Teravision Technologies

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

APM Music is the world's leading creative music house and production music library and has been a crucial part of that experience for over 35 years. We offer every imaginable music genre from current indie band sounds and bombastic trailer cues to timeless classical music recordings for everything from the smallest of indie films to the largest blockbuster studio releases; television sit-coms to commercials and sports broadcasting; video games to mobile handheld games; and, even musical greeting cards to online user-generated content. I am a Senior Project Manager and the lead PM on the APM Music Website Redesign project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The APM Music Website was created years ago and has long needed an architectural overhaul (both frontend/backend) as well as UI/UX experience update. Teravision was contracted and brought on board to help assist in the development, QA, and release of the APM Music Website Redesign project. Our goals for bringing Teravision on board were to help reduce the load on individual team members and create more resource options to increase productivity and overall timeline/scope of the project. Teravision was contracted to work on specific website areas identified by APM to assist in the overall APM Music Website Redesign project.

SOLUTION

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

A current APM employee has worked with Teravision in the past at another company for a project they were working on at the time. Teravision came highly recommended by this APM employee so the company moved forward in engagement.

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

We had initial kick-off meetings to discuss the overall website redesign project as well as scope out the teams and members from Teravision. Other smaller kick-off meetings were then had to discuss the specifics regarding the identified site areas that the Teravision team would be handling. Teravision was engaged to form 2 podded teams that included backend/frontend engineers, QA, scrum masters, product owners, and DevOps.

Teravision runs a daily scrum of scrums to update stakeholders regarding the podded teams status as well as a weekly technology meeting to ensure all major tech issues and/or concerns are discussed and addressed. We also engaged Teravision to embed a scrum master and QA in to an internal APM podded team to allow the previous project manager room to pull back and focus on the overall APM Music Website Redesign project from a program perspective.

After all initial kick-off meetings were had and priorities set, Teravision was able to be pretty self-sufficient in terms of the tech stack, moving forward on the development and QA progress, and managing the podded teams. Below are details regarding the identified site areas and the key deliverables that APM is expecting from Teravision:

• POD 1 (Internal APM POD w/ Embedded SM & QA): Search - SERP - Download - Audio Player - Metadata Modal
• POD 2 (Teravision POD): Users API (backend by APM) - Registration (frontend by Teravision) - Login (frontend by Teravision) - My Account (frontend by Teravision) - History (frontend by Teravision)
• POD 3 (Teravision POD): Projects API (backend by Teravision) - Projects (frontend by Teravision) - Favorites API (backend by Teravision) - Favorites (frontend by Teravision) - Sharing API (backend by Teravision) - Sharing (frontend by Teravision) - Notifications API (backend by Teravision) - Notifications (frontend by Teravision)

Technologies being used: AWS - React - Azure Pipelines

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

We are still in the middle of our project effort and it is a little hard to determine the exact numbers due to bench team members, etc., however, the set team members we are tracking is at 13. The positions range from QA member, QA lead, Scrum Master, Project Manager, Product Owner, Backend Engineers, Frontend Engineers, and a Tech Lead.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As mentioned above we are still in the middle of our project so feedback thus far is limited. So far throughout the project working with Teravision has been extremely helpful and incredibly smooth. The Teravision team is extremely keen on the details making sure to cover all aspects of the project they are assigned to. The team also does an amazing job reaching out if they have any questions and will work extremely hard to make sure they are providing you quality results.

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

We communicate in daily scrum of scrums stand ups with all podded teams to provide updates and status to stakeholders. We also meet weekly for a technical session to uncover, discuss, and/or address issues or concerns regarding more technical items that are not covered in the daily scrum of scrums. We use Slack, Jira, Github, and Zoom for all of our communications back and forth. Teravision is very attentive and quick to respond in any form you are reaching out to them in. They also do a great job in adapting to your companies project management standards/practices as well as conforming to your SDLC plan.

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

They are very quick in adapting to whatever role you need them to fill. When coming onboard for our redesign project they were able to review our current site, user stories, requirements, etc., quickly allowing us to begin digging in to the project much sooner than initially thought. I think even more impressive than that however is the fact that Teravision adapted to every bit of our Jira PM standards making the transition/handoff that much smoother.

