GIGA IT

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Kilburn Live is a world leading events company specializing in premiere experiential, touring and static live entertainment offerings in over 50 countries globally. Kilburn Live partners with the World’s most recognizable brands, to create new, never before seen immersive attractions. I am a VP of Technology (Software).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire GIGA IT, and what were your goals?

We hired GIGA IT to create a web-based scoring system for activations (a set of interactive games) to be deployed at a family entertainment center (FEC) an integrated with the FEC's RFID access-control system.

We also engaged GIGA IT to develop several Unity3D-based augmented reality mobile applications for iOS and Android smartphones to be used by visitors in-venue at other interactive productions.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking for a near-shore software development team and GIGA IT was willing and able to assemble a dev team in short order to start the project in two weeks from contract, and they were priced competitively against other options we were considering.

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

The initial Game Hub project was a six month engagement with GIGA IT. The goal was to create and deploy a production activation scoring system at the opening of a new FEC that was integrated with the FEC's pay-to-play RFID access control system. Subsequently, we extended the engagement to extend the Game Hub system to support two other activations at upcoming FECs.

The Unity3D augmented reality mobile apps were developed by an additional dev team in parallel. Each of these mobile app projects were about a six to eight week engagement. The Game Hub tech stack included:

• MongoDB
• NestJS
• VueJS
• PlayFab
• Netlify
• GitHub for version control and CI/CD

The AR mobile apps were created with Unity3D targetting iOS and Android mobile devices.

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

The web-based dev team consisted of:

• 1 Senior Architect (part time)
• 1 Senior SW Engineer
• 2 Junior SW Engineers
• 1 QA Engineer
• 1 Devops Engineer (part time)

The Unity3D dev team consisted of 1 Senior SW Engineer and 1 Junior SW Engineer.

We worked with a single GIGA IT delivery manager for all projects. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Despite several new requirements and change requests thrown at the project team (some quite late in the game), the GIGA IT team was able to complete the project that met the timeline for the opening of the FEC. With only a few issues found post-deployment and further requested UI/UX tweaks, the system is working well in production.

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

We employed a Scrum agile development process with me taking on the role of product owner in concert with the GIGA IT delivery manager as scrum master. We ran two week sprints beginning with a planning meeting, daily stand-up meetings (team only), mid-sprint check-in meeting with product owner, and ending with a demo and retrospective. We used Jira for project task management and bug tracking; MS Teams for wiki, shared files, chat and video comms.

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

To begin with, we were impressed with GIGA IT's nimbleness in forming a dev team to begin our project in short order. Also noteworthy is their flexibilty and ability to adapt to changing project requirements, and augmenting the team with additional/different resources as needed. Our GIGA IT delivery manager was transparent and communicated status and issues clearly and in a timely manner and we developed a very trusted, close working relationship.

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

Over the length of the project we experienced a few team member turnovers. This is understandable given the current competitive software resource market. In all cases, GIGA IT always manged to find overlapping resources as replacements to minimize disruptions.

As a product owner working with engineers who don't have English as a mother tongue, I need to be precise and clear in my communication of expecations, requirements, and acceptance criteria. I had to remind the team that I wanted them to reach out to me directly and promptly if they had any doubts and questions to be clarified (perhaps a cultural or style difference).

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of operations at Noven.io, an oil and energy production company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GIGA IT?

We needed help with software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us develop a software system for a new product we're developing for a client, building it from scratch. Their product is a server system that collects data from IoT devices. It stores in the database and gives the user the ability to see their data, run some diagnostics, and understand the analytics from those. 

We didn’t have anything for the system before they arrived. It’s a server application that has a web-based UI. It collects data in real-time from the gateways. We finished version one and are now focusing on improvements and additional features.

What is the team composition?

There were five people, including senior software developers and QA people. There was a project manager as well.

How did you come to work with GIGA IT?

They were recommended by a friend.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent more than $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2020, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The system is working, and there are no bugs. The product is reliable, so they did a great job. We reviewed all the source code, impressed with the quality. The software is understandable.

How did GIGA IT perform from a project management standpoint?

