Vantage IO

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a global software provider for the maritime industry. We service about 95% of cruise lines and were growing in the commercial, cargo, and oil and gas sectors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vantage IO?

We needed to build out several aggregated databases to help us analyze data and present it to our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vantage IO provided advanced database design and data warehousing services. They created the foundational architecture for our model using BigQuery for analysis and storage. It’s scalable, so we’ll build upon and advance the database on our own.

What is the team composition?

Vantage IO’s founder led the project, and there were about three data engineers.

How did you come to work with Vantage IO?

The CEO of Vantage IO was my CIO at a previous job. I was aware of the company’s technical credibility, so I chose to partner with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $25,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from January–March 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With the help of Vantage IO, we established a foundation that can support our future expansion. Also, the database validated some of our assumptions about our industry. With that information, we’ve been able to allocate our talent and establish priorities, focusing on the more promising services. The database has really laid the groundwork for our business to grow.

How did Vantage IO perform from a project management standpoint?

The founder is a genius. He’s skilled in a variety of technologies, and he leads a team of engineers that are just as intelligent. We had an excellent experience. They used our initial requirements to inform a collection of project documents and a timeline. Throughout the entirety of the project, they never missed a deadline. In terms of communication, we mainly spoke with engineers over the phone and sent emails as necessary.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re experts. Vantage IO has the unique ability to quickly understand a broad idea or vision and the complex technical elements needed to bring it to life.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From our perspective, there aren’t any improvements to be made. They executed at a very high level, so we don’t have any complaints or negative feedback.

Any advice for potential customers?

Clients should leverage Vantage IO’s expertise. Approach them with difficult challenges because they have the internal capability to complete the necessary technical work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the SVP at Forest Travel.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vantage IO?

We had developed our own CRM but we couldn’t pull data from the CRM and create advanced reporting to be able to utilize the large amounts of complex data that we had in the CRM. These skills were beyond what we could do in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vantage IO provided data warehousing services to improve data reporting. They analyzed our data needs: what types of information we needed, what data we needed to extract from the CRM, and the different possible ways we wanted to manipulate and see that data. Then they debugged and optimized our database structure and created our entire data warehouse. They improved queries and performance and provided consulting support on data architecture for future reporting needs. They created the top 10 reports that we needed and consulted with us on how to create additional reports.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with the owner and there were three to five developers on our project.

How did you come to work with Vantage IO?

I’ve known their owner for many years since he was a partner at another company that was partly owned by my brother. When I found out that he had started Vantage IO, I kept in contact with them. It was a straightforward decision to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together for about a year from mid-2016 to mid-2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Vantage IO, we're able to see data that we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to see. It’s extremely important for us to have that information for our decision-making processes for hiring, firing, improving, or even our marketing performance. We didn't have it until we did this project with them.

How did Vantage IO perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via Slack on a daily basis and had weekly meetings and calls. We also met in person every month or every other month.

One of the biggest things that we look for when we outsource services is that they can deliver on deadlines. We have strict contracts with big penalties if vendors don’t deliver. They delivered and never had to pay any penalties.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really understand the real needs, not just what they're being asked for. At multiple points, we gave them our requirements and they took the time to dig in to analyze more deeply what we actually needed—they were able to provide better, more efficient solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It was the only time in my life that I didn't have any complaints about a vendor.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be stubborn. You’ll come into a project thinking that you know what you need. But if you give them the freedom to analyze the requirements deeply, they have the ability to come up with better solutions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a digital marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vantage IO?

We wanted to develop reporting automation and a custom integration with a private Google API. We were looking to more effectively harvest data in order to improve our reporting and attribution processes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial specification was to pull Google My Business insights from the Google My Business API into our own private dashboard. In the past, we’ve had issues with other developers that accessed the API as they weren’t able to extract data in the way we wanted. When we began work with Vantage IO, the first test we gave them was to connect to the API, spit the data into our own database, and then visualize it. They passed that test with flying colors.

We’ve iteratively expanded the project. The scope is now well beyond taking data and visualizing it. We have automation features built in, and predictive analytics coming out soon.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Sam (CEO, Vantage IO).

How did you come to work with Vantage IO?

We conducted a long search for developers and I interviewed over 25 options. We were looking for those with specializations in data visualization, predictive analytics, and working with APIs. Vantage IO was referred to us.

After the initial interviews, we gave the same test to three of those options. Vantage was the only one that was able to complete it in the timeframe, which was key.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Without their solution, we wouldn’t have been able to grow the way we did in the last year. I have no doubt that, without Vantage, we would have had to hire more people in-house. It would have prevented us from bidding competitively on some of our larger accounts. Their work significantly reduced the overheads to run our business. In that sense, the payback has been enormous.

We’ve just brought on one of our largest enterprise accounts to date. A huge part of our success in winning that account was the functionality Vantage developed. That’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in net benefit for us. To this day, it’s only getting better. We've had successes in all areas thanks to them.

How did Vantage IO perform from a project management standpoint?

I believe that project management isn’t just on the project manager. It’s also on the person who’s authorizing the project. For that reason, I work closely with Sam. I put together a rough list of things I want to accomplish, which he reviews and scopes out. We collectively plan the immediate tasks. Then, at the end of every month, we review the previous month’s progress.

If there are any larger or longer-term tasks, we work out how they can be achieved. It’s been nice to work with somebody who appreciates the long-term aspects of the project but is also able to see what is immediately required. Sam’s really good about navigating us through that, and the whole process is reciprocal.

Sam uses Trello to manage the project. Whenever we’re talking, he has the Trello board up and we move things around. We don’t use time-tracking software, as our relationship is built on more trust than that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team challenges our ideas to make sure that they’re feasible and reasonable. It’s refreshing and impressive to work with a team that doesn’t just take my idea and immediately do it. They force me to think about what I want to accomplish more thoroughly.

Beyond that, they’re quick. If Sam says something will take two weeks, he has it completed in 13 days. There are sometimes unforeseen circumstances, but for the most part, we’re on a really good cycle. Every 30 days we’re able to check off 80%–90% of the month’s tasks.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their strength is in development, programming, and developing functionality. The only area on which I’ve given Sam notes for improvement is UI design elements.

Our project is focused more on the functions and less on the form. The design we have now is serviceable, but we would want to improve it. They’re good at design, but it’s not their specialty. They’re working on it though—they just brought on a new UI person.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No.