Simform

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO of a software development startup. Our company builds enterprise-based solutions for logistic companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Simform?

We needed support in expanding our technical team, and we contacted Simform to provide software development support that works with our internal team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we conducted workshops with Simform’s team to explain our product, and over time, the team understood the essence of our product and the industry we operate in. Simform provides software developers and other resources that support our team with front- and backend development and cloud architecture and infrastructure. 

We provide Simform with the features that need to be developed, and the team supports us with brainstorming, partner cases, and refining the product features. They’ve taken ownership of understanding and delivering the software product, and the team also assists us in the design and implementation of our landing pages.

Simform uses AWS to work on cloud architecture and implementation. The team works on serverless backend development using Python and frontend development using React, JavaScript, and TypeScript. 

What is the team composition?

We work with two backend engineers and one frontend engineer full-time, and Simform has also assigned a delivery manager and a customer success manager to our project. 

How did you come to work with Simform?

We found Simform through their online presence. Clutch was one of the websites we used to search for potential partners, and Simform was one of the candidates we considered based on their reviews and skills since they had good recommendations. 

We evaluated around 7–8 technical partners, and Simform’s software team had the best skill set we came across and showed professionalism, too. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $70,000 with Simform so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Simform in February 2023, and our collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Simform’s support, we’ve developed and released the first version of our product in less than four months — that is a significant win for us. Simform has kept implementing more features after that, delivering an evolved product in seven months, which would’ve taken more time for our team to develop. 

Additionally, every time we require support apart from the team already assigned to our project, Simform assists in finding available resources.

How did Simform perform from a project management standpoint?

We had initially agreed that I’d take care of project management; however, Simform has a better project management team that ensures the development tasks are delivered on time. If there are any anomalies with the development team’s work, Simform’s delivery manager helps us rectify them. For project management, we use Atlassian tools, including Jira and Confluence.

Simform’s customer success manager has impressed us, too, since they ensure a smooth collaboration and quickly address any challenges or issues we encounter. Our primary form of communication with Simform is through weekly or daily video calls on Google Meet, and we also use Slack for regular communication. 

Overall, Simform’s team stays aware and involved in the project deliveries. The team stays connected, which ensures streamlined communication. Simform brings up any potential issues or delays they foresee. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with Simform’s developers' skill set, which is high compared to their peers. The team is professional and very involved with our project — they think of the product as their own company’s product. Simform challenges our concepts and constantly provides suggestions to improve our work, highlighting the challenges they foresee. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of much for Simform to improve. We initially had a couple of iterations to find the appropriate developers and team members for our project. We would’ve liked this process to be faster; however, I understand this is necessary to find the right team structure — the only process Simform could streamline as we continue working together. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend potential customers take the time and space to evaluate the team members that Simform presents so they know if the team members are the right fit for their project. I also recommend staying connected with Simform’s delivery manager; they help us avoid any misunderstanding and streamline any potential friction, which is one of the team's strongest assets. Staying in constant communication with Simform’s team helps to calibrate the work they deliver and keep improving it constantly. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Technical Project Manager of a consulting company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a digital transformation agency that helps clients create innovative and effective digital experiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create an native android application

SOLUTION

How did you find Simform?

Online Search

Why did you select Simform over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Simform were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Creating a native mobile application to sell products to customer.
• Deploy a system that can grow and adapt to changing customer, market and business needs.
• Using technology to capture the customer preferences, select systems, and transfer post data.
• Increasing close rates by focusing more on the customer and less on the paperwork.
• Moving off of paper to an engaging digital UX.
• Make it easier to offer and close larger tickets
• Support process variation where needed, like regulatory needs, while promoting sharing of best practices and simplifying successful sales processes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Timely delivery - Delivering key features on timely manner. 
• Quality - the features were development with quality and had less bugs.
• Communication - the communication with the team was great. They understood the requirements and raised any roadblocks/risks/questions that the team might have.

