Equilobe Software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Software Engineer of Fermyon Technologies

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are exploring a new way to do cloud-native WebAssembly.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Equilobe Software to accomplish?

• To build the user interface for our hosting platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Equilobe Software?

Referral

Why did you select Equilobe Software over others?

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

How many teammates from Equilobe Software were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The two key deliverables were to

1. build an API server that would communicate with backend services.
2. Build a web UI that communicated with the API server to present relevant content to the client.

These backend services were either built in-house or third-party services. Multiple teams would need to collaborate to coordinate efforts so that new APIs would be ready by the time a service was ready to be launched.

The API server published an OpenAPI document which would be used to generate client libraries; one of which was generated for the web UI project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to go live on time and without any incidents. There were no major issues with the system. Fixes were continually shipped to production on time and customer feedback was resolved in a timely manner. It worked as per our engineering requirements and has helped our clients deploy their software to our hosting platform. The team at Equilobe has been instrumental in helping us get to this point.

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

Our primary form of communication is through Slack, and project management through GitHub and Linear. They perform well from a project management perspective. They consistently checked in with Fermyon's product team, consistently meeting their deadlines and responded to all of their feedback. When projects were delayed, they communicated as early as possible, providing new time estimates and alternative solutions.

When we needed to scale the team up or down to meet project requirements, they were able to do so quickly and efficiently.

What was your primary form of communication with Equilobe Software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We're impressed with their approach to communication and receptiveness to scaling. The team communicated effectively and delivered exemplary results as a team of two and as a team of six. It took very little time for them to scale up to understand our requirements and deliver the results we needed.

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

Taking more time to document design decisions outside of virtual meetings would help other engineers on the team understand the reasoning behind their decisions, especially with our company being a globally distributed team working across multiple timezones.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a marketing automation company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Equilobe Software?

We needed assistance to accelerate our company’s roadmap based on the results we had.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve been working with Equilobe Software for six years. We work with part of their software engineering team on different tasks since this is not a project-based engagement. 

Equilobe Software assists us with different projects that involve product design and QA. They use different technologies, including Microsoft tech stack: C#, .NET, and Microsoft SQL Server. Equilobe Software also works with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript using Angular and AngularJS. Besides the software development services, Equilobe Software offers us technical maintenance and support as needed.

What is the team composition?

We work with six engineers from Equilobe Software, ranging from senior to junior levels.

How did you come to work with Equilobe Software?

When I started working at my company, they were already working with Equilobe Software. However, I believe a colleague who had previously worked with them referred Equilobe Software. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £1 million–£5 million (approximately $1.2 million–$6.2 million) with Equilobe Software. We’ve invested around  £500,000 (approximately $600,000) per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Equilobe Software in June 2017, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Equilobe Software always meets our expectations. Our success measure is through our roadmap progress and sprint performance.

How did Equilobe Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Equilobe Software stays on budget and meets deadlines. We use Jira for project management and communicate through Microsoft Teams and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with Equilobe Software’s technical skills and software architecture knowledge. Moreover, Equilobe Software’s team has been able to integrate well into our company, to the point where most of our staff consider their team long-term employees.

Even though Equilobe Software is located at a different timezone, we haven’t had problems with that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Equilobe Software to improve. I’m really happy with the engagement. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend customers who want to engage with Equilobe Software do it in a similar model that we have to maintain their local product ownership.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of the RX.DU LLC, a software consulting company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Equilobe Software?

We needed someone to help us build different projects for our clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Equilobe Software is our primary web and app development partner, helping us build different projects for our clients. The team mainly utilizes JavaScript technologies to build web apps that run well on desktop and mobile.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with two senior developers.

How did you come to work with Equilobe Software?

We came across Equilobe Software through word of mouth.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $91,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in December 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team does a fantastic job of accomplishing their goals and delivering great results for the clients.

How did Equilobe Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well from a project management perspective because they consistently meet their deadlines and respond to all our feedback despite the timezone differences.

We typically use Slack and Google Meet to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with the quality of their work and their approach to communication. It took very little time for them to understand our needs, so now they’re contributing to our projects at an extremely high level.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish they could have more developers on board.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise you to trust their expertise.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the managing partner of an ISV. We develop custom financial and financial-adjacent software for the private and public sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We won a bid to implement a supplier contract management platform for a client in the public sector. Our small team needed to be augmented in order to deliver the submitted software product within the time and monetary budget offered. As a result we hired Equilobe to provide a small development team of highly experienced developers that would work on certain aspects of the software product alongside us.

SOLUTION

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

The decision was made based on previous experience of them doing light consulting work and knowing the caliber of their developers and their excellent work ethic. Because of this, we were confident that they were a good fit given especially the time constraints of the project.

