Intelia

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Ndu health is a tech startup focusing on Telehealth in developing nations such as countries in West Africa. I am the founder of the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelia?

I hired Intelia to create the scope of work, then move forward with the production and user interface once the funds have been raised.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal of this initial project to document the full vision on paper before production actually begins.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

When deciding to take on this venture, I wanted to work with an organization that understood the cultural aspects of West Africa and developing countries but still held ethical and moral values of vendors in developed nations. Intelia was the PERFECT CHOICE!

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Diana and Udoka we key players in communication with me. Diana continuously walked me through the progression of the scope of work and made changes whenever asked, without complaint or objection. 

What was the team composition?

There we two thatI specifically engaged with, Diana and Udoka. Both were and are great assets for this project and any other!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ths project will actually make the business itself, considering the fact that this is a startup. Which is why it was vital for me to have a dedicated vendor with a great moral compass.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

This is still tbd as the project is still ongoing, technically.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ethical standards, quality, and professionalism stand out!

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I have yet to come across.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

DIDA is an identity management as a service that is based on blockchain technology. The basic premise is that we can have a PKI infrastructure that leverages the irreversibility of the blockchain technology to capture identity in a federated manner. I work as business analyst and co-founder for DIDA

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelia?

Current identity systems such as ID cards are limited in integration with digital services for most governments. They are open to falsification and does not offer the level of on-demand KYC that is needed for high level online services such as authentication and general verification.

DIDA solves this problem by providing entities and governments with a simple, lightweight service that allows them to achieve their digital transformation agenda.

What were your goals for this project?

Develop a prototype that can be marketed to the target audience.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We researched online for competent development houses that had the technical chops to develop a product as technical complex as this and Intelia checked off the right boxes.

Speaking with their team gave us the assurance that they not only knew what we wanted but were willing to bring ideas to the table to make our value proposition even stronger. That was a good selling point for us.

Describe the project in detail.

The project is still ongoing but the experience has been really good. Intelia has kept their promises when it comes to delivering milestones and when they are unable to meet a timeline, they communicate ahead of time. The product is being developed for iOS and Android with a web application as well.

What was the team composition?

*1 Product Manager *2 Engineers * 1 Designer. I interact mostly with the Product Management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project has been going well so far. We are optimistic that it will receive good market reception once it is complete

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We generally use email and slack for communication. They send out Zoom invites for weekly calls.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their technical knowledge and willingness to look at the project from product and market-fit perspective are stellar. Not too many developers have that capacity.

Are there any areas for improvement?

So far so good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the co-founder of a startup called Residency Match. We had a relatively small team but the vision was quite strong with my wife going through the matching process for her residency at the time.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelia?

Many of the services out there that allowed users to see potential hospitals and practices and could match them were both expensive and inefficient in their match predictions. What we set out to do was to use AI to learn what the ideal profile is for a particular hospital so that the probability of matching is significantly improved. We contacted Intelia seeing they were strong in AI and software development in general. 

What were your goals for this project?

The primary goal of the project was to build the basis of our startup by leveraging technology. We wanted to test our hypothesis that adopting Machine Learning to the residency matching process was going to yield improved match results and better product use.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We got to know Intelia through a referral of a former client of theirs who was in my network. We considered other companies that were local to us in New York for thoroughness' sake but Intelia offered the best mix of expertise, market knowledge, and affordability.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project involves the development of a web platform that had a Machine Learning engine that powered recommendations for recently graduated doctors on where they should apply for residency. The idea was that in using Machine Learning, we could improve the probability of a successful match. Though I am technical, this was the first end to end product development I was overseeing. We came to Intelia with a 3-page brief and they took us through a scoping exercise to really define the product and identify the execution strategy. That impressed us as it allowed us to see other aspects of the project we hadn’t considered. The process from there on was very straightforward with frequent communication and updates.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a Product Success Manager, a Product Manager and a team that comprised a Product Designer and about 4 engineers including the AI specialist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product was delivered much to our pleasing. The process was very smooth and the training model that Intelia developed was quite impressive. The user experience exceeded our expectations by far. We used a third party code review service to access the code quality and the results showed that we made the right choice by going with Intelia. Totally recommended.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Very smooth. We were invited to a Slack channel which made communication quite good. We received weekly updates on the progress of our project including any obstacles that we needed to be aware of. The process felt honest and transparent. Overall, I was impressed with the timeliness and attention to detail of the team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were quite impressed by the quality of the deliverables. They were really really top-notch. We were blown away by their suggestions, which showed that they were committed to the success of the project and the product in the market. We would definitely recommend them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The original quote was higher than my budget but at the conclusion of the project, I realize why as the value we got was quite remarkable.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Axio, an AI customer complaint processing tool that helps banks make better decisions when it comes to customer support.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intelia?

