unosquare, LLC

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at a company called Ventacity Systems Inc. We’re a software engineering company that builds large cloud-based SaaS control systems for building automation. I oversee the overall system architecture, SaaS operations, and UX responsibilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Unosquare, LLC?

We needed to build a major web app. The internal resources within Ventacity were limited in the skillset necessary to rapidly develop web applications. We have some really talented backend resources, but we were light on frontend capabilities. We needed an outfit that could do rapid development of Vue-based frontend work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Unosquare provides frontend developers. They are our UI team. We have an experienced UX designer and two experienced UI developers internal to the company, but Unosquare forms the bulk of the UI development capabilities that Ventacity has.

What is the team composition?

Initially, we worked with four people, and that has expanded to eight. This includes a principal engineer who is super experienced and manages the project.

How did you come to work with Unosquare, LLC?

Our CEO and one of the founders of Unosquare knew each other, so our CEO introduced our chief architect and me to them. We decided to work with them based on the way in which they engaged with us. Our chief software architect flew down to their headquarters and was introduced to the company and the principal engineer that would be involved in the project. The way they guided everything told me that they were a very professional and skilled organization that knew what they were doing.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent approximately $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the process of trying to get engaged with them in August 2019. Some internal issues of working on a major contract prevented us from going to their headquarters until September, and then the process of getting everything up and moving between the two companies began in October.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our scrum master is a very experienced software engineer who hands out assignments and works with them day-to-day, and there has been nothing but glowing reviews. Unosquare has a range of skillsets, so there are young software developers as well as more experienced ones. Some of the relatively young ones have been superstars in their ability to turn out work, which I’ve seen personally but also heard from the scrum master.

Another contract firm we’d engaged was harder to work with, and one of our experienced in-house developers deemed the quality of their work really substandard. That developer’s regard for Unosquare is really high, and he frequently comments that he likes working with them. 

How did Unosquare, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a scrum master who is in charge of handling that. The eight resources are on standup calls every morning. They know the routine in agile; it’s all about checking items off of the list, and they seem to be very good at it. Following the scrum process and having the daily standup means there is constant feedback to all developers letting them know what tasks to focus on. This environment can be hard for people to work under because it’s pretty fast-paced, but Unosquare is doing it. We can give them something that should take a day, but they’ll be done in an hour, and then they’re on to more tasks. They have good time management individually. I’m seeing work come out faster than I would have expected.

Having worked with contract software firms before, I found it was often chaotic in the beginning trying to figure out how to work with each other. Working with Unosquare is refreshing because they’re much more structured. They have a set of processes that they implement. For instance, they have an interview process for each of the developers that are going to work with you so that the team is able to see résumés, speak with them, and make decisions. 

Then, Unosquare has a training process, so that if their resources aren’t quite as familiar with what we’re doing, they put them in a class. They often even have them on the project for free while the person is coming up to speed. It’s very structured and guided by Unosquare, which makes it much easier for us to work with them and get the benefit of the contract relationship.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There are two answers to that question. Firstly, the work itself stands out. There is a focus on working with the Ventacity team to establish what works needs to be done, versus thinking they know what they’re doing and just building the software out the way they think it ought to be. There’s an adherence to the UX work that we’ve done. They take the lead from our UX designer, which has been really valuable and has not been our experience with other contract firms.

Secondly, their awareness of modern design techniques in using packages like Vue has stood out. Again, that hasn’t been our experience with others.

I’d also mention that there was a major project we were working on that had a large amount of money assigned to it. Unosquare was very flexible in working with us in terms of payment. That allowed us to have a lot of really high-powered talent so that we could get the contract done. The company was willing to work directly with us in a more nonstandard way, and that was enormously important for the development. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. There are varying levels of talent within the team, and by nature of contract work, you’ll get some really good people and some that aren’t as good. However, Unosquare has a set of programs to deal with that. If we comment that a resource can’t get things done fast enough, they go through a remedial process with that person, and if that person doesn’t change, they make the change. They’re aggressive about managing the account and making sure that the customer is getting what they need.

Any advice for potential customers?

