Exoft

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Managing Director of Architecture & Engineering of The Agora

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We offer HR, tech support, and accounting services to global media, publishing, and marketing companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Exoft to accomplish?

• Get qualified tech talent for several projects
• Modernize some of our solutions

SOLUTION

How did you find Exoft?

Referral

Why did you select Exoft over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Exoft were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Exoft integrated into our in-house teams on several projects. We work with 8 people in total (backend and frontend developers, QAs). With their help, we redeveloped our legacy solution, migrated to the latest .NET versions, and moved from monolith to microservices. They covered each deployed feature with tests. We also had them create a web portal from scratch. 

In time, we expanded our cooperation. Exoft now works with our other branch to monitor, support, and improve system and database performance.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Great work on system modernisation. We're nearing the first release in the next quarter. The updated solution preserves the familiar UX, so we expect our users to adapt to the new solution in no time. For now, the solution already has better performance, speed, scalability, and is fundamentally more secure. They fixed what was faulty and made improvements wherever they could. 

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

Project management and workload allocation are on our side. We follow typical Scrum flows (2-week sprints, backlog grooming, demos, and all). Exoft specialists participate in everything. They always speak up when they see things that could be done more efficiently or with greater value for users. The work is done on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Exoft?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Exoft really understands what we do, how we do it, and what we need. They adapt to our working hours, function as part of our team, and seem to truly care about the success of our projects. 

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

Everything is going well

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the technical director at Bo Edin AB, a company that develops hearing assistance products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Exoft?

We had an old app that we wanted to upgrade.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Exoft has revamped our app. The team has started from scratch and created an app according to the requirements we’ve given them. The end product is supposed to do what the previous product did but better, with more options, features, and a more modern and professional look.

The team had already worked on the project, and they were in the middle of it. They would implement features, and we'd verify them. Exoft is currently in maintenance mode. We’ll host the app on our server, but they’ll still run maintenance to take care of bugs, features, and new implementations. We're currently performing beta testing on the solution Exoft has built.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with four teammates from Exoft, but now we’re only working with one. We've interacted with a frontend designer and a backend designer.

How did you come to work with Exoft?

I don’t know how we found Exoft. However, we chose them because the ease of working with their team has been a good experience, and they're knowledgeable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested just under $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Exoft in January 2024, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve recently demoed the app at a show, and we’ve received good and positive feedback about it. Internally, we’ve had three people testing it to debug it, and they like it much better. Overall, Exoft's work has met our expectations.

How did Exoft perform from a project management standpoint?

Exoft has met deadlines. We don’t have a budget for this project, so I can’t say they’ve kept it or broken it. We use Azure DevOps for project management and Microsoft Teams for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Exoft is very easy to work with. They’re knowledgeable, and it doesn’t require a lot of energy to get them to understand what we want. I’m impressed that Exoft keeps their sanity and that they’ve been able to do this with the disjointed information we've given them. They’re very adaptable.
Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't have anything off the top of my head.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Supply a better requirements spec and project brief than we have. I think Exoft would excel with that information.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of a monetization company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

My company offers a monetization system for mobile gaming that lets customers trade their used goods for rewards and discounts. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Exoft to accomplish?

• We needed an experienced backend developer to help with our project

SOLUTION

How did you find Exoft?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Exoft over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Exoft were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We initially engaged Exoft for backend development services. They helped us refactor our original codebase, develop new features, and add many API integrations. Later on, we cooperated with their QA engineer who covered manual and automation testing. They also helped us with database development and management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Exoft helped us expand our original MVP into a highly functional solution and added most of the core features and integrations. They also improved the performance and speed of our solution. We appreciate that they created detailed project documentation from scratch, which now serves as our knowledge base.

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

We prepared a list of tasks for them beforehand and then tracked them in Jira. They followed all our requirements and finished the work on time. If there were any blockers, they let us know about them openly. The level of communication was very high.

What was your primary form of communication with Exoft?

Email or Messaging App

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

I appreciated their attention to detail and strong sense of accountability. They really understood our needs and project requirements, followed through with great work, and even suggested a few improvements along the way.

