Softo

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the COO of SMB Store

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Affordable management systems for micro and small businesses, with inventory, sales and financial control

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Help us develop the invoice issuance module for our SMB Online system

SOLUTION

How did you find Softo?

instagram

Why did you select Softo over others?

Company values aligned

How many teammates from Softo were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Development of the invoice issuance module via API with FOCUS, creating new screens, design, backend, and management screens. Issuing NF-e and NFC-e invoices

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The measurable results for now are only internal tests, we do not have practical results of any type of return on the invoice issuance project.

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

Project management has been very good. We are constantly updated on the progress of completed activities, receive time reports, and participate in discussions to align and make decisions about the project. It's a management model that has met our expectations.

Initial expectations regarding the delivery timeframe dropped slightly. We initially expected 3 or 4 months, but we're already almost 12 months in. We understand that this longer timeframe was due to reality, possibly due to the stakeholders' lack of previous experience developing the invoice module. We encountered unforeseen obstacles, as well as decisions and changes of direction throughout the project, which contributed to the extended schedule.

As a suggestion and feedback for future projects, every project should be SMART. In this sense, I believe that what was lacking on the project management's part was to initially set a delivery date, to align with the expectations of our clients, who are demanding this module. We would have liked to have at least an initial delivery estimate, even if subject to adjustments within a tolerance.

What was your primary form of communication with Softo?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I'd like to highlight the sense of ownership of the project on the part of everyone involved that caught my attention. They're not just task-takers; they embrace the project as if it were their own, as if they were part of SMB Store, seeking out information, conducting tests, etc., to ultimately deliver the best.

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

I'd like to highlight two areas for improvement already mentioned:

Gantt-based dashboard:

Implement a schedule view (Gantt) accessible at any time, with deliverables, dependencies, milestones, and status. This provides continuous transparency outside of meetings and facilitates monitoring.

Initial delivery deadline (baseline):

Define and communicate an initial go-live forecast, revising it when scope changes. This helps our internal planning and avoids creating expectations in clients that later turn out to be unfulfilled.

Aside from these two technical issues, I have nothing but praise for Sof.to, especially the team supporting us: Luana, Vinicius, Jackson, Gilson, and others. As I mentioned in my previous response, they're a very good team, always available at any time, helpful, etc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager at PebMed, a health technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Softo?

We needed a company that could help us arrange a team of developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Softo to support the development of our community product. They provided us with a frontend developer and a backend developer, who designed and developed a website for us using React and Node.js.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two developers from Softo.

How did you come to work with Softo?

We found Softo through a referral.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been able to triple our monthly active users. 

How did Softo perform from a project management standpoint?

Softo has performed well in terms of project management. They’re incredibly proactive, and they get things done without needing to ask them. They also provide consistent updates, so we always know what’s going on in the project.

We use Jira for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with Softo’s excellent technical capabilities and ability to handle the complexities and challenges that arise. The cultural fit that we have with their developers has also helped ensure a smooth workflow.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We sometimes have difficulty communicating with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a SaaS startup. We are focused on the Brazilian HR market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have been using a third party solution as our main authentication service, which brought us challenges in terms of flexibility and pricing. So we decided to hire Softo to develop our own authentication service, allowing us to offer a better experience to our clients without impacting our costs.

SOLUTION

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

We knew the founders of Softo from previous experiences as great entrepreneurs and professionals. The confidence we already had on them and their professionalism during the first commercial meetings were the main deciding factors to hire them.

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

Softo designed a Node-based authentication solution, including an integration with a third party solution to manage SSO connections. The project’s scope was based on the service we’ve already been using. We’d weekly meetings in order to manage the progress of the project, and we’re invited to discuss deliverables and take decisions when needed.

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

The core team had 3 people, including a project manager and 2 developers. Other resources were involved depending on the project needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was delivered on schedule with no unexpected turnovers. The solution is still being implemented on our side, but the solution has high quality and will allow us to improve the experience of our clients with no substantial increase of cost for us. This was our first experience with Softo, but we have already decided to keep our partnership on an ongoing basis.

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

We are really satisfied with their project management style. We had weekly meetings to track progress of the project and we had a shared channel in Slack for agile communication. All the deadlines were met.

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

We had direct access to the founders of Softo during the project, which gave us great confidence of their commitment. The project is smooth and we didn’t have any kind of problems.

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

We didn’t have the opportunity to analyze improvements yet. Overall we are very happy with our experience.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Biosom develops solutions to fight tinnitus and hearing loss. I'm Product Owner of Biosom's app Hearing Guardian

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to fix bug and refactoring our current app. The main goal was to fix performance issue and UX problem.

SOLUTION

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

After several types of research on the internet and with colleagues, we created a long list of possible companies. We chose Softo after the first presentation meeting, we realized that it is a very experienced and committed company.

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

Before starting with Softo, we already have a beta version of the app. Therefore, the first steps were to explain the current problems. Together with the CTO and other developers, we outline a step by step to fix current issues and then apply improvements to the app. This was done, we updated API with new business rule logic, updated React Native libraries, and created a new design with Softo's UX team.

