Nisman Solutions

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CEO of RevMed Technologies, a healthcare technology firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nisman Solutions?

We were looking to streamline the payment of claims from insurance companies to hospitals and billing firms using technology solutions. Additionally, I wanted a development partner that was on time, on budget, and could help me facilitate the long-term vision of selling assets of the firm.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over the course of our engagement with Nisman Solutions, we did a number of different projects where we would provide our business requirements and what we were looking to accomplish to them, which they will then put together for the scope and fee schedule to use the development teams.

We wanted to be able to process clean status requests electronically, rather than having a billing representative from the hospital. We wanted a streamlined process of finding out if a claim was paid by using electronic transactions. The shortest way around of getting this done is with the Microsoft Framework.

A lot of the product’s foundation was built using .NET, as it’s one of the top languages. Slava (Founder) worked as a liaison with me, and then we’d have teams below us that would execute what we were looking to accomplish from a strategy standpoint. The research that Nisman Solutions did for us was collaborative to get a better understanding of the healthcare industry.

What is the team composition?

They worked as a development resource so I can’t recall exactly how many people were involved in the project.

How did you come to work with Nisman Solutions?

They were referred by one of the team members of my company. We had a prior working relationship with them through a team member, so that served as a good introduction.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our partnership in June 2016. Nisman Solutions transitioned to a firm that acquired the assets of RevMed. The firm liked their work and they continued to engage with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The biggest thing for me is that they helped with the vision and selling the assets of the company to a larger firm. This large firm did their due diligence and was impressed enough to continue the relationship with Nisman Solutions. Moreover, we didn’t have any issues whatsoever, and we were really happy.

It was a long-term relationship, there was a lot of stability, and we didn’t have any issues with the resources — the partnership was very collaborative.

How did Nisman Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They organized the project using a web-based project management tool called Trello. We also communicated through phone and email when it was necessary.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What distinguished Nisman Solutions from other providers was their cost and value ratio. I didn’t have to worry about their projects being completed on time because they were accurate with their forecasts.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing really comes to mind. I was really happy with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say to clearly articulate the business outcome, and be as clear as possible on what you’re looking to accomplish.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have a smartphone messenger application called Phone2. Users can download the app, sign up with a tap with Facebook or Google, and choose a phone number, as well as any area code in the US and Canada. I am the founder of the company, and I manage the developers, marketing department, QA department, and customer support.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nisman Solutions?

We hired Nisman Solutions to develop our product from zero, and we were under the impression that they would build us a viable product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We agreed that they would deliver the MVP of an Android and iOS application. There was also a web application element, as well as several servers.

What is the team composition?

I worked with three developers, not including the owner of Nisman Solutions.

How did you come to work with Nisman Solutions?

A buddy of mine in the Orange County area has a startup, and they used Nisman for a small part of a pretty involved project. The Play Store listing for their application showed that it was made by Nisman Solutions, so I reached out to them.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent $160,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in July 2018 and ended in August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

After one year, when I knew we couldn't continue forward, I started to engage other developers and showed them the code and architecture. It became apparent, thanks to these outside parties, that Nisman’s skills weren’t so good.

I am pretty sure that the CEO was aware that the abilities of his team weren’t satisfying me because anytime I had feedback, they responded with a lot aggression. The communication really went downhill quickly, and it got to the point where I was almost silenced during our weekly sync-up calls with the developers. It was toxic in that open feedback was not welcome.

The common response from them was that I needed to hire more of their developers to put on the project. We kept track of the hours of the developers, and I want to say that 30%–35% was spend on bugs, with the number rising to 50% some months. This was a product of what they had developed. The solutions they were suggesting weren’t enough, as it was the ability of the team that was the issue. It didn’t make sense to spend half of our time on bugs that they were creating.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

They gave us a build for Android and iOS, and it was uploaded to the app stores, but I don’t think of that as a deliverable in the software. The deliverable is the source code, and we were unable to build anything from that with the new team we hired. It was poorly documented, so I would say that the final deliverable was an unmodifiable app build.

The biggest impact of the work is that we are now behind schedule, which has caused us to lose market share. Additionally, the application is now a secondary company priority.

How was project management handled?

Their use of Slack and Trello for transparency was pretty good, but they were poor at meeting deadlines. Bugs always held them back. When we asked about accountability, they responded with toxic communication from their CEO.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

I would say the ability to leverage their tools stands out. I know that all the developers are collaborating on Trello, Jira, and Slack. In that regard, the collaboration is transparent, and I would say that is a positive.

In what specific areas can they improve?

They could improve communication and their openness to feedback, as well as refrain from overestimating their abilities. If we had known from the beginning that their team members did not have the abilities necessary, we could have saved a lot of time by hiring new developers — or even choosing an entirely different company.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

We had a lot of reasonable architecture and open-source tools that Nisman Solutions could have connected the dots on, but they decided to build the application from scratch, which brought in a lot of bugs. If someone was to do a similar project, I would recommend leveraging open-source code as much as possible, as well as the resources that are out there within their licensing restrictions. Don’t build the solution from the ground up either, especially if it’s a telephone network application. Build an MVP with what is out there and move fast. Then, you can do your own supplemental things on top of that.

