Tivix

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a title and escrow company that has several branches. We formed a subsidy of that company to help automate our title research, ordering, and delivery processes.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tivix?

We had historical problems with sorting, ordering, and extracting data from documents for every property that we underwrite. Recorders’ offices, which store these documents, are becoming more digitized. We needed to patch into their systems to more easily access documents and provide quicker turnaround times to our customers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tivix developed a scalable web solution to address our two problems of processing and storing documents. They built a web platform that allowed us to migrate from a paper system to a Cloud-based, scalable system. Moreover, their team tied that system into recorders' offices' systems. This enabled us to automatically deliver recorded documents into the system. We don’t have to exit our system to enter into a local recorder’s system.

We’re hosting the system on AWS S3. Tivix helped us implement the project using a Waterfall OCR process to actually extract data from documents before entering the system. They built the web interface using Python. We’re just in user-testing of phase two.

What is the team composition?

We collaborate with a lead developer and a project manager. My team and I have also had direct contact with QA, UI/UX, and database resources.

How did you come to work with Tivix?

I had prior experience with Tivix. They were referred to me through a good friend of mine who also used their services. Between their willingness and ability to tackle our unique problems, it seemed like a great fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $150,000–$200,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our ongoing partnership around November 2019.

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

The web platform will have a substantial impact on our ability to rapidly scale. Anecdotally, I appreciate working with Tivix. Their team digs into problems and understands our business processes to help design a system around our needs. There hasn’t been much technology developed for our space. It’s hard to find developers who not only are capable but also able to understand the business outcomes we want to drive.

How did Tivix perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is great, and our project manager keeps us in the loop about their team’s progress without placing a burden on anyone’s time. We have 30-minute weekly update meetings, and everything’s documented within GitBook. Their team updates their tasks almost in real-time with Clubhouse. I can also give real-time feedback. They stick fairly well to deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They pair an ability to understand business processes with engineering talent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing jumps to the top of my mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We didn’t have a completely defined vision on our side when we kicked off the project. Tivix worked with us to put a scope of work together and define what successful outcomes would look like. In phase two, we spent more time upfront to define the phase’s vision. That made the second phase move quicker and generate better outcomes.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for the NCI Agency in NATO. We have 30 international partners, and we are responsible for protecting over a billion people across the world.  

I am the maritime service owner, which means I am responsible for all maritime IT services at the NCI Agency and that includes all the maritime commander and systems we have at NATO, our antipiracy systems, and our mine warfare systems.

Specifically, in this project, I acted principally as the product owner and also as the solution architect.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tivix?

We were aiming to replace the existing system which is used by the International Submarine Escape and Rescue Liaison Office (ISMERLO). The current system has been used to assist with real-world submarine escape and rescue activities has been invaluable to the international community for many years, but was in need of a refresh. 

Around the summer of last year, I had finished eliciting, documenting, and validating all of the systems functional and non-functional requirements and constraints of the project.

The challenge was introducing a new system to replace a well established and respected existing one. The system would be to help co-ordinate submarine escape and rescue activities when submarines come into distress. It's about how we plan and coordinate the rescue effort of a submarine.

This was particularly challenging because we were working with many non-NATO partners. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tivix was given the system requirements and told to come up with an effective design and solution that would be put into service.

The system is a Command and Control system, C2 system, or a C4ISR system. Command and  Control is a huge concept. There are a lot of different layers of C2. People typically focus on the operational level, tactical level, or executional level of C2 systems. This is higher up on the stack as it is a planning and coordination tool that effectively allows the user to coordinate any rescue or intervention of a submarine.

It identifies the closest assets to the distressed submarine and coordinates all of the rescue assets, rescue capabilities, and medical capabilities that may be needed to assist with getting people from the bottom of the seabed back to the surface through a series of escapes and rescues.

When I held the kickoff meeting, I needed them to understand why this was important. They needed to imagine that they were in a box with no lights on at the bottom of the sea, and the temperature is going down. They would be developing a system that would give people in dire situations hope. 

What is the team composition?

Their team was made up of a sales manager, a product owner, a project manager, they had their principal technical architects and they had two graphic designers and digital designers, and they also have some testers. There were eight full-time developers on the project as well.

When they submitted their bid, they submitted it as being based in San Francisco where they had been based on Clutch. Most of the work has been done through their office in Poland. It is certainly not a problem for us, but the only constraint we had was that all the work had to be inside a NATO country because NATO was funding this. It could not be given to a non-NATO country. We principally have worked with people from Poland although one or two of their staff were based in Vancouver and New York.

