Saritasa

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a French family-owned manufacturer of fragrance materials. I’m the VP of the US fine fragrance marketing division.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saritasa?

For many years, I’ve launched a physical gallery of perfume as art and education. We turn a conference room into a beautiful interactive space in which our clients make private appointments to come and smell, play, and learn with us and to address specific business challenges that we and our clients are facing.

Due to COVID-19, I was challenged to create this year's gallery in a digital format. We had never done this before; it has always been very hands-on. I came to Saritasa with that problem.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

My budget was extremely tight because what had been budgeted was for a physical build-up space. It had nothing to do with normal expectations for a digital experience. Given my limitations, Saritasa proposed that I use as many pre-existing digital elements as possible rather than building a space completely from scratch.

They directed me to a number of gaming websites where I could buy a house, a room, a piece of furniture, a prop, or existing digital elements that they could physically install for me in cyberspace. 

The team empowered me to take on much of the legwork myself, which didn't hurt my budget, and they guided me on where to find what I was looking for and to make good selections. Along the way, they've also told me which assets won’t work because, for example, they look cartoonish or unnatural. 

They've been a sort of personal shopper in a world where I don't know how to shop. They sent me to the right department, pointed me to the best brands, let me shop, and then helped me construct a final deliverable with the pieces I've chosen. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve interacted with four teammates so far.

How did you come to work with Saritasa?

I went first to my internal IT department who gave me three vendors to reach out to. I did video meetings with all three vendors. Saritasa came back with the best proposal, and they were the only ones that could respect my budget. 

When I first went to them, I thought I was asking them to build me a website. When they understood my budget and what I was actually trying to do, they told me that I didn't need to build it from scratch. 

They asked a lot of good questions upfront about my aesthetics and goals. I showed them a lot of what I'd done in the past and they were able to redirect me toward appropriate pieces from which to construct their space. 

Other companies didn’t suggest that I purchase gaming assets; they wanted me to do my physical build-out at the gallery so that they could do 3-D photography and video. That meant that I would have to use my budget doing the build-out and then pay them for shooting it, which didn't make sense. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our budget is $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in August 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

What I really like about them is that every time they do a little piece, they show me, so I have something to show my team to show progress. None of the pieces so far are perfect.

Nine out of 10 pieces are now finished, but since we're short on time, I want to get everything done first, and then I'll come back to them with a punch list of all of the edits to make in the final round. 

My team is super excited about it. It's going to be beautiful and on-brand. Saritasa has been exceptional at listening and understanding. They’re superlative listeners and unapologetic implementers who are very eager to please.

How did Saritasa perform from a project management standpoint?

I'm a little bit over timing. I had thought that we would be done a few weeks ago, but I'm okay with that because I understand that what we're trying to do is save money. I have a hard stop when we get to 200 hours of their time. They’re trying to use my time really strategically. 

We have a standing meeting every Monday for about 30 minutes to discuss challenges, to show me where they're at, and to address any immediate concerns. They always send me something to review in advance. I like the consistency of the feedback and the deliverables, and I think we have a really good rapport. 

They ask questions when they don’t understand, and when something is amiss, we always have a good laugh about it. There’s no friction. We communicate via email, telephone, and video chat. Saritasa is always super responsive and quick to circle back with questions, and we’ve been teaching each other our languages.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team’s willingness to work within my budget has been impressive. They were extremely open to understanding how my galleries worked in the past. They proposed budget-friendly, user-friendly solutions for me since I was totally new in this space.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If there’s anything we've had a challenge with, it's that their standards of quality might be focused on elements that aren't so important for me or for my clients. 

For example, they want me to get a gaming computer and share the screen so that the graphics and the flow will be smooth and the render will be as tight as it possibly can be. That's less important for us because we’re not a gaming audience. What I end up with probably won’t look as good to them as it looks to me, but that's okay. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I came to the table with a lot of visual explanation of what the goal was and told them what the art installation needed to communicate. 

Once they understood the meaning behind each one, they were able to suggest alternatives that could work in the digital world. The best advice is to be a good client and come prepared to communicate as holistically as you can. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a manager for a division of a local government.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saritasa?

The project centered around building a proof of concept. We wanted to implement a VR (virtual reality) experience to replace an in-person service. The original service included a vehicle walk around, which required time and resources. We wanted to streamline the process to limit equipment and time requirements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We approached Saritasa to replace a part of our service with a VR experience. Based on our requirements, they recommended that we purchase one headset. Then, their team built our experience to meet the requirements of that headset.

