Apropo

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and CTO of East Interactive. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apropo?

We brought them on to help us with development. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Apropo provided backend development services for an existing software system. The project's main purpose was to help develop a customer-facing management dashboard that served as a B2B online shop. Apropo’s team connected the backend to several other systems, implementing specific functionalities using Java. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with two developers and a technical lead. 

How much have you invested with them?

This project cost around €50,000–€70,000 (approximately $50,000–$70,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was from November 2021–June 2022. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Apropo’s performance was measured in terms of their work output. The evaluation process was complicated because several aspects of the system relied on their output. 

How did Apropo perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily connected with their technical lead through meetings and Slack. They were very good at delivering what they promised, meeting our expectations. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their company culture was very strong — they provided good support internally to support their team’s good technical knowledge. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t identify any ways they could’ve executed the project differently. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You need to talk openly with Apropo about the project because they’re good at looking at it from a technical and commercial perspective. Be as clear as possible about expectations and the scope of work. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the lead developer and architect of a company that delivers a SAAS solution for financial reporting and BI consultancy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed an experienced web developer to help out with the building of our customer experience in the portal containing our newest features. The entire project was a reboot of the company product and a priority, our goal was a running the first version released to our pilot customers.

SOLUTION

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

As finding local, experiences, developers in Stockholm is a hard and long process we decided to start with outsourced. Our first stab was to use pure freelance devs, however, we ran into quality issues. We then contacted Apropo in order to get a company who reviews their delivery and had a professional approach.

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

Apropos dev joined the team in a tough situation as we were offboarding freelancers and bringing in consultants from other places as well. So people were leaving and coming in doing what it does to a project. But despite the rough start we managed to get on track first building the quite tricky onboarding process in our react portal. Then followed that up by building admin functions and reporting. This was a pure Typescript React project.

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

We had one dev working with us and had regular meetings with their customer manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We managed to deliver a portal to our pilot customers, it is quite hard to separate the portal feedback from the feedback of the entire product (that consists of more parts). But overall the new products have already turned sales around.

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

We worked with daily standups, quite often followed by pair programming sessions, very short feedback loops and tight communication. Github and Teams were the main tools of communication.

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

Their customer management made our lives very easy. Easy to reach out to and reason about everything around the project from the consultants to the tech stack.

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

The slight chaotic start for them in this project made their dev a bit inefficient at times, there could've been better communication between us and their dev at that time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am part of the Marcoms team at the production company Monbat and I am responsible for the online communication and presence of the brand among other Marketing and branding tasks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our website hadn't been updated for 10-15 years. We do not have a team of in-house we developers, so we hired Apropo to design a WordPress site for us. Our goal was for our b2b clients to orientate quickly online because our business spreads over more than 70 countries worldwide.

SOLUTION

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

We had an online search for web developers and shortlisted a few. After conducting meetings, we chose the vendor that gave us the best solutions, time schedule, price and examples of completed projects.

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

We had a kick-off meeting to discuss the goals and objectives. Then, Apropo's team delivered mock-ups and wire-frames for our site. After a few iterations, their team developed a fully functional and easy on the eye website. They were responsible for pouring the information in the first language that we use, and provided a guide for working with the WordPress Back-end.

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

A project manager was my day-to-day contact. Also, we had a Manager overseeing the whole process at a higher level, a web designer, 1 or 2 web developers, one Content Manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching our site, we had significant increase in traffic and very positive comments on its easiness and visual identity. Clients love our new design an understand better our products ranges.

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

All the issues, problems and bug fixes were entered in a Click-up task log. We had online meetings via Google, when needing further clarification or screen sharing.

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

The fact that they have offices worldwide but work very closely together and have good synchronization process Also, their developers and web designers have really in-depth knowledge of the said matter.

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

The process for introducing the work with the back-end and the initial education process could have been better in terms of time and project management.