Soluntech

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

New Capital Management is a financial advisory firm in Houston, Texas. I am the Director of Marketing and Communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Soluntech?

We are developing software to store data so that it is easily accessible for our staff and our clients. We are also building in automation for internal processes. This project requires mid- and high-level technical skills and customization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Soluntech is helping us develop our software app on the Knack platform with both high-level native and non-native (Javascript, programming) components. We have new projects and new ideas on a regular, if not daily, basis. The Soluntech team helps us apply those changes to our software.

Currently, we’re building in a lot of automation for in-coming and out-going emails, processes, and calculations.

What is the team composition? 

We regularly work with four Soluntech team members on a regular basis. Our main points of contact are Walter (Project Manager) and Carlo (Backend Developer). On occasion, as needed, they will bring in specialists for design, or specific technical tasks.

How did you come to work with Soluntech?

I was introduced to the project after the relationship with Soluntech had already begun. So I am not clear on the sourcing or interview process.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we have invested around $17,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with them back in February 2019, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The evidence is in our daily use of the software. There is still work to be done, but almost all of our processes (task management, data storage, scheduling, onboarding, communications, everything) is now being done IN our software that Soluntech has helped us build. 

In March 2021, we will be launching our client-facing side of the software to a handful of clients for beta-testing before rolling it out to our entire client base.

How did Soluntech perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re very pleased with their responsiveness. Each week, I meet with them to push projects forward and get updates. Outside of that, their team is completely available any time I need help.

Additionally, the communication is great. We have a channel where we can send one-off questions or responses. Then, there’s a Trello board where we manage tasks. The board lets us provide and receive updates, and it acts as a QA program. On their side, they also use Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team I work with is very knowledgeable and highly skilled, and they are also backed by a team with different skills. If they don’t know something, someone else on the team will have the expertise, and they’ll make that person available to us as needed.

I’ll also add that the team is very patient! My knowledge and ability in building the database and native settings is developing. Soluntech has been very supportive in helping me solve problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been times when they’ve been understaffed or very busy, which I feel is unavoidable since they are a smaller company. During those times, they’ve done a great job communicating and providing expectations of when work will get done.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Consistent meetings help keep our project tasks moving forward. I’ll notice that, even if they are busy with other work, the team will get to our work before our next call so that they have an update.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Dynamic delivers IT management services (IT management for hire), project management and IS advisory services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SOLUNTECH?

Develop a coherent solution for some of our IT Management tools that we need/use.

What were your goals for this project?

Make a single solution that can be used by all of our clients with a good enough user interface

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Direct contact after Knackcon 19

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Provided documentation in form of user stories, system description, prototype, screenshots etc.

What was the team composition?

2 from our side, various people on Soluntech side, mostly one PM and one programmer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Not yet completed

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Weekly meetings, recording using Zoom used for reference/lookup in the coming week by programmer. Slack for discussion/files. Has been rather effective, but hard to track (on our end) what parts are delivered and not (we would normally use Teamwork Projects on our end to structure that part).

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have a quick turnaround, good developer resources, and their eyes on the ball.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Could benefit from having a bit more structure to the ongoing tasks, track user stories or development tasks e.g. using kanban board in a suitable app (Teamwork Projects, Jira, Asana...), just to have a better overview of outstanding and delivered tasks.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We import Alcoholic Beverages from around the world. I am a partner in charge of operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SOLUNTECH?

To build online Product Database with very specific customization for our industry and our own needs.

What were your goals for this project?

Cost effective. User friendly. Flexibility to evolve platform as we moved along.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Preferred vendor by Knack on the Knack website. Also research 6 companies and interviewed several potentials before deciding on Soluntech.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

I have worked with them to develop our Product Database. I did the initial design myself of the basic database using the Knack Platform. After defining the basic platform I realized I needed the expertise that Soluntech could provide... especially 1) In depth understanding of the capabilities of Knack and 2) the ability to Code for advanced features and functions.

What was the team composition?

