Affirma Consulting

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr Manager of Business Intelligence of a medical device manufacturer

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Manufacturing & design for medical devices & components

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Affirma Consulting to accomplish?

• migrate Power BI dashboards, reports, gateways, and users & permissions from one O365 tenant to another

SOLUTION

How did you find Affirma Consulting?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Affirma Consulting over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Affirma Consulting were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Project involved migrating Power BI assets—including dashboards, reports, gateways, and user permissions—from one O365 tenant to another due to a corporate restructuring. The objective was to ensure data integrity, continuity, and minimal downtime for business users.

Key Deliverables:

1. Inventory Assessment:
   • Audited existing Power BI assets and documented all dashboards, reports, and permissions for migration.
2. Tenant Setup & Configuration:
   • Prepared destination O365 tenant (configured Power BI workspaces, gateways, and permissions to ensure readiness for migration)
3. Migration Execution:
   • Migrated Power BI dashboards, reports, and dataflows to new tenant while preserving data integrity and refresh schedules.
   • Reconfigured and tested data gateways for uninterrupted access to data sources.
4. User Permissions & Access:
   • Reestablished user permissions and workspace access to ensure proper collaboration and functionality.
5. Testing & Validation:
   • Performed testing to validate functionality, accuracy, and performance of all reports post-migration.
6. Post-Migration Support:
   • Provided documentation, training, and several days of post-migration support to resolve  issues and ensure smooth transition

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• 100% Successful Migration of Power BI Assets: All dashboards, reports, dataflows, and gateways were migrated without any data loss or corruption.
• Minimal Downtime: Achieved less than 2 hours of downtime during the migration process, ensuring business continuity with minimal disruption to users.
• User Access & Permissions Restored: Re-established ~95% of user permissions and workspace access, with few reported access issues post-migration.
• Stakeholder Satisfaction: Received positive feedback from all key stakeholders and end-users, with a 94% satisfaction rate from post-migration interviewing.
• On-Time, On-Budget Delivery: Completed project within $150K budget and met original project timeline, avoiding overruns.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Travis was highly effective in managing the project. He ensured all deliverables were met on time by closely coordinating between our internal BI team and the Affirma team. He was proactive in keeping the owners of the destination tenant informed about progress, blockers, and any required actions. His communication was clear, timely, and kept the project moving smoothly.

He took full ownership of the project, so I didn’t need to interface directly with the Affirma team. Travis also led the inventory assessment and worked with our BI team to streamline the gateways and configuration, which contributed to a more efficient migration process. His ability to anticipate needs and address issues promptly ensured that the project stayed on schedule, and he consistently responded to any concerns or requirements with urgency and professionalism.

What was your primary form of communication with Affirma Consulting?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What impressed me most about Affirma was their genuine commitment to customer satisfaction. They consistently demonstrated this through their talented team and regular check-ins to gather feedback and address any concerns. Their openness to adjust, adapt, and do whatever was necessary to ensure the project’s success truly stood out. Affirma’s team went above and beyond to meet our needs, always showing a willingness to make sure we were fully satisfied at every stage of the project.

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

While Affirma has some highly skilled team members who take on a significant portion of the workload, this reliance on "superstars" can be challenging in the long term. Leveraging these top performers is effective in the short term, but it's not sustainable. To address this, Affirma could focus more on developing and empowering all team members, ensuring the workload is more evenly distributed and that the team as a whole is better equipped to share responsibilities.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the President & CEO of Indiana Family Health Council

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The Indiana Family Health Council (IFHC) is an organizing hub that increases access, meets community needs, and advocates for health justice through partnerships with other organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Affirma Consulting to accomplish?

• Maintain and update data systems required for federal funding
• Provide technical assistance for websites

SOLUTION

How did you find Affirma Consulting?

Referral

Why did you select Affirma Consulting over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Affirma Consulting were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Update Azzure App data system
• Convert data fields to LOINC codes to be sent to the federal government
• Update and enhance PowerBI reporting baed on Azzure App
• Create one and update two websites

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Clean data upload to the federal government. The Affirma team has been a great addition to our IT resources.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They respond in a timely fashion and have developed products based on our need. They are flexible to adjust as the government changes their needs and requirements. They have been easy and fun to work with over the last three years.

