Polcode

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a telecom services provider as a senior UI designer and developer for our enterprise SaaS portal.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polcode?

We were trying to rapidly develop our SaaS platform with new features and capabilities. We have a very small, inexperienced team in-house, so we were looking to Polcode to add development capabilities and speed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Starting with the technology first, our website and platform runs on PHP Laravel, so we were looking for Laravel developers. Our assigned developer from Polcode works in an off-shore model, creating prototypes and concepts for us, but also coming behind the curtain and helping with code review and improvement, including with speed performance and the UX.

Pretty much everything we’ve done has been from scratch, but we did use a Bootstrap template as the base of the frontend. We’ve customized it heavily, however, and now, three years later, it’s no longer representative of the template.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with 2–3 account managers, not including our one developer. We’re looking to add another developer currently. We’ve also interacted with a server expert who’s helped with the configuration of and troubleshooting on our web server.  

How did you come to work with Polcode?

We reached out to them through UpWork, and I met with one of their managers. They found a Laravel developer that seemed like a good match. They are also strong in HTML and JavaScript, which our site also use.

There was a very short onboarding process. The developer understood our project quickly and was able to install our project in their environment very quickly, contributing within a few days of us engaging them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $90,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work has been great, with a lot of it serving as templates for our developers to implement similar features with. We’ve been very happy with Polcode and our assigned developer.

I’m not privy to how much we’re making through the portal as a business, but I know we’ve obtained many more customers since Polcode came onboard. We’re very pleased with their work and are as satisfied as we could be. The portal wouldn’t be as feature rich and capable if we’d done it without Polcode.

How did Polcode perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s very easy to communicate with them. We speak through Trello and instant messaging, and GitHub acts as our code repository.

They’re very responsive. I can talk directly to the developer whenever I want, and they work later hours being over in Europe. They’ve adjusted to my schedule nicely.

We don’t have very strict timelines, and I know things are being done as fast as they can be. I’m happy with the turnaround.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The competency and expertise of their developers stands out. Their people are very qualified and knowledgeable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. I don’t have any suggestions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very specific in who you’re looking for and what skills you want them to have. After that, give them as much work as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of startup. We have created a marketplace for healthcare jobs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polcode?

I needed somebody with programming or coding ability to set up a website with a simple, straightforward, and intuitive interface.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Polcode developed our website using Laravel. While most of the content comes from our end, they’ve been extremely helpful at filling in the gaps.

What is the team composition?

I work with two people, including a programmer. Joanna (IT Business Manager) helps streamline the communication between the programmer and someone like myself, who has the vision, but not necessarily the language. She does an excellent job.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

I’d looked into taking on another endeavor. It wasn’t financially ready at the time, but I put my feelers out on Upworthy. Multiple people replied, including Polcode. Their approach made me feel comfortable: they were transparent as to what the cost might be, and they only provided estimatations after thoroughly looking into what I was hoping to achieve. They were also very timely in getting back to me.

When I began working on this project, I initially went with another firm. We agreed upon a contract, and they worked as hard as they could to deliver. However, I wasn’t fully satisfied, especially with the communication. I remembered how effective Polcode was at communicating, so I circled back to them.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

While we’ve been formally working together for 5–6 months, we’ve had a relationship for over a year. They took over this project in June 2020, and it’s ongoing. We will hopefully wrap up within the next two months. They’ve looked at taking on other projects for me as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Because we haven’t launched yet, I don’t have any user feedback. However, whenever we’ve met to discuss expectations and next steps, they’ve met if not beaten the timeline 100% of the time. They also give me timely feedback.

Working with the previous provider was a challenge, whereas Polcode is committed to being timely. 

How did Polcode perform from a project management standpoint?

Polcode has been very transparent about expected resources and time allocation. They manage the project very well. They understand my limitations; I’m not a programmer, so I don’t speak their language. However, they always speak in a language I can understand when discussing tasks. They let me know how many hours the task will take and what date they can deliver by. Then, they deliver and bill me.

They communicate throughout the process. I let them know what I’m envisioning, and we have a conversation about what’s feasible and what’s not. They not only let me know what to expect from the deliverable but also communicate once they’ve completed something. Then, they give me time to look at what they’ve done to make sure it’s to my satisfaction.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their transparency is impressive. I made my budget limitations clear, and I think there have been times when they could have tried to charge me more to optimize a deliverable. Instead, they make it very clear what the cost will be, and they give me time to think about whether or not I’ll have those resources. Then, we move forward. 

The transparency has been huge because I’ve never felt that I’m not in control of my spending. At the same time, the quality of the work that they put in and the quality of the product that I get back haven’t been compromised. Although they’re not being paid to collaborate, they lend their expertise where they can. That’s part of what makes me really happy to work with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

My lack of experience makes this difficult to answer.

