Perficient Latin America

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a government technology company. We sell our proprietary software solutions to governments across the US. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perficient Latin America?

We’re building several new cloud products, trying to make them parallel and get them to market quickly. For this reason, we felt that it was important to leverage outsourced developers to help us, and that’s how we found a way through Perficient Latin America.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perficient Latin America was tasked to build cloud products for us using AWS, Java, and JavaScript. They worked with my product and in-house development team to develop solutions and bring them to market. These products are software tools to perform daily government operations that cities or counties may use. 

What is the team composition?

Overall, we worked with 30 teammates, including technical directors, technical leads, Scrum masters, software developers, front- and backend developers, and QA specialists. 

How did you come to work with Perficient Latin America?

I found them doing online research and reaching out to providers. Several firms recommended Perficient Latin America, and we hired them because most of their developers were based in South America, in the same time zone as us, which we thought would be good. 

How much have you invested with them?

The overall project budget was $2.2 million, of which we spent roughly $800,000 with them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from January–September 2022. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

In the last few months of our engagement, we found numerous contract violations and discovered they weren’t doing things they were supposed to. On top of that, Perficient Latin America wanted to charge us to fix those issues. 

We decided to contest these contract violations to get clawbacks on our costs, and the team came up with a plan for how they would address the issues. Still, they wouldn’t fix anything unless we paid them because they were a public company and needed to hit their numbers. Overall, we didn’t have a good experience with them, so we fired them from the project.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

Their overall code quality was poor, and they didn’t follow the best development lifecycle or coding practices. As a result, we had to scrap most of their work and start over. 

How was project management handled?

They performed terribly from a project management standpoint; it was one of the main reasons we fired them. Their communication was poor, so we had to ping them for things constantly. Therefore, my product team got way more involved in tasks they shouldn’t have had to do. Moreover, they reported functions that they weren’t doing. 

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

I don’t have any positive things to say about them. 

In what specific areas can they improve?

They should be more honest, adhere to their contract, and deliver what they say they will; it’s what every company should endeavor to do. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Chief Operating Officer of File & ServeXpress, a national leader in eFiling and eService for law firms connected to courts across the United States. I'm responsible for daily operation and development of our Software-as-a-Service offerings.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Inflection Point, and what were your goals?

While our primary development team is working on our next-generation eFiling platform we needed to integrate our current production system with the eFiling provider for Illinois so we could continue to serve key customers.

We wanted to provide a rapid option for these customers along with improving our general application for eFiling into Illinois without having to wait for our next-generation platform to be complete and available. We wanted to minimize the disruption of our next-generation project while creating and deploying this capability.

SOLUTION

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

I have worked with IPS previously. They could handle technically challenging problems and were honest and transparent about risks and commitments. In our case this involves working with some legacy technologies and my experience with IPS is their staff are comfortable extending older technology and don't push upgrades that are not within the scope of the project.

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

The team had to modify two separate applications in several ways. Our current production system has older .NET Framework components and some ASP pages that needed to be extended to gather additional information necessary to file in Illinois without affecting the vast majority of our customer paths. It then needed to make web service calls to a second application which had existing integration with the Illinois eFiling platform.

Finally, we took this opportunity to enhance the user interface of our Illinois eFiling application written in ASP.NET MVC to offer unique features and increase customer satisfaction. IPS also improved the performance of the Illinois eFiling application significantly during the process.

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

We had five people from IPS engaged in the effort including:

• UX Designer for determining the best UI changes to improve the user experience in both applications
• Technical Lead for the project to select technologies and approaches for accomplishing the integration
• Sr. Web Developers for modifying the ASP.NET MVC application and ASP applications

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application improvements made to the Illinois eFiling application were lauded by our customers during roll out and we saw an increase in utilization and business from this platform over the following three months from deployment. The integration with our current production application was successfully adopted by the target customers with high satisfaction.

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

For this project, the team operated within our existing management structure augmenting one of our internal teams. The Technical Lead ensured there was a clear set of work items defined and that we understood both their near-term deliverables and the status of the overall project commitments.

They worked within our Azure DevOps environment so we could integrate their project tracking with our other projects. Additionally, they provided written documentation from our discovery conversations and other requirements briefs to ensure clear communication from our team members through to their near-shore developers.

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

Their open and trustworthy approach to making and meeting commitments is refreshing. At no point did I feel they were hiding problems or risks from us, and they were open to incorporating lessons learned back into the project even when that put deliverables at risk.

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

As this was happening during COVID all work was done remotely which led to some communication challenges due to difficulty hearing / understanding team members. The team attempted to be overly self-reliant when setting up their environments, delaying asking for assistance from our team which slowed the start of the project.

