Rightpoint

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for David Architectural Metals, a steel fabricator in Chicago.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rightpoint?

We hired Rightpoint to create a custom application for us to track project and internal invoices. We had been using an outdated method that hadn’t be improved since our business opened.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rightpoint came to our office to discuss our current processes and gain a better understanding of our needs. We held a three-day event to go through every iteration of how we track projects. From there, they created a web-based application that digitally recreated our previous processes.

They used Azure to build the cloud-based platform. It helps us track and display our invoices. In addition, they performed additional data analysis and created several types of reports.

What is the team composition?

There were 3–4 Rightpoint teammates working on our project, led by Brad (Co-Founder, Rightpoint).

How did you come to work with Rightpoint?

We followed a recommendation.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$75,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January–May 2015.

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

We aren’t able to fully track the impact of Rightpoint’s work, but our processes are incredibly easier to use now. Their services helped us eliminate many manual tasks and duplicate processes. The new platform has been invaluable for us.  

How did Rightpoint perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. As a team, they were responsive from conception through to execution. Rightpoint was by our side throughout the project. Their team was impressive and handled the work well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Rightpoint brought our processes into the modern age without a hitch and implemented the system perfectly. They took an 85-year old process and improved it efficiently. It was enjoyable to work with them, which was a great bonus.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were delighted with the results, so there’s nothing for them to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open in your communication. They are a fun, youthful group that is willing to listen to your needs and create your ideas.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the president of a distribution company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rightpoint?

We reached out to Rightpoint to redesign our outdated website in a way that would make it easier for visitors to easily find and choose the right product for their particular need. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We met with their team to go over our goals and they redesigned and developed our website using Javascript and React Native, tying it into our Oracle NetSuite commerce program. They also incorporated new features that allow visitors to conduct filtered searches to narrow down the products that fit their needs, as well as 360-degree videos of each product.

What is the team composition? 

We work with 4–5 people on their team, including a project manager. 

How did you come to work with Rightpoint?

They were recommended to us locally, so we decided to give them a shot and it's worked out very well. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since early 2018.

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

The improvements Rightpoint made to our web and mobile commerce experience have at least doubled the business we're getting online. Customers are no longer getting frustrated when they visit our site because they're able to easily find exactly what they need relatively quickly.

How did Rightpoint perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is very communicative, providing weekly progress reports and responding quickly whenever we reach out. The whole relationship has been relatively seamless. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their designs have been excellent; they completely transformed our website layout and functionality. It's been so well-received that our sister company in Germany copied the design. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I don't have any complaints. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the engineering manager at Imprivata, a healthcare identity and access management company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rightpoint?

We reached out to Rightpoint to help us develop a product that will allow users to unlock or lock a desktop computer, using their mobile device.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rightpoint provided consulting as we ran into complicated issues developing a mobile app for iOS and Android that allows users to lock or unlock their desktop computers, using Bluetooth technology.

What is the team composition? 

We work with a product owner, a developer, and the VP of engineering.

How did you come to work with Rightpoint?

We'd worked with them before when their company was under different ownership, and they were also recommended to me by our VP of engineering.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them for two different projects in 2017 and 2018 that each took a few months. The most recent app launched and the corresponding desktop application will be going live this quarter, so they continue to provide support. 

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

Rightpoint's recommendations effectively solved many complicated challenges, allowing us to build the exact product we intended. 

How did Rightpoint perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very responsive and actively involved within one of our agile scrum teams, taking part in daily standups and biweekly conference calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness and ability to deliver solutions to complicated technical issues is second to none. They go above and beyond to find the answers to any questions we have.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Definitely not, their developers are able to take on any challenge we throw their way. Their expertise took our product to the next level.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set clear expectations regarding project goals so the engagement has more of a chance of success. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO of Wagz, Inc., a company delivering the connected home for pets. We build consumer electronics products that manage and streamline pet ownership, including a smart dog collar, a smart feeder, and a smart pet door.

For what projects/services did your company hire Rightpoint?