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

Yes, the items were delivered on time. There were a couple of instances where the timezone difference caused some issues, but the management resolved them and ensured that they did not recur.

What was your primary form of communication with Simform?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their ability to accommodate and be flexible to our needs is impressive

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

no, keep doing great work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive of an ecommerce company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an eCommerce Marketing suite that utilises cutting edge ML and RLseeking to lower the barrier to entry for eCommerce vendors in accessing these technologies

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Scalable expansion of technical operation with customer growth
• Team augmentation and project delivery
• End to end partnership from inception to end of life from a shared value proposition

SOLUTION

How did you find Simform?

Online Search

Why did you select Simform over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Simform were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We are engaged with Simform on a long term plan with multiple stages. Initially we worked with Simform on a business analysis problem, and we are now at the stage of team augmentation. In the coming stages Simform's engineers will take learnings from their time embedded with us to lead on fully outsourced development projects. We are also preparing the process for Simform providing branded support engineering resource as our customer base grows

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are on plan with the program with Simform, who were selected due to their philosophy around where the future of outsourcing lies. Our expectation was for them to provide the right people at the right time and show leadership in the partnership. The outcomes we target are being met as we progress through the program. The engineers from Simform have met or exceeded expectations in the work they have delivered.

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

Simform provides all the necessary management resources in a timely and professional manner. All levels of the business relationship have been served and we've been in conversation with senior figures regularly within Simform as we guide the program together

What was your primary form of communication with Simform?

Virtual Meeting

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

Simform is the only company we could find that emphasised the issues historically with outsourching, and had clear coherent answers to the question of how to meet these challenges. Upon working with them I can confirm that Simform live up to their billing. We are always looking together at the bigger picture together and they have put their faith in us as we have in them, so we look forward to continuing the journey.

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

Simform is a company trying to break the mold in IT outsourcing, and this does not come without its issues. But it would be unfair to pick things out because compared to problems we've had before with outsourcing, things are better. On our side we have not always been able to get things right but both sides adopt the right perspective when this happens and we focus on the end goal.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Principal of an information technology company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a startup developing a software solution to manage and handle consumer transactional data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Develop a "basic" proof of concept (POC) mobile application
• Further enhance the developed POC mobile application

SOLUTION

How did you find Simform?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Simform over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Best RFP Response

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

Simform was engaged to develop a basic, POC mobile application with functionality demonstrating the core competency of solution.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Simform has developed and deployed an IOS and Android (beta) mobile application successfully demonstrating the core competency of the solution. Simform also continues to support refinement and enhancement of the beta deployment at this time.

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

Simform has been (and continues to be) responsive to our needs as expressed and timely with overall responses and support. The assigned Project Manager was even replaced at the conclusion and handoff of the initial deliverable. They quickly come up to speed on the project and continue to provide the same great support.

What was your primary form of communication with Simform?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They may *not (as I couldn't *possible "know"), but they certainly make you *feel like they "care" about the functionality you may be trying to implement, problem attempting to solve or just the overall success of the project.

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

In a space where we are in "continous" communication, there were (still) some minor instances of, either, assumptions made or mis-understanding/communication which negatively impacted development, timeline and budget. Also operating in defined "Sprints" of design, development and deployment, some of the estimates could maybe be continued to be dialed in.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager for an IT consulting company in the performance management field. We work with a customer base across all industries to provide them with services around their plans, automation processes, and post-deployment support. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Simform?

We needed Simform to create a new solution based on our customer’s requirements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Simform has provided us with web development and DevOps services using React and PHP. Currently, our in-house team is implementing the database side using MySQL.

What is the team composition?

Collectively, there’s been 5–10 people working on development, project management, solution architecture, QA, testing, and customer success.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Every person we’ve worked with has been excellent.

How did you come to work with Simform?

My line manager found Simform online and had a conversation with one of the founding members.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000–$100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2022 and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have yet to go live, but Simform has developed our software and it's almost ready for market use. The Simform team is really valuable to us. Our product wouldn’t be possible without them. It would have cost us significantly more if we’d hired our own web development resources.  

