Droid technologies LLC

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of a sports wearable technology company based in the UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To deliver embedded software technology for a new wearable product under extremely tight deadlines.

SOLUTION

How did you select Droid Technologies and what were the deciding factors?

We selected Droid Technologies after a number of calls with their management team and senior engineers. At the time we were impressed by the teams openness and attention to detail.

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

The scope of the project included developed of software to manage numerous sensors technologies on a small IoT wearable device. Technologies include RFID, Bluetooth, EMMC and MEMS sensors.

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

The number of engineers scaled due to project requirements. At times x1 engineer worked on the project however for short periods of time x3 were required. Droid successfully selected these engineers and allocated them tasks at short notice.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Droid successfully delivered the project under and extremely tight timeline allowing the company to launch a new product worldwide. Droid continued to support the company through revisions of the embedded software that included new features based on user feedback.

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

The team at Droid worked well with our in-house engineering team providing updates daily.  The constant interaction between the teams resulted in a project that was easy to manage and ran smoothly.  We used Slack, Jira and GitHub to coordinate the project and these tools worked very well.  

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

Droid Technologies successfully took over and delivered a project with tight deadlines and significant deliverables.  The team demonstrated significant expedience and knowledge of IoT products and suggested a number of innovating technology features.  Delighted with the outcome of the project we continue to work with Droid and have enraged their services for an extended period of time.  

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

There were some minor bugs that required effort at the end of the project to resolve. This was partly due to the nature of a project with exceptionally tight deadlines and significant deliverables. In the future that company would prepare better and allocate time at the end of a challenging project to work on bug fixes.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal engineer of Sestra Systems, which manufactures touchless smart dispensing systems for beverages, condiments, sanitizers, and other liquids.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

We hired Droid Technologies for a couple of different development projects. They’ve generally augmented our team in writing Node.js and assisting with development operations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started with a well defined standalone C++ project that took on multiple enhancements.

Most of the time was spent helping us develop and enhance feature sets on a NodeJS project that included some bug-fixing. That software controlled our hardware’s beverage portion control system.

Another was for a hardware development; in that project, they were responsible for new hardware bring-up and developing embedded code. Droid Tech helped bring our hardware to an operational state.

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

One of our colleagues found them through a freelancing platform. They were available and cost-effective, so we decided to test their capabilities using a well-scoped project. We enjoyed their development proficiency, so we decided to leverage their skill set to help us bolster our company at a quicker pace.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent upwards of $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We brought them on in November 2018, and it’s an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work, especially when things are well-scoped, is very good. Admittedly, the metrics that we use are a little more subjective. We operate a ticket system in our JIRA workflow, and we see how quickly we can move towards a final product without getting tickets rejected and placed back into the development phase.

They have both embedded and hardware developers that are in tune with the development workflow. Albeit working with a more c++ centric team, Node.js was a challenge they were still willing to take on.

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project manager helped us translate to their team, which is based in Kyiv, Ukraine. The verbal and communication were fairly seamless; we were able to integrate them into our Slack and Jira workflows pretty quickly. Whenever there was a disconnect in communication, their project manager would step in to properly coordinate the tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their large team is made up of individuals with different areas of expertise. That’s been really helpful because as opposed to companies that have expertise in a specific coding language, they’re comprehensive in their knowledge.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve a little on the quality of their code. Doing some internal, end-to-end testing on our products could help with that. Otherwise, they’re doing pretty good. We’re able to work iteratively to get them there.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Provide a goal set to drive deliverables, and it might be helpful to assign a project manager on your own end to oversee that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a sports technology company. We work with sports clubs and leagues, offering video analysis exchange systems and video review systems. Our team works with different leagues in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Denmark. We’re located in Bremen, Germany, which is in the northern part of the country. Currently, we have 10 developers and a couple of additional employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

All of our developers were busy with other work, and we needed assistance on a project. We were also looking for particular skills in software development, and Droid Technologies had them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Development was done in C, and the main task was reading serial data coming in through RS-232 and RS-485. We had to deal with different protocols in running information from scoreboard systems in sports arenas, from many different manufacturers.

Together with Droid Technologies, we built a system that works with many different scoreboards. One of them can translate serial data into a different format, which includes a graphics output or just data scoring. Their team also got the system ready to work with all those different vendors of scoreboards.

Droid Technologies also provided live support when new scoreboards went live. We didn’t have all the information during development, so there was some reverse engineering involved in this process. Due to that, we didn’t have a ready and perfect solution.

It was a bit difficult with the customer because we rarely had access to the system, it was usually just during games. Droid Technologies provided live support on the weekend and at late hours; they helped us a lot with the project.

What is the team composition?

There was one developer from their side and two developers from ours. We also hired a web developer, for a short period of time, to build a small web interface.

