Solvative

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the President of Friend That Cooks

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Solvative to re-develop a mobile application we have been using to track employee time and client charges. This is the third iteration of our application.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I met one of the owners of this organization in a professional development group. We talked previously about the scope of his company's work and I discussed our issues with our prior developer for our app. Kunjan offered help in selecting a developer to redo our app and also requested an opportunity to look at it themselves. After discussing our scope, their experience with similar processes, and their development process, I decided they would be a good fit to redo our app.

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

The project involved rewriting our app from top to bottom and putting it on a new host. Kunjan's team advised on the selection of the database type, scripting language and how it would be hosted. Offline functionality was important to us though the app is web-based. We also required syncing with a payment software.

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

Kunjan had a full team working with us, from a partner who reviewed the app with a user's eye and less technical knowledge, to a very effective project manager, to separate developers and testers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Having gone through the selection process for a developer 4 times in the past, and now having our app built three separate times, I can say this is my first experience working with a developer that structured the project in a way where we could measure the progress at any point, and see the progression from one point to another.

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

The team used an online portal to store all assets and communication. It made the process very transparent and I delivered both a better experience and better result than we've had in the past.

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

Sadly, its hard to find a developer or contractor that simply does what they say they can do. Kunjan's team however delivered on every level, when possible, followed through, and constantly pushed this project forward until it was done. The execution of the entire process was very impressive. I want to give a specific shout-out to the Project Manager, Dax, who kept everything on pace through the project.

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

I can't imagine how the process could be improved. I feel they pulled us through the project even when we got bogged down with something they needed from us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Director of Triplepoint Calibrations. We are more than 15 years old company working with Industrial Test & measurement Instruments. We work on SME segment looking after some major clients in Mining and Oil & Gas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Solvative?

eCommerce Web Development

What were your goals for this project?

To be present our company online with products/services that we offer.

SOLUTION

How did you select Solvative?

We have selection process on how we go with our suppliers. We did review check and had a meeting with Directors of Solvative to understand, what level of business integrity that they can provide. At the end, we figure it out that it was a right decision.

Describe the project in detail.

We have witnessed a spike on online enquiries and customer spend more time online finding a product/solution compare to visiting suppliers. So we thought having an online presence will be much more beneficial for having an online eCommerce website.

What was the team composition?

Solvative has very strong team with understanding of clients needs and they are very approachable when we need. Project manager was so easy to deal with. Promptness on the work was always their strength.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our business has acquired more than 2000 online customers since the website was up and running. That is 30% of the growth on new customer acquisition and great outcome.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was great and smooth transaction. Can not expect more than this. best results.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were always on time and our communication was fast and easy.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really. they have got pretty much every area covered for a business to support.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Phononic is an innovator of semiconductor cooling solutions that sustainably displace antiquated mechanical incumbents. Our thermoelectric chips and fully integrated products are used in micro cooling (5G/Optoelectronics/LiDAR applications); fulfillment (food storage, curbside pick-up, and delivery); and licensed to leaders in the life sciences & healthcare, food & beverage, and climate control sectors. I lead marketing and communications strategy and execution at the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Solvative?

In the second half of 2020, we needed to migrate all of our content off of an existing platform, Uberflip. When we rebranded the company and relaunched our site the year prior, we chose Uberflip to serve up our content in a very dynamic way. It was a great solution when we launched; however, our business priorities shifted.

We were no longer creating as much content nor targeting such vast audiences, so we decided to pull the platform off of our site. We brought on Solvative initially to handle the content migration project alone, but their scope grew as we learned more about their team’s capabilities and strength as a partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As noted, they pulled Uberflip off of our site and migrated us fully to WordPress. In the course of the migration, we ended up adding some creative work to the scope of work — adding new navigation and content to our site as well as rearranging some existing solutions.  

Solvative took all of our detailed requirements and direction and finished the entire project within two months. For 2021, we’ve entered into an annual contract with them. Solvative is now fully supporting us across all of our website needs.

What is the team composition?

