AllianceTek

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

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

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

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

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

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

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-owner and vice president of Gotham Elevator Inspection. We provide elevator inspection and consulting services. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We needed help with hosting our website. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our website includes a feature where clients find and print copies of our test reports. They can see when inspections are scheduled, completed, and filed with the New York City Department of Buildings.

AllianceTek mainly provides hosting services, but they also support the website and this feature. They updated its functionality when we migrated the site from our previous host. They now keep everything running smoothly.

What is the team composition?

I have a single point of contact. We also interact with various IT personnel.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

They actually came recommended by the company that developed our website.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $500 per month on hosting the site. The work they’ve done so far has totaled about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2016, and the partnership is ongoing. We’re considering their team for redesigning our website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re not getting any clients about our website or feature not working or the information not flowing. AllianceTek does a great job of maintaining the site for us.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent. During the transfer, we spoke every other week, and they kept us updated on their progress. We keep in touch through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were able to repair the functionality of our main feature. Our previous company wasn’t maintaining it properly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything is flowing well right now.

Any advice for potential customers?

If you can, be specific about what you want by the time they initiate the build. That way, you don’t have to go back and forth a lot to change things.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the physical security manager for the security department of a Jewish educational institution in New York City.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

They were providing website development services for our shuttle bus reservation system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were having issues with updating our WordPress reservations site for a platform that manages a shuttle bus from northern Manhattan to our Midtown campus. Because of this, we decided to create our own platform.

They pulled some ideas from our previous WordPress site, but they developed the new site using AngularJS. In addition to the development, the designed the site as well to make everything more functional. They’re hosting the new site. 

What is the team composition?

From their end, they provided three resources that collaborated with eight people from our side.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

Several years ago, we had a developer working in our communications department. He was the one that found them in the end. He couldn’t continue supporting the site, so he gave them the project. When he left the organization, we decided to stick with their services. 

How much have you invested with them?

Initially, the project was budgeted at $18,000. After working on updates with them, the cost was closer to $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from September 2019–January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With the previous app, we were experiences lag times and downtime. We haven’t dealt with those things lately, so we’re pretty happy with the product. They added a feature that allows students to use their school credentials to register, which has also made that process easier. The app now features analytics reports too, which is useful for internal tracking.  

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

They completed the project far before our deadline. To communicate, we used email and WebEx video conferences. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They knew exactly what they needed to do. Their collaboration with our IT department went very smoothly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re professional, helpful, and affordable.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP of IT at a technology company providing online and onsite software services to the tradeshow-type event industry headquartered near Philadelphia. Our company has 50+ employees and we serve associations and corporate clients all over the world. I oversee our digital products and vendor relationships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire AllianceTek?

Our company's first mobile application was created by another developer, but cost and schedule targets were not being met. At the time we didn't have an in-house mobile developer, so we needed to outsource the on-going enhancements.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted enhance the functionality, performance, and user experience of the app, and address any compatibility issues caused by new mobile platform OS releases.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My team interviewed and selected this vendor based on their technical capabilities, resource availability, project management process, price, response time commitment, and other metrics. Based on the quality of their final proposal, we moved forward with them.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected this vendor, we had a series of initial discovery meetings to discuss the app in detail and our goals and objectives. We then established a one-week sprint cadence for the implementation and delivery of new features for both iOS and Android versions of the app on an on-going basis.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager to support us and serve as the main point of contact throughout the project. There were two developers, and we eventually added a QA resource since we did not have one on our side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Revenue from the app and associated service grew steadily as the app was enhanced by this vendor, and we received positive feedback on the enhancements.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager that we were assigned was easy to communicate with and responsive to our requests. We connected over video conference at least once a week and used Basecamp for project management. Overall, I was impressed by the timeliness of the team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was often impressed with how quickly they responded with a schedule for and delivery of the enhancement or fix. Especially given the urgency of some of our requests and the time zone difference.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Having developers be responsible for full testing of their own work is never a good idea, and the quality of some deliverables suffered until we added a QA resource to the team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of NCIC IT.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We had a client with headquarters in New York City and six overseas offices. They thought their environment in New York was secure, but after Hurricane Sandy, their system was down for a week. They wanted to take all of their data and migrate it to the cloud, with a key component of that migration being Microsoft SharePoint.

My team had some SharePoint expertise, but not enough. The installation also needed to be completed within a short period of time. We were looking for a partner that could support us on the project. The partner needed to be experts on data migrations, SharePoint, and software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, AllianceTek did a thorough planning stage. They went over the client’s current infrastructure and data structure, not only for the New York office but also for their six other branch locations. There were a lot of details to consider.

