Technicate Solutions, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of United Reporting Publishing Corporation, a digital newspaper that publishes crime news throughout California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ?

We engaged Technicate to build custom software that would allow site visitors to sort through news based on specific search criteria (i.e., zip code).

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Technicate developed a program for our websites that scrubs address information, allowing visitors to search for news based on specific criteria or by location. They provided wireframes and worked with our team onsite to learn more about our company and unique challenges. They then provided suggestions and built the software from scratch using both open-sourced and proprietary systems for our websites.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager, as well as the CEO.

How did you come to work with Technicate Solutions, Inc.?

We found them through an online search during our RFP process.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested between $500,000–$1 million over the years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since September 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Technicate provided a robust custom software solution that significantly increased internal efficiencies. As a result, we've been able to reduce staff and produce a higher quality product compared to our competitors. We're on a completely different level next to other news providers, and we're generally referred to as the benchmark for quality.

How did Technicate Solutions, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very responsive and accessible. We submit tickets through Jira, which helps us easily track and process any issues that come up. We also have direct access to the developers assigned to our projects, and they do a great job of meeting critical deadlines. They're good at mitigating any problems that could potentially interfere with timelines, and fix any bugs with a sense of urgency.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They genuinely care about their clients' success. They took the time to learn about our business and understand our unique needs to come up with custom solutions. I also appreciate their willingness to provide additional feedback to help improve project outcomes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. However, I'd like to see them grow and hire additional staff.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of a business and technology consulting company. We specialize in integrating disparate tools and in designing processes and technology solutions for our business clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Technicate Solutions, Inc., and what were your goals?

I had a need for a very particular scoring and event management tool for use in a specialized rules-based sport. There is an incumbent that I believe to be going down the wrong path with development and saw an opportunity to take some market share and provide a better product with capabilities long requested by the user market. Our goals have been to provide some clear benefits to users over the competing product, and provide a platform for financial growth with modularity and expansion into related sports/activities.

SOLUTION

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

I had a professional contact and friend that had used Technicate for some custom software; he recommended I give them an opportunity to propose. After meeting with the project leads and working through some initial discovery phases, there were some clear benefits that influenced my decision.

First and foremost, they insisted on doing EXHAUSTIVE discovery and story-boarding before coding a single line. The project manager I've been working with since day one, is still the project manager, and we've had a fantastic working relationship. He was a fit for my style immediately.

Another factor for me was that the team was local and available. IT has turned out that we have worked very successfully onsite, offsite, and remotely, but having the initial meetings in person with the team responsible was a deciding factor. Interestingly, after this project, I would not hesitate to work with this team again purely remotely.

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

We spent several months in almost exclusive whiteboard status, designing work flows and interfaces. From the beginning, we used an agile process with Jira and it has been excellent. We looked at several options for the Web and Mobile development environments and decided on a custom implementation of an HTML5 environment for the web application.

The mobile app and the web app must exchange data bi-directionally, the mobile app must be able to work without internet, but also must have some inter-device synchronization capabilities. I had some requirements for data integrity and recovery that made for some interesting problems but iterative development provided an ever improving solution. In addition, I had the requirements for the ability to interface via custom API with an external data source for bi-directional data exchange.

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

There have been four people on the core team, a project manager also acting as the lead UI designer, and three coders, sharing roles between web/mobile/interconnect/API.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I had no idea of the true complexity and scope when the project began, but Technicate has been able to keep up with requirements. Initial goals were, in hindsight, ambitious. They tempered those goals and have been able to deliver an application set that I can move forward with and put into production.

The ultimate goal has always been a tool that the customers can use and rely on. If at any time, the application was so difficult to use that the end users reverted to the other platform, with all it's deficiencies, that would be a failure. The opposite has been true. We are getting requests from new users because our app has been roundly praised by users.

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

We communicate in a number of ways, including phone, chat, email, and Jira. I never felt out of the loop. I always have project status details available to me, and if clarification has been necessary, the team has been available for a meeting, call, or Zoom as the case may be.

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

They've become friends. They are interested in my success and have participated with me every step of the way. When issues arose (as they always do) they never shied away from a solution, even when painful.

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

I would have liked have delivered a beta 6 months earlier, but it's difficult to pin down a way to have done that, with COVID, time restraints from all sides, and budget.