SoftwareHut

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a digital asset management platform provider. It allows companies to manage all types of files — images, videos, marketing material, documents, and any other type of asset — and distribute them to different marketing channels, like social media, e-commerce websites, and so on.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We were building a native iOS and Android app for our platform, and we were also running a customization project for a client in Finland.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SoftwareHut was tasked with design, project management, and development. The app allows users to upload files, tag the files in our database, and share assets with other parties.

What is the team composition?

I worked with their account manager and the project manager, both of whom they flew to our location in Sweden for a couple of days. I’d say there were a couple of developers.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

One of their salespeople contacted me through LinkedIn. We’d been looking at building this app offshore, and I thought SoftwareHut would be a good option. I’d tested other offshore agencies, but SoftwareHut’s salesperson was originally from Sweden and was working in Poland, so there were no language barriers.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SoftwareHut around January 2017. We haven’t done any projects with them since December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was great working with them on the project, but there were certain things I wished they could’ve helped us with by being more proactive. They gave us what we asked for and delivered on time, but they weren’t proactive about providing different suggestions and solutions. Other than that, I think they were very professional.

We’re very satisfied with the app. We’ve done some further development since working with them, and we’ve seen a good response from our clients. There were some things that we hadn’t thought of that SoftwareHut needed to fix, but that wasn’t part of the project. I wish they’d been more proactive in telling us about potential issues.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

I have nothing to complain about in this respect. They gave us updates on time, and we had status meetings. One thing I would’ve liked is for them to communicate when we exceeded the budget; I only found out about it when the next month’s invoice came.  However, the end result was great, and it wasn’t like we didn’t want to do that development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understood the task very well, and they learned our APIs and tools very quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only things I can think of are the budget issue I mentioned and them being more proactive in suggesting solutions.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should make sure that everything is transparent and that they’re aware of all the hours being billed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Grow Uperion, an HR platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

I was looking for a  software company to develop my platform from scratch. It was previously made by a different company, but it had bugs and other problems.

It needed to be redeveloped with additional features, models, and new components I invented. I was looking for a partner that would recommend the best and most suitable solutions because I needed technical expertise and support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed my platform from scratch. There were modules sourcing the data from different platforms such as SAP or Phase 4. They were essentially handling KPI development in a visual way. Their team also developed the user module, which dictates how to add and delete users.

They used .NET on a Microsoft Azure platform. Along with that, they helped with planning and selecting the technology for my solution. They dealt mainly with development, but they also coordinated everything for me.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with the project manager.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

They were recommended to me by a person who was working on our team.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $100,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2019, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It will be launched soon, but we don't have any metrics yet. I track their hours dedicated to the project on their internal system. They’re immediate with problem-solving. They give expert advice.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Microsoft Teams, video phone calls, and email. I was able to see the progress of the work and had the ability to communicate with the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They combine high-level IT expertise with top-quality project management skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s good to know what you want to accomplish. Be sure you have the final goal in mind, briefing them thoroughly beforehand. This will help you to create the strategy of the overall work. Help them to gather the proper people around the project by communicating.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a travel platform the encourages sustainability.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We hired them to develop our website and our mobile apps. We worked with another company before SoftwareHut, and it was just a mess. We needed them to come in and clean it up.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve been involved in planning this redevelopment, and they will be doing all the coding. They’ve also worked on a temporary site in the meantime. They organized files and cleaned up to procedures we had in place.

The platform itself features a carbon footprint calculator that travelers can use to measure the impact of their trips. The traveler can offset their footprint by contributing to projects that have been certified by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These projects offset greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. We’re also going to add the same function for hotels.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

I participated in an event that was hosted by an organization that supports startups in the travel agency. In a pitch competition, they offered a grand prize worth $2,500 service with SoftwareHut. I thought their services were perfect for what we wanted to accomplish. I contacted them, and they gave me some feedback, and we decided to engage with them.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $30,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2019 and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t launched anything yet, but things are much more organized now. Our QA person has tested everything they’ve done, and it’s all gone well. Their team is very valuable for planning because they contribute significantly to creating a development framework and have planned everything for the next few months. We’re about to start the next phase, which really is redoing everything. Internally, we’re pleased with everything they’ve done.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication has been great. If there’s an issue, they bring it up, we discuss it, and it gets resolved. We use Slack and Jira. Communication is one of their strengths.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very professional and knowledgeable. We tell them what we’re looking to accomplish, and they advise us on the best approach.

Are there any areas they could improve?

So far, I haven’t recognized any issues. We’re very satisfied with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have someone on your team who is knowledgeable, because it just makes everything easier. Once I hired someone with a bit of background in software development in the travel industry, communication between teams became simpler.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a small Swedish e-commerce consultancy, and I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

Given the difficulty of finding development partners in Germany, we were looking abroad for resources in creating our products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our product allows for the management of e-commerce and provides billing solutions for businesses. In creating that, we mainly worked with one developer from SoftwareHut, whose tech stack included PHP, Docker, Microservices, and Magento. He also used ReactJS.