Any advice for potential customers?

Take advantage of their willingness to discuss in the plainest terms possible what you’re hoping to achieve. They’ve demonstrated to me that they have the capacity to bring your vision to life, whether or not you have programming expertise. Having worked with the previous provider and Polcode, I’ve learned that the clearer I am with my vision and expectations, the more precisely and quicker they deliver. I’ve found myself spending more than I would like to when I don’t accurately communicate my vision. 

I strongly recommend working with Polcode. Be upfront with them regarding your budget or time constraints. They’re very flexible in finding a way to work with you, such as by providing a more affordable programmer with less experience, which won’t necessarily compromise the quality of the work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Engagement Labs is an industry-leading data and analytics firm that provides social intelligence for Fortune 500 brands and companies. The Company’s TotalSocial® platform focuses on the entire social ecosystem by combining powerful online (social media) and offline (word of mouth) data with predictive analytics. I work there as the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Polcode?

We hired Polcode to augment our development team and then maintain our existing TotalSocial SAAS platform. At that point in time development workload was sporadic and we needed flexibility in resources that only Polcode could provide.

What were your goals for this project?

Goals were two-fold: on the technology-side, have a strong partner who could take on an extensive pre-existing project and make any change, fix or improvement to it.

On the management side, have the flexibility to sometimes operate with a few part-time devs and then with a full-blown team when work picks up again.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Benchmarking Polcode against a few other vendors having good reviews - but the unmatched flexibility of Polcode really was the decisive factor.

Describe the project in detail.

Extend the development team of a SAAS analytics platform (Symfony + Backbone JS) - then maintain the application as the development roadmap stalled.

What was the team composition?

For the most part, one senior back-end developer and one senior front developer. A project manager is also assigned to the team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our support system shows that bugs have been fixed while respecting our SLAs. We also saw less and less issues over time - to the point that we had to stop our engagement.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Given that we still have technical know-how internally, we were able to interact with Polcode developers over Slack, as if they were in our own team. We could review commits and pull requests on Github.

Polcode has picked-up our Agile project management sofware even though they did not know of it before. It really worked seemlessly as a team augmentation.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Flexibility and Quality. Flexibility as the ability to scale up and down the workforce and to adapt to our own tools, practices and workflow. The quality of their work, dedication, and professionalism set them apart.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Can't think of any right now.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is Trinsey Apps and we create sports applications for volleyball coaches in order to help them track statistics and coach better.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polcode?

We wanted a development partner to handle simple coding and execution of our app. I was part of the Olympic volleyball coaching staff in 2016, but I didn’t have the technical skill to develop the tools that I knew coaches needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed and built two apps for us, both of which help coaches to keep track of statistics in a way that doesn’t require being a trained statistician or a really experienced coach. Originally, we developed just for iOS, but our second app is cross-platform as well.

Since then, we’ve expanded quite a bit to include a web platform that hosts a community where people can post videos or questions and interact with one another around a variety of volleyball related topics and content.

What is the team composition?

Joanna (Project Manager, Polcode) is the main person that I interface with but there are about four other members of their team working behind the scenes. Joanna coordinates with the designers and developers who have the specific skills that we need for whatever we’re working on at the time.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

I posted my project on UpWork and they submitted a good proposal, so I started working with them from there. Things went well so we expanded our involvement over time.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of the project overall has been around $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017 and are continuing to develop a variety of apps and functionalities.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main result I care about is the fact that we were able to smoothly develop the product and launch it, and that it has been selling since then. Users really like the product, and while we’ve obviously had to patch things, we haven’t run into any major problems with bugs, so it’s been pretty successful overall.

How did Polcode perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management skills are very impressive. We originally communicated through Upwork but have set up a teamwork platform that we now use to keep track of developments and make sure everyone is on the same page, which works very well for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think they are really strong communicators, which is incredibly important when you are outsourcing a project. If you’re in a different time zone, or even in a different office from a part of your team, communication is really critical, but they are always responsive and comprehensive in their messages to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One of the challenges of being a small team is that you may not have the developer you need right away, which can cause things to take a little bit longer. However, that’s just a side effect of how their business model works, which has its own advantages as well, so I’m not sure it’s something they really need to fix.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just be clear about what you want. If I set out precise parameters of the task I’m asking them to do, then it is done very well, but if I’m vague, then there tend to be several rounds of back and forth that maybe could have been avoided.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing partner for workITaround, an IT company for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polcode?

We needed someone to develop a data management system for our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Handling design and development, Polcode created the data management system according to our business requirements. We let them choose the technology because it didn’t matter to us. The technology just needed to be secure and easy to use. Their team created screen mockups and core data-collection features.

What is the team composition?

