Tekton Labs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO Inergytech.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tekton Labs ?

We needed help building our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They build 80% of the code for our platform. Users can create orders for vendors to bring them materials or services. That transaction becomes electronic and it’s traceable. They work in SQL, HTML5, iOS, and Android.

What is the team composition?

We work with 1-3 members of their team.

How did you come to work with Tekton Labs?

We worked with another company that used Tekton. Once our relationship with them dissolved, we stayed on with Tekton.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $350,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in April 2017, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve gone to an idea to a business that’s now cash positive. We went from zero to one with their help. They’ve been flexible, and give us what we needed from a coding standpoint.

How did Tekton Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack and Trello. Initially, we were concerned about the language barrier, but they’ve done a great job of keeping team members that can speak, read, and write in English and Spanish.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When I’ve got a problem that my team members don’t have the knowledge of, they allow them to reach out to other team members to get the right answer. We’re not just left on an island and out of luck. That’s why we prefer hiring them to our own guys because they have a group of people with different skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been times when we’ve had a team member whose communication wasn’t great, but they remedied it immediately.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the controller at COFEBE, Inc. We’re a software development company that prides ourselves in serving anyone that needs a set of experts to bring their development idea to life or helping them solve other tough problems in the industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tekton Labs?

When we first started our business with Tekton Labs, it was because we needed quality engineers. At the time, the market was so hard to find the right people through interviews.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tekton Labs ended up being the right fit for what we needed. They provided as many as 20 resources at one time working on projects with us. We’ve worked on projects that required expertise in Node.js, JavaScript, C#, and more.  

What is the team composition?

Over the years, we’ve worked with over 30 engineers.

How did you come to work with Tekton Labs?

We have a team that looks for potential resources. I’m not exactly sure how they came across them, but I remember the first meeting we had with them. Tekton Labs was extremely professional. We decided on them because even though they’re offshore, they had such a significant presence. Everything was a seamless transition because all of their engineers were available when we needed them.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe we’ve invested over $3 million over the years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Tekton Labs in the fall of 2018. Since then, there’s always been someone from Tekton Labs on our team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Tekton Labs has worked with us on big projects with a variety of customers. Every project that they’ve been on has been successful. All of them have either lead to more business or an excellent end result.

The great thing about Tekton Labs is that all of their engineers are versed in different languages. We can easily find a fit for any of our needs. Their engineers also can brush up on any service we need in a short amount of time. They’re incredibly professional, not just the engineers but the people behind the scenes as well.

How did Tekton Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Their entire management process is amazing. The way that they run their business is parallel to how we run ours. Culture is important to both of us. Also, making sure that the engineers can deliver the best quality of code in a happy environment.

Transparency makes working with them so comfortable. It never feels like we’re two separate companies. We’re working towards the same goal. Sometimes, I’ll request more engineers in a short period of time. Their team is quick at finding the perfect candidates. They’re always ready to serve.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their management style is great. They’re transparent about everything they do. They won’t promise something that they can’t deliver on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a senior advisor and managing partner at Range Ventures. Range explores the intersection of law, policy, and technology to find venture consulting opportunities and venture investments. We try to build strong solutions for improving law, government, and the experience of being a citizen.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tekton Labs?

We were looking for a product development partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tekton Labs helped us develop custom software focused on making local government meetings more accessible. We took video recordings of local government meetings and put them into the Google Cloud infrastructure so they could be converted into text files and would, therefore, be searchable. 

The team at Tekton Labs helped us develop this software and manage the project. Their team built the initial prototype, proving both front- and backend development in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They later went on to build out the full product.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four or five members of the Tekton Labs team. The exact number varied at different stages of the project.

How did you come to work with Tekton Labs?

