Extrawest GmbH

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Project Manager of Metro Engines Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Deliver dynamic pricing and specialized management tools utilizing AI and real-time big data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Extrawest GmbH to accomplish?

• Platforms Integration
• User-Friendly Interface
• Project Development from Inception

SOLUTION

How did you find Extrawest GmbH?

Upwork

Why did you select Extrawest GmbH over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Extrawest GmbH were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Scope of Work: 

• Project Conceptualization and Planning: Extrawest GmbH was involved from the beginning of the project, aiding in the initial stages of project planning and conceptualization. 
• Platform Design and Development: The main task for Extrawest GmbH was to develop a system that could aggregate different delivery platforms into a single product. This involved system architecture planning, building the interface, coding, testing, and debugging the platform. 
• User Interface Design: To ensure easy adoption, Extrawest GmbH was tasked with creating a user-friendly interface that could be easily operated by various users in the restaurant industry. 
• Ongoing Support and Maintenance: Post-launch, Extrawest GmbH provided ongoing support and maintenance to ensure smooth operations, address any emerging issues, and help with necessary system updates. 

Key Deliverables: 

• Project Plan: A comprehensive plan detailing project goals, timelines, resources, and stages of development. 
• Aggregation System: A fully functional system that brings together multiple delivery platforms onto a single device, enhancing operational efficiency for restaurants. 
• User-Friendly Interface: An intuitive and easy-to-use interface for the aggregation system to ensure ease of use for all staff members. 
• Post-Launch Support: Regular system checks and updates, issue resolution, and user support for maintaining system performance and usability.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Efficiency Improvement: significant improvement in operational efficiency within restaurants as they could manage multiple delivery platforms from a single device, which saved time and reduced complexity. 
• Ongoing Support Efficiency: A low rate of system-related issues or complaints, coupled with quick resolution times from Extrawest GmbH's support team.

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

Extrawest's project management approach is notably systematic and efficient. They utilize a comprehensive set of project management tools that ensure clear and constant communication. Their team is disciplined about sticking to schedules and has demonstrated exceptional punctuality. All the deliverables were handed over within the promised timeline, showing their respect for deadlines and commitments. 

Responding to our needs, they showed an impressive level of flexibility and adaptability. Whenever we communicated new requirements or changes, their team responded quickly, accommodating our requests and offering insightful suggestions to improve the outcomes.

What was your primary form of communication with Extrawest GmbH?

Email or Messaging App

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

What we found most impressive about the Extrawest team is the human aspect that they bring to the table. Their team consists of genuinely remarkable personalities who not only excel in their technical expertise but also display exceptional interpersonal skills. They have the rare ability to simplify complex concepts and maintain transparency, making the communication process seamless, effortless, and truly enjoyable.

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

One possible area could be in providing more information on the technologies they are using for those who may be less familiar with them, i.e. pm and customers. This would enhance the understanding of the process and make the collaboration even more seamless.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Founder of an EV charging solutions company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide a turnkey solution for EV charging in multi-residential buildings ranging from financing and installation of the hardware to operation and maintenance of the equipment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Extrawest GmbH to accomplish?

• Develop a charge point management system for multi-residential business case

SOLUTION

How did you find Extrawest GmbH?

Other

Why did you select Extrawest GmbH over others?

Other

What was the size of Extrawest GmbH’s team?

6-10 Employees

What was your primary form of communication with Extrawest GmbH?

Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

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

We needed to develop the full documentation of the application that will correspond specifically to our business model for private EV charging in multi-residential buildings. The second step was the design of the web and mobile applications, reflecting the functional described in the documentation.

After the design was validated, we launched the development of the backend featuring the OCPP 1.6 protocol in order to communicate with charging stations directly. And shortly after the development of the front-end was started. Last deliverable was mobile application development for Android and iOS. Once the MVP was finalized I started testing process myself and the last stage of the project was fixing bugs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Figma for design
• Dev functions on web and mobile

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

The project was managed in an excellent way. All the deliverables were submitted on time and sometimes earlier. We follow up on tasks that remain to be done through a weekly on-line meetings. In case some issues needed to be addressed in between meetings we were in contact through an electronic chat.

The team was constantly available, responsive, and efficient in dealing with questions, requests, and issues.

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

The big part of the employees was based in Ukraine and despite constant bombing and electricity shortages, they delivered an excellent job in a timely manner.