What was your primary form of communication with Affirma Consulting?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I was impressed they were able to pick up a project developed by another IT company and was able to adapt to it quickly, learn about the system and make changes we needed immediately. The learning curve was minimal. 

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

N/a

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a principal at The Gunter Group. We do leadership, planning, and management consulting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Affirma Consulting?

We needed extra technical expertise in consulting roles.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a B2B relationship with Affirma Consulting. When a client asks for development or technical expertise that we don’t have in-house, we leverage them to get it done.

We’ve done a few projects together. The biggest one right now is an enterprise architecture engagement with a client. We’d been providing them with a managed service, and they wanted to broaden the scope to a system architecture and lead development set of roles. We knew we needed a strong couple of people who we wouldn’t have to manage tightly or directly, so we got the resources from Affirma Consulting. They’ve provided two system architects for the project.

What is the team composition?

We have a principal engineer and a systems engineer who act as system or solution architects.

How did you come to work with Affirma Consulting?

We worked on a client together and ended up in a relationship of mutual respect.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $300,000–$400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2023, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From a KPI or measurement standpoint, Affirma Consulting has done plans, documentation, and diagrams for the development teams that my team wasn’t providing. They’ve been in 20–25 projects and created essentially the development schemes for all of them.

Overall, the resources have been working out great. They’ve both exceeded expectations.

How did Affirma Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They deliver on time and within budget and communicate well via Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Azure DevOps.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Joel (Engineering Manager) is the former CTO; he stepped down because he loved engineering, and it really shows. He has the soft and personal skills to listen well and command a room while being a solid engineer. We’re honestly lucky to have him.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical expertise is outstanding. Affirma Consulting has excellent developers. They’re not just somebody with a good resume; they’re someone with practical experience who has actually done the work before.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We work with them because we’re good at planning and program leadership, and they aren’t strong in the change management program space. Affirma Consulting is much better at technical project delivery.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trusting that a smaller firm will pay more attention to you than one of the bigger companies will always be a benefit, and Affirma Consulting is a medium-sized firm.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing strategist for SELCO, the third largest credit union in Oregon. I’m in charge of our website, online listings, and email marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Affirma Consulting?

We were at a point where we knew we needed a refresh and wanted to redesign the website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our website was built on a CMS that wasn’t very flexible; the template was pretty dated and we couldn’t do much to update it. It didn’t feel as modern as it needed to. We wanted to convey the message that we could provide the same level of digital services as any major national bank.

Affirma came on board to handle the website’s redesign. We provided our basic brand colors, ideas of what we wanted, and photographs from our ad shoots. They built the wireframes and actual layout. The backend, which includes account management and online banking, was being rebuilt simultaneously by another vendor we had used before. We used Sitefinity as a CMS.

We’re so happy with Affirma's work that we’re considering using them again in the future.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager as well as an account manager. I’m not entirely sure how many developers were involved, but I do know that the work was split between their U.S. team and their India team.

How did you come to work with Affirma Consulting?

I came on board shortly after the company had already chosen to work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from December 2016 to June 2017. We’re still collaborating together for minor fixes whenever we have a new release.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our on-page metrics have greatly increased since the website’s redesign; people are spending more time on the pages and are more engaged. The bounce rate has also plummeted. It’s a 200-page website, so there’s a lot of information that was kind of buried in the previous one. It wasn’t as pleasant to navigate before, but now, we’re seeing that people are using the rest of the site more.

How did Affirma Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

We met with the project manager at least once or twice a week. The account manager oversaw the general relationship and would call to check if we were satisfied or of something needed improvement. Those calls were always really short because there was never anything to talk about.