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

We found them online by searching for the technologies we needed for the task at hand. Droid Technologies is also focused on hardware development, and we’d previously met them in Kiev, Ukraine. The first contact was very good. They were friendly and had a lot of good ideas about what we could do.

Their team was not only capable of the technical parts but also handled project management and came up with ideas about the project. All of this convinced us that they had a lot of expertise — on top of our friendly interaction — so we engaged with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a little over €50,000 (approximately $54,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Droid Technologies in May 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had to outsource this project three times so far to different companies, and Droid Technologies was the only one that really took care of the job. We’re very satisfied with their work.

Our company was founded in 2010, and this has been one of the best business relationships we’ve had with another company. It’s been very short, but the quality of the work is convincing, and they’re available all the time, including late hours and on weekends.

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We use GitHub to share code as well as Skype and email for communication. So far, we’ve mainly worked in smaller teams, which were completely outsourced or in-house. This time, we did the project with a couple of in-house people along with an external developer from Droid Technologies.

This helped us, in general, to improve the way we handle code and manage data in our system because we have to make it available to different parties. Droid Technologies suggested some solutions for that because they have a lot of experience dealing with customers. For us, this was a bit of a new situation. Until then, we had either developed everything on our own or outsourced entire projects.

One of the developers we’re working with is very good technically, and we can always reach out to Sergii (CEO). If we have a question, he always provides knowledge and ideas. It’s not only the developers we’ve hired that are available to us; the whole company provides additional resources.

We haven’t had any bumps or problems with Droid Technologies. Everything’s gone smoothly, and they're always available when we want to check-in. We’re very satisfied with their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Droid Technologies offers good rates compared to other developers. They’re not too expensive, but they still provide high-quality work. The value for our money is very good with them. We could always hire developers that cost $200 an hour and expect more because there’s always more.

For the amount we pay, we get very good work and I’d be happy to pay more — but don’t tell them that. Quality of work is one of the most important things for us, and it makes us happy in this business relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t really think of anything.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Droid Technologies takes care of the job at hand. Clients should try and explain the whole project and give them more insight into it. With this input, Droid Technologies may possibly find a better solution than initially planned.

They have knowledge in different areas and a lot of experience. Don’t just give them a task and ask them to write a couple of lines of code, rather explain what needs to be achieved and what your business is. Then, they’ll contribute a lot more to the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CTO at WTS. We provide custom B2C and B2B positioning solutions using our own family of GPS trackers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Droid Technologies?

We hired Droid Technologies to work on our core technology, namely the firmware of our family of GPS trackers.

What were your goals for this project?

Take over an existing codebase, fix problems, propose improvements, review current hardware and set the basis for a new platform with new hardware and firmware.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We recruited Droid technologies via Upwork

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Droid provided us with experienced hardware and firmware engineers. After reviewing the hardware, they joined the development teams and started working actively on the firmware extensions. Droid was quickly put the task of fulfilling specific customer demands.

What was the team composition?

We have one team leader with 5 other team members (firmware, frontend and backend-devops).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Droid technologies helped us to take over an existing project and considerably refactor / re-engineer it ina much more stable way.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We manage the resources ourselves but Droid proved to be extremely well organized and provided the right balance of structure and flexibility

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Technical knowledgeability , communication and dependability. Although we had no previous relationship, we very quickly setup a good way of working that included the sourced engineers in our team

Are there any areas for improvement?

No major improvements : communication can always be better. We could have done a better job at making Droid participate more in our company culture.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a project manager for a company that develops battery backup solutions for the telecom market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

We needed help with developing a product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have developed a communications device as an accessory to our products. The communication device enables us to read out data from our product through a mobile app connected to the device via Bluetooth. Droid Technologies built the device — both its hardware and software as well as the plastic casing — and its mobile app.

We gave them requirements specifications to start with. We now have weekly meetings with our software and hardware engineers to follow the progress. We also have done some testing with and without Droid Technologies.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager, a hardware engineer, a software engineer, and a mobile app specialist. That’s about 5–6 people.

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

My CTO had heard about them and reached out to their team. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in August 2019 and is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We expect the project to end in March 2020. We’re satisfied with the product; it works as it should, but we have some minor things left to do.

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been really flexible with us. We wrote requirements, but then we changed our minds several times and expanded the scope. They handle that really well, and they even take the initiative to suggest ideas and improvements based on their own experiences. 

Sometimes, we have some communication issues since our native languages are not English, but that’s how it is when you’re not English-speaking from the start. They use Mantis to track bugs, and we communicate through emails and our weekly meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

This is our first experience developing a product with a third-party company. We’ve found Droid Technologies to be really proactive, flexible, and experienced with building these kinds of products. We didn’t do our job in creating the core requirement specifications, but they’ve handled that really well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’ve had a positive collaboration. We’ve learned a lot for next time: we’ll do better to state the requirements, and they’ll do better to ask questions and narrow down the scope.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear in your specifications. Also, be proactive and ask what they think about their experience. Droid Technologies may know better what you’re looking for, and it can save you time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Turingismus. We do research and work related to electronics and software, which involves simulations related to radar techniques.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

I was looking for an appropriate development team to help us for a year or longer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team operates as an extension of our team. Sometimes, Droid Technologies handles projects related to electronics and software. For example, they developed a bot that simulates of body dynamics. The final deliverable was a cross-platform library that ran on many types of microcontrollers.