How did you come to work with Tivix?

Through Clutch, I identified a couple of companies that I believed could help us with this project. 

We had a very short timescale for this and it was a pretty small project. We wanted to find a new company with young, energetic, vibrant, and keen people with a reason to prove themselves for their careers. I also wanted a company that had worked on similarly sized projects.

I identified several companies through Clutch and really did my research. I used Clutch to read the reviews around the company, do my own research, and out of the 10 companies I identified, Tivix was one of those.

I reviewed their catalog to make sure they had done projects that were similar (in terms of size and complexity), and I noticed they had done some work with UNICEF. It had a good design and they stood up well. They appeared to have the quality and the complexity that I was interested in because the ISMERLO system had a very short timescale and it also was very complex.

Tivix delivered their bid to us and I was incredibly impressed from the start. They only had four weeks to come up with their bid and we asked for a lot of details. They were able to come up with a semi-working prototype of the system that we wanted.

They knew that this was a big project that could showcase for future clients, and that was very motivating. They're incredibly motivated and dedicated people to work with throughout.

How much have you invested in them?

They have been paid just south of €500,000 (approximately $600,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The contract was signed in late December last year, and my first face to face meeting with them was in their office in London in January 2020.

The project is due to be completed in November, and I am going to be in Poland next week with the team running, what we call, train the trainers, which is where we train some of the senior users to be experts in the system so that they can go off and train the community worldwide, and with 41 nations involved in this project, we need to send people all around the world to make sure that people are trained. The idea is to have project closure and final system acceptance in the first week of November. Then we are looking to enter into the maintenance phase of the project. 

We are sticking with Tivix for the 2021 maintenance contract, which demonstrates how happy we are with the work done.

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

We tested 350 top-level requirements and they passed 348 of them.  One requirement was deferred from my request and one was a partial pass because I slightly changed the requirement partway through. Overall, this result is incredible. I have never seen that before either.

We had operationally capable system testing two weeks ago. I could launch this project into service right now.

We did user acceptance testing which was great, and users can’t wait to get their hands on the system. We are running security testing on the system.  

To give readers an idea of the quality in terms of the non-functional requirements, they have been testing the system for five days solid and so far, they have not found any significant vulnerabilities and I have never heard that before for a system of this size and complexity. Our cybersecurity team is just about as good as you can get in the world right now, so they would have found an issue if it was there.

This system is not simple at all. There is a lot of highly technical detailed information in there, but Tivix has done extremely well; they've delivered every single one of the requirements.

How did Tivix perform from a project management standpoint?

Despite COVID-19, our milestones have not moved up a single day. Every single milestone has been met exactly on time.

After a couple of months of development, we recognized that user requirements had changed a little. Tivix did a great job of incorporating our changes into the project without letting any milestones slip.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They opened up their internal systems for us to see all the issues they were working on and who was working on it and the progress.

Everything has been completely transparent and that has built a huge amount of trust in both directions. I always enjoyed working with the Tivix team right throughout the development process.

Their response time was exceptional. They are smaller and more agile than most of the companies I work with and so they are able to respond more quickly to our requests and provide feedback. They had a staging environment where we were able to see their development which has been updated every week. They have never hidden anything from else. We have worked on technical solutions and technical problems with each other together.

They are first-class in terms of quality, but I have been more impressed with how well they have stuck to their deadlines and how well they have embraced any change requests which we have brought in and understood that we are working in a fairly unique environment. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Some team members matured and gained experience throughout the project. Senior members of their team stepped in if necessary and realigned people where they needed to be, but also at the same time, allowed the freedom for their younger members to speak their minds and express their views, which I appreciate.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It depends on what their project is, but if they are looking for a team of highly skilled engineers and highly skilled products owners and project managers who are willing to listen, deliver a clear quality product, are extremely patient a lot of the time, meet their deadlines for not a huge amount of money, I recommend Tivix. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a legal services firm, and I’m our operations manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tivix?

Our company has been around for a few decades, and over that time, we’ve created a very complicated operational process. A lot of our day-to-day work was done manually, and we wanted to be able to scale our business in a more manageable way by leveraging automation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tivix came on board to design and build a custom software solution that would help us improve our operational processes. We handed Tivix an extremely rough workflow, and from that, they designed a beautiful data model to build a solid workflow. They also handled the UX/UI components.

The platform hosts CRM, case management, email management, document assembly and management, accounting, reporting and analytics, and marketing functions for our company. It’s primarily intended for desktop computers, but it’s also accessible on mobile devices.

