Icreon

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of KTP Advisors. We’re a specialized advisory firm in the group retiree health care space.

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

We wanted them to work with us to conceptualize and build a digital marketplace for purchasing health insurance.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We went through two phases— the first was conceptualizing. What the product would look like, how it would function, and all the different stakeholders involved. All the stakeholders were involved. This included the business processes, all the different requirement, workflow, tech integration, and managing all the different stakeholders.

Then, once we had those ducks in a row, we’re moving into the development phase.

What is the team composition?

From their team we’ve consistently worked with five people, from someone who owns the project management piece of it and scheduling, and obviously we haven’t worked on the engineering side yet, but we’ve been able to pull them in as we needed their feedback.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

We found them through word of mouth recommendations. In addition to looking for a partner with the technical expertise we required, I was looking for an advisor.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We officially engaged with them in January 2018 and it’s ongoing.

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

They’ve been able to pull all the processes and requirements of various stakeholders together in a seamless and organized fashion. They grasp all the complexities of our industry and were able to translate them into technological requirements.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re lifesavers. They went above and beyond. They’re everything I could want in a great partner. They’re not just a tech vendor; they’re an advisor and strategist. For me, it has felt like they were part of our team.

They’ve been accountable and trustworthy. They check in frequently and are with us every step of the way. They schedule every meeting and have facilitated different partners coming in. This was a complicated project because we had to integrate various technologies from other insurance company. Icreon helped manage, coordinate, and follow up meetings with these other providers. They were involved every step of the way.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re not just a technology company—they go far beyond what is expected of them. They had to understand the ins and outs of our industries, and they picked it up quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they need to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Their team is very smart. They can take on challenging work, so don’t be afraid to bring them your biggest challenges. You can definitely use them for things outside technology; they’re excellent advisors.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the applications manager for an international manufacturing company and full-service provider for quick-service restaurant kitchens. We’re working with several well-known fast-food restaurants. We have a manufacturing presence in four countries, and we have offices in every continent. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

The initial challenge was to develop an e-commerce platform for our business.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Icreon developed our e-commerce platform in its entirety. We have websites for all our major markets, and we have iOS and Android apps on top of those. Icreon has been involved in the design and specification of all our improvements. 

They’re fully responsible for the implementation and management of the entire system. We’ve constantly refreshed and evolved the product over the years, and Icreon has helped us do that.

They’ve also built an integration for our ERP. Over time, we’ve merged our IBM AS/400 instances in Europe and the US, and Icreon has been heavily involved in reconfiguring our e-commerce platform for those transitions of our ERP.

They maintain our Microsoft SQL database, and the coding is in .NET.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked closely with four people in Icreon. We have an account manager in England, and we have a project manager and two full-time development resources in India. I’ve occasionally dealt with other resources.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

It was before my time, so I'm not sure. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I joined the company in May 2017, and I’ve been working with Icreon on a daily basis since then. They’d already set up our e-commerce platform app when I joined and have refreshed them since then.

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

One of the main reasons for continuing to work with them is history. Icreon has been involved in developing every part of our platform. Secondly, they have good subject-matter knowledge and a good vision and good ideas when it comes to moving from support to development projects and vice versa.

We can gauge the success of their work through our online sales, which have continued to grow and are now an important source of revenue for us. We’re getting good feedback from customers, particularly in relation to our app.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

Our maintenance resources run small development projects under that maintenance arrangement, and the process is managed by myself or my colleague. Icreon’s people are just part of our team. They always come in on budget and ahead of schedule.

Our two resources have been working from home since the COVID-19 situation, and they’re working totally European hours, which is midday to 10 p.m. their time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If we contact them about an issue at 3 am in India, they’ll get on it straight away. They’re willing to work on weekends to push new deployments. Icreon stands out in terms of flexibility, reactivity, dedication, and enthusiasm.

We’ve had a very close relationship with Icreon. We have a pretty good setup.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing stands out to me.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I'd advise clients to make sure they’ve done all their homework. On the maintenance side of things, they need to spend time with the team and treat them like actual team members.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Working Voices. I was brought in to sort out their software development function. Most of the software that’s created by the company is e-learning software for the financial industry, like big banks, insurance companies, and corporate enterprises. We deliver communication and soft skills training to everybody, from lower management to senior executives.