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

As mentioned above, we are still in the middle of the redesign project and I don't have any areas for improvement to suggest at this time. This could potentially change as the project evolves and we get deeper in to the big portions of the redesign.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the technical lead for MoCaFi, a fintech company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Teravision Technologies?

We needed extra hands to build a new version of our app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We designed the app in Zeplin and they took it from there. Following our requirements, they produced a native iOS and Android app.

What is the team composition?

They provided a project manager and front- and backend developers.

How did you come to work with Teravision Technologies?

My company worked with them in the past, so we rehired them to work on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020 and the project wrapped up in November 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to publish the app on the App Store and Google Play. It works pretty well and we’ve been satisfied with the solution they created. We’ve worked through a few bugs, but they were never a major issue.

How did Teravision Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We met with them daily on Zoom and they published meeting notes on Confluence. They were very hands-on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by their attention to detail. Their approach was very thorough. It wasn’t just another project for them — they actually listened to our needs and dug into our requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes it was difficult to make changes. They weren’t agile enough to make adjustments quickly. Eventually, they were able to implement what we wanted, but we had to go through several discussions before we could get there and that slowed down the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a specific project in mind and explain it in a transferable way. If the requirements aren’t narrowed down, it will be difficult for them to deliver what you want. Otherwise, they will, without a doubt, be able to accomplish what you need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for UNICEF USA and I’m the managing director of UNICEF Kid Power.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Teravision Technologies?

In the very beginning, I was trying to develop a mobile app, and the company I had originally contracted went out of business. I ended up having to source a new development team that understood Bluetooth technology and mobile engineering.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Teravision Technologies developed a plan to create the product, and they created the app for iOS and Android. They also worked on Bluetooth software.

What is the team composition?

Overall, we’ve generally worked with 1–4 engineers plus a QA teammate and a project manager. 

How did you come to work with Teravision Technologies?

I was desperate and reached out to my network. I knew that I wanted to work with a South American firm because their tech space is really strong, they’re in our timezone, and they have a similar worldview compared to companies in Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia. 

I wanted a development team that could do hardware and software engineering and mobile development. I got 3–4 references that said Teravision Technologies was the best.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them two years ago, in September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We couldn’t have launched our mobile app without them. For my Kid Power team, we wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for them. 

How did Teravision Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Teravision Technologies very quickly understood our problem, our goal, and how to get us there. What’s great about them is that we pay for engineers but we also get high-level support staff. The team was able to use our project management tool, Pivotal Tracker.

We work in an agile methodology, and they’ve been able to do that. We had one hard launch date with them, and we missed it only because of circumstances outside of our control. Teravision Technologies went above and beyond to make sure that we didn’t pay for the extra time. They were so professional about the whole thing.

The project manager they gave us at first wasn’t the right fit. She wasn’t experienced enough to be working at the speed we needed, which happens. What I loved about them is that they immediately swapped that person out for a more senior project manager at no extra cost. The project is more important to them than money or time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have staff in Venezuela and Colombia, and right when we started working with them, Venezuela was going through a hard time. I told Teravision Technologies that I wanted to make sure that the people who were working with me were safe.

The team told me that the way they paid their employees ensured that they were properly compensated, even though they didn’t have to. Especially working at UNICEF, it made me happy to see how much they cared about their workers and how much they wanted to invest in them.

Another thing I love about working with them is that they have a very diverse team, in terms of both gender and ethnicity. We have a broad group of people working for us, which adds to the product and to what we’re doing. For example, our QA lead is Afro-Latina and we have an all-women leadership team, which I’ve never seen before.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have risen to every challenge and their team has gotten more competent and sophisticated since we started working together. They continue to step up their game.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a technology startup focused on the nightlife industry. Our product is a mobile app that's currently live in the Dallas market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Teravision Technologies?

