Josh Software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of Quirklabs LLP. We are headquartered in Pune, India since 2019.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our company's mobile app - Flip - was developed by Josh in 2019 as an MVP, and then we upgraded the feature set and UI in 2020. Further, Josh also developed the web version of Flip in mid-2020 to make it a full-scale product.

What were your goals for this project?

Flip pilot version was launched in 2019 to test acceptance and easy of use among children age 6-14 years. The full version in 2020 was launched as a digital learning platform to be used by schools and institutions online education. The goal was to gather 5000 users by 2020, and 50000 users by 2023.

SOLUTION

How did you select Josh Software?

We were looking for a software vendor in 2019, when my co-founder's college friend (Jaidev Karanth) recommended Josh, headed by Gautam Rege who was friends with Jaidev. We interviewed Josh along with 3 other companies, and eventually finalised with them based on their track record and talented team.

Describe the project in detail.

Our flagship product - Flip - has 2 capabilities, crowd-sourced book sharing and digital education platform. It is completely cloud-based with the back-end in RoR and front end in Dart/Flutter. While we started in 2019, the build of the development happened in 2020.

What was the team composition?

Initially we were assigned a 6-person team:

• 1 project manager (Abhijeet)
• 2 back-end developer (Snehal, Vaibhav)
• 1 front-end developer (Abhijit)
• 1 tester (Snehal), and a senior manager overseeing the project (Sameer)

Note that there were 2 different Abhijits and 2 different Snehals. Later, Dipti took over the project manager role, Vishwajeet and Prashant took over back-end. Sameer has played the lead from the beginning to date, which has proved to be helpful.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

First build was completed in 3 months, which allowed us to launch the pilot quickly. App was very stable and with very few bugs.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I'd like to believe that I enjoyed a good rapport with both the project managers. I always gave a product backlog, it was discussed in detail, and then work started. This proved to be effective.

There were occasional arguments, but generally solved peacefully. When required, issues were escalated to Sameer, and eventually resolved.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Turn around time for high-severity incidents is very good, showing commitment to the project and instills confidence. Every single time, a workable solution was found and implemented. The management is highly qualified and committed to the project in terms of development, maintenance, and strategy.

Are there any areas for improvement?

A definite area of improvement is testing - better testing will definitely enhance quality of deliverable.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Niwant Andh Mukta Vikasalay is a non profit, that works with visually impaired students pursuing higher education in India. We work on the holistic development of VI students, giving them help with regards to; educational, personality development skills, access to great quality tech as well as monetary help from 11th std till they get jobs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Josh Software, to create a revolutionary accessible Typing Tutor named SWALEKHAN, for the Visually Challenged students in India. We want to help create a world, where VI students in India can take their exams independently without the need of a scribe. The only way to do this, was to empower them to type on their own, in the vernacular language of their state. For eg. in Maharashtra there are 40 blind schools, and all of them are Marathi Medium.

Hence typing in Devnagri, the script for Marathi Language became imperative. Josh understood the complexities of creating such an app, which would be used entirely by the visually impaired, as well as a backend CMS which would also be used by the visually impaired, and successfully created Swalekhan for us.

SOLUTION

How did you select Josh Software and what were the deciding factors?

We were looking for firms that understood the importance of the work we were doing, and the revolution that this application would create. There was no such application in the India available for visually impaired students.

Josh not only understood the gravity of the work we were doing, but also learnt accessible technology in detail. They also quoted an amount that was affordable to us as a non profit.

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

Key deliverables were to:

• Create a self learning app with accessible lessons and games, for visually impaired students in schools while over coming challenges such as limited internet connectivity, lack of mobile usage knowledge, and typing via a physical keyboard attached to the phone:
• Add multiple languages to the app, as the first roll out in Maharashtra was successful, and now the same app needs to be rolled out across India for other vernacular languages

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

Chandrashekhar Sahu works with us on a regular basis from the beginning of the project led by Sachin Shintre initially. Gautam Rege, who is also a well wisher and supporter of our cause from our initial years of inception, has also been involved with key decisions and timelines.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Great work on this front till now. Most timelines are met.

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

We use google sheets with them, as from our end we have many visually impaired individuals, helping create content and test the app. But internally I am aware that they are highly organised.

