Troy Web Consulting

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Information Technology of NYS PEF

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

In New York State, PEF (Public Employees Federation) is the primary labor union representing professional, scientific, and technical employees in state service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Troy Web Consulting to accomplish?

• A technical development partner to complement our in-house team on web technologies, including site development, deployment, and API interoperability.

SOLUTION

How did you find Troy Web Consulting?

Referral

Why did you select Troy Web Consulting over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Troy Web Consulting were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

This project aimed to develop middleware and modify the existing API to integrate legacy applications with a new third-party mobile app, creating a seamless experience for members. Deliverables:

• Middleware development and API modifications to ensure compatibility with the third-party mobile app
• Successful integration and thorough testing with the new third-party mobile app
• Deployment to production and post-launch support

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Members successfully log into the new app using existing credentials, ensuring a seamless transition.
• Fast login processing times with no impact on other applications that rely on the same technical resources.

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

Project management was professional and efficient, with a dedicated project manager and lead developer ensuring timely delivery despite the complexities of legacy login dependencies. They responded promptly to all project-related inquiries.

What was your primary form of communication with Troy Web Consulting?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

No job is too big or too small for Troy Web Consulting's consistent effort.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Troy Web Consulting could have done differently?

Nothing specific comes to mind for this project in particular.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a consultant - on behalf of of The Food Pantries for the Capital District

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A Consortium of local food pantries for a 4 county area.  We provide administrative support to over 70+ food pantries.  We are a not-for-profit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Troy Web Consulting to accomplish?

• Development and Support for a referral support desk software.
• Development of a graphical user interface that provides the public the ability to find food resources throughout the state.

SOLUTION

How did you find Troy Web Consulting?

Referral

Why did you select Troy Web Consulting over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Troy Web Consulting were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Assisted us with developing a vision we had for an easy to use graphical interface for the public to find food resources within the 4 counties of the Capital District.  This service has grown to now a NYS-wide resource that helps support citizens to find food resources easily.

They also helped us create a back-office application so we and our partners could upload data to support the map.  This was extremely important especially during COVID when our information was constantly changing.  They were a wonderful partner in assisting us and the state meet our goals. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our map support has grown from supporting 4 NYS Counties to supporting all 62 counties and allowing us to become the source of truth regarding food resources well beyond our initial responsibilities. 

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

They were timely - on time and on budget.  They were knowledgeable and responsive. 

What was your primary form of communication with Troy Web Consulting?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their culture matched ours. They are a true partner. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Troy Web Consulting could have done differently?

Not that I can see.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of IT and technology of UTM Healthcare

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide a remote patient monitoring app to assist patients at home to send their vital readings to their doctors for remote assisted care and monitoring.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Troy Web Consulting to accomplish?

• Assist by building our app and backend

SOLUTION

How did you find Troy Web Consulting?

Referral

Why did you select Troy Web Consulting over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Troy Web Consulting were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

The work has been an ongoing project to provide support and continuous development of our app for IPhone, and build the server structure, api, and design to ensure that we are able to scale as needed during the duration and future of this project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We could simply not have done any of this without them. They helped us from the conception phases all the way to us now scaling to new heights. Our API has grown to incorporate every strategic turn we've needed, as well as our app evolving to always keep up with current standards.

We were able to have their friendly, knowledgeable, and professional council every step of the way. Their professionalism and skill set are second to none, providing enterprise-grade quality at every release, patch, design, and update.

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

Projects have always been prompt. If any unforeseen delay occurred (which was rare), they were very communicative to make sure we were never in the dark at every step of the way. When we needed immediate support, they provided emergency service into the night and early morning hours to ensure that they could assist us in getting back online.

Also, we meet weekly to discuss projects and development, where every new feature we suggest is talked through, and a professional, realistic plan is set into motion. We have yet to find a curveball that they havn't been able to handle.

What was your primary form of communication with Troy Web Consulting?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

This company is absolutely top grade quality, what I would expect to find for any of the largest enterprise companies, but in a down to earth, friendly culture. Their many years of experience and amazing track record is a great reflection of their values, and they're truly masters of their craft.

