Espeo Software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Egnyte is a file-sharing and syncing service, mainly targeted towards enterprises. We simplify the file-sharing process for our customers and provide a hybrid solution which can be deployed either in-house or through cloud storage. This is our biggest differentiator from the market.

What is your position?

I am the management director of Egnyte Poland, which is our R&D office. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Espeo Software?

We are developing a product called Protect, which complements our portfolio on the document analysis and data governance side. It can highlight risks like data leakages. We have developed it from scratch over the last 12 months but needed to accelerate the process using external help. We didn't have time to hire our own people, so we hired Espeo Software. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Espeo Software assigned one frontend and two backend engineers who were seated into our existing teams. They supported our software engineering needs on specific parts of the product.

Espeo Software worked on the rule-management components of our software. These enable the application of filters on the data being analyzed. When creating a share rule, for example, the use-case highlights all the use-cases of files being shared too widely with people. We use Java on the backend and JavaScript on the frontend.

How did you come to work with Espeo Software?

We did some research for locally available companies in Poland, which was the ideal case for us. We did do research on a global level as well since finding good engineers mattered most. Finding on-site engineers could have reduced the onboarding cycle and made for a much more productive relationship. We found Espeo Software, talked to their team, and found that they had very talented engineers. The fact that they were local was even better.

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

The cost of Espeo Software's involvement has been between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Espeo Software around September 2016. We are finishing the engagement now, with today being our last day. We actually extended the collaboration from three to six months. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The feedback from our own engineers was that Espeo Software's team was very flexible in adapting to existing software development methodologies. This was important for the team they were working with. Espeo Software also had great technical expertise, which allowed them to become involved quickly without too much overhead. They were committed to what they promised and delivered on that.

I was not involved with the work on a low level, but I'm sure that any challenges they came across were solved in a collaborative way. Espeo Software was part of a 20-person team, so there was a lot of collaboration between them and the rest of our resources.

How did Espeo Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We have an on-site engineering manager in Poland. We also have a project manager in charge of the work in terms of releases and scope. We also have a US-based product manager who is in charge of translating business requirements into technical stories which are added to our JIRA backlog. Based on the feedback they received, Espeo Software integrated well into our process.

We started the engagement completely on-site, with Espeo Software's engineers working with ours from Monday to Friday. After a two-month period, we started letting them work off-site for two days a week. In the end, Espeo Software's team only came to our office for review meetings, planning, and retrospectives for one day a week. The communication was constant, regardless of Espeo Software's location.

What distinguishes Espeo Software from other providers?

The good technical expertise on Espeo Software's team is the first thing I'd highlight. They adapted to our business and development models quickly. "Local" is also a keyword.

Is there anything Espeo Software could have improved or done differently?

There's always room for improvement. Espeo Software could have more diversity in terms of projects, but this will come as they grow their team. 

BACKGROUND

MeBeGood is a Finnish-American startup founded in 2014 in Nevada. MeBeGood is the world's first mobile gaming platform that disrupts sponsoring by combining exercise and charity. MeBeGood combines people's favorite sports with charity and gives brands a unique opportunity to both sponsor individual exercisers and gain emotionally committed ambassadors for a good cause.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

There were a variety of users to keep in mind, so Espeo had to deliver features necessary for managing sponsors and the beneficiaries of the campaigns, managing the campaigns themselves (including branding, budget, and terms and conditions), conversion analysis of the campaigns organized by the brands, management of user profiles, and features connected to the analysis of physical activity and the possibility to share the results on Facebook.

SOLUTION

Based on mockups and models, Espeo created two mobile applications – Android and iOS – along with the backend for each one and a web application. The team knew that the UI was especially important. The app was made to look good and be easy to use. Mobile technologies were used as well as Java, Spring, AngularJS, jOOQ, Apache, and Tomcat. Integrating the app with Facebook was possible thanks to the use of Facebook API. All work was conducted in the Scrum methodology and with the client's involvement in regular demos and sprint planning.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Espeo followed up on what we agreed on with the utmost diligence. Thanks to regular meetings, demo sessions, and continuous planning, we were able to track progress and plan the implementation of the features. When it came to the web application, Espeo's programmers were able to create what we envisioned completely by themselves without any mockups or models.

