Shakuro

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a manager at an advertising agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shakuro?

We hired Shakuro to build an internal mobile application for employees of our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We relied on Shakuro to design and develop all elements of the mobile app for Android and iOS. We wanted the application to serve as a hub for employee information, where they could find our company newsletters and any relevant articles that we share.

What is the team composition?

Our project team consisted of just one person from Shakuro.  

How did you come to work with Shakuro?

We learned of Shakuro through a referral from our sister company.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $10,000­–$15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in May 2017 and remains ongoing, though the app has been completed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Once we received the application, we saw a promising level of employee engagement with the product. That figure has since dropped since our internal manager of the app left the company. We have been unable to remedy that solution and provide higher-quality content, but the fact remains that Shakuro delivered a functional app that we’ve been happy with.

How did Shakuro perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated well through phone calls and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were quick to respond to all of our queries.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They might have been able to add more metrics that allow us to track engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Future clients can expect a supportive and helpful team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of production marketing at Altium, a software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shakuro?

Our company has been on the market for more than 30 years, so we had a pretty traditional way of handling the business. Our flagship product was a desktop application, and we were looking to modernize by creating new ways of delivering to the end user. Consequently, our team hired Shakuro to build an iPad app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Shakuro designed the UX/UI based on our web app’s prototypes and then matched the solution’s beta set to our engineering software. The team developed the iPad app and connected it to the desktop version via the cloud.

What is the team composition?

The 5–6-person team includes one project manager, one UI designer, a web developer, and a backend developer.

How did you come to work with Shakuro?

I received a recommendation from colleagues.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2018 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Outsourcing development work never went smoothly until we partnered with Shakuro. As a company with a firmly established way of doing things, we're not the easiest to work with. However, the Shakuro team has maintained an active role and delivered great results.

How did Shakuro perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is organized and possesses strong project management skills. They have led the partnership without compromising or interfering with our internal processes. We communicate via phone, email, and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are proactive and take the lead on projects.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I cannot think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Verbalize the scope and expectations to ensure timely deliveries without unnecessary changes or costs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and founder of CG Master Academy. We are an online digital arts school for the games, film, and animation industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shakuro?

In a previous engagement with Shakuro, we needed help developing a platform for CG Society, an online community forum for computer graphic specialists and artists. The CG Society was using an outdated version of vBulletin and lacked a strong team of developers to fix the problem. 

Most recently, we hired Shakuro to develop our core product offering, a virtual classroom platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the CG Society project, Shakuro migrated the entire database to their proprietary platform. They continue to provide maintenance and support.

In my current work with them, Shakuro is helping my company develop a web-based platform for our virtual classroom. They utilize Ruby on Rails.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and 8–9 teammates assigned to our project.

How did you come to work with Shakuro?

Based on their platform development experience, Shakuro has garnered a reputation for being the best web development firm for larger-scale platforms. They also have experience developing community sites and marketplaces.

How much have you invested with them?

The project budget is $100,00–$150,000, and we have spent about $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them on the first project in November 2016. The virtual classroom project commenced in early 2018 and is ongoing.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall, feedback has been amazing.

How did Shakuro perform from a project management standpoint?

Shakuro's team is very responsive. We meet once a week to discuss the status of the project. They provide a comprehensive hours breakdown, so we can see exactly what individual team members are working on and how much time they put into it. We communicate via Skype. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Shakuro is a full-service development house that delivers on time and on budget. The team's timely, cost-effective, and consistent high-caliber work sets them apart.

Shakuro’s competitors charge higher rates for the same quality of services. It’s unusual to receive so much value for Shakuro’s prices. We will continue to work with them for as long as they continue to deliver on this. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have had some technical issues, but technology is very difficult to control. The initial establishment of our workflow and communication caused some minor problems, but this is to be expected at the beginning of any project.

Any advice for potential customers?

Adjusting to the remote services can take time and might not be appropriate for all companies. However, Shakuro provides regular updates and makes all content and materials readily available.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of Fit For Bucks, a startup in Santa Monica.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shakuro?