They deliver on all the promises they speak of, and provide a calm guidance through any part of the development cycle you may be in. Its not common to find such a perfect mixture in a software dev company.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Troy Web Consulting could have done differently?

Nothing comes to mind. We are very happy with the service over the years.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder/Chairman of CytoDynamic Solutions

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a CRO focused on the solving the chronic wound healing paradigm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Troy Web Consulting to accomplish?

• Software testing/improving/expanding
• AWS SaaS platform
• Website

SOLUTION

How did you find Troy Web Consulting?

Referral, Other

Why did you select Troy Web Consulting over others?

High ratings, Close to my geographic location, Pricing first our budget, Great culture fit, Good value for cost, Referred to me, Company values aligned, Other

What was the size of Troy Web Consulting’s team?

2-5 Employees

What was your primary form of communication with Troy Web Consulting?

In-Person Meeting, Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

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

Troy Web Consulting was instrumental in helping to streamline and perfect the raw quantitative analysis program created by my company. This has allowed us to expand the program to offer more functions for our customers. In addition to this, they were able to edit and update my initial webpage and migrate everything to the AWS platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• MVP SaaS goal reached
• Highly accurate and verifiable analysis

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

Troy Web Consulting was ahead of the timetable for the project deliverable. Their project manager would discuss the needs, collect the required information and datasets from me and forward it on to the engineers on the TWC team.

The results coming back from the engineers was extremely fast, and in some cases we needed to play catchup on our end. They far exceeded our hopes and expectations.

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

They treat each client as if they are their only one. They are as interested, as excited and work just as hard as we do to make sure this is a success for my company.

Are there any areas for improvement or something {provider_name} could have done differently?

Absolutely nothing. Every single step of the process has been great - from project scope, to the quote and payment processes, to the whiteboarding and level of care and production. I have been nothing short of extremely satisfied by my decision to work with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of information systems for a nonprofit trade association.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Troy Web Consulting?

We brought them on to develop a complex web application. Our challenge was that we didn’t have the technical capability on staff to be able to do such a large project. Troy Web Consulting allowed us to have the expertise without us needing to permanently have that type of resource on staff.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re providing staff augmentation services. Their team utilizes the whole Microsoft Azure ecosystem, specifically SQL server, services in Azure, storage accounts, and web applications. The frontend was developed using Azure framework, React framework, SQL Server, and .NET. We knew the base architecture we wanted. We went with Azure and SQL Server for lots of reasons; it looked good and it was something Troy Web Consulting had skill in.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 6–8 team members. It has varied over the course of the engagement, and there’s naturally been turnover as well.

How did you come to work with Troy Web Consulting?

I’ve known about Troy Web Consulting for 15 years. One of my previous coworkers used to moonlight with them. He also worked at a couple of other companies with the founder and VPs of Troy Web Consulting. He had a long history with them, so I didn’t need to do a lot of research. They were highly capable, and there was established trust.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provide a top-quality service for us.

How did Troy Web Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

We typically communicate through a combination of phone calls and email. Some things require a phone call, and I certainly email the developers I work with. We use a ticketing system for tracking bugs or features that were being developed.

We have periodic meetings to touch base and provide status updates. Their team has worked remotely for the majority of this engagement. They are excellent and very responsive to communicating through various mechanisms.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We started the project off with an in-person kickoff meeting. That allowed us to be in the same room, and I could explain the scope of the application. It’s certainly not required, but I valued that. I prefer some face-to-face contact occasionally, so I'd recommend that. Troy Web Consulting can make it happen.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Joseph's House and Shelter is a nonprofit organization located in Troy and Albany. Our mission is to provide non-judgmental services to end homelessness. My position at Joseph's House is Development Assistant.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Troy Web Consulting, and what were your goals?

Joseph's House and Shelter hired Troy Web Consulting to build and design a new agency website for our organization. Our goals was to have a website that was user friendly to manage as well as clean and elegant for the viewer. We asked that the website to be completed by November and Troy Web Consulting did just that.

