99x - Nearshore Engineers & AI Agents

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of FFL AS, a football gaming app. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nextly?

We hired Nextly for their development services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Nextly is developing our backend system and mobile app, which is already on the app store. They also provide maintenance services. In terms of features, the product is a social game where users select a team, and they get points when the team scores in real life. Then, they can play against their friends. 

We plan to go global, but we’re targeting Europe for now. The product is only compatible with iOS now, though we’re working on a hybrid solution to make the product work for Android and iOS. For technologies, we’re using Swift and Kotlin.

What is the team composition?

We work with one full-time frontend developer, one full-time frontend developer, and one part-time frontend developer. The part-time resource works on our hybrid solutions, so they’ll probably work full-time eventually. Apart from that, we have a part-time project manager. 

How did you come to work with Nextly?

I found Nextly on Upwork. They had a long-standing relationship with a Norwegian company. Given that, we contacted said company, and they only had great things to say about the team. Their 15-year cooperation with a big firm reassured us that they were professional and good. That was the main reason we chose them for this project. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invest around $20,000 per month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2023, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The features that Nextly has implemented seem to work well, and I’m truly satisfied with them.

How did Nextly perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is quite good. There have been some missed deadlines in the beginning, but that’s fine. To communicate, we usually use Slack and Google Meet. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver quality work at a reasonable price. Their quality is great, and their cost is far below other Norwegian or European companies. On top of that, they communicate well with us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. They’re doing a great job. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have weekly meetings with Nextly, and ensure everything is on the same page at all times. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Cubby Storage.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nextly?

We needed help with software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Nextly has created a custom application that includes an enterprise app in the backend and a customer-facing app in the frontend. The backend enterprise part of the app is used by our employees to organize and control the box inventory.

The frontend is designed for residents of high-density buildings, like condominiums and apartment towers. Users can download our app and order storage boxes that are delivered to an on-site locker system. Then, they can retrieve those boxes from the locker system using a QR code. Users can catalog everything they’re storing.

Nextly also provides maintenance services for the app, which is also available on mobile devices and compatible with iOS and Android devices.

What is the team composition?

There are 4–8 teammates assigned to our project, including Thiers (Founder & CTO), one manager, and engineers.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around January 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

How did you come to work with Nextly?

We put our requirements on Upwork, and Nextly answered. Our CTO interviewed them, and we decided to hire them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While we don’t have many metrics yet, the quality of their work has been very good. The team is very intelligent and accommodating. They come up with good solutions.

How did the company perform from a project management standpoint?

Nextly is very conscientious about our budget; they make sure they’re working within our defined parameters. Nextly’s been very precise with deadlines. We’re late to go to market, but this is not Nextly’s fault; there’s been an internal delay. 

Thiers is easy to get in touch with; In addition to weekly calls, he finds time to meet with us when we need to meet with him. We’ve met face-to-face on Google Meet and Zoom and use Slack and email to communicate regularly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Nextly is very attentive and responsive. They’re eager to assist us however they can and do whatever’s in our best interest. They’re easy to work with, caring, and professional; my experience with them has been very good. I’d definitely recommend them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’ve been very pleased.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Consistent, direct communication with Nextly will help you get the most out of the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Entertainment, Inc., a platform for video creators to raise and distribute funds for their projects directly to an audience rather than going through a video streaming platform. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nextly?

I need additional development resources while raising capital before I’m able to hire a full-time development team. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve launched our initial development of the site and hired Nextly to provide ongoing web development services. They use JavaScript, TypeScript, Next.js, and NestJS to help with new features. I manage all of the pieces of work and put them into a system for Nextly to pull down. I review and approve all of the work before it goes live.

I’m interested in having Nextly continue to work with us indefinitely, even once I have the resources to hire developers internally. There are one or two places where I don’t need a whole teammate and will only need a set of expertise for a very short period. I’m hoping they’ll be able to help us with that specialist piece as well.

What is the team composition? 

There are two engineers and one product manager. 

How did you come to work with Nextly?

