Ballast Lane Applications LLC

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP, Product & Software Engineering of cybersecurity company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provide customers with Cybersecurity products and services. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ballast Lane Applications LLC to accomplish?

Deliver new customer facing platform to support our Managed Detection and Response customers.

SOLUTION

How did you find Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

Referral

Why did you select Ballast Lane Applications LLC over others?

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

How many teammates from Ballast Lane Applications LLC were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Deliver a customer-facing platform to be the single place of interaction for our MDR Cybersecurity clients. The application is built mainly in the following technologies: C#, TypeScript, React, PostgreSQL, NATS Jetstream, Redis, NGINX, Azure, Duende Identity Server, & Storybook / Chromatic. The operation of the application is supported through the following: GitLab, Kubernetes, Helm, ArgoCD, Terraform, Datadog, & PagerDuty.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BLA worked alongside our team to ensure a successful on-time platform launch! Very high customer satisfaction and very low production defect rates were achieved. 

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

BLA did an excellent job with delivery. All the consultants were of top quality and worked as an extension of our team. BLA management was a great partner as well - always open to feedback and adaptive to the situation as our needs changed. It was a pleasure to work with the individual contributors and the leadership at BLA.

What was your primary form of communication with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

BLA was a true partner for us. They listened to what we wanted to accomplish and what we wanted (both technically and culturally) out of the consultants that we were adding. The BLA team worked very hard to understand our needs and find us people that would be excellent fits to add to our team and accelerate the delivery of our platform. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Ballast Lane Applications LLC could have done differently?

Nothing of note comes to mind. It was a great experience to work with BLA and I look forward to partnering with them again in the future. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Lead Designer of a manufacturing company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We produce building materials and logistics solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ballast Lane Applications LLC to accomplish?

• We needed help with app design.
• We needed help with feature specification.

SOLUTION

How did you find Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

Referral

Why did you select Ballast Lane Applications LLC over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Ballast Lane Applications LLC were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

The Ballast Lane team provided UI/UX designers, developers, and a business consultant that all helped to plan, design, and build new features within out suite of apps. Key deliverables included: 

• Figma designs of mobile and web-based app features 
• Specifications are written to allow the development of these features 
• Developers who built these features 
• Testers who verified the quality of these features

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Turnaround on feature design and handoff for development were greatly increased with this team.

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

Delivered items were on time, and the team was very responsive.

What was your primary form of communication with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The company had very skilled team members, I was constantly impressed with their work. I was also in direct contact with the CEO of the company, who helped any time I had a question. This was especially impressive given the size of the company.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Ballast Lane Applications LLC could have done differently?

The design team was exceptional!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Software Engineering for 3EO Health, a medical device startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ballast Lane Applications LLC, and what were your goals?

We needed a partner that would help us develop our first mobile app along with helping us get our core backend and API built. This required initial documentation, design, and testing with little supervision.

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed half a dozen vendors of all sizes. Ballast Lane stood out from the rest for us even during interview sessions with asking great questions, offering insights on addressing items both within the project and not, and having very positive, pro-active attitudes.

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

The initial scope was for us to partner together to design, develop, document, and test a mobile application for both iOS and Android. In support of that and due to early successes, scope was increased to include backend development and devops work. Deliverables included designs, a working mobile application, well-documented source code, test cases, and documentation for functionality and processes.

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

We had 6 people on the team with others being pulled in as needed. Scrum Master, Mobile Developer/Architect, Mobile Developer, QA, DevOps, UI/UX Designer. When any issues arose Ballast Lane was able to draw on expertise from others in their team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are happy with both the deliverables and the transfer of ownership that happened at the end of the project. With little effort we have been able to exercise the full build, test, deploy process.

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

We followed the Agile Scrum methodology. As such, the work was organized into 3 week sprints. Ballast Lane organized all the work within our accounts in Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket so that handover at the end of the project was seamless.

