Whizpool

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director and Founder of a customer video creation platform.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Automotive personalized customer video apps

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Whizpool to accomplish?

• Take over the support and development of an existing iOS app and Dashboard
• Create a new solution based on the existing app
• Provide support/updates for our websites

SOLUTION

How did you find Whizpool?

Online Search

Why did you select Whizpool over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Whizpool were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

After we had outgrown our previous developers, we needed to outsource the ongoing support and development of 2 existing iOS Apps. Our apps are used to capture video evidence and are linked via a web dashboard to vehicle owners and their cars. The videos are hosted on AWS, and the native iOS app needs to update to and from the dashboard and provide analytics data to the Admin user. 

For us, it was a daunting task to find a suitable development agency that could take on an existing project with no prior knowledge of the solution itself. We needed to be able to hit the ground running and be able to provide a seamless continuation of customer support and uptime for our solutions, which Whizpool managed extremely well!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our key requirement was initially to support the existing solution and our customers. Whizpool quickly got to grips with the backend and provided updates and efficiencies to our applications that made them run quicker and slicker than before. This encouraged us to make further enhancements to the solutions and add more functionality, which they did efficiently and within budget. 

We then progressed with building a new solution, though loosely based on the original software. We added a lot more features, and Whizpool also provided the design of the system, which provided a great UX and made it visually different from what it was based on.

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

Whizpool has always been very good at responding and reacting to issues if and when they occur. I decided that based on the volume of work they were providing a monthly retainer was a good way forward. This meant I could use their time for both support and development on an ongoing basis. They've always delivered exactly what I needed and on time, and this has even led me to push more work their way, including other e-commerce web solutions.

What was your primary form of communication with Whizpool?

Virtual Meeting

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

Firstly, Zeeshan and his entire team are very polite and courteous. We mostly communicate via Skype, and I get fast responses and follow-ups from the team. I know that the amount of work I give them is probably only a small percentage of what they do, but they have always looked after me like I was their No.1 customer, which is exactly what any business owner wants. 

Also, I am not a developer myself, so they have always been patient with my lack of vocabulary when it comes to discussing what we need to do, and always seemed very quick to understand and truly get what I was looking for!

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

I guess the only issues we have ever had are out of everyone's control, and that is the fact that we are in different time zones! 

If I have an issue at 4pm here in the UK, it might be very early the next day before it can be sorted, but that really comes down to managing our customer expectations around service levels, and this isn't a reason to not outsource to developers in different countries and time zones. I guess having a work shift process would lessen this issue, but it is a big ask for an ad-hoc service need.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of IG Marketing Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

My company offers SEO services and also owns a SAAS.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Whizpool to accomplish?

• Quality of codes
• Scalability
• Devops

SOLUTION

How did you find Whizpool?

Online Search

Why did you select Whizpool over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Whizpool were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

I had a list of features and their mechanisms and Whizpool role was to:

• Find the programming languages needed to properly execute my project. (Software engineer)
• Set up the server environment for scalability. We decided to go with AWS. (Devops)
• Design the SAAS interface and elements. (UX/UI)
• Provide the codes for the SAAS platform, for stability, efficiency, and scalability.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I developed many SAAS platforms in my career and I have to say that the quality of work from Whizpool is definitely visible. The platform responds very smoothly. The executions of the features work flawlessly. I got 200 new users after the first week of launch and the number of bugs reported has been minimum. Because of Whizpool's hard work, I'm been able to have a successful launch!

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

Zeeshan the founder and their lead developer did an amazing job in handling communications. We used JIRA for features development and bugs report and this has been proven to be an efficient system.

What was your primary form of communication with Whizpool?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The founder is really a kind person. I have a lot of respect for Zeeshan. He and his team will absolutely do everything to satisfy you. Something that you may not see in many development agencies.

