Grey Chain Technology

Please describe your company and your position there.

International Rescue Committee is a relief organization. We work in humanitarian settings and post-conflict zones doing a number of services that range from water, health, sanitation, livelihood, education, and child protection.

The sector I work in is violence prevention and response. I’m the information management and technology officer. I support our projects that ensure programming staff has the right tools and technologies.

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

The ROSA (Remote-Offered Skill Building) Application accommodates caseworkers and community focal points working on mobile programming teams by providing key content on gender-based violence knowledge, case management, communication, and attitude skills, offering skills assessments, and creating a community space for users to expand their learning.

The requirement for this redesign was to develop a revamped version of the iOS and Android app for enhanced user experience based on the feedback gathered in end-user workshops.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal of this project was to make the app more user friendly for mobile staff in low-resource settings and to promote uptake. We also took this opportunity to create a more intuitive, modern aesthetic for the design of the app.

How did you select Grey Chain Technology?

My team worked with Grey Chain Technology on the original design and development of ROSA. Not only did they have familiarity with the product, but they had also proven themselves to be a knowledgeable and overall great partner. They were receptive and brought significant expertise that helped our ideas come to life in the redesign.

Describe the project in detail.

The ROSA (Remote-Offered Skill Building) Application accommodates caseworkers and community focal points working on mobile programming teams by providing key content on gender-based violence knowledge, case management, communication, and attitude skills, offering skills assessments, and creating a community space for users to expand their learning.

The requirement for this assignment is to develop a revamped version of the iOS and Android app for enhanced user experience based on the feedback gathered in end-user workshops.

The redesign included design upgrades, a new home page, adding content, removing elements from the original app (login, community section, and profile picture), significant app size reduction, adding an app tour, and app analytics.

What was the team composition?

Throughout the redesign, there were five main people on the team that we communicated with. Having on focal point for the project made communication easy and smooth.

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

We are very happy with ROSA 2.0. The app has recently gone live in the Google Play and Apple App stores, and I already have colleagues looking to implement the app into their programming. Additionally, we have already contracted Grey Chain Technology to add additional language content to the app in order to expand the reach to more countries.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between our teams was very effective. Setting up a team space for quick updates and questions made the process smooth and created opportunities to address challenges as they came up. Grey Chain Technology was transparent in its timeline and progress, and we received regular updates.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Grey Chain Technology's communication was incredible. Despite being in significantly different time zones than us, they were still able to meet for regular discussions (especially at the beginning of the project) and their response time is unmatched. They were flexible when we faced delays on our end, and they were willing to listen to our needs and wants with 2.0 and make it a reality.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The time zones are a challenge, but Grey Chain Technology made it work for us!

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of an online market place which is headquartered in Germany.

For what projects/services did your company hire GreyChain Technologies?

We have been looking for a company to build our restaurant app in IOS native.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to get finished project in defined timeline and working with clear written codes.

How did you select this vendor?

We had contacts to lots of companies. The problem was: all companies are talking about their selves very good and trying to sound professional. All companies are representing a lot of references. But any of them tried to understand our project. Grey Chain took time to understand the project BEFORE we start to collaborate on our project with Grey Chain.

Describe the project in detail.

We are conducting online market place. We needed an app for our Sellers wich they are using as dashboard with all funktions. We had some complex functions in this app like Ringing, Notifications, Statistic, Support, Printing etc.

What was the team composition?

One developer and one senior developer was engaged in our project.

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

Within defined time, Grey Chain finished the project. That was amazing. We also worked with other companies. Any other company was able to finish their tasks within the defined time. At this point we want to congratulate Gray Chain again.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had very good communication. They were open to use and they worked with principals like Germans. That made very easy to work with Grey Chain.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We have worked previously with big companies which you can find on clutch first. But GreyChain is the company if you are looking to find a BUSINESS PARTNER. You can build with this guys long-term business relationship. And even after our project was finished, they can respond very fast to our questions and for any support inquiry they are ready to help anytime.

Are there any areas for improvement?

If you are looking for SOLUTIONS, Grey Chain will be the right company.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

International Rescue Committee is a relief organization. We work in humanitarian settings and post-conflict zones doing a number of services that range from water, health, sanitation, livelihood, education, and child protection. The sector I work in is violence prevention and response. I’m the information management specialist; I make sure our programming staff has the right tools and technologies to understand what’s going on in their programs.