Kartik (Solution Architect & Tech Lead) is our very solid day-to-day lead who manages our larger team, with direction from Kunjan (CEO & Chief Executive Solver) and Breck (Chief Problem Solver) in terms of account leadership.

How did you come to work with Solvative?

A former Phononic colleague of mine highly recommended them to us.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall, the work that Solvative has done on the site has positioned us strongly for the year ahead. The structural updates made by Solvative have made the site faster and more streamlined; the new creative work is very solid.

Solvative did a phenomenal job with every element of this project. I was very pleased with how professional they were and how fast they worked. No problem was too difficult to solve. Their team tackled everything with a positive and optimistic attitude and at lightning speed; it was refreshing given how arduous and time-intensive some of this work can be.

Additionally, they were great with the creative work. Solvative brought on some strong creatives that were terrific. Their speed was amazing; they would turn around new pages in just a few days. As we added to the scope, they were always reasonable in terms of the incremental cost and very fair with their pricing.

How did Solvative perform from a project management standpoint?

Solvative’s project management is excellent — they're very organized and always responsive. Kartik is extremely flexible and hands-on in all aspects of his role. Given that he is based in India, it’s always a great feeling to start the day in the US knowing that he and his team have been tackling our needs while we sleep and through the morning, when we usually meet. We have weekly check-ins that last an hour and schedule additional meetings when necessary.

Solvative uses Teamwork for project management, and we use shared Google Docs to exchange information and feedback on the creative updates.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Solvative operates at a very high level of professionalism. We can depend on them to take care of everything we need related to the site and — beyond the blocking and tackling needed for this kind of work — they're also cutting-edge and innovative. Their team is always looking at and recommending the best avenues, apps, and partners to support our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In our experience, I cannot think of any areas of improvement to-date. They're a very strong team and we're very pleased with their work.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take the time to walk through your challenges and be straightforward with their team. Don’t hold back; Solvative will figure out the best solutions for you. They know how to bring down barriers and build what you need. Make sure to get to know the team — they are truly great people and you’ll enjoy working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of IT for Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Solvative?

I work with Solvative on a number of different projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Solvative primarily assists us with managing multiple websites, which includes monitoring the hosting sites as well as applying any updates to the CMS — primarily WordPress. When needed, their team works on design updates for websites. 

Their team also built custom applications, including one for our exhibitor listings. We produce trade shows that feature exhibitors who create custom listings to showcase their products. Solvative created a frontend experience to display products and backend processes that allow us to upload and update the exhibit listings ourselves.

What is the team composition?

I work with the whole team, but my primary contacts are Kunjan (CEO) and Bhadrik (CTO).

How did you come to work with Solvative?

I found them through a personal connection. A former employee recommended Solvative. We initially worked together on a small project to test our ability to collaborate.

How much have you invested with them?

Although I don’t have a number for the last five years of our engagement, we spent about $150,000 over the last two years on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our ongoing relationship in 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As a result of their track record, they’re our primary provider for these types of services. Their team helped us develop a lot of efficiencies, which help us tremendously. We streamlined a lot of processes. Instead of entering data into multiple apps, we have downloads and API connections that allow us not to duplicate data entry.

Before the exhibitor listing project, we accumulated all the exhibitor information, entered it, and uploaded it ourselves. The new platform puts the onus on the exhibitors, which leads to tremendous time-savings.

How did Solvative perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a support center. After I email them, they triage the tickets and assign them to the appropriate resources. Their team’s very responsive. After emailing them about an issue, I receive a response within five minutes. Their team is timely and efficiently completes their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have complete trust in Solvative to make sure that everything is properly done. That’s the main reason that I keep giving them business. I trust that they’ll get the project done right.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, I don’t have any issues with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This is general to all IT projects, but planning is key. Make sure that you have the correct stakeholders involved in the planning process or spending time at the front ends of projects. Review their proposal to make sure that any information was properly communicated.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager of a stainless-steel processing equipment manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Solvative?

We hired Solvative to help us update our cleaning and temperature controls.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Solvative helped us update our cleaning and temperature controls from push buttons to LCD screens. They also helped us get those controls connected to the cloud.