Soluntech provides a Project manager and then uses different programmers depending on the task required. I have one main programmer assigned to me.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our platform is used with public, industry and customers. The feedback is that there is nothing in our industry like it. We are now using it to form the backbone of our sales efforts. Our internal team loves it. Using myself, Knack and Soluntech I believe we have developed an industry leading platform for 25% of what it might have cost with more traditional solutions.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used their Slack platform and they are very very responsive. We have used google sheets as well to manage more detailed to do lists. My programmer is always in the meetings so he interacts with me directly and that for me is #1 critical and has made a huge difference in advancing development.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The people. They are friendly, work hard at listening to the requirements, understanding my industry and then providing options and solutions. Frankly as recently as this week I commented to my programmer that his work on a very complex feature was nothing short of STUNNING. And he developed it quickly with far less input from me than I would have initially expected. It's brilliant! I had expected it to take weeks to evolve properly and it literally was 1.5 weeks including going back and forth. It seems these guys love to solve any challenge I give them and have yet to fail to find a solution for every request.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't find Slack to be a good overall project management platform... thou I love it for instant communications on specific issues, but it has not stopped us from achieving our goals.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a real estate brokerage, I work with the CEO on internal special projects

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SOLUNTECH?

Coding development

What were your goals for this project?

Code features that are not currently available via the platform we are using

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Reviews from Knack

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They coded custom APIs, worked with those external vendors in detail to get the APIs up and running. They also customized search functions with in the product as well as custom visualized charts.

What was the team composition?

We have a great project manager and two coders, with additional resources as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It has allowed us to implement a system that greatly reduces the amount of human labor needed in manual updates.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I always have a main contact of my project manager, with occasional direct interaction with one of the coders, usually a quick conversation clarifying a functional detail. Communication is via Slack with Google Hangout meetings as needed for further explanation and screen sharing for clarification. When this is needed, the team is always able to schedule a meeting within 24 business hours, and often the same day. The coders are always very realistic with timelines for product features to be developed and tested, and furthermore always tested all coding before implementing it. I have never experienced a language barrier, and we are in the same time zone, but I know that if I were not, time changes would be accommodated, as my project manager always clarified what time zone we were scheduled in. For example, when sending a meeting confirmation he would Say along the lines for "Confirming meeting for tomorrow at 3pm CST"

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're always suggesting better ways to achieve an end result, even if it means less billable hours for them. Quick efficient communication, often times they were waiting on me for a response, and never the other way around.

Are there any areas for improvement?

nope

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Company is proposing a smart and easy to use Web platform for building's operation. I am responsible for the Product dev.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SOLUNTECH?

We hire Soluntech to make complex UI design for our Stackin Plan Web Page

What were your goals for this project?

We had to create an online Plan on the fly, taking data from our Knack Database.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We hired them based on their similar project Experiences with Knack.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Javascript / CSS on the user side was the proposed solution. They supervised every design detail from A to Z and made the complete solution embeded into our app.

What was the team composition?

A project leader and 2 developpers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As of today, we are receiving great feedback from our customers. This module is a game changer and make our solution a MUST in the building management market.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Very effective, weekly meeting and peer reviews.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their capacity to listen and understand our needs was great.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Be more responsive . In some case we had to try a couple of times to reach the programers. But we understand their busy schedule.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Head of Security. Our SaaS platform, HS3, enables physical security agencies to fulfill their client’s service requests more effectively and efficiently. HS3 also enables agencies to source security talent directly from Head of Security’s pool of security agents in the HS3 Agent Database.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SOLUNTECH?

I built the first version of HS3 in an online database called Knack in order to reduce and streamline our manual processes. After 2+ years of using the Knack app I built and growing our business with that version it was time to automate and upgrade our business model in order to be more hands off. So, I submitted a project request to Knack. Soluntech was in their list of certified Knack builders, so they reached out with a proposal to upgrade our current Knack app and implement the business logic, which is the project they are working on today.

What were your goals for this project?

