Sileria

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for BRINK Interactive. We’re a boutique digital agency and I run program management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sileria?

We were contracted by US Soccer and another agency to develop an Android app. We brought in Sileria for development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They ran technical architecture system building and figured out how to organize everything—backend, frontend, full development, and QA.

One of the most prominent features was a live feed for World Cup games. It entailed a really robust visualization technique that allowed people who are watching the games through the app to see where the players were, where they were shooting from and things like that.

They added other features, like a connection to social media, player stats, player bios, scheduling, and ticket purchases.

We did get UX design from another agency, but that required Sileria to be collaborative. They had a lot of conversations because the designs don’t always line up with the technical requirements. Also, the design team we worked with was more experienced in iOS, so Sileria has to convert that to Android while ensuring that the UX design is relevant and accurate.

What is the team composition?

There were three people and they brought in a fourth when we had a really big workload.

How did you come to work with Sileria?

The CEO of my agency worked with them at a previous job. So, they had high recommendations through a close network.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $100,000 give or take.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from February–August 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

 The app has been very successful, the download rate was huge and the crash rate was really low. The app itself was fantastically received. Our biggest challenge was that the timeline was undersold so they amount of work and output they produced in a short amount of time was significant.

We had a few bugs, but for how fast they were moving, it was pretty miraculous. Our metrics don’t reflect that though, because our bug count per sprint was higher than normal, but they were producing 2.5 times what is typically produced per sprint.

How did Sileria perform from a project management standpoint?

They needed support when it came to managing the client. They’re self-motivated, self-disciplined, I never needed to ask for them to complete their work. So that side of project management was fantastic. They were very communicative. I helped them a bit in Jira to follow the client’s preferred workflow process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very trustworthy people. They’re very good human beings who are going to do the best work they can. They’re open and honest about what they’re capable of. In our industry, that stands out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to say because this project was developed so quickly. There were some moments when they could improve their attention to detail for specific features or in documentation. A lot of that stemmed from our client, and wasn’t an internal issue, but we could have helped resolved that better. Especially if we had a project manager.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They don't take shortcuts and want to build everything the right way, because we had worked with them before. I was balancing like what they were pushing for versus what the client was asking.

Now that I've seen this project through, I would 100% trust Sileria. I would have pushed harder to get what they said we needed, because their experience trumps what some of the scrappy development methods of today are.

We probably could have avoided a lot if I had just leaned on them more and trusted their experience versus trusting a client who said they’ve done it this way before.

To put it simply, these guys really know what they're doing. Trust them. They will do it the right way if you can give them the time and patience that they need.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a venture-backed SaaS start-up in Los Angeles, with ~25 employees. We build software for the farm industry, with both a web application and an Android application at the core of our offering. I managed the contracting relationship with Sileria and worked closely with the CTO and Engineering Manager to evaluate their progress and performance against our Android mobile development goals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sileria?

Our company commenced a significant re-architecting of our product, to release a new generation of both our web and our Android applications in early 2020.

This involved a from-scratch rebuild of our back-end (into a cloud-based microservices architecture with new technologies and languages we had not used previously), our web application front-end, and our Android application (which requires online/offline asynchronous data management, multi-device Bluetooth connections, etc).

We hired Sileria to augment our team's Android capabilities until we onboarded a full-time in-house senior Android leader. In the 5 months that we worked with Sileria (Ahmed, Carolina, and Shibly), they re-designed our next-gen Android application and then built out all the core "MVP" functionalities of the mobile app.

The project required blueprinting in parallel with a re-architecting of our software's back-end and with concurrent wireframe and UI design of the mobile application, so there were many moving pieces and meaningful product decisions occurring at the exact same time as the Android portion's work.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal for this project with Sileria was to deliver an "MVP" version of our next-generation Android application, built from scratch, to a high standard of code quality and scalable architecture, and which could perform all the core functionalities of our mobile product on our very particular industry-friendly hardware devices.

