Neoteric

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am co-founder and CTO at Gizmi - a chat-commerce platform created to help selling digital goods via chat apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had problems configuring and integrating facebook app with our system and external provider Smooch. We struggeled both with app review permissions and changing our source code as well. Our goal was to receive approval of required facebook app permissions and sucessfully integrate it with our platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select Neoteric and what were the deciding factors?

We came across Neoteric during our search for IT solutions provider via linkedin and IT platforms. We ended up with four companies. All of them were informed that this task is time sensitive and crutial to our project in terms of our alfa-launch schedule and investor relations.

The most important factor for us was Neoteric's proactive attitude. After the initial talks and signing NDA they started with thorough review of our code and previously configured facebook app, and came up with a propable solution within one busienss day. And that was their time and resources investment - becouse we were not charged for that initial audit.

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

They deployed testing environment to understand the scope of the problem and to design and test all implemented changes. They configured facebook app and helped preparing descriptions and materials for app review They modified the code to address the error occuring while connecting facebook account with our platform

They performed overall test of the implementation using both test accouns and real user accounts. They provided documentation that described the scope of works and will be added to our platform documentation.

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

There were 3 people involved in the project. Client Partner who assembled our dev team, managed legal arrangement etc Senior Software Developer who helped finding the isuues with our software and facebook app during the initial phase of cooperations, and Software Developer who worked with us on daily basis and made all the neccessary coding, testing and configuring.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We managed to deploy facebookapp within 1 business day and make other necessary coding and configuring in the next 3 days. Final tests and production deployment took place in 6th day of our coopoeration. Since then the app and the system runs seamingly

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

The project management was very good, We used google meet for initial talks and while discussing possible solutions. On daily basis we communicated via Slack which is our primary communication tool.

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

We had access to our developer at our discretion during the project. The communaction was always great and fast, no hour-burning attitude - on the contrary - their proactiveness especially at the begining when they've found the solution before even starting the project, was the most impressive thing we have enountered on the IT market.

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

At this point I can't think of any improvement areas they should focus on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’ve worked with Neoteric within the IT innovation team at my organization, where we have a sandbox innovation hub. I’m the team lead on these projects. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

They supported the development of a few prototypes. We liked their communication and work quality, so we hired them for the next part of the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There were two main projects. The first is a free app that facilitates a youth skills assessment. Youth users can complete tests and quizzes to receive feedback on their skills. We used their development and IT resources for that project. The second project is a readiness training platform for disadvantaged, unemployed youth. We’re currently working on building out the work readiness app. 

Their work involved UX frontend design, development, algorithmic work, prototype builds, and AI tasks. We’re handling most of the design work in-house, but they’ve become a great sounding board for UX advice. They’re able to provide feedback and guidance as well.    

What is the team composition?

We have a main point of contact that assigns developers and teammates to our projects depending on our resource needs.  

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

They’re the main partner of the IT innovation team at my organization. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around March 2020 and are still collaborating with them.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were under a lot of pressure to deliver on a tight timeline, and they were able to meet our deadlines. That was remarkable and seemingly impossible. We’re just starting to launch, but they’ve performed incredibly across metrics so far. 

The final app will serve as an open-source tool, aiming to reach disadvantaged youth across developing countries to help them reach more opportunities. Their work will have a huge impact in tons of ways, so we’re looking forward to its launch.  

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent, clear communicators. We meet either once or twice a week, and they have a clear way of structuring their work. When they go through the onboarding process, it’s very well explained. They also do frequent assessments to manage or pivot the project as needed. Their team is always making sure the project is running the best way it can. If there’s something wrong, they’re trying to pivot and improve.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

I haven’t worked with another firm that matches their professionalism, quality of output, and reasonable costs. They’re amenable to their clients and produce very high-quality work. I recommend them to everyone. If I had the opportunity to work exclusively with them, I would.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not at the moment. They’re doing great. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As long as you communicate well and know what you want from them, they’re going to be able to deliver a great product.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of a mental health tech company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Neoteric was tasked with developing the frontend of our MVP as a responsive React webapp according to existing branding and designs.

SOLUTION

How did you select Neoteric and what were the deciding factors?

We have been screening several vendors in the space and Neoteric won the competition thanks to excellent communication and ability to quickly frame our needs.

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

They setup the frontend application from scratch handling everything from repo, CI/CD and automated code quality checks. The key deliverable is a responsive webapp implemented in React, styled according to our branding and designs and integrated with our backend which includes WebRTC components and a third party authentication service.