Take the Knack app I built and upgrade it with: - Beautiful UI/UX - Business logic - JavaScript and other programming languages - E-commerce to incorporate our new subscription options and transaction model And many other upgrades.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I chose Soluntech because they specialize in Knack, but also have a great track record of success and a team dedicated to producing excellent results.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

- Interface improvements with UI design - Automation where needed with JavaScript those places where there's manual intervention needed. - Integrate with Stripe Connect API - Integrate with Upwire API - New features on existing user roles

What was the team composition?

We have a dedicated project manager (Fernando), lead developer and a designer assigned to our project with additional developers and designer if needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Knack app I built essentially looked just like an upgraded version of an Excel spreadsheet. What Soluntech is doing is making that Excel spreadsheet not just look prettier, but they are giving much more functionality and business logic, which will enable huge amounts of growth for us.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We met with Alejandro, the owner of Soluntech, who was great. He then paired us up with Fernando who is also great. Fernando has been leading the charge behind this project to make sure we are all on the same and expectations are set.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Quite frankly, their talent and pricing is very competitive. They are very responsive, very knowledgeable and transparent about things they may not be as familiar with, but they find an answer. I really appreciate that kind of partnership.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No not really. I thought there may be a bit of language barrier, but that has not been an issue whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there

I am the chief technology officer for an education standards analytics company, founded by my wife who is a teacher and was awarded teacher of the year in Illinois. She came up with a great idea of a tool for teachers to be able to track education standards, and the like.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Soluntech?

I've been the director of education for a software company for 13 years and working in the IT industry for 35+. My challenge was converting from a cloud company that was helping us in the beginning with the development of our software. While developing the software, they made a horrible architectural mistake and wanted to charge us money to fix that mistake. I had to challenge this and I had to go to Plan B quickly, and have the development expedited.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Soluntech came in and did an amazing job and helped us pick-up the ball. We got to be in control of our application, had meetings, they had good customer support and the willingness to help quickly. I felt connected to them and the project at all times and we didn’t feel like just a number. I know when somebody’s going through the motions and I felt like they never went through the motions.

On a high-level overview, teachers are required in many states to track how their students are doing in education standards. We created a cool architecture where teachers can put in assignments, track students’ grade levels standards and more.

They used HTML, Javascript. They were very creative in helping with the design. It's an online application where teachers can sign-in and have access to a neat dashboard that helps them always know where students are at with every subject and the educational standards. We also created an interface where parents can sign in and see their child's progress as well.

What is the team dynamic?

They assigned around three to five developers from Soluntech to work on this project.

How did you come to work with Soluntech?

The company that we used before really came across as assertive. They were good at first glance and they seemed like a really good company. I've been in the IT industry for many years and I'm all about affirmation and doing the right thing. But if you also blow it, I think it's important for you to know it, to learn and to get that feedback too.

That company told us they can do all this and when something happened at the end, they said they would fix it but also wanted to charge us a crazy amount of money. It speaks volumes to me that this company made a mistake and didn't have the integrity to fix it, and then charge us a lot of money. I just thought that was the wrong answer to the question.

When I had to go to Plan B, I found another cloud company. They had a professional services type of network where you could actually bid your job and that's what I did. They called up and I did interviews with a few folks. I felt from the start that I could trust Soluntech to make a really amazing job and help with the development of the application for my wife's vision.

How much have you invested with Soluntech?

I think was just under $10K.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in March 2017 and it's an ongoing collaboration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Teachers do not do need more difficult things. They have enough to do and they need easy processes because they're busy enough. I've done some proof-of-concept demos with principals, assistant principals, and a few teachers and they were blown away by the quality of the application and how easy it was to use. We are at this stage where we're giving it to teachers so they can give us the feedback and ask for enhancements to see how it works in the trenches and we're about to launch. At first glance, the teachers and management work was just amazing.

How did Soluntech perform from a project management standpoint?

I'll give you a real life example. They had a really good infrastructure in place where I knew exactly what they were doing in the very worst case.

I actually went down to Colombia just recently in business for another company which was really great for the collaboration. I met with the president of the company and we’ve talked before on the phone, email, did a web meeting and it was an overall great collaboration. I mean, he had better English than some of my friends.

