MVC Studio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

As a founder of an IoT startup building a product in the agriculture industry, we were looking for a product development partner that would help us strimlane our development efforts and enable us faster go to market strategy. Our idea was pretty complex, and we started looking for external support to develop it.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Envision Partners, and what were your goals?

First and foremost, our startup engaged with Envision Partners for custom software development, but later they helped us with completing the full product lifecycle, from the discovery phase and initial development to MVP.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected this vendor based on the offer they provided after we initially sent them a RfQ, among few others who also had good proposals, but the one provided by EP was more complete and covered the solution in depth.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Initially, we wanted to build a report dashboard for monitoring conditions of growing tomatoes in a Greenhouse, which was our first “MVP”, but later decides to go with the full management solution and build a SaaS product around monitoring the conditions in Greenhouse deployments. The project started with initial kickoff and product discovery, later going to development stages and the first MVP.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had a dedicated product development team that covered product management, product design, frontend and backend development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our first MVP was a success bringing much interest into what we are building and providing us with new investment opportunities. For the next version, we plan to add suggestions from our first users, and expand to new markets.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The collaboration was great because we worked closely together to define the solution to the problem presented with our idea. We used instant messaging, video calls and group chat to discuss any open issues and resolve them in a quickly manner.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are really great for collaboration and feel like an augmented team in our own company.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Of course, there is always room for improvements, but we are mostly satisfied with our engagement with Envision Partners.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a digital consultant for a global marketing firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Envision Partners?

We needed a partner for website development using Jamstack and Next.js on the frontend.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, the scope was website development for our client. We needed support on the front- and backend. Envision Partners delivered the integration with Next.js and the search engine Algolia and helped us with some content modeling in the backend.

Apart from development, Envision Partners does some maintenance work for other CMSs and helps us when we need more resources. We’re now planning a third project with them.

What is the team composition?

I work with three people, including the owner and two developers.

How did you come to work with Envision Partners?

We’ve known them for years and have worked with them before. They were the right fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2021, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve delivered what we need within the scope, time, and budget.

How did Envision Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is great. The team is transparent, and they respond quickly. Envision Partners gives us a detailed report of the time spent. Even if they don’t have the time to solve something, they give us a time frame. Moreover, they’re friendly, competent, and open to suggestions.

We use Slack and ClickUp. They’ve integrated into our project management tool, which was important to us because we didn’t want to use multiple systems.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We gave them all the requirements, and they created the backlog and built everything. They’ve been more on the development side, and they take care of their stuff.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve. They could hire more people, but I wouldn’t change anything. It’s a perfect match.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Define the scope as well as possible and communicate the product vision with the team so they aren’t left in the dark. It’s important that Envision Partners knows where the journey is headed so it’s easier for them to implement features and give suggestions on changes or improvements.