Sciant

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO of an online travel agency based in Singapore. We are an all-in-one travel platform that enables travelers around the world to travel and discover local destinations.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sciant, and what were your goals?

We had put together a product roadmap that would allow us to scale our operation and growth by connecting with multiple hotel content sources. As a result, we hired this team to develop a customer API service layer that could handle our needs.

Our goal was to have a scalable and stable API service layer that would normalize the various connectivity requirements from different data sources and partners.

How did you select Sciant and what were the deciding factors?

We were introduced to them through a referral and considered them along with multiple other options. The referral was made by a trusted-partner of ours within the same industry. Due to the potential impact and outcome of having the capability of seamless connectivity, we needed to choose a vendor with a credible portfolio as well as relevant industry experience.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The engagement initiated with a kickoff meeting to align the expectation and requirements between both parties, followed by a thorough technical discovery phase. From the initial phase, a detailed project planning document which described the high level design of a system was provided by the vendor.

They completed the project in modules which were broken down in 2-week sprints. After completion of each module, testing on staging was conducted and certification processes required by each module provider were also conducted with the assistance of the vendor.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were 5 people in the team who were hired and assigned to our project. - Technical Lead - 2x Senior Developers - Quality Assurance - Project Manager

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were able to deploy each phase of the project on designated environments from staging-to-production as originally scheduled. Apart from delays caused by a few 3rd parties, the launch of each module and the core service layer was launched on time.

In addition, the vendor had provided industry knowledge and shared use cases which improved our understanding of future change requests which might occur. This was highly beneficial apart from the code base deliverable.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Communication was fluid and transparent. Project management was conducted with immense responsibility and detail oriented. Emails and group messengers such a Slack and Skype were used as communication tools throughout the project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I believe communication was one of the greatest merits working with the vendor. And their ability to deliver solutions in tranches also helped us greatly, especially running a project using an agile method.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

While the quality of work and communication skills were all great, due to their location being based in Central Europe, perhaps having a satellite office (e.g. tech support) in other regions and timezone could also be beneficials for clients located outside the EU.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief revenue officer for a hospitality tech software company. We provide revenue management and CRM technology to hotels.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sciant?

We needed help with third-party CRM integrations.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired them to help us streamline our third-party integrations. They also provide documentation around those integrations and support hands-on projects within Europe and Asia. 

The integrations are with third party technology companies that were used by hotels where we need to bring that data into our enterprise CRM solution. We’d have to build either to the vendors API or they’d write to ours. Sciant would oversee that integration. Typically, we’d write to their API, and Sciant would do that work for us, document it, and pass it over to our own in-connectivity team to certify and bring that data into our company environment.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Stephen (SVP Travel & Hospitality) and one other person. I don’t know how many people there were because they didn’t report to me. I think there were quite a few people.

How did you come to work with Sciant?

There’s a number of executives within our company who have known Stephen for a number of years. His reputation in the marketplace is good. I don’t believe we looked at anybody else. He was recommended to the CEO and the CEO then interviewed Stephen and gave Sciant a contract.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $500,000-$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2018–March 2020.

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

Those integrations went live, and they work. They provided documentation around the integrations they worked on. They provided a full scoping document and also an overview of the interface so that sales knew exactly what each interface supported and didn’t support.

How did Sciant perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was very good. There was a clear direction for the work. We never had any issues as it relates to how they worked with us. We had regular meetings face-to-face and over the phone. They often went to our head office in Florida to provide updates. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge and the process of how they actually did the integrations and documented it is impressive. They’re a professional team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did a very good job. They delivered exactly what was required.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have a lot of expertise. If I was taking them on again or recommending them to someone, keep an open mind and listen to the advice they give. They’re very knowledgeable, incredibly professional, and very discreet. Rely on them to provide advice.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Managing Director who is pretty hands-on regarding development.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sciant, and what were your goals?

We hired Sciant to help us go from a Proof of Concept (POC) to an MVP (and then beyond). The primary areas were backend development and NLP processing. In particular with the POC we realized that commercially available NLP solutions were not sufficient for our use case, thus we needed to build and train a bespoke NLP engine.

How did you select Sciant and what were the deciding factors?

