Newfire Global Partners

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of ConsejoSano. We’re a technology platform that serves culturally diverse and underserved populations primarily covered by Medicaid and Medicare. Our services are geared toward helping those people access healthcare benefits.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Newfire Partners?

We needed an experienced development firm to provide us with supplemental engineering support. We hired them to help transform our previous product into a new technology platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Newfire Partners worked with us to design and develop a new website. They provided a graphic designer to help with the site’s frontend design. After multiple rounds of iteration, we were able to establish a brand identity. Their use of innovative design elements enabled us to expand the portfolio of information included on the site. Once that stage of the project concluded, their development team created the site using WordPress.

The site’s current build hosts technology that enables our service providers. It’s our job to send text messages, make live outbound calls, and use other channels to communicate with patients on behalf of our clients. Our technology platform supports the delivery of communications, as well as the segmentation of those communications, to the right user based on our process.

After that project’s success, we requested that two of their engineers join our team for a limited engagement. Those resources provide support services as we continue to polish our technology platform. We’ve contracted them to augment our team for one year.

What is the team composition?

The core development process involved a project manager, a developer, and a graphic designer. Two engineers handle the subsequent development and support work. I’ve also spoken with their CEO and a senior advisor.

How did you come to work with Newfire Partners?

Once we decided to look for a vendor, we discussed potential options with our network of investors, board members, and fellow entrepreneurs. One of our investors soon highlighted Newfire Partners as a well-established and reputable firm. I met with their CEO several times, and our business partnership evolved from there.

What is the status of this engagement?

Most of their work for us took place from March 2017­–September 2018. The support services are ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Newfire Partners is responsible for refining our brand presence within the market by bringing our vision to life. Their efforts involving the website initiative helped scale our services toward new customers.

How did Newfire Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

Market dynamics often affect our business and force us to change project requirements. Luckily, their team is capable of quickly adapting in response to shifting challenges. Their commitment to an agile methodology made it possible for them to meet our needs. They’re also excellent communicators.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They possess an incredibly strong work ethic. That enables them to deliver outstanding products.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing stands out as a significant weakness. Their project proposals are well organized, the price was attractive, and they met each deadline. I can’t offer constructive criticism.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Newfire Partners is a wonderfully professional firm, so hiring them for full-scope engagements makes more sense than giving them test projects. I wish we would’ve hired them as full-time resources from the start.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at T1D Exchange, a network of patients with Type 1 diabetes. We provide services to patients ranging from care management to supporting research and new treatment development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Newfire Partners?

We needed to build a high-quality product with a secure process and structure that would be delivered in a specific timeframe. Since we don’t have an in-house team, we need an external engineering team with expertise in product development, strategy skillsets, and leadership.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Newfire Partners developed a web-based platform. The portal is for patients, providers, and caregivers. It includes social networking components for patients to interface with each other and learn more information about Type 1 diabetes. They also built an engine to collect and aggregate data from various sources and then utilize the available data for research.

Their team was responsible for ideation, design, development, deployment, and now maintenance. They also provide product management services, helping our team think about what we are trying to build and understand the value and impact of the product. Angular 6 was used, and the API is built with Python. The database is a combination of PostgreSQL and other Amazon-specified data repositories. We use AWS for our cloud sourcing services.

What is the team composition?

There are about 20 people on the team, which includes engineers, scrum masters, project managers, and designers.

How did you come to work with Newfire Partners?

Newfire Partners is a one shop firm that’s based locally. I worked with them previously and chose them for this project because they’re a full-service engineering consulting firm. Their team works with the healthcare specialty and has significant expertise in machine learning and data science.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $1 million–$5 million so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Newfire Partners in April 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Newfire Partners consistently releases new versions of the platform, enhancing and updating the portal. Their team took our idea of the product and turned it into requirements, assuring that the build aligned with our business value. Newfire Partners delivered us with cost-effective engineering services while implementing the vision of the organization.

Working with Newfire Partners allows us to do everything from a product and engineering perspective without engaging with other firms. I have a deep level of confidence in the quality of their engineering and their product managers that I don’t question or double check their process. It’s freed up our time in engaging with our clients, and our ability to market and sell the product.

