Daxima

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a senior analyst working on new development opportunities at an independent power producer in California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Daxima?

We needed unique industrial control software with an interactive web interface to manage one of our projects. It needed to use standard industrial communications protocols while facilitating interaction between a number of disparate parties.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Daxima implemented a SQL database connected to a number of APIs and an interactive web user interface. They also included reliable email reporting, which was of particular importance, especially for discerning different types of failures. The software was developed using C#, which is backed by Microsoft and is industry-standard for this type of project.

What is the team dynamic?

Their team consisted of a project manager and two coders that he selected, as designated in their project proposal.

How did you come to work with Daxima?

We had a well-defined project with a list of required features and solicited bids from seven or eight software vendors. Daxima’s proposal was very thorough and represented a solid understanding of our needs. Their time and budget estimates were also in line with what was expected.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent in the range of $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in early July and is for the most part complete. The code has been reviewed and is functioning in a virtual environment, and once the last loose ends get wrapped up, there will be a two or three-month burn-in session.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work was extremely high. Their code is logical and easy to understand, even for someone who is not a coder by trade. The impact will not be felt for a couple of months, but it will effectively enable our project to run the way we conceived it. This was definitely the smoothest experience I've ever had working with software developers.

How did Daxima perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was excellent. After being selected, they walked us through a plan for their sprints and set up regular biweekly meetings. It was helpful that they understood our needs because in every conversation they showed an ability to discern which issues would require guidance on their part. They always came with proposals and solutions on hand to choose from.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The code is high-quality and very logical. Additionally, they came to meetings with considerate ideas, always balancing what the project needed with our cost restraints. Their primary coder, Chanok, was also very impressive in his ability to solve problems as soon as they arose.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I struggle to think of anything that could have been improved in this process.

Advice for potential customers?

Come into the project with specifications as well-defined as possible. There was never any time where they had to do anything twice because all parties were on the same page regarding the expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the VP of operations for a financial counseling company. I am currently retired.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Daxima?

We were part of a co-op, and, as our business model changed, we needed more accessibility and efficiency for our reports. Our current (and, by current, I mean 2 years ago) client management system for inputting incoming-client data had been working well for 20 years, but it simply wasn’t as quick as we needed it to be. We needed consensus from the co-op for any changes, given that the other people were using the system. We needed more instantaneous pulling of data and changing of programs than what the current client management system was offering.

We intended to find a more fluid system which could grow with us, as we grew in the credit counseling and report industry. We knew that we would be venturing into different markets and trying different things, so we needed a system which could move quickly. More than pulling data, we needed the ability to handle new programs on the web, instead of having counseling face-to-face or via phone, and needed to do this without consensus from the co-op.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Daxima built our system from the ground-up, in collaboration with our IT director. They had meetings with our accounting and HR departments (with the latter, the discussion was more around operations) discussing our wish list and what we need to keep. Daxima also worked with the call center and with anyone else who was entering data into the system. They found out what their wish lists and issues were, and worked more closely with the hands-on people in our team. Daxima initially met with supervisors and managers for an idea of the big picture, and then drilled things down. They were good at understanding our product.

From my perspective, the biggest item was the ability to pull data from the internet. We were moving towards clients entering data into the online applications we had built, and pulling that data into the new system. We needed the ability to pull down reports and combine them.

Another big concern was what we could do with the data in the co-op. We needed to still be able to pull reports from both ends, until they were merged. Daxima did a good job of telling us the pros and cons of this. In addition, they helped a lot with our disaster recovery. During that time, we were trying to move our software and hardware out to Sacramento, outside the fault line of San Francisco.

What is the team dynamic?

I have personally interacted with 3 people from Daxima’s team firsthand, but there may have been others involved. We primarily interacted around operations, call center, disbursement, and accounting. If a situation occured which was outside their expertise, I assume that different people from different departments within Daxima would be brought in. They were very knowledgeable about the work, so this never concerned me.

I worked directly with Ryan Tabibian, their CEO, but I know that his team worked with my staff. We worked on the bigger-picture items, and, when we drilled down to operations, Ryan would be involved or would be aware. During the project, there was a lot of emailing and phone calls, so I would say, maybe, on average, when they were developing, we spoke 2-3 times a week or more. With the IT director, they were speaking quite a bit during the week. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were talking every day. They had weekly meetings, during which Ryan would be present. I only took over IT in the last 2 years of my employment.

