SOLTECH

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as a director of development at Hollywood Community Housing Corporation. It’s a nonprofit that provides affordable housing and supportive services for low-income populations in Los Angeles, including veterans, formerly homeless, HIV and AIDS patients, and other low-income families. I'm in charge of fundraising, social media, public relations, marketing, and anything that brings in money or deals with the reputation of the organization. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLTECH?

We were using a nonprofit donor database, but it was very limited. I couldn't even run basic reports. It was very challenging for us to make solid decisions. We decided to start using Salesforce so the fundraising and housing development teams would be able to capture their building and financing information. As a result, all the departments would be able to have access to all the information and manage everything in one place, and in a centralized way.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SOLTECH migrated all the information from our previous platform to Salesforce step by step. They trained us on how to use the new platform, and they built modules on each Salesforce component based on our nonprofit specific needs.

SOLTECH captured our nonprofit’s operational information, including budget, financing, and donor information. Besides that, SOLTECH developed specific and custom modules for the 30 buildings we had. They captured each property’s information separately. The modules were connected, ranging from donors to properties. 

SOLTECH also handled part of outreach marketing.

What is the team composition?

We had two main points of contact: Colin (Certified Salesforce Consultant) and Thayer (CTO). 

How did you come to work with SOLTECH?

Our executive director was looking for a good implementer in the field with a good reputation. She researched multiple different options with the help of a consultant, and they decided to hire SOLTECH.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $15,000–$16,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from January–March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

SOLTECH did a wonderful job. Our technology officer and I trained staff members who weren’t part of the training with Thayer and Colin. We remembered 80% of the information perfectly. The team members were saying that we knew what we were doing. For me, that was a great measure of success.

How did SOLTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through emails when we had a lot of questions on the technical side. We also did Zoom calls. We recorded the sessions and rewatched them.

Colin and Thayer were very knowledgeable and patient. We kept asking different questions, and even if they didn’t have a response, they researched and got back to us a few days later with an answer.

I recommend that SOLTECH keeps up the great work and continues being very communicative. We appreciated that a lot because, when they didn’t know about a subject, they looked for a response. We had to work with PayPal and successfully integrated it with Salesforce, but it didn’t work for us. SOLTECH researched other free programs that work better for us. It was nice because they also didn’t know about the program. SOLTECH found out the pros and cons, and they gave us all the options.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive aspect, and my favorite part of the project, was SOLTECH’s flexibility — they listened to their clients and individualized their services. Even if they couldn’t find an answer, they explained and came up with an alternative solution. Our users and we as a company were confused by the household concept in Salesforce, and SOLTECH helped us editing and adding another concept, so we could have a better understanding.

The SOLTECH team was also very responsive, fast, and funny. It was a pleasant experience working with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

After SOLTECH ended the training, we had issues importing our data, and we had questions to ask them. They helped us right away, which is fantastic. However, when SOLTECH sent us the invoice, it didn’t say what it was for. I had to explain to my accounting that it was for additional help for data input. It would be helpful for SOLTECH to have a better description of the invoices they’d send for additional work. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Naylor Association Solutions. We provide communications, events, and software solutions for trade and professional associations. I’m the SVP of product and services, and I oversee product fulfillment, client support, and the product development roadmap for all of our solutions. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLTECH?

We’ve worked with SOLTECH for more than three years. We’ve done a lot of projects together, and they’ve helped us with several UI/UX design projects and functional development tasks. 

Recently, the SOLTECH team has been helping us do a systems review to find improvements, inefficiencies, and updates in our tech stack. They’re also working on some design-related updates for our career center.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our initial project with SOLTECH was building a new generation of our buyers’ guide, a communication product that connected buyers and sellers in an industry. After that, we worked on a proof of concept (POC), and SOLTECH helped us build a new platform. They also helped us redesign our client-facing media web pages and created a more effective and efficient way to market our products. 

Moreover, Naylor has acquired businesses over the years, and we’ve had different platforms and client-facing systems. For our current project in 2021, we’re looking to consolidate and optimize our platforms to present a more efficient and consistent product and brand to the market. 

SOLTECH has reviewed each of those platforms and systems. They’ve provided an assessment of the platforms’ current mapping and evaluated risks and opportunities for us to optimize our tech stack. They’ve delivered those through a verbal presentation with our key stakeholders, and they've also maintained in-depth documentation for each of those system reviews. 