Shakuro is helping us develop a native iOS app based on our specifications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed the frontend in Swift for iOS and the backend in Ruby on Rails. They also built a custom administrative panel to help us to run the app. It's not completed. We’re continuously collecting user feedback and making improvements. We're growing our base by doing a beta test, and getting ready to put it in the App Store. The app is for creating communities of fitness-minded individuals and people who need extra motivation to exercise. We're connecting them to local brick-and-mortar businesses who offer rewards for health and wellness activities.

What is the team composition?

My primary contact is our project manager.

How did you come to work with Shakuro?

They were recommended to me. They were one of the six bidders on my project from different countries. I chose them, and I was not disappointed.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in September 2017 and the initial beta was published in mid-December 2017. Work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m very impressed with the quality of their work. From beginning to end, their processes are solid. Every single task and every single step is documented. Thanks to their work, we developed the application on schedule and on budget. Everybody who’s seen the app tells me how much they like it. I’m very pleased with the app. Because we're still in beta, we're not really tracking statistics or KPIs. We haven't started promoting the product to users or done any advertising. Our beta testers receive private invitations. Via informal means of collecting feedback, all our testers are very happy using the app.

How did Shakuro perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is top notch. Our project manager is the best I've ever seen. He’s easy to talk to and a hard worker. For example, he’s based in Russia where the first 10 days of January are a national holiday. He still came in several days during that time in order to continue working on the project. He's very responsive, even with the constraints of the 10 hour time difference.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their processes impressed me from the beginning. They use many different processes to develop technology. They use Jira for tracking all the project tasks. I really like how they go from estimate to completion, providing all the necessary reports. Their processes are open and transparent. The communication between the project manager, frontend designer, backend designer, and QA person is very smooth as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great if they opened a satellite office closer to us in the U.S. so we don't have that 10 hour time difference, which sometimes can be an inconvenience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing for Swyft. We’re an automated retail company that acts as a sales channel for brands and retailers who want to grow their profits and enhance their brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shakuro?

We were looking for a good vendor to help us with mobile application design and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Shortly after we started working with Shakuro, it became apparent they had knowledge of software development beyond just mobile applications. We transitioned our initial app development project with them into a custom software and UX design focused engagement. As a result, they replaced another firm as our primary design and development vendor.

Shakuro now works with our product managers, design team, and software engineering team to deliver complete end-to-end software development. They facilitate all of the overflow and some core development activities for our organization. This includes new UX designs, wireframes, and rapid prototyping designs created by using Sketch. Then, the final designs get handed over to our internal software development team or Shakuro themselves. They execute the development and delivery of the UIs using React.js, which are usually touch or web-based. They do fairly extensive CSS and HTML development as well.

Our stores are like upgraded vending machines, so the software is a complete UI that invites customers to start shopping via touchscreen multi-media videos and animations. A custom HTML application on the frontend gets customers to a templated UI that’s managed by a CMS. The UI enables end users to see a clean branded presentation and quickly find products, select categories, read descriptions, and view images. All of this is facilitated by a proprietary CMS that Shakuro built. Users then select and add products to the cart and after payment, Shakuro’s UI follows our API’s logic while it delivers and dispenses the items. This interactivity ensures the consumer has a good experience getting their product out of the store. Once the transaction is complete, the UI offers a receipt via text or email.

Other notable features Shakuro integrated into the UI include functionality with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that accommodates reach limits for people with various disabilities. Shakuro helped with other custom developments and client requirements such as virtual bundles and promotions to show on the UI. Overall, they’ve worked with us on 10–11 client projects that have been built into our analytic platform. That analytic platform was also primarily built out by Shakuro and is used every day to monitor our networks.

What is the team composition?

We primarily interface with four or five members of their team, but occasionally work with as many as eight or nine people depending on the task at hand.

How did you come to work with Shakuro?

If I remember correctly, I found them while looking for designers on Dribbble. Their designs wowed me, so I hired them. Once I discovered how skilled they truly were, the engagement grew from there.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in Oct. 2016 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve received screen touches in the tens of millions and through one client network, we’ve already gotten over a million transactions. Shakuro’s design work is absolutely outstanding. Another large tech company we work with have stated, “Who is your designer? We want to hire them.”

