Evizi

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at a company called LifeSite. We provide data protection services for your personal and private information online. We offer secure alternatives to Dropbox functionalities like collaboration and messaging.

What challenge were you trying to address with Evizi?

We lacked the resources to build out our mobile app, so we decided to hire Evizi for their development capabilities.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built Android and iOS apps from the ground up. I work closely with them on a weekly basis to flesh out the app’s architecture. Since I have a robust security background, we collaborated to arrive at the most secure infrastructure for the app.

They’d originally built a first-generation hybrid application using the Cordova stack. Since there are security concerns with hybrid apps, they migrated all of the data to create new native applications for both iOS and Android. The key features are completely new; they created a secure storage vault for storing mobile information. They’re currently working on a secure messaging functionality as well.

We frequently communicate to manage project expectations and requirements.

What is the team composition?

While the team size fluctuates, we’re currently working with around nine Evizi teammates. My primary point of contact is a project manager; we have bi-weekly standups and communicate through email.

How did you come to work with Evizi?

When I started at this company, Evizi was already part of the engineering team, so I inherited the team.

How much have you invested with them?

I think we spend somewhere around $20,000–$25,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015 and the work is still ongoing.

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

We undergo code review and make sure that bugs are at a minimum. When we do see them, they get resolved in a timely manner. Evizi is excellent at managing their resources to meet our launch schedules.

How did Evizi perform from a project management standpoint?

They partake in a Level of Effort (LOE) which gives us a guideline on resource allocation. I scrutinize those sheets and arrange and remove aspects as needed. We come up with an LOE that’s most accurate and stick to it. It’s been mostly effective, although there are inevitably times where we need to add a few more resources or work overtime to hit schedules.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If you don’t have strong project management, the project isn’t going to be successful. I’ve worked with several outsource companies, but they definitely stand out from the competition.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. I’m proactive about bringing up issues, so they’re quickly addressed and resolved.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with managing any offshore resource, you have to have strong management on both sides. I’m very happy with Evizi, but it takes strong resources on both of them and your own team to make it work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former vice president of worldwide services for a media platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Evizi?

We needed help with our global support organization as well as our global professional services team. We wanted lower costs, high-quality engineers to help us accomplish those goals.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Evizi coded and tested customized solutions that our professional services team provided to our customers. Their team used several languages including Perl, Python, and Java. They built specific features based on customized client requests. Their team also augmented our technical support force. They dedicated high-quality engineers who allowed us to offer 24/7 capabilities to our customers.

What is the team composition?

Depending on the engagement’s requirements, the size of the team shifted. The number of people who supported this project ranged from 6–30 easily. We worked with a project manager who was located in the US, which was a big help.

How did you come to work with Evizi?

I searched my network and a previous colleague recommended Evizi. I interviewed Kt (CEO, Evizi), Greg (Managing Director, Evici), and talked with their team via the phone. I liked what I heard, and their team gave good service-level agreements, so we gave them a chance. The engagement worked our great.

How much have you invested with them?

Over the course of four years, we spent between $1,000,000­–$5,000,000. It was a good value for our money.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2013, and the engagement lasted until 2017.

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

We performed a blind survey of customers to measure the quality of their tech support. Evizi provided close if not equal to the level of support provided by our badged employees. We also surveyed our customers on the professional services aspect of our engagement once it was complete. We measured their team according to our folks as well. Again, they were almost as good if not as good in terms of customer satisfaction.

How did Evizi perform from a project management standpoint?

We measured Evizi based on projection completion and timeline accuracy. Most of the metrics, if not all, were positive. I was impressed by the timeliness and detail of their updates. Whenever they had questions, their team reached out to us. They asked about our preferred method and frequency of communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Evizi had little to no turnover over the course of our engagement. I engaged with other companies and most had a high level of turnover. That created havoc and extended the project. Turnover reduces quality too. I appreciated that Evizi kept their good employees. They have a good company culture that entices employees to stay.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, they didn’t have people who worked in the same time zone as us. This was early on in the engagement. Their team worked around that but as soon as we said that there was potential for improvements to productivity, they jumped on it. We had that solved in no time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I referred them to other companies that have all been happy with their work. Do your due diligence but I’m sure you can’t go wrong partnering with Evizi on a number of projects. They’ve continued to grow their offerings and now have 24/7 support in the telecoms space.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

When I brought on Evizi, I was the VP of Product Management at HotChalk Inc., a platform for recruiting and enrolling students in online universities.

What challenge were you trying to address with Evizi?

Evizi was hired to provide development resources to build a complete enrollment platform with accompanying websites to assist with digital marketing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Using our starting points, the team at Evizi worked on the front- and backend of the platform, using Ruby on Rails. It was an open-source platform that they had to encode to be specific with our workflows.

What is the team composition?

At full force, we worked with 10-12 people, including a project manager and front- and backend developers. I also worked with their executive team that’s based in California.

How did you come to work with Evizi?

Someone on our board of directors referred Evizi to us.

How much have you invested with them?

The development work cost between $200,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Evizi from June 2011–December 2012.

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

Every few weeks, I measured the features that their team completed during their two-week sprints. For each sprint, there were completion metrics that their team hit a majority of the time. All of their development work was well-received by our internal team.

How did Evizi perform from a project management standpoint?

Beyond hitting the scheduled targets, their team was flexible when emergencies and new features popped up. At the time, our company was in a rapid growth mode, which they enabled. We were able to triple the number of people we were enrolling in a short amount of time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their ability to translate my requirements into completed tasks during a quick timeline. Their communication and reporting skills were also great. Their team could hop on the phone at any time. The team at Evizi is better than anyone I’ve ever worked with before.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have anything to criticize them on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a good project manager.