AgileEngine

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.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CTO at SureView Systems. We build software for companies to monitor their physical security systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We were launching a new version of our platform and we needed a vendor to help us redevelop the entire user interface.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine worked alongside our development team to build a plugin for our new UI. We used a DevOps approach and the frontend is built in Vue.js and JavaScript. The platform is used 24/7, so it needed to be able to handle lots of different users utilizing the system simultaneously. AgileEngine also helped us test the platform.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three developers.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

We interviewed a few different companies, and AgileEngine seemed very professional. We almost instantly understood each other, so we decided they'd be a great fit.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between October 2018–April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They met all of our expectations. The feedback from our customers has been excellent and we were able to launch the new platform on time.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They did an excellent job. They were organized and met our deadlines. We used Slack to communicate and we had daily stand-up video calls. They were very responsive to our feedback and made changes as needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everything they delivered was very high-quality. They're excellent communicators, so it was a seamless process. We enjoyed working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them some background information about your company and explain what you're trying to achieve. Also, support regular communication–Skype or video conferencing can be just as effective as in-person meetings.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the general manager and VP of development of Luckbox.com, an esports betting platform. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We engaged AgileEngine to provide outsourced development support and help us scale our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We originally wanted to assemble two teams with about five mid- to senior-level developers with Javascript expertise—especially in Node.js, React, and Redux. We then changed our requirements to just two developers so we could integrate them more easily into our existing teams and then scale later on.

AgileEngine ran the interview process to bring on developers into our agile development teams. They provided a facilitator for each interview and led a thorough screening process. Each developer worked autonomously on several areas of the platform, providing general support rather than being employed to build specific features. 

What is the team composition?

We first worked with two developers, and the team scaled from there. We collaborated with an account manager as well.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

An acquaintance of ours heard good things about their team and mentioned them to us. We considered AgileEngine among six companies for the project. Despite charging higher rates than their competition, AgileEngine left an excellent impression on us. Their experience and professionalism were two of several factors that led us to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $8,000 per developer per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2018–April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AgileEngine’s developers produced quality code up to par with the rest of the development teams. They suggested multiple ways to improve processes and enhance our architecture in discussions. We were more than happy with their work and contributions.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project managers oversaw the AgileEngine developers directly. The team was highly punctual and productive. They delivered all promised work, and any delays came from our side. They showed excellent oversight of the recruitment process and communicated well throughout each process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The first person we got in touch with was our account manager, Olga (VP of Solutions, AgileEngine), and she remained with our project from start to finish. The tailored communication and personal touch made for a very pleasant collaboration.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, it took a week for us to align our values and expectations. However, Olga was involved in the whole process to ensure that it ran smoothly, and a great collaboration proceeded from there.

Any advice for potential customers?

Move quickly on interviews. The resources that AgileEngine were in high demand and we missed out on a few because we were slow to respond and make decisions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of engineering at iControl Data Solutions, a payment reconciliation organization that handles the payment discrepancies between suppliers and distributors. We manage whatever disconnects that may exist between our clients on both sides of the financial transaction. I run the company’s engineering department that builds the software that handles this workflow.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We needed senior-level talent that we could onboard quickly into our complex solution to expand our services and make them higher quality.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine does performance optimization to ensure our software is functioning as well as possible. They work on the features that do the financial reconciliation between supplier and retailer invoices and find any discrepancies. Their work also includes UI improvements, such as minimizing data transfers and enhancing store procedures for data retrieval. Beyond that, they also make the interface look better and more user-friendly so that clients have a better experience engaging with it.

What is the team composition? 

We interact with three people: a senior software developer and two QA specialists.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I’d worked with them before and had a great experience, so we hired them again. We considered a few other companies, but AgileEngine had the best cost advantages.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $85,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began this project in July 2018, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before hiring AgileEngine, the reconciliation feature of our software was unstable and slow, receiving numerous complaints from our clients. Now, the feature is running a lot faster and is much more user-friendly; they’ve even expanded its capabilities to offer more functions. Because of them, our clients went from unhappy to happy to even happier as the software improved.

