WebCreek

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My Manas Foundation is a non-profit organization established to provide educational support in USA and India for underdogs by providing scholarships in US and operating schools in rural areas in India. I am the Chairman.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

WebCreek was engages to create branding for our organization based on our vision and establish an effective web presence that no only presents our vision, but run fund raising campaigns, annual scholarships, etc.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Through my prior experience. As a CIO and CDO, I have used WebCreek for years, where they have provided excellent design and development consultation and turnkey projects.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

Before going to work, they had a detailed interview sessions with key members of our team understanding our vision, objectives (short and long term), etc. After few rounds of interviews, they have start drafting branding designs with few concepts. Once a concepts are in place, WebCreek team did a great job of presenting my connecting all our comments to the their proposed solutions. The final product, which consists of the brand logo, brand colors, etc., were very effective and only two 2-3 iterations in finalizing them.

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

There were at least 8 people we directly interacted with. Not sure about the number of resources. Also, do not remember the titles. However, I know they are from different countries, worked as one team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The brand logo was right on spot, how it was represents every element of our vision. The website is easy to use and flexible to make changes. They have not rushed to conclude the project. They were open to taking all our feedback and providing guidance to make the right decisions and deliver the product. The success is both in the product meeting our needs and meeting our timelines.

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

WebCreek team and their project managers were very effective in providing the weekly reports and following up with the teams to get our questions and concerns addressed. We had hard deadlines and they were able to meet them all.

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

One is in the design side, where they have the put the right people asking us questions and understanding our needs before going to the design. Second is quality of the development and deliverables. Third is meeting deadlines by adding resources if and when needed to expedite.

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

While on-going support is good, I would establish a support plan to maintain our products.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a software development director at a memorial, funeral, and cemetery services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebCreek?

We needed a company that could supplement our internal development capabilities and help us develop a first-call mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired WebCreek to develop a first-call application using .NET, Microsoft Stack, Azure Technologies, UPService, and Azure SQL. They use Azure DevOps tools for ticket creation and Angular for the frontend. The app allows users to reach out to us to inquire about our services or set up an appointment.

WebCreek didn’t start the development from scratch — they pickled the project up from a previous vendor. We started the engagement by providing WebCreek with the requirements, after which they gave us a statement of work. We worked closely with WebCreek to execute the statement of work and develop the app.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 4–5 people from WebCreek, including an account manager, a business analyst, a senior technical lead and developer, and a QA specialist.

How did you come to work with WebCreek?

We found WebCreek through online research.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are yet to launch the product,  but we can definitely say that we're very happy with the quality of WebCreek’s work.

How did WebCreek perform from a project management standpoint?

WebCreek has performed well in terms of project management. They meet deadlines and stay on budget. We work in sprints and get together weekly for updates and bi-weekly for demos. And we work together throughout sprints. Our account manager is incredibly attentive and always willing to accommodate our needs and requests.

We typically communicate through Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re most impressed with the quality of WebCreek’s work, which is the main reason why we continue working with them. We also like that they’re located in the same time zone as us, so we don’t have to worry about a time difference.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they've done a great job so far.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an electrical engineering manager at National Oilwell Varco. My division provides downhole tools for oilwell drilling.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to create a cloud augmented software and database which would be a repository for our data collected from our downhole sensors. We didnt not have all the expertise for the project available in house. We needed a software that would be IT compliant, be using NOV cloud resources and pass our stringent security checks.

SOLUTION

How did you select WebCreek and what were the deciding factors?

Webcreek's through project management approach and tiered pricing won them the initial development contract. Having offshore resources in the same time zone as Houston also helped in our decision to work with them.

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

Webcreek designed wpf based software which would be deployed as an IT approved software on our corporate PCs. They designed a webapi that Carrie's communication from the PC node to the micrsosoft azure cloud. They also specified the cloud resources needed for the project to our IT.

