Sphere

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the managing director of a growing marketing agency

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sphere Software?

We wanted to make the migration from Quickbooks to Netsuite.

What were your goals for this project?

We were tired of fighting quickbooks to do what we wanted so we decided to move to Netsuite. Our goal with NetSuite's cloud solution was to lower cost, streamline key business processes, boost productivity and be more competitive. We also wanted one unified platform instead of CRM, accounting, etc.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had a pre-existing relationship with Sphere - we trusted them to make this process painless.

Describe the project in detail.

We struggled with limitations in reporting, audit trails, and customization. We needed automation, financial consolidation across two business units and better visibility to make informed data-driven decisions. We also wanted better visibility via dashboards and wanted better reporting on real-time data and drill down to understand what’s going on across the business.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager, a senior netsuite consultant, and two developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project was completed on schedule and on budget. It went fast and we were able to cut over to the new system almost immediately (with a little fine-tuning)

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Project collaboration was facilitated via Jira scrum boards. The workflow was efficient.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Schedules and deadlines were met - near constant communication kept everyone up to date on all milestones.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything can always be done faster but I think in this case, they did everything according to mutual plan and schedule

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a marketing agency that mainly does B2B lead generation for technical companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sphere Software?

We were considering acquiring another agency with a number of technology assets, and we wanted a partner who could conduct our technical due diligence and ensure we were getting what we wanted.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a general understanding of the technology owned by the company we were acquiring, but Sphere Software came on as the technical brain to establish the credibility of our management team. They conducted research to determine how the products were built and what it would cost to maintain and grow them. They provided estimations on what it would take to integrate the products with our own technology and even evaluated the quality of the existing code. They collected as much information as possible, including through customer interviews and an audit of the other agency’s books.

Their code review was comprehensive and thorough, evaluating the code of multiple applications and in various languages, such as Ruby on Rails and Elixir. Their valuation also probed the database and a number of web agents, ensuring that what we were buying from the company would be able to do what they said it could.

What is the team composition?

We worked with numerous individuals, including a technical lead and experts in frontend development, databases, mobile apps, UI, and Jira. We also hired a few business analysts.

How did you come to work with Sphere Software?

I’d heard about them before and knew some of their previous work. When we started this project, we had a conversation, and they seemed like a good fit, so I hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from February–June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Based on the due diligence they performed, they found that the other agency’s valuation expectations were far too high. They pulled together a number of red flags, which we’ve been able to reference in our negotiations with the other company. As of now, it looks like Sphere Software will end up saving us about $750,000 when the revised acquisition is finalized.

How did Sphere Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We had no issues with their project management; they were always spot on. We used Jira, Slack, and Confluence to communicate and manage the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They listened to what we needed and proactively took charge of the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any ways they could’ve improved.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If possible, hire someone on your end to be solely dedicated to interfacing with Sphere Software. We didn’t have a position like that, so I often delayed their progress because I had my daily responsibilities as well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sphere Software?

I hired Sphere Software to help with custom software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created the backend and frontend for a consumer finance app based on wireframes we provided. Within the platform, they built the tool for calculating interest and regulation languages. Our customers can now use and apply for services within the app.

What is the team composition?

They provided a project manager and 1–2 developers.

How did you come to work with Sphere Software?

When I was working at my previous company, I had worked with Sphere Software. When this project came up, I knew I wanted their expertise so I contacted them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2015–January 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re still using the platform they helped us build. Since then, we’ve generated a significant amount of revenue and have grown our company. Sphere Software has definitely contributed to our success.

How did Sphere Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They managed the project very well. Their team worked with us every step of the way. Our primary forms of communication were phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their deep understanding of the financial industry was impressive and unique. We valued that they had relevant information when working on the backend.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although they still completed the project quickly, they anticipated it taking 4–5 months but it took 5–6 instead.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Partner with Sphere Software and allow them to help with project management. If you collaborate on the work, you’ll avoid any miscommunications.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the director of IT for a financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sphere Software?