SOLUTION

How did you select Troy Web Consulting and what were the deciding factors?

We selected Troy Web Consulting because they are affordable and local. Troy Web Consulting is also extremely flexible and easy to work with.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Client sign off was in September Project Planning and Design was in September Development and Implementation was in September Quality Assurance Testing was in September.

Client Review and Approval was in October Change order application was in November Changes added and Redesigned in November Project Deployment was in December The technology used is Member Space and Square Space

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I worked with one staff member from Troy Web Consulting. Firmin Alexander {Marketing Manager}.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Troy Web Consulting went above and beyond to design, build, and deliver a whole new website for our agency. We added changes late into the development and they still continued to deliver on time and were extremely flexible within the changes. Joseph's House and Shelter couldn't have asked for a better organization to work with.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Firmin and I met twice a week through Google meet until the website was completed. Firmin walked me through how to use the website in each meeting as well as asking what changes needed to be made per our request.

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

They are so incredibly flexible and professional. Troy Web Consulting really does care about their clients and to go above and beyond to meet the client's needs.

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

Not that I can think of. It was truly an honor working with them on this project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Student EI. We use behavioral science assessment and analysis to help school district administrations recognize the non-cognitive strengths and challenges of students.

We provide social emotional skills summary reports to districts, students, and parents in real-time, creating growth opportunities for students and the school district.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Troy Web Consulting?

We wanted to develop a dashboard for school districts that gives them a way to visualize their students’ non-cognitive skills in a simple and transparent manner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I created a 100-page slide deck outlining what my vision was for the platform. Troy Web helped me think through in greater detail what I did and didn’t need. We started with a blank canvas. There were a lot of moving parts from the assessment piece, the scoring, reporting, and so on.

We went through phases, from conversations to putting together sprints, to getting the UI design done, to the development side of it. Troy Web also provided QA services.

What is the team composition?

Early on, I met with the owners and the director of application development to discuss what the project would entail, costs, timeline people, etc. 

Troy Web put a team together, including Bobby (Business Analyst), Josh (Senior Developer), Lauren (Senior Designer), Kevin (Quality Assurance Developer, and Jennifer (Production Manager & Product Manager). 

There were numerous others behind the scenes who did a lot of the heavy lifting.  

How did you come to work with Troy Web Consulting?

The owners of Troy Web and I have a mutual friend. This friend made an intro and we set up a meeting. At that time, I wasn’t really considering having this built domestically. I had received bids from two offshore agencies and was 99% sure that was the path for development.

Once I had met with Troy Web, I saw the way they ran their company as well as their entrepreneurial spirit, and that they had also done some work with different school districts and departments of education in New York. 

There are a lot of nuances when you’re dealing with school districts and software privacy policies and things like that. I decided to go with Troy Web as I thought it would make the project better in the long run. 

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent $250,000, give or take.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our conversations in early March 2020. They started development the last week of April, we will begin piloting the MVP to some school districts the last week of October. 

I will continue to work with Troy Web for another six months or so, as we continue to add additional features, filters, etc. to the platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As I mentioned I was pretty sure I was taking this project to an offshore development company. I knew that route would save $100K, all day. After our first meeting I felt a level of trust with them. That trust only grew as I met more members of the Troy Web team. 

When we met for the third time and really dug into the vision for development, I knew I wanted to work with these guys (and gals). I was at a point where I had to justify not only to myself, but investors that the additional costs of having Troy Web develop the Student EI platform would pay dividends short and long term. I am also a big believer of keeping it local, supporting local businesses and entrepreneurs. These views also helped justify the additional expenditures. 

I really can’t say enough about Troy Web. I have dealt with a lot of good companies, and I have dealt with some not so pleasant companies. Their entire organization is at the top of the list. Whatever they say they are going to do, they will do. I always feel like they are an extension of my own team. Honest, transparent, professional, on and on. The additional investment that Student EI made hiring Troy Web Consulting to develop the Student EI platform was one of the smartest business decisions that I’ve made.

