Sciant (part of Sirma Group)

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager for Sonder. I’m in charge of the distribution strategy.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sciant?

I hired them for a consulting engagement.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They sent independent contractors to work with our team and they provided business consulting services, followed by architecture and software development services.

During one project, we outlined the product requirements and business specification documents, while Sciant fleshed out the design. They also had a couple of projects where their business consultants did the discovery and created specifications.

What is the team composition?

I was working with one business consultant, one technical architect, and two team leads. I had 12 developers from Sciant at peak.

How did you come to work with Sciant?

My relationship with them goes back to my previous company, where Sciant was working on an integration project. I was very impressed with their work and hired them for multiple projects at that company. They came in highly recommended from one of my former partners, so I wanted to work with them again.

Additionally, the leader of their hospitality vertical is well-known in the industry for his work on other integration projects. During our vendor selection process, he led the presentation.  In the end, we selected him because of his domain knowledge and experience in the hospitality space.

How much have you invested with them?

If I total all the projects together, we spent close to $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The latest project ran between October 2020–January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When Sciant started, they took over a project that had been delayed by one year because the previous team wasn’t able to deliver. They came in and finished the project in three months.

How did Sciant perform from a project management standpoint?

They work with any tools that we have. Even though we’ve used Jira and Microsoft Teams before, Sciant was happy to work with Asana and Slack. We had calls through Zoom and Google Meet, and we exchanged instant messages on Skype and Teams. We also used WhatsApp during the peak of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed by their domain expertise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sciant is really good, but I wish they would bring more team members on-site. I requested that they send their developers to visit us for a couple of months, but they only sent their leadership.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Expectations should be very clear about what they want. They should specify whether they want them to come in purely as a development partner or if they should also do the discovery. There needs to be a good structure in place—an agreement on deliverables and approval processes.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the COO of DGROOPS, a travel tech startup. We have a SaaS platform that facilitates group bookings. We basically connect hotels with tour operators and travel agents for B2B customers only, in a way that they can do business directly, preserve their margins, and bring in the right bookings. 

We are also giving them the software that streams the entire end to end process so that they can become more efficient.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sciant?

We are dealing with group bookings, which is a very complex process. The prices are very dynamic and depend on the season, how well you know the tour operator, how serious the tour operator is, and how long you have had the corporation. 

We needed to figure out how to display availability in a way that’s not shown to the public, but optimizes their request. 

We needed to find someone who understands property management systems (PMS) of hotels. It was a big pain for us to find someone who has deep knowledge in the travel vertical.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sciant provides both consulting and IT and engineering. They did a consultancy with us to understand our needs, and then they provided us with the solution. The commercial director showed us everything and helped us choose which PMS system to try. 

They provided an MSA which was pretty straightforward. After that, we had the SOW agreement with everything in detail like diagrams, how it will look, how many hours the senior developer, normal developers, project manager, QA specialists will need, and the total time charges and material charges.

Sciant delivered a middleware application for us. They analyzed and provided us with the API for every PMS system they were integrating us with. The app delivers information about what we need and how we need it to our endpoint. Plus, the team also provided us with their onboarding knowledge.

After the development process, Sciant provided a few weeks of support for any questions we might have. There was also a knowledge transfer process for our team.

What is the team composition?

The commercial director was always in charge, and we worked with someone in accounting, senior developers, junior developers, a project manager, and QA people.

How did you come to work with Sciant?

We had been looking for over a year. We couldn’t find anyone that could understand why we needed to integrate with a PMS and not a channel manager but Sciant were the only ones. 

I approached their commercial director through LinkedIn. I was lucky to find them. They had a deep knowledge, and the team knows what they’re talking about.

How much have you invested in them?

It was €12,000 (approximately $14,500 USD). They managed to split the budget that we had in a very efficient way.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in September 2020. Right now, they are still providing us with support. We have three more integrations, and we see our partnership with them long-term. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For us, it was important that the job was done. Everything Sciant said they would deliver, they delivered. There was no need to micromanage them. They are very responsive, and they help us communicate with the PMS. 

