DivNotes Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the senior director of engineering for ContactMonkey, a communications software company. Large-scale businesses use our product, and we focus on internal communications.

For example, if a company has an HR or internal communications team that wants to keep an engaged workforce, they can use our tool to craft and send HTML-based emails. Someone who doesn't know how to write HTML can still make a good-looking email and send it to their users. We also allow people to embed surveys or events in the email for training and other purposes.

Our tool annotates the email with trackers to tell the company what percentage of recipients opened the email, what percentage clicked on links, which links were popular, and how long people read the email. This helps companies measure engagement. Often, more prominent companies send out communication and have no idea how it's landing with their users.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DivNotes Inc.?

We needed staff augmentation for our development needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DivNotes Inc. provides a number of their team members who function as full-time equivalents on our engineering team. Some of them have more specialized knowledge that helps us in certain areas where we don't have as many engineers on the floor.

The team contributes to the development of our product, which consists of a web-based component and an Outlook add-in that users can install. The team has also helped our marketing team tune up some of what they do with the corporate website.

We're doing product-based development and constantly iterating on the same code base. Every project contributes to the same product over and over again. DivNotes Inc. participates in software architecture. Our main product application is built using Ruby on Rails, and the frontend uses a modern JavaScript framework called Vue.js. DivNotes Inc.'s team members interact with both sides of our service.

What is the team composition?

We have five of their team members embedded in our team. I frequently interact with two of them. I head up the engineering department and have two engineering managers underneath me. Each engineering manager manages two teams, so they're more in contact with the other DivNotes Inc. team members.

Initially, we only had one manager, so I was managing another one of the teams, so I've interacted with most of DivNotes Inc.'s team.

How did you come to work with DivNotes Inc.?

The arrangement with DivNotes Inc. was in place before I joined the company.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2014, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We treat DivNotes Inc. as full-time equivalents, so we measure them like any other engineer on the floor. It would be hard to measure their impact because everyone involved has been here since long before I got here.

How did DivNotes Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

Since DivNotes Inc. works as part of our internal team, they handle discrete work independently and are plugged in with the rest of the team. I've been impressed with their team members. The team is as bought-in and hard-driving as full-time employees, so I can rely on them to come through.

The team is plugged into our setup, so we use GitHub for source control and Linear for project management. We use email, Zoom, Slack, and occasionally face-to-face meetings to communicate.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Danesh is our primary contact from DivNotes Inc. He's been there for a long time and is integral to everything that happens at DivNotes Inc.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First and foremost, DivNotes Inc. is highly skilled in what they do. I don't have to worry about whether they'll do the job correctly because they do it excellently. I've also been impressed with the way the team acts. They're as invested as full-time team members are; they're bought into the business's success, so we have no issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It's been a very positive experience. We're getting everything we require from DivNotes Inc.; there's nothing they need to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bring in as much clarity as possible and give DivNotes Inc. a complete picture. The solutions they'll come back with are usually very on point.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Metalogic Inspection Services

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Non Destructive testing and inspection for the power generation, oil and gas, pipeline, aerospace industries. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire DivNotes Inc. to accomplish?

• Innovate on the existing ERP solution with more intuitive and streamlined workflows by improving all operational procedures within the existing solution into a new 2.0 platform.
• Simplify workflows and make the user interface for our proprietary inspection software.

SOLUTION

How did you find DivNotes Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select DivNotes Inc. over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from DivNotes Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Intuitive work flow's
• Simplified, intuitive UI's
• Increased functionality 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

UI and Processes streamlined

UI cleanned up and more effective

Additional value added on back end

Some internal programming standarization implemented 

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

Very effective communication from project managers.

Attention to detail and clear understanding of impacts when discussing possible workflows etc.  

Some scheduling delays that can be attributed to both both Metalogic and Divnotes. 

Overall responsiveness met expctations. 

What was your primary form of communication with DivNotes Inc.?

Virtual Meeting

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

Attention to workflows, UI's, and how that would impact the overall software functionality and requirements and goal. 

Said differently: They provided me with a strategy on the best path forward based on our goal of simplifying the system. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something DivNotes Inc. could have done differently?

Estimating/Quoting relative to expectations and schedules were not clear enough. 