As it was a proof of concept, they built an abbreviated experience. Their team proposed a couple of different scenes. The cost was a concern, so they used off the shelf features to stay within our budget. They created a scene in which users can click various items. Their team implemented our logo to make the scene as realistic as possible.

While users interact with the scene, they explain their decisions to click for us to review. For that, Saritasa built an automatic scoring component. They also built in a timer and a practice test component, allowing our users to become familiar with the technology.

What is the team composition?

We first connected with Stan (Software Development Executive) who was our account representative. We worked with Aaron (Vice President of Immersive Technology) and Danny (Project Manager) on the nitty-gritty details of the project.  

How did you come to work with Saritasa?

A few months ago, we researched online anyone with experience in VR development. We found three companies and quickly narrowed our list to Saritasa. It seemed easy to work with them. Another contender wanted to take on a bigger project than what we wanted to start.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000 on the actual experience Saritasa built.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the project at the beginning of May 2020, and it wrapped up in July.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our team is absolutely satisfied with the product. When I showed clips and provided updates to our management, they were excited. The idea’s feasible, and I anticipate that we’ll move forward with it pending funding.

How did Saritasa perform from a project management standpoint?

Danny facilitated weekly or biweekly meetings for us, and we used a video platform called BlueJeans. All other communication was done via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Saritasa team has a keen eye for developing a realistic experience. When we had questions about voiceovers and ambient noise, they always had answers for us. Their team explained all the details that made the scene more realistic.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it’s been a great experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Brainstorm with them. We started the project with a huge idea and a couple of different avenues. In one brief meeting, we narrowed the scope because they set our expectations for what VR could and couldn’t be. Get their input early because they can guide you.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're a nonprofit that applies behavioral science to social problems. We conduct rigorous research, replicate and scale what works, in conjunction with our partners in government, the nonprofit sector, and private industry. I'm the director of communications, and as such I am responsible for all external relations work, our digital channels and visual identity, and publications at the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Saritasa?

To port over and redesign our company website following a subpar relationship with another firm. We hired Saritasa to make our website more functional, more streamlined from a UX perspective, and more up-to-date in look and feel. We also hired them to take over a second website we own, with a database functionality, and to translate the database into Spanish.

What were your goals for this project?

To make our website more functional, more streamlined from a UX perspective, and more up-to-date in look and feel.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We went through a procurement process whereby we solicited proposals from 8 web firms, based on recommendations from our clients, partners, and reviews online.

After reviewing 8 proposals, which included myself and 2 of my direct reports, we decided that Saritasa had the vision and clearly understood our technical needs better than any of the other vendor options, and were clear and prompt in their communication. They're also priced competitively.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We provided a brief overview of what we wanted to change on our site, what we want to merely migrate over from the existing site, and the timeline. We also provided visual assets and were asked to provide input on the new theme, layout, and global elements in partnership with their design lead.

They took the lead on everything else, including making recommendations about which paths forward made the most sense from a UX perspective. They provided multiple design options for the new site global structure/layout, as well as a test server for us to view changes in real time unpublished.

What was the team composition?

They had a project manager who handled day to day project and tasks, a more senior liaison to the company who handled budget and negotiations/client relations, a lead designer who handled the visuals with us directly, and an unknown number of coders. The size of the team shrank to the PM and senior liaison after the initial design period, which was what was called for.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our engagement has been successful--they've given us a refreshed site that we get compliments on from our funders and board members all the time, it's made our site easier to use and navigate, which is crucial for marketing our services and achieving our mission of sharing our work with the world. They've reduced our web costs and time required to make changes/fixes significantly.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It was handled by them exclusively--they proactively proposed timelines, estimates of labor hours, workplans, order of operations for tackling the multiple components of the redesign, and proactively communicated anything that needed to change.

They also checked in frequently to make sure we were happy, and provided guidance on ideas we had (to make sure they were feasible or not). They used google hangouts and email primarily, with some invision use for design, and a dev server on our own web domain so we could privately see the proposed changes before pushing to development.

They were extremely responsive (above and beyond what I have experienced with other developers), took feedback quickly and well, adapted to our changing needs/timelines, and work very quickly. Met deadlines, and if they felt they couldn't, they communicated it ahead of time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were extremely responsive (above and beyond what I have experienced with other developers), took feedback quickly and well, adapted to our changing needs/timelines, and work very quickly. Met deadlines, and if they felt they couldn't, they communicated it ahead of time.