They went the extra mile. We are now official partners of a well-known company that is 11th in the world. Thanks to Sciant, we are now in their marketplace, our logo is there, and we have passed the certification. They did a quality job.

Moreover, I would recommend them to everyone. I would highly recommend Sciant to any startup because they really understand the specifics and they understand that you need to be very careful.

How did Sciant perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a Slack channel with their IT team and our IT team. They have instant communication. I was also in communication with them through email, WhatsApp, and phone calls often.

I am not an IT professional and rather in a commercial position, so it was explained to me what was being done and I was able to track it. Our IT department had the possibility to have great communication with their IT team. It wasn’t like something was happening and we didn’t understand. Their commercial department was always explaining things to us. Another thing that is really great is that their estimate is 100 percent right. They are very professional.

Most of the time development teams don’t know travel tech. We are a very specific niche that now unfortunately is not in favor, but Sciant has tons of knowledge in that niche.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They never overpromise and underdeliver. They give you all the information in detail. Sciant tells you exactly what you are going to have, and they are always there for you.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If their price was similar to India or Belarus, it would be even better, but it isn’t possible because it is Bulgaria and you cannot expect that. It isn’t them; it is the taxes, minimum salaries, and the standard they have in Bulgaria.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have several verticals. I would say get in touch with the commercial director of the vertical that you are dealing with. Schedule a call and talk to them regarding your business development. 

Tell them what your problem is and listen to their input. Let them help you because they have a lot of knowledge in their company that you as a startup can benefit from because you are learning every day.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Clear Chain Travel. We provide IT services to the travel industry, specifically the corporate travel segment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sciant?

We’re a startup, so we were creating the first piece of our MVP. We needed to build some user input screens and were looking for UX technology that was flexible enough to be integrated into other people’s systems.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sciant built a piece of our UX platform’s MVP from scratch. We had two fact-gathering calls, and then they went off and developed a web app on top of our proprietary software platform. They helped us build a simple web app that is also capable of capturing rich data, specifically data fields that have free text input. 

The purpose of the MVP is to organize paperwork, documentation, and automated outputs for corporate business meetings involving multiple people coming from various origin points.

What is the team composition?

Our primary point of contact was Stephen (CCO/Practice Lead, Travel & Hospitality).

How did you come to work with Sciant?

Stephen and I have appeared on a couple of travel industry panels, so I knew him peripherally. We also have a mutual contact who was very positive about Sciant, and he recommended them to me. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $7,400 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

This was a three-week project that took place in December 2020. They delivered this project, but I imagine we will engage them for other projects as they come up.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I measured their ability to closely follow the business requirements document that we sent them. My partner, who is our head of technology, was very impressed by the simplicity of their code writing, and he found it to be exceptionally done. 

How did Sciant perform from a project management standpoint?

Sciant was excellent — they were very responsive. We used GitHub for coding.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They delivered the solution accurately and completely the first time; we didn’t have to do any rewrites. We previously worked with other providers who couldn’t deliver, and Sciant did so very well.

I also found their travel industry knowledge — specifically domain expertise in travel technology — to be exceptional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing I’d mention is that they’re based in Bulgaria, so paying the bill was a bit challenging, but it all worked out fine. 

Any advice for potential customers?

I recommend them highly — they’re a great group to work with. As with any technology engagement, have your documentation correct. However, nothing jumped out as problematic from my point of view.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a program manager for Nova Futur, Ltd. I supervise all the company’s projects. The company was founded three years ago, and we’re working on two main streams, the first being a digital bank for customers in Switzerland. 

We’re working with about 30 people on this project. On the other side, we’re working on machine learning projects for customer behavior analysis, with another team of 30 people.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sciant?

Sciant provides us with DevOps support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sciant is providing DevOps resources for multiple projects. They work task-based, depending on the need.

Starting with January 2021, we’ve moved all three Sciant resources to the banking project. Until that time, they were split across different tasks, related to machine learning and banking.