From a development perspective, our clients are happy with our ability to quickly deliver custom features. We QA their developments, so I can confidently say everything is very well built and accurately coded. Their team has been able to deliver on every expectation we’ve had.

How did Shakuro perform from a project management standpoint?

Shakuro is open to using our project management tools and they effectively communicate the status of deliverables if issues arise. Currently, we use Asana to manage tasks and UI workflow. We also use RealtimeBoard to manage design iterations as they develop. They architect software so they can build on top of an already existing platform, instead of having to start with a new code each time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a legitimate firm with a large team that’s been built to succeed at what they do and scale with large businesses. That alone makes them a gem. Finding firms like that is difficult. Beyond that, the integrity of their work and the relationships that were built with the team is something you don't typically find with firms from anywhere around the world.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always ways of improving how we collectively manage and communicate projects. At first, the developers would finish the day without expressing what work had been accomplished. This left us hanging until the developer got online the next day. That was a roadblock but has since been resolved.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am one of the cofounders and CEO of Ubiquity Media, a holding company that develops applications. Our primary app allows individuals to create channels and react to content by swiping.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shakuro?

They started very early with us. We engaged them in product design, UX design, and user engagement design and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked with them for a little over a year at this stage. When we were defining usability, user workflow, and engagement models at the onset, we worked with them to mock up initial design elements. We started from sketches through a more automated demo platform. They coded and developed the product as an iOS app and we progressed into design and implementation of our website and web presence. They took features and functionality of the app and applied them to the site, including login functionality.

They managed our Amazon account and infrastructure for distribution; we also contracted them to do WordPress development. They optimized our CMS and our data and analytics platform on the backend for our publishers. We’re working to allow users to navigate images and gifs in both the mobile and desktop environments quickly and efficiently.

We’re in the process of iterating to make sure we’re easily understood by consumers. We’re currently working on transcriptions and final modifications before we enter our alpha launch. We’ll eventually extend the platform into an Android environment as well.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager we communicate with on a daily basis. We also have a good relationship with their co-founder and owner. The team also includes an app developer, a web developer, a UX/UI designer, and a few people with skills like WordPress development or SEO abilities who occasionally come in.

How did you come to work with Shakuro?

We worked with them previously. Our CTO engaged them a couple of years ago and recommended them.

How much have you invested with them?

To date, our investment is in the $100,000–$130,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in spring 2016 and still work together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had stability across the team, and they’ve been timely with their deliveries. They’ve always been diligent with their responses and language is always easy. I speak some Russian, but they tease me and respond in English. That level of communication is critical, especially when working with overseas resources.

How did Shakuro perform from a project management standpoint?

They make themselves available, even on weekends, to meet deadlines and timelines. We had an early switch to a new project manager that caused a little disruption at the time but we’ve had the same PM for over a year. They’ve always been good at meeting deadlines, even when we need to make changes to the project.

We have a dynamic work environment. We had daily setup calls to review progress and prioritize activities. We use a standard weekly sprint model with regular communication. We tried a number of project management tools, but settled primarily on Jira and Skype. We used Trello a little, and they had other tools on their end.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a good rapport and communication, which is especially important when we don’t see each other face-to-face. I can trust that they’re working efficiently and diligently. We feel comfortable that they’re going in the right direction, even if our assignments are a little unspecific.

Their billing has been good and we haven’t seen any major discrepancies with the deliverables. We get a good value for the time commitment and like that we can go to them for all our development needs. Even though they didn’t have WordPress development in their skillset, they found the resources to provide it for us. They’re an effective, efficient resource with highly trained individuals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There wasn’t anything outwardly negative about our experience. We may have occasional disagreements on the direction, but I liked that they weren’t passive in their feedback. They have strong opinions on design and development and sometimes we need to debate and discuss things to come to the proper conclusion. We sometimes had to rework things, but that made them feel like a partner on the team. They don’t just take direction and are eager to provide feedback.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of I’m in Diary, which is currently a mobile app. It’s based around a calendar, but it has a lot of social networking elements as well. It’s designed to make it easier to organize things with your colleagues, friends, and family. We launched the iOS version in February, and now we’re building out Android and Web versions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shakuro?

