Grey Chain

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an executive and Director at Salt Stayz, we are a Hospitality company with multiple properties in Delhi/NCR region.

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain, and what were your goals?

We were looking for a end to end hotel management platform for our custom needs and wanted to pick a company which can give us personal attention. We wanted a quick assured turn around to launch our company and its services online.

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

We were referred Grey Chain by a known person who told us that these guys are very responsible and deliver services on time and also partner. Quick assured turn around was a big factor and trusted previous client helped us make a quick decision.

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

Grey Chain helped us Go to market quickly by building a MVP with which we could launch and also manage our internal processes. They worked with us in the beginning to understand our needs, we loved that their co founder was personally involved. They helped build a booking platform and internal invoicing system to begin with and are now working with us to build the end to end system for all things hospitality.

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

Co founder, scrum master, 3 devs and a QA.

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

We saw a launch in just 2.5 months which was a key measurable for us and obviously a stable product post launch. The way the co founder was part of the engagement was a key factor in having a stable outcome plus a great experience with not even a single stressful moment.

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

They used a tool called Jira, which was new to us but they gave us a good walkthrough. The tool helped us track the project. One new thing we learnt was agile where they showed us outcomes regularly and even incorporated our feedback.

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

If they committed 10 weeks, we got output in 10 weeks!! And educating us on IT was great for non techie people like us.

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

None, just that not sure how long their co founder will be involved but would want him for all next phases.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Profices Technologies Private Limited established in Feb 2016 is Chandigarh, India based company managed by highly experienced information technology professionals & offers services in the areas of Software Development, IT Infrastructure Management, Security Infrastructure design, Quality Assurance & implementation. Please visit https://www.profices.in/index.html for details.

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain?

We hired team members from Grey Chain Technology to partner with us on an existing project for an overseas client. The requirement was to build a mobile application and a fully functional mobile responsive Angular based website. This was a mid to large scale project and we needed resources urgently to meet the deadlines for our key customer.

Since hiring the resources internally at such a short notice was not an option so we engaged Grey Chain Technology team to help us deliver the project. They helped us with ready pool of resources across varied skills and worked with us to achieve the goal.

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

Grey Chain was referred to us by one of our existing channel partner however we did a thorough review of their services. We also interviewed the candidates offered by Grey Chain and were happy to see the knowledge and skill level of their resources. We started with hiring two people in our mobile application development team and based on internal feedback and the professionalism of these resources, soon the team count of Grey Chain rose to 6 people.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

The task was to be part of internal agile team and contribute towards all the phases of project delivery starting with requirement analysis, designing, coding, testing and delivery. High level skill set included Flutter, Angular, Node and Mongo Db. We also leveraged their Dev Ops knowledge where they helped us with the automated build pipelines and one click deployment leading to faster turnaround and saving a lot of manual efforts.

The task was more challenging since the project was already under development. During the implementation the scope increased significantly which was not anticipated. This led to the need of more techies to complete the task with in the timeline required by the client thereby leading us to engage tech professionals from Grey Chain to plug the resourcing gaps.

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

We started with 2 mobile developers and eventually hired a team of about 6 people including 2 Flutter developers, 2 Angular developers, 1 Node developer and 1 QA.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project was successfully delivered for our client. The deliverables included an enterprise mobile application and a website. The feedback from the customer is very positive on the quality of the deliverable.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Grey Chain tech team is committed, professional and highly skilled. They are extremely knowledgeable, stay calm under pressure and follow truly agile practices. Jira is a project management tool used for this work and the mode of communication includes chat channels on skype, meetings over zoom and phone calls. The team is highly responsive and have always been available when needed.

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

Their commitment & professionalism is something which I really want to highlight and appreciate. At no point we got an impression that they are 3rd party vendors and are just here to complete the assigned task rather they engaged really well, brought in very good ideas from their experience and truly complimented the skill of internal developers.

They truly deserve an equal share of the success of this project. Our engagement with them continues for other assignments, and we really see this as a long-term partnership now.

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

None as of now.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a healthtech company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Grey Chain?

