SmartLogic

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CPTO of CAI

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Production-oriented software solutions for manufacturers, processors, and distributors

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire SmartLogic to accomplish?

• Refresh of a legacy Design System
• Design leadership, direction, and consulting
• High fidelity designs specific to a new product launch

SOLUTION

How did you find SmartLogic?

Referral

Why did you select SmartLogic over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from SmartLogic were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Refresh of the current design system
• Extension of the update design system to account for needs of a new product
• End-to-end high-fidelity designs for the development of a new product
• General UI/UX design consulting and support

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Reduction in time spent by Product Managers and Engineers designing/editing
• Clear quality increase in designs as measured acceptance and enthusiasm from internal stakeholders and customers
• Increase in in-app workflow conversion rates relative to comparable products within other areas of product portfolio

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

• Project management was clean and efficient
• All deadlines were hit and team was excellent with commnicating status updates throughout
• Collaboration was excellent -- team was always enthusiastic and willing to iterate through complex issues

What was your primary form of communication with SmartLogic?

Virtual Meeting

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

Software visual design is a sensitive and often challenging area to outsource. SmartLogic took the time to thoroughly understand our culture, strengths, weaknesses, and operating styles before diving into solutions. Their willingness to acquire the proper context clearly demonstrated their commitment to our success, not just to securing a contract extension. Combined with the raw talent of their staff, this approach led to a highly successful engagement.

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

We were fully satisfied with our engagement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Associate Director of Digital Advocacy of Ocean Conservancy.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Working with you to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire SmartLogic to accomplish?

• Develop the Animal Impact Calculator
• Maintain and improve user experience of our Clean Swell app
• Finish the International Trash Trap pathway in Clean Swell

SOLUTION

How did you find SmartLogic?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select SmartLogic over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Other

How many teammates from SmartLogic were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

SmartLogic worked with us on improvements for the Clean Swell app, an app that helps track data from our trash cleanup efforts around the world. They finished a new feature to collect data on trash traps, devices that clean trash from rivers and waterways. They also worked with us on reinstating our badge feature and dealing with bugs on the app from a previous developer. 
SmartLogic is also working with us to design and develop an animal impact calculator that will help quantify the impact trash cleanup has on animals and include a database of studies that show the impact of plastic pollution on marine animals around the world. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

SmartLogic's work is both speedy and great quality. They were able to launch our International Trash Trap Network pathway which has gotten great feedback from our partners and allowed for easy data collection. 
Their work has helped reduce the amount of bugs our users identified and improve the user experience of the Clean Swell app. Our animal impact calculator is not yet launched but our team has been impressed by the designs and their ability to fully flesh out our initial ideas into a cohesive web application. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The communication has been great and they are easy for our team to work with. We have regular check ins and they are great at soliciting feedback from us to improve their processes. They have been wonderful to work with. 

What was your primary form of communication with SmartLogic?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

SmartLogic is both easy to work with and produces high quality work which can sometimes be a rare combination. They're great at staying within the timeline and being highly communicative about the budget, which is essential for a nonprofit. 

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

None that come to mind. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Volo Sports runs recreational adult sports leagues across the country. I’m the CTO and I’m in charge of the tech platform that we’ve built. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic?

We needed to build a drop-in platform where players can create accounts and find leagues that they want to register to play in. We also just launched a membership program where they can pay a monthly fee and get unlimited access to our events and leagues. Part of the membership functionality is the ability for a captain to open up spots on their teams and swap players if they’re a few players short. 

We’re a small tech team and we didn’t have the bandwidth to build the front- and backend functionalities of the platform, so we had SmartLogic build a tech BlackBox to handle the backend, such as opening up the drop-in spot and reservation. Our team then did all the frontend tasks. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There’s just one big phase and that’s building this dop-in functionality where people can find spots and take them. SmartLogic built this functionality in Elixir and PostgreSQL. We finished that up, and we’re working on phase two now. 

What is the team composition?

We first scoped out the whole build with Yair (President) and Dan (Director of DevOps). Once we scoped it out and agreed on a contract, we worked with three of their developers. 

How did you come to work with SmartLogic?

Yair and our CEO are both from Baltimore and they knew each other. 

We looked at development shops in Boston, where I’m from, and Baltimore. However, this project being a key feature for us, we wanted the ability to walk in and talk to the developers, so we didn’t want to do anything with overseas developers. 

