MusicTech Lab

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of SolidStudio Software House, a software development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bravelab.io?

We needed outsourced development help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We are working with them delivering IT projects together, using their developers to build applications and to reach our business goals.

There are two projects, both of which are web applications. There’s a ticketing application written mainly in Python that they joined the existing team of in the second phase. They wrote the whole application: analyzing the requirements, building the APIs, adding requests, and delivering it to production. The second application is a backend application for data warehouse storage and is written in Node.js.

What is the team composition?

We’re using three of their developers and their senior developer is my main point of contact.

How much have you invested with them?

$150,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The first project was handled entirely by them and we’re very happy with the work. It’s live and being used by our client. The user feedback is very good, and the client is very satisfied with the work.

For the second project, the developer had started and met the initial requirements. He’s part of our team and we’re really happy with his seniority; we have confidence in his skills.

They’ve helped us in terms of profitability and efficiency as they can handle any the bugs and fixes on the fly. I’ve had no complaints.

How did Bravelab.io perform from a project management standpoint?

We do the project management on our side. They’re doing a very good job with handling the bugs and maintenance work. Cooperation with the developers is very good as they have very good communication skills, deliver on time, and bring value to meetings. We use email, Trello, Jira, and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m very happy with their ability to adjust to our needs. They scale up the team as needed and find the right talent when required.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust their developers with all the technical decisions that they make because they’re very senior.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am an IT manager at HelloPrint. We’re a European print producer. We sell t-shirts, mugs, posters, and other items using a special technological platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bravelab.io?

We needed more development capacity and knowledge. Bravelab.io had contractors that knowledge and was able to supply a developer to help with our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bravelab.io provided us a full-time remote developer from Poland supporting our in-house team in the Netherlands. They developed new pages and features, fixed bugs, and did other frontend work. The language they used was Vue.js. We work with scrum, so he would provide refinements and perspectives daily.

What is the team composition?

Mateusz (Frontend Developer, Bravelab.io) was our developer and main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Bravelab.io?

Initially, we were talking to a different company in Poland, but they weren’t able to provide the development capacity we needed. They recommended Bravelab.io as an alternative.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about €100,000 (approximately $110,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from January–August 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developer provided value, insight, and knowledge. He contributed to the team as we’d expect from any developer. All products were high-quality and delivered on time. We were very satisfied with his focus and dedication. One time, he even provided some updates while he was sick. It’s hard to provide a specific impact because it’s one developer working on one project in a much larger organization.

How did Bravelab.io perform from a project management standpoint?

He was a regular team member, so if there was something he couldn’t solve or questions he had, he communicated with our team. There are always some issues with remote work: time difference, language barriers, Internet connectivity, explaining things over chat rather than in-person. Occasionally, there were scheduling conflicts. If he had a meeting at Bravelab.io and we had a meeting, it wouldn’t work out. But that’s more of an organizational thing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bravelab.io’s developer cared about the project. Often, you will hire developers who will do the project and then just go home without caring, but he really cared about what we were doing. That’s something we want in our employees, and with a remote developer, that’s very important for us. The extended contract is an outgrowth of that dedication to quality work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think broadening knowledge for their staff always helps.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend fully vetting the people you’re hiring, as one would do with any remote developer.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're a Dutch-Polish software house with over 13 years of experience in IT development, support, and maintenance. We create extended IT systems of varying scope. My main duty is handling international IT projects for clients from all around the world (Ghana, Kenya, Netherlands, USA, Germany)

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Bravelab Software Development?

We engaged Bravelab to help us with frontend Angular development for a project.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main goal was to build an innovative business platform, which would be used to save, borrow and pay for income-generating activities allowing to increase food security and fight poverty in Kenya.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were working on a lot of projects and we needed to find a partner who could support us with the frontend development side of the project. We started to look for someone among our new potential partners and after an introduction call, we decided to choose Bravelab.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Bravelab's developer was responsible for participating in the current development process, implementing new functionalities. The developer was a part of our development team and was actively attending our Scrum meetings.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed of one frontend developer from Bravelab and one (up to three) backend .NET full-stack developers, IT project manager and software tester.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

This is another project which is close to our company’s mission and goals, expanding our services to an international market

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was based on Agile/Scrum. We organised daily meetings, sprint retrospectives and planning. It allowed us to stay on track with our deadlines and goals. We managed to finish the project on time and deliver new tested functionality in 2-week intervals.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Bravelab has delivered what they promised. The developer was collaborating closely with our team, so there were no communication problems. Every day developer showed professionalism and was always prepared to do her job.

