AllianceTek

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a kitchens, cabinets, and vanities company. We’re located in Toronto, Canada.

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We wanted to create an e-commerce website for our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we had a video meeting with AllianceTek. We were just starting the business, and they wanted to provide us with the best service and product. We took our time to collect information to see if they understood our vision. We had some designs, but there was a lot of room for customization.

They’ve built the website using WordPress. Since it’s an e-commerce website, they’ve added a payment solution and similar features. Also, they’ve helped with the logo and provided consulting. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked directly with a consultant. They connect us with a team of web developers and designers.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

I found them through a website; I looked at reviews for web development companies, and there was a list. We trusted them because they were from the US. We talked to a couple of companies before them, but their main priority was building the website; they didn’t have any kind of consulting. On the other hand, AllianceTek provided that consultation, made sure our ideas were heard, and added their own ideas. They were just very professional and knowledgeable about their work. They knew what we needed and explained everything well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $11,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2021, and our relationship is ongoing. We’ll soon have to take a break from our side, but they’ve been understanding about it.

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

The consulting side has been a bonus. Moreover, our engagement has been a partnership all the way. They understand us on our level, which is essential.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done really well. We have someone working closely with us. They always respond timely, so we don’t have any issues.

We mainly communicate via emails or Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They care about our business. AllianceTek wants to grow with us and provides that extra level of expertise. They’ve provided a lot of information we weren’t even aware of, so they’ve taught and helped us along the way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be sure of what you want. You’ll be investing a lot of money, so you have to be 100% sure of what you’re doing.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a consulting company. I’m on the NFL assignment as the project manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We had a legacy web application that needed a lot of investigation and bug repair. Also, we wanted to add new modules to manage the master data.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we came up with a problem statement for what we were trying to solve. We mapped out the scope of the work and did the requirements for design, development, and QA testing. AllianceTek did their QA testing, and we also did QA and user testing. We handled all the rollouts, but they did a lot of the investigation work, especially on the bugs and issues to find the root causes. Then, we’d prioritize the work and schedule it.

They worked on an existing application, so they did bug fixes to existing pages. However, they did custom development for a new module with a complete set of new pages. The framework for those pages was different than the one for the legacy portion of the application. Additionally, we used the standard database store procedures, MySQL server, and a PROGRESS framework for many custom modules.

What is the team composition?

The number of team members fluctuated throughout the project. At its peak, we had a client partner, a project manager, two developers, and two QA people.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

The person who sat on my floor had done work with them; they’d developed other applications for the NFL. AllianceTek had a good reputation for that project, so we wanted to use them and take over the vendor.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from March 2021–March 2022. We continue working with them on secondary projects.

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

They met the requirements, and users were happy with the application. It automated a lot of processes and significantly reduced our annual activities. Moreover, users are now actively engaged in using the software.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

I was the overall project manager; their project manager was in charge of their development and staff. They stayed on budget and schedule, so management was excellent. Although they didn’t participate in the requirements gathering, they assisted with some specifications. We did prototypes and gave them the opportunity to standard UX suggestions. In general, they specked the project out, came up with a schedule and the staffing levels required, and stuck to that for the engagement.

We used Microsoft Excel to track and schedule the project. They didn’t have access to it, but we also used DevOps to track tasks on our side. On the other hand, communication was through Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They stood out for their integrity. After the initial development phases, we moved into the legacy bug fixes and application support. AllianceTek came back and told us that the resource staffing was too high for that support, so they cut it in half. It was an honorable thing to do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could better document the QA test plan and results. The software came to us in good condition, but some issues made it through. Perhaps some additional testing controls would be an improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

One thing that worked really well for us was our standard project management structure. We published issues, action items, and project schedules that we kicked off. Every time we met with them, we went to those open items and viewed how we were pacing to the plan to ensure that everything was delivered on time. It helped put the project on track, and open communication kept everything moving well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder and sales head of a company that sells toners, printers, and other office equipment online.

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

I needed help with building and maintaining our website, so I hired AllianceTek.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a lot of SKUs, and it was crucial for us to be able to upload products and change their prices, so AllianceTek and I looked into what platform we could build on to easily manage that. We ended up selecting BigCommerce because this would also address our issue with the cost of hosting. From there, the team proceeded to build the site from scratch. They had a template, but we ended up modifying that according to our needs. They eventually helped us with SEO as well.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of four people, which included the developers and a project manager. Gaurang (Head of Production) was the person that I was in contact with most of the time.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

A friend of mine recommended that I talk to them. I found AllianceTek to be very reasonable, and they came up with good options for me should I decide to maintain things myself in the future. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $12,000–$15,000 CAD (approximately $9,00–$12,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from June–December 2020.

