The Software House

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of WeAreDavid, a company that facilitates dialogue between companies and private consumers in regard to personal data. We provide ways for private consumers to easily request data from the company, and we help the companies store and modify their consumer data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Software House?

We had a bad experience with our past agencies, and we needed a good partner to do our mobile app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a team building our backend services and preliminary APIs, and The Software House improved those APIs and integrated them into the web platform. We have just one user interface for customers on the web and mobile apps, and The Software House is responsible for both the native Android and iOS platforms (written in Java and Swift, respectively). They’ve integrated features such as user profiles, social media login, and chat functionality.

They also provide a dedicated design resource who focuses on the mobile experience and works with our in-house graphic designer. The entire team advises us on technology choices, specifically API implementation and integration. The product is currently live in Denmark and undergoing testing.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is the account manager, and they also provide two full-time mobile resources, a QA engineer, and a mobile lead.

How did you come to work with The Software House?

We wanted a partner who solely focused on mobile dev. I asked around, and a friend recommended The Software House. They approached the project holistically and treated it as their own business, so we decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since June 2018. They’re in an advisory role right now, helping us optimize the mobile experience.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re only in the initial testing, but feedback has been highly positive. The UX/UI is great, providing a clean and streamlined experience for users. The Software House is currently gathering lots of data on processing times and error handling.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

We have biweekly sessions with the account manager and weekly sessions with the dev team. They’ve been extremely helpful in making sure we’re all on the same page and optimizing our partnership. We use Slack, Trello, and Jira to communicate and track progress. They proactively include me in their process, and they work closely with our other teams to facilitate communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a lot of experience in mobile app development, and the entire team is professional. They provide great advice, which is something we wanted in a partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m extremely happy with their service. I don’t have anything to complain about.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Have all teams collaborate to improve the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product owner at Takamol Holding, an IT solutions company. We have many services that help small and medium enterprises improve from a technical or business perspective. Most development projects for social services take three months. 

I’ve been working here around five months. My role is to communicate with The Software House, our team, and the users and try to come up with the service. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Software House?

Our website was very basic. We needed to enhance the UX.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Software House delivers the features we specify each quarter. During the following quarter, we start another partnership. I describe features I have in mind, and they give me advice based on their experience and tell me what they can do. Aside from development, they also maintain our website. If we have any issues or bugs, they’re in charge of solving the problem and providing support.

We recently launched a new homepage redesign and introduced a new RFP feature for our users. Before, we only had a request for quotation feature. The team helped us create a chat function for suppliers and buyers to communicate. With their support, we’ve added 12 new features to enhance the UX and make the website more user-friendly.

I write user stories in Jira for The Software House to use. They ask for more explanation if needed. I also usually share wireframes that describe the videos and images we need in detail. I also prioritize the tasks based on high, medium, or low importance.

What is the team composition? 

We follow the Agile methodology with a scrum master, one developer each for frontend, backend, and to support operations. A QA resource was involved during the last quarter for testing. I’m the project owner.

How did you come to work with The Software House?

We considered two vendors and received many positive recommendations for The Software House.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2018, and our work is ongoing.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we first launched, our website had very low satisfaction rates. The Software House solved a lot of problems and made it clear and user-friendly. After implementing new features and completing more development, the satisfaction rate has increased in a significant way.

The Software House developed tools we can use as admins. A business intelligence feature shows the website’s performance.  Visualizations improved the reports and helped us present information to our management. 

The developers on their team are amazing to work with and communicate well. They’re always on time and are willing to listen. They work even later than the hours we’ve agreed on.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

The Software House meets all our deadlines. They’re always on time and available to help. Even when we change requirements, they’re still able to finish on time. We use Jira and have Slack channels for development and support. We have video calls through Zoom and hold weekly meetings to discuss progress and status. 

Right before we launch new features, we host a demo meeting. Once a feature is done, they usually deploy it to the user acceptance testing environment (UAT) for me to test. When it works as expected, we deploy it to production, which is the actual website. We meet again to follow up afterward to make sure it’s working. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We want to keep working with The Software House as much as we can. It’s incredible how they’re always on time and meet every deadline we set. They’re highly professional and work diligently to ensure they do everything the way we like, even if we change the requirements during development. They’re very professional. We rarely cancel meetings because they’re always able to attend. They even work night and weekends. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We’re very happy with The Software House.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

 I highly recommend The Software House to any company. There’s a huge difference in the comparison between the website when it first launched and the current version. I credit that improvement to their hard work. They’re impressively qualified and can handle any challenge.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company creates solutions for a number of verticals, including e-commerce, banking, and retail, based on proprietary AI algorithms. I am the CTO, responsible for IT development and technology optimization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Software House?

