Coretechs Consulting, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a marketing services company that provides marketing campaigns to small and medium-sized businesses. I oversee our technology solutions, including proprietary software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Coretechs Consulting, Inc.?

They’ve been a partner of ours for 6–7 years, handling custom development on three separate pieces of software. Part of what sets us apart in the marketplace is our ability to clearly articulate our benefit to our clients. We were using another series of tools and some manual effort to demonstrate this earlier and then built this application to gain operational leverage with the software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For our most complex project to date, the deliverable was a custom analytics solution that allowed us to combine a dozen disparate data sources to give our customers a greater understanding of their performance. It was an enterprise software project that included portals for both our customers and our internal team. From our side, we can understand our customers performance both individually and across our entire customer base.

The solution is built with Python and Django and contains an MCV framework and custom APIs — both into data providers and our client’s websites. Coretechs is handling all the hosting and server work for us.

Since launch, we’ve created a dozen new features every year – most recently were unique integrations into customer ERP systems. Initially we started connecting to marketing data platforms and then to engagement platforms, and then  into customer CRMs.

We also worked with Coretechs for two other development projects, and they now provide maintenance of all three solutions.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around eight people: Gil (President) and James (Partner) from the software architecture side, a dedicated project manager, and a senior developer, who’s been the same for six years. There have also been three junior full-stack developers who’ve rotated in and out at various points of time based on our needs. We may have worked with a DevOps resource as well.

How did you come to work with Coretechs Consulting, Inc.?

We’ve been working together for so long that I’m not sure exactly how we found them, but I believe it was through internet research. Perhaps we received a referral from someone who’d used them before, as well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $1–$2 million so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since February 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform is able to handle 500 concurrent users, which demonstrates its load. Our uptime is probably at 99.5% per month thanks to everything they’ve done.

Even when something goes wrong, our customers don’ realize it, which is very satisfying. Coretechs has been a great partner for us. We continue to invest in them every month and recommend them whenever someone asks.

How did Coretechs Consulting, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They excel at understanding what the problem is and then scoping it out, identifying any potential pitfalls and then removing them upfront.

When we’re in development, we communicate through Zoom calls for weekly stand-ups. We manage the project through ClickUp on our end, and there’s a mirror of that in Quickbase on their end, which helps them keep track of everything from their perspective. Other than that, we prefer to communicate over email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do a great job at the outset of each project of understanding their work and bringing their experience to bear to help diagnose the issue. They develop an understanding of our future based on our business context, and then apply that understanding to their development team’s work. they’re great coders as well, which is a strong combination.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly don’t have anything here. Coretechs’ team is always proactive, but they could be a bit more off-the-wall with their suggestions. This isn’t really fair to say because they already do a great job, but we’d like to see some even more innovative ideas.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them a try. Their partners have a strong technology background and will understand your problem accurately so as to develop an appropriate solution architecture.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a company that does criminal background checks. I am the lead developer and in charge or developing and deploying applications for our business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Coretechs Consulting, Inc., and what were your goals?

We have a small IT team, and when we first started working with Coretechs, I was the only developer in our team. We have been trying to build and deploy applications at scale as we build our team. Our goal was to develop and deploy applications that our team members could use as a way to increase productivity.

SOLUTION

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

Their attention to detail during our initial meetings showed how much knowledge and expertise they had in the field.

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

They integrated an application into our stack that would reduce data entry for our end users. The end goal was to make sure the data that was collected for our end users was not only organized in the correct manner, but also in a way that made our end users have to do as little editing as possible.

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

There were 3 people I worked with, 2 developers and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched our project after doing QA with very minimal changes required, and when we do request changes they are able to implement them in an extremely quick fashion, without compromising quality of work.

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

Their project management style worked great for me. They would reach out to me via email whenever they had updates to keep me in the loop, or had any questions. Questions that could be answered over email were handled that way, however they offered to meet via Zoom if there was a solution that was difficult to articulate.

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

The quality of work paired with the time of development. After working with Coretechs on several projects, I am able to give them a project outline that makes sense, and they are able to meet most of the deliverables with only having to reach out a handful of times.

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

Not to my knowledge

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Sensei Enterprises, a digital forensics, IT, and cybersecurity company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Coretechs Consulting, Inc.?

We needed someone to rebuild our Excel-based program because our software host couldn’t support it anymore.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Coretechs Consulting provided us with custom software development and helped us migrate to an entirely new platform that they built. In a separate project, they completely redesigned our website and modernized it to comply with Google’s SEO standards.

What is the team composition?

We were in contact with a total of five members over the course of our projects. They were all very responsive and wonderful to work with.

How did you come to work with Coretechs Consulting, Inc.?

We already knew their company based on their excellent online reputation. I immediately felt a sense of corporate integrity after talking with Gil (President) and found that our business philosophies are virtually identical.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2016 to the present as they continue to provide support to our software product.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Coretechs Consulting delivered a successful product, which is now being used in the majority of courts and family law firms in Virginia. The product became viral fairly quickly, and feedback from external stakeholders has been overwhelmingly positive. The partnership was a very amiable and pleasant experience.

How did Coretechs Consulting, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

Coretechs Consulting understood the technology better than I did, and was highly responsive throughout the duration of the partnership. The project manager regularly kept in touch with us regularly through Zoom, so it was very easy to reach out to them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their friendliness and incomparable integrity.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At one point, they needed some specialized expertise and quickly brought a top level employee on board when we asked. I can’t think of anything else they could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say be as good to the team as they will be to you.