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

There was 1 Software Engineer allocated full time and 1 Agile Delivery Lead to help with project managing; other resources helped overseeing the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Excellent code quality and work ethics. We achieved more than we were hoping to thanks to the technical skills and proactive attitude of the developer who explored and implemented solutions which are a much better fit to our needs than what was presented to him as an explicit requirement from us.

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

Great project management, daily standups with weekly sprints (demo+retro+planning). Main communication channels: Slack for messaging and Jira for issue tracking.

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

Work ethics and proactive attitude.

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

Nothing that I could see.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an education technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We needed to speed up software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Neoteric built an LMS (learning management system) that allows users to track students’ learning. The software enables us to directly sell to universities and provide students with a unified learning experience.

Neoteric worked on the web application from start to finish, providing full documentation, mockups, and wireframes. Their team used different frameworks including React and Angular to program the application.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a QA analyst, three frontend engineers, two backend engineers, and a scrum master.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

I found them on Clutch and chose them because they effectively communicated when we outlined the project before starting the development process.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $150,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in July and ended in December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was successful. Although there are a few bugs resulting from an editor, it’s a great start that we can work with moving forward. Neoteric will help us address those bugs by switching out the license code.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Slack and Jira to communicate. In terms of communication and meeting deadlines, their team was great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s easy to talk with the Neoteric team. They want to help in any way possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would help to plan more on the earlier side of the engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Dedicate time to allow the developers to plan and research the project early on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of digital for an athletic training platform. We primarily focus on digital subscriptions to our training programs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We’ve worked with Neoteric from the very beginning of our company to establish a digital development and engineering team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Neoteric came on board for large-scale staff augmentation, who’s our core engineering team. We were looking to build one backend platform that supported a multi-device website, a native iOS app, and a native Android app. 

We also had a number of third party integrations that we needed to connect with and think through very closely, which was fairly complex. We needed our centralized backend system to really be the coordinator for all the services and all the platforms.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with about 12 people right now.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

We found them through a web search. We vetted multiple of-shore and nearshore companies that could provide this type of service, and eventually ended up going with Neoteric.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have a lot of metrics to share, because they were with us when we launched the company. However, anecdotally, we’re pleased. Neoteric is our core team, and they’ve been incredibly good at adapting to our business needs. They’re very flexible. 

Neoteric has also managed to fulfill our engineering needs across a lot of different disciplines. They’ve launched exceptional experiences that are high-profile consumer-facing digital products. They have steadily improved and evolved over time. They’ve met and exceeded our expectations.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

Our product manager is both an advocate for business needs, as well as for the team and their capabilities. It’s been incredibly helpful. The people who do the development work can keep as focused as possible on what they need to do, while I can keep informed and be flexible with the day-to-day needs of the business.

We release things together multiple times per week, and we’re also on a very specific sprint schedule. Neoteric has been flexible and able to cooperate according to the needs of the project. 

Working together has been seamless. Even though they’re working remotely, we have a clear team structure as far as what everyone’s roles are and what they focus on, as well as the leadership within the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Neoteric has an excellent ability to adapt and evolve. They’re incredibly good at solving problems. They’ve been able to tackle a lot of different types of challenges that we’ve thrown at them, and they do it well and they do it efficiently. Whether it’s a new type of integration, an infrastructure issue, or the strategic balance of resources, they take new challenges and execute on them very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Look at the team you hire as a group of individuals that each need to be assessed. You’re not hiring a company that’s going to step in and magically do everything you need — you have to work with the strengths and weaknesses of a group of individuals to build your team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a CEO of zDziecmi.pl, first COVID edu-platform for companies, employees and their kids.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Neoteric?

Application to provide possibilities to connect teachers and students. Tight hackathon schedule Under the hackathon rules, we only had 4 days to build an app prototype - starting with crystallizing the idea, through scoping, to development and design.

New technology The hackathon required the projects to be developed with the use of one of Oracle’s technologies: APEX or OCI - both previously unknown to our team, which could be a major hurdle, especially given the challenging schedule.

What were your goals for this project?

1. Crystallizing the idea Before starting the development process, we needed to discuss the details with the ideator to list the requirements and prepare a plan of what had to be done to deliver a prototype.
2. Building a prototype We were to develop a prototype of the app within the timeframe specified by the hackathon organizers.

SOLUTION

How did you select Neoteric?

There were few companies which offered their help but Neoteric was a great team able to communicate well not only between themselves but also with the business.

Describe the project in detail.

Korki is an online platform that connects students and teachers. The prototype of the application was developed during the #IdeaHACK hackathon, addressing the issue of limited access to education during Covid-19 lockdown.