What challenge were you trying to address with GreyChain Technologies?

More and more of the people we’re working with are not in static refugee camps. They’re moving between locations or they’re frequently displaced. That also means our staff moves around a lot. Our staff is not located in traditional offices. They drive to different locations, or they’re at the health center one day and the women’s space another day. We wanted to provide a way for them to have the coaching and community space that they would have in a static office but through a mobile application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

From the start, I presented to them a problem statement and user stories. GreyChain took that and started working. Throughout the whole process, they’ve not only taken what I identified as problems and found solutions, but they have also added on extra things that I didn’t know at the beginning that I would need. They ended up being incredibly helpful with our final product.

The app is built for iOS and Android. There are four modules of content and skill assessments so our staff can see where they’re at in terms of attitude, communication, and knowledge skills. They continue to take those assessments to see how they’ve improved over time. Their supervisors can also see those assessments or administer them.

There’s also a community function. We wanted to create something since they’re not in traditional office spaces that they could still connect with each other and ask questions or share resources. The app is available in English and French, and we’re finalizing the translation in Myanmar and Kirundi.

What is the team composition?

There have been up to 15 people that have worked on our app depending on what stage of development we’re in. I communicate with one person, which has made things a lot easier for me. At the beginning, I talked with one of the founders.

How did you come to work with GreyChain Technologies?

I put a posting on Upwork, and I included interview questions. I got 30 proposals of varying degrees. GreyChain was the only one that connected with the reason why we wanted to build the product. They responded well to the proposal and also had questions about things I hadn’t thought about. That set them apart from any other vendor I worked with. They have a heart in the process. Usually, people try to deliver a bare minimum project, but GreyChain cares a lot about what we’re doing, and they’re interested in it. It’s great in the nonprofit world to work with people who are passionate about what we do.

How much have you invested with them?

In the end, we will spend $17,000–$18,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2017, and the relationship is ongoing. We’re waiting on the Kirundi translation, but I expect the app will be done in the next couple of weeks. I’m also going to engage with them on another app we’re building.

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

They’ve done a great job. The biggest testament is that we’ll be using them again. They’re a delight to work with. I’ve never worked with anyone on the tech side that has listened to us when we’re talking. We’re doing a research project around the app in the first and second quarters of 2018.

We did a soft launch in October in Jordan with people in Burundi, Iraq, and Myanmar. We had global staff there from all over Europe and the States as well. The feedback was really positive. We didn’t have to give people much training on how to use the app, which was really nice. They can look in the app, and they know intuitively what things are what. Our staff in Burundi and Myanmar aren’t as familiar with apps, so that was nice for them. It satisfied users on both ends of the spectrum, ones that are really tech-savvy and ones that probably didn’t have any apps on their smartphone at all.

How did GreyChain Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very structured about our communication and willing to take requests ad hoc. The project manager and I talked every Wednesday morning for about three months to check in and get updates. I was never wondering what was going on. Anytime we would Skype, he would respond immediately, which was great because he was in India and I’m in Seattle. They were very responsive and resolved things immediately.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness and the way they care is impressive. They’re not just taking what I requested and doing it. They’re listening and adding suggestions as well. It’s not a matter of inflating their budget; it hasn’t inflated throughout the project.

I added an interview question on Upwork asking why the person wanted to work on the project. That provided a lot of insight as to whether people cared or they were just trying to deliver the minimum and check out. GreyChain wanted to build a bigger relationship with us, and they saw an opportunity there. They were interested in what we were doing related to gender-based violence against women. They care about that issue as well. That says something about an organization’s motivations for doing something that’s beyond getting paid.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish they were in a different time zone so I didn’t feel bad about calling them in the middle of his night. I’ve never worked with any tech vendor and the relationship has gone so well. They’re like night and day in comparison with other vendors.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

LegalNow is a startup founded officially in 2016. We primarily provide legal services, connecting lawyers and users directly within their geography. We focus on helping lawyers find the right customers and vice versa using both online and offline models. Our company numbers 8 people at the moment. 

What challenge were you trying to address with GreyChain Technologies?

Currently, finding lawyers in India is difficult, and the prices are exorbitant. There’s also no way to verify existing work. GreyChain Technologies assists with the online part of our model.

I had gone through 3 developers in quick succession before finding GreyChain. I realized that smaller companies always promise to build a website or app within 1–2 months, but none could deliver the product in that time.