How did Newfire Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

Newfire Partners’ skills are world class. Their detail-oriented team is quick to respond. They ensure all stakeholders are on the same page regarding deliverables and deadlines before beginning any work. All investors are involved in regular check-ins, in case any changes need to be made. We communicate through phone calls, web conferencing, and Jira. Sometimes their tech leads and project managers stop by our office.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Despite all my experience, I’ve never encountered an external team that feels personally committed to the project like they’re part of my organization. They understand the domain almost as well as local domain experts.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They worry over certain variables when they should have confidence in their process and experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Customers should follow the two-step process that Newfire Partners takes. Their team askes the client to allow them to perform a state analysis where they dig deep to get to know the client. After, their team compiles a resource plan proposal. Clients that follow through with the resource plan proposal and strategy have a 95% chance of attaining their goal.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and co-founder of UptimeHealth, a platform that handles medical device equipment statuses such as inventory statuses and conditions. It’s a cloud platform for hospitals, outpatient clinics, and emergency centers. We have a network of technicians to service the equipment, and we also have the ability to dispatch networks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Newfire Partners?

We needed to revamp our product. A different company built the first version, and it wasn’t up to our standards. It didn’t function properly, so we needed a new partner to make it better.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first thing Newfire Partners did was stabilize the code. They worked with our former partner to examine the code and understand what they’d developed. After a few weeks, Newfire Partners took complete control of the code base, setting up a QA server and different environments. They use Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

We were on an antiquated server, so Newfire Partners moved us to AWS, separating the corporate website from our product. They created automated builds and continuous integration, taking care of all the cloud operations and DevOps so that we could build the software and deploy it quickly.

What is the team composition?

They provide four people: a scrum master/QA analyst, two senior developers, and one junior developer.

How did you come to work with Newfire Partners?

I’d work with them before and knew they’d be a great fit for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working on this project in July 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve received great feedback from our customers. They say the product works great and is easy to use. Newfire Partners has refined the UX, making it more seamless and intuitive. I’ve reviewed their changes and think it looks great.

How did Newfire Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

The scrum master keeps us on track and in line with our long-term goals. I talk with her every two weeks and have daily stand-up meetings with the entire team every day. They’re like an extension of our team, and they care about delivering software that’s effective and functional. We track the project through Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re honest and don’t sell us services that we don’t need. They strive to help us fulfill our mission by providing software dev expertise. I’ve had some unpleasant experiences with vendors in the past, but it’s only been positive with Newfire Partners.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve improved, but their onboarding and communication didn’t use to be very good. I talked to them about that, and they took the feedback to heart.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat them like a real part of your team. They’re proud of their work and want their clients to be happy, too. Take time to let them know how the product is working, so they can see their progress and impact.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of product management for a software as a service vendor. We also provide hosted enterprise software and some hardware options for our clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Newfire Partners?

We needed a company to provide us with staff augmentation for a project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They worked with our product leadership and design team to implement a new version of our cloud platform. All told, they make up about 30% of our development team for this project.

What is the team composition?

We hired a full scrum team, including a pair of software developers and a scrum master/QA tester who integrated with our broader engineering team.

How did you come to work with Newfire Partners?

I found them through a former colleague who knew the founder and suggested we work with them. We’ve worked with Eastern European teams in the past, and liked how effective Newfire was. They integrated agile methodology into their work and focused on hiring engineers who speak English and could be fully integrated team members. I went to Ukraine, met with the potential candidates, and felt they were a good fit for our project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2018 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project they’re working on hasn’t been released to our customers yet, but we’re very happy with the progress so far. The quality of their work is very high, they’re responsive, and the individuals they provide to us are all appropriate for the task at hand.

How did Newfire Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

They do very well, and we treat them as if they were direct employees. They have access to our Slack channel and our other systems, and one of them spent a few weeks in our offices last month. Communication is good between our engineers and theirs, and they’ve helped us meet our product goals. We speak with them daily through video conferences.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their team and the breadth of the services they provide are impressive. They’re very responsive and attentive to our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really, no. They do everything we need them to do.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

With any offshore partner, it is important to spend time and converse with them every day. Be as responsive their questions as they are to yours.