Dynamia

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is City Tours USA and I’m the president. We manage tour programs throughout North America, mainly in the US and Canada.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dynamia?

We had started an internet-based reservation system and were struggling with it. We hired Dynamia to take over that program and start correcting the problems the other programmers had left behind.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their main task was to correct the bugs in the existing program and then to expand its features out beyond what already existed. The programming work for our main application was done on the backend using SQL and .NET, but they are also helping us build out our XML connections to other vendors and agencies.               

What is the team composition?

We have a team of three people working with us, including a manager named Rodrigo (COO, Dynamia). He is easy to communicate with and has been very quick to understand all the concepts involved in our project.

How did you come to work with Dynamia?

They were suggested to us by another company that does similar work to ours. Since they came highly recommended, I visited them in Uruguay to make sure we could see eye to eye on a project. When I got down there, I decided to go with them on the spot because of how much confidence they inspired in me right away.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $12,000 a month, so that would be a little over $120,000 total.

What is the status of this engagement?

I made the decision when I was visiting in October 2018 and we are continuing to work together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Because we’re an operational company, we need the program to work flawlessly, and over the last several months, we’ve seen a lot fewer glitches between departments. All of our operations and accounting have been running much more smoothly every month. We’re very pleased with Dynamia’s work so far.

How did Dynamia perform from a project management standpoint?

Compared to a lot of other companies in the industry, they are very responsive. They've been very open and easy to work with and are very comprehensive in their approach to the problems that they face and how to solve them.

We Skype and share screens here and there, but for the most part, we rely on their intuition to give us ideas on how to best make progress. They are the first company I have worked with that has actually given me a schedule and kept to it. It has been a welcome relief for us to do business with a company like Dynamia.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think the most impressive thing about them is how down to earth and easy to communicate with they are. Despite their expertise, I never feel like I’m talking to a superior. They make it clear that you are equals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We could always improve on the communication aspect, just because there’s always room for improvement in areas like that, but there’s nothing specific that I wish they had done differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Sometimes as a business owner, you get a little skeptical of the people you are working with, but the best way to accomplish things with Dynamia is to be open right up front, and they’ll be just as open with you. The quicker you can develop a good relationship with them, the better your result will be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a New York-based software company that serves the hedge fund industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dynamia?

I led most of our product development, but I engaged Dynamia once it became clear that I needed more help so that we could scale up and create features more quickly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked together for about two years, and in that time, we were building out features—mostly our reporting and data exporting functionality. Dynamia was helpful in building most of that and helping out with other new features that were around our core functionality of analytics and visualizations of data. Many of their responsibilities involved working with the LAMP stack to build our web application, which is available to subscribers on our website.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Rodrigo (COO, Dynamia), Federico (Developer, Dynamia), and one other person.

How did you come to work with Dynamia?

I reviewed the merits of other companies, but Dynamia was by far the most responsive. I posted something on our WeWork forum saying we needed an agency, and they responded almost within seconds.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent between $50,000–$60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from 2016–2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we started working together, reporting was the big reason why customers liked our product. People like exporting our data into Excel or a PDF and creating reports out of it. Dynamia was instrumental in creating functions that are pretty central to our business.

How did Dynamia perform from a project management standpoint?

I tend to be very hands-on, so there maybe wasn’t as much management on their side compared to other clients. Still, we worked well together.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their entire team is responsive. They’re willing to be pretty transparent about what’s happening on their end of the development. They were straightforward about why things went slowly at times and what they would do to improve.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think I expected shorter onboarding times for their developers, but they ended up taking a little longer. That was a minor inconvenience, though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think it helps to have an internal team member who is familiar with the technology manage the outsourced development team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Creative Travel. Our company operates tours and collaborates with other tour operators overseas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dynamia?

We hired Dynamia to provide IT services for our travel business. Since the travel industry centers on technology-based connections, we needed to foster an excellent level of engagement with clients who want to book reservations and hotels which provide room rates.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

As a partner, Dynamia provides full-service IT support for our company. .They are my primary contact for anything related to IT. 

Recently, they’ve been working on our reservation system. It offers clients access to nightly rates and lets them book hotel rooms online. Dynamia handles all the programming and outreach for us. They continually update the platform with new innovations at our request. 

We use GoDaddy as our hosting service, and they manage the backend as well. They take care of backup and any bugs we might experience.

What is the team composition?

We have worked with up to five people at a time, depending on what we have needed. Two programmers work with me directly. Dynamia has employees on staff with the skills to support additional areas.

How did you come to work with Dynamia?

Over the past few years, we’d had very bad experiences with US-based IT teams we had hired. I also wanted to reduce costs. A friend of mine suggested Dynamia and told me that they work with clients all over the US and South America.

I’m originally from Uruguay, so I went there to visit Dynamia at their offices. Once I told them about my needs, they confirmed they had the capabilities to support us.  I was very pleased with their service during the three-month trial period, so I hired them for this engagement.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since September 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Dynamia has made significant improvements for our company. We’re very pleased with the engagement and have had a great experience so far. The team enjoys our work together, and they do an excellent job.

Past vendors always created glitches in their work. Dynamia both resolved these errors and increased the speed of our platform. They follow up on all our requests and solve every issue or concern to keep our clients happy. 

How did Dynamia perform from a project management standpoint?

Dynamia manages our projects very well. We communicate via email and phone. Whenever we call, Dynamia always has someone available to answer our questions.    It’s especially useful that they’re bilingual. When they need to explain an aspect of our system clearly, we put everything in writing. They send any specific reports I need quite quickly.

Even though I can be very demanding, they never say no. If they ever don’t know something right away, they find out how to figure it out. Since technology is constantly changing, we need someone like them who can stay on top of it. 

Dynamia is amazing. I wish I had started working with them earlier. Whenever we assign them a project, they take the time to figure out each step to take before starting to work on it. They usually finish before the deadlines they originally give me.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Dynamia offers excellent customer service and follow-up. As a company, they’re oriented towards customer service. They’re more on focused on helping the client than maximizing charges, which I appreciate. 

After all my previous negative experiences, this is the first company that I feel really works. Other vendors I’ve used charged much more. Many even sent invoices for a two-minute phone consultation. Dynamia is a team of hard workers who deliver on all our requests and fulfill their promises.  

Whenever we have a new project, Dynamia gets it right on their first try. Once they let me know how much time they need, by the time things are tested they fully complete projects the first time around. Their attention to detail is impressive. They always seem to understand what we’re talking about. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t had any bad experiences with them, so I have no complaints. Since they're not an overly large company, they really focus on the client.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Rest assured that Dynamia will get the job done for your business. If you communicate with them and explain to them what you truly need, they will get it done. I think communication is key, and they have excellent communication skills.