We determined that SmartLogic was better for us, especially for our CEO. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $120,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We officially signed with them in March 2020, and the partnership’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re running a 100-person trial in Baltimore right now. People really like the product so far, even though we identified some bugs that were SmartLogic’s issues. There are more features that users want, but they generally like the idea of a drop-in membership option that SmartLogic helped build. Working with them from a technical standpoint has gone pretty well. 

We were expecting to get a lot more tangible feedback on the project before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but it became quickly illegal for us to run sports leagues when it hit. Over the late summer, we started to get the platform into the athletes’ and customers’ hands. 

How did SmartLogic perform from a project management standpoint?

Generally, their developers have been very responsive. We were negotiating the project when the pandemic hit, and they were even more accommodating. They were very open to structuring the contract and build in a way that made sense to the business. 

As for project management tools, I use Asana and they use Zube and a Kanban board. We use Zube boards pretty exclusively, but I use Asana more on my side and my developers to merge projects together.  We’re on a shared Slack channel, so whenever there’s a bug, we just Slack it to them, and they get back to us pretty quickly despite them being on many different projects. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take a lot of time to understand the business logic. If there was a use case or an edge that we previously didn’t identify, SmartLogic usually comes to a meeting and tells us what it is and how they’re going to handle it. That’s a lot easier and faster because they already have the code for the use case half of the time. There would only be minor tweaks to the solution that they come up with. 

It’s helpful that a lot of their developers are in Baltimore and have played or seen our leagues so they understand the business. It was almost a secret strength that came out as we were building. 

They believe in the big vision of the business, and they buy into what we are trying to do. Dealing with the more challenging parts of the business such as contracts and legal has been easier because both companies have mutual respect for what each other does.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Time management at first was an issue. They kept missing deadlines because they were working on other projects. They scoped the project pretty well, but they didn’t allocate the right resources at the start. After the first couple of weeks, it got better. 

My biggest issue with working with development shops is that there are mistakes by their team that we have to pay for so they’ll fix them. If it’s a core functionality that we’ve identified and it’s just built wrong, we shouldn’t be financially responsible for that. 

SmartLogic has been open to talking about that. However, it should be on them to take initiative and not charge me for a mission-critical task that they should’ve gotten right the first time. That’s my only real feedback on that. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Having someone on your team that can code via Elixir would be an advantage. Right now, we’re at SmartLogic’s mercy every time we want even a minor tweak. It costs us money. If we had someone who could code Elixir, they could go in and do that themselves. 

SmartLogic was pretty adamant about coding in the language they feel comfortable with, and that makes sense when working with a development shop. My advice to another company would be to make sure they have someone who’s at least willing to learn Elixir or already knows it. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Engineering at SimpleBet. We build software in the sports gambling space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic?

We had cut our staff significantly and parted ways with our CTO. We were looking for people to help us with our infrastructure and cloud system, and we didn’t think we could hire fast enough.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SmartLogic got our infrastructure running in the cloud in a Kubernetes environment on AWS. They gave guidance and know-how to get us up and running on AWS. They then deployed our services in the environment and provided a stable infrastructure to build our products on top of.  

We gave them documentation in the form of high-levels requirements of what we needed. SmartLogic did a good job of assessing the situation and providing guidance and proposals on how to move forward.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people: Dan (Director, Development Operations), Eric, Justus, and later Donald (Developers). They all worked as senior software engineers and architects, and Dan was a kind of project coordinator who kept the team organized and on task.

How did you come to work with SmartLogic?

I’ve known Yair (President) for a long time; he employed a friend of mine at SmartLogic a long time ago. I was listening to SmartLogic’s podcast as I was looking to build a team. I reached to Yair to find DevOps resources, and he offered his own company. We had a few more conversations and found that it was a good fit and the timing was right. They were able to start working with us really quickly and help in that regard.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019, and we ended the engagement in April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The deliverables were measured in specific tasks and high-level things that needed to get done in a given week or sprint. SmartLogic was working closely with our team, acting more as staff augmentation than as project-specific consultants. Their work was best-in-class and set a really solid foundation for our team. It actually helped improve our team by learning from some of those folks.

How did SmartLogic perform from a project management standpoint?