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

From my experience, Nothing. They've exceeded my expectations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and founder of an IT consulting and research company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a mobile app for domestic market to help not only the locals but also expats with searching and finding the best restaurants and coffee shops and leave reviews for others to make informed decisions. The goal was to build a user-facing mobile app for both iOS and Android platforms, business-facing Web App and Ops facing Admin Panel, and build these systems in a way that they are performant, secure, scalable, aligned well with the UI/UX design and easy to operate/maintain.

SOLUTION

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

After reviewing proposals and bids from 30+ companies and individuals, the decision making factors in the following order:

1) Reviews.
2) Types of projects they worked on.
3) Scope and budget of projects they worked on.
4) Their attention to detail towards my project description and tailored answer rather than a default/pre-populated text.
5) Initial impression after sending a few messages.
6) In-depth technical conversations and the depth of their knowledge.
7) Addressing operational inquiries since post-project ops and maintenance is always the hardest part.

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

The project description was posted along with a very detailed requirement doc along with UI/UX design work in Figma. We had a few back and forth chat communications as I was vetting the candidates and asking in-depth, technical questions to test their knowledge, experience, commitment and communication. From there on out, it was on pretty much of an auto-pilot mode and the team took things in control and drove the project without much of a friction.

Group chat with all relevant team members, a designated PM who was coordinating all the work, communication and providing weekly updates. The app was built using a hybrid framework: Flutter, and the backend was developed using PHP/MySQL, web part was built using React. Infrastructure is set up in AWS and we have a good CI/CD mechanism in place.

The projects were delivered in milestones with N number of features in each milestone and we could test, provide feedback for fixes, improvements, changes...etc. The team does localization well, as well -- which was very helpful for our app to help not only locals but also foreigners and expats.

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

Our group chat had a total of 8 people including the CEO, the PM and the tech team, but primarily I was in contact with the PM who did an excellent job of abstracting me from the technical details and providing high-level communication updates on things that needed my immediate attention.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This is the first type of restaurant review app in our domestic market. Beta testing has provided excellent feedback and satisfaction from customers. The app is launched and we are currently in the process of onboarding businesses, signing contracts. Therefore, we don't have numbers to share in terms of traction because a large portion of it will depend on how well we execute our marketing campaigns and operations. But there has not been any issue on the technical deliverable side which is why we can focus on marketing and operations.

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

Both the CEO and the PM were very easy to communicate with and very responsive to messages. Group chat is very helpful because that is where all the updates are shared transparently so there is no communication delay and everyone is on the same page. Weekly updates are helpful for busy founders like myself.

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

Building a mobile app is not the hardest part. It is building the app with a mindset of scalability, extensibility, security, operations and maintenance in mind -- that is hard. Finding a company that understands performance optimizations, trade-off between choosing certain technologies, DevOps CI/CD, automation, infrastructure and excellent documentations is the hard part.

And the reason I chose WhizPool is because I believed that they might be able to do these well and indeed, they did well! I would say this is the uniqueness about this company.

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

This was already shared with the team and they worked on addressing it, but throughout the project there was a part where the Web App's UI came out little bit different than the Figma UI/UX design and this was a little bit concerning. After sharing this feedback with the team, they worked on addressing it by assigning a different developer focused on the frontend and the end result was good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We develop advanced software solution in the insurance and risk management industry. We leverage the latest big data technology to offer seamless user experience and high performance. I'm the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Whizpool?

There's a huge demand in data analytics and geovisualization in the insurance industry. User experience and high performance are critical in gaining market share. We hire Whizpool to help us improve our performance in our data warehouse implementation.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to improve further the performance of our flagship product in the natural catastrophes data analytics and geo visualization area. We use Cassandra but upgrading to Scylla DB will offer an even faster response time.

SOLUTION

How did you select Whizpool?