We needed to complete this project in a 6-month timeframe, and the estimations scoped at the beginning of the project were 5 months of work. In addition, we wanted to ensure a smooth transition to our full-time in-house Android engineer when she started, which involved diagramming the architecture orienting the in-house Android engineer to the product, and doing a code handover and Q&A.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My team spoke to 6 development shops based in Southern California (3) and in Europe (3), mostly sourced through referrals.

Our team had met Ahmed once previously, so we included Sileria in the evaluation because of that connection. We were ultimately selecting based on:

1. Code quality and Android technology expertise
2. Ability to come to the office for meaningful software design and product functionality conversations
3. Price
4. Trustworthiness and collaborative working style.

We decided to proceed with Sileria despite a higher cost (compared to off-shore teams in Easter Europe) because they seemed very knowledgeable about Android best practices, they had positive reviews on their work quality (including in-depth reference conversations we conducted with former clients).

They were based ~60-90min from our offices and could come in in person for important knowledge-transfers and discussions, and they were a small, boutique shop with a strong personal touch (which made us feel they were trustworthy, communicative, personal, and flexible).

Describe the project in detail.

We began evaluating Sileria at the very end of July 2019, including reference conversations and receiving a very rough 1500-hour project estimation from Carolina and Ahmed based on early wireframes that our in-house product designer and product manager shared with them.

In early August 2019, we reviewed resumes from the team, revised the detailed project estimations (5 pages of time estimates for about ~100 services and features, totalling to an 1100-hour project), discussed a contract, and had further conversations about technology choices.

Ultimately, we decide to start the project with 2 developers. We kicked off the project in mid-August 2019, immediately diving into design and architecture for the mobile application. In order to do this, Sileria received detailed wireframes and product functionality descriptions (generally ready in Confluence and Zeplin) from our product team, but they also were in close communication with our team for ongoing clarification and updates as well.

While large blueprinting and architecture decisions probably continued from mid-August well into September and October (because of aforementioned decision-making and updates related to our back-end and our Android product design), the Sileria team also began producing code immediately.

In August, a handful of smaller Jira stories were completed in the 2 weeks after project kick-off, in addition to broader architecting work at the same time. In early September, they primarily completed infrastructure set-up (device syncing, data storage, and Bluetooth connection) and boilerplate code.

In September and October, development of our more specific Android functions continued on pace to estimations. In mid-November, we had a significant deadline for the Android product and our back-end to sync up and test with real user data from the field (our 'technical MVP', delivering on all the back-end components).

Following that, we moved into a period of simultaneous feature development and bug-fixing in December. By early January 2020, the functional features were broadly complete, and we moved into bug-fixing while also onboarding our full-time in-house Android specialist.

By mid-January, the Sileria team had rolled off and handed over the product to our internal team member, who continued to fix bugs and moved into implementation of visuals that had not been done during the focus on feature development in the last few months.

At the time of this ramp-off, the Sileria team had put in approximately 1800 hours since August. This was significantly more than the original and revised estimates in August 2019. We believe that this difference was primarily due to:

1. Moving pieces and ongoing product definitions in August and September due to our internal Engineering team's evolving product/engineering decisions
2. Some increases in project scope (e.g., more server side, data sync, Bluetooth device config, and other requirements than originally estimated)
3. A longer tail on bug-fixing than we originally planned when building initial buffers on the estimates.

What was the team composition?

Our full-time team members from Sileria were Carolina and Shibly, at about 40 hours a week. Ahmed supported on a regular basis on both project and team management as well as technology and architecture decisions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We actually have not formally launched this new generation of our product yet. However, one measure of success is that the Android portion of this project has consistently delivered quite close to expected timelines.

While we continue to work on our back-end and web application front-end (approximately 50-75% complete), the Android portion approximately 95% complete relative to our end-of-Q1-2020 deadlines. We also consider the code to be well-organized, clean, and of high quality.

The bugs that have arisen have been relatively easy to address (nothing fundamentally problematic to re-design or re-engineer).

