S-PRO

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the consulting IT Director for a manufacturer of floor mats. I’m helping to streamline development and take the company through an agile transition. The company has grown dramatically since it’s beginnings in 1999, working closely with facility services companies in the US, Europe and around the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

S-PRO helped us create an app that our salespeople could use to expedite their interaction with their clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project with S-PRO started before I joined the company, but my understanding is that they have headed up the front-end development and that has certainly been their focus while I have been involved. The application is effectively a SPA and heavily reliant on JavaScript, so they have played a major role.

They have worked closely with the User Experience designer and backend developers, contributing ideas and solutions for the application design and for architectural issues.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

S-PRO were contracted through Upwork. Several candidates were interviewed but S-PRO stood out and were brought in to head up the front-end development.

How much have you invested with S-PRO?

As the project started before I arrived, I don’t know the exact budget, but it would be in the range of $100,000 to $150,000, and that would have been distributed amongst all of the team members working on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began around December 2015 and has recently been completed. S-PRO is still helping us out with a couple of minor issues.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The app has only just been released in beta, so we don't have any hard metrics yet. Stakeholders within the company are pleased with the final product. Feedback from the test group in the field has been very positive. Other customers of the company who don’t yet have access to the app are looking forward to getting their hands on it.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

This project was difficult in that it brought together several independent developers who had not previously worked together. S-PRO were able to settle into the project quickly and begin delivering usable iterations with each Sprint. Despite the team being distributed globally, S-PRO delivered their tasks on time, attended meetings promptly and were able to liaise effectively with other team members, overcoming problems and impediments quickly.

While S-PRO didn’t take a project management role in this project, they were organized and worked well with the team. Certainly, with regard to planning and daily meetings, S-PRO was clear about what they were doing. They delivered what they said they would deliver, and it was on time and budget.

What did you find most impressive about S-PRO?

Before this project, I had never worked with a bunch of developers who had not worked with each other previously. Also, a team in India was introduced to the project later in the game. So, we have India, Europe, the UK, and the US all working in collaboration with each other. That tends to require flexibility regarding your availability and the hours that you're prepared to work to get things done. The whole team was good at that. There were never any issues with somebody not being available for a meeting. There were never any issues with somebody not producing what they said they would produce. Obviously, there were problems along the way, but as the issues arose, the team worked together and could overcome them. S-PRO's commitment to the project was evident. They were an important part of the team, and they helped make everything move forward.

Are there any areas S-PRO could improve?

Not really. There were very minor communication issues arising from background noise on conference calls, which combined with the accent, occasionally meant that a point would need to be repeated. The level of English in the S-PRO team ranged from understandable to very good.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with S-PRO?

The team at S-PRO know their stuff and work well together. They don’t need to be over-managed. I've already recommended them to people and would definitely use them again.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Canadian Recreational Sports Development Corp deals with hockey. We are based in North America. We’re building an application right now that will allow us to organize sports, collect payments, and manage events. The name of the application is Breakout.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We needed help with building our application. To give you context, there are two big problems that we see every day in our business. One is the need to collect rich [inaudible, 00:58] from players, and there’s not really a good solution to make group payments. If you run a team of any sort, what happens is that the person who runs the team has to collect all the money. That means there’s no way to allow the players to give monthly payments. The app solves that problem. The second problem is that when you run a team, what happens is that you need to know how many players are coming to each game. It takes a lot of time to figuring out if you are sending text messages or emails. Our application solves this event management problem.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was my vision, but S-PRO did the execution. I did not provide any wireframes, but I did provide specs as far as what particular things I wanted to build. These were improvements of those things that they built. They built everything from the start—the system, database design, user experience, user interface, and design. We now have a React-based app for Android and iOS that they built. They essentially did all the development that I requested them to do. We work in one-week sprints and every few weeks or months when we need something. They didn’t do any marketing for us.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I looked for two years to find the right combination of value and technical ability. It was difficult. I found them on oDesk at the time. I found Igor, the principal of the company, and we started talking. We did a test project to see if they would be the kind of organization that we would want to work with. When we did the test project, the results were good. The product I request them to build has to be of quality, along with the communication part. If something was wrong or if there are any issues that need resolving quickly, then I need access to someone that would be able to help to figure this out. They definitely did that. I figured that we could continue with them and started to go in that direction.

How much have you invested with S-PRO?