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

Their empathetic approach towards the world of the visually impaired. Chandrashekhar Sahu, barring the one time he felt a bit hassled, has been most patient with us and our requirements.

We were definitely not an easy bunch to work with, and they accommodate almost all our requests. They have gone into deep understanding of accessibility protocols. They hired a visually impaired individual to further enhance the experience and speed of execution for us.

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

Not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of an IT security company. We use Zero Trust Access to provide secure remote access solutions for enterprises.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Josh Software?

We first hired them to help us build our initial product. As time went by, we needed them to be a core part of our engineering resources for our SaaS development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Josh Software is mainly in charge of our SaaS offering. Their resources do a lot of backend development on our API server and the identity authentication services that we offer. Their team entirely uses Go Programming Language by Google for this development project.

So far, they’ve developed our APIs for both administrators and users. They use OpenID Connect and SAML protocols to work on authentication, delegation, and federation.

What is the team composition?

Currently, we work with a manager who leads the team and four additional developers.

How did you come to work with Josh Software?

We’ve connected with them because we’ve discovered that Josh (Founder) and some of the key resources we’ve hired are experts on Go and active members of the Go community in India. They’ve turned out to be great partners for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in June 2017 and our collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our metrics for the success of this project center on our standard engineering courses, in terms of quality and feature velocity. We measure how Josh Software handles bug issues and delivers features — and they’ve been highly productive. We’ve been improving over time because of their tremendous focus on quality.

How did Josh Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly planning meetings with the manager to figure out all the work that we have to do for the week. He delegates tasks accurately among his team members. He understands their capacity, and that transparency ensures that they can deliver the features we need.

They also provide daily updates where we are presented with the current status of every engineering ethic being pursued by their team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One is Josh Software’s dedication. They really feel like a part of our team and care about the product of their work as a whole, not just as one component.

The second thing we like is their constant culture of improving and learning. They’ve brought innovations into our coding style that have permeated throughout the rest of our company. They're always bringing novel ideas for improvement, and these work out well for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not at this time. Compared to a few years ago, they have shown a rise in their level of maturity as a team, and I’m super happy with that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Josh Software is a very honest team that’ll tell you right away what they’re good at and what they’re not good at — just trust them on that. In times where an area may not be their great deal of strength, they will be very willing to refer you to other companies that can help you with those.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO at Gregg & Valby, LLP headquartered in Houston Texas. The firm has approximately 100 employees serving the financial and mortgage lending industries for more than forty years providing document preparation, legal support, and nationwide regulatory compliance

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We partnered with Josh Software to augment our in-house software development staff to be to quickly meet the technological changes in the industry as well as provide technology solutions to best serve the needs of our clients.

What were your goals for this project?

We want to see a seamless integration across in-house and outsource team members that provide the same quality and productivity of in-house staff at a cost-saving that outsourcing provides.

SOLUTION

How did you select Josh Software?

We have worked with several outsourcing vendors so we knew the skill level, support structure, and price levels we were looking for. Josh Software immediately stood out as very knowledgeable and skilled in the technologies we were looking for and the ability to apply those skills at a competitive price.

Describe the project in detail.

Given this is a staff augmentation arrangement, the projects would include any requests made of the software development staff. The challenge would be if they can understand the industry, company processes, and the operation and integration of existing systems and be able to build robust and reliable solutions.

What was the team composition?

We started with a senior developer that could provide strong insight and design decisions, robust code implementation as well as basic project management, and a mid-level developer that could also provide robust code implementation necessary to progress quickly. It was reassuring that a dedicated project manager, as well as QA staff, were readily available if needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results have been fantastic. We had a large project that was in trouble and the Josh Sofware team has been able to assess the issues, come up with a plan to rebuild or reuse components to provide the best outcome. The system is going into production with a vastly improved layout, function, and overall user experience.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The synergy between teams has been excellent. The flow of ideas and solutions has been great. We have not experienced any major conflicts.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Many times working with vendors and even in-house staff can be slow and frustrating, and it feels like you are dragging them along because you have to repeat things, and it hard to communicate. Josh Software has been just the opposite, it is so refreshing to have someone the can run right along with you, in-tune and in-step with what you are trying to accomplish. I can say, I trust these guys.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I really don't see any area to call out for improvement. My expectations have been exceeded in just about every area.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and director of a digital health device startup. We build medical devices and companion software applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Josh Software?