What is the team composition?

I worked primarily with Roman (Senior Developer, SoftwareHut) but my initial point of contact was Andrzej (International Sales Director, SoftwareHut).

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

I believe they reached out to me on LinkedIn. They had roots in Sweden, so we hit it off speaking Swedish. He invited me to come to their hometown to meet their developers, and we kicked it off from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from June 2017 – November 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were very pleased with their developer’s work, which is why the relationship lasted over two years. We plan on maintaining contact with him in the future, as well. When we were facing dips in our cash flow, they were more than understanding; they were willing to negotiate with us about split payments, which was very helpful.

How did Softwarehut perform from a project management standpoint?

While we handled most of the project management on our side, but it was mostly smooth. We used Slack for daily communication, and Roman participated in our stand-up meetings every morning. We used JIRA to track project progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very easy to work with. Anderzej, who was my initial contact, was amazing to communicate with because he was understanding of my company’s position. I got the sense that they truly understand the limitations of being a small, fluid company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had two contracts that were previously cancelled because these developers lacked sufficient Magento expertise. I’d appreciate if they had more staff who could do more Magento work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any outsourcing project, I think it’s important to meet before starting a collaboration. Poland is quite close to Sweden, so it was easy for me to fly to go see them. It facilitates the development of the relationship.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Datavisual makes it easy to create stunning data visualizations. Our intuitive web-based interface offers pre-designed templates that anyone can use while giving design teams the power to rev up workflow and quickly output large volumes of custom data graphics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SoftwareHut?

SoftwareHut has been assisting us with backend development and database needs for the last few years.

What were your goals for this project?

To improve the technical flow of the platform along with add new features and find and fix bugs in the system.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Being the founder of a software company I am constantly contacted by development shops. SoftwareHut was the best and most affordable option for us.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

SoftwareHut helped us with backend development on our node.js and mongoDB system along with some help with D3js development and AWS server setup and optimization.

What was the team composition?

We received a very reliable project manager and depending on the job had a team of up to 3 programmers assisting us with our needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Without the help of SoftwareHut we would not have been able to scale as quickly as we did.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our project manager has been extremely helpful and quick to respond to requests. We generally communication via Skype.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The skill level and quality of work is fantastic as well as the responsiveness for requests. They're worth every penny.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Time zone differences can sometimes be challenging, but generally this is not a major issue.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a services company for implementing laboratory information management systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We use them for a variety of development work on software products that we use in the laboratory. One of those is for managing resources, and the other is for collecting samples in a regulated environment.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the resource manager project, we replaced a lot of legacy code that was written in C# in order to work with another laboratory software company’s sample management program. They have a software application that our objects can interact with to allow the user to apply data to a graphical user interface.

SoftwareHut developed a new code structure to go with an upgrade of the product that relies on the architecture of the other company’s product. In effect, we embedded our product into theirs for the architecture, but we created new rules and callouts for those rules on our own.

The second project was a form that they developed from scratch. It also works within the sample management lens, but it allows an operator to identify sampling points within an environment on a tablet. Having that mobile graphic presentation can really expedite the sample collection process.

What is the team composition?

We worked with the operations director there, as well as with two of their developers.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

They were recommended to us through the partner company that we design products with, and we found their skill set and costs to be more than satisfactory.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from September 2018–February 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work they did for us was a key part of an upgrade on one of our products that has led directly to more sales on our resource manager. The sample collection feature is a fairly new release, so it’s difficult to attribute anything tangible yet, but we were very pleased with the result.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good at project management and really didn’t require any oversight from me at all. I was able to agree to a statement of work with the operations director and they stuck completely within the costs of that statement. Their lead developer would liaise with the developer on our side for the resource manager, and with a consultant for the sample collection device. Feedback on their performance from both has been great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s very difficult to get good developers here in Ireland, and I think they have extremely good technical people. They bring really good software development that I would struggle to get here at an affordable cost.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t see anything that could have been better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For anyone working with an offshore development company, I think it’s very important to have clear requirements before you start. As long as you establish a clear scope of work, you won’t have any problems.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re the largest private healthcare provider in the UK. We run 40 hospitals around the country and provide a vast range of services: orthopedic, cardiac, oncological, physiological, and cosmetic. We treat around a million patients every year, have a staff of around 8,000, and work with 6,000 doctors around the country.

I’m the head of digital transformation. I report to the group IT director and am in charge of all the company’s applications. I also drive new digital initiatives—particularly from an IT system-processing point of view.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We were seeking a way to manage our medical records. We’re still very paper-heavy in the UK, compared to the US, for example. We rely considerably on paper for all of the clinical information of our patients, so locating and tracking these papers is very important to us.

