Vinsol

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for a community workspace provider. We provide the necessary infrastructure and facilities to help startups and small businesses grow and focus on their core offerings. We have 17 locations nationwide with about 170 employees. We currently house 10,000 members across all of our facilities.

What is your position?

I’m the vice president of engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Vinsol?

Vinsol was already collaborating with our company by the time I arrived. They were hired to help us build a custom billing management system and implement a new community-based content management system. We needed both of these things developed in parallel because they were going to be heavily integrated and we needed to ensure that they’d be interoperable for our staff and members. We needed the system to be able to track our inventory accurately, organize our content, and help members effectively communicate with one another.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the project?

Vinsol was primarily responsible for custom backend development, data preparation and migration, systems integration, database and hosting configuration, user interface/user experience and performance testing, and ongoing support. Our project manager handled the oversight and project guidance. They took care of all the technical development.

How did you select Vinsol as your solution partner?

After we had scoped our project out and determined what our end goals and constraints were, we sent out several RFPs [request for proposals] to vendors we’d found through online research. Vinsol made the list because some of our team members had already worked with them and felt confident in their capabilities. Vinsol delivered the most convincing proposal and their estimates were very reasonable. We decided to go with them because of that and the previously existing relationship.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms?

I’d rather not disclose that.

When was the project completed?

The project was completed in between the first and second quarter of last year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They definitely improved our overall efficiency. Our accounting department can now track accounts payable, inventory usage, and membership. We basically transformed from a paper-based system to an entirely digital system. The staff has been very impressed with the new functionalities, and our members have already given us positive feedback. I’d say that, overall, the project was a great success.

When working with Vinsol, is there you’d consider unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors?

Yes. Definitely. The quality of their talent pool is very impressive. I’ve worked with offshore developers for a decade, but I think that Vinsol has some of the strongest, most competent engineers out there. They’re very adaptive when it comes to programming, which reflects in the quality of work they deliver to us. They definitely met my standards of work ethic, quality, and responsiveness.

In retrospect, are there areas you think Vinsol could improve on as a service provider?

The only area I think they could improve on is project management. Their development is definitely their strong suit, but they don’t necessarily always manage our time and resources well. This isn’t exclusive to Vinsol. I’d say it’s a part of the offshore development approach. There is a balance to strike, and we’ve been very satisfied with the development we’ve received.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for a venture capital firm. We’ve been around for almost 50 years, and we’re currently investing out of a billion-dollar fund.

What is your position?

I’m the chief operating officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges that you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Vinsol?

We met their team through a designer we were using for some Web and other marketing initiatives. The business problem was a relatively straightforward question: How do we present information about our company to entrepreneurs simply and easily? We had to think about our presence, think about our brand, and think about what it was exactly that we needed to convey to users. We wanted to offer a more dynamic and intuitive experience to users, rather than simply operate as a repository for information.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the work delivered by Vinsol?

It was working on delivering our revamped website. There were a couple of interesting challenges. For example, we have affiliated funds in Israel, so we needed to ensure that all of the content was translatable across devices, depending on the unique IP address sourced from the user. Our second core challenge was to deploy a content management system that wouldn’t require technical savvy. We needed to make sure that the majority of our staff could change and update our content with ease, and without having to clear its format with our IT department. We were really looking to free up our technical resources for much more pressing issues, like support requests, making custom modifications to our database, and so on. They solved that by creating a custom CMS and implementing it as our backend.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this project in monetary terms?

Between both the design and development, it was probably in the order of low six figures, perhaps between $100,000 and $150,000.

When was the site relaunched?

We launched it in the summer of 2011.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There are two or three things that are always good indicators. First, we get feedback a lot from entrepreneurs claiming that it’s easy to find the information they need on our site. Second, we look at some of our competitors, and other venture firms have copied many of the approaches and layouts we have on our site. I would say those are the best indicators that certainly at the time, we had what we were hoping for, which was a relatively easy site for us to communicate our value as well as for entrepreneurs to be able to find what they needed to very quickly. We’ve been very impressed with the site. 

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

The biggest differentiating factor is their communication: They’re extremely responsive and entirely transparent. Their ability to deliver on time and within budget on a regular basis is more than commendable. Their team was able to convey each task and concept in terms that we could easily understand, digest, and then make action items for. That kind of communication is very impressive.

In retrospect, are there areas you think they could improve on as a service provider?

The approach for us was very well defined. They’re very structured in how they operate as a team, which was a huge help for us. This project was managed extremely well. My only concern would be for those companies that have projects that aren’t as well defined. If the objective isn’t conducive to an iterative approach then there might be some issues because Vinsol is very committed to their agile approach. It’s their strong suit.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for an online educational platform. We focus on curriculum around emergency medicine. We’ve only been around for about two years. During the last year, we’ve seen some growth into a variety of other medical specialties. Our programs are designed to help professionals prepare for certification and licensing assessments.

What at is your position?

I’m the chief technology strategist.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you began the relationship with Vinsol?

One of the primary considerations was that we didn’t know how quickly the product would grow, so we needed a solution that was going to be scalable. One of the challenges  that we’ve had to contend with more recently is expansion into multiple specialties. Then, the other core challenge that’s unique with our product offering is that we want to be able to have residency training programs that have a staff of between 30 and 50 physicians that are also still in leadership training. We created a program director’s dashboard that aggregated and analyzed all of the collected data. Vinsol was instrumental in designing how that would work and getting it implemented for us.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the project?

They were initially involved in all of the design, programming, testing, and implementation of our custom system, which started out as a database of exam questions. It also had a presentation of the questions with some performance analytics, right and wrong questions and breakdowns by categories. As we’ve grown, they’ve been involved as well in planning for our future releases into multiple specialties. They’ve developed native iPhone and Android apps for us, and then they’ve been involved in ongoing work with design and development for the application as it grows.

How did you select Vinsol as your solution partner in this endeavor?

I came onboard right after they’d been selected. I wasn’t directly involved in the selection process for the project. 

Could you provide a sense of the size of this project in monetary terms?

The development, design, and deployment of the user dashboard were the most expensive parts. It cost between $40,000 and $50,000.

When was the project completed?

We finished that back in September or October of 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have lots of anecdotal user feedback with program directors especially, and numerous end-users that have been very pleased with the whole product offering. A lot of that is the content because mostly what we’re selling is content with these questions. But, the ease of use with being able to access them on any device, people have been specifically very happy about that. They’re getting a lot of value out of it.

We’ve recently published and presented some scientific abstracts about the effectiveness of our question bank in terms of the pass rates from board examinations. We’ve had some pretty solid results so far. We’ve been around just for a couple of years, so we’ve had a limited sample of people that we’ve been able to get meaningful outcomes, data about their board pass rates, and so on. The preliminary data that we’ve published so far is indicative of high success when it comes to people using our tools for examination prep.  

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

One thing that’s been particularly impressive for us is that the team is excellent when it comes to thinking ahead with future implications of development and strategy decisions. They think through a lot of “what if” scenarios, and they’ve been particularly helpful with thinking about how our product might evolve in the future.

In retrospect, is there anything you think they could improve on as a service provider?

One of the things that we’ve noticed is we have to be very specific and very literal with some of the design elements. Part of the service that we’ve purchased from them is predominately the development service with some additional design work. We haven’t experienced the whole breadth of what they offer in terms on design work, but there’s definitely room for additional help. Their development services are fantastic, though. They’re extremely thorough.