TELUS Digital

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of program effectiveness for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario. We handle workers' compensation claims for the providence of Ontario.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TELUS International?

We hired TELUS International because we previously had an archaic healthcare billing system. Our objective was to modernize that billing system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

TELUS International built the end-to-end functionalities of our healthcare billing platform. It allows healthcare institutions to submit their bill to the WSIB. We’ve also had some B2B billing solutions where a hospital can submit a billing file securely and then we process that file.

Once they come to us, the majority of those bills don’t need to go to an adjuster. In fact, 85%–90% of those bills are automatically adjudicated by the system that was built by TELUS International, only resulting in about 10% that needs to go to a person for a decision. It automates the payments at the end.

It’s a robust solution; we had to pull together a few platforms to develop it including PowerTrap and SmartAdvisor. Apart from that, the system is home-grown by TELUS International.

The initial launch was in 2002 but since then we’ve built additional modules to keep it current with industry standards.

What is the team composition?

They’re a fairly large company. Our primary account team has about 5–6 individuals who are intimately involved with the solution and contract. They have project managers, and we have an account executive. There’s another individual who’s responsible for operational support. There are also business and system analysts working with us.

How did you come to work with TELUS International?      

We did an open RFP process in order to bring on a solution partner and TELUS International was the successful proponent.

How much have you invested with them?

The original solution was $30 million dollars in 2002 funds. We now spend $8 million–$10 million with them on an annual basis for ongoing maintenance and transaction components for the contracts.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in 2002.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ever since we’ve worked with TELUS International, we’ve greatly enhanced our turnaround time in payment processing because of the platform's automated solution capability. We cut down our payment timeframes from three months down to between two weeks and a month.

The solution services about 30,000 active healthcare institutions within the providence of Ontario. It’s a legacy-based system, rarely goes down, and is available 24/7. We’ve seen an uptick where most healthcare institutions have switched over to online billing — which is exactly what we wanted to happen. There’s a 70 to 30 split with a preference for the online submission option. We’ve tapped on additional tools and online services throughout the years.

How did TELUS International perform from a project management standpoint?

TELUS International is a traditional project management shop in terms of development and solution-delivery lifecycles. They’re a leading electronic medical record provider in Canada. Their approach is a traditional waterfall where we provide requirements, they’re sized-out, and then scheduled into releases throughout the year. They have a robust support structure to deal with end-users directly, which we leverage.

Having said that, it’s still very collaborative. We have ongoing formal meetings at the operational management level to continue our relationship and stay on top of any issues or development items we need to build onto the system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What sets them apart is the balance of both value of the functionalities they’ve brought on board together with their ability to connect and build a platform that was scalable to adapt to the e-health landscape. The system adapts to new EMR standards because of the portability of the data that’s being produced. They’ve also maintained security protocols that have prevented successful penetration attacks or hacks of any personal health information.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’d be good for them to start thinking in the more agile way of solution development to be able to be nimbler and pivot on a dime when things occur in the industry. While they’re in tune with what’s going on in the industry, with a traditional approach, it’s not always feasible and it can be easier to fall behind. Having different approaches and project methodology in the iterative space would certainly help them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They give you stability, so I’d recommend potential customers to push them. Try to think outside of the box on behalf of TELUS International and pose analytic questions that’ll improve your solution. On top of that, have clear requirements going into that engagement to set the expectations on both sides.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital strategy at an environmental nonprofit focused on legal and advocacy issues.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WillowTree®?

The initial business challenge was identifying an infrastructure that would help support our analytics needs and audience growth and targeting needs. We brought them on because they were proficient in Segment. But from there, we quickly learned that they could help with a lot more than the initial scope provided.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The range of services was divided into three areas. The first was a discovery phase of the systems that we were currently using, interviewing stakeholders within the organization that were using those systems, and creating tech stack recommendations. 

The second was to utilize their data modeling skills to identify ways that we could maximize our current audience and lead them into a funnel that would eventually provide us with high-value prospects or donations. 

The third piece was creating a playbook of recommendations that we could then take to not only move forward with the tech stacks recommendations but also to take those data modeling recommendations as well and create systems that drive growth.

