Magora

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a startup that provides technical solutions to the hospitality industry.

What is your position?

I am technical director of the company. There are eight people in the company. We aggregate data inside the food service vertical. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Magora Systems?

We have two direct developers and then for some of the work that we had, which was slightly larger than what we could handle in house, we were looking for an external contractor.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

It was for staff augmentation development services. We had them assign us a PHP developer and then a CSS [cascading sheets style] and hybrid CSS JavaScript developer. The actual tools that they were using were up to them in terms of the developing environment, but we controlled everything through agile methods.

We set up a two-week work period. We assigned issues to our own local developers and then created workflows for each of the developers and assigned issues directly. All of the work we were doing was reasonably straightforward and much of it was query on queries on PHP or to create widgets or similar things. 

We did have them do a number of integrations with some third-party software. They were a bunch of other APIs [application programming interfaces] that they connected through where they had to read the API documentation and follow the instructions. 

Nothing was particularly complicated. We outlined the issues and advanced after making sure that they were entirely comfortable with what they were doing. Whenever we were happy with their work, they would just repeat the process. 

Initially, we had them do a number of issues that were predominantly development of a larger module. Within that, they understood our system and knew it slightly better than our own developers did. After they had written a number of sizable issues, we did go back and have a number of iterations within that. I guess you could say that was ongoing support. It wasn't the type of thing that required special skill. Magora's work was just to save our own developers time.

How did you come to work with Magora Systems?

Through a number of different projects, I've come across customers through Elance. I had used another firm in Russia near where they are. Whenever I came to additional jobs that we were doing, we decided instead of going to the original firm, we'd put it out to the open market and see what bids we get. 

We initially selected one of the Indian contractors and, within 48 hours, we realized it was a terrible mistake because of the language issue. We went back to the Russian developer I was working with, but they didn't have the availability when we needed it. 

We came across Magora through Elance and appointed them for a contract for around –six to nine months and totaled $30,000. Magora was our third choice, but it turned out to be a lucky find. We tested them on a couple of issues up front to make sure they were good enough and understood the requirements clearly. Then, we just started assigning them more and more.

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

It's between $30,000 and $35,000 total. We have worked together for around a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work is ongoing and growing is size and cost.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I can't give you stats off the top of my head. I'd guess there's 10,000 lines of code. In terms of number of hours, I would guess it was around 1,000 hours. They're great, which is the reason I always go back to Magora Systems.

I think one thing we learned is providing the person that is writing up the issue for the developer to complete specs in such a way that's clear. There were one or two issues where one of our developers had written up an issue and put it across to them, and they had to come back a number of times to clarify just because of the language aspect of things. 

How did Magora Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

They are great at managing their group.

What distinguishes Magora Systems from other providers?

They're fairly generic capable developers. They do offer a product management service I understand, which can hand hold you through a particular project. We didn't need that. Their PHP developer was very strong for us. He was incredibly quick for the quality of work that he produced. I would say PHP and SQL [structured query language] are right up there for them much more so than any of the other contractors and considerably better than some of our local developers that we pay more for. I don't think they're spectacular on the front end, but for what we needed, they were perfect.

Is there anything Magora Systems could have improved or done differently?

Availability was one of the issues we had. They seemed to be busy at times so we had to be sure to give them sufficient notice as in when you needed the issues completed. They're probably slightly pricey compared to some of the other contractors on Elance. You get what you pay for. I think our rate was $30 or $31 an hour. 

Unlike many other teams, their communication is great. Whenever you have a question, you will have either your project manager or their relevant developer come back to you even outside of their business hours. 

They're happy to make sure that you're satisfied. I was pleasantly surprised about that. I haven't had that with contractors before. They've been slow to return if they've got other things on. They tend to jump where the money was.

In our case, whenever we had very sizable amounts of work, they were very responsive, and we'd expected that when we tapered off the number of work for a month or two, they wouldn't be quite so responsive. Even for very simple work, they were on it in no time at all.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

[We are] an advertising technology company primarily focused on the ad exchange business and content marketing. We build and maintain software that allows us to traffic ads across the Internet. We have relationship with SSPs [supply-side platforms] and DSPs [demand-side platforms] that have advertising and have inventory of where they want the advertising to run. We generate revenue by managing these platforms and earning advertising dollars for everything that runs through our platforms.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm a product manager. I'm working on the content marketing platform business. That's primarily focused on helping brands and advertisers create content that resonates with their audience and then promoting this content so that it gets maximum reach, engagement, viewability, and readability on the content so that the users get warm fuzzy feelings about the brands and consider our partners when purchasing decisions come up.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They ran the site, maintained it, updated code, and changed it to what we wanted it to be. They administer our servers that the site sits on. They do project management for the work we're doing. Magora does project management, technical development, keyway testing, and operations.