Whether they’re nurses, doctors, or labs, many medical teams require access to patient information. Even though we’re working on digitizing information, we needed a quick fix for the time being, which was to be able to track the hospital’s paper records.

For that, we’re implementing a mobile app that will be available for scanners everywhere in the hospitals. It’ll be able to locate the paper files and determine who’s been using them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SoftwareHut is developing an app that’s linked with a leading backend system. That system doesn’t come with a mobile app, so we went to SoftwareHut to build us one. Users can scan files as well as see and move records.

Our in-house business analysts gave the team requirements for app functionalities, along with some UX guidelines.

SoftwareHut is based in Poland, and we’re in England. They came on-site for the first week to take over the project and do some knowledge transfer with our team. After that, they worked remotely, in collaboration with us.

I’m fairly certain that the development is based on a .NET framework although the tech leads are in a better position to provide that information. The app can be used on Android devices.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of three: a tech lead, a developer, and an architect.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

SoftwareHut came recommended by our pricing director who’d worked with them in the past. We had an introduction meeting, and I made some assessments. They seemed to have the right skills for the job.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SoftwareHut in early June 2019 and we’re wrapping up the project now. The app just went live, and they’re offering continuous support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While I don’t have any metrics at the moment, the engagement has been effective. The project was initiated by our COO who told us that it would be a test of our IT competence. Since our credibility was at stake, we needed resources quickly.

Their response rate has been excellent, and they’ve showcased a great bandwidth of high-quality resources. They completed app development three days ahead of schedule, which was a remarkable feat in such a tight and high-pressure environment. They did so without compromising quality. I’m very impressed with the work they’ve done.

It’s easy to do business with them—they have high flexibility and are able to provide a quick turnaround of resources. They delivered on their promises early, even within a short engagement. I am definitely going to work with them in the future, since it was such a successful collaboration. They’ve certainly become a preferred provider.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

We oversaw the general project management, but the specific development itself was something of a black box. I’m not sure how they managed the resources—all I know is that the product was delivered and the three developers collaborated very well between themselves.

We didn’t want their internal communications made visible to us. We saw that the product was completed and all the milestones were achieved. They had great transparency when we requested access to something, and it was extremely clear they were abiding by the project timeline. The communication was really clear between their team and our project manager.

We mostly communicated over email, but we used Zoom as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We needed help for another project, and they quickly produced a statement and got started. Their response time is excellent. They’ve demonstrated their agility every time we had a new requirement. They’re able to find the right resources without compromising quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

SoftwareHut is an offshore provider, so they need to be given the right input at the beginning.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Procurence deals with supply chain risk management and supply management solutions.

What is your position?

I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We're a very atypical startup. We haven't hired any programmers in-house. All of our programming has been through partners to make us flexible in case something happens to us. We can react to the business environment by either increasing or decreasing the number of programmers that we use. That's number one.

Number two, it's good for our clients to know that we have additional resources to show that we are a stable company as well. If you have a large international corporation, they treat you differently from when you have five people in a garage doing the programming for us.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We're doing a mobile app together – basically a mobile version of our applications fully from scratch. The rest of the work is outsourcing the programming services. SoftwareHut built our website and developed our mobile app for Android and iOS at the same time.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

The owner and CEO of SoftwareHut used to be our first project manager at a different company before he set up SoftwareHut. We've known each other since 2010 and have been working together since 2010.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together directly after SoftwareHut was split up. Our projects are ongoing. We consider SoftwareHut a part of our team, I've never had a hands-off relationship with them. Our relationship is more ambiguous. It's not as if we give them specifications, and they sit down and do the specifications. They can work with fuzzier requirements. We give them guidelines, and they sit down with my team to develop the specifications up front together with us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I'm very happy with them. It's in too early a stage for our customers to see our work. We're doing multiple prototype stages. The first was a proof of concept to make sure it actually works. We're now in the next round where we've done the first checks. Now, we're doing the back-end. The next round is doing the rest of the front-end development.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a project manager on their side that deals with the coordination within their team. He's the man responsible for doing status reports for me. He also takes part in our daily calls.

What distinguishes SoftwareHut from other providers?

I have a bit of a skewed perspective because I know the owner of the company. Obviously, we have a good personal relationship. Seeing him with his other clients, he has the same approach to the other clients that he does with me. I don't have any other comparisons. They're a solid, good company. Maybe it's just my luck, but I've never had a bad experience with IT [information technology] companies.

Is there anything SoftwareHut could have improved or done differently?

No, not at the moment. I'm very happy.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company develops software and provides IT [information technology] consultancy and legal advice to companies who participate in tenders in Poland.

What is your position?