We had a lack of development resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Teravision to fill in that gap for us and provide mobile development expertise for us. We provided mockups and the user story. The work that they had done was around React Native development for our iOS mobile app. They provided frontend-and backend work for us in regards to that. The whole engagement lasted 6–8 weeks.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two developers, a technical lead, a project manager, a scrum master, and two QA resources. We had two main points of contact.

How did you come to work with Teravision Technologies?

One of their sales representatives reached out to us via email or LinkedIn. We had a consultation with their account executive, and we decided to work together following that.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $17,000, in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together May 2020, and our work wrapped up in July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were a great, communicative team to work with. The team is great to work with. Their completion rate for each sprint was very high, which kept us very satisfied. We went from being stagnant to having the next version of our app ready for release. They allowed us to move quickly, which was great.

How did Teravision Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We work using Jira, where they were able to see requirements and work on the project in two-month sprints. We had standups every day and they’re very thorough. We use Slack for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very tightly knit and organized. They have a process for how they do things, which makes it very easy for us. There’s very little worrying on our end because of how structured everything is.

Are there any areas they could improve?

A potential improvement could be between developers and QA specialists. They were pretty good, but there were some instances where better communication between those teams would’ve solved minor problems.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that you have detailed mockups ahead of time to make things easier. That’s all this team needs to get the ball rolling and drive forward.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a digital marketing company that focuses on Facebook marketing using third-party data providers. I’m the director of product development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Teravision Technologies?

They augmented our team to handle engineering products and tasks.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They augmented our staff on the engineering side and also offer us QA and project management resources to be able to ensure quality in our work together. We’re primarily working with PHP and JavaScript.

What is the team composition?

There are about 8–10 people on their team working with us. I have a project manager with them as well. 

How did you come to work with Teravision Technologies?

They reached out to us while we were looking for a partner, so we entertained the call. Their willingness to go off contact based on the value they found in our business encouraged us to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2020, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At this point, we’ve done several microprojects with them. They’ve significantly outperformed other development partners we’ve had in the past, taking only two weeks to handle a task that took another group a very long time. 

How did Teravision Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve assimilated to the way they work because they have such an organized process. They’ve developed a strong system for creating compelling products that can be launched and executed according to a timeline. We communicate using Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility and willingness to accommodate our schedule is appreciated. It seems like they genuinely enjoy working on the projects we have together. We’re paying for a 40-hour workweek, but I often see them working nights and weekends.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we scoped the microprojects, it took some time for us to move away from a larger project format. It would’ve saved some time in that stage to start with microprojects before working our way up in scale.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Lay out several micro-projects, so the team can become more confident and comfortable with your team and dynamic.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior vice president of technology at Ambi.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Teravision Technologies?

We needed additional engineering capacity in a very quick timeframe.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Teravision Technologies provides web and mobile app development services using Node.js, React, and React Native. They also handle some QA services and provide a scrum master for the remote team.

What is the team composition?

Yenni (Project Manager) is our main point of contact. For business matters we work with Ricardo (CEO). As for the rest of the team, there are four full-stack developers, one QA person, and one bench QA individual.

We also work with Francisco (Technical Lead). He handles developmental and performance issues. He’s my direct point of contact for ensuring that code reviews get done and the team is performing up to our standards.

How did you come to work with Teravision Technologies?

I found them through Google. I was looking for a nearshore development team located in Latin America. We needed a company that worked in our time zone and wouldn’t present any language barrier issues.

After finding Teravision Technologies, I reached out and we had a series of discussions so I could gauge their company culture, expertise ability, and previous work. I needed to know if they’d be a good fit for us. That discussion led to negotiation, and then the final contract.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in December 2019 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Teravision Technologies understands the true meaning of partnership. They take a vested interest in what they’re doing and genuinely care about our team, project, and objectives. It’s clear they’re working with us to figure out how we can achieve our goals.

We’ve been very satisfied with them, and they’ve been a great partner to work with. Initially, there was a bit of a rocky start in that we had to onboard their developers and set up their environment. We’re a small organization so we don’t have a lot of bandwidth to devote that kind of effort.

I made it clear to them that we’d be able to help them generally and specifically as things came up. It took about one week to get the team in position to start contributing, which is reasonable but it was longer than if I had hired someone off the street.

