AgileEngine

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Asoko Insight

Introduce your business and what you do there.:
I’m the CTO at Asoko Insight, a corporate business aggregator that focuses on the African continent. We’re the leading data provider in Africa. Over the last 5 years due to client needs we've evolved a white label Virtual Deal Room offering alongside our core offering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Since inception we have formulated a set of micro-services that drive our core knowledge graph of business across Africa and the relevant people and organisations. With impact of COVID we had an opportunity to spin out part of our platform into a product offering that enables the deal management workflows of a variety clients all with custom needs.

SOLUTION

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

AgileEngine has always works as part of fully "in-house" team. We kept the existing team and extended it to cover increase in work as we grew out our new product offering. Included design work on the new solution as well as development. What's the status of this engagement? Have completed the preparation and maturation of the new Virtual Deal Room platform. Now use the AgileEngine team to rapidly scale up and down the resources in order to do custom modules for specific clients.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with your partner evolve?

We went from maintaining a stable core team to scaling the resources up and down rapidly depending on specific clients that have engaged Asoko Insight.

In what ways can they improve?

AgileEngine have maintained very competitive costs over the years, but it is always a significant factor.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

AgileEngine is very strong not only in quality assurance of technical ability, but also in understanding your organisational needs and infusing this into the team members.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on December 3, 2019.

Jason Alcock
CTO, Asoko Insight
IT Services
London, England
51-200
Dec 2016 - Ongoing
$200,000 to $999,999
Verified

Project summary
AgileEngine completes software projects for a business data firm. The team provides resources for Node.js and Vue.js development, in addition to executing design work.

Feedback summary
AgileEngine provides high-quality deliverables that are free of issues. The team's ability to precisely map out each scope of work makes them a valuable development partner. Customers can expect knowledge specialists that maintain open and direct lines of communication.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at Asoko Insight, a corporate business aggregator that focuses on the African continent. We’re the leading data provider in Africa, and we’re currently targeting private businesses for the most part.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We needed a team of developers that could deliver solutions using NoSQL and various JavaScript frameworks. This was necessary for us to meet our corporate goals and needs. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve become an extension of our team. Instead of just bringing them on for one-off engagements, we include them in the scoping process. They vet potential developers and give us options in terms of talent to use for our software projects. Most of the work is done using Node.js and Vue.js, and we have a designer on board who produces work for us as needed.

What is the team composition?

At its height, the team was four people, but now we’re only working with two.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

We’d tried different companies before AgileEngine, and we wanted a team that could adjust quickly while delivering agile solutions. We looked through some reviews of their services and found that the expertise of their team made them a preferred supplier of development work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent approximately $350,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with AgileEngine in December 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve delivered value for our users, which is the only metric that matters at the end of the day. They’ve done that by increasing the quality of our software, decreasing the number of bugs, and cultivating other positive trends.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

AgileEngine was great about scoping out each project. They’ve also been able to find the right people in a very effective manner. Apart from supplying reliable, talented individuals, they’re also able to understand our business well, which allows them to scale up or down as required.

The team is extremely cooperative; the relationship never feels transactional. We have to negotiate details occasionally, but they always give a sense of goodwill.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve integrated well into our business team. We have team members from AgileEngine working directly with some of our business stakeholders, and that helps a great deal with communicating about requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have an ongoing wishlist, but AgileEngine isn’t an endless pool of resources, and we have to take our time with finding the right people for each task. I don’t know if there is a way to do this differently, but it would be great if they could shorten the amount of time that it takes to find the perfect fit.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Having a diverse team is always a good idea. AgileEngine is one of the stronger organizations that I’ve worked with, and they have plenty of resources.

STAR RATINGS
Overall rating: 5.0

Quality: 4.5

Cost: 4.5

Schedule: 5.0

Willing to refer: 5.0

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Manager of Envu

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Envu is a leading provider of environmental solutions for businesses across the globe

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Improve Software Performance
• Increase Revenue
• Introduce New Features

SOLUTION

How did you find AgileEngine?

Referral

Why did you select AgileEngine over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from AgileEngine were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Take over development and maintenance of a consumer software platform and take ownership of the future progression of the software alongside company product manager. Coordinate with company stakeholders and UI/UX designer. Perform technical discovery and onboarding from existing development team. Perform technical debt mitigation while collaborating on the planning and development of future features. Create a mobile application to function alongside web software.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Website performance (load time, bugs, etc.), Sales, Subscribers, Trial Users

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

The project management provided by Agile Engine has been top notch. Their organmization and planning ahead has allowed me to be able to focus on growing the business and exploring business development opportunites, rather than being stuck in the day to day of managing the development. 

What was your primary form of communication with AgileEngine?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The energy and commitment of all members I have interacted with at the company. All of their team members have really taken ownership and care about our results.

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

None at this time 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Partner of The Rational Heart

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Measure and analyze consumer emotional response to guide better marketing decision-making.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Automate data processing
• Create data files to enable further analysis

SOLUTION

How did you find AgileEngine?