We felt that our organizational culture is corresponding with Bravelab’s approach to building software - based on quality and smooth communication between everyone.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I know that Bravelab wants to introduce an innovative company culture based on Management 3.0 ideas. We are aware that every company has something to improve, but from our point of view, no issues were apparent and everything was OK.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of development of a tech startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bravelab?

Our company is currently growing and the biggest challenge we’re experiencing is hiring people on time. I joined the company around a-year-and-a-half ago and my team had about 13 people. We needed to develop an e-commerce platform for Indonesia during this growth period when we had just a few developers to support all the products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bravelab has worked with us as a remote part of the team, using an Agile Scrum methodology. They acted as full-stack developers, mainly using JavaScript, MySQL, Node.js on the backend, and React on the frontend.

What is the team composition?

We had two full-stack developers from Bravelab. Their founder was our main point of contact.  

What is the status of this engagement?

If I remember correctly, we hired them in June or July 2018 and the first phase of the project lasted until the end of the year. We’re looking to engage with Bravelab for our other projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Bravelab’s work has definitely helped increase our efficiency. We were able to get to market much quicker and with a better product. Their team was very helpful, especially since we didn’t have a strong frontend team back then that could work with React. We would’ve spent much more time getting to the point where Bravelab helped us get to. Additionally, they also suggested improvements for speeding up the app and making it work better overall.

How did Bravelab perform from a project management standpoint?

The only obstacle was the six-hour difference between us, but that couldn’t be helped. Aside from that, it was all good. We tracked their progress daily and used the same Jira board for the whole team. In terms of performance, there was no difference between Bravelab and our internal team.

Bravelab delivered everything we agreed on and we had effective communication with their management. They checked with us every two to three weeks to see if there were any problems or if there was anything they could improve. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We don’t have that much experience with contractors, but Bravelab was definitely reliable and proactive. We had a bad experience with a company from Bulgaria before, where the developer would become unavailable without notice. Bravelab is a huge improvement compared to that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything in mind that they could improve, to be honest.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of an eGroceries startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bravelab Software Development?

We needed a company to help us with our web app development needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed my web app and their efforts enabled us to launch a minimum viable product (MVP). In terms of coding languages, they used Python on the backend and React and CSS on the frontend.

What is the team composition?

There are 6-7 people on our team.

How did you come to work with Bravelab Software Development?

I connected with one of their senior coders during our vendor search. He communicated really well about what he and his team was able to deliver. We chose to work together from there.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the metrics we value is the number of hours used, versus the impact made. Compared to other companies, this ratio was much better for me. The Bravlab team is skilled and are able to deliver according to what we wanted.

How did Bravelab Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

I liked how they structured the project was and how the project management looked. They work in an agile methodology, which suited our needs. We used Jira and Kanban as project management tools, and we found its really easy to communicate with them.

For our purposes, we decided we were able to do without project management after a few months.  When we did have a project manager, I really liked their approach. They were transparent and it felt like we had a dedicated partner.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I can be a critical person. I really appreciate that they filled in certain gaps to put me at ease. For example, they made simple decisions that would improve the quality of the project even if it was costing some additional hours. They were proactive and I really appreciated it.

 They’re good at the architecture of complex systems. Now I feel way safer about the quality of the code and how new developers will be able to understand what’s been written going forward.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d have them improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former project and business development manager at Techcave.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bravelab Software House?

I managed a wayfinding solution for shopping malls. It showed you a path to a retailer in a large shopping environment using 42-inch touchscreens. We extended the ecosystem with a loyalty program that reached more clients and addressed retailers' needs. Rather than building it in-house, we outsourced it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The wayfinding product has a printer and barcode scanner to redeem retailer coupons. They've developed a software to handle those peripheral devices, a dashboard to display redeemed coupons, and the backend and UI of our loyalty program.