I found them through my network, someone knew the leadership at Tekton Labs and introduced us. I was impressed with their experience but also their project management. I believed they’d be good at executing on this project and appreciated the strategic view they took to it. It wasn’t just about writing lines of code, they connected to the strategy and vision for our venture.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested between $30,000–$35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Tekton Labs in 2019 and everything has been completed for the current stage. We’re continuing to work with them and plan on exploring more ways to do so in the future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our prototype initiative went so well that we partnered with Tekton Labs for the production version. The first version was a proof to our market that this technology and this solution were possible. They were a great technology partner to make this product come to life.

How did Tekton Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They adopted the tools we wanted them to, and we appreciated their flexibility. Tekton Labs’ communication is consistent and effective. They were open to our preferences and cadences.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the most important things when working with a technology provider is that you can trust them to help you understand that tradeoff decisions between different directions. Tekton Labs gained our trust and helped us understand why every decision was being made.

They explored what different frameworks we might consider as we were defining the architecture and worked through the project management elements with us. It was a very interactive experience, which helped us build that trust. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did a wonderful job on the project.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

Binary Ventures is a digital agency based in Charlotte, [N.C.,] and we specialize in helping startups and small businesses execute their digital needs, from branding and marketing, to custom development. Tekton Labs is one of our strategic partners that we use for technical development. We use a unique blend of onshore and offshore resources.

What is your position?

I’m the managing principal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges that you were attempting to address when you first approached Tekton Labs?

The challenge we faced was choosing the right outsourcing partner, especially one that’s offshore. It required a lot of due diligence from our end. We don’t have the technical resources we need to complete our projects, so we knew we’d need a technology partner to delegate those duties to.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of this project in greater detail?

It’s been all custom development. They’ve been working with .NET, PHP, iOS and Android. They handle all of the technical builds and we take care of the strategy and creative aspects.

How did you choose Tekton Labs as your solution partner?

We had hired a consultancy that specializes in the matchmaking of offshore developers with companies here in the United States. They were the ones we delivered our requirements and project description to and they then made a number of recommendations. Tekton Labs was one of those recommended companies.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this particular project?

They’ve cost anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000.

When was this project completed?

We’re in the final stages of testing now for an android and iOS app that they’ve developed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback you’ve received that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

I can tell you that our end-users are extremely satisfied with the quality of work delivered. They’ve also been duly impressed by the professionalism and communication exhibited by Tekton. They go the last mile to ensure that they’re on time and on budget, and they provide fixed bid solutions for us. We haven’t been tracking metrics, per se but, anecdotally, our team hasn’t had issue with the viability or quality of anything they’ve built for us. They’re great at maintaining a reasonable schedule, too. I’d venture to say they hit 90 percent of their targets. When they might not make a deadline, they always inform us well in advance.  

When working with Tekton Labs, is there anything you’d consider unique about their approach and/or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

Their proposals are extremely accurate. They really know the development side of things. I’ll tell you that we’ve since signed a joint venture with them, which means we’re now doing all of their front-end design and project management for their North American, and U.K. clients. Our businesses and approaches complement one another very well.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Tekton Labs could improve as a service provider?

I really can’t think of anything. We’ve worked to various extents with about seven different offshore solution providers, and Tekton is by and far the best of them.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I run a very small Web design company. I don’t have any employees, but I subcontract a lot of work out to a crew of various people, designers, and developers. We make various kinds of websites from simple to complex e-commerce applications. We work mostly in PHP and WordPress content management system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you first approached Tekton Labs?

I was trying to address the problem of finding developers with the appropriate skills, but at a price that I could afford. The developers here in the U.K. are far too expensive for me to employ and make a profit on. I live in the north of Scotland, which is a very rural area, and the prices I can afford to charge up here are not the same as the urban places like Edinburgh, Glasgow and certainly not as high as I could charge in London. As a result, I try to make everything I do as economical to produce as possible.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of work in greater detail?

They’ve done a couple of jobs for me; the first job was a business directory website for a business association. It needed to be built from scratch on the WordPress platform. It needed to be responsive for mobile, and it needed to be very easy to use for a number of participating businesses. They’d handle most of the backend development, some of the design work and portions of the testing. I’d walk them through most of the deployment process, but they dealt with most of the technical parts.