What is the team composition?

We started with one DevOps full-time resource and have expanded to three. They work with us on a time and materials basis, for 220 days a year.

How did you come to work with Sciant?

I’d worked with them on a previous project, about 3–4 years earlier. We had a shortage of developers at the time, and we engaged Sciant for staff augmentation on an e-commerce project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around €40,000 (approximately $48,000 USD) with Sciant. We plan to invest €240,000 (approximately $289,000 USD) in 2012.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the current engagement in August 2020, and it’s ongoing. I first worked with them in the summer of 2015, and that engagement lasted for a few months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We work on a task basis, and we track metrics on task completion within the allocated time. Sciant’s performance is also measured on the overall project.

How did Sciant perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I understand that they’re always under pressure, because I push them a lot to perform, but they never complain.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re also working with them on Google Cloud, which wasn’t their first choice. They had no experience on it when we first started. They had experience with AWS, Azure, and so on. They had a learning period, and they were keen to learn.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They’re good professionals. We can speak to them, they understand our needs, and they come back with explanations. It’s very nice to work with Sciant; we have no problems at all.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO of an online travel agency based in Singapore. We are an all-in-one travel platform that enables travelers around the world to travel and discover local destinations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had put together a product roadmap that would allow us to scale our operation and growth by connecting with multiple hotel content sources. As a result, we hired this team to develop a customer API service layer that could handle our needs.

Our goal was to have a scalable and stable API service layer that would normalize the various connectivity requirements from different data sources and partners.

SOLUTION

How did you select Sciant and what were the deciding factors?

We were introduced to them through a referral and considered them along with multiple other options. The referral was made by a trusted-partner of ours within the same industry. Due to the potential impact and outcome of having the capability of seamless connectivity, we needed to choose a vendor with a credible portfolio as well as relevant industry experience.

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

The engagement initiated with a kickoff meeting to align the expectation and requirements between both parties, followed by a thorough technical discovery phase. From the initial phase, a detailed project planning document which described the high level design of a system was provided by the vendor.

They completed the project in modules which were broken down in 2-week sprints. After completion of each module, testing on staging was conducted and certification processes required by each module provider were also conducted with the assistance of the vendor.

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

There were 5 people in the team who were hired and assigned to our project. - Technical Lead - 2x Senior Developers - Quality Assurance - Project Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to deploy each phase of the project on designated environments from staging-to-production as originally scheduled. Apart from delays caused by a few 3rd parties, the launch of each module and the core service layer was launched on time.

In addition, the vendor had provided industry knowledge and shared use cases which improved our understanding of future change requests which might occur. This was highly beneficial apart from the code base deliverable.

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

Communication was fluid and transparent. Project management was conducted with immense responsibility and detail oriented. Emails and group messengers such a Slack and Skype were used as communication tools throughout the project.

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

I believe communication was one of the greatest merits working with the vendor. And their ability to deliver solutions in tranches also helped us greatly, especially running a project using an agile method.

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

While the quality of work and communication skills were all great, due to their location being based in Central Europe, perhaps having a satellite office (e.g. tech support) in other regions and timezone could also be beneficials for clients located outside the EU.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief revenue officer for a hospitality tech software company. We provide revenue management and CRM technology to hotels.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sciant?

We needed help with third-party CRM integrations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired them to help us streamline our third-party integrations. They also provide documentation around those integrations and support hands-on projects within Europe and Asia. 

The integrations are with third party technology companies that were used by hotels where we need to bring that data into our enterprise CRM solution. We’d have to build either to the vendors API or they’d write to ours. Sciant would oversee that integration. Typically, we’d write to their API, and Sciant would do that work for us, document it, and pass it over to our own in-connectivity team to certify and bring that data into our company environment.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Stephen (SVP Travel & Hospitality) and one other person. I don’t know how many people there were because they didn’t report to me. I think there were quite a few people.

How did you come to work with Sciant?

