Stepwise

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of a financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Stepwise?

We needed to set up a renewable energy financing platform. We previously had a team but required a partner to ramp up the development of a new tech stack for the platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stepwise built the whole web-based platform from scratch. They managed front- and backend development as well as test automation. For the backend, their team used Java and the Kotlin stack. For the frontend, they used React. Their team used MongoDB as a database and Keycloak for user management.

Their team initially built a log-in area for different users such as companies and banks, which enables the platform’s tendering concept. Clients match with banks that hand in offers and then clients can accept the offers.

What is the team composition?

Four people from Stepwise work on the platform’s frontend. Another three people work on the backend including DevOps. One person supports test automation.

How did you come to work with Stepwise?

Our CTO, who previously worked with Stepwise, recommended them. He was quite happy with their team.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about €500,000 euros (approximately $589,000 USD) on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020, and it’s an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform turned out as expected, and Stepwise achieved the timeline that we set for the project. Their team gave us realistic targets for different project milestones. Stepwise also showed a high level of flexibility with adding and removing team members when we needed more or less development power.

How did Stepwise perform from a project management standpoint?

Their architects manage the project with one on the frontend side and another on the backend side of the platform. As the most experienced developers, they steer the team. It works well. They were also my main contacts at the beginning of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Stepwise is flexible. I didn’t expect them to be able to ramp up and down so quickly when we need them to. We’re comfortable working with the Stepwise team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have more senior developers on their team. However, Stepwise has already improved a lot in that area.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend having a product owner on your side. It’s a wise decision, especially if you don’t have previous experience building digital products.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

So I’m the CEO of Mondeca and we’re a software publisher we work in natural language processing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Stepwise?

The core skills are semantics and language processing. We didn’t want to build the IT skills internally, so we looked for a subcontractor.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We mainly use their services for software development. They advise us on information technology.  They’ve done development, visualization, database management, and worked on our front- and backend. They’ve really helps us modernize our technology. They used JavaScript and various other front- and backend packages.

What is the team composition?

We have half a dozen people working on two different teams– so three per team, and a senior architect.

How did you come to work with Stepwise?

We found them on Clutch. We’re a small company, and so we didn’t want to use a big software house and settled on this company size. We also want English speaking people and a company that’s easy to reach. So we did a Google search and that brought us to their Clutch profile.

How much have you invested with them?

At the end of the year, about €120,000 (approximately $132,000 USD).  

What is the status of this engagement?

Their first assignment started in May 2019 and we have two ongoing projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re happy with their work. Their team is knowledgeable. It’s going to market right now.

One is still in development, and another in testing, so we’re not sure how happy the final customers will be. We had one client who tested the product and they were happy.

How did Stepwise perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. I often learn more from them than our own team. We use Jira to communicate weekly. It’s still a growing company and we’re aware of that. They have excellent resources. In most cases, they have the right people. When they don’t have the right people, they react, and usually before we raise any issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to advise. We can tell them to do it this way, but they’ll propose a better idea if they have one. We’ve accepted a lot of their ideas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sourcing people. It would be better if they had a few more people. Because when they lose somebody, they know how to manage it, but it’s difficult to bring in new people on the spot.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Roomzilla is our office neighbor in the center of Warsaw. As an independent startup, they are a partner to a larger CIC group from the US East Coast. Its team is developing a powerful, yet lightweight meeting room booking system that is managed through the browser with the help of onsite meeting room displays. Simply put, Roomzilla is a cloud-based room reservation system which works on any device and supports Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Stepwise?

Roomzilla contacted Stepwise with a request to help develop the frontend part of their new module Office Maps

What were your goals for this project?

To develop new module for graphic interface for meeting rooms booking

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Recommended by friends and also work in the same building (almost door-to-door) that allowed a faster and better communication

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

- office map module in Vuejs technology - scrum and agile software development approach - graphic and UX design

What was the team composition?

- 2 front end developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

-Scrum / Agile software development - JIRA - GitLab - Slack

What did you find most impressive about this company?

- communication skills and understanding approach (They look for solutions rather than problems.)

Are there any areas for improvement?

could be a little bit faster ;)

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a company that offers integration solutions to energy utility companies. Our platform facilitates the business processes of utility firms by providing them with out-of-the-box integration capabilities. My role is to ensure the smooth running of everything from client contracts to HR.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Stepwise?

