Please describe your company and your position there.
I am the Co-Founder & Head of Sales at a vineyard software company headquartered in Northern Virginia. Our company has 3 employees and we currently serve vineyard and winery clients in Virginia. I oversee our sales and marketing efforts and our client relationships.
For what projects/services did your company hire 923 Digital, LLC?
Our company hired 923 Digital to develop a brand new web and mobile app as well as a new website for us. We did have any in-house engineers, so we needed to outsource the entire design and build.
What were your goals for this project?
After working on Vineteq for about 9 months, we needed to bring our idea to life in app form as well as upgrade from our current website which was very basic and dull. 923 Digital helped us get to this point and had an app ready for us to sell to vineyards for the upcoming growing season. This had a very positive impact on our business because prior to our app being created, we were trying to sell the idea of what we were doing to vineyards and that was a very hard thing to do with not tangible product or app for them to see.
How did you select this vendor?
We were referred to 923 Digital by a mutual connection of ours. We originally were going to be working with another company, but they were not able to meet our needs the way 923 Digital was. After the intro to 923 was made, my co-founder and I spoke with the 923 team and confirmed that we wanted to pursue working together.
Describe the project in detail.
Once we started working with 923 Digital, we had a series of discovery meetings to discuss our goals and objectives and the work that the Vineteq team had already done prior to our relationship. Early on, we spent time sharing documentation and processes that we already had in place.
On our side of things, we helped teach the 923 team the industry that we're working in and they were all very quick learners, which impressed our team greatly. Throughout the process of working together, they've thought of things that even us as the "industry experts" have not. 923 has also helped us with strategy, design work, content creation and support in a variety of ways.
Our app is a hybrid app for both Android and iOS use, which also compliments our website. Another service that they have assisted uin is our branding, which has been phenomenal and very much complimented.
What was the team composition?
At any given time we'd usually have 3-7 people from the vendor's side involved in our project. Strategic and technology advisors, a project manager, designer, and front and back-end developers. Over time the team has grown.
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
The project is still ongoing, so we don't really have any current metrics or measureables, but we have gotten great a response from those we've shared the app and website with.
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
Workflow with the 923 Digital team has always been top-notch. All aspects of project management have been done very well and both our side of the project and theirs are very well organized. We use Slack and Google Meet for communication and then Monday for project management aspects. 923 always responds very well to any feedback we have, are available at almost any time we need them, and are quick to get us answers when needed.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
Our whole team was impressed by the knowledge that 923 Digital, LLC had about app development, UI/UX, and optimization. This was our team's first experience working with a vendor like this and we've all learned a ton and are so appreciate of the 923 team as a whole. Apart from the work environment, they're all such great people and we've built a lasting, personal relationship with them.
Are there any areas for improvement?
Everything can always be done faster, but we were very satisfied with their work every step of the way. In the end, quality is more important than speed and we ended up with a beautiful product.
Vineteq’s mission is to optimize a vineyard’s spraying processes by utilizing autonomous decision making in an app and web-based solution. Vineteq service acts as an advising unit that prompts vineyard owners, managers, and workers with ways of performing the best spraying techniquesand spray inventory management while maintaining full control of their vineyard.
Spray recommendations are based on data from seasonal spray charts, regional weather patterns, precise geographic location, and disease models, to create the optimal spray program for the vineyard.
Vineteq has approached 923 Digital with a brilliant idea and no technical expertise to bring this ambitious vision into reality.We partnered with Vineteq to build the SaaS product from the ground up. As technology entrepreneurs, we have been also helping the young team with the strategy, branding, positioning, pricing, and marketing.
The main challenge was to create the data model and develop the decision-making engine which is the heart of the system.
We have modeled the decision-making process conducted by the expert. Then we have been researching and obtaining all the data points the person was referring to. These had to be entered into our data model - we've converted all human-only-readable remarks to standardized computer-friendly attributes and properties.
Multiple dependencies, constraints, and rules had to be accounted for to make the system behave like its human counterpart and produce accurate and effective recommendations.Having the engine is not enough to have a fully functioning SaaS offering. Vineteq Admin Console, Customer Web Portal and Mobile Assistant Apps were designed and developed from scratch.
Our Design team has created the Branding package and incorporated the brand look, feel and visual language into the Apps and the Website.
923 Digital helped Vineteq to develop a comprehensive, innovative and attractive SaaSoffering from the idea stage, through R&D and into Production.
Vineteq is Creating the Future of Viticulture by Optimizing the vineyard spray processes, saving timeand money, reducing crop loss and protecting the vines from the disease.
Vineteq benefits long-term customers through the collection of vineyard data. This information is used to help identify weather, spray, and disease trends to make more informed, data-driven decisions year after year.
