Perficient Latin America

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a tech manager at Autoecomobility, an auto sales company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address PSL Corp.?

We hired them for two big development projects. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

PSL Corp. is helping us develop a piece of software to be implemented in different POS systems. They are also creating a mobile app to offer our users digital services and after-sale services. The team is using Java, React, and Node.js

What is the team composition?

We work with 6–10 teammates.

How did you come to work with PSL Corp.?

We have been working with them for a long time. We've done all of our strategic projects with PSL Corp., so whenever there is a new project, we consider them. 

This time, we had a bidding process with them and other agencies. Thanks to their experience with developing these kinds of apps, we ended up assigning the project to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since 2008.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have always seen a great impact on our KPIs in all of the projects we’ve had with them such as sales increases, budget optimization, and competitiveness improvements, among others. 

How did PSL Corp. perform from a project management standpoint?

PSL Corp. has very clear and well-established processes. At the moment, we are using Jira for project management and it has all worked great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really like their use of the scrum methodology. The team is always oriented to achieve our business goals. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They are very well organized, however, we have encountered not being satisfied with the performance of the developers. It hasn’t been often, but when this has happened, the team has always been available to react and to reassign new resources.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My position is the director of operations for JPMA, an application provider primarily to the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. WIC is a food assistance program for single mothers and those under a certain income threshold. The program helps to provide them with nutritious foods. Any woman who is pregnant or has children up to the age of five that meets the income requirements is eligible for the program. Depending on her situation, whether she’s pregnant, breastfeeding, or has a toddler, different foods are prescribed to help that person with food and security issues.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

Our company provides the WIC program with two applications, primarily: one is a shopping application that helps program participants find food, download benefits, and that sort of thing. The other application is called WICSmart, which Inflection Point has worked on. WICSmart is an application that delivers nutrition and breastfeeding education. WIC agencies use that app to assign lessons to program participants, who then take those lessons. The app reports results back to the WIC agencies.

We had a legacy version of the WICSmart product when we hired Inflection Point. The product was already pretty widely used when they came in, which I think is even more difficult than starting from scratch. The product was a bit dated. Also, our structure and company had changed a bit, so we didn’t have the developers who had originally built the product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Inflection Point made some small modifications and bug fixes, and then they progressed into essentially rebuilding the app piece of the product.

Most of the creative direction comes from us, so we describe at a functional level what we need, they reiterate that back to us to ensure there’s understanding, and then they design the technical aspects of it.

What is the team composition?

We have a primary project manager that we work with the most.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

I didn’t make that initial decision, but I believe it was some sort of solicitation. I don’t think there was a whole lot of in-depth research that went into finding them.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work began in April 2018, and it’s an ongoing project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a legacy product that was getting severely dated, and Inflection Point helped us to make that product current and relevant. They have definitely helped us keep that product more competitive, modern, and intuitive; generally, they’ve enabled us to keep using the product out in the field and continue operating in the environment that we work in. 

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

Just as a high-level overview, their project management has been very strong. They practice agile development and are really willing to allow us to be as involved as we want to be. At different stages of the project, we’ve had weekly calls to review the current backlog and sprints that we’re in. They’ve done a good job of giving us demos when there’s a new feature to be released.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a different development team for our other app, and I would say Inflection Point is much more organized and has a more transparent approach to the jobs that we’re working on. They lay out what they plan to do and execute it exactly as they say they’re going to. Their planning, strategy, and follow-through have been more outstanding than that of other developers we’ve worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always little things, but one thing that sticks out is their project estimations. They tend to be on the low side in terms of how much work a project will require, but it’s not unreasonable. Other than that, I don’t have any other suggestions. When they complete something, they document it really well and provide us with testing tools. I don’t have anything negative to say about their processes.

Any advice for potential customers?

Let Inflection Point guide you on the technical side of things. While we’re somewhat technical, we’re not developers, so they’ve been the perfect fit for us; we’re able to give them a fairly low-level, functional description of what we want, and they’ve been able to take that and develop specifications. They return quality work based on what we ask for. I would say to take the time to explain what you want.

They’re better than a lot of developers that we’ve worked with at understanding the functional aspect of projects and the user experience we’re asking them to deliver. When we describe a product, we have complete trust in them that they understand what we’re talking about.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CIO for The Cleaning Authority and Authority Brands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

For this project, we were redeveloping existing ERP and CRM applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We updated the applications completely. The backend was rewritten and Inflection Point helped with all of that. This system runs the day to day business. They provided a technical lead and QA staff and developers. We were working in Microsoft environments, so SQL server, and C# were the main languages they were using.  They completely changed the frontend UI, but much of the backend remained the same.

