AgileEngine

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of engineering at a startup. I have a small team of two engineers­–one of them being from AgileEngine.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We have a marketplace that helps with mental health support services and provides practitioners with a licensing process for them. AgileEngine was brought in before me joining the company, so I believe they were brought on board when it was clear that my predecessor wouldn’t be able to grow the business from a tech standpoint.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine provided me with a developer that’s based in Argentina. He’s part of my daily standups and checks in like any other employee. I have a roadmap, but since we’re a startup, priorities do shift on him quite frequently. The developer writes full-stack JavaScript code. He works with a React frontend and Node.js backend.

What is the team composition?

Along with the developer, I touch base with an account rep every month.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I believe our CEO used the Techstars network and got a recommendation.

How much have you invested with them?

At this point, we’ve probably spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe we started working with them in the Spring of 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developer is on par with any senior-level developer I could’ve gotten off the market in Atlanta. He’s very dedicated and dialed-in.

Our assigned developer understands the business problem and enjoys being part of the team. That’s rare. It’s nice to have someone that’s living the journey with us.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Asana. We’re in constant communication, and I rarely feel oversold on anything. There have been very few surprises in terms of missing deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been very hands-off. My main concern in coming into this position was that I hadn’t had great luck with offshoring before. I was skeptical about the overall code quality and maintainability.

AgileEngine encourages their developers to weave into the fabric of the companies they’re placed at. So far, it’s been great. The developer delivers the right amount of craft and attention to detail. I’m very happy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any complaints right now. If anything, I could probably have fewer check-ins with the business. But, realistically, there’s not a lot of overhead in managing. I don’t have any constructive criticism for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Any candidate you’re going to get will be somewhat vetted, but make sure that it’s someone who will fit in with your team well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of software development for an e-commerce company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We were trying to get more development resources on the team to address some skills we didn’t have in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped with custom development support and worked mostly on our internal software. They have Java development skills and backend development skills. They work remotely with our team. We had a variety of projects that would scale our existing warehouse, creating new features, optimizing their work, reports for the backend, and all the things that come with a warehouse operation.

What is the team composition?

We used to have three people, but now we have two people.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

We visited them in Kiev. It was a very positive meeting and they made a good impression. They fit the approach we were looking for, so we set up a trial project and were pleased.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $100,000-$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve improved how our systems work. They picked up the business approach and started contributing to ideas about how to improve our tech stack and software architecture.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They work as part of our agile teams, and we communicate daily. They adhere to the same standards as our team and have met our expectations. We have an account manager that we talk to every 2–3 weeks. They have a daily standup online and we use Slack. They keep us updated on what they’re working on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re really happy with their development skills. Whenever we needed an intermediate or senior developer, they always were able to get someone. We’ve never had any performance issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

My experience has been positive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a close relationship with the team and are talking with them regularly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior software engineer at POPSUGAR, a digital published company geared for a female audience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We needed help with building an Android application for Glow, an e-commerce platform for fitness content. We lacked Android-specific developers on our team and the time and resources to ramp up those capabilities in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine built the app for Android in React Native to mirror an existing iOS app. We created wireframes for every feature to duplicate screens in the iOS version. However, the React Native codebase allows us to implement an iOS version of the Android app if we want to do that.

The basic functionality AgileEngine implemented included a discover screen, where users could scroll through available content, shops, plans, and products. They also created a scheduling feature that lets user schedule a fitness video for a specific day of the week and track their schedule history. Other functionalities include profiles, search and filtering, and favoriting.

The functionalities they did not implement include in-app purchasing: we instead linked to our web app to complete any purchases. They also connected the app to Chromecast for streaming, but they did not build the receiver itself.

What is the team composition?

I was looking to bring on two nearshore engineers. AgileEngine offers developers in Argentina which allowed for 3–4 hours of overlap for communication and stand-ups, which was important to us. After they found the first engineer, it became clear that it’d be hard to find a second developer. 

We ended up with one senior developer, a part-time developer based in Ukraine to help here and there, and a part-time project manager to help with sprint planning and be available for meetings. 