What is the team composition?

Our main points of contact were Ann (Growth Coordinator), who served as our project manager, and Billy ((Director of Growth Marketing), who directed the team. We worked with about 4 teammates in total. 

How did you come to work with WillowTree®?

I asked Segment if they had any partners that knew how to utilize their software application, and they recommended WillowTree® who is in Charlottesville where we are. They’re very well-known here. 

How much have you invested with them?

It was an $80,000 engagement. $60,000 of that was given pro-bono by WillowTree® and $20,000 was paid directly. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from October 2019–January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s difficult to define the success of this project, but WillowTree® gave us extremely valuable information. We’ve finished phase one but we’re going into phase two now.

How did WillowTree® perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very responsive and interested in the work. The team was on-time and on-task with all of their projections. Additionally, their communication was stellar.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their insightful and invaluable knowledge around growth strategy is hard to find. The team’s holistic understanding of the techniques, strategies, and tactics combined with the backend systems and the building blocks is priceless.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would’ve liked more milestone check-ins, especially in the mid-phase of the project. A lot of their findings were presented to us in a very large group when some of them could’ve been presented earlier in a different way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re going into a project where you’re wanting to get recommendations and plan in place, make sure you’re clear on what the work will look like afterward. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of software product development on the digital team of a furniture retail company. We focus on the website’s frontend customer experience and systems support as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WillowTree?

Our company is actually in the middle of a two-year project to completely re-platform our website. We are moving away from a more monolithic platform onto one with a very modern architecture, including headless commerce, and customized APIs.

WillowTree is providing independent third-party audits of our work to make sure that we are building everything in a stable and secure way and provide recommendations when necessary.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

This project is a fairly unique engagement in that their team is working as a check and balance for our work rather than providing the development themselves. Even though we had the development capability, we wanted to make sure that we were building a good, innovative product.

When they look at various aspects of the project, we give them specific issues to look for, and out of that, they are able to tell us what works well and what they think we could tweak or do better. Since the project has taken place over the course of a few years, they have helped us at a couple of different stages.

Their first task was to audit the infrastructure that we had set up for microservices, which used Kubernetes and Docker, as well as our CIC pipeline and general codebase. The second phase focused more on security, diving deeper into possible problems and test cases for those.

We also had them investigate our testing framework for different microservice environments on the frontend, and then tell us if there were improvements from the year before and provide QA recommendations on the architecture of our new headless CMS platform.

As we have gone along, they’ve also evaluated our progress on the recommendations that we’ve had previously, noting where we’ve made smaller changes and also re-evaluating larger pieces that we had put together based on suggestions they had made about consolidating things before.

What is the team composition?

Their project coordinator served as our main point of contact once we started the project. There was also a security specialist, as well as a lead engineer and a handful of support engineers.

How did you come to work with WillowTree?

I was originally put in touch with them through our enterprise IT department here who had worked with them in the past on actual development projects and knew that they did good work.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost has been a little over $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first audit that they performed with us was in December 2018, and we are continuing to work with them on the project as we make progress.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their service provides a really critical sanity check on the work that we’re doing. I’m not an engineer, so I trust my team and believe in their work, but at the end of the day, it’s incredibly comforting to have a second pair of eyes to vet everything outside of the organization.

The main deliverables in both audits were large documents summarizing their findings, in which they included a checklist of action items on their main recommendations. Those documents were high quality, well-designed, and very informative in both cases, so we really felt like we were getting a lot of value that we could show to our stakeholders after the project.

How did WillowTree perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication skills are fantastic. We set up a Slack channel with them where our engineers could interact and ask questions directly, which was really effective. On top of that, we set up weekly or bi-weekly meetings to go over updates that could be fixed more quickly or would influence how their work progressed.