Additionally, Affirma was prompt with their responses, and if we had something that needed to be done urgently, they would get started right away. They were very open and flexible based on our needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their availability and flexibility in finding a system that worked for us were outstanding. They were also quick to address issues and worked with me to figure out the best way to do things.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They always ask me where they can improve. Whenever I had critical feedback for them, they found solutions immediately.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open about your processes and how things work best for you because if you don’t convey that information, they will make suggestions based on what works best for them. They will accommodate changes if you request them, though.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. ​​​

​​I am a project manager for internal and external projects for our company, as well as the office admin/file-sharing admin as well. Our company does Oracle related consulting like functional support, DBA support, hosting, managed service, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Affirma?

We knew what we wanted but we did not have the expertise to do the migration from G-Suite to Office 365.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project we were working on with Affirma was a migration from G-Suite, which is Google’s platform, over to Office 365. The reason we were going to make that switch is because we were just looking for something that’s a little more scalable, a little more real process as we grow as a company and something that just has a lot more functionality. For the Office 365 stuff, they did basically everything. They provide the migration, licenses, and support. In the next four to six weeks, we’re acquiring a company, so they’ll be doing the migration for that as well. They’re going to help us set up aliases in the meantime so that we can receive mail coming from those accounts and then after we do that, then they’ll do the full email migration. We’ve also talked to them a little bit about infrastructure as well. Right now a lot of our stuff is hosted, but eventually, we’re going to need some assistance on consulting hardware for onsite as well as active director needs.

How did you come to work with Affirma?

Our CEO found them, vetted them, passed them along to me, and that’s when I got involved in the conversation. We’re based in Richardson, Texas, which is far from Seattle where they’re based. He just did some digging to see who would be a good choice to partner with for the foreseeable future. It’s not just a one- time use deal. He was looking for somebody that could be long-term as well.

How much have you invested with Affirma?

Under $10,000 at this time, but probably we will bump over that threshold within the coming weeks.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them February 2017 and have been working together since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s definitely been a huge improvement on the business as a whole. We were able to streamline a lot of stuff. We use SharePoint as well as Skype, which is all encompassing as opposed to having an email platform and IN platform and then a follow-sharing platform as well. We’ve also started to utilize a SharePoint developer, which is something else that they provided with the sweep. Rather than saving my spreadsheet on my computer and emailing it out, now we have SharePoint tables where we can just have it shared throughout the organization. If you have a computer and internet connection, you can do it, which is great.

How did Affirma perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication was fantastic. If I had a question or something about the upcoming step that we were going to proceed with, we’re talking maybe an hour tops for a reply, which is phenomenal. They did standard procedure. They provided notes for us after every call so we knew what to expect, the next steps, and who is doing what. We never had to worry about the ball being dropped. They followed up continuously and they followed up immediately after the project was completed, and probably every other day for the first week or so, and then once a week for a few weeks just to make sure everything was going as it should be.

What did you find most impressive about Affirma?

In comparison to a company I used in the past while working for a different company, Affirma is by far the staple that people should be basing it off of. Affirma essentially held our hands in a very professional and not overbearing kind of way. We did the migration after work one day, our time, which was almost 9:00 pm their time and it didn’t get finished until midnight, and they didn’t complain about it. They said, “If you guys want to do it, great. We’ll do it. If you want to do it at 4:00 in the morning, we’ll do it then as well.” They were very accommodating and very efficient getting it done. From start to finish it took maybe three hours and that included all troubleshooting and double-checking access. They were phenomenal.

Are there any areas Affirma could improve?

If I had one thing, just to give you something, I think on one of our first emails they used the time and it was in PST and they didn’t put PST. So I had to ask if it was PST or Central.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We do irrigation engineering and management as related to irrigated agriculture, typically in corporate environments.

What is your position and responsibilities?

I am the systems administrator and key technician.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Affirma Consulting?

We have an existing web application with a database back that we have been using to support our customers for a number of years. We are trying to get it migrated more onto a Cloud-based solution. Affirma Consulting is leading that effort for us. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Right now, all the work is focused around the migration. They are doing some of the architectural elements; we are moving onto Microsoft Azure. They have been identifying places where changes in architecture are needed. We are in the discovery phase now. In time, we will probably be doing some UI [user interface] design projects that they will be helping us out with, but we have not gotten to that point yet. 

