Customer Success Interview Transcript – Centeva (Testimonial)

Annie Quan (00:00)
hi. My name’s Annie Kwan. I’m the director of products for Cintiva. Cintiva is a professional and technical services federal contractor. We build enterprise software for the federal agencies.

Kavita Ganesan (00:11)
So what has been your perception of AI before coming into this project with us?

Annie Quan (00:15)
Well, before partnering on this project, I understood AI as a powerful tool with amazing potential to enhance various industries. I saw it as a way to automate tasks and analyze large data sets that we were really excited to utilize this technology to streamline and provide valuable efficiencies in our products that we support in the federal acquisition world.

Kavita Ganesan (00:37)
And what were some of the challenges that you’re facing in your company that prompted you to look for a consulting company to help with some of the development projects that you had going on?

Annie Quan (00:46)
Well, internally, we struggled to integrate AI into our existing systems that we built. And we really lacked the expertise to build a scalable custom solution that addressed our specific needs that we found would be great add-on features to our existing products. While our team had a really strong understanding of the business goals, they didn’t really have the technical capabilities in AI specifically and machine learning to create a tailored application that could meet

those goals. We have a vast technical team that’s very knowledgeable in full-stack technology, but there was a gap in specialized knowledge for AI development and data training. We hired internally initially. We realized quickly that resources were better utilized if we just seek dedicated AI experts. As a result, we decided to seek external help from a consulting firm.

with experience in case custom AI development and data modeling. We needed a partner who could bridge that gap between our business needs and the technical challenges that we were facing creating an effective AI training solution within our applications.

Kavita Ganesan (02:03)
So, Annie, could you expand on some of the challenges you faced with some of the internal data scientists that you had hired?

Annie Quan (02:11)
Yeah, I mean, when you hire someone, you have to have somebody manage them as well. And so it becomes this huge scalability of workforce. And although we have all the confidence in our technology experts on the team, we just knew that we were, we had this little gap of we weren’t large enough to dedicate an entire AI development team, but we just needed enough

help to augment our application full stack developers.

Kavita Ganesan (02:47)
Okay, and what made you choose OpenNOSIS Analytics to partner with as your custom AI solution development team?

Annie Quan (02:56)
We chose Opnosis Analytics as our partner because they presented a focus on collaboration, planning, and a thorough assessment. From the very beginning, they took the time to understand our business challenges and worked closely with us to assess our needs and define our clear objectives. That was really important to us in the niche market that we were in, the products that we were building. The consultative

approach combined with strategic mindset ensure that we are aligned every step of the process. Kavita’s ability to map out a comprehensive roadmap was extremely helpful and assessing potential risks helped us navigate complexities and plan for long-term success, making them the ideal partner in tackling our challenges.

Kavita Ganesan (03:46)
Thank you. And how did Opinosis Analytics end up helping you with the results that you got from this collaboration?

Annie Quan (03:55)
They played a crucial role in helping us develop our custom AI solution, but providing the expert guidance throughout the entire process. They began, like we discussed, really analyzing our needs and understanding our market, and then designing a solution in a way that aligned with our business goals. Their collaboration approach ensured that we had a clear vision of how to find a solution that would integrate, not just develop, but

The integration part was very important and making sure we were on the same page from the very beginning. Gavita worked with us to establish milestones, breaking the project into manageable phases. Each milestone provided tangible results with weekly demonstrations. This made it easy to track the project and ensure that we were always moving in the right direction.

Kavita Ganesan (04:49)
And in the end, do feel that you got a product that was ready to integrate into your work?

Annie Quan (04:56)
Yes, yeah, they provided us all of the support to integrate it and really has helped our team also take it to the next level once it’s been integrated.

Annie Quan (05:41)
Yeah, working with them has been a highly positive experience. Confita and her team really was great partners with this. First and foremost, they had several qualities that really stood out. Like we mentioned, their collaborative approach was exceptional. They took the time to understand our unique business challenges, which allowed them to deliver.

tailor solutions to our needs, our organizational needs and our market needs, which align with our goals. Their commitment to open communication, they were very open to meeting weekly standups and ad hoc meetings out of their schedule throughout the entire project. So we were ensured that we were on the same page and made the entire process really smooth and efficient.

Kavita was very reliable and professional. we’ve met all of our deadlines, stayed within our budget and really delivered on the application that was roadmap. you know, AI projects are very complex. their team was always available for support and addresses needs and issues that came up. based on my experience, I would absolutely work with opgnosis again.

Kavita Ganesan (07:06)
Thank you, Anil. And do you have any advice for other leaders like yourself who are in charge of AI product management? So should they develop everything in-house, or should they find the right partners to develop these AI tools for their companies?

Annie Quan (07:20)
Yeah, mean, as someone who is in charge of our AI products, my advice would be to strike a balance, right? Building in-house capabilities and partnering with expert vendors, I think there’s a great value in developing internal AI solutions if you’re ready for that, especially if you have the resources. However, even at the smallest level of bringing in someone who has strong specialized domain knowledge, I think is extremely important.

In our case, we really needed that external specialized knowledge. So bringing in a capable partner really accelerated our development and enhanced our product and really helped us mitigate risk.

Kavita Ganesan (08:07)
And what advice would you have for leaders on how to manage these projects efficiently?

Annie Quan (08:16)
I think communication is key, especially as you’re integrating an outside resource with your internal team. And Opsnosis did a fantastic job. You know, they were always available for meetings. They were incorporated in our sprints and standups. And I think the assessments of roadmap is also very important. Understanding the expectations. Kavita was available to and

planned out key milestones along the way. They were broken out. They were clear. We had deliverables and objectives. They were demonstrable. And so I would highly recommend going this route if it’s an organization similar to ours where they’re facing these types of challenges and just really has a need for a committed partner to build a successful partnership and product.

with all of these really key components of merging a third party with your internal technology team.

Kavita Ganesan (09:21)
Thank you, Ani. Any parting thoughts?

Annie Quan (09:25)
No, this has been a great learning for me though. AI development and data modeling was new to our organization. so having a trusted partner like Kavita, an expert in that field has not only driven our internal products, but professionally has really helped myself as a leader, understanding this field for my organization, become a AI mentor to help me understand these processes.

And so that was really a kind of a bonus application to our partnership for me was getting that additional knowledge for me professionally.