Luxdone

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're a GPS fleet tracking software. Our software makes fleets greener, safer, and more productive. I'm part of the executive team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Luxdone?

We were looking for staff augmentation with knowledge on .NET ecosystem

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed several staff augmentation agencies. Luxdone stood out because of their knowledge of the field. After interviewing Luxdone we were confident their will find the right people.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The initial project we were looking to hire for was to help with our migration to the cloud. Main tasks were to take different parts of the monolithic system, split them into self functional entities/microservices and host them on AWS.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We try to keep the recruitment process quick and painless. Luxdone does the first filtering of candidates based on our requirement and needs. Part of this process, the candidates are asked to do a take home programming assignment. If the assignment is functional and fulfills our requirements, we will have an interview with the candidate. During the interview we evaluate both the technical knowledge of the candidate and his/hers interpersonal skills. We will hire base on both the assignment and the interview. Usually the whole process doesn't take more then one week.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The initial projects were completed and released. We have hired two software developers through Luxdone and both are working with us till today.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We always saw the developers hired through Luxdone as our regular employees. Being fully remote has it's disadvantages but we try to be as inclusive as possible. Slack and Teams meetings are good and daily used tools. Periodical visits to our Stockholm office makes the teams work better together.

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

They were quick in finding candidates.

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

They're attentive to our needs. No real complains.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of an early-stage startup developing a mental wellbeing app. We’re currently distributing it throughout Europe and North America.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Luxdone?

We were looking for remote mobile developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Luxdone developed our mobile app from scratch. It was based on our design, which we provided with the user research during the discovery phase. While the business strategy came from us, the team helped us with the product strategy. They acted as a CTO and set up the project scope with our designer and myself as project manager. Afterward, they made estimates for the work that needed to be done.

Over a seven-month period, Luxdone worked with us full-time to develop the MVP aggressively. The team was in charge of the architecture and tech stack, developing the app using React Native. The app is available on Android and iOS and is used to help users with their mental well-being. Since it deals with sensitive user data, the Luxdone team also provided data security services.

What is the team composition?

Luxdone provided us with a full-time, full stack developer and a project manager, who communicated with us and managed the development of features. We also worked with a scrum master, but only as needed.

How did you come to work with Luxdone?

They reached out to one of our investors through a cold email, and we were impressed with what they were offering. We also liked their three founders and that they were a small, family-owned business. In addition, they seemed experienced and genuine, so we decided to give it a shot.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost €25,000–€50,000 (approximately $30,000–$59,000) .

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Luxdone from March–September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Luxdone always made the deadlines, remaining collaborative and flexible in working with the precise schedule we had. In the end, the team delivered the high-quality code they promised with extreme speed. 

How did Luxdone perform from a project management standpoint?

We had excellent communication with the project manager, who was structured and kept us on top of things. To communicate, we invited them to our Slack channel. We also had weekly calls and the occasional email. The team took some shortcuts here and there, especially with the documentation, but overall, Luxdone built good-quality software.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with their professionalism and agility.

Are there any areas they could improve?

After the project was over, they didn’t give enough support to us. We would’ve appreciated it from a customer service standpoint if they provided some hands-on help. The app is now outdated due to major bugs and necessary fixes that Luxdone hasn’t been willing to support us with. Although I understand that they don’t want to do that for free, we were hoping they’d find some solution to help us in a critical phase. However, we’re hoping to continue our collaboration with Luxdone in the fall of 2021. Unfortunately, the developer who worked with us is also occupied with another project so we can’t hire him anytime soon.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They were a good development partner, but potential clients should know what they want to build and make sure they have enough cash to work with Luxdone in the long term.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Shiplink.se, a shipping company. We’re building a web service for small companies in Sweden for buying and selling freight within Sweden and around the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Luxdone?

We were trying to find a reliable partner that could help us find good developers to meet our needs for the platform we’re building. We needed a solution that could help us for a longer period of time and not just a few years.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They recruit and provide full-time development resources for us. They’re hired in Luxdone but we pay them a fixed fee for the resources that are working 100% for us. They do everything that we need on the development side. They do front- and backend development and all kinds of tasks that we give them. They’re very focused on improving things that can improve our Google ratings like SEO projects. It can be anything that we need.

What is the team composition?

We started with one resource and now there are three.

How did you come to work with Luxdone?

They were recommended by a friend in Sweden who had heard good things about them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2019 and it's ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

These developers do everything for us from small changes to big projects to improvements. It’s very difficult to find one answer on the impact of the engagement. From the beginning, they helped us look into what kind of knowledge our developers needed in order to give us what we want. From that, they recruited the right people and the project has been very successful since.

If we want them to focus on something else, we just give them that information and plan something else. They 100% do what we say. They’re very reliable. Luxdone is giving them a good platform for getting in contact with other developers and with the other people working at Luxdone on different projects. They create a good environment for the employees. They’re happy and feel appreciated.

How did Luxdone perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is very good. They help us in discussing different methods and different solutions with the developers and they help us with that. It’s a very good community for the developers to talk to other developers in order to discuss or improve their way of thinking or finding solutions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re reliable and it feels safe. It feels like they’ve cut off a difficult piece about hiring developers. They find the right resources for us and take care of them. They’re happy and feel appreciated. We get more back from the money than if we spend than if we hired someone in-house.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We pay the monthly fee for their developers. From the beginning, they didn’t charge us for finding the right person. In the future, they may charge more for their service because it’s really good. They work with the university and have really good contacts. I don’t have anything to complain about. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s always good to carefully look into what you need in order to work with them in the best possible way to find the right developers. It’s always good to listen to them on how they can help you. They have a lot of knowledge on how to develop and successfully run projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Karming AB, a Swedish loyalty service provider. We provide loyalty services for small and medium size businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Luxdone?

