Neoteric

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Coherence Design (CloudSET) develop and licence extension apps for the Zendesk customer service platform. I'm the CEO and founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Neoteric?

We needed a Rappid/JointJS specialist to help accelerate our adoption of this technology as a component in our business process application.

What were your goals for this project?

PoC that we could evolve further ourselves towards a completed solution.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were recommended by the Rappid/JointJS vendor, conducted internet research, including Clutch. We held a couple of scoping meetings and Neoteric provided and demonstrated samples of their work and answered questions relating to the suitability of the technology to meet our needs.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We scoped a SoW and they executed this in sprints with evolution cycles to build a working PoC on a hosted environment Neoteric provided. The source code was then handed over for our further development

What was the team composition?

Project Manager, Software Developer, and Designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were very pleased in the results, both with the technology, and Neoterics expertise and professional approach. Our objectives were fully achieved and has enabled us to realise our vision of using a graphical interface for defining and configuring embedded business processes.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was well implemented and effective, sprint deliverables were made on time, and feedback acted upon.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They could answer our detailed questions, which showed a deep knowledge of the technology.They also made suggestions as to best approaches which helped us key into best practices in this subject domain. Leadership team involvement was also appreciated in the getting to know each other stage. Neoteric also ran at the fast pace we needed, even starting the week before Xmas and in between to set-up an intersect point in our project plans.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No really, the process went very well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We deliver IT services tailored for the asset management industry. I am product manager in charge of a new suite of software to which Neoteric has contributed.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Neoteric?

We identified a set of business needs that could deliver value for our asset managers customers but were not able to scale up rapidly enough to meet our ambitious delivery date.

What were your goals for this project?

We desired to deliver a MVP for a workflow solution (mobile and desktop version), ready to go to market by our delivery date.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We needed to scale up rapidly, so we looked for local and near-shore IT service providers. We found about Neoteric on Clutch and selected them out of a pool of 12+ companies. We received a comprehensive and down to earth evaluation of our project goal (in terms of team size and duration) and were seduced by the quality of the people we interacted with (notably their ability to tailor their deliverables to our specific requests).

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Neoteric provided us with a team made of back-end, front-end and mobile developers, along with some project management support and QA. Neoteric was responsible to design, implement and to setup automated testing on the application. We delivered detailed functional requirements that we discussed and adjusted hand-in-hand with Neoteric's team as part of refinement sessions. We interacted with Neoteric complete team from sprint 0 (back in July) up to the last day of the project in December the same year).

What was the team composition?

Neoteric provided a total of: - 3 back-end developers - 3 front-end developers - 1 mobile developer - 1 project manager - 2 QA engineer - 1 account representative (for the contractual and administrative work) The team size started on day one with 6 people and scaled up to 9 (excl the account rep.)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We achieved a functional MVP that generated a lot of interest from our customer. We remained roughly on time (we extended the initial contract by a month to cleanly close the collaboration) and within budget. The commitment demonstrated by Neoteric to our project success was tremendous. From day one, we met with professionals in all roles who demonstrated their skill, experience and contributed excellent feedback into the product team to improve the quality of the final product we delivered.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

After a couple of sprints to find the exact velocity of the team, we managed to have a very high percentage of delivered commitment after each two-weeks iterations (even achieving a couple of 100% sprints). We collaborated using JIRA for the backlog definition and work tracking, AWS CodeCommit for the source code, Google meet for our remote meetings and Agile ceremonies and finally Slack to ensure a constant contact between the development/QA team and the product team. We never actually met face-to-face but the communication and transparency was exemplary from one end of the project to the other. We achieved a very high level of trust and responsiveness between Neoteric and us. Never has language been an issue. We had quite a few perfectly fluent people on the team and all members had a perfectly functional mastery of the English language (both written and spoken).