Again said differently, as the primary stakeholder of the software and vision, the overall stages to the end goal were not clear. 

That said, they made efforts to try and correct as the stages progressed. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Technology of APEX Mobile Media

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The Altitude Platform is a full service, cloud-based, advertising management platform that creates efficiency through dynamic creative, measuring and optimizing advertising campaigns across all digital advertising channels from inception to reporting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire DivNotes Inc. to accomplish?

• Migrating the existing PostgreSQL instance to an AWS Aurora Database Service for staging DB and Production DB
• Automated and Manual Data Validation after the migration

SOLUTION

How did you find DivNotes Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select DivNotes Inc. over others?

They provided a strong plan of action and the timeline and budgets were what we were looking for

How many teammates from DivNotes Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Preparation:
Captured and cloned PostgreSQL database for testing and configuration adjustments, including disabling logging and setting DMS-specific configurations.

Schema Conversion:
Utilized AWS SCT to adapt Rails schema for Aurora, optimized LOB sizes, and split database structures. Developed scripts for essential and non-essential schema components.

AWS Setup:
Established an AWS Aurora cluster and configured DMS with endpoints, replication instances, tasks, and validation logging.

Migration Execution:
Conducted in two phases: full-data copy and ongoing data-change replication to ensure continuity and integrity.

Validation:
Conducted manual validations and scripted a tool for spot-checking to ensure data accuracy.

Production Migration:
Repeated the process for the production environment, ensuring a seamless transition. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Managed to migrate all the data without any missing entries

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

They were very punctual with the deliveriables, given the short turnaround that we had required. Work was preformed as we requested and full communication throughtout the project was provided. From start to finish, all details and potential issues were addressed and communicated, keeping the project on track to deliver on time.

What was your primary form of communication with DivNotes Inc.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They were very communicative and responsive and made the process seamless for us.
They were confident in their abilities and provided a strong plan of action in a short amount of time that we needed.

Are there any areas for improvement or something DivNotes Inc. could have done differently?

In this case and project, they handled our high demands and short times very professionally and as throughly as they could have.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of NovelT Inc

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Event Ticketing

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire DivNotes Inc. to accomplish?

• Implementing social sharing
• Implementing POS system for organizers
• Implementing Analytics system for the ticket sales
• Setting up the structure for Web3 and NFT
• Ability handle different types of events
• Create brand guide for the paltform
• Create the software requirements for the platform
• Implementing the Stripe integration and connected accounts and apple wallet
• Separate US and Canadian Platforms
• Implementing event management system

SOLUTION

How did you find DivNotes Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select DivNotes Inc. over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from DivNotes Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Scope performed:
This project laid the foundational Web 2 infrastructure for a ticketing system intended to integrate NFTs:

Event Management:
Enabled robust creation and management features for various event types.

Ticketing and Analytics:
Integrated analytics to track sales trends and implemented ticket gifting functionality.

Financial Transactions:
Integrated Stripe for streamlined online payments and configured POS machines for efficient in-person sales.

Promotional and Team Features:
Equipped organizers with tools to add promoters and manage teams for scanning tickets at entry.

Future-Ready Setup:
Prepared infrastructure for Web 3 capabilities, including a secondary market and transitioning tickets to NFTs.

This groundwork enhances the system’s readiness for blockchain integration, focusing on scalability and security in ticketing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to successfully launch and start processing revenue 

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

Yes

What was your primary form of communication with DivNotes Inc.?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They're hands on approach 

Are there any areas for improvement or something DivNotes Inc. could have done differently?

The work was good and on time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Former CTO of Coastal Digital Group

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Coastal Digital Group is Digital Creative Agency lead by designers and developers to bring a complete solution to digital marketing

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire DivNotes Inc. to accomplish?

• Ability to add more features to the editor
• Ability to integrate with existing Ad Serving SDK
• Implement a WISYWIG editor
• Integrating with existing backend platform

SOLUTION

How did you find DivNotes Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select DivNotes Inc. over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from DivNotes Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Design and Create a WYSIWYG editor for our existing ad serving platform.  Must fully integrate with existing platform including front end serving SDK.