One purpose of this project has been to make the SOLTECH team more knowledgeable about our systems. We can then go into our product development roadmap. After that, they can easily jump in and work as an extension of our staff to help us in those development updates, whether they be design or functional build. 

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with Ann (Business Development Executive), but Thayer (CTO) always jumps in and helps us when we’re looking at a new piece of work with them. They make sure that what SOLTECH brings is what we need. 

Meanwhile, we’ve worked with multiple solution architects, UI/UX designers, and project managers over the years. Tom (Technical Operations Manager) is our current solution architect, while two other people serve as the UI/UX developers of our platforms today. 

How did you come to work with SOLTECH?

Back in 2018, I was trying to determine if we needed an out-of-the-box platform for our buyer’s guide or if we should develop a proprietary one. I searched online and found SOLTECH. I was based in the Atlanta area, and they were there as well, so I inquired about their services. They then came out and met with us. Their face-to-face interaction and approach to being a solution provider and partner melded well with our culture, so we decided to engage them. 

How much have you invested with them?

Over the course of our engagement, we’ve spent more than $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first engagement with SOLTECH was in March 2018, and the partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The original buyer’s guide that they re-engineered and redeployed not only helped us retain our client base but also made us a market leader. We’ve also had best-in-breed products since we’ve been able to build new functionality that hasn’t been offered by our competitors. In other words, they've helped create a competitive advantage and differentiator for us in the market, helping us maintain and grow that part of our business. 

Another results-oriented piece of work is our online media kit. Our sales representatives use PDF documentation to sell every one of our 400 or so publications. All of those materials are dynamically built online, so we’ve had cost savings. From that perspective, SOLTECH has not only advanced our sales materials; they’ve also boosted our efficiency and cost savings, and that significantly reduces the time our marketing team spends.

Moreover, their team not only understands and proposes solutions to meet our needs; they also do it with accuracy. Budgeting is important for us, and we always have to assume a budget with the goals that we’re trying to meet. In relation to that, SOLTECH has been thorough and realistic in setting expenses and budgets so that we can deliver our product on time. 

For this reason, I’ve come to trust SOLTECH. Anytime I take a new project to them, I know they’re going to be as realistic and accurate as possible in what they can provide to us and at what cost and timeframe they can provide it. They also ensure they have the resources to meet our goals. 

How did SOLTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

In our company, we use various communication tools, including Slack. When we’re in a highly significant development period, we ask SOLTECH if they can communicate with us on Slack, and they’ve been totally open to that. They use other tools to manage the project and to communicate back our pacing. On top of that, they’re agile enough to use the platforms that we use to collaborate. 

When we’re developing a product, they provide weekly updates on not only what’s been completed but also on where we are on our budget. When we need to follow up on something because we’re getting off-track, they give me a call and update me about it. They’re great at communicating those details and strategic items.

During each project, a project manager helps us communicate, stay connected, and stay involved. If I ever have a concern or an issue, I can call it up and it’s addressed immediately, which speaks for their commitment to fulfilling what they’ve promised us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

To sum it up, SOLTECH’s business acumen and approach to partnerships build trust. They deliver on what they promise because they set clear expectations and scope upfront — I don’t always get this out of a partner or a vendor. Overall, they’re not just looking to get the business; they also continue to invest in and partner with their client company for the long term. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. In any company, there will always be pain points. In our experience, any time we have a pain point in any of our processes, SOLTECH addresses it quickly. That’s all I can ask for, so I don’t have anything to describe as something they need to improve or do better. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that you’re honest, straightforward, and comprehensive in what you need out of them. When you do that, they’re going to give you as much as you need. However, if you don’t share certain pieces of that puzzle, you’re not really equipping them with what they need to become a successful partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a Colorado-based nonprofit organization. Our purpose is to work with new innovative data and technology systems to bring communities together. That allows us to contribute to decreasing disparities while serving vulnerable residents with a better response to their needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLTECH?

We provide care coordination software to organizations, and we’re constantly looking for better versions of systems that can do community care coordination. This coordination can include services such as food stamps, housing, security, healthcare, behavioral health, substance use, and more.

