CognitiveClouds

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the solutions delivery manager for an art marketplace startup. We started doing custom art installations in different spaces. Since then, we’ve expanded to offer a digital art casting service that’s compatible with streaming devices as well as a physical art sales service.

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We were looking for developers who could build the app for our streaming service.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve built our Apple TV and Google TV apps and are now working on our Amazon Fire Stick solution. Their solutions are native to the respective platforms, with the Google TV and Amazon Fire Stick apps both being based in an Android environment.

What is the team composition?

They provided us with a scrum project manager, a designer, and one developer for each platform.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

One of the investors in the company referred them to us. After meeting with them and reviewing their track record, we felt like they were a sensible partner who could do the job well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $30,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since November 2020. They’ve accomplished what we initially set out to do, but we’ve found more work for them and extended the contract.

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

We recently had the opportunity to show the platform to major investors as well as a potential partner of ours. They were all impressed with the polished interface and how well the solution displayed fine art. CognitiveClouds’ team understood the more design-related aspects of the project just as well as they understood the code behind the platform.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s worked out pretty well. We use Slack to communicate, which has helped us quickly and easily reach their team. For project management purposes, we’ve used Jira. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were easily able to digest the uniqueness of our product and the importance of design to its success. Their understanding of our needs was clear from the first wireframes they delivered. Other vendors we’ve worked with have struggled in this area. The experience they’ve been able to build for Apple TV, which was the main platform we focused on, has been really impressive. They were willing to work around us and used the tools we wanted with no friction.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. They’ve been great so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Being able to articulate what you want out of the user interface early on and asking them to test their code thoroughly throughout the process would be helpful. They work in the evenings as well, so make sure you’re aware of any challenges this may present before entering into the engagement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Dragon Slayer. We’re a travel company that originally focused on the discerning luxury traveler but now serves the travel agent community.

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

In the beginning, CognitiveClouds came on board to develop our travel app. We’ve retained them to update our solution as we pivot our business around COVID-19.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Cognitive cloud developed our travel solution, which consisted of iOS and Android for travelers and a web app version for travel agents. 

The original app targeted travelers who didn’t always know where they could visit. We noticed how several popular apps had a clean, simplified design, so we created mock-ups that met those standards.

Having a straightforward design was crucial because the functionalities were quite complex. Users could chat with their travel advisors through the app, exchange information and feedback, and even view analytics. There was also a closed social media portion where communities could converse about their travels.

The product launched officially in December 2019. But, due to complications from COVID-19, we had to pivot the app to meet market needs. 

In the new flagship app, I realized that travel agents had to be our main focus because people were now turning to travel agents to help plan trips. CognitiveClouds responded by shifting their attention to our web app and redesigning the solution.

What is the team composition? 

I work with about 8–10 people on a regular basis, including Ben (VP of Business Development).

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

I searched on Google for mobile app developers with a strong discipline in analytics. Once I narrowed my list down to a couple of vendors, I was most impressed with how CognitiveClouds approached my challenge.

Their team had decent screen scraping capabilities, which involves automatically ingesting information from other sites without using an API. That was really important during my first vision of my company.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost has been greater than $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them since September 2018 and are going to launch the second app in a few days. It’s been almost exactly two years.

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

Not only did the original app have consistent uptime, but it also had a lot of positive user feedback. People were pleased that the design was so understandable despite how complicated the backend was. 

Kudos to CognitiveClouds for helping us pivot our business to our most recent desktop version. The current COVID-19 era is a very dynamic environment, so it’s important to have a flexible team that can help you stay afloat. CognitiveClouds is nimble and can react quickly, which is exactly what we need.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re learning about better project management practices, though there’s still room for improvement. The second phase of the project showed the most growth. While working on the web app, they introduced us to Figma, which streamlined the UI development. 

They also had the UI lead function as our project manager to keep things moving along. That’s been a key change for us because the UI lead is ultimately the person who’s developing the project all the way through.

What did you find most impressive about them?

While I haven’t worked with enough development houses to compare, I’d give CognitiveClouds a B+/A- score overall based on what I’ve read about other people’s experiences. There were some items that I felt should have happened more quickly, but I had very complex requirements. Other than that, the quality of the final product was strong — it just took time to get there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Returning to project management, it’s clear that CognitiveClouds is an expert at using an agile methodology. However, I wish they had more discipline to tell me what I can or can’t do in a particular sprint. 

They were often lax with us about our requests, and that’s where some of the scope creep and schedule slips came into play. It was pretty frustrating when they’d miss a delivery date, but I don’t know enough about software development to judge them too harshly. Having a project manager who could stay on top of that and prevent scope creep would’ve been great.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product development manager at Calculated. We design and manufacture handheld measuring tools and calculation tools for the construction industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We were designing and developing a SaaS product for construction customers to manage products out in the field. It’s a mobile SaaS product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborated with them on the design for the mobile side and the web side. The app is available on iOS and Android and the web. It also has a web administration tool. They did all the developments, technical design, infrastructure, and cloud service implementation on the backend. My company did a portion of the functional testing and user acceptance testing.