We hired The Software House to complete some UX work, including frontend improvements, code enhancements, and additional features. Our internal team was stretched to its limit, and this was the best way to quickly produce the results we wanted. 

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to complete the required changes and improvements while minimizing the demand on our internal team and allowing them to focus on existing projects. We also wanted a high-quality solution that would integrate well with our software architecture and facilitate easy future expansion.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The recommendations from colleagues in a similar field were more convincing than any sales or marketing efforts. They had very positive things to say about their experience with The Software House; we trusted their informed opinion, and we were familiar with the results. 

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They optimized and future-proofed specific elements of the frontend and coding capabilities, including the code base and review. We also collaborated on a new campaign service app built from scratch. 

What was the team composition?

We worked closely with a project manager and lead developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Though this is not the kind of project that generates metrics, we are happy with the results and our internal IT team is impressed with its seamless integration into our existing architecture.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They were very well organized, providing a dedicated contact person and team. The ability to quickly and easily establish communication channels as necessary allowed us to articulate issues or input and receive responses without trouble. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The Software House was proactive and fully engaged with our needs. We felt like we had a true partner throughout the process. The knowledge and processes they shared with us during the collaboration made us better. We particularly appreciated that they were assertive when necessary and explained how their recommendations and actions would best meet our needs. They were clearly interested in our long-term success, investing the time and effort to forecast potential issues that might arise at the conclusion of the project.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Nothing comes to mind. The Software House impressed us in every way. We are extremely satisfied with their work and confident that we could not have chosen a better partner for this project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Arantio provides a platform that empowers our customers to digitalize their business transactions and beyond. We serve a variety of industries, including restaurants, hotels, festivals, amusement parks, charities, and employee benefits.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Software House?

We hired The Software House for two reasons: 1) to update our Extranet technology with new UX/UI, and 2) to balance our workload with ongoing support and new technology upgrades.

What were your goals for this project?

We had six goals for this project: 1) update the technology as soon as possible; 2) develop a new UX/UI; 3) improve our customers’ capability for self-configuration; 4) move toward a service-as-a-software platform; 5) secure our ability to deliver excellent and scalable quality; and 6) ensure our customers were satisfied with deliveries.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We knew of them from some other development work that they had done for one of our customers. Their experience and work methodology fit us perfectly.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

The Software House had full rein for the Extranet development and update, delivering an end-to-end solution. We spent two full days walking through the whole Extranet and the way our customers use it; The Software House quickly understood both the platform’s function and our intent and was able to offer us immediate, detailed solution suggestions. 

What was the team composition?

Our dedicated team included a project manager, a UX lead and designer, and back- and frontend developers. Despite some changes in personnel and overall team growth, our deliverables have not been impacted. They manage operations very professionally. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our customers love the early stages of the new Extranet. They have yet to integrate it into their daily usage, so any concrete feedback is still premature.  

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our assigned project manager has worked very effectively to maintain the quality of deliverables and adhere to the established deadlines. As the project has progressed, he, too, has matured and become even better. We had weekly meetings throughout the project and have communicated primarily via Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The Software House is the complete package. There is not one thing that stands out more than another. 

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I have a hard time finding any area of improvements.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a product manager for a transportation service company that provides shared transportation to the airport. We receive reservations from people who are going on the same flight, and then we set up a route for the driver to pick everyone up and drive them to the airport.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Software House?

We wanted to automate our processes. Previously, everything had been done manually. We had to automate things to scale the business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built the software for the booking process and the admin panel. They used Symfony 2 and PHP and AngularJS for the frontend.

Although the project is complete, we have a few new pieces we want to implement, and we will probably work together with them again.

What is the team composition?

I was the project manager and leader. At some points when I had too much work, they put in an external project manager. I mostly worked with the developers, and we also had a designer.

How did you come to work with The Software House?

