Aleph Engineering

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the CTO of an other industries company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company is an expert in video management solutions. We help to protect what you value: Our video security solutions protect your organization and property. Our solutions for process documentation support the optimization of your processes. They visually record your logistics processes and thus uncover weak points and sources of danger. In this way, you increase your process efficiency and reduce error costs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Aleph Engineering to accomplish?

• Support our software development activities

SOLUTION

How did you find Aleph Engineering?

We where contacted.

Why did you select Aleph Engineering over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Aleph Engineering were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We were searching for a long-term collaboration partner who can support our software development activities. We hired this vendor to develop a remote upgrade service for our product suite in the first step of our collaboration. After the successful end of the project, we decided to keep working with them. At this moment they are updating/upgrading our connection plugins with third-party systems. 

We established a long-term collaboration with more projects to cooperate on. 

• Requirements evaluation (time and estimations defined by both teams) 
• Solution implementation by sprints (Includes regular update meetings ) 
• Product testing process (and bug fixing) 
• Retrospective meeting (what it’s good and what can be improved)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The development of the remote upgrade app was a great success. Now we have a way to update/upgrade our services in the customer’s infrastructure in a secure and fault-tolerant way. Also, we have new plugins to connect with third-party applications that will allow us to increase our customers.

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

After alignment, workflow and communication are very effective. Response times are short, and they are willing to adapt to our suggestions. At the same time, they are also proposing very good solutions proactively. Project communication takes place mostly during regular virtual meetings, using emails and comments on GitLab issues. They adapted quickly to changes in our timelines or requirements. A steering committee was established to manage the collaboration strategically.

What was your primary form of communication with Aleph Engineering?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The company is very focused on good QA practices and test automation to reduce bugs. They provide interesting design proposals adapted to our product’s designed architecture. They have a strong commitment to improvement.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Digital Inspiration Labs

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Building software prototypes and spinning out startups.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Aleph Engineering to accomplish?

• Cost estimate for an App
• Create detailed development plan
• Choose technology stack

SOLUTION

How did you find Aleph Engineering?

Referral

Why did you select Aleph Engineering over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Aleph Engineering were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We needed to know how much resources we would need to spent on a commercial grade mobile application and its backend for a business idea we were researching. Aleph Engineering consulted us on the right technology stack and architecture to use, and created a detailed implementation plan with time estimates and opportunities for concurrent engineering.

Finally the translated this into a detailed cost breakdown. We had two companies independently perform this work, so that we get two qualified but independent opinions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We received a detailed project planning document that exceeded our expectations, and was better than the second company we had tasked with the same (more understandable and concrete). The conversations around the project included interesting and creative ideas from Aleph Engineering on how to improve the idea and what others in the field are doing.

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

All items were delivered on time and actually exceeded our expectations, which were set by the work results of a second company we had tasked with the same a few weeks earlier. The conversations were, from the start, as if we were members of one big team.

What was your primary form of communication with Aleph Engineering?

Virtual Meeting

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

The ability to think along and contribute creatively,. both in technical terms as well as in the business reasoning behind it. The development plan they created was exceptionally detailed, easy to understand and honest/open.

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

Actually the projectexceeded our expectations. Of course even faster (or cheaper) would always be better, but the agreed deadlines were met and they were completely sufficient for us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of IT of Wassermeloni GmbH & Co. KG

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We teach swimming to babies, kids and adults.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Aleph Engineering to accomplish?

• Software Development

SOLUTION

How did you find Aleph Engineering?

Referral

Why did you select Aleph Engineering over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Aleph Engineering were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

A comprehensive web application to manage different areas of Wassermeloni, including customer interaction and back-office work. This includes the documentation and visualization of the educational progress of the kids, as well as management of course bookings, rescheduling of lessons, salary calculation for trainers, proper notification about events to corresponding users affected. 

The application includes further modules like an image gallery for underwater photography with a web shop. The platform received a grant from a German innovation program in order to become a comprehensive corporate platform, including artificial intelligence algorithms to improve educational efficiency. 

Technologies used: 

• Ruby on Rails 6
• Angular 10 
• PostgreSQL
• Redis
• Java
• Maven
• Pentaho Data Integration
• ElasticSearch
• Docker
• Docker Compose
• Bitbucket Pipelines
• Nginx 

Key deliverables: 