Dan as the project coordinator was organized, but then someone from our team took over management of the project. We’d collaborate through our company’s Slack and talk all day, every day. They also were in our GitHub, contributing code, and using our project management software, Target Process. We received detailed timesheets from them that created a history of every single billed hour they did for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Donald had a really deep knowledge of everything cloud- and Kubernetes-related. The rigor and attention to detail that he put into standing up our infrastructure made it easy to move forward. The foundation and patterns SmartLogic made will influence our infrastructure for the foreseeable future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We gave them a hard task and imperfect requirements, so I think they actually exceeded my expectations in a lot of ways. Sometimes, the communication on their end wasn’t so great, but those were really minor cases. It’s hard for me to point to something substantial that they could’ve done better. I’d chat directly with Dan or even Yair, and they were really responsive to feedback. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a global consulting firm. I am a senior manager based out of Baltimore, and I work in the health and public service sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic?

As part of our philanthropic efforts, we participate in the Hour of Code Initiative, which is a global effort to introduce students to computer science through an hour of code. We wanted to expand our impact in that event by creating a web app to help bring volunteers from our clients and the community into the schools around Baltimore and DC.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We employed SmartLogic to develop an app that would allow us to post schedules provided by the schools that volunteers could sign up for specific shifts on. They handled the entire process of creating that product, from creating the design wireframes with us to finalizing the UX/UI, building out the architecture of the front- and backend, and setting up the hosting of the app. They worked in JavaScript and React for the frontend, and the backend was built with Elixir using a Phoenix framework.

How did you come to work with SmartLogic?

Our interest in building the app started in 2018, when we did a lot of research to find existing apps in the marketplace, but there was nothing that quite fit the need that we had.

Once we realized we would need to customize anything we started with pretty heavily, we decided to actually build something ourselves instead. SmartLogic was already involved in the volunteering process, so we got them involved in the effort to expand that operation from there.

How much have you invested with them?

The SOW was around $48,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work on the app started officially in August 2019 and we launched the app in early November 2019, but we are continuing to work on it with them to transfer the maintenance capacity to our team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The whole goal of the project was to have the app functional and ready to use for the Hour of Code 2019 with enough time in advance to actually have volunteers sign up for the shifts in advance. They delivered on that completely.

We got a lot of really good feedback about the usability and impact of the app, which we were really pleased with. There was some negative feedback as well, but that was mostly our fault as we had been planning to host the app on our cloud, but that didn’t work out so we had to set up hosting last minute that caused some problems with our confirmation emails.

How did SmartLogic perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was relatively smooth because they are local to Baltimore, so we were able to get in touch with them whenever we needed. The developers were always easy to get a hold of on Slack and responded to our questions and requests quickly. We were never waiting for them in order to be able to move forward toward our milestones.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Since the final product was for the good of the city that both of our companies are located in, they had a stake in the outcome as much as we did, which really helped to maintain the level of effort from both sides of the work. They were very willing to be flexible and work with us to get the contract set up and work quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think project management could have been a little bit better because it was hard for me as the client to understand where we were in terms of our utilization of the hours that we had assigned in the SOW and whether we were going to meet our deadlines.

A little bit more transparency around our utilization of the hours would have helped us to know where we could continue to improve or change things and where to reallocate some of our time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This was the first time I’ve developed an app working with a company like that, and they made the process very straightforward, so I don’t think there’s anything in particular that you need to do as the client to make the project successful.

The only thing I would recommend is to make sure you have a robust testing plan in place, because that helped us significantly, and I think that could be easy to overlook.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of kntcrr, a service marketplace for gig hiring within a virtual network or geographic market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic?

We spent significant time in R&D, developing the flow and the meat of the platform and trying to solve for consumers and providers. After that, we were ready to build the MVP for the platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SmartLogic first built the framework for our platform’s app. Their in-house design team took our logic and turned it into wireframes. Once we gave them our feedback, they created clickable wireframes that had some styling. From there, they brought to life the platform first as a web app and then as an Android and iOS app built on the web app’s API. The web app was built in Elixir Phoenix and the mobile app in React Native. 

What is the team composition?

Dan (Director, Development Operations) is our project manager and has done some development himself. We’ve worked with two web developers and two mobile developers as well.

How did you come to work with SmartLogic?

We were shopping for local development firms that could meet our needs when it came to quality, price, and expertise. We wanted a local firm to avoid any issues around time zone differences and language barriers and to have the opportunity for face-to-face meetings.

We also needed someone to fill in the gaps in our knowledge. I have a background in software development but not at a robust, full-stack level. Our biggest fear was that our development firm would do exactly what we’d ask, causing us to miss something in the final product.