We had some general documentation at the beginning of the project and then they led us through screen designs for all three of our platforms. That detailed out a lot of our requirements.

What is the team composition?

From start to finish we probably worked with around eight people. There were a couple of people at the beginning on the screen designs and then we transitioned to developers and DevOps resources.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

They were responsive during the RFQ process. We liked their approach and that they let the screen designs articulate the details.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $60,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2019 until March 2020. We had six months of development and a few months of maintenance.

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

We put the product into beta, and that resulted in us not moving forward with the product. That’s not a reflection of them, however. Their deliverables were as we designed but the idea wasn’t one we could go to market with in the end. Generally, the people in beta groups liked how the app looked and flowed. The use cases ended up not being marketable for us.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

Our experience with them was really good. They’re very detail-oriented and they’ll continue to chase down something until they get it right. They’re relentless.

We had a lead person on their side for both the design and development work, and then there was only one person above that who we’d occasionally interact with. Their assigned leads were very capable and organized. It was very positive.

We used InVision on the design side and Trulioo (internally on their side) and Zoho on the development side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were our first experience with a cloud developer and the key point for us was that they came up to speed quickly. We also liked their development approach, which was creating the screen designs upfront and bypassing the traditional written requirements. Everything felt modern and agile.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have an opportunity to do better on the QA side. I mentioned earlier that we did some of the functional testing, and we even had to do some white box testing to see where some of the transactions were failing in the database. Perhaps they’re top-heavy on developers outputting functional things and are sharing testing resources across multiple projects. They just felt a little thin there. We absorbed some of that and gave the feedback to them to resolve. It would have been nicer and less costly for us if they could find the issues themselves.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We had a vision ahead of time of what we wanted to beta test, and you definitely need that going into a relationship with any provider doing this type of work. If you back into a vision then your expectations may not be met. They were very good listeners but you have to have something for them to react to. It’s probably true of everyone but they’re very good at absorbing information and taking action.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of software development for a tech company.

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We needed staff augmentation to help with development. We wanted someone who had done work in the cloud space and had experience with specific technologies.

What was the scope of their involvement?

CognitiveClouds has been providing software development services on our premises. We give the entire product roadmap to them. They provide Node.js, MongoDB, Angular, and Cloud development services.

When we started working with them, they worked on a web application. Then, we augmented them to do a mobile application.

What is the team composition?

We have had up to 17 people.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

We shortlisted companies who worked in the specific technologies we were using. Along with CognitiveClouds, we looked at around six companies and chose them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2018, and the work is ongoing.

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

We’re very satisfied with them. We have hired many of their people to our organization.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

We handle the project management. We have a meeting with the team members daily. They’re easy to manage, and they complete work on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are skilled people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were looking for somebody at the level of an architect, and we weren’t able to get that from them. We had to augment with a different source. Other than that, they’ve been able to provide the right kind of skills that we need.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a pretty technology-oriented organization. They’ve done some very interesting products. My advice is that you have to work very closely with their team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a digital business card mobile application.

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We hired CognitiveClouds for engineering an application from scratch that would allow our users to share and track the usage of their digital business cards.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The developers at CognitiveClouds built an iOS, Android, and backend web app from scratch using Swift, Kotlin, and Firebase. This included frontend design and an admin integration panel for the web version.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 5–6  individuals over the course of the project. There were two iOS developers, two Android developers,1–2 backend web developers, and one part-time QA.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

We searched online and ended up using Clutch reviews to narrow our options down to a few of the best companies. We met with and got quotes from each of those teams, and then made a value-based decision that led us to CognitiveClouds.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we’ve spent around $50,000 AUD (approximately $34,900 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We engaged with CognitiveClouds in July 2018 and started work on the frontend of the application in September, and the project is ongoing.

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

We get regular updates through product demos that we have been extremely happy with so far. We don’t have a lot of data since the product has not been rolled out yet, but we have been pleased with all of the work done so far.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

CognitiveClouds has managed the project very well. They put together a progress spreadsheet where we could see the action points as they accomplish them and stay up to date that way as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very flexible and understanding of the needs of a small startup.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there isn’t anything that I would have changed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would just suggest to either come to them with a prototype already designed or to do the project end to end with them so you can avoid any errors in translation or hand-off periods.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a healthcare startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We needed resource augmentation for Angular, Ionic, and Python development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us develop our consumer-facing apps, as well as an internal one used by our operations staff. The platform was built as a mobile product using Node.js, Angular, Ionic, and Python.