We were aware that we had the possibility to change our technological partner from the very beginning if we so wished, but there was never any need for that. That's why we're able to recommend Espeo fully. They are an experienced technological partner for long-term software development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're an upcoming crowdfunding platform offering two-stage funding, digital files, an integrated community, and multi-charity donations. I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Espeo Software?

We needed to develop a crowdfunding platform and get an MVP out to consumers, along with continuing to scale in the future.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed the platform and handled the two-stage funding, currency conversions, and multiple bug fixes that were left from another developer, who was unable to complete the platform. We worked with WordPress and IgnitionDeck, which is a WordPress plug-in, that implements functionality into the platform. They did other custom work for WordPress to implement features that were specific to us like our digital files that needed to be downloaded.

How did you come to work with Espeo Software?

We were displeased with the progress of our previous web developers and Espeo reached out to us on social media when they heard we needed help. I looked at their portfolio and enjoyed the fact that they offered a competitive price with professional work. We were able to talk directly to the developers.

How much have you invested with Espeo Software?

We spent $7,000 with Espeo.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took 14 weeks, and it was completed in December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I'm very satisfied with Espeo. They gave us updated code every week as we requested to get ready for our closed beta that we were going to conduct.

What did you find most impressive about Espeo Software?

They are always available. I found it valuable to talk directly to the team. They reviewed the documents and asked questions so that they understood the requirements before they started working on a feature. That cut down on the revisions that needed to be made.

Are there any areas Espeo Software could improve?

The deadline was set for 7 weeks, and it took double that to finish the project. They were helpful in remedying that difference in terms of cost. They could offer more services to United States-based customers. I think that would be beneficial to them and very helpful to U.S.-based customers. Finding U.S.-based web development companies at an affordable rate with professional quality is hard to find.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Espeo Software?

Sign Dominik [Zyskowski, software product manager and senior consultant at Espeo Software] on to work on your project. He worked with us nonstop and is probably the most passionate person there who was dedicated to working with us. He was passionate and provided new features, some that we didn't even think about. Look at what they offer and make sure they're right for you. Something that caught us off-guard was that they're based in Poland, so they work different hours than we do. A U.S. company will need to work on Poland time if they want to communicate with the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

Our company was created with advertisers, agencies and media in mind. We provide a convenient, thoroughly considered, and efficient exchange platform, a self-service tool that measures the online and mobile effectiveness of advertising. We achieve a market advantage by relying on a product created by experienced marketing specialists with a partner team of qualified programmers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you facing when you approached Espeo Software?

We wanted to start working with a remote development team that had experience in creating and maintaining IT [information technology] projects using a very particular technology.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of your work with Espeo Software.

They needed to develop our exchange platform while maintaining the business features already in place. In time, and because of the influx of new users, we asked them to scale earlier solutions and expand existing features for those users.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did Espeo Software perform from a project management standpoint?

The two people initially responsible for the front-end development later grew into a seven-person team that took on all the front-end and back-end development and maintenance for the platform.

What is the status of your work with Espeo Software?

Our work with them is ongoing. We already know that the later stages of the project and an increase of business users will require a further expansion of the team.

Are you satisfied with the work delivered by Espeo Software?

In the beginning, Espeo was only supposed to be responsible for the front-end part of the application. However, we realized quickly that we could entrust the company with the development and maintenance of the entire platform. As of this moment, we've been working with their team for almost one and a half years, and we're regularly enlarging the team of developers to meet the functional expectations of subsequent clients.

From the very first day, Espeo's employees have been working on their tasks with due diligence. Daily meetings and online chats allowed us to grow firm in our belief that we're dealing with a group of specialists with whom we have no language or communication issues.

I've also had the opportunity to work with them both in our headquarters as well as our visits in Espeo's Poznan office. Time and time again, I saw how quickly the Espeo team reacted to my comments and suggestions on how to develop the product further. I can recommend Espeo as a solid remote partner for IT projects with full responsibility.

BACKGROUND

Solita is a digital business consulting and services company. We develop new business and digital services for our corporate and public sector customers. We combine business processes, content, and technology in a revolutionary manner for our customers' benefit. Our role is to be the customer's guide on the road to change.