I found them online. I had calls with a few companies, but following my call with The Software House, I thought they were the best choice.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in February 2015, and it was completed in February of 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We pull the flight data from the API, and our staff can easily assign passengers to it. Previously, one person could serve 80 people per day, planning the route and informing clients of the pickup time. We have increased our efficiency. Now, we are able to serve 450 people or more per day.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Trello to track the project. We had almost daily Skype video meetings, and we also communicated through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They communicate very well. If there were delays, they informed us. I was always aware of what was going on.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I am very satisfied. I don’t have any negative feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do your homework and have clearly defined goals and ideas of what you want to achieve before jumping in and starting the programming.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The business is a world-class supplier in the design and manufacturing of high lift structures, complex mechanical assemblies, and major structural components. We have worked hard to diversify our customer base within the international aerospace industry through our ability to offer engineering solutions in a competitive landscape. Our industrial sites are equipped with state-of-the-art production machinery. This way we can produce even tighter product tolerances on highly complex components in a variety of materials. We integrate modern facilities in surface treatment and sub-assembly helping to fulfill customers' process requirements.

Our facilities include Manufacturing Execution Systems with online production tracking, machine uptime monitoring (OEE) and Statistical Process Control. Uptime of the machines is continuously improved by Total Productive Maintenance programs and Quick Change Over systems (SMED).

I have been working for this business for more than eight years and have been responsible for planning, supply chain, procurement, and production. I am currently in charge of operations as Operating Unit Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Software House?

We reached out to The Software House as we needed a bespoke solution for improving our processes. We wanted to completely integrate planning, scheduling, and execution on the production floor. Before the implementation of the new solution, we relied on Excel, manual notes, and informal communication – and it was never smooth or clear.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Software House developed a bespoke shift management system. With the new software, we can manage employees and machines according to the correct skill set, considering numerous variables like 24-hour operations. The whole production process is almost totally automated; we can predict possible obstacles and find countermeasures ahead of time, avoiding any lost time or productivity.

How did you come to work with The Software House?

Observing the problems with shift management, I decided that introducing bespoke software might be the best solution. I contacted The Software House, as I had worked with some of their people before. After preliminary consultations, I was convinced that they were the right team for the job.

What is the status of this engagement?

We continue the collaboration. It took us a while to stop using manual tools and informal communication for managing the shifts, but all of our processes are now based on the new, bespoke software. As we collect feedback, we present it to The Software House so they can add new functionalities to the system.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the biggest pros of working with them is their constant will to develop the best product possible. They do not hesitate to inform you when you are wrong and to propose better solutions. The result is software that helps you achieve all the business goals you pursued when beginning the collaboration. Our bespoke system was introduced a few months ago, but we already can say that the workflow has significantly improved and down times were reduced to a minimum.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

I usually talk to the project manager who supervises the development team working on our product. The communication was always effective and I felt informed about the progress on a daily basis. When I wanted to talk about technical details, there was always a possibility to discuss them with particular developers as they all spoke English fluently. The whole development process was smooth, because of the agile software development principles applied.

When beginning the collaboration with The Software House, don’t think about the final product. Try to present the problems you want to be solved and your business goals. They have invaluable experience in analyzing your exact needs and transforming them into a working software product.

Are there any areas The Software House could improve?

We had a lot of collaboration and communication. Sometimes face-to-face communication is needed for these projects, but their tools, knowledge, and solutions bridged this gap for a successful project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of technology for an initiative helping entrepreneurs and startups grow their businesses. The main goal is to create a socioeconomic impact in Saudi Arabia by boosting employment and improving labor market policies. We also have plans to expand across the region.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Software House?

I had worked with other Indian-based developers, but I was looking for an affordable one which could help me build the product. At the same time, I wanted to find a vendor specialized in PHP technology. I looked in India but didn’t find the right quality for the job.

More than finding someone who could code, I was looking for a developer who could be thoughtful from a business perspective, and who would be able to give provide input.

With the previous vendors, we weren’t working in an Agile fashion, so things were especially slow. Writing the business requirement documents was painstakingly slow, and didn’t often work out as planned. Those troubled solidified the need for a new developer. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Software House has built 4 products for us so far, including a very nice bidding platform, which we’ve recently revised. They brought in a creative team, which would suggest new things and give us new ideas about how we could improve the user experience. We were well taken care of in terms of getting the right solution out, in a short time and with minimal investment from our side.

