INTERSOG

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Freestone AI

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Freestone AI is a software consultancy helping companies identify, define, and execute their Artificial Intelligence roadmap.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire INTERSOG to accomplish?

• Identify Ai solution to increase speed of underwriting
• Build data pipelines to feed LLMs and create structured output from large unstructured document store
• Create LLM chat bot and UI/UX for underwriting team to engage with

SOLUTION

How did you find INTERSOG?

Referral

Why did you select INTERSOG over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from INTERSOG were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Challenge
Relm Insurance, an innovative insurance company, was grappling with massive volumes of unstructured data scattered across hundreds of thousands of documents. They needed a robust AI solution capable of indexing and organizing this data, providing real-time access, and generating meaningful insights. Additionally, their underwriting team required a tool to streamline policy writing, often involving subjective analysis such as assessing CEO risk or a company's exposure to global events.

Freestone.AI, already working on an AI solution for Relm, sought Intersog's expertise in building advanced AI-powered platforms and quickly scaling development teams with top talent. They needed a trusted partner to customize a platform addressing Relm's specific needs. Intersog's proficiency in AI, data management, and cloud-based solutions made us the ideal choice.

Solution
Together with Freestone.AI, we developed RelmAI, an Azure-based platform designed to transform how Relm's underwriting team retrieves and interacts with data. At its core Relm AI is an AI-powered search engine featuring a generative AI chat interface, providing structured outputs for complex queries.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Transformation of Unstructured Data into Structured Insights

The process begins with data extraction from SharePoint, where documents are fed into an indexer within AI Search. This indexer processes the data to create a structured index based on defined skillsets, efficiently turning unstructured data into structured formats. For example, it compiles financial tables from information buried across multiple files, enabling a comprehensive view of client data.

AI-Driven Enrichment

Beyond indexing, RelmAI enriches the data by adding valuable context. Once a document is indexed, a custom functionality is triggered using Azure Functions. This involves generating brief company descriptions via ChatGPT, classifying and categorizing data, tagging risks, and extracting relevant financial information. This enrichment adds layers of insights, such as contextual information about industry trends like the effects of COVID-19 on the insurance sector. The enriched data is stored in a PostgreSQL database, organized around Relm's clients for easy access.

Intuitive AI Interface for Underwriting

The platform provides an LLM (Large Language Model) frontend to Relm's data, allowing the underwriting team to interact conversationally. They can ask nuanced, subjective questions and receive comprehensive answers, helping them understand and write policies better and faster.
Enhanced Search with Source Verification

Users can search by company or conduct global searches across all data, with the AI delivering the most relevant documents in real time. Recognizing that AI models can sometimes produce inaccurate results (known as "hallucinations"), RelmAI provides source documents alongside AI-generated responses. This encourages users to verify information, ensuring trust and reliability in the insights provided.

Integration of Off-the-Shelf AI Technologies

By incorporating tools like ChatGPT into a custom solution, RelmAI ensures scalability and the ability to grow as new versions and extensions are added to these technologies. This approach leverages existing AI advancements while tailoring them to meet Relm's specific needs.

Security and Compliance

A multi-layered security architecture was implemented using Microsoft Entra ID for authentication, encryption, and secure networking. This ensures all data is protected and accessible only to authorized users, meeting strict security and compliance standards.

Results
RelmAI has fundamentally transformed Relm's approach to data management and underwriting, delivering significant improvements:

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Intersog met and helped define project scope, deliverables, and timelines. They met every one of our needs and requests.

What was your primary form of communication with INTERSOG?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• Operations
• Intersog is a great partner with fantastic communication, making working with them a breeze.
• Skill 
• Intersog has done a great job matching the right people with our clients needs.

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

No improvements needed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the VP of IT at SupplyCore. We're a Department of Defense contractor that specializes in logistics and supply chain integration for the U.S. military.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intersog?

We were looking for a company to help us redevelop an internal software platform for strategy development and execution. We were also hoping to monetize that platform and sell or license it to the public instead of just using it internally.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The platform was designed for a cloud architecture. It's very scalable and runs on a browser. It's designed with an API-First methodology, so it's RESTful API-based and can easily be deployed to multiple cloud infrastructures. From a technology stack perspective, the frontend is React, node.js, and HTML5. They used PHP as the middle layer of the API and PostgreSQL as the backend database.