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The Sileria team was essentially embedded straight into our Product & Engineering teams' workflows, including our daily stand-ups, our Jira tracking system, and our Slack. They were a core part of our team, including our team's positive culture, for the last 5 months.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

One of the most impressive things about Sileria is the pride they take in their work. This reflects in the quality and cleanliness of their code, in the seriousness with which they prioritize strong engineering fundamentals and the most modern Android technologies, and in their philosophy about "doing the right thing" technically and not cutting corners for the sake of speed or superficial progress. Sileria also impressed us with their interpersonal demeanor.

They were honest, transparent, communicative, and responsive at every step. It was so easy to work with them—no bureaucracy, a ton of flexibility, very friendly. Ahmed even helped us conduct Android subject-matter interviews for the in-house Android engineer we were hiring, even though hiring that person would expedite the end of our current project together.

He was trustworthy and honest and helpful - completely independent of Sileria's business interests with us as a client! For a small team like ours, with so many uncertainties about our needs and so many moving pieces on our roadmap, working with a small team like Sileria (friendly, flexible, and personal) was a much better fit than a large development agency.

The team is also earnest and hard-working - during our busiest times right before certain deadlines, they went above and beyond the 40 hours a week that was scoped. Even after rolling off, their team members have been responsive to questions from our internal team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really. While working remotely during holiday travel, productivity dropped a little bit, but this was understandable.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a principal software engineer at a software services company that specializes in consulting, custom development, and staff augmentation. Recently, we’ve branched into the recruiting space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sileria?

We were looking to augment the team with an extra Android developer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was underway, but our client needed additional features in a short amount of time. It was a social media application that allows users to post content, and it was also location-based, allowing users to see posts from around the area.

The features that their team built included UI redesign and internal stability improvements that involved saving and storing data within the device.

What is the team composition?

I worked with one person.

How did you come to work with Sileria?

We were looking for an Android developer, so we went through many resumes. Sileria came across our desk after we interviewed three or four developers that didn’t have the depth of experience we required.

It was a basic recruiting process. We had interviews and made a decision based on their skills. I don’t recall how we found them exactly because we were working through our internal recruiting team.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe we spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Sileria from December 2017–February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We judged the development speed and software quality mostly, so we had constant code reviews to make sure the quality was up to the standard of the rest of our engineering team. By the time Sileria came on, we did have a beta version of the app out there. We did have some analytics in terms of crashes. We had about 8% of the user sessions involve issues or crashes, and after the stability improvements, we went down to 2%. The developer from Sileria made a difference.

How did Sileria perform from a project management standpoint?

The deadlines were met. Even after Sileria came off, the project management services continued. It was an open-ended process. They were available during the standard weekday schedule. We did have two of our own developers on the project. From Sileria’s side, they always coordinate with them to make sure each development milestone was met.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sileria was chosen to work with us because we are in similar businesses. We were only looking for short-term staff augmentation. It speaks to Sileria’s quality that they’ve been the only external vendor we’ve worked with during our 2 ½ years in business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We would’ve liked it if they worked more onsite with us. Understandably, onsite presence isn’t convenient, but regarding the development work, there’s nothing to improve. The project requirements have been fluid since inception.

Sileria’s developer has been adjusting to the changes and directions very well. I think everyone always wishes to go faster and have fewer bugs. But I think realistically, Sileria did a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We only used their Android developer, but from what I hear, they have more developers that specialize in cross-platform and iOS development within the company. Anyone working with them should consult and find the most experienced person for their mobile app project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the former Android technical lead at an advertising agency that worked on projects for numerous major networks and companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sileria?

We needed a development partner who could handle various projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sileria implemented a second screen experience for one of the TV shows we worked on, allowing tweets to show up in real time for the audience. They also built and maintained an app for a large news network and created a social media platform for an international entertainment company.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people.

How did you come to work with Sileria?

We found them through an online post.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from 2012–2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our clients were happy with their work, and Sileria always interacted well with our internal team.

How did Sileria perform from a project management standpoint?