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

Apart from building our website, AllianceTek made us searchable. Within two months of its launch, our site was pretty much at the top of search results. They really helped me a lot. 

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

We coordinated well on the timelines, and AllianceTek mostly delivered on the dot. Design is an area where I’m a bit choosy, so we had to go back and forth on that a little. We communicated through Zoom and sometimes via WhatsApp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by their interest in the business. AllianceTek came up with very sensible solutions and suggestions, all of which ended up being very convenient for me. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. Everything was better and more cost-effective than I had anticipated. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be patient with their team. Sometimes things don’t happen on time or as planned, but if you give them the confidence that you are putting in 100%, you will achieve your goals together. Approaching issues as a team will help make things work out for the better. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Co-Founder of a Cannabis Software a a Service Technology Platform

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

We hired AllianceTek to help build a software platform for the regulated cannabis market. We wanted to platform to be multi-tenanted, secure and scalable to support chain of custody challenges goals across state lines.

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

We found AllianceTek through a referral. The main deciding factors were their extensive experience building custom projects and of course favorable pricing model which was best suited for our startup budget

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

AllianceTek recommended a .NET framework for our project which allowed us a faster speed to market. The UX Team designed prototypes inside of Invisionapp which allowed us to gain insight early on and make decisions prior to committing to code.

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

They were 7 core team members which made up the AllianceTek development Unit. Team Leader, Project Manager, Technical Analyst, UX/UI, QA Tester, Full Stack, & Front End Developer

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

Our solution is now in beta and currently in use with target customers. Because of the dynamic & scalable design we have reduced onboarding time by 50%.

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

Weekly scrum meetings over Teams. Email communication for day to day requirements. Team chats wherever needed.

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

They provide stable product releases with very little to no bugs. Again kudos to a great QA process

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

Perhaps monthly reporting for resources currently in use as we scale up or down.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a company that has developed a platform for investing in social media. 

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We hired AllianceTek for a mobile app development project. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

I can’t speak to the specifics of what AllianceTek has used to build our platform, but the app is modeled after Twitter. It integrates multiple data feeds — such as real-time stock market data — and charting platforms into one service. It’s been a difficult project to execute because it entails engaging with several data providers. 

In terms of specific features, the app has individual message boards for every ticker on the US stock market. It also tracks market sentiment and price targets for user-entered data. The team has built plenty of backend analytics for these features. 

Overall, AllianceTek has done more than just app development for us; they’ve also handled the data, analytics, and backend sides of the project. These things are essential for the completion of the platform. So far, we’ve launched the app on the app stores. 

What is the team composition?

I speak with three people consistently from their team, namely a project manager, an iOS developer, and an Android developer. Other people work on the backend, but I don’t interface with them. 

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

I found AllianceTek through Clutch, where they had excellent reviews. They were one of the four companies that I found there. The reason I went with them over their competitors was that they offered complete services. Others offered only pure app development services. 

Moreover, I had pitched the project to eight companies in total, but AllianceTek was the only team to come up with a complete design before the project even started. Everything was already fully integrated within their proposal. On top of that, their CEO spoke with me and had everything designed to tee. 

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested around $96,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. Our company has a one-year contract with them, and their maintenance services are part of the deal. They also provide a 30-day guarantee. I can buy additional hours for further maintenance after that. 

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

I’ve received excellent feedback from users and colleagues who’ve used the platform. AllianceTek’s outputs have exceeded expectations as far as what I want and what they’ve produced — I have no complaints about their work. I can’t guarantee that the app will succeed, but if it doesn’t, it won’t be because of AllianceTek. 

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

AllianceTek has been highly organized and worked quickly. They’ve fixed everything I’ve brought to their attention down to the last letter. When I present them with a list of issues, they knock them out one by one. Overall, I’m impressed with their professionalism, punctuality, and responsiveness to everything.

Meanwhile, we don’t always get things right the first time. However, despite the complexity of the project — which is aimed at two platforms and multiple people — we’ve received exactly what we want. Simply put, I’m truly happy with the way they handle everything. 

To communicate, we use weekly Teams calls. We also usually communicate via email daily or every other day. In fact, they seem to be working all hours, including weekends, to get the project done. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

AllianceTek’s strength lies in their experience and familiarity with technology that goes beyond app development. That includes cloud technologies and programming languages beyond what’s used in traditional development environments. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. I have no complaints. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know that the AllianceTek team is a versatile and experienced team that can and will go beyond your expectations for an exceptional value. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Smart Venturing. We’re a premium consulting firm, helping businesses set up monday.com. We also offer professional services including development.

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We needed app development skills, which weren’t available within our organization.

What was the scope of their involvement?

