Dexlock

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the managing director of a real estate developer. We’ve since diversified to start an e-commerce and community platform for construction industry stakeholders. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dexlock?

We approached Dexlock to develop a custom-made interactive website to serve all stakeholders in the construction industry.

What were your goals for this project?

This is a drawn-out project executed in stages. The first stage—entrusted to Dexlock—acts as a strong foundation for the later stages. We wanted their work to arrive on time and be aesthetically appealing.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We surveyed vendors available in the city with the required skills and experience. After a preliminary discussion and receiving a quote, we finalized with Dexlock.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project is an interactive web platform that allows all stakeholders in the construction industry to develop their network and sell their products and services. We communicated the intent and rough structure to Dexlock. They reviewed the information and suggested changes, and after a couple of rounds of discussion, we finalized the structure together. Dexlock advised on the latest trends and functions that we should incorporate into our website. They handled full software development, aesthetic design, and server-side work.

What was the team composition?

We work with a senior software programmer, two assistant software programmers, a frontend designer, and a project coordinator.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

It’s too early to tell, but we are getting positive feedback after the first marketing activities.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We have a single point of contact with the project team. We discuss project strategies in advance with agreed-upon checkpoints. There are also weekly project updates and review meetings. The project management process has been quite productive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their attitude, professionalism, and patience stand out most to us. They are committed to delivering the project as agreed and remain cool-headed when the going gets tough.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The project slightly overshot the delivery date and budget.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Tralcer Inc., which is a tech startup founded in 2016. We’re developing a product in the areas of relationship and automated information management. I look after the product and technology development. I also work to understand customer needs and convert them into product functionalities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dexlock?

We had a manpower shortage, so they augment and complement our internal development efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re building multi-platform software. The backend development was done with Amazon Web Services and they used multiple technologies for the database engines. In addition, they performed native mobile app development for both iOS and Android, as well as frontend HTML coding for the browser mode of the software.

We didn’t work in sprints, but the project was broken into phases. They’ve completed the product and it’s already on the market, but we have a continuous engagement so that they can create enhancements and make improvements.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with our project manager.

How did you come to work with Dexlock?

We needed to find someone who could work with a big data system. We also wanted to hire developers in India because our previous experiences doing so had gone well. Dexlock matched these initial criteria, so we initiated contact and evaluated them. Later, we expanded the project and they were able to scale up with us, so we continued working with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working with us in September 2016 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As a startup, we don’t have any previous metrics to compare against, so I judge their impact based on two things. First, they effectively met their delivery schedule, which included not only finishing projects in a reasonable timeframe but also communicating well with us when they finished early or needed more time. Second, they behaved like collaborators and gave us suggestions for further improvement of our product. They were actively engaged in designing the code and algorithms with us.

How did Dexlock perform from a project management standpoint?

They had some problems when we initially started two years ago, but I contribute at least 50% of that to the fact that our project scope kept changing so rapidly. That said, within two months they had the right project management tools and people in place to make everything run smoothly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate their agility when it comes to changing project demands. They don’t bill by the hour and they’re very accommodating whenever there’s a deviation from our plan. Other companies will want to charge you for that, but Dexlock was flexible and worked around the time differences without any question. That’s what made me confident that they were with us as a partner more than as a vendor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d suggest that they invest more in the UX side of projects. It could give them an additional advantage to have people with those skills in addition to those doing backend work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a venture capital incubator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dexlock?

We don’t have enough development resources in-house, but it’s hard to find external resources who are adequately trained in natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision technologies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We use Dexlock on occasion to supplement our development team in building AI, machine learning, and UI components. We don’t ask them to create certain features from scratch, as we already have an existing product plan. When we don’t have enough bandwidth to execute our plan, we’ll assign certain components to Dexlock.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 3–14 people from Dexlock. My main points of contact are their CEO and CTO. Our own project managers handle a big portion of the main project. They did use their own project managers for a couple of smaller, separate projects.

How did you come to work with Dexlock?

Our development center in India recommended Dexlock.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent $500,000–$1 million on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their involvement allows us to deliver projects on time. What’s important is that they’re flexible enough to work with the development tools and environment that we provide.

How did Dexlock perform from a project management standpoint?

They follow our life cycle during the development process. While there’s always some adjustment in the first week or two as we get new people involved, we’ve been doing this for so long that it’s quite easy to add or take away Dexlock’s resources. Everything has worked reasonably well, with no issues whatsoever.

We use a variety of tools for communication and project management, including a fair amount of email. Sometimes, they come to one of our development centers, while people from our team can also visit their office.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re perfectly suited for our needs. It’s unusual to find people who have decent AI, machine learning, and NLP experience. Plus, they’re quite cost-efficient and flexible.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be specific with your requirements and expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I co-founded our company. We developed an educational app for schools.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dexlock?

