XcelTec

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner and principal sales consultant for a full service web provider. We’re based in the Southeast U.S.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire XcelTec?

We needed to convert a medium sized website (200+ pages) from Joomla to WordPress. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I have used XcelTec for 9+ months on smaller projects and they have always performed flawlessly. Their attention to detail, easy accessibility, and competitive pricing made this decision very simple.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

The scope included transferring the site from Joomla to WordPress and migrating a large amount of content. XcelTec also generated privileged access capabilities, custom graphics, and a responsive design for the new site.

I needed this done in 90 days, all while maintaining our SEO position and improving speed.

What was the team composition?

XcelTec's team was specific to the needs of the aforementioned agreement, but were simultaneously working for other clients as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The high quality of the site and its high name recognition in the region has meant increased traffic for my business.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was very intuitive: broad objectives were established and pursued by XcelTec with minimal management. However, when specific ends needed to be accomplished, they were accomplished in remarkably short time.

We tracked our progress on a Google sheet file.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by the intuitive and simple way in which they handled complex tasks, as well as their flexible communication.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I don’t see any room for improvement. I'm very happy with their proposal, contract, workflow, organization, and delivery. This is a gem of a company.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of a classic car restoration company that has expanded to different areas of the collector car, muscle, and luxury markets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what reason(s) did your company hire XcelTec?

We hired them to redesign my website and to add a classified advertising venue for individuals and dealers to advertise their automotive inventory.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal of this project was to have a complete package to offer my customers for their automotive needs. The site had to have an attractive design and be properly coded and SEO [search engine optimization] compliant in order to be responsive.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I selected this vendor through my business contacts.

Describe the project in detail.

I set up the project approximately 4 months ago. We had a scope and discovery meeting to explain all ideas and plan the strategies. After this, the team at XcelTec went to work and brought my project to reality.

What was the team composition?

There was a project manager and frontend and backend developers involved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website just went live so I don’t have any data to share just yet. However, I can tell you that it looks and functions spectacularly and is way better than the old one. I expect sales and additional customer acquisition to skyrocket in the near future!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I couldn't have asked to work with a better team. We communicated every day through emails, phone, Skype, etc. Communication was superb!

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was blown away by their vast knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes in website development, coding, design, etc.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Things can always be done faster but a project of this magnitude takes time to get done right. Quality is more important than speed. In the end, my new website turned out phenomenally.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the president of a custom-software testing and quality assurance provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with XcelTec?

We’ve worked with them to solve various problems. The first set of applications they built for us was a learning management system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

XcelTec has worked on a number of custom applications for us and our customers. The learning management system they made helps with our face-to-face training, giving students access to training modules online. After that project, we moved to working for a non-profit which needed to build an application for their course. XcelTec built that, also in the form of an app which is now on the Google Play Store.

Right now, we are working on another application for a startup that is a social networking platform targeted towards millennials. It’s a contest-driven portal on which people can participate in one or more events. XcelTec built what we call the expression module, which handles the heavy-lifting of allowing people to participate in a contest, opening it up for voting and going through the automatic elimination phases, up to the ultimate selection of one person as the winner. This is what the system does from a user perspective, but, behind-the-scenes, there is a number of algorithms which we’ve built and setup to execute at different times of the day to advance the competition from one stage to another, calculating who has a higher vote, and who needs to be eliminated. All of this coding and infrastructure work was done by XcelTec.

What is the team dynamic? 

XcelTec was involved in the above projects from the beginning. We ironed out the requirements together, after which they assigned development teams consisting of a coder, a designer, and a QA engineer. We’ve had the same 3 resources present for most of our projects.

After the business requirements phase, XcelTec builds a user interface and will begin to develop the code. We have an Agile iterative process, such that I am also able to test the work from my end on their staging server, while XcelTec continues building. Their QA team member does a lot of the heavy testing work, before we get into user acceptance testing and ultimately send the software for deployment and production on Amazon Web Services.

How did you come to work with XcelTec?

I had a prior relationship with Vishal Shah [President, XcelTec]. He reached out to me earlier last year, we had multiple discussions, and I decided to give them a shot.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost has been around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with XcelTec in February 2017. The collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I am a software quality engineer by trade, and I find their work to be great quality. As with any project, we’ve gone through a few iterations, and work in an Agile environment. We have to make changes and have continuous improvement, but the overall quality is good.

How did XcelTec perform from a project management standpoint?

Most of the time, I get to deal with the owner directly in addition to the team. They are very responsive and available for support around the clock. We primarily use Gmail, as well as WhatsApp for messaging.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their availability is impressive. Being that there is a geographic distance between us and some of our partners, it can sometimes take a couple of days to get a response. XcelTec mostly responds within a couple of hours or less.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone can improve in terms of code and communication. XcelTec is generally doing the right things.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m Vice President of Forte Consultants, an IT company providing staffing, mobile, and web solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with XcelTec?

We needed to build an application solution that would allow us to authenticate users as they logged in by providing their details. We reached out to XcelTec, and they helped us achieve this.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

XcelTec helped us with our database and frontend. Basically, when a person logs in, they provide credentials and it takes both the front and backend to process all of this. They used Microsoft API cognitive services, including fingerprinting authorization, on .NET framework. They are currently conducting user testing.

What is the team dynamic?

We had 2-3 developers, a tech lead, a person handling QA, and a project manager. We communicated through multiple mediums, including phone and email. We regularly kept in touch to stay caught up on the project status.

How did you come to work with XcelTec?

We had posted the requirements on social media, and multiple companies approached us, including XcelTec. We spoke with their technical people and looked at their past performances, and decided they could effectively tackle the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $25,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People are very happy with the product. They were responsible with meeting project deadlines and providing documentation, and always hit every milestone. I was very pleased with their service, and would definitely work with them again.

How did XcelTec perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a project manager assigned to them when they started the project, and they did a pretty good job. We had a counterpart here who was making sure all of our deliverables were being met on time, as well as following up with documentation, including keeping track of reviews. They delivered everything on time and within budget, and without any critical defects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

XcelTec is very sincere and they have a certain integrity about them. They were very qualified people and delivered everything promised in the initial negotiations. In the past, we have noticed some vendors will promise things then deliver nothing at all. We were really impressed with how they executed the project exactly how they said they would.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing to add. They’re really good.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a ship brokerage company in Stamford, Connecticut. I’m the president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with XcelTec?

I was creating a database and a platform for tracking cargo and ships.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

XcelTec was upgrading the system I already had. They were moving it from PHP1 to PHP7. They assisted with the upgrade of the Linux environment and made modifications to the existing platform. We run a Linux based platform using MySQL with a PHP interface.

What is the team dynamic?

They have one developer with one site manager who is the owner of the company, Vishal.

How did you come to work with XcelTec?

Vishal contacted me and solicited our business.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $9000 so far and plan to spend another $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2016. We are planning three more projects with them that will complete the software, and then it will be live. I plan to have an ongoing relationship with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is almost complete and all of our users are in place. XcelTec detected some bugs, which have been corrected. The platform is only for internal use and between our global offices; our employees like the platform.

How did XcelTec perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through WhatsApp and email. There are always hiccups in communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like that it’s Vishal’s company and I like dealing with someone whose income is on the line because he’s going to do the best job possible. I like having access to the guy who owns the company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m very fussy about things and could give you lots of things they could improve but that would be very nitpicky. When I send an email about something that needs to be done, I expect it done right away. It’s not always done right away. I don’t have anything substantial.

The programmers he’s using cannot communicate in English. You have to communicate with Vishal, which is what I like anyway.