My background is actually in investment backing, so I didn’t have much technology background when my co-founder and I started. We were looking for an agency that could build it for us, but also support us as we went along. We wanted an agency that offered more than one particular service or one particular language. So, I think Shakuro has that benefit.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us out a lot on the design side for starters. They built out our frontend iOS app, as well as a backend behind it. The frontend is Objective-C and the backend is Ruby on Rails. They also built a CMS for us. On their end, I had a full-time iOS developer, a part-time backend developer, a part-time project manager, and a tester who got involved whenever needed.

A great advantage of Shakuro is that, for the last year and a half, they’ve always had the same people on our project, which is a huge advantage. I think there are a lot of agencies out there that circulate between the team or have more than one person involved, and things get a bit messy that way. I think it’s much better to have more of a dedicated team, and that’s why we’ve stayed with them throughout this period.

How did you come to work with Shakuro?

We looked around at companies in the UK, Dubai, and India. My partner had done business with Shakuro before, but I don’t know the exact story. From what I remember, I think he basically came across the CEO online somehow. We thought they were the best possible choice. We took into account their professionalism, quality, and cost. That’s why we went ahead with them, and they’ve been very helpful for us.

How much have you invested with Shakuro?

We’ve invested somewhere between $54,000 and $58,000. When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing and made a few mistakes. I think a lot of things they built for me weren’t right, not because of them, but because of what we wanted in the product. So, there were a lot of iterations as we changed things quite a lot. Obviously, creating it from scratch would probably cost a lot less.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first touched based about two years ago, but the bulk of the development really started in the last year and three months. So, we’re talking early 2016 as when things got a lot busier. The bulk of the work was done between January of 2016 and February of 2017. The iOS app was launched in February. We’re now raising money, and we’re going to be updating the app quite a lot. So, it’s ongoing work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the February launch, we actually got featured by Apple on ‘New Apps We Love’, which was great. Their feedback was that the design and quality of the app were at quite a high standard for a new player. That was really good for us as a company, but also shows the work that Shakuro came up with in the end.

I think it’s a bit early for us to talk about sales and marketing, just because we haven’t done any yet as a company. We’ve been waiting for the Android to be out and changing the product, so I think that’s a bit of an unfair metric. I think the best one is the Apple feature. I’ve met a lot of people who have made loads of apps, but very few of them have been featured, or at least not at our size. To get that, the idea obviously needs to be great, but the execution needs to be good as well. I think they deserve a bit of credit in that space.

We’ve had really good feedback on design. That’s been the main focus for us. We don’t have a lot of the features that bigger companies have, so the design is an important part of why people are using the app. In terms of the code, I ran it past an experienced developer who I trust, and he said the documentation they set up on the backend is really easy to use. The Android developer commented that the backend docs were quite easy to follow, which is quite important as well and something that a lot of people get wrong.

How did Shakuro perform from a project management standpoint?

I think having a project manager was really great. I got very involved, but I just got more involved than I had to. I think they’re quite capable, which is great. I trust them. A lot of the time, I’m hearing suggestions from them, and they have more tech experience than I do. We use JIRA, which is fantastic from my perspective. It’s really easy to communicate with everyone and make sure everything’s efficient. I do trust them to do their thing when I need to. I’d say they generally met the deadlines. In the app world, meeting deadlines is very difficult, and we didn’t meet every single deadline. I can say that they really worked hard to make sure they did everything that was in their hands to do.

What did you find most impressive about Shakuro?

I have been speaking to other agencies and considered hiring in-house developers as well. I think what really stands out to me is that they’re very professional. The project manager we have has just been excellent, and his communication has been great. He’s very responsive, which I think is one of the most important things. He replies to emails and calls, and he’s online when we need him to be. They’re just super-professional, and I always know what’s going on there. They always keep me up to date on holidays or if people are away. It feels as if they’re part of the company, really.

Are there any areas Shakuro could improve?

I think it comes back to the timing. When you’re building new technology, sometimes it’s hard to estimate how long that’s going to take. Sometimes you just find out as you go along. At times, I think they need to manage that process a little better and manage their client’s expectations. I’ve given this feedback to them, and they are learning from that and they’ve been better recently. It’s something you just continue to learn as you’re building things.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Secret Pacific Division. Our company wanted to launch a website for digital artists. We still don’t know if we’re going to work on other websites, but that’s basically our product. I’m in San Francisco, and a few people are working for me.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shakuro?

