ClearSummit

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I'm cofounder of Lumiary.com. We are a consumer data platform and CRM [customer relationship management] for business-to-consumer companies, so we aggregate data from siloed sources like e-commerce systems and email marketing services, and pull that data into unified customer records and provide access to those customer records and various reporting capabilities at a higher level than other systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ClearSummit?

Quite simply, we wanted to build a mobile app that exposed the customer profiles and aggregated data in the customer profiles that I mentioned a moment ago. We built some reporting functionality at a higher level as well into the app. We designed a simple app and wanted to build an MVP [minimum viable product] that we could eventually launch.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with ClearSummit?

Well, it so happens that ClearSummit's founder, Shane [Zilinskas], used to work at a mobile development company here in Richmond, Virginia, where we're headquartered. His former employer was and remains known for very high-quality work in the mobile space. We talked to them on numerous occasions about helping us out and became acquainted with Shane through that process, but never actually hired that firm. When I heard he had broken off on his own and started ClearSummit, I immediately reached out to him and struck up a relationship, and the project flowed from that process.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Our project was in the tens of thousands of dollars – on the low end of that, I would say. It was tightly scoped, and we stayed right on budget. We changed some things and added a tiny bit of change request cost, but it certainly was in keeping with what we thought was very reasonable pricing throughout the project and, particularly given the results that we've gotten, we were happy.

What is the status of this engagement?

Well, honestly, it's been a little bit of a disaster, but that's my fault, not ClearSummit's. We sort of pivoted the whole business right in the middle of the project. If we had stayed the course with how we had originally scoped the project, it would have been probably 10 or 12 weeks, in and out. Shane and his team were extremely responsive and extremely fast – we had to have prototype apps on our phones internally within probably four weeks of initiating the project. It was quick. Unfortunately, it's now been almost a year, and we haven't actually launched an app, but that's because we changed requirements and put the project on hold for a while and are only now starting to come back to it. It's been a long process, but the fault certainly hasn't been with Shane or ClearSummit in any way. The delay is a result of us being indecisive. In fact, I'm sure, from Shane's perspective, we asked him to get the ball to the 25-yard line, and then marched it back to the 15, and then he marched it back to the 35, and we've done that process probably six times. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

It is a little tricky because we actually haven't had the thing and handed it to customers, but I can say that it was built in such a way that it's given us plenty of flexibility to explore many things on behalf of our clients. In fact, just this morning [December 2015], we met a guy from an agency who was representing some potential clients and had a brainstorm about some ideas for providing customer information in real time to salespeople on the floor at brick-and-mortar retailers. The effort for us to modify the app to get exactly what he was talking about would be very minimal, which I think is a testament to building in the smart architecture and going through the right process when you start out. Given all those challenges that we presented him, just with lack of continuity and changing requirements and changing priorities and all those things, I would say we've come out with a product that we feel is flexible and will allow us to deploy all sorts of functionality as we wish in a very nimble way.

What distinguishes ClearSummit from other providers?

I would reiterate much of what I said thus far, but maybe some new things, too. First of all, on time and on budget means a lot. ClearSummit is very professional throughout, in all cases more than pleasant to interact with interpersonally as well as professionally. It's just a Johnny-on-the-spot resource. Shane got everything done when we asked him to do it; in many cases, better than we had asked for and he brought great ideas to the table to help us move things along. We were supposed to present designs for everything and have ClearSummit build to those specs. In many cases, we thought of new features for which we didn't have designs, and rather than say, "Oh, well, you guys go get the designs, and I'll wait around until you present them to me, and then I'll build them," he was like, "You know what? I'll just rough something in, and we'll see how it goes." Sure enough, most every time he did that, it was good enough to keep. We just feel like we got a good result all throughout the project, not only in executing it, but also in the products we've gotten out of it.

Is there anything Clear Summit could have improved or done differently?

Not really. I wouldn't change a thing about the project. I would have wished we had been more concrete and knew what we were trying to deliver from the get-go, but that's on us, not Shane. Overall, I wouldn't change a thing. Our relationship with ClearSummit has been one of the best relationships we've had as a company in the two years we've been around, if not the most pleasant.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

UltraPress is the Expedia of custom-apparel. If you want custom shirts, sweatshirts, or sweatpants done for your company, club, church group, and so on. you can go to our site and design your garment. Then, instead of getting one price back, we actually blast your order to our network of clothing screeners and you'll get six to 10 quotes based on your order. Normally, if you wanted all those quotes, you'd have to go to all those sites and submit your custom design each time, but with UltraPress, it's a one-stop shop.

What is your position?

I'm CTO at UltraPress.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ClearSummit?

We needed help with the development operations side and increasing the sophistication of our server system that was running our site. ClearSummit helped us with that and brought plenty of great expertise. I'm proud of our system now. It's very robust. The second thing is they helped us build a more advanced version of our custom design tool so our customers have an easier design submitting the designs they want to print. It's a very sophisticated tool that was built entirely by ClearSummit.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

On the dev op side, they were able to use various features from Amazon Web Services to help efficiency of our site. On the coding side, they used Angular on the front end, and Django, which is written in Python on the back-end to build the T-shirt design tool. In addition, they helped us use a library called Django REST framework, which has made things easier for us.

How did you come to work with ClearSummit?

I actually found Shane [Zilinskas, President at ClearSummit] through an online developers' community, where he said he was available for contract work. I must have talked to 20 to 40 people and was most impressed with his combination of technical and business knowledge. I was looking to hire initially, but then it made sense to have a contract guy that you can turn off and on as needed.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

They've done several different-sized project with us. Most have been around $10,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work with Shane and his team is on and off as needed. I'd say it began around a year ago [December 2014]. Some projects take only a few days while others last a few months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What distinguishes ClearSummit from other providers?

On top of the quality of their work, I'd say it's their responsiveness and just general demeanor that make them such a pleasure to work with.

After working with ClearSummit, my confidence in our tech staff has increased tremendously. We're more confident than ever that we can support our growing user base as time moves on because of the foundation that ClearSummit has built for us.

Is there anything ClearSummit could have improved or done differently?

I can't think of anything. I was very happy and still am. This has been the longest single relationship I've ever had with a contractor.