We contacted them to develop the app element of our software program.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The program collects patient symptoms. There is a mobile application for patients and a physician-facing interface available to medical providers as a web app. They built the backbone of the app, including all of the functionality, security features, and interface. Their team developed the mobile app for iOS and Android. They integrated the design elements provided to them by our designer. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of 3–4 people primarily. We have a consistent point of contact, but there are rotate through as needed. 

How did you come to work with Josh Software?

They were referred to me by a mutual friend. I talked to the CEO of Josh Software, and we hit it off. I felt like they would be able to prioritize our project and give us the attention we need, even though we’re a small startup. 

How much have you invested in them?

We spent about $125,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They came up with some creative ways to capture our design ideas. They worked with us to create a user-friendly app accessible to people who might not be technologically savvy. Josh Software was also receptive to feedback that we gathered on beta versions of the app. 

How did Josh Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve been quite demanding as a client. However, they’ve been attentive to our changes. They do a great job reconciling our priorities with our budget, timeline, and goals. We have an excellent working relationship.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re cost-effective. That is one of the reasons we initially chose them. We’ve also really enjoyed working with them. We have a nice cadence of calls, and they provide high-quality service. They treat us like we are their only customer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. The project’s cost increased slightly from when we started working with them, but we changed the scope of work. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Communicate with them regularly, and don’t be afraid to collaborate with them and challenge them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a SaaS software company. We make software for manufacturing and supply chain management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Josh Software built version 1.0 of the 1factory system and were instrumental in getting us off the ground. They supported us through the first four years of our startup journey, and were an incredible partner.

SOLUTION

How did you select Josh Software and what were the deciding factors?

We reviewed nearly 20 individuals and contract software development companies. We were looking for a strong technology team with minimal overhead - we did not want the overhead costs of multiple layers of management. We found the best combination in Josh Software.

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

The project was very challenging. Josh built for us a Ruby on Rails web application that we deployed to nearly 30 industrial customers over the 4 year period.

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

Two engineers from Josh and a team-lead worked on our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project allowed us to get to market with our prototype product within a very tight budget. It helped us get the company established and allowed us to scale from there.

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

We held two calls per week with the Josh team. Each call focused on a particular feature set. We'd review the proposed functionality, work-flow, and user interface. Then our User Interface design engineer built prototypes of the interfaces and delivered those to Josh. Josh would integrate the UI into the app and deliver a working feature set.

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

We appreciated the Josh team's willingness to learn about an industry they had no experience in. We also appreciated their willingness to accept feedback both on product and process and make the required changes.

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

The organization was constantly learning and improving over the four years we worked together.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior developer of a proprietary trading firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Josh Software?

We had an idea for a system to help us better manage our internal development cycle. They helped us stand up a version of our idea that we’ve continued developing since then.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the time, we didn’t have the tools or resources to continue our internal development cycle. We leveraged them to bring early expertise to the process of solving our software problem.

It was a fixed-during project. They were responsible for jumpstarting the product, creating a usable solution, and handing it off to us for continued development.  

What is the team composition?

I interfaced directly with a manager and two developers.

How did you come to work with Josh Software?

We were referred to them by a trusted friend.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September–December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They left us with a usable tool with great code. That allowed our internal team to further extend the platform, continuing to develop it further. 

As developers, we expect a lot of quality from code. We were pleased with its functionality and quality. It’s been easy to transition and extend their code with our own internal team because of the quality they provided.    

How did Josh Software perform from a project management standpoint?

The requirements, deadlines, and progress were always clearly communicated. At the start of the engagement, I sent them requirements, and they returned with a clear description of the project plan.

As they navigated through various iterations of the product, I was able to provide feedback. They were very receptive to changes and quick to adjust. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Communication was very effective through their manager as each sprint was completed. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. We were very satisfied with the end product and source code.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be available to communicate with them. They were very effective at communicating, so you should use that to its fullest extent.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a professor of pediatric nursing at a research-intensive university with an associated academic medical center.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Josh Software?