There’s a number of executives within our company who have known Stephen for a number of years. His reputation in the marketplace is good. I don’t believe we looked at anybody else. He was recommended to the CEO and the CEO then interviewed Stephen and gave Sciant a contract.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $500,000-$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2018–March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Those integrations went live, and they work. They provided documentation around the integrations they worked on. They provided a full scoping document and also an overview of the interface so that sales knew exactly what each interface supported and didn’t support.

How did Sciant perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was very good. There was a clear direction for the work. We never had any issues as it relates to how they worked with us. We had regular meetings face-to-face and over the phone. They often went to our head office in Florida to provide updates. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge and the process of how they actually did the integrations and documented it is impressive. They’re a professional team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did a very good job. They delivered exactly what was required.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have a lot of expertise. If I was taking them on again or recommending them to someone, keep an open mind and listen to the advice they give. They’re very knowledgeable, incredibly professional, and very discreet. Rely on them to provide advice.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Managing Director who is pretty hands-on regarding development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Sciant to help us go from a Proof of Concept (POC) to an MVP (and then beyond). The primary areas were backend development and NLP processing. In particular with the POC we realized that commercially available NLP solutions were not sufficient for our use case, thus we needed to build and train a bespoke NLP engine.

SOLUTION

How did you select Sciant and what were the deciding factors?

We selected Sciant primarily on the basis of expertise and experience in our two core areas: 1) NLP and 2) Hospitality solution integrations

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

We work in 2 week sprints. After successfully moving from POC to MVP we have further engaged Sciant to continue helping us build out the solution. Sciant was pivotal in the development of the core solution. We have primarily leverage AWS (lambda, various DBs etc,) , however we also use multi-cloud approach to leverage some key google solutions like Google Data Studio

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

The Sciant part of our team consists of 1) Project Manager / Scrum Master 2) Senior Full Stack Developer 3) NLP Expert In addition, we have called in some additional expertise into projects as needed (Opera integration Expert), (CTO), (Hospitality Integrations specialist).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sciant helped us go from less than 5% intent recognition accuracy, to over 96% accuracy.

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

The project management is exemplary. We are a little weak in this part, but they helped us up our game significantly.

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

For us it is the deep knowledge of hospitality integrations and the deep NLP capabilities that really sets Sciant apart. But probably the thing that I find most impressive is that the Sciant part of the team feels 100% embedded with our team; just that we don't have to worry about payroll etc. We just get a detailed monthly bill.

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

With Sciant we as a team we are always improving. Every day, every week, every month. But as an organization, the most important thing Sciant can do is keep it up.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Invata Intralogistics Inc. provides logistics and facility automation services. The Company offers logistics network design and infrastructure, facility automation, software, controls, system integration, and installation services. I am the Senior Manager of Software Development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Sciant developed a Manifesting service for our automated fulfilment solution.

SOLUTION

How did you select Sciant and what were the deciding factors?

Sciant is focused on three verticals, including Transportation & Logistics. For the first step we validated their industry experience. Secondly, we validated their technical aptitude. Finally, we conducted reference checks with their previous customers.

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

Invata manifesting solution is a WebAPI restful application, that provides access to important packaging and manifesting process endpoints (object manipulation and additional actions).

Storage is primarily using MS SQL as a database and Entity Framework Core as ORM, utilizing DB first approach and scaffold context. Additional set of domain objects (POCO classes) exists and manual mapping between DB objects and POCO objects is implemented.

The architecture of “Invata Manifesting” application is dependent on existing WebApi project (“Invata.WebApi”), existing nuGet packages (managed and supported by Invata team), existing MS SQL database:

• All necessary DB tables should be added to the existing DB instance, but in a separate schema(s). This will make them logically separated from each other, but still easily maintained by Invata infrastructure team.
• All newly introduced WebApi (and supporting) projects had to be easily build and deploy as set of DLLs pasted in special folder under main starting point of the current solution.
• Introduced the concept of multiple, independent of each other carriers with autonomous configuration, setup, data store, but providing similar functionality and behavior for the manifesting system.