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

We have worked with 4 people. The project manager, two programmers and a business development, representative.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to commercialize our DRM product, and the DRM 2.0 software was an integral part of the product. We have since been doing smaller fixed price based software changes which have enhanced the usability of the software as we got feedback from our beta users.

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

The project management style is not strict, and I like that about them. We have the ability to directly talk to the programmers and get their opinions on various features. I like this method of working over the stricter approach where the customer has no interaction with actual coders. We are able to communicate freely and project managers donot interfere in the flow of information, rather they enhance it.

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

Webcreek is a very customer satisfaction-driven company. They are easy to work with and conform to customer expectations. They show a genuine care for the work they produce, and sometimes even going above and beyond the customer(my) expectation, and in this sense I consider them as part of my own team.

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

There was a time where there was a little bit of a turnover in the coding team which impacted int he sense that the transition from one programmer to the next was not very smooth. That is not to say that it was for lack of effort by the new programmers, but seems the transition wa srather abrupt. But the new project manager has handled it very well now and I am very satisfied with the new programmers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Product Development at a software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebCreek?

I work with WebCreek on the development efforts for the software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They work with our internal software. In the beginning, we got them acquainted with user guides and set up training sessions for them to understand the system’s functionality.

Most of the services WebCreek provides involves any technical support that we’re unable to assist our user base with. They either get into the technical side through the database or the code itself to make enhancements or code fixes.

The other piece of the engagement involves them performing code updates for any enhancements we want to do. They also do the QA for those before providing us an area to perform testing once it’s ready.

What is the team composition?

It varies. On a daily basis, it’s usually about three people: an account manager, project manager, and lead developer. For a more complex project, they’ll bring in more members to support us.

How did you come to work with WebCreek?

WebCreek came highly recommended from a contact of ours. We talked with the owners when we interviewed them. Once they analyzed the code, we thought they would be the right fit to support us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $150,000–$250,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our engagement with WebCreek in October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We rely on them wholeheartedly to support our environment. We look to them to provide guidance and enhancements to our products.

How did WebCreek perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they perform extremely well. We’ve been very pleased.

I mainly deal with the project manager, but when we need to ramp up or need additional resources, I work with the account manager. The project manager interfaces directly with the developer, but I can ask them specific questions if I need more explanation.

We use Jira products for ticketing. For communication, we connect through Zoom calls and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attitude towards assisting us is on par with how we treat our clients. I would also say the amount of flexibility that they have with us is good too.

For the project, they approach from a consultative aspect. They give us options that we can decide off of on what’s best for our organization and the software.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing that I can think of right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that they put in the time to educate WebCreek on their goals and what they’re looking for. This will help their team fully support them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm one of the Software developers for our IT Firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire WebCreek?

We we're having trouble with our application-filtering software, we figured it would be better to hire more professionals inorder to fasten the pace of work with regard to our problem.

SOLUTION

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

As we search for best vendors online, we've came across with WebCreek and saw their skills and potential. We've contacted them and initially did an interview which leads us to knowing thier past experience and skills. After the interview it concludes that they have the capability to help our problem.

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

They make sure that every data are backed-up inorder to prevent data losses when the project is ongoing. The project includes the application-filtering software enhancement inorder to have a better function for the software. Their package includes all of the needs to be done and security for the data.

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

Their CTO was our main point of the contract, but also have 3 IT specialist who helps with the integration and functionality of the software.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They finished the enhancement ahead of time and did some tweaks for some minor bugs which was a great deal of work. After checking for the output, we've noticed that the filtering was better and sorts out applications based on the filter.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Since the project started, every Monday we'll have a meeting through online and discuss about the progress and improvements, and if there we're problems they make sure that it will be solved immediately. Their team leader communicates well in terms of always giving us a progress update.

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

Having a managed service provider has saved us a lot of money. They're more cost-effective than having to hire another full-time KT specialist in the office.

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

Sometimes there were some bugs that would show after they've presented us the progress, but after they've noticed it, actions we're made immediately inorder to prevent time loss.