We selected Sciant primarily on the basis of expertise and experience in our two core areas: 1) NLP and 2) Hospitality solution integrations

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We work in 2 week sprints. After successfully moving from POC to MVP we have further engaged Sciant to continue helping us build out the solution. Sciant was pivotal in the development of the core solution. We have primarily leverage AWS (lambda, various DBs etc,) , however we also use multi-cloud approach to leverage some key google solutions like Google Data Studio

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The Sciant part of our team consists of 1) Project Manager / Scrum Master 2) Senior Full Stack Developer 3) NLP Expert In addition, we have called in some additional expertise into projects as needed (Opera integration Expert), (CTO), (Hospitality Integrations specialist).

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Sciant helped us go from less than 5% intent recognition accuracy, to over 96% accuracy.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

The project management is exemplary. We are a little weak in this part, but they helped us up our game significantly.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

For us it is the deep knowledge of hospitality integrations and the deep NLP capabilities that really sets Sciant apart. But probably the thing that I find most impressive is that the Sciant part of the team feels 100% embedded with our team; just that we don't have to worry about payroll etc. We just get a detailed monthly bill.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

With Sciant we as a team we are always improving. Every day, every week, every month. But as an organization, the most important thing Sciant can do is keep it up.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Invata Intralogistics Inc. provides logistics and facility automation services. The Company offers logistics network design and infrastructure, facility automation, software, controls, system integration, and installation services. I am the Senior Manager of Software Development.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sciant, and what were your goals?

Sciant developed a Manifesting service for our automated fulfilment solution.

How did you select Sciant and what were the deciding factors?

Sciant is focused on three verticals, including Transportation & Logistics. For the first step we validated their industry experience. Secondly, we validated their technical aptitude. Finally, we conducted reference checks with their previous customers.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Invata manifesting solution is a WebAPI restful application, that provides access to important packaging and manifesting process endpoints (object manipulation and additional actions).

Storage is primarily using MS SQL as a database and Entity Framework Core as ORM, utilizing DB first approach and scaffold context. Additional set of domain objects (POCO classes) exists and manual mapping between DB objects and POCO objects is implemented.

The architecture of “Invata Manifesting” application is dependent on existing WebApi project (“Invata.WebApi”), existing nuGet packages (managed and supported by Invata team), existing MS SQL database:

• All necessary DB tables should be added to the existing DB instance, but in a separate schema(s). This will make them logically separated from each other, but still easily maintained by Invata infrastructure team.
• All newly introduced WebApi (and supporting) projects had to be easily build and deploy as set of DLLs pasted in special folder under main starting point of the current solution.
• Introduced the concept of multiple, independent of each other carriers with autonomous configuration, setup, data store, but providing similar functionality and behavior for the manifesting system.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The delivery team consisted of a Project manager, two .Net Developers, an Angular Developer and 2 QA engineers with expertise in the Transportation & Logistics vertical.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Sciant worked hard to complete the project on time despite some requirements being in flux. They were completely successful in fulfilling the obligations necessary for this conclusion.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Project management was outstanding. Despite being multiple time zones and continents apart Sciant kept a consistent meeting schedule multiple times per week via multiple channels including Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

One of the most pleasant companies, team, and individuals I have had the pleasure to work with.

Both individually and as a team they worked hard to keep communication at the forefront, never let deadlines slip and simultaneously worked to ensure there was a mutual understanding of requirements and goals.

Always positive and personal. You felt like these people are your friends and care genuinely about your success.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

As with all teams continued improvement in knowledge within the vertical space and following the technical trends.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Business Development and Sales for the Lodging vertical at Avalara

For what projects/services did your company hire Sciant, and what were your goals?

We hired Sciant to build a tool to extract data from Opera into our software platform. They built a custom export from Opera, and a middlewear for the data to be mapped to our platform.

One of the goals was to complete this project, as well as find a business partner that had domain expertise of the hotel and lodging industry.

How did you select Sciant and what were the deciding factors?