The company was a division of a title lender with a brick and mortar presence. They wanted to launch an online division and brought us in to build the web platform from scratch. We needed to augment our development staff with Ruby on Rails resources. Since the language was in demand at the time, we needed an affordable vendor that could scale staff as needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sphere Software provided full-stack Ruby on Rails development for the web platform and accompanying mobile sites. Some of their resources worked on site in our Chicago office.

My involvement ended when our parent company, which was based in Georgia, relocated the project to their headquarters. None of our team wanted to move to Georgia.

What is the team composition?

The 4–6-person team mainly comprised developers and a few designers.

How did you come to work with Sphere Software?

The parent company recruited our team from another firm that had partnered with Sphere Software. Since we had a good working relationship, we decided to use them for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them from 2011–2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sphere Software provided quality engineers and moved quickly. That efficient service benefitted our parent company, which supported the project with no incoming revenue from the platform. Importantly, the team got the solution up and running to demonstrate the potential ROI. We could not have achieved these positive results in the specified timeline without their help.

How did Sphere Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They became a true part of our team after onboarding. We didn’t treat them any differently than in-house employees. Our team included Sphere Software in every architecture and design planning meeting.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sphere Software was flexible, readily working on a variety of tasks and processes both remotely and in person. Unlike other offshore developers that rely on smart junior developers, the team leveraged senior-level engineers. That investment in resources contributed to the project’s success.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Occasionally, they needed additional resources for certain tasks and scaling the team took extra time. But that’s not a complaint as we went through the same process on our side. They had a deep pool of qualified developers to select from, which was advantageous for the nature of our collaboration.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Plan ahead as much as possible. Realizing that the engagement requires more resources than expected can be one of the biggest pain points for any development project. It’s wiser to pay more for senior engineers because they maximize value. When staffing the team, ensure that every developer comprehends the business goals and challenges thoroughly. That level of understanding can make a good developer a great developer.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a marketer at Salad Bar Tenders. We’re a salad manufacturer and distributor, and we also train supermarkets in how to properly maintain a salad bar.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sphere Software?

We were using carbon paper to collect reports on what our employees were doing at our client’s supermarkets. One copy was filed in our office, one was sent to our customer’s headquarters, and the final one stayed in the store. We wanted to automate this process, so we needed a solution that could generate, distribute, and organize the reports.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to allow both clients and employees to see reports so they can be sure any problems are being addressed. If upper management had access to the reports, we could create a system of accountability for customers and staff.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We started the project with a different vendor, but there were a lot of problems. We decided to find a new company, and we came across Sphere Software.

Describe the project in detail.

We provided Sphere Software with the Android app we’d started with the previous vendor. They fixed all of the issues and provided me with an improved solution. Then, we started working on the iOS version. Now, the report-sharing platform is accessible for all of our clients and employees.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with a project manager and two developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our employees are more efficient because they don’t have to carry around paper anymore. We have more confidence in our reporting process because we have a secure way to distribute information to everyone that needs it and collect instant feedback. We’re also helping the environment by eliminating our paper waste.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were great in terms of project management. We agreed on a 24-hour response time at the beginning of the engagement, and everyone respected that rule.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They actively suggested ways to improve the project, but they didn’t push us to take their advice. I wasn’t aware of the latest technology, so I was thankful that they shared their knowledge.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would like a bit more step-by-step explanations of their process so we could keep a closer watch on their progress. We weren’t given access to their project management software, which I don’t completely understand.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product management at a 401k servicing platform that enables small and medium-sized businesses to offer a 401k plan to their employees. We provide our clients with investment advising, plan administrations, and recordkeeping services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sphere Software?