The installation and data migration process took three months. This process included creating a proof of concept and making changes and updates. During this time, my team provided training in New York. We also did online training for the overseas offices.

After the migration, we gave the client and all of the users a 30-day trial period. Once they started using the platform, they came up with other functions and features that they wanted to add to the SharePoint site. We did a firmwide follow-up to gather feedback and information, and AllianceTek helped us implement changes and add features. 

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was Sunil (Founder, President & CTO, AllianceTek). I’ve also worked with Christopher (Project Manager, AllianceTek) and another project manager, who was very good. He worked closely with our team to ensure everything was going smoothly and as planned. If we had any challenges or issues, he connected us to the right resources from their team, and we got an immediate response or solution.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

My team did various online searches, and in the majority of cases, AllianceTek came up in the top 3–5 search results. We contacted several companies, and, after conducting interviews, my team felt that AllianceTek was a better fit for our needs and that of our client. We were also looking for a partner that could work with us for other clients in similar situations.

How much have you invested with them?

For this project, we spent within the range of $100,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project took place in 2016. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The client was very pleased with the outcome. They were also impressed that we were able to complete the project in such a short period of time. 

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

AllianceTek’s follow-up was excellent. Anytime we had a situation, whether it was expected or not, they handled it in such a manner that we didn’t have to worry about it. We felt confident that they had the project under control. 

Communication was also good. We mainly communicated via email, and then we also had bridge conference calls. Sometimes, we did web meetings. They were very flexible with all of that. Despite having team members in different parts of the world, they’d accommodate our needs and gather anyone we needed to communicate with on a call or via webcam.

There were a couple incidents in which the scope of the work changed, and they went above and beyond to resolve those issues and deliver the project on time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed by the way AllianceTek planned the project and gathered information, as they were able to properly prepare for the data migration and avoid any issues, delays, or surprises. It was also very impressive the way AllianceTek’s team worked hand-in-hand with us. They followed our timelines and procedures and met our requirements overall.

AllianceTek’s commitment and the quality of their service were excellent. My company has continued to work with them on other projects. We’ve worked with many other development companies in the past, and AllianceTek definitely stands out. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. We were very satisfied overall with the outcome and impressed by their professionalism.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront and open with them in terms of what your needs are. Also, assign a dedicated person from your team to work with them and be their point of contact. Having a single point of contact makes it a lot more efficient and less time-consuming.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a small capital investment management company and I am the vice president of operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AllianceTek?

We brought AllianceTek on to improve our sales reporting process in our CRM system, which is Microsoft Dynamics.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve built a technology solution that links up different databases and formats of data and plugs them directly into our CRM system. This way, contacts that are maintained by separate databases get updated directly into our CRM system, which makes sales reporting much more consolidated.

What is the team composition?

We have one main point of contact there, but they pull one or two different developers into the project at various times to work on different aspects of the project. They’ve all worn many different hats to support the project.

How did you come to work with AllianceTek?

There aren’t a lot of support vendors for Microsoft Dynamics anymore, so we did a Google search and our CTO came across their company. When we reached out to them, they were extremely responsive and were very supportive and clear in their documentation of our expectations, so we decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with them?

I would estimate that we’ve spent a bit over $10,000 at this point.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2018 and are continuing to update and maintain our CRM system together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our system had a lot of issues prior to the work that AllianceTek has done. Their success was represented by our ability to reconcile all of our data within our CRM system. They’ve really managed to make data governance and the management of our contacts and transaction information totally seamless.

We’ve seen the number of phone calls and complaints related to our CRM system decrease pretty dramatically, almost immediately from when they developed and implemented their solution.

How did AllianceTek perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is extremely agile in their project structure. We met weekly to go over the requirements, and they always kept us abreast of any developments with a tool and web portal in SharePoint. We would share our requirements with them, and they would break those into individual tasks with different team members assigned.

In general, they were extremely responsive and set all expectations about the project upfront. We were very hands-on in managing the project, but they were very flexible in adapting to our management style. They run very leanly because they’re a small team, so we had a really good understanding of where each individual deliverable was at any given time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They occupy a really helpful space as a company. As I said, there are not many service providers that support Microsoft Dynamics these days because of other CRMs that have cropped up since then, so we are very happy with the support that they have provided to us. Their success was very much critical to our success, and they were so successful that we enlisted them for additional services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ll be honest, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Everyone’s goals and style are different, so it’s a little bit difficult to say that what we did would work for everyone. But we found that the hands-on, close cooperation style was very effective, so other teams might want to consider doing that as well.