This is a difficult tradeoff - IPS is successful and takes justified pride in being able to own an entire problem and we emphasized not disrupting the internal development activities, which had to be balanced against the difficulty of standing up a complex system to be able to make progress developing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Jammin’ Together, a platform that connects establishments with local musicians to help promote their shows.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

We needed their team to build our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve presented clickable prototypes to Inflection Point’s team, and they’ve built custom technical solutions to improve and replicate those. During the development phase, they’ve devised different features that authorize users to create profiles, locate venues and artists, and receive email notifications.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with between 10–12 resources, including their CTO, CEO, project manager, developers, and product testers.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

We had a vetting process and ended up with four companies. Inflection Point rose above their competitors because of their personable attitude and eagerness to work with us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in August 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website is just about to go live next week, so there aren’t any quantitative metrics to share at this point. We’ve shown Inflection Point’s work to our family and friends, and they particularly like its usable and straightforward features. Their team’s ability to merge convenience and simplicity through their solutions is our main success metric.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via email and Google Meet. I can’t say enough great things about Inflection Point’s project management skills — they promptly respond to our requests and help us refine our scope according to our project needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Inflection Point cares about our product and motivates us to exert the level of effort and dedication we need to meet our goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can consider being more detail-oriented to lessen minor mistakes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate your goals and preferences transparently, and they’ll give you what you need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief information officer for a premium certification service for HR professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

We wanted to keep our organization’s customers and data safe. We needed to strengthen our security constantly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Inflection Point provided penetration testing and vulnerability assessments for our tech. They explored our employees and our public-facing digital properties to provide recommendations for where we could strengthen our security.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with five or seven from their team, including their CEO, head of cybersecurity, and a handful of their engineers.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

I’ve known engineering teams that worked with them in different capacities. The CEO knew that I needed some cybersecurity needs. After looking at their offerings, it seemed like a good match.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent less than $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together for four weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My team saw value in the recommendations made by Inflection Point. By strengthening our security posture, it keeps our business and customers safe.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

They met all deadlines. They were very responsive and transparent in their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility and adaptability were impressive. They proposed an initial approach to the engagement, and then we gave them what we needed to start small. They were flexible enough to adjust to meet our needs. That’s what customers want in a service provider.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re competing against big names in the cybersecurity space. Most of their team was nearshore during this engagement. I would suggest that their security engineers get special US certifications.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Their team offers a broad services team. Make sure you have someone that you can hold accountable for the success. Not everyone will have that with their CEO, but make sure you have someone that you can build a strong relationship with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO at a private equity-owned company building a services franchise. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

My company hired Inflection Point to provide development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Before I joined my company, Inflection Point worked on application development. We’ve also leveraged their team to build additional products and scale our IT team. 

Inflection Point provides business analysts to help clarify requirements and engineers to support design. Their team has helped develop and code our products. This involves building automation, testing the products, and then releasing them into production. They own the product management and production components. Their team maintains the applications post-implementation. We have our own architects who review and approve the architecture.

For one project, they helped develop a cloud-native application using lambda functions. They built a service-oriented architecture, infrastructure, and cloud formation. The team worked the entire stack for us. 

They have worked in ASP.NET MVC, a Microsoft stack. The team also recently developed their AWS skill set, and they’ve had great success with it.

What is the team composition?

My team has worked with Inflection Point’s business analysts. We’ve also partially used their UI designers, application developers, and QA resources. 

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

The relationship existed before I joined the company. They’d been responsible for building and maintaining one of our applications.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $300,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our contract goes back to 2017, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were extremely pleased with how well the AWS product was delivered. They were very instrumental in augmenting our AWS infrastructure and skillsets so that we could quickly build the cloud-native application. Since we launched the product, everybody has been very happy.

Inflection Point’s engagement and the way that they interact with us have been very good. We can see the value of our work with them. The quality of their work has been good. We have test automation and quality checks in place.  

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t really engage them in that sense — we own the project. However, we can all track what is going on. We work in an agile environment, so our head of engineering works with their engineering leads on a daily basis. Once a week, we communicate about deliverables and progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Seeing Inflection Point as a partner has turned things around. Initially, we set up the engagement so that we’d give them work, they’d do the work, and then they’d send it back to us. Last year, we decided to shift our perspective and see our work with Inflection Point as an ongoing partnership.

