of our clients, a large nonprofit. No task was too hard or too complex; they willingly took on every challenge we presented. They assisted with multiple integration projects and app development initiatives.

What was the team composition?

We worked with anywhere from 1–7 people from Maxiom Technology depending on the workload.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Many of the applications are still in use today, which speaks to their ability to create software that is both effective and maintainable.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We treated them as a complete team, so Maxiom Technologies was responsible for managing their workload themselves. We counted on them prioritize our goals, always having a resource dedicated to our account. Once we provided them with requirements, we could rely on them to research, develop, and deliver a product that exceeded our needs and expectations.

In terms of communication, their team was always quick to address any questions or concerns from our end. They were very receptive to feedback, quickly making any requested corrections or changes. Overall, the team was skilled and flexible. They offered alternative ideas and strategies to improve on our original vision, and easily adjusted their workflow if we changed the scope mid-project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They always met our needs. Often, their work included additional components that we didn’t even know we needed. Additionally, I appreciate their responsiveness to our rotating requirements.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a startup called Alma Mater. We’re a software platform that allows college and university organizations to communicate with their alumni and fundraise directly within the app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Maxiom Technology?

I’d been using another developer who was simply too inexperienced and couldn’t meet the project demands, so I ended that contract and hired Maxiom to take over all of the app development and coding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started by preparing the minimum viable product (MVP). I gave them a concept to work with and they’ve built the app from scratch. They used a Bootstrap form template as a base and are modifying it to include the features I need. The backend is built with Ruby on Rails and they’re using Ember.js for the frontend work.

One of the most important app requirements was a user-friendly alumni database. Organization administrators need to be able to add and modify records, so I wanted that to be straightforward. The app also allows admins to design and send mass newsletters. Another key feature involved some additional frontend work to let each organization create a distinct alumni landing page for users. The final main component is the integrated donation platform.

What is the team composition?

I initially worked with their founder, who serves as the project manager, and I was assigned a full-time developer once the project got underway.

How did you come to work with Maxiom Technology?

I found them via online search and reached out to them through email. We had a phone conversation about what I was looking for with the MVP, they gave me a price quote, and I decided to move forward with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The full project cost $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2018 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They quoted me ten weeks for the project, but by the time five weeks had passed, they’d completed 80% of the work. They’re currently running QA testing and making minor adjustments to this pilot version of the app before we release it. They’ve also done a great job of meeting my specifications as far as ensuring that the platform is intuitive and user-friendly.

How did Maxiom Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s never much delay between when I reach out to them and when I receive a response. We touch base using email and then manage the project in Asana. Additionally, I appreciate how flexible they are if I want to add or change features. They’ve adapted to multiple changes during the project while still working very efficiently.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They looked over my requirements and immediately said they’d be capable of delivering. Not only were they true to their word, they completed the project quickly and added additional features that improved on my initial concept.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d like to see a little more communication about how work progresses on the backend because it’s not always reflected on the frontend. It’s not that nothing is happening, but since I’m not as savvy about coding, it can be hard to judge what progress has been made.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As a startup, don’t accept the first developer who’s willing to take the job. It’s tempting, but you’re better off hiring someone who will do the work correctly the first time. In addition, it helps if you plan your app thoroughly before you start. I had wireframed mine and that made it much easier for them to assess how long the project would take and how feasible my ideas were.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO of the City of Allentown's municipal government.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Maxiom Technology?

We needed support for our website through designing, building, deploying, and maintaining all the phases of support and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over our time working together, they’ve worked on several projects related to the site. We first hired them to support our existing website. It was built on technologies that were in their wheelhouse, so we provided them with wireframes and they configured the application to make sure it was secure and up to date.

Since then, we’ve engaged them on several website redesigns. For the most recent redesign, they altered our pages to be mobile responsive. They’ve adjusted the color scheme and templates, and written custom modules that integrated with other web services.

They have knowledgeable developers and it wouldn’t be possible to list all the technologies they’ve used over the years working together, but the top three would be .NET, DNN, and IIS web hosting.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Antonio (Founder and CEO, Maxiom Technology), who acted as project manager. He would build his team depending on what the project needed at the time, sometimes a designer, sometimes a coder, or a programmer.

How did you come to work with Maxiom Technology?

We found them through online research and they were the only company we reached out to that got back to us right away.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $128,000 since beginning our work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2012, and they are still supporting the website. The main development work ended in early 2013, and the project to alter the pages to be mobile responsive ended in 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website is managed by a team of content editors and they have provided positive feedback. They manage the site with minimal friction, and I’ve received a very low number of complaints as far as the site’s usability.

How did Maxiom Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

I have no complaints. I speak with Antonio through the phone and email. We also have bi-monthly meetings. They kept pace with our schedule and were patient when explaining project aspects to us. They provide us with a help desk where we log our tickets if we have any support issues. It’s been helpful in tracking the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are well versed in DNN, which is something that only a few people offer—or at least write down as one of their services.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Maxiom is a well-rounded company. If you don’t have a plan they can direct you, but if you do have a plan they’ll follow your lead and listen to your ideas.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I manage new initiatives and projects for a hub services company in the pharmaceutical industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Maxiom Technology?

A new client asked us to help overhaul their existing technology system, including database building and various system integrations. We needed a third-party to help with the development and transition process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Maxiom Tech helped rebuild and update a healthcare services app for our end-client. Using mainly .NET Framework and JavaScript, the team developed backend coding and the necessary web portal and database architecture for a high-functioning platform. They integrated additional systems and security features and provided UX/UI design services to optimize accessibility and user engagement.

What is the team composition?

We worked with about eight representatives from Maxiom Tech. The team included the CEO, a team of developers, and a UX/UI specialist.

How did you come to work with Maxiom Technology?

Our vice president had previously worked with the CEO of Maxiom Tech. He recommended we interview them for assistance with this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $1.5 million on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Maxiom Tech from April 2016—June 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Maxiom Tech’s program still runs both reliably and functionally. The strong foundational architecture and integrations points have allowed for easy updates since the end of the project.

How did Maxiom Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

Maxiom Tech worked with our internal development team and diligently followed our workflow through VersionOne. The team showed favorable communication skills throughout the engagement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team was not only creative in the frontend design, but also in the backend coding. Their strategies were unique and prioritized our end-client’s requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Maxiom Tech could be more aware of their client’s logistical needs. A local team, or more frequent office visits, would have hastened the project’s progress.

Any advice for potential customers?

I have two main pieces of advice for potential partners. First, I recommend defining team requirements and expectations at the start of the engagement to avoid any misunderstandings or future conflicts. Second, Maxiom Tech’s team boasts a wide variety of expertise and customers should really leverage their suggestions and feedback.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Maxiom Technology?

Specialized Technical Skills

SOLUTION

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

Maxim were able to provide the necessary technical resource needed for the project and did the due diligence required.

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

Software Development in Elixir Language

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

Multiple agencies were afforded the opportunity to submit candidates. Maxiom submitted the best, most qualified ones we could get.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Great candidate - very professional.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Fast, efficient, competitive, accurate.

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

Highly satisfied with what has been provided.