Emergent Software

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of technology for Armor Security. We install CCTVs, alarms, and access controls for various companies.

What challenge were you trying to address with Emergent Software?

We were trying to find something to kind of give us an edge over our competition. To do so, we wanted to build a software system that bridges the gap between POS data and video clip.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Emergent Software built the system from the ground up. The software system connects exception reports and POS data to video clips, allowing users to produce a video with a single click.  

What is the team composition?

I worked with Nick (Senior Account Executive) during the sales process. Jameson (Senior Project Manager) was my main point of contact and project manager. Now we’re working with Bob (Senior Project Manager), who oversees the maintenance of the software as we move forward.

How did you come to work with Emergent Software?

Before hiring Emergent Software, we worked with another development company on this project. Although that partnership didn’t work out,  we wanted to use some of their work, so I began looking for developers that were familiar with the programming they used. I reached out to Emergent Software, and although they determined our initial approach wasn’t effective, they were clearly a great fit.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020 and we wrapped up in March 2021.

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

The solution meets our needs. Emergent Software was able to implement a variety of ideas to streamline the project and improve the outcome. The solution has been working well and we have our first demo with a client tomorrow. We had a few bugs, but once they addressed them, everything went smoothly.

How did Emergent Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via email and had a weekly meeting. Jameson kept track of everything, made sure everything was up to date and provided updates on what they were working on.

They did a good job of preventing scope creep and staying on track. As things came up, they communicated what it would cost so we were never caught off guard.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their expertise. We came to them with a unique idea, and they were able to find the best solution. From networking to programming, they had to overcome several different hurdles to make it all work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The transition from the development team to the maintenance team has not been great. A few things have been lost in the shuffle, but we’ve already addressed it with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of a digital agency that focuses on digital marketing, user experience, design, and development. I focus on technology and building websites out for our clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with Emergent Software?

We were working with a client that had some pretty complex requirements for a website they were building. It required a lot of integrations, external systems, and server compatibility. We worked with Emergent Software to identify what CMS would be the best fit. Eventually, we chose Umbraco. We’d worked with the system before, but we didn’t have a ton of experience with it. We needed expert help.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Emergent Software provided all of the backend development on our client’s Ubraco CMS. We provided all of the frontend development, UX, and design.

What is the team composition?

We worked with an account manager as our main point of contact. We also worked with multiple people from the engineering team as well as a backend architect. Additionally, we worked with a QA team.  

How did you come to work with Emergent Software?

We had a prior relationship with Emergent Software. Our director of technology worked with them previously at a different agency.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2019, and we wrapped up in August 2020.

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

Qualitatively, our client was thrilled with the end result as well as the process. Their end users have a call center and they get hundreds of calls every day. Typically, anytime there are changes with a CMS there are tons of complaints –– that didn’t happen at all!

How did Emergent Software perform from a project management standpoint?

The team used Microsoft Project to keep track of everything. They were very transparent in terms of the project status and all of the different tasks. I was really happy with their project management process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were looking for technical experts in Ubraco, and Emergent Software definitely fit the bill. They had a lot of experience and it really showed through their work. The team truly delivered.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They did have some staff turnover during the project. My main contact shifted 2–3 times over the course of the project. It was frustrating at times but the person who took us over the finish line was the best one out of all of them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to trust them. They’re the experts and they know what they’re talking about. Find an agency that matches your personality and communication style. Emergent is very good at what they do. If their capabilities match your needs, they could be a great partner for you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of operations for a premium audit vendor. We complete premium audits for insurance companies around the nation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Emergent Software?

We sought to adopt best practices with a security application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Emergent helped us adopt best practices for a security application and now supports the web portion of our product. They provide support to the portal, which customers see when they move onto web orders. We typically work with them on any changes to that portal. For example, we recently had an upgrade to our platform, so Emergent was part of that.

What is the team composition?

We will work with a designer sometimes. For our recent upgrades, we worked with a project manager.

How did you come to work with Emergent Software?

I wasn’t with the company when we brought Emergent on board.

How much have you invested with them?

I don’t have access to what we spend.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our company brought Emergent onboard around March 2016, and the partnership’s ongoing.

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

Anytime I contact them, Emergent’s extremely responsive and professional, which is important. We’re able to rely on them. It’s a great partnership that we have.

