NIFTIT

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT manager of Synergy Flavors. We’re a food flavoring company that makes food flavors for B2B transactions. We make food flavorings that end up in grocery and nutritional stores. As IT manager, I oversee all things IT-related for North and South America.

What challenge were you trying to address with NIFTIT?

We were trying to get a company intranet set up in place as an easy way for all of our employees to see company-wide communications. Since we’re a manufacturing company, not all members of the team have an e-mail address, but we needed a way to get news and communications out to them.

Another challenge was related to the fact that we have offices in the United Kingdom, including our parent company that’s located in Ireland. Collaborating with them was challenging because of the time difference and lack of file structure.

People would send different versions of documents back and forth. Or, sometimes people weren’t working on the most recent version of a document. We thought SharePoint would be a great solution. It allows us to only work on the most recent version of documents and to simultaneously edit a document.

An overall objective was to make both of these projects intuitive and user-friendly.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was going to be a three-phase project, but we only made it through two. Phase one was focused on getting the bare essentials out of SharePoint. That included the document collaboration and the main landing page. Phase two was all about developing workflows within SharePoint. We worked with different departments including HR, IT, R&D, and quality. An example of their work comes from their creation of a full end-to-end HR onboarding workflow.

What is the team composition?

I was involved with four individuals, including Sean (Account Executive). They may have had one or two others working behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with NIFTIT?

We were looking for an intranet web development company. Our marketing director’s husband worked with Sean on a previous project. She recommended we give Sean a call because he was personable, easy to work with, and a good listener. We followed her advice and gave him a ring.

It was a great relationship from the start. He exuded a level of confidence that told me he and his team could achieve what we needed. We put out bids to other companies, but NIFTIT came in a lot cheaper and closer to our budget. Our team decided to give them a shot, and it worked out well for us.

How much have you invested with them?

Each phase was $30,000 and then ongoing support was about $17,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from February 2018–March 2019. Phase one was completed in June 2018 and phase two in October 2018. Then we entered a support and maintenance mode until March 2019.

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

There has been an extremely positive impact. NIFTIT did a phenomenal job of being flexible. We changed the scope during the project, and they adapted really well. The developers were understanding with the cost and agile in changing what they were working on. They set new expectations and met them along the way. Sean was great at thinking outside the box and coming up with new things we’d be able to leverage SharePoint for.

They always met the timeline deadlines, even when we had change requests. If there was a bigger request, they’d come back and say they’d need a little longer and give us a new deadline. Then, they’d always meet or finish before that end date. Overall, their level of detail was excellent.

How did NIFTIT perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a phenomenal job with project management. Their team came up with a timeline and followed it through. We had weekly check-ins as needed. One of their developers was in Vietnam, and we never had issues with the time difference. They held me accountable if they were waiting for an answer to something. Their team wouldn’t just sit on their hands and wait for me to get back to them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Definitely cost, they were half the cost of other development companies. Initially, I was a little skeptical of that but the level of service they provided and their ability to communicate was excellent. Their developers were very open and candid. They gave great suggestions and had our end goal in mind. They were so easy to work with. Whatever we wanted; they could make it happen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything. Everything we threw at them; they took care of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a face-to-face meeting with Sean. Talk about your project in both short- and long-term perspectives. He can help you lay out a plan of accomplishing your goals. NIFTIT can start small and work bigger over several years of partnership. Definitely give them a chance, they’re open to all business sizes.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a nonprofit that does research and advocacy for women’s’ reproductive health, internationally. I’m the director of IT.

What challenges were you trying to address with NIFTIT?

We only have three technical staff members, one of whom is part-time. We started working on a digital transformation project several years ago, but it was very difficult to do with only two people. We wanted to accelerate the project by bringing in outside support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started working with them for a small SharePoint project. Over the last five years, we’ve created a staff portal that gives our employees access to all of the services they need to do their jobs on a daily basis. They did the majority of the backend work based on our ideas. They also provided training and support. 

They also helped up migrate to Exchange Online and Office 365. 

What is the team composition?

Phi Lac (CTO) and Khoa (CEO & Co-Founder) are our main points of contact, but we work with other team members from time to time. 

How did you come to work with NIFTIT?

We were working with another firm, but they were bought out and the new company was out of our price range. NIFTIT was recommended to me by a friend. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them on smaller projects around October 2014. Then, in April 2015, we signed a 6-month contract. We then switched to an annual contract in 2017. They’re continuing to provide us with support.

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

They were instrumental in implementing Teams for us before everything went remote in March because of COVID-19. Our staff reported that it was easier to follow up on projects. Teams was far more efficient than email for back-and-forth communications. 

How did NIFTIT perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good. They’re always clear with their timeframe and let us know when we can have things done which is very useful. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to help us plan each year strategically is very impressive. They listen to what our needs are and communicate to us what technologies would be best for us. Because they’re located in a different timezone, they can implement important IT updates after our regular business hours so it doesn’t disrupt our work. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve been very pleased with them. They were always easy to get a hold of and can implement solutions with short notice. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Just be very clear about your budget and needs.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Camarena Health is a non-profit Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Madera California. Our primary goal is to provide excellent health care to low-income patients, regardless of their ability to pay.

