Alvin Systems

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a talent management consulting firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Alvin to develop manager dashboards for data visualization to report survey results. It was a very tight time frame as another developer we had dropped out at the last minute.

SOLUTION

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

We selected Alvin due to his prior experience, customer reviews, responsiveness and clear thinking about how to approach the project.

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

He and his team designed the dashboards using Jango. We gave him a custom design we wanted and he developed the SAS application with reporting with data from an SQL database.

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

Two or three people. They were all great to work with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Client loved the reporting solution. There was minimal "tweaking" we had to do to satisfy our customer requirements.

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

They are reliable, met all deadlines and we had regular weekly updates.

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

They know how to listen to customer needs and they do what they say they are going to do.

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

No, everything was good.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the charter and operations coordinator at Skyways Ltd., a private jet charter company. We primarily do business and pleasure jet charter trips.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Alvin?

There are notices that are put out by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), and they’re called NOTAM (Notices to Airmen). Whenever there’s anything going on at an airport that would affect a flight going in, there’s a NOTAM. Before you fly in an airport, you always look at the NOTAMs, and they can be added at any time.

I wanted a service to be able to send automatic updates to users when a NOTAM is added to an airport.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Alvin created the NOTAM notification system, using Django and Celery coding technologies.

If a pilot is flying into LAX, they text the phone number we have with the airport identifier code. The system will send them a list of current NOTAMs, and it automatically subscribes you to that airport.

As soon as a new notice is posted, you get a text notification. In the new link that’s sent to users, the update is at the very top of the list, so they don’t have to search through and see which one was added.

What is the team composition?

I work with one developer from their team.

How did you come to work with Alvin?

I did a search for a few local companies on a website that had web developers for hire. I looked for the closest company, and Alvin popped up.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested over $10,000 in total.                         

What is the status of this engagement?

This project began in March 2019, and our work is ongoing.

The platform is mostly complete. We’re going to explore adding weather notifications, but that might not be feasible since there are so many more changes with the weather. We’re still going to explore that possibility and see what works best.

We might expand on it once the userbase gets bigger, too.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The service they created just made our jobs easier. We have 113 pilots signed up for it already. Our own company only has seven pilots, so word has gotten around pretty well for not even really advertising. I’ve just been telling pilots I know, and they’ve talked to other people. Everyone is very happy, and they think it’s one of the coolest things they’ve seen in years.

How did Alvin perform from a project management standpoint?

They exceeded our expectation for project management. They gave us a timeline of when they would have something done; it was always done at that time or before.

Whenever we had a meeting, they would just send an Outlook request.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team was always on point. They were super easy to talk to and work with. Their flexibility was great; if they said they weren’t available one day, they would immediately suggest another one.

I didn’t have to wait to hear back from them. Their communication and follow-ups were great. We never wondered what they were doing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. It wasn’t too intensive of a process, and I have no complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They like as much detail as possible, so it’s best to have what you want, organized as best as possible beforehand.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is based in Kiev, Ukraine. It’s called Innovative Media Solutions, LLC. I formed this company around 2011; we have a lot of clients in Ukraine.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Alvin Systems?

I had the idea to create this bulk SMS platform. Alvin Systems is the main freelancer and contractor who built and supported the system, and he is still supporting it now, helping us further develop the whole platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I was brainstorming and working with Alvin Systems when I had this idea. Alvin Systems was really putting down everything that we discussed, and he had his own ideas as well. Basically, it was his development. I was giving the guidelines and some ideas, but Alvin Systems was perfecting them in some way and putting his own feedback into the project. He was making everything work and being efficient. He is familiar with a very wide range of technologies.

What is the team dynamic?

Alvin Systems was the main developer and he is working with another person, Anton Sydorenko. They have a very beautiful team spirit. He inspired Anton. When they work together, it’s fantastic.

How did you come to work with Alvin Systems?

Because I have activities in Ukraine and I started to make this project, I looked around and asked people. I don’t exactly remember where I found him. From the beginning, you can understand if somebody is talented or great in one direction, or with one technology or technique. Our point of contactwas one of the first developers I came across. He was just such a fantastic developer that I didn’t feel the need to work with anybody else. The fact is that he was very versatile, not just talented in only one direction. When we need to do something different, he always finds a way.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent between $135,000 and $140,000. Depending on the work, I pay $1,000–$5,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with him in 2011. The project took half a year. I’m continuing to develop the platform further. I even have ideas to take it more global, because at the moment it’s serving the market of Ukraine.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our point of contact was a brilliant programmer. He does very efficient, very correct work. The system is working very nicely. The platform keeps growing. Every day we have more users, more SMS, and more trendings.

How did Alvin Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

In project management, he is working very, very well. I’m very pleased with the way he is working. He is very good at coordinating, because he works with some other people under him in this project. He is coordinating them in a very nice and efficient way. Above all, he inspires the team spirit. He sets milestones and works to accomplish them.

Our communication is mainly on Skype and various instant messengers. Our contact was always there, unless he was sleeping. He is there all the time to solve problems and fix bugs. He’s never failed me, not even once. He’s fantastic.

What did you find most impressive about them?

He does everything in a great way. I have come across a lot of programmers, a lot of talent in other areas; Our contact was unique. He is, I could say, one in a million.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I never had any complaints with anything he’s done. I know what I said sounds very perfect, but it’s the truth. I cannot lie.

Do you have any advice for potential clients?

Whoever works with Alvin Systems will have a good relationship with him as a person because above all, in business and in life, he is a good person, with a good character, and he is accurate and cooperative. Just communicate with him; give him tasks, and he will accomplish them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an operations manager for Adobe Corporation responsible for special projects in the marketing organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Alvin?

We had to develop a budget management tool from scratch to help allocate budgets across different vendors for our marketing programs. We hired Alvin to help us build this tool.

What were your goals for this project?

We set out to simplify budget allocations for our team.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After interviewing several vendors, we understood Alvin to be the most detailed and comprehensive in their understanding of our business needs.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed, developed, and helped QA the final deliverable.

What was the team composition?

One person helped us the entire project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve significantly improved efficiency in our operations, which means decreased operating costs and more time for other high priority projects.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We mainly used Slack and shared documents.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their attention to detail, flexibility, and ability to comprehend our business needs stood out to me.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There’s very little to improve. They had to research some APIs, but that wasn’t a big hindrance.