App Engineers + AWS Cloud & Salesforce Partners
Founded by former IBMx employees, our mission is to make a profound impact by improving our client's performance. We're a full-service software consulting firm that brings original ideas from conception to completion. Our key to success is based in our engineering and design teams, fielding some of the most talented young developers and creative staff in the world, with experience and degrees from top technology and management consultant firms. Every project we undertake is staffed by a dedicated, vertically integrated team specialized to meet the unique demands of each endeavor. Ultimately, we are driven by the philosophy that strong technology changes lives in meaningful ways, and it is our goal that each one of our projects advances this cause. We are dedicated to constantly pushing our clients agendas and their success forward, always questioning the limits of what an app can achieve. SM Innovations is a Salesforce.com partner, AWS Consulting Network Partners.
Focus
Portfolio
Nike Addecco PPC Ad Editor xQ Mobile Architecture Examinations AnavisRX Medical Supplies
Migrated to AWS, Developed Web
SM Innovations assisted with the Cloud migration from IBM Softlayer environment to AWS environment. Thereafter, we assisted in the development and eventual launch of the site, which is targeted towards the digital marketing space, namely pay per click ad development for Google Ads.
Persian Social Networking and Dating App
Persian Social Networking and Dating App
Reviews
the project
Web Dev for Outpatient Medical Imaging Provider
"Pull the trigger and go with SM Innovations — they’ll impress you."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the chief technologist and co-founder of Marin PET/CT Imaging. We do outpatient diagnostic medical imaging for nuclear medicine and CT scans.
What challenge were you trying to address with SM Innovations?
We needed a website designed.
What was the scope of their involvement?
When SM Innovations came on board, all we had was a landing page with some basic information. The team came on board and built out the site with the features and functionalities we wanted.
What is the team composition?
I specifically spoke to Nima (Chief Strategist), but I also interacted with three or four people through Slack throughout the course of the project.
How did you come to work with SM Innovations?
Before SM Innovations, we had a brand developer doing our logo and things of that nature. He turned out to not be very knowledgeable in the web design area, so we started looking elsewhere.
I knew Nima personally and was aware of what his company was doing, so we called SM Innovations and asked them what their capabilities were. They explained to us their team, their history, their skills, how they work, and what they could provide for us. We decided to move forward with them.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent about $10,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started discussions in February of 2020, but didn’t start working until April. We wrapped up in December of the same year.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Their quality of service was fantastic. SM Innovations was always on top of things and reaching out to us — they wouldn’t just sit around and wait until we reached out to them. They were very proactive in terms of getting things done and moving everything forward.
How did SM Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?
They finished the project very promptly. They were the ones who were actually pushing us to stay on track.
We mostly keep in touch over the phone, through Slack, or through emails.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their two greatest strengths are punctuality and professionalism. The quality of SM Innovations’ work is extremely high.
Are there any areas they could improve?
There’s nothing that comes to mind.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Pull the trigger and go with SM Innovations — they’ll impress you.
the project
Full App Dev for Architectural Creative Company
“They really took time to understand me and my goals.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CEO of a company that produces educational materials for architects.
What challenge were you trying to address with SM Innovations?
I needed help creating an app.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They worked on our iOS/Andoroid app from start to finish. Pretty much all the features were custom. They used React Native on AWS.
What is the team composition?
We work with three people from their team. These include a CEO, project manager, and a manager.
How did you come to work with SM Innovations?
I found them on UpWork.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent $25,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
I found them in July 2019, and we launched in August 2020. Their work is ongoing with working on advanced features.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They’ve incredibly informative and have taken the time to educate me. I’ve been very happy working with them.
How did SM Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?
We used Slack, Jira, and Google Sheets. The team was great at scheduling and managing deadlines. Whenever I gave them work to do, they completed it super quickly.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They really took the time to understand me and my goals. Nima (Chief Strategist) did a great job of translating my needs for the project.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, nothing comes to mind. I’d suggest them to anyone going forward.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
My advice is to be explicitly clear. They do a good job of translating things, but sometimes it takes time.
the project
Web App Dev & AWS Consulting for SaaS Firm
"Their ability to work quickly and collaboratively with unfamiliar software has been key to the project’s success."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the managing partner of PPC Ad Editor. We’re a SaaS company that helps medium to enterprise-level digital marketing agencies develop PPC campaigns.
