Smart Thinking

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We’re a consulting company and I'm responsible for strategic accounts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smart Thinking?

We needed a new, easy-to-use mobile app for tracking billable hours and expenses that could seamlessly sync with our current enterprise resource planning system.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We went through a selection process and contacted a number of vendors online. We also ran a couple of reference calls and were very impressed by their recommendations.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected Smart Thinking, they were very good at understanding our needs and worked with us in a very creative manner to design a solution. We followed their methodology, which included discovery, design, prototyping, development, and launch.

What was the team composition?

They assigned a project manager and two analysts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All our field consultants are using the new app, providing us with an automatic process to capture data. Before the app, we could only capture about 70% of the information manually.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were great to work with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to understand our needs and propose very innovative solutions was great.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No. This project was executed very well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Pug Pharm Productions is a gamification platform. We also deliver customer apps on for the B2B market which implement those gamification designs and services. We’re primarily a technology company delivering services and solutions. I’m the COO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Smart Thinking?

We have worked on a few projects with them. The key challenge we had was to get additional capacity for delivering customer projects. We’re located in Vancouver, Canada, which is a very competitive tech market in terms of staff. This made it particularly hard for us to find on-demand capacity for our projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially worked on customization projects, taking our existing templates and reskinning them for particular clients. Subsequent to that, we’ve engaged with Smart Thinking on a longer-term, larger customer project done from scratch. We have a staff augmentation collaboration but also rely on them for a range of skills. The implementation technologies include HTML, AngularJS, Node.js, MongoDB, PostgreSQL and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

What is the team composition?

We use 11 developers from their team.

How did you come to work with Smart Thinking?

I met their principal years ago when he was doing outreach. We worked on a small project at that time, and, when it came to looking for a provider once more, the established relationship was a factor. Smart Thinking is in a close time zone to ours and they’re cost-competitive, but the cultural workstyle and communication skills offered by this Mexican company made them stand out.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first project in the current round started in April 2017. We’ve been working with Smart Thinking on an ongoing basis since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They effectively integrated into our team. We’re on track to deliver based on the original forecast. These are good metrics even though it’s not a finished project. Their output is comparable to what I would expect from an internal team.

How did Smart Thinking perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage the projects collaboratively. Smart Thinking has in-country project management, and we handle the data communication on our side. Their language skills are good, and they use the same tools as us. We have an internal system along with Trello and other project management tools, depending on the reporting requirements of the customer.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate their flexibility and the range of services they can provide. Smart Thinking offers specialty services and we’ve worked with them on a broad range of technical problems. When we bring a challenge or capacity gap to them, they’re either able to fill it quickly using their internal team or provide recommendations as to who else we can use to fill it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We make internal suggestions and work to improve the collaboration as we would with an internal team. We’ve only had normal operating concerns.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

For this project, I was the director of new products at an advertising and marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smart Thinking?

One of our clients needed to increase their product sales, so we proposed a basic solution with a loyalty program included.

What were your goals for this project?

Our client wanted customers to register the products that they bought and accumulate points which could then be exchanged for recipes.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We did a lot of research on several providers and found Smart Thinking to be highly professional.

Describe the project in detail.

The project lasted about six months. We had several meetings where their team helped to clarify the project goals and design the best solution. They always suggested the best choices during the development phase and would implement changes and suggestions during the evaluation and testing phase.

What was the team composition?

We interfaced with the project manager, the programmers, and the database designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app was launched successfully and our client was satisfied with its performance and results.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication with them was open and clear.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their openness and support were phenomenal.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the sales director of Dedicated Press, a company with over 25 years of experience in the editorial industry and nine years of experience in developing digital tools and content. We have joint projects with the most important publishers and news agencies, as well as business relations with clients all over the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Smart Thinking?

We needed to automate certain business processes.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to save time and reduce costs in our production processes.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We randomly picked them but they’ve exceeded our expectations, fortunately.

Describe the project in detail.

We gave them guidelines based on our needs and closely followed up during the process.

What was the team composition?

Three people were involved from their side during the whole project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

The result was immediate; we reduced the time in our production process by 30%.

How effective was the project management?

We are working on a new project with them and that's the best way to explain how effective their project management was.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their CEO is definitely committed to their customers.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

I don’t have much to say.