unosquare, LLC

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Technical & Physical operations - meaning all things IT, Facilities & Grounds.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We started using a cloud based payroll provider, but have a SQL ERP on campus that many reports are pulled from. We needed a way to know who was a current employee (and not), set a flag appropriately, and keep things up to date between the two systems.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

They have a solid reputation, and I have worked with Unosquare previously on a customization for their fantastic Passcore Pro solution.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

I lined out the project and designed the data report in the payroll system, ensuring we had a matching key between the two systems. From there, I defined what field should be updated in our campus ERP.

The unosquare team took the API portion and worked to build the connectivity needed to grab and process the data. They provided appropriate configuration files to allow the process to grow with us as we need to change and tweak variables down the road. We used IIS, SQL, a REST API, and they used several programming languages.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had a project manager, a coding supervisor, and a staff member work on the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The project works! We are live and it seems to be working well. I really appreciate the team's patience as we dealt with API access issues from one of the vendors.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

This was a fairly simple project, so all communication was done via email. Unosquare was quick to jump on a teams call to make sure were describing and seeing the same things. Overall, their team was very timely.

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

Consistent positive communication and can-do attitude. I know nothing of the API world, but they guided me through it very well.

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

No - they did excellent in every aspect of this project that they could control!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company has a few different areas. I work on the cloud based restaurant technology product. I am one of the QA managers for this product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To help with the manual QA testing of the cloud based product. We have since expanded that to include writing test cases and test suites

SOLUTION

How did you select this agency and what were the deciding factors?

Someone in the organization had worked with Unosquare at a previous company.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Unosquare originally provided 3 QA engineers so that we could run continuous tests throughout the quarterly release cycle. At the time, we had very little automated and thousands of cases, many of which were not getting run.

As cases were automated and the manual testing tasks were decreasing, we started also using the team to write new test cases and fix existing cases that no longer worked. We have recently added a 4th QA from Unosquare.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We provide a req, just like we would for any open position. They do a non-technical interview internally and if they pass, they then do an internal technical interview. If they pass that, then I interview. In the most recently added team member, I don't know how many didn't pass the first level, but one didn't pass the second level and one did.

I interviewed the one that did and he became our 4th team member.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been able to give the team more responsibility over time. This has been successful and everybody who works directly with the team members recognizes their value.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I'm the main interface between the teams and it works well. The Unosquare liaison has regular meetings with me and is available.

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

Honestly, I've never been the person responsible for a contractor team, so I don't have anything to compare it to. However, I have a good relationship with the team lead (she is one of the 4) and Pedro, who is my liaison.

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

So far so good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Software Engineering manager overseeing the backend engineering team for Harvard Business Publishing, a content publishing company focusing on improving business management practices, producing both print and digital products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to get several experienced backend developers to work on a fast-paced and fast-tracked project to be completed by end of the fiscal year to meet our goals.

SOLUTION

How did you select this agency and what were the deciding factors?

We have worked with Unosquare for many years, and we knew that they always supplied us with very capable and experienced developers, both for backend and frontend needs. We currently have over 20 backend engineers from Unosquare.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Unosquare provided 3 engineers for this particular project to augment the existing team - which included previously hired Unosquare developers. They were responsible for creating new microservices from the ground up and were heavily involved in both the architecture and coding of the new microservices. They were also involved in the new process of deploying the code into Docker containers.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

The recruitment process with Unosqure is very smooth. We have regular communications with our account manager, and we discuss with them the skills needed for additional staffing. From there, they provide candidates that we can interview - and they are very transparent with their skillset, so we know that we're getting the right person for the job.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With their support, we were able to meet our deadline of releasing a new microservice by end-of-fiscal timeframe that we could not have done otherwise.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Even though their developers were remote, we treat them as part of our regular team and involve them in all the decision-making processes. We find that this makes the Unosqaure developers much more vested in the SDLC.

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

They provide highly skilled and highly capable developers that can hit the ground running.