Today, our services are not coordinating, which can be frustrating for both our staff and clients. Coordination would help us make our services more efficient for our staff as well as families taking advantage of our services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We purchased the Salesforce Health Cloud platform and engaged their team to help us understand the scenario we were trying to solve as well as design the system in a way that will enable us to meet our objectives. They conducted all their work through the Salesforce Health Cloud app as well as a mobile app they designed. We didn’t end up developing the app due to budget reasons, but it would’ve been a custom build. Once we get the Salesforce system live, we’ll do a build. 

Once the product is live, users can access it through a consumer-facing community portal. It has a marketing and branding component as well as a login feature. We’re also embedding community resources and referral applications through Aunt Bertha to be a seamless part of the application. They’re also embedding Tableau dashboards and reports inside the system. They worked hard to make sure SSO (single sign-on) worked through Aunt Bertha. 

After building out much of the Salesforce application, they moved into work with us on staffing. They have an entire staffing arm of the company, so they can recruit and place staff in our company as well.    

What is the team composition?

We’ve interacted with about six people throughout the project, including executive engineers. In the beginning, though, we went through the design phase with a few of their higher level VPs. We’ve also worked with engineers and project managers during the development phase of the project.

How did you come to work with SOLTECH?

They were a referral from Salesforce. When we were talking with their sales team, we mentioned that we wanted to start using their Health Cloud platform. They then helped set up an intro call with SOLTECH, who they considered to be Health Cloud subject-matter experts. We had some high-level conversations about our overall goals and picked up the scope of our project quickly. Once we received a large state contract that gave us the funding for thorough design work, we hired them for a four-month contract to design and start building the system.

We’ve gone through a similar process of purchasing software and hiring a team to make customizations to it with two other vendors in the past seven years. In these instances, we ran into difficulties with unreliable solutions and project managers who weren’t willing to tailor the end product to our specific needs. SOLTECH made it clear from our first meeting that they wouldn’t give us these issues. We knew they’d be very invested in the process and the nuances of our situation. Our team has loved working with SOLTECH–we’ve kept re-upping the contract since its inception.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a little over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since July 2020. We’re planning to launch the system between March and May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t used specific metrics to measure their impact, but the general feedback of my team speaks volumes. They usually aren’t afraid to complain to me, but they’ve been happy collaborating with SOLTECH. Their team doesn’t cause any inefficiencies or delays, and we’ve all been confident in the relationship since the start.

How did SOLTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great. They do a really good job of forecasting projects, estimating budgets, and holding themselves accountable for meeting deadlines and budget goals. Any delays during the project have come from my team’s side.

I really appreciate not having to chase them down for any timeline reconciliation. We buy a block of hours from them, they guide us through what they’ll be doing during those hours, and then they execute. If we need to change course, we have that conversation and change the plan as needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think they genuinely care about our project. They’ve sincerely bought into what we’re trying to do and they seem to really enjoy working with us. With this attitude, everyone feels like they’re a part of the team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything to offer in terms of what’s not working.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a sports startup. We’re a sports performance company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLTECH?

We needed to hire engineers for our startup. I had a very tight timeline. Being a startup, we had a lot of moving pieces we wanted to quickly deliver on. We had code already in play, so it wasn’t a brand-new app from scratch.

I didn’t need someone to come and fix bugs, I needed someone to come in and pick up the code and add new features quickly. Essentially, we needed a certain type of engineer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped me hire mobile developers for Android and iOS. I described the requirements to SOLTECH and jumped on a call with them. We went through the description. As a small team, we didn’t have a lot of time to interview a lot of different people, so I made sure they knew that.

SOLTECH knew to only bring people that matched our criteria because we didn’t have a lot of time to waste. They brought engineers and brought them quickly. Every single person they sent our way was qualified. Within two and a half weeks, I was able to hire both engineers. Because of COVID-19, everything is remote right now.

What is the team composition?

At this point, I know a lot of people at SOLTECH, but my main point of contact has always been Veanne (Senior Vice President - Staffing). There are at least four people who have helped me with this interaction.

How did you come to work with SOLTECH?

