STX Next

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Head of Product of a software company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Helping companies achieve success with AI

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire STX Next to accomplish?

• Develop a large B2B software product

SOLUTION

How did you find STX Next?

Online Search

Why did you select STX Next over others?

• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from STX Next were assigned to this project?

Up to 13

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

The company successfully completed the end-to-end development of a large-scale product from scratch, covering all stages of the software development lifecycle. This included UI/UX design, cloud and software architecture, and the development of both frontend and backend components. The project also involved quality assurance (QA), DevOps for deployment and system monitoring, and Scrum-based project management led by a dedicated Product Manager.

The product focused on Portfolio Management and Compliance Management in the area of AI, the product itself contained AI compoentens as well.

Key Deliverables:

Product Design: Intuitive UI/UX design tailored for a great user experience
Technical Architecture: Scalable and secure cloud and software architecture
Development: Full implementation of frontend and backend systems
Quality Assurance: Thorough testing to ensure functionality and performance
DevOps Implementation: Automated deployment pipelines and system monitoring
Scrum Framework: Agile processes managed by a Product Manager for iterative delivery

The company delivered a robust, scalable, and user-friendly product that met all business objectives.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project delivered a fully functional, scalable, and user-friendly product on time and within scope. User adoption rates and positive feedback confirmed the product’s value and success.

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

Their project management was very well organized, using a clear Scrum framework. They delivered all key milestones and project items on time. The team was quick to respond to our needs, listened to feedback, and solved any issues right away. Communication was open and smooth, making it easy to work together. Overall, they did a great job and delivered more than we expected.

What was your primary form of communication with STX Next?

Virtual Meeting

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

What impressed most was the high quality of their delivery. Their attention to detail and commitment to delivering a polished product stood out throughout the project.

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

One small area for improvement could be providing documentation earlier in the project. While they delivered excellent documentation later when time allowed, having it sooner might have been even more helpful.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of a real estate technology company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide sales enablement through technology in the real estate industry. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire STX Next to accomplish?

• Build an MVP
• Build a scalable production application
• Enable the team with strong devops
• Generative AI solutions

SOLUTION

How did you find STX Next?

Clutch Site

Why did you select STX Next over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from STX Next were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

We brought STX on originally to build an MVP in the real estate technology space with two engineers, primarily front-end focused. The MVP was a web application that integrates with CRMs. After successfully completing that, we moved into beta and added full stack engineers, before moving into a preparing for production/scale and adding AI engineers to our team. STX was tasked with delivering several AI features, integrations with CRMs, as well as providing scrum master services, DevOps, design, and providing production support. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've onboarded > 20 teams to the application. 

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

STXNext has been a great partner in helping us reach our goals. Most people there care deeply about their customers. Judith has been with us the entire time and she stays engaged in the project, looks around corners to make STXNext is meeting our needs, and has been a great advocate for us. STXNext has been responsive to any issues we've had, solving problems and helping us level-up our team as we moved into production. 

What was your primary form of communication with STX Next?

Virtual Meeting

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

Great cost/value, strong engineers, strong advocates for their clients. Solid EU and Latam presence. 

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

STXNext could do a bit better documenting meeting notes, action items, agendas etc... I've had to push them a couple times to be more organized with that stuff, but they've been responsive and its a great team. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Owner/ VP of Software Development of Esoft Planner

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Facility management software

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire STX Next to accomplish?

• Provide an efficient development team to allow for the continuous development and management of our software application

SOLUTION

How did you find STX Next?

Online Search

Why did you select STX Next over others?

Pricing fit our budget

How many teammates from STX Next were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Continuous development of our software application and the support and maintenance.
• we expect development that provides consistent value to our product and its users to allow us to grow.
• we ask that their time is spent in specific areas. 60% be spent on new development sprint goal. 10% testing, 10% meetings, 10%bugs/fixes, 10% on our CRM tool. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When pulling time sheets we see most sprints allocate the time/resources properly after my analysis. 

we have grown overtime with the capability of development as the team has become faster and more efficient after the first 6 months of working with them.

