Accesto

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of the co-founders and the CEO of Notebookrank.com. We founded it 4 years ago as a website that advises on laptop purchases. It is like the “IT guy”, a friend of yours, that you would ask for help to find a good laptop for you.

But instead of a geeky mind, it is powered by AI algorithms that review benchmarks and offers to understand the market and suggest the best gear for you.

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

We got a great traction on a Polish market and wanted to go global. That required a bunch of services like IT consulting, web development (PHP & Javascript), architecture redesign, infrastructure migration and code refactoring. Was great to get it all from one provider.

How did you select Accesto and what were the deciding factors?

We knew that we had a great product and that competition in other countries is quite poor. We wanted to scale, starting from english speaking countries.

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

Goal was to make Notebookrank ready for scaling from relatively small Poland to countries like the USA or India. This required handling significantly more users.

Accesto designed and implemented new software architecture for us and provided a couple of additional optimizations. They also improved user experience and conversion rate so we could be more competitive on new markets.

Core technology was PHP & Angular.

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

Hard to say exactly, I think that at least 5 developers were involved in the process. Their project manager did a great job to introduce new team members to tasks that required that. We had a single point of contact for most of the time and contacted other team members only to discuss some details.

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

Yes, we try to measure as much as possible. As a result of cooperation we were able to reduce our load times by 83%. Also, their work on user interface and performance helped us to improve conversion rate by 65%.

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

They provided us with a single point of contact, a dedicated Product Owner. That was really convenient and worked really well.

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

We were looking for a technical partner who will make our product more mature, prepared for a global scale. They have a long history of building startup projects and know what works in the long run.

Their technical expertise and experience in working with existing software are impressive. They helped us to take our product development to the next level.

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

They could have planned the timelines in a more realistic way - especially at the beginning. But in the end they managed to catch up and delivered even before the deadline.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the COO and Co-founder. Plenti - rent tech on-demand is a platform that offers access to the latest consumer electronics on demand - without paying the full price for the product. 

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

Not having sufficient technical background, we sought for a company that will act as our CTO, suggest and implement the best solutions. We've been looking for a partner who will be able to deliver an early MVP of our platform, but also taking future development and maintenance into account.

We knew we will need to scale fast in the nearest future, so maintainability and extendability was our core focus. A partner that will use modern tools and techniques and also allow us to launch quickly, collect feedback and reiterate within days.

How did you select Accesto and what were the deciding factors?

We have been working with Accesto before and we knew they can deliver what we need.

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

Our goal was to quickly launch an early version that we will be able to test with our test group. The work was split by Accesto into short sprints. Each sprint delivered an improvement that we were able to test and adjust our platform. The technologies used were focused on quick deliverables (hybrid mobile apps), and easy maintenance in the future.

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

The team was adjusted based on current needs, but in most cases this was a backend developer and a front-end/mobile app developer. A manager was also involved and assisted us in the product owner role.

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

We managed to launch our app on time. The customer base is still growing, and we got founded by a VC. There were no major bugs despite the complexity of our payment process, and we were able to continue the development with our newly hired development team. We currently work with Accesto again on extending the functionality.

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

We had constant contact with the manager at Accesto by e-mail and video calls. We also had recurring demo sessions and access to task progress reports.

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

Accesto really did great work with understanding our product. They suggested changes and improvements. They also had great ideas how to validate some ideas without writing too much code. After we decided to hire our own team they helped us a lot with knowledge transfer and assisted our developers in their first days.

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

In my opinion, the mobile app framework was not the best choice, but it was quite popular at the time the app was written.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Placker BV creates placker.com. I'm the Founder and CEO of Placker.

Placker.com is the work management platform that makes complex work simple and gives focus to get work done. It is best suited for teams that work on multiple projects, need to collaborate across many teams, have complex work breakdown structure and need an uniform way of working. Placker is flexible to adapt to the users workflow.

For what projects/services did your company hire Accesto?

