u2i

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of Citymart. Our company provides SAAS services to domestic and international municipal governments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with u2i?

At the start of 2016, we decided to transition from human services to product-based services. Our digital product aimed to address the user and market needs we’d been serving offline. Since we didn't have an internal tech team, we needed a vendor to develop this software from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our internal team designed the original concept. We used customer interviews to assess potential iterations. u2i designed and developed the entire architecture from scratch. They continuously help us prioritize feature development and advise us on architecture choices.

The team formulated the original platform's feature set and UX/UI. Once we were on the right track, they planned an ideal development strategy. They helped us navigate the unique challenges of launching a company.

Municipal governments can use our platform as a web app to design and deliver better public service projects. Our product is a single server built on an SQL database with a conventional three-tiered architecture. There’s a single API in the browser-based client application. The server code is written in JavaScript and Node.js.

The team’s agile thinking helped us solicit useful feedback at an early stage. Our investors conducted due diligence for QA purposes. Getting users in the system within three months was a critical milestone. We formally launched the software in May 2017 with a limited group of pilot clients. The official announcement came out by that October. The ongoing development aims to consistently improve the product. u2i skillfully leverages our existing assets to create new features that validate our business needs.

What is the team composition?

We’ve built a strong relationship with their developers, project management, and leadership. The CEO is conveniently located nearby in New York. On average, three developers from u2i were dedicated to our project. There were minor fluctuations as the pace increased. At one point, we scaled up to five resources. We integrated their developers into our internal data science team.

How did you come to work with u2i?

Our head of product was referred to u2i. They’ve worked with several startups during periods of rapid expansion. This experience uniquely qualified them for our project requirements.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $250,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2016 and have a substantial volume of ongoing tasks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their deliverables has been excellent. Our product works well as a collaboration tool. The architecture, coding, design, and use cases are all high-quality. Public procurement is a heavily bureaucratic process. Our government clients usually work with antiquated legacy systems and are rarely exposed to SAAS technology. They’ve indicated that our product is beautifully designed and delightful to use. Just last weekend at SXSW, the U.S. Conference of Mayors held a competition for new government technology solutions. We won the second-place prize.

u2i’s invaluable strategic input accounts for the entire scope and potential impact. Their work has been integral to our success. We value their qualified and trustworthy opinions. They calibrated our project to maximize ROI. During our budget consideration process, they showed a vested interest in cultivating sustainable growth. They’re consistently reliable in the face of difficulty and never try to upsell their services.

How did u2i perform from a project management standpoint?

Since the team is permanent, it was critical to foster a strong, functional partnership. u2i advised our team on best practices for regular stand-ups, information flow, communication tools, and channels. It's been a deeply collaborative effort with upfront communication. They carefully planned and organized each task. Proactively flagging errors helps them promptly detect lags in pace. Engineers spot issues even outside their designated roles.

A unique level of internal transparency preempts unexpected circumstances. They encourage resources to voice questions or concerns. A high staff retention rate preempts continual onboarding expenses. They're our first contractor to conduct annual reviews with the CEO. The whole team excels at dynamic collaboration. After thoughtfully considering our feedback, they deftly implement our requests.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We've used a variety of contractors for different types of services. u2i’s willingness to think beyond the next six-month invoice sets them apart. Their intentionally limited clientele makes for a stronger relationship than I ever expected. The team maintains an outstanding, long-term perspective. Unwavering consistency is one of their strongest attributes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Cultivate trust within your relationship. Sharing both your technology and business strategy will maximize their consultation value. When comparing them to other vendors, consider the strategic value of a partner who works more like a co-founder than a contractor in their depth of engagement. They have substantial value to offer. We didn't need to dedicate as many internal resources as anticipated. They excel in project management and care about client success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We guide our clients through a streamlined process, including a full-scale financial analysis, for evaluating and choosing the best PEO option

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with u2i?

The analysis we do on behalf of our prospects is very tedious and time-consuming, so we started working with u2i to build a technology that will make this process easier and more efficient.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave them a general outline of what we were looking for in hope that they could provide insight to ensure the new output was as clean as the original.  The idea was to replicate our current process, that uses multiple Windows-based products, through a streamlined digital platform.