How did Troy Web Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re all on point, regardless of the title or skill, they perform. Their PM shared with me every two weeks a status report. Budget, timeline, progress, etc. There are super conscious regarding their time. If a Zoom meeting was an hour, everyone was on the call on time, every time. They’re mindful of every little piece of the project. I gave them a very aggressive timeline, pretty much unattainable after COVID, shutdown, etc. The PM would discuss any Sprints that were outside of the timeline and move forward. Very transparent for the entire project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Troy Web felt like they were an extension of my company. Whatever I needed, they got it done. The collaboration and transparency are impressive. If they had a challenge or obstacle with the project, we would just talk about it, resolve it, and keep moving forward. The other thing that really stood out was how fluid they are as a team. From sprints, to meetings, design, development… They’re a well-oiled machine!

Are there any areas they could improve?

If there was something that I could say that would not be favorable or if I had a bone to pick with them, I would share it, but I don’t. They do everything they say they are going to do. They are on point all the time. It doesn’t matter who it is, what department it is, developers, designers, project managers: they're on point all the time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say two things. Budget is always at the top of the list for any company, especially a start-up. Look at your development budget closer to see how much value staying on shore brings to your future customers and clients & how much time that will free up for you to focus on other areas of your company.

The second is trust. Trust is a hard thing in business, especially when investing a lot your own and investor money. Troy Web Consulting will exceed your expectations from start to finish, guaranteed!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Founder and CEO of AfterReach® LLC. AfterReach is a B2B SaaS for funeral homes. We are providing a mobile app solution to help grieving families and to help solve pain points for funeral professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Troy Web Consulting?

We were looking to develop an MVP.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Troy Web Consulting has been a true partner from the first time I met with them. What struck me the most right from the onset was how each member of their team took personal ownership over our vision. When we decided to contract with Troy Web Consulting, it was clear that we were gaining a partner, not just a company for hire.

We had a discovery meeting and a design meeting, and they designed app screenshots that we could bring with us to our first tradeshow.

From August—January, the MVP was built through a process that included coding, business analytics, ideation, design, and quality assurance.

They built the app and they built a web portal that faces the funeral directors. The app itself is a native mobile Android and iOS product. They helped with design, building the tech, supporting the tech, setting up AWS, Google Firebase, and standing the app up. They delivered it to the App Store as well as Google Play Store. They also provided business analyst services throughout. And when our website needed to be migrated and updated, they were able to provide guidance, design, and execution of that as well.

After the project was completed, Troy Web Consulting offered their newly refurbished office space — plus food and drinks — for a 65-person launch party, free of charge.

Well after the launch, Troy Web Consulting continued their involvement in helping us become successful. Their Director of Marketing and Sales helped connect us with someone we were looking to connect with, and also introduced us to a nonprofit software community. Troy Web Consulting's President offered to help us get to present at a monthly meet up for entrepreneurs and the CEO of Troy Web and I have had numerous productive conversations about business, marketing, sales, and further iterations for my company. 

What is the team composition?

The team they put together for us consisted of a project manager, three coders, a QA specialist, a business analyst, a designer, and oversight by the CEO as well as communication with the president of the company.

How did you come to work with Troy Web Consulting?

We went through multiple interviews with different developers, and it ended up being a lead through someone who I was working with at the time that brought me to call Troy Web Consulting. From my few contacts in the area, they had a reputation of being on the pricey side, but executing projects at a caliber unparalleled in the region.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent $173,000, which included the MVP, Phase 2, and website rescue and redesign.

What is the status of this engagement?

AfterReach® began working with Troy Web Consulting in July 2019, and the relationship between our companies is in good standing and ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Troy Web Consulting takes pride in what they do. Every member of their team takes pride in executing an excellent product. Our clients have remarked on the ease of the functionality, the professional look and feel, and the uncomplicated design. We were proud to share the MVP with our early adopters.

