Affari Reviews

Consulting that delivered real options with real trade-offs rather than a predetermined answer

Gustavo Ferreira / VP of Technology - Amazônia Digital Ltda

Verified
Jan 17, 2026

Project summary: Track-and-trace capability had gone from a differentiator to a table-stakes requirement and our platform had neither. We needed to close the gap before our next enterprise tender cycle.

Six months after go-live our platform is processing three times the transaction volume we specified in the original brief. The architecture choices made during discovery accommodated that growth without remediation work. That is the difference between a team that designs for what you tell them and a team that designs for what you are likely to need. We are in conversation about a Phase 2 engagement and I expect to be using this partnership for several years.

PROS

Collaborative culture that made the team feel like a genuine extension of our organisation, strong asynchronous communication across time zones, zero-drama handling of the inevitable mid-project changes

CONS

Their discovery process is more rigorous than we were accustomed to and required more preparation from our side than we had initially allocated — but the quality of what followed justified every hour of it

4.5

Overall

4.0

Quality

4.0

Schedule

5.0

Cost

4.5

Communication

Project TypeIT Consulting

IndustryLogistics & Supply Chain

Project Cost$500,000+

DurationJan 2025 – Oct 2025

Questions & Answers

Please describe your company, your role, and the industry you operate in.

As VP of Technology at Amazônia Digital Ltda I oversee technology investment and delivery across our Logistics & Supply Chain operations in São Paulo, Brazil. We are a commercially focused business and our technology choices are always evaluated in terms of their direct contribution to business outcomes rather than technical elegance alone.

What specific problem or business challenge led you to hire this company?

The immediate problem was that our IT Consulting capability had become the bottleneck limiting our ability to grow. Every feature request, every new client requirement, every internal initiative was delayed by a platform that had been extended beyond its original design. We needed a rebuild, not a patch.

What services did the company provide for your project?

The core engagement was IT Consulting delivery, though their scope expanded to include technical consultancy during discovery that materially improved our requirements. They also took ownership of the third-party integration workstream that had been a coordination challenge in previous projects, removing that complexity from our internal team entirely.

Why did you choose this company over other providers you considered?

We had a failed engagement behind us and were more rigorous in our selection process as a result. We asked detailed questions about how they managed scope change, how they handled estimation, and how they communicated problems. The answers were specific, evidenced, and consistent across the team members we spoke to. That gave us confidence that the process was real rather than rehearsed.

How clearly did the company understand your requirements and business goals?

Comprehensively. The discovery phase they ran was more thorough than anything we had experienced with previous vendors. They challenged requirements that were vague or contradictory, proposed alternatives where our initial thinking was limiting, and produced a functional specification that our internal stakeholders agreed was the clearest articulation of the product they had seen written down.

How was your overall experience with their communication and project management?

Communication was proactive, timely, and appropriately calibrated. Technical updates for the engineering audience, executive summaries for the steering group, risk flags with proposed mitigations rather than just problem statements. The fortnightly sprint reviews gave our stakeholders visibility without requiring them to attend every working session.

Did the company deliver the project on time and within your expected budget?

Yes to both. There was a single sprint where a dependency on a third-party API introduced a one-week delay. The team identified it three weeks in advance, presented two mitigation options, and we agreed on an approach that recovered the schedule within the same sprint cycle. That level of foresight is what separates good project management from reactive problem management.

What tangible results or business impact have you seen since the project was completed?

The ROI case we presented to our board was conservative by design. Current performance against the financial model suggests we will hit the projected payback point in under twelve months against an eighteen-month target. The operational efficiency gains in particular have exceeded the model, in part because the quality of the data the new platform generates supports decisions that the previous system could not.

What did you like most about working with this company?

Their instinct for keeping the business objective visible throughout technical decision-making. I have worked with technically excellent teams who lose the strategic thread as complexity increases. This team maintained a clear connection between every architectural choice and the outcome we had agreed to achieve. That orientation made the trade-off conversations significantly easier.

Would you recommend this company to others, and would you work with them again?

Unreservedly. We are in active scoping conversations for a second engagement and I expect this to develop into a multi-year partnership. For any organisation in the Logistics & Supply Chain sector looking for IT Consulting expertise combined with genuine delivery discipline, I would put this team at the top of the evaluation list.

Complete rebuild that our marketing team can now manage without engineering tickets

Imogen Tanner / Head of Engineering - Outback Data Solutions

Verified
Jan 10, 2026

Project summary: A previous engagement had delivered something that worked in staging and struggled in production. We approached this project with greater rigour in vendor selection as a result.