We were seeking a development partner because we’re reaching out to global customers in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and wanted to ensure that we had the necessary resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stepwise’s developers visited our location for 1–2 weeks to partake in the onboarding process. Then, they became annexed to our internal team; they’re managed by our project managers and held to the same project standards.

Our projects range from product customization to the enhancement of core functionalities. Since we cater to the energy sector—a very large industry—there are many processes we’re still working to address.

All technologies are built on Google Cloud and Akka is our distribution framework. We’re also using Kubernetes and Docker for software deployment. Much of our code is in Kotlin, and we utilize Logstash for data collection and normalization. There were also some other open-source frameworks around the Google Cloud Platform, such as subset frames for message channeling.

What is the team composition?

We have around eight Stepwise members on our team. Some of them are pure developers, and others are senior development architects who define the appropriate solutions.

How did you come to work with Stepwise?

After doing some online research, I was attracted to Stepwise because of their focus on open-source technology, like Google Cloud, which is the platform that our product is built on.

How much have you invested with them?

The total so far has been around $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began engaging Stepwise in January 2019 and plan on working with them for a long time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We couldn’t be happier. I’ve been delighted by the resources that the Stepwise team brings to our delivery department. In a strategic sense, they’ve become an integral part of our team. They deliver excellent code quality. While we were initially skeptical about it devolving into an “outsourced-team” relationship, they’ve truly merged with us.

How did Stepwise perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been handled on our side, so they haven’t had any direct responsibilities on this front. We use Slack for communication, which has worked really well for us. They’ve also successfully onboarded new hires onto our projects. There wasn’t really a communication barrier; we have an agile and straightforward way of working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re devoted, proficient developers that have mastered their technology and domain. They’re a flexible team with a familiar work ethic. While they weren’t as large at the beginning of our relationship, they’ve grown substantially, supplying us with skilled resources along the way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Since we have a major client in Germany, it’d be great if their team spoke German, but otherwise, I can’t really think of any real improvements.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

While we want to keep them for ourselves, clients should aim to leverage Stepwise’s senior resources. Additionally, bringing their team to our office—including their boss—was critical to getting to know them and their work culture. Try your hardest to integrate them into your team, so you can share the sense of ownership over the product you’re developing together.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Coders Co., a data-science services and big-data solutions firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Stepwise?

We’re building a data platform that integrates healthcare data from different sources, and we needed someone to design and develop the platform’s frontend.

What were your goals for this project?

We had to build a tool that could be used by a diverse group of end users ranging from the Ministry of Health to patients and providers. An additional challenge was that our client had only a vague idea of what the tool should look like. Also, we had very opinionated stakeholders that had to be convinced the tool would be useful to them.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

This was one of the few cases where cold outreach actually worked. Krzysztof (CEO, Stepwise) contacted me when he was visiting my area, so I met him and his partner Rafał (Co-Founder, Stepwise). We hit it off instantly. We’d discussed many different projects before finally finding one to work on together.

What I found convincing about Stepwise was, paradoxically, the fact that they never give straight answers to questions like 'How much would X cost'. They always engage in a discussion to understand the problem and then brainstorm with me to find the best possible solution.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Stepwise designed and built the frontend of our web-based data platform. The design process was made challenging by vague design requirements provided by our end-client and strong and diverse stakeholder opinions jockeying for priority. Stepwise assisted us by providing mockups, suggestions, and technical insights, which allowed us to home in on the best possible solution. They then proceeded to build the entire application in less than two months.

What was the team composition?

We worked with several web developers and a UX designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application is launching next week, but we’ve already received positive feedback from future users. When we started the project, they were skeptical about the tool’s potential usefulness. After playing with the nearly-finished application, however, they understood the value it would provide by storing the data they need in an accessible, beautiful, user-friendly interface.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It was very challenging, seeing as there was little clarity surrounding what needed to be done. To their credit, Krzysztof and his team coped well and provided great help in refining user requirements. We worked in an agile manner, with sprints and bi-weekly demos that allowed us to deliver a satisfactory result quickly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're experts at what they do and a true partner. They collaborate with you to find the best solutions to your problems, both technical and non-technical.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, not really.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a program executive at Huge Thing. We’re a startup accelerator working with young companies from all over Europe. We support founders in their journey to become smart entrepreneurs able to build strong and capable teams. Our goal is to give them the tools and knowledge necessary to build a successful business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Stepwise?

We engaged Stepwise to work with startups from one of our acceleration programs as a technology partner for technical audits.

What were your goals for this project?