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

The company had issues with a previous supplier that had limited resources. I came in and did a review and realized we needed to work with a new company that was cost-effective and would benefit the end-user. We were looking for a supplier that could take over somebody else’s code, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped improve our existing web platform, which is primarily PHP. They also helped with our native iOS and Android apps. We’re working on a fairly large project at the moment.

What is the team composition?

We have an ongoing agreement with them. We decide at the beginning of the year how much work we have to do, and they bring in the appropriate people. We have several people that we always interface with. When we’re more concentrated on iOS, the iOS team gets involved. Similarly, we have an Android person who coordinates all that work to make sure that things look the same on both mobile platforms. We also have front- and backend teams working with our own internal designer. There can be 5–10 resources at any given time, depending on the need.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

We went through an extensive process of interviewing a number of potential companies that could help us. Icreon accepted the challenge on the basis that they would own the software — as well as its existing issues — on the development side. It was important to have someone that was partnering with us as opposed to providing ad hoc services. Icreon could work at the pace at which we wanted to do things, and they offered flexibility with requirements at varying points of the year, rather than requiring a huge plan.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent £250,000 (approximately $333,800 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2016, and it’s an ongoing partnership.

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

They’ve done everything that we’ve needed them to do. We’ve done a lot of work over the last few years transforming what we had.

Being from a software development background, I’m able to have detailed conversations with them about the way in which they approach things. Sometimes we agree, and sometimes we disagree. Regardless of how we end up doing something, they’re willing to take a slightly different approach if needed. They often come up with different ideas as well. We give them free rein to come back with suggestions, and, on a number of occasions, they’ve exceeded our expectations by proposing a critical design or approach that has saved us money and time.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly conversations, and we talk on a biweekly basis if we’ve got something major on the go. Our dedicated project manager sustains the in-between time, so we don’t have to have a high level of monitoring going on. We’ve developed such a good working relationship that if there is a problem, they’ll tell me about it before it actually is an issue. They don’t hide anything from me. They’re honest, and I trust what they’re doing. They’re responsive and give me good feedback. They get things done on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have the ability to just get on and do something once we’ve agreed on what we’re doing. As with any piece of software, there are challenges. Sometimes, we have to rethink or reschedule things we’re doing. They help us decide the best way in which to deliver something that will ultimately help our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When there are issues, we talk about them right away. Nothing gets carried over. Sometimes, we have to go into great detail for them to really understand what’s going on, particularly when we’re talking about legacy code. However, we generally don’t have any issues. If we do, they get resolved. There’s nothing I have a particular complaint about.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When it comes to asking another company to design your software, you’ve got to be very clear about what it is you want.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT manager of a textile manufacturer.

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

Icreon was initially hired to develop and launch a new website. Since handling that, they now support our site and internet system; those are two applications that are tightly coupled together.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our intranet is a homegrown system developed by an internal team member. Since then, that person has left. Icreon stepped in and did a complete audit of that intranet. Per that evaluation, they made some modification changes and continue to support it to this day. They support us in every way from new features and functionalities to taking care of any problems we encounter.

Icreon isn’t only our support mechanism, they’re also our development team for the website and intranet system. They handle all the front- and backend development tools. There’s a strong emphasis on digital transformation, inventory platforms, and e-commerce. We have a lot of content on the site we need to manage. Our product management system is Drupal-based.

We’re currently working on a big project with Icreon to enhance the e-commerce platform. It’s going to be a complete rewrite of the existing site and auditing of the intranet.

What is the team composition?

I work with Prasant (COO); he’s my main contact. There are also a couple of project managers in their New York office. The development team is in India, and I deal with them on a daily basis for the most part. There was also a salesperson who was instrumental in assisting us with creating the statement of work for the new project.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

When I joined my company, Icreon was already a vendor. I’ve been instrumental in enhancing that relationship over the past five years.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $600,000–$700,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started around January 2012.