We searched online and interviewed 3 advanced tech companies that seemed to fit our requirements. English communication (writing and speaking) was also an important decision criteria for us.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involved a complex map application for different types of dataset that changed frequently so we needed a database that can perform read/write operations on very large datasets. We selected Cassandra / ScyllaDB for that purpose and needed help of a professional that can help us with respect to schema, queries as well as complete design. Following a series of meetings, we elected Whizpool as the best choice with their experience in this challenging area and their expertise in overall application architecture.

What was the team composition?

Initially we worked with an application architect to understand our requirements and the challenges we were facing. The interactions between our development team and Whizpool team were much productive with a strong focus on improving the schemas, queries, data flow and related hardware requirements. They contributed in all these areas including the design and their devOps team deployed the entire database on a separate cluster, setting up the monitoring and alerts features properly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Whizpool suggested two solutions. They expressed clearly the pros and cons for each of them so it was helpful for our decision making. The final solution we selected for implementation improved not only our application’s speed but also made the codebase less complex by eliminating heavy workload of the application. Our product is more stable and our clients appreciate the improvement.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was seamlessly leveraging all online tools available. But the key aspect was that we could communicate orally and on a regular basis between both teams. I don't believe you can do that just via email and chat without actually speaking to each other to avoid miscommunication and delays.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their honesty stands out, especially honesty about their knowledge, when they know they say it, when they don't know they don't hesitate to say it too. The payoff is a greater productivity and it is much safer for us as client.

Are there any areas for improvement?

This is a highly technical area, so it is normal that the language of communication aims at technical experts. I would suggest they use more layman's terms to explain some complex concepts.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a medical solutions provider. I generate the wireframes and create a larger plan for our IT team to adhere to.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Whizpool?

Our main goal was to create an online platform for telemedicine. It connects patients with doctors, and it allows them to communicate with each other for free. We were looking for developers to help us execute it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Whizpool team took on four projects. They built a web application, iOS and Android applications, and an admin panel for us. The web app and admin panel were built using ReactJS, but I believe node.js was also a piece of the puzzle.

What is the team composition?

I worked primarily with Zeeshan (CEO) and two different developers. Since they finished our web app, we’re now working with a teammate who’s helping us transition to the mobile application.

How did you come to work with Whizpool?

I found Whizpool on a freelancing site. We were looking for freelance developers and were impressed by their portfolio. They’d created several different apps in the past. I talked to them, and they were able to answer my questions very well, so I decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We have four projects and different contracts with them. We’ll be paying them slightly more than $30,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in April 2020, and it’s an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Whizpool team was diligent in taking on a complex, unique project, and tackling the challenges that arose throughout the development process. They worked across different time zones, worked overtime, and demonstrated their commitment to the project. We’ve truly appreciated their hard work. They’ve performed extensive testing, and the product quality is now close to perfect.  

How did Whizpool perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated primarily through Skype. Back-and-forths were efficient, where we’d send each other wireframes and prompt approvals. The team lead was excellent at addressing issues within a day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by their sheer dedication to the project. They never made a fuss about upfront costs; instead, they wanted to finish the project as soon as possible, spending overtime even over the weekends to ensure its timely completion.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The time difference we experienced was challenging, but it wasn’t something that was insurmountable.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Maintain consistent and frequent communication with them. Initially, we weren’t as communicative as we should’ve been, and once we increased the frequency of our contact, our project went more smoothly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We consult and deliver microtechnology solutions for enterprises in North America and Africa.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Whizpool?

I consulted Whizpool for a cloud-enabled multi-tenant microservice architecture using AWS.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal of the project was to develop a multi-tenant user authentication that can be used to manage multiple businesses. Particularly, with the use of strict technologies such as NodeJS, AWS, Cognito, Express, and Lambda.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The project is somewhat unique because it has never been done before. However, I know it is possible based on my architectural design. I selected Whizpool after I carefully analyzed some of the bids I received. Whizpool was very responsive, confident and provided a very good approach on how the design will be implemented without charges.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

As previously mentioned, the goal of the project was to develop a multi-tenant user authentication that can be used to manage multiple businesses. Particularly, with the use of strict technologies such as NodeJS, AWS, Cognito, Express, and Lambda. Whizpool was to confirm if the Architectural design was possible with the given restrictions on the use of technology. After that, the application was developed. Some of the specific services we requested was all cloud based API end points that communicate withe external applications using API keys. Overall, design and development met expectations.

