Opentech Consulting

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at BoundaryCare

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

BoundaryCare provides a SaaS platform for supporting individuals with cognitive impairments and disabilities and their care teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Develop front-end web portal
• Develop Android watch client

SOLUTION

How did you find Opentech?

Referral

Why did you select Opentech over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Opentech were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

OpenTech had to design and develop a front-end react application for our services, which until then were entirely mobile-based. They built a new react app from scratch and implemented all of our key features, and have continued to work on the web app as our feature list has continued to expand. 

OpenTech has also facilitated the development of an Android wear client to our flagship wearable-based alerting and communications product, which is expected to be released by the end of Q3 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Opentech provided product management and oversight, so we had consistent visibility into daily and weekly tasks and deliverables. In addition, they proactively engage throughout all of a feature's development stages to ensure that expectations are being met and work hard to adapt to changing technical requirements or timelines.

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

They are very responsive to our needs. There is a mild tendency to underestimate the time required to complete the project but this is in line with what I commonly see in engineering departments at all tech companies I've worked at or with. Their open communication and high level of detail and visibility makes us feel empowered at all times when it comes to verifying work performed and avoiding scope/feature creep.

What was your primary form of communication with Opentech?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their team is dedicated and friendly, and their leadership has a good grasp of both technical subjects and business requirements faced by startups like ours.

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

The code is generally well-architected and unlike many outsourcing companies they are able and willing to make decisions about implementation details without needing the client to provide a formal and comprehensive spec. 

However, sometimes the delivered code contains bugs which might have been caught with a more rigorous internal QA process. When this happens, Opentech is very responsive and makes sure the bugs are fixed promptly and with no additional expense.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Odys Global is a members-only premium aged domains marketplace. I'm one of the Co-Founders and acting CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired OpenTech to re-build the entire marketplace as well as the backend/admin area and therefore contribute to a more robust and scalable solution. The goal was to take the MVP to the next level.

SOLUTION

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

We decided to work with OpenTech mainly because there aren't as many software development companies that are keen to integrate with your own operations in the exact same manner they do and completely replace the tech/IT department, thus creating a favourable precedent for growth.

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

The scope of our project was to build a custom marketplace for our digital products. We decided to build from scratch a more robust system that would improve the development time for new features and overall performance.

We had weekly meetings with the PM and tech lead to set the scope for upcoming sprints. We had a lean start-up approach. The development team quickly built new features and released them to production to test their impact and business value.

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

The team increased gradually as the product grew. At some point, we had two teams working on our projects. The personnel included a project owner, one scrum master, one tech lead, and a group of 10 developers, including QA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We estimate our 300% growth in the last 3 years was mainly funnelled by OpenTech's involvement and contribution. Their deliverables played a super important role in getting to become the #1 in our market.

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

Ambitious, yet smooth. Fast, yet robust. We used Slack and email for communication and engaged in bi-weekly meetings for critical matters. No issues whatsoever with timeliness. Aways on time.

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

OpenTech's flexibility allowed us to not only make use of their services and regard them as our Tech department. They always over-delivered and made the entire scope of our collaboration a breeze.

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

The only thing we regret is not getting to know OpenTech earlier.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

A small strat up company opened through start up grant specialised in film and video advertising.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were looking for a software that will help us deal with remote editing work on multiple computers,  in different timezones and dozens of file versions.  

SOLUTION

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

Opentech was recommended to us as a small professional team that will solve our objectives at a fair price.

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

The scope was to create an application that will sync our different versions of audio video projects for our remote teams of designers and video audio editors. After establishing the contact Opentech provided the time schedule and bugdet. We had periodical meetings and Opentech keeped us updated on each sprint. The desktop app was provided in 2 versions and Opentech came with new features that are of essential use for us like real time update.

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

A team of two persons were developing the app while the project manager was always in contact with us

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Opentech not only provided us such a software that will keep track of changes, speed up the workflow and remove unnecessary meeting on keeping everybody updated, but they also exceed our expectations and delivered new features like real-time updates. The app cut us a lot of time and effort in bringing together the newest versions of our projects.

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

Good style, not too pushing. Understandable of our requirements and last minute changes. We kept in touch through email and messaging and weekly skype calls.

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

The solution they came up with exceeded our expectations and they really through about it not as a product, but as a really necessary tool for our needs. . The working process was fun and Opentech always responded with fast feedback and precise work. We kept in touch throughout the process and were able to see concrete steps in making our software be ready to use.

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

Maybe, but we are happy with the app so far.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Association of Environmental Journalists and Ecological Tourism/development manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire OpenTech?

We contracted Open Tech to develop a game that explains optimal ecological solutions in the process of choosing a sewer

SOLUTION

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

Open Tech are known on the market as good specialists, but also for their civic attitude, interest in social projects. For us, it was important that beyond the technical aspects, that they be interested in the proposed topic and understand our purpose and objectives.

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

To make the game, we worked with the Open Tech team and a cartoonist. The work started with a common session, in which we discussed the subject and how it can be represented through the game. In the second stage, we had a meeting in which we established the structure of the game. We created a common database in which we gathered the necessary texts and caricatures, divided into stages.

Open Tech created the game very dynamically, including coming up with recommendations to make the game more animated and engaging, which were later implemented. The game was uploaded to a landing page of our site and shared on Facebook. Given that we worked for the game within a project with tight deadline, but at the same time everyone involved was interested to build a product with social impact, the Open Tech team proposed pro bono to develop a more advanced version. This is planned in 2022.

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

1 software developer & 1 project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

According to our metrics once the web app/game went live it stirred interest in the community and I believe the app will have a greater impact and popularity once the improved second version will be launched.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We where pleasantly surprised by the seamless communication with the team of Open Tech. They where always ready to provide advice and offer the best technical solutions to deliver the web app within the agreed deadlines.

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

The team showed attitude and interest in the subject and was not limited to the technical part. They also came up with his own ideas. Moreover, they are really interested in the social aspect and we were impressed that they were offered probono to add value to the game, for a more significant social impact.

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

The game was performed exactly as planned, with several improvements by the technical team. But we are going to make an even more advanced version of the game.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Program Manager at an AI company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

our company was created over 5 years ago and we are using Open Tech for costume-made features and components

SOLUTION

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

I have searched online for web developers, and after interviewing the management, we choose this vendor as a good fit to our needs

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

Tech used:

• conf
• Vue 2.0
• Vue 3.0

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

5 people in total:

• p.m.
• Senior Developer
• Mid developer
• junior developer X2

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

TBD

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

• Slack
• Excel (Gannt)
• Jira (cost tracking, risks)

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

Their p.m. Victor B. is highly involved in the development and has high project management experience.

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

Design details were not captured sucsesfully and Estimation were not met

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Business owner of a record shop, selling vinyl records.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a custom tool / plug-in to work with Wordpress and Discogs to be able to synchronize our database to our website.

SOLUTION

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

We found them through a referral.

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

We needed a custom tool / plug-in to work with Wordpress and Discogs to be able to synchronize our database to our website.

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

There were 2 people.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to achieve the main goal of the project which was to synchronize our Discogs database with our WordPress website.

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

Very good communication, through emails and in person.

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

They had excellent communication. Also, the attention to detail and fast product delivery.

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

All good alon all fronts.