We hired Rightpoint to build iOS and Android mobile apps from scratch to manage our connected home for pets. We also asked Rightpoint to build an embedded app that would run on our Android-based collar product.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create a great UX that integrated all aspects of pet ownership into a one-stop shop. Regardless of which combination of our devices someone has, that person should be able to login to a common interface and understand how to monitor their pets, operate the devices, and review collected data. Eventually, we’ll transition the software in-house, but we wanted Rightpoint to build the initial version.

How did you select this vendor?

Another contractor recommended Rightpoint to us.

Describe the project in detail.

We started with an outline of the project vision. During several on-site visits with Rightpoint’s product managers and engineers, we scoped the requirements in detail and devised a plan of action. Breaking them down into sprints, we had regular online meetings to review progress.

New products and business directives arose during development, and Rightpoint worked with us to make course corrections as seamlessly as possible. Toward the end of the engagement, Rightpoint helped us transition the project to our in-house engineers while losing as little momentum as possible.

What was the team composition?

We interfaced directly with a product manager and an account manager and also had regular, unrestricted contact with a designer and 2–4 lead engineers (the numbers fluctuated as needed throughout the project). QA resources and interns were assigned to the project, and we met with them at a few of our semi-regular site visits.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Rightpoint was instrumental in launching our product line. Their expertise and engineering resources built the foundation of our integrated apps and embedded system architecture.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was convenient and accommodating. They were always willing to adjust their approach to ours, but they also suggested improvements they found effective in the past.

The engineering teams from both companies met daily, and the product/management teams met weekly, with kick-off and retrospective meetings at the beginning and end of every sprint. We also had regular as-needed meetings with the account and product managers to reassess the long-range course of the project. These discussions ensured each incremental progress measure properly serviced our long-term goals.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their engineering team’s craftsmanship and their managers understanding of its importance stood out to us. Beyond simply executing on our functional requirements, they thought about how to make the solution easy to maintain, scalable, and future-proof.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We felt that the initial scope of work was underestimated, leading to a temporary disruption. That said, Rightpoint was quick to recognize this, course-correct, and recover the lost time.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief product officer of an e-grocery service. We partner with supermarket chains to help them facilitate the fulfillment of online grocery orders. We have robotic technology that we install at supermarkets and deploy them with a software stack. We automate that part and use humans for some aspects of it, therefore significantly lowering the cost of putting together a grocery order.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rightpoint?

We needed a company to jump-start our mobile development efforts. We knew that in order to be successful as a company, we would need to offer our supermarket chain partners a full B2B2C technology stack.

Not only did we need to handle the fulfillment of their online grocery orders more efficiently, but we also needed to provide them with a white-label e-commerce platform where the end users could go in and place their online grocery orders via either their iOS or Android phones or the website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed the minimum viable product (MVP) of our iOS app. We then went through an initial phase where we continued to use them as we built up their team. It was a collaboration between some of our staff and their staff. We leveraged some members of their MVP team to ensure that we built our Android app to be similar to the iOS app. We then launched the mobile app solution with our first customer deployment.

What is the team composition?

The team we assembled for the iOS MVP included a project manager who kept things running on time, a senior and a junior iOS developer, and a pair of designers. For the initial phase, we used some of their designers and some of their engineers together with some of our designers and engineers.

How did you come to work with Rightpoint?

At the time, they were called Raizlabs and they were well-known as a leading mobile development shop in Boston. We ran a detailed RFP process to make sure we selected the right partner, and they were one of four or five companies that we were considering after meeting with a larger number of companies. We chose Rightpoint because they had a lot of e-commerce experience. They had already worked with some leading retailers and e-commerce businesses to develop mobile apps.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2017—December 2018.

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

They delivered a really cool app. They built our Android version to be very similar to our iOS app while accommodating the necessary differences between the two platforms. The app received a lot of kudos from our team internally as well as our initial customers.

Working with their experienced mobile app developers helped us keep things similar when it made sense, as opposed to those platform-specific differences. We weren’t really reinventing the wheel with our Android development.

How did Rightpoint perform from a project management standpoint?

There were things we had to continuously manage and address, and they were very responsive to them. They had a senior person continue to manage the relationship. They were really good at taking our feedback and coming up with creative ways to make changes in real time.