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We felt as partners in our endeavors and not "another customer". The commitment offered by the team was top-notched, especially when deadlines were closing on us. We had complete transparency and an extremely polite and professional communication from all parties during the whole project. We achieved a high-level of trust in each other that translated into: - Our ability to clearly understand progress made and where obstacles needed help from the product team, - Neoteric team demonstrated a great understanding of the business objective and provided many useful feedback on features or user experience, most of which have been included in the final product, - We achieved a working relation where distance was no longer a factor, notably through our constant availability and high responsiveness via Slack.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing outside of usual custom development challenges. I have no complaint regarding the way we worked together and would try to achieve a similar work structure for future collaborations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of ThreeLeaf, an advertising agency based in Texas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We engaged Neoteric to help us with a backend software development project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We developed the frontend of a software platform and Neoteric provided the backend development, building an API that acts like a microservice on Amazon Cloud. The platform allows for the storage of information to the database for a real estate company. 

What is the team composition? 

I work with one main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

We reached out to Neoteric because they were listed as a recommended vendor for the type of technology we wanted to use. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $50,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since December 2018 and plan to continue working with them indefinitely. As we test the platform, they continue to provide support as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Neoteric has helped us develop some cutting-edge technologies, refining our ideas and turning them into a reality. 

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager does a great job of staying in touch with us, providing daily and weekly reports regarding progress. They met all expected deadlines and we're so happy with their work that we don't intend on working with anyone else in the future. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm most impressed by the ease of use and quality of the end product they built. We've also found that their knowledge and expertise are as good as similar vendors local to us, if not better in some areas. They've been willing to do more than other companies, including working past business hours to ensure our deadlines were met. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Some of their pricing estimates were a little off, and we ended up spending more, so that part could've been improved. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to be on the same page as their team before and during the project to ensure expectations are being met in terms of timelines and the budget. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Chief Revenue Officer at bPol, a software house based in Poland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We needed development support for an extremely large, robust project as we had run out of our own internal resources.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We used them to help with an e-commerce platform, using Node.js for the backend and React on the frontend. They participated with a number of sprints and were actively engaged in the development. The aim was to improve the efficiency on the frontend and deal with some bugs and feature development in the backend.

What is the team composition? 

There were two developers.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

They’re one of the leading software houses in Poland.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May–October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The client was 100% satisfied with the results.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great—we used Jira, Slack, and GitHub to oversee the work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take ownership of what they’re doing and approach tasks professionally. They take a creative approach to problem-solving, without compromising the quality of code.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it was seamless.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Invest time in the beginning to pencil in the objectives and pay attention to detail. That will give them to have a full understanding of what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and founder of App Orchid. We’re a startup that builds enterprise AI applications for companies that have a high exposure to risk.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We had an idea to create a visual designer for building AI applications. We needed a partner that understood open source products to help us create that app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave them a broad outline of what we wanted. They took the lead from there to build the app. It’s a visual designer app, similar to a flowchart tool. For example, users can drag and drop different AI components on a canvas. They used Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs that feed into our system behind the scenes. Companies can use the platform to visually compose AI applications.

What is the team composition?

I wasn’t personally involved with the work, so I don't know the names of their team members.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

While looking for vendors, we came across a well-publicized open source tool. I reached out to Neoteric, and they were able to turn around a quote really quickly. It was more economically viable for us to work with them than to build our internal capacity.

How much have you invested with them?

I think it was somewhere between $25,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project from January–March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My team tells me they’re a great company. We’re still in the process of incorporating their work into a product. However, we're able to build models in a visual way thanks to them. That’s a big accomplishment because most AI work is programming-centric, requiring a data scientist or an AI expert to build models. By our estimate, the app will help build AI models at 40%–50% faster once it is fully implemented. That will loosely translate into several man hours of coding saved.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

I'm not familiar with the details of their project management, but they delivered everything on time and on budget. We plan to work with them again. I'm confident that they'll deliver the same proficiency.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very professional. They know what they're doing and they were committed to the project. They understand UX design as well as the open source platform. Neoteric was a great choice for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were pretty good all around. As a fairly small company, they seem a bit tight on staff. We have more projects that we can work with them on, but we've been told that they lack capacity. They should invest in more resources or training.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-owner of Gearcom, a startup software developer building a product for electronic circuit and phone design. The company is made up of two owners and three employees. We’re based in Gdansk, Poland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We had finished the first development stage for our software using another company. The project itself was quite difficult. We were not happy with that collaboration, and needed to fix some performance issues. We were running out of money and starting to wonder whether our developer could finish the task.