A lot of the banks in South Africa have support centers that take calls from bank customers which get recorded. Nobody goes back to review those calls because it’s impractical. We wanted to use AI to understand what the customer pain points are, group them, alphabetize them, and analyze them for creating reports that offer clear insight into how bank customers feel about them and their product.

I started doing this with a friend, but he didn’t have the time and it didn’t go well. Also, the price point of companies in South Africa was higher than I could afford, so I started looking elsewhere.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built out our web-based platform with an AI engine, including a plug-in that allows us to integrate with some of the bank call center infrastructures so that we can get access to the voice files in real-time. Then the system analyzes it and the data becomes available to sales reps via a little widget that displays certain prompts. Intelia used JavaScript, AWS, and some AI packages from Amazon.

What is the team composition?

The client relationship manager and the product manager were my primary points of contact.

How did you come to work with Intelia?

The most important thing we were looking for in a development partner was their experience and expertise in AI. I found Intelia through a Google search and started the hiring process.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $110,000–$120,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2018 and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was pleasantly surprised by their work. I was a bit skeptical at first but Intelia really proved me wrong. The quality is on par with what you’d find in Europe and America and I was pleased with their thought process—they saw the vision of the product and challenged us when appropriate.

Furthermore, Intelia also designed a remarkable UI/UX. I showed it to my partner that was supposed to build the product and he said that the code was really good.

How did Intelia perform from a project management standpoint?

Intelia’s project management is really solid. They do weekly calls and send a weekly email with status updates.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Intelia is really invested in the success of the end product. It’s apparent in how they really tried to understand my motivations for creating it. They also challenge a lot of my hypotheses.

Overall, their work is pretty solid and I feel like it’s money well spent. My initial concern was getting stuck in a poor contract where I end up with a bad product and lose my money. However, I’m really happy that I have a quality web platform.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a bit on the high side in terms of price, but it’s because of their high-quality services.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take advantage of their ideation services. They’re really worth it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Corrivium, a streaming company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intelia?

We needed help building custom software for our customers to be able to deliver live streams confidently and comfortably. We needed to design a platform that takes the guesswork out of the process and allows contractors to deliver quality work, on time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us build the proof of concept for our software platform, as well as a minimum viable product (MVP).  

We scoped it out together and we looked at the UI/UX we wanted. They couldn’t deliver the beta level UX because we didn’t have the necessary budget. They gave the lower level dev ops services as well as the backend development, frontend development, and a little bit of UX work as well.

What is the team composition?

There were four people involved with this project.

How did you come to work with Intelia?

I had worked already with Udoka (CEO, Intelia) when he was working for a separate U.S. based company. That piece of work ended and although I wasn’t too happy with what that company did, I was extremely happy with Udoka and his approach. He has a constant focus on getting it done and putting the client first.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2016 until February 2019.

I was very pleased with their services, and we only stopped working together because I wanted to move our development to Australia because of certain tax benefits.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our platform started out being something that needed to be pulled apart to a scalable prototype that is secure and reliable. Now, we have paying clients on our platform and we’re at the point where people are actually coming to us. We use it for all of our events globally.

How did Intelia perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re pretty comfortable with each other and didn’t need to have in-depth conversations about what was needed. We used Slack and monthly calls for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re open and honest in their communication. They’re committed to putting their client first. They understood what I was trying to achieve and they continually worked and gave us what wanted until the end.

We didn’t put a lot of time and money into the UX, so I didn’t really get to experience what they can fully do in that area. What they did initially suited the purpose and is pretty good. I’ve seen other work they’ve done and they have a good UX team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s a bit hard with their location. I found the time zone difference to be difficult. Towards the end, I got tired of having phone calls late at night. They should have been talking to me during my business hours. In their defense, I didn’t enforce that because I was changing time zones so often in my travels.

There’s also the added level of complexity when dealing with somebody’s first language isn’t English and I don’t speak their language.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of Pantram. A fast one-page site content builder for the workspace. We are currently 4 people on the company. all remotely distributed. We currently focus on Small to Medium sized companies. I'm in charge of converting user needs into solutions in our platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelia?

We needed an experienced team on UX/UI to set out the characteristics the product needed into an intuitive design and then easily transfer it to development.

What were your goals for this project?

To design a builder that enable users to create a one-page site as easy and fast as creating a word document but that looked twice as good as a powerpoint presentation.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Turns out our CTO already had worked with them and felt really comfortable with the quality, fast pace and ease of work and communication with the Intelia, to which he was right.

Describe the project in detail.