We have a modular system with single-sign-on and payment functionalities, which were built by our internal team. The Software House built the business side of it, including the standalone bidding platform. It’s integrated with the other components I mentioned.

Our internal team is being trained and coached by The Software House remotely on automation testing and best practices in programming. Almost all of our internal members are Scrum-certified.

We used to have a local vendor for manual testing, but that cost us a lot of money. We’ve started doing automated tests, and have definitely saved us money. The Software House was a big reason for this, and it was outside of their scope of work.

We do DevOps for cloud hosting, and they are pros in that area as well. The Software House has helped us in this aspect.

Our systems are almost bug-free, and any issues we experience are always minor. When we do encounter something, we can contact The Software House even at midnight, and they are responsive. The team was always available, so we put a lot of trust in them.

The overall team from their side has been up to 20 people. We usually have a team of 5 for each product. We currently have around 10 members who are continuing to build features for another platform. They have provided support for our payment gateway, but we won’t engage them on it until the 4th quarter when the bank will have finalized some APIs on its end.

How did you come to work with The Software House?

We found them through Clutch.co, to be honest. We had video conference calls with them and required them to fly to Dubai for face-to-face meetings. The Software House was one of the few who actually accepted this, which illustrated to us that they were committed to doing work and establishing a partnership. The initial interaction helped us build some trust, and we were impressed by the way they thought about the problem and how they recommended solutions in a very short time.

After we met them, we found their way of engaging with us and asking questions to be very professional. We liked their honesty and the way they managed our expectations. In addition, the team spoke English well, which helped us a lot since it was our only common language. We also visited their office in Poland for the kick-off meeting, and the visit confirmed our thoughts and expectations.

We gave The Software House 2 products to build, and they delivered well and on time. They were able to give us advice on what parts of our legacy code needed to be rebuilt, and which could be kept; refactoring old code is a waste of money. Their pricing was also very good; the Software House was cheaper than other companies in similar locations. We continue to give them more work. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with The Software House in March 2016. The collaboration is ongoing. We are looking to build new products in the second half of the year, and I’ve told The Software House that they are my preferred option.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Software House helped us deliver products to market quickly since they helped us adopt an Agile approach. Everyone has liked our bidding platform in terms of UX and design, from stakeholders to customers and partners (the ones who post opportunities on it).

We have reached 1,000,000 visits, have around 13,000 registered users, and 50-70 partners, the ones who are either posting opportunities or who offer products and services for small-to-medium enterprises, supporting entrepreneurs.

The Software House has built us a great product, and they’ve coached our team internally.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

The team has been overall stable. People haven’t been moved until we requested to have a scaling down. We have moved some resources from one area to the next, because we didn’t want to let go of good people. Overall, we enjoyed working with everyone on the team.

We used Slack for communication and had daily meetings to discuss progress and prioritize activities. Direct communication with individuals was seamless and we even know them by name. 

We use JIRA to manage user stories and requirements, and we use Confluence in order to document tasks and discussions. The Software House is aligned with our internal team on technologies, and they are constantly working together, learning from each other, and advising each other.

What did you find most impressive about The Software House?

There are numerous aspects relating to the collaboration: the work itself and getting things done, but also contractual agreements and payments. Unfortunately, we have been slow in paying our vendors, and our contracts take longer to process than usual. The Software House has sometimes worked with us based on trust, which is something I appreciate. They can move fast and get things done, instead of letting bureaucracy get in the way. The Software House is great from a contractual perspective, and they’ve responded to us immediately for every requirement we gave.

Our procurement and contracting team is very happy, as are the product owners, especially the ones who had worked with other vendors in the past. The Software House has been a major shift in the way we do things. They’ve started to see results faster, and the team was always available, even at nighttime and on weekends.

The Software House has recommended that we don’t make deployments on weekends, in order to ensure that there will be a full team available in case of an issue. I find this to be smart, but we are sometimes pushed to do this, when the deadline is out of our hands. They’ve done their best to be available.

Are there any areas The Software House could improve?

They are a software shop, and I do need to deal with creative people for some items. The Software House does have good designers, but not to the level of being extremely creative. This is a different line of business, and I’m very satisfied with what I’ve been given by The Software House. There is nothing they could change for the better, and I’d love to continue the collaboration.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with The Software House?