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I did a lot of research online, including reading reviews on Clutch. I was looking for nearshore developers for communication purposes while staying within our budget. I narrowed it down to 5–6 companies that I spoke with. AgileEngine checked all boxes. Their client relations were great in answering all our questions. They were very transparent in describing how the company and teams operate in great detail. A project manager did an analysis to break down different features. They were really a stand out company compared to others.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $42,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from November 2019 until March 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've seen significant growth in our user base despite a lack of active marketing. In addition to that success, we’ve had no major issues or bugs reported by users. I reviewed all the code as it came in: it was of top-notch quality and well-organized.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

The team’s communication was great; we had no issues throughout the whole process. Our project manager was especially top-notch and well-organized. She always made sure she had what she needed from me and the developers had what they needed, preventing any holdups. We used Jira to manage the project. Other than that, it was a combination of Google Hangouts and daily standups.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their excellent communication and client relations stood out to me. At every point, any concerns we might have had were addressed. I always felt like any issue I’d have would be immediately taken care of.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any points of negative feedback. 

Any advice for potential customers?

As with any other company, be thorough in asking questions and making sure to discuss concerns you might have in advance so there are no surprises. Make it clear what your deliverable is as well. AgileEngine was excellent at communication, so just communicate your needs, and you’ll be successful working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product and project manager for a small startup. We’re developing a unique authentication solution that enables online trust and privacy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We needed help with building our initial product.  We have 4-5 people on our core team but needed additional resources to meet a milestone we had. Because we’re just getting started, we wanted to find a balance between affordability and top-notch quality.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine acts as an expansion of our team. They provide staff augmentation, and we work together on a rolling basis. Their team has provided a couple of developers — app and frontend — and designers.

What is the team composition?

I work with an account manager via biweekly meetings. She ensures that the engagement is running smoothly.  We initially had a project manager, but it made more sense for us to do that ourselves. So, we eliminated that role and took over running daily scrums ourselves. On a day-to-day basis, we are working with two developers and a designer.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

Our startup founder learned about Agile Engine while working for a prior employer. He was impressed by the capabilities they offered, so he kept them in mind for maybe later. When he found himself in a place where he needed to extend his own team, he went directly to Agile Engine to see if they could help.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership began in October 2019 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve really made an effort to help AgileEngine feel that they’re a part of our team and not just contractors. Instead of telling them what to do, we ask for their input. They’ve been great at speaking up whenever they hear or see something that could be better. Their team is invested in our success and excited about what we’re doing. They provide feedback on a daily basis.

As a startup, we have a longer-term vision and shorter-term milestones that come and go. We have to take advantage of opportunities as they come up. It’s sometimes frustrating or difficult to keep a stable product, and Agile Engine has been extremely adaptive to that. They proactively meet our requirements and pivot when we need them to.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

The ease of staff integration was pretty seamless. They initially presented a specific agile methodology for how they operate, but we ended up developing our own that's works for the blended team.  We use Figma for prototyping, Jira for managing tickets and user stories, Slack for communication, and GitHub for managing code.  Our daily standups happen using Google Hangouts since our team is distributed across multiple locations and countries. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

In general, their team has been really engaged and excited about what we’re doing. They continuously bring that enthusiasm to daily meetings. They’re excited about discussing what they’re working on and providing constructive feedback. That is different from what I've experienced with other contractors. Others want everything spelled out, but AgileEngine is actively engaged in the problem. They help us solve issues rather than just taking orders on what needs to get done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. We don’t have any reservations about what they’re doing for us at all.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Their team provides a framework for operation. You can use their model as is, or if you think something would work better, they’re perfectly happy to engage in any manner you’d like. Don’t be afraid to ask because they’re flexible and willing to evolve to what your needs are.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

For two decades, we’ve been helping businesses around the world increase agility and trim IT costs by hosting their email and collaboration environments in the cloud. By relieving both channel partners and end-user organizations from the burden of managing infrastructure and software, we make it easier for them to focus on improving user experience and growing their business. Today, more than 40,000 customers in over 100 countries are working more productively. This is the result of the added value we build into our complete, enterprise-grade cloud solutions such as Hosted Exchange, Office 365, Dynamics 365, SharePoint hosting and Lync, as well as our proprietary online backup solution and our high-performance cloud servers. I am the Director of Software development

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire AgileEngine?