We integrated it with Slack right out of the gate because the main feature of the system is strategy development and execution. It allows the company to create a strategy based on a given vision and be able to provide progress notes based on that strategy. Everyone at the management level or above is able to collaborate in that application, so it was natural to integrate it with Slack, which we use for messaging within the company. This way people can get notifications in real time about the strategy as it’s being worked on.

What is the team composition?

In Ukraine, we had a dedicated project manager, a frontend developer, a backend developer, and a QA engineer. We also had a sales representative working with us in the U.S. 

How did you come to work with them?

I did a Google search and looked for software development companies within a 90–100 mile radius of where we are. I liked the fact that Intersog did a design workshop first and then started the development work rather than expecting us to have all the designs ready.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on the primary release between November 2016–October 2017, and have continued with on-going feature development and support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They leveraged a UI design process that we hadn't previously used. It allowed us to visualize what we were going to get before the development itself started. It made the development process go faster because we saw everything upfront and didn't have to make a lot of changes as we were moving along. It took them about nine months to develop a brand new system, which was ready to use.

We've received a very positive response so far. Other local organizations in our community are actually using the platform as well (in addition to our company). Everyone universally likes the user experience.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

We were very happy with our project manager. She was based in Ukraine, but she had excellent communication skills and was very responsive despite the difference in time zones.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're truly invested in the project and make their clients a priority. They became part of our team and our company even though they were a contractor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

With any new application, you can expect to have some issues, so more thorough testing along with the development process, along with more robust acceptance criteria would have been beneficial. We talked to them about these concerns during the project post-mortem, and they quickly worked with us to improve the process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the operations manager of a recycling and disposal facility.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intersog?

Intersog was hired to develop a mobile application that would manage and record data for our liquid collection system.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to eliminate or minimize the use of our paper-based system. We wanted to replace it with an electronic, cloud-based system for reporting and recording data.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After interviews with several app designers, Intersog was selected based on their familiarity with the scope of work.

Describe the project in detail.

Intersog was provided with a layout of our expectations, then we refined the scope of work over a series of conference calls. Once design work began, Intersog initiated several follow-up conference calls and demonstrations to confirm compliance with project goals.

What was the team composition?

During the main development stage, we worked with a project manager and a lead designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Intersog delivered the product we requested. Follow-up support is ongoing due to post-project requests.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow is effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were impressed with the initial confidence shown by their project manager. She quickly grasped what our company does and how we collect and report our data.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would just suggest a few on-site visits. In hindsight, one or two of the meetings could have been more effective in a face-to-face setting. I am certain that Intersog would have accommodated such a request.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We’re a travel-related company specializing in helping people acquire the best airfares through crowdsourcing. I’m the business owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Intersog?

We needed iOS and Android app development, as well as comprehensive web development.

What were your goals for this project?

To produce apps and web products that are customer ready.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were a recommended to us.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They produced iOS and Android apps, then developed a comprehensive dynamic website to be appealing and easy to use for our potential customers.

What was the team composition?

They have two locations, one domestic and one overseas. The US-based office oversees the operations taking place overseas to make sure that things run smoothly. There’s a US-based product manager lead and a revolving overseas sub-lead. There’s also a team of overseas technical experts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

As of now, we’ve yet to see how the finalized products will impact us. We’ve experienced a multitude of preliminary impacts, most of which were satisfactory. The developers constantly strive to stay on top of satisfying us as a customer.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The management is organized by the US-based office and dictated to the overseas one. This has mostly proven to be effective, and they were accommodating with the time difference to their overseas office. Common sense issues delayed deadlines on occasion.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They always have developers involved in specific issues, which I found to be refreshing.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Every company could improve in some way or another. As they continue to deal with more clients over the years, I'm sure they will be able to reach greater heights.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm CEO and co-founder of VertaMedia, a US-based video advertising platform. VertaMedia provides online publishers with a robust technology stack of essential go-to-market tools to monetize video content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Intersog?