They came to meetings when needed and talked to us whenever we had questions or concerns. We held weekly stand-up meetings to ensure project progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work was phenomenal. Their code was clean, well-organized, and bug-free.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of any ways they could've improved.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If you're not sure about them, have them create some sample code. You'll be impressed by what they can do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Cloud Cover Music, a background music streaming company, used by thousands of businesses in the U.S. and Canada.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sileria?
We initially needed a partner to resolve some stability issues with our Android music streaming app. The partnership later expanded to doing a Sonos speaker integration.
 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sileria took the codebase for our Android app and reproduced the issues to figure out the root causes of several problems that were underlying it, sometimes deep down in layers of third-party libraries or network level code. They then wrote several pieces of the code natively to make it stable. Along with that, they also built extra screens, remote controls and integrated some other interactive components into the app. They also helped change the architecture on the client code to have a clean messaging layer integrated with a new architecture on the server side.

For the Sonos project, Sileria integrated the Sonos Controller (central remote control for the speakers) that works with a new Sonos specific Cloud Cover API, to tell the speakers what to play. They worked on this from beginning to end, doing all of the development and testing from the account sign in, registration, activation through to the music streaming on the Sonos speakers.

What is the team composition? 
We work with two people, one for Android and one for the Sonos speakers.

How did you come to work with Sileria?
We used to work together. 

How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent around $80,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?
We began working in January 2018, and the work is ongoing. 
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
For the Android app, we’ve nearly doubled our customer base in the last year; we now have thousands of people using the app. Before, we couldn’t even get it to run or stream music over a long period of time, but now we haven’t received any complaints or cancellations from our end users in the areas that Sileria worked on since they were updated, which is a marked improvement.

How did Sileria perform from a project management standpoint?

We usually have short meetings every day to make sure everything is going well. The Android project is relatively straight-forward, but the Sonos development work required project management skills from the developer. She would proactively walk us through the architecture, steps, tests and reviews progress with our internal team on a regular basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?
I’ve worked with lots of agencies before, and Sileria has some of the best craftmanship and employees. They know what they’re doing or find people who do. The team is honest and makes sure the products are both high-quality and stable.

Are there any areas they could improve?
No. I plan to work with them on future projects. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Don’t just try to build a prototype-level product if it is going to have legs; use your partnership to deliver a high-quality, commercial-grade product with a codebase that is simple to maintain in the future. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I used to be the senior software engineer at Victorious on the Android team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sileria?

We were working on our Android app development but there was only my team lead and a senior engineer. We had funding and initial plans for the first version of the app, but wanted to have a first release fairly quickly. Our team realized the two of them wouldn’t be able to get it done on their own and needed a company to assist.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sileria developed the application and incorporated a lot of platform tools that they developed. They set up the first version of the app in a really complete way. It’s a native Android social media app. It takes the flat experience of a YouTube website, Vine, or Pinterest, and turns it into a social media mobile application. In that transformation, it becomes a much more dynamic experience. The idea was to make it much more engaging for the user.

Their scope was really wide and they helped in every level of the development cycle. They would fill resource needs for developers whenever we needed it. They did any and all services, whether it was meeting development requirements or helping with specific application issues on performance or design. Sometimes we’d have Agile epics, where we looked forward six months and planned significant new features. We could tap into their expertise for design ideas on those bigger plans.

There were some elements on which they would have more experience than someone in-house. For example, they were instrumental in doing the video, coding, and transcoding work that involved the C programming language. They bridged between Android and underlying operating systems to enable video editing and other required features.

What is the team composition?

There were one to three contractors assigned to us depending on the need. Ahmed [Founder & CTO, Sileria] and Shibly [R&D Specialist, Sileria] laid the groundwork for the first release. They would bring in additional resources like Carolina [Technical Director, Sileria] as needed.

How did you come to work with Sileria?

Sileria was already there a few months before I joined the team. Someone on the team had worked with them in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

$200,000 or more.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August 2014 until January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A lot of people were with thrilled the results. The app scored well based on the average Google Play rating. We consistently had a 4 or 4.5 rating. People love the video editing, being able to message other users, and being able to post content. Those features got a lot of interaction and admiration from the user base.