We needed ground-up development, including the whole design, software, UI, and logic. We knew that Shakuro had experience in building a similar platform. We had an idea but no infrastructure, and we hadn’t figured out the logic of how that interaction would happen. We found some competitor websites that looked similar to what we wanted. We needed an abstraction of all that, plus improvements. We brought Shakuro our vision, and they took over completely. We started with a broad idea and ended with the product. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’m not a technical person, but I believe the site was built using Ruby on Rails. Shakuro also did some specific domain setups and other particulars. The project was split into frontend and backend. One person led the team on the backend, and we also were assigned someone for the design. I was only talking to a single person about the UI and our ideas, and that individual relayed information to the people who were implementing.

Due to their experience with similar platforms, they also offered ideas. It was something they didn’t have a chance to do before, and it felt right. Also, the functionality is really vast. For example, we needed a set of images implemented, but it had to be simultaneous with, let’s say, 10 images in a row. We didn’t know how to do that, but Shakuro had an idea about uploading and tagging images, which they helped us develop and perfect. They found a way to propagate the same tag throughout all images and alter them.

They also suggested and developed instant messaging within the website, which none of our competitors had at the time. Now, we have messages between profiles.

How did you come to work with Shakuro?

We found them by word-of-mouth after they developed a previous popular platform. We started developing our own because if that platform went away, the website would shut down. We knew that Shakuro was the original developer, so we reached out to them through the website and looked at their portfolio. Their previous experience definitely attracted us.

How much have you invested with Shakuro?

We’ve invested over $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s kind of a blur because we had a rough start at the idea stage. I don’t remember the exact date or month, but I know it’s been going on for 1.5 years roughly. The project has wrapped up, and we’re in limbo at the moment. We will need more development and are still talking to them. It’s an open contract since we go back to them for fixes and changes. There’s currently no new development, but maintenance is still happening.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We like to keep our specific numbers private, but you can see the activity on the website by recent uploads, which happen every day. The growth rate was pretty stable while we were rolling out new features. We had to stop for other reasons, but as we were implementing more and more stuff, we had something like 1,000 users a month. We saw increases in commenting, liking, and uploading.

Shakuro also helped us implement a support system, which they didn’t develop but tailored for us. It includes pop-up support on the right side of the screen. Once that was in place, we had a lot of user feedback coming in directly through that tool. We had users asking for certain features, and I’ve discussed these suggestions with Shakuro. Some of them have been implemented already, and others were minor changes in the UI.

How did Shakuro perform from a project management standpoint?

I would give them 100%. They took over the development completely after the idea stage. I had no problem with their management whatsoever. We had daily Skype calls where they showed me the progress, and I either approved it or sent it back.

What did you find most impressive about Shakuro?

I have a friend who is also working with them based on my recommendation, so I can speak about several projects. Their integrity is the most impressive trait. Often, when I had ideas that weren’t the best or that were expensive, they were upfront and told me which ideas would not be viable.

They were transparent in setting costs and giving feedback. Not everyone is like that. A lot of developers will blindly follow your direction. I relied on their experience, as this was my first big user platform project. Their candor gave us considerable value.

Are there any areas Shakuro could improve?

If everything was cheaper, we’d all be happy, but I don’t think they’re the most expensive company. Rates depend on the market, and they can always go lower. I would prefer to have some people working in my office, but they did a good job in a remote capacity.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Anthony Gallo: I am a co-founder and the president of GenesisOne. Joe Randall is our technical lead. We're an IBM technical validated partner, and provide a tool which documents code within SQL servers, creating a data flow for it.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shakuro?