On top of the product having multiple functionalities, it was also designed to be accessible by several different user bases. 

What is the team composition?

The number varied at any given time, based on what they were working on. However, we had one project manager throughout the project, two or three designers, a senior engineer, and about six other engineers. Two or three of those people worked on the project for the majority of the time we were building.

We also had a lot of access to Sumit (CEO & CTO), which was nice.

How did you come to work with Tivix?

We considered a few different types of technology solutions before getting involved with Tivix. We met with all sorts of vendors prior to engaging them, and we met with Tivix when we eventually decided we wanted a custom solution.

The thing that stood out to us about Tivix was that they allowed us to work with the same team throughout the duration of the project, so they could really get to know our business. We knew it would be a big project and we didn’t want there to be a knowledge transfer issue. Tivix also assured us we’d have full access to their team with a direct line of contact, which was important to us. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project kicked off in July 2018, and we just launched the first phase of the project in April. We engaged them for a second project, which they’re working on now.

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

The product has saved us a lot of time. It’s shortened our workflow from 20 steps down to about five, which has made our operations significantly faster. 

We have more access to data, which is really key in terms of engaging our customers and providing the best experience for them. It’s helped us create a more bespoke experience for our clients. 

The UX/UI components of the product were the aspects that we gave Tivix the least amount of guidance in, and they did a fantastic job. One of the most common pieces of feedback we get from our staff is how wonderfully designed the platform is. It’s really intuitive, easy to use, and visually appealing. 

How did Tivix perform from a project management standpoint?

Tivix is the most accessible team. They’re very communicative and very creative. Sometimes, we’d go to them with an idea without knowing how to execute, and they would come back with a solution that, 9 times out of 10, nailed it.

Meghan (Product) is our project manager, and she’s excellent. She’s very organized, which has been important because of how complicated our project was. She’s been available late at night and over the weekends — she’s very dedicated to our engagement and really understands our business. The legal field is very paper-based and people can be tech-averse, but Meghan has been excellent at helping our team through the engagement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tivix is a team of dedicated people who take a lot of pride in their work and in anything we ask them to create or do. They never told us they couldn’t do something — if they didn’t know how, they would learn. The project ended up being a lot bigger than any of us had imagined, so that quality was really important. There were a lot of new challenges for their team, but they handled it well. 

One of the most important aspects of the project was the accounting aspect. There was a lot of hesitancy to move forward with that part, and it ended up being a more complicated process than we’d anticipated. However, Tivix accommodated us very well, which we were particularly impressed by given that they’re not an accounting firm.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The most challenging aspect of working with them was understanding how the project was evolving and would continue to do so. Even that was more on our side than theirs. They’ve done a spectacular job — they’ve been kind, professional, and true to their word.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager for Beamery.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tivix?

We had a low capacity in our development team and wanted to build a new product. We needed to do it fast, so we hired Tivix to support us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tivix developed a web app for recruiters and event coordinators in the recruitment domain. It helps them set up events, manage attendees, and communicate with guests. It’s an end-to-end product, featuring an event registration page, a check-in flow, and communication with guests pre- and post-event.

There was a lot of integration with legacy apps, which was sometimes very challenging. The Tivix team needed to learn the old apps, integrate them, and build the new app completely from scratch.

The app is also highly mobile-optimized, and Tivix participated actively in making sure that that experience was also well-defined. The app was built in React.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from Tivix’s team, including Greg (Software Developer).

How did you come to work with Tivix?

Tivix was brought on board before I joined the company.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere between $250,000–$500,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Tivix in July 2019, and finished in late April 2020.

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

Tivix supported two of our major releases, and delivered very successful work, helping us acquire four customers in the first release of the events module. After the release, we sold the product to five more prospects, which makes nine customers in total. We’re working in the B2B world, so that’s quite a high number.

I think Tivix was the highest performer in terms of the number of stories they were able to finish within a sprint across all team members, including internal ones.