How did Sileria perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re extremely professional and were absolutely reliable. They did quick, high quality work all the time. When they brought in new people, they brought them up to speed really quickly. Within 2–3 days they were acclimated and completing work.

Sometimes they would come on site for a few days if we were at the beginning of a big iteration. We’d go over project planning and work out feature sets or any unknowns of that part of the Agile process. Usually, they were offsite, but we would meet every day for standup and other meetings as necessary. We used Hangouts so we’d see them face-to-face virtually.

They were available daily and picked up and were part of the sprint cycle for all ongoing tasks. They would get assigned like anybody else; sometimes based on their specific experience where they could be more effective than anybody in-house.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Beyond good work, professionalism, and their ability to help on any level, they were also fun to work with. They’re really good engineers and very personable. The communication was excellent. Sometimes a team may be talented, but the human element isn’t necessarily there. It’s not a deal breaker, but something you miss when it’s not there.

They’ve been doing Android for a long time so I’d pick their brains and ask them to break things down for me. They were happy to help.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did a fantastic job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to engage them fully. They’re very responsive and are happy to pivot. Tell them what you need. Sometimes people hold back or they’re too proud and they feel like they’re losing control if they ask for too much help. They’re a full-service shop. If you’re having trouble with design or with how to align your product goals, just ask.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a former principal product manager for a local search and marketing solutions provider. I designed an application and worked with the development team to implement updates. I was also responsible for porting the application for preload onto Java and Android devices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sileria?

We needed to design a new Java app for BlackBerry and also redesign our Android application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The BlackBerry application was a particular challenge as it required us to make a map-based app for a button-faced phone. It was fundamentally a local search application that allowed the user to enter search terms. The app would then detect the user’s location and deliver results geographically relevant to the term entered. At the time, Blackberry wasn’t particularly fast in regards to getting a GPS signal, so being able to optimize app integration with the phone’s native system was integral to the project’s success. I provided the requirements and we had a team design the wireframes for Sileria to build from. During that process, Ahmed [Founder & CTO, Sileria] was involved to ensure that we’d design something efficiently buildable.

Working in-house, Ahmed redesigned and built out the new native BlackBerry application, as well as created a native Android application. To complete the projects, he supervised both development teams.

What is the team composition?

I only worked with Ahmed.

How did you come to work with Sileria?

I wasn't the person who brought them in; I just worked with them while they were there.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project took place May 2009–March 2010.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Considering the challenges of preloading applications, we were able to port the apps to the required mobile devices efficiently. The telecommunications company we worked with was very pleased with our ability to deliver a proficiently functioning application and do so on-time.

How did Sileria perform from a project management standpoint?

It was apparent that Ahmed takes a great deal of pride in the work that he’s delivering. He developed the apps while being cognizant of making them extensible and flexible to the future. Instead of rushing development to completion, he considered how to make the code easily updatable for later developers. For example, he organized all the error messages in one place to facilitate quicker error audits. Thinking all of that through before beginning development made it vastly easier to maintain and enhance the application moving forward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ahmed’s ability to build a team and create a sense of community is remarkable. What impresses to this day was the sense of camaraderie, pride, and friendship that he built out of that team. I also found him very easy to work with as he does a great job communicating the reasons behind his architectural decisions. This was my first project to completely oversee as a product manager, so having such a strong development partner was immensely helpful to me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were times where his desire to build intricately from the beginning was contradicting our need to complete things quickly. But having experienced the benefits of that approach, I’ll never argue against it again.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former lead quality assurance engineer for Citysearch.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sileria?

Our prior development team was unable to successfully complete the Android app; it wasn't as functional as we would've liked, so we began looking for a partner to refactor the code.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sileria ended up refactoring the entire Android platform for us. They also assembled a team to continually work on and improve the app. Initially, we hired them to get all the logic working as expected because the features were buggy. However, due to their success on that project, we started giving them new features and expanded the scope.

Sileria was put in charge of overseeing new features and development, so they worked with UX designers to implement the assets. They worked with cross-functional teams in order to do the Android development.