How did you come to work with Daxima?

We were introduced to them by another vendor which managed our IT system, in conjunction with our IT director. I’m not sure what the discussions were at that point, since I came in after the decision was made. My understanding is that the process normally involves vetting 2-3 options. Daxima helped us with a smaller online worksheets project, before moving on to the big one of developing the client management system itself.

How much have you invested with Daxima?

The cost of the project was between $275,000 and $350,000. I don’t think that Daxima charged us for every single time we were on the phone. There were many things which they simply did for us, and I felt they did a good job of training our helpdesk IT. Daxima wasn’t the sole group who understood the system, so we had no fears in that regard. It was a collaborative effort, at least with my involvement, and I always got a response from them. From a billing perspective, I am confident that they didn’t bill us for everything they could have.

What is the status of this engagement?

I would not venture to guess this. I do know that the collaboration took place in the last 10 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Based on the dealings I’ve had with Daxima, I found them professional and generous with their time, from an accounting perspective. I oversaw billing, and had them on the phone a lot when it came to operations and building reports. I know that they didn’t bill that to us.

Also, they were generally knowledgeable. If the team didn’t have an answer, they’d get back to us, and do it quickly. We were never left hanging.

The system Daxima helped us develop worked, and I believe it’s still currently in place, even though I left the company 2 years ago. In my last year, Daxima was still making updates. They created what we wanted, namely the ability to make changes for a particular partner.

How did Daxima perform from a project management standpoint?

I was happy with them, and found that their ability to talk with staff and understand them was good. Most of the communication around timelines was done with my superior, but, from my perspective, any reports and tasks we were working on were delivered on time.

We always threw new things at Daxima. If we wanted 6 items, by the time we’d get to the 6th one, we’d have thought about a couple more. They were really good at managing this.

What did you find most impressive about Daxima?

From my perspective, it was customer service and availability.

Are there any areas Daxima could improve?

Not from my end. Whenever I worked with Daxima, I felt informed. If we asked for something which was not doable, we received a good explanation behind it, instead of a simple “no.” There were also cost limitations at times, but we found creative approaches through Daxima’s feedback.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Daxima?

It’s important to be communicative and specific. Daxima will be able to use that information. This could have enhanced our project. Developing something without knowing what we wanted affected us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was working as an application development manager at a large mobility company that helped people get their visa application when they needed to move for work at another branch location or visit a company as a client. We had a chance to work with Daxima on several projects during that time.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Daxima?

The biggest problem we had was in creating thousands of visa applications in a short period. We already had a program that pulled information into those applications, but it was a legacy system which wasn't very dynamic, flexible, nor scalable. It was taking quite a while for us to complete the applications on a mass scale. That’s when Daxima stepped in.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brainstormed with Daxima, and we were able to come up with custom applications that configured and compiled all the data needed. The amount of time we had to spend filling out the applications was reduced by half. The system grabbed all the data it needed, and it was dynamic and flexible in setting different configurations. For instance, the wording of the application would automatically change depending on certain criteria. With the system Daxima built, we were able to crunch out thousands of application forms, and it took half as much time as it did before.

Daxima mostly used C# technology. They also built a web-based application that would walk you through all the different steps. You would pick the person, the company where the person works, and then the type of applications that you wanted to generate, and then the system would generate the entire application package. So along with the application document that you would need to send out, the system would also populate and generate a letter that identifies all of a person’s qualifications, and it also generates an email template. The web application pulls from a database, configures an email to a specific target in that database, and sends it.

Let’s say you apply for a school. You have to have a letter that you write, the application form, and any attachments that you need to have, and it can generate all of that in one package for each person. Any attachments would already be in the email too, and the email content would already be populated and customized for the person you're sending it to. Also, we can generate that on a mass scale, so you can do 50 or 100 at a time, depending on what you want to target.

The project went on in different phases and after we had discussions, the first phase only took a few months. It was kind of a proof of concept. The system was already working without a lot of functionality or configuration. Here we can generate documents based on the person, the company, the criteria, but it doesn't have a lot of the different types of documents. The first version was just the Word document. Then we were playing with how to configure based on different types of applications, like changing certain wording. Those details come in later phases. I think it took less than a year to get the entire project to where it is. A big part of that project was also dealing with different document formatting because we had the email, the PDF, and the Word document. So, you would have to configure how to populate a PDF form. The most impressive part was the barcode. At that time, the government came out with this new specification that you can scan the barcode within the application, and then the information will be pulled into their system. We were one of the few companies that generated the barcode to pull in the information for the applicant correctly.