What was your process for selecting Magora Systems with which to work?

Our CTO had looked at a number of outsourced development companies. He looked at their site and some of the case studies. We talked to them and the price was right, capabilities to meet worked out. We liked the work that we saw them do on other projects. They had the Java skill set that we needed to do our work.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

It was from $50,000 to $200,000.

When was the work completed?

It's ongoing work. We're going to stabilize what we have, and then we're going to ask them to refine it and get it leaner. Our code has been old and antiquated in some ways. We've been working them for five months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any stats or metrics to track improvement from the project?

We've had some various spikes due to house ads that we run. They've helped us increase server and management of that stuff. We're happy with the support they gave us for that. Overall, the improvements that we've been doing with them is more like improvements to the workflow and process of how people use the site. That can't really be quantified. They have executed on the functionality that we wanted.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

I am satisfied with the results of their work. They've been very open and communicative as far as what it takes to get things done, why things may not work the way we want it to. 

Is there anything unique or special about Magora that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

They have good commitment. They've done work when we've had priority zero issues. They've been available via Skype, via text. They've been very communicative. That's very helpful for us. 

There have been times that they've taken a look at what we're doing, and they've come up with their own suggestions and improvements to help facilitate our goals. They'll share insights and you get the benefit of their experience.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

There have been hiccups and issues on certain things, but I think it's been more of a result of the fact that the old code that existed was written by a developer who is no longer available to us. So, we didn't have good documentation. There needed to be learning done by the tech team on code that was not documented. So, that presents certain challenges.

That's why we're going to have them update the code to something much better once we're in a stable place. When we were first starting the relationship, and we were going through the contract negotiation, they had some various concessions that they wanted.

They wanted some amount of money up front for work we were going to have them do later. They had been burned by people in the past so that made them leery. That process just took longer. Maybe that could be improved or they could have insurance behind them to help with that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

[Our product is] basically an app to help people find over-the-counter products based on their symptoms and age. I'm a pharmacist and I came up with the idea.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm the owner and founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Magora Systems?

I needed a mobile app developer to take my designs and create a functional product.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They're developing and writing the code, and then I do everything else. It's just for iOS now.

What was your process for selecting Magora Systems with which to work?

I went on oDesk.com, and I submitted the project about two years ago. I had a bunch of applicants. I saw that Magora's apps were better than other people that I chose as finalists.

They had less glitches. The apps that they developed looked nicer than others. They have good communication skills, and they speak English well. 

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

It was from $20,000 to $25,000.

When was the work completed?

The main project is done. If I have updates or upgrades, I'll go to them to fix it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

I didn't have any money left for marketing after I built the app. I did very minimal marketing. I was able to get more than 500 downloads. It came out in September 2014. I've only been able to get personal feedback, but nothing from strangers. They tell me what I could make better.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

I don't know about their graphics team because I created all the graphics myself. My mom looked into their code because she's a software engineer, and she said it looked very clean. She was happy with their skills as well. Their coding is very good. 

If you have a contract with them and they sign it, then they will be doing work according to the contract in a timely manner to make sure the product is done in time. If there is no contract, then it's open and, hopefully, you get it done whenever you need it to be done, but the project can take longer.

Is there anything unique or special about Magora Systems that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

I've only worked with them and not other teams, but their English is very well spoken. They're eager to finish a project according to time frames. They provide a reasonable quote. They're nice in general as people. 

What advice would you give to future clients of theirs?

I would recommend negotiating a contract before starting the project to ensure timely delivery and reasonable expectations.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

In the beginning, I had trouble getting a response. They didn't tell me if someone was on vacation or sick leave. They did improve drastically on that measure. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company produces technology conferences for developers.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Magora Systems?

They’ve developed two applications for us. One is a hackathon management tool. It enables us to manage the attendees and our sponsors of our hackathons online.

The second tool is an online platform for technology vendors to list their integrations and their consultants and cover new integrations to build out their integration networks.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They did the graphic design, the Web design, the front end and back-end, the database, and all maintenance so far.

