IQVIS

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of a small psychotherapy practice. I provide individual therapy, but must of my work is on the business end. Some of my responsibilities include operations and managing the website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IQVIS?

We were in the very early stages of our business. I didn't have time to build a website, and I wanted a web developer that could create a site and maintain it. We had to keep the budget small, so we chose IQVIS.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They made a lot of promises, and the project started off ok. I told them exactly what I wanted, from graphics, to layout, to content. I needed something that I could edit on my end, so I provided a lot of direction and led the creative side of the build. They did some design and developed the front- and backend.

Patients can book appointments, we get press inquiries, and potential employees can submit resumes and search for jobs on the site. We added contact forms, had options for employer partnerships, and had a reel of our clinical staff.

What is the team composition?

We communicated with the owner, a sales rep, and two project directors.

How did you come to work with IQVIS?

I can't remember the site we used, but we posted a notice that allowed development companies to contact us about building this site. They had a quicker turnaround time than other vendors, and the price was within my budget.

How much have you invested with them?

Initially, the cost was $4,000. After I needed to add other things to the site, the total was around $6,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together in summer 2018. The project took about two months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site got off the ground and looked good, and they started helping with small changes. I made several edits on my own, and then the site crashed. When we came back online, all those edits were gone. We had recently moved to a new location, which was confusing to some of our patients who were relying on the site. Users complain that the site is slow, and links don't load right away.

How did IQVIS perform from a project management standpoint?

Initially, everything went according to plan. We had a good flow, but then the owner started firing people left and right. After that, I stopped hearing from them. The whole process stalled, and then the site crashed. We were informed that the entire team was fired, and we were left to fix the site by ourselves. They couldn't tell us where the site was hosted, and we had to do all the leg work to find out. The whole experience was really frustrating. They couldn't even give me estimates for how long it would take them to respond to my inquiries.

The sales rep helped us a lot, and he went above and beyond his role. Other people on the team didn't do their work and weren't very nice to me. I don't think they liked working with a woman. Shortly after we began, I was assigned a project director that was terrible. The owner and sales rep are in California, but the rest of their staff is overseas. The first project director was rude, disrespectful, and condescending. He spoke over me, ignored my critiques, and refused to take me seriously. They switched me to another project director, and we completed the site with that individual.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would behoove them to hire good-quality people who are willing to work. There was no motivation on their side, and I'm disappointed with the whole relationship. I was met with a lot of disrespect, and things would have gone much more smoothly had they listened to me. I reached out to a former employee of theirs to ask what I could do, and he pointed me toward Clutch.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

At this point, don't bother hiring them. They don't have any staff, and I hope they aren't taking on projects at this time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder of a media and communications startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IQVIS?

I hired IQVIS to create a custom web portal with a variety of features.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to create a functional MVP that could be shown to potential clients.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I reached out after conducting some research online. During our initial call, I asked about their development processes, personnel, timeline structure, and payment methods. They assured me that they were experienced working with start-ups and that the project would run smoothly. They also proposed a flexible pricing plan, and waived 50% of the upfront deposit.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

I provided detailed specifications for the platform that we needed, which they used to create a project timeline. Our plan was for them to build the front- and backend of our portal. They promised to implement many features, including a search tool, page filters, and membership admin functions. Their team never finished developing the product.

What was the team composition?

IQVIS designated a project manager, a developer, a junior UI designer, and a UX consultant to my project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This partnership fell far below my expectations, and has set me back in terms of my goals for my business. It also caused me a great deal of stress, as I was unable to focus on other areas of product strategy.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our original goal for the project was to complete development in six weeks, with two additional weeks set aside as buffer. After four months, the product was nowhere near being finished. They used a bug tracker system to manage the code, though it quickly became obsolete. I remember viewing the tracker one day and seeing over 50 unresolved issues.

Looking back, there should have been more definitive milestones, with payment and dates clearly marked. When I realized scheduling was becoming an issue, I reached out to my project manager and the CEO asking for a more realistic and detailed timeline. Nothing was done to resolve this problem.

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

In the beginning, their project manager was active and responsive, frequently reaching out to discuss server details and set-up concerns. As the timeline progressed, they became less involved, and most of our conversations revolved around payment.

They assigned an experienced developer to my project, who was initially very dedicated. Eventually, due to their commitments to other clients, the developer became less focused on my product. At one point, almost two weeks went by without any deadlines being met.

The designer and UX consultant were also involved at the outset. They were attentive during my project brief, and assured me that work was being done on their end. I never saw any designs.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

My impression is that the code they developed is usable, although I haven’t been able to implement it yet. They do seem to have experience working with start-ups, and will prioritize firms with significant financial backing. They also seem to be willing to work with clients from different time zones.

In what specific areas can they improve?

Design seems to be a weakness for them. They also seemed to have a difficult time communicating between their teams. Part of this may be because their staff is overstretched, and they’re aware of this. Their leadership seems to be uninformed regarding the majority of their projects. Also, they could do better to meet deadlines and provide regular updates.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Proveo Health. We're a digital health start-up.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IQVIS?

We were working on a chatbot platform. We needed a vendor to help us develop a prototype and the first iteration of our product, so that we could demonstrate it to investors. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

IQVIS helped us build a working prototype that we could show to our potential clients and investors. We used Botkit technology to build the frontend of the bot and we devised our own NLP platform using Stanford NLP. Everything else is written in Java-based languages.