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

None that I can think of. There's a constant feedback loop with our account manager, and any issues are handled quickly and professionally.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

With G2, gain actionable insights based on AI technology and access the most extensive merchant risk database in the industry to make faster high-quality decisions. While G2 maintains the largest merchant risk data repository in the world, we believe that more insight is better than more data. If your organization is processing hundreds of merchant applications, it’s important to think about data in the context of managing workflow at scale. Volumes of information without the data science, domain expertise and machine learning to validate, classify and predict next action isn’t helping make better business decisions. Volumes of false positives create burdensome bottlenecks without delivering value. Senior Software Engineering Manager at G2 Web Services

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Complete rebuild of our core projects and services. Goal was to rebuild a multi million dollar infrastructure and update to todays processes and technologies.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected the vendor bases on good recommendations, them willing to work with us very closely, and cost.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We have had a 5 year history with Unosquare. We worked with them from initial design, architecture, development, testing, and production deployment. Kubernetes Java Spring React

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had about 45-50 developers at our peak with Unosquare. Software Architects Software engineers QA Engineers TPMs Deveops

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The project will be successfully launched in 2022.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Daily standup in a Kanban like environment. Team worked with TMPs on a daily bases and was overseen by development management team. Jira Github Confluence Miro

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

Very helpful on any problem we had. Will to work with us in many different areas Commitment to success was very high. They've really worked hard to get the project and our teams healthy.

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

None at this time

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of a healthcare and technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Catalyst UX?

We were looking to develop a healthcare mobile app for one of our clients to gather all of a patient’s health vitals in a data analytics engine. Providers can then look at how a user is doing in terms of their health and intervene to provide care proactively, rather than reactively.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Catalyst UX is helping develop the mobile application, including building some of the patient-facing and member-facing parts of the app. We provided Catalyst UX with the high-level business requirements that our client delivered, and they went through a creation process including mockups, screen designs, and wireframes.

In terms of deliverables, they’ve been responsible for the UX/UI, front- and backend design, and end-to-end development. They’ve also built integrations with various devices to capture the vitals.

This is a very small project that is closest to a prototype or pilot. We engaged Catalyst UX in our client discussions so they could understand the project, scope it, and put forward a proposal. The work is ongoing, as our customer had aspects that they needed to finalize on their end.

What is the team composition? 

We’re working with three people: a UI designer, a UX designer, and then an integration resource.

How did you come to work with Catalyst UX?

We’d interacted with them in the past but didn’t have an opportunity to leverage them until now. When they came in, they showed a high level of experience, which built confidence in the partnership.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000–$200,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work has been ongoing since October 2020. Our customer had some dealers on their end that they had to finalize with. The plan was to roll the project out in December 2020, but the work picked up again in March 2021. We’re ready to deploy into production.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Catalyst UX has on-time, on-budget delivery and provides quality work. We haven’t had any customer complaints; they are very appreciative of the work that Catalyst UX has delivered.

How did Catalyst UX perform from a project management standpoint?

Their lean team keeps costs low. One of their people has doubled up, helping them handle some of the basic project management activities. The client has also deployed a scrum master on their end. They track the project through a work plan in Excel. We use email, phone calls, and Microsoft Teams to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Catalyst UX has a strong sense of commitment to the work. They’re always willing to take an extra step and think broader about the client’s vision as well. They remain committed to the timeline despite change requests, even putting in extra time to ensure the client’s goal is met.

They’re very collaborative and have created a feeling of a unified team, even though there are three groups of stakeholders: us, our client, and Catalyst UX. They’re very transparent in terms of what is delivered each week — I really like the level of detail that they provide us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The project has gone extremely well. There’s nothing that would stop us from working with them again. I wouldn’t change anything about our experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bring Catalyst UX on early in the process so that they can have complete clarity about the customer’s needs, and then give them the space to deliver.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a developer at a software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Catalyst UX?

We needed UI/UX design for a new version of our application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a collaborative project; they worked with our internal teams and our technology leaders to create the design for our UI/UX and also helped to develop the first version prototypes for those designs. There were also code deliverables.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 4–5 throughout the project. There were a couple of UX/UI designers, app developers, and a project lead.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a little bit more than $200,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

There were two parts of the project; the whole engagement lasted from November 2020–April 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m overall satisfied with their work, and we’ll continue to work with them.