AgileEngine Lead generation emails

Why did you select AgileEngine over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Scope flexibility

How many teammates from AgileEngine were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Custom data-processing software development and output creation of proprietary dataprocessing formulas and processes. Deliverables of software code that would output formatted excel outputs files of all data including datacuts and a custom analyses. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Budget and timeline
• Output built to scope
• Successful data analyese from custom built tool

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

Very responsive team. They listened to our needs and responded very quickly. Our daily syncs provided real time opportunities for us to provide feedbacka nd ask questions. Anything we raised was addressed immediately and new code updates were pushed regularly and frequently for review and testing. The project chat also provided ways for us to communicate. The team responded quickly to anything raised and usually solved any questions or issues nearly immediately. 

What was your primary form of communication with AgileEngine?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

AgileEngine's has provided a very capable team and process. The Agile team became a part of our team. They learned about our goals and became well versed in our needs. It was clear they were just as invested as we were in the success of the project. 

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

We were very happy with the process and the deliverables, no recommendations to change. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Operating Officer of TVEyes, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a search engine for video and audio content / data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Design a new web based User Platform
• Build components of the Platform

SOLUTION

How did you find AgileEngine?

Online Search

Why did you select AgileEngine over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from AgileEngine were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Agile has worked with our own Development team to design and build components of a new UX to access the TVEyes data set on a web based platform. They have contributed throughout the design and development cycle from defining key user requirements through QC testing of the platform and all steps in between.

In additon, they have provided extra development resources to bring the designs to fruition, collaborating with our own internal engineering team. They have been a "force multiplier" in this regard, allowing TVEyes to scale and accelerate the design and development cycles.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Tracking of the design and project plans as well as careful tracking of budget.

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

Agile has been efficient in their delivery of items and they have been very responsive to any modifications to the designs and development work as requested.

What was your primary form of communication with AgileEngine?

Virtual Meeting

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

The balance of global software talent and experience with an excellent project management team at aggressive price levels.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of an entertainment company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an entertainment company providing a subscription-based video streaming service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Build a platform to support data warehousing and analysis
• Support ongoing business intelligence and data science

SOLUTION

How did you find AgileEngine?

Referral

Why did you select AgileEngine over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from AgileEngine were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We engaged Agile Engine to support development of a platform to manage data pipelines, support business intelligence and data analysis, and enable development and deployment of custom ML solutions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The success of the project was assessed by the correct functioning of the developed platform and tools as assessed via a thorough UAT.

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

Agile Engine accommodated various project management motifs to support our needs including both agile-based Jira-ticket management as well as waterfall style projects as requested. They were responsive, flexible, and adaptable, completing all work to high standards and meeting milestones and project deadlines efficiently.

What was your primary form of communication with AgileEngine?

Virtual Meeting

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

AgileEngine works with us as a close partner, essentially an extension of our internal teams.

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

I have no suggestions for improvement, except possibly cloning our Agile Engine team so we can have more of them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Pull Systems

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

AI-powered technology suite for electric vehicle manufacturers and fleet managers to prevent failures, shorten feedback cycles and boost profitability.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Augment our world-class engineering team

SOLUTION

How did you find AgileEngine?

Referral

Why did you select AgileEngine over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from AgileEngine were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Agile Engine augments our team with remote teammembers across several departments:

• Software Engineering
• User Experience
• Data Engineering

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AgileEngine has worked side by side with our team to design, build, test, ship, and improve multiple versions of our software product.

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

We treat the AgileEngine teammembers like full-time parts of our organization, so they participate fully in all project planning and management rituals including standups, planning, backlog grooming, all-hands meetings, and demo days. A full-time account manager oversees their work to ensure high-quality deliverables and removal of obstacles. 

What was your primary form of communication with AgileEngine?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

AgileEngine is very engaged in our success. We get to hand-pick potential teammembers based on compatibility with our culture, and they stick with us for years at a time. They proactively understand and work to address anything that is not 100% optimal. The engineers do particularly high-quality work.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of engineering for a cloud-based software company in the life insurance industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We needed software engineers with TypeScript and React knowledge, so we hired  AgileEngine for staff augmentation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team is using TypeScript on the backend and helping us to build our application suite of cloud software that runs on top of AWS. They’re primarily focusing on building out the front- and backend of our SaaS applications. The individuals from AgileEngine came in with a general familiarity with software development, but there’s been a little bit of a ramping-up period to get them more familiar with TypeScript. 

What is the team composition?

We initially spoke with Kateryna (Regional Client Success Lead), but we currently work with a team of four people.  

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

They were a referral from someone in our company who had worked with AgileEngine previously. We were looking for individuals who could be embedded into our team that wouldn't just build software for us, but would build it with us. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main source of feedback we get is whether or not the individuals are completing stories in Jira and responses from peers who are direct employees in our company. The individuals from AgileEngine are meeting and exceeding our expectations, and they operate like members of our team. 

How did AgileEngineperform from a project management standpoint?