We created the first version of the platform in house and needed to scale up our team with the right knowledge in the scaling phase of our business, to more easily extend the platform with new features, professionalize the development process and make sure we can monitor and scale the platform.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to make sure our development process was up to standards to make sure it is reliable and to allow us to introduce changes quickly without breaking the product, we wanted to make the architecture event driven so it is easier to extend it and we wanted to continue to develop new features.

How did you select this vendor?

We invited a number of candidates to respond to our request, Accesto was referred to us by a contractor who worked on our infrastructure before to help us scale. Accesto was selected because of the experience they have with our backend framework, and the fit with our culture; pragmatic, knowledgeable and result driven.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We consider the Accesto team as part of our team and continue to work with our team members going forward. Accesto is key in driving our technical roadmap, accessing new technologies and planning, scoping and managing delivery of new features and technical upgrades from (technical) design to production for our client and backend.

We create the functional and UI/UX designs that are picked up by the team and scoped in bi-weekly iterations. We also still do some client and backend development ourself.

What was the team composition?

We initially started with one front end and one backend development and have extended the team after that, overall 3-5 resources are involved in the ongoing activities.

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

Placker would not be in the good shape it is in today without Accesto, since we have a small team ourself, it is good to have a trusted party that handles technical assessment and development that allows me and other to focus on growing other aspects of the business.

The alternative would have been to either find a similar party or establish an in-house development team, which would not give us the same level of experience and knowledge.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We are fortunate to have a great tool (placker) and use slack and meet for daily and weekly communication. We plan the work in 2 week iterations which works well in managing changes. We have occasional on site visits for roadmap discussions as well.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their culture was the key reason to select Accesto compared to others, which is close to us. Knowledgeable people with an pragmatic attitude to get work done and acknowledge when things are different/not working out to resolve it. In the end it's the ability to respond to unexpected events. Accesto is very knowledgeable in the Symfony framework that we use.

Are there any areas for improvement?

For us there are not typical areas for improvement, we have a continuous working relation with 2 week sprints in which we discuss things that can be improved based on lessons learned.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We aggregate user opinion on events they attend to help other event goers when buying tickets. I am the Founder and CEO.

For what projects/services did your company hire Accesto?

We wanted to outsource platform development away from London to an offshore model where we could scale a development team of senior developers quickly.

What were your goals for this project?

The offshore team needed to learn a large system quickly, work in an agile way, self manage, code review and QA.

How did you select this vendor?

Introduction from a trusted colleague.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Symfony development with Vue.

What was the team composition?

One front end developer, one back end and a team lead covering architecture, code review and devOps.

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

We are still evaluating the outcomes of the various development projects.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Management and agile ceremonies improved over time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They had a positive approach to challenges and code quality.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Team lead sometimes lacked time for the project due to other project commitments.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the managing director for Skylegs, a collection of BI (business intelligence) tools and applications and online flight operations software.

For what projects/services did your company hire Accesto?

We've been actively developing a new solution for one of our clients. We needed skilled AngularJS developers to design the architecture and implement the application.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to prepare a good architecture plan and deliver the product on time to our client. We also wanted to assure that we'd be able to independently make adjustments to the app in the future. The project had to be scalable and delivered using the serverless architecture approach.

How did you select this vendor?

We'd considered many companies but chose Accesto after several meetings with them and a recommendation from one of our subcontractors.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

After engaging with them, they provided a plan of the suggested architecture approach and solutions within a few days. Upon approval, we started to work in two-week sprints, each ending with a demo.

What was the team composition?

We're working with one full-time senior frontend developer.

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

The delivered software complies with our expectations and objectives, and the suggested approach worked flawlessly. It was built on time, taking into account unforeseen circumstances.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We were able to use Slack and GitHub for project management—tools we were already used to working with. Communication between our management team and Accesto's developer was good. We're planning to meet with them in person soon.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We really liked their proactive approach and how they always challenge themselves to deliver a better solution. Also, the knowledge level of their developer is great.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of any.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We provide both business strategy services and software development services.

For what projects/services did your company hire Accesto?

We've been developing a CRM extension for one of our clients, and we needed skilled React developers to deliver the frontend.

What were your goals for this project?