I believe they’ve used Ruby on Rails, but I’m not sure. There are more parts to our process that we plan on using them for because we think they’ll have a positive impact in terms of making our workflow more efficient. It’s become apparent that they have what it takes to leverage technology in a way that will have the same positive effect on the rest of our business.

What is the team composition?

We have one coder who we interact with on a regular basis that is lead on the project.  We’ve also engaged with other team members who offer different areas of expertise (e.g. design), as well as two or three others who have helped out when needed. 

How did you come to work with u2i?

They came referred to us through a business relationship.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $30,000.

What is the status of the engagement?

They mostly provide development services right now, but I anticipate involving them in the design once we’re finished. We want to get everything built to our liking and look at the actual design work first. I have no doubt that they have the capability to deliver.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I couldn’t be happier. What they’ve been able to achieve in the time we’ve worked together has blown me away. It’s a game changer.

How did u2i perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is fantastic. They utilize some tools that were originally unfamiliar to me, but we’ve since started using them and they’ve worked very well. We use Slack and Kanban for most of our communication. We also have video chats once or twice a week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re great to work with and very responsive. They’re fun and personable, as well as very good at what they do. Building the technology has been that much more enjoyable because I like the people I’m working with. They’re in Poland, but the time difference hasn’t been a problem. The communication (both verbal and written) is superb. Their quality of work is top-notch and they’re happy to accommodate changes and are eager to please.  It’s been a wonderful experience overall. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The engagement has been everything I’d hoped it would be and more.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should just give them a chance. There are a lot of choices out there, but in terms of overall spend and quality of work, you can’t do better than u2i. You could probably get someone to do it for less, but you’re going to be giving up a lot. Similarly, you could do it with someone a bit closer proximity-wise, but you’ll end up spending a lot more. You just can’t get better value for the price. Also, if you think it’s going to take three months, you should probably plan on six. That’s probably a smart way to approach just about anything that you’re doing in life, but especially with technology.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder and chief product officer of Kinvolved. We’re a startup focused on elevating K-12 student attendance by way of family engagement. I work with developers every day in technical management and roadmap development. I also work with our internal team on rolling out the software to our clients, while managing our customer success team and customer questions as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with u2i?

Hiring an internal engineering team is really expensive, along with the vetting of the engineers and the technical challenges. I’ve also advised teams that aren’t technical themselves but are building tech products that outsourcing is a suitable option to build out your early years of software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

u2i maintains our full software, handling both the frontend and backend of our mobile and a web app. We’re very analytics heavy and report oriented, and work in a highly regulated industry in education technology of K-12 students. There’s been an eye towards maintaining security and data privacy with analytics and communication oriented companies. u2i has done a lot of work in the routing of communications and attendance data.

What is the team dynamic?

I work directly with the engineers and the team from u2i. We have about four engineers, and the team is able to scale up and down depending on our needs, all within reasonable notice to Tom, their CEO, and his COO. We had a frontend specialist work with us for a few weeks just to get more UI/UX [user interface/user experience] features out the door. At the same time, if we needed more DevOps support, it was easy to get a specialist on board.

How did you come to work with u2i?

Our relationship has changed over time. They started working with us through a referral. One of my advisor’s mentors suggested that I reach out to them for technical support because he saw that we were spending all of our revenue towards hiring engineers. As an early stage startup, it’s hard to build a business, especially in technology. So to save capital and to test the minimum viable product, he suggested I talk to Tom to see how they could help us.

Now, it has really evolved into a more organic, collaborative, and symbiotic relationship. I have no idea how we do it given that they’re in Poland and I’m in New York City. I looked into contractors locally and at hiring engineers. While u2i is not the cheapest outsourcing firm that I’ve come across, it’s certainly more affordable than having local in-house developers.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2015 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been a really effective and collaborative outsourcing agency and are critical to our success. They’ve helped us scale our software significantly in the past two years. I’ve worked with other outsourced agencies before, and from those experiences, I was definitely really jaded in my opinion about outsourcing developers.

I’ve only worked with one other good development firm in my career. u2i definitely stands out over the other development firms and they’re really fair and flexible regarding billing. I’ve worked with firms in the past that are literally to the hour and to the dollar, and take advantage of the clients in terms of estimates for future work. u2i is the opposite and it doesn’t even feel like they’re an outsourced team. They feel like they’re my engineers, the only difference being the distance.