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

We had a very good dedicated team to support our project. The CTO, P.M, and head of UX were in every meeting and helping to find the best solutions for the problem. Although not in person at the meetings, the development team also participated in the discussions to find better suggestions for solving the problems.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our involvement has increased by 30% fixing bugs and UX issues.

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

Daily I receive written feedback on the progress of the tasks. In addition, we have meetings once a week to go into more detail. We usually communicate via Slack and Google Meeting. We use Jira for tasks management.

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

Each one in the team is really compromised to help find a solution for a problem, or even to just help to improve any function.

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

For more technical personal, they could bring the develop to talk about more technical issues regarding development

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Blissey Video LLC. It’s a family-based business for now.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Softo?

I thought of my business idea when I started creating videos to celebrate birthdays with my family back in Brazil. Those were so touching, and it felt good to connect with people during those special occasions. 

My business idea was to develop a solution that could compile videos and photos to create a unique message that people could send to their loved ones abroad. As a marketer, I didn’t have the technical skills to build my solution, so I turned to Softo for support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Softo helped us develop an easy-to-use SaaS solution that could gather videos together and edit them into a montage with text and photos. Everything would be done online through the web, and our infrastructure was on AWS.

What is the team composition? 

Fabio (Founder & CEO) was my main contact, but there were two more people working on the development and another working on the AWS infrastructure.

How did you come to work with Softo?

I knew Fabio from when I lived in Brazil. He was part of the Rio de Janeiro entrepreneurship network, so he knew a lot of people. That meant he had all of the skills that I needed to run a business, including CTO as a service, a development team, and an infrastructure team to put us on AWS. 

Since Softo was an all-in-one solution and they spoke my native language. That made it easier for me to choose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from October 2020–March 2021. We’re just making the final adjustments before launch.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re in the pre-launch phase of our startup, doing final tests with friends and family. Maybe next week, we’ll start to promote our product.

How did Softo perform from a project management standpoint?

During the development, they were quick to answer us — we communicated in many ways, like through email and WhatsApp, but the main tool we used was Trello. In the Trello board, we could create color-coded cards and move them to indicate when something was ready for revision. We also had weekly calls through Zoom, though I could always schedule more meetings. 

Even though the contract ended, I can still reach out to Fabio if I encounter any bugs or if something isn’t working. We might see a minor issue while we’re testing the app, and Softo will still resolve them free of charge.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Softo researched different APIs and solutions to improve our product’s performance and cost-effectiveness. It wasn’t like they were just doing the project; rather, they were thinking of ways to be better. The team also took into account that we were a startup. As a result, they recommended solutions that would give us steady, elastic growth. They brought new ideas to help out, which made for a very good experience.

Additionally, they were able to change components in the middle of the project. I was always concerned with the design, so I often changed my mind and asked for redos. Despite that, they always fulfilled what I asked for. It was fantastic. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. They were more like a partner that was taking care of my business.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Talk to Fabio and explain your background — he’s the guy. He knew that I didn’t have any IT knowledge, so he explained everything to me in very plain language. However, that will depend on the client. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Founder of a healthcare company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

AI receptionist for clinics and small 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Product roadmap development

SOLUTION

How did you find Softo?

personal connections

Why did you select Softo over others?

Great culture fit

How many teammates from Softo were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

They were hired to support the development of our product, a SaaS platform that serves as the interface for a conversational AI agent.

Our project lasted one month, during which key deliverables were completed to bring our MVP to life and prepare it for production.

The team works proactively and closely with us, not just executing what is defined, but also collaborating on solutions to ensure cost-effective outcomes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

N/A

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

Yes, they delivered itens on the agreed time and where very responsive to our requests.

What was your primary form of communication with Softo?

Virtual Meeting

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

They approach the work as if they were part of our team, unlike many software houses that simply take the project and execute it, even when the scope has issues.

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a director of Lush Hospitality Group which manages 4 motel operations in Brazil.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We felt the need to create an early booking sales engine to increase revenue and improve our guest experience.

SOLUTION

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

I met Softo through a referral from a friend, and from the first contact I realized that it was a very professional company with a very qualified team.

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

We created a complete digital platform for advance bookings.

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

Five people with direct contact with me, being a project manager and a UX professional and another team of developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had very positive results with the implementation of the new e-commerce, in just 3 months we doubled sales through this channel.

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

The project follows a very well coordinated workflow

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

We admire their professionalism and highly qualified team.

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

I was very satisfied, I would not have any comments

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a partner and finance and operations director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Softo to develop a system for structuring the event's market.

SOLUTION

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

We had a referral from Softo. And the business model pleased us.

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

• organize content buyers
• organize content sellers
• schedule business meetings
• organize lectures and speaker logistics

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

• 4 system developers
• 1 project leader

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Full functioning of the system.

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

Project leader with full mastery of the system challenge.

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

Our partnership is doing good and the quality of the deliverables is impressive.

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

The customer relationship team should have a more service bias.