Sparq

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at an electronic government agency that belongs to the Uruguayan presidency. We manage the country's digital agenda—everything related to e-government—and help citizens to have access to more services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

We needed to develop our electronic ID platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Octobot used Python and OpenShift to develop a multi-factor identification platform. It was completed on time and launched in January 2018 for production, and the number of users has exponentially grown. We now continue working with them for developing new features and mobile apps for Android and iOS.

What is the team composition?

They assigned four developers, an architect, and a security advisor.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

All state hires are based on public tenders. The government evaluates potential vendors by basing 70% on the technical capabilities and 30% on their prices. Octobot did very well on the technical side and offered a better price than the company that matched their skills.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around $200,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working on them in September 2017. We’re on a contract or six more months, which will be renewed for an additional year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The number of registrations to the platform grew by 300% thanks to their work. Octobot was also great at meeting deadlines. Their quality and efficiency matched the other companies we’ve worked with before that have a lot more time on the market.

How did Octobot it perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack and email for communicating and have meetings every Tuesday. The speed at which the project has progressed is amazing. We haven’t had any delays, which we know is complicated, but they’ve managed to pull it off.

Octobot has also been flexible and understanding whenever our priorities change regarding scaling their resources. When we decided to launch the product in January, we reduced their working hours and increased them again two months ago, which they haven’t had any trouble with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Things that took other providers a month to complete takes Octobot a week. Their capacity to adapt and take on new technologies really called our attention. They’re also very proactive and agile.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything at the moment. We are very happy with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We own steakhouses and markets in the Miami and Weston areas. I’m the CFO [Chief Financial Officer].

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

We needed software developed for our barcode system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They solved the issue that we had with barcode software. We can now centralize our meat purchase as well as baked goods and pastries. We have everything in a single barcode system. They took what we had and made it cloud-based, using Amazon Web Services, to make it more stable. They provided me with the real-time reporting that I needed.

What is the team composition? 

There were 3 people working on the project. I had a primary contact and weekly calls with the team. They worked in sprints, so every week we had deliverables.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

We have an IT company that handles the infrastructure of the restaurants and markets. We had some challenges with the system that had been developed for us two years ago and when talking to the IT company, they mentioned Octobot. 

I had a conversation with Guillermo [CEO and Co-founder, Octobot] and the team in Uruguay and I felt very comfortable with them. The sprints helped build that comfort level because you aren’t just giving them the requirements and not seeing anything for two or three weeks.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with this project in late August. We finished the core of it in November, but it’s ongoing because we’re including recipes and adding other features.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After we went live, if there were any issues they reacted very quickly. The feedback has been very positive. Our operators are not very tech savvy and they found the new software to be more user-friendly and better for productivity. Before, scanning would take 30–45 seconds per barcode when doing the shipping. Now it’s immediate, and it’s the same for the inventory. We now save one FTE [full-time equivalent] per year.

The system is also more stable and reliable. I feel more comfortable looking at the data and not having to work out if the information is correct. Before the system, we had some downtime where users were experiencing freezing and frustration with the software. Now that’s gone.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

They were hitting the deadlines throughout. They have a project management tool they use for the sprints, which I thought was very good. We had a weekly call and had open communication at all times. If there are any issues, we would Skype or FaceTime to get things going. We would send them videos, they could look, and work around any issues. We have a time difference, and if they have to work later hours they did. I was very pleased with that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Usually, there’s a big disconnect between the programmer side and the business side. Octobot took time to understand the pain points that I had and how my business works. We are in the food industry so products expire and there are different measurements we use. One of the team came from Uruguay to spend some time with us to understand our business. They understood the business side and were able to provide different ways to do things.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they could continue to tighten up the weekly deliverables in order to keep their promises.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure they use the sprints. This was the first time that I dealt with a developer that did. I found that it worked very well for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Seesr is an online dating platform that gives users the ability to make a reservation for a certain activity. I founded the company with two others.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

We wanted to provide activities for people, and we needed a company to develop our platform and have it be as user friendly as possible, in addition to being something new, fancy, and unique.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s three web platforms combined: one for the user, one for the people presenting the activities, and one for the administrator. They used Django. It was a challenging job but we succeeded.