How did u2i perform from a project management standpoint?

It was a bit of challenge with our former scrum master; she wasn’t the most organized person, but in terms of technical product management, she’s really a detail-oriented person that understands development. I addressed our struggle with Tom, and now we have a new project scrum master that has been a lot better.

For anyone looking for a development firm, it’s important to really understand who is going to be the on-site project manager for your software and have references for them. It’s essential to have someone that is very detail oriented and organized. We’ve worked together to make sure we’re on time for deadlines, so that’s never been a problem, and they’re also very communicative if there is a challenge.

Sometimes, scheduling is a complication due to time zone differences and different holidays between the two companies. I’ve had to learn how to be flexible and plan our future priorities more strategically.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Overall, I’m really satisfied with them. I take the referral process really seriously, and I’ve recommended them to colleagues and friends. I know how hard it is to find a good outsourced firm.

Early in 2012, we worked with another outsourcing firm that was pretty horrific, so I was very hesitant to work with another one. Tom, however, had an engineer come over to the U.S. with him to really understand our business needs. I spent a few days with them talking about our concerns, our problems areas, where we see the business going, and its technical needs.

Then, Tom had their team work on a technically complicated project free of charge. We started to build trust during that initial project, and from there, I had two engineers that I would pay on a monthly contract that we could cancel at any time. Tom and his team were really flexible about that, which made me comfortable that if this relationship didn’t work out, it was not the end of the world and there were no contractual obligations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The general nature of the time zone difference is challenging and holiday scheduling is really hard as well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At-Your-Service Software markets, sells, and designs software for the foodservice industry, including restaurants, caterers, corporate feeders, and food stores. Anybody involved in recipes and food costing are potential users of our software.

It’s an inventory food-costing system that doesn’t include a full suite of what a restaurant might use (i.e. no accounting or point-of-sale), so it’s a niche piece of software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with u2i?

We were migrating from a desktop app to the cloud and needed a brand-new company to work with. Our previous software was Windows-based—and 25 years old.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

u2i went through our existing desktop app and decided which frameworks to use to help us reach our goal. They understood the types of devices we wanted to be on and started coding the application based on the specifications we gave them.

We did engage a UI consultant to help us with the interface, so it hasn’t been all u2i.

What is the team dynamic?

There are roughly three programmers, a Scrum master who is part-time, and sometimes Tom [President, u2i] gets involved. He was part of the early meetings and has been called in a couple of times to help with questions when things get tricky.

How did you come to work with u2i?

We used another provider before u2i, and the project failed miserably. 

We talked to a couple of companies after that, including u2i. We liked everything we saw from u2i. The other companies weren’t anywhere near where they were in terms of skills and qualifications. We’re a small company and didn’t need much time to make the decision.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working them in August 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve released the product, and with Agile development, we can continue to release updates. Our goal was to come out with something we could sell as early as possible so we could get some money and feedback.

Since it’s just been released, we don’t have any metrics. We’ve gone through beta testing and have some users through that. The feedback has been positive.

How did u2i perform from a project management standpoint?

Their processes are well-honed and well-defined. We have daily meetings with them on the phone. There’s a Scrum master who makes sure everyone is on the same page and jumps in when he has to. The level of management, the skill level of their team, and the fact that they all buy into it really helps. We’ve learned to trust the team and engage in that process as well.

When they introduced a new person, he integrated smoothly into the process and ran by the same rules. They get it, know what it means, and deploy it very nicely.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very thorough in their communication. The toolkits they use to manage the product are sophisticated, and they deploy them very well. There’s no language barrier, which we had with the previous vendor. The president is a down-to-earth guy, which was not the case with the previous company.

They don’t get defensive if there’s a problem. They admit it or tell you what happened, and we talk about it. It’s a mature discussion. They are clearly trained in the process—not just programming languages. There’s feedback and they find solutions to problems. That makes it easier because everyone works as a team and by the rules. We’ve adapted to their rules because we were used to desktop software, and this is different.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a few things we’ve had differences about. Sometimes, the process is too procedural. It can slow things down when we’ve just had to get something done. There’s been times I’ve had to insist that they be a little bit to be more flexible.

Once in a while, they make minor mistakes, and we have to look at the process. Overall, however, there have been no problems with the company.