I'm a team manager at Solita Oy. I lead individuals, manage projects and consult businesses in how to reach, engage, and serve customers in an increasingly digital world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We reached a client who decided to launch an online recruitment platform aimed at the Finnish market. Functional objectives of the platform to be achieved: collecting electronic CVs [curriculum vitae] from those looking for work and enabling employers to browse and access the collected CVs, and to contact the candidates.

The client was afraid that having to complete the entire profile (CV) would be a serious entry barrier for people looking for work. Another potential problem was the CV Bank. Since the platform's business model was based on the fees charged from employers for viewing the profile of a potential candidate, the search engine was to return results that would be numerous and ordered depending on how relevant they are.

Since both sections are part of one of the largest Finnish online classifieds services, the other potential problem was the issue of scalability. We've decided to outsource this project to Espeo Software as Espeo has obtained proficiency in area outside of our core competences.

SOLUTION

Espeo was working remotely from their office in Poznań [Poland] with the Finnish project manager, product owner, and UX [user experience] designer. With the use of Symfony 2 framework, we designed a web platform that included two sections: Profiili and CV.

Profiili is an application for people looking for work that allows them to create their electronic CV by filling in a form. The usability of the form was tested in order to make the time needed for filling it in as short as possible.

CV Bank is a web application for employers allowing them to search for candidates that meet specified criteria, view their profiles after paying a fee, and contact them. In the search engine, we used the mechanisms of fuzzy logic so that there is no risk that a very detailed query would return empty results. If necessary, the search engine returns results that do not closely match the query and at the same time shows the user the relevance level of each of the results expressed in percentages.

The platform is cloud-hosted with Amazon Web Service, which guarantees high efficiency and scalability of the system.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Espeo was responsible for execution of the whole project. This project involved the entire Scrum team for 14 months. Espeo Software did a good job, and we knew exactly what to expect. They worked together well under pressure and delivered in the face of a really tight deadline. They really took their job seriously and treated customers with respect. Their English is great, and the communication was fluent through the project.

I was able to collaborate with them efficiently, which might not always be straightforward when working with other nearshore companies. I liked the fact that they respond very quickly to any questions or concerns I had. When I send a request or a task, I see the progress and I know it will be done within the time period that I wanted. For me, this is very important. Overall, reachability of the Espeo team was constantly on a good level.

BACKGROUND

Bilot is a software and growth company founded in 2005. The company is known as an expert in developing and implementing the latest SAP and Microsoft-based solutions.

Bilot's own Smart product family forms a digital business platform that brings usability, performance, cost efficiency, and reliability to enterprise solutions.

Bilot is owned by its personnel and is located in Helsinki, Finland, and Poznan, Poland. The company turnover was 15 million euros in 2014, and it employs 130 talented visionaries and thought leaders in its technology realm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We were looking for a service provider that would be able to support our corporate website development as our needs change. The key points we were after were agility and ability to react fast to changing marketing. 

We didn't have a project in mind as such, but rather a long-term engagement with a reliable partner. Espeo has these qualities, and we started cooperation for more than a year. The project is ongoing with no plans to stop the work.

SOLUTION

We cooperate with Espeo as a service provider for maintenance and further development of our group website. Additionally, Espeo takes care of some other of our key communication channels. Espeo provides us with advice what should be done from the platform maintenance point of view, such as security updates. But, they develop new features that are required by our marketing department. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

The cooperation goes well, despite the fact that we are located in two different countries and our team members have never met. Still, the cooperation is good and the level of service we receive from Espeo fulfils our needs. They are truly agile and are able to react promptly to changes that we need to face. I'd recommend Espeo's services to others who are looking for similar solution.

BACKGROUND

The main aim of the eScop project was to integrate different existing software tools for developing an innovative solution that allows supervisory and command capability of manufacturing systems in an open manner. The solution was to overcome the challenges on the shop floor control level, such as MES [manufacturing execution system] and deterministic and real-time control.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

The true innovation of the proposed solution was the merging of the power of ontology knowledge and SOA [service-oriented architecture] control approaches for the manufacturing domain. Such approaches allowed the control and supervision processes to be automatically customized by the ontology. To integrate the suggested approach on the manufacturing equipment the embedded systems were used.