As the customer, you have to be willing to tell Unosquare management what’s going on. If they know, they’ll move fast to support you and make sure it turns out well. You couldn’t ask for something different out of a contract company; if they don’t know, they can’t help. The onus is on the customer, but they make it easy. Just tell them what you think, and they’ll make it happen.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our organization provides modern technology solutions for enterprise clients in the healthcare sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Unosquare, LLC?

We hired Unosquare to expand our engineering and quality assurance capacity as we expanded our core product's features and capabilities.

What were your goals for this project?

We were in the midst of relaunching an entirely new user experience in our platform that was followed by a national rollout to our clients.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Unosquare's flexibility to add staff with a variety of roles and expertise enabled us to evolve the team with our needs as they changed with the project. Additionally, their dedication to high customer service and "easy to do business with" mentality made them easy to select and work with.

Describe the project in detail.

The project we selected Unosquare for included engineering a search engine to enable users to quickly search and browse using modern methods.

What was the team composition?

Our methodology includes blending teams of Product Managers, Developers, Quality Assurance Engineers, Analysts and Scrum Masters.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was delivered and rolled out to our clients on time with very positive feedback. It reached millions of consumers through our platform and has remained in place for several years following the launch.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Unosquare has the ability to deliver a "one team" experience. The difference between "their team" and ours disappeared and we had one cohesive squad delivering great features - it was a good example of a truly successful blended team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Unosquare has a true passion for their customers and displays loyalty and dedication no matter what the size of the project. They don't just focus on the large initiatives, but will come alongside anything our organization needs help with. That partnership is valuable to grow a truly effective blended team over time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are always ways to improve and create more efficiencies - in my experience working with Unosqare the opportunities to improve were at the individual team level required both staff and contract team member to identify and improve areas together collaboratively.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

During this engagement, I worked as Director of Technology for Cambia Health Solutions. Cambia is the parent company of several insurance companies and various health care related start ups. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Unosquare, LLC?

Unosquare was selected to augment an on-site product development team for two of Cambia’s start up companies. Our goal was to increase feature development velocity at a minimal financial expenditure.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Unosquare is an approved vendor with Cambia and has been for a number of years. Unosquare was chosen because of their local presence in Portland, reputation in the market, and close timezone proximity to our local development teams.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Unoqsquare brought in development and QA resources to augment local development resources. Their scope included product feature planning, development, testing and release management. 

What was the team composition?

For the majority of the time, the remote team consisted of two developers and two quality analysists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Unosquare was great throughout the project engagement. The development team participated in daily stand-ups and sprint planning meetings. The team’s leadership offered monthly status update meetings to ensure the project was progressing. Unosquare executive leadership in Portland were constantly in touch, very interested to know how their teams were executing and if any problems were arising.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the director of engineering at a leading provider of identity protection and data breach services for companies and individuals throughout the U.S., servicing clients in healthcare, financial services, retail, higher education, and the government. We are headquartered in Portland, OR.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Unosquare, LLC?

Our company hired Unosquare to augment and add burst capacity to the development teams working on our main product platform.

What were your goals for this project?

Our primary goal was to increase overall team velocity and allow Engineering to deliver features to market faster, while maintaining the very high coding standards, best practices, and culture/values of the team.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The leadership team researched and considered several nearshoring options from a variety of locations. In the end, it was a combination of pricing, their proposal, the flexibility of their approach, the company culture, and the positive experiences some on our leadership staff had working with Unosquare in the past that made the decision an easy one.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we had the go ahead to proceed with the augmentation, myself and several members of the engineering team began working on the hiring and selection process. The candidate pool, both from the bench and elsewhere, was excellent. Candidates were prescreened by Unosquare and all had solid technical and communication skills.

We brought several talented front end, back end, and QA resources into the team and began the onboarding and integration process. Throughout the entire process, we had excellent support from our client service representative as well as the VP of Customer Loyalty. These new developers then began working on features for our primary product/platform (a cloud-native microservices SAAS platform).

What was the team composition?