I got phone calls from the President and phone calls from John (CEO), who has given me unsolicited, yet extremely beneficial wisdom because he also has experience as a startup entrepreneur in the tech space. The quality of work is very good, and we have had really good feedback from our clients about it. There were some things that their quality control missed at the onset, but they owned it, apologized for it, and fixed it at no cost. John expressed frustration over that, and he was surprised.

When we launched spirits were high and we had early adopters. Them we received feedback from the early adopters about buttons not doing what we expected it to do, the touchpoints weren’t big enough, some of the navigation in the app was awkward and didn’t make sense, and there was other stuff that didn’t work. However, they fixed everything and we’re happy with the result.

How did Troy Web Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was very good. They had an email that was dedicated and went to everyone who was on my project. They have very transparent communication at that company. There are no silos and no side conversations. Everyone who is involved is involved in every conversation, and at the very least they can see every conversation.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The best part of working with them was how much it felt to me that they really owned the project. I felt like they were people on my team which was remarkable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I do have a criticism, and it was quite a sticking point for a long time with my company investors and members. The original quote that they gave was well below what it ended up costing for the MVP. That said, the reasons were explained to me, and Troy Web did all they could to do right by us, including discounting further work, putting in many uncharged hours, and meeting personally with my investors. 

There was a lot of stress in our company over this. We even considered going with another company for a while, but after Troy Web went above and beyond to help smooth things over, there was a unanimous decision to stay with them; and we are glad that we did.

They not only came through on what they promised, but they went above and beyond, helping tremendously with financing issues and doing work for us even when knowing they weren't going to get paid right away.

Bottom line: they worked with us in a way any company would dream to have another company work with them. As immense as the stress was over the significant jump in price, this ended up as a bump in the road that we were able to get over.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Troy Web Consulting might charge more for what you are looking to do than some other competitors, but understand that you are getting high caliber tech and a high caliber partner when you contract Troy Web Consulting. Take time in the discovery process to make sure you nail-down the price as much as possible. But if you have the funds, you will be grateful that you contracted them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the co-founder and co-president of Advantedge Education, Inc. We specialize in online continuing education for primarily for healthcare professionals. Most of our users are individuals who are seeking licensure in New York state.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Troy Web Consulting?

As a brand-new small business, we needed a marketing website. We also needed a platform for students to access their online learning content. They needed to be able to enroll on their own, receive their grade, complete an evaluation form, and then have access to a certificate of completion. Security was also a concern since our daily data transfer contains very sensitive and personal student information.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Troy Web built our marketing website using a language called ColdFusion. I did the wireframe for the website, but the design was definitely a combined effort. There was quite a bit of back and forth in working with the developers at Troy Web.

They integrated our site using the SCORM Cloud API, which we use to host our courses and track learners’ activity. Once a student passes a course, this triggers a call from SCORM Cloud and a series of tasks. The site prompts the student to complete an electronic evaluation which is required to access their certificate of completion.

Troy Web also built out our student database and a secure daily transfer to The New York State Education Department. They helped us integrate with Braintree software for our credit card processing.

Troy Web also built a basic content management system that allows us to edit the content and add graphics on our site. However, we need to reach out to Troy Web if want to add new pages.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with Jon [CEO, Troy Web Consulting], Mark [Senior Consultant, Troy Web Consulting], and two main developers.

How did you come to work with Troy Web Consulting?

We interviewed a number of companies that I found through Google searches. I also got recommendations from my network in the e-learning industry and from friends. Security was very important to us, and it was obvious that Troy Web agreed. We decided to go with them because we felt they could deliver on security.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $30,000–$40,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working January 2013 and launched in May 2014. They're still helping us manage the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In my former job, we would experience a major server crash of our online course host every year, without fail. The worst crash was so bad it corrupted student data, which was an absolute nightmare. In contrast, our site has been incredibly stable. I can honestly say that with Troy Web and using ColdFusion, we have not had any major server incidents in the past 3 ½ years that we have been live. It has been a very reliable system.