What is the team dynamic? 

There were two designers, two developers, and the two owners.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

We sent an request for proposal to 70 companies. The first was Octobot, and my partner went and met them in person. We waited two months for the perfect partner, and the first people we contacted turned out to be the best ones.

How much have you invested with them?

€25,000 [$29,500 USD].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May of this year. The work was completed in November 2017, but we recently did a new request for a few modifications to improve the user experience, which wasn't part of the initial project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re pleased with the design. It’s quite fancy, and they made it user friendly for us as administrators. I’m happy with the results and we’re happy as a company. The general conclusion of users and activity providers is that it’s a nice website. We didn’t test that many troubles, and if we had any, they quickly resolved it.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

They used Slack and sometimes WhatsApp or email. We were ready two weeks before the deadline. We had weekly follow-up meetings and sent questions back and forth daily. The time difference was sometimes a small issue, but mostly, the response time was quite fast.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're a small company, but they always try to hit your expectations and meet you in the middle. Everything was negotiable. My favorite thing is how they design things, which is their strength. They always collaborated with us and really improved our ideas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re pleased with the collaboration. Sometimes, we wanted them to work cheaper or respond sooner, but we can’t expect more than they did.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of Puppy Mama, Inc. We are a social media startup and lifestyle brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

We reached out to them for help on building our platform. We needed to get to MVP and perform market analysis in order to ensure a good product fit. I had initially worked on a mockup of the UI and UX myself, and was looking for a dev team which could bring it to the next level.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Octobot provided design and development for our platform. Since I was building a women’s brand, it was important to find a female developer, which is hard to do, especially in the US. There are multiple women on Octobot’s team, and all of them are talented. I have been very impressed with their work.

To start, we had two full-time developers, both of whom moved fast and with quality work. But, because I wanted to launch a more sophisticated MVP than what was originally in our contract, we upped the team to three full-time developers, as well as two UX/UI designers.

Immediately prior to our launch, Octobot brought in their senior developer, who worked very hard with the team in order to fix any last-minute bugs. I was impressed with how much emphasis, dedication and care was put into the project. Octobot was proud of the product, and they wanted it to look great. True ownership over the work is hard to find.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

I found them through a friend in a senior position at another tech company in San Francisco. I was considering whether to find a CTO or a dev shop offshore. He gave me quite a few names, and I also received contacts from other friends. I interviewed a few shops, and felt that Octobot not only had a good price, but their principal is also a talented and smart person who listened to us and cared. I told him what my vision was, and he quickly understood it, relaying back what value his team could bring.

Octobot was the best out of all the shops I visited, and I was also impressed with the technical infrastructure in Uruguay. Video and phone calls were the same as when communicating with someone in San Francisco. When I interviewed other companies, the bigger distance and/or lack of infrastructure were a source of frustration. In order to have a true partner, they needed to be accessible and reliable. As a nearshore company, relative to California, Octobot is only four or five hours away from us.

How much have you invested with Octobot?

I’m confident that Octobot would negotiate in good faith with other clients, but our project may be different than others, given that we’ve leveraged them as a full-time member in our team. I was the only employee of the company at the time, so I needed Octobot’s help more than other people may have.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Octobot in October 2016. We spent two to three weeks ensuring that the UX design was exactly what we wanted before moving on to the development phase. We launched in mid-March 2017. We continue the contract with Octobot, but we’ll build more features only after we’ve tested the platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People have been very impressed with our platform, and have requested introductions to Octobot’s team. They took the software to the net level, creating a sleek design and plugging in different types of modules. I’ve received many compliments.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

I couldn’t be happier with Octobot’s team. They’re a pleasure to work with, and we even cracked jokes during our meetings. It wasn’t a dry collaboration; Octobot was in it as much as I was, and it was important to see that passion from the people I was working with.

I was trained on the development process, and got onto the same project tracker as the team. When I identified a bug, I put it in, and we developed a very good rhythm. We’ve been using the django-project-management application, through which I can give overviews of the app by myself.