We brought on several backend engineers (.Net CORE), several client side developers (Angular), as well as a QA automation engineer. All of these engineers were integrated diretly into the onshore engineering group, and attended all meetings, participated in kick offs and design reviews, wrote code and performed code reviews, and were on Slack with the team during normal work hours.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within several months, we saw the anticipated velocity gains manifest. The engineering team was able to deliver business value adding features to market with increased speed, and did so with quality.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The client services representative assigned to our account was excellent. We had regular bi-weekly meetings to discuss and get ahead of any potential issues on the team ranging from code quality to developer satisfaction and engagement. The same can be said for the VP of Customer Loyalty. Both were proactive, engaged, and responsive. Add in a group of engaged and talented engineers, and you have a recipe for success.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

One of the things that continues to impress me about Unosquare is their company/engineering culture. Unosquare leadership values and looks out for their team, and the culture is much more than just staff augmentation. It is also clear that they value their customer relationships, and strive to be an engaged and innovative partner.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Overall, the partnership is excellent. There were a few times where a bit more proactive monitoring of specific engineer's deliverables would have been beneficial.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I have worked with UnoSquare at two different companies during my career. In both companies, I held the position of CIO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Unosquare, LLC?

We hired them for various outsourced custom software development projects

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals included building highly reliable software, that was easy to use, while doing so as cost effectively as possible

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I met one of the co-owners, Mike Barrett, back in 2003 when he worked for an offshore development company and I was exploring if offshore was right for me. Of the three companies I interviewed, Mike was the only person who was honest with me and told me I was not ready for offshore - the other two were more than happy to take my money even though I was not ready for offshore. Because of his honesty and my trust in Mike, I gave them a project when Mike formed his own company, UnoSquare, a couple of years later.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The developed several different software applications for me through the years, including a pharmacy cost management application, a self storage management system, a drug savings program that matches patients with drug savings programs, a convenience store application, and a video production management system. They developed these applications based on my specs.

What was the team composition?

It varied depending upon the project. A couple of projects were just one or two people. Some projects included up to 6 team members. UnoSquare provided software developers, product managers, QC resources, and project management oversight.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Many of these projects were transformational in the automation of our business, enabling the business line to function in an efficient manner. These applications had a key impact in differentiating our companies in the marketplace as having superior technology, which in turn drove new client sales and the valuation of the company.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Typically, we used a model where I, or someone on my staff, acted as project management alongside a resource from UnoSquare. Our cadence included weekly project status calls, and other regular updates on progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their nearshore model works extremely well. You have resources in a similar timezone, not 12 hours off, with good English skills, and a good understanding of North American business and the concepts we were trying to achieve. Offshore resources oftentimes did not even understand basic business concepts.

The people they hire are experienced and screened so they only have the best. With a third party, your success it 100% tied to the capabilities of the person they put on your job. UnoSquare has always provided highly skilled and competent resources.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is nothing major I can call out for improvement. The only area I would mention is a system to provide project oversight, which they are rolling out soon.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO and co-founder of a healthcare benefits broker based in Concord, California. At this point we employ approximately 60 people. My role is to oversee technical vendor relations, make decisions on technology used, and oversee development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Unosquare, LLC?

Early on in the life of the company, I was one of the sole developers and created a portal to manage and report on benefits for both administrators and clients that relied on a content management portal to provide a UI template and security. As time went on, and we gained more clients, I realized this architecture did not scale well when changes needed to be rolled out.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to upgrade to the latest angular framework, create a true mobile-friendly site, replace the current security with a robust service, allow for growth within the application, and improve automation and unit testing.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I was introduced to Unosquare initially in 2015. At the time, we had employed a couple developers. As time went on, I became frustrated with the hires, and eventually decided I wanted to try the staff augmentation.

I checked out 2 other near-shore firms before deciding on Unosquare. They were closer to travel to than the other operations, had competitive pricing, and I was really impressed with the culture and the way people were treated.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected Unosquare, we had a kick-off meeting, then I described my goals and the skillsets I wanted for the initial phase of the project. A few candidates were presented and I was able to interview them remotely, then selected those I felt were the best fit.

There was also a consultation with a designer to help with the UX, as well as with the client success manager to make sure that the goals were understood.

What was the team composition?