We are a startup company, so initially, we didn’t have an in-house team to do the coding part of the application and web development. We tried to do it but we found it difficult, so we hired Dexlock.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We did the framework and design, and Dexlock did the frontend and backend. Our apps are developed for Android, iOS, and computers.

How did you come to work with Dexlock?

I was looking for someone to outsource the work to, and I found that Dexlock was doing good in the market, so I just went to them. This is the first development project we’ve done. Dexlock is the only firm I approached.

How much have you invested with Dexlock?

We spent $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Dexlock in July 2015, and the project was completed in March 2016. Our company has moved on to the next phase, and we now have our developers doing maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

What Dexlock gave us was a starting point, and now it’s working perfectly. Dexlock provided us with the support we needed. Our app has a rating of 4 or 4.5 on the App Store.

How did Dexlock perform from a project management standpoint?

On a scale of one to ten, I’d say eight. Dexlock gave us a schedule, and everything was done according to the timeframe.

What did you find most impressive about Dexlock?

Dexlock was professional. Dexlock discussed whether they could do what we wanted, and they did what they said they would do. That part was good.

Are there any areas Dexlock could improve?

It was good working with Dexlock. The only hiccups we had was with the testing part. Dexlock would fix the bugs, but the issues came back sometimes. It’s not a big deal. Besides that, everything was perfect.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

FindCharisma is an application that allows people to find out what other people's opinion of them is – from family to business friends. I am the app's creator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dexlock?

The project was started one and a half years ago, with Dexlock working on our application from A to Z.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dexlock developed my application using the Swift language on the iOS side and Java for the Android version. Dexlock also developed the backend functionalities and handled the app design.

Dexlock assigned four people to our project. I kept in touch with a single person for most of the collaboration. We had an active collaboration on the design side.

How did you come to work with Dexlock?

I found Dexlock through a friend who had researched companies from all around the world for his own application project. This is not my main specialization, so having a recommendation from a friend was lucky. He had had a good experience with Dexlock, so I started the work with them. It proved to be an excellent decision.

How much have you invested with Dexlock?

The cost of Dexlock's work was between $7,000 and $8,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Dexlock in September 2015. The project was completed in July 2016, and the application has been launched on the iOS and Android stores.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I haven't started promoting the app yet, so it hasn't accumulated many downloads.

How did Dexlock perform from a project management standpoint?

I live in Greece, and Dexlock's team is in India. Despite this, the long-distance communication was great. I could call them at any time and receive an answer, even if it was just to reschedule. I appreciated this a lot.

What did you find most impressive about Dexlock?

Dexlock fulfilled all my requirements regarding the application, but I don't have anything specific to share. I had an idea for an app, and I was able to transform it into an actual app, which was great for me. I'm not a technical person, but I was able to explain my idea to Dexlock's people and have it developed.

Are there any areas Dexlock could improve?

No. My app was never intended to be the next Facebook. It's simply a nice tool that needed good technology support, which Dexlock provided. This was more than enough for me.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a mobile app developer in the e-sports and gaming industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dexlock?

We needed someone to take care of the entire development of our mobile app and our data backend.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first part of our engagement with Dexlock was to create an iOS and Android app from scratch. It needed to be developed according to the design that we provided them. The second part was to develop the data side of our app, which would aggregate content from around the web with web crawlers, and then we would filter the data and publish it in the app.

How did you come to work with Dexlock?

We worked with another firm before them, but the project was slightly different then. Dexlock was the second firm that we worked with. We worked with an employee that knew some of the people at Dexlock. He said they were one of the better development firms that he knew because he had worked with them before. I traveled to India, and I met and spent a month with them. We started working together, and it went very well.

How much have you invested with Dexlock?

We have spent around $50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them late January 2016. The project is ongoing as they are responsible for our product in its entirety. They take care of all the development. Just like any other piece of software, it always has to evolve. We're a company with angel and venture capital investments, so we're going for the long term with Dexlock. We're going to keep working with them in the development of our projects indefinitely.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

A very good metric is our app has a 4.7 out of 5 rating in both the App Store and Google Play store. Our users love the app. The usage data of the app is excellent. It's performing as one of the best apps out there.

How did Dexlock perform from a project management standpoint?

We work with them a little bit differently. We don't have a project manager at Dexlock. We take care of the project management ourselves, and that's the way we wanted it. We talk directly to our developers over Slack or chat communication.

What did you most impressive about Dexlock?

Their developers are excellent and much better than the other firm. Their founders care about the project and maintain very good competitive prices. 

Are there any areas Dexlock could improve?

The management team can be better at some aspects of customer relations. But in the end, they have provided us with some great developers that I communicate directly with. If something is not good, then it's up to me to change that.

BACKGROUND

Please give me a brief description of your company.