They delivered on time and within budget. We communicate via Zoom, Slack, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their methodology and ability to run projects were impressive. We learned a lot from them on how to run projects more efficiently.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything is good. There aren’t any issues.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hire them, and make sure that expectations are set up properly at the beginning. They’re good at estimating the time and budget of projects, which is very rare in IT.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am an IT manager at a procurement solutions company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with GIGA IT?

We needed help desk services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide us with help desk services for our services providers. They use Zendesk, which is one of the things that made their proposal very attractive to us.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with the CEO, the call center manager, and someone on the technical team. We currently have about eight people working in the call center. 

How did you come to work with GIGA IT?

We had an international bidding process. At the time, GIGA IT was a service provider for one of our associated companies in Mexico, so they came up as an option. We invited them into the bidding and ended up selecting them.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent about $250,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We had a three-year contract that ended in October last year and was renewed. We have been working together for about four years now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results are positive, which is why we decided to renew our collaboration with them. They have good metrics, services, and skills, so the service is pretty stable and punctual. They have been able to adapt to all of our requirements and changes.

How did GIGA IT perform from a project management standpoint?

The tool we use has its own reporting system, and we base our analysis on the monthly reports that Zendesk creates. We have never had any issues with that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility and transparency set them apart.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We haven’t had any issues, but maybe it would be good to have new or additional ways for more formal reporting of processes and results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a practice manager for Latin America at a technology services firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with GIGA IT?

We’ve worked on two development projects with them. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first project was related to the development of a voice assistant for Android, something similar to Siri. They used different technologies, some of which were related to speech-to-text or text-to-speech, to be able to interact via voice. That was more of a test project. 

The second project was to develop a system for an online lottery. They took more of a traditional approach with this project and built a responsive mobile app using Angular.

They also support us in strategic marketing every once in a while.

What is the team composition?

I worked with about four people.

How did you come to work with GIGA IT?

I knew the company from a previous position. They used to provide services for my previous company, and I had very good references from that experience.

What is the status of this engagement?

The projects lasted about one year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work was great. They had great technical skills, prioritized quality, and paid attention to the client. We’re even considering taking on more projects in partnership with them because we found them to share similar values as our company. 

How did GIGA IT perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was inside the expected parameters we set up for the projects. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility and commitment were impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything was fine.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there

I am a delivery manager at a blockchain, and payment processing services firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Giga IT?

For some of our projects we outsource some of the services we offer, this is what we did with Giga. They are our partners for some of our development projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They work mainly in front end development using Angular. 

What is the team composition?

We work with around four people, including a project manager, two or three developers, and a tester.

How did you come to work with Giga IT?

They were referred by a company that we collaborate often with. We evaluated 3 to 4 companies at the time, we really liked their willingness to collaborate under our requirements, we had very short deadlines and strict requirements and they were able to adapt very well. 

How much have you invested in them?

We have invested about $60,000–$70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April and continue our collaboration. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was very successful, largely because they were very agile and were able to take effective decisions in a harsh environment. The quality of the development was good but the main highlight of their work has been their agility. 

How did Giga IT perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Slack to communicate, they also use their own project management tools, we had weekly sprints, they were always available and had a great decision-making capacity.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to take on our project as a project of their own and to understand our development needs was incredible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is always something to improve but maybe in our collaboration, everything will get better as the partnership develops and matures.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the IT manager for the Andean region at an industrial iron tubes supplying company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Giga IT?

We hired them for development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done a number of projects with us, including developing and upgrading our time and attendance applications in Colombia.

They used Javascript, 4GL, and .Net for our projects. 

What is the team composition?

The team size has changed with time but it ranges from 1 to 3 people.

How did you come to work with Giga IT?

We were looking for a company to provide us with developers. I knew some of the developers working with them and was aware of their skills and qualities so we contacted them, they presented a good proposal and we started our first project with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them with fixed contracts from 2009 to 2014, after that we’ve worked with them on different independent projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the projects was good. We’re still using the platforms they developed, and it has been a positive relationship.

How did Giga IT perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication was good and very fluid. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re fast and efficient, and their team is highly qualified.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve in their functional area, sometimes they are not deep enough on their requirements requests and that can affect deliverables.