How did you come to work with Affirma Consulting?

We had a technology partner that we worked with for seven or eight years, and they were not quite getting us where we needed to go. I started doing some Internet searches for technology companies in our area. I came across Affirma's website and did some reading on them. I called a couple of other firms as well. We set up a conference call with Affirma with a broader team on both sides and talked through some things.

Based on a gut feeling, plus their portfolio that they were able to show us on past jobs, it seemed like they had a lot of capabilities and strengths in the area that we were looking for. We started out with a pilot project of some technical analysis of some of our existing things and outlined a roadmap for us on how we might go. We gradually transitioned from our old partner onto Affirma almost exclusively now.

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

It was between $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project with Affirma is ongoing. In fact, we are in the process of renewing our contract with them for another year. There is existing work to be done with the migration, but there are always ongoing changes, improvements, and fine-tuning that are driven by our customers. We try to react to changes in the market and what our client base would like to see. It is a never-ending process. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We are very satisfied with Affirma Consulting. Their team is very innovative, and they are well acquainted with current emerging web technologies, which is where our application lives. It is web based and customer facing. We want to stay current in order to be able to leverage new technologies, and they have been a good partner in that regard because they are able to make sound suggestions. For instance, they told us that there was a new library here that works well with the .NET framework. Then, they had us look at it because they thought it would do what we need to do, and that is very welcome and helpful.

We do not have anything as formal as a metric to measure Affirma's outcome but, anecdotally, a lot of our web application has some reporting functionality built into it, which is how we deliver information to our customers on the irrigation management side of the business. We had them do a pilot report to test out some new ideas and deployment technologies, and this one particular report that we did we blended in with some of our existing things, and we received some very favorable feedback from our customers that they really liked the new graph we built for them.

What distinguishes Affirma Consulting from other providers?

They are very aware of the state of the technology that we are trying to use, and consequently are able to make relevant suggestions to us. Some companies are more concerned about making sure they get their monthly amount billed out to you, and they are less concerned about the amount of product they produce because they are more concerned about how many billable hours there are. Affirma is very cost conscious, and they deliver a lot of value for the dollar spent. They are a very sharp operation, and we are very happy to have them as a partner.

Is there anything Affirma Consulting could have improved or done differently?

I cannot think of anything right now. Most of the things they do, they do well. I am not familiar with every single aspect of the business; they do staffing and support and training and many things that we have not taken advantage of, but the areas of their expertise where we have engaged them, they do that part of it well. I do not have anything negative to say at this point.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company's name is Hydac Technology Corporation. We deal in all aspects of hydraulics. We have 10 product divisions that make hydraulic filters, filter systems, hydraulic accumulators, and hydraulic cooling systems – everything pertaining to the world of hydraulics. We employ 7,000 people worldwide.

What is your position and responsibilities?

I am the marketing manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Affirma Consulting?

The overall business goal of our work with Affirma was to get us out from between a rock and a hard place. We had hired a different vendor, who was unable to complete the project.

We initially contracted with Affirma to pick up some projects, some aspects of the website that were not in the initial scope of delivery, and actually ended up switching the entire project to Affirma, and it worked out beautifully.

Affirma picked up where the other vendor had left off, where we had agreed to part ways. They picked up the ball and ran with it and really helped get that project off the ground. We launched the website with Affirma beside us.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Right now, it is web work and consulting with respect to other ongoing web projects that we have. Our next web project will be on a different site for both ourselves and our distributors. That will involve integration with SAP. We will be working with Affirma for that.

How did you come to work with Affirma Consulting?

We had learned about Affirma in the bid process for our new website. Affirma had placed a bid on that website. However, in the initial findings we did not award the business to Affirma. About three quarters of the way through the project we started having difficulties with the provider. The relationship was not working to the mutual benefit of both of us. It was not their fault, they had some loss of staff that contributed to that. It was an amicable separation.

At that point, Affirma contacted us to find out how the project was progressing. Knowing that we were past the due date for launching our website, they were curious to know if there was anything they could do to help.