To deliver the project on time and with proper quality. The responsive web design and UX had to be flawless. We also wanted the code to be easy to maintain for us in the feature.

How did you select this vendor?

We reached out to seven companies that provided the required services. We selected Accesto as their approach and blind-CVs were the best ones. My partner and I were both involved in the decision.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected them, we started with a series of meetings to get a common understanding of the project. Within a week, they provided a detailed plan of the architecture and suggested solutions, all of which we approved. After that, we started to work in two-week sprints, ending each with a demo.

What was the team composition?

There was one full-time frontend developer and one part-time architect-consultant.

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

They delivered all objectives on time and in a more efficient manner than estimated. Some of their suggestions about React were not common at that time but are now considered as best-practice. We were able to deliver the required features and still had budget left for other improvements.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had direct contact with all members and it was easy to communicate with them on a daily basis. We used a Slack channel. Every month we received a detailed timesheet from their project manager.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're proactive and seek out the best solution. It's something we've never experienced before.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CEO of a software development house in Poland.

For what projects/services did your company hire Accesto?

We were developing an app for helping publishers manage their processes. We needed to speed up its development and have an individual developer assigned to help us stay within our budget.

How did you select this vendor?

They’re the best Symfony developer in our area. I know that it isn’t possible to find more skilled people than the ones working for Accesto.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Working together as one team, they proposed several ideas on how to speed up the project and recommended solutions for boosting efficiency. They developed very good code.

What was the team composition?

They assigned five backend developers, two frontend developers, two testers, a product owner, and an analyst.

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

We’re now able to use more tools from the Symfony framework. We would develop our own solutions before, which had to be tested and often produced even more issues, but now, we have greater flexibility now. Accesto also sped up our project, which convinced our client to continue collaborating with us.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We handled project management internally.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are ingenious, proactive, and flexible.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and founder of MediaHQ, an SaaS based software company that provides media intelligence and enables users to contact journalists.

What challenge were you trying to address with Accesto?

We needed someone who could develop new features and software while dealing with legacy software development issues.

What was the scope of their involvement?

A project manager took the specs, which they used to build the software. Then it went live. We did the technical spec documents, and they took care of the design and development work.

The software is for public relations and communications professionals who want to send stories and pitches to journalists. It enables them to get their content to the media quickly and to target and find journalists.

What is the team composition?

We had three or four people working on the project, and a point person on their side.

How did you come to work with Accesto?

We found them through Clutch and met them because of that.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in June of 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

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

Their work meets a very high quality standard. They are very professional; they do what they say and say what they do. They are easy to deal with, keep our best interests at heart, and deliver what they promise within the agreed-upon budget.

How did Accesto perform from a project management standpoint?

Their timing was good, and they delivered to the project specs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We used them to build the "beyond the login" product for us, and they understood us well. Their approach to business and their ability to sense our needs were impressive. They always wanted to do a good job and deliver on time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were very pleasant people to deal with, and they delivered what they said they would on time. Their vibe was very similar to our, so we found them very easy to work with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know what you want when you contact them; that makes success easier. Have a budget, concept, and product roadmap in mind, but also let them do what they are good at. Don’t stand in the way of their work. Having a roadmap, dealing in bite-sized chunks, and setting deliverable margins worked very well.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a leading evaluation platform for headhunters and recruiters. We connect HR Managers and candidates with headhunters based on their skills, experience, and quality of work.

For what projects/services did your company hire Accesto?

Our platform was very rudimental, full of bugs and bad code quality. Before we could add new features, the whole code needed to be reviewed and rewritten, which was no easy task. We were looking for an experienced agency who could support us with that.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create a clean, fully functional MVP with our first paid features.

How did you select this vendor?

I had contacted a couple of agencies in that particular area. I got an almost immediate response from Accesto's sales department. The first code review and estimation was done within days. The representative was nice, competent, and most of all, fast at answering my questions. I appreciated the honest answers as to what could be implemented or not.

Describe the project in detail.

The project began with an extensive code review by two developers. I received a prioritized list of next steps including time estimates for each step. After agreeing on the best path, the implementation started.