They've also built a sweepstakes. To comply with the law, you must meet certain criteria for random number generation. We’ve run several successful loyalty campaigns and given cars to customers. 

Using Drupal and PHP, they have built and maintained a monitoring tool that tests those environments. They provide 15 hours of support each month. They've also brought in C# and .NET developers, extending our digital signage tools through a C# solution rebuilt to fit our needs. 

What is the team composition?

There are no more than five people.

How did you come to work with Bravelab Software House?

Someone on our team had worked with the CEO and suggested we talk to him.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent less than $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2012 and the work is ongoing. It’s a long-term engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their skills are in line with our requirements. The program has received testimonials from the large shopping malls that use it.

A marketing agency arranged people at the wayfinding devices to create buzz and get shoppers to pick them up. Bravelab Software House cooperated with the marketing agency, their executives, and our directors. The relationship functioned well. The event was very successful and it was great for the shopping mall.

How did Bravelab Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

The experience has been good. They’re dependable and reliable, are always on time, and have no trouble extending the scope.

The CEO manages the company well. He’s on top of everything, acting as project manager and engaging deeply with clients to understand the scope. He tracks the work, guides his people, and directly provides employee reports and detailed statistics. Once the engagement ends, he reports on the number of hours spent on each task. He works hand-in-hand with us, liaising between us and his staff, which is unusual in IT.

They hold daily stand-ups and briefings. We communicate through phone, email, and in-person meetings. Whenever something needs immediate attention, we bring them in. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

It's impressive that they work night shifts. Even the CEO did night shifts at our office when we launched. That's unusual among businesses that work from a fixed scope and price, because the software is never ready and the client always wants to extend the scope. Although we didn't entirely define the scope, we've still extended our arrangement. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We try to reach the U.S. or global customers. They don't have enough global experience or proficiency to speak to global customers. They are a local software house who which larger players outsource because in-house development is complicated.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company operates in the travel sector and offers an online platform for hotel bookings. It also features destination and hotel guides and allows users to customize their own trips. I am the founder of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bravelab?

We needed to build our entire portal from scratch, along with its dedicated CMS.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I defined the scope in terms of look and functionality. Bravelab developed the front- and backend of the site based on my scope and accommodating my change requests. The site was built using the Django Python platform. It has integrations for booking, search, categorization, filtering, and displaying content based on tags.

What is the team composition?

I worked with their owner, who acted as project manager at the beginning. During the later stages, I had contact with two or three other developers from the team.

How did you come to work with Bravelab?

I was referred to them by a colleague.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their services was €20,000 ($24,000).

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Bravelab in February 2015, and the project was completed in February 2017. For the moment, I am not considering building additional functionalities.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are still developing the content of the website, so it’s too early to share any results. We haven’t experienced any issues with the site. I would recommend Bravelab’s team.

How did Bravelab perform from a project management standpoint?

There were some problems on my side, stemming from my lack of understanding around certain technologies. Bravelab accommodated my requests and explained everything I needed to know. We used a task manager for the work. I also met their CEO in person. They met the timeline and answered my correspondence in time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I found them to be patient, respectful, and accommodating to my changes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not at the moment. The team was smaller during the start of the project, which led to some small issues, but they onboarded more resources.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They are definitely an IT team, so dialogues should be kept between project managers and IT people. Marketing people can have trouble understanding this area at times.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of Simple Is Good, Inc. We’re a development and internet marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bravelab Software House?

We contracted them to help with some coding. They’ve done about half a dozen projects with us so far.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of our more recent projects involved building an online application with Python. We take a collaborative approach with Bravelab, so we had a few conversations about the specifications, and then they organized the project and produced most of the content themselves.

Our client, an accounting firm, wanted us to build a document repository and exchange portal. The goal of this feature was to reduce the amount of sensitive information being sent through email attachments. With the new system, users log into the portal in order to upload, store, and exchange documents. Bravelab built the portal and also added a notification system so people are alerted whenever new documents are sent or accessed by recipients. They also coded all the necessary security and layered access requirements on the backend of the software.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was our project manager, but I’ve also corresponded with multiple other members of their team, including designers and engineers.

