DevCom

What was the scope of their involvement?

Members of their staff write code for me, and projects include mobile responsive sites for our customers. They test those sites, and set up special features like catalogs, stores, and sales tax rubrics. Other functionality they create centers around shipping requirements.

Some of our projects are long-term, and DevCom still works on some of the same accounts from very early in our partnership. Whenever we come up with a new project that we want their help with, we bring them in for a meeting to go over the requirements. They create a setup that we can test for each new project.

Our partnership is about 50% outsourcing, but we also have a project manager at DevCom that collaborates with our staff and oversees the team that works for us. The collaboration is closer than standard outsource agreements.

The industry progresses quickly, and we've moved through a lot of changes with them. Whenever we incorporate new technology, they do in-depth research and make sure they have the knowledge we need for our projects. We provide some documentation with specifications from each project. They go from there to build wireframes and complete requirements.

What is the team composition?

The team we work with is predominantly made up of developers. A few members of their team are responsible for QA, but the majority of their responsibilities are in development.

How did you come to work with DevCom?

I've been with the company since 2011, and we started doing business with them before I came onboard. I believe the owner of our company was introduced to them some time in the 2000s. When we got a large project early in the relationship, we approached them about augmenting our staff to help meet requirements. They have a competent team that does good work, and we don't have any complaints. They know what they're doing, see the big picture, and know what their code will affect.

How much have you invested with them?

For several years, we've done an average of around $100,000 of work each month with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

I'm not sure when the collaboration started, but it was already strong when I joined the company—so it goes back around a decade. It's quite a long ongoing partnership.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

DevCom initially developed a web-based .NET integration application for our company. They used SQL server tools, SaaS [software-as-a-service] packages and FTP [file transfer protocol] external data sources. We use third-party software that is hosted off-premise. For example, we've recently completed integration with GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting, which enabled us to create events remotely. We sell seminars through another third-party system so, when someone signs up, we want to register them automatically through the GoToWebinar API [application programming interface]. DevCom created integration components for this.

We also integrate with the eTouch event management system. Once people register for events, we need to push the information into our accounting system. We created integrations with a learning management system called DoceboLMS, which users can use for self-study, signing up for courses, watching videos, and taking quizzes. We needed to pull all financial information from it as well.

We have an annual nomination process through which members vote for new committee and board members. Our old one was run through a ColdFusion system that had been inherited from someone else. We migrated to a hosted system for which DevCom provided support, allowing us to push and pull data out of it.

We also used DevCom for a large SharePoint development project as well as many integration projects, which involved moving data from point A to B using a variety of ETL [extract, transform, and load] tools, many of them from the Microsoft stack.

After this, came a custom dynamic CRM [customer relationship management] development project that was used for our customer portal. We've also recently completed an e-commerce implementation of our bookstore, from a legacy ColdFusion system that DevCom had been maintaining up to that point, providing basic support for it. They transitioned our platform to an open source, .NET-based version, with customizations and integration capabilities for our fulfillment partners. This involved using various web services and FTP integration.

We sell many event registrations for seminars and conferences. DevCom built 10 to 15 SharePoint sites for our company, many of them portals for special types of customers.

How did you come to work with DevCom?

I had worked with DevCom before, for a different company, so I had an idea of their capabilities. DevCom is my go-to developer, out of the variety of companies we've worked with in Washington, D.C., and India. We've tried different things for different projects through time. DevCom was not our exclusive partner but, because of their flexibility and variety of skills, they became our first choice.

We went through a formal internal process, selecting and grading different vendors in the beginning. I've worked with the company for six years so, after a while, I came to settle and find the best vendors for particular jobs. I have an established relationship with DevCom. They visited us on-site three to four times in the past few years.

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

We spend around $100,000 per year with DevCom. We have a fixed monthly support budget, but also work with DevCom on fixed-price projects and one-off time-and-materials situations.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with DevCom six years ago [since 2010], and we've used them on around 30 projects. DevCom's team has become integrated with ours and is a part of our support system. Any tickets that come from customers are typically routed to DevCom for resolution. From that perspective, there is a lot of staff fragmentation. I always have three to four people from DevCom engaged in support activities. Once DevCom implemented our bookstore system, they became the permanent support resources for it.