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

I would suggest to review budget of the project more often. Our project was changing and requirements evolving throughout the development thus the final amount of money invested was way beyond the initial budget.

I would suggest for future projects to review the budget together with new functional requirements on a regular basis (for example quarterly) and provide to the client "Real against Estimates" report.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Mobility Pulse, a manufacturer and installer of electric chargers. Our core business is electric mobility, and we provide a platform that allows small installers and companies to connect the chargers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Extrawest GmbH?

We had always been working with a platform that is completely owned by a third party, and having a platform that was built 10 years ago was no longer feasible for us. It was too expensive and functionalities were changing without any reason or notice.

We saw the necessity for our own platform independent of other companies. That is why we hired Extrawest to develop an independent platform for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I showed Extrawest what we were currently using to give them an idea of what we didn’t want out of our new platform. We wrote up proposals, drafts, and mockups until we were happy with where we were standing in terms of the specifications and timelines.

They built everything from scratch and made it clean, basic, and understandable according to my requirements. The team also integrated functionalities that made logging in and navigating the platform simpler and easier.

Extrawest used Java, React, PHP, and a lot of web-based languages and servers. One other thing that we asked of them — and something that they were entirely new to — was integrating the OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol). This protocol made communication possible between the cloud platform and the charger.

We’re currently in the talks for developing an extension of the platform, and my goal is to have everything completely online for the public at the end of the year. 

What is the team composition?

There were six people working on the project. I talked to all of those people myself but most of the time, the liaison was the communication channel between me, the project manager, and the developers.

How did you come to work with Extrawest GmbH?

There were a lot of developers online who were capable of doing big projects but didn’t show interest in what I wanted to build, so I went to look for agencies with a specific background in electric mobility. I talked to all of the companies that I found and chose Extrawest because they seemed most open to our ideas.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent € 30,000 (approximately $35,000 USD). I’ve spent more than expected because I’ve kept adding things.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2020 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Right now, we’re testing with a couple of different chargers and we’ve only had positive feedback. I like Extrawest and am happy to continue our partnership for the long term. Working together with them is so easy because there was a good division of the workflow.

How did Extrawest GmbH perform from a project management standpoint?

We talk every week to check on Extrawest’s progress and see if we wanted something revised. The way the team works is incomparable to the many companies I’ve worked with. They’re open-minded and approachable.

We communicate via Google Meet and Google Chat. Everyone is always available and responds immediately. We have a one-hour video meeting every Friday as well. I developed a custom project management software for our business years ago, and we use this to track our tasks with Extrawest.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about Extrawest is their flexibility. Even if it's early in the morning, if a server is down, I can send the group a message and rely on them to fix it. It's amazing. They don’t even charge extra for it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish there was a way to really know upfront how much we’re going to spend on the entire development. They’ve always given me an estimation of how much they think it will cost and what additional charges we might incur, but it would be better if we take everything into account before going into development. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open and don’t hold back with Extrawest. They really appreciate your input and feedback, and it makes it easier for them to understand what you want.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an Acting CPO/CTO for early-stage startups, advising them on design, build and launch of validated products, and raising capital.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

For one project Extrawest were selected from a number of software development vendors to develop a single page application that integrated data from sensors and feedback forms, displaying analytics to enable a proactive patient management workflow.

SOLUTION

How did you select Extrawest GmbH and what were the deciding factors?

Extrawest really excelled on a range of factors from seamless and friendly client engagement, attention to detail on scoping and pricing the project requirements, ease of communication with account executives and engineers, and the ability to deep dive into problems.

We also considered their flexibility to work remotely incorporating timezones, strong developer base and experience in core technologies, and great enthusiasm to remain client centric in thinking through our lens to save time or solve problems in advance.

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

For one project we used ReactJS built on Java and MySQL for a single-page application, that was built with a microservices architecture on AWS.

This was created in a lean fashion so that we iterated on design with a UI designer in Figma. Our feedback was incorporated into the design, that was built into a web-app, database and back-end services. The iterative prototype was demonstrated on weekly and sprint showcase meetings.

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

Client Executive, Project Leader (Agile Lead), Senior Backend Java Engineer, Front End Engineer, Design Lead

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Extrawest demonstrated fast-turnaround of design assets, taking on documents, presentations, and feedback in meetings to build the application. Initially this was a clickable wireframe with high-definition screens and components.