We were doing a research project in the intensive care nursery setting with parents of preterm babies. As part of the research project, we wanted to develop an app to support the parents on their journey through their babies' illness. We hired Josh Software to code and develop the prototype of the app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Josh Software created a web-based app and started from scratch. The app had a lot of interactivity with the user and presented data back to the user. It also had to have a lot of security features on it to protect the health information that was being including.

The app had to meet HIPAA and other hospital security requirements. We did a lot of user testing, so, as users provided feedback, Josh Software developed new features for us. They also prepared data reports and did maintenance after the development was completed.

What is the team composition?

We worked primarily with 3–4 teammates.

How did you come to work with Josh Software?

One of our project partners had worked with them and had a good experience, so they recommended Josh Software.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from about April 2016–December 2020. The first two years were development and user testing, and in the last two years, we deployed it in the clinical trial.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work was really good. They made it easy for us as a non-technical client to work with them and still get the job done.

How did Josh Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. We appreciated the continuity and consistency of the team over the course of the years. Josh Software used project management software, and we also had regular calls where we set targets.

They tracked everything in the software and reported back when we needed to adjust the timing or when we were delayed in getting some things to them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their can-do attitude and willingness to go the extra mile to deliver were impressive. I suspect that going into this, the team didn’t realize how complex the build would end up being, yet they never backed away.

It seemed like they also connected with our health mission and were willing to go the extra mile because they felt it was an important service in terms of helping families with critically ill children. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend that you work with the contacts we worked with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a tourism software company. Our organization provides B2B software for the tourism industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Josh Software?

We want a team that could build the initial stages of our core application. The primary goal of what we hired them to build was a contracting tool that would help two parties create a contract.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Josh Software handled all our engineering since the start of our organization. They initially built the entire system for our contracting tool and networking platform from scratch. The software is a service cloud-based application. They used Ruby on Rails for the project.

The build was based on the design that we provided — it was a mixture of both wireframes and user requirements.

Josh Software also provided web development which involved testing and engineering.

What is the team composition?

We generally had a team of 3–5 people at any given time. Then we also worked with the company directors to provide additional management assistance. We had a project manager, engineers, and testers during the project.

How did you come to work with Josh Software?

My business partner at that time researched companies that we could potentially use to build the application. We interviewed several different companies for the project and we ultimately decided to go with Josh Software.

How much have you invested with them?

It cost us several hundred thousand dollars.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Josh Software from January 2012–April 2016. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We ultimately saw that they were doing quality work. For us, we determined that the more specced-out the features were that we asked for, the better they were able to deliver on it. We could work with them to figure out the best ways to achieve it. However, we needed to scope it out clearly to have the best results.

How did Josh Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Josh Software was easy to work with in terms of communication. Project management was great. Their project manager was fantastic and was extremely responsive. The communication was excellent and they took feedback well. I wasn’t managing them day-to-day and I wasn’t handling the metrics on the project but I worked closely with Josh Software.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team was extremely flexible, good communicators, and were genuinely putting our business needs at the top of their lists.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The fundamental challenge that we had was the lack of oversight of the inner workings of what was being built. As a software company, at some point, we finished up working with Josh Software because we moved our engineering in-house. We couldn’t understand the underpinnings of what was built. As a startup, that limited our flexibility and was the biggest challenge.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Josh Software will do an excellent job for an established company on projects that have a clear vision of what they’re trying to achieve and how they want to achieve that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Technology Officer of Easy Pay Private Limited

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a fintech firm providing financial products in Payments , Lending and Digitalbanking to MSME segment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Develop high quality Web and Backend for Digital banking
• Fast delivery with lowest management overhead

SOLUTION

How did you find Josh Software?

Online Search

Why did you select Josh Software over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location

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

2-5 Employees

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

1. Developing online Digital account opening journey
2. Integeration with Bank API for customer verification and setup
3. Set up of Audit trails for all the key operations

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

1. Timely release of App
2. No major issues after go live was reported.

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

1. All deliveries were given on time.
2. Code quality was excellent.

What was your primary form of communication with Josh Software?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting

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

1. Skill set of the folks is exceptional
2. They were very adaptive to changes in requirements
3. Understand the best design techniques for delivering highly robust and scalable product.

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

Notthing as such