My husband and I visited Octobot in Uruguay, and we’ve been impressed with their office space. They also surprised us by having the CEO and three other team members come to our office in order to help us with the demo phase.

What did you find most impressive about Octobot?

My husband and I have been very impressed with the work provided by Octobot, and we treat them more as partners, which is hard to find when outsourcing developers. They have been our team since the beginning, and I strongly appreciate their counsel regarding how to make the app better and lessons learned. Instead of just doing what we’re asking them to do, Octobot has given them that extra layer which we hope to see with any third-party partner.

Are there any areas Octobot could improve?

There were issues here and there, but their project management was very professional. Given what downsides could have occurred, I have no complaints. We were given results for testing in order to eliminate any issues later on.

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

Having had the same dev shop from the beginning has allowed us to find a good rhythm, and I strongly recommend that others find the same kind of partner. There is a lot of added value in sticking with one team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of zealpath.com

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

We wanted to find a developer to create an MVP solution. We went on to consider several developers and Octobot appeared as one of them. We went ahead and developed an MVP with them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used Python, AngularJS, AWS. In terms of the project, we had a team of 3-4 developers assigned to the project. We’ve had a great experience in the requirements process. They wanted to understand the value proposition and add a business outlook. They weren’t limited to only develop the functionalities but to understand our business objective. They’ve gone above and beyond, contributing and helping us greatly with design. This has contributed to our value proposition and their understanding of how the business works so they can continue helping us.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

We found them online. It’s good to highlight that we wanted to work in English in case the project is transferred to another development. But all of our meetings are in Spanish. The documentation and everything else is in English. This is an advantage.

Their time zone works perfectly with our times in Europe. This is fundamental as we get to catch up with Octobot at the end of our workday.

How much have you invested with Octobot?

10k-50k

What is the status of this engagement?

We’re still working with them until May for now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Octobot’s reactions to issues that arise has been very good. They’ve also recognized when parts of the solution needed to be readdressed without charging us extra. Their dedication and client service is really good. They want us to be happy.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve used Google Hangouts to do the weekly catchup meetings. We have always used a project manager and they have created all tasks. We haven’t had to figure things out too much. Wireframes included related explanations with the users’ flows. They’ve been able to create their own sprints and tasks.

We haven’t needed Slack. They resolved their issues. Communication was efficient. Our time zones work very well with them.

What did you find most impressive about Octobot?

They were able to question themselves on why do certain things before working on a task. In some cases, they found weak points of the product. Having the scrum master who also acted a product manager was able to understand the product.

Were there any areas for improvement?

I think this happens with every company with some junior programmers. The person who started to develop the product wasn’t as qualified as others but this didn’t represent a cost for us. People need to learn and we understand companies need to have some junior developers. There were some changes in the assigned developer but it wasn’t a loss for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Bycle is a bicycling app. I am a co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

We needed to bring our concept to reality. We had been keeping it on the backburner, and weren't able to pass it from design to a fully working app. We needed a development team which could fulfill what we required.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Octobot not only succeeded in developing our iOS app, but they became a strategic partner in helping us achieve our business goals. We wanted to create not only a working app regarding UI [user interface] and UX [user experience] but also improve the concept itself.

We have used the Swift language with a backend infrastructure on Amazon Web Services. We also used Mandrill for communications with our users, and Mapbox as a mapping software.

Because of our budget and depending on the phase, we've worked with one or two developers from Octobot's team, the average being one resource. Their principal also participated in the project, working closely with us.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

We had been discussing the project with another team and were trying to determine if we could work together. We posted a request and made ourselves available for collaboration. I don't remember the specifics, but there was something in Octobot's approach which we found to be very humane. The team was in the same time zones and spoke the same languages as ourselves and our business partners. This meant that we could have easy communication with Octobot. Their website also looked very good. The prospect was very appealing to us, so I scheduled a Skype interview.

How much have you invested with Octobot?