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

At first no. But after about 6 months of working with them we got better communication and have developed better processes as we work as a continuous partner

What was your primary form of communication with STX Next?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I'm impressed by STX Next's willingness to be flexible. We are a demanding client with a tight budget that forces the team to be diligent and be in constant communication with. 

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

The onboarding process for us was a bit of a nightmare for the first 3 months where nothing really got done or was communicated not properly 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.
I am a Director at VetMedux

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide trusted education and time-saving tools to support veterinarians and their teams as they navigate the complexities of modern practice.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire STX Next to accomplish?

• Web development
• Discovery workshop
• Native app development

SOLUTION

How did you find STX Next?

Referral

Why did you select STX Next over others?

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

How many teammates from STX Next were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Initially the project began with a discovery workshop. We came away with eight deliverables, helping us leverage the expertise of the STX Next team across multiple areas of our business. We came away with requirements, a roadmap, recommendations on the system architecture, concept design, and a prototype. The STX Next team also gave us an estimate for team composition needed to develop the platform. 

After we agreed on the initial scope, we dove into development. We rebuilt our previous product from scratch (web and native apps), then moved on to adding an additional tier to the paid subscription. We originally planned on this being a limited project, but we quickly realized that the skills and professionalism of the STX Next team made an ongoing relationship desirable.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Successful relaunch of our web and native applications. Successful launch of a premium tier product. Successful launch of a user-feedback-driven redesign. Functional API development to allow integrations within our industry. Ongoing work to greatly expand and improve integration opportunities.

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

We used the scrum methodology for our project. We mainly use slack and jira to communicate. The team was open to using software that our company uses vs requiring us to use new software. Overall, we have been thoroughly impressed with their communication skills. Originally I was somewhat concerned about working with a team in a completely different time zone, but we have overcome those challenges. The team is always responsive and open to hearing our thoughts and concerns.

What was your primary form of communication with STX Next?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I have been impressed with their ability to think outside the box and come up with new, unique solutions to problems that we have. They have taken the time to truly understand our product, audience, and needs in order to provide us with the best possible solutions. In addition, they have a wide range of specialities on their team, which allows us to pull in additional individuals while we tackle specific tasks. This was extremely helpful as we were building our search engine. 

We were able to work with a search expert that guided us through the process, gave us recommendations, and was open to hearing our feedback as well. Our STX Next team cares about our product as if it were their own and is always striving to create the best possible product.

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

We encountered some challenges around expanding our product offerings with our existing team. The STX Next team worked closely with us to solve this issue by setting up a second team to run two parallel projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of a consumer products & services company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Automatically generate audio versions of news articles and monetize via audio advertising.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire STX Next to accomplish?

• Build out back end for mobile app to consolidate our content
• Have an additional developer to participate in PR reviews, etc.

SOLUTION

How did you find STX Next?

Online Search

Why did you select STX Next over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from STX Next were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

• Backend for mobile app
• Content delivering and filtering
• User management

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is working! We had a great experience working up through versions, and feature/product outcomes are the most important ones.

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

We worked together for ~6 months, in intervals of two-week Jira sprints. We did a good job scoping, and the items were delivered on time.

What was your primary form of communication with STX Next?

Virtual Meeting

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

Our STX Next developer was amazing. She was incredibly capable across various facets we needed, and if she was ever outside of her comfort zone, it seemed the STX Platform was there to support her -- she was able to ask other STX developers or experts about topics she was working on for us.

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

We're very satisfied. They maybe could have helped with onboarding/kick-off, but I think that was just something that we (from the customer's side) were naive about. Learning opportunities all around -- STX was absolutely great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at a financial advisory company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We needed help from a development company to update our web platform to better manage our advisory process and make our business more efficient.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a previous web platform that didn’t fit our company’s needs anymore. STX Next has developed a new web platform from scratch using Python and Vue.js. Our platform allows our clients to leave a review and has a reconciliation fee functionality as well. At some point, we considered hiring STX Next for design services, but we didn’t need them in the end.