What is the team composition?

We mostly interacted with Hasan (CEO, IQVIS), who was out main point of contact. They also assigned a team of 5-6 people to our project.

How did you come to work with IQVIS?

We interviewed about 20 companies when we were looking for a suitable development agency. Hasan was very informative about his process and knowledgeable about certain aspects of health care, so we felt confident in hiring them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between June–September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The prototype allowed us to generate initial interest in the product and helped us secure an additional co-founder. Without the prototype, it'd be difficult to explain the concept and the potential of the product.

How IQVIS they perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job. We had to change our timeline slightly, but timelines are often variable at certain points of any software development. If there were any issues, we contacted their CEO and he resolved everything quickly. We usually used phone, email, and other messaging devices to stay in touch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were able to understand and visualize the concept that was foreign to them in many ways. The product they built is almost exactly what we wanted.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could supervise their junior developers a bit more to keep them on track and keep us more informed about each step of the process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about your expectations and goals from the very beginning, so that everyone can work towards those goals.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of DealForma, a company that organizes biotech business development information. We provide curated analyses and profiles of companies, their deals, and the products they’re working on. We then offer this information to biotech, pharmaceutical, venture capital, investment bank, and other healthcare-related companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IQVIS?

We needed to develop a minimum viable product (MVP) for our web portal. However, we ended up doing much more.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

IQVIS worked on everything from our frontend to backend, designing the portal step by step.

The frontend, which is the customer-facing side, is mainly a search and browse product. We looked at examples on the internet and then customized our site to develop some proprietary search methods and techniques that others haven’t done yet.

The backend is quite complex because it pulls information from numerous external sources. Various data gathering, cleanup, and ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) processes are fed into a database that’s used internally. Our administrative side curates the information then translates it for the frontend, where customers can browse the data and keep tabs on the industry.

We’ve finished the build, and IQVIS is currently on retainer to fix bugs or develop new features.

What is the team composition?

At our largest, the team had about 10–11 people. Typically, we had a core group of five.

How did you come to work with IQVIS?

Their sales rep contacted me. We met in person and decided to partner.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the middle of 2017 and finished in November. They still provide maintenance and support as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've been using the portal internally for loading and curating the data, and the performance is great. Nothing major has broken, and IQVIS has been able to fix all of the small stuff.

We’re getting ready to launch to the customers—that will be the big test. We’ve built it to support what we estimate will be the first big push of users, so hopefully everything will hold up.

How did IQVIS perform from a project management standpoint?

IQVIS checks in with our management monthly, and we have twice weekly phone calls and emails with their team; everything is highly collaborative. I was deeply involved with the development, so they were responsive to the updates and changes we made that were within the original project scope.

We used a variety of tools to communicate: Jira, Google Docs, and ticketing software. We didn’t use any major project management software, though.

What did you find most impressive about them?

IQVIS was willing to expand our scope and work on things we hadn’t originally thought of. Not many dev firms do that. If the changes required more hours, they were honest and upfront about that. At no point did they say they couldn’t do something just because we hadn’t planned for it.

We worked well as a team, implementing changes right away and consistently meeting goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The product’s backend is highly complex, with intricate details and connections. That part was fantastic, but the design and accuracy could’ve been better.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Spend time with them in the beginning to lay out the scope and clarify what you want built. Be proactive in following up and matching their speed; if you’re not careful, their deliverables will outpace your ability to review, provide feedback, and sign off.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have an R&D company that develops technology, artificial intelligence, and predictive marketing primarily. We developed a search engine that looks at people’s future intent and serves content against that future intent. The relevance is ultra-high. Unlike existing algorithms that search your past browsing, purchasing, clicks, etc., we don’t look at the past. I’m the president and one of the co-founders. We’ve been around for eight years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IQVIS?

IQVIS was brought in to write some initial small applications based on this technology. As IQVIS got more proficient and understood the backend data, we brought them on full-time, and they’ve now become partners in handling all the development and technology advancements. Initially, we did have a development team that they assisted, but IQVIS was so much more efficient and faster, so we use them exclusively now.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

IQVIS is great at design, code writing in all sorts of format, data organization, directories, etc. Overall, IQVIS is an excellent source. I don’t know the languages they used. I concentrate on the user experience. For me, it’s about defining what the user wants, and IQVIS translates that to the code language. IQVIS has done data structure, architecture, platforms, and all mobile, tablet, and desktop apps. We support iOS and Android as well as tablet versions.

How much have you invested with IQVIS?

We’ve spent an average of $200,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with IQVIS in 2013, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We deliver a solution set almost immediately, so it’s more of a pay-per-click type of thing. We don’t measure the number of downloads. Our product is an engine used to click into the user’s existing product, and we don’t share those metrics.

How did IQVIS perform from a project management standpoint?

IQVIS' project management is excellent.

What did you find most impressive about IQVIS?

IQVIS' strongest attribute is that they are very prompt. When IQVIS tells you they’re going to deliver on a certain date, it happens. IQVIS' code is extremely good according to other people who have looked at the code. We’ve had very minimal amounts of disruption or bugs.

Are there any areas IQVIS could improve?

IQVIS is probably weakest on design. IQVIS is very industry centric. If you’re going to do an e-commerce site, they’ll build a standard site for you. IQVIS is not going to come back with something that looks different.