At the time, our user interface had been designed by programmers rather than graphic specialists. We needed help creating a new one.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Neoteric analyzed our code, applied fixes, and refactored some functionalities. We needed to adapt our scope to accommodate certain browser limitations. They also built a new user interface based on our design mockups.

What is the team composition?

Mateusz [CEO, Neoteric] was our project leader at the time.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

We researched the development market and found them along with two other companies. It was important for the provider to have good technical and communication abilities, as well as to be flexible and committed to our project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Neoteric in February 2016, and the project ended in May. We’re not currently working with Neoteric because the product doesn’t require any new functionalities or bug fixes at this stage. We’re focusing on populating databases.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product has not been launched to the public yet, so I cannot provide any statistics.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

I was happy with the management and communication on Neoteric’s side. They explained what was possible within our budget and time limitations, which was helpful for planning and avoiding delays.

We had frequent meetings and calls. Mateusz was always available when we needed to discuss something. They provided accurate estimates for each part of the project and delivered before the deadline. When we wanted to present the product at a conference, we gave them a task with only two weeks’ notice. They were flexible, increasing their efforts to deliver on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were quite engaged with our project and wanted it to succeed. It was good to know that we had Neoteric on our side.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of product management for a software solutions developer in the truck haulage area. We develop systems that track and trace assets—both trucks and trainers—through in-cab driver terminals, using Android software, temperature monitoring, and engine diagnostics. We pull all these pieces of information together to provide solutions for users.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We sell a single overarching product, which requires bespoke development for some of our larger customers. As with most outsourcing collaborations, our challenges were scaling dynamically, onboarding talented developers for specific projects, and scaling the team back down as requirements died off. We were looking for a long-term partner that could offer this.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Neoteric generally provides development assistance within our predefined roadmap. There are many projects that we’d like to get done during the next couple of years, and they’re helping us achieve those faster.

We gave them smaller pieces of work until they essentially became another one of our teams. Neoteric collocate with one of our many software teams, working in the exact same systems and with the same transparency as everyone else. We essentially work side-by-side, even though they’re remote.

One of the products they worked on was a job management system. Haulage companies receive orders to move goods from point A to point B, and must line up each one of their trucks and drivers to process as many loads and drops as possible in a day.

Neoteric created a section within our existing product that dispatched jobs to drivers and vehicles, plotted those jobs along maps, and gave drivers directions. Those jobs are transmitted to the driver’s in-cab device, so that he can mark them as started, completed, or in-progress. We can also specify a few more parameters.

At the moment, Neoteric is a key member of the design and development team on a very complex project that focuses on driver regulatory hours. Rather than coming to them with UI requirements, we gave them very complex legal requirements and a backend that required complicated calculations.

They have worked on the whole frontend lifecycle. The normal process involved requirements gathering, breaking those requirements into more concrete elements, getting architectural direction, and proceeding to development, QA, and release. Oftentimes, outsourcers will handle the small engineering piece in the middle, which accounts for 30% of the process. The rest is the management and design of the product, and this is where Neoteric stepped in.

They can step in early in the development lifecycle, take rough requirements from myself and other product managers, and add value to them right away. They can design the product themselves, come up with a solution that fits, and then handle the engineering, QA, and release. These are all time-consuming pieces of development, so outsourcing becomes less valuable if we have to take care of them in-house. This is where Neoteric has shone.

What is the team composition?

We’ve brought them in slowly, starting with very small projects and getting into larger and larger ones. The time-tracking project is two months old, so we’ve taken on a full team for it. Before that, Neoteric had much smaller teams, or even single developers.

Rather than a project manager, their team has a product owner. This is a much more influential and involved role. 