• Learning progress passport implemented available for trainers and customers. 
• Rescheduling system returning funds or swim credits and automatic notifications for trainers and customers. 
• Closing lessons with notifications and refund if needed. 
• Human resource administration and management. 
• Salary and wage calculation for trainers. 
• Course administration. 
• Bath administration. 
• Photographer management. 
• Image gallery. 
• Optimized data access for customer service. 
• Customer Relationship Management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Many manual processes have been automated. This reduced process times and raised data quality significantly. 
• We shrank the 'cancelling lessons' process from around 3 hours to 30 seconds with automation of the many steps taken. 
• The number of 'lost progress documentation (passport)' reduced to zero by documenting digitally instead of a paper passport handed to the customer. 
• Reduced wage calculation from 3-5 days to around an hour by calculating the wage automatically based on work hours, absence reasons and substitution work. 
• Bugfixing corrupted or inconsistent data took around 1-2 full time jobs. Now these tasks can be done in a few hours per week. 
• Kids swimming learning progress is now visualized and digitally available. 
• Rescheduling a lesson is highly optimized and used over twice as often by the customers. 
• Underwater photography with image gallery is now possible. 
• Scalability was achieved so that the transition from 3000 to 4200 customers didn't require more personnel in course planning, customer support and bath management. 
• Our continuous development process adds new features to the software and raises its value.

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

We use the scrum methodology. We have online meetings on a regular basis and release some features every two weeks. As we use a project management tool in which we communicate together, we have short and quick feedback loops. New requirements or changes are implemented quickly and misunderstandings can be solved immediately.

What was your primary form of communication with Aleph Engineering?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I'm impressed by the full dedication of the team, their professionalism, and the ability to adapt quickly to changing demands (like in the covid-19 pandemic).

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

A better server and service monitoring solution for the applications would be good. It seems to be a bit difficult to use the current solution.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the operations manager at a web design and development agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Aleph Engineering GmbH, and what were your goals?

We had a feature to add to a Ruby on Rails app that we did not have in-house development resources for. We contracted with Aleph for this development resource. Feature add: sending contracts in bulk to registered client organisations from a HelloSign integration.

SOLUTION

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

Our organisation collaborates with Aleph on development projects, so selecting them for this project happened organically. Deciding factor: they had the technical expertise we needed.

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

Scope: include new feature in existing Ruby on Rails web app. Feature: enable sending contracts in bulk from the web app's Admin dashboard via API. Technologies: Ruby on Rails, Digital Ocean, HelloSign.

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

1 developer (Ruby on Rails developer) and 1 executive (COO)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was delivered successfully - the new feature works smoothly and easily. Project timelines were challenging from the client side, but Aleph's engineer delivered milestones punctually, with no bugs.

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

The developer and I communicated directly, via mail and text. The project management style was relatively informal, with real-time messaging, problem-solving and collaboration.

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

We were impressed by the skill level and quality of work the developer delivered.

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

No areas of improvement that I can discern.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Personal Productivity Tool, CEO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Aleph Engineering GmbH, and what were your goals?

Custom Web App. I was looking for a reliable partner to help me develop alldone.app - an app helping you to make the most out of your life. Since I am a bootstrapped startup i needed a cost-effective solution which Aleph.Engineering was able to provide in good quality. 

SOLUTION

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

Quality of Engineers, Costs

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

Agile development. They were providing a full remote team including a project manager, a UX/UI person and an engineering team with frontend & backend. They were able to hire additional people if needed with the right skills. 

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

5

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

See alldone.app. Please check out the free app on alldone.app when you login. Most of what you see there has been built by Aleph.Engineering. 

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

We did weekly sprints and the team was always transparent and was able to deliver the sprints. 

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

motivated!

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

It was all good!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am fitness coach for elite sports men in a football club in Germany. The fitness app is my own project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Aleph Engineering GmbH, and what were your goals?

I want to develop a smart and easy software to create Training/fitness workout on PDFs for printing and develop a fitness mobile app to offer fitness content for all sports. Aleph engineering are program and develop the platform/web software and the mobile app.

SOLUTION

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

I know the boss of aleph engineering. He explained me briefly how his company can help me to bring my idea to live. The possibility to get all necessary services like programming and designing from one company was perfect. Other big factors were the flexible cooperation and a fair costs. A bid advantage was that all employees of aleph are speaking Englisch.

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

The agreement were to develop the software and the mobile app without time pressure. We started with an exchange about the idea and the goal of the app and the software. Aleph helped me a lot with the project managing. They were more experienced and experts than me. After we set the goal, aleph engineering made an offer and a step by step guideline how to reach the goal of an own software and a mobile app. Aleph informed me about ever step. Via software, Internet and Chats we had a great exchange all the time.

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

I worked most of the time with the IT engineers. When necessary with the designer. When we were on a important phase of the project the manager or boss take care about the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software is working. The mobile app is nearly finished and can be launched in 2022. One company (football club) and 60 athletes are working with the app in test mode. I am sure the app will be successful.

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

We used an online documentation application to plan, document and control every work step including work time. We used GoogleDocs to share documents. We had a WhatsApp group. We had regular video chat (1xweek!

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

They were the reason to bring my dream of a software and mobile app alive. The all in one solution were the perfect partner for me. With experts from different fields, Aleph Engineering GmbH always has the right solution for the tasks and challenges.

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

No. I am happy!