The cost of Octobot's work has been around $60,000–$70,000 in total so far. We have completed different milestones, each with different costs.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working consistently with Octobot since February 2016. The project is ongoing, with Octobot acting as our in-house team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We wanted to create an MVP [minimum viable product] in time for a tech conference. Octobot created a working app which we could run from a phone, rather than an animated proof-of-concept. It allowed us to get a lot more attention, and gain leverage in our negotiations.

We had a technical difficulty before a meeting with Women's Health magazine, and it was critical that we got the app working properly. Even though I was in New York, while Octobot's team was in Uruguay, they were there for us, making the app work minutes before we walked into the meeting. That sense of reliability showed us that we weren't simply outsourcing a project, but bringing in a group of people who would have our backs. Octobot has incredible communication and accessibility, especially in the case of our two partners from their team.

Right now, we are in the beta-testing mode for the app. The best measures I can provide are regarding response and execution rate. Octobot has been very good at achieving our goals and handling unexpected circumstances. The team has been able to solve any problems which popped-up within the course of a week, on average.

Our app works with a specific bike mount, and we needed to add GoPro camera integration to the app. Within one week, Octobot delivered a prototype. Whenever we have a new demo, we're impressed by their work.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

We almost have daily communication, and we try to have a full review of our achievements once per week. This gives me a good feeling over the collaboration.

Our project doesn't always involve building fully functional solutions from the start. We may look at proofing a particular feature, and within a week Octobot will deliver a result which we can test.

Octobot has Scrum management for the team, which is extremely effective. The group is very organized, working based on roadmaps and feature-breakdowns. They've pushed us at the same time to conform to the same organization.

Communication is mainly done through Slack, but we also have Google Hangouts sessions and in-person meetings. The relationship with Octobot is personal and approachable. The group isn't very bureaucratic, but they're still very organized. This allows us to brainstorm during every session, conceptualize, and take the app to an actual successful result.

What did you find most impressive about Octobot?

Octobot has helped us understand what was or wasn't possible. Even though we could unleash our imagination and bring new ideas to the table, Octobot always knew how to manage our expectations, which is important. Octobot never said no to anything, but they still let us know what our limitations were. Their abilities regarding software development are very strong. Octobot has been able to manage any challenge we put up, giving us good time estimates. They're also good at providing alternatives which may provide the same results regarding UX.

Are there any areas Octobot could improve?

Every startup will want to spend as little as possible, and Octobot is not the cheapest software development company out there. In general terms, we've never had a real issue, though. Any situations we've encountered in the past, like moving from email to Slack, were always improved on-the-spot. Keeping up with bugs and fixes proved to be difficult recently. We had a single channel on Slack for discussing bugs, but we've made a dashboard on which we upload videos, pictures, and descriptions of particular bugs.

It's not always the best to work with a team from another city, but we have overcome these things through technology. We couldn't be happier with Octobot. It may sound too good to be true, but it's the reason we've kept working with Octobot, even though we found cheaper solutions on the market.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Compass Global Technologies is based in Palo Alto, California. We offer enterprise software for global growth management. Our product helps other tech companies understand where and when to move, and what to do once they expand. We usually work inside the US, but we have clients all over the world. I am the product manager of the company, in charge of everything related to the software that we develop. I'm also in charge of customer success, getting feedback from clients on how to improve our software. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

When I came into the company, we were using a different development shop in Colombia. I realized that there were some problems with the processes used by that company, relating to efficiency and time consumed. At that time, we also needed to rebuild our back-end, reworking all our APIs. We were using Parse, which was being shut down by Facebook. We had to migrate to Amazon Web Services. That’s when Octobot came in.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Octobot acts as our technical and design team. They have assigned a CTO, 3 engineers and a designer for our work. Aside from rebuilding our backend, Octobot also built software for iOS and the web for our company.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

I am from the same country as Octobot's team and an engineer friend also recommended them. I made a request for proposal and contacted several companies for bids on our contract. These companies were in the US, Eastern Europe, India, and South America. Octobot took part in the same competition as everyone else, which was a bit different to what they were used to. This may be one of the reasons why they actually won. Octobot was more willing to adapt to what we were looking for, while the other development shops were stricter.