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

First and foremost, we were interested in Neoteric because of their modern skillset. Compared to other outsourcing companies, they provide a higher level of transparency. This aligned with our internal approach, and it was the most difficult thing to find when working with an external company.

Neoteric essentially spoke our language in terms of Agile system development and the general velocity around continuous release cycles. It was important to find someone who could move at our speed without acting like a rabbit in the headlights. It’s obvious when we find someone with this quality, and we identified it quickly in their team.

Neoteric wasn’t the first group we approached—we went to several outsourcing companies before settling into a relationship—but they offered great value for money in terms of relative daily rates. Geographically, we narrowed the search down quite a lot, not wanting to go as far as the Far East. We found similar nearshore development teams, but they were managed in the U.S. and came at two or three times the price. Neoteric offered similar quality, but at a very good price.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Neoteric in May 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our key performance indicators are clustered around a team’s overall success, and Neoteric measures up with the rest of our developers. Velocity—the speed at which they can complete high-quality work—is an important factor for us. They’re on par with the internal teams we’ve had for the last decade, working at the same rate and delivering the same quality. This is significant, since it normally takes a long time to onboard someone. Neoteric making this jump in a matter of months is quite impressive.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

We deal with them on Slack on almost an hourly basis, which has been very helpful for us. We have daily standups and two demonstrations per sprint. There’s been a good chain of communication, from their architects to the UI designers. They use our Balsamiq platform to show us exactly what we’re going to get before they deliver

In terms of metrics, Neoteric has delivered on every sprint. They keep normal timesheets, but we don’t request any specific status reports. We just ask that they use our internal systems, Jira and Confluence. If they’re working correctly and updating their systems, all the reports and metrics we require will come from of that. As such, we don’t need a project manager.

We’ve flown them to our head office, where they spent a whole day and met our teams. We did this because we envisage a long-term relationship with Neoteric, and wanted to make them feel like a part of the overall team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their AngularJS, Node.js, and Java Microservices skills were quite impressive. Neoteric has a good knowledge of open-source JavaScript libraries, so, rather than designing a product from the ground up, they found off-the-shelf tooling. We hate reinventing the wheel, and want to get to the value quickly. If this means using good open-source libraries, then we’re happy to do so. Neoteric has brought a lot of knowledge in this area.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Communication, QA, and velocity could be improved across all our teams, so I don’t want to single out Neoteric. They’ve been receptive to everything we asked them to do, and have performed well so far.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The best way to get motivation from an outsourced team is to trust them to be a part of the overall lifecycle—from design to delivery—and not just hand them a design document and expect to get something good back. The process needs to be much more collaborative, which is why we onboarded Neoteric early in projects and treated them like any member of the team. Outsourcing differently than this comes with poor results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work in the research department of an architecture firm that works primarily in various market sectors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We wanted to build a tool that helps people map out ideas and processes when working with internal teams or clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Without a template to go on, the tool had to be built from scratch. We had very specific features in mind and wanted to rely on illustrations and graphics to translate ideas into concrete visualizations.

We also wanted the tool to be highly intuitive, allowing users to operate it without consulting a manual.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with Lukasz Nowacki [Project Manager, Neoteric] throughout the project, as well as Robert Beinaravicius [Junior Frontend Developer, Neoteric]. They’re an excellent team.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

We were introduced to Neoteric through a business colleague who has a similar tool. We found they were capable of handling difficult tasks without compromise. They seemed like they were able to take our raw ideas and produce results that matched our specifications exactly. Other developers tend to hit obstacles and seek alternative solutions that may change your initial vision.

How much have you invested with them?

About $60,300. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017 and we’re in the final stages of development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While we haven’t officially completed development, the tool has seen some use among our colleagues. They find it useful and more intuitive than other commercial process maps.

We’re also pleased with the tool’s aesthetic. The visualizations will ensure it’s a tool people want to use.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

They've performed well considering this is a fairly difficult project. As with any custom development, there were moments when we had to step back and consider how certain pieces would work.