During the second part of the engagement, we worked with a slightly different team from the first audit, but they had no problems talking to each other and sharing documentation so that the knowledge transfer didn’t cause us any problems or delays.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This ties into their communication, but the transparency throughout their work was something I really appreciated. They would always let us know when things were going to take longer or if they had run into any roadblocks. Their transparency helped us to be incredibly confident that they were doing their best work for us at all times. I never had to send multiple emails just to get information like you do with a lot of vendors.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could improve off the top of my head. They are one of the best vendors I’ve worked with, and I am consistently trying to think of other projects that we could partner with them on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the mobile channel manager at one of the 10 largest credit unions in the United States. We primarily serve members through our digital channels, so we’re focused on providing the best digital experience possible. Our company offers savings accounts, checking accounts, loans, and more. I’m heavily involved in our mobile banking app that allows customers to do their banking on the go.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WillowTree?

We’ve engaged them three times since I joined the team in 2017. The first and second projects were centered around building core functionalities in our mobile app. Afterward, we had them develop new features and designs for the product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, in our process, we gather a high-level evaluation of our end goal, including the business requirements we need to abide by. Then, we met with WillowTree to begin working through designs. They’ve helped with all the designs for the mobile app to this point. In that iterative process, they listen to our feedback and adjust accordingly. In our industry, it’s also important to make sure we are in compliance with legal regulations. Their team considers that in their work, delivering refined designs that we can approve before moving into the development phase.

The app is available for both iOS and Andriod. The WillowTree team still works with us on updating and adding features.  

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact throughout all of our projects has been Sean (Principal Software Engineer, WillowTree), who is the technical lead. We’ve had different project managers in our different phases of work as well. There have also been designers, developers, and analytics experts assigned to our projects. The team size has varied according to what we needed for particular projects, but Sean has been able to provide a consistent perspective. 

How did you come to work with WillowTree?

We had a preexisting relationship with WillowTree when I joined the team. I inherited that partnership. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2016, and the partnership is ongoing. My first two projects with them took six months each. We are currently working on a three-month engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The two most notable impacts of their work are the increase in usage and an increase in App Store ratings. Both have benefitted dramatically from engaging with WillowTree to build and refine our own custom app. As more features are added, our ratings improve more.

How did WillowTree perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team was willing to adapt to our workflows and build their own structure around them. We work in scrum agile developments to allow for a collaborative production process and smooth release of the new features in the app. All of their project managers have been incredibly accommodating in that way.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re innovative and always looking for new industry concepts to improve our business. The team gives us a forward look at the mobile marketplace. They always update us on the latest news from Apple and Google to help us optimize our app. Also, the staff approaches their work with passion, which is one of their strongest attributes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. They’re a great partner, one we truly appreciate.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You’ll get a great ROI out of using them for your consumer-facing projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of strategic projects for a health and wellness platform. We focus on improving health through smart incentives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WillowTree?

We knew what issue we wanted to address with these apps, but we were having trouble creating engaging and user-friendly designs. My company hired WillowTree to provide inspiration and design four new app concepts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WillowTree designed and delivered conceptual prototypes for four separate iOS app projects. The team utilized Sketch, InVision, and other design tools. They handed the prototypes off to our in-house design team.

What is the team composition?

For each project, we usually worked with two designers and occasionally researchers and testers. Throughout the four projects, we worked with around ten WillowTree team members.

How did you come to work with WillowTree?

WillowTree showed us their past design work and demonstrated their approach. The process that they followed in executing projects correlated well to our business needs. Their design work spoke for itself.  

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together lasted from April 2018–February 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any results or metrics yet because we’re still in the development phase, but all four prototypes that WillowTree designed will launch. They delivered the user-friendly design that we wanted. Every executive in the company was pleased with WillowTree’s top-notch work.  

How did WillowTree perform from a project management standpoint?

They were flexible and fluid. The team quickly adapted processes and amended deadlines to accommodate our needs. For instance, we initially had weekly meetings, but they were willing to meet daily for some projects and twice a week for others based on what we wanted. We used Teamwork for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What set WillowTree apart was their dedication to our vision. I have found that other design consultants become impatient and eager to hand over the design after 3–4 iterations; WillowTree emphasized from the beginning of our partnership that they wouldn’t stop until we were 100% satisfied. Their team was incredibly receptive of the pitches and ideas that our internal designers sent them throughout the project. Our partnership was collaborative, transparent, and honest, which is not something you usually get.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish I could offer something here, but any bumps we experienced were always worked out.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Locus Health, a healthcare software company. Our products remotely monitor and track patients’ health status post-discharge.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WillowTree?