How much have you invested with Octobot?

The total cost of Octobot's services is above six figures.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Octobot in November 2015. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Octobot has built 4 different versions of our software. The first version, which was released in February 2016, increased our performance by at least twofold.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Pivotal Tracker and Trello for product management, as well as Sketch for designs. I track our feature performance, as well as bug count and expenses. One of the reasons for choosing Octobot was that we didn't want a developer that worked hourly, but rather one that worked as an in-house tech team. We needed the ability to track their work as if they were employees. This information is kept transparent within both companies and used to improve everything that we do. Octobot used to have a different development process, more adapted to normal shops. They also used different processes for bug tracking and fixing. We improved Octobot's system and made it more efficient and faster. We focused on splitting different parts of the process in terms of coding and design. Everyone in the team was made aware of what their involvement was. They had their own deadlines and specific templates of information which needed to be filled out. We test the code that Octobot writes using engineers in our team, making sure that it is up to our standards. We have implemented many processes to make sure that we are fast and efficient. These processes also help us achieve good quality.

What did you find most impressive about Octobot?

The fact that Octobot was willing to adapt to what we wanted is a unique feature. It was hard for us to find someone who could adopt our processes and methodologies, tracking the metrics that we wanted to track. Each company has its own way of working, which makes it hard to change a partner's mind. Octobot put every issue into discussion, determining the best way we could achieve something.

We used to track bugs in a specific way. Then we found out that we needed to get more information from the user’s perspective in order to make the process more efficient. We now have a template which we send out to users. We gather information like device type, software version, print screens, and video captures, along with descriptions of the bugs and other user information. This decreased the fixing time by a factor of 5. The fact that Octobot was able to accept this process is quite unique to them.

Are there any areas Octobot could  improve?

Anything that needs fixing will be addressed by sitting down with Octobot's owners. We found solutions to our problems either in the form of a piece of software or increased communication. We are also very transparent. Any issues we encounter with our own clients are related back to Octobot. When they have an issue in terms of development, they'll also come back to us. There hasn't been something which needed improving which wasn't nailed by our teams. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a general consultant and web developer. I bring vendors and clients together. To a certain extent, I also do project management and move pieces along. I work a lot within advertising, with design-shop vendors, media companies, and publishers. I've known the client in New York for a long time and have occasionally stepped in to help with projects that needed some shepherding. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

One of our clients was a group of healthcare marketing veterans. They had a new initiative for running surveys on behalf of pharmaceutical companies. The feedback would help them make marketing decisions. The client needed to build a platform through which these robust surveys could be administered. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Octobot built a web-based platform. Using this tool, pharmaceutical companies could query doctors and people in the healthcare industry. Using their feedback, the client could determine how to best market products to the broader medical industry. Octobot built the platform using Python/Django, at the request of our client. They have their own survey analytics software which is used for collected data. Octobot handled everything, from design, to the back-end management platform development, to deployment. The tool can be very complex, given that there is a lot of segmentation, logic, and conditional processing in the back-end. People could respond to custom questions and the platform also features image manipulation. Octobot also dealt with our Amazon hosting. We worked with around 2 developers from Octobot at any given moment. There was one full-time resource working for us, and there were a couple of front-end and back-end people stepping in and out.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

I researched a number of companies which handled Python Django development. I cast a wide net and found a list of companies on quora.com. Some were in the US, while others were in India, Uruguay and so on. I put out an RFP to all of them, around 10 in number. I asked for design and development for the platform. The initial thinking was that we would contract a US-based company for high-end branding. We would then find a cheaper offshore development solution.

Octobot seemed to be a good fit. They're not exactly an A+ branding shop, but they're good at design and development. Octobot seemed to be the right balance between cost-effective and good. We ended up going with them. If the designs provided by Octobot turned out bad, we would cross that bridge when we got to it. It turned out that their designs were good, and development was on-point. Octobot hit the right notes in terms of location, pricing, capabilities and experience.

How much have you invested with Octobot?

