TechGuilds

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing manager for the YMCA. We’re a nonprofit providing several services to our communities, including health and fitness centers, over 250 childcare centers, and free employment services in partnership with the government. In my role, I oversee our entire portfolio of online advertising, email marketing, and marking automation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TechGuilds Consulting Inc.?

Over the last two years, we hired several agencies to build a website using Sitecore, which would allow for greater marketing automation while providing an in-depth look at our customers. We initially worked with a vendor that didn’t have enough experience with Sitecore development. They built a series of HTML pages without utilizing the software’s full capabilities. As a result, we approached TechGuilds Consulting Inc. to help us take advantage of Sitecore’s more advanced features.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve shared our technology stack with them, and they’ve suggested best practices to move forward with our site. In addition to creating microsites and landing pages to promote our product/service launches, they’ve moved the entire architecture of our Sitecore site to a Helix structure. In terms of UX design, they’ve outsourced the work to another agency and acted a liaison between us.

Currently, they’re creating numerous custom modules to further personalize the site and access new Sitecore features. They deploy their developments on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for us to test. Soon, we’ll be able to improve our visitors’ experience while also tracking and engaging them at the optimal times.

What is the team composition?

The team consists of about seven people, including a project manager and developers.

How did you come to work with TechGuilds Consulting Inc.?

As a nonprofit, we typically send out RFPs to multiple agencies and award the project to the best vendor. Out of all the options, TechGuilds Consulting Inc. had the most thorough and comprehensive proposal, and we were impressed by their professionalism.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work started in April 2018 and is ongoing. What began as one project led to another, and now we’re considering several future engagements with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re still testing most of the features that they’re working on, so we don’t have any hard metrics yet. However, they always deliver after every development sprint and consistently ask for feedback to improve their systems. We appreciate how honest they are, and they check in with us to make sure we’re happy with our service.

How did TechGuilds Consulting Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They handle all of the project management, using an agile Scrum model to track progress. Every day, we have 15-minute stand-ups and use Jira to communicate. This allows us to better manage our projects and stay up to date.

Because they develop in sprints, it’s easy to see how far we’ve come. If we ever want to make changes to the technology stack mid-way, they’re flexible enough to accommodate our needs. We’re more in control of our development and feel confident about future projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve traditionally outsourced our development to various agencies but have never found a potential long-term option until now. TechGuilds Consulting Inc. isn’t just a vendor, they’re our partners. I appreciate the level of open communication between us; not only do they go over the logistics of the project, they’re willing to learn about our business and what drives us. Understanding the full picture motivates them to go the extra mile.

Furthermore, they’re willing to work harder than any other business out there. When we first started the collaboration, we’d allocated about 500 hours of work. They’ve since surpassed that by almost twofold and have decided to donate those hours to the organization. This is in addition to the discounts they gave us for being a nonprofit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. Everything has gone overwhelmingly well so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re considering them as a vendor, discuss the project scope and listen to their feedback. They’re willing to look at your technology and give an honest perspective, especially if the tech isn’t useful in the long run. For us, we didn’t know where we wanted to go with our technology, so they gave us hard deadlines and performed demos to help us decide on how we wanted to proceed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an account manager for an IT services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TechGuilds Consulting Inc.?

We needed help with CRM development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided development and ongoing support for our customer’s SharePoint CRM and Sitecore environments. When the customer needs customization of the applications, TechGuilds Consulting worked through the business cases and developed prototypes to address customer needs for customization of the applications. When the customer signed off, they rolled it out with different test stages for user acceptance.

Once it was fully deployed, they transitioned to support for calls from users. If a request was something that would change the environment, they brought it forward to go through an approval process to incorporate it. They developed the process, redeveloped, made modifications, and redeployed.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three to four people.

How did you come to work with TechGuilds Consulting Inc.?

Our customer had an existing agreement with TechGuilds. We inherited the relationship when we took over the services.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $200,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January 2015 until March 2018. The services with that customer ended for us and they now work with TechGuilds Consulting directly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The customer was satisfied. They met the customer’s timelines and there wasn’t a lot of back and forth with changes or modifications.

How did TechGuilds Consulting Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly touchpoints via conference call. In some cases, they came on site. I dealt a lot with the project manager and the co-founders. The developers were sometimes on the calls as well.

They always assigned a project manager to provide updates and weekly reports. They had a good grasp of project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There’s consistency in their staff. Over time you can develop relationships and be clear about expectations. I had direct access to the co-founders, which was helpful. If there was any decision to be made, it’s a quick process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They were good at identifying opportunities, documenting them, and providing a business case for it. They were in tune with the customer’s needs but not afraid to point out things that contradicted the customer’s view.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Social Thinking helps kids when they’re young and through adulthood that have social and emotional issues. Our company has been around for 20 years. I am the chief digital officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TechGuilds?

The chief executive officer of my company was a speech language pathologist who focused on helping clients and developing books, tools, and products for other speech-language pathologists, teachers, and special ed teachers. She didn’t have a good technology platform to get the word out about her products. I came on board to help build those digital channels to be more effective. She wanted to revamp the entire website within a year.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was an integration between Active Commerce and Microsoft Dynamics. They provided Sitecore and Coveo Enterprise Search expertise as well.

