ValarPro

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product at Supplywizards. We have an online ordering platform that allows hotels and offices to order snacks, beverages, and sundry items from local vending operators. We equip our clients with vending operators to accept orders online and then sell those orders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ValarPro?

We needed help with building our e-commerce system. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed the platform, including two separate web applications and two separate mobile applications that are all interconnected. There is also a simple WordPress site. They built it all from scratch using Node.js, a .NET API, the Microsoft Azure server, and SQL backend databases. The mobile apps were built on React Native. We integrate with a number of other software systems, which all tend to be .NET integrations, like QuickBooks.

What is the team composition?

Suresh (Founder & CEO, ValarPro) was involved from the early planning stages, setting up the databases, and anticipating early challenges. We talk to Suresh all the time, and he serves as our company’s CTO. We can rely on him to travel with us to meetings. He knows our products as well as anyone and can speak in technical detail.

We have had teams as large as eight people, and we are down to four people right now because we have stabilized, and the frontend heavy development is done. We have two project managers that are available for all of our needs.

How did you come to work with ValarPro?

We worked with them in the past on a complex mobile application and web project for a large international nonprofit, and they did a great job. They were introduced to us by one of our advisors who had worked with them. We met with Suresh a couple of times and liked him. We've built a strong relationship with them and continue to work together.

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we’ve invested between $200,000–$1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them on this project in November 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The framework and advice Suresh gave us early on set us up for success moving forward. That initial foundation prepared us well for future growth and development. We continue to be impressed three years in. Quite a bit of money flows through the platform, and it’s great to have enterprise-level reliability and scalability.

The proof is in the sales numbers. We continuously support 300 enterprise-level active users on the system. The quality of work has been great. 

How did ValarPro perform from a project management standpoint?

They went above and beyond. One of the best things about ValarPro is that, before they start building, they put in the time to anticipate their approach and ask us questions for context or clarification to understand our expectations. They easily could have built things as we spec’d them and taken our money. I don’t think they get paid for all the annoying questions and answers we went through, but the product is better because of it.

We reviewed every single design, showed them the anticipated functionality, and they pushed back plenty. They know the product intimately because they are in the code every day. For example, they let us know that a newer feature we wanted to add would affect a feature that was put in a year ago. They give us suggestions and recommendations based on the time frame and other parameters that we might not have thought of, and they have been consistently spot-on.

The team regularly goes above and beyond, working irregular hours. They are available for us whenever we need them, and we couldn’t be happier. We use Skype for messaging and Pivotal for project management tracking.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The pre-work they do is impressive. They made sure that they understood everything thoroughly. They know it so well. Sometimes I forget how a certain page or functionality is supposed to work, and I can ask them to remind me and they will give me the answer. They are as close to having a full-time internal team as I could've hoped for.

None of the classic downsides of working with a vendor are present with ValarPro. I think of them as full-time employees and coworkers, and we get that level of quality out of them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are some cross-cultural differences, such as holidays that we aren’t used to. The main developer is based in India, and sometimes I’d like to be able to talk to someone during our day, especially when my clients are awake in the US, but it’s something we expected and, we're dealing with it as best we can. Suresh covers when we need him to.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It's impossible to over communicate. It’s easy for things to fall through the cracks. Everyone misses little things when preparing for release. The only time issues came up was when we didn’t communicate as much as we should have. Keep the dialogue going. No one should be afraid of emailing too much. Think of them and talk to them as an internal team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the head of data science and product management for a nonprofit that works with social impact technology.
 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ValarPro?
We needed a partner to help build a platform for corporate sustainability calculators. It’d be a tool to assist sustainability teams implement industry best practices.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
We put together design resources and initial requirements, providing ValarPro with wireframes. We reviewed these components together, and they provided feedback on what was technically feasible. They then began developing the calculators, providing both time and cost estimates. They also conduct QA and testing, adapting to any changes or issues. 

The platform is hosted on Microsoft Azure, and ValarPro used a SQL backend, .NET framework, and AngularJS for the web dev platform. Beyond that, they also created customizable surveys for clients to gather feedback on certain topics, which is then incorporated into final analytics.

What is the team composition? 
The team varied, but we usually worked with two resources for APIs, one QA analyst, and two frontend developers.

How did you come to work with ValarPro?
We’d worked with them before and knew they could be trusted.

How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent between $50,000–$75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?
We began this project in August 2018, and the work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They created a minimum viable product that works well and is high quality, so I’m happy with what they’ve done. ValarPro is a trusted partner and our go-to resource for various projects.

How did ValarPro perform from a project management standpoint?
They accomplished what we wanted in the time and budget we needed. We mainly use Skye for our everyday conversations, but we also use Pivotal to track progress, Google Docs to present requirements and interface designs, and InVision for communicating and building our designs.

What did you find most impressive about them?
I appreciate their openness and willingness to talk, making it easy for us to communicate every day and quickly gets answers and feedback. They have years of experience that results in little to few errors in our project.

Are there any areas they could improve?
The communication skills of some of the workers could improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
If you have experience working with remote teams, that’ll be a plus. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run a startup company called PwrdBy. We build mobile applications for nonprofits and social impact organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ValarPro?

We’ve built a number of apps with them, all with different purposes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first app we collaborated on allows fundraisers to visit corporate partner store locations and manage all their data on the go and in real time. The second is a local supplier ordering and delivery system, the third is for at risk opioid users seeking help, and the fourth is a CSR department strategy toolkit. For the purposes of this review, I’ll discuss the first application.

We gave them a specific set of requirements and strategic design, and they did the technical project management, development, and technical QA. They built the initial version, which we tested and made suggestions on. We’ve had an iterative process since its launch.

It’s a location-based app, so we needed to create a searching algorithm that used mileage parameters. Users can search locations within set parameters and click on those locations. Another important feature was a multi-step authentication process run through a third-party integration system. It’s a hybrid application built on a .NET framework using Cordova.

What is the team composition?

We have one main point of contact, but the team size for each project varies. We usually have a minimum of three team members, but the larger projects are as big as eight or nine. Each of them has a different area of expertise.

How did you come to work with ValarPro?

We connected to them through our technical advisor, who was a friend of our investors.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere around $2 million during our engagement with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in October 2015 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We use Pivotal Tracker for all our reports and Velocity Analytics to track anything else of importance. We run release reports, regression analysis, performance and stress testing, and have a lot of other metrics to track performance. All the work ValarPro provides is high-quality.

How did ValarPro perform from a project management standpoint?

We do most of the project management, but they do have a technical PM who helps push things through. We coordinate with them through Skype, phone and email. They're very responsive to all forms of communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're a great dev shop that does high-quality work. They are reliable and offer a good price point.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only challenge is the fact that most of their developers are non-native English speakers, so we need to make sure the verbiage is clear and easy to understand. Other than that, each project's process is a little dependent on the project lead. If you have a good project lead, the project goes smoothly, but if not, there are occasional bumps.