Their team was geared toward simpler projects like frontend website development, and our project for Phone2 was more involved.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

This company is a startup and was founded earlier this year. I'm the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for the company and was involved in this project from the beginning. Our founder and CEO created this company in order to sell Cannabidiol (CBD) products online.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to create a premier CBD product online marketplace selling a variety of products from different suppliers. We felt it needed to a custom-made site but after obtaining some quotes from different companies we understood it was going to be expensive.

SOLUTION

How did you select Nisman Solutions and what were the deciding factors?

Slava, the owner of Nisman Solutions understood the challenge we had and came up with a few solutions. He went through the pros and cons of each one until we had enough information to make our decisions.

We opted to use a combination of a custom design and look on the front end and a pre-configured back end solution specific for e-commerce. With this solution, we were able to achieve our goal of creating a custom site without the large price tag.

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

We started by using an open-source platform called Nop Commerce which contained all the backend development for an online store pre-configured. Since it's open-sourced there is also a marketplace for plugins for specific applications some of which we purchased in order to customize functionality on the back end.

The Nisman team of developers implemented, tested, and deployed each plugin as needed. Having this pre-configuration specific to e-commerce was ideal because it made it very simple to create product pages, content, and if we needed to change something completely the developer only had to make small changes to the source code.

For the frontend, we purchased a themed layout where we implemented slight changes as far as color, text, and overall design. Once everything was designed we performed various rounds of testing and the developers fixed anything needed and implemented changes we wanted.

They were all very organized and used a project management software called Trello which we were given access to in order to communicate directly with the team.

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

From the very beginning, we were paired with a project manager who was very competent in what she did. She was very organized, paid attention to detail, and was easy to communicate with regarding the project. From time to time we had contact with Slava and in some cases directly with the developer when he had specific questions we needed to answer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I believe the project resulted in an excellent end product. It was very well designed and due to the selected solution given to us by Nisman Solutions we were able to have the website built to accommodate our budget which is of tremendous value.

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

We had constant communication with the project manager. Sometimes we would communicate with the developer which could have created confusion but Slava and his developer would remind us to go through the project manager in order to maintain fluidity and avoid confusion.

As a customer sometimes is difficult to do this because one thinks it's easier just to tell the developer something but I am glad they stayed on point gently guiding us through the proper channels to make sure we stayed on track.

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

The aspect that really stands out the most is the value. We were able to have an incredible website built for a good price without having to sacrifice quality. Also, the owner himself is what really makes things come together. He understood our needs and offered different solutions for us until we made a decision as to which option to take.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There were some incidents of confusion on our end and sometimes it would have to speak with both the project manager and the developer to fully understand.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is called Total Senior, and I’m the president and founder. We’ve been operating for about seven years helping families navigate the maze of finding senior care solutions. We manage a database of about 1200 assisted living facilities in LA county and help families select the right one for their situation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nisman Solutions?

The goal of the project was to build a new database, CRM, and search engine to help simplify the process of working with a family to identify the right solutions. Going by Excel spreadsheet or even memory is quite difficult, so we needed a platform that could automate that search process for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started off with a pretty detailed discussion and research process to select the right language to use for the platform, and eventually, we settled on ASP.NET. From there, we used Figma with their graphic design teams to map out each page and have a visual representation of what we wanted prior to the actual development.

From there, they executed on all the different deliverables, communicating with us closely about their process and making sure that we finished on time in the end.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with one graphic designer and a project manager in the beginning, and then the manager of the development team to coordinate all of the work.

How did you come to work with Nisman Solutions?

They were introduced to us by a personal friend, and then I interviewed them along with about 10 other development teams. What really stood out about them was that they were local and willing to make the drive to talk with us in person, they were flexible about working with my budget and making sure we had clear expectations, and they were able to remember and quickly raise ideas for exactly how we’d go about my plan. Because of that professionalism and experience, I was very comfortable moving forward with them from there.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost is in the ballpark of $15,000–$20,000

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2019 and have worked together since then. We had to pause the project a few times in between but were able to reach a final product in August and are now beta testing and putting all the final pieces in place.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been very pleased with the quality of the work that they have delivered for us. All of our tests are showing great results so far, and we’re optimistic about the eventual public reception it will receive. One of the really exciting things about the product is that as long as it continues working locally as well as it has, our company will be able to scale nationally from there.

How did Nisman Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m convinced that their efforts to map out everything ahead of time saved us an incredible amount of time and effort in the long run. Instead of having to tear things down that didn’t work and then backtracking to try to fix it, we made exactly sure of how everything would work and then just programmed it accordingly. The process really was as seamless as it could have been.