I’ve worked with SOLTECH in multiple different capacities for several years now. One of my peers had mentioned them. When looked into them, I realized that many of my other colleagues had some sort of relationship with them, whether they had worked through them or worked with them before. I gave them a call to see what they could do for me.

How much have you invested in them?

We invest $110,000 per year, per engineer.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started seven or eight years ago around January 2013. For this particular project, I engaged them in late October 2020, and we hired the engineers in early November 2020.

As for the future, I’m probably going to hire more people through them. For now, we just needed two people. As I need more engineers, I’m going to reach back out to SOLTECH.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a very positive experience. SOLTECH delivered on all of their promises. They brought us high-quality engineers. My team is very picky, so the fact that we hired these two people quickly is a success for me. I had a couple of other companies before and have a general idea of how the market works and how long it takes, so I was pleasantly surprised at the delivery.

How did SOLTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

I prefer email and text so that was what they stuck with. I know they use Jira and other things internally, but they work with the client’s preference. I had daily updates from them, mostly through text and phone calls, but some were through emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a pretty good network of engineers in Atlanta. Just like the IT market everywhere else, there is a lot of noise in the market. Good engineers are rarely looking for a job and finding them takes a certain kind of approach, and I think SOLTECH is really good at that because they have an extended network.

They can keep a warm introduction with people who might not even be looking for a new job and when a new idea or company comes along, they can passively introduce those people. SOLTECH is great at that from my experience. The engineers that are hard to find are the ones that are not actively looking, and that is really where SOLTECH adds value.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve worked with them for long enough that whatever I think they could improve on; they’ve already improved on. At this point, I’m working with a very well-known team. Even if I call them a year from now, they know my name and what I am looking for. We don’t have to sign any paperwork to get started. It is like working in a long-term partnership. I have zero complaints, and zero areas where they can improve on right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You get what you put in so make sure you’re very clear about specifying what you need. It certainly helps to talk on the phone, but follow up with a few bullet points in an email so your expectations are clearly outlined. Once you do that, they will not waste your time. They will go hunting for people and once they find someone they believe might reach or exceed your criteria, then you will hear back from them.

Take your time upfront to clearly specify as much as you can when it comes to what you’re looking for and what your criteria are. Even with the things you’re having a hard time articulating, jump on a call with them and explain it over the phone. They will help you articulate it. Once you do that, you’re going to get value back very quickly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing analyst of Synovis Micro Companies Alliance. I’ve been brought in to build out the digital marketing space for Synovis.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLTECH?

They provided remediation, enhancement, and modification work on our Salesforce efforts in order to continue that build-out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There were a number of issues from the original implementation. The remediation work included user profiles and incorrect mapping from the ERP system to Salesforce. Account hierarchy had to be restructured to map correctly from the ERP system. The invoicing system wasn’t correctly populating into the system nor were the reports pulling correctly. Permissions weren’t set up correctly and the integration user profile wasn’t set up correctly either.

Those were some of the issues, and I’m probably missing some other ones. All in all, it was a large undertaking as far as modifications and enhancements go. We had to build out correct processes as well as identify ways in which I was going to build and integrate marketing automation software from my end.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with a key point of contact. She did a majority of the work herself. We’ve also worked with Thayer (VP – Software Solutions), Ann (Business Development Executive), and Linda (Project Leadership Lead).

How did you come to work with SOLTECH?

SOLTECH was either referred to us through Salesforce or found by our IT department. We had interviewed two companies before them and they were the third. Essentially, we chose them because of their personability.

Our team felt like we had a more direct line with them and that they were more reachable. We drove to Atlanta and met them in person for the initial meeting. Afterward, we felt confident that they knew what they were talking about. One of the biggest attractions was that each of their employees was certified.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $60,000–$80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was from February–October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything works the way we wanted it to, there’s not a single complaint nor issues with any of the features or functionalities. The remediation work was pretty seamless. SOLTECH is excellent. Their team is super responsive. After some updates happened, there were a couple of permission issues but those were fixed within 30 minutes to an hour at most.

