Increased Productivity, Security and Scalability
Imagis is a Microsoft Gold Partner delivering modern cloud solutions for companies with distributed teams and regulatory requirements.
Our team of support technicians, engineers, security analysts and cloud architects have expertise in Microsoft 365 and Azure using modern technologies to create robust, compliant environments that increase employee productivity, engagement and scalability.
Experience your digital transformation with a streamlined, zero-trust and zero-infrastructure footprint environment that minimizes costs and improved overall technology experience.
Focus
Reviews
the project
Managed IT Services & Consulting for Nonprofit Organization
“Imagis’ ability to provide customized solutions based on our organizational needs is impressive.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the associate director of technology and operations for a reproductive justice nonprofit organization that focuses on reproductive health, dignity, and justice for Latina/x women.
What challenge were you trying to address with Imagis?
Imagis is our managed IT services provider.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Imagis is our sole arm and entity for all of our IT needs. Although I oversee our IT efforts, we don’t have any IT staff, so we rely on them for cloud computing, cybersecurity, and helpdesk support. Additionally, they’ve helped us on various IT-related projects, and they act as an employee within our organization, helping us brainstorm trends, new technologies, and cutting-edge cybersecurity initiatives.
What is the team composition?
I work with Imagis’ CEO, COO, one of their engineers, and a customer service success manager.
How did you come to work with Imagis?
I don’t know how we originally found Imagis. I inherited them as one of the vendors we used when I joined the company.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent approximately over $500,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
Imagis has been working for my company since around January 2017, and our engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Although I don’t have metrics to share, I’ve seen successful project outcomes since I’ve been in this role. For example, we had a great cell phone rollout project, and everyone within our organization now has cell phones as a result of this effort.
In general terms, Imagis is always very organized and prepared for projects, and they’ve been able to assemble the appropriate team members for each project. Additionally, they’ve been a great resource for us, constantly researching and providing the answers we need regarding advanced technologies and cybersecurity.
How did Imagis perform from a project management standpoint?
Imagis’ project management is excellent. They’re great at helping us forecast our plans and project scopes, and they’ve helped us measure our engagement’s success during our project meetings. We have ongoing, weekly meetings with one of their customer service success managers. Additionally, we communicate via Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Outlook, and we use Excel to manage the projects.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Imagis’ ability to provide customized solutions based on our organizational needs is impressive.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Given that we’re a Latino-based organization with several Spanish-speaking-only staff members, it would be helpful if Imagis had Spanish-speaking personnel. Additionally, it would be great if they followed up without being reminded to do so. Sometimes, we have to remind them to follow up on tasks.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be organized and know your own needs.
the project
Consulting & Cybersecurity for Research Subject Database
“Imagis’ project management is outstanding; I can’t imagine a project being managed better.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the global COO and one of the co-founders of Verified Clinical Trials, a research subject database within the clinical trial industry.
What challenge were you trying to address with Imagis?
We’re a fairly small company, and within our industry, we have many regulations around data management, data storage, storage documentation, disaster recovery plans, and business continuity plans. Additionally, we have regulations around internal staff management in terms of providing them secure assets like laptops and training on cybersecurity so that they don’t cause us any risks. Since we don’t have the internal capabilities or knowledge to comply with those regulations, we work with Imagis.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Imagis provides us with cloud consulting and cybersecurity services, helping us comply with our regulatory requirements. Their scope includes handling our data storage using a cloud server and ensuring that the server is protected once the data gets there. They also look to protect us from human risk regarding our staff’s information management. Additionally, they continuously do research on what we ask them to do, not only to complete that task but also to determine the best route for us to achieve that goal.
What is the team composition?
We’ve worked with Sam (Integrator & CEO), who opened the discussions and got us working with his company. Additionally, Ilya (Client Success Manager) has been our closest contact and has led most of our projects. We’ve also worked with Vlad (Founder & Chairman), Tim (CFO), and Alex (Technical Support Engineer).
How did you come to work with Imagis?
Many years ago, we were working with developers from Langate, Imagis’ parent company. Langate offered a lot of services, including software development, hosting, and cybersecurity. However, they grew a lot, and they needed to separate the company.