Some of the functionality that was new for us we developed a new dispatching tool, a higher level of integration mapping. We were able to demonstrate in our employee dispatch module, where teams would be going for the day. The mapping interface improved visibility into where those teams were navigating for the day.

What is the team composition?

There were seven, on our team, and we had a project manager.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

They were a referral from a company the provides executive coaching. Someone from that company introduced us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2018 and it ended in July 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our customer base has been very receptive and happy with this upgrade. In general, the system has improved efficiencies.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

We fully integrated them into the project. They participated in daily scrums. Even though they’re an off-shore company, we worked very well together. They never caused any delays and they were very agile. They helped us meet the changing requirements effectively.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

At all levels, from executives to the project team, everyone was very easy to work with. I was confident in their technical abilities. Even if we weren’t satisfied, their management made the appropriate changes to staffing. They managed the relationship well from that standpoint. I would use them again.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s going to be up and downs with any relationship, but they manage things appropriately, so I’m satisfied.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If anybody is on the fence for working with them—I was very satisfied with them, and I think you will too.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former CIO of Laureate Online Education.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

When I started working at Laureate Online Education, our web team was not optimal. The organization was looking to rethink the marketing site of the business, so we needed help and resources to move us forward. 

We had already decided to use the Sitecore platform, so we were looking for resources who were proficient in that area. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided an onshore architect for us who came into the office to work with two resources on our side. Inflection Point took time to understand our business and project needs, and then put together some recommendations. 

Our offshore resources helped us with development work and ongoing improvements. At one point in time, they also added other resources to help us with a Salesforce project. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with both on and offshore resources. 

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

The person I worked for at the time had a prior relationship with somebody at Inflection Point and introduced us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $500,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January 2015–January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to significantly increase lead capture. We had a 25% increase in our organic leads. There’s no question that we had significant improvements in our lead generation efforts. All of our resources were highly qualified. 

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

We ran an agile shop, using scrum methods. We had daily stand-ups and worked closely with them. They had someone on their side making sure that the project ran smoothly. So, it was a good relationship. 

Our architect resource had a great understanding of Sitecore and helped us structure our architecture well. Inflection Point worked well with the business and technology teams. The team communicated very well in English.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Inflection Point had good rates in terms of the value we got. The team worked well together and we didn’t see any disconnects between our on- and offshore resources.  They were also in a similar timezone as us, which was helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The on-site resource is more of an account manager. He was a good strong technician who had great communication skills. The key to our success was that he had the ability to not only facilitate the rest of his organization but also to bring the technology architecture skills we needed. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a CTO that was brought in to build out a media distribution site.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

I brought them on board to work on our mobile application development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

A couple of Inflection Point’s developers ran our Android and iOS e-book application. We had a basic app on both platforms that their team enhanced.

Their team worked with us to build out where we wanted to go. They gave us ideas for what would work in a mobile format. Their team enhanced the APIs so that we had a proper architecture. They built an e-book reader in our apps, which allows us to deliver e-books.

What is the team composition?

We had a main point of contact. We worked with a project manager and two developers—one for each OS.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

I worked with them at my previous company, so I knew them prior to this project. I brought them in to build up this platform.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $250,000 a year with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015 and the collaboration ended in July 2017. The only reason that we aren’t using them today is that we decided to have in-house developers working on the project for knowledge retention.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The opening of e-books was a big change. That was extremely important to our business and the growth of our library distribution. They were great in working with us on designs and implementing them. They do solid work.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

We used JIRA and ran sprints. We ran most of their tasks through tickets and had a lot of verbal communication. They worked with us daily, so it all worked out. They had great communication and did well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were flexible in their model of working with us. They had quality work and outcomes. Their team was quick to react whenever we had any issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could’ve brought in more developers to give insight into our direction and UX experience, but we didn’t ask for those resources. Their team asked us, but we declined. I can’t blame them for not taking a broader role but that could’ve added more value to the engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Anyone that works with them will sit down and integrate them into their teams. They’re going to have a good outcome as long as they know their direction. Inflection Point’s a great asset. They’re going to give feedback on where they think the project should go, but they’re going to get done what you ask them to get done.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of ePESOS, a FinTech company. We provide onboarding access to workers through partnerships that we make with large enterprises.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

In 2014, we started with a very basic infrastructure. We started growing and started looking to improve our security infrastructure by moving it to the cloud.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did most of the consulting from the beginning. They immersed themselves into our software and started looking at what we had done. They proposed a roadmap to improve security and start to get everything over on the different layers in the cloud to avoid penetration.

