Vault Innovation

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

We get the most compliments on the solution's design and usability. People love how it looks. They want to be on the platform, or playing around with the app, because it's easy to use. They like the simplicity of it, and that they can find what they’re looking for.

While we had a clear idea of what functionality we wanted to offer, Vault Innovation helped us map out how to make simple for teachers to navigate. I’d assumed that the technology was going to be a barrier because it's a new way of building curriculum. They did an amazing job in building it out in a very user-friendly way. They really pushed us to not include a bunch of bells and whistles on our first development phase. They thought through every aspect to determine if we need to build it now or if it’s something to consider adding down the road.

How did Vault Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager is phenomenal. She's always on top of things and quick to respond. She’s excellent at defining what needs to happen during each phase. If she doesn't understand something, she doesn’t hesitate to get us on the phone with the engineers so we can speak directly. Having her serve as the liaison streamlines the process and makes it easy to work together.

The workflow is efficient and doesn't require a lot of check-ins. We’ll do quick talks to share progress reports and updates on when things are done. We had in-person meetings during the discovery phase, but generally we communicate over phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They make us feel like we have an internal technology team. It’s not just about creating the largest scope possible, which would cost a lot of money. Their whole team is interested in how their technology can help us meet our business goals. It's been an amazing experience, and I would highly recommend them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was some miscommunication and other issues at the beginning of the engagement. However, they’re incredibly responsive any time I've had an issue. Jeff will get on a call with me right away and try to fix it. Any problems are addressed immediately, and shifts are made to make sure they don't happen again.

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

We work with senior executives in high-profile companies. Minimum viable products were not an option for us. The products had to be polished and functional at the outset, which they achieved.

What they produced is better on every dimension than any comparable product I’ve seen. We have a competitor that contracted a software provider to build them a similar tool. They’ve had all sorts of problems, for example, with automating a specific part of the tool. They hadn’t achieved this after nine months whereas, with Vault, we had developed the very same capabilities in one week.

The clients really like it. Anecdotally, I was in an off-site client meeting at which I administered a survey to the team with the platform. The CEO hadn’t taken it yet when he arrived. When he asked his CTO if he could do it on his phone, the CTO responded yes, it works very well on mobile. I couldn't call the Vault team fast enough to tell them about that little bit of client feedback. Everybody was really happy to hear that.

How did Vault perform from a project management standpoint?

Much of our communication has been virtual and phone based. At key milestones when the work is particularly complex, we have alignment meetings to talk through the needs and approach so they can translate that into code. We had 3-4 of those meetings. We also recently set up a private Slack channel to communicate with them.

They have systems to track all of the details of the builds, and they input updates into our tracking software. They definitely exceeded my expectations in terms of how fast they were able to localize problems and fix them. They've been extremely responsive when there were bugs once we went live. Eddie stays on top of things. I don't feel like I have to micromanage or track their delivery. They deliver on time, on budget.

They are very accurate in their budget estimates. They employ a very simple pricing approach that makes things easy for me to estimate on my end as well. There haven’t been any surprises in terms of scope creep or ballooning budgets, which is really important to us as it can have a big impact on our operations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the things I think is really distinctive about Vault is their emphasis on the design aspects. I think a lot of software shops are good at the coding, but they may not have a sense for the design aesthetic or the judgments about what will work with different kinds of users. For Vault, I think this comes largely from Jeffrey [CEO and Founder], who brings that sensibility and embeds it into everything they do. They focus on design while being reliable and solid on the coding. Working with Vault, I know I will get something that’s designed well and works.

They have been very reasonable in terms of their costs given the quality that I've receive. My co-founder worked in India for seven years and always pushes me to offshore work for lower rates. Vault is priced so competitively that I don’t feel a need to even think about that. They run a lean operation and I respect that.

I definitely intend to continue to partner with them. They’re nice people and I like working with them.