BigCheese

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Nuevo Siglo, a cable TV company in Uruguay.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BigCheese?

We needed someone to help us with the development of an Audience Rating System using our Set Top Boxes (STB) as a information source. We needed information about the audience and what our customers were seeing. We also needed information on the ratings, the different channels people watch, the time they’re watching TV, and the most viewed channels.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BigCheese provided an Audience Rating System for us. They started with monitoring information about ratings, sharing, and how the channels are watched by the customers. There was a second project that was related to the same source of information (STB) but with a more technical view.

We tried to get information to monitor the state of the STB and the network. It was not so focused on the content. It was more focused on the technical aspect of the services, like a monitoring system.

In the first phase of the project, the key was to get the first daily scope of what our customers were watching during the last day. That was the most important delivery and test. We don’t have a current project, but we’re analyzing a prospective idea with their team. We haven’t defined the project fully yet.

What is the team composition?

I worked with 2-3 members of their team, including the COO and a programmer.

How did you come to work with BigCheese?

We worked with them years ago. We have a personal relationship with them. We presented the project and approach. There weren’t any other companies that had the software ready to use. We discussed with BigCheese and with some other companies. We got some quotations and decided to go ahead with BigCheese.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested about $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement began in July 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BigCheese finished the project on time. The final product met the specifications that we set at the beginning of the project.

There were some delays but it was due to changes made on the specifications on how we needed the final results. It was due to our side, not theirs.

The system works without any problems. It’s fantastic. We have very low support needs.

How did BigCheese perform from a project management standpoint?

Their entire team is great at communication. They have fast delivery.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re flexible and adapt to our needs. The second phase of the project was a totally new concept. We didn’t have the final idea of what we really wanted so we made lots of changes on how to present the information. The capability of changing and adapting to new requirements was very important for the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any complaints. They could put us on a more strict schedule in order to force us to define many things that we took some time to define.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have close and honest communication in order for them to understand what you need. If you don’t know exactly what you need, try to do it in an agile way in order to get a quick approach to the final requirements.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a software Factory in Chile, develop from different industry, I`m CEO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BigCheese?

We needed to solve a problem associated with delivery time and have the security that everything was deployed on the client's servers since developments were continually being carried out and we did not have a DEVOPS culture

What were your goals for this project?

Create a culture in our company DEVOPS and provide our clients with the necessary peace of mind so that the time and security of the developed functionalities are quickly deployed in their facilities.

SOLUTION

How did you select BigCheese?

We have known Bigcheese for years, we worked together on other software development projects, and we knew that they had already incorporated DEVOPS into their consultancies

Describe the project in detail.

A project was selected, Bigcheese began to guide us in the best practices to carry out the technological and cultural changes of DEVOPS, he helped us in the infrastructure, tools, methodology and in general to carry out and monitor the process together

What was the team composition?

For our part, we initially incorporated two engineers who were working directly with BigCheese, then our engineers began to transmit what they learned to the rest of the company, but at all times BigCheese supported us in the process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Two months later we already had the technology and infrastructure necessary to work, the following three months we already put the whole procedure into practice, then the following months the rest of the organization was involved to show that this culture we must incorporate in all our projects.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent, at all times concerned and demanding of us, the most important thing for them is that we achieve the objective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were always attentive and they were always looking for the objectives as if they were part of our organization.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not much the truth, for this year we want to incorporate other knowledge that BigCheese can help us, such as testing methodologies and cloud infrastructure

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm IT Manager in the Agency for research and innovation in Uruguay.  We are a Government Agency which promotes innovation and research in the country.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had a big problem with user unification, authentication centralization, and security. We wanted user authentication to be carried out in one place and it would allow us to unify and debug the various lists that we already had.

SOLUTION

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

We worked on previous projects with them and we know the kind of work they were capable of doing.

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

Bigcheese development based on standard protocols, an integral solution that solves in a secure and centralized way the authentication, registration and updating of the information of the users of all the systems that we use.

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

There were 4 people in team, a project manager, a senior developer, solution architect and a developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The problem that we had was solved, delivering a product of high quality. Currently we have a single login tool that centralizes the users of all our applications. Centralization problems will be solved and the access security of users and their information will be considerably increased.

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

The management of the project was carried out orderly and complying in a timely manner with the agreed schedule. They held periodic meetings where the progress of the project is represented, the next steps were refined and defined.

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

They are a high performance team, with a good work organization and the products and services they provide are of very good quality.

.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a music streaming application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BigCheese?

