Acropolium

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the Founder/CEO of SWIFT Weather, a hazards alerting company. Our solutions enable businesses, agencies, and citizens to predict accurately where severe weather will strike, maximize preparation time, and formulate appropriate response. SWIFT Weather solutions turn raw weather data into actionable, easy-to-read information that fuels some of your most critical decisions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Acropolium?
Our challenge was to see if by focusing on unique ways to monitor hazards, and trigger and route alerts, we could significantly improve upon traditional models of alerting without creating fatigue from "noise" and at the same time ensure accountability and audit trails throughout the organization.

We were trying to improve the signal-to-noise ratio when it comes to severe weather and crisis alerting. On any given day, there can be dozens or hundreds of alerts that affect an enterprise. Many solutions over-alert. This creates fatigue and leads to poor utilization and poor response times in actual emergencies. Our main concept for the new project is to build an efficient alerting system that would be able to contact anybody connected to an organization no matter what platform they’re using, including email, cell phone, web applet, or any kind of custom API. We also wanted to make sure that we would be able to solicit an acknowledgement that the alert had been received. The project has features like that built into it along with some other proprietary features with patents pending that would make this product unique in the marketplace. When we reached out to Acropolium, the product was only at concept stage.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
From the technology perspective, I had a basic concept in mind with a list of requirements and features. During first phase they [Acropolium] helped me create architecture from a software and hardware point of view to see how I could build that kind of a product. I was impressed with their architecture results, and so I hired them to do the build.

Acropolium recommended the technologies that should be used and did the actual design of the hardware architecture in terms of databases, platforms, etc. For the layout and graphic designs, I gave them concept drawings that they implemented. They used Node.js with a Redis database, PostgreSQL database, and some other modern web UI languages including Bootstrap, etc. Everything was hosted on an Amazon EC2 instance.

How did you come to work with Acropolium?
We initially posted the project on Elance/Upwork and Acropolium was one of the bids. They provided the most compelling approach by first delivering a detailed architecture that proved they understood the project better than anyone else. They were subsequently awarded 4 more projects, each one building upon the original framework, and we are still working together nearly 3 years later.

How much have you invested with Acropolium?
We’ve spent between $30,00–$50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?
We started the project in September, 2014, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
The deliverables from Acropolium always exceed my expectations. We work very diligently to provide clear requirements, which they meet, but often they will improve upon our requirements by suggesting options we haven't considered. This may be in the form of open-source solutions, payment systems, or email providers. As long as my requirements are clear up front, they are quick at fixing bugs. They are a tremendous value as an outsourcing partner.

Because I’m the point person who communicates requirements, I don’t know about metrics. The marketplace to sell this product is still being developed. The reason I keep working with them is that they consistently meet or exceed our expectations in terms of the quality of work. Oftentimes, they are able to implement a feature in a better way than I had suggested. They show motivation to think outside the box. Other outsourced teams that I’ve worked with stay on time and on budget, but they won’t offer excellent work or have best possible implementation.

How did Acropolium perform from a project management standpoint?
If I give them requirements, they’re always on time and within budget. We use Codebase for project management, which is Acropolium’s ticketing and code repository system.

What did you find most impressive about Acropolium?
When bring ingenuity to their solution implementation. I can rely on them to let me know if there’s a better way to do something.

Are there any areas Acropolium could improve?
If we’re not in the middle of a sprint, it can take a while for them to get back to us if there are bug fixes or updates to an existing product. Usually they respond within a few days, but it’s hard as a business owner to know when something will be fixed in a predictable manner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company that focuses on connecting Belgian and Dutch clients to foreign developers. We work with trusted suppliers from around the world, whose management and development teams we’re familiar with. We manage the complete development process alongside our clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Acropolium?

We have worked on several projects with their team, including a fixed-price ReactJS development effort.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Acropolium supplied a ReactJS developer who built a native Android and iOS app. It is a tool for people with drug and alcohol problems that provides questionnaires through which users can determine if they have an addiction.

How did you come to work with Acropolium?

One of their account managers reached out to me on LinkedIn. I set up a call and tried to get an understanding of what Acropolium did and how they worked. I was quite impressed with them and thought that they would be a good choice for a future opportunity. I continued to look for clients in The Netherlands and Belgium and finally found a project that fit Acropolium.

How much have you invested with Acropolium?

The cost of our project has been around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Acropolium in March of 2017. We delivered the ReactJS app, and it will be launched on app stores soon. We are in the process of starting a new, larger project on behalf of a Belgian company that is looking for a dedicated PHP team for resource augmentation. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I always sit in the middle, connecting developers with my clients. I am responsible for ensuring that processes are working well and have received good feedback from clients. We are discussing a new Drupal project with Acropolium, which is a compliment for their team.

How did Acropolium perform from a project management standpoint?

We work in a Scrum way with 2-week sprints. We review the output at the end of each period, and, if everything is okay, we start the next step. Contracts are updated at the same interval.

They provided a developer and CTO on their side. I worked as project manager and have also depended on the project manager and developer from the client’s side. I have been very satisfied with how Acropolium’s developer performed. He was fast, had high-quality output, and did even more than he was supposed to do.