The later iterations of the application prototype itself was demonstrated to stakeholders and users to get feedback. Mock data was created to enable demos that were pseudo realistic. Analytics and visual graphs were developed with care taken for edge cases, user interactions, time periods, averaging and uniform design across components.

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

We had daily standups, and ongoing design workshops. We used email, JIRA, Slack, and Zoom for collaboration.

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

As mentioned above, Extrawest was great at structuring the scope to provide clear guidance on pricing, diving into problems and always being extremely professional, diligent and cheerful to communicate with. The team was a pleasure to work with!

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

Extrawest worked hard to build a trusting relationship. If anything, for future I would suggest that Extrawest outline the impact of scope changes on project releases, timeframes and cost. This would ensure all parties are on the same page throughout the project rather than take on too many requirements from stakeholders.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and founder of the startup in Brazil. We developed retail-oriented solutions, but this project was carried out as a new segment within the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Extrawest GmbH?

We were looking for companies that had a history of development in this segment and Extrawest was one of the few that met all the criteria we wanted. We have jointly developed a platform for sports traders, with a focus on optimizing trades, live monitoring of games with statistics, and real profit opportunities using various sports data APIs.

What were your goals for this project?

We will launch our platform this second semester, focusing on bettors and professional traders primarily with a focus on football. We intend to add new sports over time.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

As I said, we looked very carefully for suppliers who had already had experiences with this segment and based on the projects developed by them, and we were sure that we had found the right team.

Describe the project in detail.

We have developed a platform with several features to help bettors and traders who are new or not to perform better in football games. We group different data sources to make different combinations, show the best opportunities in predictions, value bets, and a personalized dashboard with filters on the most important markets of our users.

What was the team composition?

The team had a project manager, tester, a full-stack developer for the backend, and a developer for the front-end.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our project, in addition to being very well developed, has always had the great help of professionals in improving something we thought or had not even seen. All improvements and modifications have always been very clear and objective.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

With constant communication and daily reports we always knew the progress of the project without any problems in understanding.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're professionals and always willing to get the best result with a lot of assertiveness and commitment. Today they take care of other projects with the same attention and focus on results. They are already part of our family.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not so far. I have no recommendations in this regard.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an affiliate marketing company which runs different web projects with a traffic volume of more than 1 mio. visits per month.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Extrawest GmbH?

We needed a mobile app for iOS and Android which connects to our wordpress backend and displays all the content in a nice fashion. Furthermore, we needed a login/voting/commenting/push-notification function as well as a functions for the endusers to submit their own content to our backend in a mobile friendly way.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted happy customers because we noticed an increased demand of a real app for iOS and Android and not just a webview app / mobile internet to interact with our project.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We researched online and had calls with about 10 different mobile app developement company. We decided to go with Extrawest because we felt that they really wanted to provide us the app we needed and heavily researched all the needed functionalities before providing an estimate. This way, we were pretty sure that Extrawest will be able to deliver exactly what we needed.

Describe the project in detail.

After accepting the estimate, we were assigned to a project manager, designer and developers which we already met in a call during discussing the estimate. For the first step, we got a design in figma.

We had a daily call and were able to see the progress and give feedback almost in real time in figma. Next step, the developement started with one backend developer (wordpress connection) and one frontend developer.

We again had daily calls and got almost daily a new apk file to see the progress and test the functions. We sent this daily version to our about 100 Android testers about weekly after the most important functions were ready. We did the same for the iOS version. For implementing firebase app analytics, we got assigned another developer for the task.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned to a project manager and had daily calls with the developers/designers working on our projects (during designing phase, only with the designer - during developement work, only with the developer).

The daily call was lead by the project manager. In the background, for some more complex developement issues, the flutter team lead (which we got to know during the estimation phase) was also helping the developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Within 3 days after releasing the app, we were top #3 trending app in PlayStore in Switzerland (our project is only made for swiss users). We have an average review of about 4.6/4.7 stars - and the bad reviews usually are about the content inside of the app which we provide and not Extrawest.