How did you come to work with Daxima?

When I joined the company, it already had a preexisting relationship with Daxima. I didn't have to search for a vendor for this project.

How much have you invested with Daxima?

That web-based app project was the highlight of the work that we did with Daxima. I think it cost about $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project with Daxima about four years ago. I think June 2015 to January 2016, or maybe June 2014 or June 2013. We were also working on other projects at the same time, so I can't say for certain. A lot of things were going on at once.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Time was the biggest problem for us because we were looking at how to generate this massive list of applications in a short amount of time. That was one of the biggest things we focused on. We also focused on accuracy. Instead of having people do this work manually, we were able to mass generate them using the application, so it reduced the possibility of human errors.

How did Daxima perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a team of about four people from Daxima. We also worked with the India team mostly for their help with the QA part. They worked directly with our QA team. We frequently met with Ryan [Founder & CEO, Daxima]. He was always over at the office to make sure everything was going well. We would communicate through chat, or sometimes we would visit them in their office to whiteboard the concepts and approaches together. The communication has never been any issue at all. It was always smooth. Everything involving the app ran smoothly. We were excited to see what it could do, and it sparked a lot of ideas. The application itself is good. In the beginning, we needed to make sure all the tags were populated correctly. I guess that’s typical. The software goes through different phases, and you find things here and there, and you just have to keep improving it.

What did you find most impressive about Daxima?

I believe Daxima responds well to customers in terms of listening to them and providing their expertise. They’ve done different projects before, and they were able to suggest and recommend a better approach and give us solutions. They were also hands-on and attentive with the project. I think that was huge on the relationship side because you can build fantastic, excellent software, but if you don't have that relationship with the vendor, it just makes things much harder.

It was a great opportunity to work with Daxima’s team; they have really bright talent there. Everybody is cooperative and easy to work with, and they’re prompt in helping you with any issues or problems that you have. We really work well together as a team, which is a huge benefit. They’re responsive and a nice group of people to work with.

Are there any areas Daxima could improve?

I believe we could have worked more on documentation, in terms of writing out all the details, the specs, and the overall vision. That’s part of being in the software industry, though. Documentation is always the last thing you think about. As you keep coming up with new requirements and move through the project, you sometimes don't think about the documentation part as much.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Daxima?

I would recommend that future clients come up with their problem statements. They also should be open-minded and see what the Daxima team comes up with because they have been in the industry for a while, so everybody on the team has different expertise areas. It’s really interesting to see all the different points of view.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CIO for a law firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Daxima?

I brought in Daxima and worked with them extensively to develop proprietary applications that were leading edge in providing immigration management software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope was the full systems engineering lifecycle process—from concept to specification, prototype, development, QA, production, release management and support. It was a huge enterprise web based application. There was a lot of emphasis on the web part, and cross browser compatibility so we did multiple pieces of web development projects. We also developed a HTML 5 mobile UI, and did some work on the mobile application, but that was not completed during my tenure.   

Over multiple years of development, we developed features like a multilayered security component, which accommodated the complicated multi-tenancy features of the application. We also developed a number of modules in the application, that included initiation (both single and batch mode), fully customizable questionnaires, a complete case management suite, content management, and extensive reporting features.

We completed a number of projects with Daxima.  Some of the products were successfully delivered  to very large Fortune 100 companies that were our clients. We used the existing legacy application as a starting point, and did a number of conceptual projects to help with the re-design and modernization of the existing legacy application.  Daxima was instrumental in helping us work through these concepts, by providing us with UI mockups, prototypes and helped guide us through the different options that we used for testing with the business. They were truly a partner, so it was not just a simple case of us taking something and going out for bids.

The application was mainly developed using the Microsoft Stack, Microsoft .Net MVC with C# for the business layer, SQL server as the data storage and Angular.js, HTML5 for the front end.  We also used Box and Sharepoint for file storage, K2 Blackpearl for workflow integration, Logi Analytics for reporting and also a variety of enterprise tools such for Single Sign on and 2 factor authentication. The application layer was built using Rest API to help with future integrations. We developed our own wireframes, but Daxima helped us in some cases with developing those.

How did you come to work with Daxima?

