STX Next

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

A data analytics based company, providing data analytics and insights in both a B2B and B2C manner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire STX Next?

Technical debt work and devops

What were your goals for this project?

We hired STX Next to help without technical debt moving us to latest Python and Django versions and ultimately get our backend up to date for a migration to a react.js front end.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected this vendor based on their reviews here on Clutch, so we thought we best give back to the community and provide our feedback.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Migrate from python 2.7- python 3. Migrate to latest version of Django. Reduce technical debt of all backend to enable us to focus on a react migration.

What was the team composition?

1 Backend developer, 2 Devops and a Project Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Unfortunately, I am here to report that the project was not a resounding success. Costs ran away from us and we are still cleaning up a lot of issues after we ended their engagement with us.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was ad hoc at best. Multiple times I was asking their PM for updates with nothing back. Also, we were sold on a final terraforming project, which was not fit for our purpose.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their backend developer was very good, he worked tirelessly to fix the backend of the system. He was very accountable and responsive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Communication, and properly qualifying project requirements before going down that route. As businesses, we do not want "yes men" we want to be challenged if a particular path is not correct or not fit for purpose.

The terraform project has had to be completely rewritten to be compatible with our react branch. We are still trying to eliminate daily downtime caused by STX next.

UPDATED REVIEW

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of an analytics firm.

This review was updated by the client on August 31, 2020. The original star ratings were: Overall – 2, Quality – 2, Schedule – 2, Cost – 2, NPS - 2 New content is below:

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We engaged STX Next to improve our Django backend, updating it, and removing all of the technical debt. We also engaged them in a data analytics project.

SOLUTION 

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the first project, the goal was to remove technical debt and upgrade our platform to the newest extension of Platnum Django. After that project, their team came to the table again and engaged in a data analytics project for us. They helped to build essentially a machine learning algorithm.

What is the team composition?

I worked with three people from STX Next. It was a tight-knit team, which I preferred because it was a technical project. I worked with a delivery manager, a developer, and a data analytics teammate.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

I originally found them on Clutch.

How much have you invested with them?

At this point, we’re probably knocking on $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our collaboration on the data analytics project in March 2020, and it’ll come to a close soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

STX Next came back to the table to rectify the relationship, and they’ve done a good job with the data analytics project. We’ve definitely seen improvements. Their team tried to grasp our technical problems and solve it in the best way possible. While it’s too early to provide quantitative metrics, their work’s promising. They set up a framework for our data analytics to improve and evolve going forward.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

There was clear communication about their progress and availability. They sent routine emails, and we had meetings. As we worked across different time zones, they often recorded video presentations of their progress during which their team explained their decisions. Those videos were probably half an hour long and definitely a value add.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their machine learning developer most impressed us. His grasp of the problem as well as his ability to effectively communicate his solutions to us was impressive. While it’s difficult, he managed to communicate highly technical ideas in completely understandable terms.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could schedule more calls. We probably needed slightly more meetings to keep the project moving forward at the right pace.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communication’s key to any engagement. Written emails may not be as effective as meetings, especially if you’re working across time zones. If you meet, it’s more efficient than 50 emails back and forth. It would be helpful to hold STX Next to a meeting schedule where you review their work.