How did Simform perform from a project management standpoint?

Simform has delivered on time and on budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed by Simform’s flexibility and the knowledgeable ideas that they propose.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’ve been extremely happy with Simform.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try to find a good operating cadence for how releases are implemented. You have to take time to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. Be organized in your planning. Get Simform involved in the project plan. Let them contribute.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of an ecommerce company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We build software solutions that enable and automate Distributed eCommerce Operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Build a robust set of Automated QA Tests for our application.
• Document & Train our team on QA Automation Testing.

SOLUTION

How did you find Simform?

Online Search

Why did you select Simform over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Simform were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Simform is assisting us mature our testing strategies at our company by building out a robust set of Automated Tests against our APIs as well as training our team afterwards so that our existing resources are able to take ownership of these automated tests and continue to expand on test coverage.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our primary domains / API endpoints all have baseline test coverage. These test cases and the QA Automation process as a whole are well documented. Our existing QA Resources are trained on Automation Testing and capable of writing automated tests on their own after the engagement ends.

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

We assigned their QA Automation Tester onto an existing team and managed their work deliverables similarly to how we manage our existing Dev/QA resource work deliverables. If things were ever off-track, we were kept in the loop by our existing Scrum framework and addressed gaps directly with resources. While we did not need to leverage this, Simform also had a dedicated Customer Success resource that we could leverage if we were unable to address these gaps directly with our assigned resource.

What was your primary form of communication with Simform?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Our assigned resource was competent, a great communicator, and quick to ramp-up on our project to provide value. The company seems easy to work with and is willing to work within our framework to reduce the overhead on our side.

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

Nothing that comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Programs Manager of a nonprofit company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a nonprofit organization working to address local food insecurity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Recreate mobile application
• Recreate web application
• Add new features to mobile and web applications
• Improve user experience of app

SOLUTION

How did you find Simform?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Simform over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Simform were assigned to this project?

More than 10

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

Simform developed a mobile and web app for us. Both apps are available in 11 languages, and include maps with large datasets, along with many other features. Simform also set up an admin panel for us to easily manage the data, and they set up our analytics, including a lot of custom events tracking.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Number of users 
• Bounce rate on the web app 
• Number of tech-related feedback submissions

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

Yes, we have a great project manager. Our project manager is US-based, but we also have an India-based project manager assigned to our team. They have always been very responsive and transparent, and have taken our feedback and needs seriously. We initially had an extremely short timeline for delivery, and development work often has delays, so we extended that timeline.

What was your primary form of communication with Simform?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They do a good job of reporting on their work. During the busiest time of the project, we had more than 20 people from Simform working on our project. Every day, the teams posted a daily update on Slack so we could see if there were any roadblocks, questions, or issues. 

Now that the apps are live, we have a maintenance contract with Simform. We have fewer developers on our team, but we still get weekly reports via email of how our hours were spent, and we also have weekly check-in calls. 

Also, they've been responsive to our needs as a nonprofit. They've been willing to offer slightly discounted rates in order to help us fit the work into our budget, and they've helped us with technical language as we've applied to grants for this work.

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

We've had to work on clarifying our communication a bit. Our organization does not have much tech-related experience or language, so sometimes there have been some miscommunications with developers. However, Simform has always been eager to get it right and willing to make adjustments. Our project manager has also been a very helpful liaison.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the owner of a software development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Simform?
I hired Simform to help us retool our software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 
I provided Simform with a rough draft of the project description and asked them to help me work on that so we could have the description ready when they started the work.
They used React Native and React.

What is the team composition?
Unfortunately, I was in contact with just about everyone at Simform.

How did you come to work with Simform?
I found them online.

How much have you invested in them?
I invested about $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?
I worked with Simform from December 2022–May 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.
This experience had a disastrous impact on our business. We spent $120,000 and got nothing out of the partnership with Simform. I now have to spend another $20,000 to $30,000 to fix the problems. They pushed our timeline back by a year. They were very nice people but were absolutely useless. The whole experience was very traumatic for our company.