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

The delivery team consisted of a Project manager, two .Net Developers, an Angular Developer and 2 QA engineers with expertise in the Transportation & Logistics vertical.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sciant worked hard to complete the project on time despite some requirements being in flux. They were completely successful in fulfilling the obligations necessary for this conclusion.

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

Project management was outstanding. Despite being multiple time zones and continents apart Sciant kept a consistent meeting schedule multiple times per week via multiple channels including Microsoft Teams.

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

One of the most pleasant companies, team, and individuals I have had the pleasure to work with.

Both individually and as a team they worked hard to keep communication at the forefront, never let deadlines slip and simultaneously worked to ensure there was a mutual understanding of requirements and goals.

Always positive and personal. You felt like these people are your friends and care genuinely about your success.

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

As with all teams continued improvement in knowledge within the vertical space and following the technical trends.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Business Development and Sales for the Lodging vertical at Avalara

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Sciant to build a tool to extract data from Opera into our software platform. They built a custom export from Opera, and a middlewear for the data to be mapped to our platform.

One of the goals was to complete this project, as well as find a business partner that had domain expertise of the hotel and lodging industry.

SOLUTION

How did you select Sciant and what were the deciding factors?

Sciant was recommended directly from Oracle. We had an RFP with roughly 10 vendors, and decided on Sciant because of their knowledge of the industry, professionalism, and reputation.

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

They designed and developed an export from opera. Then they built a web application to:

1. Receive guest invoice data from Opera PMS, convert the Opera Export format to the AvaTax API format, and post data to AvaTax API.
2. Provide a portal for hotels to manage the web application and SFTP credentials of the hotel, and view updated tax detail specific to the location of the hotel Project deliverables included:
   1. Setup of Opera Export and SFTP on the integration application
   2. Authentication of the web application hotel account to the AvaTax API
   3. Ongoing consumption of Opera Exports from the SFTP file system and cleanup of files
   4. Data QA and handling of Opera Export data, and support notifications as needed
   5. Upload of Opera guest invoices to the AvaTax API 6. Download and display of the tax rates from AvaTax API

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

6 SVP, project manager, technical delivery manager, lead industry consultant, developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Project has recently been completed. Sciant communicated actively throughout the process, and were able to meet/exceed all of the deliverable dates and expectations.

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

Sciant has a highly collaborative approach. We had bi-weekly meetings throughout the project process, as well as an ongoing Slack channel for communication. They were involved through the process, and provided guidance and expertise through the project.

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

They are industry experts that had a collaborative approach. Throughout our discussions, they shared their input and perspectives which we found invaluable.

Our company is new to the Hotel vertical, and we found their knowledge to be a foundation of a strong partnership.

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

They were fantastic

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Intellico Solutions is a consulting company, specializing in IT Strategy Definition, IT project management and Business Intelligence.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sciant?

Sciant have extensive experience in the BI area with transportation knowledge

What were your goals for this project?

Create Microsoft Power BI dashboard for major transportation company

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Sciant was the perfect partner with the right level of expertise and experience in the transport and logistics industry to help us deliver a BI project. "We engaged with Sciant to develop complex dashboard in Microsoft Power BI for a major international transportation & logistics company.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was managed using agile methodology with daily calls, involving an international team, to discuss requirements and track progress.

What was the team composition?

Sciant’s team engaged in collecting the business requirements and development of the dashboard, which consolidates data from different sources into reporting model, and builds multiple dashboards and reports in more than 30 variant graphical visualizations. The solution will provide customer-tailored business performance overview and is one of the key components in our customer’s strategy of providing transparency to global customers. Sciant’s team provided deep knowledge of the logistics industry and has intricate technical knowledge of Power BI.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Delivered Power BI Dashboard with multiple set of reports on time and within scope, excellent feedback from client

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We performed daily calls with the whole project with different lines of communication

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Deliverables produced and provided on time, within defined scope and budget

Are there any areas for improvement?

None identified