PointClear Solutions

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am CEO of Keenly Health LLC.  We are the developer of a patented completely non-contact remote monitoring system primarily for use in long-term care in either communities or the home. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

Our initial challenge was to develop a Minimum Viable Product based on our unique ultrawide band radar technology; developing all the data acquisition and management technology and the user-interface (dashboard) to deliver the insights from the device in the resident’s room to the care staff and/or the family.

SOLUTION

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

We’ve continued to refine the product with PointClear’s help through our MVP, Gen1 commercial device and now our Gen2 device.

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a good job.  Lots of issues to deal with along the way but overall it has been a very mutually beneficial partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone can improve and this has been a long relationship which continues because they’ve always been willing to adapt and improve as needed.

BACKGROUND

We are a large Am Law 50 global law firm. I am the director of application development and operations. I oversee our entire application portfolio, development, and operational tasks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We had a very old intranet site in both technology and design. I think 1990's link sites and such would describe what we had. We were looking to not only bring our site to relevant times in terms of design and technology but to try to go beyond that.

If done right, our intranet could go from being something no one uses to a hub for everything throughout the company.

SOLUTION

I had worked with Worry Free Labs in the past and knew that they were the right firm for this project. Their focus on mobile and mobile first was a key consideration. In this day and age, you can't think of mobile second, it has to be first, and drive other form factors from there. We were also looking to go beyond today and design for the future. Worry Free Labs is always not only current but also does a good job of keeping up with where things are going.

In total, Worry Free Labs created the design and feature/functionality for the new intranet site. The project lasted for about three months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

It can be difficult to interpret metrics with an intranet site. What we have seen is a huge increase in overall engagement with the site. People are on the site longer and are engaged with it.

We couldn't be happier with Worry Free Labs and with what they delivered. Everything was done within schedule and on budget. It was also refreshing to be notified when we were getting close to our hour limit, instead of finding out later. This enabled us to work together in order to determine the best course of action.

Worry Free Labs has become our top firm for strategy and design.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the director of application architecture and development for one of the largest pharmacies in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PointClear Solutions?

We needed help with a patient portal, particularly with requirements gathering and usability testing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a patient portal and a mobile patient portal for our onsite health centers. They worked on our EMR [electronic medical record] for our retail clinics as it related to ICD-10 remediation. On the health center side, we were working with Fortune 500 companies who expected high scale, high availability, and consistency. On the retail side, the focus was on throughput, application speed, and quality. All of the solutions were built with .NET, Node.js, and SQL Server on the backend. When I say high availability and high scale, it means multi-server 24/7, 365 days a year. I’ll call it five-nine availability [99.999% uptime]. On the patient portal and mobile portal, we were using 20% internal resources and 80% PointClear. On the EMR and ICD-10, we used 30% PointClear and 70% internal.

How did you come to work with PointClear Solutions?

Many of the people I knew in Nashville had known some of PointClear’s team. I knew their capabilities. I gave them something small first to see how they did and then increased the work over time.

How much have you invested with PointClear Solutions?

The average project cost between $10,000 and $50,000. Total spend was well over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2010.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our launch of the patient portal was very aggressive, driven by a client contract. We were running late already so we used PointClear to execute on the project. We exceeded the timeline and the customer expectations. We were eventually able to roll it out to all of our clients with little refactoring. Their teams truly continued to take ownership of the projects. They were aligned to our goals, assimilating themselves well in our culture and around the business objectives that we were trying to achieve.

How did PointClear Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked on project management tools provided by my company. That meant we had real information all the time. They were very proactive in their approach.

What did you find most impressive about PointClear Solutions?

They have a very stable and gifted technologist. They have great communicators, able to fit in and communicate with our team effectively. They were really easy to assimilate into our projects and culture.

Are there any areas PointClear Solutions could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Respondent 1: Otometrics produces equipment for hearing measurements for ear diagnostics. We’re manufacturing or developing a 3D scanner for the ear. We are 150 people in Denmark. For this project, there are 12 people in Denmark working with PointClear Solutions. My role is as product manager for one of the applications that PointClear Solutions is developing, working closely with a couple of resources from PointClear Solutions.