Consulting lasted a couple of months to give us an assessment on where we were standing and we needed to do.

Since we finished the foundation, we started building our own internal team. Inflection Point was also very crucial in doing the testing. We’ve been working with them over the last year with testing services to make sure we release it without bugs.

What is the team composition?

The team size has ranged from 2–6 people.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

We looked at different companies worldwide and decided to hire Inflection Point.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $750,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2016 and we continue working with them on an ongoing basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t had any security issues on our platform. Their work was crucial to show to our investors. It’s evident we have the right infrastructure. We do a yearly penetration test and got a very high grade. We’re very satisfied. They created a very solid foundation for our business.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very good. We’ve integrated our IT team with their team. We work in collaboration. They’re very organized. They’ve helped us to move into an agile methodology. They’ve provided us with tools to create an agile project management culture. They’re very well structured. They’re not only a good technical partner but they’re also very well managed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really good with security and software architecture. They were really helpful. They’re also very good at web development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We felt they weren’t that strong in mobile app development.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We started to establish a solid relationship from the start. We’ve been really open with them in terms of the needs and they’re very flexible. They can even train your people. We look at them as an extension of our IT department. We work very nicely as a team. That’s what distinguishes their relationship from other companies we’ve worked with in the past. It’s not on a price-based but it’s based on a long-term relationship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Product development for Vidsys, Inc. We are what is traditionally known as a physical security and information management platform that enterprises would use in command and control facilities to monitor and respond to situations based on events that are occurring within their enterprise. We integrate disparate systems.

For example, you a campus might have access control systems, but perimeter intrusion detection systems, video analytics, cameras, anything that you could typically you don't want to use to secure the facility or monitor the facility,

We work with multiple vendors and we integrate their products into our platform, creating a unified solution to our customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

We were looking to enhance the engineering capabilities of our organization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought them on board to help us with a particular pilot developing these third-party integrations, that we called connectors.

We made Inflection Point part of our engineering organization that would help draft the requirement documents, because, in our industry, oftentimes our customers will come to us and say we have these 50 different subsystems and we use them in various different ways, but we're not really sure how to integrate them.

We brought them in to help us with the requirements gathering. So we would expose them to our customers. They sort of became part of our customer engagement team where they would actually travel with us on sites, nationally and globally.

Working with me, they develop the requirements, understand the use cases.

Once that was clearly understood, then I would work with them to develop the actual connector. And once that was done, not only would they develop it and tested, they would write the customer-facing documentation.

We would go through the user acceptance testing that we would make sure that it was working. We would get customer sign off and then we would move on to the next project.

What is the team composition?

We started with four developers, and it grew into 17 team members.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

We decided that we needed a near-shore partner. We were connected to Inflection Point through a former colleague of ours.

How much have you invested with them?

Overall, the cost was several million dollars. Towards the end of the project, we were spending about $150,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from July 2010–May 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The connectors became a strategic initiative for the company, and is one of our primary differentiators based on the number of connectors that we have getting our library, and the quality. The features that they developed are quite robust compared to our competition. So, they were an integral part in starting that. Their programming skills were excellent.

When I started, it would take us about 12 weeks to develop a single connector, and today it takes about four weeks.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is a two-way street, so making them feel like a part of our organization was important. We established quarterly visits, where I would go to their offices. I’m bilingual, so that helped communication. The team itself has very good language skills, which is very helpful when bringing them to meet customers.

We structed the project so that, for every five developers we brought on board, we’d bring on another project manager to serve as a team lead. I would then communicate with those managers to ensure project were getting done on time.

We used scrum and agile methodologies. We had daily standups that lasted about 15 minutes, so we could resolve problems very quickly.

The followed industry standards. And time zones weren’t an issue because they were a near-shore team. They’re very professional in the way they run their teams. They’re very disciplined.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take care of their employees, and that’s very important. Attrition can kill an outsourcing engagement very easily. From the time that we started, to when we completed the engagement, we only lost one person. That speaks to Inflection Point’s way of treating them, training them, and providing clear advancement opportunities within the organization.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything negative to say about them. They’re a great company and I’d work with them again.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make them feel like they’re a part of your team. It should be a combined effort. That’s what made our engagement so successful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of application development at an investment firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

We needed help with redesigning the infrastructure and associated components used to feed data into our client portal. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Inflection Point provided staff augmentation. We already had an internal project set up to tackle this project and wanted to leverage Inflection Point for their technical knowledge. They helped with three different elements of the project: designed and developing the database, configuring and building the extract, transform, load (ETL) process, and creating new process flows. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with seven resources.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

