Outright Development

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior partner and digital director at a full-service advertising and marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Outright Development?

We had a client with a complex inventory system and enterprise resource planning (ERP); we wanted to connect that with CMS. We needed and Drupal experts to launch a new website for this client. I needed a technology lead, a technology business analyst, and somebody to do the actual development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The projects are collaborative. Outright Development helps collect requirements and translate them into a plan. We’ve done two significant projects with them. For the first, they had to act as a technical strategist and lead to collect all the requirements, extrapolate those into a roadmap, and then come up with a plan to execute on that roadmap. This project required the team to understand: the business needs, the operational needs, the client’s resource capacities, and the technical expertise and implementation.

For the second project, our client—in the tourism space—had an outdated website and multiple international sites that needed to be consolidated into one system. To complete a creative and cutting-edge design, Outright Development recreated their backend into one system on a Drupal CMS that fed many international sites. They also helped translate content into different languages. Outright Development acted as our technical lead as well as our technical implementation provider.

What is the team composition?

Chad (CEO, Outright Development) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Outright Development?

We selected Outright Development because they had the same mindset that we do: exceptional delivery and high-quality products.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2011 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We use Outright Development because they’re a reliable and trusted resource. The team has a high standard, creates amazing work, and collects sophisticated technical requirements in a professional manner. The longevity of the products is great; those sites are still on the backbone and backend of what we created together. Once we complete a project, our clients can enter a direct maintenance agreement with Outright Development. The vendor works with both clients from the two large projects. There’s no greater compliment than someone wanting to continue working with you.

How did Outright Development perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is responsive and consultative. I consider them a partner more than a vendor. They customize their workflows to our clients’ needs. We track work via Jira and Slack, and then communicate via email, Skype, and face-to-face meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical strategy is on par with the code for the final products. From strategy to execution, Outright Development does each step exceptionally well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I’ve been happy with the team’s responsiveness and the relationship in general.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be strategic and take advantage of both the onshore and offshore relationship. From a profitability standpoint, identify the project components to offshore.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a company called ISA-eCash that’s based in Massachusetts. I started off supporting a product they brought over from a different company called ATM Manager Pro. Since I arrived here, I've worked on many other projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Outright Development?

The owners of our company wanted to create a new product called QwikPic. It’s a survey application for people who work in the field on ATMs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Outright Development took care of the end-to-end development. Before my arrival, they held discussions with our company's owners to establish a clear definition of the requirements. My role was to follow through with the build and testing. Outright Development developed the iOS interface and backend servers to collect information and make it available in a web application. They also built multiple websites for different customers. 

Through the platform, supervisors can dispatch employees to specific machines. Once maintenance workers access requests through the mobile app, it prompts them to answer a series of questions and take pictures of the ATM in question. All the information they submit is uploaded to a database hosted on AWS. 

We’ve completed the iOS app and will probably build an Android version later on. After getting us fully set up, they helped us use Apple’s beta testing capabilities. As we continue testing, we’re getting the app to the point where it functions as desired. This process hasn't moved as quickly as our owners hoped, but that's no fault of Outright Development's. 

What is the team composition? 

I interfaced with Chad (CEO, Outright Development). After finalizing the specs with our company's principals, he worked with his developers to put our product together. By the time I received it, the app was about 80% complete. My tech background enabled me to understand the hosting aspects and liaise between their team and our company's leadership.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost about $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project lasted from July 2017–January 2018. At that point, the app was usable but hadn't been completely beta tested in the field due to internal constraints. We're taking action right now that should speed up the process. Our testing results indicate the product is secure and should be successful moving forward. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're impressed with how well the application works. Both the iOS and website have a clear interface that’s easy to use. It's flexible enough for the nature of our surveys. We could always add more features, but the initial requirements are complete and running smoothly right now.

If I saw a bug or crash during testing, I’d alert the CEO, and the team would quickly resolve it. During the second phase, they rapidly completed modifications to the original design specs. They had fast turnaround times for subtle changes we requested and always met our deadlines. 

How did Outright Development perform from a project management standpoint?

I worked exclusively with my main point of contact, the CEO. He was very responsive, especially when tasks dragged on from our side. Even when things expired in testing programs, he made necessary updates and took care of everything. 

The head of finance managed the invoicing, so I'm not familiar with that process. I have no complaints, and our company's two owners are very satisfied with where we sit right now. With just one phone call or email, any problem gets solved.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Outright Development understood the environments they were working with completely. They made the entire process easy and put in consistent effort. We don't have much iOS or AWS knowledge in-house, but their level of expertise was top notch. 

I was very impressed with how rapidly they completed significant updates. They were open to changes that would make most developers cringe. Their response time was tremendous for any of our questions or issues. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's nothing to improve from my perspective. Outright Development’s technical expertise and responsiveness made our project go very smoothly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The CEO could not have been more enjoyable to work with from a development and communication standpoint. Since I've been on board, everything has been outstanding. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Senior Data Architect at a large life science company. Specifically, I work within a business unit that develops handheld instruments for chemical identification.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Outright Development?

Over a span of eight or nine years, Outright Development has been responsible for a significant percentage of technical development on our website. They developed the site itself, rebuilt it when necessary, implemented upgrades, and oversaw data integration.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the start of our engagement, we aimed to extend our customer support portal to include an e-commerce solution where customers could buy specific goods and services. Our website is targeted only toward users of products manufactured by the unit I work in, as opposed to the wide spectrum of products offered by our parent company and fellow properties.

Our website deploys a LAMP stack and leverages a Drupal CMS, which includes certain standard Drupal modules as well as some custom solutions. Using our site, customers can register their own personal account and gain access to support resources for our various products. As an example of a significant upgrade Outright Development helped with, I can point to our authentication service, where our data systems will verify that login credentials are valid. This allows users to seamlessly gain privileged access to the site.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager, a principal architect, and a group of five to 10 India-based developers.

How did you come to work with Outright Development?

My former manager, who has since left the company, found them eight or nine years ago. I am unsure of the search or selection processes, but at that time, we prioritized firms that had a demonstrated expertise in e-commerce solutions.

How much have you invested with them?

To this point, we’ve spent between $1 million-$5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project of developing our current website began in September 2014, but our overall engagement goes back several more years when we launched our initial website. We retain their services for several ongoing projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They are extremely conscientious about delivering tested solutions. We can always rely on them to deliver solutions that are well-vetted. They ensure that all ongoing development occurs on a separate landscape so as to not interfere with the current customer-facing services.

How did Outright Development perform from a project management standpoint?

Their estimates are accurate, both in terms of delivery dates and the level of effort required. The entire team is organized and has a good sense of their capabilities within each sprint. The project management is quite solid.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The skill level of their technical team, especially the lead architect, is most notable. They’re very comprehensive. They offer alternatives that prove to be more effective while still meeting business objectives. They are always prepared with technical assessments at our bi-weekly meetings. The depth of skill within their team is one of the best I’ve ever worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We sometimes have to make changes due to changing technologies, or we have to revisit some things that aren’t operating as they should. This is not unexpected in a complex system like our website. I consider this to be routine to some extent, but it’s an area we can still improve as a team.

Any advice for potential customers?

What I like about Outright Development is that they develop technical plans in writing where scope and details related to an engagement are clearly defined. Potential Customer following this approach will find that this avoids misunderstandings and promotes a better partner relationship.