How did you select Tekton Labs as your solution partner?

I did a bit of searching around on the Internet, but I wasn’t too confident about what I was finding. I eventually contacted a company called Accelerance, which is a company that finds development partners for you and makes recommendations. I spoke to a representative there, he provided me with two possible companies, and I spoke to both of them. I selected Tekton based on their proposal and previous experience.

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this particular deployment?

In total, I spent around $9,000.

When was the project completed?

Project was completed in January of 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback you’ve received that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

No. The website isn’t live yet because of political problems within the organization that commissioned it. I submitted it to them and they were all very happy with it, they did test it and they were very pleased. It did everything they wanted it to do, and the price was fine with them. They paid for it and it’s all done and dusted, but their internal politics have seemed to stop things in their tracks. So, it isn’t yet launched in full. I hope it will be, but it’s not yet, so it hasn’t been used by a large number of internal users. I don’t have any real measurement of the success except for the initial acceptance by the people who commissioned it, and they were pleased.

Their project management is very effective. Their communication was great. They were very conscientiousness, very professional, easy to get hold of, and easy to communicate with. Overall, I’d say the entire thing went very well.

When working with Tekton Labs, is there anything you’d consider unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

I think they were more professional than most others that I’ve worked with in that past, in the sense that they didn’t cut any corners and they met the expectations they set forth originally. They wanted to do everything to the highest standards and make sure that everything was correct, and they didn’t take any shortcuts, even after I got to know them quite well. Whereas with other companies, I’ve found that once you get to know them quite well and have quite a relaxed relationship with them, then that relaxed attitude creeps into the work as well. That didn’t happen with Tekton, they stayed very professional. I was impressed and reassured by that.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Tekton Labs could improve as a service provider?

No. I think they performed admirably. There’s nothing in particular that I would say was weak about them or their service.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for a prestigious marketing and advertising agency here in Lima, Peru. We're one of several entities housed under the Omnicom Group. We help business grow by effectively connecting their brand with their customers.

What is your position?

I'm the digital director. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the challenges you were attempting to address when you first approached Tekton Labs?

It was a very long time ago, but when we first needed them, it was because we'd just won a very large project from a Fortune 500 brand. It required the design, development, and deployment of a kind of customer loyalty and rewards application. We had limited resources and a very tight timeline with which to work, so we decided to search for some additional support.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of work in greater detail?

For that original project, it was very much a collaborative effort. We'd already worked with the client directly on the concept and the deployment strategy. Tekton provided a lot of the more technical assistance. They did a lot of custom development and testing, and some data work. 

How did you select Tekton Labs as your solution partner?

I can barely remember. I think our executive team conducted some preliminary research for some potential companies, and Tekton Labs was one of the ones in that original batch. We sent out our statement of work and reviewed the proposals that were submitted. Tekton won the work after meeting our specified criteria. 

Could you provide a general cost estimate for this project?

I couldn't disclose that information even if I actually remembered it. Sorry. 

When was this project completed?

This was years and years ago, so I don't recall. But, we continue to retain their services, and we're still working on various projects together. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

Sure. That original application project was a great success. The app had a massive adoption rate. One of the key metrics we looked at was adoption and usage. Upon launch, we also initiated a sort of digital promotion wherein users were encourages to share certain content for prizes, things like that. We'd generated more than 150,000 tweets in the first few days of the release. The user activity was really off the charts, and our client was very pleased. We were also very impressed with the quality of the final product. The design was fantastic and the app functioned flawlessly. 

When working with Tekton Labs, is there anything you'd consider unique about their approach and development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

First of all, they're extremely diligent developers. They take serious ownership and authority of their work, which I think increases the overall quality. There are times when you'll hire a developer and while it's in their interest to build you what you want, that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to internalize its importance to your business. For longer and more complex projects, that can have really bad consequences. Tekton operates differently. They take the time to do their research and understand the problem before even beginning to write code. We've really appreciated that approach. 