I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We had a contract come in for the delivery of a laboratory information management system in a very big research and development company. We needed programmers and testers because the task was too big for the amount of people I had in my company.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We began with an analysis phase of the customer requirements, then moved into design, building, and implementing the system. SoftwareHut has been involved in all phases of the project cycle. We have our own project manager, but they provided a lead programmer and lead tester. We used them mostly in the analysis stage to ask proper questions of the customer because they were requesting very fast implementation of the system. They had funding from the European Union and, thus, did not have a lot of time for finalizing the details.

SoftwareHut developed some parts of the application because the customer needed it to integrate with their ERP [enterprise resource planning] system. They asked that we integrated their Microsoft Navision system with our Lynx system in order to keep track of inventory and HR functions in the same place. SoftwareHut developed part of the website and helped with the integrations, which is a very difficult part of the implementation.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

I found them by looking through the Internet. In Poland, there are many software houses, but we chose SoftwareHut because we had heard good things about their high-level specialists. I saw them make a presentation once at a Microsoft conference and was impressed. The price was also important for us. Eastern Poland, where they are located is almost half the price of developers in Warsaw.

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

It was at least €200,000 [approximately $220,000].

What is the status of this engagement?

The selection process was long, we began looking in September 2014, but didn't sign a contract with SoftwareHut until June 2015 because it took a little bit of time to agree on the concept and so on.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

They performed their job very well, but another important factor is how they handled our contract agreement. We had a fixed-price contract with cost and requirements predetermined, but the customer ended up changing some requirements, which forced us to negotiate in good faith. SoftwareHut was able to keep the original price through these negotiations and even during implementation when the customer asked to make modifications. They were very flexible for us. It was important for me that they didn't keep to every single point in our contract. They were supportive during the negotiation process with the customer.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well and everything was on time. We had many discussions and, sometimes, we had to work in the night, but the schedule was kept because the customer's deadline had to be met. They performed very well.

What distinguishes SoftwareHut from other providers?

It's very important to me that they know the latest technologies because I am not as savvy as I used to be. SoftwareHut has advised me many times on what technology to use and the advantages to each. I appreciate that very much.

Is there anything SoftwareHut could have improved or done differently?

They normally work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and it was sometimes difficult to get them to work a little bit overtime. The most important thing is that they delivered on time, but maybe they should be a little bit more flexible. Of course, it's difficult to demand such thing because they are working a normal schedule. It's the law, and that's it, but sometimes they could be more flexible. Otherwise, they are very professional and deliver on time, so I cannot complain.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work in a small organization that has recently created FairPlayAcademy.com, which is a website with a VOD [video-on-demand] system that contains choreography dance video tutorials.

What is your position?

I was the main project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We needed help creating the visual aspect of this project and, more specifically, the user experience design. I came to this organization and we recruited a company, which has since been sold to SoftwareHut. We had no experience selling this kind of content, so they had to convince us to do it with them. We needed to trust them, and it was a close cooperation between the two of us. We worked on the business model while they worked on the development.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They provided graphic designs for the whole user interface and front end of the platform. Besides that, they created the whole backstage CMS [content management system] and platform to manage the tutorials. We had to connect our services with Vimeo, which is what we're based on. They also had to create another layout for Vimeo that allows the users to switch between eight counts of choreography. They were also responsible for all of the PHP and HTML. They also had to create a payment system and all the mechanisms necessary to make it possible to buy the tutorial and subscribe for lessons. The whole application had to be both mobile- and desktop-friendly.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

I personally knew the project manager of the previous company before they became SoftwareHut. After conducting some tests and doing some small jobs, we decided to continue with them. It was also convenient because they are based in the same city as us.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in autumn 2014 but, because we have several projects going on, we delayed it a little bit. We finished the development in March of this year [2016] and launched the product in April. We are testing the project on the market and will probably need to make some adjustments after we get an idea of what people like and don't like about it. These are the early after-launch observations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

It's hard to say if it's a success or not yet because we just launched and haven't started marketing it yet. We are very proud of the positive feedback we've received. People are complimenting how clear and easy to use the design is, which is nice. That's also a great compliment to our developers and designers.

In the first week after launching, we had purchases coming in from Hong Kong, the United States, and all around the world. Of course, it's not massively selling, but it's growing fast, and we strongly believe it will only continue to grow with the impact of a marketing campaign.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

There were two project managers on the project. I was one from the client side, and there was someone on the agency side, which is not quite typical. There were never any problems because SoftwareHut was extremely easy to communicate with and very open-minded. Even if something went wrong, he was always ready to hear my opinion and was always solution-seeking. We didn't have any problems with project management.

What distinguishes SoftwareHut from other providers?

I can only talk about the people that I worked with before they became SoftwareHut, but they were great, and we are very pleased with the work. I'm looking forward to working with the wider team, but I can only speak about the people involved in my project. It was a nice team, and they were good.

Is there anything SoftwareHut could have improved or done differently?

No. Nothing comes to my mind now.