Vilantis

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Public Institution Lithuanian Innovation Centre (LIC) is a non-profit organisation, providing innovation support services to enterprises, research institutions, industry associations and business support organisations. LIC provides public (free of charge) innovation support services and promotes innovation culture in Lithuania.

Lithuanian Innovation Centre activities are organised on the project basis. LIC takes part in various tenders, calls for proposals announced by the European Union, other international organisations and Lithuanian Government. Activities are carried out and services provided after the applications are approved and financial support is ensured.

Each year LIC on average provides 5000 cases of services (consultations, trainings, researches, technological missions) for more than 1000 clients (business enterprises and research institutions). I am an Expert at the Lithuanian Innovation Centre.

I work mainly in the field of innovation policy, implementing various national and international initiatives aimed at fostering an efficient and effective national innovation ecosystem. My activities include the analysis and monitoring of economic indicators, innovation indicators and indices, analytical studies and policy recommendations.

For what projects/services did your company hire Vilantis, and what were your goals?

The Lithuanian Innovation Centre participated in the national GovTech Challenge Series, where it submitted its challenge "How to evaluate science-business collaboration in terms of knowledge exploitation efficiency?". The proposed challenge was selected as one of the winners. The challenge aimed to address a twofold problem.

Firstly, in Lithuania, the lack of business-science collaboration and knowledge transfer are among the biggest issues in the national innovation ecosystem. On the other hand, evidence-based policymaking and monitoring are among the key objectives of modern public policy.

Understanding the need to promote science-business cooperation and evidence-based policy creation, the Lithuanian Innovation Center initiated the project which would allow us to combine these two seemingly different concepts. Our initial project's main goal was to acquire an IT tool, which would allow us to process various data and visualize obtained results, so we could analyse science and business cooperation in Lithuania and prepare evidence-based policy recommendations.

Therefore, the tool to be developed had to have the following functionalities:

• The tool had to be able to collect and accumulate different information about different research and study organizations and different knowledge created by them:
• The tool had to use artificial intelligence to link created knowledge with economic sectors;
• The tool had to be able to visualize created links among SRO, their created knowledge and economic sectors, with the most significant potential to use it.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

The GovTech initiative consists of two parts. Firstly, there is an idea selection phase and secondly, there is an open negotiation. The Lithuanian Innovation Centre chose Vilantis in the first stage when three possible solutions were presented to the challenge by three different businesses. The solution and suggestion on how to further develop the tool they presented clearly was the best.

The company has shown a good grasp of the challenge we have set, and the links established between research and education institutions and the economic sectors are quite accurate. Moreover, the approach used to display and present the information was very innovative and understandable for the average user.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The work was divided into two separate parts. First, the company created a prototype of the prototype, which was presented to us. We then had a second phase where we had discussions with VIlantis on how the tool could be further improved and what would be important from our side.

During this stage, VIlantis engaged with various organizations to collect relevant data for our tool, while at the same time they were working on the development of AI, tool software and design. The final result was the prototype to monitor knowledge transfer between science and business.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were 4 people in the core team, including a project manager, software developers and designers.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Today we have a fully functional prototype to analyse and monitor the potential for knowledge transfer in Lithuania. The tool is publicly available and can be used by anyone. The tool is partially automated, as some of the information is automatically collected in the tool. The tool also uses machine learning to create the most accurate possible links between research organisations and economic sectors.

Finally, the tool also has an innovative data display mechanism that presents the information in an understandable way.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Project management and communication was very easy. With the VIlantis team, we would occasionally make short calls to talk about the progress of the project. We also had regular physical meetings where the VIlantis team presented the work that had been done and the next steps to be taken.

Finally, we also interacted with VIlantis representatives in an informal setting at various events, where we also talked about the project and potential future activities.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The most impressive thing about the company is its willingness to cooperate and communicate, although they are not obliged to do so. Even after the project ended, the VIlantis team stayed in touch with us and continued to improve our tool according to our requests. The company has also shared its experience and knowledge with other institutions that were interested in the project.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The company could seek to improve communication in the field of technology and IT. In some cases, it has been difficult for people who do not have IT knowledge to understand what the company's representatives want to say or what has been done.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CTO of a recruitment technology company. We’re building and launching a new self-service platform with a lot of modern functionalities, such as cognitive capabilities.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vilantis?