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

The most impressive aspect of working with Ballast Lane Applications was their eagerness to work with us at our level. We are a startup company in the first year of life, some processes are well-defined and some are in-process. Each role jumped right in where the work was needed, willing to step out of their strictly defined role if necessary.

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

We are very happy with our work with Ballast Lane and would be happy to work with them again in the future.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a smart-building software company. We extract operations and sensor data from buildings.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

We needed to outsource application development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ballast Lane Applications has built our web application from scratch. Initially, they assisted us on the mobile side, but we now have that in-house. In general, we use their development team to build applications according to our specifications. We guide them on what we want to do, and they work on our products.

They’ve built a cloud platform with a user account interface. A builder operator can log in, use their credentials, and view live data of what’s happening in their building, including the temperature, humidity, kilowatts per hour used, and more.

What is the team composition?

We’re mainly in contact with the CEO and the head developers under him.

How did you come to work with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

When we were looking to develop our cloud application, we searched for companies in the building energy management and property technology sector. We saw that Ballast Lane Applications built an app for a large energy company, which put them on our radar. Afterward, we spoke to them because they had the skill set, competency, and creativity to deliver a functional product.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2014, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started as a startup company and now support a national rollout of buildings. We’ve grown within our market and won industry awards for our cloud applications, and Ballast Lane Applications definitely shares the credit. They’ve helped us achieve those goals and provide a valuable tool to our clients.

How did Ballast Lane Applications LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been excellent. Our internal team is happy to work with them. They’re always willing to help us; they show up when we need to do a quick fix or change. Overall, they’re flexible and attentive to our needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team is always looking to be out of the box and take it to the next level. Also, they can guide us on current technology and how to integrate it into our project, so we get different insights. They’re patient and good at listening and adapting to our market while being proactive and presenting us with information to step up our game. In summary, Ballast Lane Applications puts our needs first and is proactive in showing us things that could increase our effectiveness in the market.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we value our relationship with them. As a growing company, we sometimes bring in more internal resources, so we might throttle down the resources we need from them. However, it’s not a reflection of their work. The team is totally supportive of having flexible relationships.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former CEO and founder of Sage Wellness. My business was acquired by a company that I now work for.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

We hired them to help design and develop the company's core product: a wellness application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ballast Lane Applications designed and developed our iOS mobile application. First, we did a deep dive into the user personas with two design team members. They helped us ask questions and draw out our critical points of emphasis and how to execute them. 

I started with a clear visual map of what I wanted the app to look like, and Ballast Lane Applications was in charge of bringing it to life from technical and design perspectives. They helped us select a color scheme and, combined with the user persona, defined how the elements would tie into the app's navigation. The team used Figma, Miro, and Flutter for design during the discovery phase. 

From there, the team designed the initial scheme of the app and executed the prototype; this took approximately 4–6 weeks. Then, they built the beta product, which involved front- and backend development and took 6–7 months. The app was based on a holistic approach to wellness, focusing on where different elements overlap and are interconnected.

The app aggregated wellness data from wearables and other sources within Apple's HealthKit in categories such as movement, nutrition, time spent outside, mindfulness, and sleep. The system brought that information together and applied a proprietary algorithm to produce a wellness score. When end users opened the app, their holistic wellness score was on the landing page. They could click on each element to find the individual scores and recommendations for improving them. 

What is the team composition?

Initially, I dealt with Larry (Founder & CEO), and once the project got going, Pat (VP of Client Solutions) was the project manager and our main point of contact. We interfaced with the design team led by Nate (Design Director). There were also front- and backend engineers involved. 

How did you come to work with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

A friend of a friend introduced them to me. I vetted several development shops and settled on Ballast Lane Applications for various reasons. Most notably, their project management team was located in Boston, while many of their developers were in South America. This approach was a great combination of service and pricing because they provided the high-touch customer service experience of an onshore development shop with better pricing found in an offshore development shop.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $250,000–$300,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020, and they completed the scope of work around April 2021. A company acquired my business, and as part of that sale, they bought the IP and technical specs for the app. The acquiring company already had development resources, so our engagement with Ballast Lane Applications ended.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the app's beta version in April 2021 to a closed group of 110 beta users for a six-week trial period. During the trial, we had very good engagement; the UX was very favorable, and we had great reviews for participants. Then, I started negotiations about the acquisition. 