It seemed at that time that we should have hired Affirma in the beginning. They were the higher end bidder of the project. But now in hindsight, had we selected them in the first place, we would have actually spent less money.

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

Their first project was $10,00 to  $50,000. The future project is estimated to be more than $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Right now, they are on a T&M [time and materials] basis for anything that would come up with the website, such as things that we would have any difficulty with and would need their help with. They do not have any ongoing projects, at the moment, until we begin the new distributor site. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I am very satisfied with their work. They did what they said they would do on time. At this point, the site was launched August 1 [2015]. We have had mild periods of downtime when we migrate development sites to production sites, but the site has yet to be taken down.

What distinguishes Affirma Consulting from other providers?

Affirma Consulting has a very good sense of communication. They make a point of keeping everything transparent, so that we all know we are on the same page. Our initial developer did not do that. What we did not realize at that time was that we were out of development money.

Affirma keeps you on track and lets you know how much they have spent, how many hours each week they have devoted, what it cost, and how much you have left in your budget. They keep you well aware of where you are from a financial perspective and a work completion perspective.

Is there anything Affirma Consulting could have improved or done differently?

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are the parent company that is a manufacturer of bracing and prosthetics products. Empower is a division of the company. Empower is a software program that does inventory management and building of DME [durable medical equipment] products in the health care setting.

What is your position?

I'm director of empower reimbursement services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Affirma Consulting?

They are working with us on a new version so development from creating specifications to final user interface work for the customer base.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

It was for UI [user interface] work and programming.

How did you come to work with Affirma Consulting?

We had had a former employee who had some interactions with the Affirma team. We had previously been working with a different development company and were not getting the development that we were expecting. 

We brought Affirma in for a meeting, and we had them do a couple of small projects for us on our legacy system. From their initial success and the research that we did between references and projects they had worked on the timelines we gave them, which were very short, and the response we received from them, we decided to move forward with them on a larger project.

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

It was from $50,000 to $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

At some point, we plan to stop. We've been working on the development of this program starting with the previous company for about four years. We're hopefully getting to the point where we're going to be ending development, and it'll just be support and a little bit of development as it comes up, but not to the level that we're doing now. 

It's one large project that I'm responsible for, and we have some other things that they are working with some of the other departments of our firm. I know they're working with some of our marketing analytics team on other projects. I'm just not privy to that information. We've been working with Affirma for two and a half years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

It's not really an efficiency improvement since it's an offering we sell to customers. Our customers see the efficiency. They're going from no inventory management program to a very robust inventory management system. The efficiency on their side is drastically increased, but that doesn't have anything to do with what Affirma has done but the program that allows them to do that. 

But, I would say as far as the metrics around downtime and things like that we've had only one issue in two and a half years where we had downtime, and it wasn't related to programming. It was related to some server issues with our host. There's been no issues there with Affirma and their development. 

How did Affirma Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

I am very satisfied with Affirma Consulting. We have a great team starting with the project manager down to our quality testing. They ask questions. I think the one thing I've enjoyed the most is that if there's something that's outside their scope, and they don't understand it, they'll ask questions until they do rather than assuming they know and move forward. It's been a team approach including my team, which is a bit of fresh air considering where we came from before.

What distinguishes Affirma Consulting from other providers?

The lead developer is phenomenal. This is maybe the first time they've done this specific programming in the scope of health care billing, but they've been great to work with.

Is there anything Affirma Consulting could have improved or done differently?

I wouldn't have gone with the other programming team first before I went to Affirma. I wasn't the director at the time, so it wasn't my choice. I think maybe the one thing I would have done differently when we switched to them. We were already two years in to the development at that time, and we tried to salvage the work that had been done. We probably would have been better served scrapping the work that had been done previously by the other company and moving forward with the specs. 

We spent a lot of time and money fixing problems that were encountered because of the other team's programming. We would have been money and time ahead to let these guys start from the ground up. There have been several times where the company before Affirma hurt us badly.

BACKGROUND

Please provide a description of your company. 

I work in the operations department for a large software company.

What is your role and responsibilities?