We had a good user portal for our customers, but we needed to improve the UX/UI.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sphere Software developed a design component system, an infrastructure that allows us to store and easily access all of our design components in one location. In a sense, they helped us rebuild the foundational blocks of our portal. Two different types of clients access our system: employer administrators who manage all of the employee plans, and individual employees who want to access their 401k information. Sphere Software helped create a new admin reporting tool that provides the plan administrators readily accessible reports.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 2–3 engineers. One was in the U.S., and the others were in Ukraine.

How did you come to work with Sphere Software?

I worked with them at my previous job. They did good work and understood project requirements, so we hired them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The system makes it easy to have uniformity across our websites and also reduces design costs. Sphere Software met all of our goals.

How did Sphere Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We were happy with their work. They were great at understanding and executing on our requirements. They presented various solutions customized to our partnership and specific needs, which we appreciated.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The engineers were diligent and hardworking. Our account manager was always in touch with us to make sure things were going well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Communication could’ve been better, but that’s always a concern with overseas teams. They could’ve been more proactive in setting clearer expectations.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Give them clear requirements. Don’t assume that they know exactly what you want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of engineering at Fuse Universal. We’re a market leader in delivering next-generation e-learning experiences. We primarily serve B2B customers, including several large telecom clients, but our primary audience is small to medium enterprises.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sphere Software?

We initially hired them to refine the MVP of our product several years ago and wanted to keep them on as a continuous engineering provider to supplement our in-house team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They currently help us develop and refine features on our e-learning platform. They built the majority of it with us, so they handle the development needs as those arise. The platform’s primarily built with Ruby on Rails, but we’ve also developed native mobile apps for iOS and Android. Since they’ve helped us build the platform from the ground up, they generally take the lead on developing solutions for it. We provide them with the design and explain what kind of functionality we want, but they create and implement the technical solutions.

What is the team composition?

We work with between 20 and 30 developers, including team leads, senior developers, and test engineers.

How did you come to work with Sphere Software?

I believe we were introduced to them by another development partner based here in the UK who’d been working with us on our MVP.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2011 and they’re still with us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve become a core part of our team. They’ve had a huge impact on the way our product has developed, especially in how they implement new features. They’ll go all-in to help us meet deadlines and they offer suggestions on where to go next.

How did Sphere Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re embedded into our teams, so we’re constantly communicating. They’re involved in building the Agile practices for software engineering. We have regular meetings with everyone on the development team. In addition, the headquarters responds quickly whenever we need to bring on more engineers. They also react promptly if we have issues with an individual developer, either working with that person or swapping in someone else.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to scale has been invaluable. Whenever we need engineering talent, we know we can count on them to provide it, even if we need a large number of people. The developers who’ve come in have all been highly engaged with the work and are easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only issue we’ve run into is that they could vet their developers more thoroughly. We’ve occasionally received people whose skills didn’t line up with what they promised on their resumes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure your development stories are very clear and work with the developers to ensure that everyone’s on the same page in terms of understanding what to do. I’d also recommend being diligent about deadlines so everything stays on track.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive chairman of a fintech startup. We have operations in Brazil, focused on providing unsecured personal credit and financial literacy tools to the Brazilian middle class.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sphere Software?

We had numerous challenges, including the security of customer information, and our operational efficiency, in terms of providing a seamless and fast customer experience. We also wanted to always be at the forefront of technological innovations. Finally, we were concerned about cost efficiency. We didn’t want to do things ourselves when we can get it done better, cheaper, faster elsewhere.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first worked on a chatbot. The challenge was efficiency, cost, and automation. Around 80% of our calls make up for 20% of possible questions, and those can often be basic—many of the questions are easy and quick to answer, but there’s a high volume of them.

We decided to automate one part of our customer service using a chatbot implementation. Their team helped us structure a knowledgebase, which was later automated on the messaging platform via a chatbot. For instance, a customer could open a chat with us asking about their next due date. We would ask a couple of ID validation questions, and the chatbot would return an answer.