How did Emergent Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re responsive. If anything arises, their team’s on call. On a scale of 1–10, I’d rate them a 10.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re able to reach out to our contact at Emergent, and they respond promptly. That’s important. There’s a personal aspect to our partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re a great partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Approach this as a peer-to-peer relationship. It’s important for both parties to communicate.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of IT at Business Impact Group, a loyalty recognition and brand management organization. We work with a number of Fortune 500 organizations.

What challenge were you trying to address with Emergent Software?

Due to customer success and value, we wanted to expand our capability with our customers. Our customers come to us with needs for EDI and other custom development and integration implementations in order to streamline their workflows and make their interactions with us more effective and efficient. Emergent has been a great extension to our dedicated IT client solutions team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We relied on their knowledge of software engineering to allow us to deliver custom solutions to our customers. There have been a number of different interactions with Emergent Software. It’s been as simple as building an SSO password between a customer and our online e-commerce site. 

We've also worked with our customers in their Salesforce implementation to fully expose customer information and order information from Salesforce integrated into our store and then create that 360 feedback for reporting these integrations. 

Additionally, Emergent Software has worked with us to build custom websites or landing pages that help to accommodate and facilitate a better integration experience. We have a couple of active projects we’re bidding on. We’re also looking at a recurring contract.

What is the team composition?

Our original contact was Mark (CTO). We’re also working with another architect now and a Salesforce specialist. We’ve probably engaged with 8–9 teammates thus far. 

We’re in the midst now of extending that arrangement with them to actually have a monthly contractual obligation so that they can spread the knowledge of what they’ve done for us out to others and we can engage even more people within their organization for ongoing efforts.

How did you come to work with Emergent Software?

We have an e-commerce platform, and we had a customer that needed some pretty substantial modifications to the way 451 SSOs integration works. 

451 themselves have a professional services arm but they really weren’t able to do the work and they recommended that we work with Emergent Software who had been their go-to for other engagements.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent $200,000–$300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

Emergent Software wears a big hat for our customers. They’re amazing as it relates to their customer interactions, and their deliverables have been spot-on. 

They’ve actually helped our customers' IT teams to troubleshoot and get things tuned up on their side to accommodate the integrations. To date, deliverables have been bug-free and rock solid.

How did Emergent Software perform from a project management standpoint?

In some instances, they wear the project management hat and in others, we do it. When they take the reins with that, it’s been very efficient. We give them the target and we communicate that target with our customers. 

They’ve got a pretty refined software development life cycle (SDLC) and they have always met our expectations and our customers’ expectations. There are times when customers have some misses in their scope definition but it has never been a delay by Emergent Software.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of service and professionalism makes them stand out. I can put them in front of a customer and I know they will perform in the backroom. They’re a good representation of our company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at this point. Part of the agreement we’re moving forward with them on for more of a monthly, recurring charge is to get more people in their organization trained on the applications they build for us so that we have more touchpoints for support. 

That’s not been their issue, but more so the business model that we started with. We’ll be able to overcome that by having them train others and get that spread throughout the organization.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Involve them from the beginning. That’s been the key for us. They’re a trusted partner. We’re not spoon-feeding them because we trust them. We get them involved at the beginning and they understand the business need and not just the technical requirement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-owner of a garden service called Botanical Blitz. We take care of the exterior floral design for window boxes and pots. We switch them out seasonally and maintain them.

What challenge were you trying to address with Emergent Software?

We handled all client requests manually and only one person could make changes at a time. On top of that, our client managers didn’t have access to the plant inventory. Combined, these limitations created a lot of communication issues. We asked Emergent Software to build a cloud-based tracking system that could help us access information.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I gave them the Excel spreadsheet I was using to track orders. Then I walked them through our business and what we needed. They were able to take my ideas and create an app that would help us track inventory and client requests for each season.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a designer, a project manager, and a developer.

How did you come to work with Emergent Software?

One of our employees had a connection with them. Originally, we reached out to them about our website, but once I realized that they could build an app that would help address these other problems, that became our priority.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $40,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working on the project in December 2019. Although the app launched this fall, they continue to make adjustments.

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

I was amazed by how quickly they were able to make my business run more efficiently. Even though they aren’t in my industry, they grasped what I needed immediately. They’re very bright and knowledgeable. They clearly thought through our business needs.