How did Tivix perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re amazing. I’m very happy about the collaboration. Greg was definitely a strong lead, and I’d be happy to work with him in any other project. Even though he was external, he made sure that the whole experience was aligned with the other teams. He eliminated cross-team dependencies as much as possible. He was very proactive, and I felt confident I could rely on him.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I always felt Tivix was part of our team. They were really interested in the product and determined to provide value. Everything they did contributed to that feeling of integration. The team was proactive and full of ideas. They always gave us guidance on how we could further improve the product, especially Greg. In general, the collaboration with our team members was very personable and professional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was some feedback about one of the developers, that he was a bit tough sometimes in his conversations with the team, but it was nothing major. In general, Tivix was amazing.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Treat them as internal team members and share your business goals. You don’t necessarily have to share numbers, but you should share goals in terms of number of customers to acquire and make sure that the team understands them. That way, they’ll be inspired to build amazing products and sometimes to go the extra mile. Tivix did that quite a lot when we needed to release the product.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a company that collaborates with the UK Ministry of Defence and the Australia Ministry of Defence on their barcoding projects. I handle sales, operations, and product management for the typical project account.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tivix?

We had an internal solution that was built in Excel and SQL. It allowed users to view their tasks every day through file transfers. It worked for internal purposes, but we wanted to make it accessible to customers. Our goal was to make it more web-enabled so we could utilize it for clients. We didn’t have the internal resource to manage this alone.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The platform is able to function by allowing our clients to speak directly to production. They can relay their locations and have all units order from us on the site before verifying and validating for barcoding reasons.

Then, it communicates with our ERP system, makes tags, and ships them out, and allows clients to install them. They used Python and Django as well as React to product the solution. After completing the main part of the development, we moved to a retainer model where we spent most of our time correcting bugs and adding smaller features.

What is the team composition?

The project has been completed in two separate stages. In the first, we had a product manager, an architect, and a few developers. For that year, we had a full team before moving to more of a retainer model. At that point, we’ve worked with a number of people on smaller projects.

How did you come to work with Tivix?

We found them during our online research process. Our company approached them and was impressed with their abilities. We hired them based on that knowledge. My colleague found them and viewed them as an industry leader in technical work. Because he had the technical knowledge to make that claim, I decided to support this decision. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $500,000–$1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2016, and our teams still collaborate on an ongoing basis through our monthly retainer. 

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

From our point of view, they set a very high standard with the quality of their work. At times we were concerned with skilled resources leaving the company over time, but they continued to hire the best of the best. We never missed a beat when new people joined projects. Since our launch last year, we’ve been very successful and have earned a few new clients. Overall, the project has been successful. 

How did Tivix perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good. Originally, they asked us a lot of questions about what we wanted from them. At the end of week two, they presented their thoughts on what they thought we wanted, and it was very close to our concept. They’re very good at understanding problems, scoping the effort, and thinking through complex variables. 

This was a complicated project, and while there were mistakes along the way, they figured things out through excellent communication. When we were doing a lot of development, we met three times each week. At this point, we meet biweekly because there’s less going on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The caliber of their employees is phenomenal. Every single one of their resources was an outstanding contributor to the effort. They hire to a very high standard, giving them one of the best teams I’ve seen in the consulting world. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The most difficult thing about digital transitions with older companies is making sure that your team is educated on technology upgrades. Companies like us can be naive, not knowing all the complexities of the development.

Sharing that information would be helpful because it would’ve given us the foresight we needed to be more comfortable undertaking a project like this. However, they do an outstanding job from a pure development point of view.   

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t skimp on the initial scoping of the project because that’s the best money you’ll spend. We were on the same page from the beginning because of the understanding that we built in that phase. Our team was nervous to do that, but it allowed us to get on the same page early. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a financial advisor at Alpha Blue Ocean, an investing firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tivix?

We wanted custom software that would replace our process of manually inputting data into Excel.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I gave Tivix an overview of my desired functionalities but gave them free rein over the design. I just wanted something clean and basic that could be easily used.

They’re now building the software—which we hope to use for over a decade—from scratch. It includes CRM capabilities, as well as a backend database that can be easily manipulated. With it, we’ll be able to manage the contact details of every client and prospect. It’ll also streamline finance systems and business processes like Profits & Losses (P&L) calculations. While I’m not aware of the full scope of their technology, I know they use Pico.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two project managers, two engineers, a designer, and 2–3 additional team members.

How did you come to work with Tivix?

I met with 10–15 different software development teams over a two-month period. Tivix was the most expensive, but they seemed to have the best understanding of the financial world.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $200,000-$300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2019 and the work is ongoing.

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

While development is still underway, I’ve been very pleased with the work they’ve done so far. They’ve provided great advice along the way. They’re not mere yes-men; if I ask for something but they know that something is better, they’ll offer improvements and alternative suggestions. I really appreciate that.