What challenge were you trying to address with SM Innovations?
We needed to develop additional key capabilities and move our platform to AWS.
What was the scope of their involvement?
SM Innovations provided 3–4 resources specialized in PHP to design, build, test, QA, deploy new features for our SaaS solution. They worked within our staging and production environment and were heavily involved in each stage of the product lifecycle.
The second part involved AWS-specific services. SM Innovations helped us create an AWS environment to host our software. They configured the environment configuring, made sure the architecture would meet our needs, implemented the designs in AWS, and then migrated our code to the cloud.
What is the team composition?
At the project’s peak, we’ve worked with four people: two junior developers, one senior developer, and a project manager.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent about $50,000–$60,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project started in September 2019 and is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
First, I’d point to SM Innovations’ ability to ramp up. When the senior developer got on board, it took the team very little time to understand our software — a complicated piece of code and rules that they weren’t familiar with. Their onboarding speed was exceptional.
Second, I appreciated their ability to react to problems. In testing, whenever an issue comes up, SM Innovations addresses it in an impressive turnaround time, which has been extremely well-received from our team. Their ability to work quickly and collaboratively with unfamiliar software has been key to the project’s success.
How did SM Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?
SM Innovations runs everything appropriately thanks to their project managers. We started with weekly standups but moved to daily ones during the testing and UAT phases. Their processes are on point, and every meeting is well-structured: the team always understands what they need to get from us in each standup.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their commitment to the timeline has stood out. This project involves a lot of work and heavy lifting, but when we set a date to get a version to beta testers, SM Innovations spent nights and weekends to make sure we hit that date. Their commitment to results is the number one thing I’d point out.
Are there any areas they could improve?
They have smart junior people, but the time SM Innovations gave them to onboard and join us was too short. I’d give those folks a longer runway to get more acquainted with the work; that way, they’ll be much more productive on the job.
Any advice for potential customers?
If you have a well-defined scope, they will run like a machine. If there’s a moving target, state it upfront — that will change the processes that SM Innovations uses.
the project
Create Website for Botanicals Company
“Their team makes it incredibly easy to work with them.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the CEO and founder of a company that manufactures Hawaiian botanicals for physicians.
What challenge were you trying to address with SM Innovations?
We hired another company to build our website and UX originally, but they were unable to deliver in the timeline we had specified, so we reached out to SM Innovations to take over that project.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Their team built two websites for us from scratch. One of those is an e-commerce site with a shopping cart, and the second is a forum for patients and doctors to connect and enhance their education in plant-based wellness. They are also contracting out to an SEO service provider to help us launch the sites as well.
What is the team composition?
The number of people working on our account varies, but at any given time, I would say we have around 4–5 people involved, including a UX project lead, 2–3 people working on the backend, and a team performing SEO and marketing.
How did you come to work with SM Innovations?
I originally found them on UpWork, and then contacted them directly about working with us based on their reputation and past projects.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with them in November 2019 and are continuing to work with them to this day.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
On a day to day basis, their team comes up with even more ideas about how we can accelerate our business than we do. We are incredibly satisfied with the deliverables they’ve provided to us and the contributions they’ve made to the project on every level.
How did SM Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?
Their team makes it incredibly easy to work with them, managing their work fairly independently and keeping us updated on everything that’s going on. They always answer our questions fairly quickly and don’t hesitate to reach out to us for clarification when needed.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The team that they have in-house has an incredibly impressive list of accomplishments in terms of the projects they’ve worked on in the past, and it shows in their work. Everything they’ve created for us so far is fantastic.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, I really don’t think they have any room for improvement.
Internal stakeholders are pleased with SM Innovations’ work, noting their organizational skills and punctuality. The team worked hard to keep the project on track throughout the engagement, demonstrating both their skill and dedication to success.