How did Emergent Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They communicated well and met all of our deadlines. They’re very quick to respond and easy to reach.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re flexible and are open to suggestions. Whenever we threw them an idea, they thought through how everything would fit together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything that could have gone better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As long as you keep up your communication with them, it will all go well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO of Delkor Systems. We build robotics for secondary packaging for the food industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Emergent Software?

We needed help building our Office 365 platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Emergent Software did internal interviews to gather information and to understand our business and internal processes. They did assessments and made recommendations. They built an intranet site to help us with all the communications across our organization.

They helped us with a strategy for SharePoint and streamlined business processes. They also handled information management and security, and they loaded our local network drive information to the Cloud for efficiency and employee productivity. In addition, they provided training to our employees.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two teammates.

How did you come to work with Emergent Software?

I found them online. They quickly understood our business and articulated our needs, giving us confidence that they could help us achieve our goals. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $75,000–$80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–September 2020.

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

The intranet site is elegant and informative. Our communications have become more streamlined, which is especially helpful while we are working remotely. Our information management and security, as well as our processes, are also more streamlined. 

We are able to utilize the SharePoint search functionality and track who is downloading and sharing information. The web portal is an elegant place for our customers to login and get information. It was a huge win for us.

How did Emergent Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They were effective and stuck to the timelines. We had daily departmental meetings and weekly meetings for status updates. We used Microsoft Teams and Planner.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were knowledgeable and experienced. I really liked their approach to understanding our business processes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The training could’ve been more specific from the start, but it’s okay.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know exactly what you want, and define it clearly for them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-owner of Game Show Battle Rooms. We create immersive game show experiences on site, with three locations in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Kansas City. Currently, we’re doing virtual game shows over Zoom.

What challenge were you trying to address with Emergent Software?

We were looking to create a software for our game show content so that users could play both on site and virtually. The solution would serve as a centralized software for all of our game shows. 

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Emergent Software developed a solution to manage our game show-related content. With the software, we could update questions in real-time while feeding it to our different locations. This key feature allowed us to tailor our content depending on who was walking through the doors.

There were also different themes that we could use depending on our audience. For example, if a customer was celebrating a birthday party, had a bachelorette event, or was doing a corporate team-building session, we could create a custom theme by pulling different questions.

What is the team composition? 

They had a team of developers as well as a project manager who helped us navigate the whole process. We were pretty inexperienced when it came to software development, so they did a great job of answering our questions and helping us overcome challenges.

How did you come to work with Emergent Software?

We got several bids from software companies and met with each one. Not only did we look at the price, but we also considered the overall fit. Would this team be good to work with? Do they seem trustworthy? After reading a lot of good reviews, we determined that Emergent Software was the most trusted software company that we could find in the Twin Cities area. 

How much have you invested with them?

It was over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working on our project in April 2019, and it took about a year to finish. Now, they update our software from time to time.

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

We’re really happy with the results. Many of our game show hosts and technicians who use the software daily have raved about how easy it is to use. The solution is intuitive, and people enjoy having the ability to customize content based on their audience.

How did Emergent Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Emergent Software was well-organized during the main development phase. The team made sure that we were on schedule through weekly check-ins. And, if things were a bit slower, it was usually on us because we needed to provide certain files or images. 

When we needed to dissect an issue or provide feedback, we would meet with them in the office. They would resolve all of our issues pretty quickly, so we felt taken care of.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team that we worked with did a really good job. They were responsive, and I could tell that they actually cared about our project — one of them said that it was one of the cooler products that they got to work on because there aren’t a whole lot of game show solutions out there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would’ve been helpful if they had a more integrated design process or a design team. We ended up having to pull a lot of our own images and provide some assets, but design support would’ve made for a better experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come in with a good idea of what you want, including the key features and rough visuals. Having those references will help in terms of the overall design and can save a lot of time. The more detailed your plan, the better the outcome and the less time it’ll take.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an IT manager for Provident Agency. We provide group accident, health, and life policies for emergency response teams, including firefighters, police, and more. We also offer specialty policies to cover things such as an event. The company has been in business for over 100 years.

What challenge were you trying to address with Emergent Software?

We were building a custom .NET application to help automate outreach to various emergency service entities. We needed some support and were looking for a team to partner with us. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve been involved in several projects over the years, doing software development, integration, and more for our business processes. 

They helped with the initial development of the custom .NET application. They also evaluated code and performed reviews to ensure everything was being done properly. They provided security and optimization of our SQL Microsoft Azure environment to ensure that it runs optimally and securely.