Respondent 2: My role is software tech lead for the scanware software that goes on the piece that we distribute with the instrument. I’ve been working closely together with 3 PointClear Solutions developers. I have a close relationship with the office in Nashville as I’ve been there 10 times this last year coordinating work and closely working with their developers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PointClear Solutions?

Respondent 1: The original objective was for them to develop a standard basic solution based on a set of requirements in a fixed period of time. They became more and more involved in the design and development of the solution, all the way from requirements and business analysis, to bringing the solution to market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Respondent 2: They have not been involved in the overall go-to-market strategy or business strategy. We have been doing that ourselves. All their work relates to the apps and how we can do this in the most efficient way. They’re mostly involved in the business software development, which is one part of the project, and that was their first contribution. In the beginning, they only worked very little on the device and PC software side, but because of their involvement in the project, and how it was insourced by us, we kept them as developers and also on the PC software because of their inside solution. They took over more and more in that part. They have also been big contributors in getting the device software done. On top of the design and implementation of the apps, they have done some consulting in terms of HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] and UI/UX, which is one of their core competencies.

How did you come to work with PointClear Solutions?

Respondent 1: We inherited them, but when we transitioned the design responsibility from the US to Denmark, we did consider bringing on consultants or internal employees to do the work because of the time zone differences. We decided to stick with PointClear Solutions because of the way they work with us and because we saw that they had the right skill set.

What is the status of this engagement?

Respondent 2: We started working with them September 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Respondent 1: In the beginning, they were given a huge code base with millions of lines of code that was very hard to work with. Over time, they managed to start delivering overall improvements. There’s been a lot of work done by them that has proven valuable with quality improvements that we could expect. In general, we are just about to close on the first version of the product, and we have been very satisfied with the work we’ve been getting from PointClear Solutions over the last year.

Respondent 2: We measure the overall quality of the app, and we can see a trend of increasing quality over time in the output of the app that we have been able to deliver, at least partly because thanks to the work done by PointClear Solutions.

How did PointClear Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Respondent 1: Because of the culture that is within PointClear Solutions, they are able to attract pretty skilled software professionals. Their staff is really friendly, professional, and easy to work with. In general, the process of working and planning with them is pretty smooth.

What did you most impressive about PointClear Solutions?

Respondent 1: They are great guys and they have a lot of good ideas.

Are there any areas PointClear Solutions could improve?

Respondent 2: In the relationship they have with us, they should have been able to straightforwardly say that the code base sucked and that we needed to do something about it because that’s the truth. They knew it. After a while, we also knew it. We had to invest more in it than we expected. If they see that they are handed a timeline in which they cannot deliver to a quality up to their own standards, then they should disclose this information. We’ve seen that they were given very strict timelines to deliver something by the former contractors from whom we inherited them. While not explicit, I think about the quality of what they had been able to deliver within the timeline when we inherited this code base.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with PointClear Solutions?

Respondent 1: Work closely together with their development team. Make sure that you know what you want. Know your requirements. Control PointClear Solutions so that you remain focused on your requirements. If you do not control that, your budget may not look as good as when you originally started.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I am the CEO and founder of an on-demand care network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Worry Free Labs?

We initially started discussions for our logo design, which we are receiving a trademark for. After that, we went into prototype development, and we are now in the development stage of the on-demand app platform design.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They are our development partner in every way, shape, and form. We started with multiple brainstorming phases that originated from the ideas that I had put on paper through the years. I brought those to Worry Free Labs, and they were able to add a lot of value and guide me in the right direction as far as conceptualizing the final product. They've been an incredible asset and partner in building that out.

They are always accessible when I send them new ideas. They advise me that certain updates would be more beneficial in a future release when we have a little more working knowledge of our consumer base and our employee base. They've been incredible as advisors because they have a better background in the industry than even I do. In certain areas, they've been able to advise us on what we need to do. They've been an absolutely phenomenal partner.