Making that change has been very helpful; they’ve gone from being an order taker to a partner, and we have more of a team mindset than that of a transactional vendor relationship. The team has a better understanding of our roadmap. We’ve seen more value in the speed of the work, product delivery, and handoff. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Providing better clarity around their capabilities is always helpful. They’re constantly building new skills. In a sense, I took a chance with their AWS skills. They should share how mature their capabilities are and what processes they have with their customer base.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you want to get out of the engagement. They’re a small organization on the application development track. If you’re looking for multiple capabilities out of one organization, they’re not necessarily the right size for that. For instance, they may not have application operations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Manager, Data & Analytics, at the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. My team works to ensure the overall health and usability of our data assets to empower organizational awareness and facilitate business user consumption.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Inflection Point?

Over the past 18 months, the Data & Analytics team have been working to update and revitalize our data warehousing processes and structures. While we had made great strides forward, we still needed someone to help us fine tune some of the pieces.

To do this, we were looking for strong skills in database administration and best practices who would also be able to "work backwards" from the desired output to determine the best approach.

What were your goals for this project?

Primarily, we wanted to get our pipeline to a place where we could refresh the data more regularly than the existing nightly batch job. We also has some smaller goals of incorporating some data sources that were left out of the previous phase and transforming the messier data sets into BI-friendly models.

SOLUTION

How did you select Inflection Point?

I was not directly involved in the selection process for the company, however, I was involved in the decision to bring our specific consultant onboard. To make this decision, I provided a general description of the project needs to our contact who shared the resume of a potential candidate.

We did a brief interview to ensure our project was a good match for the consultants skillset and something they were interested in working on.

Describe the project in detail.

Being a small team with a very focused project, the consultant and I collaborated very closely. We held daily standups each morning and typically would pair for a couple hours in the afternoon. We sliced the work into discrete projects that each provided independent value. Since the original contract was for just three months, we wanted to avoid leaving anything half done.

In the end, however, we were able to accomplish everything on the original to do list with a few days to spare. Completed work included optimizing table table and schema structures in our data warehouse, reviewing and updating the process by which the data was prepped for analysis, consuming the data from a previously skipped NoSQL database, transitioning an existing process for API data consumption into the current pipeline.

The consultant did most of the "heavy lifting" while I provided context, direction and a second pair of eyes when troubleshooting.

What was the team composition?

The team was just me and the one consultant.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I honestly can't believe how much we got done in these three months. We were able to tackle every project on the initial to-do list which means more data that is more frequently refreshed for our business users. We're hoping that these improvements will translate into greater adoption of the reporting assets by our business users.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication was very easy between me and the consultant. We set them up with access to our slack for easier back-and-forth throughout the day and used email very little. The vendor point of contact was frequently in touch to check in and make sure things were going well, too.

We initially set up our internal work management tool for tracking for this project, but with just two of us on the team it was more overhead than it was worth. A daily standup and slack communication throughout was all we needed to be efficient and stay on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I have been really impressed by the productivity, diligence, and friendliness of the team at Inflection Point. Our consultant has truly felt like just an extension of my team instead of a mysterious outsider. I've also been blown away by how quickly our consultant has learned the ins and outs of our systems and our domain. I think within the first weeks they understood our data better than I did after a year!

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of anything I would "do differently" in hindsight, except maybe come up with a harder set of projects!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former VP of engineering for SugarSync. It’s a software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

We wanted to extend our team, and were looking for a partner to help us with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They integrated as part of our team, working remotely to build our product; they did development work.

The product allows people to store their files in the Cloud and synchronize it. It’s similar to Dropbox.

There were three teams we had working; web interface, backend/platform, and mobile. They worked in all three teams.

What is the team composition?

There were 9–10 people working with us.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

I knew them through business connections. I liked that they were nearshore, with minimum time zone difference. When I visited them, I felt they had a sufficient pool of resources to meet our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January 2008–February 2011. I left the company at that point in time, but they continued working with the company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were effective and trustworthy to do development remotely for us. We did a big release every 1-2 months. It was a good interaction, with good dynamics, working with them. 

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

We managed the projects internally. They worked well in our team, finishing tasks on time. Communication was good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are more well-rounded than other teams I’ve worked with. They’re able to see the bigger picture and communicate well with others beyond writing code. They seem to enjoy understanding all the different aspects of a project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In general, it’s important to make any outsourced team feel like part of your own team. With this team specifically, I would suggest maximizing the benefit of them being nearshore.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CTO at an electronic medical record (EMR) SaaS provider. We focused on working with behavioral health agencies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

I hired Inflection Point because I needed to expand my team of about 30 employees. We had a lot of projects but not enough developers to do them. I needed to find developers quickly, without having to go through the whole hiring process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I took a hybrid approach, so I had two onshore people from Inflection Point who were in our office and worked directly with our in-house developers. Then, the remaining resources were in Monterrey, Mexico.