I’ve often discussed how they can work with partners who are not up-to-date-with technologies and with adopting different frameworks. Many companies have waterfall approaches, and they don’t know anything about Agile or following the Scrum methodology. They’ve told me that they can provide advice and work with clients, helping them do things better. It’s all about building trust, and, if we can trust the vendor, they will become a long-time partner. If we can’t manage to build trust, no matter who the vendor is, it’s never going to work out.

My team and I trust The Software House from the technology vendor and business sides, and we actually saw results. We’ve been very happy and proud of what we’ve done, and we can hopefully continue to grow the collaboration. If I ever left this company, I would try to re-engage with The Software House for my next position.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Smartum is a Finland-based company that sells a service product to employers, giving them benefits that can be passed down to employees. Within Finland, there’s legislation that gives these employers tax benefits for providing these benefits. There are a few types, including lunch benefits that offer employees discounted meals within our network, as well as exercise and cultural benefits, ones related to the commute to work, and massages, things like that. Benefits are similar to money, so the users have a bank account in which they can spend them through VISA cards, mobile payments or through vouchers that can be given to the service provider as payment. I’m a development manager for the company, working mostly with IT projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with The Software House?

We wanted to create a mobile payment solution related to our electronic benefits, the ones which are offered to employers, who then give their employees what is basically a bank account with us. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have worked with The Software House to develop two apps, one for Android and one for iOS. They enable users to log in, view their balances and transactions, as well as to create new ones. They’re also able to search within the app for locations where they’re able to use our benefits. We had a demo or proof-of-concept version for the app, which was built by a group of students as a university project, but The Software House completely replaced it. Not a single line of code was reused.

We first developed the iOS version, then the Android one, which was built concurrently with a version two for iOS. The Software House has an iOS and Android team, but we have also used their web team to a smaller extent. I estimate that there were 10–15 people involved in the project. I didn’t interact with the team members directly. Instead, I worked mostly with The Software House’s project and sales managers, who were consistently in touch throughout the collaboration.

How did you come to work with The Software House?

Our CTO at the time made contact with The Software House, which is how I heard about the company. We had heard good things about them, and they had done other work for our IT team, and so the name came up. We showed The Software House our prototype and had a discussion with them. We did look at the possibility of using other providers, but never really considered them to seriously since we were happy to carry on with The Software House.

How much have you invested with The Software House?

The cost of The Software House’s work has been between $80,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The app project started in March 2016. The app project has been completed, but we have other ongoing work with The Software House.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our Smartum apps are available on Google Play and the Apple Store. We’ve just broken the 10,000-user milestone one month ago, and have around 11,000 downloads, with a 90% retention rate, based on the Google Play data. There’s been an even usage of both apps in the 12 months since they were launched. We’re quite proud of our retention rates, especially since this was our first delve into mobile payments, transitioning from VISA payments.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

We only used email for higher-level correspondence, and mainly communicated through Basecamp. It allowed us to communicate in almost real-time, and I could install the app on my phone. We reported bugs and other issues through it daily, and, when we needed to, we also had Skype meetings. There was no need for very many meetings; there was usually one meeting per month or thereabouts, in order to track progress. Apart from this, everything was done through Basecamp.

I’ve done many IT projects, and things were never this smooth. There was no rush at the end of the work, which is always a good sign. On most projects, we still had bugs at the approach of the deadline, but this never happened during the work with The Software House. Everything was picked up early in the project, so we never had to do a major refactoring of code. I’m not entirely sure how this was possible, but it’s been very easy. There’s a huge amount of trust we have in The Software House’s ability to deliver good-quality and reliable code based on our mockups. As a project manager, I can let them get on with it and trust that it will be okay.

What did you find most impressive about The Software House?

In working with The Software House generally, I found them easy to deal with. Many of the other providers we’ve used had to be babysitted through the projects, but we haven’t had to do this at all with The Software House. We can give them requirements, discuss how to do the work, and have it delivered on time and on budget. The quality is very good, and we’ve seen very few bugs make it through the beta testing. The Software House is the best we’ve worked with, out of all our partners.

Are there any areas The Software House could improve?

The worst part was dealing with the translations in the app. Because it was available in English, Finnish and Swedish, maintaining those translations was a bit of a pain, but The Software House found an online service which could manage this for us. We could simply take the text from there and put it in the configuration files. It was a bit annoying, but it works fine now.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with The Software House?

