Umbrella IT

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

Generally speaking, we tend to retain Umbrella talent more than other firms. While I’ve had to cut back and even close the contracts of other companies we work with, we view the Umbrella team as part of our team. They’ve grown with us and we’ve given them an opportunity to learn, and they’ve pitched into help well beyond just in engineering. We’ve shared a very close partnership, as a result.

For example, one of their project managers filled in as a product manager for a few months while we were looking to backfill, and they did an excellent job of building relationships with our stakeholders. Another one of their engineers has been with us for 4-5 years and was recently promoted to a more senior technical role in our company; he’s really grown in the role and it shows. Overall, they tend to focus on solutions and outcomes more than just tickets. They’re not just an outsource firm for us, they’re intricately involved in our process from planning all the way to execution.

How did Umbrella IT perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve time-shifted their work to be available during the day for us even though they’re remote. It’s very beneficial and has helped with communication but also with building the team as a cohesive unit. They attend standups, meetings with our users to explain how things work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They bend over backward to give us what we need when we need it. They’ve been flexible with scheduling and even rates, at times, where we need to make rapid swings and changes in talent as business fluctuates. With other partners, during those same times, had a lot of friction in the process. It was totally different from Umbrella. Our account manager would come out and visit Russia to visit us and ask what we needed and would find a way to do it. It’s something I haven’t seen with our other providers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At this point, things are pretty good. There was a time when one of the other providers had a local presence in the states and they were able to send staff on-site to work side by side with our team. It would be great if Umbrella would consider providing the same option.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice, if it’s a non-technical organization, is to have reasonable expectations for hiring engineering personnel. Honestly, Umbrella is one of the easier firms to work with. They can work effectively in a fixed scope or augmentation model. If they’re in a fixed scope project, make sure they have clear requirements and expectations. If they’re in an augmentation model, then make sure there are no communication barriers.

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

I expect to see an impact within the next two weeks. We’re opening up to users for business acceptance testing very soon.

How did Umbrella IT perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very professional and their communication is very good. The level of their project management expertize is very high and uses best practices. The method I like to use is scrum agile and they’re very in line with that. Early on, I worked out the velocity and agreed upon principals of development and scope.

We use Teamwork with Kanban style boards, as well as Teamwork Chat. We also use video conferencing every day. I have a standup with them in the morning and throughout the day we’re in contact via Teamwork, email, and chat for more urgent questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their quality, expertize, and attention to detail is very high. I’ve worked with many developers and companies and they rank amongst the best over the past 15 years. I’m pleasantly surprised by the quality of their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be slightly more confident and forthright with their opinions and giving feedback to improve the product and the processes. They were quite reluctant to do that initially. It was more instructional. I did speak with them about wanting their feedback and the fact that we’re a team, regardless if they’re offshore. More recently, they’ve been a lot more responsive in that sense, which I appreciate.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very specific with your requirements. There’s going to be a language barrier, but it hasn't had much of an impact on us as the person I deal with speaks fantastic English. We brought her and the CTO over for a week, which was very helpful.

Creating a prototype also helps speed things along. I definitely recommend doing that because it cuts down on documentation and unnecessary requirement gathering. It allows them to go ahead and do what you need them to do.

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

The feedback is good. We're satisfied with their work and have come up with more ideas. 

Many companies use the same kind of form and claim to offer the same service, but our platform actually shows results. Once a user creates an account, we show them a rough estimate of their property's worth. Users like that they don’t feel cheated after clicking through a lot of pages and giving their personal information.

How did Umbrella IT perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job. We’re happy with the project management. We have Skype calls once every one or two weeks; most of our other communication is through email and Skype. They’re always available and they understand our project. 

Our project manager has been around from the beginning until now, which isn't common. He knows the details of the project, always asks about our plans and is always available through text or email. Since he knows what's going on, I don’t have to catch up with him if we haven’t been in touch. They obviously want to utilize their resources but are still interested in the build.

In the middle of the project, we had some problems and weren’t satisfied with their progress. I called our project manager on a Saturday and he sorted it out by Monday. They worked during the weekend to build what we wanted.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Since they're a big company with lots of resources, they can quickly change developers without affecting quality. Our main developer became unavailable within a month, but the project manager alerted us and found a replacement from their staff of 120. 

Our current developer is amazing, and I’m confident that it will remain this way. This is an important advantage for small companies that might depend totally on Umbrella IT. Even though they're a contractor, I don’t feel exposed to risk.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could communicate and brief us on tasks better, but those are minor issues that come up during every project. Their performance is impressive.