After a bit of back-and-forth, the team was up and running so we got our act together on managing the remote team, which Yenni helped us. She was instrumental in providing that touchpoint. We got the team into a nice rhythm. Over the next sixth months, we added resources to that feed.

Our team has given them various marching orders and each time they’ve responded very professionally and accommodated our needs very well. We’re looking to expand that team going forward as well as looking to hire additional resources here in the states. However, our elasticity will come from Teravision Technologies.

How did Teravision Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Internally, we use Jira for tracking and sprint planning. They track the team velocity burn up and burn down charges and then share them iteratively. We hold executive calls with our CEO and COO and their CEO and COO. Metrics show that their scheme is good. We use Slack, Google Drive, and Microsoft Excel as touchpoints and project management tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They try to come fully equipped so our scrum master doesn’t have to do a whole lot. There’s someone who takes care of that on their side. We have standups in the morning and our scrum master works with our internal team to do the review. Then, they seamlessly hand it off to Yenni who does the same thing with the Teravision Technologies team.

There’s no friction in our collaboration. They’ve come with a local team lead and bench we can pull from if an individual is sick or goes on vacation. Having the ability to quickly receive additional capacity has been very useful for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I can think of. They’re not perfect but there’s nothing that stands out for something they could do better. They deliver on deadlines, quality, and cost. I don’t have any constructive criticism or feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a good understanding of your road map. Teravision Technologies doesn’t know your business or product, but they will get to know if overtime. It takes time for them to fully understand the scope they’re working in and the way your business runs. Be sure to plan and account for that. Don’t think you can hit the ground running unless it’s a small, self-contained scope of work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

LTCI Partners is a national brokerage firm specializing in Long-Term Care (LTC) Insurance solutions and I am the Lead Application Engineer for the firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Teravision Technologies?

They’ve provided development and support services on a web-based application to take-in information for insurance applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope and intent of the project were to develop an online portal application to facilitate the capture and submissions of insurance applications.  The project included verifying requirement specs, scoping out the project, and developing the application.

Now, they provide maintenance and support of the application as we develop new releases or enhancements to the application. 

Technologies used include Java, Oracle, and AWS.

What is the team composition?

We have a main point of contact, as well as a six-person team including developers, a project manager, a lead developer, and QA support.

How did you come to work with Teravision Technologies?

They came on before I started, but, as I understand it, we looked at a couple of teams. Teravision provided good service, and the price was right. They also came recommended by an associate.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $250,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since Q1 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From my experience, it’s been a very good collaboration given they’re being located overseas. They’re proactive in pointing out things we may not see. Communication is good and turnaround is good. We’ve developed a really good partnership.

How did Teravision Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a Kanban and use a scrum board to go through the development process. They’ve met our needs. With any project there are always things that go bump in the night, but we’re able to overcome and meet deadlines when that happens.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very supportive in trying to work with us as we move through our process and enhance our program. They’re very responsive in terms of how we approach problems and how we deal with our work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always something to improve on. One thing is that nuanced communication could be a bit better. Still, they’re pretty good.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear on your specs. Make sure they’re clearly laid out and understood, like with any software product. There should be an ability to set metrics and know if they’re being met or not.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Studio Analogous, a mission-driven organization that takes an inclusive design approach to branding and digital experience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Teravision Technologies?

I hire them to serve our clients. They act as our tech partners, whether it's building a website or developing an app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They just completed the website for the national museum of an East African nation. We provided them with a wireframe, and they did all the technical implementations. The site was a very extensive database with 3D images and lots of interactivity. 

People are able to go through the collection, and our storytelling on the site allows people to see the archeological and anthropological context. Teravision Technologies synthesized information from many different pipelines seamlessly for the user.

How did you come to work with Teravision Technologies?

They’re very knowledgeable, professional, and communicative, and they always deliver the work on time. That, plus they’re in my time zone, is why I keep working with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve been working with them since 2010, and I still work with them today.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In general anecdotal feedback, 95% of our clients come back for more projects. Usually, they’re coming back, in part, because of the tech work that Teravision Technologies provides.