We were looking to augment our staff and supplement our development team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Grey Chain to augment our staff with front- and backend development support. We typically utilize Angular, Vue.js, and Laravel.

What is the team composition?

We work with 5–7 developers from their team and mainly communicate with one of the founders.

How did you come to work with Grey Chain?

We came across Grey Chain through Clutch.co.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested somewhere between $120,000–$140,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in December 2021.

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

Grey Chain continues to exceed our expectations from a KPI and performance standpoint.

How did Grey Chain perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well from a project management perspective because they consistently meet deadlines and stay on budget. We typically communicate through Slack and manage the project through JIRA.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with how easy it is to work with them, as they’re always willing to resolve our requests and rise to the challenges that they meet.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our issues have been more of an internal challenge of getting three different vendors to work together and communicate effectively, which isn’t up to Grey Chain at all.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise you to define the details of your requirement to get the most out of your engagement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO for a home improvement company; we sell roofing, siding, windows, gutters, and gutter protection services to homeowners in the US.

What challenge were you trying to address with Grey Chain?

We had faced delays with our mobile application while working with another service provider, so we engaged Grey Chain to build a functional sales enablement app. Our goal was to create a customized tool that provided our users with a consistent customer experience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Grey Chain has supported us with mobile app development and UX/UI design initiatives. They started by conducting workshops and interviews with our team to gather the requirements. We also provided them with marketing materials to support the design process, including color schemes and logos. 

Once they learned about our industry and business vernacular, they designed and built a new mobile application from scratch. They were responsible for creating designs, names, and icons for the new app. Since our existing app was built for iOS, the team also made the new version for iOS. We haven’t published it to the app store because it's proprietary.

The new version of our app is called HIRO, which stands for home improvement renovation options. Grey Chain built a CMS that organizes our product and pricing catalogs by market branch on the back end. They also embedded the app with all the capabilities a sales executive needs to sell a customer. The app holds measurements, product pricing, customer financing options, discounting functionality, and e-signature functionality. It also accommodates credit card payments for customers who want to submit deposits directly through the app. 

Furthermore, Grey Chain integrated the app with APIs, which means that confirmed leads can reach our sales executives directly through the app. Our sales executives can access appointments and customer information via turn-by-turn navigation. Additionally, the app stores information from our call center regarding which products potential customers are interested in. They also embedded product presentations and videos within the app to provide potential customers with a consistent end-to-end flow. 

Our sales executives used to bring boxes of product samples and literature to appointments, but the team digitized those resources and embedded them into the app. Furthermore, the app also features a leaderboard that enables sales executives to judge their performance against their peers. They can also use the filter views to review the past month or 90 days.

Now that we’ve launched the new version of the app, Grey Chain has been working on expanding the functionality. For example, we recently launched a bath and interior division, so they’ve scheduled a work stream to add those capabilities. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 15 people from Grey Chain: four iOS teammates, four architecture and backend teammates, one dedicated testing resource, one design resource, three project management resources, and a PowerBI resource for reporting.

How did you come to work with Grey Chain?

We found them through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested roughly $300,000 in the partnership. 

What is the status of this engagement?

They won partner of the year for their work in 2022 and early 2023. 5⭐️ experience!!

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

Grey Chain has significantly improved our mobile app's UX/UI design and flow. Our previous app lacked API capabilities, so it didn’t function how we needed it to. For example, when customers wanted to submit payments, they had to call our office, provide their credit card information, and wait for us to enter it into a system. Now, we can accommodate payments via the app, making the process seamless and clean.

Furthermore, the app has seen an outstanding internal adoption rate, facilitating 13 months of record sales performance and growth. Grey Chain’s efforts have entirely transformed our sales process without skipping a beat, which is a huge testament to them. 

How did Grey Chain perform from a project management standpoint?

Grey Chain has been an outstanding partner throughout the development process, and we’ve built a phenomenal relationship. Although the team is offshore, they’re just a phone call away. They’ve gone above and beyond to support critical business disruptions, which we appreciate. 