The quality assurance team also does a great job, ensuring a high-quality product that works exactly as we want it to. They identify any problems or concerns before our clients even know that there’s an issue.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

We have regular follow-up calls to make sure everything is going as expected and that goals are being met. They deliver on what we ask efficiently and professionally. We use Jira to track our workflow and project progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work hard to make sure they mesh well with our internal team. They care about our success and not just about getting paid to do what we ask. Unlike other firms, they want to bring value to our company, which makes me excited and happy to work with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re open to changes and are proactive in improving our offerings.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be open about the issues you’re having and listen to their advice. They have high-quality engineers and managers that know how to help you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of TxQuick, a cryptocurrency exchange.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

I needed a talented team of developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped with the design, back- and frontend development, and some analysis. They used React for the frontend, and for the backend, Spring, Java, Mongo, AWS, Kubernetes, etc.

We put together job profiles that were necessary, and they oversaw the team composition. They pre-screened everybody—I was really impressed with their ability to screen talent based on my requirements. We’re finalizing things and will be going live soon.

What is the team composition?

I worked with the client manager early in the project. We had a project manager, a business analyst, a QA person, a tech lead, several developers from junior to senior, and some very good architectural designers.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

As a startup, we didn’t have a lot of finances available. AgileEngine were willing to work with a startup in a flexible way, which is why I chose them over others.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $450,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a very positive experience. We have about 400 classes that we’ve written in Java in a couple of months and that doesn’t include the frontend or any of the database. That’s a good metric. The quality of the code is very high. I haven’t had to give them a lot of direction. I tell them the architectural direction, and they make it happen.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m very happy with their project management. They kept me informed with status reports, using Slack, Zoom, Jira, and Confluence.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They feel like an extension of my company, which is what I wanted.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had some trouble getting started at first. We had to get contracts in place and get the team up. I’d definitely hire them again for anything I needed in the future, as they’ve been a great partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I went to Kiev for a month and did a lot of the specification work, getting to know them and planning everything. It’s a good idea to do that. It made a big difference for both sides.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of engineering for an IT services company. Our main product is a business process management (BPM) platform for rapid development of case management web applications. We primarily service the public sector. I manage the engineering side and the development team that produces new features and pushes out the releases.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We wanted to expand the platform with more features to accommodate our growing customer base. We needed a vendor we could trust to deliver these new capabilities independently and complement our domestic staff.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine supplements resources for our existing scrum teams in the US. As the owner of the product roadmap, I work with our in-house leadership to conceive new platform features and allocate those assignments to the various scrum teams. AgileEgine focuses on architecture and quality for our quarterly feature releases.

We’ve been working on a full modernization of the UI. We’re updating the style, images, and colors to make the UX more modern and competitive in the industry. AgileEgine uses JavaScript frameworks and CSS.

What is the team composition?

The team size fluctuates according to our needs. At any given point, we work with 3–8 resources from AgileEngine. The current team includes a technical lead, developers, and software testers.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

I started at the company after it had hired AgileEngine. Since that time, AgileEngine has worked with our professional services division in addition to our product division.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2011 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AgileEngine meets our expectations and matches the quality of work that our domestic team produces. They have strong and quality people on their team.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

AgileEngine’s fast work has helped us improve the platform significantly. The technical lead motivates his team to work, stay on schedule, and commit to quality. The team feels like part of our company because they understand our expectations and work hard to meet them according to our preferred workflows. I lean on them the same as any of our domestic teams. We communicate via Slack, Jira, and Confluence.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team is dedicated and committed. They have an outstanding work ethic and always seem to be online. We have a 7-hour time difference, but the team responds whenever we message them. They also have detailed knowledge of the platform’s technical stacks. Even though the platform uses several complicated frameworks, the team is always willing to take on any task we put in front of them. The team has a positive attitude about work, no matter how short-notice our requests are. They get us out of a lot of jams.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We don’t like that they work crazy hours; we don’t want to burn them out. AgileEngine should be more candid about how long tasks will take. Working beyond normal ours does add risk to the partnership. They should feel comfortable about being reasonable and practical with deadlines because we don’t want to be too risky with deliveries.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Customers need to strike the right balance with product management. They need to provide AgileEngine with support and guidance, but also give them room to operate independently. Customers will need to put the right people in place to articulate those expectations and management parameters. Likewise, communication is key for offshore partnerships because the lack of in-person communication makes this balance harder to achieve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm an executive VP at a valuation solutions company.  We provide technology and data services to different institutions in the home mortgage industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We were looking for a vendor to help us develop a mobile application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handled a few different projects for us, but the main one was a mobile inspection application. In our industry, we have to support the evaluation process of a bank or lenders, by providing a lot of information and photos that capture property. The application AgileEngine built for us is compatible with iOS and Android and meets all of our requirements. They also provided feedback to help us see potential issues and deliver better solutions.