First, we set out what the software had to do. So Intelia's project manager set out to fully understand all the details, then focused on finding all the inconsistencies and posible additional needs we might have wit the users. Then, went thru the user flow to understand if all scenarios where in place. After that, Intelia worked on the wireframes, we sent thru every screen and made sure we agreed upon each one of them. Finally the designers at Intelia gave life and color to the project and past it on to our developer to code. Important to mention that they were in constant communication with the developer to make sure technical issues and challenges were dealt with properly.

What was the team composition?

From Intelia's side there is a Project Manager that channels all communications and makes sure everyone is on the same page. There is also a designer on their side, but merely coordinated thru the PM. From our end Me and de developer were the counterparts that got involved in every step of the process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are a month away from beta launching. I'm very pleased on how fast things move with Intelia (Note: I've been working with Intelia since feb 2018 but this project alone took only 3 months) and of course, quality is never at risk.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective, I'd say is one of the strongest qualities of Intelia.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their capacity to understand complex concepts and find ways around different challenges stands out.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not sure I can think of any at this point.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder of Nudo Skincare, an organic skincare company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intelia? 

I have a background in e-commerce, so I knew in starting my own company that having a professional frontend is important.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Intelia led the redesign of the frontend of our Shopify website. They worked with our team for four weeks to do a deep dive on the design, such as where each button needs to be and how it should look. Then they spent six weeks executing the design on the backend. 

What is the team composition? 

Our project manager was the primary point of contact. We also worked with one designer and one developer. 

How did you come to work with Intelia? 

I’d worked with the Intelia team on previous engagements, so it was exciting to engage with them for my new company. They were the best fit for us because they’re the most transparent and honest in wanting to help our business. 

How much have you invested with them? 

We spent about $20,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Work began in October 2018 and lasted for about 10 weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Intelia did a great job of making our website feel approachable. They highlight the right information at the right spots in order to push people to buy. They employ tactics to drive the conversion rate by telling enough of the story, and then giving the user the option to make a purchase. One of their strengths is understanding the user component of website design. They helped us think about what might engage people and what may turn them off. They did an amazing job making our site look unique and custom, but also optimized for sales and email sign-up. 

I have a background in selling software. I’ve worked with a number of teams and have heard many horror stories about outsourcing development. I could really trust Intelia. They designed what we wanted. They didn't come in and try to be the experts in telling us what to do. They were really great counterparts in figuring out exactly what we needed.

How did Intelia perform from a project management standpoint? 

Having a project manager to facilitate the conversation and translate our wants and needs into actionable items for the team was really important. We interacted through email and Slack, and they used InVision to share designs. We had a weekly call with our project manager to share updates. It was great to have a dedicated time to give feedback or any direction. Intelia sent an email after each call with a summary that laid out next steps on both our parts. We also added the project manager to our Slack, which was super helpful. That allowed us to stay in touch about any day-to-day items that came up. 

Communication was always handled so easily. They respond within a matter of 24 hours. Getting timely answers is often hard to find with outsourced software development. It's not just listening to us and saying yes. Intelia asked the right questions to make sure that they had clarity and were moving in the right direction. They're so responsive to our needs.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Their turnaround time was so impressive. Intelia was by far the fastest development team I've ever worked with. I loved being able to put in a request before going to bed, and waking up in the morning to have it already handled. They don't believe software projects should take six months if they don't have to. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

Honestly, no. I’ve worked with 60 different development teams in the past and there's no one else I'd work with but them. I haven’t found Intelia’s professionalism, quality, and timeliness with any other team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We run an online store of computer accessories. We started our e-commerce business in 2015 and have been growing since then. I am the Business Development Manager of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intelia?

We hired Intelia to develop a high-end & interactive e-commerce website for our company.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a website that is easy to use for both, the company and its customers. Our goal was to have flawless functionality that makes us stand out in the competition.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had heard of Intelia from different sources. Then some of our closed sources recommended us Intelia for its extensive development experience & team of highly professional developers. They were by far the most impressive out there in the market.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We were looking for an e-commerce website, their team suggested us a Magento website and briefed us about it. The initial meetings were quite helpful and understandable on both sides. Once everyone came to the same page they started the development process. Intelia built custom Magento Scripts & integrations as well as customizing our theme to meet our requirements. Moreover they also helped us in better categorization of the products.

What was the team composition?

A project manager & his team, consist of two Magento developers, a content producer and a designer. More resources joined in further down the line before the completion of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The impact was seen right from the start when the project went live. The feel was good & it helped the customers in easily finding their desired products on the website. Positive responses & reviews came in real quick.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was really impressive and helpful. There were no communication gap in the middle and we were kept updated throughout the process in details. Deadlines were met efficiently & the project was completed within the time frame.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their on-time delivery of the project phases, team co-operation and dedicated resource easily reachable throughout the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't think so, as they are on top of their work & everyone in their team knows their responsibilities & their cooperation was exquisite throughout the project. Overall, I would highly recommend them within my circle.