During the development phase, they organized work sprints around the UI and API layer. We used Excel and Jira to manage development tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Grey Chain has talented designers with robust industry knowledge. Working with them has been easy, and I’ve been most impressed by their flexibility and warmth. They’ve solidified themselves as a top partner, and we plan to continue working together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m 100% satisfied.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

What are you waiting for, have a discusson!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director and co-founder at Spacejammit, a hosting and file-sharing platform. People can share any type of file, such as videos, pictures, documents, spreadsheets, and so on.

What challenge were you trying to address with Grey Chain?

We wanted to display our idea as a mobile app and have a version for web browsers so people could access it via computers and PCs.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Grey Chain has designed and developed our iOS and Android apps as well as a browser platform. They’ve also helped us with some of the strategy and UX/UI design. Initially, we came in with an interface that was probably 80% completed. They helped polish off the last 20% and provided some feedback about the UX in general.

Additionally, we’ve leveraged them to build out the audio and video creation pieces of our “how to” instructional guide. We’ve also worked with them to create great marketing videos.

What is the team composition?

We have 3–4 people for app development and a video creator. We also communicate directly with the executives; they’re more than willing to hop on a call and walk us through anything we need. Initially, we had a project manager, and then we switched to a different one — it was a smooth transition.

How did you come to work with Grey Chain?

We interviewed them and other providers. Grey Chain was in line from a technical standpoint and had a strong focus on customer service. In the initial call, they came to the table with the 'right' questions, spoke from a hands-on experience point of view, and laid out an execution plan / path to success.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent approximately $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2021, and our relationship is ongoing.

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

They’ve gone above and beyond providing feedback to us. We’re very comfortable with their services and recommendations. The work they’ve done for the audio and video is top-notch. Moreover, we’ve received a lot of positive feedback from users since we launched the product. We’ve received praises about the functionality, look and feel, and overall experience, which is what we were trying to capture. All in all, Grey Chain has been helpful and open to making revisions and enhancements. We’re happy with our interaction with them.

How did Grey Chain perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re responsive and stay within budget. Also, they’re flexible in our interaction. We’ve put several requests out of scope, but they complete them without changing the overall cost. In most cases, they pretty much hit deadlines when we have a specific one. We’ve asked for things ahead of schedule, and there have been tasks that take longer, but it’s due to their complexity.

We communicate via email, Zoom, and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In general, our experience has been great. When we started, we couldn’t tell them exactly what we wanted; we gave them wiggle room. We like that they display partnership. They actually get in the car with us and help us drive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything is fine.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you come to the table with a sound vision of what you want to accomplish, they can help you. It doesn’t matter if you’re 100% sure of what you want – they can frame your vision and give you recommendations.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Violence Against Children Prevention Coordinator at Raising Voices, a Ugandan NGO working in violence Prevention.

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain, and what were your goals?

We wanted a tool that could be used to implement and track our violence Prevention program in schools in Uganda at Scale.

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

I saw the work they did with IRC on similar apps and heard great feedback about working with them from IRC staff. They seemed like the perfect choice.

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

We consulted extensively to provide our wishlist for our app, refined key deliverables and cost, then we were led through a series of immersion workshops to understand how the app would be built and for Grey chain to understand exactly what we needed.

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

A project manager on our learning team who spoke to m&e needs, an IT manager for tech inputs, and two project officers who specialize in program content.

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

Our app went live in time for school reopening in Uganda and has been well received by our technical assistance providers. Funders and partners are very interested in seeing the app and we have been invited to present on the same. The app is being used to collect data in 1000 schools across Uganda in 2022.

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

The Grey Chain team was responsive, helpful and immersive. They sought to understand our program and needs at every step of the journey. They have been timely in delivery and response throughout.

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

Their app development skills were extraordinary! They took the app to places we could not imagine. They were professional and friendly and a joy to work with.

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

Some technical issues remained in subsequent iterations of the app but Grey Chain did an excellent job addressing these upon request.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I an the CEO/Founder of Chicbee Trading w.l.l. Our headquarters are in Doha/Qatar

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain, and what were your goals?

Actually Grey Chain was our saver. After a very bad experience with a different company that did not deliver the products we payed for. Grey Chain was able to set a plan from day one and deliver not only one product but three!