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

No particular thing comes to mind

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product owner at a SaaS company offering software for personal data compliance. I've been working for my company for three years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Exoft?

The decision to hire Exoft was made prior to my starting in the company. Originally, my company required IT staff augmentation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Since I joined the company, we've expanded our collaboration with Exoft. Currently, they provide us with three developers, two of whom work full-time and one of whom works part-time 20 hours a week. At one point, there were four Microsoft developers from Exoft working for us.

Because our engagement with Exoft started before my time, I wasn't involved in the initial recruitment process. However, we recently had some team changes, for which we requested Exoft find a special type of candidate with a special skill set.

To solve this challenge, Exoft has recruited someone to join their own company who now works for us as a full-time developer. Basically, they've added new team members to their department based on our requirements.

What is the team composition?

In addition to the three developers we work with, we also interact with Exoft's management, who are in charge of holiday planning and invoicing.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay an hourly rate for each developer, which depends on their profile and seniority level. Overall, we've spent between $24,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I joined my company in September 2021, while Exoft had been recently onboarded. Our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Exoft's developers have met our expectations. We've also worked with other outsourcing partners in the same period, and Exoft's resources have always delivered to high standards, so they've become our preferred partners. They've been key actors in this collaboration.

How did Exoft perform from a project management standpoint?

We haven't requested project management services from Exoft; we do that in-house. That said, whenever we look for a new candidate from them, they've understood our requirements and successfully recruited new team members, respecting the profile requirements and needed skill sets.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Exoft has good-performing developers on their team. Their resources have a high level of motivation and curiosity, so they're eager to understand our product, business challenges, and technical needs. Overall, they've been meeting our expectations and adding extra value to the project due to their high motivation and engagement,

Are there any areas they could improve?

As part of our collaboration, we have biweekly evaluations to identify areas for improvement. Exoft has responded to our feedback very well, so they've complied with every area of improvement we've identified in terms of processes and communications.

Therefore, there are no improvements that need to be made. We've caught these opportunities through the process and resolved them as we go.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Have clear communication about your needs and expectations. Additionally, understand that outsourcing talent requires expert attention, planning, and management considerations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a consulting and reliability engineer for Artificial Lift Solutions. We specialize in artificial lift solutions for the oil and gas industry, specifically electrical submersible pumps (ESP) in artificial lifts to bring the oil to the surface.

We provide complete life cycle support for operators in design operation, troubleshooting, failure analysis, and design.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Exoft?

We needed help with custom software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve spent some time with Exoft developing software for failure analysis. The project is a program to store and compile a database of all the failure analyses we do for our customers. We’re currently doing 40–60 reports monthly between 3–5 active consultants operating in the US.

The program is just engineering and failure data associated with our failure analyses on failed equipment. I’m unfamiliar with the technologies used because my background is in chemical engineering.

What is the team composition?

We generally work with Alex (Chief Business Development Officer) and Taras (CTO) when we start a project. Once we go through what we require for the program, they give us a call, and we work with them. We’ve been fortunate enough to have a similar team in both phases; we usually have two programmers, one in the frontend and one in the backend, and a manager.

Since they’re a decent-sized organization, they pull other resources when required. For example, they get a specific person to launch the code for web services when we need to launch.

How did you come to work with Exoft?

A friend of our company’s owner referred them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them around June 2023, and our partnership is ongoing. We work with Exoft in phases, each lasting 3–4 months. We did the fifth phase last year, and the sixth phase lasted from December 2023–May 2024.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We mainly use the tool internally. As we continue to add items to the software, the usability improves for the consultants that use it daily. Overall, we’re not a big enough company to have statistics or metrics to show, but Exoft has continuously developed the software, and our consultants are pretty happy with it.

How did Exoft perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve learned that software development always involves some time and budget overruns. However, it’s been between 10%–20%, so it’s been manageable.