The result was a modular, fully open solution for the operational control of manufacturing equipment. This system allows easy and fast commissioning of new plants, achievement of "plug and produce" inclusion of new equipment, substitution of the traditional control model, based on hierarchical hardware architecture, with a single-level population of embedded systems plus a free series of pure software control levels.

The project had several quantified goals: reduce the cost of the system design from 2011 levels by 15 percent; achieve a 15 percent reduction in development cycles – especially in sectors requiring qualification or certification – from 2011 levels; manage a complexity increase of 25 percent, with 10 percent effort reduction, compared with 2011; reduce the effort and time required for revalidation and recertification of systems after making changes by 15 percent, compared with 2011 levels.

SOLUTION

The eScop platform was a modular system composed of three main layers that were accordingly integrated to go, bottom to up, from the command and monitoring control of the production system – the physical layer; to the management of the production system model – the representation layer; and finally to the integration and control capability of all services provided by the orchestration layer.

Espeo was leading the development of the orchestration layer, which was built using Java as a main language, the Vert.x platform that allowed for outstanding performance, and REST services for integration with other layers. Espeo was involved in the project for its whole duration, about 36 months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Espeo was one of the top-performing industry partners in the project consortium. The company also received great feedback from independent external reviewers who assessed the quality of the system provided as a result of the work managed by Espeo.

The orchestration layer was successfully implemented for two different use cases and it proved its functionality and high reliability. Espeo Software not only provided great technical skills, but also was able to coordinate the work of several international partners in this long-running software development project. They managed the project very well, were responsive, and displayed a cooperative attitude to help other partners solve technical issues in other parts of the system.

BACKGROUND

OutSearching is one of the top SEM [search engine marketing] agencies in Europe. OutSearching acts as exclusive SEM agency for one of the top three affiliate networks in Europe – and we are preferred SEM agency for more than 10 top affiliate networks worldwide. I'm CEO and founder. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Link building services create ties to your website from other similar themed pages. Link building services garner votes from valuable websites related to your industry or topic. Now, when you have links to reputable and popular websites, search engines give you higher rankings. The more links a website receives, the higher the rank is. Each link also drives traffic to your website and as the visitors come from leading authority websites, it ensures greater sales conversions. To have better control on any affiliate links, we needed a dedicated app.

SOLUTION

Espeo create an app with easy interface where users just enter a checked link. The script needs to click this link every minute and record the tunnel to the destination page. Now, if the tunnel is the same link, it only needs to be logged once. However, any changes need to be logged in full so that we can be able to see any affiliate links. The tracking system that Espeo created gives us a clear view of link ties.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Espeo Software asked some great questions as we went through the process. It's clear they think about these projects on a level beyond what we saw with some of the other firms we tested out. From start to finish, everything from communication to quality to levels of feedback was flawless. Espeo is more like a business partner. Other companies are only interested in delivering what's on the contract and they want to get it done so they can move onto the next contract. Espeo considers you a partner for the long term. As a customer, you can feel that they want to build something that helps us for a long time. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Project Manager of Reform Support Team at Ministry of Economy of Ukraine

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Development of affordable financing products to support SMEs in Ukraine.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• application development for factoring financing
• website modification
• admin panel development

SOLUTION

How did you find Espeo Software?

Other

Why did you select Espeo Software over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Other

What was the size of Espeo Software’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

1. Web-portal factoringua.online is developed further and supplemented by the application module
2. Developed the separate web tool (applications module) via factoringua.online

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Modified web-portal factoringua.online according to our requirements Developed the separate web tool (applications module) to manage applications for financing from business

What was your primary form of communication with Espeo Software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Yes, they delivered all of the items on time.

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

eSpeo has been involved in the project solely voluntarily. They developed an application module for our portal with no payments from our side.

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

na

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the COO of Lifestage, a startup in its upscaling phase. We enable the digital transformation of Swiss healthcare companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Espeo Software?

We needed to overhaul our company’s website.

What were your goals for this project?

To do a quick facelift of Lifestage’s website design.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We received a recommendation for them.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The began by doing requirements gathering and then worked on the design and development of our new website.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a UX expert, a project manager, and a developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our customer base has happily accepted the new design.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was managed correctly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was most impressed by their CEO.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Testing could have been better covered, for example trying out the design in different browsers.