How did SOLTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve moved into a ticketing system that works well. SOLTECH responds to us and provides a timeline on when an issue will be fixed. Additionally, our relationship is so good that I can call our project lead on the phone and ask her for something without having to submit a ticket. They’re very organized, and we appreciate that they’ve accommodated our communication style.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their professionalism is exceptional. What’s more, they’re just genuinely nice individuals. They have a cohesive environment that makes it easy to work with one individual to the next.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything — that’s how impressive they are. I haven’t had one situation where I was disappointed or felt they could’ve done better. SOLTECH runs a tight ship, and they’re super organized.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of underwriting and I lead a credit risk team. We’re a clean energy finance lender that provides CPACE loans across the commercial real estate industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLTECH?

We use Salesforce for our business origination platform and needed to outsource its administration. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve given them a few small concrete projects, but they’re generally in charge of maintaining our Salesforce platform. They've also been in charge of upgrading our project management tools.

What is the team composition?

I work with four teammates. My primary point of contact is Blake, a Salesforce expert. I’ve also worked with Daniel Morgan, who provides general software expertise. I’ve also interfaced with Gwen and Lindsey.

How did you come to work with SOLTECH?

We found them through a Google search, and their customer service was excellent from the beginning. They seemed to understand our problems very well and were willing to put me in contact with who would become our day-to-day contact, Blake. It was nice to be able to directly communicate with the person who I would be talking to on an ongoing basis.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe that we’ve spent somewhere between $15,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began talking to them in February, but the actual work began in June of 2020. It’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve successfully executed the smaller projects we’ve given them, the completion of which is the hardest metric I can provide. We’ve been able to get a successful resolution for our team, which is comprised of various departments. They’ve been able to address problems in a way that meets everybody’s unique needs.

For the larger project management project, it’s a major, ongoing project, so we don’t have substantial feedback just yet.

How did SOLTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management has been strong. They’ve been generally communicative so I don’t have any complaints there. Our main method of communication has been phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’d highlight their ability to grasp problems. I can explain an issue, and they’ll understand immediately. They can also understand the different needs of our many stakeholders, so they never present a dry solution. They almost serve as a third-party analyst for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This may be a necessary part of their structure and isn’t a big ideal, but it sometimes feels like I have too many points of contact. It would be easier if I could consolidate my communication into one channel or person.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think it might be helpful to undergo a trial period with them before committing to a long-term setup. Doing so was helpful in figuring out if our point of contact was someone I could collaborate with on a major, complicated project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I lead recruitment at Bakkt, which is in the process of building various platforms and services related to digital assets (such as loyalty, rewards, points, and retail payments.)

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLTECH?

In creating our mobile payments platform, we hired SOLTECH to assist us with staff augmentation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SOLTECH connects us with available software developers whenever a need emerges. They seek out qualified engineers, vet them, and send them over to us. I do a quick interview with the candidates, and if everything goes well, I onboard them onto our processes.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Veanne (Senior Vice President & Owner) and Ellen (Account Manager).

How did you come to work with SOLTECH?

We were told that they were exceptional at finding specific talent and skillsets.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve relied on them since September 2019 and have an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve provided us with high-quality candidates who we’ve been successful with. We have a pretty high bar for what we’re looking for, and they’ve succeeded in meeting our standards. It’s clear that they take the time to vet their candidates.

How did SOLTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re attentive to our requests and are excellent at finding people in due time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been most impressed by the quality of the candidates that they send over.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just tell them what you want, and they’ll meet your needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of IT for a professional association of scholars in the humanities. Our membership consists of nearly 8,000 academics around the world. We host conferences, publish academic books and journals, and provide additional online services to our members.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Soltech?

We first hired Soltech in 2016 to supplement our in-house full-stack developer to help maintain our custom extranet, intranet, and online journal site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team provided ongoing maintenance for our existing sites. We later engaged Soltech to replace our legacy online journal site with a more enhanced and robust research platform for our members.

What is the team composition?

During the first phase of development, Soltech’s team included a project manager, project architect, designer, front-end developer, back-end developer, and quality-assurance tester. Once the infrastructure for our new site was in place, we reduced the Soltech team to a dedicated full-stack developer to complete the project.

How did you come to work with Soltech?

Our organization was looking for an established, Atlanta-based organization that had a critical mass of staff with expertise in the Microsoft technology stack. After interviewing several organizations, we hired Soltech because they checked all the boxes, we were impressed with their leadership, their fees were competitive, and we liked the structure of the maintenance contract that they offered.