When we run a project, we meet 1–2 times a week to give updates or discuss it. We communicate through emails and Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Compared to other programmers we’ve used, Exoft is very streamlined. They usually have smaller teams to do the same amount of work. They cost more than other options, but they work efficiently and well. 

The team also responds well and is good at discussing new ideas; they always come back with solutions or options. Overall, everyone on the team is excellent; they’re very pleasant to work with. We’ve worked with other developers in Singapore, and our past experiences weren’t as good as with Exoft.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As we progress in our working relationship, we improve how we communicate with each other and manage the work. As they complete the tasks, my team has to go in and check the changes they’ve made are correct, so it’s a constant back-and-forth of development and testing as we go through those phases.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I definitely recommend giving Exoft a try. They’re far better than other programmers we’ve used in the past.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and co-founder of Lera Health, a consumer-facing wellness and health optimization service based in the US aimed at the female market between 35 and 55. We're a very early-stage startup, so we're still building our initial go-to-market product. We plan to launch this product in September 2024.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Exoft?

We were building a consumer-facing mobile app, which had to be done to a pretty high standard of quality and UX design, so we asked Exoft for help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Exoft provides us with two developers: a frontend web developer and a mobile app developer. Our main product will be an iOS mobile app on which the mobile app developer is working. Recently, we asked Exoft for another mobile app developer, who we'll be integrating into the team in a couple of weeks. Eventually, we'll also do an Android version.

On the other hand, the web developer is working on integrating multiple backend services, including cloud services and third-party APIs. He's also working on a database and building some internal tooling for a web app. This app will be for our own use to manage our customers' records.

What is the team composition?

We currently have two developers from Exoft working on the project.

How did you come to work with Exoft?

A former colleague recommended them to me. He had worked with Exoft for a couple of years, so when I told him that I needed developers, he recommended them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2023, and our engagement is still active. We're actually hiring more developers from Exoft.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure Exoft's success in a number of ways. One is how quickly they can get us quality candidates, which has been very good. Obviously, we haven't onboarded a lot of developers from them, so we have a very small sample size. Still, Exoft has quickly provided us with CVs to review and set up interviews so that we can onboard developers quickly.

Our second success metric is the cost. Exoft is very cost-effective, and the quality of resources they've given us is very good. Moreover, Exoft offers a very professional service. We work directly with the developers as if they were our employees, which is very good because they work solely on our project. We don't interact much with Exoft, but they take care of everything else except the actual work of the developers.

We did use a designer for Exoft once. Although she was a little inexperienced, she did what we asked her to do.

How did Exoft perform from a project management standpoint?

Given that we manage our projects ourselves, we don't lean on Exoft for project management. We assign work directly to the developers.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I would like to give a shout-out to Vasyl (React Developer). He has been our main developer since last year. He's young and has a couple of years of experience, but he's just fantastic. Vasyl is always willing to go the extra mile, even working on weekends without being asked. He's also fantastic to deal with, as he's the kind of person who figures out anything we ask him to do.

In all fairness, the rest of Exoft's team is also very good. For example, Alex (Chief Business Development Officer) and Olena (Account Manager) are very good to deal with, and both developers have been excellent so far.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really like that Exoft is in Europe because it reduces the time difference. Dealing with more distant service providers can be very difficult due to the time zone difference. Moreover, Exoft is very straightforward and very quick. If we ask them a question, they give us an answer quickly, and if we ask them for a new candidate, they come back with options very quickly as well. Basically, they're on top of everything.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything Exoft could improve on; they've been very good to deal with. We did have a hiccup with the billing once because they had changed their bank. Still, that wasn't even worth complaining about.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Understand what you're getting into and be clear about your expectations. Know exactly what you want, who you're looking for, and what skills you need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a full stack developer at a biopharmaceutical company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Exoft?

We didn’t have enough in-house resources for the size of our project, so we hired Exoft to help us. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Exoft worked with us on developing a software app for internal use. We used a hybrid model of collaboration, where our staff and their resources worked together as a single team on different parts of the app. We gave them some architectural documents, a summary of the project’s scope, and a list of the technologies that we needed.