Some time ago, we had to build a full-fledged web application for our publishers and had a dilemma of whether to set up our own development team in-house or outsource to a professional service provider via an offshore development center. Eventually, having calculated the cost of in-house resources versus offshore development and weighed all pros and cons, we made a decision in favor of outsourcing and never regretted it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Intersog assisted us with candidate screening, vetting, and verification, and involved us in the full-cycle process from pre-selection to interview to making a job offer. Intersog was able to fully staff our team in less than a month which was really impressive. We were able to move from prototype to final release in less than four months, which would have been hard to achieve had we chosen to build the app internally, considering the learning curve, the slow time to hire locally, and other overheads related to team setup.

Currently, Intersog takes care of our application maintenance and upgrades. We also keep using Intersog for smaller time and materials projects.

How did you come to work with Intersog?

I was referred to Intersog by a friend of mine who did his project with them before. Timing was critical for us and we were impressed with their speed of candidates search and overall quality of talent submitted for an interview.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application delivered by Intersog fully matched our budget and requirements. We liked the attitude of our offshore project team; they were always responsive, responsible, and reliable. Intersog didn't just deliver the application, but actually gave us a new product launch strategy which proved to be effective.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company. What is your role and responsibilities?

I am head of marketing communications for a global financial services firm. We focus on wealth management, asset management, and asset servicing. We have 15,000 employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Intersog?

We wanted to market wealth management capabilities and focus on brand awareness, specifically in the iPad environment.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

We engaged Intersog to help us develop an app for the iPad.

What was your process for selecting Intersog with which to work?

I think the key was really consulting and collaborating with our account representative. I had been utilizing Intersog’s help off and on through the course of a year, brainstorming ideas on how we could develop something for wealth management and the younger audience. We were able to collaborate with them on some ideas. So, I hadn’t necessary talked with other vendors. We do use other vendors in app development, and since then we have created an internal mobile center of excellence and IT [information technology]. So, we have resources now which we didn’t have two years ago.

What is the status of the project?

Our project with Intersog is complete. We have since consulted with Intersog for maintenance and support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

I would say the individual attention from our account representative. They served as more than just the day-to-day account management. They were instrumental in brainstorming on the user experience.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

I would say that the biggest challenge was that the development resources were out of the country, in different time zones, so there was some lag in communication back and forth.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization. What is your role and responsibilities?

I was the previous senior manager for an IT information technology solutions company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Intersog?

We wanted to build a mobile version of our internal CRM system. We wanted our sales force to have mobile access 24/7. We needed Intersog to augment our staff. We didn’t have anybody internal who could build it alone. 

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Intersog with which to work?

Through conversations with a manager of the organization and looking at Intersog in terms of their skill sets, they were the best fit for this particular project.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

This project cost my previous firm between $50,000 and $200,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Is there anything unique or special about Intersog that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

There are a lot of business rules that are involved in building an application like this. From an insider’s perspective, we worked with Intersog, and they were very good. They were very good at coming up to speed and learning everything about our company. If I had an internal development team, I would expect them to know everything about the business of the company before they would be able to produce any work. 

This was a one-off project so a large amount of time educating Intersog about the company would not have been very productive in terms of dollars. But, at the same time, they needed to come up to speed enough to get the work done. Finding the balance was very easy with Intersog. It was easy to get the application started. We had multiple releases in a three-year window. Deliveries were pretty much on time. As they learned, the iterations became tighter. 

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

One of the initial challenges was that the team was based out of Ukraine. We needed to adjust to the time difference. We were able to figure it out. They ended up putting in a dedicated project manager who was immersed into my team. We did that a couple of months into the project. Next time, I would say let’s do this the right way and solve those distance issues right away.

BACKGROUND

Please give a brief description of your company and what you do.

My company is mostly me. We do so many different things, everything from produce television shows and films and events, all in the ski industry. We also have a mobile-type program going on here with the Ski Nation app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached Intersog?

The development of a mobile app that would be suitable for our industry.

Why did you want to develop that? 

I saw a need for it, and felt that we could find the niche that no one else had done.  

SOLUTION

Why did you hire Intersog?

I spent more than a year interviewing developers. They were one of the companies that came up through various searches. They put in a bid, and then once I got down to two or three companies, I interviewed them and checked references. I wasn’t able to say 100% that I knew they were the best technically, but my impression was that they were committed to making sure this happens. They were the best, not the cheapest, although I think they’ve been very reasonable in pricing.  

How long ago did you start working with them?

More than a year. The length of the development process has been stretched out due to my actions and conditions, not theirs. I have total respect for what they’ve been doing.