They seem to genuinely care about our happiness with the site and over time they got to know more about our company. They proposed changes/fixes that made more sense than even we ourselves thought of. In a way they've become thought partners of sorts on our website.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Price estimations initially for our web migration/redesign pieces were very low compared to where we landed, which was due in part to not taking a deep enough dive into our site's subpages when they made the proposal. This led to the costs and time being higher than anticipated, but because they realized this, they worked with me to negotiate something that would work for both of us, but in the future it might be useful to do more due diligence on their end to avoid similar surprise situations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Boxxle Sports is an online fantasy sports company. I am CEO & Co Founder of Boxxle.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Saritasa?

Hired Saritasa for designs, website and mobile development, and project management.

What were your goals for this project?

To create, design and build a user friendly fantasy sports platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We researched various companies and narrowed it down to 4. After meeting the Saritasa team and reviewing the project it was an easy decision.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed, developed, and built a custom online fantasy sports platform. Everything from start to finish including front end development for mobile and desktop along with an entire back end portal for site logistics.

What was the team composition?

We had a team of approx 6-8, including a full time project manger and senior project manager overseeing the day to day operations of the site. The CEO was even involved in the project which was great to have that commitment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The project has grown our start up business tremendously. The Saritasa team has amazing vision and provided great insight throughout the entire project that the platform had evolved so much and we are better off for it today.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was on point. We had weekly meetings through zoom and phonecalls/email communication almost daily. From development to senior management to ownership, everybody was involved.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The daily communication along with the vision, insight and skillsets from each and every person involved.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't think there are any particular areas for improvement. but knowing the Saritasa team I am sure they will always strive to be better tomorrow then they were today.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The overall company is a research consultancy firm, but the specialization of my department is global media and entertainment. We work with studios and networks across the board; any type of entertainment company you can think of, we try to work with. We provide a service to help them better understand data in the entertainment setting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saritasa?

We had a platform on which our clients were able to access the data that we provide about entertainment, as well as the customers who consume that entertainment. When I was brought on board, the platform was not in the best condition; it wasn't very fluid, it didn't work very well, and it was clunky. There were a lot of issues.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It has been a very collaborative partnership. On my team, I have data scientists and analytics experts. What Saritasa provided was mostly the development side and helping us figure out how to rebuild a platform, through which we could provide our clients with the data that they need. We worked together to build this platform. They did the actual development work, my team did the analytics work, and then it was all integrated together in order to come up with the final product.

What is the team composition?

Stan (Manager, Client Engagement), who was the account manager, basically held our hand from the beginning to the end. He was there the entire way, and he just made sure everything ran smoothly. We had standups three times a week via video chat. The account manager was there every day, and we also worked with Chris (Project Manager). He was also absolutely fantastic. He was there for anything I needed or if I couldn't get ahold of somebody. He kept me on track with our hours and the budgeting. They were just really on top of everything.

For every standup, we were in contact with Dmitry (CTO). He was the lead developer and also really acted as the manager of the whole project. He had an entire team that we met at the beginning, but because they were mostly in other parts of the world, we didn't have daily contact with them. Dimitri knew everything that there was to know about the project. Between these three gentlemen, we were able to work through and get any questions answered, any problem taken care of, and any additions needed. We just worked with them incredibly well.

How did you come to work with Saritasa?

We didn't have an internal development team, so I looked externally. Saritasa checked all the boxes of somebody local that I could go and physically meet with in Los Angeles, as well as their very in-depth surveying of our needs. Their proposal was very comprehensive, so they turned out to be great partners in that respect. Also, a big part of why we chose them is that they were a full-stack dev team. They could do anything we needed, from start-to-finish. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking to them at the end of last year, and we went and saw them in person in January 2020. They had to do an assessment, go through our system, and come up with a proposal. Then, I had to run it by my leadership team. Once all of that was approved, we were able to start working together at the beginning of February. 

I believe they’re finishing this week, and then, there will be testing and realistically some back-and-forth. The platform will be done in 6–7 months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform isn’t up and running yet. The framework has been built, and now, the data itself needs to flow through it. My team is getting the data uploaded and trying to get everything settled. However, that type of testing probably won't happen until the end of July or beginning of August. We'll likely ask a client of ours to just test it out and help us figure out what bugs and things to fix, and we'll go from there. 

How did Saritasa perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very attentive and comprehensive. Any time we had questions, we Slacked them, and within a few hours at most, we would get a response. Their guys worked on weekends – even though we didn't generally work on weekends, we stayed on call so that we wouldn’t delay the project. 