To help students find tutors and get the support they need, no matter where they are, serial entrepreneur, Victoria Iwanowska, came up with the idea of the platform and joined forces with Neoteric developers and designers to build the prototype.

What was the team composition?

CEO of zDziecmi.pl and Neoteric Team: 2 developers, 1 designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Prototype built in just 4 days Our team managed to deliver a successful prototype in the previously unknown to them Apex technology.

The app was simple, intuitive, and appealing - a good starting point to continue work on the project. 2 awards won The prototype our team built won 2 out of 3 awards at the #ideaHACK hackathon.

The project was also featured in an article on Forbes Poland’s website.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Absolutely terrific :)

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The possibility to focus on building prototype according to tough rules of hackathon.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They are absolutely great!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the software architect. We are a cybersecurity company providing services to SME clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a new customer portal.

SOLUTION

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

We talked to companies in Poland and Ukraine. Neoteric was from the start professional in their communication and approach and everybody knew what they were talking about.

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

We started with a meeting and a design session in their office in Gdansk. After this the product is developed in sprint using scrum. The main technology used is React.

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

We worked with a UX designed, a software developer, a scrum master and an account manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The portal is still in development and have been published internally only, but we already had good feedback. We're about to publish the portal to the first group of customers.

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

Neoteric works according agile practices and scrum specifically with all the rituals like planning and demos. Communication is mostly done using chat applications and planning using an online tools.

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

Neoteric is a company with professional and passionate people focused on finding the best solutions. They take pride in their work.

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

Maybe an improvement would be to do a retrospective with the customer.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company provides data-driven solutions to complete today's mission safely and efficiently while preventing issues that may arise tomorrow. With our digital solutions and analytics, we provide everything an airline needs to operate its fleet, regardless of manufacturer, efficiently over the course of that aircraft's lifetime.

My position is a researcher in the innovation portfolio, looking to the market and technology trends to determine the future of digital solutions for the aviation industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Neoteric?

We are constantly looking at new technologies to prove (or disprove their feasibility) in the aviation industry. We saw an opportunity with recent advances in automatic speech recognition to be applied in the unique setting of a cockpit: It's noisy, many people may be talking at any one given time, pilots from al around the world are speaking in different accents (albeit usually in English), but the communication language is restricted to a standardized phraseology.

What were your goals for this project?

Determine whether or not state of the art machine learning models were adequate enough to be implemented in a cockpit setting. "Good enough" means high performance, not just for safety but also for acceptability.

Pilots have a lot to do. If the application for which automatic speech recognition was implemented doesn't work nearly all of the time, it will quickly become a garbage function.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had experience with them in the past. They could quickly scale up and down the resources we needed, e.g. start with an AI engineer and swap out for an iOS developer when we were ready to build the application. Proximity to the office in Gdansk, Poland.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We provided the business use case, and limited sets of training data. They built a pipeline to train an automatic speech recognition model, in addition to other open source training data, and once they'd refined the model, built it into a demonstrator application for iOS. They chose how to build the pipeline, train & tune the model, and how to deploy it for mobile.

What was the team composition?

Two AI engineers, a scrum master and an iOS developer. At the beginning of the project, the AI engineers were more online, towards the end, the work shifted towards iOS development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We saved costs in developing an automatic speech recognition solution before the technology was ready. Rather than building a subpar solution, we tested various hypotheses in the research phase with Neoteric to determine whether or not the technology is worth the investment.

We now know what steps need to be accomplished and what increases in performance we need to hit before we can start talking about production-ready technology.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Arranged for the most part by us, with a scrum master sending daily reports. The developers/engineers were responsible for breaking down high-level requirements into more manageable user stories and tasks.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to switch out expertise to match customer needs stood out to us. Their flexibility in both skill and scope to adapt to the ever-changing needs of the customer.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Breaking down difficult themes into understandable chunks for the client. They are the experts. They have more experience and understanding with the technology for which they were hired. Rather than a requirements -> solution, we also hired them in part to learn from their expertise.

Never be afraid to break it down into very simple terms for the client. Try out new things. We don't know if things are going to work either. But trying it out and documenting your failures/successes is just as important as the final product.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of internal development & business intelligence at 4Com Technologies Ltd., a telecommunications provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We’re a reseller of phone systems but we also bought our own phone system. We have a legacy system in place that we use to try to sell our products to potential customers. The challenge was to rebuild that system to a modern 21st-century system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re mainly responsible for the frontend development and AI on the project. They support us in building the UI that our telemarketing team will be interacting with. They also engage with us in building some AI which will help us improve and increase sales in the future. We provided wireframes and sketches because we have a UX designer. They picked them up and went from there. We had discussions around technology and we agreed on one but I don’t remember what it was.