The integration layer was the part of the project I was most concerned about going in. Our system landscape is complex, several of the upstream APIs we relied on were poorly documented, and two third-party vendors had a history of unpredictable response times on integration questions. This team managed all of that. They documented what the upstream vendors could not, built resilience into the integration architecture where the upstream behaviour was unreliable, and delivered a solution that works as specified in production. I could not have asked for more.

PROS

Production system that has performed as specified since go-live without remediation work, documentation thorough enough to support internal maintenance, knowledge transfer that left our team genuinely capable

CONS

The quality of documentation they produce means our team needed to set aside dedicated review time to do it justice — a minor scheduling point rather than a genuine criticism

4.5

Overall

4.5

Quality

4.5

Schedule

4.5

Cost

4.0

Communication

Project TypeWeb Development

IndustryFood & Beverage

Project CostLess than $10,000

DurationFeb 2025 – Oct 2025

Questions & Answers

Please describe your company, your role, and the industry you operate in.

Outback Data Solutions operates in the Food & Beverage sector with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. In my role as Head of Engineering I am accountable for the full technology agenda — infrastructure, product, and vendor relationships. We are a commercially driven organisation and every technology decision is evaluated against a clear business case before it is approved.

What specific problem or business challenge led you to hire this company?

We had a defined product vision for our next phase of growth in the Food & Beverage market but lacked the engineering depth internally to execute it. The Web Development requirements in particular required specialist experience that we could not realistically recruit for on the timeline our business plan required.

What services did the company provide for your project?

Primarily Web Development, with adjacent work in solution architecture and quality assurance. They were responsible for the full build from requirements through to go-live, including integration with four existing systems in our technology landscape. The breadth they covered without requiring additional vendors was commercially and logistically valuable.

Why did you choose this company over other providers you considered?

A trusted peer in the Food & Beverage sector had used them for a comparable Web Development engagement and their recommendation was unequivocal. Our own due diligence confirmed the pattern they described. The combination of domain knowledge, Web Development depth, and demonstrated delivery discipline was the deciding factor.

How clearly did the company understand your requirements and business goals?

Extremely well, in part because they had relevant Food & Beverage experience that reduced the context-setting overhead significantly. They understood the domain vocabulary, asked the right questions, and translated business requirements into technical specifications with a fidelity that meant the development phase had very few clarification cycles.

How was your overall experience with their communication and project management?

Professional and efficient. The project manager maintained a clear view of the critical path at all times and communicated changes to it transparently. The one significant scope adjustment we made mid-project was handled through a clean change request process — fairly priced, clearly documented, and absorbed without disrupting the overall timeline.

Did the company deliver the project on time and within your expected budget?

Yes to both. There was a single sprint where a dependency on a third-party API introduced a one-week delay. The team identified it three weeks in advance, presented two mitigation options, and we agreed on an approach that recovered the schedule within the same sprint cycle. That level of foresight is what separates good project management from reactive problem management.

What tangible results or business impact have you seen since the project was completed?

The most direct measure is the performance of the system in production. In the five months since go-live we have had zero P1 incidents, our page performance scores have improved across every Core Web Vitals metric, and two enterprise clients who had cited our previous platform limitations during contract negotiations have since renewed without that objection arising.

What did you like most about working with this company?

The willingness to be direct. When our requirements were unclear they said so. When our priorities were contradictory they explained why. When a technical approach we had assumed was the right one turned out to have significant downsides, they told us before we had committed to it. That kind of intellectual honesty is what I look for in a long-term technology partner.

Would you recommend this company to others, and would you work with them again?

Yes, without reservation. I have already made two direct referrals within my Food & Beverage network — in both cases to peers facing Web Development challenges similar to ours. I gave those referrals with confidence because I knew the experience I described was reproducible, not the result of exceptional circumstances on our engagement.

Outstanding service and exceptional results

Matthew Harris / COO - Logistics International

Verified
Dec 23, 2025

Project summary: We required a custom platform that would give us a measurable competitive advantage in our market.

We evaluated five vendors before choosing this team, and the decision has been fully validated. Their technical skills are top-tier, but what really sets them apart is their commitment to understanding the business context behind every requirement. The project was delivered on time, the solution is robust and scalable, and the knowledge transfer was thorough. A truly outstanding engagement from start to finish.