AllianceTek developed an app using NodeJS and React. They also familiarized themselves with the monday.com framework. Their team had various responsibilities on this project including UI design, project management, development, and security compliance.

What is the team composition?

We worked with about eight people from AllianceTek. Special thanks to Kunal and Mitul (Project Managers).

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

I searched Google and found AllianceTek on Clutch. I contacted a few companies including them. What separated them from their competitors was their stability and maturity as a business. I had a conversation with their Sunil (President & CTO), and their team was also able to start working with us quite soon. Their abilities to develop the product and follow my requests at an affordable price caught my attention.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $10,000 AUD (approximately $7,100 USD) on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We collaborated on this project between July–August 2020.

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

The project was basically a challenge from monday.com. Our app ranked in the top five out of the1,600 that were submitted to monday.com. We were also selected as the most creative app. It was a team effort. We all worked together as a team to deliver a successful project.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly had Zoom calls and sent emails because we’re based in different locations. We had conversations about twice a week. They usually use software to track projects but, in my scenario, we had to run with it. That tracking was mostly done through phone calls and Zoom. Their project manager was there for us from the first to the last day of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

AllianceTek will do their best to deliver on their client’s requirements. If they cannot deliver, they will say so.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it all went well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Discuss the project with them. The more time you spend with the development team and help them to understand the project, the better the result will be.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a managing director for a communications consulting firm. We work with clients to help them better communicate with their employees. I specifically work with a lot of clients in financial services to do their performance review assessments, which is what brought me to work with AllianceTek.

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We needed a secure method to gather data from our clients’ performance review assessments. We wanted to create a homegrown system.

What was the scope of their involvement?

AllianceTek designed and developed the site soup to nuts. Their team completely customized the platform based on our needs. During phase one, they built the site based on our specific requests. Their team created features for people to review others, conduct reviews within the same department, and compare peoples’ scores.

We had specific requests from clients for the platform. AllianceTek built many specific functions within the product that were specific to certain clients. This enables us to turn certain features on and off to meet the needs of particular groups.

What is the team composition?

We have a main point of contact for the day to day technical tasks and then another main point of contact who manages the project. There are other team members who work behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

I met the owner of AllianceTek through a colleague. We had an initial meeting and based on that conversation I trusted that they’d be able to do a good job.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $65,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We formally began the work in May 2018, and our partnership’s ongoing. We’ve gone through multiple phases with this project as clients requested specific capabilities.

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

Our clients are pleased with the UX. We’ve gotten good feedback from clients in terms of the platform’s usability and reliability. It's a sophisticated system that many people can use at the same time.

When you deal with technology, there are always hiccups here and there. Anytime there’s a challenge, AllianceTek’s responsive and helpful.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

I only have to set up calls with two people who know the project and complete the work. That’s one of their better qualities. I don’t have to worry about making sense of my ideas in technical terms.

We use a SharePoint site where I’m supposed to send requests and approve estimates. Usually, I just end up emailing my points of contact. That’s another benefit. They always work with me. Their team meets deadlines and if a task takes longer, I always know about it. That allows me to reset expectations with the client. If I ever have a question from a client, their team’s always responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of their strengths is their willingness to completely customize a solution. With AllianceTek, the sky’s the limit. We have specific requests from clients, and AllianceTek’s always responsive. Their team can handle anything. Unless it would negatively affect the UX, they always implement our customers’ ideas. Their team also tells us when an idea would endanger the platform.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s complicated because they’ve consistently met our ridiculous deadlines. Their team has probably pushed themselves harder than was necessary to deliver on our timeline. They could overestimate deadlines rather than try to complete tasks within a shorter timeline for their own benefit.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is called How to Share Your Faith and I’m the Technical advisor.

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We wanted to build upon our existing web app for Google Play and the App Store.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided wireframes and mockups and they built an app for us for iOS and Android. They took the concept of or app and made it multilingual. It has an audio feature that has been very helpful for our international users who want to use the app for visual and audio. They set it up well so the transition was very good.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people consistently and Christopher (Project Manager) and Darren(New Business Development) were our primary points of contact.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

We shopped around and interviewed a bunch of different companies. We interviewed a bunch of different companies sand they seem to be the best fit for this value.

How much have you invested with them?

It cost between $10,000–$49,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from July 2015—June 2020.

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

I don’t have any metrics yet, but their service is great. Whenever we needed help with debugging, they were there to help us.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

The turnaround time is fantastic; they followed all of our timelines and were very clear with expectations. Their communication and ability to meet deadlines is outstanding. They use a communication tool to ensure a streamlined process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re easy to work with. That’s definitely a strength.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re very honest and easy to work with, so I recommend them highly.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Metatracer is a document capture software that supports the continuing reliability, accuracy and authenticity of electronic records throughout their life cycle and allows routing and delivery of captured information to various systems where they trigger processes, feed workflows or lead to a desired outcome. I am the CEO.