To align the software app to the other platforms we’d developed and the expertise of our internal staff, we used JavaScript and TypeScript as key technologies. We also used the Angular framework and focused on the app’s frontend. 

What is the team composition?

We were initially in contact with their CEO, and then they assigned a scrum master to us at the start of the project. One person was in charge of frontend development, another person had a consultant role, and two others provided support to our staff, which handled the app’s backend.

How did you come to work with Exoft?

We found Exoft online and read different reviews about them. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our investment was between $20,000–$25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement lasted from January–March 2024. We may engage with Exoft again in the future, but this part of the project is done. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Exoft’s work met our expectations and enabled us to complete the app — they did a great job of getting us there. 

How did Exoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They helped us complete the app by the deadline we set internally. Everything was also on budget, and there weren’t any unexpected costs. 

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Their frontend developer was experienced and focused. She was easy to work with and always let us know what she was doing. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Exoft was truly focused, and they understood our requirements perfectly. The communication was fluid since they had a good idea of what they needed to do. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust Exoft’s expertise, and involve them in the design process if possible. They can provide good ideas and expertise around this. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager in Australia for a software provider in the childcare space. We build business management software. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Exoft?

We wanted to improve our delivery velocity, so we needed Exoft’s assistance. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Exoft served as our external development team managed by our company. We gave them work as part of our team, and they undertook the tasks. Our in-house team took on projects and did discovery sessions. Then, we sliced the projects up into smaller pieces of work. We provided all the UI/UX designs they needed, and their team handled the development. Regarding deliverables, we were building a web app, and the Exoft team built features within it. 

What is the team composition?

We started working with two people from Exoft. Then, it expanded to five until we finished the project. 

How did you come to work with Exoft?

Our CTO found them in the US; I simply managed our day-to-day engagement. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $100,000–$150,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our contract lasted from May 2022–January 2023. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The overall quality of Exoft’s work was great. There was a higher-than-average amount of rework needed compared to our in-house team, but that could be attributed to the fact that they were outside our time zone. We communicated once per day to sort that out. If there were unanswered questions, it wasn’t difficult for them to find the necessary information, so I didn’t see that as a downside. Overall, they accomplished work truly quickly. 

How did Exoft perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t work on deadlines; we’d pick a piece of work, and they delivered it in small slices of functionality. Those were delivered quickly, and the overall features were delivered over a period of weeks or months.  

We typically communicated using Zoom and did daily stand-ups that would go on for about an hour. We used Azure DevOps to manage the work. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The overall quality of Exoft’s work was much better than our previous vendors. Taras (Full Stack Developer) was excellent, and we received a high standard of work. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. They met our needs, and the team was highly accommodating and diligent in their work. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Involve Exoft and help them understand the work you’re asking them to do. That way, they can answer their own questions, especially if you’re working at a different timezone. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a fintech company focused on the capital markets space. I am in the CTO of the company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Exoft to migrate an existing thick-client single tenant CRM platform to a browser-based multi-tenant SAAS offering.

SOLUTION

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

We selected Exoft after a process of due diligence that involved evaluating their approach to solve our business needs; their experience and knowledge of the technology stack that was going to be used in the project; and finally their enthusiasm, proactive approach and flexibility to work with us on our requirements.

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

I believe we have answered this in point 2 above.

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

1 PM 1 Team Lead 2 Senior Backend developers 2 Middle Backend developers 2 Senior Frontend developers 2 Middle Frontend developers 1 Senior DevOps engineer 1 Senior QA expert

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Exoft were able to successfully complete Phase 1 of the Project and following that there was incremental work handed over to them as part of the Phase 2 deliverables on the project.

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

Exoft worked very well with our internal team and worked on the timelines with total transparency and regular briefing at the senior leadership level when it came to project governance.

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

Exoft is passionate about what they do. When we bring ideas to them, they strive to make the product as good as possible.

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

In the initial stage, particularly in the design UI/UX phase there could be improvements on understanding the brief; however, overall the team has been superb in their engagement and professionalism through the project.