Droid Technologies chooses the right controller before designing and producing the bot. It’s developed special for massive calculations. It’s float point calculations with a lot of mathematics and physics inside. Based on Microcontroller 5, the final hand-held computer accurately calculates complex mathematical issues.

Inside the computer, there are some ports that scan and erase bots. There’s also a GPS model inside. We worked with Droid Technologies on the GPS heading technology. It's able to read position and direction.

It’s a very great success because there’s no file system or operational system, so it’s absolutely resistant for hacking. We’re still working on other components of the system. This summer, we tested some navigation solutions, for instance. We’re still working on this.

The second project was modernization for Doppler radar that measures the speed of moving objects. We use signal analysis software and hardware that was developed by Droid Technologies.

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with the project manager. They also gave me a lead on the project, who handles much of the day-to-day development.

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

Our project was very complicated, and we interviewed plenty of other vendors. A lot of teams can work with simple microcontrollers, but not many teams work with microcontrollers on the level we required. Sergeii (CEO & Owner, Droid Technologies) was the first person who really understood the problem and could develop our bot for calculations.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $60,000-$80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m absolutely satisfied with the work that Droid Technologies does. After they develop the software and hardware, I was able to quickly accept the work and test it out. The final product works perfectly.

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

I was the project manager from my side, but I could always count on them to deliver before our set deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm satisfied with them. Starting with only 20 people, they've grown their headcount to about 80 over the course of our partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’m satisfied with how they work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CTO of a firm that deals with social proximity for mobile devices and being able to have individual people interact in a number of different ways, whether its sharing content, group experiences or discovering people with similar interests.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

We wanted to partner with a firm that had deep IoT development and data communications experience. As a plus, we ended up leveraging them for data industrial and electrical engineering talent.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We've done a number of engagements with them over the course of 18 months. Their scope was being the primary developer for our data communications and devices in C programming. They also used them for low-level driver development, peripherals, and development in the near field magnetic induction and Bluetooth spaces.

Because we have some advanced needs, we use state-of-the-art chips, for which we build our own prototypes that refine that code. That's where our industrial and electrical engineering needs come in, as we need to be able to build these IoT devices and demonstrate the use cases. They've already completed two generations of devices for us, as well as the industrial closures for a number of different prototypes that we use in testing.

What is the team composition?

For software staffing, it varies depending on the lifecycle of the product. It's anywhere from two on the low end, to six developers on the high end. Electrical and Industrial Engineering each typically take one person. We've also had one designer on staff too.

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

We wanted a company with expertise in the technologies we would be working with, but also one that had a proven track record. While there were several firms to choose from online, we loved Droid's Clutch reviews. The breadth and scope of their projects were vast, showing how nimble they could be and how flexible they were in being able to pioneer new capabilities. I chose them off a shortlist of other companies and liked their answers to how they would approach our initial set of work. We've grown that relationship significantly since then.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested over $100,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in March 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have top marks from us. Their ability to deal with ambiguity, code structure, and discipline have been great. They're proactive in suggesting changes, or even pushing back if they see there could be limitations, which we appreciate. It always comes from a point of experience, rather than speculation. I'd rather have a development team that's able to chart a course and find their way through problems, rather than do only what you ask. They use their collective experience to understand our broader strategy.

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They've performed well. We've had a lot of tight timelines, but they've been proactive; if they see they're falling behind or if there's additional work, they'll backfill with a junior developer that may work on things like display drivers while the lead developer works on refining the UX. There was always an awareness of the broader timeline, budget, and they worked their systems in parallel so that we wouldn't fall too far behind the curve.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a cross-section of the disciplines under their roof; electrical, mechanical, and firmware. They understand the actual hardware instead of just the language. That piece is especially significant for us when we're dealing with signaling and communications, and have them produce from soup to nuts a prototype, the electrical schematics, the assembly, the enclosure, and the code that runs on all of that.