The leader of their design team is amazing. Their engineers were easy to work with and they communicated well. They’re very good at estimating how long the different features will take to implement.

They balanced the working team with senior resources, who without immersing themselves too much into the project, always involved themselves with us and checked in on how things were going. They addressed anything that needed to be rectified.

Their approaches were highly organized, and they worked in two-week sprints. We’ve continued to use those approaches as part of our engineering and product management principles at our company.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I had very high expectations and they exceeded them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I intended to manage the whole project, and they provided a junior product manager, which I felt conflicted with my own intended role. I had been very clear upfront that I was going to be heavily involved, and that I wanted them to set things up to accommodate that.

As the team they offered was configured, they were better set up for very hands-off customer engagement. It took some time before they understood that. We discussed it at length and we were able to rectify that as we went forward.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of mobile for Publishers Clearing House. My team builds consumer-facing apps for digital marketing purposes, such as driving scale and revenue.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rightpoint?

We wanted to expand beyond our core business—winning sweepstakes—by creating a pipeline of new experiences via digital properties. Our team hired Rightpoint to help us build and validate a mobile application quickly.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We spent a few days brainstorming what would resonate with a younger mobile-first audience. We then applied those ideas to a prototype and wireframes, building a mock experience that we subsequently put in front of users. Rightpoint designed user flows, built out the experience, and collaborated on user testing. Our team then did overall mobile app development for iOS Android.

What is the team composition?

We interfaced with about seven people.

How did you come to work with Rightpoint?

We considered 3–4 vendors including Rightpoint. I worked with the team in the past and they had maintained a good reputation. We chose Rightpoint because they had a nimble and innovative approach to conceptualizing our vision.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $110,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–June 2018.

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

The app recently launched after performing well during user testing. Additionally, each KPI is positive. These results align with our expectations for such a thorough engagement.

How did Rightpoint perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was creative and easy to work with. Their flexibility stood out, which helped them embed as part of our team. We communicated via face-to-face meetings and a range of remote tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We enjoyed being around the team because they never complained. Rightpoint was always on call and remained willing to exceed expectations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat the team not as an agency, but as a partner. Rightpoint performs best that way. Likewise, they will try to feel a part of the customer’s organization.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a co-founder of OutSmart Going Out, a ratings app where users review nightlife venues for safety and overall atmosphere. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Raizlabs, a Rightpoint company?

We didn’t have enough resources to develop the app in-house, so we searched for mobile app developers in the region who could assist with the project.

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the first meeting, we discussed our app concept and the scope of work required to transform our vision into a tangible product. We decided to build a beta app for iOS to gauge its success before developing the full version.

During subsequent meetings, we spent hours making design models and mapping out features we wanted to include on the app. We met with them every two weeks to review their work, and they made revisions based on our critiques; we repeated this process until development was complete.

What is the team composition?

They assigned a group of five developers to our account, including a team leader. We also have a point of contact in the finance department.

How did you come to work with Raizlabs, a Rightpoint Company?

We decided that it was important to have the development team in Boston so we would be able to be part of the bi-weekly sprints. Per the recommendation of our lawyer, we met with Raizlabs and found that their business philosophies were compatible with ours.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $142,000 to develop the app.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since March 2018. The beta app launched in June 2018, and we plan to release the full app in the fall of 2018.

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

Everyone who has used the app has complimented the stunning UI and easy-to-use navigation. The app has had a few minor bugs, but Raizlabs resolved those technical issues almost immediately. 

How did Raizlabs, a Rightpoint Company perform from a project management standpoint?

Raizlabs is the most responsive company that I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. Their open-door policy greatly contributes to the project’s collaborative experience. They always welcomed and encouraged our input, and they never hesitated to offer their suggestions. In addition to the biweekly meetings, we kept in touch daily via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re serious about their work, but they also understand the importance of a fun work environment. Their excitement to work is infectious, and they’ve maintained the same level of motivation throughout the entire project. When we go to them for advice, their whole team jumps at the chance to give their input. Raizlabs has shown us that they care about our success and that they are willing to go above and beyond to help us achieve it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Our experience with developing an app was rewarding because we found a company that shared similar ideals and values.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a product manager for mobile applications at a Fortune 100 insurance carrier. We offer customers peace of mind through tailored insurance products.