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

We searched online for similar companies and decided based on other customers feedbacks and also on the interview day Grey Chain stood out.

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

Since day one the Grey Chain tram understood what we wanted. We needed three products ( an APP/ website and an admin panel to run both). They proposed a plan in the next day, assigned a dedicated Project Manager her name is NEETU just for us and she was amazing, highlighted all the big milestones of the three projects and started working and delivering right away.

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

We had a dedicated project manager NEETU who coordinated all our needs during the whole project was available always. We also had two developers Abishek and Dandeep working on the web and app development We had one dedicated developer just for our Online Payment gate who did wonder his name was Ankit

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

We started noticing huge traffic towards our website within days of production. Even before we uploaded our products. These guys did wonders

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

I must say that whatever words i use here will not give this team justice. They had a management style that we cannot compare to any other company. the close to heart and always available style, the ready to use all their resources when there is problem to solve ( we saw that when we had the payment gateway issues)

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

They were PATIENT, very patient with us. This team even had the time to go on the phone with us to solve a computer issue we had on our end that had nothing to do with their tasks.

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

We would never change their management style or the way they developed our products because we could have never done them differently. They delivered 3 outstanding products

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Sr. VP (Technology Services) -Asia in our organization. We operate in multiple coutries acroos the globe. I am part of our Global Technology Leadership team.

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain?

Grey Chain Technology was brought in to help delivery our tech workstack having various products in the publishing domain. The work was targeted towards improving the overall user experience and increase the outreach.

The objective of the project was to deliver bug-free enterprise-grade software products with in agreed timelines for the end users. Key task for Grey Chain was to bring in though leadership, provide quality assurance services and extend technical expertise to ensure a smooth and defect free delivery.

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

It was through detailed vendor selection process which included going through the company profile, past portfolio, existing client references. The process also included interviewing vendors to check the industry experience and knowledge on the subject. Grey Chain emerged as top 3 potential vendors. We made final selection on the basis of interest level, responsiveness and commercial value where Grey Chain was identified as a clear winner and the right vendor for our various tech needs.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The scope included analyzing the current set of requirements (which were fluid in nature to start with), helping the in-house team to identify the scope of work and provide dedicated quality assurance services to ensure the project is delivered as per the project plan. It also included identifying, recording and help mitigate the delivery risks in the early phases of implementation by putting preventive and detective quality checks.

Grey Chain Team was involved in various stages of implementation starting with the requirement analysis, development and most importantly in testing as quality assurance was the sole and key responsibility of Grey Chain Team.

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

Team size was different during the project lifecycle ranging from 4-7 members from Grey Chain team. Key team members included Account Manager, Scrum Master, Senior and junior member of Grey Chain Tech team.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Phase 1 of the project is successfully delivered and the feedback from the stakeholders is extremely positive. This is a multi year programme having multiple milestones and phases and we are looking forward to continue this journey with the Grey Chain team.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team operates in complete agile fashion. There is a two-week sprint cycle having clear milestones and deliverables. The team has also laid down a steering committee structure which includes senior members from Grey Chain team to provide regular updates which include milestone plan, risk awareness, resource plan etc.

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

The thought leadership and design thinking which they bring in to their deliverables. They truly partner with us like it is their product and they ensure successful delivery by exhibiting efforts and behaviors far beyond the committed work stack.

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

Nothing which I can think of at this stage. We are truly happy and satisfied with their service.

Please describe your company and your position there.

ThotExperiment was founded in 2020 to liberate people from arbitrary and harmful restrictions by creating sex positive, inclusive and joyful platforms for sexual exploration and experimentation. Our first platform, Headero is the app for everyone, for one thing: people who love oral pleasure.

Headero was designed from inception for people of all gender identities and sexualities. Headero allows for fluidity in gender identity selection and allows you to connect with whoever you're down with at any time, regardless of your sexuality. I am the Founder and CEO of ThotExperiment.

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain Technology, and what were your goals?

We hired Grey Chain Technology to deliver on our product roadmap and produce our first application: Headero, the hookup app for oral pleasure. Our goal was to have a feature complete app launch that was reviewed and approved by both Apple and Google for their respective app stores.