What was the team composition?

Whizpool has a team of 6 web developers and 7 app developer, which was sufficient enough to create an outstanding project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are still in beta and a lot of activities is currently being carried out along the project. We should be able to see the impact soon.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was managed effectively via the use of a freelance platform. Money were initially placed in an escrow and released based on different milestones. Communications were also done entirely via the platform, although some were done through hangout and live chat but must conversations especially design requirements, explanations and further enhancement were carried out on the platform

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Communication. The ability to comprehend thoughts, design, and translate it into code is one thing I was extremely happy and satisfied with working with Whizpool.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Presently, I have no areas which I would like them to improve on as they have met most of my expectations. However, maybe it will be nice to actually engage some of the developers directly but I guess this might not be part of their business policy.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a software development company. We over web-based HR/Time & Billing/Inventory Management software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Whizpool?

We hired them to create a mobile app (iOS and Android) to integrate with our web based software package.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to make a relatively simple looking app that had plenty of functionality happening behind the scenes. We also wanted to find a company that we could build a relationship with and continue to use over time.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Whizpool was recommended by a vendor of ours as they had used them and were very happy with the service and product.

Describe the project in detail.

The app is used to integrate with our existing web based platform. The app authenticates the users to our system and then allows them to enroll via selfie on their device. Once enrolled, they are able to then use their device to clock in and out of work. When they clock in and out a selfie is taken and facial recognition is used to confirm it is the correct staff member as well as a GPS stamp is recorded to see where the clock in/out took place.

What was the team composition?

Whizpool has a full team of dev guys but I worked very closely with Zeeshan to define the project scope. Once the scope was defined I worked with 3 different people (Graphic design, iOS and Android Dev Leads).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has been used for many months now and does exactly what we require. The team was great at resolving bugs that we found during the testing phase and also assisted in resolving integrating issues which was above and beyond the scope of the project.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team was great. There is a time difference between my location and theirs but we got into a good schedule of having a daily catchup meeting to report any issues.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

These guys always go above and beyond to make sure the customer is happy. I know we went over budget with the amount of hours that was meant to be spent due to integration to our system (which the Whizpool team could never have expected these issues) but they kept working to make sure they delivered what they promised.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Technical Director at Milestones Technology Group and consulting CTO at a Tech Startup based in Australia. Back in 2013, the Founders came up with a great idea to create a free global platform that provides businesses & individuals a platform to buy/sell/rent and promote their business for free.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Whizpool?

We hired Whizpool after a global search for an offshore development partner as the startup was bootstrapped and had a need to keep costs low.

What were your goals for this project?

Develop mobile apps for iOS, Android and a Web App based on HTMP & PHP as well as an Admin Panel that would allow minimal resources to manage the users and data. The application had to use industry best practice for development standards, employ source code management practices and ensure that all three applications (iOS, Android and Web) functionality was consistent.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We started the search by placing an Ad for a global project on a number of sub-contractor marketplaces. We received numerous responses. These were shortlisted into 3 key suppliers with Whizpool being one of them. Based on a very clear set of selection criteria, Whizpool came ahead and we commenced with Whizpool with a small development to verify their technical skills as well as their communication skills and the ability to work with off-shore clients.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Whizpool created the application architecture and developed all three platforms as requested. Once the project was completed, they have since continued to provide enhancement services and support.

What was the team composition?