The fact that I was approached by this other business shortly after the beta release indicates how well it was received, both conceptually and in terms of execution. Ballast Lane Applications had an extremely helpful and discerning discovery process. 

How did Ballast Lane Applications LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

I appreciated the Ballast Lane Applications team's investment in the project; they felt like part of our team. They acted like an internal teammate, heavily invested in the quality of the work and delivering the product on time. From an outsourcing perspective, we couldn't have asked for more.

Pat was extremely responsive via email, Slack, and phone calls. I met with Pat multiple times per week, and we had 1–2 meetings with the engineering team throughout the process. Although we used Jira for project management, Pat created a framework I could use, so I didn't have to interface too much with any tools. 

Since the project happened during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, 85%–90% of our communication was virtual. However, we had a couple of in-person meetings. When working with a remote team, time zones are a consideration people sometimes overlook. Having a development shop operating in the same time zone regarding meetings was extremely valuable for us. Overall, the process was streamlined and very efficient. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with how invested Ballast Lane Applications was in our project. They've worked with many startups like we were, which is a high-failure environment. Therefore, having that level of investment and everyone on the same page made a huge difference. Moreover, the format they set up with onshore project management and offshore development was very favorable. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should understand that there's a reason for every question Ballast Lane Applications asks; they've done this many times and have tremendous experience. Trust that they've learned much from their previous experiences and put that into the next project. With us, they created a great learning environment. Overall, I couldn't recommend them more highly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of engineering at Enervee, a company that provides online platforms for energy companies such as utilities, electric, and gas companies. We provide energy efficiency scoring on top of those marketplaces in order to achieve more fuel-efficient purchases.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

We had short-term staffing needs regarding custom software development because we didn’t have a full-time employment budget to fill that role for the years to come. Thus, we hired Ballast Lane to help us out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ballast Lane has provided us with nearshore software engineers who have embedded fully into our agile teams. These resources are highly proficient in Python and Django, so they’ve mostly collaborated with us on various backend development projects. Their involvement in the design process is minimal; they’re specifically focused on implementation.

Whenever our product team defines software requirements for a new software solution, they present those requirements to our agile teams, and they develop the custom solution we need. Our agile teams have different areas of expertise, so Ballast Lane’s resources work on a variety of projects.

What is the team composition?

We work with three software engineers from Ballast Lane. We’ve also communicated with Larry (Founder & CEO).

How did you come to work with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

One of our executive team members knew Larry personally. Still, I also searched for and evaluated other companies. One of the main reasons why we chose Ballast Lane was because they were willing to provide us with contract-based, nearshore software engineers who fitted our development stack and had the technical expertise we required. As opposed to other companies, Ballast Lane was very flexible, allowing us to integrate their resources into our team so that they followed our workflows and conventions.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Given the nature of our engagement, the most prominent success indicator is that our development teams have been working much better since Ballast Lane joined us. Additionally, we’ve achieved a higher quality of work-life balance because Ballast Lane’s resources are available when we’re on holiday and vice versa, ultimately increasing our teams’ coverage and output. Thanks to them, we’ve been able to produce more work in a shorter amount of time.

Our work quality has remained consistent since Ballast Lane joined, which is exactly what we needed. We didn’t have a quality problem but a staffing problem. Their resources have worked very well within our teams and have maintained the quality we expected, which is great.

How did Ballast Lane Applications LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Given that Ballast Lane’s resources are augmenting our internal teams, they’re not in charge of project management. Still, they’ve been held to a similar standard as our own developers, and they’ve demonstrated the ability to deliver tasks in the expected timeframe.