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

Icreon has been instrumental in our digital transformation; their team has assisted us to move away from paper-based paraphernalia and onto an online digital experience. They really excel in this area. Their development skills coupled with their creativeness on the design side has been instrumental as well. We didn’t have to hire a separate design company because we were able to rely on their design expertise.

There are two categories: vendors and trusted technology partners. The latter are people I trust implicitly. There are maybe two or three companies I consider a trusted technology partner, and Icreon is one of them. I give them the highest praise because they always go above and beyond what I ask them to do.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been great, I give them 100%. I can’t ask for much more than what I ask of the development team and project manager I deal with. My team speaks to them every single day, numerous times a day.

There have been many times when we’ve been in a crunch situation, and they’ve always performed for us. They’ve never said no and have always come through in the timeframes we needed. Their team is organized and committed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with their attention to detail and proactivity. They never fail to bring something to my attention when they foresee that what I’m asking will cause an issue. They have our back, and we have comfort in knowing that they patrol issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no complaints. The quality of work is there and so is their commitment to get the job done right away. We have a good relationship.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend 15 minutes with them on the phone and they’ll tell you how committed they are and how they’ll work with you. Their quality is top-notch; I wouldn’t hesitate to work with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the database manager of a law firm. We’re in a niche industry that deals with securities litigation on the plaintiff side. My primary responsibility is to oversee and be a gatekeeper for the massive amount of historical trading data done by our clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

We have proprietary software that was designed in the early 2000s when our data group started. The software is significantly outdated in terms of speed, efficiency, and flexibility. Not to mention, it was designed for 15 clients and we’re well over 250 clients now.

As year after year went on and we received more data, the software was getting slower and slower. I put what I call duct tape on the proprietary software, but it was just a matter of timing. It came to the point where we weren’t working with the right tools so we engaged with Icreon.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Icreon came in with an open mind, and we started with digital discovery. They came into our office, and I taught them about our entire business. The discovery phase lasted about three months.

Their team corresponded with our business analyst to understand what we do and how it impacts our clients and numbers. They got a great feel for our vision of the new platform and translated that into user stories.

We’re leveraging Microsoft’s cloud service because our tech stack is based on Microsoft. We’re in the midst of the solution’s development right now. The platform is being built through Microsoft Azure and Java for the frontend.

What is the team composition?

I work with all the designers, CPO, and a project manager on their Fifth Avenue team. I’ve also talked to their teams all over the world, whether it was the UK or India; they’re a global company.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

We sent out an RFP and asked firms to give us a proposal based on what we needed. Ultimately, we selected Icreon because of their sincerity. Like many firms, our firm has found embracing technology to be a challenge. Icreon gave a sense of comfort to our executive management. They did multiple presentations and phone calls. It was clear we’d have a partnership for the future and not just a client-to-contractor relationship.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested over seven figures.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in October 2019.

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

The solution will be something we can access outside of the office and that’s something we were never able to do before. We’re excited for it to go live; we’re in the final stages. Because of Icreon, we’re ahead of our sprints, and that’s vital for an industry where all the attorneys want information yesterday.

We’re very happy about our partnership with them. We’re in the user acceptance testing stage right now, and we’ve already hit the first milestone. Anything that needs reshuffling, Icreon is more than happy to reshuffle their sprints to accommodate us. That mindset is better than any metric of having a shoddy product made just to meet a deadline. They go above and beyond.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager is great. He’s been here since the very beginning. He’s my point person, and we communicate on a daily basis. He pulls in the members that I need to talk to and coordinates everything I need. It’s all been very accommodating and an overall great job.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been most impressed with their ability to not back away from technological challenges. What we do is very complex, and they’ve been able to learn our business, have different channels, and keep everything organized at the same time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any areas. When I need something, I always get a response within five minutes. Everything that we needed has been hit. If not, it was delivered earlier and in the same quality that we’d expect.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Put in the time. If you’re juggling too many things, it’ll slow down the process. They’ll be committed to your project, so you must match that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing for a mid-market tool manufacturer. We sell our products through big-box retailers and industrial accounts.

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

We were looking for innovative ways to launch a new product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve had multiple projects with Icreon to launch multiple new products. The core of each involved creating digital marketing campaigns, landing pages, and e-commerce connectivity. The strategy was to promote the product that it would land on Amazon or encourage customers to buy from us directly. 