How did Catalyst UX perform from a project management standpoint?

We used several tools throughout the project. There was Figma, Monday.com, and Microsoft Word. In terms of communication, we used emails and had meetings every week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re able to create a vision and implement it on a fast development from a conversation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can improve on managing their client’s expectations by defining what’s occurring in the following weeks and who’s doing what in that stage. I also told them that they can get better at listening to customer feedback; we know we’re paying them for their expertise, but we have experience in our business as well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO for a software company that focuses on the Library Industry

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Catalyst UX?

To help us redesign the UX for our application

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I originally worked with them a few years ago while with a software company who offered rapid development tools. My goal was to help educate our customers on the benefits and details of Modern UX design. When this project was funded I considered them along with other top design firms who focused on projects of this nature and size.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project involved reviewing our current application, along with most used screens, and coming up with a "Design System" of modular components we could use to rebuild our current screens.

1. We collected and reviewed 70+ screens that were currently in use.
2. Then Catalyst UX designers came up with sample designs that were reviewed and gave input to
3. Then we would review the iterations until we signed off on them.
4. Ultimately they handed over to us the Design System that was built in a UX design prototyping app (Figma).

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

My team worked directly with UI/UX designer who had worked in our industry and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were very pleased with the results and completion of the project. We are now in the process of using the new design system to redesign our application screens. We've started sharing some of the designs with our customers and they are very excited.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very good! The first meeting was a bit "slow" so I had a chat with Paul the CEO and our 2nd meeting that week was very productive, as were the rest of the sessions. We would make design changes "on the fly" that were instantly visible and the pace and process was very agile.

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

Their ability to hear us, understand are needs, and then deliver for us was spot on. The way their team gelled with ours couldn't have been better. We were able to complete the project on-time and on-budget and we even increased scope slightly at the end.

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

I honestly can't think of anything for improvement. Our entire company couldn't be more pleased with the results of the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of talent acquisition for a management consulting firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

They’re working on three different custom application projects for a client of ours.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided some intel, but they did some research as well. They work in C#, JavaScript, and Angular.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 1–3 people over the course of the project.

How did you come to work with Unosquare, LLC?

They were recommended to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship started in November 2015, with the first project kicking off in 2016. We’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The production code was deployed with minimal, if not zero, defects in the last year. Ensuring quality code is how we measure their success. They provide great expertise and valuable insight. On top of that, their client-facing consultants are great.

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

They’re highly communicative. We have regular one-on-ones, speak over the phone, send emails, have video calls, and use Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed by their price point and the quality of the consultants they have on staff.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Develop a relationship with their client success executive. The more information they have, the better suited their consultants will be to meet your needs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

As the CTO and co-founder of Talkoot I'm responsible for providing a clear technology strategy and productive work environment that aligns with our vision and values.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have worked on one staff augmentation project together, consisting primarily of back-end development of integrations using C# and Restful APIs on an application written on the ASP.NET MVC framework. React and Visual Studio have also been utilized for UI front-end configuration.

SOLUTION

How did you select Unosquare, LLC and what were the deciding factors?

Unosquare is a locally managed, nearshore option that fit our needs for flexibility and resource allocation expertise.

The driving force in our decision was the value proposition to integrate team member as though they are permanent employees committed to the success of the company.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The project of building integrations contains multiple milestones and will be an ongoing effort indefinitely. The scope of the initial milestone was to build a proof of concept middleware solution, Olli, that interacts with RESTful API endpoints between Talkoot and Shopify.

This solution was developed on-time with minimal impact on the production code-base within 4 months. The scope of the next project was to expand upon that integration with a lightweight application named Pagemunk that will be publicly marketed within the Shopify store.

This project utilizes it's own cloud-based serverless architecture and will be targeting small-sized customers. 6 months into this work we are just now code-complete and are about to wrap up regression for submission.

The third project started about 3 months ago and utilized both of these first two projects to expand the integration efforts with Shopify into a generic structure extensible for multiple channels including Amazon, Hybris, Magento, Salesforce, etc.