How much have you invested with them?

To date, our total investment for both new development and software support has been at least $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2016, and the partnership is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On our existing sites, Soltech made substantial upgrades to the underlying framework, credentialing technology, and payment processing technology so that our sites could apply current security standards. In addition, they successfully developed and launched the first version of our new custom website, and we’re approaching the launch date for version 2.0.

How did Soltech perform from a project management standpoint?

We found that the first project manager for new development was stretched too thin. However, management reacted quickly, and we were very satisfied with his replacement. Now that we are working directly with the Soltech engineer, we utilize Soltech’s portal in Jira for communication and feedback. We’ve been happy with this process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their engineering team is very impressive. They are all highly skilled and professional, and it reflects well on Soltech’s ability to hire and manage talented resources.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would recommend their team consider bringing on a database administrator to help provide expertise and oversight in that specialized area. This isn’t a problem with Soltech specifically, but most developers also aren’t familiar with the web accessibility standards for people with disabilities, so they could certainly go some way in providing more of that service as a default on their products.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Soltech is extremely flexible in the range of options they provide for how they can serve you. If the structure ever doesn’t feel like it’s working, just let them know so that they make the necessary adjustments to serve you better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO of a heavy equipment dealership.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLTECH?

We brought in SOLTECH to create a custom quoting system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created a mobile application for us from scratch. It serves to help our salespeople make a maintenance agreement on a machine or group of machines. They were also brought on to develop the architecture of that system, and the way it would interact in a mobile device. Currently, we also engage them for staff augmentation as needed.

What is the team composition?

We had one project manager, one UI developer, and one data architect.

How did you come to work with SOLTECH?

I learned of them through a mutual acquaintance.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $60,000–$80,000 on app development, and another $60,000 on staff augmentation.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2013, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The projects have been very successful. We choose SOLTECH because they follow through in terms of quality service and commitment.

How did SOLTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good. They were very thorough in assessing how to make our product as good as possible through a series of meetings. We communicate via phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

SOLTECH always goes the extra mile to learn what the problem is and how to best solve it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wouldn’t recommend them for a project that needs 20 developers, since they probably wouldn’t have the bandwidth for that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t just treat them as a vendor. Make sure they’re engaged at a level throughout your business that’s relevant.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive for a SaaS company called Nexus. We provide accounts payable automation through payments to the real estate industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLTECH?

We had upgraded to Salesforce Lightning and had hired a Salesforce admin to help pus make that transition. It ended up going very poorly, and we fired the resource. SOLTECH was hired to dig us out of a deep hole after we spent $100,000 already on the upgrade. We were trying to organize our entire company around the CRM, which meant bringing in different bodies of work into the software so they could be shared across the company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired them to not only help us think through the logic of how we should use the software but also to use their software developer to bridge existing systems into Salesforce to use it to the best of its ability.

After a series of 7-8 interview meetings with key stakeholders, they had the whole structure completely outlined in a couple of weeks. Then, they started developing and holding review meetings with each stakeholder.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a developer and an account manager. There was also a team of people on the phone with us every time.

How did you come to work with SOLTECH?

I had heard, through word of mouth, that they did a bunch of Salesforce adaptations. They were recommended to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $150,000­–$180,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February until Q3 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were in a world of hurt going into this project; it was a complete mess when they came in. We were unbelievably pleased with their work, taking us from an unusable software to something that is the heart of our company.

How did SOLTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

They may have used project management tools on their side but we interfaced with them through emails structured according to their liking.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to do the development work while both holding conversations about how to structure the work and outline it in a logical fashion stood out. This allowed us to continue operating as a company while they made the necessary changes.

The strength of what they delivered was the human contact. They discussed the problems with us and built requirements when we didn’t even have a good sense of what it should be We didn’t know the power of the software but they converted our raw needs into actionable code.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This tough for me because it was a really well-managed relationship. We may have wanted to go a little faster but we kept changing everything. They could have mined us for additional business but they didn’t. They didn’t pester us like some other companies we’ve worked with have done.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’ve recommended them to others, and when I do so I say that they’re great at figuring out what needs to be done, in addition to doing it right. Don’t direct them to much into what you want them to do. Explain your business need and problem in addition to your proposed solution to get the most out of their delivery.