Treefrog Consulting LTD

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the founding partners and chief risk officer of Tangency Capital Ltd., an investment management company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Treefrog Consulting LTD?

We needed a portfolio management and deal evaluation tool that wasn’t spreadsheet based. We wanted something more solid that could handle large data amounts, and the tools in the market weren’t customizable to our needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Treefrog Consulting LTD has provided software development services to meet our customized needs. They had a workable platform, but they’ve developed additional features over the last three years to extend what we can do with the software. The abilities have been extended, like auditable versioning trails and architectural structure. Also, they’ve developed the depth of what it can do in the broadness of what we can apply it to.

They’ve programmed it from scratch. The software allows interaction with other software, and the product has reporting capabilities, although it doesn’t do graphical reporting. In general, we can download the data sets we want to further process for reporting and visual reports. Also, the software allows to use it as a toolbox to do additional data caption that users can specify by themselves. We’ve selected more than 100 additional fields or tables we’re capturing, which we can use for further calculations within the software or any type of reporting we do. 

What is the team composition?

The owner is our main contact, and we’re starting to interact more with the programmers.

How did you come to work with Treefrog Consulting LTD?

I knew the owner from my previous employer, where we worked together. I knew his capabilities in translating asks into software by doing efficient programming. We reconnected because I knew he’d started developing a platform for managing insurance contracts. We engaged very early on and were the first client.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2019, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform is our central data repository and has become our main reporting tool. It satisfies all the requests from investors regarding handling data for the fund’s management.

Moreover, they’re diligent in listening to customer requests to build out the platform. Programmers don’t often understand our business; we need somebody who sits in the middle and can translate the business needs into a functioning, efficient architecture. Treefrog Consulting LTD has that advantage, and they take requests seriously. Overall, they act with high integrity and are very responsive. They don’t take shortcuts, and we’re very pleased with their service.

How did Treefrog Consulting LTD perform from a project management standpoint?

We interact consistently with them each week to provide input for further development.  They’ve reduced the implementation steps to smaller, manageable tasks to predict better when something would be ready and available. We predominantly use Microsoft Teams and mail as the means of communication

What did you find most impressive about them?

They pay attention to our needs. They cater to providing efficient data handling software that’s built to communicate with other data platforms and is highly customizable for us. We can take the core engine and build our own system around it, which is very useful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At the moment, it’s a very technical tool. It’s geared towards people who are risk analysts and scientific thinking people. They’ll need to have a version or interface that caters to less analytically driven people.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very concrete about your needs prior to asking for an implementation

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Head of Exposure Management for a global re/insurance company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Treefrog Consulting LTD, and what were your goals?

We hired Treefrog Consulting Ltd to help us solve some integration challenges with 3rd party software services that once unlocked, would greatly enhance efficiency and reduce transaction costs.

SOLUTION

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

We came across Treefrog Consulting Ltd through a review of some comparative software providers for a different use case. A very smart and friendly group of people that we added into a panel of three chosen suppliers to review.

After due diligence was performed it was clear Treefrog were the right partner for the job providing a superb cultural and technical fit.

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

The scope of the project was to create a UI for a user to submit market format files to a third parties exposure management platforms API suite. The UI would manage the interaction, job management, error handling and status reporting back to the user.

The end result was removal of all the manual steps a user was performing to create and populate that third party system. Treefrog navigated working with us as clients and the third party vendors technical team to deliver the solution on time and within budget.

They gained a better understanding of the third parties API suite than many of that companies own technical staff which meant they could overcome challenges quickly and effectively. Weekly project status meetings from Treefrog kept us abreast of the progress and they were always on hand to join meetings on various aspects of the project.

They brought several best practise technology suggestions to the table to enable the best results which was an added bonus of the consultancy work.

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

There were two core members of the delivery team with a team of two more in support for specific purposes. Treefrog managed all of that resource while providing a key contact for daily checkins on progress.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

During the first full week of operation of the tooling our outsourcer had processed 6 weeks worth of output in 4 days with no downtime from the app. This performance has continued allowing us to do more with less.

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

The project management style was superb. Clearly Treefrog use project management software internally to manage their time and expenses.

We had weekly status meetings and at peak times daily standup meetings to address questions etc to maintain a good cadence. The budget was very well communicated at all times

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

A very intelligent, experienced group of people who were also very open, honest and friendly to work with. They quickly became an extension of our internal team which assisted in the delivery of a successful project.

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

Perhaps they could be a little less humble of the experience and skillsets they bring to the table but that's also what makes them fantastic people to work with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a global macro hedge fund with a reinsurance strategy, and I’m the managing director of the reinsurance team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Treefrog Consulting LTD?

We needed someone to build a portfolio management software product for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Treefrog Consulting developed a portfolio management software from scratch, which included creating the UI/UX designs. They built it as a licensed web-based platform tailored to our needs, leveraging technology such as C# and C++. They also integrated various APIs for user interaction and hosted it on AWS.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Treefrog Consulting’s CEO and 6–10 developers assigned specifically for this project.

How did you come to work with Treefrog Consulting LTD?

I had worked with Treefrog Consulting at a prior company, and we stayed in touch since then. I already knew what they had to offer, so I hired them directly for this project.

How much have you invested with them?

Our license fee for this product is around $100,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August–November 2020. Still, it took them three years to license the product. The official licensing happened in August, and it took Treefrog Consulting to develop the custom features. However, we can bring them if we need to add something.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software piece provided by Treefrog Consulting has made our internal workflows easier and faster, helping us improve our efficiency. This has been a one-of-a-kind solution, and its advantages are its cloud storage and slick UI. Moreover, if we had tried to build this tool in-house, it would have been more costly compared to the licensing fees we’re getting.

How did Treefrog Consulting LTD perform from a project management standpoint?

Treefrog Consulting performed as expected. They were very communicative, timely, and task-oriented, and they offered multiple check-ins throughout the project. We worked closely with them during the development phases, even pre-licensing, and they always stuck to deadlines and deliveries. We usually communicated via Zoom calls and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Treefrog Consulting’s ability to provide specialized attention to their clients is unique; they have a very small client base, so their service is very personalized. Additionally, the product they offer is very user-friendly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Everything they did was great, so I don’t have any constructive feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to overcommunicate your needs, and don’t get frustrated if they don’t get it right away. Every company has a different lingo in this market, so there would be a learning curve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The company is a property and casualty insurance company specializing in natural catastrophe perils like hurricane and flood. I am the underwriting manager overseeing the eligibility and pricing for new and renewal policies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Treefrog Consulting LTD?

We needed a tool that would quickly analyze, model, and price new business submissions with multiple coverage and deductible combinations; communicate to the underwriter and the front end user; house important policy documents.

SOLUTION

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

Not Sure

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

Once the pricing system was built, Treefrog managed all our IT needs for the program and made adjustments to the platform to meet our business needs.

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

The CTO was our main point of contact but we worked with various IT specialists as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From implementation of the pricing system until today, the speed in which they were able to deliver results to the underwriter and end user improved tenfold. The time to price a risk with the system they built went from ~10 minutes to under 30 seconds which allowed our company to expand our business partnerships who required a real-time response.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflows with Treefrog and my company were very effective and most important, timely. The communication is always clear and responsive within 24 hours or sooner.

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

The IT specialists on the team take their time to understand the end goals and provide meaningful solutions. Often multiple solutions would be presented, along with the pros and cons of each, for an informed choice to meet our business needs. Additionally, I found the vendor willing to go above their duty and guide my staff in various subjects that they needed additional training.

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

N/A