SMITH

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CIO of an international direct sales company. We have offices in 55 globally, and we sell nutritional supplements to a network of distributors.

What challenge were you trying to address with SMITH?

We brought SMITH on to implement SAP (Systems, Applications & Products) Commerce for our US market. We needed them to design the architecture and implement the platform by integrating it with our backend systems.

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the beginning of the project, we indicated that we use an agile methodology, which SMITH agreed to follow. They provided us with the implementation resources and began working on the project. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a designer, two architects, seven developers, a strategist, a training specialist,  a project manager, and three QA staff.

How did you come to work with SMITH?

SMITH was brought to us by SAP. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $2.2 million in the partnership with SMITH.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with SMITH in July 2021 and the project ended in July 2022.

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

They said they would be able to integrate the systems using our agile methodology, but we began seeing challenges and grew dissatisfied with SMITH roughly six months in, which was halfway through the process. 

It was clear that they only work with waterfall methodology, so we reduced their project scope and shifted to utilize their staff augmentation resources so that we could execute the project in our agile methodology. We reduced their involvement in the project and augmented our staff so that we could take over and compensate for their inadequacy.

How did SMITH address the challenges that arose?

They stepped out of the relationship, and we felt like they abandoned us. They essentially divorced us as a partner. They shifted from being a development partner to only providing us with staff augmentation with no customer care. They did not provide any leadership or management, and their engagement significantly decreased on an ongoing basis.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

We had to go out and find contract resources to compensate for SMITH’s deficiencies. We had to onboard and train the contractors so they could learn the technology quickly and help us move the project forward. We were still able to deliver the project on time, but it wasn’t because of SMITH; it was in spite of them.

How was project management handled?

Once challenges arose and we decreased their scope of work, they became disengaged. They assigned us a monthly accounts point of contact, with whom we spent hours working through billing details because the invoices were so obfuscated. Their billing processes were very complex and cumbersome; it was challenging to identify the value or work they were providing us.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

SMITH brought in a few essential resources to the relationship that continued as part of the staff augmentation, which were critical to our success.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Whether SMITH says that they can do agile programming, that is not what they are set up and configured to do. Their expertise is with waterfall methodology, and if you want to engage them for that, they could be a good partner. If your standards and methods are more agile in nature, SMITH is not the partner for you.