We first engaged WillowTree to develop an iOS application for iPad. More recently, our team hired them to convert our web-based clinical dashboard into a mobile iOS application for phone, iPad, and the web.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The dashboard project began with a discovery phase, which included our clinicians, nurses, and various decisionmakers. We then moved into the design stage, putting particular emphasis on the UI’s capacity to display vital signs, measurements, and trended data into a much smaller form factor. Next, WillowTree developed the app in a series of eight agile sprints. They prototyped and tested the solution before releasing the final version.  

What is the team composition?

The team comprised five full-time resources. They also brought in design and UI experts for certain development and design phases.

How did you come to work with WillowTree?

I engaged WillowTree to build a website for my previous employer have used the team ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2018 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Users love the app because the solution is intuitive and fits their needs. The beta test was especially successful because it proved the app’s efficacy in real decision-making situations.

How did WillowTree perform from a project management standpoint?

WillowTree’s ability to scale benefitted the project because we needed their collaboration and expertise to execute the project. Despite some scheduling challenges, the team kept the engagement on schedule. We enjoyed the cooperative nature of the sprint process. WillowTree demonstrated the prototype and readily processed our feedback while also providing input from a UI and process perspective. We met in person on a biweekly basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the software stands out. The UI is clean and modern.

Are there any areas they could improve?

During the early stages, we spent a significant amount of time helping WillowTree understand how clinical decision-making works. Having that knowledge would benefit the team with future healthcare clients.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should not cut corners during the discovery and design process. Our investment in those stages paid off with a great design and functional solution.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior manager for innovations and analytics for a large American brewing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WillowTree?

We engaged WillowTree to build a responsive web application to replace an existing system. The app allows our company, competing brewers, wholesalers, and retailers to plan shelf sets in a collaborative digital space. The previous tool was built on the incorrect platform and suffered from poor performance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The web application allows retailers to choose a brewer. The brewer builds a plan for a shelf set and then uploads it to the platform, where other brewers, wholesalers, and retailers can review it and provide comments. The retailer can then use that diagram for their scheduled reset.

WillowTree provided full design and development service. They were given a blank slate to design the frontend. We then agreed on the design and made a unified list of requirements in our kick-off meeting; we ensured that their proposed solutions matched our architecture boards and procedures. Once they received the go-ahead, their team then built the tool from top to bottom—from the frontend to the server to the database structure.

What is the team composition?

We adjusted the size of the team to comprise 10–12 people. We work with a project manager, frontend specialists, backend specialist, and UX people.

How did you come to work with WillowTree?

We put together a request for proposal complete with our vision and budget requirements. Our architecture team then reached out to six vendors; WillowTree was one of them. Their team and portfolio demonstrated a great deal of expertise, so we chose them to complete this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent just under $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started worked together in June 2018, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

WillowTree improved the app’s overall performance. The previous app architecture limited us to making 300 accounts per project; the new tool allows us to add unlimited accounts. We can more easily collaborate with big-name clients who need thousands of accounts. Also, new product uploads take ten minutes instead of 3–5 hours. Lastly, at our most recent sales and marketing convention, the updates had an overwhelmingly positive reception. Ten wholesalers signed up for our tool on the spot.

How did WillowTree perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager is excellent. They are highly organized and transparent about progress and potential delays. We have the right number of touchpoints per week, and they always follow up and attend in-person meetings when necessary.

WillowTree uses an internal project management tool integrated with email. We’ve onboarded them into Jira for documentation and scheduling. They’ve adapted on the fly to our internal procedures and project management technologies, such as sign-on tools and API managers like MuleSoft. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

WillowTree goes above and beyond the statement of work. No requests fall through the cracks, and they focus on the big picture. As a result, they’ve become a trusted partner for future development. We’ve now assigned them our crown jewel application—an inventory and ordering tool that needs bug fixes and a performance upgrade. We look forward to starting that project with them soon.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I couldn't have asked for a better experience. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you know your future requirements. Provide them with as much information as possible, including goals, wireframes. A clear timeline will help guide how they allocate resources.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a division of 21st Century Fox. We make sure all our content is available to our viewers across multiple devices. I’m the vice president of technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WillowTree, Inc?