We had a big challenge to develop the integration of 5 PSA before Christmas 2019. We needed help when we started the project because we did not have enough developers to do it. We are talking about the integration of ConnectWise, Autotask, Kesaya, TigerPaw and QuickBook Online.

What were your goals for this project?

Deliver on time the planned integrations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We studied the market of resource providers and we had references from a few companies. it was after a videoconference with AgileEngine that we did our choice. Their values and ways of doing things were close to Sherweb's.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

AgileEngine has provided human resources that have been integrated directly into our project teams. The developers were based at home in Ukraine. The work was well divided and they could contribute significantly to the success we had. They were part of our teams as if they were Sherweb employees.

What was the team composition?

Mainly software developers and functional analysts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Customers were eagerly awaiting integrations with ConnectWise and Autotask. Once the projects were completed and put on the market, we have had a good success in terms of deployment. A lot of customer, in a short period of time, have installed the integration in their business.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It was quite simple: the software development was based on the SCRUM methodology. Project management was a bit more traditional and we tracked the progress and the budget in a rigorous way. It was easy to see if we were going to hit the targets or not.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They provided high quality resources fairly quickly. In addition, all the people we interacted with were professional and pleasant to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Difficult question! Learn French, maybe! Otherwise, we have been fully satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of a telematics provider in the Automotive Connected Car Market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

They’re working on a mobile app for us that focuses on the automotive industry.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The plan was for a consumer-facing app for iOS and Android. We defined our requirements, giving their team a spec. They took ownership of the UI, giving us various options for the look and feel. The examples were based on our feedback from the interview process. After selecting the look & feel we wanted, their team began the development process.

What is the team composition?

We primarily work with a team of three. There is a project lead and two engineers that focused on UI and development. Occasionally, they brought in two people from the web UI team.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

They were selected before my employment, but as far as the selection process goes, they have a team member that’s based near our headquarters. We liked their past work and their ability to communicate. When we started looking at what AgileEngine offered, we were pretty impressed.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with AgileEngine started in February 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Internally, the application has been well-received. They gave a competitive price compared to the market.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team works in the agile methodology. We have scrum meetings every Tuesday, and then they do their planning throughout the week. Along with their excellent communication, they deliver on time. We’re definitely happy with AgileEngine’s performance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their expertise in UI. Communication is also key when working with offshore companies. They do really well in that area.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re excellent to work with. If I had to say something, I wish they had more staff based in the US. But I think their team is performing great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure there is an open line of communication. Clients need to be specific on requirements. They should also ensure there isn’t a language barrier issue. The two keys to a successful engagement are being well-documented and regular communication.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The Activate Company is a software company that provides our customers with a process and program backed up by software. I’m one of the co-founders of the company, which is about three years old.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We have a pretty aggressive development schedule for our offering, in terms of maintaining our existing software and developing new capabilities. However, our in-house development team is small. We needed to augment that with AgileEngine, particularly in the mobile environment.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As the co-founder, I’m mostly in charge of product. So, I provided their team with design documents to begin our collaborative project start, which we’ve done with them a few times. Our teams discussed how goals, timelines, and how development should take place. From there, they took that information and ran with it. 

The first project we did together involved them refactoring and redeveloping a project from the existing code. They took an existing piece of software and essentially updated it. Now, they’re working on a project that required them to develop code completely from scratch. We specifically needed a partner with competencies in React Native, and they were able to offer us those resources.

The final app is geared toward heavy equipment management. This involves day-to-day tracking of operations and any system failures that occur. It provides monitoring services for those directly using the equipment and those overseeing its use.

What is the team composition?