How did you come to work with TechGuilds?

The chief technology officer of Active Commerce, [Nick Wesselman], recommended TechGuilds based on what we were looking for.

How much have you invested with TechGuilds?

The cost of the project was over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August of 2014 and the project was completed May of 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Based on the success of the integration, we decided to give them more work. As scope changed, they were there to help. So I think the expanded responsibilities speaks to the success of the project.

How did TechGuilds perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication was all remote since they’re located in Canada and we’re in San Jose, California. We had weekly calls. Nabil [Orfali] is a great project manager and was always available by Skype. Dennis [Augustine] is fantastic as well. They were a true partner and they’re extremely responsive. When we launched, they were debugging just like our engineering team. We used JIRA to manage the project.

What did you find most impressive about TechGuilds?

Dennis, their CTO, is a very smart person and a real pleasure to work with. When we were stressed, he led us through the issues and came up with solutions.

When our internal team had issues, which sometimes had nothing to do with the features they were working on, our engineering team could reach out to TechGuilds and ask questions. We always ended up finding solutions in a timely manner.

Are there any areas TechGuilds could improve?

It would have been great if they could’ve offered a fixed price. We might have been able to use them longer if they had that option.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a national organization in Canada representing around 130,000 nurses across the country. We perform advocacy work, as well as provide nurses with tools to assist them in their jobs. I am the director of corporate project management and information technology for the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TechGuilds?

We needed to develop a web-based solution for our whole group. It was a huge mandate featuring a large amount of work to do in a short period of time. The scope was well outside our wheelhouse so it was decided that we'd need to find a partner. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

TechGuilds worked on our web platform. TechGuilds came after the fact, building upon existing functionalities and creating new ones from scratch. The integrations included Microsoft Dynamics 2013, Sitecore Email Experience Manager, a uCommerce solution, and a custom payment gateway. It had many moving parts and we licensed these solutions ourselves. The integrations handled by TechGuilds included uCommerce and its email campaign manager. We plan to deploy analytics monitoring and reporting for it in the future, but we have a slew of different priorities before that. The size of our team changed over time. I estimate that TechGuilds assigned 6 developers earlier in the year, but we're now working with 3–6.

How did you come to work with TechGuilds?

We were working with another firm that had some issues with delivering what was promised. That company found and partnered up with TechGuilds, allowing them to take over the delivery of what we needed. TechGuilds was committed and impressive in jumping out to the table, despite not having had a previous relationship with us.

How much have you invested with TechGuilds?

Initially, we were paying TechGuilds through our previous partner, so I can't provide exact figures.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with TechGuilds in December 2015. Since our previous developer is no longer working on the project, we collaborate directly with TechGuilds. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our main project was launched in April 2016, but we discovered a significant bug in it and needed to take it down. About 1–2% of sign-ons were given crossed-over data. The issue was somewhere between Sitecore and our Microsoft CRM. We contacted both parties, but no one could figure it out. I don't hold this against TechGuilds since the work spanned more than one vendor in its history. We've needed to come up with a new solution quickly and put aside much of the work done by TechGuilds. They're still working on our single sign-on functionality. In 2017, we plan to build upon the work done in the first and second parts, coming up with a third iteration. Even after we encountered that issue, TechGuilds performed well, so I'm not looking to change vendors. Had TechGuilds not stepped in, we wouldn't have had anything ready in time. I found that they had some strong, knowledgeable team members who weren't shy to step up to the plate and do what was required.

How did TechGuilds perform from a project management standpoint?

We usually go over budget, but not by a significant amount. We're trying to work on communication, given that TechGuilds is based in Ottawa and we're in Toronto. We use Jira for daily communication, ticketing, as well as story and task tracking. TechGuilds has started sending us weekly updates on our account status, which is something I quite enjoy. We use Join.Me for online collaborations. It allows us to share desktop, view demos, and work together on tickets. We also have 15-minute daily standup calls in order to touch base on our status. Also, depending on who's on-call, we have hands-on contact with people. Demos are presented to us before finalizing any bug tracking and deploying.

What did you find most impressive about TechGuilds?

TechGuilds' team consider themselves a partner to us. When we were up at crazy hours, they were doing the same. On several occasions, we kept a bridge open until 3–4 AM and worked on things together.

Are there any areas TechGuilds could improve?

On a couple of occasions, I experienced unusual requests. TechGuilds wanted me to pay for their own infrastructure on which the development environment for our platform would be hosted. I'd never done this before and considered it to be a business cost for TechGuilds. Also, we have a local development and bubble environment. Other than this, I'd say that communication is getting better. We have a good replicated environment on which we deploy work before going to production.

TechGuilds has a good idea of best practices, but when we came to crunch periods, some of these were pushed aside on both of our teams. We were trying to meet timelines, but there's always some risk that comes with this. We've fine-tuned many of our change management processes and I see us continuing down this venue. I would like to see more documentation on this process in order to clarify what each side is saying. Miscommunication is only discovered after the fact.

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

TechGuilds is a nimble group and big on the Agile approach. My organization relies more on waterfall development, which can lead to hiccups. I think that clients need to approach TechGuilds with more of an Agile methodology in mind.