For what projects/services did your company hire Raizlabs?

Our mobile application architecture and design were dated, so we enlisted the very talented Raizlabs to design and implement a new app from scratch for our millions of customers.

What were your goals for this project?

Our mobile application provides complex, precise financial services to hundreds of thousands of users per month. Defining these customer experiences is important, both in terms of customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. Our goal with this project was to design and build a best-in-class mobile experience for our customers, which would enable us to overcome stagnant adoption, improve customer retention, maximize conversion within our self-service channel, and deliver a quality of service that is worthy of our brand. Rather than simply redesigning our existing product, we wanted to build the platform on a modern mobile architecture. This also positioned us to independently innovate and rapidly deliver new tools and enhancements to our customers.

How did you select this vendor?

We approached multiple companies, giving each an idea of our business, our customers, and our objectives for the project. Raizlabs distinguished themselves with their ability to contextualize our needs. Rather than presenting shallow, instantaneous solutions, they showed a deep understanding of the problem and a clear path to solving it.

Describe the project in detail.

The project included a full redesign of our product, both in terms of product design and visual design, as well as a complete rebuild using a modernized technical architecture.

What was the team composition?

At kickoff, we had several designers operating under the singular vision of a lead product manager, as well as a mobile application developer who managed iterative prototyping and POC development. At the culmination of the design, we cycled off designers and added additional mobile application developers for implementation.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We are currently in the final stages of development and will be delivering the app shortly, but we already see a huge lift in customer satisfaction during usability sessions. The quality of the product is incredible, and we are excited to get it out to our customers.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Fantastic product managers, developers, and account managers. They were flexible, organized, accessible, and dedicated to delivering quality products tailored to suit your business.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have a rare combination of technical mastery and vision. They’re so much more than designers, more than developers, and more than the sum of their parts. Their ability to contextualize our customers, our business, and our objectives, while executing a vision tailored to our needs, was a rare and wonderful thing.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a large retailer. My team is responsible for the primary customer-facing mobile app.

What challenge were you trying to address with Raizlabs?

Our goal was to build and deploy two new apps, shut down the old apps and then train our internal team and bring it all in-house.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Raizlabs replaced existing iOS and Android mobile apps with new ones from the ground-up. Once the initial apps were in production, service packs were added with additional enhancements. The apps are used by our retail customers to help find a nearby location, to shop online, view current deals, create a shopping list, etc. This is the primary app used by our customers. Raizlabs also helped with creating the best keywords to help our apps be easily searchable in the App Store and Google Play. They also launched our apps into both App Stores.

How did you come to work with Raizlabs?

We were looking for a partner with a solid track record for building native iOS and Android apps. We narrowed our list to four possible vendors and submitted a request for proposal from each. They were then brought onsite for presentations.

We had a panel who scored the results of the written proposals and onsite presentations. When evaluating the various vendors, we looked at cost, proven track record, company size and financials, as well as how they scored on the onsite presentation and the written proposal.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial project was completed in five months, from April to August in 2014. Additional efforts continued for another year.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I can't really share any specific statistics or metrics but I can say that the new apps gave us a very solid foundation to grow with. Using Agile methodologies, we are able to continuously improve our apps every few weeks and watch the ratings improve with each release.

Raizlabs is able to handle the entire spectrum of mobile app development from project management, architecture, UX, development, QA and implementation.

How did Raizlabs perform from a project management standpoint?

As far as project management and communication, I would say that this is one of their strong points. We had weekly standing meetings and also frequent communication with email, phone, chat, etc. Overall, they have excellent communication skills and project management capabilities.

What did you find most impressive about Raizlabs?

Raizlabs is confident and capable, and they run their projects in a fun but professional manner. They also utilize excellent tools that provide great visibility into all of the work. We had a great feeling that they would work with us to overcome any obstacles, and in the end we were right.

Raizlabs has a great team and is able to think out of the box and come up with win-win solutions. They are fun, friendly, professional and very capable of hitting milestones and deadlines.

Are there any areas Raizlabs could improve?

