Scopic

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of Mobile Outfitters, a US manufacturer and consumer brand of cell phone accessories with a network of 750 retail locations across 50 countries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Scopic Software?

We needed to create live dashboards, some utilizing Klipfolio and others being built from scratch, that looked at a variety of inputs (MS SQL databases, shipping software using their API, etc) to display our company metrics in real-time.

What were your goals for this project?

To create these custom dashboards, and use them on a regular basis throughout the company.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After learning about Scopic's attention to detail, their timely response, and the fact that you get a dedicated project manager - we were very impressed by their level of involvement in the project (which is rare amongst offshore dev companies), and their willingness to go the extra mile in creating a detailed scope (which is the key to a successful project).

Describe the project in detail.

We provided a description of the reports that we wanted, and the reason why, as well as access to all of the data. Scopic really took the reigns from there, interpreting what we wanted, investigating how to do it, and ultimate executing our vision (along with some of their feedback to make it even better) to create an amazing end product that we continue to use every day at the company. We have over 50 live reports that we monitor every day.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a dedicated project manager, who served as our main point of contact. The PM managed all developers, collecting our feedback, etc which was a very effective way to manage the project and resulted in an on-time, on-budget delivery.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was executed on time, on budget, and according to our vision. I couldn't ask for anything more! The reports work every day, without error.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Scopic was the single best offshore development company I have every worked with. Their model of providing a dedicated PM who manages all of the developers and serves as a single point of contact is a game-changer.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The dedicated project manager, who is always available when needed, and who also provides weekly summary reports with a detailed line item of hours spent, is very helpful and rare when working with development companies.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Scopic does a fantastic job, and I can not think of anything I wish they did differently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an assistant professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at a university.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scopic Software?

I hired Scopic Software to develop a website for a research study that’s designed to help patients in addiction treatment.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For development, their team used Laravel, ReactJS, and Shibboleth. The site needed to be secure because of the health-related information on it. It also needed to integrate with our university’s single sign-on system. The website also has interactive graphs that change when patients complete surveys regarding their healthcare.

What is the team composition?

I primarily worked with Miloš (Senior Software Engineer, Scopic Software) and Dejan (Project Manager, Scopic Software). There were also other team members that they assigned work to.  

How did you come to work with Scopic Software?

I found Scopic Software during an online search. I assigned them a small piece of the website first to get an idea of how they worked. I liked them, so I continued to work with their team.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started engaging with Scopic Software in April 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re not tracking anything specific. I’ve found Scopic Software to be helpful and knowledgeable about the work they’re doing. We’ve had some challenges integrating the website on our research server. Miloš is very adamant about figuring things out. He’s taking on a lot more than we anticipated, but that’s due to a technical issue on our side. They’re sticking through and reaching out to find as much information as they can for fixes.

How did Scopic Software perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of how they delegate tasks, they’re well-organized. The process is straightforward, and from our end, we can see each piece of what everyone is working on. Their tracking is very detailed, allowing me to communicate changes when I need to. I’m not very tech-savvy, but their team does an excellent job of communicating my wants into technical language. We use email and Teamwork for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team is fantastic at delivering what I ask. Internally, they have a nice structure in place. Some of their team handles quick and straightforward tasks, while others are strong technical experts that can go in and solve more profound challenges that take more time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

This project was for me personally, not connected with any company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Scopic Software?

I hired Scopic to develop a C++ program to link to my investment broker's trading platform using the broker's API. This program will accumulate and display market data and allow me to trade.

What were your goals for this project?

Lose no data streaming in, historize data, provide tools to review and study real-time and past data, submit trade orders, send emails and text messages.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I used a freelancer site and preferred Scopic because they are a company with a team of true professionals geared for custom software development at a very reasonable price.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

I wanted a C++ program that met my exact needs. I myself, a chemical and electrical engineer, have done a good bit of medium to low complexity programming for years in a number of languages, including C, and can manage to do some simple C++ programming, but the bulk of C++ features and functionalities are beyond me and would require becoming a student of C++ to understand and be able to use efficiently and effectively.

I am a perfectionist and want things done the best way, the most powerful way, the most efficient way, the most appropriate way to meet the needs. In this project I wanted to work with a programmer in such a way that I would understand the possibilities that C++ offers, and understand the details and mechanics of the solutions he proposed in such a way that I could then modify the code in the future, that is, the programmer essentially teaches me many things in the course of providing the solution.

What was the team composition?

1 programmer, and 1 overseer. In addition, they have several other layers of people assigned to the project that are there if/when needed, and some of these have been briefly involved now and then along the way. Probably 95%+ of the hours I have paid have been to the programmer. This is spectacular!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Scopic has exactly meet all of my needs, handled all of my concerns, and fairly often has proposed additional useful functionalities to compliment my requests. There have been a number of times when they vastly surpassed my expectations, due to the programmer's talents and persistence.