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Tekton Labs could improve as a service provider?

Honestly, I can't think of anything. We've been very pleased with everything they've done. If not, we wouldn't continue to work with them. 

BACKGROUND

Can you give me some background on your company?

We transfer people across Peru and offer them unique experiences along the way. I knew that our website was terrible. That’s what I started to work on with Tekton Labs. We have many changes to make, but maybe we will launch a new one. I asked him to prepare a budget for us for next year. Besides that, he made a certificate report for a new booking engine and a few other applications.

SOLUTION

It says here that Tekton Labs developed a mobile app for iPhone and Android to deliver tourist information?

Yes. We will have a meeting this weekend. I have all of the information, so maybe we’ll go live this week or maybe next week.

Can you provide a general cost estimate for the project?

It’s around $1,000, around $1,700 per language. It’s for Spanish, and I paid for another one for English. So we tried $1,800 each.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How happy are you with the results of the project so far?

I really like to work with Tekton Labs because they're very practiced, know a lot about the industry, and they work very fast. If he says that he will finish this week or Wednesday, it will be done. He’s always ready to support, give ideas. Ten points; I don’t have any hesitation to work with him.

BACKGROUND

Can you give me a bit of background information on your company?

I’m working in the insurance sector, and now I work in the health sector. I’ve had a good experience with this provider, with this consultant, because they are very good with their service. They are oriented to their customers, and they have good ideas. They show commitment in terms of time and quality of the products that they develop for us.

How long ago did you last work with them?

I’ve worked with them since December 2010. Our first project was web development—food and production in July or August of 2011. The first project was an app for iPhone and BlackBerry. Now, I am working in the health department for our company, and we have many projects with Tekton. They are in charge working on the web part of the hospitals.

SOLUTION

What technologies are you using for the project?

They work with applications, apps developed for iOS platform and for BlackBerry OS platform. For the web portion, they work with Drupal for the content software management.

Can you give a cost estimate of the project?

It was about $50,000. 

BACKGROUND

Can you give some background information on your company?

We’re a business intelligence company, and one of the services we provide is data quality. What we do is take information from our customers, and they give us their data on whatever they have on their databases in terms of names and addresses. Those names and addresses require extensive cleaning, particularly in the case of addresses where it’s hard to make it systematic. It’s not like in the U.S. where you have some order. Here, it’s crazy. So, what do we do a lot is take that information, clean it up, and then use artificial intelligence to take that information and make sense out of it without any intervention of humans, calling out as much as we can. Call them out. That’s one of our main businesses. We have another staff like geomarketing and business intelligence, but I don’t think that’s related to what we did with them, with Tekton.

What is your position within the company?

I am the chief executive officer – general manager, we call it.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What we your company’s business goals or reasons for working with Tekton Labs?

When we started working with Tekton, we were a very small company. We have maybe 20 people in our staff, and we don’t have a complete development team. We had some people just running processes or doing small stuff but nothing big. Nothing integrated in the whole system. So, that was our first attempt, which we’ve been doing since. To clean up, to create an application that will streamline all the process and integrate it to one single slope. So, since we didn’t have all the information or all the people we required, we needed to outsource some of the other processes, or the process of development, and part of that went to Tekton. Other stuff was done with the team we’ve had. The problem was that on the core was a piece of software that we needed, which was to run artificial intelligence on cleaning up text. Finding differences between one string of text and the other, and figuring out if that was the same or similar, and then how similar it was or different. We asked Tekton to develop that specific piece of software to take one text, compare with the dictionary and show us that we have one hit, two hits, 10 hits, or no hits.

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Tekton Labs to work with them?