They stay within the budget and don’t go over their allotted time because they are timesheet employees. We primarily use Jira as a project management tool and use Slack, Zoom, and email for communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The individuals AgileEngine has provided us with have been able to pick things up quickly, and they operate within our team in an integrated way. They are communicative and collaborative, and it feels like they're a part of our core team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing we can come up with; we just hope they keep up the great work they’ve been doing. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know what you want and let AgileEngine in on that because they will tailor what they give you to make sure that it is what you’re requesting. AgileEngine has different models to choose from, and if you let them know what you want, they’ll deliver on that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the director of software development for edsembli. We specialize in building administrative software that targets the K-12 education sector

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Full stack software development and testing for our HR management and Payroll solution. Our goal was to shift a hosted/on-premise software model to a SAAS-based model of operation

SOLUTION

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

I had selected Agile Engine (AE) as I had a successful experience working in partnership with the team to realize some short term goals. Pricing was favourable for the caliber of talent

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

Our relationship on the project began with the presentation of team members that our AE account representative felt was a good fit for our project. Candidates were interviewed by myself and members of the internal team. Those selected were made part of our development team, charged with meeting the goals for each sprint and ultimately realizing our overall project objectives. Our applications are built upon the Microsoft stack, combining C#/.NET, MS SQL and AngularJS frontend.

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

In total, we had at any time Agile Engine members on our team, with 2-3 developers and 1 QA analyst

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our SaaS conversion was vastly behind schedule due to a number of factors, chief among them was staff attrition. This not only meant a reduction of resources, but knowledge loss was also an issue. The personnel that AE provided was able to quickly ramp up, minimally impacted by a lack of knowledge in the application and the industry space. Very quickly, the project began to hit projected milestones and as of now, nearly 100% complete and ready for our first round of waiting customers

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

Our development cycle operates on 2-week sprints, with standard daily stand ups, sprint-by-sprint planning sessions, etc. Our primary communication tool was MS Teams, with project planning done through MS TFS. TFS also hosted our GIT-based source control

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

I was impressed by a number of aspects of AE, such as their vast global footprint, allowing us to draw talent from virtually anywhere in the world. This was particularly valuable in the last 2 years with the global pandemic and available software development talent was scarce.

In addition, recruited talent was also highly skilled, experienced and professional having gone through what must have been a rigorous screening process at AE. Finally, I was impressed with how AE looks after everyone on the team, providing clear career objectives and opportunities for everyone to grow with the AE organization

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

None that I could think of at this time

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO for an organization that builds software for the industrial workforce to use wearable technology. This makes them more efficient and allows them to produce higher-quality products. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We hired AgileEngine to help us rapidly scale our team. Our company also wanted to reconfigure the team quickly to meet various challenges, especially since we worked in a developing market. In the process of doing this, we also wanted to realize cost savings in some components of our workforce over domestic resources. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our team initially met with AgileEngine’s leadership group to discuss our work. We learned about the resources that they provided and how they typically engaged with their customers. Eventually, it became apparent that we could engage them in a couple of ways. In the end, we chose a model where their team members became a part of our own team. Rather than giving them a set of requirements and waiting for a finished product, we engaged their members as if they were part of our internal staff.  

From that point forward, the engagement has revolved around meeting and interviewing resources from them beyond the initial team we set up. For the software development projects, they don’t necessarily build from scratch; some elements already exist. When we have to rapidly build a new subsystem or component, we provide requirements, and then they build it from scratch. Other times, the component is already part of the product, and they simply interact with it. 

What is the team composition?

The team composition has varied over time between 3–10 people. We have contact with the entire team, but we primarily work with 2–3 team leaders depending on the workload. Those team leaders are our main points of contact. That being said, we interact with all of them on a daily basis since they essentially are members of our internal team. 

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I found AgileEngine a number of years ago and reached out to their management team. They made it clear how much they focused on putting together high-end resources and teams. In other words, they focused on quality over quantity — we received that message loud and clear. Moreover, they had a development mentality and way of thinking that aligned with mine. As a result, the decision to give them a try was quite easy. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the partnership in December 2015, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AgileEngine has delivered excellent results over the years. They’ve allowed us to flex our workforce in different directions, and they’ve brought on talents that haven’t been represented before in our team. This helps us explore areas for future development. Moreover, they’ve provided incredibly high-quality contributions to our team year after year. 

We’ve used AgileEngine’s resources throughout the areas of our engineering team, which gives us extra capacity and specific expertise in multiple technologies. Overall, the engagement has been hugely beneficial to our business through the years. 

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

AgileEngine’s project management skills have been fantastic. The team-wide management is integrated within our team, but the management from AgileEngine’s side has always been excellent. Their resources have been incredibly proactive and organized when it comes to communication. They have beneficial processes that don’t stand in the way of development or create extra pressure. 

To communicate, we use phones, video calls, emails, and Slack. Most of the time, we talk to the team via video calls on Zoom or Teams. Our daily interactions happen through a combination of those tools. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of AgileEngine’s resources differentiates them from other providers. By far, they’re the best nearshore developers that we’ve worked with in my career. The quality of everyone from the management team to individual developers has been truly a cut above the rest. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start the relationship by thinking of AgileEngine as a part of your own team. Their resources are of high quality, so make them an intrinsic factor in your team. Think that way about the engagement from the get-go. You’ll be hugely successful if you leverage them that way.