I was a little skeptical at first when I learned they were in Colombia. But as an IT person, we're all connected and thought this is going to be just fine and after talking with them for a week or so to get a feel of what the partnership was going to be like.  

What did you find most impressive about Soluntech?

I want to emphasize that we had such a good partnership. It was one of the best things that we could have done for our vision and our company. As I said, as a teacher of the year, my wife was so impressed with their professionalism.

Are there any areas Soluntech could improve?

There was nothing critical that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

RED Strategy Group offers strategy consulting for a variety of clients from all over the world, ranging in size from 10 million to 2 and a half billion dollars in annual revenue. We have fewer than 10 employees and are based in Seattle, Washington.

I am the CEO [Chief Executive Officer] of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLUNTECH?

Aside from strategy development, one of our value propositions is an online system for tracking execution against strategy. Our existing SharePoint platform had been developed some time ago by a third party. We were unhappy with its performance and look-and-feel and hired another vendor for a major rewrite. After working together for more than 6 months, we came to the conclusion that the project was going to be a failure. We looked for another vendor and found SOLUNTECH.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SOLUNTECH was hired as a broad band-aid, in order to take a look at our existing system and evaluate potential technology replacements. SOLUNTECH concluded that, at least for the first few releases of the platform, NAC would be a good foundational technology. SOLUNTECH also took into consideration what should be done to our system in order to make it more powerful, compelling, and easy to use. SOLUNTECH was also in charge of the technical work which came with launching, maintaining, and updating the platform.

We worked with 3-4 resources from SOLUNTECH, based on our timesheets. Our client contact was directly through their CEO.

How did you come to work with SOLUNTECH?

I used to be a programmer a long time ago; although I didn't program on cards, I didn't miss it by much. Since that time, I've done other work and have been the CEO of 5 different technology companies. As such, I could make an evaluation of potential solutions and look at both proprietary and open-source implementations of SQL databases. I concluded that NAC was at least a possibility.

I contacted 3-4 companies from the NAC site, and SOLUNTECH was the most responsive. I had several phone conversations with their CEO and concluded that he was the right person for the job. We decided to move forward and evaluate our work along the way.

How much have you invested with SOLUNTECH?

The total cost of our project with SOLUNTECH is expected to range between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SOLUNTECH 6 months ago. The total duration will be at least 2 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

SOLUNTECH is 3 times as far along as our prior vendors, at a third of the price. SOLUNTECH has been spectacular in terms of efficiency and economy, accomplishing far more than our previous company.

How did SOLUNTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

SOLUNTECH's estimates on timelines were always tight, and they've met or exceeded all of them. SOLUNTECH runs a very transparent project management system, notifying us about any requests entered in when the work was started for them, and when it completed. At any given time, without picking up the phone or sending an email, I will know where we stand on the project.

What did you find most impressive about SOLUNTECH?

The quality of our product has been outstanding, but SOLUNTECH especially stood out in terms of responsiveness. I've never experienced anything quite like it, throughout my collaboration with tens of vendors over the years. Most often, we have instantaneous communication over Skype, and the speed of resolution of both problems and additional feature requests has been excellent.

Are there any areas SOLUNTECH could improve?

I have nothing to say.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with SOLUNTECH?

I advise other clients not to take up all of SOLUNTECH's time. We want to use them more.

Through my experience as the CEO of a number of companies, I've been careful in establishing tight definitions of what was being built in my collaborations with other vendors. I was a little uncomfortable with SOLUNTECH's approach of building the product through iterations, in an agile way, but I encourage other clients to be open to this method. It's highly efficient and has been a factor in keeping our cost down and improving speed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Divorce the Smart Way is a divorce mediation organization. I am the owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLUNTECH?

We've used SOLUNTECH for a number of projects, with an underlying theme of moving our basic paperwork processing within the separation and divorce market into the online world and reducing costs.

We had developed an application in-house using NAC, but realized that we had taken it as far as it could be taken and that we needed some professional help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We decided to stick with the NAC technology, which is a rapid database tool that can integrate with a document merging app called WebMerge. We also use Zoho as a backend CRM.

How did you come to work with SOLUNTECH?