We were in contact with an account manager.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

We contacted a few Polish companies and conducted trial projects with each one. Polcode was the easiest to work with.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested €50,000 (approximatively $54,400 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2017, and the work is ongoing. Currently, we’re working on six projects together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re pretty happy with the results we receive from them.

How did Polcode perform from a project management standpoint?

We use email and Trello to correspond. Their team always delivers within acceptable ranges. The account manager tries her best to keep everybody happy.

We handle project management on our end by collecting business requirements and making plans. The process is very clear. First, my team goes to a customer and collects business requirements. Then, I transcribe the requirements and put them on a Trello board. Next, Polcode gives us an estimation and plan as to when they’ll be finished with developing our requested functionality.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re very happy with Polcode — that’s why we’ve stayed with them all these years. They’re flexible and always try to do their best. Processes are not always easy because of missing resources, but Polcode does their best for us and that’s good enough.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we miss or forget to answer something, they don’t send a reminder. I’ve found that they’ll just leave it alone. When it comes up again, I check and find out that they asked questions a week or two ago without sending a reminder that it was urgent.

This doesn’t happen all the time. For some projects, the account manager notifies me of urgent tasks. It’s not really negative because my team should follow up more.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise them to visit Polcode in-person, this helped us a lot. Make sure to have a good understanding of your account manager.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the president and executive director of a digital and social media marketing firm. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Polcode?

I hired them for routine maintenance and additional client support.

What were your goals for this project?

The primary goal is to make sure client websites are backed up in the event of a hosting failure.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A former web development partner recommended them upon her retirement.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They perform site backups and platform updates on a quarterly basis. They also provide on-demand website development for several clients, implementing the most current platforms and the most up-to-date security.

What was the team composition?

I work directly with a programmer and a project manager from Polcode. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I am confident that my clients are receiving excellent support and recommendations. This has allowed me to significantly expand my website development business.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We communicate regularly via email, and everyone I work with is prompt and professional.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They always deliver excellent results. I especially appreciate the expertise and recommendations the programmers provide when we encounter complications. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

I love working with Polcode. I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone in need of website development support.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a company that provides data market intelligence analytics to law firms and legal recruiters.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polcode?

We originally reached out to Polcode to update our website. They’re a PHP shop that came highly recommended.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Polcode is our partner of choice for anything tech related. Whenever we need work done for our site, we approach them to implement our ideas. They offer both backend and frontend development. While they specialize in PHP specialist, they provide us with many more services.  

They set up reporting and analytics capabilities for us that pull information to present on the site in various visual formats like graphs and PDFs. They participate in complex projects that demand coding expertise and a thorough understanding of the underlying data.

What is the team composition?

We interact with a project manager and a lead developer from their team on a regular basis. A total of three developers from Polcode work for us on almost a full-time basis.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

A different development company we used for Salesforce recommended them when we ran into difficulties with a previous PHP provider. Based on our previous experience together, we liked their work and contacted them for our most recent engagement.

How much have you invested with them?

Our expenditure falls within the $50,000–$200,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since 2016, and our collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any metrics or statistics to demonstrate the success of the engagement. Qualitatively, our customer feedback has been very positive. People love the updates Polcode implemented. We’re very impressed with the ownership the team takes in our projects.

No other developer we’ve worked with has returned results as quickly as Polcode, who often completes our requests within half an hour. They’re highly efficient and add a lot of value. We never feel like they overbill us.

How did Polcode perform from a project management standpoint?

They run project management very well. We take a two-pronged approach and have a close relationship with both their project manager and lead developer. We can approach either one, depending on the need.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve worked with several vendors, and none have ever been as efficient or as dedicated as Polcode. They launch separate pieces of development on our site for us to assess one at a time. If anything needs to be changed, they quickly jump in to tweak it. The team's greatest strength is their diverse skillset. After we spent thousands of dollars on an AI project with another company, Polcode came up with a better alternative almost immediately at a much more competitive price. If a project is within their wheelhouse, they will be more efficient and cost-effective than any other company. We’ve learned to approach them first.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any improvements to suggest. We’re very pleased with their work. The only thing they could do to help us more would be to extend their working hours.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Polcode offers expertise in a variety of programming languages including PHP and Symfony. I would definitely recommend them to future clients. We feel very lucky we found Polcode, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without their help.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company sells electronics, gadgets, and daily carry products and operates two distribution centers for retail and wholesale.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Polcode?