My team is responsible for the Fox Sports App, our flagship application for iOS and Android. We were rebuilding both native apps from scratch and needed to expand our team size to finish the iOS version.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve augmented our team since early 2017. Originally, we carved off features for them to assist with. They helped us with a native SDK that can be used across all Fox Sports applications. It allows users to sign up or create an account, choose favorite teams and leagues, and manage their user profile settings. They helped us build out our podcast feature and linked it to the app. Users can view any of our national studio shows, as well as highlights and clips.

We started working together actively during the Men’s World Cup in 2018. We started tackling large feature sets together, refined our processes, and changed a myriad of key pieces in our software development structure. They’ve helped us improve some of our software development processes, increasing our productivity. We do more code review and sprint planning postmortems thanks to their recommendations.

What is the team composition? 

We recently expanded the team size from two developers to four. We also have a full-time project manager and a full-time QA lead.

How did you come to work with WillowTree, Inc?

We were featured at a Microsoft Connect conference a few years ago. We spoke to our contacts there and asked for recommendations for consulting firms that specialize in Xamarin. They gave us three names, one of which was WillowTree. We ultimately decided on them after speaking with all three recommendations.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017 and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were the highest-rated app in the App Store and Play Store during the World Cup. We could not have done that without their contributions. We consistently have ratings above four stars and we’re very satisfied with the work they do with us. We’ve worked with a variety of developers at different stages in their careers at the company but the relationships with them have always been good. They’re collaborative and easy to work with. They’re not afraid to make suggestions for improvements and do a lot of research on their own to find better options.

How did WillowTree, Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

We have one collective board that covers all the work on the app. We set the work we do on our side, and their project manager handles everything on their side. They have all the information they need and are very responsible. They make sure everyone on their team is aware of the project status and updates items regularly. They’ve always hit deadlines and we’ve never had an issue.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Every year, they have a summit at their headquarters. That’s where we really saw what made them unique. They focus on their staff and work on some great projects with a lot of different vendors. They are innovative in a variety of tech sectors and industries and the level of knowledge sharing among their specialists is really impressive. They look for new things to introduce and move beyond their role as just a consulting agency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. They’ve done a great job and follow through on their promises. We’ve had a great experience with them. They don’t push us to add staff members or resources and they’re a good partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend WillowTree to anyone. They’re a very talented group of software engineers, especially in the mobile space.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the IT director at a data science company. We conduct clinical trials for major pharmaceuticals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WillowTree, Inc?

We wanted to develop an app that would make our workforce more productive when working out of the office.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They took over the project from a vendor we were unsatisfied with. They examined the existing product and then conducted a series of targeted interviews and surveys to determine the pain points for our clinical research associates. WillowTree presented us with a journey map to simulate what a day in the life of a user would be with the new product. They developed the app for Android and iOS, and it allows us to remotely scan and share documents and other files to our master systems.

What is the team composition?

The team consisted of 10-15 people. That includes a project manager, an architect, a backend developer, several designers, and QA testers.

How did you come to work with WillowTree, Inc?

We found them in a Google search. After having a poor experience with another vendor, I knew what to look for when I interviewed WillowTree. I asked about their previous work and their timelines to complete apps. I was also able to attend their yearly customer event, where I spoke with several of their existing clients and hear about their experiences, and that confirmed that WillowTree was the right choice.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent more than $1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2016, and we have ongoing projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app allows us to digitize what we would normally do manually, and we do not experience defects. They’ve done great work, and we are pleased with the app.

How did WillowTree, Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent communicators. They were reactive when needed, and they were proactive when they saw a way to improve our product. They met all of our deadlines, and they ensured that we were getting their best work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were collaborative and transparent throughout the project.

Any advice for potential customers?

Do your homework and try to get customer feedback for all possible vendors. If possible, give them a small project to determine their fit, and put them in situational environments to see how they respond.