The initial project team were comprised of 2 iOS developers, 2 Android Developers, 2 Web/API Developers, 1 QA/Tester and 1 Designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Application was launched in 2016 and has since gained worldwide popularity with a growing user base. From the initial launch a number of enhancements have been made to the product and Whizpool were key to the delivery of these.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was managed from Australia with a local PM within Whizpool managing the local team. Regular Skype meetings and project reviews ensured that the project remained on track and any variations and scope changes were identified early.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Whizpool demonstrated real customer service. Their ability to work with our on-shore team was excellent. Regular meetings (voice & chat) over Skype ensured that the team worked closely with a healthy respect for each other culture, roles and responsibilities. We found Whizpool to be always available and the CEO played a hands-on role in ensuring that the project was delivered to a high quality and standard.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I believe Whizpool has a great pool of resources and is proficient in working with off-shore teams. They could consider hiring some experienced project managers to free up the CEO on other business development activities.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We work in Influencer Marketing & Advertising industry in Nordic countries. Buzzador AB was founded in 2005 and we are operating in Nordics. I am working as Software Engineering/IT Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Whizpool?

- Mobile apps development - Web applications development - Custom software development and technical support

What were your goals for this project?

We started with iOS, Android and Windows apps development for our products. We are also working on Web application development using PHP, AWS, MySQL, Wordpress, JS etc and other open source technologies. We do custom software development for different projects.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected vendor from freelancer.com and found their profile as one of the best. There were hundreds of companies who showed interests for our projects but we chose Whizpool because of excellent rating from other clients. Once we start working together then we found it as the best decision to work with Whizpool. Quality work, good price, meeting deadlines and excellent communication from Whizpool helped to deliver many projects. We are working together since 2012 to onward. In fact we are working right now on one of our project at the moment.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We create requirements for our projects. We hand over requirements to Whizpool team. They do analysis and come back with feedback. We schedule meeting and discuss the project openly with all detail analysis. Our approach vary from project to project. Sometimes Whizpool lead the project from scratch and sometimes we gave them very specific requirements and they act as per instructions. Whizpool provide mainly software development services for our projects. We test the solution and report back our feedback on the project.

What was the team composition?

We have been working with 2 to 8 developers according to project requirements. We work directly with developers and sometimes talk with project manager as well. It has been quite easy for us to work with team while we are on different timezones.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have automated our processes and it reduce the cost and increase the productivity. We have built solutions which is convenient for team to use and carry out the daily operations. There have been plenty of projects which helped to automate our processes. Overall it is to improve efficiency and reduce cost.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Communication is the key for the success of the project. We have been lucky to work with this team who communicates excellent in English. We do Skype meetings, chats and use some other collaboration tools. Working on different timezone with different teams is always a challenge but we never face any communication or timing issues.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

- Quality work - Delivery time/Commitments - Consistency and that's why we are working together since last 10 years

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are very happy with the work since last 10 years and still looking for many years together. There is always space for improvement and we think that testing skills can be improved.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Salon Today, an online salon booking app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Whizpool?

I hired Whizpool to develop my mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Whizpool developed my mobile booking app for iOS and Android. The app acts as an online portal that provides users several salons to book online appointments. It’s a discounted app for all the users of salons, and we have almost 100 salons on the platform. Users can see the exact location of the salon in their area, their prices, and discounts.

What is the team composition?

In total, we’ve worked with eight people.

How did you come to work with Whizpool?

After finding Whizpool online, I chose them because of the projects I saw on their website.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost $8,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Whizpool started in March 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re a professional company with a responsible team. It’s a great experience working with Whizpool. I presented my idea, and their team made an attractive app that’s the first of its kind in Pakistan. Our clients are very happy.

How did Whizpool perform from a project management standpoint?

Because they’re always available, the team at Whizpool is easy to communicate with. Their team also consistently meet their deadlines. I met with the CEO during the first meeting, and then met the rest of them during another in-person meeting.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their availability and teamwork.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No one is 100% perfect, but things were easy with Whizpool.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The team at Whizpool has a great communication style. I’ve recommended them to a variety of clients.