Platform Development for Research Consultancy Firm
- Custom Software Development
- Confidential
- Feb. 2020 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 4.5
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
“They are very caring and attentive to a client's needs, and that meant more to me than anything.”
- Other industries
- Los Angeles, California
- 51-200 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Saritasa provides development services to a research consultancy firm. They combined their development work with the firm’s in-house analytics resources to build an entertainment platform.
Saritasa not only provided a highly skilled full-stack development team but also facilitated an effortless collaboration. Attentive and client-oriented, the team remained easily accessible and responsive from beginning to end. They addressed questions or concerns quickly and remained on budget.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
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.
RATINGS
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Quality
4.5Service & Deliverables
"As of now, I’ll say 4.5, but only because I don’t have all of the deliverables yet."
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Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
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Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS