Troy Web Consulting

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Founder and CEO of AfterReach® LLC. AfterReach is a B2B SaaS for funeral homes. We are providing a mobile app solution to help grieving families and to help solve pain points for funeral professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Troy Web Consulting?

We were looking to develop an MVP.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Troy Web Consulting has been a true partner from the first time I met with them. What struck me the most right from the onset was how each member of their team took personal ownership over our vision. When we decided to contract with Troy Web Consulting, it was clear that we were gaining a partner, not just a company for hire.

We had a discovery meeting and a design meeting, and they designed app screenshots that we could bring with us to our first tradeshow.

From August—January, the MVP was built through a process that included coding, business analytics, ideation, design, and quality assurance.

They built the app and they built a web portal that faces the funeral directors. The app itself is a native mobile Android and iOS product. They helped with design, building the tech, supporting the tech, setting up AWS, Google Firebase, and standing the app up. They delivered it to the App Store as well as Google Play Store. They also provided business analyst services throughout. And when our website needed to be migrated and updated, they were able to provide guidance, design, and execution of that as well.

After the project was completed, Troy Web Consulting offered their newly refurbished office space — plus food and drinks — for a 65-person launch party, free of charge.

Well after the launch, Troy Web Consulting continued their involvement in helping us become successful. Their Director of Marketing and Sales helped connect us with someone we were looking to connect with, and also introduced us to a nonprofit software community. Troy Web Consulting's President offered to help us get to present at a monthly meet up for entrepreneurs and the CEO of Troy Web and I have had numerous productive conversations about business, marketing, sales, and further iterations for my company. 

What is the team composition?

The team they put together for us consisted of a project manager, three coders, a QA specialist, a business analyst, a designer, and oversight by the CEO as well as communication with the president of the company.

How did you come to work with Troy Web Consulting?

We went through multiple interviews with different developers, and it ended up being a lead through someone who I was working with at the time that brought me to call Troy Web Consulting. From my few contacts in the area, they had a reputation of being on the pricey side, but executing projects at a caliber unparalleled in the region.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent $173,000, which included the MVP, Phase 2, and website rescue and redesign.

What is the status of this engagement?

AfterReach® began working with Troy Web Consulting in July 2019, and the relationship between our companies is in good standing and ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Troy Web Consulting takes pride in what they do. Every member of their team takes pride in executing an excellent product. Our clients have remarked on the ease of the functionality, the professional look and feel, and the uncomplicated design. We were proud to share the MVP with our early adopters.

I got phone calls from the President and phone calls from John (CEO), who has given me unsolicited, yet extremely beneficial wisdom because he also has experience as a startup entrepreneur in the tech space. The quality of work is very good, and we have had really good feedback from our clients about it. There were some things that their quality control missed at the onset, but they owned it, apologized for it, and fixed it at no cost. John expressed frustration over that, and he was surprised.

When we launched spirits were high and we had early adopters. Them we received feedback from the early adopters about buttons not doing what we expected it to do, the touchpoints weren’t big enough, some of the navigation in the app was awkward and didn’t make sense, and there was other stuff that didn’t work. However, they fixed everything and we’re happy with the result.

How did Troy Web Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was very good. They had an email that was dedicated and went to everyone who was on my project. They have very transparent communication at that company. There are no silos and no side conversations. Everyone who is involved is involved in every conversation, and at the very least they can see every conversation.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The best part of working with them was how much it felt to me that they really owned the project. I felt like they were people on my team which was remarkable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I do have a criticism, and it was quite a sticking point for a long time with my company investors and members. The original quote that they gave was well below what it ended up costing for the MVP. That said, the reasons were explained to me, and Troy Web did all they could to do right by us, including discounting further work, putting in many uncharged hours, and meeting personally with my investors. 

There was a lot of stress in our company over this. We even considered going with another company for a while, but after Troy Web went above and beyond to help smooth things over, there was a unanimous decision to stay with them; and we are glad that we did.

They not only came through on what they promised, but they went above and beyond, helping tremendously with financing issues and doing work for us even when knowing they weren't going to get paid right away.

Bottom line: they worked with us in a way any company would dream to have another company work with them. As immense as the stress was over the significant jump in price, this ended up as a bump in the road that we were able to get over.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Troy Web Consulting might charge more for what you are looking to do than some other competitors, but understand that you are getting high caliber tech and a high caliber partner when you contract Troy Web Consulting. Take time in the discovery process to make sure you nail-down the price as much as possible. But if you have the funds, you will be grateful that you contracted them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the co-founder and co-president of Advantedge Education, Inc. We specialize in online continuing education for primarily for healthcare professionals. Most of our users are individuals who are seeking licensure in New York state.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Troy Web Consulting?