We’ve observed that early-stage companies frequently struggle with technology including architecture, technical debt, and security loopholes. To help them with those challenges, we hired experts familiar with FinTech solutions to share their knowledge.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

One of the business mentors in our program recommended Stepwise.

Describe the project in detail.

We started by defining our expectations and target audience. Then, we requested Stepwise prepare a detailed description of their audit offer and an initial roadmap to follow with startups willing to participate in the audit sessions. During the sessions, startups chose from among three areas Stepwise prepared: architecture review, code review, or security review.

Afterward, Stepwise setup and executed audits for two startups who expressed interest. They held opening sessions and met with the CEOs and CTOs to understand their challenges and the current state of their products. Afterward, depending on particular needs, the technology resources started to share knowledge and code. We asked that both parties provide us with final reports of the work after it was done.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two software architects experienced in various IT areas (backend, frontend, cloud, security) and one business resource who could relate to non-technical entrepreneurs and founders. The idea was that the tech people would communicate with their counterparts on the startup side and Stepwise’s business strategist would discuss any important decisions with the business reps. This ensured everyone had a common level of understanding.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Both projects ended on time and all parties were satisfied. The startups contacted us afterward, expressing their satisfaction with the audits’ quality. They underlined that the final result exceeded their initial expectations.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We’d never had an external vendor engage directly with our startups before, but after receiving a recommendation and seeing some of their referrals online, we decided to give Stepwise the freedom to communicate and execute directly with the companies. From the beginning, it was clear that Stepwise was very well-organized and had both soft and technical skills. According to the startups, Stepwise’s communication was straightforward, frequent, and professional.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their technical skills are highly impressive, based on the information we received from the startups. They were specifically praised for their FinTech knowledge, as well as for their ability to shift between objective reporting and subjective, personal interactions. They’re also able to use a business-oriented approach and establish effective processes.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can’t point to anything as a specific weakness. They provided excellent work in all aspects of the engagement. It far surpassed our expectations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Blockey, a blockchain-based website plugin. We enable companies to verify their customers' identities through a bank login.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Stepwise?

Our startup had finished an accelerator phase, and we were negotiating deals with companies who were interested in our plugin. We were moving quickly and didn't have time on our own to go through our documentation and optimize it for our clients' existing systems and architecture. We asked Stepwise to review our architecture documents and prepare suggestions for how we could best integrate with our prospective clients.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to completely meet the corporate security standards of our clients. We needed an audit of our documentation and consulting on our technical choices in terms of integration.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We met Stepwise through a large Polish bank who held RBL Start, a startup acceleration program. Stepwise was a partner of the program in the IT security area.

Describe the project in detail.

After a few meetings where we explained the project and our goals, we gave Stepwise our documentation. When they were done reviewing, they presented their conclusions to us.

What was the team composition?

A business person and a technical person from our team met with their counterparts on the Stepwise team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within a month of receiving our code back from Stepwise, we presented our solution to a large potential partner. Their IT department's conclusions about our plugin were crucial to our long-term collaboration with that partner. After a series of meetings, they accepted our proposition. That partnership is acting as our proof of concept.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was easy to communicate with them over the phone or online in meetings. Stepwise was flexible with scheduling, and they provided us with additional helpful documents after finishing consulting for us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

From the beginning, it was very clear that this vendor had the technical knowledge we needed. What surprised me was how deep their experience was in terms of IT solutions for partnering companies. I'm sure they drew very useful conclusions from that.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were satisfied with the results, and I can't see room for improvement right now. Everything was done fast and with quality standards.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of Self Learning Solutions, which offers advanced tools to support business processes, decision recommendations, and scoring in the fintech sector. Our solutions are based on machine learning, deep learning and AI.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Stepwise?

We hired Stepwise to build our platform. They chose the technology, designed the architecture, and developed its tools. We were also looking for a long-term partner to help us evolve our business and build new tools.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a cloud native company with strong technical skills that could collaborate smoothly with business and data science teams. We also wanted a partner oriented toward machine learning and AI, with the capacity to work with algorithms and neural networks.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A colleague with a technical background recommended Stepwise’s architect. After exchanging ideas about how the platform should look, we decided to hire them. Our teams had the same vision for the technology's business functions.

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

Stepwise ran workshops with us to clearly understand our goal, our target users, and our processes. Then their architect did the research and chose the right technology. They used Google Cloud Platform, Flowable, Java, TensorFlow, and Python. They have also supported us as we talked with Google representatives to obtain credits for our MVP on Google Cloud Platform.