They also all have a depth of experience working for corporate brands and clients producing an end product. Additionally, we saw them as having high integrity, honest, good folks. We visited them in Kiev, and they're good people who can communicate in English well. We learned they invest in English classes for their employees to ensure that they can communicate with clients, which was a pleasant surprise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although it hasn't ever impacted our business, maybe the next step for their business is to invest in a full-time UX person, rather than having to outsource.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to share your strategy because they have the acumen to grasp it and can contribute as a partner and as a team. Don't approach them as contract C programmers, they're more useful than that. You'd be doing yourself a disservice if you don't take advantage of their capabilities.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Inoxoft, an IT outsourcing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

We needed help with the hardware development side of a project. The project itself is for the agriculture domain.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed and developed the device hardware. We have a special device to control a water pump and it communicates with a mobile application. From the mobile app, users can work with the hardware device that Droid Technologies created. The device works with the pump on the tractor vehicle and can measure what the level of liquid is within the vehicle. The purpose of the system is for growing different vegetables.

They used an embedded tech stack with C or C++. They continue to help with new features.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and a developer.

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

They are one of the best companies in Ukraine for hardware development.

How much have you invested with them?

They spent $95,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re happy with how the hardware works and how easy it is to use the API they’ve provided for the mobile device. We have no concerns.

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a lot of Skype and cell phone calls and we used Jira and Trello for project tracking. The developer showed great dedication and ownership when we had any issues. He was even available on the weekend and evenings.

They’re flexible and we’re happy working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They don’t work just to provide a product—they always show great ownership and dedication to making the product better. When we suggested an idea and their developer didn’t agree with it, he challenged our idea and we followed what they suggested. They provide the best care.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d have them improve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company focused on research and development in the field of sensors, printed electronics and IoT. We are about 100 employers. I joined the company in 2019 as a head of IoT and Embedded Systems

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Droid Technologies?

Droid Technologies have been supporting us in several research projects related to IoT. As their part, they have been designing electronics, firmware and HMI. All projects were related to new technology development, which made the electronics design not trivial and set high requirements for engineering standards.

What were your goals for this project?

Together with Droid Technologies we have designed IoT demonstrators for printed electronics developed in our company. Typical tool set used included Embedded development (STM32), Web (C#, Javascript, ASP NET Core), Cloud (MS Azure). In each case the integration with a sensor was a challenging part and was designed to meet the application requirements.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

As originally recommend by one of our colleagues, we work with Droid Technologies on a regular basis. We have chosen the partner among several other candidates and the selection is based on high flexibility and good product quality delivered by Droid Technologies for a reasonable price.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

In a recent project, Droid Technologies have designed the electronics, firmware and Web UI for the screen driver, which can be controlled over the internet. The project was a second stage development of the initial prototype developed also by Droid Technologies.

Importantly, the second stage had very limited time constraints, which was fully fulfilled. During the development, a lot of improvements were introduced into the device, which required high team organization and strong cross-topic collaboration.

What was the team composition?

The vendor has allocated 4 people (3 developers and a project manager). Each of developers was responsible for his part (hardware, firmware and web). The size of team was fixed and matched the project requirements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Project was developed and demonstrated to customer in time. The customer is satisfied.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had an opportunity directly interact with each developer to adapt the project exactly to our needs. We used git intensively. The developer team was offshore, but no difficulties were experienced due to language or time difference.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We value the flexibility and design quality, which was fully delivered by Droid Tech. As a most impressive, I would like to highlight the ability of developers to do a very fast function improvement upon request together with remote testing on our site.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are fully satisfied with the service we received form Droid Tech. As a minor improvement, I would suggest to pay more attention on unit testing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a mobile and IoT development firm in the Netherlands that builds mobile reporting and IoT applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

We already had a Bluetooth enabled device for emergency messaging and wanted to start working on an IoT equipped device. While we were working with our own engineers on different IoT modules, we knew we needed someone with expertise to focus on a specific skillset of Nordic nRF91.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Droid Technologies did most of the work from the design to the actual building of the firmware, cooperating closely with our team and other third parties. We provided their team the specs that they translated into the firmware designs. It is also validated by Nordic Semiconductor. After that, testing began. The first part of the process was the firmware before they moved on to designing the manufacturing of the first prototypes.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Sergii (CEO & Owner, Droid Technologies). We work with a project manager, product designer, someone who did the software stack integration, a hardware designer, and someone who did the firmware designs.

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

After seeing positive referrals on Clutch, we started their team off with small tasks. They delivered as promised.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Droid Technologies started in January 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a prototype and a nearly finished product. So far, it’s been worth every penny. It’s a pleasure to work with Droid Technologies. Their team delivers on time and fulfills promises. They come up with high-quality solutions. Their experience is valuable.

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication and overall project management are good. Droid Technologies is in control of the complex projects they’re working on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Along with their excellent experience and high standard of work, they can support us in the full range of IoT. Droid Technologies is excellent in firmware, electronics design, and software stack integration. It’s an integrated solution, and they provide integrated support.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s no area they could improve.

Do you have any advice for potential clients?

It’s important that clients are as familiar as possible with these electronics. A company must understand the symbiosis between hardware and software. It’s the full package, and people need to understand the interaction. When you understand that, it’s great to work with Droid Technologies.