Therefore I am able to do exactly the type of trading I want to do, exactly the way I want to do it. Scopic does not know my strategy or what/how I am trading, but the functionalities and tools they provide have completely met my needs.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It didn't take long for the project manager to see that the programmer and I have a good relationship with each other, and communicate very well and effectively with each other. We cc her on essentially all of our many emails.

It may take us say 50 emails to investigate, study, and arrive at a particular architecture, in complete detail to accomplish something that is difficult, complicated, and extrensive, in a perfect way.  Many things are much quicker, of course, but we do a lot of communicating and discussing. The project manager will step in from time to time make a high-level observation/suggestion, but this has become less frequent over time.

I have a high regard for the project manager. She knows when to step and an when not to. She is good about notifying when my programmer's availability will change based on other projects he's working on, and on helping to meet my own schedule needs. The project has flowed smoothly the entire 3.5 years its been going on so far (I have a lot of requests).

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of the work. It's top notch. Clean, efficient code. When someone knows what they are doing they get it done efficiently, effectively, and elegantly, straightforwardly. It's no more or less complex than it needs to be.

In addition to the current project I am reviewing, which is the biggest and longest one, I have actually been working with Scopic on various trading software projects to connect and trade with other brokers since November, 2013. I have had the same results on every project. They hire talented people who know how to communicate. Its impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of three founders of Medical Records Tracker, which is a startup devoted to building an app for medical records tracking. We’re based in Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scopic Software?

We fleshed out a business plan discussing the logistics and architecture of the app, but I needed someone to take it through a technical build phase. That would include the launch, testing, and ongoing optimization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Starting with our wireframes and business requirements, Scopic Software turned our idea into code. They were picking up where a past service provider left off, developing our iOS and Android app from the front- and backend. 

Their team also created a launch plan for the app and website supporting the app. They also handled the marketing material surrounding SEO, ensuring we were promoting the app in the best ways possible. The final app contains ads, so they spent some of their time on ad optimization too.

The final app will function as a repository for medical data, including prescriptions, photos, and X-rays. It will allow users to manage their individual data and the data belonging to parents, children, and carriers. Users can access the life cycle of their data in realtime.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was an account manager. We also worked directly with representatives from the marketing team. In total, there were probably 10–20 people assigned to my project at any given time. 

How did you come to work with Scopic Software?

I heard of Scopic Software through reputation and contacts in my network. After reaching out, I spoke with them and about five other vendors. They each came to me with a scope and timeframes for the project, and Scopic Software’s stood out.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in July 2018, and I’m still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to launch in the intended timeframe with the correct functionalities and UI/UX. In terms of the number of user downloads, we’re also meeting expectations. We’re still working together to constantly optimize performance, but we met requirements overall.

Our team received positive feedback from clients in addition to requests for the app to be available in more languages. The app was not, in the immediate term, intended for non-English speaking markets. But, that demand is indicative of our success.   

How did Scopic Software perform from a project management standpoint?

The product captured my vision because we were able to work so closely together. We had a daily back-and-forth between our teams over email, phone, and Skype. If I had any questions, I knew I could be in quick contact with them. I also had access to their dev site, so I was able to log in to track progress, bugs, and overall performance. Communication was truly seamless. 

They were also very clear about business requirements, costs, and predicting outcomes. We had very few circumstances that threw us off schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re strong from a technical perspective but also with project and account management. Finding a partner that’s broadly effective in all three aspects is pretty rare.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about requirements and expectations, and you’ll have a very successful project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of HelpSocial. We offer software that companies use to provide customer service within social networks. Our solutions monitor Twitter and Facebook and other platforms for customer comments and send them to a call center. The software fits into the customer service agent’ desktops, and they use it to reply to customer comments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scopic Software?

We needed development help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Once we spun-off the company ourselves (we started as an internal project of another company) we started working with Scopic to build on top of our existing software. In addition to building new features and capabilities from scratch, they developed an Android app based on an iOS app we were refactoring. They also finished developing a Twitter app.

What is the team composition?

The team expanded and contracted based the project we were working on at the time, but we’ve ranged from 1–5 developers, with the average being three.

We had a project manager for the Android project, but for all other projects, we’ve had direct contact with the developers.

How did you come to work with Scopic Software?

We found them online. Lots of people replied to our project bid, but we went with Scopic. After having a great experience with Tim and his team, we’ve stuck with him since.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $250,000–$500,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since later 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We evaluate Scopic in two categories. The first is how do the developers work with our team. We want them to be as much a part of our team as our in-house people. They’re friendly and personable and good to work with. We don’t have to micromanage them either, because they don’t disappear on us. They’re very responsive, self-starting, and engaged.