What is the team composition?

We only worked with one person directly.

How did you come to work with Sileria?

People submitted reviews, and we looked over them to determine who was our best fit. We wanted a company that could approach the project from a programmatic and test-driven development stance. Those were the companies we highly considered, and we chose Sileria.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–June in 2010.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re always in close communication with customer service, so if there were any issues, they would’ve been addressed. However, Sileria always understood what we were doing, and they eventually became the entire lead of the project and only partner for the Android app, which should show how much we trusted them and valued their work.

How did Sileria perform from a project management standpoint?

We implemented Scrum and used Tom Bot, which improved our deliverables and increased our velocity in which we were able to deploy. The multi-lane strategy and Kanban methodology facilitated a quick and effective project management. We mainly communicated in person and via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their follow through was super effective. Even towards the end, they made sure the projects were completed and nothing was left unfinished.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have hired more people to help spread the workload.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

When I reached out to Sileria, I was a principal engineer at Gateway managing a project called Order Capture, an easily configurable tool used by our direct sales representatives. It helps customers to determine which system will be most effective for their needs and walks them through the ordering process.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sileria?

We were lacking expertise in Java Swing and J2EE, and the organization was moving from an old system based on JD Edwards to a much more advanced user interface built in Java and PHP. Many of our subject matter experts were very accustomed to the old way of doing things, and we needed some assistance during the transition.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The tool is a desktop-based Java app that could be accessed remotely, and Sileria provided both frontend and backend development. Although we provided wireframes at the beginning of the engagement, they took an active role in the design process as well.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two to three team developers over the course of the project.

How did you come to work with Sileria?

I wasn’t directly involved in the selection process, but they came highly recommended by a Java Swing expert on our team. Several of our staff members met with their team and were very impressed by their previous work, and they offered a great value for their cost.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000 and $100,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement started in August in 2005, and we completed the project in December of that year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Following the completion and implementation of this tool, we saw a 30% increase in productivity among our internal sales reps. Additionally, we’ve used some of the base code from this project for our retail solutions tools.

How did Sileria perform from a project management standpoint?

We had aggressive goals going into this project, and Sileria met or exceeded all expectations. They take a very conscientious approach to their work. They worked onsite, so we interacted with them primarily in person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very focused on quality and always prioritized the best way over the fast way. They brought in sharp developers that got it done right the first time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing significant comes to mind. It was a multi-vendor environment, and we had varying experiences with each company we were working with. Sileria was small, nimble, and able to drive progress throughout the engagement.

Advice for potential customers?

They’re experts in what they do, so make sure you give them some creative leeway and you won’t be disappointed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a 3D printing and design company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sileria?

It was quite a number of years ago so the details are fuzzy. I've done various projects where I used Sileria as consultants. At one point I was working with a client on a military VR [virtual reality] project, and that may have been the first one where they were involved.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project had to do with writing APIs and using integration so that VR software was able to access and use VR devices, such as a head-mounted display and a data glove. Sileria also used Java 3D API to develop a website image gallery to show our 3D work to potential clients.

What is the team composition?

I only worked with Ahmed [Owner, Sileria].

How did you come to work with Sileria?

I met Ahmed through a friend. I helped him get a job many years ago when he was in New York. He moved out to California to build his own business and that’s when I contacted him to help me with VR projects.

How much have you invested with them?

It was around $40,000 for multiple projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

I don't know the exact dates but it was roughly June 2001–December 2001.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ahmed is a good guy to work with. He always tried to do his absolute best and he was easy to work with. That's really important for anybody who's going to be working as a consultant: that they're easy to work with and they get the job done.

How did Sileria perform from a project management standpoint?

We had in-person meetings but mostly communicated through phone and email. He was flexible and very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've seen some of his other projects over the years (e.g., websites and apps) and they always look really good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It was so long ago, I just can't remember.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Sileria goes out of the way to get things done. If you’re having issues, they’re  flexible and willing to make changes when changes are needed.