How did Troy Web perform from a project management standpoint?

They are definitely good communicators. We use Assembla for tickets if there is an error or if something that happens that we are unable to resolve on our own. There's definitely ongoing communication, both with the developers and the leadership team. We don't feel like we’ve been abandoned once the site went live. Jon and Mark would reach out from time to time to see how things are going.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I can ask for a list of improvements and when it's returned, I trust that they are completed. That means I don't need to waste my time with excessive testing or going back and forth, which is refreshing. When we get a bug, it's usually fixed within the hour. We are just a team of two, so knowing that our system is reliable and can operate on its own during weekends is a huge relief. They are always incredibly professional, transparent, and detailed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Last year, a 15-year-old from the Philippines who calls himself an ethical hacker let us know that we had a security flaw on our site. He found that someone can enter code [SQL injection] in the data field where we ask for email addresses. On our side, we are not advanced enough to test to make sure that doesn't happen. He was also able to uncover our hosting information. Someone who is an advanced hacker would be able to do a lot with that information.

We brought it up to Troy Web, and they were upset that it had been missed in their testing. My main recommendation for them would be to have better checks and balances during the testing phase prior to the site launch date to prevent something like that from happening again. We were very lucky that nothing happened prior to this discovery by the ethical hacker. And, of course, this issue was resolved immediately by Troy Web and to our satisfaction.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of Applications for an insurance company based in New York State.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Troy Web Consulting?

Our web portals are used by our members, providers and benefit administrators to take advantage of their benefits. We needed to translate these portals from ASP to .NET because ASP is no longer a supported technology for Microsoft. We don't have a large staff on our web team and this is a pretty big project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have about 10 different member portals in particular, and all of those have multiple pages inside them, close to the tune of 100 pages. We needed an organization that could scale up and do those conversions from ASP to .NET in addition to performing the testing for us. The members' side of the project is complete but there are about four additional portals that are following on.

Troy Web Consulting enabled mobile responsive designs for our site so that when viewed on different sized devices, the site actually appears in a friendly manner on the different screen size. We also had them implement WCAG 2.0, which is an accessibility standard. This allowed our sites to be used by people that are visually impaired. The work on this was in parallel to our other project and was done on a much shorter timeline.

What is the team dynamic?

The size of the team varied. We probably had about three to four people when they were figuring out how to approach things, but it can get up to about 10 or 12. 

How did you come to work with Troy Web Consulting?

It was word of mouth, I knew that they existed. We bid this job out to three different organizations. Troy Web Consulting essentially took our raw source code and did an estimate to determine how much work it was and won the bid.

How much have you invested with them?

Probably close to the tune of about $1.3 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in May 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of the number of users, our membership is close to 22 million lives. That's both the subscribers to our health care and their dependents for our vision care.

Their work was primarily translation, but there have been some real improvements. The provider search is one area. This search is used when a member is looking for a doctor or a store that can provide services to them, and this function was improved. People are also excited about the ability to view the portals in a friendly way on their tablets or phones.

How did Troy Web Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good, they were receptive to feedback. They accommodated to changes in scope that crept in there, as often happens with projects like this. At the end of the day, they delivered on the timeline we sought. I will say that our plans were somewhat convoluted, there are a lot of different test cases. It took a while to get from where they thought they were done, to actually closing out defects that had been identified in the testing process. That was a lengthy period.  

We had a weekly status call for all of the stakeholders to participate in. Also, our internal developer was in daily communication with some of the team members that Troy Web had in their office. We do have the benefit of being only about seven or eight miles apart, so we did get together several times over the course of the project to do face to face sessions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say the senior leadership at Troy Web was particularly great. They took a keen interest in the success of the relationship between our organizations. If I ever had to escalate, which was very rare, they were responsive and communicative.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are some lessons learned on both sides that we can leverage to improve the process. A better understanding, on their part, of the complexity of what's available to certain members or groups and how that impacts the behavior of the web portals would have been good. That way, they could have done a more thorough unit testing job prior to giving us the code.