One product used a mobile app for connectivity. Icreon worked with us to take the original app design and significantly improve it.

What is the team composition?

We had a core team of 4–5 that we interfaced with, but we also took advantage of their international teams. That gave us a lot more resources to work with.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

We came across them when we were developing the original app for our product. We passed on their team at first because we thought they were too sophisticated for us. However, as soon as we realized that our first-choice vendor wasn’t working out, we went back to Icreon and immediately started working together.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017, and the last campaign we did ended in December 2018.

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

Because of our private equity owners, we judged Icreon’s performance based on the sales we saw. On that metric, we proved successfully that the work they were doing outperformed our expectations. Our internal team worked closely with theirs and received their work well. 

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

Having access to a lot of resources gave us incredible nimbleness. I could call their team in the morning with a request, and they’d fully implement it by the next morning. As we’d get results back, we could adapt and change. We communicated through email, the phone, and texting at all hours of the day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From my experience working with similar companies, I’d say two things stood out about Icreon. First, they had an incredible strategic approach to problems. Second, they effectively used analytics to dial the performance of our campaigns.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing they weren’t timely about was sending invoices so we could pay them!

Any advice for potential customers?

Their experience is so great. The best advice I can give is to trust the direction that Icreon recommends—it will lead to top-notch results.

Please describe your organization.

The company I work for hosts one of the world's leading obstacle course events. We put up around 75 events worldwide in Europe, Canada, North America, China, Australia, Dubai, and so on. 

What is your position?

I am the vice president of technology.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

Being a relatively young entrepreneurial organization, we needed to build up our technology infrastructure, which is why I was brought on board. Our internal team was running at maximum capacity, with more work than they could handle. After getting the lay of the land and understanding what our strategic initiatives should be, as well as our tactical day-to-day business operations plan, it became obvious to me that we needed to get some outside help, especially around our website and e-commerce engine.

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Having known Icreon in the past, I reached out to their team and asked them to analyze our website's efficiency. Icreon helped me understand where we were with respect to architecture and scalability helping me develop a strategic plan.

The results of Icreon's initial survey findings lead to a relatively good plan. I asked them to work with our internal development team, taking on some of the project overflows. This quickly progressed to Icreon taking over the project work as well as offering staff assistance. Icreon helped me plan a strategic plan for our 2017 platform.

We've used three to five resources from Icreon at any given time. I have an on-site point of contact, and I don't deal with the team on a daily basis. We're able to track our projects using JIRA. There was never any unexpected turnover within their team. We actually brought in a lead developer from Icreon as a full-time resource. We felt that we needed him here more than one day a week.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

In this business, it's not what you know, but who you know. I came across Icreon through a friend from a previous position. He gave Icreon a very good reference, so I decided that I could also trust them. I liked the output that Icreon was giving for that other company.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost of Icreon's services has been in the six-figure range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Icreon in May 2015.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Icreon has a very good ability to take on challenging work, not just run-of-the-mill design. We have a very complex structure – not for the faint of heart – including multilingual support and e-commerce tracking tools. The people assigned by Icreon for our work have been strong in being able to understand the platform. There are many different people, including data scientists, asking for information. The web development team's ability to understand that information and make it a reality made for a very close working relationship. If we simply handed the work to the developers and let them work alone, we'd be left with a broken solution.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

The other element which Icreon brought to the table was an understanding of the business context. When I got here, the first thing I did was to setup sprints. It's not that another organization wouldn't have been able to handle an agile development process, but Icreon quickly took over JIRA, and understood the tool set. JIRA is our main development tool, but we also use Smartsheets for project management, as well as Slack and Basecamp, the latter being used mainly by our marketing team. JIRA is used for delivery planning, and Smartsheets is the means by which the delivery schedule is communicated to people like me.

What distinguishes Icreon from other providers?

Icreon has a very strong ability to work with other vendors. One of our major projects within the last six months [since February 2016] was a Salesforce integration. We used other third-party vendors for this, given that it wasn't a core focus for Icreon. They stepped up and worked directly with that vendor, making sure that they had exactly what they needed. There was never a turf or change-of-scope issue.