They stayed 100% on budget, and I was really thankful for that. They looked out for our needs. Any concerns I had, they addressed immediately. Any issues we had development-wise, both my guys talked with Dimitri and his team within twenty-four hours, so everything was constantly turning, and questions were answered. We didn't have any blockers. That was the one thing I kept making sure of throughout the process: was anybody blocked by anything? Because of our constant communication and their open-door policy, we were able to avoid that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The way that Stan was there from the beginning to the end was great, and he was integral to this being successful. He made the process extremely smooth, and he was always available. I had a lot of questions; this was the first time we brought on an external vendor, so I wanted to make sure all of our needs were being met, and he made sure that happened. We even went through multiple iterations of the project plan with varying costs and everything. We went back and forth and finally agreed on a project that fit our needs and our budget, and they were absolutely willing to make that happen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Because I'm on the product side and I don't work with that type of information, it was a little harder for me to know where we were and to follow along. However, in speaking with my team, they felt like we were on track, and they weren't worried about anything. So, no, in that respect, I don't think they could have improved on anything. As I said, they were always on the calls. They were very attentive, and they met our needs.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be completely transparent and open with what they want. As I said, Saritasa gave us a quote, and they stayed on budget, regardless of their own time. I think that they are very caring and attentive to a client's needs, and that meant more to me than anything. I really enjoyed working with this team, and it really came down to the communication and the open discussions. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of operations for a company that does tech consulting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saritasa?

We had a project that we were working on for our client, and we needed extra staff for development purposes. Our internal team was very busy with several projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought Saritasa in to augment our existing staff, and they got everything we needed done very quickly and efficiently. We were working with a custom authentication solution that integrated with an app for a client of ours. Saritasa helped us get a virtualized system in the cloud that allowed our backend authentication servers to communicate with the app. They also helped us create a unified database for the client to use for access control management.

What is the team composition?

I believe we’ve worked with five people total. 

How did you come to work with Saritasa?

We were looking for people with familiarity with LAMP stack and some AWS experience, and we were reviewing potential partnerships. Saritasa came up through some of the information we were reviewing, so we reached out. We had a meeting with them and then began working together.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe we’ve spent between $45,000–$50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in July 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Saritasa is very helpful, attentive to detail, and responsive. They’re also very knowledgeable. They’ve been up to the task of pretty much every challenge we’ve given them.

How did Saritasa perform from a project management standpoint?

They handle project management very well. We have meetings to discuss next steps, they address those next steps, and then they often complete them well ahead of schedule. 

They actually had more of a schedule put together for meetings than we did. Having that extra time to meet was great, and it actually allowed us to add a couple of extra features that we weren’t initially planning.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re extremely responsive, and they care about the project getting done as much as the client that they’re working with does. They’re very on top of things.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Currently, no. We’ve had a very positive experience with them. They delivered everything that we requested before schedule, and their suggestions were pretty much spot on for making our systems work better. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Trust what they tell you, because they have a lot of experience in what they’re doing. Don’t be afraid to give them the reins or extra work; they will treat it like it’s their own. They’re very caring and thoughtful about getting stuff done the right way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a small research organization, primarily focused on the financial services and public policy industries. I run a majority of the backend operations on the finance and administrative side.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saritasa?

We’re a fairly small business with four employees, and, as small businesses go, our website was very important to us. We faced a couple of technical challenges on the website as we tried to do it ourselves, and we hired Saritasa to help us fix those, as well as to add some design and more functionality to the website as a whole.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The original contract started with eight priority tasks—the blight items we wanted to address on the website. We executed those tasks appropriately over the course of a two-month period, and essentially concluded the contract with them.

One of the specific features we were looking for on the development side was setting up our Google Analytics, so that we could track individual information on each of the web pages: our click rates, how long people were viewing our information for, and our download rates.

Another important one was to have a live-feed structure. We post updated information about our company, including the events we attend and reports, and general market news and information. We wanted to set up more sophisticated navigation around the searchability for that live-feed structure, using a “see more” functionality, dropdown menus, categories, etc.

Related to that, we started developing podcasts to put onto our website. We had Saritasa link our current Soundcloud podcast structure and incorporate it into our live-feed system.

We also integrated our social media platforms, with special icons on specific web pages.

They helped structure a sort of template web design for custom pages. We have certain pages that follow a certain template, related either to publications we’re releasing or to the general research category we’re looking into.