Once they split up, Sam led the Imagis’ team and took it to a different level. When they made this switch, we continued working with Imagis as a separate company for our cybersecurity needs.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested around $100,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with Langate in 2013, and years later, they split the company up. The transition was very smooth, and since, we’ve kept working with Imagis.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Our company is strictly regulated in the research industry, and we’re audited by pharmaceutical companies on a regular basis. We must have up-to-date documentation regarding our hosting security, staff training, website protection, and passwords. We've always passed those audits thanks to Imagis’ work and what they’ve implemented within our company.
How did Imagis perform from a project management standpoint?
Imagis’ project management is outstanding; I can’t imagine a project being managed better. They’ve done such a great job in all the different areas like quality of work, communication, and efficiency, that we would like to reproduce their approach within our own company.
In particular, Imagis’ communication and support are bar-none. Anytime we reach out to them with questions, they provide great answers. We’ve sent a lot of requests through their support email, and their timeliness to meet our needs has been unbelievable. I don’t know how they get right back at us providing the quality answers we need, but we’re very satisfied with our partnership.
Throughout our engagement, we’ve met with Imagis almost every week to go through the current status and discuss any direction changes. Ilya is great at guiding us on what they’re doing for us and how they’re doing it. He offers a great open line of communication. We use MY CLUE for documentation purposes, and we use Zoom or Teams for our meetings.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Imagis distinguishes themselves from other providers in three areas: the quality of their work, their communication skills, and their ability to understand our company’s limitations, helping us fill those gaps.
Are there any areas they could improve?
In our industry, we need to have a lot of documentation ready prior to implementing any change, upgrade, or migration. Having documentation planned and approved for changes needed would be great. However, not having it is not Imagis’ fault. It has been a learning process.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I highly recommend you to reach out to Imagis to see if they’re a good fit for your needs. They’re a very high-quality company, and they’ve helped us be in a better position than we would be if we worked with another vendor.
the project
Cybersecurity Services for Women’s Health Advocacy Nonprofit
"I’m very pleased with how quick and thorough they are, all while keeping us updated on the status of the fixes."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
Our organization is a 503c nonprofit that advocates for policies around women’s health, especially concerning medications and procedures. We make sure that women are included in all tests and trials to ensure that anything that gets approved by the FDA is actually beneficial and doesn’t harm women.
As the office manager, I’m in charge of day-to-day operations in the organization. I make sure that everything is running well so that everybody else can focus on their work. I also work closely with the property manager to make sure that any issues with our physical location immediately get taken care of.
What challenge were you trying to address with Imagis?
We didn’t have a very robust IT system or a lot of backend security. The company we previously worked with was a very small organization, and they were slow to respond to our needs. That’s when we turned to Imagis to get the full support that we needed.
What was the scope of their involvement?
The biggest challenge Imagis addressed was improving our cybersecurity. They first established a secure network, set up our new laptops to conduct verification upon signing in, and switched all of our platforms to Office 365. We stopped using Gmail, and they did some configurations on their end to prevent us, or any hackers, from accessing our old Gmail accounts. We also started using Teams instead of Zoom.
After those initial steps, Imagis went on to provide ongoing cybersecurity services. They conducted cybersecurity training for our organization, wherein we watched videos and took an exam to assess how much we learned. We set out to do that sporadically throughout the year to keep ourselves alert and aware of what ransomware and phishing scams might look like.
Imagis is currently wrapping up the cybersecurity implementations on our website and membership database. They’re working with the host of our website and with Blackbaud, the host of our database. Most of the work is done remotely, with the exception of those instances when we needed additional security equipment installed in our office.
What is the team composition?
I work with four people on a weekly basis, and one of them is our account representative, Ilya (Client Success Manager).
How did you come to work with Imagis?
Our former executive director was the one who decided to go with Imagis, and I believe she chose them based on previous work she’d done with that team.
How much have you invested with them?
The monthly bills are approximately $4,300, and the initial project was around $6,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our partnership began in September 2021. Other than our outstanding issues with Blackbaud, the project has been wrapped up. Imagis will then continue to be our IT support.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Imagis is very responsive, and their customer service has been phenomenal. Whereas it took our previous provider weeks to address simple, day-to-day problems, Imagis only needs a couple of hours to get an issue resolved. When we were having a hard time integrating our QuickBooks into the new system, they kept us in the loop throughout the weeks that took to fix the problem. Their techs were great at following up and making sure that we were doing what we needed to do on our end.