Initially, we started out with the client success manager, the angular developer, and a QA engineer. I interacted on a daily basis with the developer and QA engineer, as they were my team. The client success manager would contact me as needed, or every few weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within 4 months of starting the work, we had a new portal that was easier to maintain and augment, as well as better security. The workflow was greatly improved, making it easier for our staff and clients to manage benefits. We received feedback that our clients liked the new design, and the fact it was mobile friendly. In the past 18 months, we have been able to improve and add more features that differentiate us from the rest of the market.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was very effective. I get along with well with the client success and project managers, as well as the rest of the team. I have been successful in fostering respectful and friendly relationships with the team members, as well as keeping an open and honest bi-directional channel of communication and feedback.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by how they could take my description of the skills I needed and find a candidate to match them. I also appreciate the fact they invest so much into human capital - letting the employees and clients know they are indeed appreciated.

Unosquare continues to impress by finding people not only with development skills, but also with scrum management and business analysis to help me stay focused on bigger picture items.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Development work estimation needs some improvement - but that is why we are continually iterating and refining estimates and requirements. I also think that is a common issue no matter where you go. In the end, the output is what is asked for, and I can trust the quality.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Sr. Director of Software Engineering at TRUSTID/Neustar. Acquired by Neustar in January 2019, TRUSTID is a leading provider of caller authentication, identity and risk solutions. TRUSTID works with financial institutions and other enterprises to authenticate callers using a caller’s phone as an ownership-based authentication token that puts trusted callers into the fast lane, before their calls are even answered, while assessing the risk of others. TRUSTID’s inbound caller engagement solutions, along with Neustar’s market-leading outbound phone-centric risk solutions, help clients reduce contact center operating costs, improve the customer experience and increase the efficiency of fraud-fighting efforts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Unosquare, LLC?

TRUSTID has worked with Unosquare to provide software engineering and quality assurance resources to work on various and continuing application development.

What were your goals for this project?

TRUSTID has had various projects in the lifecycle of the relationship with Unosquare. Projects have been full-stack development and we have relied on Unosquare for resources to design, develop and test numerous application projects.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our CTO had previous relationship with Unosquare at a prior employer. His previous positive experience influenced our choice for the Unosquare team at TRUSTID.

Describe the project in detail.

TRUSTID has worked with Unosquare to provide software engineering and quality assurance resources to work on various and continuing application development. This is an ongoing relationship that continues to grow and gain team members. This is not project oriented hiring/staff-up but a deeper relationship with ongoing team leads at Unosquare that provide daily support in all aspects of application development.

What was the team composition?

We have 2 full-stack software engineers and 1 QA resource. I work with the team in a variety of roles to help requirements and design, project, build and change management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software that this team has built and continues to support and upgrade is world class. The solution supports millions of daily transactions from top-ten financial and insurance enterprises across North America. The team continues to produce outstanding applications that support the business on-time and within budget and will continue to expand expertise.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Workflow has been very smooth as we have daily meetings to review progress. Communications are never an issue and resources are always available in times of any problems.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I have been most impressed with the caliber of the technical resources provided by Unosquare. The team has every bit matched the technical expertise and aptitude of any local development team I've led or been associated with. They have provided a high level of dependability, flexibility and ingenuity. These developers can be continually relied upon to deliver.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m VP of engineering for a hospitality CRM platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Unosquare LLC?

They are a software development partner that we use for engineering work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s primarily software development work. We partner with them to provide it.

What is the team composition?

We have gone up to five.

How did you come to work with Unosquare LLC?

I worked with them at a prior company.

How much have you invested with them?

It was more than $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in April 2020 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their team is very integrated into the client’s team. The has gotten up to speed quickly. They produce quality code.

How did Unosquare LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was effective. Their client relationship has been effective. We work on an ongoing basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s close to our time zone so it works well with our agile processes. Their team members are comfortable working in a distributed team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would love to seem them do more in data and DevOps when they have more resources and capability.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Stay in touch with them frequently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of customer success at VALID8 Financial, a software company in the audit/accounting space. Our products automate financial statement audits and forensic accounting investigations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Catalyst UX?

Our company needed design help to build out a prototype to display visualizations for our software. The prototype needed to be rich enough to show customers and prospects the type of features we’re looking to build in the future.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Catalyst UX to expand our current product interface. More specifically, they created a visualization design prototype that acts as a clickable demo. They took a business process that you’d see and mocked it up so that we could show the end-to-end process in a demo environment. They made the demo accessible via tablet or desktop. 

What is the team composition?