For what projects/services did your company hire AllianceTek?

We decided in May 2019, to create a new software to fill a gab in the industry of the image capture software. We are a team of experts in document management but do not have a full stack development team to realize that kind of project.

We really needed a partner that could provide us with serious experience in design and development and also that could work with our internal blockchain experts. Furthermore, the time frame was really short.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a team that could start a project from scratch and that could understand our vision. We are experts in document management and our team is composed of lawyers and blockchain specialists. It requires to be able to learn fast about complex matters. Our goal was to be able to build a decentralized team that could provide us with the right developer and/or expert at the right time on demand during the development timeline.

How did you select this vendor?

I was looking on different website of companies when I finally found AllianceTek. I talk to everyone that I selected. There were 4 different possible partners. The reason why we chose AllianceTek, is because of their business model. No one had something like they had. There concept of Dev. Units is particularly effective, and this is exactly what we needed.

When they say that we need a village to build a solution, trust me they have it right. You cannot image how the business model of AllianceTek is effective before you start using it. They are fast and agile to provide you with the right people with a complete control on your budget.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

AllianceTek designed, configured and developed a new document capture software that meets many ISO standards and connect to the blockchain to generate “Legally Authentic” metadata.

The project began with a discovery workshop, which let us reach a mutual definition of the MVP that meets the challenges and goals we envisioned. Once we approved the workflows, wireframes and mockups, the production began. The functional versions were ready for user testing and feedback every two weeks until the end of the project.

What was the team composition?

The project team had about 3 Dev. Units plus the managers. We did have a dedicated project manager and team leader who were our direct points of contact and any time during this project the CTO of AllianceTek has always been available to guide us when needed.

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

It would have been impossible for us to build a team of designers, database specialists, frontend and backend developers and to develop this solution in the timeframe we had. Furthermore, it would have been impossible to do it with the same budget at all, even if you consider the incentives that our Canadian government can give us.

Bottom line, this project cost 45% less than if we had decided to do it internally. But this comparison is useless if you add in the equation the capacity you have to change the specialists that composed a Dev Unit down the road when you need it. This is priceless.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was absolutely perfect. Compare to other vendors, I had been able to meet the AllianceTek CEO in person when I needed. The team of experts met their deadlines and were always available on Zoom to communicate and we were able to share our information securely through their platform and easily worked with Jira and GitHub.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive think about AllianceTek is how easy it is to communicate with them and their availability. They are also very business-oriented and their CTO has this capacity to find a solution to almost anything. We worked with this partner on multiple other projects over the past years and I am always surprised to be able to work with the same managers that I trust. They have a very stable company and workforce.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is very little they could improve. I think that if they can improve the quality of their testing staff it could help. But do not forget that we are in a very complicated industry and we have to juggle with very complex workflows and sometime the tests required SME with deep understanding of the solution. This is why we prefer hiring those SME and work with people like AllianceTek to do the development.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of operations for a software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We needed more development resources than we had at the time. We wanted to build in redundancy. As a small company, we wanted to have another team that was familiar with our product to jump in and help.

What was the scope of their involvement?

AllianceTek did troubleshooting and enhanced features. In a couple of instances, their team also built new features. We’re built our product on a Microsoft SharePoint platform, so their team provided SharePoint development services. Those efforts were augmented by C#, .NET, and Java.

What is the team composition?

We had two main points of contact for different types of work. We primarily communicated with a SharePoint administrator expert and a SharePoint developer.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

We searched for companies with specific SharePoint expertise. We interviewed a handful of firms at that time but chose AllianceTek.

How much have you invested with them?

We probably spent between $250,000–$300,000 on the engagement. We spent about $80,000 a year for at least three years and probably half of that for another couple of years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2013. We fired up a subsidiary company for development, so our main development with AllianceTek wrapped up in December 2018. However, we’re seeking their expertise in a particular area. We feel like we have a long term established relationship for that purpose.

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

We considered a success when a feature was in production or the troubleshooting was resolved. We can say that at least some of their work is in production for our software. That’s what we would call a win.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

AllianceTek accommodated our processes, which was nice. Their team also had their own project management leads who provided us with reports. When we asked them to attend our development team meetings, they came and gave reports as requested. They were responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re glad that we selected AllianceTek. They’re the only provider that we’ve engaged, so I don’t have anything to compare them to.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re satisfied with what they did and how they did it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We didn’t always have the business analysis and requirements formally written. They recommended that process for us and we would take their recommendation. That would be helpful for someone else to do.