Additionally, Ballast Lane has a high level of communication — it’s one of their strengths. Their English level is very good, and they communicate well with the rest of the team. They’re very proactive at reaching out to other members of the team, and they work really well within our agile model and Scrum methodology, which is amazing.

As for our collaboration tools, we use Slack for our daily communication and Google Meet for our meetings. We also use Jira for project management. Given that Ballast Lane’s resources act as part of our internal teams, we also provide them with their own Gmail addresses and Slack accounts, which allows us to work with them seamlessly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ballast Lane has very professional developers and engineers to work with, and they offer very strong communication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I was recently surprised by the fact that Ballast Lane didn’t communicate their holiday and vacation time far in advance. However, I mentioned that issue to their VP of engineering, who created a full inventory of their team’s paid time-off requests, solving the issue quickly. Overall, they’ve demonstrated to be very responsive to our feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would highly recommend Ballast Lane. Ensure that your equipment and security needs are communicated upfront; they’re always on top of those details. Additionally, ask about their background check process if needed because they’re very willing to explain it and provide you with their resources’ resumes. Other than that, I don’t have other recommendations; Ballast Lane is very easy to work with, and I’m very happy with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive for a B2B SaaS platform that helps large brands and manufacturers manage their excess inventory.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

We needed help supplementing our engineering team with additional front- and backend resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ballast Lane has provided us with a team of software engineers specializing in PHP, Golang, and React. The engineers have reviewed our documentation and helped us build a software solution to master vast amounts of data. The purpose of the solution is to organize data and enable users to curate it and send it to multiple retailers in the form of offers. Ballast Lane has also been responsible for maintaining the software. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 3–12 software developers and an administrative project manager from Ballast Lane. 

How did you come to work with Ballast Lane Applications LLC? 

Ballast Lane reached out to us through our university’s alum network.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested under $5 million in the partnership with Ballast Lane.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Ballast Lane in March 2019, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ballast Lane has become part of our team, so we’ve held them to our internal performance requirements, which they’ve met. Overall, working with them has been great.

How did Ballast Lane Applications LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve been responsible for managing the project, but Ballast Lane has done a good job adhering to our deadlines and working alongside our team. We’ve used Asana, Jira, and Trello to keep the project on track. Additionally, we’ve used Zoom, Slack, and email to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Ballast Lane team is very collaborative; it’s their biggest strength.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The Ballast Lane team could improve by being more consistent.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very specific about your software development criteria, programming languages, and desired experience with particular tools.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product and engineering at Reibus, an industrial material marketplace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

We hired them to augment our in-house development team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we had a discovery meeting with Ballast Lane Applications LLC, during which they helped us figure out what we needed to build. From there, we worked collaboratively in developing and designing our platform from scratch. They’ve also helped us build a web app and an iOS and Android version of our platform. Key technologies involved are React, Node.js, Flutter, AWS, and PostgreSQL. We use Figma to create designs.

Our platform serves as an online marketplace where people can come and list the industrial materials that they want to sell. Once the materials are listed, other people can start bidding on them.

What is the team composition?

We work with about 22 people from their team, including business administrators, designers, product managers, and front- and backend developers.

How did you come to work with Ballast Lane Applications LLC?

One of our board members knew Larry (CEO & Founder) and introduced him to our CEO.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $3.4 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2020, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have about 500 users a week that come in, buy, and sell materials on our platform. In terms of sales, we earned around $90 million in core sales last year.

How did Ballast Lane Applications LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done an excellent job of meeting deadlines and staying on budget. For managing tasks, we use Jira. For communication, we interact through Slack and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What I like most about Ballast Lane Applications LLC is how they’ve been able to adapt to our needs as we continue to mature as an organization. In the beginning, they acted as the primary developers of the company; our development team mostly consisted of them. When I joined the company, we shifted to a staff augmentation model as our team started growing. Currently, out of 75 developers in our team, there are 20–22 people who are from Ballast Lane Applications LLC.