It just so luckily happened that we were in a similar circle. I met Ryan, the owner of Daxima. We had them bid on a concept project that we were putting together for a major retailer, and theirs was the most compelling proposal. We had some development talent ourselves, so we'd done a smoke and mirror mock-up of what we wanted to achieve. We had a little bit of something to work from, and they reviewed our work and offered the best solution to help us deliver our vision.  

The issue for a lot of people is writing a detailed specification. Sometimes it can take just as much time as developing the application. So even in an offshoring model, if you talk about dealing with big Indian consulting firms, what happens is too much emphasis is placed on trying to get the specifications exactly right. The challenge with that is that it's a lot of time we didn't have. Where Daxima really shone for us in that particular initiative was that they were willing and able to help us round out the picture. Daxima believes in agile software development methodology and the importance of rapid application development. They did not require detailed specification documents to get started but worked closely with us to better understand our needs. We had a very light strawman of what we were trying to do, and they were able to expand on it and provide what we were trying to achieve. What was great about it was that our client was very pleased with the results since we worked with them closely during the development process. It was a collaborative effort.

The challenge we had from a couple of the other proposals was they were probably very good software development companies— we don't know because we didn't obviously work with them—but it was very much like we had to tell them exactly what we wanted. They didn't have a lot of drive on their side to help us frame that and point out technical issues that we might not think of unless you've actually done those things before.

Additionally,  Daxima was quite reasonable in terms of pricing as well. They didn't have a lot of the overhead that some bigger firms do, so that part worked well. It was a nice mix of being big enough to have some good capabilities, but not too big that we're paying for everybody to have massive overhead and fancy offices. They do a good job of balancing the resource load and provided an efficient development model for us.

I was really a driving force for us to try and lower our cost structure. The guys in California are top-notch and reasonably priced, but certainly more expensive than Indian development resources. Daxima was very good at trying to lower the cost of software development by using resources from their global offices, yet they maintained that sense of ownership, so I didn't have to manage a bunch of Indian developers. Then they have the Croatian outfit, which was fabulous. It was a little bit more reasonable, but unbelievably sharp because of the East European discipline around sciences and math. India's always good, but India always ends up taking longer and costing more than you realize, so I thought they were very good in that regard, by offering us a competitive blended rate that kept our cost under control. They were always willing to do fixed as well. The issue of fixed, though for me, was we were always moving so fast and responding so quickly that we could never get it locked down well enough for fixing the work, but the flexibility was excellent.

What is the status of this engagement?

It has to have been at least six years ago, and it worked through past my tenure there. I didn't start with this effort straight away because I was doing other aspects of their IT, and this came up on the first project. By the end of my tenure there, many interactions were happening across multiple different people in IT and knowledge management.

I don't know what status it is now. It might have ended, but it was prevalent when I left. It carried on beyond me. I had a large team, so I wasn't the only person working directly. In fact, increasingly I was working at the overall level. That’s a good example of why it was a true partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

There are a few examples that Daxima enabled us to accomplish business goals could never be done before. I cannot, unfortunately, discuss any of them because it would violate my confidentiality. First of all, I believe that some of the things we developed together helped us win and retain a number of important clients, which is normally what every business wants to achieve. There were numerous examples where they were able to affect things from a volume perspective, not just from a quality perspective.

They also ended up recommending a person to us that ended up being incredibly capable, and she ended up being the director of current development internally working with Daxima, and she came as a candidate for me from Daxima. It just gives you an idea. They knew I was looking for those kinds of capabilities, recommended her to me, and I ended up hiring her. Who do you know that helps you hire somebody that’s a star, and that they could have used as well?

I brought Daxima in. Daxima was not present in that company before me. I was hired as a director of IT and then promoted to CIO. I had a mandate of redoing all their IT. And that was everything, not just development, but also operational. They already had an older proprietary app that they developed some time ago. It had a lot of very good, positive things about it. They had some internal resources. We started off with a specific use case but was in an area that hadn't been done before. That was a development that considered my previous company’s intellectual capabilities in the area of immigration law, global mobility, and technology. It was a bit of a mix. That was when Daxima won that first project.

And then, later on, we kept on with Daxima. I did look at other firms. You always want to look around and make sure of what you're doing, but we had a very tight relationship in the end. Everybody talks about partnerships, but 80% of the time, it's not true. They're still very much vendor and client. This is much more of a true partnership. If there was a problem, I could get help on a Sunday at 3:00 am. If there were problems that they saw with the way that we were doing something, they would tell us. It was a supportive partnership mode that transcended a typical transactional vendor/client relationship. When you're doing proprietary application and development, a close partnership is a must.