One neat feature they had was a development site, which was essentially a copy of our website, where we could view changes before they went public on the production site. We didn’t have the capability to do that before, and it was really helpful. We knew exactly what the output product would be once it was published.

What is the team composition?

I had a technical project manager.

How did you come to work with Saritasa?

At the time, we were in an office space with a much larger company, and Saritasa was a client of theirs. The company recommended them, and we did our due diligence looking at several other web development companies. Saritasa had a pretty good pricing model, and it seemed to work out for us.

How much have you invested with them?

The total investment was $7,500–$10,000 over a three-month period. The original budget we estimated was around $7,500, but we had a couple of tweaks and additional questions upon the completion of the contract. I believe we spent an additional $1,500 on those.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Saritasa in mid-October 2019, and we had some breaks during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Development started on November 7th, as we were trying to figure out the logistics of information beforehand. We concluded in mid-January 2020. There were a couple of follow-up technical questions, and they were very responsive. They provided everything I needed to manage the site myself.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On the analytics side, one success metric was simply being able to see that data. Moving forward, we’ve been able to make internal decisions on how to customize and project more information onto our website, to grab more users. Through the analytics they set up for us, we’ve been able to optimize how we put information onto our website, and we’ve gotten social media engagement as well.

In terms of internal controls, we’ve greatly reduced the amount of time we had to spend doing website development. We used to do countless hours of research. That success metric is reflected in reduced administrative time. We can focus more on our work.

How did Saritasa perform from a project management standpoint?

I communicated with my technical manager on Mondays. We set up tasks and discussed the progress for each checklist item. We followed a specific schedule, with included deadlines. That was the primary communication method I had with Saritasa. The project manager would take my notes and distribute them to the technical team, which would then implement my requests onto the website.

Our primary communication was via email. The project wasn’t very substantial, and we didn’t have a big list, so email and verbal communication were sufficient for sorting out all the details. The project manager had an Excel structure that he’d show me, which tracked the individual progress of tasks, with deliverable due dates, costs, and any additional information. They detailed how cost could vary, depending on certain difficulties and on any changes we wanted to make.

What did you find most impressive about them?

On the communication side, it went really well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I struggled with the definitions of certain things. With them being on the technical side of web development, and me being on the backend operations side, I didn’t know all the jargon that went with website development. When I was asking for one thing, they may have had a different definition of that particular item, which caused some confusion. I quickly adapted, but it took a bit more research on my end.

Secondly, their core responsibility for us was website development, and integrating our social media and different systems that we were using, which weren’t technically a part of our website, was more difficult. We didn’t know everything we needed to, and it wasn’t within their realm of expertise.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder and owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Saritasa?

1.0 Version development of mobile app.

What were your goals for this project?

My goals was to build an app done by a professional team and also to be inspired by a team who cares about this project since its my first time and not coming from high-tech industry.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I made some searches online but most important for me is the portfolio and also, I met the project manager, the office and I had a good feeling so I go for it.

Describe the project in detail.

This project is my ‘’pre-seed’’ round so we build 1.0 version. At the beginning we agreed on the prototype and on the part we agreed on, it was on a development while we develop other parts of the prototype so its a good idea to be productive.

What was the team composition?

Since the first meeting till the end of the project, Kyle the project manager was in touch with me to check everything going well. In addition, Tristan is the project manager but specifically on the development it self. Susana is the UX developer and vadim. I’m pretty sure there is 1 or 2 backend developers but i didnt interact with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team was very responsive and listen to everything I say, i really like the final result. The project manager Kyle always did his best to check everything is going well.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Me and the team was in touch very consistently over the email and sometimes over the phone but if its something very important we met in person.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Everything went smoothly, the team is very responsive and listens well to the small details I mention. So the way things worked, it just give the impression of them acting like a professional and really focusing on it. Also their portfolio gave me lots of confidence to develop my project with saritasa.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The things I would like to recommend to improve is focusing on estimating the pricing and deadline. I’m pretty flexible with deadline (specially those days) but the pricing is something I would say is more sensitive for me.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an engineer for a software company focused on unions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saritasa?

We started to develop our mobile application about three years ago and it had fallen into the responsibilities of bad development partners. When it came time for them to deliver the mobile app, it didn’t meet our requirements. We needed a new partner to get our platform to work correctly.   

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Saritasa reviewed our app and then advised us on what part of the platform would and wouldn’t work. After the initial assessment, they didn’t scrap the whole project. Their team took over and maintained full responsibility for the platform.