These were the main driving factors for choosing SmartLogic. They seemed like a capable team and were responsive to all our questions during the process. Combined with their quick turnaround and detailed plan for implementation, we were really impressed with their presentation.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $150,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first project — designing and building our MVP — ran from March until June 2019. We’re now in the second round of development to fix bugs, clean up some features, and enhance the UX and features that already exist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have 600 users on the platform, and our organic sign-ups are growing faster than expected. However, the infrastructure built by SmartLogic handles the extra load with no problem. SmartLogic advised us to go with small servers on AWS, and so far, we’ve had no issues with lag, response time, latency, or service overload. 

How did SmartLogic perform from a project management standpoint?

For the first round of development, we had a daily 15-minute standup call that we only used half the time. We’d work with developers to discuss what they’re working on and give some feedback. Generally, they’re very prompt in getting back to us. I primarily work through Dan, and he messages me back on Slack within an hour even when we’re not engaged in a project. 

We had a couple of hiccups towards the end of the process we were planning the second round of development. There were communication issues on both sides, and we were unclear on the protocol to make sure things didn’t slip through the cracks and knowing who and how to reach out to whom. We made our frustrations known, and it led to a really productive meeting together about how to avoid these issues moving forward. During the last round of development, it went much better. All our concerns were addressed, and nothing fell through the table.

What did you find most impressive about them?

SmartLogic’s responsiveness really stands out. With other firms, we’ve struggled to find project managers who get back to us within an hour or developers who put out new builds in the evening. SmartLogic’s attention to us is really valued, especially as a small team with high stakes and a tight timeline.

I’m also pleased with their willingness to bring their own experience and suggestions to the table. SmartLogic has been helpful in working with us to find intelligent solutions to our problems. Recently, we were discussing the concept of building notifications into our platform. A robust version would be a pretty big project, so I asked for a more static version. SmartLogic gave a few options that are almost as good, for a third of the cost and time. We’ve been able to lean on their experience to learn about what works and doesn’t work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they’re more experienced with building commercial, enterprise mobile apps than with consumer-facing mobile apps. That meant we had a number of bugs in the app that we felt was unacceptable for a direct-to-consumer product. However, to their credit, they specced out a new round of development that we paid for while taking ownership of the bugs and fixing them in their own time. I feel very comfortable and confident continuing to work with them in that capacity. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Lean on their expertise as much as you want. To get the most out of the experience, make sure you gave a good sense of what you want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’ve been the CTO of DinnerTime Inc. since 2012. We provide meal planning services through a web-based application that boasts a recommendation engine for meals. Our team feels that we’re the most advanced meal recommendation company on the market in terms of the extent to which users can customize preferences according to health, taste, and cost.  

We have a fairly complicated backend that uses both relational and nonrelational technologies. Our team has also built up a multilayered web app, backend API server, frontend web app, and native mobile apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic?

Shortly after I started here, we had created the recommendation engine in-house. However, we wanted to contact the frontend app development to someone else.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When they started out with us, they were in charge of developing the frontend of our web app. They’ve been on retainer with us ever since. After our first major project together, we’ve engaged in three other large-scale projects, all in the DevOps space. In 2015, we migrated our platform to a newer infrastructure and made significant updates in technology. 

In 2017, we had a contract with a cell phone company to power a native app. We used SmartLogic to support that effort. This past fall, we did another, more involved technology upgrade. This time, we incorporated more advanced cloud technologies. They used Terraform to provide vendors with their own layers for deployment.

What is the team composition?

At the peak of our development work, we had four developers working full-time on our account. In our smaller projects, we’ve had two developers at all times. One person is handling most of the groundwork while another person is staying up to speed in case the first person becomes unavailable. 

How did you come to work with SmartLogic?

We put out an RFP and evaluated several companies very heavily. We’re a Baltimore-based company, so I heard about them through word of mouth from the Greater Baltimore Technology Council. At that time, we weren’t really interested in partnering with an offshore vendor because we wanted to be actively working closely with our vendor.

So, our search came down to two companies in the end. Based on their technical expertise and processes, SmartLogic seemed like the best fit for the job. I appreciated how they built testing into their own internal development process. At the time, they were also working with some pretty cutting-edge tech stacks.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $200,000–$1,000,000 on our work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started collaborating in 2012, and the effort is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re a technology-first company. Sometimes, companies put business needs first by investing time in trying to shape the project with their clients. We knew exactly what we wanted from them, so it was more important than they could provide a robust solution. It was most important to elevate our technology. I was able to trust them to stay abreast of what was state-of-the-art in the cloud computing and DevOps spaces.   

How did SmartLogic perform from a project management standpoint?