How did Teravision Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great and incredibly buttoned-up. They document everything thoroughly and follow up on all issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re consistent and always delightful to work with. They have a solid team that always meets their deadlines and delivers an excellent product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could turn around proposals faster.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Baby Page, which is a web platform and mobile app designed for parents to track their children’s milestones. The consumer-facing platform is available for free, and we also offer a subscription for the full premium version.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Teravision Technologies?

We hired them for the web and mobile app development for our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we’re taking on a new project with them, we start out by putting together wireframes. Sometimes we provide them, but other times we either work together or they offer us directly with them. It just depends on the scope of work at hand. They’re employing PHP and Laravel to create the website infrastructure. For the app, they use React and Redux to build it.

The completed app is essentially a digital baby book. The solution prompts users with questions given the data that we have on the parent and child. It automatically generates content that the parent can edit. The platform involves quite a bit of photo and text manipulation, so it’s pretty complex. They’re working for us on an ongoing basis, helping us with all aspects of tech development. 

What is the team composition?

There’s a project manager that oversees the work of the developers there. 

How did you come to work with Teravision Technologies?

They were highly recommended by a trusted colleague who is CTO of another startup. We vetted them thoroughly, speaking with a number of their past clients. They seemed like the best team for the job, so we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we’ve spent about $360,000–$400,000. They have the ability to ramp up or down depending on our needs. We spent at least $10,000 each month with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in late 2016, and our partnership with them is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

 Overall, we’ve been pleased with their ability to build and rebuild our app to offer the design and features we need. They work very effectively, meeting deadlines well. Even if they miss a deadline, they’re sure to go over what caused the delay in detail. We keep a consistent high comfort level with them, knowing that work is proceeding according to plan. I can trust them to do great work and deliver on time.

How did Teravision Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project manager is excellent, providing detailed reporting and tracking in our daily meetings. We communicate using Slack and an assortment of other project management tools to keep us all on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re wonderful to work with and have been a great culture fit for us. The team is full of high-integrity folks with great work ethics. That’s very important to us. We wouldn’t continue a partnership with someone for this long without a high level of trust and respect for them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. We’ve had little problems come up, but they’re always minor and resolved quickly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have a product that helps patients prepare for and recover from medical procedures. It includes a task checklist that helps patients comply with doctors' orders, and it provides a task function that allows patients to chat directly with our team of nurses. I'm the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Teravision Technologies?

We needed their help to create the MVP version of the software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They digested all the product requirements we compiled, and they ultimately produced a fully-functioning product that we could use with patients in India. The patient-facing part of the product is a mobile application for Android. They also helped us build the web-based admin system on the backend.

The application has task lists for patients, questionnaires about the healing process, and the chat feature I mentioned. We provided some raw wireframes and documentation, and they helped us fill all the gaps. They helped with additional documentation and design, and they produced everything we needed for the finished product.

We used Kotlin for our primary programming language. It was a Spring-based application with some JavaScript on the backend, and we used AWS for hosting. They accounted for all the compliance and security standards we required.

What is the team composition?

We had a project manager and a team of developers, architects, DevOps engineers, designers, and QA specialists.

How did you come to work with Teravision Technologies?

They had some experience in healthcare and the technologies we were interested in using. They were nearshore, and they worked in a similar time zone. We liked their agile methodology, and they impressed us with their understanding of our requirements. They developed a very strong proposal, and we decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested close to $200,000 for their part of the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around September 2018. We phased out the collaboration gradually, and the last bit of work with them was completed around April 2019. At this point, we've moved on to other projects, but we still use a lot of the code they provided.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped us meet an aggressive timeline. We had to pare down some of the features, but they delivered the MVP on time.

How did Teravision Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We used a tool called Scrumwise, but we eventually migrated everything over to Asana. They stayed on schedule and were committed. They did everything they said they would, and they consistently met their timelines. The quality of the deliverable met our standards.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Nothing in particular comes to mind, beyond the positive things I've already mentioned.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The transition from their project management to our internal team was a bit rocky. That's not entirely their fault, but that transfer was a little challenging.