We’ve used React Native developers and UI designers to complete the project. We also had a project manager who handled coordination between our team and theirs.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

We were using a different provider at the time and weren’t pleased with where we were going. They reached out to us, so we asked for capabilities papers and talked through a potential partnership. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent between $15,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around January 2019. At this point, we’re very satisfied with their deliverables, so we aren’t planning on ending the relationship anytime soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The mobile developers produced extremely high-quality code, and their UI designers were competent and able to help us create a more appealing product. They’re a brilliant team of professionals. Their level of competency is very high, and they’re a pleasure to work with. I can’t recommend them enough.  

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They provided great project management, both in delivering what they promised us and keeping our team on track to hit major deadlines. We have catch-up calls at least weekly, in which we address challenges and look to continue progressing through the development.

Our project manager is one of the best parts of the relationship, often managing us. She’s incredibly on top of all tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re open to and insistent upon frequent update meetings, putting a consistent cadence to the project. That way, it’s always at the front of our minds. Most of the development work is done overseas, but we’ve never experienced any difficulty with communications over different time zones. In fact, they work on a shifted schedule to be more available to their partners in the United States.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. They’ve met all my standards and performed very well. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We’ve had such success with the team we’ve worked with, so all I can say is that they follow through on their promises according to schedule and budget.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Yobi, a regulated retail software platform. We primarily provide POS and cultivation tracking technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We were trying to figure out how we could hit certain product milestones but still be able to do those within budget, as we’re just starting Series A funding. AgileEngine offered development resources at a very decent rate. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

My team worked with AgileEngine’s territory managers to recruit engineers. This included people already on their team and outside recruits. Once we approved the resources they found, they began working directly with our CTO. They’re effectively full-time employees and have become a part of our team.

They collaborate with us on daily tasks, whether that’s supporting feature development, helping with QA, or fixing bugs. We typically build everything with React. They help with both reactive and proactive development, so they provide support when issues arise but also help with new projects. In addition to development, we recently engaged them for UX/UX design support. They really do everything and wear all of the hats that we need them to.

What is the team composition?

We work with the AgileEngine team that’s based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There’s a product lead and team members who work under that person. AgileEngine also has a nearshore development team in Ukraine.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I did my own research and communicated with our CEO about whether we wanted to use an outside development team to complement our work. I saw AgileEngine referenced on LinkedIn, and then I believe they came as an inbound to our website. 

We ran through a development test with the companies we interviewed to understand what their capabilities were. AgileEngine passed the test with flying colors.

How much have you invested with them?

They commit about eighty hours each month, so we’ve probably spent $30,000–$40,000. We’ve invested in them as one full-time employee and gotten a good ROI on it. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work with AgileEngine began in March 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They found great team members for us that we’ve stuck with long-term. There was obviously a ramp-up period, and a few of the prospects that they believed were qualified didn’t quite meet our requirements. However, providing a lot of prospects was also a positive thing. It’s just the nature of going through a process to make sure you get the right fit. Also, the person who did a trial project for UX/UI was out of their Ukraine office, and they did a fantastic job.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re incredibly organized and responsive. Since our resources are in Argentina, there isn’t a big difference between our time zones. We’ve always had good, steady communication. Even during the recruitment process, their teams, whether they were in Europe or South America, were on all of the calls. They’re very active on our Slack channel.

They’ve been on pace with deadlines; there hasn’t been an instance of project mismanagement. Since they work under our CTO and lead engineer, they’re like another team member and therefore don’t have a ton of ownership over project management. However, they’ve been on point with what they have owned. AgileEngine’s resources haven’t necessarily taken a direct lead on projects, but that’s not a limitation of theirs; we just operate in a cooperative manner. We definitely think we could give them lead on projects, and we plan on hiring more team members in their Buenos Aires office so that this can ultimately happen. Having just engaged them for design support as well, it’s nice to know that design and development would be able to work side-by-side.