I use Google Docs for management, and we also work with Git. I am not technically involved in the details, but I keep a general overview of the developers working in the client’s system.

What did you find most impressive about Acropolium?

I appreciate the speed of their work, quick reaction time, and, last but not least, the quality of their work.

Are there any areas Acropolium could improve?

They should focus on explaining who is responsible for pricing. There was a bit of confusion around this at times. This is a small issue. I could arrange everything perfectly, but, if Acropolium had not done the work, we’d have a huge problem. In this case, the client was happy.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Centaur Media is a vendor of advertising, subscriptions, and live events around B2B publications like Marketing Week and The Lawyer. We also handle consumer magazines, and focus on homebuilding and renovating shows. I am a digital project manager for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Acropolium?

We manage 80 websites across many industries and audience types and needed to create an event-management software which could handle many users and many first-class pages to our visitors and potential customers. We needed to find a reliable supplier who could deliver this while in the right price bracket.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have around 20 in-house developers working on other parts of our business, but only 2 of them focus on the live events part. Acropolium provides the rest of our needed resources. We started with only one resource, but we currently engage a team of 4 from their side. The team size has remained constant for the last few years.

We have worked on many projects with Acropolium over the course of our 9-year relationship. Our exhibition-management software is one example; it provides a front-end website aimed at attracting visitors to our events. At the same time, the software manages exhibitors, who log in to a portal and can complete several forms.

Acropolium has primarily provided web development, but have also provided design. A few years ago, we worked on a publication project for which Acropolium handled the ground work, including design, wireframes, and user-journey suggestions. We accepted their input and built Acropolium's design. As a general rule, though, we organize wireframes on our end, thinking about marketing aspects and design, and leave web development to Acropolium.

Our software is very complex, with hundreds of individual features. The most valuable feature has been the ability to create searchable exhibitor lists. Another feature is our event planner, through which people can select interest areas and mark them on a map; when they visit our exhibits, it becomes easier to manage whom they're visiting, where, and what time.

How did you come to work with Acropolium?

Acropolium was referred to us with perfect timing, while we were looking for a partner.

How much have you invested with Acropolium?

The cost of Acropolium's work has been around $500,000 overall.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Acropolium around 2008. The work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Acropolium has good development and internal testing processes. As a result, we've gotten good-quality work. It would be very noticeable if their work wasn’t high quality, given that Acropolium is working on some business-critical functions for our company. Our team is frequently surprised by the functionalities we're building with Acropolium. Their work has been running well for the last decade.

How did Acropolium perform from a project management standpoint?

Projects are managed well and delivered on time. If getting the right quality and completing the right items in time is key to a project, then Acropolium is very good at doing it. There have been instances of scope creep which changed our goals, but they were few and far-between.

We use Codebase, HipChat, Skype, Trello and Google Docs for our collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about Acropolium?

Acropolium is very good at listening and collectively thinking of solutions. If we give them a vague problem, Acropolium's team will solve it.

Are there any areas Acropolium could improve?

Not being a direct part of our business puts Acropolium at a disadvantage. We'd always prefer having in-house resources, but that's not necessarily a failing of Acropolium.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Qualer provides a software-as-a-service system for the biotech industry, particularly its service portions. I am the chief executive officer and founder of the company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Acropolium?

We originally needed to develop our web-based platform, but we ended up working with them across multiple projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I have worked with Acropolium on 3 projects, all for web-based applications of different types. These included a social network app, an e-commerce app, and a website showcasing the products of a biotech company.

Acropolium provides a 12-person development team for our current work. We are building an Azure application consisting of a number of services, online and offline, including mobile and web apps. The team has handled parts of the design as well. Our application is an enterprise-grade SaaS [software as a service] solution for service management in the biotech industry. A part of our project is also a collaboration application for precision instruments.

We are mainly using the Microsoft stack, but Acropolium also has a PHP and MySQL web team. Acropolium is able to write native code for mobile, but, in our case, we have used the Xamarin framework, which is a Microsoft technology for building apps on multiple platforms.

Regarding design, my company provides generic wireframes by which Acropolium provides development. In the past, we have also worked based off generic descriptions.

How did you come to work with Acropolium?

I worked with Acropolium on a project for a previous company, so I went to them when I needed programmers. We have used many companies, particularly in Ukraine, which is an inexpensive and reliable source of developers. Acropolium is head-and-shoulders above everyone else. I haven't worked with any other companies which were as responsive and honest.

How much have you invested with Acropolium?

The cost of Acropolium's services has been around $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Acropolium started working with my current company in 2013. The work is ongoing, and we're expanding our team with Acropolium.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Acropolium has achieved tangible results. Members of our company have stared in awe at what we are doing, and the progress we have month-by-month.

We have recently partnered with another company for penetration testing and security analyses for our code. We passed our first audit without even any level-2 criticality bugs, which is a testament to Acropolium's work. There were a few medium-to-low-impact issues, but that was it.