Their team spent most of their time refactoring the existing platform. They fixed bugs but also managed feature enhancements. Their team advanced the backend using .NET. They also helped with our server infrastructure.

We eventually changed our requirements. Their team created an application for a large event. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager who was local, which was a tremendous help. We also worked with a technical project manager who supported the project for 2–3 months. The rest of the team included Android, iOS, and backend developers. They also had SysOps, DevOps, QA people on the team.

How did you come to work with Saritasa?

We looked for local software development companies. Our CEO found Saritasa either online or through a recommendation. Our previous partners were remote, so we wanted a local partner to keep more up to date on the project. We spent a lot of time, money, and resources into the app, but didn’t have results. Their team’s close proximity was one of the biggest factors in our decision. Another factor was their great reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $25,000–$50,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started in November 2019 and wrapped up in June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They successfully completed our initial request, which was to fix our app and get it out the door. We released the app within our time limit and launched 5–6 clients at that time.

Our second application was for an event, so time was of the essence. Saritasa understood our new requirements and met them quickly.

How did Saritasa perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Slack to communicate and JIRA to track our project. We had our scoping sessions in person.

All of their developers answered my questions and fixed any bugs. They responded to us and stayed up late. I enjoyed working with them.

Our contract ended around June, but their team was still available to answer any questions or clarify anything. They were also available to fix any problems that we had during the event.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their most notable qualities were their work ethic and sense of responsibility. We had bugs in the program because of the legacy code, but we needed our product to work efficiently and consistently. They understood that our product needed to be airtight. Multiple times their team worked through the night to finish tasks at the right time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their technical team is based offshore. They could improve communication between their developers and the project manager on the client-side. There were times when we had miscommunications and delays in communication. It would be more seamless to have more calls with everyone.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and founder of a SaaS company. We provide neuroscience in a way that’s accessible for a lot of people, especially during these remote times.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saritasa?

We were looking for a dev team. We wanted someone close to us in Southern California that had experience working with Bluetooth and ANT+ technologies, which they could integrate into some kind of software platform. One of the needs that we had was simultaneously collecting second-by-second biometric data from 1–1,000 people.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we brought Saritasa on, we had a general idea that another person had created a prototype of, and we wanted to move it into more of a commercial-type product. They helped us think through the strengths and weaknesses of using Bluetooth, ANT+, or some other technology to be able to have devices talking to a hub or directly to the cloud. 

They were involved in narrowing down the kinds of devices we’d be using to collect our data. They were involved in the MVP stage and designing the interface’s front- and backends. They used off-the-shelf sensing technology, like fitness wearables.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had two project managers throughout our working relationship. The first one was great, and our current project manager, Ben, is fantastic. He’s really easy to work with and can translate our needs to the dev team.

How did you come to work with Saritasa?

Saristasa stood out because of their prior experience in the space and their location in Southern California. From what I recall, we found them through general leads from colleagues.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent more than $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in May 2018, and it’s ongoing. They’ve been our dev and frontend design team for 100% of our work. We just began bringing other people on board within the last couple of months, but we still consider ourselves to be a very young company. We can’t rely on a costly internal dev team; instead, we need a reliable outside team that we can throw a lot of work at.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In our first year, clients understood that we were a young company and that we’d have issues. Some of our clients were essentially beta-testers. At times, our app didn’t function the way it should have, or data wasn’t recorded the way that it needed to be. Saritasa was there to smooth those issues out pretty rapidly. For one project that was going on in France last year, our project manager at the time stayed up through the night to make sure that if anything happened, they were there to jump in and resolve issues.

How did Saritasa perform from a project management standpoint?

Our communication has evolved quite a bit over our working relationship, and they’ve been extremely flexible. When we first started working together, most of our communication was through calls, emails, and office visits. Now, one of our main communication tools is Jira. As our company has evolved and we’ve gotten a better understanding of what specific needs we have, our communication tools have also evolved.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re straightforward and open about what’s going on. One particular project was definitely under-scoped, and about one month into the project, they realized it was going to take more hours than they originally planned for. Rather than throwing it back on us, they leaned into it because of our existing relationship but also because they realized that they underestimated based on a lot of assumptions they’d made. They really showed to be partners in that situation and wanted to work together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When it comes to the big thing, they’re very understanding and proactive. It seems that, as we grow, there are smaller things. I know they’re on several other projects, but it would be nice to get the smaller, low-priority things taken care of much quicker.