How did you come to work with Worry Free Labs?

My attorney had worked with them and had referred me to them, so I'm eternally grateful for that because I wouldn't recommend anybody other than Worry Free Labs if you're ever looking to do anything like we're doing. They came in early on for the logo design and, from there, they were such a great team to work with and such a pleasure to deal with that we moved forward with them as a development partner.

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

I'm going to keep them on for maintenance and development for future releases, so I intend to work with them for a very long time. I'm just so happy with who they are and what they bring to the table that I have no interest in not being a partner with them in the near future. As far as the prices that we're discussing, that's going to fall close to the $700,000 range initially.

What is the status of this engagement?

Day-one conversations about the logo took place in November 2015. Upon that completion, after we went full on with the trademark, then we moved into January 2016 when we opened up our contract and said we're going to move forward with development. Then, we started building the prototype. From there, early May is when we launched full development. That's where we are now, looking to launch our company late 2016 or early 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I've shown it to a few seed-round investors that we have in play right now for our first round of funding, and it's been stellar. It's been A+. There's been nothing but incredible feedback to the point where I'll have my initial discussion with people, and they truly are engaged in what we're building. As far as a concept and an idea, they're just in awe of it. They love it. There's still some unfamiliarity, but then when we show people the prototype that's when they get blown away and get hooked.

The feedback that I've received at this point from our logo, which is where our brand is going to build and expand, has been incredible. For what they are bringing to the table as a partner in development, I've had nothing but incredible feedback on everything they've done to date. As far as a prototype, it looks to the point where people actually think it's a working app already. Worry Free has just been unbelievable.

How did Worry Free Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They have business analysts doing research and providing things to our legal team. Timely would not do it justice. They're just so responsive and incredible. They've done incredible work.

An analogy or metaphor makes sense here. It's like going into a bowling alley. You have 10 pins and you want to hit a strike, but all you can do is hit a gutter ball every time. It's not fun. Then, they put the guards up that guide the ball down perfectly for you. Worry Free Labs has been that for us in so many ways. From a management standpoint, they've been incredible by guiding us correctly and giving us knowledge and feedback that we never would've been aware of.

They've been incredible project managers in terms of telling you the timeline of things, creating realistic ideas, and giving you exactly what you need in order to understand where you are, where you can be, and where you need to be. They've always been extremely transparent in many ways. Honestly, I can't say enough good things about Worry Free Labs. They've just been an absolute blessing to have on board.

What distinguishes Worry Free Labs from other providers?

What distinguishes them is the level of professionalism and experience that they bring to the table. They have worked with great people and have developed and launched multiple companies. They have an incredible amount of knowledge and understanding of the environment that we're in and what's going on. With their resources and just their willingness to provide their time, there's never a moment when you feel like you're asking a stupid question, or you're bothering them. It's this open-door style of communication that is refreshing. It's very humbling to see how successful they are, how down-to-earth they are, and how comfortable they make you feel in working with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Navicure is a cloud-based claims clearinghouse and patient payment solution company. We've recently got into a new market for the patient payments side of the house. It's more of a complete revenue cycle management company now. We deal with the claims on the practice side and the collection of payments from the patients as well.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm a product manager for the patient payment side of the platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with PointClear Solutions?

We had a lack of resources. We saw an opportunity to market a new platform. We'd been researching the development for quite some time. We were also having a resource problem here internally and couldn't find the available resources inside the company to start the project. We were also faced with timing concerns. We were afraid that if we took a long time to build the platform and get it on the market we could miss our window.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

The scope was development of a payment platform. PointClear Solutions is much more than a development company. They've been great through this whole process. We started from scratch. They did research, usability, UI [user interface], process flows, and workflows. They were involved in the development and creation.

What was your process for selecting PointClear Solutions?

We considered a lot of options. We thought about hiring internally. We considered two or three different third-party developers as well. We landed on PointClear Solutions for a couple reasons. The main reason was they were local. It felt like they could be part of the team here even though they weren't in the building. It worked out. The project manager was a great guy and a great communicator.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative? When was the work completed?