Most recently, they headed a CRM development project, which allowed us to pull data from our customer application, and filter it into the CRM, creating business opportunities for our salespeople.  Emergent Software helped with integration between all our systems, including the CRM. 

They also helped us switch domains, and have provided maintenance on our public website. We are currently working on fixing bugs, and documentation, while planning to start a new project in the near future. 

What is the team composition?

Mark (CTO) is our main point of contact. We also interact regularly with Chris (Sr. Software Engineer), who worked on the CRM, and Ben (Sr. Software Engineer), who provides part-time support and troubleshooting.

How did you come to work with Emergent Software?

The president of our company had personal connections with Mark. We worked together informally before he started his company, but have since created a more formal partnership.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $200,000–$999,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around April 2015, and it’s ongoing.

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

We have never had any issues with the quality of their work. They’ve complimented whatever project we worked on, and have provided excellent support. They bring the Azure expertise that we lack internally, and with it, peace of mind for me. We don't know where we would be without their input.

How did Emergent Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Azure DevOps, which works great. We have Scrum calls twice per week and are very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a lot of different experiences to draw from. They partner with several companies and sometimes refer us to one to handle something out of their wheelhouse. They are a great partner for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re professional, know what they’re doing, and are trustworthy. They are also very transparent about what they can't do and will recommend someone who can.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re the oldest mentoring organization in the US, working with youth in need. I’m an associate director of performance and evaluations for the organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Emergent Software?

We were running our own database, and it was difficult to maintain. The developers we were working with had demanding schedules, and their understanding of our program wasn’t all that high. It took a lot of trial and error to explain our requirements to them and get things done.

We serve over 5,000 youths per year in New York, and all of our volunteers need to go through background checks, part of which involves collecting information from them. We would reach out to each of those volunteers and ask them to provide references for us to contact.

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the things we initially worked on with Emergent Software was creating some automation. They developed customizations through which volunteer references would be collected automatically in the database, and the individuals serving as references would receive emails automatically.

They also assign volunteer applications to a program manager. A point of contact within the database manages profiles, and we had to do this manually in the past. 

We worked it out with Emergent Software so that, if we knew that a person fit a particular profile, they would be assigned to someone within the organization for a walkthrough and personalized experience. It makes for a friendlier and less jarring experience.

The team also connected the database to our volunteer mobile app. The API they created allows us to pull information from the database onto the application, ensuring that volunteers have the most up to date information regarding their match relationships with mentees.

I’ve had a recent discussion with them about adding a new option to one of the locked dropdowns in the database.

What is the team composition?

Mark (CTO) is our main point of contact. Nicolette (Director, Innovative Mentoring) has also been helping us with a few of the customizations I’ve mentioned.

How did you come to work with Emergent Software?

We found them through a Google search, and it looked as though their database platform was already set up for mentoring. Emergent Software was working with small mentoring organizations, and they were hands-on and able to meet any customization needs we had.

Their product was built from the ground up to serve mentoring programs, and two of our affiliates had used them and had great things to say. One of the things we appreciated right away was that they were interested in updating their database to meet our growing needs. 

The quotes we got for these customizations were financially viable. Emergent Software was a team of developers and database experts who were interested in the mentoring field and understood our needs easily. We didn’t have to educate them on how our programs got broken down.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay an annual fee for all our users, which we find to be reasonable. The customizations can range from $250–$4,000. More often than not, the invoices are within the $250–$1,000 range.

We’ve asked for fewer customizations than normal in 2020 because we’re having a difficult time financially. The last customization we made was for around $2,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We made the final transition to Emergent Software in 2016. We must’ve started the migration discussion around November 2015, and we set up trainings for everyone around that time. We’re still working with them, and we’re actively adding customizations to the database.

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

We’re very happy with the relationship. The automations that Emergent Software developed have helped us free up staff members and shift focus to our volunteers and program clients. We were less bogged down with scheduling phone calls and asking reference questions. We’re getting all of those online now.

It’s been great to have a database product that has grown with us as our needs and programs have changed. It’s great to have people on the other side of the line that understand our lingo and what we’re trying to do.

How did Emergent Software perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s an automated helpdesk that we can call from the database itself, but we have a long-lasting working relationship with Emergent Software, so, even if it’s a small issue or request, we’ll oftentimes just go straight to Mark or Nicolette. They’ll advise us or work with their team to make the necessary changes on our behalf.