How did Daxima perform from a project management standpoint?

Anybody who tells you that everything was delivered on time and within budget hasn't done software development. This was not a trivial application, but an enterprise application with a number of modules that ended up being more than a million lines of code.  The initial project was delivered on time and budget, but some of the parts that were not well defined were not. Additionally, at times the requirements from both our internal and external customers changed, so the schedule had to adjust accordingly. Just like any partnership, it wasn't a situation where it was traumatic-free. There was some tension on occasions. I've gained a lot of valuable experience from this. I have to say that things weren't always great. Sometimes they were upset with us; sometimes we were upset with them, and sometimes we were upset with ourselves. Nevertheless, it was always from the perspective of 'we're in it together.'

I've got 20 years of IT, more than that, but I don't have 20 years of proprietary application development. I would challenge anybody that's done proprietary application development that the secret of a true partner is not that everything always goes smoothly, but that people are willing to keep on fighting for what they think is right and to do it with the best integrity you can. The secret of being successful is how you both react to it, which is you don't accuse, and you don't try to point fingers. You both accept your responsibility and accountability, and you move forward. And that was really what all the partnership was about.

We always used tools; a couple were more effective than others. They were big advocates of Asana as an agile project management tool, but we used SharePoint. They helped us lock down all of our source code and developed a coding standard for developers to follow. We also had a tool for bug tracking. I have to say, as well, that we were very immature in that area, and Daxima helped us tremendously. Sometimes they did stuff that has nothing to do with any specific project, but we had them do it because we needed to raise the maturity level of our development environment. Again, that was a partnership thing. Rather than keeping it to themselves and using it as leverage, they were constantly trying to help us become better.

What did you find most impressive about Daxima?

A couple of things were remarkable. Daxima has really talented individuals. There are a couple of people there who are just truly fantastic. They have integrity and flexibility. I can go to Upwork, spec out a job, send it over, and have everybody from the Eastern Europeans to the Indians bid on it. Sometimes that's absolutely the way you want to do it, but you're going to have to do it three times. They're going to misinterpret a bunch of things, so the part that works well is where they were willing to work with you. They weren't just order takers. They tried to understand what the business was trying to be achieve, how develop enterprise software, and they worked hard to do so by being supportive.

Are there any areas Daxima could improve?

Daxima also went through a maturity part. I would like to see them be more robust by being more hard-nosed in project management. I think that that's something they could work on. Here's a good example: we had limited internal QA staff. And that was because when they developed the original app, the developers performed their own QA. As the product become more complex, that model was not sustainable. That was a good example where they really helped us build that capability. They helped us hire a couple of people inside, but there was a part where you can always have more efficiency and be more optimal, especially when you're looking at the life cycle of development to QA. I think that part can be tighter. Where I think that they mitigate it is that they're pretty honest about it. Sometimes, I know for a fact, they had to eat some of it because they realized that they were the ones that got it wrong and they were honest and stepped up and took responsibility.  

One of the things that they would probably do better at is they're not big on overhead, so they don't have many non-technical people there. The problem with technical people is that they are problems solvers, and will do everything they can to please the customer and fix the problem. That's what most developers do. Unfortunately, sometimes, they need a little bit more of a hard-nosed person to say you changed it, and that's going to push the schedule.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Daxima?

Make sure that they realize that it's a partnership. It's not just about them trying to get a particular hourly price. It has to be the whole thing. Approach it with an open mind about how they want the project. Sometimes people come with a project, and it sounds perfect in their head. There were a bunch of times where we thought we had it locked down, and then a couple of their really good architect people would say: "What would happen here?" And you'd go, "I never thought about that!" You need to have an open mind. They might think they have it all worked out, but chances are there’s going to be things that don't work from an UI perspective, record ownership perspective, or functional security perspective, which is actually a huge deal.

Outside of specific phishing and email phishing attacks, the number one security issue is app code development. If you look at it, exploitations usually happen because the developers have made a mistake. You should have an open mind in that regard. You shouldn't be treating it like a transaction. That's going to give you a much better success. It depends on the company that you pick, but especially with Daxima because I find somebody on the other side willing to work with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was VP for three intermodal companies. These three companies are owned by the same person.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Daxima?

We needed a billing program developed. We wanted it made easier for us to get our bills in so that we could get them paid quicker.