It was $1 million plus. That was expected and worth every dime. Our partnership is ongoing for maintenance and updates to the platform. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

The platform generates a lot of revenue. We're taking more than $1.6 million a month of patient payments. It's a large platform with a lot of potential in the market. 

What differentiates PointClear Solutions from other partners?

The PointClear people. You can find developers anywhere, but developers that take the time and care about what they're coding and think about what they're coding is rare. It's one thing for a product manager to come in and say, "These are the requirements. Go do it." These guys take it to a different level. They can code very well and they analyze the situation and make sure it works with the existing processes and workflows. They take their time to make sure it's done right. I appreciate that. I've got a team [in PointClear Solutions] that I can rely on. I don't have to worry about it. 

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

Our first year, we ran into a couple stumbling blocks when it came to scope. Things happen in production and you realize a problem that you didn't know was there. You have to change the scope. Those changes could have been managed throughout the team better. We've put processes in place to make sure those changes don't affect our releases. 

BACKGROUND

Background

Please describe your organization.

I work for an education company. We manage both charter schools and independent private schools.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the director of e-learning.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Worry Free Labs?

We wanted to create a tablet application to aid in schools. The tablet option would be helpful to distribute content, assignments, links, and required applications. At the time, there was nothing available that matched what we wanted to do. So, we designed our own app.

Please describe the scope of their work.

Worry Free Labs designed an app for Android. There's a server side, which I programmed, and they did the Android application. We also collaborated for the UI/UX [user interface/user experience] design of the application.

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Worry Free Labs?

There was a formal selection process, and we went with them because, while they were not the lowest cost, they understood what we were trying to achieve and they had some background experience in education. When I talked to them, they sounded more honest.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

It was more than $200,000.

When was the work completed?

It's ongoing work. We started with them May 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Are you satisfied with their performance?

I was very satisfied with their performance.

Is there anything unique or special about Worry Free Labs that really makes them stand out?

They take pride in what they do. There's no passing the buck. They are also really forthright, without a big ego. Those are the two biggest things. I was really impressed with the UI/UX guy. The communication is great and customer service is great.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

Nothing outside of normal consultancy stuff. Sometimes, the estimates are off. There are hurdles, but we've gotten past them.

BACKGROUND

The client is a mobile app startup in New York City.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We approached Worry Free Labs with a beta product that functionally worked, but the user experience and design needed a serious facelift. We provided them with a long list of ideas and user feedback, and they worked diligently to determine how we best needed to improve the overall user flow of the app. The focus was on a clean, simple, and easy-to-use product.

We approached Worry Free Labs with a basic idea for our app and simple wireframes, and they completely enhanced the entire UX/UI [user experience/user interface] and overall workflow. We provided some input and had some calls to discuss our vision, but they added serious value when it came to executing and designing a new UX.

SOLUTION

The result was a much simpler and easy to use interface and user experience. They were very quick to update us with any changes, their feedback was honest, and they provided us a clickable wireframe so we could take it to investors and present the future of our app. They are a hidden gem in New York City and they have a solid team on both the UX/UI side as well as development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

I would highly recommend them and the bottom line is that customers are in very good hands with Paul [Choi, CEO and director at Worry Free Labs] and the entire Worry Free Labs team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

Emdeon connects pharmacies, payers, providers, and laboratories. We simplify the business of healthcare, so we're in the middle of more than 7 billion health care transactions a year. We plan the financial space, financial administrative tasks, such as claims, eligibility, and all the revenue cycle solutions. We have a pharmacy division and a pharmacy switch, so they connect pharmacies to transact electronic prescriptions and other pharmacy transactions. We have what we call internal switches, and we have products and services that go along with those.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m on the clinical side. In addition to the pharmacy side and the payer spaces, we have a clinical network, or what we call a clinical exchange. We connect providers and EMRs [electronic medical records], what we refer to internally as channel partners, to laboratories and hospitals. We help them take electronic orders and results back and forth as well as some ancillary reports such as radiology transcription.