How did Tivix perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed by their flexibility. If you need a daily meeting at 8 AM, they’re happy to accommodate that. They’ll go above and beyond to accommodate your needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The discussions about the timeframe and cost could have been more lucid. I had a hard time understanding the cost, at the very beginning. I had to write everything down and inquire about details multiple times.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend them for their flexibility.

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I'm the senior director of software engineering for a FinTech company. We provide unsecured personal loans to US consumers. I support all the product teams that represent our apply and origination domains. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Tivix? 

We began a relationship with Tivix at the time our company was founded. Tivix helped us launch our company by creating our original loan application web funnel where nothing existed before.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Tivix provides ongoing professional services and software development. Originally, we provided wireframes for our initial website, but it was pretty lean, serving only a single marketing channel. It's evolved quite a bit to cover multiple channels with numerous funnel formats and elaborate conversion functionality such as AB testing frameworks.

Tivix utilizes Angular 7 for our front end and Django on the backend. They also complete a fair amount of WordPress PHP development on our marketing website. Additionally, Tivix supplements our internal capacity to cover larger UX design initiatives. Generally speaking, Tivix is very integrated into our organization. We have ideas and they help us execute on them using whatever skills and capacity make sense to do so.

What is the team composition? 

The team size ebbs and flows, but generally averages around 12 people. 

How did you come to work with Tivix? 

We knew of them from existing relationships with our founders of the company. Having the referral was good enough for when we were trying to rapidly start the company. Plus, they were open to the risks associated with working with a startup company. They continue to be strong in their ability to deal with changing requirements as our business grows.

How much have you invested with them?

It's between 1–2 million per year. I would say in total that we've spent approximately $7.5 million dollars.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work began in January 2014 and the engagement is ongoing.

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

The bottom line is that we are still in business and doing well. We're both profitable and growing in terms of the number of loans that we’ve provided, which sets us apart from a fair number of our competitors. We feel quite accomplished that we've lent over seven billion dollars since our inception. 

Tivix is definitely a key contributor to our success. They provide a lot of consultative value. They’re a very strong addition to our cross-functional team of developers. They’re well integrated with our business stakeholders and engineering staff. They’re part of a collective force that helps push our agenda forward. 

How did Tivix perform from a project management standpoint? 

We manage a lot of the project ourselves in terms of backlogs, feature development, prioritization, and timing. We make those decisions internally with feedback and insights from Tivix on scoping and effort. I interact with some of their leaders more frequently, but generally, all their developers are part of our cross-functional team.

For communication, we use Slack, Pivotal, Confluence, and email. Slack is probably what we use most often. It has its strengths and weaknesses. Both our teams are geographically distributed across time zones in the US and Canada. As a result, we need a digital communication method that is relatively fast in order for it to be useful. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Their individual talent is most impressive. We've always had strong engineers working on our account. Their ability to retain and hire good talent makes us quite happy. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No. There are always opportunities to improve, but it’s generally more about the circumstances at the time as opposed to the organization as a whole. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t think it would work well if your organization has strict lines between internal and external teams, where engineers are managed at the administrative level. Tivix is fully integrated into our business. Having continuous interaction and communication at all levels is much more collaborative. I can only imagine that would be useful to others as well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior product manager at an alternative investment firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tivix?

We hired Tivix to make one of our asset acquisition processes more efficient. Specifically, we wanted them to build an application that would consolidate available information and predict returns on individual assets.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created a product that compiles and displays information about our assets. The application gathers this data from various websites and through several integrations.

The product also calculates the potential yield for each asset based on this information. We’ve now extended the scope to include building more tools in the application that will support our business.

What is the team composition?

There’s a backend person who writes most of the code and an integrations specialist who writes code around each data source. There’s also a frontend person who makes the data accessible and the interface user-friendly. Also, there’s a project manager who oversees the development and conducts testing on the product. I communicate primarily with the project manager and Sumit (CTO, Tivix), who runs point on certain things. Sumit isn’t involved on a daily basis but will clarify issues and jump in when tasks become urgent.

How did you come to work with Tivix?

We have worked with them in the past on separate ventures and knew they could help with the new project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in December 2018 and is ongoing.

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

It’s too early to quantify the impact that their work has had on our revenue. That being said, we've seen an increase in efficiency. Our data gathering process used to take us anywhere between eight hours to four days to accomplish. Through utilizing the application that Tivix built, we’ve reduced that time down to five minutes.

The whole process is streamlined, and everything now resides in the application. We can also easily and quickly find out our potential yield from assets across each market. Their work has reduced our analysts’ information gathering workload from 10 hours to two hours a week.