I found them on Upwork. I needed an agency that could step in quickly to help us keep everything functioning and add new features while we were going through the process of raising capital. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $10,000-$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2023, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Nextly has helped replace our entire internal video streaming platform in three weeks, which is a pretty significant piece of work. 

I’m looking at the number of features that we push through and release on a weekly basis, and I feel really good about the amount of throughput we’ve been seeing. There was a little ramp-up time in the beginning, as expected, with slower output in the first few weeks. In the last month, Nextly has really hit their peak. 

How did Nextly perform from a project management standpoint?

Nextly is really great to work with. They deliver on time. I’m surprised that they’ve remained a little under budget.

We communicate via Slack. I’ve put Nextly in a lot of our general conversation channels, and they’ve been super helpful. They’re able to give quick thoughts to other teams in our organization. Twice a week, we have a Zoom call. We use GitHub to manage the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Nextly’s communication is great. I want to know that an engineer is self-sufficient and going to make good decisions and keep working; I don’t want them bugging me every two minutes. Similarly, I don’t want an engineer to spend a week on something I could have straightened out in just a few minutes if they’d just thought to ask. Nextly is good at hitting that middle ground of being self-sufficient and letting me know when they’re stuck. Getting that balance right is pretty unusual, and I value that even higher than the technical skills. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’ll be looking to see if they can pull teammates from the bench to fill short-term skill gaps in the near future.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat Nextly like a core part of your team. Don’t make the assumption that you’re just going to throw a huge piece of work over the fence and get it back in a while. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a director at an IT consulting company. My work is finding ways to automate and improve the efficiency of various processes. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with cleverti?

We needed to develop Risk Sistemicity Questionnaire (RSQ) tool to support annual processes that procure international freight management services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

cleverti developed custom software for our in-house system using a low-code platform called OutSystems. Initially, we provided cleverti with use cases through Jira, and they provided us with software developers that worked with our internal development team to create our product’s MVP. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Tomás (Head of Nearshore Sales & Business Development) and two developers, one was senior level.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2022–March 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

cleverti understood our requirements and helped us develop our product’s first release — they worked great with our team.

How did cleverti perform from a project management standpoint?

cleverti met deadlines and was responsive through email and video calls. We used Jira for project management and to keep track of the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with cleverti’s proposals. They came up with good ideas and suggestions. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for cleverti to improve. I didn’t work directly with cleverti’s developers, and my team didn´t give me negative feedback.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have clear requirements and specifications when you start working with cleverti. Work with cleverti’s team to find the right development resources for your project and build a good rapport with the team cleverti assigns. This way, they will understand your requirements and help you in the best possible way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and co-founder of a technology startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nextly? 

We hired them as contractors to build out the frontend of our main application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They work exclusively for our product and are plugged into our brands as part of our team. This isn’t one-off project work. Nextly provides Angular engineers that work on our client-facing application. Our bar for resources is high, as we’re looking for A+ talent, but they help us find the right people.

What is the team composition?

I mainly worked with their head of business development, as well as one of their co-founders and their head of recruitment. In terms of contract resources, we're working with a lead frontend engineer, a mid-level frontend engineer, a product manager, and a machine learning resource.

How did you come to work with Nextly? 

Finding top talent based in the US has become pretty difficult, and we wanted to augment our San Francisco team with developers from South America. One of my friends recommended them to us.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost is around $40,000 per month right now.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since July 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work is due to their ability to find top talent.They’ve been able to hit the milestones on our product roadmap and perform very well.

How did Nextly perform from a project management standpoint?

Their lead engineer and product manager are responsible for keeping everything organized using Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The reason we continue to work with them is their ability to understand the type of resources we’re looking for, both in terms of our technical and cultural requirements. They also do a great job of delivering resources that fit our exact requirements, rather than only understanding them but then missing the mark. By the time they present a candidate to us to interview, there’s a high likelihood that we’re going to end up contracting them. A lot of staffing firms continue to send resumes at a high volume, but few of their candidates are likely hires.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When it comes to engineering positions, it’s very important to fill the senior developer positions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the development manager of Richards, LLC, a small software development firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nextly?