We already had previous experience working with them on prior projects. Inflection Point is one firm within a stable of partners that we leverage. We considered other firms, but Inflection Point had the availability, resource skill set, and cost that was most in line which how we wanted to approach this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $1.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from April 2017 until September 2018. We’re now in a support, maintenance, and minor enhancement phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our prior process was not as efficient in loading the data and not as complete in the service-level agreement (SLA). This new process has reduced the time it takes to load this data in a client portal by 50% and significantly reduces the frequency in which we exceed the SLA for the data load. From a client perspective, the data is available sooner and more consistently.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

We removed the project management from Inflection Point’s scope and took it on ourselves. Their resources were embedded within our development team. They have their own streams of work that were tracked alongside the main project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very nimble and flexible. They’re willing to go outside their normal scope of work and extend themselves to other areas. They’ve shown the ability to learn the domain in which they are operating so they could add more business value. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

On the flip side, Inflection Point didn’t necessarily have the background in the domain space right away, which meant that it took some time for them to come up to speed. Their learning curve would be reduced if they were to invest in building that core competency on their team. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Define the scope very clearly and have discussions with Inflection Point’s team and principal stakeholders to understand what they need to accomplish your goals. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of VitusVet, a veterinary software company. Our main product is a communication platform between veterinarians and their clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

We needed support developing several of our platforms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first project Inflection Point executed for us was the construction of our payment platform. It’s an application we offer to veterinary practices with which they can offer monthly installment plans to their clients. The team built it from the ground up, and we’re rolling it out currently.

Inflection Point also helped us build the billing platform we offer to our clients as well. They were responsible for developing the backend. Currently, the team is helping with Salesforce integration, to improve workflows and efficiency in integrating products.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about six or seven people.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

They were referred to us by a colleague. We were confident in their talent and expertise, so we decided to partner with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $800,000–$1,000,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in February 2019 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been an integral contributor in building consistency in our product development. We can really rely on their work. The quality of the code is excellent. 

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve handled most of the project management internally. However, Inflection Point executes on every deadline. We keep in touch over Zoom and Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their developers is extremely impressive. Also, we’re confident that if we ever need resources from Inflection Point, we can get them in a short amount of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be beneficial if they could provide more metrics from the resources they’ve put on projects, to make sure all expectations are aligned.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go into the project ready to collaborate with their resources and provide feedback. Also, engage the developers and make them feel like they’re part of the team. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for an organization that owns universities around the world, including both traditional brick and mortar as well as online schools. For most of my time here, I have worked in the online division supporting the online schools based in Baltimore and Columbia, Maryland as well as schools in England.

I work with marketing folks to build and manage the corporate website used to attract students as well as the student portal used within the schools.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

They have helped us to build and manage a wide variety of websites over the years, most recently focusing on the redesign of one of our big university websites.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The old content management system was no longer under my or Inflection Point’s management and had been redesigned into Sitecore. It was experiencing problems with response time, so I was brought back in and I brought on Inflection Point to help stabilize the website.

We made a bunch of changes in the architecture of the site to help optimize the page load speeds, and at that point, we decided to conduct a complete redesign as well. We worked with the marketing team and another team to provide frontend assets on Sitecore and spent several years continuing to upgrade and improve the sites of a few England-based schools.

What is the team composition?

We had a fully embedded technical lead who worked closely with our team every day for years. There have been a variety of developers, QA personnel, and graphic designers who worked on his team as well.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

Our CIO at the time introduced them to me originally. Their prices were good, and they had the expertise we needed at the time, so we decided to go with them. Things went well from there, so we continued together for a long time.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $250,000 on the redesign in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project started in February 2018 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any specific statistics about the sites’ performance, but I know that we have seen continual improvement since they came onto the project. They have continued to A/B test, try new things, and update to find new ways to maximize our leads, and we have seen improvements year-over-year because of that effort from them.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a fantastic job of managing the project. It was always really easy for me to work with Eduardo (Director of Engineering) and Carlos (CEO), and I always felt like I knew where we were and could stay on top of the work because of their efforts. They stay out in front of all milestones and timelines, and I didn’t have to do nearly as much as I do with most other vendors.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The stability of the partnership has been a huge asset to our work and overall business over the years that they have partnered with us. The relationship has been seamless to manage, and it is always clear that they take our needs seriously because they are very much a part of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had occasional communication issues like you would in any business relationship, but it was never anything specific to Inflection Point. I really have been happy with all the services they’ve provided to us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Having really clear goals about who your audience is and what the purpose of the engagement is will help you both hit the ground running much more quickly than if you need a lot of guidance getting to those more defined objectives.