We needed help with development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re our development partner. They developed our loyalty service provider platform from the mockups we gave them. It’s a web-based app and a B2B service. If you’re a merchant, you sign up for the service and you use the service as a white label service. It’s a loyalty platform for your customers who are mostly consumers.

Luxdone has been the key to building the platform. We did the mockups and UX on our side. They automate all the decisions regarding the technical. Initially, we didn’t have that much competence and so we trusted them with that. They had images and business requirements to go by and they built upon that.

The WordPress webpage was done by other sources and we have the internet sign-up as part of the platform — it’s linked from the webpage. They used Java and it’s hosted on AWS. It’s a Springboard framework with Hibernate to MySQL. The frontend is built using React. 

Our strategy has changed a little bit during the course of the engagement. At first, it was a standalone service where our customers interacted through our UI. Now, we’ve developed an external API to have integrations to ECR cashier registers in the stores and also online. 

They can use the loyalty platform without interacting operationally with our UI. They just set up the loyalty program but then they can do the transactions and use the loyalty through the API. For the first time, we now have a totally different resource. We were nervous about changing resources but it was a really good experience. We haven’t tested it on the market since it was finished recently.

What is the team composition?

There were two people who worked with us.

How did you come to work with Luxdone?

I’d worked at a company prior that had been using Luxdone. We had the option to go with a Swedish-based company but it was too expensive. We explored the option to work with Luxdone and we’re happy that we did.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $180,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement ran from November 2017-September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had three months of tests and we have approximately 50 customers now. Before Christmas, we sold it and started dialogue with investors. After 2-3 months, they liked the idea and we have commitments for further investment once we have three partners onboarded with integration. 

They liked the scalability and the idea, so that’s helped us get interest and they want us to do the API. Also, from the business we came from, we already knew the industry so we now have three partners that have been doing the documentation for the API and preparing to do the integration. That’s the plan for this fall until the year ends. We’ve been affected with COVID-19 during the spring and it was a little postponed. 

How did Luxdone perform from a project management standpoint?

They improved upon our requirements. They understood the business side of it and not only developed what we specified. In some cases, our specifications were not correct in the long-term and they came with suggestions, modifications, and alternative approaches. I really appreciated that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was happy with their work and they were a true partner. They were transparent. When a misunderstanding occurred, we talked about it and solved it in a good manner. The best thing was their combination of technical competence and business understanding. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re not a large company. However, this means they have more of a personal touch.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open. It’s a business relationship and a professional relationship. Sometimes you withhold some fears or trying to keep a façade toward a partner but it’s beneficial to trust Luxdone. They are your partner and truly professional. The more transparent you are, the better the outcome will be.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Learnifier

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Learnifier is the leading learning platform in the Nordics

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Get access to competent engineering resources with a good mindset

SOLUTION

How did you find Luxdone?

• Referral

Why did you select Luxdone over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Luxdone were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We're using the people found by Luxdone to do development to further the capabilities of our cloud based product.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The people we used have delivered projects with high quality. They are also having the right values and are focused to do work that provide the most values.

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

They have been very good at delivering on time. Communication is very professional and they perform to the highest standards.

What was your primary form of communication with Luxdone?

• Email or Messaging App

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

Luxdone are very good at finding the combination of people with high competence but also have very good personality. The people we have used have been eager, curious and also had relaxed personalities. They communicate well and are working hard to understand what they should do to provide the most value.

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

Nope. I'm very happy with them!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

ES Kassasystem is a software development company focusing on a POS system for the swedish market, whereas I am the technical support- and development projects responsible.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a partner to "fill the gaps" where our own developers were not proficient. We needed to have a web-application built connected to our POS system and we needed it fairly quickly. Another key to our thought of a successfull application was a good, nice-looking modern design.

SOLUTION

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

Luxdone was chosen based on some of their other swedish clients whom were very happy with their work.

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

We needed a, what we called, waiter app for our restaurant POS-system. The point of this app was for the waiters to use their phones or tablets to accept orders from customers directly to the POS while standing at the customers table, instead of writing it down and going back to the physical POS.

We started by setting up a couple of meetings discussing how it should work practically, and in all honesty, without much more details from our side, Luxdone got to work. Luxdone delivered a "shell" solution very early in the process showing the main structure of the waiter app - and it was for sure good looking design-wise. The project kept going forward at a very steady pace and is today still an ongoing project with new functions being developed.

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

We had one full-time developer working for us, as well as his work being QA'd with the development departments teamleader.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We saw a general increase in sales with the solution, however due to Corona hitting 2020 (for when we were going to properly push out the app marketing wise) we didn't meet the expectations we were hoping for internally due to customers keeping all their costs down.

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

We had more or less daily communications with Luxdone's team and always discussing the ongoing development, new functionality etc. We used mostly Github as a way to communicate bugs, new functionality etc. When it came to voice communcation, we used Google Meet as a means.

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

Luxdone was available ALWAYS. If we had an issue in the evening - outside of working and paying hours - they were on the case right away. We didn't have to wait more than a couple of minutes, and whatever issue it was, it was solved and published right away. They are very accomodating with all of our thoughts and ideas.

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

In all honesty, I can't think of anything at this moment - not even when going back to my notes. We were genuinely happy with all the work performed and as mentioned, we still work with the today on more projects and will keep them as our partner as long as possible and as long as the quality delivered is the same as it's been.