Icreon gave me peace of mind in knowing that I won't be hit with unexpected invoices. They understood the scope and took on my pain points. Other organizations, especially developers, won't want to take responsibility beyond what they're delivering to the client.

Is there anything Icreon could have improved or done differently?

As a business owner, I always want volume discounts, but this would require overall planning sessions with Icreon, creating the budget for a year. I don't know if this would be an improvement specifically, but I'd like to see this within any partner organization. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and owner of Work, Train, Fight. We're a unique company. People call us a gym, but we're really a boxing/spring training facility. We use boxing as the main cardio modality and combine it with strength training. We do that for personal training as well as small and large group settings. At the same time, we rent space to the fitness industry. For example, personal trainers and overall fitness instructors pay us to work out of our facility. That's what we do, instead of hiring trainers, giving them clients, and paying them directly. It's almost a barbershop type of deal, but one where the barbers rent the chairs instead.

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

The very first time I approached Icreon, I was looking to eliminate paperwork in our business. I realized we were using actual papers for nonstop waivers and sign-in sheets. Storage was a mess. We couldn't find or track anything. I was also trying to do the right thing for the environment since I'm a big animal lover. Once we got a taste of the tech bug, I realized the possibilities. When we were developing the first app, we continued moving to what's next. How else can I make my business easier? How can I make this business plug-and-play for the employees? I was personally not satisfied with the fitness software that was out there. The existing third-party software did not seem to fit my unique business model. You could tell the other ones weren't built by fitness professionals. They were built by software engineers who saw a gap in the market. They truly didn't know everything, the A to Z that was needed in the fitness industry.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our very first software with Icreon focused on replacing paperwork with a virtual system. We still use that iPad app today. They used either Ruby or PHP for that. We went to a much bigger project then. I asked them to create a Work, Train, Fight software with our own app, not a third-party app. The software had to be visually appealing and customized to the fitness industry. It allowed us to do many things with marketing, such as offering promotions that would only show up one time and vanish. The system doesn't allow the user to use the same promotion constantly. It also allowed us to offer monthly recurring packages or memberships. Our system included details that were specific to the fitness industry, like where the waiver should show up, and the ease of creating an account. This project is big because now it's an app with a front-end and a back-end. It stores credit cards and rings up everybody at the first of the month. The system also manages packages, tracks accounts, and makes the checks all at the same time.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

We found Icreon using a typical Google search. I then called them to make an appointment. Before I went to their office for the first time, I went through their website. It seemed like everything they were doing was clean, sexy, and smart at the same time. That's something I take a strong approach to with our training procedures, from lights to the trainer themselves. Being smart, being confident, and looking good are important. I wanted our software to take the same approach. I spoke to a few different companies and met with them. But, once I met with Icreon, it was smooth. They understood it. After meeting with them, it's as if we immediately started.

How much have you invested with Icreon?

We have invested $50,000 to $200,000 with Icreon.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we started working with them in the summer of 2010. Our app was launched in January of 2012.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Thanks to Icreon's first software project, it is now extremely easy for us to find waivers and sign-in sheets. We just log into the app and search as it's stored in our black space. It made everything quicker, cleaner, and more organized. It also improved our user experience. Our clients were like, "Wow, this place is legit." At first, Icreon's second project looks similar to what's already out there. In my eyes, it was death by a hundred blows that made a difference. It provided tons of small things the other software didn't. It might not seem like much, but something as simple as having our name in there instead of a third-party app – that branding makes us look stronger.

One of the biggest impacts of our engagement is that it allowed me to sleep at night. Because of the software, our Bootcamp revenue stream is now bigger. When I first opened this location, I was almost strictly renting space to personal trainers. As we began developing our own classes and personal training, we knew that was the real following. Once the app was completed, we were allowed to market ourselves and do whatever we wanted with promotions and sales. Previously, the Bootcamp earning stream was at 15 percent of our business. Now, it's 70 percent of our business. Our revenue stream for Bootcamps was about $4,000 a month. Within three months of the launch of our technology, it went to $19,000 a month. It's allowed us to open more locations.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

If there was a problem with project management, it was my fault. I was always adding stuff. There were never any issues regarding guidelines. It was nice to work with different people with different perspectives in regards to the software. Meetings were smooth and consistent.