Are there any areas they could improve on?

I’ve worked with other companies in the past, and they usually come to me with a well-defined process on how they would solve the problems that I have — this is something that I haven’t seen from Ballast Lane Applications LLC.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to clearly communicate your requirements.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Pikkup LLC. We’re a logistics technology company. Our company features a mobile app where you can rent out trucks like Uber and a B2B platform that features larger trucks. We’re currently in progress on development for the B2B platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ballast Lane Applications?

They provide out-of-house development and new features for our various products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ballast Lane Applications maintains our app and build out features for the two platforms. The app was built for iOS and Android. While they did not build the app from the ground-up, they took an existing app and redesigned it. They added a new pricing feature and in-app driver application process. Our website was also redesigned. In terms of code, the app had to be entirely updated to Swift.

What is the team composition?

I worked with 7–8 people in total. That included front- and backend developers, a project manager, and designers.

How did you come to work with Ballast Lane Application?

I’d initially worked with them while they were under a previous owner. I was introduced to them by a colleague, then the company was bought by a new owner and renamed. However, I continued to work with them because it was the same development team. The design team changed, but otherwise, it was continuous.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent just over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work began in 2018 and is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The in-house testing has gone well. They’ve helped us with maintenance, which is hard to measure statistically, but in general, they’ve been good with everything. They’ve hit all deadlines.

How did Ballast Lane Applications perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been wonderful. They’re very hands-on. The CEO has been particularly hands-on, which I’ve enjoyed. He sits in on most of the communications that we have, which is great. The project manager has been phenomenal. I have clear communication with everyone involved.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The hands-on approach from the executives and high level of involvement has been the most impressive part.

Are there any areas they could improve?

None that I can think of. I’m very pleased with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should work with them; they’re great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Chief Software Engineer at Freshair Sensor, and we make devices that help hotel owners, landlords, and properties enforce smoking policies. It’s a WiFi-enabled device that monitors molecules found in cigarette smoke and sends email notifications to property owners. It’s used as a deterrent for smokers and provides clarifying information in disputes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ballast Lane Applications?

Because of the nature of our business, we required several development projects, ranging in size from small to large. Our goal was to build a solid code-based platform that would be solid enough that we could create additional tools.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, we started working on a smaller development project and have since expanded our partnership. We discussed how we would design the software and set up our system. Since then, they’ve developed both a mobile and web app to be integrated into our IT ecosystem. The mobile app is compatible with both iOS and Android. The web app is used internally to manage software and was built using Angular for the frontend and Node.js for the backend.

What is the team composition?

We had a project leader, a designer, and a team of developers.

How did you come to work with Ballast Lane Applications?

Our CEO knew an executive in Ballast Lane Applications, so when we were looking for partners to work with, we began learning more about their business.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $88,000 with them. The first project cost  $15,000, the mobile app was $48,000, and our current project is $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in July 2018 and still have ongoing projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve developed a solid code and reliable platform. We use the web app internally, and their team has made updates and tweaked a few minor things. We’ve seen great improvement in our IT system since working with them.

How did Ballast lane Applications perform from a project management standpoint?

We met a few times per week to keep track of progress on each product and so we could give some guidance on what we wanted. They managed the project so we could focus on our internal projects. Strategically, this system was very helpful.

We also added them to our daily communication channels like Slack. Whenever they had questions about a feature they were implementing, they could easily ping us and ask clarifying questions in real-time. They ensured that the project was implemented the way we wanted and everyone was happy with the end result.

What did you find most impressive about them?

 As a developer myself, I’ve found that other freelancers don’t take ownership of the code they write. They know that they’re only going to be working on a project for a few months, and then they will move on. Ballast Lane Applications stands out because they want to make sure everything is working properly and plan to maintain it for the next year and a half.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always room to improve, even if it’s just in communication, but so far, we’ve had a great experience with their team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Definitely be communicative from the beginning and clearly define project scope and expectations. It’s also useful to