AgileEngine fits well with our stack. When we were recruiting, they sourced individuals who had experience in all of the necessary areas. It happened to be that they already had a lot of qualified developers on their team in Argentina, but they would’ve gone out and found development resources that fit specific requirements if we needed them to. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We told them what we wanted, and they delivered on that. I’ve worked with other development teams in the past, and working with AgileEngine has been one of the best experiences. Design is a fairly new offering for them, and they did a great job presenting that to us. I hope they continue to expand in their South American office, since it’s good for U.S. companies to have a team in a similar time zone. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve handled all of our requests. I’d recommend that they continue to expand their development and design pool in South America, as this will create more opportunities for them to work with teams in the U.S. I know they’re more centrally located in Ukraine, but the more they focus on developing in South America, the more they’ll improve their business. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you’re prepared to have those individuals run through your development testing. They offer testing, but if you really want them to match your needs, spend the time to create your own development testing process. To get the best of the relationship, give AgileEngine the chance to find the right resources. If you’re a U.S.-based company, push for them to recruit in South America, because it’s ultimately going to make your job easier.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of software engineering at a two-way text messaging platform located in Alexandria, Virginia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We’re building a SaaS platform that's used by higher education institutions to communicate with their students at scale. The messaging system is primarily a web application, but we have a mobile app as well. And we hired AgileEngine to do some software development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired them to rebuild a web app using the most current version of Angular. So, we mostly hired them for frontend development. We’re also working with a QA engineer and a backend developer that works in Scala. 

For background, we launched a version of our web app written in AngularJS in 2014. It still exists, but it was the primary application for four years. So, the developers from AgileEngine helped us rewrite the entire frontend web application from the ground up.

What is the team composition?

They’re an extension of our team, but their people are located in Eastern Europe and Argentina. Over the months, there’s been between 2–4 people from the AgileEngine team working on the project. They’re not physically with the team, but they’re spiritually and mentally with us.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I found them through a friend and colleague who had been the CTO of another local company. We were talking about the challenges that I was facing, and he recommended AgileEngine as a good alternative to some of the other companies in D.C.

When you get a real recommendation like that, it goes far. Frankly, the price was very competitive. When I spoke with the salespeople, it was apparent from the start that they knew what they were talking about.  I absolutely felt that the company was geared around selling expertise that they're really well versed in.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $15,000 per month for the last three months (a rough estimate).

What is the status of this engagement?

They started rebuilding the web app in February of 2019, and we’re still working with them. That initial project is largely finished, but we’re onto new stuff, and we’re still using the team.

As a software company, there are always software projects. We'll always be building on top of Angular and building features into our web app. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Initially, we were getting a little stuck getting the web app up and running. We didn’t know how to start the project. So, we brought in a developer from AgileEngine and paired him with one of our in-house guys, and they went off to the races. It’s been a night and day project.

They successfully re-implemented and re-launched the app, and they’ve had a very positive impact. The feedback we get from customers and our sales team (everybody who sees what we've built and what they played a part in building it) has been wildly, off the charts positive. 

It's also provided a huge lift in our ability to sell products and demo products. I know our sales team loves demoing this more than what they had prior. 

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re called AgileEngine, and we're an Agile software development shop. So, we run Scrums in which they participate. Every team has sort of its own version of Agile and its own version of Scrum. AgileEngine is very eager to learn, and they easily adapt. When AgileEngine came on, they were able to take up our version of Scrum, and there wasn't any push back. They went right in and made our work their work. 

We’ve been with them for eight months now, and we have no plans to stop working with them. The people are all great, and they’re a part of the team. Not only the developers that I work with, but also their support staff as well. I deal with the account manager, and she is great. 

I know another person in the area that works with them, and he's really friendly and available. I get a really sharp sense of competence both technically from the folks staffed with us and with all the folks that I work with. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

When I told them that I needed help with Scala, they were great. They were able to do it in not too long of a time. (Scala isn’t a standard language. It’s not as widespread of a backend language as Java or C#). I had such a good experience with the Angular guys as well.