How did you come to work with Solvative?

The company that manufactured our hardware said that connecting the controls to the cloud wasn’t within their engineering capability. They partnered with Solvative on other projects, so they recommended us to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $275,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2018, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of our goals was to increase sales volume in our market share of controls to our dealer network. We’ve actually doubled our market share with the new controls.

How did Solvative perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great at project management. We have a support contract with them and we have a direct line to their support team via email or text message. We also have a weekly standup whenever we have a development project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a pretty significant depth of knowledge. They have quite a few developers that are focused on UI/UX and cloud connectivity. They’re always forward-looking and learning what the next new technology is.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to do market research prior to engaging Solvative. Have a clear understanding of what the product you want to develop is. Frequent and open communication has made us successful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital media manager of a marketing group for a full-service cooling tower and air-cooled heat exchanger manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Solvative?

We hired Solvative to help us build out a web- and iOS-based cooling tower inspection application several years ago.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had originally hired Solvative to help us translate our existing web-based app into an iOS app. From that point, we had them overhaul both those apps.

They helped us develop an application that put the tower inspection in the hands of our sales reps. It’s for our field agents who are inspecting cooling towers and are hoping to provide specific information to their customers about the state of their towers. For instance, the sales rep can inform the customer whether or not there’s a portion of the tower that needs to be replaced or anything like that.

The first round of development that we did together was the porting of the web-based app to iOS. Solvative used the rudimentary web-based version, along with some paper documentation of our field agent’s inspection reports and templates, as a reference and built their logic off of it.

What is the team composition?

Primarily, we interface with Kunjan (CEO) and Breck (Chief Problem Solver) who have business lead roles. As development started, we also began working more with their development leads. There were about three of them that we were in contact with regularly. In particular, Viral (Director) and Purvesh (Project Lead) were on pretty much every technical call that we had.

How did you come to work with Solvative?

I’ve known Kunjan for several years, and I don’t recall exactly how we met. I believe that somebody that works with his group was connected with my superior. We’ve been working with them on a couple of different projects for a few years now.

How much have you invested with them?

I estimate that the total cost so far is between $70,000–$80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2016, and we’re still in collaboration. We’ve launched our most recent app, and we’re in a maintenance agreement period. We’re also in talks with them to provide another set of updates to the app in the near future, which is a different set of parameters from what we’ve been working on this year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There are really two sides to measuring their success: the implementation of the features that we were looking for with the iOS — which is our immediate metric — and the usage and adoption rate on our end. 

They implemented the added features that we had requested correctly, which for the most part were diversifying the impact fields and streamlining some of the input processes, cleaning up the output of the report, and integrating some photo editing capabilities directly into the app. That was one metric of success, and it performed exactly as we had hoped. The usage and adoption metric has steadily increased as well, which is what we were looking for.

How did Solvative perform from a project management standpoint?

Solvative is very good. Any timeframe issues that we had with this round of development were honestly on our end, not theirs. While I won’t say that we conform to any specific type of development cycle, we do set weekly sprint cycle meetings and separate our development into sprints. They had held great weekly meetings with us and kept us up to date. The communication is always good, and we’ve been very happy with them in terms of development and communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Solvative’s work has always been good. You normally expect to find the work with a development project like this to fall within a certain price range no matter who you hire, but the cost has been reasonable. 

Most importantly, every member of Solvative’s team seems like they’re willing to go above and beyond, and they’ve done it as far as being available to work on crunch time outside of normal hours. They constantly check in with us regarding satisfaction, bug checks, and things like that. Because they’ve got people in the US and overseas working on projects, they’re able to address issues very quickly if they arise. They are responsive and are fantastic.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve been really satisfied with Solvative. I know that they’re growing, and it seems like they’re taking on more projects every day. I can’t think of any glaring areas where we’ve felt like they need improvement off the top of my head.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Solvative recently opened up their customer service portal because they’re growing and expanding their team. You never quite know who to contact for some issues and start a conversation, so using their portal has been really great for us to get in touch with the right person quickly.