Everyone that I’ve worked with from their team is very knowledgeable. Even when I reach out with an issue that I can’t explain very well, they’re able to understand me right away. They can also explain things right back to us in a way that’s very understandable for a non-tech-savvy person.
How did Imagis perform from a project management standpoint?
We have weekly video conference meetings that are very quick and straightforward. They don’t drag anything out; they’re always clear about what they need from me and my team, when they need it, and what would happen if we didn’t get to things at a certain time.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their response time and communication practices really stand out to me. I’m very pleased with how quick and thorough they are, all while keeping us updated on the status of the fixes.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there’s nothing I would have them improve. Things were a bit crazy on our end when we were in a transitory period, but it didn’t affect their ability to do what they needed to do.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be clear and honest about your needs and what your organization is struggling with. It’s important to let Imagis get a clear understanding of what you need help with in order for them to build their project around that.
the project
IT Cloud Services for Healthcare Reputation Management Co
"Imagis is a top-notch organization that really knows what they’re doing."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CTO at Rater8, a premier service provider collecting patient feedback about their doctors and practices.
What challenge were you trying to address with Imagis?
We wanted to move our self-managed processing platform to managed cloud services. We’d already used Imagis to build our Azure processing platform. They built it and gave us custody, so we were responsible for running, maintaining, and monitoring it. However, we felt that we’d concentrate better on our business if we gave custody to Imagis to manage the platform for us.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Imagis transferred our platform assets, such as our servers, workstations, and databases, into their managed cloud services environment. Now, they ensure that the platform is secure and up and running — they take care of everything for us.
What is the team composition?
We worked with Ilya (Client Success Manager) on the business side of the project and a network engineer.
How did you come to work with Imagis?
They were a fantastic group of people to work with. Imagis was on top of their game.
How much have you invested with them?
We pay a monthly management fee, and it’s roughly about $70,000 per year.
What is the status of this engagement?
We began the project around November 2021, and it was a two-and-a-half months transition. Now, it’s a long-term engagement.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Time is very low, which indicates the quality of the work. Also, we had zero operational downtime during the switchover, which is another objective measure of their proficiency and efficiency.
How did Imagis perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re very organized. The initial proposal included a timeline, and we had regular weekly meetings throughout the project. We discussed any needed adjustments, and they were very proactive about it, so we knew at all times what the timeline was looking like.
Now that the transition is completed, we have monthly meetings. They still have a high level of communication, and the team is very organized and experienced at what they do.
We had open lines of communication during the transition, including email and phone conversations. Once we completed the main work, we switched to a more structured ticketing system for minor changes and requests. We can send tickets, and they quickly and efficiently take care of them.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Imagis is a top-notch organization that really knows what they’re doing.
Are there any areas they could improve?
We don’t want them to do anything differently. They do a fantastic job.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Ask for the network engineer.
This review was published on July 20, 2020.
Yossi Geretz
CTO, rater8
Software
11-50 Employees
Montvale, New Jersey
Less than $10,000
Feb 2020 - Jul 2020
Project summary:
Using Microsoft Azure, Imagis ventured to build a data processing solution for a medical statistic collection company. They created a scalable solution and provided training for its management before hand-off.
Feedback summary:
Imagis successfully delivered a streamlined solution that boasts improved functionalities. Compared to the old platform, the new one saves the client 25% on operational costs. The team showcased a stellar work ethic, meeting all deadlines and maintaining great professionalism throughout.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CTO of Radar 8, which collects patient satisfaction statistics for medical practices. We collect data internally, as well as via routing through online rating platforms.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Imagis?
We had an original vendor that established our processor on Microsoft Azure. The platform processes over 250,000 surveys on a monthly basis. We sought to replace this solution with a more streamlined one.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Retaining Microsoft Azure as our computing environment, Imagis built a new processing platform for us. They also trained me and my team on various operational aspects before they turned the product over to us.
What is the team composition?
I worked primarily with one teammate, who spearheaded the project. I suspect that there were 2–3 others behind the scenes.
How did you come to work with Imagis?