We were a small company, so we don’t have a very extensive or big process. We have worked with Tekton before on smaller pieces of software. Actually, a couple of their employees works for us before while they were still students until they graduated, and went to work with Tekton. They recommended us, and said that this is a company that’s very flexible, that it won’t charge you a ton of money because they’re also starting, and they’re very curious people. Curious in terms of they do a lot of research, they want to find new staff, so it won’t be like a safe company. You won’t do that with IBM, which will take us three times their time, four times the money, and maybe we’ll get a limited result. We have their recommendation of this people who want to work with Tekton. We have been doing small stuff just like turning out fires in case of development. They have been working with us, and they gave us the result. So, when it came time to make this bigger development, we went to them.

Can you tell me a little more about the scope of the project?

We give them the general idea of what we wanted to do, and then we involved them onto taking that whole concept and making it into an architectural plan. We selected the coding language, which was Java. That’s because that’s what we require. Other than that, we gave them freedom to design based on that general flow how they will be doing their part of the problem. We accommodated some of their needs, or some of the processes they have developed because they came out with some recommendations on changes on the whole process. It was a very interactive process. It was all like this is what you have to do, and they gave me the result.

Could you give me just a very general estimate of the cost of the project? 

It was definitely under $50,000. I don’t remember the exact amount. It been a while since, but I’m very sure it was less than $50,000 because at the time that would have been our whole budget. This piece of software has become a cornerstone of our services, and then we used it for maybe three or four years. We changed it just because we, as a company, have evolved, and the software just as dated. But, at the time, and for several years, they gave us such really good value for our money.

Do you know what technologies were involved?

As I said everything was developed in Java script and the database was SQL server. They were involved on working on customizing the way the memory was used because one of our problems is that they eat up all the memory, and the process are pretty fast if you are not efficient. They made changes to better use the memory of the server. That was basically it. That’s what I know because my mechanical background is really limited.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How happy are you with the results of the project?

We are very pleased. They had some problems during the process among other things because we didn’t have a whole idea of what we were going to do. It was not every extremely structured process, and that’s on our fault. Tekton started working, and as I said, it became a cornerstone of our services, so I have to be happy because as I said they gave us a very good money.

When working with Tekton Labs, did you find anything unique or special about them compared to other developers you may have worked with in the past?

I would say the flexibility in one side, and their willingness to work with technologies or with processes that they were not really familiar with from the start. All the things have artificial intelligence, and so on, that wasn’t something that they brought to the table. We asked them to do the research. Even if they weren't familiar with the specific technology, they found out how to solve our problem, then implemented the solution. 

Looking back on the project, do you think there’s any area that Tekton Labs could improve or do a bit better in?

Well, I have to talk about the Tekton from years before. They were just starting, so their planning process and time management, what I realized at the point is that they had problems controlling the project just because they didn’t have enough resources. They were five people at the time, so that was not a very big company. In general, the planning process was highly variable. The way they controlled the times, deliverables, and the timing of the deliverables. We had some problems with that.

BACKGROUND

Are you a startup company or a part of a larger organization?

Startup.

Are you the owner of the company?

I’m a partner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your main business goal going into the project or reason for undertaking the development?

It’s to complement a website with a mobile product.

What was your process for selecting Tekton Labs?

Word of mouth.

Did you develop just for iPhone and iPad?

Those and Android as well.

SOLUTION

Could tell me just a little bit about the scope of the project?

It’s a simple text-based educational tool. It pulls down education materials in real-time basis from a host, caches the responses from the client. When the host is available, the telecommunication link is available, it sends the result that it’s been stored, it’s cached back to the server so when the client logs on to the server, the application they can see all of the work that they get on their mobile device.

Could give me an estimate about the cost of the project?

Under $50,000.

How long do you expect the development to last?

Six weeks or once a month and a half.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How happy are you so far working with Tekton Labs?

So far, I’m very happy. They’re very attentive, and they have good follow through. They’ve demonstrated a strong command at the technologies and development process.

Compared to other developers you may have worked with in the past, have you found anything that’s unique about Tekton Labs?

I think they’re very competent. They really do understand technology.

Do you think there’s anything they could do better or slightly improve?

It’s too soon to tell. Right now, I can’t identify anything.