We communicate through Slack, which is especially convenient since we're in different time zones. It allows us to coordinate without the clutter of email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The project has gone smoother than we thought possible. They're able to tackle difficult tasks and work any issues through to completion. They’ve provided the exact features we’ve requested without proposing any kind of compromise due to difficult coding. They have a great talent for finding solutions and we’ve had an excellent relationship with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s always helpful to have a detailed outline. Issues will naturally arise when developing any complex project, but the more you’re able to anticipate those stumbling blocks, the better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

RapidSOS is a privately funded startup in the emergency services platform business. I’m the vice president of engineering, responsible for bringing emergency-based products and services, along with 911 connectivity, to businesses. We’re in midtown Manhattan near Times Square.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We needed help with frontend development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were developing a new product called Emergency API. The platform includes a frontend where customers can design workflows and interactively or graphically make them more intuitive.

Neoteric utilized Rappid in development of the frontend of our app. We initially broke the project down into multiple phases, and started with a proof of concept. Their team developed a proof that visually represents the workflows. We set up a specific agreement, and they were able to deliver within 3 weeks, which was really fast.

We made the decision to continue working, and thus moved on to the second phase, which was to build a fully-functional, but not finished, product. The first phase was a fixed contract, but the second part was more open-ended due to the requirements we gave them. They worked with us as we developed those requirements. We’ve almost finished this phase.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

We identified Rappid in research of the best interactive, graphical tools for building web apps. We reached out to the authors of the company that provides custom support for those libraries, and tried to use it ourselves, but failed. Those authors recommended Neoteric because they had successfully delivered fully-functioning apps using this approach.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September of this year, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Neoteric has laid a good foundation for the product moving forward. I’m very happy with their effort, the technical foundation they’ve laid, and their ability to understand the tasks we gave them. They’re a very strong team. We’re also happy with the speed and quality of development.

They were able to demonstrate the product to our board along with some of our investors, and so far, we’ve been very pleased. It’s almost finished.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

They initiated a very robust project management structure. They use a set of tools to track project issues and planning, and also assign project managers to tasks. We use Slack to communicate. I’m directly managing the project, and from my perspective, they’re creating a very effective working environment. They’re polite and thoughtful. They have good resources and have proven themselves to be consistently available.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very responsive. They provide us with a level of innovation that most outsourcing environments don’t. They thrive in environments that require them to make more holistic designs, or even in proposing new user interactions that we didn’t specify. They provide very good results. I’m also surprised at how independent they are.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. The project is going well, and we’re almost done with it. I’m very happy.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company that sells machinery for and provides services related cars and car parts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neoteric?

We wanted to become more paperless—especially relative to some systems and applications that send information to our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a microservices application with several modules, including functions that allow customers to choose parts; help contractors and warehousing facilities; process payments; send and share documents; trigger our system to send emails; manage customers’ overall interactions with us.

What is the team composition?

I can talk to my project manager anytime I need to.

How did you come to work with Neoteric?

In Poland, we have a page called GoldenLine, which is like a combination of Quora and LinkedIn. I noticed that the CEO of Neoteric was very active, helping many people on that platform. I asked about some software development companies and a few people said, “Only Neoteric. Just Neoteric.” After everything, the CEO reached out to me. We had a few meetings and I was confident they were the one.

How much have you invested with them?

Our work with them cost around $265,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2014–May 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our revenue has increased fivefold, which more than justifies our decision to go with Neoteric.

How did Neoteric perform from a project management standpoint?

When something went wrong from my side, Neoteric showed me how to communicate with them. They taught me the Scrum methodology and I’m glad I know these processes now. Every day, the whole team (myself included) had daily stand-ups in person, on the phone, or via Skype.

They were responsive. If I needed some decision made, I just called the project manager and I found out everything I needed to know. Plus, they always met deadlines and project milestones.

What did you find most impressive about them?

With previous vendors, the communication wasn’t that good. Now that I’ve worked with Neoteric, I understand what was wrong before. Now, every project that I do, I use what I learned from them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more diverse gender-wise. There are many men and only a handful of women. Other than that, I can’t imagine how to do it better.