Most of my work for my current team revolves around metrics and score carding. Primarily, I’ve been a business manager and capabilities manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Affirma Consulting?

Affirma has worked on a lot of different projects for us across the incentive space through the years. Our goal has always been to ease pressures and costs on our own development teams, as well as to get an outside group’s perspective on our software.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They’ve done a lot for us in data mapping and data migration. They’ve helped us with agreement matching, revenue licensing agreements, and calculation work for incentives. They’ve developed the database, the UI [user interface], for all of our metric and scorecard reporting that we do every month within our organization.

They run a service for us around actual turnkey processes that we have within our incentive programs, as well as working on our SharePoint UI design. They maintain the server that our scorecard sits on, and they maintain the UI.

What was your process for selecting Affirma Consulting with which to work?

I don’t remember specifically how they were selected, but because of the overall success of the work they’ve done for us the last two or three years, they’ve built up a lot of rapport within our organization.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It was between $1.6 million and $2.4 million annually.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project?

For the scorecard and project management data side, I think they’ve got very high regard and very high marks within our organization. On the managed turnkey processes, I got mixed reviews. Some of it is very streamlined, and some of it isn’t as streamlined as we’d like to see, especially if we have to migrate the work. Overall, though, we’re very happy with their body of work.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

In time, it’s been the knowledge base they have within our business, which they took the time to really learn and adapt to. That's something not all vendors do.

They’ve got some people who really are very good at understanding data, and how data connects, and systems, which is a huge win for us. I think overall they’ve got a good design UX [user experience] team. Our scorecard has a good navigation, it’s clean, easy, and simple. We’ve created a very nice, elegant SharePoint site that we use to promote who our organization is. So, I think they’ve got some good strengths there. Overall, they have great expertise, which means we don’t have to continually retrain and tell people how to connect things.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

Don’t try to grow too fast. If you try to sell things that you don’t necessarily have expertise in, you put at risk all of the good things that you do, especially to clients that have got some size.

What advice would you give a future client of theirs?

Depending on the type of work they’re trying to do, they have a sweet spot because they do have the ability to do project management with a technical side, and UI side, and being able to deliver something. They also understand databases, and are able to help make data into a consumable format that you can use, and do data mapping. If that’s the type of thing you want to do, I think Affirma is right down your wheelhouse. I don’t know if they’re a technical design company in totality. They’re a good operations vendor, but I don’t know if they’d be a good marketing vendor per se.

BACKGROUND

Please provide a description of your company.

Snowline Hospice is a community-based hospice provider in northern California. We’re more than 30 years old and are one of the oldest hospices in northern California. We provide hospice care for people whether they reside at home, in a nursing care facility, or a residential care facility.

What are your role and responsibilities?

I am the director of finance for Snowline.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Affirma Consulting?

We wanted to bring Snowline into the 21st century with a functional intranet capacity. Previously we did a lot of things on paper, and we wanted to move our company calendar, phone directory and so forth to our website, making it available everywhere.

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Affirma Consulting with which to work?

We have a consultant who oversees our basic IT [information technology] needs. He researched different companies that use SharePoint, which was our application of choice. Affirma met more of our needs than the other companies he talked to. They were also located close to us and were financially flexible.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

We spent anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 with Affirma.

When was the work completed?

It took more than a year to develop the site and get it launched. We completed the project about seven months ago, and Affirma is providing ongoing support. We still want to add some more tools to finish the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

I can’t think of any hard data right now, but I am certain that we have saved a lot of money by not having to generate all the paperwork we did before.

Are you satisfied with Affirma Consulting’s performance?

Overall, we’re quite satisfied. We had a few problems because we changed one of the forms, which we didn’t realize SharePoint couldn’t support. It’s sometimes difficult to make changes in SharePoint, but that is not Affirma’s fault.

Is there anything unique or special about Affirma Consulting that really makes them stand out compared to other companies?

They are very much focused on providing quality customer service.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

Sometimes, they are really busy servicing Microsoft, who is obviously a much larger customer. We are so small that sometimes we didn’t feel we were a very high priority. But, Affirma does try to do their best to service us.