In the end, though, it boils down to the work they do. They deliver everything in a reasonable amount of time and ensure it's of good quality. They follow through on what they say they’re going to do.

How did Scopic Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done great. We only had a PM for the android project (when we were smaller and needed day-to-day help in managing the team), and they made it really easy for us. 

We’re in communication on Slack all day long and have regular team meetings over phone calls or video chats. Everything is built in GitHub, where we also store our project dashboards. We treat them like they’re as much a part of our team as anyone else, having them attend regular meetings, received company updates, and take the same paid days off we take internally.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to find talent all over the place in a short amount of time is outstanding. Often, when we come to them with a new project or a request to add people, they’re ready to do it then.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

One important thing for us has been—since we’re building new software and inventing things as we go—clear communication. Their written and verbal communications are easy to understand, which is exactly what we need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development for PKC Pharmaceuticals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scopic Software?

My collaboration with Scopic Software spans three different companies. The latest project—for my current company—involved maintaining a legacy e-commerce site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Scopic Software took over our e-commerce website developed in Ruby. They maintain the site and expand on its functionality using PHP, Ruby on Rails, and Python.

What is the team composition?

We work with 6–7 people, including two project managers, 4–5 Ruby and Ruby on Rails developers, 1–2 PHP developers, and 1–2 Python developers.

How did you come to work with Scopic Software?

I had worked with Scopic Software at past companies. I had such a good experience that I decided to approach them again. We had previously engaged two different development teams for this project, and when the time came to move on from them, I reached out to Scopic Software.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in August 2015 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any metrics I can share. Nonetheless, Scopic Software has done everything we’ve asked of them—and promptly as well. We highly value their work.

How did Scopic Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project isn’t very complicated, so it requires minimal management. Scopic Software has done perfectly fine as a result. When we need additional resources, the team finds ways to provide it. They let me scale the team up or down as needed. Scopic Software is highly responsive to my needs as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Scopic Software always gets the job done in a timely and cost-effective way. I’ve led software projects for the past 12–15 years with teams from around the world. If I had to rank all of those teams, Scopic Software is consistently the best of the best.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, any limitations came from our side. We’ve been slow in providing specs and responding to inquiries. Scopic Software is very patient with us. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Look into the full capabilities of Scopic Software before you consider other vendors. Scopic Software has experience in providing digital marketing, social media marketing, HIPAA-compliant software, Golang development, mobile apps. 

I wasn’t aware of these services lines in the past and outsourced projects involving these to other vendors. In the future, I will go to Scopic Software first if I’m not sure if they can provide a specific service.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company mission is to gather book lovers from around the world in one place to share and exchange information about their favorite books. Also, to use that information to develop our personalities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Scopic Software?

I was looking for well-experienced website developers to design and launch the site. After searching the net I found Scopic's reputations to be encouraging to give them a try.

What were your goals for this project?

My main goal was to know other people who have similarities toward books and reading. The second goal was to gain some income from sharing my experience with other book lovers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After contacted Scopic team, I was amazed by the kind of services they offer. They have a strong team from different fields. So, it was very easy for me to find all that I want in one place.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They have well-trained staff in project management where they are responsible for managing the progress of the work and they are the link between me and the rest of the team. The marketing department is one of the services I found it to be a great investment toward the successfulness of my project. They are very smart and I enjoy their brainstorming ideas. We are still at the beginning of the journey but from their commitment and hard work, the outcomes will be very beneficial and worth every dollar spent working with them.

What was the team composition?

What I know is that any kind of specialty I need, I found it available to me. And they are well chosen.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are still at the beginning of the journey. I'm very confident we are going to shine in our chosen market.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management is the backbone of my business. Since the operation is well arranged and under our control, it's an indication of the excellence of their staff.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Problems don't hold them back. They can figure out what to do in every obstacle we face through our progress in the project.  

Are there any areas for improvement?

So far everything is going smoothly. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the owner and sole employee of RecipeIQApp.com.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scopic Software? 

I had an idea for a mobile app that could break down recipes and calculate their nutritional value but lacked the internal resources to develop it. Scopic Software worked with me to build my app from my initial concept.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Scopic Softaware developed my app from scratch. Their team presented all of the wireframes, suggested graphics, and helped work through the user flows. They then proceeded to development, using Google Vision for the optical character recognition (OCR) software and Firebase for the backend.

It’s an Android/iOS app that allows users to take a photo of a print recipe and learn about the dish’s nutritional value. Through OCR technology, the app will analyze the ingredients and quantities and compare them to a database to calculate the calories, sugar, salt, minerals, and more. Users can also input a URL of a recipe into the app’s built-in browser to extract nutritional information.