We worked mainly with Paul (CEO, Catalyst UX) and Kevin (VP of User Experience, Catalyst UX).

How did you come to work with Catalyst UX?

I’ve worked with them a couple of times. I found out about them 3–4 years ago when I was looking for a company that does UX/UI work. I did a bunch of research as to what companies were out there, with being initially referred to Catalyst UX by a colleague. I did a sales cycle with them and many others. The reason I went with them was that not only were they good at what they did from a design point of view, but they had domain knowledge in financial areas.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $25,000–$50,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–July 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a rapid prototype project that was delivered on time and within expectations. We’re using it to show where we’re going from a product point of view. When people see the demo, they’re very impressed by its quality and the concept that it lays out.

How did Catalyst UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They were continuously improving their processes. We were pleased by their organization and project management capabilities. We were very aggressive with what we wanted to do, and they worked with us on the timelines and told us what they could deliver. They were realistic in terms of what their delivery was. The tools they used, including Trello, were top-notch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed that their knowledge included not only design and UX/UI but also business. 
 They understand business terminology and what the consumer wants to do with their product. That was invaluable and the reason that I will continue using them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’ve been impressed with what they’ve done. They’ve quickly turned around the projects I’ve used them for. The quality and value proposition that they offer is great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have the time to invest in the project. Part of the beauty of the way they do things is the collaborative piece of it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a brain-computer interface company. We’re building an implantable brain-computer interface for people with paralysis, allowing them to control handsfree devices that overcome problems of communication and upper and lower limb function.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Catalyst UX?

We’re working with them to solve a very exciting UX problem, namely building a handsfree user experience that is cross-platform. We’re building a completely modular and cross-platform system that enables people to interact with existing operating systems but without the use of a mouse or keyboard. Critical in this is the UI/UX, and Catalyst is serving that role for us. We chose them because of their experience with medical device applications and their understanding of FDA regulations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re utilizing Catalyst’s access to industrial designers and developers to deliver a user-focused UI/UX solution for our cross-platform development needs. It’s traditional technology development, but we’re targeting a patient population, and therefore, have to meet specific criteria set out by the FDA. Catalyst is going about development in a strict and highly regulated manner so that we can present our work clearly to the FDA.

We’ve gone through a discovery phase, and we’re working on the design now before we begin the coding phase. Catalyst has been an early partner for us, helping us design the product at the outset. Focus-group testing has been handled by both our parties.

What is the team composition?

There are about five people from their team working with us. Paul (CEO, Catalyst UX) is our main contact, and he coordinates the entire team. There’s a UX designer in place, a programmer, and a few others.

How did you come to work with Catalyst UX?

We did an exhaustive search to find every UI/UX developer in the US who had experience with getting software through FDA approval, and Catalyst UX came out on top. We had buy-in from their founder, and that was important. We knew that they were interested in the project, and it was obvious early on that Paul had a strategic vision for delivering on the requirements of a small, early-stage startup. He’d been through a couple of major development projects and understood what I needed in order to get the next round of funding, a necessary step to keep the project moving forward. That was the real difference point, and they’ve proven capable of doing that.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Catalyst UX at least three years ago, probably in the first quarter of 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There’s something a bit different about Catalyst. The reason they’ve been able to attract good people in the Bay Area—which is highly competitive—is that their developers are spread all over the country. Our work with them has been web-based, and it’s worked well. Our company is spread between Silicon Valley and Australia, and they’ve been flexible, especially in terms of communication.

How did Catalyst UX perform from a project management standpoint?

Paul is the project lead, and he’s very approachable and friendly. I can’t speak highly enough of his professionalism and responsiveness. We use Zoom and monday.com for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Another feature of startups is that plans change frequently, and some people don’t do well with that and become frustrated. We’re changing what we want a lot, and Paul has been very responsive and flexible. As a startup, we need to control our cash flow, and, rather than bringing in our own software programmers, I’ve used Catalyst in a way that allows us to freeze their activity depending on the stage we’re at.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have only positive feedback for them overall. I don’t think I have anything negative to say.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

We deal with medical and consumer devices, which have very different design approaches. There needs to be a complementary set of skills between those, which is challenging to get. If that’s what you’re looking for, I’d recommend Catalyst UX extremely highly. I’m glad we chose them.