What is the team composition?

There’s a project manager/scrum master who helps coordinate on their side. There are three senior frontend developers and one junior frontend developer. We also have a solution architect helping us as well. There were two AI developers we worked with as well.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

When I was looking for a company to work with, the important aspect for me was the culture within their organization, the methodology that they follow, and whether they’re easy to deal with. At the same time, I wanted them to have some structure in place. We had quite a few conversations around how they work as a company. We had some workshops we did at the beginning of the engagement. Through that, I felt they were the right company for us to work with from a cultural point of view and a human point of view. They’re very good people to deal with and very open to change. They’re also very reasonable.

How much have you invested with them?

Under £100,000 (approximately $125,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We managed to achieve the tasks we had set every two weeks. If there are any problems that come up, we solve problems as we go. They achieve the objectives we set for them. We’re satisfied with what they’ve delivered so far.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is very good. They’re often more on top of things than we are. They’re very clear with the scope of the project and what they’re able and not able to do. They’re good at documentation. We work in two-week sprints. We use Jira and Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re honest and very responsive to change. They always have great ideas on how to solve problems. I was very impressed with the experience they have, the quality work they deliver, and the high standards that they have. They have very good processes in place.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing specific that comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open and honest with them. They’re an open and honest company. If you’re upfront, they’ll try to find the best way to help you to solve your problems.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of a digital advertising platform. Our main customers are in the publishing industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We wanted to try them out, and we just needed to offload some of the work from us to them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We did two projects with Neoteric. Our first project web development project with them where we needed a certain functionality in the frontend. It was a graphical feature or a special advertisement where a video would be playing, and we developed that with them.

We gave them a dummy as a template and they basically reprogrammed the whole thing so that it would actually work for us. This was a test pilot to see if we could outsource some work to them.

We also did a data exploitation project where we explored some of the data which we collect, and the focus was on understanding our data and maybe deduct AI possibilities or projects from it.

We had a lot of questions around our data which we couldn’t really figure out on our own because we lack certain skillsets, such as statistical or mathematical skillsets. Neoteric helped us set up a base project on where we would be able to start with the whole data topic at our company.

They provided workshops and 2–3 week-long sprints with a physicist who dove into the data and looked for certain relations that might have been there and were trying to verify or falsify a lot of things. He basically tried to verify things we were assuming about our data.

Examining the data, they looked for relations or tried to verify or find out new things about the data. They generated a report and presented the data to us. We could then deduct some information from that.

What is the team composition?

We have worked with three people, and there were two more people that were involved in the meetings.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

They were recommended to us by a colleague of mine. He was at a roadshow event and told me that we should check them out to see if they could help us with our data project.

How much have you invested in them?

It is around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with them in January or February 2020 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With the data project, it is quite hard to measure because we are still in the exploration phase. It isn’t a numerical thing, but we basically are building up an idea right now on how this data could work for us, how AI could play a role in the future, and what the road would actually look like. This has been pretty helpful for us because we are always generating ideas and brainstorming about stuff, but we never really had a practical way of approaching this whole thing. With Neoteric, I know that we have a partner there which could actually help us get started with this whole data thing. It was very broad and I am pretty sure they will help us actually lift off with the data stuff.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

From the data project, it was pretty good at the beginning when we did the kickoff. During the project, generally, it was pretty good, but sometimes communication was a little bit slow. Overall, I would give them a B+ or A-. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

In general, their spirit is quite good, and I think the data team has a really interesting structure. I met some of the AI team there in Poland, and they really lived the whole research idea. It is different than working with normal software developers. They really have a scientific approach which is extremely interesting and something I think is really helpful if you are just starting with data. They keep you open-minded, and they have their own culture there which is quite cool.

Are there any areas they could improve?

With these kinds of projects, you always have some starting problems on how to provide the data or providing them with the right data. There was a little bit of a back and forth, and we had a little bit of a delay of two or three weeks until we really could get started. There was a bit of a miscommunication from sales to the start of the project. This could have been smoother, but it was still good in my opinion.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

With the web development stuff, I still think this can be helpful if you need to offload some work from your own organization. It was a very small project and it was quite good that it wasn’t connected to our other stuff in our company because I think it was a little hard to integrate them into all of our processes. If I would recommend something, I would tell anyone to just start with one small project that isn’t related to anything else in the company if that is possible. You can then get an idea of how they work and the quality they generate.