As a brand-new small business, we needed a marketing website. We also needed a platform for students to access their online learning content. They needed to be able to enroll on their own, receive their grade, complete an evaluation form, and then have access to a certificate of completion. Security was also a concern since our daily data transfer contains very sensitive and personal student information.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Troy Web built our marketing website using a language called ColdFusion. I did the wireframe for the website, but the design was definitely a combined effort. There was quite a bit of back and forth in working with the developers at Troy Web.

They integrated our site using the SCORM Cloud API, which we use to host our courses and track learners’ activity. Once a student passes a course, this triggers a call from SCORM Cloud and a series of tasks. The site prompts the student to complete an electronic evaluation which is required to access their certificate of completion.

Troy Web also built out our student database and a secure daily transfer to The New York State Education Department. They helped us integrate with Braintree software for our credit card processing.

Troy Web also built a basic content management system that allows us to edit the content and add graphics on our site. However, we need to reach out to Troy Web if want to add new pages.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with Jon [CEO, Troy Web Consulting], Mark [Senior Consultant, Troy Web Consulting], and two main developers.

How did you come to work with Troy Web Consulting?

We interviewed a number of companies that I found through Google searches. I also got recommendations from my network in the e-learning industry and from friends. Security was very important to us, and it was obvious that Troy Web agreed. We decided to go with them because we felt they could deliver on security.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $30,000–$40,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working January 2013 and launched in May 2014. They're still helping us manage the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In my former job, we would experience a major server crash of our online course host every year, without fail. The worst crash was so bad it corrupted student data, which was an absolute nightmare. In contrast, our site has been incredibly stable. I can honestly say that with Troy Web and using ColdFusion, we have not had any major server incidents in the past 3 ½ years that we have been live. It has been a very reliable system.

How did Troy Web perform from a project management standpoint?

They are definitely good communicators. We use Assembla for tickets if there is an error or if something that happens that we are unable to resolve on our own. There's definitely ongoing communication, both with the developers and the leadership team. We don't feel like we’ve been abandoned once the site went live. Jon and Mark would reach out from time to time to see how things are going.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I can ask for a list of improvements and when it's returned, I trust that they are completed. That means I don't need to waste my time with excessive testing or going back and forth, which is refreshing. When we get a bug, it's usually fixed within the hour. We are just a team of two, so knowing that our system is reliable and can operate on its own during weekends is a huge relief. They are always incredibly professional, transparent, and detailed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Last year, a 15-year-old from the Philippines who calls himself an ethical hacker let us know that we had a security flaw on our site. He found that someone can enter code [SQL injection] in the data field where we ask for email addresses. On our side, we are not advanced enough to test to make sure that doesn't happen. He was also able to uncover our hosting information. Someone who is an advanced hacker would be able to do a lot with that information.

We brought it up to Troy Web, and they were upset that it had been missed in their testing. My main recommendation for them would be to have better checks and balances during the testing phase prior to the site launch date to prevent something like that from happening again. We were very lucky that nothing happened prior to this discovery by the ethical hacker. And, of course, this issue was resolved immediately by Troy Web and to our satisfaction.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of Applications for an insurance company based in New York State.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Troy Web Consulting?

Our web portals are used by our members, providers and benefit administrators to take advantage of their benefits. We needed to translate these portals from ASP to .NET because ASP is no longer a supported technology for Microsoft. We don't have a large staff on our web team and this is a pretty big project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have about 10 different member portals in particular, and all of those have multiple pages inside them, close to the tune of 100 pages. We needed an organization that could scale up and do those conversions from ASP to .NET in addition to performing the testing for us. The members' side of the project is complete but there are about four additional portals that are following on.

Troy Web Consulting enabled mobile responsive designs for our site so that when viewed on different sized devices, the site actually appears in a friendly manner on the different screen size. We also had them implement WCAG 2.0, which is an accessibility standard. This allowed our sites to be used by people that are visually impaired. The work on this was in parallel to our other project and was done on a much shorter timeline.

What is the team dynamic?

The size of the team varied. We probably had about three to four people when they were figuring out how to approach things, but it can get up to about 10 or 12. 

How did you come to work with Troy Web Consulting?

It was word of mouth, I knew that they existed. We bid this job out to three different organizations. Troy Web Consulting essentially took our raw source code and did an estimate to determine how much work it was and won the bid.

How much have you invested with them?