Explain how the solution addressed your business challenge.

The platform was buggy and provided a poor user experience. We agreed to start the improvement with (feature) bugs, then improve user experience and design. We worked on the backend as the last step in the project.

What was the team composition?

They provided us with 3 experienced developers and a project manager.

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

Within weeks I could see results on the frontend. Our products became more usable and user-friendly.

How effective was the project management?

The project manager supported communication between me and the team. I was contacted if there were any problems, with both the problem and with proposed solutions. This saved my time and let me focus on the business side of the platform.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their quality of work is very impressive. We had meetings to plan the next sprint where they answered my questions. The communication was so good that their work came back how I had imagined it every time. Occasionally the timeline was pushed back, but we were working with complex software and it would have been unreasonable to expect 100% accuracy.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

Sometimes project manager's communication was not unclear in terms of schedules and different holiday's they had then in my country. I didn't always feel like I was informed of them in advance.Other than that, I am happy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a small company based in Oslo, Norway. We specialize in providing consulting and software for health, safety, environmental, risk, and qualitative services.

What challenge were you trying to address with Accesto?

We had an idea for a new app that could be useful in the market. It was a safety-related cloud application for reporting accidents, incidents, safety, and risk-related activities like audits, and inspections.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did the full development of the mobile app and the web applications associated with it. They did all the technical work, we just gave the initial mockup of what we wanted for the mobile app, which they picked up and developed further in collaboration with us. This also involved storyboarding to develop it a bit further, through a process of iteration, after which we came to a final product after a year. 

It was a bit technical in the way of IT. We didn't do any of the IT related work, but we had a clear idea of what the functionality should be, which they worked on.

Ionic was one of the main platforms used. There were different solutions that were tied together to make the overall application. The application is available for iOS and Android. They also did web design using Squarespace.

What is the team dynamic?

There was 1 project manager, up to 5 developers, and 1 frontend designer that worked on the app for more than a year.

How did you come to work with Accesto?

We went on Clutch to look for suitable suppliers. I contacted 6 or 7, Accesto being one of them, and they gave me the best feeling. I had bad experiences with some; they seemed to be more interested in cost or my budget than what I wanted to do.

That wasn't the case with Accesto. They showed interest in understanding what we wanted to do and helped us define the functionality that we needed. They were the only supplier that was like that. They gave me a very good feeling straight away. Of course, there was a cost evaluation to go with the technical side of it, but that was the process of selecting Accesto.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent approximately 500,000 Norwegian krona with them [$61,000].

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from August 2016 to September 2017. The project is still ongoing, but the delivery phase is completed. Now, we're going into the operation phase.

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

We're happy with the end product. It was aligned with our expectations on cost and cost development. Currently, it works as it should, and hopefully, we get feedback about its reliability once we get more customers.

We did go over budget, but that's our own fault because we changed the scope as we went along. You can't expect to get something for nothing; if you change the scope, you have to pay for it.

How did Accesto perform from a project management standpoint?

They followed the Agile methodology of development. The design developed as we went along. We had weekly status meetings, and sometimes have daily correspondence with the project manager. I would say that was a definite strength; they were very easy to communicate with and very reliable.

Even though they're in Poland and we're in Norway, it was a very seamless process. We used a work breakdown structure, an overall plan detailing the main activities that were to be performed. We also had a running action list with points to address. When we had any items to fix, update, or change, we used Google Drive as a collaboration tool. Apart from that, a lot of correspondence was through email and Skype, sharing streams to communicate and follow up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We quickly managed to develop good communication with them. They were very good at trying to really define the functionality of what we needed. We were a little bit vague at the start; we had a good idea, but we weren't very clever at defining and explaining what we wanted.

They're a very reliable IT company. We took a bit of a leap of faith when we selected a supplier from a different country. There was quite a lot of risk for us to go and spend the amount of money that we did, but Accesto was definitely reliable very quickly. Reliability and communication skills are the key things with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have been more realistic with time. They would say something could be ready in 2 weeks, the reality being it would take 1 month. On the other hand, optimism is always a good quality as well; nothing was ever a problem.