What did you find most impressive about Icreon?

I think what set them apart was their ability to make technology functional and sexy. It was nice working with them because, sometimes, you work with people who have limited imaginations. I never felt like that with Icreon. You say something crazy, and they say, "Yes. Of course, we can do that."

Are there any areas Icreon could improve?

No, as I said, the biggest obstacle was my brain constantly jumping in with ideas.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder of this company, which is a leading provider of software for the compliance automation industry. We work with real estate owners, managers, tenants, and other people who work in the industry. Our services target those who are interested in compliance for buildings. This includes violations, inspections, complaints, and the like. We provide software for people who own, operate and inhabit buildings, helping them comply with the local law. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

When we first started our company, I wanted to round out a development team with people outside the US. I have a background in software development. For most of my 20-year career, I have managed programmers in hybrid teams of onshore and offshore resources.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborate with Icreon in order to create software. Icreon's team of core engineers and developers has worked alongside our internal team every single day. Icreon is involved to some degree in the majority of projects that we tackle. There have also been times when we would use a certain expertise or team from Icreon for consultation. In certain cases, we've been able to go outside of our core arrangement.

For example, we did that when we were looking at some server migration or database re-architecting projects. We asked for experts which we could bring in for short periods of time. They helped cover knowledge gaps and provided a different point of view. Most companies interact with developers on a project basis, like asking them to build a particular website. In contrast, Icreon operates as an extension of our core tech team. It has been fantastic. We got to know them as humans. We share work with Icreon, have code reviews and so on. Icreon is a great place for providing this.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

In my background of working with third-party technology companies, I've seen a tradeoff. It’s a choice between huge companies which have deep benches and amazing reputations, and the tiny dev shops which have unproven quality. A small startup like ours would become just a number for a large developer. That means we would not have direct access to the resources that ensures our projects are on time and within scope. Oftentimes, large companies are also expensive.

On the other hand, a small shop may not have a track record or client list which we can use for references. We went through a very extensive process of identifying the right partner. We interviewed dozens of companies, gave them requests for proposal, and evaluated them. From all of the candidates, Icreon was the clear winner.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship with Icreon. We started working with them 5 to 6 years ago. We work in a possibly unique arrangement since, for the greater part of 6 years, we have had staff in their office. They act as an extension of our team.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

When we started working with Icreon, our company had 5 employees. We used one of their full-time resources for overflow work. Over the years, that one resource has turned into 24 people from Icreon rounding out our team. They handle the deep day-to-day project management. I don't have a specific success story, but the proof is in the pudding. Our company has grown and our interaction with Icreon has grown. They've become an important part of our ability to deliver reliable software to customers.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

We had to communicate software skills across multiple teams, projects, and resources. Not only did we need to deliver software on time and within budget, but we also needed to integrate our project management with theirs. We're an Agile shop which uses scrum methodologies, and we're heavy users of Jira. We're not using any specific project management tools to oversee our relationship with Icreon. Rather, we use the tools to develop good software.

Icreon participates in our daily scrum calls and standup meetings. They're working with the same project management tools and are partnered with our internal developers.  We have a team in our office and a team outside of our office. These teams have to manage projects together using good Agile practices. Icreon also provides 24/7 support when there is a need to track issues, fix bugs, and so on. Having a New York shift and an India shift has been an advantage.

What did you find most impressive about Icreon?

When working with any vendor or partner, there needs to be a trusting relationship. Trying to find the sweet spot between a huge company that would treat us as a number, and a tiny one which isn't qualified, was a challenge. Icreon was in a very particular sweet spot, and they continue to remain there. They have a combination of experience and a large-enough dev shop that allows them to effectively cover many different disciplines. Icreon also has mid-range pricing, on par with the level of expertise brought to the table.

This sweet spot was critical to creating a successful project, in my point of view. Icreon is large and experienced enough to meet our very complicated needs. At the same time, they are also small enough to have c-level executives reachable by phone. We have conversations about specific project concerns and we also have great conversations from one executive to another. This made Icreon feel like a family. We're able to go beyond day-to-day interactions and work with their management team.