How did Tivix perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been extremely flexible and accommodating. Our investment team changes their minds fairly quickly, and Tivix has been able to keep up with our fluctuating requirements. They’ve also been upfront about the effects of these changes. They let me know whenever they expect delays.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tivix strives to fully understand our business. We’ve had experiences with other teams where they’ve pretended to know our company and don’t understand our needs. Tivix is communicative and empathetic, and their team dedicated time to become familiar with our processes. Their team is also realistic and hardworking. It’s hard to find people like them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at this moment. I’ve had a very good experience with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Explain your business to them. We learned from our last project that, if you describe your services to them, they’ll be much more able to meet your business needs.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at The Macerich Company. We're a national mall and shopping center operator. We have 47 shopping centers and malls around the country, which are mainly concentrated on the west and east coasts.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tivix?

We needed additional development resources and we decided it’d be more efficient to outsource a development team. We were looking for a vendor that had both experience and the insight into technology innovation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They've helped me with a number of different projects. First, they developed a platform that enables retailers to look at data and analytics concerning the activity in their physical stores. They also handled the data visualization project for us, helping us use third-party data to sell the value of our properties.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with a product manager, who was our main of contact, a lead architect, and an engineering lead.

How did you come to work with Tivix?

We interviewed a few different firms and we chose Tivix based on the quality of their work, their experience, and the pricing.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Tivix in June 2018 and the relationship is ongoing.

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

They delivered everything they had promised. We had a specific request in our RFP, but they helped us discover new approaches and new opportunities during our development process.

How did Tivix perform from a project management standpoint?

They did an excellent job. They used Jira for project management and we had daily stand-ups. I was overseeing the project myself and I was happy with their process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very focused, efficient, and proactive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you're looking for a well-rounded development team, reach out to them. They're a great partner and they'll become part of your team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Curate With Me. We’re a consumer-facing website that connects shoppers with expert recommendations.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tivix?

They took over revamping our website from a vendor that couldn’t finish the project on time due to scheduling conflicts.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tivix continued the work started by another agency and saw it through to completion. When they started, we were redesigning the existing website. After doing a code review and resolving several outstanding bugs, they started developing new features, allowing users to follow trusted curators and interacting with lists in different ways. Their work concluded with user testing and more bug fixing.

Fixing frontend bugs required them to work transition some our HTML, CSS, and JavaScript pages to React.js. They also addressed a few backend issues. The backend system is written in Django and runs on AWS with an RDS database.

How did you come to work with Tivix?

A friend recommended them to us. We interviewed 3–4 different agencies but Tivix had the right ramp-up capacity. I spoke with Sumit (CEO, Tivix), their project manager, and one of their New York-based developers and had a conference call with a designer and senior backend engineer. During that call, I presented our problems and plans for new features and listened to their initial approach. This gave me confidence in their abilities.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $100,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2018 until February 2019.

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

The product is stable, and the few bugs we have aren’t critical or significant enough to need to resolve. The codebase is easy to maintain moving forward, so we’re well positioned to develop new features.

I’ve worked with four agencies in the last two years, and my experience with Tivix has been the best by far. Part of it is because they’re a smaller team and used a lot of collaborative tools. Additionally, their Python expertise and DevOps teams were a great match for our AWS system.

How did Tivix perform from a project management standpoint?

While other companies I’ve worked with use internal tools or tools that came as part of software packages, Tivix used open-source solutions that were well-integrated into our process. This allowed me always to see what they were working on, where they were blocked, and what questions they had. We used Waffle.io to track progress and GitHub as a code repository. We communicated via Slack and had biweekly, in-person meetings or conference calls. InVision was sufficient for discussing and agreeing on mockups.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Though we had a singular project manager, it didn't cause communication bottlenecks. If someone left a ticket in Waffle.io, they could tag me and I could address their issue on my phone or computer. Additionally, I enjoyed how much they brought me into the process and empowered me to collaborate in real-time. Their adherence to timelines and budgets was also outstanding.

Ultimately, however, it’s all about the people. Tivix is full of attentive people that were genuinely interested in helping with our project. Personnel is what I look at first when I consider a company and Tivix ranks highly. They were simply a pleasure to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Though this isn’t unique to Tivix, and it’s only a minor issue, it’s all I can think of. Our final milestone dragged past the timeline, so some of our resources were pulled onto another project. Therefore, their responsiveness decreased (15–30 to a day). I’m not sure how to solve the problem, but I wish it could have been improved.