Acropolium has delivered all our requested features, and then some. Our developers not only took ownership of their work but also introduced their best thinking and suggestions. Acropolium went the extra mile in providing a cool, modern UI [user interface] for us.

How did Acropolium perform from a project management standpoint?

I manage the whole team myself, although Acropolium has its hierarchy. The team is very disciplined, allowing us to reach a workflow that made everyone accountable and responsive. I've had no issues whatsoever with Acropolium. We have scrum calls every night. No deadlines were ever missed.

We use a combination of tools, but the majority of our work is tracked with Team Foundation Server. GitHub is our code repository, and we also use Google Docs.

What did you find most impressive about Acropolium?

The results we've seen can be attributed to Acropolium's CEO. He has a talent for finding developers with good potential. Even though many of them don't have a lot of experience initially, they eventually shine and do a tremendous job. I trust him in this regard and know that he will always find star talent when I need it. He is also honest and open about everything.

Are there any areas Acropolium could improve?

I don't think so. Acropolium is doing a tremendous job, especially compared to teams we've worked with in the past.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the IT Operations Director of an oil and gas company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company is a key player in the global oil and gas industry, specializing in exploration, drilling, and production with a diverse portfolio of offshore and onshore assets worldwide

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• We hired Acropolium to build a cutting-edge Big Data analytics platform that integrates real-time data from drilling rigs, production wells, and reservoir monitoring systems.

SOLUTION

How did you find Acropolium?

Online Search

Why did you select Acropolium over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Awards and client trust

How many teammates from Acropolium were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

The scope of work involved developing a comprehensive Big Data analytics platform tailored for our oil and gas operations. Acropolium was responsible for the full lifecycle of platform development, including the integration of real-time data from multiple sources such as drilling rigs, production wells, and reservoir monitoring systems

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Significant increase in production efficiency

Notable reduction in equipment downtime

Substantial cost savings in maintenance

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

Acropolium's project management was exceptional throughout the entire engagement. They consistently delivered items on time, adhering to the project timeline and milestones we established together. 

They actively listened to our feedback and made necessary adjustments quickly, ensuring that the final solution aligned perfectly with our operational goals.

What was your primary form of communication with Acropolium?

Virtual Meeting

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

What we found most impressive about Acropolium was their quick response times and their ability to adapt to our evolving needs.

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

No, we had a very positive experience with Acropolium.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Manager of a chemicals & biotechnology company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an international gas and oil company, specializing in exploration, drilling, and production.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• We hired Acropolium to develop a real-time data analytics platform for the oil and gas industry, aiming to enhance operational efficiency, optimize resource management, and improve decision-making through sophisticated data analysis and predictive modeling.

SOLUTION

How did you find Acropolium?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Acropolium over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Acropolium were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

The scope included designing and developing a scalable, real-time data integration platform using technologies like Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, and TensorFlow.

Key deliverables:

• real-time data aggregation from IoT and SCADA systems
• predictive analytics tools
• user-friendly interface built with React.js and D3.js.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project led to a 15% increase in production efficiency, a 20% reduction in equipment downtime, and a 30% decrease in maintenance costs, highlighting the effectiveness of the platform in optimizing operations.

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

Acropolium demonstrated strong project management skills, delivering items on time while maintaining flexibility to adapt to evolving project requirements. Their agile approach ensured that the client's needs were consistently met.

What was your primary form of communication with Acropolium?

Virtual Meeting

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

The most impressive aspect was Acropolium's ability to develop a highly scalable and compliant platform that effectively integrated diverse data sources while providing actionable insights through advanced analytics and an intuitive user interface.

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

Everything proceeded seamlessly, with no significant areas needing improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the Engineering Manager of a company that build large scale services' middleware.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We leveraged the skills of Acropolium for building a large scale microservices architecture using the node.js platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select Acropolium and what were the deciding factors?

Beyond scope.

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

The node.js team at Acropolium joined the in house dev team to work on a lot of core and integration layer deliverables. The timezone in which they operated was very helpful as they nicely complemented the in-house team.

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

1 sr engineer leading the team, 2 sr engineers and 5 engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped us boost key deliverables' time to market right from the get go.

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

Beyond scope

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

A very humble, skilled team of engineers who can upskill fast and deliver.

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

Keep doing what your'e doing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the managing partner of a comprehensive nearshore and offshore software development network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We are collaborating with Acropolium in business development and software developments as a reliable partner within our nearshore network.

SOLUTION

How did you select Acropolium and what were the deciding factors?

Acropolium has great competences and very skilled software developers as well as the capacity and broad range of technology skills to professionally serve multiple clients at the same time to be a very reliable partner within our nearshore network.

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

We closely collaborate in marketing and business development, technology and software development for our common clients.

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

We closely collaborate with Acropolium management, second level management as well as with the technology teams.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Common clients are the proof of our very trustful and reliable collaboration.

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

Collaborative and structured customer and project management are key to success to our common clients.

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

We maintain a very trustful collaboration with openness and transparancy.

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

I can only say, that Acropolium and their employees are very professional at all levels of the company.