Are there any areas Icreon could improve?

There’s a constant area of improvement over which we've had discussions with Icreon. It’s not because they do a bad job, it's just a general part of engineering success. They need to improve the way large software teams across 2 different companies can communicate and collaborate.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Icreon?

Here’s my advice to other people who are embarking on projects using dev shops. Make sure that they dot their i's, cross their t's, and constantly focus on how to connect the dots. They have to provide as much information, planning, and expectation alignment as possible. Icreon has been extremely receptive to being my partner, in this regard. I'm definitely a hands-on client, and Icreon has welcomed this. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an educational technology company focused on reducing or replacing costly textbooks. We work primarily within the K-12 segment, but also within higher education. Our company was founded 5 years ago after our founders saw a disconnect between the potential that the iPad offered and the resources actually available for it. I'm the director of marketing and chief operating officer. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Icreon?

We needed development resources for our software. Hiring technical staff internally wasn't going to be possible, which meant we had to go out and find an external supplier with the various skills we needed to deliver a custom solution. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

In working with Icreon, we developed a 2-part system consisting of a content management platform for teachers, and apps for iOS, Android, Chrome and the web. Icreon also designed our website using Drupal and provided management for it.

We have uploaded and sorted high-quality educational resources which teachers can mix and match. They can also upload their own material and create textbook replacement courses which are pushed out to the student apps. Our content can be downloaded to local storage and synced for offline use. Even though they're moving to the online world, many schools' Wi-Fi isn't up to speed. It's hard to watch movies and download material, so even though a lot of great content was available, teachers and students couldn't consume it. By being able to download the material, users could have access to it anywhere, in and out of the school.

How did you come to work with Icreon?

Figuring out which team worked best for us was a long process. Our co-founders interviewed 3 different firms found on the web, and gave each one a 2-month test project. They loved working with Icreon and found the work delivered to be the best.

How much have you invested with Icreon?

The cost of Icreon's services has been around $300,000 per year. Some years may be higher if we're building a new app.

What is the status of this engagement?

We work with Icreon through a monthly retainer which includes the management of all our apps. We have commissioned Icreon for one-off projects for the development of our apps and management platform.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our goal as a company is to empower teachers to offer the content that their classroom needs. Each case will be a bit different, so we wanted to be as flexible as possible. We have close to 5,000 teachers on our platform and around 6,000 courses which have been created and used. There are close to 20,000 resources available, which we've always tried to pare down. We want to offer the best resources possible and make them easily searchable. All the items that we offer are sorted and tagged by grade, subject, course standards, and type of media.

We've tried to maintain constant communication between the teachers using our platform and the project managers at Icreon, allowing them to give feed-back directly in some cases. Icreon has done a fantastic job at working with both technical and non-technical staff, explaining complex issues in layman's terms.

How did Icreon perform from a project management standpoint?

Something which I appreciated about Icreon is the transparency which they offered for the work being done and any problems that came up. In the educational space, there is an incredible amount of nuances which wouldn't be evident unless someone is deep in that space. Icreon did a great job of doing a deep dive and understanding what teachers and students actually needed, giving us clear estimates for how long any task would take. There are many standards that need to be achieved for a product to be used in a school. This wasn't something that Icreon had had experience with in the past, so we learned the process together. The fact that we were able to talk to Icreon about this helped our project management.

We used did use a project management tool but I forgot the exact name. It was invaluable and definitely helped us manage their involvement. 

What did you find most impressive about Icreon?

Icreon has done a good job at managing multiple projects at once. They are in charge of our website, our content management system, as well as 5 different apps which all need maintenance and updates. Icreon has made sure that all our bases were covered. They want the best for their clients. Our previous website, for instance, was horribly outdated. Our co-founder didn't see it as a priority, but Icreon understood that our site was how teachers first made an impression about our company. They pushed our co-founder, explaining that it would impact sales and growth. We were able to develop a wonderful website as a result.

Are there any areas Icreon could improve?

Timelines got pushed back at times, but this critique is true for any educational development project.