At the moment we have more than 5000 active app installs, which is a very good number for the small country Switzerland. Also, we saw an increase in registered users after releasing the app.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was very efficient. We had a daily meeting during the working-days (about 15 minutes, over Skype). If more communication was needed, we communicated over chat or made another meeting during the day.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Working together with Extrawest was very good. The strenght is that they delivered exactly what we needed and listened to our suggestions and made changes accordingly. We already hired them again for another project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were very happy with the result. We were a tad bit slower than estimated (reason being the home office because of the corona outbreak as well as some difficulties while implementing some plugin-functionality into the app) but the communication was great and we're very happy with the endresult.

Also, we communicated from the beginning to Extrawest, that we don't have an exact timeline for this project and no real deadline, so it was absolutely not a problem.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Syncedbeans, a fintech startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Extrawest GmbH?

On the two occasions I’ve worked with Extrawest GmbH, they’ve provided us with software development services. We have the architecture, high-level design, and user experience expertise, and they have supplemented with technical skills and their ability to build systems fast.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The developers were co-designing the system together with a system designer. As part of our implementation team, they worked with the software on the front- and backend.

Most of it was on Fireface, in addition to Google Cloud platform and Google functions, JavaScript, and those types of web technologies.

The platform connects customers and suppliers. It extracts customer invoices from the supplier’s accounting system and drives them directly into their customers. There’s no need to recapture the invoice. It’s a B2B platform used mostly by accountants in South Africa or directly by the business owners.

The user interface was built by them as well. They also created an additional module which we call the manufacturing module. It allows a business to plan some of the manufacturing tasks that they have.

They have also performed some testing, UX, and marketing services, but that’s more ad hoc work.

What is the team composition?

Along with a team of two developers, I dealt with an account manager. For most of the engagement, we had one of their developers for about a year and another developer for about nine months. In total, I was in contact with four or five people.

How did you come to work with Extrawest GmbH?

Our history goes back eight or nine years. With another company, I was using their software development services on quite a few projects. We had a larger team, and at one point, we had 12 people on board. I left that company five or six years ago, but their team still provides services to them.

They have a good knowledge of technology, and they care about what they do as well.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in July 2018, and we worked with them until January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our clients love it, and our organization itself focuses on a very small business segment. Because of COVID-19 and the whole economic situation in South Africa, we could have been a bit further.

The business took a knock a bit because of the whole situation. Otherwise, clients love what they produced. Accountants have told us it is the coolest piece of accounting software they’ve used.

Extrawest GmbH is situated in a small city in Ukraine, and that city produces about 200 to 300 excellent software engineers with great skills. They have a great work ethic. English can be a problem, but I also speak Russian. Typically, they have a lead that deals with the client who has a good level of English.

How did Extrawest GmbH perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, it was a cool engagement. The team offered additional project management services, but because I was very close to the work myself, I had chosen not to take it. The project manager that they suggested was competent, but I just didn’t have the need.

Like a large percentage of startups, we’re all about agile. We had a weekly scrum, and every couple of days, I would get a call from the account manager to check on issues or to see if he could help with anything. He also offered expertise from more senior members of their team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was mostly impressed with their technical skills and the level of expertise. For me, the biggest area has been their ability to ask questions. They’re also not scared to suggest things that we haven’t thought about, but are quicker and better.

The team explores and applies themselves. I’ve worked with quite a few outsourcing companies from other parts of the world. If I sent them a spec, and if something isn’t in the spec, they wouldn’t do it. Since today’s world is more dynamic, that doesn’t work. Changes need to happen fast.

They also have enough professional ethics to tell the customer their honest opinion if something is wrong or doesn’t look good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

For my dealings with them, I think it’s good. They’re a capable bunch of guys that can do both complex projects and smaller pieces of work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Build a relationship, but not just with the management team and account managers. Know the programmers that are physically doing the work on the ground. Know their strengths and weaknesses and think about the best way you could complement the team you have on the ground.

I haven’t worked in a completely outsourced environment. It’s always a collaboration between two parties. To collaborate effectively, the more you know the people you’re collaborating with, the better the outcome will be.

Invest your time into really understanding the guys on the ground, and understand their technology strengths, understand who you can use better for which task. It doesn’t really matter if you work with a local team or with an offshore team. The same kind of principles apply.

It depends on the type of development partner you’re looking for. If you are looking for someone who will not just sit and translate from the specs into Java or C++, someone who thinks about what needs to be done and isn’t scared to ask questions, they really apply themselves and try to make sense of the project and try to understand how technology will help.

They don’t just hit the keyboard. They genuinely care about the outcome of the project.