I am the product manager for our clinical exchange applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with PointClear Solutions?

Our goal was to improve our user interface and user experience on our mobile devices.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

We’ve used them for multiple projects, and they have done a lot of UI [user interface]/user experience work. They help us with the design and create a wireframe. They’ve done some development work on some special projects, creating an SDK [software development kit] for some of our customers that are integrating with us and to speed that process up.

Specifically on the mobile app, they looked at our existing platform and targeted specific portions of it. We started with the e-prescribing side and moved to lab. They helped us create wireframes for our developers to optimize how it was being viewed and used on tablets like the iPad, Surface, and so forth.

The mobile app is browser-based, so PointClear had to help us make it work on all major platforms. We also do Chrome and so forth.

What was your process for selecting PointClear Solutions to work with?

We reviewed a few companies. We had some people who used PointClear at a previous company, and they came recommended. We met with them a couple of times, and that’s how we selected them.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

They turned the SDK around very quickly. It was between 20 to 40 hours and was a fairly quick turn. From start to finish, everything was done in less than a month.

They did a very large project that spanned more than a year. I wasn’t as intimately involved with that one. I just called in to give my opinion of different components of the project. The mobile piece itself was about a three-month project.

I would guess the budget was in the six-figure range. My two projects were definitely below that range. The larger project could have been in the six-figure to slightly more than $1 million range.

When was the last project completed?

My project was completed toward the end of 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

On the SDK side, people are actually using that more, which is a goal. We’ve had multiple vendors use the SDK, and that has been a huge success. It has reduced our implementation time. On the wireframes, we get feedback from our users that it has definitely improved the workflow on these devices. Prior to that, there was a lot of left-to-right scrolling, which was very annoying on those types of tablets. The main part of the work was improving the usability.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

Everyone that I’ve dealt with at PointClear has been very professional. They are very well credentialed. We’ve always appreciated that they really understand the space that we're in. That attribute is very helpful when we're designing workflow, to have people with some healthcare and clinical background and experience.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

Not in my experience with them. I think it went very well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your firm.

I work for one of the largest drug retailing chains in the United States. We operate in every state and territory.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the director of application development. I oversee the application development efforts as they relate to two business units here. I work with the group that operates health centers on behalf of large employer groups. Also, the other business unit we support is for the healthcare clinic inside the retail stores.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for the work with PointClear Solutions?

We have had multiple engagements with PointClear Solutions, I can explain the projects in more detail. We think their work has a large impact on our business operations.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

The first project by PointClear was application development on a patient portal, servicing our employer line of business. They also did full-scale application development for the mobile version of our patient portal. They also did some specific usability work. They led some significant work streams for our rebranding, when we rebranded the consumer side of the employer-sponsored health clinics. They also took on some smaller projects that are core to our portfolio.

The mobile app development work was an HTML5-based solution, servicing Android, iOS as well as Windows phone. It wasn’t a native mobile application.

What was your process for selecting PointClear to work with?

We had heard about the work that PointClear had done as it relates to healthcare, specifically IT healthcare and usability. We engaged them to assist us in the requirements-gathering process after they did a great job with that. So, we engaged them again to do the application development. Their reputation and word of mouth was instrumental, but it was a competitive bid. We went to multiple vendors as we are required to do, to evaluate competencies, references, and more.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It's highly variable. There is no average project size. In the patient portal proper, they've continued to be the core development team from the initial inception. That was probably more than $2 million. They have also been involved in smaller projects of about $100,000.

Is the work completed or ongoing?

It depends on which project they’re working on. There is one work stream where we rely upon them for the forward development. As long as our clients are demanding new functionality in the patient portal, we will continue to utilize them. As it relates to some of the smaller projects, most of those have a definitive start and end.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

I do not.

Can you give a general assessment of their performance?

They have been great partners to work with in terms of their ownership and overall flexibility.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

The fact that usability is front and center of everything that they do is unique.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

Nothing that really stands out.