Pluriza

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing manager at a distributor for presentation technologies, including whiteboards, flip charts, and interactive screens for meeting rooms.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pluriza?

We needed to improve our website so we could get more information to our clients and create blogs and news sections.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The website upgrade began with a design brainstorming session between our companies. The Pluriza team had a UX/UI developer in that meeting, and they drafted an initial web design. 

We liked the modern and minimalistic design they presented us, so we contracted them for the website development. Pluriza's team built out the backend using the Django REST framework that feeds the frontend through APIs.

We also made changes to the technical architecture that we could not do before; we added blogs, a news section, and an area for us to post case studies.  

What is the team composition?

There were about six teammates from Pluriza involved in our project, including a lead UX/UI designer, a web designer, a marketing lead, and then frontend and backend developers. 

We also had contact with Pluriza's CEO, and their project manager served as our main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with Pluriza?

I was unhappy with the cost-to-experience ratio of Swiss programmers, and since I was splitting my time between Switzerland and Colombia, I looked for development companies in Colombia. 

A lot of the Colombian companies were giving me prices more similar to those from Swiss companies. Pluriza saw our project and offered a fair price that wasn't influenced by our company's nationality. 

In the end, I awarded Pluriza the contract.  

How much have you invested with them?

I spent around $10,000 with Pluriza. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on the main website development project with Pluriza from June–August 2020. We continue to work with them on website changes. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website went live in summer 2020. The framework Pluriza built gives us flexibility for future changes — we won't have to rebuild the website entirely if we change the frontend design.  

Initially, we got some pushback from our clients, but as time went on, they realized the new website was easier to use than the previous one. Our clients now provide positive feedback and appreciate the website, especially our new blog sections, which provide them with content to enhance their own marketing strategy. 

Other aspects that our clients appreciate include our login section and price list. Clients have easy access to the site and don't need to write to our team to order and obtain prices for our products. 

It is hard to provide specific metrics for how the website is helping our business — the website is essentially an informational tool for our resellers. We use Google Analytics to track website information, but that information is more related to our internal marketing, and we don't have any significant SEO campaigns to track.    

How did Pluriza perform from a project management standpoint?

I am surprised by how well Pluriza managed the project. They responded quickly to requests, and when we ran into issues at the beginning of the development process, they solved them quickly. 

The Pluriza team worked overtime when I wanted changes or updates made. I was surprised but appreciated the collaboration between us. Even now, when we need a website change, they'll get in a meeting with me to discuss how to move forward.  

Some developers didn't speak English fluently, but the project managers all spoke English, so there were no communication issues. When we wanted to make changes, even something small, their team would set up a Google Meet or Zoom to ensure they understood what we wanted.

In the end, Pluriza hit every deadline within our three-month development timeline, and we were able to launch the site on time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Pluriza has a very young team and they're expanding fast, which stood out to me initially. It was our first time working with an offshore team, and we were unsure how it would work, but it turned out great. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was some fluctuation in their personnel, but that wasn't necessarily Pluriza's fault. Any personnel changes made within the company were handled by the project manager and CEO, who also dealt with the onboarding process. However, a lot of the teammates we started the project with are still there. 

There were some issues when we released the site, but I had pressure from above to release it, so I decided to roll the site out on time and fix it later.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I know that clients have a lot to do, and not everybody has time to schedule meetings, but it is vital to have them with Pluriza. That is my advice for clients: follow through and attend the meetings Pluriza requests. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal software architect and data scientist for Post-Acute Analytics. It’s a healthcare informatics company, focused on providing information about post-acute care facilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pluriza?

We needed to bring several products to the market in a tight timeframe. I was the sole person responsible for doing so, and I needed help in order to execute the process faster.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pluriza developed algorithms that calculated several types of quality measures and APIs to serve data to several scorecards and dashboards. They also helped with documentation on executing computational pipelines and setting up docker files. These files are intended for the environment in which the pipelines will be executed.

What is the team composition?

We began with two engineers but quickly scaled to three.

How did you come to work with Pluriza?

I searched for outsourcing firms and reached out to several local ones for the project. Pluriza was able to work within our timeframes and had engineers who could begin immediately.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $75,000–$80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from October 2019–April 2020. Due to COVID-19, we had to make some cutbacks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Pluriza quickly implemented very complex functionalities that allowed us to move several products to market on time; even ahead of schedule. They also have high levels of expertise in Python. Their team has a great ability to learn and come up to speed on new technologies they aren’t experienced in.

How did Pluriza perform from a project management standpoint?