Probably close to the tune of about $1.3 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in May 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of the number of users, our membership is close to 22 million lives. That's both the subscribers to our health care and their dependents for our vision care.

Their work was primarily translation, but there have been some real improvements. The provider search is one area. This search is used when a member is looking for a doctor or a store that can provide services to them, and this function was improved. People are also excited about the ability to view the portals in a friendly way on their tablets or phones.

How did Troy Web Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good, they were receptive to feedback. They accommodated to changes in scope that crept in there, as often happens with projects like this. At the end of the day, they delivered on the timeline we sought. I will say that our plans were somewhat convoluted, there are a lot of different test cases. It took a while to get from where they thought they were done, to actually closing out defects that had been identified in the testing process. That was a lengthy period.  

We had a weekly status call for all of the stakeholders to participate in. Also, our internal developer was in daily communication with some of the team members that Troy Web had in their office. We do have the benefit of being only about seven or eight miles apart, so we did get together several times over the course of the project to do face to face sessions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say the senior leadership at Troy Web was particularly great. They took a keen interest in the success of the relationship between our organizations. If I ever had to escalate, which was very rare, they were responsive and communicative.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are some lessons learned on both sides that we can leverage to improve the process. A better understanding, on their part, of the complexity of what's available to certain members or groups and how that impacts the behavior of the web portals would have been good. That way, they could have done a more thorough unit testing job prior to giving us the code.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own a consulting firm serving, primarily, two clients. I act as coordinator for a number of projects with one client and also represent them in dealing with a number of developers. The client is a state-based organization that assists states in developing software for the regulation of the oil and gas industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Troy Web Consulting?

Our client is a state-based organization that assists other states in developing software for the regulation of the oil and gas industry. There are roughly 25 states that use a product called the RBDMS [Risk Based Data Management System], and Troy Web is one of a handful of consultants that work with our client and are familiar with the system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The RBDMS tracks and assists states in regulating the oil and gas industry. It's our primary product suite, along with a number of additional tools that states can use under this umbrella. Troy Web has installed the base application and made some enhancements to it for one state in particular. They've also worked on a number of enhancement tools including one called "Well Finder", which is a public access system to see the wells that are in their particular area. They've also worked on a field inspection utility tool, as well as a well bore diagramming tool. It ties back to the best set for a particular state.

Troy Web is already working with a number of other states, but not exactly with the base product — the base product is actually evolving. There's a desktop-based app, which is the older primary product; then, there’s a web-based application which consists of the well bore tool, and the Well Finder app is a mobile application for iOS and Android. Troy Web developed of all of these.

The Well Finder app has been under development for roughly 4 years due to changing state requirements. Its first formal release went out in September 2016.

How did you come to work with Troy Web Consulting?

Prior to having the consultancy, the company I used to work for utilized Troy Web because they were very familiar with some specialized web tools used by the state of New York. After I retired, I recommended them to my client for handling additional issues that had come up.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2012 until September 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The public scrutiny on oil and gas has increased significantly in the past 10 years. The ability for states to have a transparent way of showing where wells are located and providing information on them has helped dramatically with public perception.

How did Troy Web Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They've gotten much better compared to when I worked with them before. They have several full-time project managers now that tightly control all projects and do very well, overall. Our communication is through phone, Skype, email, and also face to face. The Well Finder project is roughly a 4–5 person team.

What did you find most impressive about Troy Web Consulting?

They are very cooperative. They go above and beyond and point out any potential pitfalls from a project management and software standpoint. If you say otherwise, they’ll do it your way, but they recommend what they believe is the best process.

Are there any areas Troy Web Consulting could improve?

Their previous work was sometimes disjointed, but they've hired several project managers and have taken care of that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of David Hobbs Consulting. We strategize large-scale digital transformations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Troy Web Consulting?

We needed help building a powerful, complex SaaS product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Troy Web Consulting has provided us with strategy on app design, Laravel expertise, systems architecture, detailed knowledge of AWS and server management, and complex coding needs. The team has given us critical architectural and strategic advice, written critical code, and configured our servers and infrastructure. For example, Troy Web Consulting has implemented Zep integration, AWS configuration, CI pipelines, server upgrades, and major infrastructure deployments.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from Troy Web Consulting.

How did you come to work with Troy Web Consulting?

We met them while doing project work. We chose them because of their expertise and the ease of working together.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve moved from a concept through design and implementation.

How did Troy Web Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Troy Web Consulting delivers on time. We communicate via virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Troy Web Consulting is very knowledgeable and fantastic to work with. They provide great architectural advice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Troy Web Consulting to improve.