We were doing software development on a large project and needed additional assistance within our team to deliver features and fixes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve hired some people through Nextly; they’ve joined us as part of our team. We work on a healthcare portal to track COVID-19 testing and results. It has a side that allows managing protocols for organizations, including some large Fortune 100 companies. The app has extensive functionality and a heavy volume of transactions.

The resources help out on frontend and full stack development. It’s mainly a JavaScript site, so we’re using Vue.js on the frontend, Node.js on the backend, and several AWS services.

What is the team composition?

We have three resources working with us right now: two frontend developers and one full stack developer. He’s more advanced, so he’s in a lead role now.

How did you come to work with Nextly?

The consultant we were working with referred them. He had a connection with Nextly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2022, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their people fit very well with our team. They initially did well in the onboarding process, and as they’ve integrated into the project, they’ve been seamless. In particular, the lead person has had an immediate impact in driving the direction of our work, asking great questions and just being an amazing team member.

How did Nextly perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a team of three project managers, and our developers generally connect with them if they need new work. However, the PMs often will keep tickets in front of them. It’s a pretty standard process, and we use a combined board in Jira to manage our work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve done an excellent job of discussing our needs and going to great lengths to ensure they’re meeting them with the people they send us. Unlike other agencies we’ve worked with, the ratio of people we’ve interviewed to those we’ve hired is very high. Their vetting process is really effective. They’ve become our go-to provider.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

BUS AS is a development center that creates software solutions for car dealers and workshops, primarly related to vehicle inspections, trade-in value assessments and quality management. I am head of product development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire 99x, and what were your goals?

BUS began co-sourcing with 99x in 2012 to expand the development team with the goal of more rapidly delivering quality solutions to meet the growing demand for BUS products in the market. The goals were the same then as today: deliver market-leading products and provide the best customer support.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We considered several consultant companies but in the end the choice was clear. 99x would provide us top talent and would support the "one team" concept we felt was so important in achieving our goals. Two teams geographically and commerically, but when it comes to product delivery and work values, we act as one team.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The start of the project was about brainstorming and arriving at a common idea on the architecture for the BUS product suite, the technology stack, project tool stack and project process. Back in 2012, we evaluated WPF/WCF smart client based stack, against HTML/JS based stack during the initial stages of this project. After this evaluation, it was decided to develop next generation BUS solution as a HTML/JS based rich internet application (RIA).

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Started as a team of 5 with two leads/developers, two developers, and one QA. The team grew over time and now is around 14 with a split between lead, dev, big data consultants, UI, and QA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The output was increased and the release cycle was more frequent, allowing BUS to deliver improvements and product enhancements. This in turn led to securing an even more solid footing among the customer base and achieve continuous profitability year to year with the largest market share among competitors.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The team used the Atlassian suite with JIRA and Confluence, and the Scrum approach. Today, we use the same, in addition to Teams, Skype, and now moving toward Microsoft Azure solutions.

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

They gave us professional insight and helped us achieve our innovative objectives. No job too small or big, too routine or too innovative. 99x integrated well with our team, which helped us rapidly deliver on all objectives.

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

Business domain knowledge takes time to build, so this is always an area of improvement. But the team does well with knowledge transfers for new joinees and retaining the knowledge already acquired in the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm responsible for the Development and test department in RamBase. We deliver a cloud based ERP system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire 99x, and what were your goals?

We hired 99x to help with development of RamBase ERP. We needed more developers, and it was hard to find enough developers in Norway. Our goal was to include the 99x developers into our existing development teams to further strengthen our teams.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected the vendor based on their high technology knowledge and that they knew the Norwegian culture from before.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

99x has been importortant contributes to the developement of RamBase. From the beginning it was important for us to mix teams, with some developer from Hatteland and some from 99x. This has worked well for us. The developers in 99x are highly skilled developers and they have not only contributed with development, but we have also learned a lot from them, and I will say that 99x has made us more professional.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We have 8 developers working full-time for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

99x has been central in delivery of a frontend framework used by all RamBase developers. They have been part of a team building a CRM system. They have built a cloud print solution and they have contributed on upgrading our application server platform.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

It has been important for us to treat the 99x developers as if they was RamBase employees. We mix teams of developers from Norway and 99x, and in some cases also developers from Poland and other sites in Norway, so we have some really distributed teams. Every day starts with a daily standup. The 99x developers are very easy to collaborate with.

