I-Verve INC

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

SpotSense is a web application and SDK for adding geofences and bluetooth beacons to your mobile app. I am the company founder

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire I-Verve INC?

Some transitions last year left us short staffed for the build out of our SDK. We hired on i-Verve to help with the development and needed a team with experience in this area

What were your goals for this project?

Our SDK had to reliably track enter and exit events for certain locations, and trigger those events when an app user with the SpotSense SDK performed the event.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After some research on fiverr and Upwork, I-Verve actually called me and I liked what they had to say. They are all very hardworking and really care about the customer

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

I started working with I-Verve a few months back to finish out an SDK that was being built. The I-Verve team immediately started working and made sure to get the right developers working on our project. Not only are we getting the project finished, but the team went above and beyond to add some cool features that weren't in the original scope. Highly recommend

What was the team composition?

We used two mobile developers and 1 backend developer along with an awesome project manager. They really know how to make 4 people feel like 100!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Before working with i-verve, we were thinking of putting the project on hold for the foreseeable future. Now that we have a great dev team, we can keep the project going!

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was great. They are really knowledgeable on our project

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team of only 3 people made such a huge difference!

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nope!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the director of Atreides Ventures. I have nearly 20 years of experience working in the technology sector, but I changed careers and started a bed and breakfast in Brazil, of which I’m the sole owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire I-Verve INC?

I needed to develop and integrate a custom reservation Widget by Planyo (online registration system) into the site.

What were your goals for this project?

I wanted the widget customized and integrated, according to specifications, within two months.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I solicited bids via Upwork and their CTO contacted me directly.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

The project was scoped and mostly designed, albeit not to 100%, which we told them in the briefing document. They did not provide any perceivable testing.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, a team lead, a senior developer, and a tester, who didn’t appear to be qualified.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

They offered to deliver the reservation widget in three to four weeks but they surpassed that deadline by three weeks. Nearly three months later, I still don’t have stable code; major bugs are appearing right, left, and center after I was assured they were closed. This lack of perceivable testing or bug tracking has cost me over 80 hours of work, since testing was de facto delegated to me. These delays cost me an entire season of bookings (around $25,000).

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

As far as I can tell, there was hardly any project management; they didn’t lay out paths or commit to dates for issues resolution.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

The need to constantly adhere to basic software engineering principles such as testing and gathering customer feedback on demos. It’s important that they introduce both a bug tracking tool and a project management system, which can guide clients along an agreed-upon timeline.

There were also discussions about what fell under our scope and what didn’t, but those are inevitable during development projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner and president of Ziggit. We make fashion pins that don’t pierce or damage clothes. Our customers use our pins for self-expression. Aside from the usual letters and emojis, they have the option of putting in what they want through our website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with i-Verve INC?

I needed some web development and maintenance for my website, which was initially developed by a local company here in Montreal. However, they were not able to deliver on an important custom feature. It allows a customer to input something via our website so that I would receive the letters in the order they were entered. They had offered to fix it, but after 2 more months and for an additional cost.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were able to deliver the feature within a week. Since I really enjoyed working with them on that project, I gave them more work on the website. We ended up having a monthly contract, where a dedicated person from their team works 40 hours per week for my company. Aside from website maintenance, they’ve also built all kinds of landing pages and new functions. They essentially do everything for my website. It is built on Magento.

Currently, we have been working on a new concept landing page, which is near completion. I do the design, and they take care of the programming and the build. After I describe the functionality to them, they are able to implement it. In addition to all of that, they also take care of the SEO [search engine optimization] for my website.

What is the team dynamic?

I work with around 5 people, including the account manager.

How did you come to work with i-Verve INC?

I found them online while looking for other web development firms. I put out a feeler, they reached out to me, and we spoke about the project.

How much have you invested in them?

I have invested between $20,000–$25,000 over the last 1 ½ years.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in April of last year, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I only have good things to say about them, and they are my favorite supplier to work with, as working with them has been very good. The SEO results they got in 3 months are equivalent to results I have seen from other agencies in the span of a year.

How did i-Verve INC perform from a project management standpoint?

They are excellent. I am very happy with the speed and how inexpensive it is to work with them. Overall, they have been very consistent in their deliverables. There are times that a project might take a little longer than I would like, but this has happened in any field I have ever worked in. This is something that I wouldn’t deduct from their performance, as it happens to everyone.

We communicate through various ways, including phone, email, Skype, WhatsApp, and Basecamp. Even though we have a 12-hour time difference, the communication has been excellent. It is very back and forth, and I am updated daily. They are very good communicators, so I don’t have to chase them. They even offered to have my dedicated developer work during my office hours, but it isn’t a big deal for me that he is up at the same time. We are still able to communicate for a few hours every day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are nice people to work with. They deliver, and their performance is really above par compared to everyone else.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

A lot of people might feel more comfortable working with a local company. However, I think they deserve a chance because they do a really good job.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a designer who sells cabinets. I’m the owner and sole employee of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with i-Verve INC?