What was your process for selecting Magora Systems with which to work?

I went on Elance. I did an RFP [request for proposal], and I chose them based on their responsiveness, their quoted budget, and their portfolio.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work hour figure?

It was about $70,000

When was the work completed?

It’s ongoing. We started with them probably 10 months ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

It’s not launched yet, so no metrics currently.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

I would say they are the best outsourced firm we’ve ever worked with. Their project management skills are great – very transparent and very responsive to communication about fixes being urgent. 
They’re way above average in setting the expectations of how long a big project will take. They have way above average Web design skills. They have their own in-house Web designer.

Is there anything unique or special about Magora Systems that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

They’re very accurate in their time estimations. Also, their Web design is much higher skilled than other teams abroad.

What advice would you give to future clients of theirs?

It’s useful to be semi-technical just because instead of them charging you for project management time. If you’re a project manager, it would end up making the project cheaper.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

I believe we were their first large project using Angular.js. I didn’t know it would be so experimental. I think it took a few more man weeks than they thought to implement it, but I’m happy with the results. Using experimental technologies is a good and a bad thing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a supply chain, logistics, and transport company. We streamline global specialist operations by offering tech-enabled logistics, storage, and support services, helping businesses manage transport, storage, and compliance efficiently.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Magora?

We needed help with a pricing engine for complex logistics.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Magora has designed and developed a pricing engine for us. The team has created wireframes and high-fidelity designs and built a database and algorithmic calculators.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from Magora.

How did you come to work with Magora?

We found Magora on Clutch. We chose them because they had high ratings, their pricing fit our budget, and they had the technical ability we needed.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Magora in October 2024, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Magora has built a reliable pricing engine integrated into our business workflows. The engine has 98% accuracy.

How did Magora perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate with Magora via virtual meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Magora is dedicated and technically good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Magora has been great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder & CEO of Incus

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Improve communication. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create a demo

SOLUTION

How did you find Magora?

Online Search

Why did you select Magora over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Magora were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Magora was hired to design and develop an MVP for my project. Their responsibilities included technical consultation and planning, frontend and backend development and compliance planning for GDPR. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Completion of Demo and successful integration of AI

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

Wonderfully. All of the team members were excellent and clear communicatiors. I found them to be  utter professionals -  consistently available to address any of my concerns.

What was your primary form of communication with Magora?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The outcome of the demo exceeded my expectations. I was also impressed with their attention to detail and their enthusiasm to bring my project to life.  

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of BodySync

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provides AI based healthcare

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create an AI based website that clinician can use

SOLUTION

How did you find Magora?

Online Search

Why did you select Magora over others?

• High ratings
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Magora were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The work involved working out how to ensure large language models are proviing information based on evidence based research based on clinician prompts, and then putting this into an easy to ready document for clinicians and patients 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Having an end product that we can actually use in a clinic setting 

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

Everyone from Magora has been great, especially Alex. Each stage has been delivered on time, costs have been transparent, great experience so far 

What was your primary form of communication with Magora?

Virtual Meeting

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

Alex is very responsive with communication which gives you confidence in them as a company 

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

none

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a director at Pilz

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide machinery safety solutions that include products, consultancy, training and engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• re-engineer an existing IOS app from internal use to external use
• Improve functionality and remove bugs from the existing IOS app
• Migrate the back end data store to another more resilient provider
• Re-design the associated website

SOLUTION

How did you find Magora?

Referral

Why did you select Magora over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Magora were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

1. Create a landing page with information about subscription
2. Rebuild an existing IOS iPad app
3. Build an SaaS architecture
4. Integration with one analytics third party tool
5. Integration with third party payment tool
6. Integration with one debugging/crashlytics third party tool

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Regular progress on the app development
• new feature functionality
• Web server live and updated
• New hosting provider engaged

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

Delivered on time, some delays due to third party issues.

Always responded on time and professionaly.

What was your primary form of communication with Magora?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their ability to understand our business requirements, and understand what we were trying to achieve.

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

No, everything went to plan.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Business consultant of a consulting company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Consultancy

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Develop a webapp

SOLUTION

How did you find Magora?

Online Search

Why did you select Magora over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Magora were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

They developed for us a webapp, with a full account system, database, and custom backend scripting

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app got developed

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

they delivered all items on time, communicated well, and set expectations appropriately at all stages

What was your primary form of communication with Magora?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their communication was very good.

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

None that come to mind!