The app includes a mechanism for Headero members to connect with each other based on proximity, to message one another (including picture and location messaging), to filter for other members based on member-attributes, and to input and share guideline-based ratings about one another. Our initial version had both a free and a premium service (Bliss mode).

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

I undertook a vendor selection process, speaking with multiple software delivery vendors - including vendors across various geographies. I sought a partner with demonstrated technical excellence that took the time to understand our product roadmap and our desired outcomes, and that aligned with our company values. Grey Chain demonstrated alignment on each of these points in our discussions. I felt that they truly understood what we were trying to accomplish and were aligned on what we needed to do in order to get there.

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

The project was scoped for a feature-complete version of Headero, the first hookup app for people who love oral pleasure. The app included a mechanism for Headero members to connect with each other based on proximity, to message one another (including picture and location messaging), to filter for other members based on member-attributes, and to input and share guideline-based ratings about one another.

Our initial version had both a free and a premium service (Bliss mode). Our project milestones were based on items in our product roadmap, with the final milestone being app store approval for all relevant features. The technologies used were: Flutter frontend; Node.JS backend; MongoDB database; Kubernetes containers; DigitalOcean IaaS; Angular admin panel; AppsFlyer SDK integration.

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

Our project team size shifted over the duration of our development.

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

Our app is fully functioning and approved for both Apple and Android devices. Our product launch has been highly successful, with significant user growth for both our free and Bliss mode offerings.

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

We held regular meetings (bi-weekly) to discuss project progress and timelines. We primarily used Trello to show project progress.

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

Grey Chain’s technical excellence speaks for itself - we are very happy with the finished product and our ability to extend and scale our platform. They truly differentiated themselves by showing great care for our product and goals. Their investment in our outcomes was notable both for its sincerity and for the way it was reflected at all levels of the organization.

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

No notable areas of improvement.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the project lead for a small business out of Melbourne, Australia which delivers mechanical investment systems for private investors.

For what projects/services did your company hire Grey Chain Technology, and what were your goals?

We engaged Grey Chain for a new mobile app as our current iteration failed multiple business metrics. It was clunky, difficult to update, used a 3rd party platform with lots of custom code to work around the limitations etc. Our new app was to be built with modern best practice, as there was a significant amount of time between the 2 apps development. The new solution was to also introduce new functionality which we were not willing to expand the existing offering to cater for.

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

We googled for top development firms in certain countries across the world were we had a favourable exchange rate and then sent through a project outline, to understand their interest. Grey Chain presented us with a modern solution, a design refresh and pitched ideas at a competitive price with a can do attitude. Their focus on ensuring our product would be supported and open to change if we saw something did not work the way we envisioned with the new features.

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

The scope of our work was flexible as we did not really have a firm idea of what is possible in the mobile space and it was a ground up refresh of the product. We looked for iOS and Android support that would also engage a cloud database. It would also be open to data pushes from an instance of our product hosted in an AWS EC2 environment.

This meant APIs had to be built to accommodate the data flows. Other requests were flexible push notifications, user accounts, permissions of app functionality based on account permissions, biometric login support and app usage analytics from our existing customers. The apps extended functionality would include a portfolio manager so financial formulas had to be established in the app and refined to standard across numerous possible interactions related to stock market investing.

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

We knew of 4 resources (although more worked on the product behind the scenes) including accounts, project manager, technological architect and developers.

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

Not available at this time as the app launched a week ago.

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

We used trello & an instant messaging application that our business requested (Skype) to be able to understand the workflow and progression of the app. They were extremely responsive with realistic timelines, including when deliverables would be delayed and how long due to external causes.

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

They had a really solid grasp on the fundamentals of modern app architecture and other systems. Confidently discuss the pros and cons of different approaches and reply in a confident, quick timeframe to ensure that the project followed best practice. We could never fault them on this.

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

This is a minor issue to us. Sometimes when we mentioned bug fixes, other areas would be broken in the process requiring some repeated devt to fix. We have a very niche, complex product within a niche, so the level of product knowledge and understand of interactions never really developed. Grey Chain keeping a log or document of business rules for developers / internal testers may have helped made their quality of work flawless.