After they designed the architecture and had it verified by our business and data science teams, they began development. It’s ongoing, but the MVP was ready for customer tests after only two months. That was impressive.

What was the team composition?

Stepwise supports us with a cloud and solution architect, a senior developer, and a data scientist support manager. Their CEO facilitates our communication, project setup, and business development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The MVP is a decision engine for business process management. Thanks to this platform, we can offer a revolutionary product to support loan and credit businesses. It can be a decision and scoring engine, a platform for maching learning implementation, or a model for deep learning and AI. Business processes and rules can be developed with n-dimension decision tables. It's useful for manual or automatic credit decision processes. Most importantly, the construction and development of its processes can be completed by analysts, not just IT staff.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They take a professional, experienced, and client-oriented approach. They tried to understand our needs before starting development, which has definitely avoided problems and eliminated unnecessary costs.

They implement a high-level development process with best practices I've only read about before. They set up communication tools and ticketing systems and propose one-week sprints for maximum flexibility. We closely monitor progress and plan our next steps together.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Two aspects of our cooperation are the most impressive. The first is their technical knowledge and the quality of work they deliver. The second is their approach to software development. They do the right things in the right order, and their lean approach is perfect for launching innovative ideas.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Their prices are high for the Polish market. However, their experience, quality, and professionalism justify everything. It's hard to find anything negative. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Head of Development at Empik Group. Empik.com is one of the biggest e-commerce businesses in Central-Eastern Europe. Our portal offers over two million products and has over two million active users.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Stepwise?

We needed someone to perform an audit on our microservices-based, backend architecture. In addition to that, we needed the resource to perform a container-based virtualization.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to bring on an architect with experience in the microservices architecture area to bring our existing backend architecture to a new level of quality and performance, through an audit. Moreover, we wanted to solicit potential recommendations for a future update of our architecture roadmap.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended to us by one of our internal employees. After initial talks and relevant know-how verification, we decided that the services Stepwise was offering met our requirements perfectly.

Describe the project in detail.

The architect did a deep, initial analysis of our existing backend architecture, after which, they proposed implementing microservices with Spring Boot to cooperate with our existing architecture. They also helped set up a continuous delivery environment for microservices using Docker, a virtualization program, Jenkins, an open-source Java automation server, and a code versioning strategy that was appropriate for our architecture.

In addition to the audit, the architect performed the following development tasks: container-based virtualization, cloud server configuration, server- and client-side support for externalized configuration in a distributed system, an archetype project for building up microservices, abstraction over rest-based calls, circuit breaker failure detection, and functionality degrading when a method calls fail.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a single architect that Stepwise provided.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to the audit, we now know how to build microservices that are compliant with our existing architecture. The approach they proposed facilitates our current monolithic architecture rebuilding. When we’re starting to work on a microservice, it’s now much easier to get a grasp of what it’s doing and how to combine it with our systems. The audit also produced extremely important recommendations for our future, which our team is currently analyzing, taking into account various pathways to integrate the proposed options into our internal roadmap.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was a professional collaboration from the very beginning. The resource managed to enter a project that was already running and handle tight deadlines. The initial knowledge transfer was very smooth, and the architect cooperated with our internal team. The audit itself was not an isolated piece of work, but rather a collaborative, day-to-day process involving various team members.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The stand out is their experience level and quality of audit work they delivered to us. In addition to that, the recommendations they left our team are excellent and will definitely help us in the future. We are, of course, considering cooperate with the Stepwise team again, if the right moment comes along.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We found their pricing quite high as Polish market standards. However, their experience and their level of commitment is definitely worth it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of a complex sports application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Stepwise?

Stepwise helped us with IT architecture and backend development services.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to bring our existing backend to a new level of quality and stability and needed a partner to help us with new feature implementations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had conversations with the Stepwise team in the past about consulting and IT in general. From the first talks, we were confident in their mindset, process efficiency, and overall quality of work.

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

Stepwise did an initial, in-depth analysis of the existing backend, which helped us make an educated decision on which technologies to utilize. Their scope around backend development started with mainly bug fixing, but evolved into more feature development to improve our product.

What was the team composition?

Stepwise supported us with a team of 2 architects, 1 senior developer, and 1 test automator.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to stabilize the system, deploy new features, and make our users happy.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had no issues on this front. They were great and easy to work with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were extremely impressed by the skills that their team brought to the table. Their services allowed us to bring our product further.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

No, their English is great and communication was always on point.