Quisitive

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide technology solutions to organizations, primarily within the thoroughbred industry. I am the president of the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Menlo Technologies?

We needed to supplement development resources. We have our own staff and wanted to extend it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Menlo Technologies has assisted us with some development projects, primarily for iOS and Android apps. Menlo Technologies has provided additional development resources, and didn't have an architectural involvement. Menlo Technologies has also performed some platform data services work for our company, as an extension of our existing system.

How did you come to work with Menlo Technologies?

We found Menlo Technologies through a referral from an organization which had previously used them, and had had good success.

How much have you invested with Menlo Technologies?

This is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Menlo Technologies more than 2 years ago, and have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've been pleased with Menlo Technologies' process of assigning a lead project manager with a strong technical and management background as our primary point of call. We are able to distribute the work, and we're pleased with the results.

How did Menlo Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We use collaboration tools, and Menlo Technologies has been good at keeping updates. There have been some projects with tough timelines, but Menlo Technologies went above and beyond for them. We've overcome the time difference between our organizations, so I've been very pleased.

What did you find most impressive about Menlo Technologies?

I like the management attention that Menlo Technologies has offered us, not just through their project manager, but also at an executive management level. Whenever anything derailed, Menlo Technologies was quick to get it back on track, keeping an eye on the work both onshore and offshore.

Are there any areas Menlo Technologies could improve?

I've been working in IT for over 30 years and found that it's not realistic to expect things to come back perfect the first time. Menlo Technologies has done a fairly good job and the quality provided is usually good.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a mobile recommendations service similar to Yelp. I am the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Menlo Technologies?

We needed help building our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Menlo Technologies helped our company build the frontend and backend of our iOS app. We have a team of UI [User Inteface] designers who provided Menlo Technologies with screenshots for every component and asset needed within our app. Menlo Technologies' team converts those into the correct sizes, creates navigation bars, buttons, and all other frontend elements. Menlo Technologies, together with our team, also handled all backend server-side elements of the software.

How did you come to work with Menlo Technologies?

We interviewed 25 different agencies across the country. Menlo Technologies had the best qualifications for the tech stack that we were using, namely Node.js, Swift and a MongoDB database.

How much have you invested with Menlo Technologies?

This is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Menlo Technologies in mid-July 2016, and are currently working on the Android version of our app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We're currently beta-testing the iOS version of our app, and it works amazingly. Menlo Technologies has a QA team which takes care of any bug or quality problem, working alongside our team. Everything has worked well, and Menlo Technologies will usually fix any bug within 24 hours free of charge, as per our contract.

How did Menlo Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We have bi-weekly check-ins on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Menlo Technologies gave us real-time feedback on how things are going, and what can or can't be done. They are always within hours of their estimates, and meet deadlines on 95% of cases.

We have a slack channel, and also use Basecamp and Jira, which is an amazing tool.

What distinguishes Menlo Technologies from other providers?

Menlo Technologies offered very personalized attention to us. Their vice president of delivery is one of our contacts, and takes part in all of our check-in calls. We've spoken with Menlo Technologies' CEO on a couple of occasions, and their general manager has also been present during communications. Our project manager from Menlo Technologies went to college in the US, and has a fantastic English level. He also used to work for AOL, and has a background in consumer technology.

Is there anything Menlo Technologies could have improved or done differently?

Any improvements are 2-sided, and we should also be more upfront in asking for features.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company gathers pay compensations information and board issues for public institutions. We perform analytics and sell that information through a software-as-a-service platform. Our company has been in business for 16 years. I am the Vice President of Products and Technology. I head engineering, product management and IT for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Menlo Technologies?

We have been using Menlo Technologies for a long time, so I'm not sure what the original challenge was, but it was definitely related to further leveraging our budget on the development front. We were able to get people of equal capabilities for a lower rate than the local one.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have 4 distinct product areas, and Menlo Technologies is involved in each of them. We assign a tech lead as the manager of the engineering team, as well as a local product manager. They determine what will occur within each development cycle, as well as individual tasks, and who will be assigned to each one of them. As much as half of our team is comprised of offshore developers and QA resources. Depending on the development type, we will assign tasks to the most well-equipped technical leads. Menlo Technologies has provided technical resources across a variety of projects. At any given time, we've used up to 33 resources from Menlo Technologies.

How did you come to work with Menlo Technologies?

I wasn't working with the company at that time.

How much have you invested with Menlo Technologies?

The cost of Menlo Technologies' services is within the millions of dollars range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship with Menlo Technologies.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've been very happy with Menlo Technologies' work, given that we've engaged them for so many years. We don't have to spend a lot of time getting them up-to-speed on certain projects because many of the developers have been working with us for a long time.

Tracking performance metrics was a very subjective process when I first came onboard, so I spent a year putting together strict criteria for tracking how the work was being accomplished. Menlo Technologies has told us that we're by far their most advanced client in this regard, so much so that they've started implementing these methods with some of their other projects.