How did your relationship with Simform evolve?
I went to Simform for help, and instead, they had absolutely zero concern for the outcome of the project. They were a big company interested in growing and making money, and they were all happy as long as the billing clock kept going. 
When I contacted Simform with the draft of the project description and asked them to help me, they immediately assigned a team of about 30 developers and started working on the project without a description. When I asked them why, I couldn’t get an answer. When there were problems, they were unable to address them. They wanted me to meet with a customer success teammate. 
I never leave reviews, but after seeing all the positive reviews for Simform, which made them sound great, I felt it was only fair that there was some balance in the reviews online based on my experience.

How was project management handled?
The only efficient process Simform had was the billing. They had processes linked directly to billing, and as long as those processes were running, they didn’t care what was happening for the customer. The cost ended up being twice as much as they said it’d be, and in the end, the work wasn’t done right. 
Simform knew that we were a US-based company and still assigned a team without any proficient English speakers even though they had English speakers on their team. This made it a nightmare to talk to them in daily meetings. The 30 teammates sat around, and no one understood a word. We communicated through meetings, emails, and Slack, and I also met with them at their office.
As a business owner, I care about the outcome for my customers. If a customer tells me something isn’t working for them, I will stop everything and ask what I can do to make it better. If necessary, I will lose money on it to make the customer happy. Simform was utterly oblivious to the outcome.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?
They were very nice people.

In what specific areas can they improve?
The project was completely incompetently handled. I kept asking Simform about the status, but things just kept getting worse. The first problem we had was a deal killer; it just ruined the whole project, and yet, we kept going and tried to make it right even though the project was already ruined from the start. 
At every turn, the project kept getting worse to the point where we suggested that we would just use a couple of Simform’s developers, which they agreed to; however, when I spoke to my team two days later, they said they couldn’t reach the developers from Simform. My lead developer told me he would rather be alone than work with Simform.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?
Find a different partner. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at a software company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company introduces the world’s first intelligent, autonomous loyalty and customer engagement solution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Improve our talent pipeline for engineering
• Shorten our time to fill the open positions

SOLUTION

How did you find Simform?

• Referral

Why did you select Simform over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Simform were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Staff augmentation services in the areas of DevOps, Frontend, Backend engineering.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Performance and contributions of the software developers hired and integrated with our company.

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

The talents provided to us are a mix of average to above average. The deliverables we assign to the team are mostly achieved on time, there may be set backs along the way and we continuously address these as a team. 

Simform team is very much integrated into our culture and way of working, this is key to the success of our partnership. Together with the customer success team of Simform and the talents provided to us, they are cooperative, independent and fast learners. They are also passionate about our product and helps us drive customer success.

What was your primary form of communication with Simform?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their team is well trained, had been with them for a long time which says a lot about their healthy culture. They have a pool of a wide range of talents. They are very responsive and reliable.

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

Ensuring that the some of the policies of Simform must be in line with their client's should be clarified and structured at the initial stage. A case in point - the process alignment in managing leave policies, against ours or internal communications.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of a software company, we develop technology to help student-athletes monetize their NIL and improve their lifestyle.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to optimize and add features to our social mobile application that contains a chat and feeds application. We also had some performance issues that we wanted to improve.

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed a few off-short contracting companies and Simform has the best response time and service. They also offered the most reasonable price for our startup.

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

We had ongoing tasks listed in Jira for the React Native project. We ran biweekly sprints and iterated through multiple initiatives.

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

We hired one full-time React Native developer and a few other complimentary consultations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developer was able to improve the app performance drastically and single-handedly develop all of the planned features. We had no complaints about the work and were consistently impressed with the time of delivery.

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

We communicated via Slack and managed initiatives in Jira.

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

I'm impressed by the company's ability to ask good questions to fully understand the problems before solving them. They were always able to deliver results on time and had no communication issues.

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

Can't think of any.