PVA, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the application manager at a manufacturing company that creates lighting for displays. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PVA, Inc.?

We hired PVA, Inc. to provide development and user support services. Since we offer global support, we needed to work with a team that’s available at all hours. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

PVA, Inc. customized our OpenText Content Server application. They have a great deal of technical expertise that was useful for designing that product. We usually request user reports for challenging technical questions we don’t have the knowledge to answer in-house. Most of their work involves software customization and standard upgrades. They also help us with project upgrades, software releases, and day-to-day user support.

What is the team composition? 

PVA, Inc. assigned us two primary points of contact who are always available.

How did you come to work with PVA, Inc.?

My company selected them as a partner vendor about ten years ago before I joined. If I had to choose any team, I would still go with them. PVA, Inc. provides excellent support. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since June 2006. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A project we conducted about two years ago required moving our application from one data center to another. At the exact same time, we had to do a significant upgrade. As the only technical contributor on the application side, PVA, Inc. seamlessly executed both tasks concurrently. We had very successful results. We haven’t had any issues throughout our engagement and are pleased with the quality of work they perform. 

How did PVA, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We provided a project manager for the project who works for our company. Whenever I contact PVA, Inc., they send me a reply within an hour. They have on-call resources available 24 hours a day. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

PVA, Inc. runs a very small team that produces exceptionally successful work. I appreciate that they don’t have significant overhead or bureaucracy. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

PVA, Inc. quickly resolves any issues we encounter. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Partnering with a vendor like PVA, Inc. will prove most productive if they work directly with the technical resource at your company. 

BACKGROUND

Can you provide a brief description of what your company does?

My company is a transportation company for Canada’s largest port.

Is it a private company?

It is a government company, but not completely public. We report to the Transport Canada government agency. The formal description that we have is, we are the biggest port in Canada.

What is your position?

I’m the Livelink system administrator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s business goals or reasons for undertaking the project with PVA?

We have been working together with PVA for many years. Before I took over the position of Livelink administrator, we started working with PVA. Since I took over the position in 2009, my organization continues to work with PVA as they offer us upgrade support and some daily support. I’m very satisfied with their service, and their professional skills and capability.

SOLUTION

What was the process for selecting PVA to work with?

Normally, we send our request of quotation to several vendors including OpenText partners. According to their proposal, we choose the best solution. We continue to work with PVA since our projects have been completed successfully every time. We have established a long-term working relationship. It went very well in the past. PVA knows our system very well, and that’s the key point that keeps us together.

Why did you decide to adopt OpenText Livelink?

I think PVA gave us a reasonable service price, and they had done several upgrades for us in the past few years. They are very familiar with our outstanding issues and our system configurations, making cooperation much easier.

Can you talk about the scope of the project? Which parts were PVA involved in?

Every time we have a project with PVA, we have a clear statement of work. For example, we just did the Livelink upgrade to version 10. The consultant from PVA will do the remote support for us to transfer to UTF 8. PVA will install the new system software in our server together with me.

PVA will help us set up the testing environment, and finish the entire configuration in both environments. They do a lot of work during the upgrade.

Besides the Livelink technology, were there any other technologies used?

No. Just Livelink.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the initiative for the project in dollar terms or personnel hours?

During the project upgrade we just did for CS10, PVA worked around 120 hours. Most of the work was done remotely, and we paid an hourly fee.

Is that particular project is finished?

Yes.

Are they still working with you on support?

If there’s still some outstanding issues regarding this project after completion, we will need PVA support. If there are no other outstanding issues, then we can maintain the system ourselves. OpenText is often not responsive to our problems, so we ask PVA for assistance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project?

The project was recently completed, so we don’t have solid metrics. However, we interviewed employees after the changes. Most of the interviewees mentioned to us that they are very satisfied. Performance has improved a lot. There are no big changes employees disliked from the new version. Actually, this project went well, and has met our expectations to this point.

Do you feel like you’ve made the right decision to partner with PVA?

Yes.

How did PVA perform?

I think they did well. PVA has done their part, and they always try their best to support us. They are professional. So, when we have some tough technology issues, they can fix it quickly.

When working with PVA, was there anything unique or special about them?

I think PVA has various skills regarding Livelink technology. Livelink is a complicated system. PVA’s consultants can meet all requirements regarding servers and other parts. They have fine knowledge and skills to help us to deal with this type of complicated technology project.

Is there any area that PVA could improve upon or you would do differently?

PVA’s schedule is very full. Sometimes, when we need to reach them, you cannot reach them at exactly the time you want to because they are pretty busy. They have a very busy project schedule.

Hopefully in the future, they can enhance this kind of availability. But this is understandable. A lot of companies have this issue if they have a lot of projects occurring at the same time.

BACKGROUND

Please give a brief description of what your company does?

We do research for the federal government. The work that PVA helps us with is related to our business system using OpenText Livelink.

What is your position within the company?

I am a technical manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s business goals or reasons for undertaking this project?

We chose PVA primarily because the company has a skill set that we don’t have internally. We wanted to leverage that skill set for our organization’s IT needs.

SOLUTION

Do you remember why you decided to use OpenText Livelink?

We did a very thorough needs analysis, and assessed a number of different vendors at the time. The Livelink and OpenText product line met our needs.

Do you remember your process for selecting PVA to work with?

Actually, PVA made a call for some specific work that we were looking for at the time. They came in and demonstrated their capabilities, and we were very impressed. We started using them at that time. They found us.

Can you tell me about the scope of the project that PVA was involved in?

We’ve used them for a number of different initiatives. The largest one was a records management implementation project. They held our hand through that, through design and implementation. PVA also provided follow-up support.

Besides Livelink, were there any other technologies used?

Yes. We purchased one of their customized modules.

Can you provide a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or personnel hours?

It cost more than $1 million for the whole initiative.

Is the project finished?

It’s never finished. They finished the project, and it’s in support right now.

Do you think they’ll be with you for a number of years?

Yes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to measure the results of the project?

Yes, we do have metrics. I’m not able to share those.

Was it an improvement?

Yes.

Do you feel like you’ve made the right decision to use OpenText and PVA?

I don’t know about OpenText, but PVA for sure.

Could you assess OpenText for your organization's needs?

We purchased this platform back in 2005, and it took some time to implement. If you’re doing due diligence, you should keep your eyes on the market. I want to make sure that the vendors that we’ve selected are staying current with trends, and that they provide the best value for the money because these are very expensive platforms. So, I’m not sure if there’s anything else out there right now that would be better.

What is unique or special about PVA?

Yes. They’re very competent. They deliver on their promise. We haven’t had that experience necessarily with other companies that provide consulting resources through OpenText.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that you think PVA could improve upon or you would do differently?

No, nothing. We’ve had a positive experience.