App Dev for Critical Communication SaaS
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Custom Software Development
- Confidential
- Jan. 2016 - May 2017
- Quality
- 4.5
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 4.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"I’m happy with them. I think they know what they’re doing."
- Other industries
- Boston, Massachusetts
- 201-500 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
DreamTeam helped build several apps, including a secure messaging and file transfer app for the medical industry and a Windows mobile app. They were also responsible for specific integrations and testing.
DreamTeam is trustworthy and reliable. They’re a hands-on and proactive team with superior project management and communication skills, despite various language barriers. They stay on top of new trends and technologies, and make valuable suggestions about project and company direction.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
Our company is in the critical communication business. We help companies manage critical events including something like September 11th, active shooting scenarios, a natural disaster, fire, flood, etc. If this happens, how do you reach your people? How do you reach your employees? How do you inform your customers? How do you assemble your response team? How do you make sure that people got the message? I’s all about communication in various scenarios.
The company was founded after 2011 with this idea of “What do we do if something like this happens?” The last three or four years we’ve really done well in terms of business, and we changed our profile. We became a SaaS product versus an on-premise product and that created a lot of demand for our software. We went public last year and we’re doing well so far. I’m senior director.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with DreamTeam Mobile?
We acquired a company and wanted to build a keyword chatting application for the medical areas. We thought this would be a good addition to our suite of products, but when we acquired them, we didn’t have any mobile expertise in-house. We came to DreamTeam through that acquisition and we decided to keep that arrangement, because they really know what they’re doing in the mobile area.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
We worked with them in two arrangements. Originally, they were a part of a development team and they did about 50% of the coding. They were a part and parcel of the original development team for that application and we kept that arrangement. In addition, we had to develop two other applications not related to the original acquisition. One of them had to be done on Windows phone, which we have absolutely zero expertise for Windows on development. We hired them and we outsourced this project to them altogether, including QA, development, design, etc. That was a separate project that they did for us, and they continued to help us with the development of the original application.
How many resources were assigned to your project?
We worked with 2 of the founders, Alex and Alexey, and then we had another guy Sergei. There were 3 developers helping us with the medical application. On the other project, we interacted with maybe 3 or 4 developers, but I think they had more people working than that.
What features and functionality did they development in the app?
The chatting application is for the medical industry. It is very similar to any other chatting app, but it’s also HIPAA-compliant, meaning everything is secure. There is an audit trail of everything you have done, so that makes it a fit for the medical industry. It supports audio calling, video calling, file transfer, attachment, images, voice messages, as well as normal text messages. It also integrates with our main platform so you can chat with people in your organization. You can find them and you can limit the people you can interact with, for security reasons. There are different modes of operations. Some people will expose it to their patients and some organizations want people just within the hospital. DreamTeam was responsible for our voice integration. They were responsible for everything regarding audio and video calling. We used a 3rd party toolkit called OpenTok, and they were responsible for that part. We told them the features we needed, and they did research and developed them. They did the coding and testing only.
How did you come to work with DreamTeam Mobile?
We knew their team and liked them. We trusted their quality and they’re reasonably priced. They were local, in the U.S. A lot of outsource companies don’t have any U.S. presence and that didn’t work for me because it was important for me to be able to call somebody at any time. We trusted them to do the app and they proved to us that they could do it, so we decided to outsource the next project to them. We probably could have found cheaper, but we were looking for someone who we could trust and who we could talk to at any time of day.
How much have you invested with DreamTeam Mobile?
We’re a public company and I can’t share that information. It was a reasonable rate.
What is the status of this engagement?
I joined the company 2 ½ years ago in January 2015, and that’s when the acquisition took place. That’s when I got introduced to them for that original project. The 2nd project we gave to them was about a year later. That lasted a couple of months and then once they delivered the app, that project was completed. They did continue working with us until very recently, maybe a few months back. At that time, our company started to change and we had to shift priorities, and we didn’t have any need for them anymore for various reasons. We separated as friends. I would go back to them if needed, but right now we just don’t have a need for them anymore.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
We’re sending 30,000 messages a week on this app. We have 20 paying clients that use it. We also have free users because there is a free mode where you can download it for your organization if you don’t want to use premium features. We’re marketing it progressively. We’ve got a couple of good deals this quarter in that area. We continue to develop it.
How did DreamTeam Mobile perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re pretty good. The 2 founders that I interacted with, Alex and Alexey, they are pretty on top of things. They are also hands-on so if there’s any technical issue we need to resolve, they will jump in and help out. Them being in the U.S. really helps. They also have a good project manager. For that other project that we did for Windows phone, they assigned a project manager in Belarus, and she was on top of things and worked directly with me. I’m a native Russian speaker so being able to talk to them in Russian also helped, but even without that, they all speak pretty good English so that’s not an issue. We’re very happy with them.
What did you find most impressive about DreamTeam Mobile?
I don’t have experience working that closely with other mobile app providers. What I did like about DreamTeam is they’re trying to stay on top of new trends and technologies. They will tell me about conferences they go to and give suggestions about new things they learn about. They keep us apprised on what’s going on and they recommend which technical direction we should take. That was helpful. They’re not just doing what we tell them to do. Sometimes we listen to their advice and sometimes we don’t, but it’s good to use them as a partner and not just jump to doing your initial plan.
Are there any areas DreamTeam Mobile could improve?
The arrangement we had with them was pretty good. Even though I didn’t use mobile outsource before, I had a pretty good experience using outsource in general.
RATINGS
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Quality
4.5Service & Deliverables
"It mostly was fine. We didn’t have any problems with our deliverables. There’s a few occasions where we thought testing could have been a little bit more thorough, but we talked to them and it got addressed."
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Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
"They were pretty accurate on delivery. They would tell us if they couldn’t deliver on a specific date, and we would agree on a different date. Once they committed to a date, the delivery was spot-on."
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Cost
4.0Value / within estimates
"They’re not the cheapest provider, but they’re not super expensive either. If you go completely outside of the U.S., like India or Eastern Europe, you might get cheaper, but you also lose quality and the communication part will be harder."
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"I’m happy with them. I think they know what they’re doing and I’m happy to refer them.