They’re really responsive, and they’re priced competitively. That makes it easy to do business with them. They keep providing good people at a good price. They can find who you need. So, that's a real winning combination for me. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

There’s a lot of ways to staff up a team. AgileEngine has a technical lead senior, mid-and junior developers. So, I started with a technical lead, and then I filled in with juniors and mids. It really worked well for us to have someone with some industry, language, and business experience on the ground in Ukraine for the rest of the team. 

Even though we have our own team lead, I think it worked really well to have someone with experience on the ground in their home office so that when we filled in with juniors, they had an implicit mentor there with more experience.

I would recommend starting with someone more senior (maybe even more senior than you think you need just to have) just to get that anchor in place. They are remote, and there is a time difference. So, there's a number of hours during the day when we're not overlapping. So, if we didn’t have an anchor in their home office, there might have been junior developers unsure of what to do for a few hours every day. However, this wasn't a problem for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I'm the chief technology officer of Implant Compare, a continuing education company for dental practitioners. Oral surgeons have a regulated mandate to get credits for their continuing education every year. They can go onto our social platform to interact with other surgeons and watch videos of live or on-demand surgeries. We showcase a variety of techniques around suturing, tooth extraction, and implant placement in one consolidated site that they can access from their office and get credit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine? 

We had the typical startup challenge of finding onshore development costs to be too high. However, we still needed to be able to iterate faster from a development standpoint. Our previous developers had decent skills but weren’t able to take us where we wanted to go from a product perspective.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

AgileEngine provides everything as it relates to our web and mobile applications. We had a quite primitive alpha version of our application when we approached them. We started with one engineer and we worked together to refactor our entire code base. They basically started from scratch in designing and implementing our web app. 

They build everything in React.js. Then they use wrappers like Cordova for our mobile app. We also use a third-party livestream software on our backend. AgileEngine works directly with that company to ensure that we can leverage their open API in a white label fashion.

What is the team composition? 

Our first interactions were with two account managers who helped us select the right talent. They spent about a month identifying candidates, and then our team conducted interviews to ensure that they were a good fit. We started with one engineer. Since then we've grown to three-and-a-half individuals: two engineers that work on both front- and backend, one QA engineer, and half of a senior engineer’s time. The senior engineer does code review before apps go out to production. 

How did you come to work with AgileEngine? 

I’d heard about AgileEngine before they reached out to me through LinkedIn. It was fortuitous timing as our onshore resources weren't working out. We were in a growth stage and really wanted to hire a team that we felt comfortable helping us go to the next level. 

How much have you invested with them? 

I’m not completely sure as I forward everything to our CFO. I think we’ve spent between $50,000–$60,000 so far, or maybe a little more. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Work began in October 2018 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've had two major releases, which has led to increased stability within our mobile apps. It’s also enabled us to expand to thousands of additional users. The app allows our doctors to actually contribute live videos themselves performing surgeries. Those are our big money makers, so that's our main metric of success. The apps now mirror what we’d envisioned from the beginning of our company.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint? 

We have a very strong relationship with their team. The first engineer we hired has always been attentive, understanding of requirements, and not afraid to ask for clarification. We haven't had a single deadline slip since we started working together. They’ve also evolved quite a bit on the project management side. Out of the gate, they weren’t necessarily agile or fantastic at story pointing their work efforts. As the partnership has evolved, AgileEngine takes time to make sure that we're comfortable with how they’re tracking their work. Now they use ZenHub to track their work in a detailed manner.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

AgileEngine are jovial people to work with. I appreciate that they took the time at the beginning to find the right resources for our project. The engineers feel like a part of our team, which is very important to me. From our account manager to our QA engineer, they all really seem to care about us as a company and is invested in our success. We want to see them be successful as well. It’s a strong mutual relationship. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

They’ve been upfront about where they feel like they can improve versus us having to approach them. They’re taking steps to make the project management process more seamless. Other than that, we're in pretty good across the board. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Be honest about your internal struggles as a company. If you just throw requirements at them, you might not get what you're looking for. Take the time to sit down with their team to explain your business and what you're trying to accomplish. We were so in the weeds with our business. AgileEngine had a lot of great ideas that we hadn't thought about. That led to us having even better success from a developer-relationship standpoint.