Nuvem Consulting

BACKGROUND

Could you please provide a brief description of what your company does? 

Yes, we focus on pre-employment background screening for employers. We’re the ones responsible for the background checks, the drug testing, and all of the different services on their potential candidates when they’re hiring new employees.

What position do you hold in the company?

That is a loaded question. My current title is manager, client onboarding. I manage all the onboarding of our new clients. I’m also involved with our marketing team, but I’m transitioning out of that role. My involvement with Salesforce is our dedicated administrator, and that has not changed. I work with both Salesforce and Salesforce partners when we have new initiatives.  

Was that was your primary involvement with AppShark at the time of working with them?

Right. Exactly.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s goals or reasons for undertaking the project with AppShark specifically? [AppShark has rebranded as Nuvem Consulting]

We had a project where we needed to be able to give our account management team more strategic information around the revenue their accounts were bringing in as well as any accounts that had been inactive for the previous months. We had started a couple of years ago importing data on a daily basis into Salesforce, but we were having difficulties making use of that data and tying it all together in an efficient layout. The other piece of it I had mentioned concerned inactive clients. We needed to be able to track clients that for whatever reason hadn’t placed a single order the previous months, especially for clients where that was unusual, so we could be more proactive in our outreach to find out if something was going on; if they had decided to move to a different firm and why. It was a little beyond my scope of technical knowledge. I selected AppShark from a handful of potential partners. All of them had decent references, but AppShark certainly had the best of them. I then met a few of their representatives at local user groups here in Kansas City where I’m based. I essentially built a rapport with them, and discussed what we were trying to do leading up to the project. Honestly, they came back with a competitive quote and were very hands-on, managed the project very well. Ultimately, I’m glad I went with them.

SOLUTION

Could you please describe the scope of the project? Did it include development, design, or support?

It included development, support, and design. We were dealing with pretty complex numbers and formulas. I was asking them to collect all of the information that we had been importing into a custom object and make it interact with a bunch of different objects in Salesforce. The result had to be access to dynamic information on a daily basis. From a development standpoint and a support standpoint, what I appreciated about them is their ability to comprehend my own vision, and materialize it as close as possible. They really invested the time to understand not only the technical requirements, but the long-term business goals associated with the project.

Could you please elaborate on the technologies used for the project?

All I know is that they built us our own Visualforce page. We had already set up an import, so they didn’t have to set up the data feed from our system. They took the enormous amount of data we had, and created a dynamic interface around it.

Could you please provide a sense of the size of the initiative in monetary terms or the number of personnel involved?

I had three main points of contact that I met with every Monday and Friday: The project manager and two developers. We had roughly four resources on it. Their director of business development, and I have been checking in periodically to see how things were going as well as one of their projects leads. In total, we had approximately six people helping me on the project. As far as the cost impact, I don’t mind sharing that. It was somewhere around the $10,000 range. In fact, they went out of their way to accommodate my budget. I appreciated their commitment to our ongoing relationship.

How recently was the project or projects finished, or are they still ongoing?

The project wrapped up around the end of 2012. It began in late October or early November. The reason it wrapped up towards the end of the year was because we were monitoring the calculations very closely at the start of each month. It was about January when we finally perfected the product. I can’t begin to explain how complex some of the formulas were.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you please provide any statistics or metrics on the effectiveness of the project?

The only true measurement I have is that prior to this project, our account management team had to log all this information onto an Excel sheet. From a timesaving standpoint, the feedback I’ve gotten from the account management team is they’re probably saving roughly 15 hours a month going this route rather than looking through the Excel sheet and trying to find and perform the calculations. That increase in efficiency is the only measurement I can think of.

Would you say that AppShark performed well?

Yes. Absolutely.

Was there anything in particular that you would consider unique or special about AppShark when compared to other firms you’ve worked with?

Their organization and follow up was unique. They were able to translate in non-technical terms for me what it was they were going to do to a project, and had high level of communication throughout the project. I never felt neglected. That’s not always the case when you’re dealing with projects of this magnitude and complexity.

In retrospect, are there areas that you think AppShark could improve upon or that you as a client would do differently going into the project?

I don’t think so. No. Things went well as far as I’m concerned.