Because of his new responsibilities, it might take 3–4 days for Mark to get back to us, but he’s typically been very responsive. It used to be that we could schedule calls within the same day. We understand that there’s just less time for us, and it’s not the same as it used to be.

In terms of timelines and deliverables, they’ve always been consistent. If Mark promises to deliver a project by a certain date, he’ll do so. The only issue would be if we made a shift in the customization. We’ll typically discuss the need internally, I’ll write it up and send it to Mark for review, and we’ll get a quote and set up a timeline. 

Because we spend a lot of time talking through a customization and its implications, there are typically no delays in development once we commit. We’re willing to pay a bit extra to also have a sandbox environment to test out the customizations without any risk to the production database.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve identified easy-to-use vendors that connect to their platform, allowing outside organizations to start building on their own through those services. The database itself connects to a number of services, including SurveyGizmo and SendGrid, which allows us to automate various tasks. 

The services they’ve connected to the database have been easy enough to work with, so we don’t necessarily need the team to make modifications. 

Since we’ve made the connection with SurveyGizmo, we’ve been able to create our own surveys and even use it outside of our database for external purposes. Emergent Software is really good at keeping UX top of mind.

Are there any areas they could improve?

While I mentioned that the UX is pretty good, the UI could use a bit of a polish. It’s a bit dated. If someone isn’t trained on it, they may get lost in the ways in which files move through it. It’s okay once we get familiar with it. 

One of our initial requests was to spruce up the database, and the Emergent Software team told us that they, unfortunately, couldn’t. We’ve grown accustomed to its look, though.

They’ve always been able to push out new features inside the database, but I personally feel it would be helpful if they had other users come in for feedback. We do it because we have a close relationship with Mark, but I don’t know whether other nonprofit or mentoring organizations using their platform have as much voice as us.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The best thing someone can do is set up a time to talk to Emergent Software’s project lead and let them understand what the needs are. Clients should be clear on what their ask is and whether they need any kind of customizations.

They should talk to the internal team before sending out the message, just to make sure they’re using Emergent Software’s time efficiently. I believe they’ll deliver exactly what the client needs, but it’s important to be intelligent in formulating the ask. 

Being vague isn’t going to be helpful for anyone. One thing we came to realize is that, even though the team knows mentoring, they won’t necessarily know what our problem or use case is, so having that fleshed out is helpful.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of the Community Food Club, which is a nonprofit grocery store. We focus on providing healthy food to our community.

What challenge were you trying to address with Emergent Software?

We came to emergent in need of customized software so that we could run our grocery store.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Emergent created a membership database and POS system. After that initial project, their team tweaked the software. They continue to further customize these platforms for us.

As our organization’s unique, there’s not a standard process to follow for our projects. I typically talk to Mark (CTO) and his team about what we need. Then, they create a scope of work in a way that I can understand.

What is the team composition?

I work with a project manager, salespeople, and a few other people who deploy the projects.

How did you come to work with Emergent Software?

One of our board members had a connection to Mark. Once we started working with him, we realized that he and Emergent were gems.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested over $50,000 in their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We opened our doors in 2015, so we probably started working with Emergent in early 2014. As they maintain our software, it’s an ongoing partnership.

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

They almost always manage to fit us into their schedule. We’re not a big account but they always make us feel valued.

They’re always willing to troubleshoot and accommodate our unique situation. Their team’s creative and puts my mind at ease because I know that we’re in good hands.

They’re personable too. I’m not a tech person but they always make their work easy to understand. I never feel like they’re trying to string us along. Their team helps us figure out what’s best for our organization, even if it’s not the route that will give them the most hours.

How did Emergent Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team always delivers within the timeframe detailed in the scope of work, which makes it easy to execute the project. They’re upfront about when they can begin a project too. Their team hasn't missed a deadline and either met or come under the number of hours outlined in their scopes of work. They're creative, nimble, and fast.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their customer service is excellent. It can be difficult for development companies to speak in non-technical terms. However, I haven’t had that with Emergent. They’re personable. Their team took the time to understand my organization and figure out what will best serve us.

They also look at the big picture. Their team looks 3–5 years down the road and tries to put systems into place that will continue to provide the best service for our customers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. I’ve always had a great experience with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you clearly outline what you need, Emergent will be realistic about what they can do for you. Their team will also help to problem solve and figure out the best option for you.