They have a scheduling tool that makes communicating really simple, so I’m able to set up a call at any time and then just talk to them. If something urgent comes up, I can call and email them outside of that system as well, and they’re always very responsive. It’s been a very easy process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was by far most impressed by their desire to see my business succeed as a result of their work. Their intent was never just to make a killing off of this project, and they made it clear to us from the start that they were in it for the long term so that we could grow together, not just to make a quick buck, and I really appreciated that attitude from them.

This was the first developer I have worked with who really saw the full picture. Most developers will do exactly what you tell them to and need each detail to be fully spelled out if it’s going to end up in the product. Nisman Solutions understood what my goals were and proactively pursued them without me having to figure everything out myself.

Are there any areas they could improve?

To be honest, I don’t have anything they needed to improve. Obviously, no one is perfect, but I think they did a spectacular job and there wasn’t a single problem in the project that was caused by them, so I have nothing to fault them for.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I definitely think that mapping everything out at the beginning of the project was the key to our success with them. Sometimes your vision of how your business growth is going to take place is very different from the realities of technology, so by spelling it all out beforehand, they were able to tweak our development timeframes and make sure that we would be able to implement everything seamlessly throughout the work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a reputation platform. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nisman Solutions?

We lacked resources to develop a mobile app, specifically for the Android platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Nisman Solutions helped our internal designer with some improvements on the iOS platform, doing UI work, such as screens. 

They then worked on graphics and the UI for the Android app, defining what the app would look like. While we provided wireframes, they worked on the design and frontend development from the ground up.

What is the team composition?

There were 3–4 people working with us on the project. 

How did you come to work with Nisman Solutions?

My co-founder knew Salva (Founder & Chief Architect), so there was trust established. We engaged them for a small project, and upon satisfaction there, we kept them on for a larger one.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $25,000.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2017–April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have had positive feedback on the app that it’s clean and works well. The work the team did is high-quality, and we have had very few complaints about the optics. 

How did Nisman Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

The overall scope was defined at a fairly high level from the start. We worked in two-week sprints, sometimes shorter. They would make a new release of the app, and then we tested on our end, giving them feedback. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I enjoyed the reliability they provided. I felt that they truly cared about the project and its success nearly as much as we did. That was a far different experience than I’ve had in the past. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Communication wasn’t streamlined at first, but it improved, and the rest of the project was much smoother. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In general, define the project in precise terms and communicate the deliverables clearly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and manager of a real estate rental and remodeling company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nisman Solutions?

I wanted a website that would boost my professionalism and accessibility to potential clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started by defining the vision and type of content I wanted to host on my site. Based on their recommendations, I decided to go with a simple, HTML site that would best represent my company and cater to my needs. From there, I was passed to a graphic designer who helped me select inspiration for color schemes and fonts.

They did the custom designs and they implemented copy from me. I was able to make comments on their work through a software program, which smoothed the feedback process. Finally, they coded the site for launch. 

How did you come to work with Nisman Solutions?

We have office space in the same building, so we started talking naturally. When I needed a site, I asked them to submit a proposal. Their pricing was similar, but I chose them based on my comfort with their team. 

How much have you invested with them?

I spent about $5,000. They did a few things that weren’t listed in the scope of work, but they didn’t charge extra for them.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on the project from July–September 2019. They offered help with future site adjustments and hosting. I haven’t taken advantage of those services, but I know I could count on them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My customers really liked the site and have complimented its flow. They feel that I was successful in making it personable.  

How did Nisman Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Throughout the process, we had scheduled calls for certain milestones. They allowed us to touch base on progress and review everything that had been done to that point. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The final site was very professional, and their services came at a good price. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

All of our issues were ironed out pretty easily. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d definitely recommend their services.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of QwickPaws, a web-based pet breeding platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nisman Solutions?

We needed someone to develop our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our platform. I had my own initial assumptions and desires. Working with Slava (CEO), we’ve looked into better technology to develop the system and we went with their recommendation.

Instead of going with what I typically know, it’s now the latest and greatest of doing things with single architecture. We’re now live. I’m in the process of maybe implementing a phase two and will use them. We will look to adding newer features and more functionality.

What is the team composition?

Slava is my main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Nisman Solutions?

Slava and I met in a coffeeshop here in San Diego. Then, we connected on LinkedIn. When we developed the concept, I ran my idea by Slava and he was very enthusiastic about it and encouraged it. We started building a Figma prototype and then we started putting things into Trello. I had a good feeling about working with him from the beginning.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re amazing. I couldn’t be more pleased with everything they delivered. They delivered quality work on time. They’re very professional, knowledgeable, and capable. We’ve had a really good time doing this.

We’ve worked closely with beta testers who were the subject matter experts on our platform. They’ve been providing the feedback and asking for things here and there. Now I see a lot of good feedback from these users on Facebook. They’ve complimented the platform and said it’s the best software. They know what they want and we’ve got it all for them.

How did Nisman Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack to communicate. They’re all awesome. We maintain very good communication even when we’ve had meetings in different time zones. They’re always available and very helpful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really good and know what they’re doing. Their team is honest, professional, and gets the job done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it’s been a great experience to work with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take their advice. They know what’s best.