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

They are very friendly and hardworking people that we really appreciate, as well as their high technology competency.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Norkart AS is a leading vendor of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and municipal technical management systems in Norway.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire 99x, and what were your goals?

We had won at public procurement, which was a big investment for our company. It was clear from the outset that we needed to expand our development capacity in order to meet the deadline for the project. In addition to meet the deadline, our goal was to redesign the old IT system to a new cloud service, to use the new system to automate our customer work processes using integration to national common services and through data analysis.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We allready had some knowledge about 99x, so we initated meetings with them to explore the possibilites and what they could offer us. Because of the project timeline, we needed a partner that had the ability to scale up new development teams in a short period of time, with required skills, something 99x could provide for us.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

99x helped us create a municipal technical management systemet using React+.net. They we're a part of a joint project with 6 teams collaborating across the borders. We started out by having a workshop, introducing the team to the domain they we’re going to work on and the requirements for the product. 99x then provided us with workflows and initial design.

The project was then run as an agile project, with continuous deliveries so that our customer could track our progress and give feedback allreadt from an early stage. 99x is well acquainted with agile projects, running 2-week sprints with demo meetings, retrospective and backlog grooming. Along with the development teams, 99x have an excellent supportteam of UX developers, QA and BA.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

At the maximum, there were 4 teams with a total av approx 27 team members in the teams and in support functions across the teams. 99x provided techlead/teamleader, UX and BA when needed, and all teams had senior and junior engineers and QA resources.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The product and it’s different modules was delivered on time with the agreed upon requirements with the customer. The product contained complex business logic and integrations to other systems, thus enabling automation of the customer work processes, freeing up their time.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Collaborating with 99x was great. The team members was really interested in obtaining and understanding the complex domain logic, and thus helping in buildig a better product. We communicated through Teams and didn’t really have any issues with the different timezones.

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

We have a really great collaboration with the 99x and their management, having an open and honest dialogue. They use the agile method in a strict way, which we found crucial to succeeding with the partnership. The other thing we we’re impressed with, was the team members interest in understanding the domain we were working on.

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

Although the communcatin worked really well, we experienced from time to time that there was a language and a cultural barrier between us. But 99x were quick to help us solve any issue that arised.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Product of Aspit AS, a company that provides a practice management system for the Norwegian e-health market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 99x?

They where helping us build a web frontend to our legacy desktop system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

99x helped us modernize our existing system through custom software development. They replicated the functionalities of the old system and used the same database structure so the clients wouldn’t have to migrate their data to the new one.

Moreover, the backend remains the same so the main focus of the project was just developing a new frontend and web content.

What is the team composition?

I believe we’ve worked with about 30 resources from 99x, but was scaled down to about 15 as our development needs dwindled.

How did you come to work with 99x?

I wasn’t part of the initial onboarding process, but I believe they were the third vendor chosen for this project. 99x ended up finishing the task because they were the ones our company had the most success with.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from June 2019–January 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

99x professionalized the company’s product operations, resulting in the growth of our resources and customers. They provided a lot of personality to the organization and working with them has been a positive experience.

How did 99x perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was well-structured and organized. They were very good at documenting the entire process and we were very satisfied with what they delivered.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We liked that the relationship felt like working with friends, rather than working with business partners. They were really invested and committed to our long-term growth.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are cultural differences between work cultures in our different regions. At the beginning of the project, we had to invest time in getting their resources to voice their opinions on our development plans. Especially if they disagreed on the made plan as that is not a part of their business culture.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise setting your expectations early in the partnership, and clearly communicating what you want them to do and achieve. Also clarifying your expectations for how the resources should approach disagreeing with the laid plans.