The amount we’ve paid S-PRO is approaching about $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I approached them in the fall of 2014. The work is ongoing because we still have a few phases that we need to complete.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I’m the lead in the project so not too many people engage with S-PRO. The results that they see is the product, and there’s been pretty good feedback about that. Our employees are achieving what they need to achieve, especially our accounting department because they use the product for the payment aspect of it. They don’t have any issue with it. If there are any problems that we find, they get fixed pretty quickly.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

I have a dedicated project manager assigned to our project. There’s a plan that we put together, and he’s in charge of making sure that plan gets executed. That’s the nature of our relationship. There’s a weekly sprint that we talk about. After that, I get a report of what has and what has not been completed, then we go forward and repeat the process. I typically talk to him on a nightly basis because they’re based in Ukraine. I haven’t had any issues communicating with them. We use three main communication methods. The project is managed on JIRA, and all issues are reported on there. We can go back and forth on comments, screenshots, videos, and whatever else we need to do in there. Direct communication is through Skype. If I need to discuss something in person, we use that. Of course, we use email when there are things that we need to record that aren’t that pertinent or urgent.

What did you find most impressive about S-PRO?

Typically, it’s difficult to deal with companies from other countries because of language barriers or different time zones. Anytime I needed anything, they were available for me, and that’s really important. If we’re in production and there’s an issue, it affects quite a few people we work with. I was able to resolve any issue we had. They’re flexible enough that we can always work out any issues in the business relationship or in areas unrelated to the product.

Are there any areas S-PRO could improve?

You can always improve on something. I would say that they can always add more technological capabilities to their company through more experience with their developers or in QA. Their QA was actually a little bit weaker, but it’s been better now in the last five or six months.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with S-PRO?

The most important thing is to do some research upfront and not to commit to somebody right away. We don’t really have a formal contract. Because of the nature of the development, it makes sense for me to continue with them. If you don’t do the research or test project, you might find yourself in a situation where you’re not getting the results that you want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a startup company developing an instant-messaging smartphone application that helps people organize group activities. I am the chief executive officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We needed to develop our software and didn't have the right personnel on our team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

S-PRO developed our cross-platform application using Cordova PhoneGap. It has an HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frontend, and a Node.js and MongoDB backend. For the most part, the work was based on our own wireframes in the beginning. S-PRO also supplied a designer who gave us some very constructive inputs.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I found S-PRO on Upwork, which was called oDesk at the time. I was looking for developers for similar technologies to ours and went through a huge number of reviews. After whittling the list down, I had a Skype session with one of S-PRO's project managers. I was happy to go with them from that stage.

How much have you invested with S-PRO?

The cost of S-PRO's work was between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project has been completed after an 18-month period, but S-PRO continues to provide minor ongoing maintenance. I plan on moving on to another business and plan to maintain our collaboration with S-PRO going forward.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The app has had very few downloads so far, around 200 in total between the Android and iOS versions. We've seen very positive reviews from the people who have used the app. The software is functioning very well.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

I worked with two separate project managers from S-PRO's team over the course of our project. They had excellent English levels, so they were very methodical and good at translating the work for me. We used Skype for our day-to-day communication. We averaged 2–3 video calls per week, for cases where we couldn't understand each other. We also had one major weekly conference that lasted 1–2 hours. S-PRO was using Jira as well as another project management tool in which I was included. I could see all the tasks being worked on and could monitor the project in that way as well. With every large project, deadlines will rarely be met. We extended our original timeline but the overall collaboration was very positive and the vast majority of reasons for deadline extension came from our side.

What did you find most impressive about S-PRO?

I was very pleased S-PRO’s team and services. S-PRO's members are very good people. I visited them in Ukraine.  S-PRO has a great working environment and a young, energetic team who I could trust. They're trying to innovate on how the business is being developed.

Are there any areas S-PRO could improve?

Deadline estimates could be improved, but I can't think of anything else.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a learning management and content distribution platform, and we provide users the opportunity to attend or conduct online schooling, as well as consume media content like Netflix.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We were looking for a DevOps engineer to handle our deployment pipelines, provide us with research, and configure our public domain software projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

S-PRO provides a DevOps engineer who manages our weekly software releases and implements features into our system. In addition, they also configure our entire cloud infrastructure and maintain our servers to keep them running smoothly.