What is the team composition?

We work with six teammates from STX Next, including four developers, one product owner, and one QA tester.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

I found STX Next online. I chose STX Next because they seemed professional and had the skill set that we required. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested £300,000 (approximately $376,000 USD) with STX Next.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with STX Next in June 2022, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

STX Next has met my expectations, and I’m pleased with the platform they’ve developed. Our users have recently started using the platform and are very happy. STX Next has shown great expertise and put the work into trying to understand what we want to achieve.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

STX Next is impeccably good when it comes to communication. They’re responsive to my requests and very proactive. I have frequent meetings with STX Next’s service delivery manager, who always takes and implements our feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with STX Next’s professionalism. STX Next’s staff is excellent, and their development team works diligently to develop the platform according to our requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The project has taken longer than expected. I hoped to have something delivered in 5-6 months, which turned into eight months. During this time, we had to continue paying for the additional time because our fee wasn’t flat. However, we’ve discussed this situation, and what STX Next has developed so far is excellent.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I encourage customers to work with STX Next because they manage client relationships well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a district heating supplier. We supply heat, hot water, and cooling to thousands of customers in the UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We needed a company that could help with our metering and billing platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STX Next provides software development support for our metering and billing platform. They’re responsible for helping us manage and improve the platform.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with four developers, one tester, one DevOps, and one product owner/Scrum Master.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our main measure of success is whether the sprints are planned, tested, and delivered successfully. This has resulted in smooth delivery and ongoing improvements.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

STX Next has performed well in terms of project management. We run an agile project delivery, and every two weeks, they do new work for us. We have a very structured relationship — we have regular presentations and sprint planning and delivery meetings. They have the agility and flexibility to quickly make changes within what we’re delivering. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with STX Next’s fantastic work ethic and support. They’ve helped us get over inevitable hurdles that we’ve faced during software delivery.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Tailored products for individual customers would be an extra product offering that I'm sure would be well received.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Putting a structure in place for the delivery is crucial to deliver successful change. It ensures the whole team know what's planned yet gives them the freedom to deliver their best.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at Boopos, a fintech company and private bank.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We needed to augment our team with engineers familiar with data warehouses, including AWS, as well as with Python and Angular development expertise. Thus, we sought staff augmentation service providers to help us out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STX Next provides us with staff augmentation services — they specifically provide us with Python and Angular engineers knowledgeable in AWS. These resources are embedded in our team, and they continuously work with us to help us develop an internal platform for banking purposes. Our internal resources are senior-level engineers, so STX Next provides us with mid-level engineers.

Initially, STX Next offered to develop the job descriptions for the resources we needed, but we wrote our own ones instead. Then, they ran the candidate search process internally. Once they found the right candidates for us, they trained them internally before incorporating them into our team.

What is the team composition?

I work with STX Next’s head of machine learning and the engineers that they’ve hired for us.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

We found them on Clutch and chose them because they were very transparent regarding expectations. They were the only ones able to provide realistic timelines, and they found the kind of candidates we wanted.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $170,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From day one, STX Next has made things really easy for me. Their engineers have been able to work with our internal engineers without any issues.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

STX Next’s engineers work under our project management guidance. Initially, we communicated via email and video conference calls; now, we communicate via Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STX Next is really transparent. Moreover, they have great engineers who work really fast. Thanks to the quality of their work, we don’t have a lot of iteration, which facilitates the fast pace.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Initially, we had some back and forth with STX Next’s legal department to set up our contract agreement. That process took longer than expected because they weren’t flexible regarding their legal framework. Other than that, I have no constructive feedback for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure they understand the project, what you want, and how you work. Additionally, ensure you understand that the engagement will be under their rules.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a donate-now-pay-later service provider for nonprofits. We help our clients raise money and increase the average donation value. Meanwhile, we allow donors to receive the full tax benefit of their donation immediately and fulfill the financial obligation over three, six, or nine months.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We needed to find an affordable way to develop the product, which is a first of its kind from inception. In late 2021, we had a good idea of what we needed to build and proceeded with the implementation phase with STX Next. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STX Next has developed our platform. Initially, they provided a 2–3 week process that allowed us to identify requirements, high-level services, and high-level architecture. Once that phase was completed, they rolled into the implementation phase with a separate team. 