The total cost of Octobot's services has been between $35,000 and $40,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Octobot jumped on everything very fast and the client was happy. We built an internal tool for a market research company. They're very happy with the product, but I don't have metrics beyond that. The tool has done what the group needed, namely a robust way of collecting data from health professionals. It features image manipulations and robust conditional logic. For example, if a pediatrician is more inclined to prescribe a particular drug, they will be sent to a location based on that. The software allows the client to get a good sense based on their objectives and the way in which data is collected.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Pivotal Tracker for keeping up with different items, fixes, and changes. We also communicated with Octobot through Skype, Google Hangouts, and weekly calls. Our project manager handled everything internally, providing a good balance. I didn't feel that I needed to get into the weeds with Octobot's developers. The work got done and we weren't waiting on anyone, but I don't know how Octobot divided the workflow.

What did you find most impressive about Octobot?

Octobot is a very good company and I would definitely recommend them. They're good people and they understand the work, which isn't the easiest thing to do. If I'd gotten a US shop to develop our tool, we would have spent at least 3 times more, considering how robust it is. If I'd have gone to India or Indonesia, the work would have been cheaper, but I would've had to chase people down. I've done a lot of offshore work and found that I got what I paid for. The design is usually terrible. Octobot is in the right spot. They're a great fit for any serious work from a company with a good budget.

Are there any areas  Octobot could improve?

I haven't had a bad experience with Octobot.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a non-profit organization providing healthy cooking and nutrition programming for schools and community partners. I am the Curriculum and Quality Assurance Manager of the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

We were building a new website that would support our programming.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Another firm was in charge of developing wireframes, while Octobot handled the actual development for our website. The site required logins, which meant integrating with our CRM [customer relationship management] system. It also required integration into another system called Clever, for student information management. Octobot was in charge of this API integration.

Functionality-wise, 50% of the site content was static, while the rest was comprised of trivia, fill-in-the-blank, and matching definitions games.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

Octobot was originally contracted through the firm that handled our wireframes. They worked together in the past. We liked our collaboration with Octobot as a subcontractor, so we brought them in again.

How much have you invested with Octobot?

The total cost of Octobot's services has been in the $50,000 to $75,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

Octobot has finished our minimum viable product. We're now starting more advanced development with Octobot for animated card games and so on.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our site is still in the beta-testing phase, so I don't have any user engagement stats. This was the first project of its kind for our company so, in addition to providing development work, Octobot guided us on project management, offering many tools and recommendations.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

Octobot stuck well to our schedule and budget. We were using Confluence initially, but we switched to Google Drive at Octobot's recommendation, in order to reduce costs.

What did you find most impressive about Octobot?

Octobot is based in Uruguay. Despite our time difference, their team was responsive during our business hours. We collaborate through email and Skype. I appreciate the fact that I can ping their team just like I would any other colleague.

Octobot was aware of the fact that we are a non-profit and don't have a lot of cash. They've been great at finding cost-saving opportunities which we could leverage. It's been helpful to have the big picture in mind during the project. We've outlined every feature, which has maximized our sprints. Octobot would be a great partner for someone that has a clear idea of their goals. We acted as the expert for our clients' needs, while Octobot made the digital translation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Software Engineering of a logistics and delivery company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Consolidated pickup, sorting, transporting, and delivery of packages.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Select an LLM and populate it to obtain insight from the data

SOLUTION

How did you find Sparq?

Existing Vendor Relationship

Why did you select Sparq over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Sparq were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Select a LLM suitable for the project
• Craft the data set to be fed into the LLM
• Populate the LLM with data
• Craft prompts to gain insight from the data within the LLM
• Share the elements and processes used with employees for further development

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All objectives were met and the results are being leveraged in a side-by-side fashion in production to ensure the answers are high quality and can be used to make business decisions.

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

The SCRUM master/project coordinated made sure timelines were communicated and roadblocks were identified and addressed.  They worked with multiple team members to ensure the project didn't languish.  Regular contacts with updated progress metrics were always presented.

What was your primary form of communication with Sparq?

Virtual Meeting

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

Sparq took a no-nonsense approach to leveraging known platforms and tools to deliver.  No slideware or vaporware involved!

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

Not this time.