Throughout all of our projects together, we’ve had deep weekly check-in calls. Their team is great at communicating with us. They’re able to interface with both highly technical personnel and our less tech-savvy team members. Lately, we only met in-person for kickoff meetings. All other meetings were done through Google Hangouts. It’s still nice to have a partner that has the same working hours that we do. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were more than happy to work with technologies that we recommended, getting them deployed in the best ways possible. Additionally, they’re always accommodating to our needs, never trying to steer us in any direction but our own. I’ve always appreciated that about them. They’ve remained a pure tech shop, which has been excellent for our company. 

I’ve always considered their team to be a tech amplifier. They provided the velocity needed to get complex apps into the market in a reasonable amount of time. We have the tech chops to handle our day-to-day needs, but it’s been very helpful to have a partner for when we have bulges in our technology needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could push their business further by becoming a shop for business and tech needs, but that’s not what we’ve been looking for. I wouldn’t change anything about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Having people engaged with them on your end. Because they enjoy working closely with you, it’s important that you have someone able to speak with them at least once every week that can keep up with their work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm an executive director at FolioCollaborative. We're an online platform that provides professional growth opportunities for teachers and administrators in schools.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic?

We're a nonprofit that started out of a school, so the original version of our software was built in-house at the school. When we decided to sell the product to other schools, we started looking for a company that could build a more scalable software for us. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had an internal platform that we wanted to move to the cloud, so SmartLogic helped us rebuild our software. It's a web-based platform that is built in Ruby on Rails. We continue improving the platform, and we’ve just added a whole new layer of flexibility to it. We used to offer only one-on-one conversation opportunities between a teacher and a supervisor. But we've grown (we're now in over 160 schools around the world), so we now also provide opportunities for teachers to talk to each other. 

The original system was designed to protect all the data, but now we're learning that we can open up little pieces of data and give more people access to it. This has been a fundamental shift in the program that SmartLogic has been helping us with for the past couple of years. We introduced the change gradually, trying to meet the needs of our users.  

What is the team composition? 

We mostly work with our project manager and a developer. 

How did you come to work with SmartLogic?

The relationship had started before I joined the company.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $1.3 million over the course of the relationship. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working with them in July 2012 and the relationship is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There are schools that would have left our program because it didn't meet their needs. Now, thanks to the new feature that SmartLogic has built for us, those schools are going to be retaining customers. 

How did SmartLogic perform from a project management standpoint? 

We've learnt a lot from them and we've evolved in terms of our own project management process over time. We’re a part of their daily stand-up meetings and we also use Slack to stay in touch. They’re very responsive and always follow up to see if we have any feedback. Every fall, we talk about our big initiatives for the upcoming year, which helps us stay on track with the design and development work. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They've become part of our team. They're committed to our success and they care about our mission. Also, they're very proactive. They're always trying to find ways for us to improve rather than just doing whatever we ask.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything. They're one of the best contractors we've worked with. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about your mission and your vision. Also, be open to their perspective and their feedback. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the director of product at Jungle Disk. We do cybersecurity for small businesses. Our main product is a backup product. We also acquired a password manager. I'm responsible for product management, figuring out how different products work independently and how they work together.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic? 

We worked with SmartLogic in two phases. We had two existing applications that they were hired to work on top of. They did custom software development and UI work, as well as front- and backend development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

In the first phase, we were in the process of building up a QuickBooks backup tool called Safety Net. We brought SmartLogic in to address infrastructural issues and get it to the point where we could take over the development ourselves. It was so far behind that we needed to bring in a heavy-duty team to do the remedial work. 

The other project was new feature development. We built a LastPass importer for our password manager. We thought that LastPass might be raising prices so we wanted to have a really smooth experience. We led the UX and the design work, then SmartLogic executed the rest of the project completely to our specifications.

In both cases, they were using Ruby on Rails on the backend. Safety Net required them to do authentication and interact with the QuickBooks API. On the LastPass importer, they used React.js on the front-end and consumed the export file from LastPass. Everything else they used was entirely within our ecosystem. 

What is the team composition? 

The main point of contact on both projects was Dan (Software Developer and Director of Development Operations, SmartLogic). We worked with 1–2 developers on Safety Net and on the LastPass importer project. 

How did you come to work with SmartLogic? 

I’d interacted with them previously in Baltimore. We work with a lot of outsourced firms, contractors, and freelancers. The reason why we chose them is because we wanted a partner that would take ownership of the projects. Their hourly rate is higher than the other options but we wanted to make sure the work was done quickly and correctly. Given the client-facing nature of the projects and their importance to the business, we could justify paying more money.  