Sciant was recommended directly from Oracle. We had an RFP with roughly 10 vendors, and decided on Sciant because of their knowledge of the industry, professionalism, and reputation.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They designed and developed an export from opera. Then they built a web application to:

1. Receive guest invoice data from Opera PMS, convert the Opera Export format to the AvaTax API format, and post data to AvaTax API.
2. Provide a portal for hotels to manage the web application and SFTP credentials of the hotel, and view updated tax detail specific to the location of the hotel Project deliverables included:
   1. Setup of Opera Export and SFTP on the integration application
   2. Authentication of the web application hotel account to the AvaTax API
   3. Ongoing consumption of Opera Exports from the SFTP file system and cleanup of files
   4. Data QA and handling of Opera Export data, and support notifications as needed
   5. Upload of Opera guest invoices to the AvaTax API 6. Download and display of the tax rates from AvaTax API

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

6 SVP, project manager, technical delivery manager, lead industry consultant, developer

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Project has recently been completed. Sciant communicated actively throughout the process, and were able to meet/exceed all of the deliverable dates and expectations.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Sciant has a highly collaborative approach. We had bi-weekly meetings throughout the project process, as well as an ongoing Slack channel for communication. They were involved through the process, and provided guidance and expertise through the project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are industry experts that had a collaborative approach. Throughout our discussions, they shared their input and perspectives which we found invaluable.

Our company is new to the Hotel vertical, and we found their knowledge to be a foundation of a strong partnership.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

They were fantastic

Please describe your company and your position there.

Intellico Solutions is a consulting company, specializing in IT Strategy Definition, IT project management and Business Intelligence.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sciant?

Sciant have extensive experience in the BI area with transportation knowledge

What were your goals for this project?

Create Microsoft Power BI dashboard for major transportation company

How did you select this vendor?

Sciant was the perfect partner with the right level of expertise and experience in the transport and logistics industry to help us deliver a BI project. "We engaged with Sciant to develop complex dashboard in Microsoft Power BI for a major international transportation & logistics company.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was managed using agile methodology with daily calls, involving an international team, to discuss requirements and track progress.

What was the team composition?

Sciant’s team engaged in collecting the business requirements and development of the dashboard, which consolidates data from different sources into reporting model, and builds multiple dashboards and reports in more than 30 variant graphical visualizations. The solution will provide customer-tailored business performance overview and is one of the key components in our customer’s strategy of providing transparency to global customers. Sciant’s team provided deep knowledge of the logistics industry and has intricate technical knowledge of Power BI.

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

Delivered Power BI Dashboard with multiple set of reports on time and within scope, excellent feedback from client

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We performed daily calls with the whole project with different lines of communication

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Deliverables produced and provided on time, within defined scope and budget

Are there any areas for improvement?

None identified

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of finance ERP strategy for a global logistics company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sciant?

The selling and buying rates for freight operations is challenging. We had a business issue with freight rate operations, particularly integration issues for the transfer of rates between applications.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sciant developed a solution using Oracle and a combination of different platforms, including an internal one. They delivered an entire interface between two core applications that we have within our network.

What is the team composition?

There are roughly five people.

How did you come to work with Sciant?

Sciant is reputable in Sofia, Bulgaria. They’re very well known in the market, especially in the logistics area, which is why I decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent $85,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2019, and the work is ongoing.

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

Sciant delivered an end-to-end solution for our industry, which is quite an achievement. The solution had complex development requirements and a very technical design, and they’ve successfully made it from the early stage to testing and implementation. I’m very pleased.

How did Sciant perform from a project management standpoint?

They have strong communication skills. Sciant knows the industry very well, and they understand the business problems we deal with. They have a couple of very strong guys that are PM-certified. They’ve spread discipline throughout our organization. They have us document change requests and requirements so that they can do the best they can on their side. Project management is good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sciant has strong technical expertise and can work in an international environment. They’re a very big company and are present in multiple countries, and they can discuss and translate business requirements from different countries into one global requirement. They’re very knowledgeable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m very happy with the deliverable. I increased the scope of their responsibilities.

Please describe your company and your position there.

iVvy is a cloud based hospitality solution. I am a founder of the business.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sciant?

iVvy engaged Sciant to develop integrations between iVvy and other third party PMS platforms.

What were your goals for this project?

To reduce the red tape in dealing with some of the third party vendors by using an organisation from the industry that understands each of the platforms.

How did you select this vendor?

Through a referral that we had received.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We have an ongoing project for Sciant to develop middleware between iVvy and other third party PMS solutions.

What was the team composition?

The team is made up of a project manager, one or more developers and a QA person.

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

The sciant team has made it possible to engage new customers and meet their needs quicker than we might have.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Shaf has been great at keeping on top of managing each of the stakeholders, and pushing them to keep the projects on track.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their experience in this space is fantastic.