They also helped us develop a smart contract. Sometimes, our customers will either forget or intentionally challenge the fact that they took out a loan, in order to avoid paying it back. We’re an online fintech, so we’re not going to send out paper forms for people to sign, as that would be hugely inconvenient, expensive, and time-consuming. On the other hand, we needed something that was digital, yet still enforceable in a court of law.

We’ve come up with a smart contract that runs on blockchain. The lending contracts are registered, and they’re provable, using blockchain. They can be easily exported into PDF format and validated by anyone. This represents a huge step forward for us, both in terms of ability to enforce contracts and in leveraging blockchain as a real tool.

What is the team composition?

I usually work with 2–4 people from their team, depending on the exact nature of the task. When we need more development talent and UI people the team may expand to four people. On the smart contracts, the team was around three people.

How did you come to work with Sphere Software?

I’ve known Leon (CEO, Sphere Software) for a long time now, and it’s why I turned to him to meet our needs. The company I used to work also used their services. I always heard excellent feedback from my tech team about them, their quality, and their cost.

Leon has a unique structure, which I call “onshore/offshore”, whereby he’s sometimes able to make available offshore people who are onshore for specific amounts of time. This is cheaper, but it also enhances the skillset and knowledge of those people. I thought that it was a rather unique business model, which had a number of advantages.

What is the status of this engagement?

Within my current startup, we started working with them two years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve had a high impact in a specific field. We have our own in-house tech team, so we don’t rely on them to run our entire tech stack. However, the things we’ve asked them to do were very important for the growth of our business and its cost control. We were able to outsource those tasks and see good results.

In terms of quality, we look at whether the deliverables were done on time and budget or below. From a qualitative or customer perspective, we check if the products work as they need to, if they break or if people are complaining, and if the tech team reports any problems with the build. I’ve only heard the best types of reviews. The chatbot worked, and any issues were fixed by the Sphere team. The smart contracts work, and we’ve demonstrated them to the central bank. It’s important for our company’s credibility, and they delivered.

How did Sphere Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve always been very good from a project management perspective. They responded within the limits we agreed to. Some of their people would be working from Ukraine, so their hours would be different, but we were able to set up chat sessions that overlapped with our schedules.

Whenever I needed to discuss something more strategic or high-level, I’d get a hold of Leon or his COO, and they’d always make themselves available. They've always provided excellent quality of service.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were able to leverage a number of specialists within Sphere—we were given access to an impressive variety of specialists, including a top UI/UX designer, a blockchain expert, someone specializing in chatbots and AI algorithms, and a developer who worked on a small QR piece of code. The sheer scope of talent and knowledge they were able to deliver was really helpful.

The other part is that Sphere was able to provide near-onshore quality at near-offshore prices. The value for money is really high with them, as opposed to some of the alternatives.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to think of any glaring problems.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

My advice to a Sphere client would be the same as for the client of any other outsourcer: that they should try and understand what they want to get out of a certain process before making the decision of outsourcing. Once the decision to outsource is made—because of any number of issues like cost, time, efficiency, and so on—they should be specific as to what needs to be done, and spend a little time thinking about the project, the budget, and timelines. They should also discuss what’s going right and what’s going wrong on a periodic basis with the relationship manager.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the engineering manager at a transportation service. We provide taxis, delivery, and shuttles to private users and companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sphere Software?

We work in diverse markets, ranging from the U.S. and U.K., to Israel and Russia, so we need to create software that can work in both robust, and not too robust, online environments. It also has to be able to handle market changes, differing sets of regulations, and fluctuating costs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There was a new regulation in Russia that required us to integrate our payment receipt system with a third-party vendor, because of specific formatting issues. Every time someone pays us, we email them a receipt which shows the amount, so it was going to affect all of our projects and transactions. They developed a backend only, micro-service to handle all of that logic, which we integrated into our system.

What is the team composition?

I have two people from Sphere on my team, and one of them worked on the receipt project with us.

How did you come to work with Sphere Software?