In addition, they worked on some web projects for us, incorporating data and analytics from our proprietary APIs into web interfaces for valuation service providers.

What is the team composition?

We've been working with a small core team of four or five, including a project manager and front-/backend developers.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

As we were exploring the use of offshore providers, their name came up frequently. Their reputation was impressive, so we decided to give them a chance.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2018 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The proof of concept was so successful that there are real-life product offerings out there in the marketplace. AgileEngine was able to put together a competent team very quickly. The speed of their development work was also impressive. They're very efficient, which we greatly appreciate.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very organized and communicate with us regularly. We use Slack, GitHub, and email to communicate and we haven’t had any issues. Their English is very strong.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re invested in what they’re doing. They took ownership of our project, as if what we were developing was their idea. They've become a real partner to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything. We've been very pleased with the relationship.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Since they're an offshore team, make sure your requirements are clearly written out. Their English is very good, but it's their second language, so use crisp language, be concise, and use bullet points as much as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of engineering at Relativity, a litigation software company in the e-discovery space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We worked with AgileEngine to build out our engineering team and to continue working on product development together.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AgileEngine helped create an email threading analytics program, incorporating capabilities for 10 different languages. They designed and developed the platform in cooperation with our internal development team, and they continue to make iterations as needed. They're also working alongside our team on an analytics engine for the cloud.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager and two teams of developers and QA staff totaling about 13 people.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

They were already working with the company we acquired years ago, so we decided to continue the relationship after seeing the quality of their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since April 2013. The email threading project wrapped up in early 2018, but the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AgileEngine's team executes projects extremely well, in line with cost, quality, and timeline estimates. They've exceeded expectations by completing everything on or in advance of deadlines.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very flexible and receptive to client needs, adapting to our in-house two-week sprints and processes. Their project manager is very in sync with our engineering team, staying in close contact throughout each project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've been very impressed by their level of communication, especially considering their distant location. We haven't experienced any language barrier issues or holdups in responsiveness. Their lean approach also lends itself well to higher rates of productivity that make their services more affordable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It doesn't happen often, but they could tighten up their processes when team members are taken on or off our account.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Build the team that works best for the company. AgileEngine is extremely adaptable both in terms of the resources provided and the processes or tools used to complete projects for the client. Also, don't underestimate their capabilities by not expanding the technology stack given to them, as they've been able to quickly adapt to new technologies for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CIO at The Medical Team. We provide direct care to individuals in their homes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AgileEngine?

We were looking for a vendor to develop various web and mobile solutions that would help us better manage our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us build a patient management system and a number of other applications, ranging from standard web development to mobile development for iOS and Android. For the web-based applications, they primarily used JavaScript and .NET on the backend. They were able to meet our needs with every platform and every functional area.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three of their team members, including a team lead, a senior developer, and a mid-level developer.

How did you come to work with AgileEngine?

They were referred to me by the CTO of another company who had worked with them previously.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid them about $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2011 and our latest project was completed in October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They've had a significant impact on how we do business. We're still using all the systems they've built for us.

How did AgileEngine perform from a project management standpoint?

They did an excellent job. They organized development boards to ensure the projects were kept on track. They also consolidated all the relevant issues and new features in one repository. We mostly used Skype and Jira to stay in touch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're based offshore, but their language skills are excellent, so we never had any issues with communication. Also, they were very responsive and willing to shift their hours to align with our work schedule here, in the U.S.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Everything was great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Map out your projects at the beginning and leverage various communication tools, such as Slack, Jira, and Skype.