Inflection Point’s resources became team members; they had full access to the dev environment and were assigned tickets. This was software development, so they did both front- and backend development and database work. They worked in .NET and JavaScript. They also did some Android mobile app development for us.

What is the team composition?

We initially brought on 15 team members from Inflection Point. When I left the company, there were more than 25 Inflection Point people on the team.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

I found them through my friend who had worked with them before. He referenced them and said they were really good, and I vetted them. I chose between using them and an Eastern European development firm I’d used before, but I went with Inflection Point because of the proximity and time zone. The developers were good, and, on top of that, we could take a hybrid approach of both onshore and offshore, as my developers had not done offshoring before.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost was $100,000 a month, so over $1 million a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’m no longer with the company, but Inflection Point is still working with them. I brought them on in late 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The biggest thing was that we were delivering features, bug fixes, and changes at a much faster rate than we could have without them. We were able to do a lot more. We were also able to deliver an Android app; we’d already done one for iOS, but we wanted to make sure we had one for the Android market. Overall, the best way to judge the impact is how quickly we were moving through projects and delivering.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well because they were integrated with our existing systems for managing projects and tasks. Their onshore resources translated quite a bit for us and really kept everybody on task. Even though the entire team was on the standups and calls, the onshore folks made sure that the communication pipeline was robust and pipeline, so that we could deal with issues quickly. If there was a question, we could answer it right away and not lose any momentum.

The biggest challenge was integrating Inflection Point’s resources with our existing employees, many of whom had never worked with an offshore vendor. Communication and culture were challenges, but Inflection Point made it easy. Taking the hybrid approach really helped bridge our teams, so it just came to the point that Inflection Point’s resources were considered team members. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their code is well written, and they’re basically like your own in-house developers. They ask good clarifying questions and become experts in what your software does so that they can deliver good code. We didn’t have to go back and keep redoing it. I was very pleased with that; I’ve worked with some other firms where the developers would go off and do their own thing, and the code wasn’t great. 

For the most point, Inflection Point’s code was well-structured, and they really helped push the product in a good direction. They asked clarifying questions that made the product better.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing I can think of is that there is sometimes a language barrier from a verbal communication perspective. However, that is generally overcome through written communication. There are occasions when you get a developer who has trouble with English verbally. Other than that, I don’t have anything else. Their coding, processes, and senior team are industry-leading. They’re very straightforward and good to work with.

Any advice for potential customers?

Depending on the size of the project, I would clarify what you want from an offshore development group, whether it's Inflection Point or somebody else. Be very clear about what the developers need to do, such as whether they should be on a standup call every morning and what system they’re using for their check-ins. To get the most out of them, make sure they become part of your team. Also, make sure the scope is agreed to with the senior people at Inflection Point so that nothing gets lost in translation.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Oculis Labs, a data protection firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

We were a tiny company with just myself and my investors. I had invented some technology that I needed to implement but I didn’t want to bring on developers at that point since we were still in validating whether the invention was realistic. Rather than try to bring on software developers for what could have been a short-term stint, it made more sense to go to an outside agency that already had developers on staff.

They helped me develop a prototype of a very novel information security product. We went through an early-stage research project at first where I had developed some of the science behind it. I’m a product manager by career and experience, so I defined the requirements in a document for them. We were trying to validate these things. This was one of the most experimental projects in my career ever; it wasn’t clear at the beginning whether this would even work. We were shaping a new category/product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The security product would allow an authorized user to sit down at a computer screen and read the data on the screen. It could be Word or Outlook or a browser. You could read what was on the screen but somebody standing beside you looking over your shoulder would see just a confusing garble of misinformation that seemed to be moving around the screen all the time. We used a hardware device called a gaze track — a high-end camera that uses infrared light to illuminate the subject’s eyes and determine down to a .5 degree angle exactly where the user is looking on the screen in almost real-time.

The software development task for Inflection Point was to figure out a way to use that technology combined with some science around the way that human vision works and even cognition and the way we absorb information. We would be changing what the display was communicating in as close to real-time as we could get it so, if the user had a Word document open, they would always see the real words wherever they happen to be looking on the screen. All the other words on the screen would be replaced with false information. It was a really crazy idea but it turns out it works.

What is the team composition?