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

Based on the draft SRS provided by us and which we finalized together, they developed several modules of the application (data processing, messaging, notifications, events calendar, document uploads, custom document fields management), using .NET Core for the back-end, SQL Server and very complex audit triggers for the data storage and VueJS for the frontend. We settled on a scrum methodology, and the project elements developed by them were done in 6 two-week sprints.

At the end, we also set aside one week for importing data provided by the client in the new system and tweaking after the go-live. Currently the system is still in use in almost exactly the initially-delivered form, with very little ulterior tweaking done by us as we are the support provider for the final client.

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

There were three people in the vendor's team, one senior and one mid-level developer and one part-time team supervisor.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to go live without any incidents and on time, which was the principal requirement. There were no ulterior issues with the system, it worked as per requirements and has helped the client engage multiple departments in the contract management workflows, eliminating situations where contracts were in danger of expiring or going over the allocated time and financial budgets. The new system also helped the final client with preparing complex audit reports regarding their ongoing contracts.

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

Project management went smoothly, the team was very self-organized and any possible issues were communicated ahead of time. Because of the pandemic, we only communicated remotely, using Slack and Zoom. Development was done on GitHub and AWS for the test environment.

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

Very self-motivated and self-organizing team, and also quite excellent technical level on their end. They went out of their way to find the best technical solutions while keeping the project deadline in mind.

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

Documenting design decisions, which we had to deliver to the final client alongside the source code, was something their team was not accustomed to and they had to figure it out on the fly, which caused a bit of friction initially.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

Head of Management Accounting, Registrul Auto Român (R.A.R.)

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Car technical tests and analyses

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Equilobe Software to accomplish?

• Equilobe Software has developed a custom application for our financial department. This application automates invoices and payment tracking workflows.

SOLUTION

How did you find Equilobe Software?

Referral

Why did you select Equilobe Software over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Equilobe Software were assigned to this project?

Aprox. 5 employees. PO/PM, Product designer and developers.

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

The project focused on developing and implementing a custom application that centralizes and automates the invoicing and payment tracking workflows for ITP(Periodic Technical Inspection for all vehicles in Romania) and TLV(Tachographs and Speed Limiters) service providers. The main challenge was eliminating reliance on outdated, unintuitive solutions based on physical documents and Excel sheets, transforming them into a modern digital solution.

Key delivrables:

• discovery sessions to restructure our working model
• functional app with several user access levels
• Figma wireframes iterations, prototyping and final designs

What is the status of this engagement?

Work in progress

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Increased operational efficiency by reducing the processing time for invoices and payments.
• Unblocked 50% of the cash registers at the main branch in Bucharest, which were previously tied up daily with manual processing/printing of invoices and payments.
• Reduced human error and improved traceability of invoice and payment history due to the automation of invoice and payment matching processes, and enhanced user experience.
• Positive feedback, with users appreciating the improved functionality and ease of use.
• A 90% reduction in paper usage, contributing to cost efficiency and environmental protection.

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

Project management was conducted efficiently, following Agile methodologies, with initial discovery discussions and continuous communication through both Zoom and live sessions. There were also several sessions of qualitative user testing. The team worked well, engaging with all of our internal departments, as well as RAR’s partner service providers, with whom various sections of the developed application were integrated.

What was your primary form of communication with Equilobe Software?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The team stood out with their self-organization skills and high technical expertise. We appreciated their commitment to finding the best technical solutions while meeting tight deadlines.

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

Nothing comes to my mind right now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I'm the product manager of a wholesale software solutions company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Develop digital solutions for the wholesale industry

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Equilobe Software to accomplish?

• Proof-of-concept (POC)
• Minimum viable product (MVP)

SOLUTION

How did you find Equilobe Software?

Other

Why did you select Equilobe Software over others?

Great culture fit, Referred to me, Company values aligned

What was the size of Equilobe Software’s team?

2-5 Employees

What was your primary form of communication with Equilobe Software?

Virtual Meeting

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

Starting from an idea and develop a proof-of-concept for a mobile analytics tool that enables top management users to easily check business KPIs. Due to good feedbacks MVP and post-MVP stages continued.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Qualitative feedbacks

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

Agile way of working (iterative and incremental). Very passionate about product thinking, that is delivering on outcomes. Focused on creating value with the least effort. Open minded, transparent and honest.

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

They had a good work culture and empowered team members to achieve their best.

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

All good

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder and executive of a SaaS-based recruitment platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Equilobe based upon the recommendation of a world-class CTO we brought in to consult on the Project. We were looking for a firm to build Version 1 of our platform.

SOLUTION

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

They came highly-recommended and they were very professional in their approach to the project.

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

We brought them on tio the project 10 years ago to build version 1 of the platform and we are now on Version 3. They have been with us every step of the way through the growth of our company.

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

3-5.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have exceeded every one of the internal metrics we have established along the way.

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

Great collaboration (email, Jira, and video conferencing) -- and they are outside the box thinkers. They are all about cost-efficiency.

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

The quality of their work!

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

Nothing -- they have been amazing!