SOLUTION

There were two main people, Ryan [Founder & CEO, Daxima] and one other gentleman. They came in and talked to everybody involved in the billing program. They first talked to me, my boss (President), and some people who were doing billing at the time. When they were given the go-ahead, they designed a billing program tailored to our needs.

It didn’t take very long to develop because apparently, they had a lot of experience in it. Daxima already had applications developed in place for other companies. They just wrote the programs catered to our particular companies. We had two companies with different needs, so the billing was different for each company. Daxima took their experience and catered it to what we needed to develop the system that was right for two of the companies. They just needed to know the fine intricacies of our business and what we were doing manually so that they could automate it.

How much have you invested with Daxima?

It’s been $150,000 total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We must have started with Daxima six or seven years ago on 2010 or 2011. It didn’t seem very long to complete. It took two or three months to get the system going until it was working all right. We did some testing and tweaks on different types of bills once they got the basic programming in.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It was great. It saved us so much time and resources. I was able to put people on other work that we couldn’t do before. It enabled us to reach out and get more business for our other companies because it freed up time to do that. Ryan or his assistant were there every day, sometimes all day, making sure that everybody knew how to do the work and billed properly. If we had a question, they were there to answer. It worked smoothly because of that. And then, he was always available after the fact if we ever had questions.

How did Daxima perform from a project management standpoint?

Daxima's team did great. The proof is in the pudding. The system worked great. They were always there and available. The assistance and the product were very good.

What did you find most impressive about Daxima?

The fact that they were on-site was great. There were times when one or both of them couldn’t be onsite, but there were so many times that they were not only on the phone available but available in the office, and that’s what impressed me. They would come to check often until we were running smoothly. Even after that, they kept track. If we ever had a question, we would just call them up. If they couldn’t handle it from where they were, they came and fixed it. It was just a smooth transition, and it worked very well.

Are there any areas Daxima could improve?

I can’t think of anything offhand. I don’t remember having a problem.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Daxima?

If you know your business and the billing system you’re using now backward and forward, you’re fine. If you don’t, find out because the questions are going to be asked. It’s better to bring those things to your attention than having to rely on them to figure it out. It’s faster that way. Now, they will figure it out, but if you know it up front, just mention to them the problems that you’re facing. If you tell them that up front, then they know what to concentrate on, and it’s not wasting their time or yours.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is shmib.com.  Our intent is to change the way business owners communicate with their customers. Most business owners find out about negative customer experiences after it has been posted on review sites like Yelp and Tripadvisor. The goal of Shmib is to provide the communication fabric through which both the business owner and the customer can communicate directly to resolve potential problems before those issues become public.

The application is geared towards any business trying to improve their relationships with their customers.  Customers can use the mobile app to privately communicate with business owners and more importantly business owners can instantly see customer feedbacks and have the opportunity to resolve any problems quickly before they get negative reviews on other public review sites. I’m one of the founders and came up with this idea a year ago and reached out to Daxima to help us develop the solution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Daxima?

We are not techies. We partnered with Daxima to help us develop our idea into a complete product.  We started with a simple PowerPoint presentation, and they took that and turned it into a fully functional application.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were looking to build a number of features in the application – an administration panel, data analysis and reporting, along with live chat and mobile applications.  Additionally, one of our main goals was to make sure the application had a modern user interface that provided a rich experience for end users.  Daxima did a great job by hitting all of our targets.

We met with a number of key employees at Daxima, including the UI/UX designer, system architect, and the project manager to work on the design and product architecture. We presented our idea and Daxima iterated through the development process. We met with them every couple of weeks in person to provide feedback and make adjustments.

Because we are new to technology business, we weren’t very organized. They helped organize and get us going in the right direction.

How did you come to work with Daxima?

Daxima worked with us at my other contracting company, Cutting Edge Drapery. We did a small project a few years ago where they built an application for me that I liked a lot. So, when it came to doing this app, I called them again.

How much have you invested with Daxima?

It’s got to be around $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project around November 2016. We’ve been working and iterating through the development process for the past six months. We launched the Beta version of the application in March and we are continuing to engage Daxima and improve the product based on customer feedback.

Because this is a new concept, we’re still working on things and making changes based on customer feedback and our experiences.  I normally send the Daxima team a list of changes or updates each week and adjust things as necessary.