We'd worked with other developers, but I wanted to find someone with NAC experience. We looked at offshore companies but liked SOLUNTECH because they were in the same time zone as us and had perfect language skills, a good work ethic, and were very professional. Often, when working with a developer, they will want to get to coding as fast as possible. I asked SOLUNTECH to first make a wireframe design for the frontend, and back-fill it from there. SOLUNTECH was very responsive and had a professional approach to our project.

How much have you invested with SOLUNTECH?

The total cost of our project was under $10,000. We had a bootstrapped approach, as part of an initiative from a university in Toronto for modernizing the way in which divorce is done and lowering costs.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SOLUNTECH at the end of October 2015. They have completed the portions that we assigned to them, and it was our responsibility to further refine and test the work. We could be further along, but time and resources on our end are limited.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It's too early to have any metrics yet. In terms of quality, what mattered to me was being able to provide a description of a job, make wireframes, and have a product delivered. SOLUNTECH was able to do this.

How did SOLUNTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

Given that SOLUNTECH has been constantly holding our feet to the fire, I think that they performed well.

What did you find most impressive about SOLUNTECH?

I've worked as an IT project manager before coming to this company, and I love SOLUNTECH. There were only a few things which we needed to clarify or change, versus other organizations I've used, where there were daily or hourly questions which we had already clearly answered in the requirements document. After investing time and money into building specifications and wireframes, I don't want to hear additional questions. We can review the documentation, but after that, I expect the work to get done. The work has been delivered 90% by SOLUNTECH, as per the requirements.

Are there any areas SOLUNTECH could improve?

I work in a field which gives me insight into how people interact. I'm a mediator, dealing with the human element, and I've found that they are less prone to pressing clients and asking difficult questions. They're very polite and don't want to ascend, but sometimes there's a need to ask the question that's on your mind and be direct.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with SOLUNTECH?

Clients should spend time at the requirements stage, ask questions, and have the developer express their view on the work. This isn't cake mix, where someone can add water, stir the ingredients, and stick it into the easy-bake oven. There is time which needs to be invested upfront.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We operate in the real estate realm, providing title insurance. I am the Senior Systems Administrator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SOLUNTECH?

We were doing some work with the NAC technology, trying to develop a platform where clients could search for some of our agents.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We engaged SOLUNTECH for some JavaScript coding within our platform, bringing fields over into other forms, downloading certificates, and other tasks which went beyond our scope. We started out with some basic features and added in geographical functionalities, search and download logging, extended search fields, and so on. We've made numerous tweaks over the course of a couple of months. Everything done by SOLUNTECH was within the NAC platform, using JavaScript. There were 1-2 developers working on our project.

How did you come to work with SOLUNTECH?

SOLUNTECH is listed as an NAC-authorized developer and provided one of the 4-5 quotes we received after making a post on the NAC website.

How much have you invested with SOLUNTECH?

The total cost of our project with SOLUNTECH was under $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SOLUNTECH in May 2016. Our work was completed in August, but we have engaged SOLUNTECH for little additions since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Most of the feedback we've gotten has been good, but as with any project, there were a few items which needed changing. SOLUNTECH has been quick to work with us, and there haven't been many complaints. Any change came after we decided that we needed something different.

Our site is being used by a few dozens of people currently, and it will eventually have thousands of users. It's being used in a production environment, but is still in the testing phase.

How did SOLUNTECH perform from a project management standpoint?

SOLUNTECH had a pretty good process in place, and sent us emails whenever there were changes in the project, or when the work was completed.

What did you find most impressive about SOLUNTECH?

I was pleasantly surprised by the level of communication, given that SOLUNTECH is overseas. There were a few back-and-forth emails in the beginning, but we ended up handling most of the communication through Skype. Whenever we needed something, we could have a quick 5-minute chat. SOLUNTECH’s turnaround time was also good; if I requested a change, it was usually done by the next day, with 10 hours of coding. We never waited more than 48 hours for anything.

Are there any areas SOLUNTECH could improve?

There may have been 1-2 times when a solution was worked on, even though the capability was already built into the system, but there wasn't anything major.