Imagis is the sister company of another company I used to work with. I was referred to them because my project’s requirements were outside of my usual company’s scope of services.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent $7,500 on their services.
What is the status of this engagement?
The work for this project began in February and wrapped up in July 2020. I have an ongoing relationship with them.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The new platform is terrific compared to our old one. We now enjoy more features while saving 25% on monthly platform costs. The quality of their work has been top-notch.
How did Imagis perform from a project management standpoint?
They managed the project flawlessly. I didn’t have to worry about anything, because they had no problem adhering to deadlines and meeting the expected milestones.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I was blown away by how aligned they were to my needs as a customer. They initially submitted two proposals: one for the initial build, and another for ongoing management. But, we’re a tech company, so we’d be capable of maintaining the platform ourselves. When I told them that we would no longer need their support after system hand-off, they immediately accepted that revised scope of work.
Their professionalism makes them a preferred vendor for when (and if) we look into continued infrastructure management.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No. I was happy with the whole process, from start to finish.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Give them a call, and be clear about what you need from them. They’ll deliver.
RATINGS
Overall rating: 5
Quality: 5
Cost: 5
Schedule: 5
Willing to refer: 5
the project
Offiice 365 Migration for a IT Company
“Imagis had the expertise we needed.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the president of Link High Technologies, an IT management company.
What challenge were you trying to address with Imagis?
We needed help with migrating from an on-premise email system to Office 365. We had some unique challenges that required specialized expertise, so we decided to call Imagis.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Before working with Imagis, we were using three on-premise exchange servers, and they were an old, 2013 version. We also had about 125 employees using those servers, and the average mailbox size was 130–150 gigs.
That situation was Imagis’ starting point. Thus, they initially assessed everyone’s mailbox size and gathered our requirements. Those requirements included not having any downtimes, not even during the weekends, so it became a challenge. Ultimately, they migrated us to Microsoft 365.
What is the team composition?
We worked with an account manager and the lead project engineer from Imagis. Maybe more people worked in the background, but those two people were the ones that joined the weekly calls throughout the project.
How did you come to work with Imagis?
I called Microsoft’s offices in New York and asked for companies certified in Office 365 migrations. We wanted to work with someone local to New York so that we wouldn’t have language barriers and they could come to our offices in case there was some on-site work needed. We found that Imagis’ account manager was in New York, so we went with them.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent close to $23,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together around July 2021, and we finished at the beginning of October 2021.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Imagis used their expertise and experience to work in the background, so there was very little, if any, downtime during the migration. Our on-premise exchange servers were outdated, and if they failed the vulnerability tests, we wouldn’t be able to renew our cyber insurance. Now, we’re on Microsoft 365, so we don’t worry about any of that. The burden is now on Microsoft, and if their servers were to go down, there’s not much that we could do about it.
How did Imagis perform from a project management standpoint?
Imagis’ project management was great. We had weekly Thursday calls over Microsoft Teams to talk about status updates, and we communicated via email. They were very responsive and always returned our emails within a few hours, even during the weekend.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Imagis had the expertise we needed. Whenever we asked if they’d done something, every other company said that they didn’t, but they could try — that wasn’t a great answer for us. However, Imagis had experience working on similar projects of the same size and scope, so they always answered yes.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, they met every expectation and deadline. I think that one of Imagis’ secrets is to underpromise. They told us that the project would take 4–5 months, but they did it in three.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be very upfront. I asked them about the limitations of this project, and they provided them in writing for us to work around them.
the project
Managed IT Services for Pharmaceutical Imaging Company
“Imagis is a very knowledgeable group of people.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the chief compliance officer for a contract service organization that provides imaging expertise and reading for the pharmaceutical industry in pursuit of clinical trials.
What challenge were you trying to address with Imagis?
Imagis assisted us and continues to assist us with our Microsoft Azure Cloud Services implementation.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Imagis provides us with web hosting and cloud hosting services. Prior to working with Imagis, we didn’t have the cloud (Microsoft Azure implementation). They were responsible for delivering the entire cloud service solution, integrating our existing applications to work on the cloud, and allowing us to manage data via the cloud. That work is ongoing.
Another deliverable was to integrate SharePoint, which we hadn’t used previously as part of the Office 365 suite of tools. They built out libraries within SharePoint for us.