We required Vilantis’ help to build an AI matching system to be part of our micro-service infrastructure.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vilantis has been helping us develop the system we needed. They’re in charge of everything, from data collection and modeling to system development and AI training management. As for the technology stack, they’re using Python and complementing it with React for the frontend.

Vilantis started helping us from scratch. Initially, they evaluated our thesis, corrected it to make it business-feasible, and revisited the data we had already collected. Then, we discussed how we should model and work with this data and how we should apply it to the system, which they then started developing. The system is now complete.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with four people from Vilantis: two data scientists, one Microsoft Azure expert, and a dedicated software engineer.

How did you come to work with Vilantis?

I was referred to one of their founders by someone from the general data science community.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between €30,000–€40,000 (approximtely $30,000–$40,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the engagement in January 2022, and it is still ongoing. The system is ready, but they're still providing maintenance services.

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

We have different KPIs attached to our platform, which the system developed by Vilantis directly supports. One of those is our data accuracy. Thanks to this system, we can correctly arrange and categorize users’ work positions, no matter how they describe themselves.

How did Vilantis perform from a project management standpoint?

Vilantis has delivered everything on time and even ahead of time. Their estimates are very accurate because they’ve also delivered within budget. We have scheduled biweekly meetings, but we also have ad hoc daily communication for problem-solving. We use Microsoft Azure DevOps for project management and Microsoft Teams for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Vilantis’ business analysis, project scoping, communication, and compliance to their estimations are of high quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great if Vilantis offered more streamlined communication. As a CTO, I have back-to-back meetings all day, so it would be helpful if we could discuss things straight to the point.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be open to having your ideas questioned, and let them provide possible solutions for what you’re trying to achieve.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Illuminati Instruments, headquartered in California, USA.

For what projects/services did your company hire Vilantis, and what were your goals?

We hired Vilantis to develop iOS and Android apps for our Bluetooth light & color meters. We needed an app that managed multiple BLE connections, performed complex color science math, and provided an intuitive user interface for both novice and expert photographers.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We needed a group that was easy to work with. We needed them to be able to take our vague UX deign and covert it to something professional. They needed to implement complex math accurately and to gracefully manage multiple BLE error conditions and implement our proprietary protocol. We also needed them to be flexible as we were developing our product at the same time.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They managed the project from start (concept sketches and flowcharts) to the final release to Apple and Android stores. The project required a lot of custom Bluetooth code and connection handling. They also had to create a number of custom UX elements to mimic traditional light meters as well as custom 2D chart elements and readouts. They had us group features and organized them into sprints. Every sprint ended with a functional app release. Each release was feature complete and very stable code. We confidently could show any release to customers.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with a project manager and lead software developer. As needed, we would also interact with UX and graphics designers.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The first app was launched in 6 months, on schedule and within budget. The app was very stable from day 1 and looked quite good. What more could you ask for?

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Despite being eight time zones apart, we communicated a lot, mostly by email and video calls. They also made extensive use of Jira for managing bugs and feature requests.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

For the size of the team, their processes were very well defined and professional. We always knew what they were working on, how long it would take, and what to expect. Every app release was very stable and nearly bug-free.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Our only complaint was that sometimes they were delays due to conflicts with other projects. Our schedule was flexible so this wasn't a big problem. They were very up-front about their ability to meet any schedule deadlines and did their best to accommodate our requests.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Lithuanian Sea Museum is a republican museum, a state budget institution under the authority of the Ministry of Culture. The Museum is situated in Kopgalis, the northernmost end of the range of dunes of the Curonian Spit, where the Curonian Spit peninsula, stretching for 98 km, ends and Klaipėda Seaport gate opens up. In the late 19th century, the Nerija fort was constructed in Kopgalis, which was almost entirely demolished during World War II. In 1979, the Nerija fort was restored and adapted for the needs of the Museum.