• Reviewed the requirements including existing backend structure, HTML templates/requirements and possible frameworks and packages for the solution
• Created user flows and designs to be reviewed and approved 
• Created core editor for both approval and POC
• Integrated core editor with existing backend including saving and loading of objects
• Added additional features and functionality into editor maintaining existing compatibilities
• tweaked existing features and funtionality as per feedback and user testing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• The Version 1/MVP of the editor was completed and put live
• A solid foundation was created for the possibility of future upgrades
• The system was designed with the ability to be very modular and adaptable
• A complete intrgatation was completed with the Back End and Ad Serving SDK

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

They were very responsive both through email and messaging channels.  When required for a virtual meeting it was very easy to set up and schedule.  They often went above and beyond on requests even when unnecessary.

What was your primary form of communication with DivNotes Inc.?

Virtual Meeting

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

They are incredibly knowledgeable and have skills across many disciples, languages, frameworks, etc.  

Are there any areas for improvement or something DivNotes Inc. could have done differently?

I don't know if there is.  We have a product that has been iterated on since and still the ability to add on overall we are very happy.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Founder/CEO of an arts, entertainment & music company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Collaboration platform for musicians.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire DivNotes Inc. to accomplish?

• Develop alpha version.

SOLUTION

How did you find DivNotes Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select DivNotes Inc. over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from DivNotes Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The scope of work evolved from developing early prototypes to completing and debugging an alpha version of the product.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Clean, error-free code.

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

Project management was based on clear SOWs. 

What was your primary form of communication with DivNotes Inc.?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They had good values. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something DivNotes Inc. could have done differently?

A more comprehensive view of front-end functionality might have helped identify and fix more bugs before UAT, resulting in faster development.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-founder/Product development of Canada Prep & Ship

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Ecommerce retailer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire DivNotes Inc. to accomplish?

• Software development
• Creating simplicity in our processes
• Streamlining online functions

SOLUTION

How did you find DivNotes Inc.?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select DivNotes Inc. over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Synergies on the pre job interview

How many teammates from DivNotes Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

First Divnotes took us through a discovery phase where they learned about our business and the key roles of our staff, focusing on repetitive, monotonous tasks that could be eliminated with a software solution. Divnotes went into great detail to understand each team members day to day tasks in order to start crafting the blueprint foundation for our software solution.
No corners were cut here as Divnotes was adamant in creating a clear set of development plans consisting of different-size sprints which we would later come to realize would aid in a streamlined development process. Delivering each sprint according to the agreed-upon timeline & according to spec was very important to us and Divnotes rose to the occasion by keeping us in the loop every step of the way with their organized client portal allowing our team to have total transparency along the whole build. 
We were adamant in testing every sprint & iteration as it was checked off as completed, Divnotes respected this & made no hesitations when our team questioned a product function or usability, if something needed to be fixed or reworked, they worked endlessly until they knew we were satisfied.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Streamlined processes
• Elimination of repetitive tasks
• Increased productivity
• Reduction in errors
• Increased team member morale 
• Better data management

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

Divnotes used a client app that tracked all phases of the project & how they were progressing along with updates. All of our needs were met with a healthy round of brainstorming to ensure we were understood and that our ideas would be able to be implemented into the software build

What was your primary form of communication with DivNotes Inc.?

Virtual Meeting

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

How willing they were to adjust the software to meet our needs as things changed for us along the build. No changes were made until their team was all on the same page with us and a clear and concise plan was crafted.

Are there any areas for improvement or something DivNotes Inc. could have done differently?

Nothing that we can think of right now

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a publishing platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Divnotes is our full stack developer

SOLUTION

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

Divnotes was introduced us and were originally a sub contractor.

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

Divnotes was originally hired to clean up code and work on a large scale project to fix our platform.

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

3-4 People from Divnotes work with us regularly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Divnotes has helped us to build a scalable solution and migrate the platform from legacy state to where it is currently

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

Their management of project done by Steven Robyn is detailed, focused and value add. We work with the latest tools to track and communicate regularly

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

The company stands behind their work. They took full responsibility for their development and programming.

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

They continue to get better at managing me, the client. My mind is always moving, but the have done a great job adjusting to my way of thinking to make projects go smoother.