We contracted them to develop the front- and backend of our application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team developed our entire mobile and web application. They used a technology that made it accessible among multiple devices.  

What is the team composition?

We’ve interacted with five people.

How did you come to work with BigCheese?

We interviewed three or four different development companies. We looked through pitches and ended up choosing BigCheese.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe we’ve spent around $300,000.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them for over five years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BigCheese has a professional and nice team. We created a high-quality streaming platform at a reasonable price.

How did BigCheese perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a good level of communication. It’s very professional.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a good working relationship with their team that we’ve built for five years.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Voy de Shopping is the online markeplace of Uruguay Malls. My position is Project Leader.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired BigCheese to develop an online system, middleware, that allows brands to get easily conneccted to Voy de Shoppings in terms of brand articles, stock, prices, etc. Our goal is to achieve in the short term, a solid and scalable system that allow the fast onboarding of brands.

SOLUTION

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

We met Big Cheese through recommendation. The decisive factors were:

• Experience
• Background
• Team Knowledge

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

The system we asked for is developed under Genexus, Java, PostgreSQL databases, and it will be hosted under AWS.

• Development of the "SIC" middleware that will transfer data between brands and marketplace, which includes salles reception and notification, dashboarding, monitoring.
• Development of at least 10 brand integrations, which incluides ERPs sync, articles loadup, stock and prices sync.

The key deliverables are:

• SIC development and go live.
• Onboarding development 2 brands in first row.
• Onboarding development 3 brands in second row.
• Onboarding development 5 brands in third row.

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

The team is made up of 4 proffesionals

• COO
• CTO
• Functional Analyst
• Project Leader

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The development is going on in perfect timing. We have weekly updates of the system to receive feedback and adjustments. Follow up is made through Asana wich is very useful for us.

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

We are using Asana Software and email for communication.

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

The most impressive thing is the reception and understanding of our request, as well as the neat management.

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

Not, up to now

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Software Development Manager of CIEMSA.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

At CIEMSA we add value to our clients' businesses through our Construction and Services areas, specializing in the planning and design of projects as well as their Construction Management and in design, integration, commissioning, operation and maintenance. of systems in complex environments that require technology, engineering and permanent innovation in terms of management and infrastructure.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire BigCheese to accomplish?

Software solutions.

SOLUTION

How did you find BigCheese?

Referral

Why did you select BigCheese over others?

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

What was the size of BigCheese’s team?

6-10 Employees

What was your primary form of communication with BigCheese?

Virtual Meeting

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

Development of a system that allows unifying, synchronizing and displaying the information on infractions, fines and logs generated by the cinemometers located on different customer routes. A development with a modern, intuitive, usable profile is sought, following the best UX practices, with use aimed at directors and contract managers to be able to monitor live data from the different systems.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Fontend, backend

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

The management of the project was excellent, punctual meetings, concrete follow-up, deliverables of time and date.

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

We liked the speed of their development without losing sight of the product quality and project objectives.

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

There was nothing they needed to improve on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the director of the company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We found ourselves in the need to make a personalized system, the company had grown a little and what was done almost manually was already unfeasible.

SOLUTION

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

He had been recommended to us by a trustworthy person.

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

Our business is logistics, first we analyze the management abroad and its processes and then the management here in Uruguay, it was a methodical work and many adjustments on the fly.

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

3 people a project manager and programmer, another programmer and a designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the project and made many adjustments on the fly, the system simplified several tasks that were initially done manually and helped a lot to reduce management errors, it greatly simplified operations.

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

Deadlines were met, the meetings were face-to-face.

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

We were amazed by the personalized attention and the desire they put into the project., providing ideas to further improve what they had set as their goal.

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

No, the experience was good

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of an IT company that builds dev-tools.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BigCheese?

We hire them to optimize our cloud infrastructure and improve our pipelines / deploys.

What were your goals for this project?

Use latest AWS technology servers, update tech stack and deploy more often on different branches / stages.

SOLUTION

How did you select BigCheese?

I know the founders because I worked with them in the past.

Describe the project in detail.

We always set up be weekly goals in a call meeting and then we wait for the PR / proposed solutions. Once we review them, we approve changes / reject and iterate on top of it.

What was the team composition?

Initially, a project leader and a devops specialist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Seamless launches
• Improved performance (avg time taken is now the half)
• Reduced technical debt
• Increased the amount of testing environments from 1 to 3.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Pretty good. Agile principles are always present so we are confortable.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to answer to our urgent needs is impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I think that they have a big knowledge of AWS were they can improve cross-selling and services provided.