The team mainly utilizes Jenkins UI, the entire HashiCorp suite, and Bitbucket for this progressive web app that we’re working towards deploying on iOS and Android.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with one DevOps engineer

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested somewhere between $150,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This ongoing partnership started in October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The DevOps engineer is always available, ready to step in and help us despite any situation. They work well with our core development team and go above and beyond our needs and expectations.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly use JIRA and the Atlassian suite to manage the project and typically communicate through Slack and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with S-PRO’s agility in sourcing highly qualified candidates with a wide range of experience levels.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re already in the process of diversifying their locale so other than that, there’s nothing they need to improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to just go for it and hire them because S-PRO is a solid team that will always be present for your needs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Proxeus is an open source blockchain project that provides a powerful document automation tool with wide-ranging functionalities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire S-PRO, and what were your goals?

For its maintenance, the Proxeus association collaborated with S-PRO. S-PRO assigned a dedicated blockchain developer to the project. The project was carried out to a high level of satisfaction and the communication was outstanding. The whole team at Proxeus association recommends working with S-PRO and their blockchain developer.

SOLUTION

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

We found S-PRO amongst top providers for this type of work and after initial interview decided to enter into a project based collaboration.

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

Proxeus is a platform for quick and convenient document digitalization, signing, processing, and distribution.

• Allows users to keep their important documents secure and registered on the blockchain
• Empowers anyone to create blockchain applications
• Available for free as an open-source project

*Key features*

• Estimate document validity (even before registering in the system)
• Register users
• Verify documents in the blockchain
• Create and upload documents in different formats

1. Structural information. The system provides access to various processes that are necessary for modern business users: adding a user, accessing applications and forms, and providing a good user management system.
2. Reports generator, templates that are filled with data, and PDF document generator. Users can match processes to a particular workflow easily and without programming. This workflow functionality has been in demand for several years now, since creating everything from scratch is expensive when process automation is needed.
   Therefore, such systems to create workflows are popular if they allow the user to create their own processes without technical training. Proxeus offers the ability to connect its solutions to an interconnected chain and transfer data from one chain to another.
3. No code. Originally, Proxeus was positioned as a product that provides digital transformation without code. It was a constructor to allow app creation without programming knowledge.
4. Opensource. Unlike competitors’ products, Proxeus can be installed on your own infrastructure and with your own firewall. Proxeus doesn’t belong to any company, and therefore it can be freely used. Proxeus is no longer commercial but is publicly available as an open-source project on GitHub, so anybody can improve it and make pull requests. There is also complete documentation for the developer.
   Therefore, it is possible to create a system extension without injecting it into the code, as well as to make plugins in any language.

5. Full internationalization and ability to translate into an unlimited number of languages.

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

Four people: sales manager, blockchain developer, business analyst, and devOps.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

S-PRO team completed the following points:

• Fixed bugs, as there was broken functionality. The project has several repositories: for smart contracts, for the blockchain part, and others. They reviewed the project for problems and created initial tasks.
• Studied the handbook and tested all the functionality from it.
• Found blocking points, and registered them as issues.
• Wrote out recommendations for improvements and non-blocking bugs, such as recommendations on user friendliness. They did this in terms of business logic and technical improvements.
• S-PRO’s DevOps team made a dev server and improved CI/CD and auto-deploy. They also set up a demo server.

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

We had and still have a well-established workflow and communication. Their blockchain developer delves deeply into the project, trying to cover everything. For our part, we provide all the necessary information in a timely manner.

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

We are pleasantly impressed by the willingness of the vendor staff to study every aspect of the project. They know it very deeply and look for and offer new development opportunities. Such a partnership is convenient and desirable for us.

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

No, a flawless collaboration in terms of the deliverables quality and efficient communication.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Advertising agency, Director of Digital Production.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire S-PRO?

React Native development.

What were your goals for this project?

To fix existing bugs and update software versions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found the vendor online.

Describe the project in detail.

We briefed S-PRO team over the video calls, sent them the codebase to review, then received their initial thoughts and ideas, the estimates, and signed the contract. The work began as planned and finished on time.

What was the team composition?

We had a team of the Project Manager, Developer and a QA specialist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Great quality of work, and work ethics. Timely reports and transparent communication.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective, we used Slack and Jira to communicate and track progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very thorough and transparent.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were very happy with the way S-PRO handled the task.