The team has used a Python technology stack, React on the frontend, and AWS for hosting. Development took close to seven months, from the first line of code to the deployment. Our product is a button a nonprofit can integrate into their website. The button launches hosted experience as a lightbox on that site or a dedicated tab. Although the tool is designed to be mobile-ready, it’s not a mobile application. 

Currently, STX Next is building additional features. They also provide DevOps, QA, and architectural capabilities for us. In terms of DevOps, they assist us with releases and changes to our production, staging, and development environments. 

What is the team composition?

We have an architecture teammate and several DevOps resources. I also work with their software development managers and a local representative for STX Next in the US, who helps with team augmentation and resolving issues. 

How did you come to work with STX Next?

I knew the founder from a previous relationship when I worked with another company —  we were the first US company to work with STX Next. We watched them grow from a 60–70-person team to a 100-person team and then to the company they are today. 

I was the architect of that project and inherited the relationship with STX Next. Back then, we worked with three third-party development shops. Within a year of my joining the company, we reduced that to an exclusive relationship with STX Next because they provided the best services and quality. 

When I came to my current company, we went through an evaluation process and considered offshore providers in various countries. Ultimately, we found that STX Next still had competitive prices, even though they were a bit more expensive than they used to be. 

The quality they offered and the fact that I had access to the teammates I had previously worked with gave me the confidence that they could execute our complex project. I didn’t want to risk working with unknown people, so I chose to bet on  STX Next because I knew they could provide quality resources. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent north of $750,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2021, began the build phase in 2022, and launched the product in August 2022. Our engagement with STX Next is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product’s quality is good; we’re integrated with a number of third parties, and our part is the most stable of all the technological components of our solution. We monitor traffic on our website, and the results have met our expectations. 

Moreover, STX Next’s timeline for delivery has been good, considering the breadth of services and the complexity of the product, including the number of third-party integrations we require. Since our launch in August 2022, we’ve made it through our first peak donation season around the holidays. 

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

Since our project involves a custom build, our scope changes regularly. Therefore, rating STX Next’s timeliness is challenging and depends on who we ask. 

We use the Agile methodology, so we have sprint planning exercises, sprint retrospectives, and standard activities related to this way of working. As for tools, we use the Atlassian suite for project management, including Bitbucket, Jira, and Confluence. For communication, we use Slack extensively as our core tool. We also have daily stand-up calls and sometimes multiple calls a day. I meet with the software development managers every week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The resources STX Next provides are high-quality. I appreciate the flexibility with which they roll teammates on and off the project. One of our concerns is not wanting to bring on teammates we won’t engage with for a long period of time. The folks STX Next has brought into the team have stayed on the project for a reasonable time. 

Historically, STX Next has a bench where, as folks roll off a project, they can grow their skill set. As a result, when the same teammates come back to our project or hop onto another project, they’ve benefitted from additional training and can now provide a higher value for the dollar. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only issue we’ve had is turnover on both sides. In the last couple of years, there’s been a spike in need in the engineering market, and STX Next has had some challenges with employee retention. However, this issue hasn’t impacted our team too much because I’ve worked with these folks for a very long period, and they enjoy being on the project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise understanding your needs. If you have a brand new project, take advantage of the offer to work with STX Next’s architecture team to come up with an early sketch of the solution. 

I also recommend using their DevOps support; that’s been very good for us in managing the complexities of hosting environments. The rest will depend on the particulars of your project; we get quality resources from STX Next, who are proficient in the technologies we use, so we’re satisfied with what we’ve gotten.