I took on the project management role, along with an in-house resource.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I liked their ability to move quickly through bureaucratic red tape; that was instrumental in getting started quickly. Pluriza also had great engineers who were available immediately, or on short notice, to start working.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to communicate with Pluriza’s leadership team to discuss short- and long-term strategies. This will be effective so they can be involved in supporting those strategies through allocating resources, among other things. Pluriza is proactive about offering that kind of assistance, so take advantage of it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company provides Startups as a Service for large corporations. I am the leader of one of the startups that we are creating for one of our clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pluriza?

Pluriza supported us with two full-time software developers to complete our We Lease webapp.

What were your goals for this project?

Develop a functional solution that solves the pain, work and expectations of our target customer.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They offered us their services on LinkedIn

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They provided us with 2 full-time software developers to support our in-house development team. They built front and back components on user onboarding screens, filters for buildings, user registration, creation and management of databases. You can see the final result at https://yoarriendo.co

What was the team composition?

2 full-time software developers knowledgeable in React

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had worked with 2 suppliers before meeting Pluriza. With them we lost around US $ 7000 because they really didn't know what they were doing. With Pluriza we start everything from scratch and in around 5 months we managed to finish the entire product. It was super fast and easy. Our client is happy and this ensures us more investment for the year. I really like the speed and compliance of this company.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We work with Jira. There our team assigned all tasks to the Pluriza team. We held "daily meetings" every day at 8 a.m. and "retrospective meetings" at 5 p.m. This allowed us to closely follow the development of the project. The Pluriza team always completed their work in the estimated time, in fact, many of the tasks were completed earlier than estimated. Your support allowed us to finish our web application very quickly. In just 5 months we already had a robust product to show our client.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I really like the care they take for their clients. They always want us to feel accompanied. Working with them was very easy. They deliver developments on time, sometimes they can finish earlier than estimated.

Are there any areas for improvement?

My only suggestion is to shorten service times in the commercial department. Usually they returned calls after business hours. This extended the resolution of the petition to a couple of days.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm co-founder and CTO of dexFreight which is advancing the logistics industry by offering a multi-sided collaborative, network-platform that allows shippers, carriers, and third-party logistics providers to move goods faster, with full visibility and lower costs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pluriza ?

Architecture, development and deployment of a web app that would be use as a POC that will track the container export process in the port of veracruz mexico.

What were your goals for this project?

Store the status changes with its owner, timestamp and location on a federated blockchain. Display this information it a easy to understand format.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Based on recommendations from partner professional.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They design, developed and deploy a new back and front end on AWS. Provided documentation and tranning.

What was the team composition?

1 Project manager, 1 Full Stack, 2 Front-end developers and 1 back-end developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This project allowed us to negotiate a bigger contract and expand our services.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was on point. We had an assigned PM that took care of everything and made sure the project completed ontime.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The professionalism and communication. Our project manager was on top of every detail and kept us informed of all problems. They also interacted with multiple development teams working on different developments related to the POC

Are there any areas for improvement?

Presentation during the development stages. The end product was flawless but during the development phase we found many errors and the design was not the best initially.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m co-founder of a project to have an app. As such, my partner and I have not yet established a company. Although we have not formally separated responsibilities, I’m more in charge of Operations and Marketing, while he’s more in charge of Finance and Technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire this vendor?

To develop an app (the details of which we consider confidential as it has not yet launched)

What were your goals for this project?

Develop an app that combines videoconferencing with other forms of interaction and launch it for both Apple and Android mobile devices.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A prior supplier outsourced work to this vendor. Given the progress since then, and the lack of value the first supplier was adding, all parties agreed we should work directly with the vendor.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They programmed the code and designed the graphics based on the direction and strategy we provided.

What was the team composition?

We’ve had contact with the account manager, the marketing manager, and to a less frequent degree, the general manager and the programmer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was significantly delayed with our prior vendor. Things accelerated with our current one, and the app seems to be finally working in test mode. We have not yet launched to determine success with a larger number of users. Therefore, to date we’ve just invested in the project without any returns or users.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it? 

We did not use any tools except e-mails (with PDFs and Excel spreadsheets) and Whatsapp and sharing via Google Drive. We met occasionally in person or via Zoom given advances based on the contractual goals. The lack of tools was not a major issue.

I would have liked to see a current gant chart identifying bottlenecks and updated dates, but preferred that the vendor focus on programming. In comparison, the PRIOR vendor would have us try out different tools (Asana, Slack, Trello….) which we had never used. We would have to learn how to use them, and they would sometimes drop a tool. Those tools did not really add value to us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They understood what we wanted more than our original vendor. They also seem more passionate about the project.

Are there any areas where they could improve?

Given that we did not have much of a technical background, we felt it was important to be kept more in the loop in terms of progress and issues. It seemed we need to ask for updates and be proactively on top of them.