PROS

Innovative thinking, meticulous attention to detail, reliable delivery, transparent reporting

CONS

None — every aspect of the engagement exceeded our expectations

5.0

Overall

5.0

Quality

5.0

Schedule

5.0

Cost

5.0

Communication

Project TypeIT Consulting

IndustryLogistics & Supply Chain

Project Cost$150,000 to $499,999

DurationDec 2024 – Apr 2025

Questions & Answers

Please describe your company, your role, and the industry you operate in.

We are a COO-led organisation operating in the Logistics & Supply Chain sector. My role involves overseeing strategic technology decisions and vendor partnerships. We have been growing steadily and needed a trusted partner to help us scale our digital capabilities.

What specific problem or business challenge led you to hire this company?

Our primary challenge was modernising our Logistics & Supply Chain operations through IT Consulting. Legacy systems were limiting our agility and we needed a solution that could scale with our growth ambitions and integrate with our existing infrastructure.

What services did the company provide for your project?

They delivered a comprehensive IT Consulting engagement covering requirements analysis, solution architecture, full-cycle development, QA testing, deployment, and post-launch support. The scope was well-defined and executed without scope creep.

Why did you choose this company over other providers you considered?

Their demonstrated expertise in IT Consulting and a strong portfolio of Logistics & Supply Chain projects set them apart during our evaluation. The discovery call gave us confidence they truly understood our domain, not just the technology.

How clearly did the company understand your requirements and business goals?

Exceptionally well. They ran a structured discovery process, asked insightful questions, and produced a detailed requirements document that captured nuances we hadn't even articulated ourselves. That foundation made the entire project smoother.

How was your overall experience with their communication and project management?

Outstanding. We had a dedicated project manager, weekly status calls, a shared project board, and same-day responses to queries. There were no surprises — risks were flagged early and resolved before they became issues.

Did the company deliver the project on time and within your expected budget?

Yes, the project was delivered on the agreed date and within budget. Their estimates were realistic and they managed scope carefully, flagging any potential changes before they impacted the timeline or cost.

What tangible results or business impact have you seen since the project was completed?

Significant. Since go-live we have seen measurable improvements in operational efficiency, customer satisfaction scores have risen, and the solution has already paid back a substantial portion of the investment. The team built something we are genuinely proud of.

What did you like most about working with this company?

Their genuine investment in our success. They didn't just execute a spec — they brought ideas, challenged assumptions, and cared about the outcome as much as we did. The quality of the codebase and documentation also stood out.

Would you recommend this company to others, and would you work with them again?

Absolutely and without hesitation. We have already referred two colleagues, and we are actively scoping the next phase of work with them. They are our go-to partner for IT Consulting projects going forward.

Best technology partner we have ever worked with

William Brown / Senior Consultant - Brown Consulting

Verified
Oct 17, 2024

Project summary: We needed a secure, compliant platform to modernise our financial operations and improve client-facing services.

This was the smoothest technology project we have ever run. The team's expertise was evident from the first technical discussion, and their ability to translate complex requirements into elegant solutions is remarkable. They kept us informed at every step, flagged risks early, and delivered a high-quality product that our internal team is proud to maintain. Their ongoing support has been equally impressive.

PROS

Excellent communication, high-quality deliverables, on-time delivery, proactive problem-solving

CONS

Minor timezone overlap challenges early on, resolved quickly with async communication

5.0

Overall

5.0

Quality

5.0

Schedule

5.0

Cost

5.0

Communication

Project TypeCMS Development

IndustryFinancial Services

Project Cost$500,000+

DurationJul 2025 – Feb 2026

Questions & Answers

Please describe your company, your role, and the industry you operate in.

We are a Senior Consultant-led organisation operating in the Financial Services sector. My role involves overseeing strategic technology decisions and vendor partnerships. We have been growing steadily and needed a trusted partner to help us scale our digital capabilities.

What specific problem or business challenge led you to hire this company?

Our primary challenge was modernising our Financial Services operations through CMS Development. Legacy systems were limiting our agility and we needed a solution that could scale with our growth ambitions and integrate with our existing infrastructure.

What services did the company provide for your project?

They delivered a comprehensive CMS Development engagement covering requirements analysis, solution architecture, full-cycle development, QA testing, deployment, and post-launch support. The scope was well-defined and executed without scope creep.

Why did you choose this company over other providers you considered?

Their demonstrated expertise in CMS Development and a strong portfolio of Financial Services projects set them apart during our evaluation. The discovery call gave us confidence they truly understood our domain, not just the technology.