MyPeeps is a local, social, mobile discovery network which seeks to connect people of similar backgrounds and ethnicities.

What is your role at the company?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached Dexlock?

I approached Dexlock with a basic concept of what I wanted to achieve with the app and they assisted in the entire process, from conceptualizing the user experience, to design and development of the platform.

What were your company’s business goals for the project?

The goal was and is to build a great product that is clean and simple in order to attract as many users as possible.

SOLUTION

Can you tell me about the scope of the project (what was Dexlock responsible for doing)?

Dexlock was responsible for some UX/UI design, Android and iOS front end development, as well as server side development.

What was your process for selecting Dexlock to work with?

We interviewed a number of different companies and we were most impressed with Dexlock for their capability, professionalism, price, and integrity.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms or personnel work hours?

I can say that we have launched 2 versions until now and are launching version 3 in the next couple of weeks. All things considered, we have been working on the project for 14 months.

When was the project completed?

The most recent version, version 2.3, was completed in February.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project, and are there any metrics you can share?

We are still beta testing and upgrading the app because I have determined new features that I want included. I can say that Dexlock performed exactly as they had promised.

When working with them, was there anything unique or special about them compared to other companies that you may have worked with?

They are always available and I find them very passionate about the work they do. Dexlock always finds innovative solutions to problems that arise. I was most impressed by their integrity. 

Looking back on the project, is there any area that they could improve or you would do differently?

Not really. They performed exactly as they said they would.

What advice would you give to a future client of theirs?

I would tell prospective clients to have your ideas completely fleshed out, and know exactly what you want before the first line of code gets written.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The company is a US-based IT consulting company working with near-shore and offshore resources. The quality assurance team, business analysts, project managers, and account managers are based in the US, but in order to give our clients the best rates, the company utilizes offshore development teams for the implementation.

What is your position?

I was a subcontractor for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Dexlock?

The client was looking for a natural language processing (NLP) solution. The company considered a number of different vendors to supply the solution.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Dexlock was in charge of both frontend and backend development for the web and a native iOS app. The backend consisted of proprietary NLP algorithms tied into a database.

How did you come to work with Dexlock?

They were found through Upwork. There was a matrix put together for ranking different potential engineering groups.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total cost was under $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was started in April of 2015. The first phase of the work was completed. The client is currently raising funds in order to move forward with the next phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The quality of the work was definitely good in terms of engineering. Dexlock provided very specific, uncommon skillsets. The quality assurance was adequate, but it could have been done better. The unit tests which were done by the developers should have been done by a subcontractor.

What distinguishes Dexlock from other providers?

They provided us specialized skills and worked hard to figure out and address different issues in the system. A number of firms would be less prone to figuring out subsequent issues after the work has been made.

Is there anything Dexlock could have improved or done differently?

I would push for Dexlock to separate the quality assurance to a different organization. I haven't had enough exposure to their team to add anything else.

BACKGROUND

Please give me a brief description of your company.

We are a collection of healthcare institutions developed for evaluation and treatment of children’s emotional, neuro-developmental, and academic skills disorders.

What is your role at the company?

I'm the Chief Executive Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached Dexlock?

We needed a website that could integrate with our customer relationship management [CRM] and provide some valuable insights. The challenge was to identify a web portal development firm that understands data science and can generate the insights that we need internally to grow our business.

What were your company’s business goals for the project?

I can't reveal all of it. But we wanted something out of the ordinary. We wanted a website that understands our customers and also potential customers very well. We needed our website to be personalized for them and have better sales conversions.

SOLUTION

Can you tell me about the scope of the project?

Well, we'd like to call it a Web 3.0 website. Dexlock was responsible for developing our customer facing website that will be personalized according to the information available on our internal CRM.

What was your process for selecting Dexlock to work with? 

Dexlock has a great pool of resources from web to mobile applications. The main criteria for the selection was their understanding towards the requirements. They know what they are doing and they helped us identify the flaws in our requirements quickly.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms or personnel work hours? 

The size of the project was around $10,000.

When was the project completed? 

The work was completed in November of 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project, and are there any metrics you can share?

We are still waiting on the results. We seem to be doing a better job with customers who we have on our CRM, but we are working on being connected with some external sources of data as well.

How did Dexlock perform?

Up to our expectation or maybe even beyond.

When working with them, was there anything unique or special about them compared to other companies that you may have worked with? 

Dexlock always provided a consultant approach rather than providing a simple upfront solution. They asked many questions about the requirements and kicked off the development once everything was in place, with less assumptions.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that they could improve or you would do differently? 

Not at this point.

What advice would you give to a future client of theirs?

The engineers at Dexlock turned out to be cooperative, competent, and proficient. They played an important role capturing our requirements and executing that as desired. I would always recommend their services