They didn’t create the whole app, but they worked on key functionalities and continue to work alongside my team, taking some of our load, and helping us with the process. Some of the work they’ve done was from scratch, always working along with our team.

What is the team composition?

CognitiveClouds assigned five developers. They’re working onsite with us, so the project management is quite light, but we were in touch with their head of engineering for contractual matters.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

I got a referral from a former colleague. Though I contacted others, I was comfortable with CognitiveClouds, so I decided to stick with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around 10 lakh rupees (approximately $14,000 USD) per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2017 and the project is ongoing. We’ve finished one part and are moving on to other phases, while also using them for support.

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

I measure their performance in the same way that I do my own team—completion time and similar factors—and find the collaboration to by typical.

The feedback on their work has been positive, and the few unsatisfactory resources were either retrained or replaced.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t use them for project management as they’re integrated into our team. We set very high standards.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their people is impressive; they do a very good job of training them. Though most of their team work from our office, they go back to CognitiveClouds almost every other week. They’re doing a good job on their end to keep people happy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a couple of people who could’ve performed better, but that was to be expected. Overall, I’m happy with them.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Trust them and don’t try to micromanage the collaboration. As long as the requirements are clear, they’ll do what’s expected.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering development for a large web services provider and online advertising company. I’m part of the team creating solutions for advertisers to show ads on our websites.

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We needed to build a companion mobile app for our main website, where our advertisers could render campaigns. We had internal resourcing challenges, so we started looking for someone who had expertise in mobile development outside.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted iOS developers to help us build the product. We gave them a specification of what needed to be done, and their team worked with ours to develop the app and its UI.

Advertising is data-driven, and the app offers different representations of it, including data tables, charts, and graphs. They came up with nice renderings of charts, which were crucial for us. Advertising also involves images, so they created an intuitive UI for uploading and resizing them, making sure they fit the format we’re looking for.

Due to the success of the iOS app, we started an Android project, which is still ongoing. We’ve also started building a web portal that will be a lighter version of the one we already have. That’s still a work in progress.

What is the team composition?

When we started, we had two developers and a QA, though now we’ve expanded the team to almost five developers. We’re involved in the selection process as we have certain criteria, especially when it comes to the quality of the deliverables.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

We looked online for offshore mobile development firms and came across CognitiveClouds, as well as a few others. Their quote was the most competitive.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2017.

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

We launched the mobile app to the iOS App Store, which is a clear metric of success. It’s impacted both our internal and external customers as we’re able to bring in many more features and make our processes more efficient.

Our internal sales team meets advertisers everywhere, so a mobile app allows them to quickly show how ads look and how campaigns are performing. The mobile-first approach is a lot more efficient, and it helps drive business.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

We work collaboratively with them, meeting almost daily. We give them weekly milestones of what we want to achieve, which gives the developers a clear focus. They give us daily code drops so we can build the software. validate it, and make sure the quality and functionality are there. It helps us keep a close eye on the progress they’re making.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to listen, take feedback, and try to do what’s best is impressive. Complex development is never a straight line, and they’re always willing to take the time to make sure that any challenge is looked into and addressed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We continue to coach them on how their processes fit in with ours, in terms of coding guidelines and automated testing. This is to reduce the time we spend reviewing their code.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Respondent 1: I’m the marketing manager for American Steel Inc. We make metal buildings for customers.

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

R1: We needed someone to create a brand-new website from scratch. We also needed a calculator so our customers could create buildings and price them on our website. Another company had created a 3D tool for us, but it was much simpler than we wanted, so we had to update it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

R1: They developed a portal where our dealers can log in and request information from us, place orders on behalf of the customer, and request quotes and information regarding our products. It’s a responsive web application.

Respondent 2: They also implemented a 3D visualization tool so customers can see what they were ordering and have an idea of what they're going to purchase. We’re working on the final stages of the project now, making little adjustments.  

R1: Using the tool, customers can build their building on our website and request information about it. It supports different building types including agricultural structures, carports, garages, workshops, and lean-tos. They can add walls, windows, garage doors, and change the roofing style. There’s also an application where customers can overlay the building they created on their land using AR.

What is the team composition?

Both: We worked with a project manager and different developers and designers depending on our needs. For example, we had a developer who specialized in forms, one for design and color, and one for 3D features.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

R1: I found them online. I saw good reviews and samples of their work on their website.

How much have you invested with them? 

R1: We’ve spent $60,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

R1: We’ve been working together since January 2018.

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

R1: We’re almost done, and we’re extremely excited to see the final results. We’ve gotten good feedback from our employees too. CognitiveClouds has fulfilled all feature requirements within our scope and budget. Overall, we’re quite pleased.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

R1: They’ve been excellent. We email back and forth, and video chat while sharing screens.

R2: We also have conference calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

R1: They pay detailed attention to technical specifications, which is important for a company dealing with customer requests.