How much have you invested with them?

For Safety Net, we spent about $15,000. We spent $30,000 on the LastPass importer.

What is the status of this engagement?

The Safety Net project took place over the course of 2–3 weeks in May 2018. Then the LastPass importer project happened throughout November 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're very pleased with their quality of work. I’m especially attentive when we deploy client-facing items. It’s important to make sure that everything works well and we're not getting any negative feedback. We did run into a couple of small issues but SmartLogic was able to quickly resolve those issues. Other than that, everything worked fine.

We could trust SmartLogic to be honest when they said the item was ready for us to review or release. I've worked with teams in the past who deliver something that works only in the bare minimum sense. When SmartLogic delivers, it’s actually ready to go. We’d have feedback on some small things but they’d figured out 95% of what’s needed. They know how to handle complicated technical tasks such as importing data and figuring out how to get the user to progressively categorize it. They did a great job delivering wireframes and figuring out all the connected pieces and did it in the established timeline. 

How did SmartLogic perform from a project management standpoint? 

SmartLogic did a great job. We did our homework and gave them detailed specifications on what needed to get done. Once we figured out the objectives from our side, they took over the projects from there. They did a really good job at not just the development work but actually managing the projects as well. It very much felt as if they owned the projects. They let us know what they needed from us. The most limited resource I have is my time. It was really nice from my perspective to have their own project management. That's one less thing for me to worry about.

They were pretty rigorous with their meeting schedule. We would do a daily standup meeting and a weekly iteration meeting. We were in contact with them over Slack and they also had us in their backlog. Depending on how big the issue was, SmartLogic would either address it in the daily standup meeting or ask if we could do a quick call to discuss. We were in constant communication. There weren't any surprises throughout the process, which was great.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

The way take ownership of the project management was impressive. We didn't feel as if we were constantly pushing them to provide updates for you. We just went through a product launch with another firm who was lackadaisical about what we needed to do before the launch date. That wouldn't have happened if we're working with SmartLogic. They’re much more methodical. Their quality of work also stands out. They thought about all the different components and deliver a product that we can be proud of. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Getting our projects on their schedule is the only thing they could address. They were clear that they couldn't get the LastPass importer started until November, but I would have liked to have done it in October. Maybe that's on us for not reaching out to them earlier. It wound up working fine in the end but it was a little bit stressful at first. Everything was great once we actually got locked in and committed to a date. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

With any software project, the more you have clear in your own mind the better the project is going to be for them. SmartLogic is able to push to make sure that you've thought about the objectives upfront. The good thing about them is that they will deliver on exactly what you ask for. However, if you've made a bunch of assumptions about what your customers want, they're going to deliver the wrong thing and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and CEO of Harbor Boating, Inc, a maritime entertainment and transportation company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic?

They were hired exclusively to create a POS app to manage our increased volume of customers and ticket sales.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Working with our web designers and merchant providers, SmartLogic built a custom POS iOS app from scratch with both consumer and operator interfaces. They customized the app with features that enable operators to sell and validate a large volume of tickets. We’re still working with their team to improve the app.

What is the team composition?

Dan (Director of Development Operations, SmartLogic) was our main point of contact, but they also brought in different teammates to address specific questions or problems.

How did you come to work with SmartLogic?

Our team extensively searched through our individual and business networks. Out of our long list of contenders, we settled on SmartLogic because they seemed to be the best fit for our company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent nearly $100,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our collaboration began in 2015 and it's ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We completely lacked a sales management system, and now we have a fully functioning platform. We’ve been extremely happy, and we’re considering some prepackaged ticketing software. SmartLogic enhances our app with each upgrade they deliver.

How did SmartLogic perform from a project management standpoint?

SmartLogic communicates more than any other vendor that we’ve worked with, responding quickly to emails and phone calls and answering any questions. They developed an understanding of our industry so that they could better address our unique technological concerns while keeping our budget in mind.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team frequently expanded their scope of work to produce the best quality app. SmartLogic’s accessibility sets them apart from their competitors. They efficiently collaborate with our team, even though we lack the technical know-how. They execute our vision, staying in our budget without sacrificing quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As far as their work and their services, I can’t name anything they could improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Identify any goals and explain them as clearly as possible. Then, discuss the vision with SmartLogic to set realistic expectations. Really think through the project, but remain flexible and open to their team’s ideas. They have the necessary expertise to deliver the best results.