When I got here, they were already working with the company. I was very happy with the initial developer we got from them, so I went ahead took another one. I interviewed their selections, both technical and personally, to make sure that I'm getting the right resource. They seem to have a very strong pool of candidates.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project from January until March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of quality of code and number of bugs, they’ve been very good. We measure them by the same standard we use for our own employees internally.

How did Sphere Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They take ownership from the beginning and they have a good ability to hit deadlines, communicate, respond quickly, and collaborate. They have great teamwork.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their commitment to finish the work, and putting in the extra effort to finish everything, stood out to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Since we work with individual employees, they’re very independent, so I don’t have feedback as a company. Everyone can improve themselves, but it’s all person improvement. I don’t have anything in general.

Any advice for potential customers?

If you pick someone up, be ready with everything they need to complete the work, like technical design documents. Otherwise, they might be idle as they wait for the definition of the work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the co-founder and president of a retail electricity supplier. We buy energy on the wholesale markets and deliver it to our customers over their regular power lines, based on their specific energy usage.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sphere Software?

Sometimes we need to supplement our team with an experienced individual with specific expertise, but don’t have the time to find a permanent employee. When Sphere provides us with the expertise we need, we’re able to balance cost, speed, and quality. We’ve been able to use them for several different projects now.

For one project, in particular, we needed to find people skilled in .NET. We do most of our in-house development in Ruby, but we found a source code to a system in .NET that was affordable, so we bought it. We didn’t necessarily want to keep it long term, but we needed someone's expertise to help figure it out. We brought Sphere in to find someone who knew .NET and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) quickly because we didn’t have any documentation, all we had was a source code that didn't run well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I don't view our work with Sphere on a per-project basis. It was an undetermined project from the beginning, but it involved data migration and required mastery of various technologies. We were able to get the software platform up and running quickly. After we switched platforms, we spent a few months fixing bugs and addressing emergencies as they arose.

In addition to getting SSIS running, a big part of this project was creating documentation so that when we ultimately need to replace it, we already have a document explaining how it functions. When there's a new implementation, we don't need to dig through the original implementation and can instead leverage that documentation to rewrite it. We're doing that now and it seems to be moving at a good pace.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager and two developers working on our projects, who were a core part of our team.

How did you come to work with Sphere Software?

A colleague recommended Sphere to me in 2005 when I worked for a different company and were trying to build a platform from scratch. After I started to work on the project and quickly realized we needed help, so we brought them on. Sphere became the group’s go-to partner, but I continued to partner with them when I worked with different companies and thought of them immediately for our current work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began work on the project in summer 2016, migrated the following December, and then spend a few months fixing bugs and other problems. We still have one developer working on it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We'd been paying an external vendor about $50,000 a month, but when we brought on Sphere we were able to bring the project in-house. When we stopped working with the external vendor, the project was completed in about six months, which meant the work was completed more efficiently and without the same financial burden.

However, my biggest concern is always project performance, and whether or not that performance can be maintained. Sphere is able to create a well-functioning product, and I consider that successful.

How did Sphere Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We even created internal email and chat accounts, so not only were they available to communicate, they could also be a more prominent part of the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sphere is always able to find an expert, no matter the technology. If I need somebody that knows a particular technology, I can have a few qualified candidates within a couple days, which means I can find a good fit for the project all the sooner. It's important that we're able to leverage new technologies without needing to rely on in-house expertise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They're very receptive when I ask for something to be fixed or adjusted, but I don't know how much they solicit feedback from other clients. I've worked with them long enough that it's easy for me to immediately tell them what works and what doesn't, but I don't know if that conversation happens as easily with other clients.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It's important to keep in mind you're working with people in a different time zone and with a different holiday schedule.

Clear communication is also important, particularly if the team isn't local. When software projects fail, it's usually because they didn't communicate requirements or gather necessary information before the project started. Often, we don't communicate certain ideas or concepts because we assume certain knowledge is obvious, but that's not always the case, especially when working with a company overseas. Continue to make incremental improvements so you can learn from what you've already built.