Are there any areas they could improve?

R1: If we find something we don’t like, they’re able to make changes. We haven’t had any issues with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

R1: Prepare your scope of work and be specific about what you want, to cut down on the time-consuming back and forth.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive Vice President of Utilitworx, which is a leading provider of web and mobile applications. I run our operations team at our Chicago office.

What challenge were you trying to address with CognitiveClouds?

We needed help designing and engineering a web-based, cloud platform for a client. We were looking for a development company to build the solution.

What was the scope of their involvement?

CognitiveClouds is a full-service engineering firm that has built several workflow management applications for us.  They did a very simple project management application and also a customized project management workflow for utility companies. They were involved in mapping out the requirements for the application and checking in with us to make sure they were on the right path in terms of the features and design we wanted.

The app tracks financial information, budget information, how much money has been billed and collected, and what part of the process the construction is under. CognitiveClouds also implemented very specific features that the client needed to have. Users are able to document measurements, details, and financial information, geared towards construction site inspections. There are certain survey forms that need to be filled out to make sure the work was up to code and the company’s specifications. At the end of the project, they gave us testing capabilities with user IDs to log in and play with the solution, allowing us to make sure the function and design were what was needed.

What is the team dynamic? 

We deal with four people total, including the team development lead and one person from each of the three different teams we work with: design, development, and quality control. The team lead facilitates interactions with those different teams to make sure they get things signed off and get feedback from us. They’re a friendly team.

How did you come to work with CognitiveClouds?

I wasn’t here yet when we started working with them, but I think we found them through a web search. We were looking for a US based company that had overseas staff. Our CEO reached out to them. We were a very new business at the time and were trying to find vendors to work with. One of the highlights for our CEO was that the owner of CognitiveClouds went to college in Illinois which is where we’re based. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $500,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2015, and the work is ongoing.

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

We don’t have anything fully released or used full-time yet; everything is still in demo piloting stages. The feedback we’ve received from clients has been very positive. They were impressed with the app’s overall UI/UX. We’re very impressed with what they built.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a development team lead who is responsible for making sure they’re getting the information they need and communicating information to us. The lead verifies features and requirements with us and arranges times to chat. They are good at keeping us in the loop. Since they’re in India, they schedule conference calls once or twice a week. They go through a demo mode and show us what they’ve accomplished. They've nailed communication. They do a good job of completely understanding what’s required before moving forward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re open to feedback and are very responsive. If we tell them something needs to be changed, they fix it quickly. They’re eager to make sure that what they’re building is exactly what we need. Since they’re not in our office, it’s important that they have their finger on the pulse. If we need to call after hours, they’re willing to adjust their schedule. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. It would be cool if they were not in India because that would make things easier. But considering that constraint, they do a good job of making sure they’re in constant communication with us.

I am an experienced product leader who has previously overseen multiple teams of product managers, designers, and engineers as part of an innovation lab for a Fortune 100 company.

This engagement was something I did on my own, not on behalf of a larger organization. 

I engaged Cognitive Clouds to build a minimum viable product [MVP] for an app concept that I wanted to experiment with. The app was a photo sharing and chat app focused on live events. The purpose was to get a functional app in front of real users to see what they would do with it. 

I interviewed four different offshore development firms. I selected Cognitive Clouds because the account rep [Ben Obear] was local and fairly knowledgeable about other startup efforts. He was very professional, responsive, and reasonable. The senior tech lead in India had worked at the same firm as an old colleague of mine, so I had heard good things (indirectly) about him. Also, the engineers were able to use the stack that I wanted (Node.js) and not Ruby, which most firms wanted to use. And finally, the price quote was not the lowest that I received, but I was willing to pay more given the reasons above.

I engaged the firm for engineering work only. They provided two engineers: 1 backend, 1 front-end, and some minimal quality assurance [QA]. I hired a separate designer to work with locally and spelled out all the requirements personally.

The engagement was initially estimated at 3-4 months. The project ran longer, about 5-6 months, but the firm did not charge me for the extra time.

The Cognitive Clouds team delivered the product to my satisfaction, though it took longer than originally estimated. They followed through on their promise to meet some fairly extensive and complex requirements. I was able to release the app on the app store and use it reliably at real live events. I obtained useful data on MVP usage that led to refinement of the concept and roadmap.

The main reason I was happy with the engagement was their flexible attitude and willingness to follow through on promises, though it became more complicated than originally estimated. I also thought the quality of the work product was good, and the code I received on Github was well organized.

Areas of improvement include better QA; there were many many bugs that I had to find and document myself. This should have been done by a QA engineer. Perhaps a more structured methodology, i.e. project management, in how work is scheduled would be useful as well. There were no documented sprints, so I wasn't sure what to expect on which dates during the project.