Do you have an estimated launch date for the application?

Around the end of the last week of August or first week of September of 2014, and that’s due to the nature of the skiing culture. 

In which system is the application built?

iOS and Android. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How would you describe Intersog’s performance?

We haven’t launched yet. So far, I am so happy with Intersog in terms of their follow-up and their patience because I haven’t done this before. 

Since this is our first shot at this, we’re not an order giver. I can’t say, “I want A, B, C, and D,” and then they fulfill it. That’s what so many of these companies are where you go in, and they say, “Tell us what you want.” Part of the reason why I’m seeking out help is to say, “Can you help me figure out what I need? Here’s what I want to accomplish. Don’t ask me just to give you the laundry list of things to perform. Here are the various things that we want to do.” They were really good about not only hearing our request, our functionality and things that we wanted, but being able to hear us say, “We want A, B, C, and D”, and they go, “We can do that, but you might think about A, B, C, and F. F might work a little bit better than D for you.” They were very much collaborators with us. I really learned that since we gave them the job. 

It didn’t go exactly the way we thought from the very start. As you get into this, you find that something’s changed with the industry or the market, or our personal capacities regarding what we could build and what we couldn’t. The thing about Intersog that I appreciate is that they’ve been very flexible about saying, “Okay. Let’s figure out another way to get this done.” I can’t tell you that everything works perfectly because we haven’t launched yet. We haven’t tested, and we’ll have to have consumer feedback. But, so far, they are 100% a good contractor. They’re almost more a partner. They’re not technically a partner, but I sure view them that way, and I like them. 

Looking back on the work done so far, is there any area that you think Intersog could improve upon or that you would do differently as a client of theirs?

I think the person that could have made improvements is probably me, but no, I don’t have any criticism of them at all. 

Any other feedback to add?

One thing I look for in every project I do is the company and the people in the company that are vested in the project or they care about it. They’re not just like, “We’re really good at this.” My feeling is that they care about how good this thing comes out. 

Secondly, they are very willing and able not just to take orders, but also to provide input and collaboration. For me, being able to have a team that collaborated with us and could make suggestions as well as take orders, and took the time to understand what I’m trying to do made a huge difference. That was what I was looking for from the very start. They are certainly familiar with my industry and my culture. Skiing is a culture; it’s not just an industry. Some of the Intersog people did actually ski. They really caught on and listened to me. Often, they would say, “Here’s our concept for this screen shot,” and they’d have a picture there. I could look at that picture and say, “We have to change that picture out because anyone in our industry is going to look at that picture and know that whoever did this doesn’t really understand our culture. We need to go with this one.” They would learn from that and say, “I see what you’re doing there.” They were very open and never offended when we would say our opinion. Those are the things that really meant a lot to me, and do mean a lot to me in terms of where we’re going right now.

BACKGROUND

Please give a brief description of your company.

Our company is called Sports Data Systems, Inc. We started out about five years ago to make golf apps that feature the statistical portion of golf applications. We worked with Intersog to make them better. They helped us create three applications, one of which got into the top 10 percent of paid apps in the iTunes store last year and the year before.

What is your role at the company?

I’m the president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

When you began working with Intersog, how far along were you into the development process?

Intersog had a technical person, Sergey, who sent me a demo of his impression of what he thought I wanted. It was pretty close to what I wanted. So, I worked with Sergey to develop the first app, and that’s how we got started with them.

When you first started, did you have any specific business goals for the project?

Business goals, no. I had no idea what was going on. I started out before the iPhone was popular and had worked with Shenzhen Electronics in China to develop a handheld unit that would record your golf stats. I went to the PGA show, and as we’re walking out the door, one of the people asked me, “Do you have this through the iPhone?” I asked him, “What’s an iPhone?” He showed me what it was, and I said, “Well, this is a whole lot better than manufacturing a device in China.” That’s how we got started in the mobile business.

SOLUTION

Why did you select Intersog to work with in the first place?

It’s mainly because of Sergey. He’s the guy that made the model work. I don’t recall exactly how I met him. He seemed to be one of the few people that I ran across that had some idea of how to take the project from the start to the finish. I do recall that other people met were not, in my opinion, able to do it at the time. Back in those days, very few people were skilled at developing apps.

When did the relationship with Intersog begin?

About four or five years ago.