We were also concerned about cost. A lot of vague numbers were being thrown at me for my product, and there was no clear vision in terms of the developer operating at a higher level, recommending changes, and bringing new ideas.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

The solution is a legal services marketplace in which people submit their requests and lawyers can bid on the request with a proposal and a price. Users can review the lawyers’ profiles and choose to purchase the service.

GreyChain Technologies built an IT roadmap for my product, focusing on what I should do with it next. We worked on an Android and iOS application and a website. We performed market testing for both products during phase 1 and took them down last month in order to ensure that we can focus on the next phase, which involves building new features based on user feedback. We had 10,000 users back then but decided to pause based on the company’s situation.

GreyChain started the work from scratch. I had a high-level design from the last vendor, but the code wasn’t useful, had been written poorly, and was incomplete. Instead, I wanted to use a different technology that both I and GreyChain were comfortable with. They were happy to help me out.

They recommended building native iOS and Android apps with PHP backends using RESTful APIs and web services, which they specialize in. GreyChain was instrumental in helping us connect with our digital marketing company. Using them, we were able to reach about 5,000 Facebook followers and increase our traffic.

One of the functionalities we required were notifications. If a user posts a request for a lawyer, the right resource will receive a notification. Similarly, when a lawyer posts an answer, the user will receive automated notifications. This has driven a lot of revenue and feedback for us.

Our relationship with GreyChain was mainly strategic. They built the whole piece from scratch, taking the UI and UX strategies into consideration in order to get more customers organically.

What is the team dynamic?

I primarily worked with a project manager. Apart from him, there were 2 Android and 2 PHP developers and a QA lead.

How did you come to work with GreyChain Technologies?

I met them through a friend who personally knew their founder. The pricing was exactly what I wanted. Apart from this, I liked GreyChain’s timely delivery and project management approach. They did releases every week and gave a status update every Friday via phone call and email. GreyChain basically took over the project, allowing me to focus on other parts of my offline business.

How much have you invested with them?

To date, I have spent around $27,000 on their services across a multitude of apps.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with GreyChain in October 2016. Phase 1 has been finished and delivered in full. We started phase 2 a month ago and will definitely be continuing the collaboration. 

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

I have decommissioned the apps for the time being. We had around 12,000 users on Android and 7,000 on iOS. The website used to get around 1,000 users per day, back then.

Users liked the app and concept, but they described the UI as only average. I got in touch with GreyChain and told them that I needed to create a 6-star design, and they obliged by conducting a 2-week exercise revamping the app. This quality made me consider them again and again.

How did GreyChain Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They helped me deliver within the right timeframe to make my investors happy and keep them interested. This was a major concern when I started looking for developers.

GreyChain gave me the same developers I’d worked with on the first phase, and they’ve come to understand my domain. They always got back to me within an hour on any day, including weekends. Apart from this, the weekly updates and calls were amazing. I always knew the project status and any challenges since they were covered in great detail.

They used Trello for sharing the feature list. We also kept some documentation on Confluence. These were the 2 primary tools, apart from Skype for calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are affordable and great to work with. They send me regular project updates and demos without fail, and the project manager from their team was amazing. GreyChain has a unique ability to communicate well, which was something I had been missing before. When an item was wrong or delayed, the other companies didn’t mention it. GreyChain told me whenever there’d be a delay and explained the reason behind it and the new action plan. I always look for this in companies delivering services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They need to say “no” more often to me in response to requests for certain additional features that weren't budgeted. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

 international research and policy non-profit in the field of international development.

For what projects/services did your company hire GreyChain Technologies?

We hired GreyChain to develop a mobile application to facilitate the data collection of a large scale research project about international remittances.

What were your goals for this project?

A mobile application, an admin panel that makes it easy to control app settings for different groups of users, continuous support and problem-shooting for two years.

How did you select this vendor?

Open bidding

Describe the project in detail.

Initial meetings for needs assessment and design; app development and testing through 3 pilots; finalization of app and continuous support for two years.

What was the team composition?

1 project manager who leads communication with us, 1 back end developer, several Android developer and IOS developers. I have to admit i do not remember the full team composition very well.

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

App ran for two years with minimal issue. Project goal of data collection was achieved.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Good communication skills of the project manager. Willingness and ability to understand the client's business and needs.

Are there any areas for improvement?

More careful estimation of productivity and timeline.