I’ve been an IT consultant myself, and have worked on both sides of the fence. It doesn’t matter how good the service provider is; they’re ultimately responsible that the client gets what they want, on budget and on schedule. One of the biggest limiting factors for the success of a project is the customer themselves. We can choose a great provider, but, if we’re not setup to succeed ourselves, the project will still fail. Anyone looking to choose a provider should take a look at themselves, and make sure they have a competent project manager who knows IT, or at least the particular thing being done. Also, be realistic about budgets, schedules and goals, because, if you’re not realistic about those things, the project won’t succeed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a language translation and localization company. I am the director of professional services. I craft the solutions and strategies brought to our clients, focusing on technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Software House?

We needed to build a custom customer portal that would allow us to have custom functionalities for interacting with clients and initiating new projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Software House provided development and design for our portal. We didn't have complete wireframes, so The Software House worked on this when needed.

We've used a 2 to 3-person team from The Software House working in 2-week sprints. The size of the team was scaled depending on the amount of work, thus aligning the scope with our own needs and calendar. I considered this a big benefit of working with The Software House.

How did you come to work with The Software House?

We had a previous relationship with one of The Software House's directors via a software company located in the same region. He told us about The Software House's capabilities as well as his new role there. We realized that this could be a fit for our projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We took some time off for testing, but it was a 6-month project overall. We've completed the initial development stage in 2016 and have moved into a support and update phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product has exceeded our expectations, and we have been able to sneak in additional functionalities within the same timeline. The communication with The Software House has also been excellent.

We have just completed development and are in the middle of the deployment phase. I don't have any specific numbers for the platform. Our customer base is using another product that will now be replaced. I anticipate us having 100 percent migration.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

I came into the project as a novice to Agile development. In addition to handling the project, The Software House's team was very helpful and communicative in teaching me how to organize the project best. Their willingness to go above and beyond in helping me to learn the process was excellent.

Are there any areas The Software House could improve?

I am completely satisfied with The Software House's work.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with The Software House?

By being upfront about needing help, The Software House was able to come in and assist us in areas where planning wasn't as fully fleshed out as it needed to be.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a startup and an on-demand economy platform.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with The Software House?

Our intention was to develop a minimum viable product and have a proof of concept.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The Software House provided development for a mobile app, a web portal, and the back-end database system that enabled communication between the two.

How did you come to work with The Software House?

I found The Software House through Clutch, looking for companies with high rankings within a limited geographical space. I am based in Switzerland, so the company needed to be close enough to enable face-to-face meetings. This ruled out the obvious low-cost choices like India and Asia. The location and time difference would have been a problem. I narrowed down my search to Eastern Europe, looking at some suppliers in Poland, Bulgaria and Czech Republic. I was looking for a developer who was familiar with working with small startup companies with no technical skills. As such, I was looking for a complete package, including project management. It was important that I assumed the role of product owner, leaving technical project management up to the supplier.

I evaluated companies based on the strength of their response to my general inquiries. I wanted to find a sparring partner in the whole development process, not just a technical resource that took care of coding.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was between $50,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Hopefully, the collaboration will be ongoing for further product improvements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I feel that the work has been successful from a technical standpoint. They delivered what was promised.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

I felt informed about our status throughout the project. The Software House was accurate with estimates in terms of both time and budget. I appreciated their flexibility to adjust and adapt the scope. Changes were always addressed transparently. I always knew if something would be outside of the initial scope or if it would affect the delivery time. The Software House was open to discussing changes and gave constructive feedback on whether or not they recommended an implementation and how they thought that it would affect me in terms of time and money.

What distinguishes The Software House from other providers?

I appreciated their project management skills. Someone like me, without a strong technical background, needed a developer that would take care of technical elements and understood the perspective and requirements from the client side. If I asked for technical functions, I felt that the technical management didn't just throw in a solution. They made a good effort to understand why I wanted a specific function and gave feedback on easier, more cost-effective ways to solve issues.

Is there anything The Software House could have improved or done differently?

There's not much I could mention in this regard. The Software House delivered what was promised. There were no issues that would be outside of normal expectations for such a project.

In the beginning, I had the feeling that some of the other companies I approached had a better understanding of what my business intentions were more than The Software House did. Because I had gone through a detailed specification phase with The Software House, I became convinced that they'd be the better choice, though.