This integration will be interfacing the legacy Talkoot architecture that targets enterprise customers into push & pull reconciliation commands for products and variants, formatted content and organized media such as images and videos.

Our hope is to be code-complete with the first iteration by the end of March. Our next projects include expansion on Pagemunk, integration with Hybris (SAP) and completing beta for the BrandCenter module within Talkoot.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We have worked with 3 Unosquare individuals so far. Carlos has been working since February of 2020 as a senior developer. Eliel worked for nearly 2 months as a junior developer. Tony is joining as a senior developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The projects have been delivered on-time and with solid foundation. We have an agile process, but we do require initial designs and architecture to be firmly decided upon before coding a solution.

The Unosquare team members have significantly contributed to planning and direction.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We communicate on a daily basis through Zoom meetings and live-chat in Slack. A remote workplace has been a competitive advantage for us and thus we rely on a flexible culture and sense of community belonging to motivate our staff.

The Unosquare hires that fit in are ones that are friendly, engaging and understand the big picture.

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

Unosquare has all of the expected requisites for a software consulting firm including skill matching, HR processes, ongoing monitoring.

However, the real competitive advantage that attracted us was their ability to integrate the personnel into the company culture as a valuable member of our community.

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

We have been very fortunate with the Unosquare team members. We did have one surprise when a member decided to move on to another firm, but that seemed to be circumstantial and caught everyone off-guard.

Unosquare's ability to problem solve that moment saved our roadmap timeline and has only strengthened our relationship.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of a Rhode Island based firm offering services around business and technology consulting and application development. I manage the development team, oversee the technology consulting practice, and am responsible for service delivery.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Unosquare has augmented our staff with resources in front-end web development, UI/UX design, and quality assurance. Our flagship project is a social media platform for communities and brands; however, we've used Unosquare talent on other projects as well.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed talented, cost-effective staff that could bring to life a vision for a high quality, user friendly SaaS product.

SOLUTION

How did you select Unosquare, LLC?

Unosquare's transparent pricing model and flexible terms made us decide to partner with them, and the level of professionalism of the talent they provide keep us engaged with them on an ongoing basis.

Describe the project in detail.

The customer's vision was a branded portal that he could launch for members of his community to communicate and share ideas. Unosquare's UX/UI designer was involved early with interviews, user personas, and market research. It was a truly professional UI-building approach.

Once a design and information architecture was complete, Unosquare team members were in constant communication with our internal staff, attending daily standups and participating in the sprint planning process. We provided direction, but the Unosquare team provided a tremendous amount of valuable input and insight as we moved through the development life cycle.

What was the team composition?

At various parts of the project, we used Unosquare talent for intermediate-level Front-End Development (ReactJS & React Native), UI/UX design, and a quality assurance engineer. We have an in-house project manager/business analyst and two senior full-stack engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our app development team builds mostly functional business apps rather than end-user heavy software, so cost is paramount. Unosquare has allowed us to offer competitive price points to our customers while maintaining a high quality of service.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We are in frequent communication with our account manager and customer success manager. Requests are always answered in a timely manner.

When our billing methods began to get complicated, Unosquare worked with us to set up a custom system for reporting out work allocations. They were able to deploy this quickly and it allowed us to achieve better accuracy in billing and a higher confidence in our profitability reporting.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Unosquare is very transparent and willing to work with us in good faith. Other nearshore vendors have complicated rules, "gotchya" clauses, and arcane pricing structures. When we need help from Unosquare, we're never put in a position where we're being pitched to, or nickle-and-dimed about a price point on talent. They quickly provide high-quality personnel and are upfront about the cost involved.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The new ClientCore site is great, but it would be wonderful if it could include a history of invoices (full copies, not just the invoiced amount) and reporting on hours allocated. Currently, I need to request manual reports from our account representative.

He's always speedy about it, but it'd be great to be able to get that on our own. Also, QA engineers have a limited amount of devices at their disposal to test with - mainly, their own. It would be great if Unosquare could provide them with a testing platform like browser stack or AWS device farm for true cross-platform QA.