I needed to build an online cabinet sales site. I worked with another company from the U.S. and had a different site built side-by-side with the one from i-Verve. Since I had never outsourced anything, I spent double the money to get two sites done. I would never, under any circumstances, recommend the American company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

i-Verve built my Magento site from scratch. The platform only provides so much in terms of functionality, so they designed its layout and aesthetics and performed custom coding in some places. When I sent i-Verve the information about what I needed (including inspiration photos from other sites), they asked me a few questions, disappeared for a few days, and came back with the work done. We did this several times in order to provide a basic idea of what I was looking for. When they came back, I was happy and didn’t have to make any changes.

Cabinets are hard to list; there are 4,000 to 5,000 skews on my website and many different styles and selections for each style. One of the site’s features is the “Save Cart” function. When people come to the site, they might load up a cart with $7,000 or $8,000, or 85 parts in order to get a quote, so that function was critical.

When I started the project, Magento was moving from the 1.9 version to 2.0. We started with 2.0, and, within a few weeks, they came out with 2.1. The platform and functionality changed from version to version. When this happened, they fixed it for free.

What is the team dynamic?

There were two or three people working on the project at any one time.

How did you come to work with i-Verve INC?

I received quotes from five or six different U.S. companies, as well as a few Indian ones, and talked to each one before starting the project.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was $6,500. I had other quotes of up to $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started the initial conversation with i-Verve at the end of September 2016 and the work began in early December. The collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I use the website more as advertising, and for convenience, since I can load someone’s order into it and process it that way. The amount of legwork and processing I have to do for an order has been cut in half, at least.

Users haven’t really commented on it, other than to say that it’s easier to use than most sites. The site is easy to figure out and logical. Instead of being divided into categories and subcategories, one page has every skew for every style. Instead of having to switch pages, it’s easier to just roll 250 skews.

How did i-Verve INC perform from a project management standpoint?

Most day-to-day communication is done over Basecamp, and anything that requires direct communication with the developer or the sales manager is done over Skype. I receive email notifications for new posts on the platform so I can provide feedback and approve the work. 

I have a military style of working, and they’ve been patient, never losing their cool or buckling, no matter how much weight I put on the team. If I contact them with any kind of issue, it’s fixed almost immediately. They always seemed to find the time to keep me happy.

Anytime I was given a timeline, other than the overall one, it was either on or ahead of schedule. There was a delay due to the Magento updates, but they were actually ahead of schedule on creating CSV forms and other items. The project had to wait due to issues with the BluePay payment processing module, which was incompatible with the new Magento version. We had to wait for BluePay to update their code for Magento 2.0.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The U.S. company I worked with completely ripped me off, left me with a site that doesn’t work, for the same amount of money, and actually tried to copy things from the site built by i-Verve. i-Verve is simply better at coding and getting things done.

I have no issue with shouting at someone if there’s an issue, and I have done that with them. They never lost their cool, and never shouted back. Their patience and professionalism are off the charts. They want to get the project done, and are very concerned about the client’s opinion. They are service and satisfaction-oriented.

I can’t say enough good things about them, though it wasn’t like this from the beginning. Halfway through the project, every conversation was a war due to the Magento update issues. It completely threw the team off their game and threw me off schedule. However, they put their heads down, worked through it, and got it done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Now that I’ve worked on these sites myself and realize what it takes, I have no negative comments to make. I have called their principal and admitted that I was wrong to shout at them. They had the issue fixed a week later without one foul word, without fighting back, or anything.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

For anyone building a website, it’s important to do your homework. These are tough systems to build, with many intricacies and nuances which can make it or break it. i-Verve will steer you in the right direction since they know what they’re talking about.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner the of small blockchain company working with NFTs on the XRP ledger

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire I-Verve INC, and what were your goals?

I created my website myself with limited knowledge. I was having scaling issues and issues working with complicated blockchain functions.

SOLUTION

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

They were responsive and good at communicating. They provided me many references for me to talk to about their previous and current work

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

We had a meeting to discuss my needs which are based around learning and working within the XRP ledger. They were good and easy to communicate with

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

I speak to at a project manager and a developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I do not have any measurable outcomes to report as yet

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

Good communicated via Skype

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

They have the ability to adapt and learn new technology. XRPL

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

No areas to improve as yet

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own a manufacturer of custom electric guitars.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire I-Verve INC?

I hired them to build a professional and functional website that reflected the image of our high-end products.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I selected them based on their pricing, creative ability, responsiveness.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

I-Verve INC provided complete website development, integrating shipping and other e-commerce functionality.

What was the team composition?

I worked with the owner of I-Verve INC as well as a project manager and code warrior.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The finished website projects the image we want to present.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They delivered on time and within the budget. They managed the project through their web portal. I would log in with my input and feedback, and I would see the changes reflected the next day.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed with their responsiveness. Plus, they were more up to speed on the latest WordPress capabilities than I was.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

They can still improve their creative input, although I'll give them more creative liberty for an update.