There was a senior person on their side, and we increased and decreased the number of people on the team. There were a couple of other developers working on this as well. It’s been a while so I don’t remember exactly how many but I think we started with one person. Then, we increased it to two and then four before scaling back down to two. We eventually ended the project.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

I had worked with the founders of Inflection Point at a previous company five years prior. I trusted them as individuals. Later on, when I came across the idea, Carlos (CEO/Co-Founder) may have found me. He’s a very good networker. He mentioned that he could help me out with the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $380,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2007 until June 2009.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They ended up producing a working prototype that allowed us to get our first set of customers and a second round of investments. They made a huge impact.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t have a set schedule because of the nature of the project but I don’t recall ever having any complaints about it. Later, I brought people in on my side as well. I had a project manager interfacing with them. That may have helped. We were satisfied.

In a very iterative process, they helped me figure out how we could make this thing work. I’d give them a set of requirements or do a phone call with them and they’d write some stuff down in documents. Then they’d go off and work on it for a week. They’d send me an update. One of the things they really excelled at in this project was the spirit of flexibility. They knew that I didn’t know how this product was going to look in the end. There was a lot of invention going on through the process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The lead guy was great. He was smart, flexible, and hardworking. A lot of times, when you outsource a software task, you have to be really careful about spec’ing it and doing changes on the fly because they like more certainty. Inflection Point wasn’t like that. The team was very good to work with. It was nice to have support. They were interested in my success. Obviously, they’re there to make money but it was more than that. I went down there once to work with them in person. The office manager and VP that was running the team were there and we spent a bunch of time together. It was nice to feel like they really cared that we are successful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing stands out. The only knock on them, if there was any, was that they were at a nearshore price-point. It was far less expensive than hiring my own people but more expensive than hiring an offshore company. The flipside is they were almost in my time zone. There were some advantages to them being only an hour difference: the turnaround was good, the guys that run the company are here in Maryland, and communication was good. Even today, I’d be willing to pay a bit of a premium on their services because I know they’re here and they’re easy to work with. I don’t have a big negative.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend anyone outsourcing a project to understand what it is you’re asking for. Understand that the vendor can’t read your mind. You have to write it down. You have to be very clear about what you want them to achieve. Do regular status checks with them and ask for prototypes if that’s appropriate. Give them feedback. You can’t just throw a project over the fence and expect it to come back perfectly. Have a project leader on your side that really speaks for what you need because the vendor can’t do that for you. You can’t assume they will staff it all themselves. You need to staff it with experts on your side as well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CRM leader at Irvine Company. We’re in the real estate business, so we own and lease different spaces as well as develop and sell homes. On the B2C side, we use Salesforce for lead toward lease processes. On the office and retail side, we heavily use the platform for lease generation and management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inflection Point?

Last September, we went live with a Salesforce solution for our retail and office spaces. It was in hypercare for eight months but wasn’t stabilizing. I was brought on board to stabilize the system. When I looked into it, I found organizational issues. The consulting firm that the company used for implementation didn’t produce quality work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Inflection Point provides all of our development and QA resources for Salesforce. They primarily work in a pure development capacity. We have a blended team, so our technical leads personally interact with each member of the Inflection Point team. We manage the projects and then their team delivers. They also engage at the beginning of initiatives, so when we put our requirements together, they offer advice.

What is the team composition?

We currently work with 16 people from Inflection Point. We have eight developers, 7 QA team members, and an engineer.

How did you come to work with Inflection Point?

The offshore model didn’t work for our company, so I suggested that we transition to a nearshore model. I previously worked with Inflection Point and suggested that we engage them. Carlos (CEO) came to the office, met with our CIO and VP of CRM, and went through his company’s capabilities. We evaluated their proposal and then brought them onboard. We needed to move quickly, and their team wasn't a great risk as a known entity.

What is the status of this engagement?

We brought them on board in April 2020, and the partnership’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure their performance against the previous incumbent, and we’re performing twice as well. Their team produces extremely high-quality work. Whereas everything failed with our previous vendor, we never encounter problems with Inflection Point's work. Our business owners said that they had never seen work this clean.

How did Inflection Point perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re truly a blended team, so all of their people take their assignments from our team members. Inflection Point's punctual. They’re sincere, honest, hard workers. Our whole IT team loves working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

With Infection Point, we don’t just work with the developers. We work with the CEO, CTO, and VP of QA. Their executive team’s involved in the partnership and drives the success of their company. For example, they attend onboarding sessions. Their executive team’s commitment makes Inflection Point really special.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to believe but I have to say there isn’t.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’ve worked with Inflection Point twice now and have had the exact same experience. It’s their culture. I have to believe that they’d perform at this level for anyone.