What is the team composition?  

They assigned a team of 4–6, including a project manager, UI designers, backend developers, database engineers, and QA specialists.

How did you come to work with Scopic Software?

I found them online and considered them along with two other candidates. After talking to their president, I felt like we really hit it off. He understood what I needed and had done similar projects before, so I was happy to work with him.

How much have you invested with them? 

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted about 18 months, from February 2017–July 2018.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen about 10,000 downloads since we’ve launched last summer, and the user feedback has been mostly positive. People aren’t deleting our app from their devices in any great number, so it’s been good so far.

In terms of reliability, the app functions as expected. Scopic Software is proactive about catching any technical issues that may arise. They’ve integrated a tool called Instabug to monitor error reports, and we have regular bug reviews. Currently, I’m planning to have them develop some additional features.

How did Scopic Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed highly. They used Jira to manage the project, but, for the most part, I communicated with them through weekly phone calls and emails. They were extremely responsive throughout.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

I was impressed by their ability to understand my initial concept and translate it into a functional application.

Are there any areas they could improve? 

The delivery time ended up stretching out a bit, but I was happy overall.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
 
Have a clear outline of your personal vision for the app (e.g., concept, workflow, potential design elements) and be able to communicate it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of E-Pets Online Inc. We sell dogs from breeders to pet stores.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scopic Software?

Our previous website was outdated and coded in classic ASP. We needed to rewrite everything, so we got in touch with Scopic Software. We wanted to able to make changes to the new site and accommodate customer requests.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We created a document listing our needs and they gave us an estimate. We bought a new software package, AuctionWorx by RainWorx Software, and had them customize it. They worked in ASP.NET with Bootstrap on the frontend. Features included information specific to our industry, such as dog registration, individual health details, and vaccination records.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two different project managers and two different designers at different times. The project manager was the primary backend developer. Scopic Software has enough people to handle all development tasks, they just bring on somebody else as they need them.

How did you come to work with Vendor?

We originally found them on Guru.com. We conducted phone interviews with five or six vendors, and we found Scopic Software’s rates very reasonable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000—$120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2016 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our customers have been using our site since 2003 when the menu options were in different places and they had to learn how to use software that they hated. They now appreciate the simplicity of our new design. We constantly solicit their feedback and it’s been positive. They know what they want the site to do, and I pass that onto the team at Scopic Software. They’re working to help us improve all the time.

How did Scopic Software perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager gets most of the needed information from the lead developer and passes it along to us. We receive a weekly summary of everything that’s been done. They’re very organized.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They get things done and they don’t complain about anything. When we ask them for something, they’ll just tell us they can do it and how long it will take, and then they start working on it. We’d worked with developers in the past where deliverables were promised and just fell by the wayside. That doesn’t happen with Scopic Software because they're very professional.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Something I didn't realize starting out is just how many people they have. Clients who have trouble with design or QA should reach out for extra services because their rates are the same for everything. Just find out what they have.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Nutshell Media, Inc. We offer various analytical software tools for the film industry. Our products are programmed to analyze movies and collect a variety of data and statistics from their scripts. It’s a very small company, and I’m funding the entire venture on my own.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Scopic Software?

I needed development assistance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Scopic Software is my go-to development partner. I share my specifications, and they build out the product. Once they have a working version, we go through a back-and-forth testing process. Each initiative is different from the next. Some tools are built with JavaScript and others with C++. Most projects have video elements. One specific piece of software they’ve made for us allows users to edit and playback content seamlessly.

We’re currently working on the biggest project we’ve ever done together. Scopic Software is using elements of about seven different applications we built in a research and development phase. In addition to that initiative, I’ve patented three more projects, and I’m working on a few others.

What is the team composition?

They scale their team depending on the workload and deadlines. Currently, we have a project manager and seven specialists.

How did you come to work with Scopic Software?

I found them through Freelancer. They seemed professional and offered a good price.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent over $50,000 with Scopic Software.

What is the status of this engagement?

I partnered with them in 2011, and we’ve been working together ever since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Scopic Software consistently develops reliable applications. They estimate a range of hours for each project, and their guess is always pretty close. Without their assistance, I wouldn’t have any software. I’ve had negative experiences with past vendors, but the Scopic Software team has never let me down.

How did Scopic Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They manage each project efficiently. I’ve worked with at least five different project managers throughout my partnership with Scopic Software, and I’ve been very happy with all of them. They provide detailed summaries of each teammate’s responsibilities and progress on each task. Whenever I have a question or concern, someone from their team is available to help.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They use efficient tools to organize and track the project. I’m pleased with our partnership, and I’m happy to continue it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Any advice for potential customers?

Provide them with a clear idea of how the software should work.