We specifically keep a close eye on how many items are assigned to particular engineers, how long it takes them to finish tasks, as well as what they're quality of code is, measured in bug counts. Every once in a while, we have had to dig in deeper during code reviews, but I've been generally happy and found that Menlo Technologies is almost as critical as us during this process.

How did Menlo Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a few methods in place to address working remotely with Menlo Technologies' team. We use a Slack channel and have a dedicated project manager on-site. Given the fact that we've worked through distinct sprint cycles, and Menlo Technologies' is given specific assignments and due dates, we tend to be okay.

What did you find most impressive about Menlo Technologies?

Since we've been working with Menlo Technologies for a long time, the inherent knowledge they have with our systems has helped a lot. If we ever need to add additional resources, Menlo Technologies can provide the training. Swapping resources at will without losing a serious amount of time is a unique advantage.

Are there any areas Menlo Technologies could improve?

Menlo Technologies tended to be a little less critical in terms of code quality than our team. Like many offshore service providers, Menlo Technologies has usually done what we specified, and nothing more, rarely questioning what is being done. I can understand this since Menlo Technologies wasn't involved in the design, but it would be nice to have pushback when something doesn't make sense. On a couple of occasions, something wasn't on-spec and wasn't caught, which was a little concerning. Tightening up those areas, and providing more resources able to think outside the box would be an improvement and aid for our team. 

Another company I've used actually sent one person back-and-forth between sites, getting an idea of the culture and vibe at the client's location, and transferring that offshore. This helped tighten up the teams. When I brought this up to Menlo Technologies, they were willing to do it but wanted to triple the cost for that person. They did hire a senior person for this, but he only visits us about once a month.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is a semiconductor manufacturer. I am the Senior Manager and IT department administrator for the company. I am responsible for business processes and applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Menlo Technologies?

Menlo Technologies has been our go-to IT source for quite a while.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Menlo Technologies has provided consultation for technical challenges in our applications area.

One of the main projects on which Menlo Technologies worked was development for a revenue forecasting application for our sales team, which was presented with some decision-support information like open orders, sales forecasts, histories of sales, etc. The sales people needed to enter what they believed to be the forecast for the upcoming 15 months. The application required a .NET user interface, as well as bringing in data from various sources and normalizing it. It was intended to be used by various sales professionals across the US and Canada.

How did you come to work with Menlo Technologies?

Menlo Technologies was put in place by our previous IT director, so I was not involved in the selection process.

How much have you invested with Menlo Technologies?

I don't have this information.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing retainer with Menlo Technologies for support, mainly offshore. The same team also handles development on some of our projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Menlo Technologies worked with our own team, providing solutions which hadn't existed before. Our revenue forecast application replaced work being done through manual spreadsheets, with many different rules, and in a chaotic manner. Menlo Technologies enhanced the monthly revenue forecasting process to a point of being completely reliable. The time savings have been huge, amounting to several man-months per year. We no longer need to keep our sales people occupied with data collection and consolidation.

How did Menlo Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We have not had any issues with Menlo Technologies in this respect. Whenever we were presented with new staff on Menlo Technologies' team, their skills were as-advertised. This can sometimes be an issue with consulting firms, but Menlo Technologies has vetted its resources properly. We've worked together through a partnership, rather than using them as hired bodies, and I've appreciated Menlo Technologies' ability to give suggestions and offer different solutions.

What did you find most impressive about Menlo Technologies?

Base on my experience, Menlo Technologies' dedication to getting the job done has been unique. We have an offshore delivery manager working part-time with our team. He's been very effective and saved us a lot of mental energy and time by making sure that our teams are working with each other. This was problematic, given that we're on opposite sides of the Earth.

We've had minimal turnover on Menlo Technologies' staff, and they always planned out transitions as to not make them my problem.

Are there any areas Menlo Technologies could improve?

We're considering acquiring some apps and cloud solutions. As with any other company, we've looked towards less building and more buying, so we've turned to quick solutions from cloud providers, and haven't interacted with Menlo Technologies on this area. I'm not sure how a transition like this would fit within our consulting model.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO of MarketHive. We’re an inbound market network that provides a complete ecosystem and universal income for all entrepreneurs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Menlo Technologies?

We needed to migrate our cloud system to Azure and upgrade our PHP platform and database. 

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to move to a more supportive platform while maintaining our functionality.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were impressed by their real-world expertise.

Describe the project in detail.

We met with their on- and offshore teams to review our requirements and develop manageable sprints.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager, an architect, developers, and QA personnel.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We met all our milestones and went live with only a few issues. They were also able to fix several existing issues and update our documentation.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They managed the project smoothly with an agile approach and easy communication process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They possess great industry knowledge and make their experts constantly available.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There isn’t much for them to improve. We were very happy with their services and will continue to engage them.