How did you come to work with Bravelab Software House?

We found them via online search. After they responded to our initial request, we discussed the sort of projects we needed done and determined that they’d be able to meet our needs.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them for several years now, but our most recent project lasted from March–November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had nothing but positive feedback from our customers, which speaks highly of the quality of their work. I’ve also been pretty happy with their work ethic throughout each step of the process and the results they produce.

How did Bravelab Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive, even with the time difference. We have conference calls on Skype when we need to discuss major project milestones and we use Basecamp to keep track of all the details. Our projects are quite complex and have a lot of moving parts, but they’ve handled everything well. Since their team is so experienced, I can trust them to work independently and return with exactly what we want.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I admired the depth of their abilities as far as being able to break down a complex project based on only a few conversations and deliver high-quality results. They’ll understand what you need with minimal guidance, which is both impressive and highly beneficial since it means you can devote more attention to other aspects of a project. Additionally, I appreciate that they think critically about our plans and make a point to talk us out of features that might not work well in the long run.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Heed their advice as far as features that are viable. You may want something you don’t really need, or that might not be the best solution for your project. We’ve caught ourselves a few times trying to propose or implement a feature that would’ve eventually caused headaches for the final product if they hadn’t talked us out of it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the board member of Legendary Tours Spółka Z o.o.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We're a leading online platform guiding tourists across 50+ cities in Europe, offering the best 'pay as you wish' and other tours worldwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bravelab.io to accomplish?

• Automate data input into the reservation system from 2 partners who send bookings via email, streamlining the manual and difficult process caused by hundreds of daily emails. The aim is to eliminate errors, minimize the need for constant inbox monitoring, and enhance team productivity.

SOLUTION

How did you find Bravelab.io?

Referral

Why did you select Bravelab.io over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

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

In short, they built a data scraper from company email inboxes, followed by data parsing to organize information before importing it into the reservation system used by our customer service consultants and guides. Bravelab has developed a bot that automates the process of transferring reservations from emails to our internal system. 

They used Selenium, set up on a dedicated infrastructure. Develop a 24/7 bot for parsing and saving email data into an intermediate database table. Enable data browsing in the admin panel, with log parsing, error recording, and skip functionality for previously processed emails. The bot should log in using our Gmail app password and retrieve records for a table with filter options for partners and date ranges.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After presenting the system in the office, everyone is thrilled after years of manual handling. At this point, we believe we've saved the equivalent of 1.5 full-time person's work, resulting in real savings and enabling us to tackle tasks that were pending for months. In just the first few weeks, reservations entered into the system using the bot developed by Bravelab worked over 3000 times, a task that, under normal circumstances (pre-bot), would require manual effort and carry the risk of potential errors.

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

They were quick and specific - after the order, they sent their man to our office to see live what the problem was. They inquired about the details and did decent research. Contact with them was perfect. The product was delivered quickly.

What was your primary form of communication with Bravelab.io?

Virtual Meeting

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

Great contact, curiosity and professionalism. We have already worked with 4 (!) other companies, and we always either had to ask for everything, or they just... stopped answering our emails. Bravelab takes you seriously.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Bravelab.io could have done differently?

IT services are expensive and, unfortunately, are unlikely to get cheaper - here at least we know that it was worth spending money.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of the company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The company builds, manages and enables shopping inside the mobile apps of institutions in growth markets with large customer bases who want to move into Ecommerce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bravelab.io to accomplish?

• Build the platform
• Manage and innovate the platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Bravelab.io?

Referral

Why did you select Bravelab.io over others?

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

How many teammates from Bravelab.io were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Scope and building of scalable infrastructure

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working components of the build

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

Yes, and expectations and deliverables were all managed and communicated well, so our needs were well catered to.

What was your primary form of communication with Bravelab.io?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The ability to problem solve and understand what our needs were. The team we've built together continues to exceed our expectations.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Bravelab.io could have done differently?

Not at the moment but there will be more projects coming.