Since it’s a newer type of business; beta testers have a lot of input “Can you add this feature? Can you take out that feature? Change this?” That’s how it’s a work in process because we keep improving with more feedback.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I’ve noticed how well the app works and how easy it is. The user interface is really good. Daxima is always there when I need to talk to them, and that helps a lot. I’ve had nothing but really good feedba k as far as the interactions from our app to the beta testers that used it so far. They like it because it’s fun and it’s easy to use.

How did Daxima perform from a project management standpoint?

Daxima did a great job. Most of my conversations are with the architect and the project manager. They’re conveniently located; I can stop by their office and have a meeting with them or call them on the phone. I communicate with them through text, email, or in person. They used Google Docs and another project management tool, however, I choose to use email and text to communicate since it was easier for me and they accommodated that request.

What did you find most impressive about Daxima?

Daxima is customer oriented, really easy to work with, and knowledgeable. They have a lot of staff here and abroad that they can rely on; if they have questions or need answers, they will be able to get them.

Are there any areas Daxima could improve?

I don’t think so, Daxima did well.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Daxima?

The only thing that I could have done differently is more planning on what I wanted. If you don’t know exactly where you’re headed, and you’re giving someone directions on where to go, it’s tough.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

MyWorkDrive is a startup which specializes in providing enterprise cloud and web access to Windows file servers for remote access employees. I am the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Daxima?

We needed assistance with integration and with extending our flagship product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Daxima has provided everything from outsourced CIO services, programming, UI/UX [user interface/user experience] design, and mobile development in order to extend and develop our product.

We are working with .NET, Azure, JavaScript, Active Directory authentications, ADFS for single sign-on capabilities, Office365 integrations, API integrations with OneDrive, and multiple other technologies, either for Macs, PCs, or Windows Server products.

One of our biggest recent tasks has been to add Office365 online editing functionalities for customers. Daxima got us certified and developed a solution with which we could interface our product with Microsoft, and become a certified cloud-storage provider. This allows our customers to edit documents online and share them with colleagues.

We have gone from using a couple of part-time programmers, to bringing in Daxima's entire team. We have worked with around eight resources at peak capacity.

How did you come to work with Daxima?

My business partner had worked with Daxima on several projects over the years and spoke highly of them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I'd rather not give out specific financial numbers. It was a significant amount.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Daxima on September 1st, 2016. The collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Becoming a certified Microsoft cloud-storage provider has gained a lot of good feedback for us. We have some demos on our website related to that.

Customers such as Oxford University are using our platform because of Daxima's work. They have made our enterprise product more scalable.

How did Daxima perform from a project management standpoint?

Daxima's team is comprised of some of the best programmers I've worked with in my 25-year experience in the industry. I've worked at UC Berkeley as an IT manager and ran my IT consulting firm successfully. The team put together by Daxima is cohesive, and the quality of the work is extremely high. They can put complicated items together, extend them, and break them into smaller chunks for the Scrum process. We've accelerated our development and delivered new releases monthly.

Daxima uses Microsoft Visual Studio, which we share with them for reporting bugs and managing them. We have reviews on a regular basis. Daxima has developed a QA process through which we can manage bugs, taking the software through various stages before it's released to production. They're the ones who insisted with that process.

We have biweekly Scrum calls. Everything has been delivered on time and budget. The delays have been on our side, in terms of adding to and changing the scope. Daxima has exceeded our expectations regarding new feature count and the development timelines they put in place.

What did you find most impressive about Daxima?

Daxima's team is the most impressive part of the company. They work well together, everyone pulls their weight, and there's no one who hasn't contributed in a major way to the success of our product. We have worked with other companies which gave the impression of throwing in laggards and only having one or two good people. Everyone from Daxima has been knowledgeable, diligent, and tenacious in tracking down and creating the technology we need.

Are there any areas Daxima could improve?

No, I couldn't ask for anything better. I'm not the easiest person to deal with, and I have pushed the envelope on some of our feature requests. I have confidence that, if it can be done, Daxima will get it done.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Daxima?

The old rule of programming stating that we need to take estimates, double them, and then double them again, hasn't been the case with Daxima. However, when shopping around, it's easy to go for the low bidder. From my experience, I would rather work with one good programmer, than ten bad ones. I recommend that clients consider the years of experience, depth, and quality of work that Daxima can provide, alongside any potential competitors. In the long run, that quality will end up saving people money and headaches with QA and bug issues. We wouldn't have been able to continue our product without Daxima.