NGenious Solutions Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a VP of marketing operations at one of the largest media companies in the world. I manage advertiser partnerships across 6 entertainment networks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NGenious Solutions?

We wanted to take SharePoint to the next level. Our SharePoint apps act as a transactional system for tracking sponsorships from proposal stage to execution phase. Our sales teams had merged and we needed a new, singular process from what had been 3 different ones.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

NGenious enhanced the existing apps we’d built to maximize the new, single process for tracking and executing on marketing partnerships. They created workflows that reduce type time in order to take a proposal to order, and then from order to execution, improving efficiency for our users. They helped us define the backend data for deeper analysis, including automatic multi-directional calculations and valuations. They also built dashboards for senior management and for novice users to get information at a glance.

They helped us not only by writing workflows and code, but also through thoughtful discussion about functionalities and our multitude of needs. We had an idea of what we wanted but had been given little direction from senior management to create a process. At every step NGenious helped us think more deeply about our end users’ needs and what our senior management was focused on.

We've now completed two different rounds of development with them. As we have gone through our second round, we shifted priorities and they helped us compartmentalize things to create a more modular process rather than a strict linear process.

What is the team composition?

Depending on the particular module, we generally worked with 3 people at any point in time. That included a project manager and 2 offshore architects.

How did you come to work with NGenious Solutions?

I was out in LA doing discovery on existing processes. I was visiting co-workers in our MIS department and they invited me to join a meeting with their Microsoft reps. We talked about what we were doing in SharePoint in particular and they suggested/introduced us to NGenious. We had several informative meetings and discussions with NGenious and decided to go for it.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent more than $50,000 between the two development cycles.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March of 2016 and completed the first project in the fall of that year. We began the second round in June of 2017 at that time and finished it in August this year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application is flexible, nimble and reliable. My team of 3 people processes up to 100 transactions across 6 networks on a daily basis, updating inventories and pushing out production orders. The efficiencies they created have cut down time spent filling out production orders and securing sponsorships. Much of that is now automated. The enhancements have not only allowed us to take on deeper analyses but also have allowed us to have a life outside of work.

Our active user base is about 30 people and we have lots of passive users. Colleagues have given feedback about how excited they are by the automation so that they don’t have to retype a lot of information. The user interface created for senior management were also well received.

How did NGenious Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager was awesome and they were very efficient. The hard thing is keeping the client on task. They kept me on task. It could have otherwise taken a lot longer to get things done. They were never delayed.

We communicated primarily via email and weekly Webex meetings. We also had a couple of in-person sessions. I received weekly reports summarizing our project, including Pacing to budget. They were always available and flexible.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Within just a few discovery meetings they had started to really understand our business processes. They quickly understood how we get a custom idea generated, produced and the spot on the air.

Additionally, they were working with people who do not have a tech background. But, they were able to understand my vision of how things should flow in the process. They have a great history of helping the business partner work out what their process should be and then executing on that process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They provided us with an idea we hadn’t thought about in the form of a dashboard. They took the initiative and showed us the idea for something – and it ended up being very beneficial. I'd like to see more case studies and “cool things” they have done for other clients.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come to the table with a clear idea of what you want to accomplish, but also be flexible because NGenious can bring new ideas to the table that might make you pivot and take things in a different direction.