No.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and COO of Placester, a suite of marketing tools for real estate professionals. Our focus is on helping agents grow their businesses using digital media and create better experiences for consumers on the agent’s behalf.

What challenge were you trying to address with Raizlabs?

Timing. We had all of our technical resources focused on the web, and wanted to start working on the native mobile experiences for our tools. We knew we needed to start making investments on that side sooner rather than later in order to have something released in a timescale that was interesting. Our engagement with Raizlabs was very successful, which is why we used them for over a year. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We set out to take our vision for the mobile experience for our tools and the key activities agents need to do on the go like: search and contact leads, stay on top of action items (tasks, reminders, etc.) for their leads, and search for properties. Many of those features can be done via voice commands. There are a lot of features on the app.

They focused on iOS development for us and helped us launch in the App Store. They’ve got creative services skill sets that helped us be strategic from a project strategy perspective. it was helpful that they also provided project management skills because mobile wasn't a focus when we started. Later in our relationship, they did some web development work as well. Their capability has grown over the time I’ve known them.

There were 3–4 developers, a project manager/scrum master, a designer, and sometimes the creative director would be involved from their team. At certain points, their founder Greg was involved. Also, one of their BD/product guys was frequently involved. They brought a pretty diverse set of skills on the project.

How did you come to work with Raizlabs?

We’d heard good things in the community and reached out to them. They have events where they bring the Boston community together and talk about the latest technology trends. We had a conversation with them about their philosophies, how they work, and their track record. Seeing a lot of their past successes was encouraging. Their collaborative onboarding process was helpful in getting buy-in internally as well. We did a session for our stakeholders where we had a collaborative discussion about what we thought were the most important things for us to be doing in terms of value for the customer. From there, Raizlabs helped with execution, keeping everyone in the loop, and maintaining high engagement with our stakeholders.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June of 2015, and the work has been completed. 

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The process of getting our platform ready for the app took about a year. From there, we were ready to go into the App Store, but we still had more things to do internally that further delayed the rollout. As we did that, Raizlabs found ways to add value to the app. Along the way, we found that the team was able to be creative about how to help with the various integrations we wanted to perform with our own platform or within iOS, which is critical for crafting the best user experiences. I find that the creative thinking, strategy, architecture, and a great implementation must combine in order to craft a great experience. I think that for each sprint we worked on the focus of what we were looking to achieve always involved working through that order of operations.

How did Raizlabs perform from a project management standpoint?

Until we constrained our budget, which forced them to change the team, they were not only matching expectations, they were exceeding them. As we leaned out the team and some of the onus passed to us, the dynamics changed, which was an expected outcome.

What did you find most impressive about Raizlabs?

Any great fit is always about the people and less about the company, brand, or track record. Raizlabs had an experienced team with the right skill sets who had worked together before. They had folks who spent time doing thought leadership. It’s great to be exposed to the creative value of an agency that’s working on a lot of different projects that are successful. I don’t think that every agency is taking advantage of or has access to a lot of the great projects and talent to uniquely position themselves like Raizlabs. There’s a difference between not having the capacity to do something and hiring someone versus finding an actual partner who is able to think these things through, understands the market, asks questions, gets engaged, takes ownership, and is accountable for contributing to a really good outcome. The dynamics of building teams like that precludes agencies from being very large, depending on what they’re delivering. I’ve watched Raizlabs grow and continue to offer that value, which I think is extraordinary. They’re not just trying to be on the cutting edge; they’re really trying to be thought leaders and pioneer value—not in a contrived way, but in a way that they know is going to create value. If they feel they can’t add value, they back off and start over, which is what we want.

Are there any areas Raizlabs could improve?

I think agencies across the board should make it easier for customers to see what is happening at any given moment inside the team as opposed to only on a release cycle's cadence. It would be great to have a collaboration tool where I can sit down and see what’s going on at any given time. Raizlabs does not have a lack of transparency, but we didn’t have that ad hoc engagement dynamic, which is just a personal preference of mine. Obviously, there are some tradeoffs of having an internal team, but the inverse is also true. Although discussions were always fun and collaborative, there are ways to do that collaboration without adding overhead to either side. I think that access would’ve helped us accomplish more, faster.