VERNA

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a startup managed services provider based in the UK. We're also working on becoming a cloud provider. We have around 10 employees at the moment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with VERNA?

At times, our marketing team has brought us business for which we don't have the resources. We may not have certain engineering skills or other expertise, so we've made a strategic partnership with VERNA.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

VERNA has completed a FreeSWITCH voice project for one of our clients. We have in-house expertise for this open-source technology, but it wasn't enough to undertake the project. VERNA assigned one engineer who handled the project from the start. Our account manager and technical team were also involved, so we've worked together as one company.

We don't have a full network operations center, but we do have skillful DevOps engineers. Our first and second line support people aren't enough for bigger projects sometimes, so we've made a partnership with VERNA for this type of work. We've also recently quoted them a PHP development project.

We're also working on becoming a small cloud provider, for which we need level-one support. We are planning to start using VERNA for this at the beginning of 2017.

How did you come to work with VERNA?

I found VERNA on Upwork, researched their company and contacted their account manager.

How much have you invested with VERNA?

The cost of VERNA's work has been between $3,000 and $5,000 for one of our projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with VERNA a year and a half ago, and have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

As a startup, we're focusing mainly on our business and marketing, so we haven't gathered a lot of feedback on VERNA's results.

How did VERNA perform from a project management standpoint?

We have used email, Skype and Viber for our communication with VERNA's account manager, who was responsible for assigning the work. It wasn't an ideal approach from my perspective, but we were still testing our collaboration. VERNA's engineers tracked his tasks on a timesheet and that was communicated by our account manager to the client. We didn't use any specialized tracking tools.

What did you find most impressive about VERNA?

Beyond the fact that VERNA has been professional overall, I can't state anything.

Are there any areas VERNA could improve?

Things can always be improved for any business, but VERNA has been a professional partner for us.