Imagis also maintains our network security. They consolidated our network security passwords and firewalls, and they provide other security services for our internal network and our clients.
What is the team composition?
We’ve worked with 4–5 people from Imagis, but we work a lot with Sam (Integrator & CEO) and Ilya (Client Success Manager), our project manager who oversees our projects. We’ve also worked with a few resources who have the technical expertise to implement.
How did you come to work with Imagis?
The principles at my company selected Imagis. I don’t know how they chose them. However, I can say that I’ve been very satisfied with their work. I think they were a good company to hire out.
How much have you invested with them?
The rough estimate of all of the projects is around $200,000. We also keep them on a monthly retainer for the security and networking services. As far as I’m concerned, they’re competitively priced.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with Imagis in June 2019, and the engagement is still ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We maintained timelines for the projects, and Imagis was successful in meeting them. In terms of success metrics, all of the projects had requirements, so the fulfillment of those requirements was the basic metric for any of the deliverables within the specific project.
As far as the ongoing service, we have a service level agreement with Imagis to put some metrics around their overall performance. We meet quarterly to go over metrics, such as their response time to questions or issues, and they are definitely within spec as far as our service-level agreement is concerned.
How did Imagis perform from a project management standpoint?
Overall, the communication with the people at Imagis is very good. They are very open and approachable, and they are easy to get a hold of. I don’t think there was ever a time when I had to go looking for them or they weren’t responsive within a few hours of my inquiring. I’m on the West Coast, and they’ll respond to me when it’s late in the evening for them on the East Coast.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Imagis is a very knowledgeable group of people. Like I said, from a price standpoint, they are very competitive. I also didn’t have any issues with them in terms of meeting their timelines. We’ve come to rely on them and their tactical expertise, predominantly in the cloud and security space. I would definitely recommend them for those services.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Nothing comes to mind. Imagis have been very responsive, and they’re the first to admit if something that we’re asking them to do is outside of their expertise. They also recommend others that might be able to provide the solutions or capabilities that they can’t.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I think this would be true for any vendor, but make sure that the expectations are clearly communicated. The Imagis team is very flexible — they will change very quickly if need be — but from a cost perspective, it’s always good to have your requirements understood as early as possible. This will allow you to avoid making last-minute changes.
Imagis is accommodating and flexible to work with, and the team is very responsive. Of the vendors that I’ve worked with in the past, they’re definitely one of the better ones.
the project
Managed IT Services & Support for Legal Justice Nonprofit
“Imagis is top-notch from a customer service standpoint.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the IT director of a nonprofit in the criminal justice field. We’re a pretty small team with a database administrator and IT manager working under me. As head of that team, my job is to provide technical support; maintain our hardware, software, and internet/cloud services; and answer all technical issues — basically, everything IT-related.
What challenge were you trying to address with Imagis?
We’d had in-house servers until 3–4 years ago and decided to pivot. It was a waste of time to manage continually-aging hardware, so we decided to embrace cloud solutions for all our services. Doing so would provide more flexibility for people working from home and eliminate power outage issues. That has proven to be the right decision, given that we no longer have to maintain internal hardware and our systems are accessible anywhere in the world.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Imagis was our partner in designing, implementing, and supporting our cloud infrastructure. We went through a few different iterations, initially opting for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services. We worked with that for a few years but had some issues in terms of capacity. I don’t believe we properly specked the level of computing resources we’d need. We had to add new servers on the fly, which is easily done in a cloud-based environment but was still a pivot.
We eventually ended up transitioning to a Citrix-based desktop environment, which was much better for us. It was more sustainable and easily-accessed, and generally better all around. Imagis helped us move from our in-house system to the cloud. We’re now in less of an implementation phase and more of a maintenance one.
They handle user provisioning, general troubleshooting at the user level, backups, restorations, and general issues. They intervene when there’s a problem related to our cloud environment that we can’t figure out.
There were a couple of cases where we had to implement a restoration, including a ransomware attack, and Imagis brought us back to speed quickly. They’re also working with us on our firewall infrastructure. The bulk of what we do is connected to the cloud, but they’ve done some internal work for us on our Wi-Fi network.