The Museum collects, keeps, explores, preserves, restores and promotes museum valuables reflecting the history of navigation of Lithuania and the diversity of marine nature. Diverse expositions are arranged using the state-of-art technologies and modern ways of conveying information. Thus multifunctional educational and research activities are developed more actively. Andra Lukosiene: I'm specialist in the Department of Public relation and Marketing

For what projects/services did your company hire Vilantis, and what were your goals?

Development of the app, providing more targeted information to visitors. The IT part and the for the implementation of the design. The main goal was to create the attractive service that presents the history of Lithuanian navigation.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Market research, recommendations.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The work was planned, discussed and the result was implemented from the beggining till the result.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Two leading specialist and designers. (IT)

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Attention to detail, punctuality, thoroughness, excellent client collaboration skills, result orientation. The app is used by museum visitors. The museum annually gets nearly half a million visitors.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Project management was easygoing. Implementation of the project parts also deadlines were initiated by the developers.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We were impressed with their flexibility and commitment to achieve our goals.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Who does not work, is not mistaken.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm company founder and managing Director. We are a tourism company working in Lithuania and providing variuos leisure and travel services, providing nowhere other seen leisure acitivities.

For what projects/services did your company hire Vilantis, and what were your goals?

In time of COVID-19 pandemic, we started looking into ways how to provide guided tourism services, while maintaining mandatory social distancing. For this idea came up to develop a mobile guide with Augmented reality capabilities.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We had open selection, contacting variuos companies, providing initial idea and asking to provide what they could do in our provided budget. We selected company by looking at price and provided services ratio.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

In general we had multiple step way. First we started with initial selection, then we had an online meeting when I gave ideas and what I would like to receive from the project. Then after some time Vilantis provided a plan, which we approved and all programming work started. During this period we were in constant communication, until we received beta testing version and then final release.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We were in touch mostly with company Director, then most of the time with Project manager and sometimes with Head engineer. But as I know company allocated at least 3 to 5 people to develop the project.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

In general first measureable were the mobile application it self. It took a bit longer time, but aiming to top quality, extra time was necessary. At the moment application is only launched, but in two weeks we already have almost 500 active users and positive response from users.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Overall everything was perfect. Initially we planned to launch project by April and latest by May. But on the way there were some issues with iOS version, for this extra time was needed. This wasn't bad as my goal was top-level quality product and Vilantis delivered that. Communication was always perfect - we used Google hangouts, email and even Facebook messengers. Responsible person was always in touch and it was great!

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Company no matter what is the situation and how much time and effort it takes, they strive by deliver top-level quality product. For this even we set budget and time limit, they worked a bit more, but didn't passed the set budget. Most important they will deliver all the things, no matter how everything is going on. Quality of the product for them was the most important!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

At this moment I can't see any. Company and whole team works perject.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the head of Investment and Project Management Department ir Šiauliai district municipality

For what projects/services did your company hire Vilantis, and what were your goals?

We wanted to develop a mobile app which would allow residents of our district to promptly report about the exact location of ownerless waste to the responsible authorities. Our goal was to make the reporting process simple and easy to manage for anyone.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We organized an open call to present ideas for solving our problem. We received applications from three participants and the commission of 5 municipality specialists evaluated each application according to several criteria.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The project implementation was divided into several steps starting with problem analysis, coordinating design and basic requirements for the prototype. Afterwards, two phases of prototype development were implemented each followed by interim presentations and discussions between us and “Vilantis” team. Final product was given for us for testing and adjusted according to our requests.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Mostly we've communicated with one Project manager assigned to our project. In several meetings one of the co-founders of the company was also present.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The application was created according to all our requests, they've also gave several usefull suggestions of their own on how to improve the app. The final product is user-friendly, easy to navigate and convenient for both users and administrators.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had the kick-off meeting immediately after signing the contract. Afterwards all the communication was held on demand by e-mail, phone and on-line meetings.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their entusiasm, willingness to explain everything we did not knew or understood since we have never worked with such projects before. The communications was also very easy and always possitive, they still get in touch to check if we have any troubles and provide us with any additional information despite the contract is over.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No. Everything was flawless.