SmartLogic

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO of Blood Sweat & Gears. We are a couple of dad's trying to take the over-complicated, difficult, or tedious parts of your everyday lives and make them a bit more innovative and easier. We've made a Wi-Fi enabled ice melt dispenser that treats your sidewalk or driveway while you’re away or inside enjoying your time with your family.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SmartLogic?

The interface of our Wi-Fi enabled devices was done through a private sandbox environment and was extremely basic.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed our own website with a secure login, access to weather data for automated control, and the ability for users to manage/operate their devices remotely.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

SmartLogic was a mentor in our incubator, AccelerateBaltimore, and quickly demonstrated how professional and effective they were.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

SmartLogic provided us with a secure, scalable web interface for our users to manage devices. It also has the ability for autonomous control via weather data triggers.

What was the team composition?

Dan (Director, SmartLogic) and Eric (Developer, SmartLogic) worked with me to build out the software and firmware.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This was a game changer for us. SmartLogic's UI offers us a professional, turnkey solution to grow our user base effectively and efficiently.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We worked as a close-knit team. SmartLogic was in constant communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their professionalism, collaboration, and technical skills went above and beyond our expectations.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Honestly, no. They’re the best partners I've had on the software side.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is Limtek. We're a company that develops learning products.

What is your position?

I'm the owner and principal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic?

We don't have a team internally with the bandwidth to develop the full scope of the product we needed.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with SmartLogic?

We found SmartLogic through your website – Clutch. We contacted them partially because of the amount of information that they provided up front in terms of how the process works. There was much visibility into the team and who we would be working with. This was the first time working with a developer, so that was very helpful for us. We created a short list based on what we found on Clutch. We did some more research mostly from their website or other things we were able to find out about them from other clients.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was in the range of $10,000 to $50,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We've gotten very good feedback. From our perspective, the priorities for this project were met. Not only that, but SmartLogic also helped us prioritize where our main objectives were going to be and help us refine those. Our users have also received the project very well. The feedback that we've gotten points to the fact that SmartLogic understood the clients' problems that we were trying to address.

What distinguishes SmartLogic from other providers?

The transparency that SmartLogic offers in terms of who on their team we were going to work with stands out. You're given a consistent person to work with as a point of contact from the beginning. Their project management team has a strong understanding of what the developers do so that was a very easy transition to go from working with them in the beginning to the developers in the end. Every day, we would have a meeting and it was very organized. There was never dead air on these calls. It was focused and that helped us meet our timeline and stay within our budget.

Is there anything SmartLogic could have improved or done differently?

Not really. I'm very appreciative of SmartLogic's flexibility. I travel a lot, so their ability to meet around my schedule was very accommodating.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're an Internet publishing company. We map crime on the web and generate revenue through ads.

What is your position?

I'm the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic?

Our team needed a provider that could help to deliver applications for our web-based business.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We worked with SmartLogic for quite some time. We've solved a number of issues in terms of infrastructure and products spanning almost eight years. SmartLogic designed an app that ran through a browser for the iPhone. They designed another iPhone app for us about two years ago that is doing well and is well designed in terms of user interface. They've done a lot for us.

How did you come to work with SmartLogic?

We were a young company at the time, and SmartLogic was also a young company and local. It was proximity, and there was a natural fit. We'd worked with a couple of companies prior to them, and I've interviewed many companies since then, but we keep going back to SmartLogic. They're patient with us and have a strong interface design team. I've periodically used other folks, but we end up going back to SmartLogic for the bulk of the work.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We're a small shop, so the budgets have been relatively small, but they're always continuous. We've done multiple $10,000 jobs with SmartLogic during the last eight years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any success stories of your partnership with SmartLogic?

Our partnership with SmartLogic started out super successful. Within the first 45 days, we had a working project that got national attention, and we've been with them ever since. We were one of the first companies in the country to have an app on the iPhone before the iPhone had an App Store. We got a great amount of press from that and each edition.

What distinguishes SmartLogic from other providers?

SmartLogic is responsive. That's critical. They're thoughtful in terms of their work, and they're smart. That all works for us.

Is there anything SmartLogic could have improved or done differently?

This is more of a general criticism of the industry. Everyone has his or her own processes. We like to do things rapidly and without a detailed blueprint, we like to iterate and start working on things. SmartLogic has adapted to our approach. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a company that supports publishers by creating metadata for the books they sell. We do this through a platform called Artifact, which was built for us by SmartLogic.

What is your position?

I'm the chief brand officer, but we're a startup, so basically I do product development and marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SmartLogic?

We had a beta version that a different developer built for us that brought in about 30,000 users in about 12 months. We wanted to update the scalability, performance, and user interface. I'd known about SmartLogic, and I wanted to go with them rather than bring in someone internally.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We're using Ruby for authentication. The platform is mostly JavaScript. We're using PostgreSQL, and we're using Elasticsearch as an analytics and search tool.

How did you come to work with SmartLogic?

This is my second startup and, in the first startup, we hired our own developers, which was great, except when you're doing a big app for a small company, there are many different skill sets that need to be applied, whether it's user interface, scalability, an API [application programming interface] focus, or even platform decision making. What we did is we bet on SmartLogic because, even though we might have only been working with one or two developers at any given time, they would swap us out with the experts there in those different areas, which was tremendous. Our main office is in Baltimore.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

This project was $200,000-plus.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We did a migration from our beta, which was flawless. I had never seen a migration go flawlessly. That's SmartLogic there. Our scalability has increased by a multiple of 100. We went from being able to handle about 500,000 books to about 16 million, and with tons of room to grow. What's been nice about the updates that SmartLogic has made is that we now are able to deliver our platform to a kindergarten through 12th-grade classroom, with the speed and thoughtfulness of design that was necessary for students who may not be terribly sophisticated with computers.

What distinguishes SmartLogic from other providers?

I love the SmartLogic team. We meet for about 15 minutes a day for a standup. We work out of Pivotal, so I'm constantly tracking stories, rearranging those to my business priorities, and asking lots of questions and getting lots of feedback, so that's been a breeze. About once a week, we have a larger standup, which lasts for close to 45 minutes. It seems little, but those are the project steps that really make this a great relationship for us.

Is there anything SmartLogic could have improved or done differently?

Actually, no. It's been positive.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Director of Strategic Partnerships of a healthcare company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide a variety of services for the city, including a  city-wide resource database website.   

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire SmartLogic to accomplish?

• Rebuild the backend of Charmcare
• Build analytics for Charmcare
• Build new user features for Charmcare

SOLUTION

How did you find SmartLogic?

legacy contract

Why did you select SmartLogic over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned
• familiar with product

How many teammates from SmartLogic were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Build user features, analytics, and backend functions to align with city-wide user needs. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

So far we have develop some design sessions, completed an accessibility assessment, and completed a back end refresh. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

yes, they were very responsive. 

What was your primary form of communication with SmartLogic?

Virtual Meeting

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

values alignment, responsiveness, undertanding of our product and our context.  Willingness to be flexbile.  

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

nothing striking is coming to mind.   They have been a good partner.