Our locations are top of the line and do not have a "free clinic" feel to it. We serve over 45k patients per year providing them with all of their primary health needs, including medical and dental.

For what projects/services did your company hire NIFTIT?

As Camarena Health continues to grow we needed a better way to communicate with our staff. I knew that I wanted to use SharePoint for document management, but I didn't have the skills to make the site look professional or provide much-needed functionality.

What were your goals for this project?

To have a full-featured intranet that allowed for easy communication within Camarena Health.

How did you select this vendor?

I contacted some consultants I worked with in the past and they referred me to Niftit.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Niftit provided all of the front-end SharePoint 2019 development. I told them my vision for the look-and-feel and they had their design team come up with several solutions. From there, I selected the design and they went to work on making it a reality.

What I enjoyed about working with Niftit is they really knew how to take my vision and make it into a reality. That is very difficult for some, but they did it with ease. Additionally, I am extremely precise in how I wanted the site to look and they adjusted accordingly. While our internal team handled the backend server creation, Niftit also provided specific SharePoint programming services.

A good example of this was they created a marketplace app that plugged right into SharePoint. The marketplace app allowed our staff to post items for sale for other employees to purchase. Niftit also created a specific COVID-19 page which greatly increased our ability to keep our employees informed.

What was the team composition?

Niftit had a project manager, a developer, and a web designer. Our internal team had a server admin and the CIO.

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

Our communication with the staff has greatly increased with the advent of our new Intranet. iConnect is what its called and now you will hear people say things like..."It's on iConnect!" when looking for policies, employee handbooks, etc. Without Niftit, we wouldn't have been able to make a professional looking intranet.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We were assigned a dedicated project manager who worked with us throughout the process. It was well done and I do not have any issues to report.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to take my vision and make it a reality. As I stated above, this can be most difficult, but they did it with ease. I also found their support timely on important issues.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As with all of us, we can improve. My suggestion would be on items of low importance that responses would be quicker. It's not bad, but I'm impatient so waiting 2 to 3 days for a response is not optimal. But, I must stress though, when we need them for important issues, they are there!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of Smile Train. We’re a children’s charity providing free cleft surgeries in the developing world. We’re in over 85 countries and have provided more than 1.6 million surgeries. We provide various other treatments, as well. My role is to ensure we have the specific technologies required to support our initiative.

What challenge were you trying to address with NIFTIT?

We needed an instrument for all of our geographically dispersed staff.

What was the scope of their involvement?

NIFTIT is our SharePoint provider. They provide us with very specific technologies that we utilize for our procedures.

What is the team composition?

We usually work with 3-4 people, though there is a larger backend team. 

How did you come to work with NIFTIT?

We were looking specifically for SharePoint providers, and their name came up.

How much have you invested with them?

We are on the high end of the $100,000 - $250,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since August 2014.

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

NIFTIT is  extremely quick. If we raise a ticket, we hear back in 1-2 hours. The team is sensitive to our needs. They understand our model, the geographic dispersal, and the need for different configurations based on regional needs. We are happy with their services.

How did NIFTIT perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly or bi-weekly meetings at first, but it was more than we needed. We now have weekly emails, and we review the content. Beyond that, we speak if we need additional projects, features, or customization. They are very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

NIFTIT listens to our needs and they work quickly. They’re also a great, fun team to work with. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we are very happy with the services they provide.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Define the project well.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We build and install elevators throughout the world. The project was lead by the Asia Pacific Office, and the lead of the project was in the marketing team.

For what projects/services did your company hire NIFTIT?

We had a sharepoint based intranet to share all our marketing collateral to our sales team across Asia Pacific. NIFTIT's task was to bring the UI to the next level:

• Improve UI / UX
• Create a mobile version
• Create advanced feature (search / database for projects ....)

What were your goals for this project?

The solution had to be stable, fast, with a simple UI, and we needed to be able to continue manage our intranet ourselves without depending on an agency for minor upgrades.

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed other vendors, that offered a solution at a similar cost but did not display good knowlege of Sharepoint, or did not understand the importance of UI/UX. NIFTIT immediately showed a clear understanding of our needs, took the time to align with the different stakeholders (marketing / IT).

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Design / develop / document a mobile version / new UI / multi-langual / advanced project database features

What was the team composition?

A main commercial contact along with a team of developpers.

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

Our project was launched on time, on budget and our expectations were perfectly met, or exceeded. NIFTIT was able to adapt to our needs throughout the project and proactively offered solutions.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had regular call meetings to review the progress along with a basecamp space to share the advancement of the project. The project was extremely easy to manage from our side.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Reactivity, understanding, and a great result!

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really. We are improving as we get to work on additional projects.