Joe Randall: We were working with technology that we weren't familiar with. Our platform had been developed using different languages, from a PHP and MySQL website to a C# tool. Our previous developers messed things up for us, but Shakuro was able to jump in and not only fix but improve our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

JR: We have an interactive e-commerce website which we tracked extensively. Shakuro took over the maintenance of our PHP and MySQL solution and fixed some running issues. They set up web services for us in order to facilitate communication between our two hosting environments and performed a number of tasks which were above and beyond what we asked for. Shakuro has the ability to quickly learn about a concept and recommend solutions for making it more efficient, while still delivering under our estimated hours. Shakuro brought up our platform by many levels in terms of functionality and reliability.

How did you come to work with Shakuro?

AG: I found Shakuro through a friend. We fell in love with them from day one. Shakuro not only created an outstanding product, but they came in under budget.

JR: We had used several companies like Shakuro, but they're the only one that I would want to continue working with.

What is the status of this engagement?

JR: Because we have a commercial tool, we are constantly working on enhancements for it. Anthony is responsible for our marketing push, we provide feedback to Shakuro, and ask them for changes through a back-and-forth process.

AG: We've had a relationship with them for several years. Shakuro helped us become an IBM technical validated partner. The company saw our technology as being a breakthrough in terms of documenting Microsoft's SQL Server. We also plan to use Shakuro on an ongoing basis, for building out the same technology for Oracle and other databases.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AG: We've shared a number of results on the case studies section of our website. A Microsoft representative commented on the amount of time our tool has saved them.

It's a commercial tool being used by various clients from all over the world. They've been reordering our service, so we're very happy with Shakuro's work.

How did Shakuro perform from a project management standpoint?

JR: We used Git as a repository and JIRA for tracking the work. The process was very transparent; we knew exactly what Shakuro's team was working on, and I appreciated that they didn't simply go off and started developing, but made sure that they understood what our requirements were. Shakuro came back with tons of questions around the emails I sent them and kept up the back-and-forth communication until they had a crystal clear understanding of what they were doing. We set up JIRA tasks and went through them in an organized manner. I have the impression that Shakuro's team hates wasting time and milking people for money.

What did you find most impressive about Shakuro?

JR: The one thing which really stands out for me, based on working with numerous IT professionals in general, is the speed with which Shakuro can grasp what we're trying to do. I communicated with them at a very high, conceptual level, but Shakuro was able to understand things quickly and communicate them back to me in the form of technical specifications. That's a very impressive and hard-to-find quality.

Are there any areas Shakuro could improve?

AG: We would think that there would be, but Shakuro was a godsend for us. They came under budget and were always on time, which is unheard of in the IT industry. I do not have a negative comment about them, and we will continue to use Shakuro.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

organize.me is a startup in the document recognition domain. We analyzed documents semantically based on the content. This way we could retrieve categorization type, creation date, and vendors of the documents, and finally, provide an archive. I was the head of engineering when I worked at the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Shakuro?

There were only 12 employees in the company. We provided the UI [user interface] for the web product as well as the Android, iOS, and Windows full native apps, and an API on the backend. We needed someone to develop the native apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Shakuro created all the native apps for Windows, iOS, and Android. The initial idea came from us. We had one UX [user experience] developer and one designer on our team. Shakuro gave us really good feedback on our draft, and our team was able to make those changes.

How did you come to work with Shakuro?

We found Shakuro on Upwork. They had good reviews, and we felt we could trust them.

How much have you invested with Shakuro?

We spent several hundred thousand euros but less than 1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Shakuro in September 2013, and the work was completed in February 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any metrics since I’m no longer with the company. Shakuro was always very honest and proactive which we appreciated very much. The quality of work they delivered was always good.

How did Shakuro perform from a project management standpoint?

In the beginning, it was tough because Shakuro had very strict responsibilities regarding who does what tasks. We kept working to improve this. Eventually, they were pulling tickets for other developers and sharing responsibilities. Shakuro provided a project manager who was our main point of contact. They discussed ideas and questions with us and then shared it with Shakuro’s team. We communicated with him through Slack or Skype.

What did you find most impressive about Shakuro?

The most important thing was Shakuro's ability to adapt to new situations. There were lots of times where we changed our minds. Shakuro was very proactive on everything, and they were always trying to think on their own. Shakuro didn’t just implement what we said but gave feedback if they thought something wasn’t going to work properly.

Are there any areas Shakuro could improve?

Not really. If there’s an issue, I talked to Shakuro directly.