Can you describe in more detail the scope of the work Intersog has done for you?

It started out with an application called MyStrokeTracker. Then, the next one we did was MyGolfStats, which was a greatly enhanced version of MyStrokeTracker. It had a lot more screens. It was simpler to operate. It held a lot more data, and it was really a popular application. Almost everybody who has developed applications in the world of golf copied everything that we did, just modified it one way or another, with better graphics and things like that.

But, our app was pretty effective, and we were able to integrate the golf handicap. That was a pretty popular feature, too. A lot of people used it.

When Sergey finished the project, and we put it out in iTunes, I was wondering how we were going to get downloads. We got some from the search engines and iTunes, but it wasn’t a lot. So, I worked with AdWords, with a budget of $100. I did $0.10 a piece, and we got 1,000 clicks, maybe about 200 downloads. I said, “Maybe I’ll drop the price down to the lowest they have,” which was $0.03. If you do that math, for $100, you get 3,600 clicks. The next day, we had 800 downloads. We wound up with 12,000 downloads for the week.

Incredible, so we were the top-ranked app right away. This was free because I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know anything about [monetizing apps]. I didn’t know anybody that knew anything about it. I made the app $0.99, and we got zero downloads. People wouldn’t pay for it.

The latest project they did for me was called MyGolfLeaderboard. This should be the best app in the iTunes store but, unfortunately, it will never come to pass. I ran into some trouble with Apple where they didn’t want us to use the auto-renew subscription feature. I had to take the app out of the App store, and that was the killer, for three months until Intersog was able to change the renewal feature to regular renew. I had a real battle with Apple, and they admitted they were wrong. But, by that time, the negative comments were pretty bad. It didn’t work out for us.

But, Intersog did create great applications for us. None of [the Intersog team] knew anything about golf. They all had to learn it. They all learned the terms. We had a language barrier. It was difficult to start. But, it was perfect. These guys were great.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How else would you describe the performance of Intersog?

When I went to college, I studied systems engineering. So, I did all the calculations for the handicaps and for all the scorecards. I was able to guide them step by step and frame by frame, so everybody knew exactly what to do. They’re excellent in mathematics. But, they didn’t know what a birdie was. I had to give them the definitions for technical golf terms. I was able to do it on an Excel spreadsheet. I got it all to work in Excel, they followed the Excel formulas, and made it go right into the app.

It’s pretty great. They were really quite good. The leaderboard was a completely different story where I didn’t know what I was doing, and they were able to guide me through the servers. It’s really a cloud-based app where if you’re in the Washington, D.C., area playing the Congressional with Tiger Woods and President Barack Obama, I could see your score right on my iPad. That’s pretty cool stuff. You can have everybody post his or her scores on the universal leaderboard. That was the next phase of the technology that we were going to do, where you could see everybody all around the country playing on the same weekend for a charity. We were able to do that. I doubt if it will ever come to pass. That’s where we stand with the app. Intersog made it all happen.

Is there anything unique about Intersog compared to other companies that you may have worked with in the past?

They were quite responsive. I had good communications with them. Everything worked out well. We were able to overcome the time differences and language differences and it worked out terrific. They were excellent. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

They did have a few people that they changed over; I guess that’s probably true no matter what company you work with. I started with Sergey, and then they had another team of people that I worked with for two years, but then they went on to different paths. This is the third team that I’m working with, and they’re pretty good. 

Is there any area that you think that they could improve on or that you would do differently?

There were two phases of the app. One was the technical creation of it. The next phase was the marketing. I worked with them to some degree on the marketing, but not totally. I did most of the marketing myself.

The thing that hurt us with the app, which is not the fault of Intersog, is that we had some server issues, and Apple just absolutely killed us when they took the app out of the App Store for a few months. They just killed it.

It did work. There was a guy in California, one in Texas, and I live in Florida. We were able to see each other’s scores while playing at the same time, and it’s a freaking miracle. The technology is spectacular. Other companies that have something similar to that can’t get multiple golf courses. If I were the Golf Channel with an unlimited budget or NBC, I would do it. But, I’m just me. I don’t want to do it anymore.

If you could give a sense of the size of the initiative of the work that they’ve done, either in a cost range or in a work-hour figure?

Through the years, it was around $50,000. The last one, the leaderboard project, was the most complicated.