We needed them to fix endless bugs and malfunctions on our online store, to improve its performance and to add features.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a stable platform which could handle a lot of visits during campaigns and also monitor problems and possible downtime.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I had worked with more than 12 other firms before I found Polcode. I was impressed with their deep knowledge of Magento, PHP, and moderating servers.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They analyzed our platform to find the sources of the problems we were facing. They then planned fixes and updates, including fixes to minor parts of the platform and features. Fixes included server error, code quality, appearance, and speed optimization. We consulted with them in a lot of areas and they addressed our digital marketing needs.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two developers and a project manager throughout the engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our online store is working perfectly and has stabilized sooner than we anticipated. They’ve saved us time with their quality work. They answered our questions better than we expected. I'm renewing my contract with Polcode and not planning to find another service provider.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our communication and management were seamless and smooth. We used Trello to monitor tasks and email to contact other parties, such as a payment service provider.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have a deep knowledge of what they are doing. They are dedicated and specialized and that's made them the best choice.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT director at Peter Christian, a UK-based menswear company. We target consumers over 50 years old.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polcode?

We needed a team to develop our Magento 1 site. We weren’t pleased with our UK-based developer, so we decided to find a new agency.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a third-party create the designs, and Polcode developed the Magento 1 website based on those. They’ve helped us add new features to the site, including implementing payment functionalities. Their team integrated the platform with our back office, and are providing ongoing, daily support for other challenges. We’re planning to use their services when we upgrade to a Magento 2 platform in the future.

What is the team composition?

At the moment, their team provides a project manager and two developers.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

When we decided to hire a different agency for the project, we searched for European companies with Magento experience and discovered Polcode.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent in the $10,000–$50,000 range. When we move forward with the Magento 2 development, the price will be higher.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in May 2017, and we’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have specific results, but we’re thrilled with the platform’s stability and the work Polcode continues to do for us. Because of their development support, we can strengthen and add new features to our site.

How did Polcode perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly calls for progress updates, and they quickly respond to any of our problems. They’ve implemented a ticketing system for managing the project, so we can add requests and make updates with their developers efficiently. Additionally, I’m confident they’ll handle the Magento 2 development well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s hard to find strong Magento developers as a smaller company, so Polcode’s skill set has been valuable to us. Also, we were worried about a possible language barrier, but their English is excellent. Their team is quick to solve any issues we express— they’ve been a reliable partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s worth engaging with their team as much as possible. They’re friendly and strong communicators, so having regular contact with them will make for a smoother process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a consumer brand that sells a premium range of teas, teabags, and tea ware to hotels, distributors, and high-end restaurants. We offer online sales for direct-to-consumer purchases.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polcode?

We had a previous development agency in place that went into liquidation. We needed a new agency to support work on the two platforms we use.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They support the work we do in WordPress and Magento. They mostly fulfill ad hoc requirements and initially helped complete some small projects left over from the previous company. They also support the website, add new features, and make bug fixes or general improvements.

At the beginning of 2018, we had a very specific new requirement to develop a trade portal for our B2B sales. We needed a way for our business customers to place larger orders on a different version of the website. We contracted Polcode to help with that project in addition to their ad hoc duties.

What is the team composition?

Normally, we work with a team of three. We have a client account service manager and two developers. A senior developer is in charge of one platform and a mid-level developer is responsible for the other. When we ran the trade portal, we also had a project manager and low-level developer to help with that project.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

We started looking for new agencies and knew about Polcode from a previous business I worked with. I knew the quality of their work and liked their turnaround times. I reached out to them and asked if they would take on our account.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £30,000 (approximately $39,500 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August or September 2017. We normally engage them on an ad hoc basis and are allotted a set number of hours each month for small projects. We take on larger projects on a separate contract basis. Our ad hoc relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Because of the nature of their work, we don’t have any easily attributable results from their ad hoc work. The trade portal has reduced the personnel hours spent processing big orders, so they’ve contributed to projects that have a positive impact on the company.

They don’t have a particularly proactive role with us, most of their work comes from specific requests we make for bug fixes and small improvements. They have helped us with longstanding issues we’ve had with our checkout system and improved our customer service journey. They’re very diligent with completing our requests, but we have a different sort of relationship with them than they may have with more active accounts.

How did Polcode perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve employed them in two different ways. On an ad hoc basis, we only have a small number of hours allotted to us each month, which can be difficult to plan for. Our need of them isn’t always consistent, so we sometimes have to chase them and make sure they deliver the features and fixes we need in a given month.

For the trade portal project, we had a regular project manager who worked very well with us and kept us updated. We had regularly scheduled calls and were very proactive. It was a much more comfortable way of working together and we had a much better time with that project. We use email occasionally but mostly interact through Trello and Skype. We also have a standard bug management system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical knowledge and understanding of the platforms allow them to find solutions quickly. We certainly reap benefits from working with a senior developer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes our core intent gets lost in translation, but we usually get our point across. They understand most of our needs very quickly and are very technically aware. They provide effective in-depth support and we have an atypical client-agency relationship that works well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with hiring any agency, do your homework and make sure your scope and briefing documents are clearly defined. If you lay everything out, you are more likely to get the results you want.