I’m planning to install our VoIP system myself, but it will involve some work from Imagis on the firewall side.
What is the team composition?
It’s hard to say because we’re now at the point where I don’t have to bother individual people from Imagis for different projects. We’re in support mode now and have dedicated channels for issues. We have an account manager and there are 5–6 people I’ve been in contact with. I’ve seen 2–3 names of first and second-tier support people in tickets. I don’t know how many support people they have, and that’s how it should be with good-quality support.
How did you come to work with Imagis?
They reached out to the former executive director of our organization. We get a lot of offers through email, but it so happened that Imagis had experience supporting nonprofits and they mentioned that in the email. I
t was also an opportune time because the conversation about transitioning our infrastructure was very much at the forefront of my mind. I was about to start a search and included Imagis as a candidate. Had it been two months later, I’d have found someone through other channels like recommendations.
How much have you invested with them?
It’s hard to say because I don’t get a bill directly from Microsoft, where a lot of our services are hosted. Imagis bills for that and for our Citrix licenses. They’re a reseller, so they bill us for those services instead of us having to go through multiple vendors. We pay them, and they pay our cloud provider.
Our support contract with Imagis is payable directly to them. The cost has fluctuated a lot. At this time, we’re paying $17,000–$18,000 per month for cloud fees and support, and the total cost so far is between $250,000–$500,000. I’m sure they take a reseller’s portion for the cloud services.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with Imagis 2–3 years ago, and I believe we went live with our cloud infrastructure in September 2018 for the bulk of our users. We worked closely with Imagis for 3–6 months to get to that point.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
I can’t give any vendor a 10/10 rating, but the point where we’re at now is terrific and has been for the past six months. We had some mismatches in our expectations initially. When we first went live with the system, it didn’t perform up to expectations. I could make the argument that my team and I didn’t fully articulate our needs.
Imagis was extremely diligent about making good on what they promised us, to get to a point where what we had was a fit for our purposes. We paid more money than we’d initially hoped because we ended up going for a system we hadn’t initially considered. That system became cheaper over time, so the cost got closer to what we’d anticipated.
The infrastructure is very good now, and I give Imagis full marks for rolling up their sleeves and working together with us. It would be disingenuous for me to say that it was great from the beginning because we did have some conflict. There was nothing over the top, but we did have some mismatches between what they thought we needed and what we did. Ultimately, we’re now at a place that all parties would say is very good.
How did Imagis perform from a project management standpoint?
They’ve been very good from this standpoint. I don’t know what tools they use on their side, but any failures in project management and keeping schedules have been on my team’s side. I pushed things back on my side, and they were oftentimes waiting for me to provide them with schedules. I give Imagis top marks in project management.
I consider the problems we had initially to have contributed to a better working relationship now. We have had issues, but we worked them out in a proactive, pragmatic way. If there are any problems down the road, we’ll figure them out in the same way we have.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Everyone from Imagis, that my team has dealt with, gets top marks in terms of professionalism, follow-through, and general customer service. I never had the situation of sending them an email and not getting a response. Imagis is top-notch from a customer service standpoint. Even when we had a difficult situation internally and I transferred some of that heat onto them, they remained responsive and professional. They follow up afterward to make sure everything’s good.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I mention this just to nitpick, because I know they’re already working on it. Historically, we’d like to have had a portal where we could log in and see our open tickets. I believe we have this now. It would also be nice to have a place where we could see our ongoing cloud services usage for a period. Our bill has fluctuated a lot because of changing services, but I believe we’re stable now from a budgetary standpoint. If I do incur overages, I’d like to look at it from a holistic, long-term standpoint. This is something I’ve wanted, and they now have it.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs? Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Some IT providers come in and do everything, and I don’t think this is Imagis at all. We need to have an internal IT staff, even if it's just one person. I don’t think they’re the right fit for an organization that wants to completely offload IT to a vendor. Their real value proposition is in giving expertise in certain technical areas that I, as a generalist, don’t have. Also, clients need someone internally who can ensure that the organization’s expectations are set correctly.
Imagis has been a strategic partner for the client due to their IT knowledge and tailored approach. They’re always ready to take on new projects putting together the appropriate team for the task. Additionally, they’re very helpful in scoping projects and discussing cutting-edge ideas and solutions.