Kollabio, Inc.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a nonprofit social enterprise based in Denver, Colorado. We work in the post-disaster and disaster-prevention area in 24 countries around the globe. I’m the marketing communications director.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kollabio, Inc.?

We have an important IT component of what we do to try to reach people, especially at remote locations. Our international website development hadn’t been a huge priority for the organization in recent years, so we needed a provider who could step in with a lot of the maintenance challenges we were having on the site.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were initially brought in to fix hosting and maintenance issues that we were having with WordPress, which they were able to resolve. They are continuing to do monthly maintenance and a little bit of new development. We actually had a website hacking that they helped us clean up from as well.

What is the team composition? 

Their CEO is my main point of contact. I have met a couple of other people from their team, but it depends on what needs to be done.

How did you come to work with Kollabio, Inc.?

One of their offices is in the same co-working space that I’m based in. I became familiar with their work because they’d done some work for other clients in the same space, and the reviews were positive.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $20,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2019, and we’re continuing to actively work with them to date.

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

One of the major issues for us was that our site was pretty bloated, in terms of the outdated pages and plugins. They reduced the size of the site by about 60% and that has been really key in terms of getting our speed back up. A lot of people around the world looking at our site don’t have access to strong internet connections, so it was important to give them easy access to information they need the most.

How did Kollabio, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good at being communicative and giving quick updates.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very good in rapid response or emergency situations. We’ve had two situations like that and they’ve been super responsive and taken the actions needed to get the site back under control. They’ve had to do a lot of work from a maintenance standpoint to improve our site.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think there’s a lot they could do in terms of technology advising in general, in terms of helping companies like ours that are outside of the technology sector. We could stand to have some more guidance on improving their processes with better targeting. I know that they’ve done that for other clients, but that’s something that we’ve been able to take advantage of to-date.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a good organization and they're very thorough. They think through a proposal and act within our budget. The team is flexible, considerate, and do good work, so I’d highly recommend them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Innovo. We build software applications on the management side of things for the federal government.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kollabio, Inc.?

Kollabio is the development company doing all our software development and design. They’re implementing and supporting our solutions as well.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re creating an evaluation tool for a product line to help the government manage its contractor workforce. This tool will integrate with three solutions in the product line as they’re built. Kollabio uses typical development tools such as JSON, BitBucket, and open-source and non-open-source applications.

Kollabio focuses on clean design; it looks like a commercial application rather than a typical federal application. We use a design system to apply to our whole suite of applications. Our priorities are consistency and an easy learning curve for users.

What is the team composition?

We have a scrum leader, some developers, testers, and UX designers. There are about 10–11 in total.

How did you come to work with Kollabio, Inc.?

Ashok (Founder & CEO) and I used to work together at a large software consulting company. We did some development work together at the time. I trust Kollabio with my company’s work now because I’ve never met someone who has both technical aptitude and business savvy like Ashok does. He’s also a huge believer in design. We’re in lockstep, finishing each other’s thoughts and caring about design in the same way.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the partnership in February or March last year, and the work is ongoing.

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

We’re on track to deliver our MVP at the end of this month, but the immediate client is not likely to need it until August this year, so we’re letting the deadline slip. We’re giving our people more time to focus on things we want to enhance.

How did Kollabio, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a superb scum leader who does a great job. Between her and Ashok, I always know what’s going on. Communication is constant but not excessive. I can always look in Jira, Confluence, or Slack and know what’s happening in any aspect of the application.

They have daily standups that I don’t participate in. My scrum leader is my person on the ground. I step into demos to look at code and application at the end of each sprint, but she handles day-to-day decision making. The communication between our teams is one of the stronger things about our partnership.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have a lot of experience in the industry. It’s rare to find a firm that has a technical aptitude, a design sense, and communication skills all at once. Kollabio also has some intangibles. They go the extra mile every single day. I think it’s because Ashok is an inspiring leader; he’s no-nonsense but also kind and supportive.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

The typical release schedule in the government is one or two times every year. We’re planning to do a new release every two weeks so that we can respond to customer needs very quickly. It’s because of the platform that Kollabio has built: it lets us turn around functionality much, much more quickly, and is the critical ingredient to our success. In terms of room for improvement, they’re still working on that. The sooner they finish, the better.

Any advice for potential customers?

Kollabio is a full-service shop. They’re not just developers; they also offer designers and usability experts and understand the business side of things.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an IT consulting company that primarily focuses on federal government solutions around agile technologies, cloud engineering, and IT security. My role is a director that involves overseeing different accounts.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kollabio, Inc.?

They’re one of our solution partners helping us with full-stack development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team assists with front- and backend development, using tools like Angular, JavaScript, Spring Boot, and so on. They also help us with automation testing using different testing frameworks like Selenium and Cucumber.

On my specific project, I give them activities to complete. As part of those activities, whether it’s the development or testing components, there’s a bit of design approach needed. Every two weeks, we hold internal design meetings to figure out how our resources are going to attack the next few weeks of work.

What is the team composition?

The team varies based on different aspects. Right now, we only have two resources. In the past, it’s been as high as five or seven. The overall project involves 40–42 people.

Their roles depend on need as well. If I need a scrum team or two backend engineers or any other role, I reach out, and they let me know what’s available and put me in touch with someone.

How did you come to work with Kollabio, Inc.?

I knew the CTO previously based on his work at another company. He was held in high regard there. When the time came to expand our project, we needed a partner we could trust. He was referenced by one or more people on the leadership team.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe it’s been $4 million over the years.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Kollabio, Inc. started in the fall of 2016.

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

They’ve done an excellent job staffing development leadership positions. We’re well ramped up on the latest and greatest technologies.

The engineers are very good, providing different types of testing. 100% of our code is tested through an automated process. Their work has allowed us to automate everything. They can also work autonomously without a lot of drafting.

How did Kollabio, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

Before COVID-19, we worked as a co-located team. We worked face-to-face daily. I would meet with Cheryl (Director of Operations & Management Consultant) and Ashok (Founder & CEO) periodically.

Cheryl helped us out with management activities and invoicing. We have a good relationship where I could just give them a call. Even now, during this lockdown situation, I spoke to them on the phone Friday.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Kollabio, Inc. is an excellent partner. They go above and beyond to make sure they’re doing what they need to be doing. If there were any issues, which was rare, they would quickly rectify that.

They’re very thoughtful in terms of execution, reaching out if there was something they could do better. Their team is focused on delivering the best product, which is why they’ve been our partner for the past couple of years.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, as they continue to grow, I’d like to see their capabilities grew. They’re still a small firm with a lot of things changing. I’d be interested to see how they can scale as they grow and get more people added to the company.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Transparency. Ashok is open and honest, willing to share what he can and can’t do. The best way to work with him is to do the same. If you do that, I don’t see any problems.