Accesto

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and chief executive officer of an API database company working in the healthcare space. We provide a B2B solution for developers looking to integrate healthcare content into their products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Accesto?

Our team spends a lot of time writing database algorithms. We wanted to outsource the work to a technology company that could write APIs able to plug into the existing database. Since the task would be relatively simple, we could save in-house time and resources by using an external partner. We use a niche database, which requires an understanding of our specific product and model. The team needed to understand our language and how graph databases work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Accesto has exclusively worked on our APIs and the insular features related to them, as well as on our user registration panel. As part of the project, Accesto also created an interface that demonstrated the capabilities of our APIs, based on our static visuals. We had a single point of contact from Accesto's team.

How did you come to work with Accesto?

We found Accesto via Clutch.co and went through 30 interviews with different companies found on the site.

How much have you invested with Accesto?

The cost of Accesto's services was between $20,000 and $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Accesto at the end of 2015. The work ended in late 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our graph database product has a specific language associated with it. Accesto had to learn that language in order to complete our tasks, including creating a backend. Even though Accesto had never worked in this space before, they demonstrated incredible ability in coming up to speed and writing queries for retrieving information. Accesto demonstrated an eagerness and a capacity to learn about our product.

How did Accesto perform from a project management standpoint?

Accesto's team was overall easy to work with. Given the duration and scope of our project, we've had to have a lot of communication over email, including PowerPoint documents, in order to track errors and bug fixes. We didn't use a project management tool, which was a change for us in terms of monitoring the work. Accesto's project manager did a fantastic job of being responsive, so the drawback was offset. They have made the necessary changes in terms of utilizing JIRA and other Atlassian products, and those changes offered more clarity into the work.

What did you find most impressive about Accesto?

I give Accesto a very favorable review overall. It was a pleasant surprise to see Accesto's team take an interest in our project and make great suggestions for features and ways of attacking the work, particularly in terms of speed of retrieval and other technical elements. We have taken those suggestions to heart and actually implemented them.

Are there any areas Accesto could improve?

The workflow management system was an improvement point, but Accesto has changed it since our collaboration. Using email wasn't the most efficient communication option.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We have developed an educational platform. We build online courses targeting people around the age of 25 who are looking for a job and need additional skills.

What is your position?

I am the CEO [chief executive officer] and founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Accesto?

We were missing certain programming skills when starting out as a company. We didn't want to hire local talent because it's so expensive here, so we decided that finding an outsourced solution would be the next best thing.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Accesto were in charge of implementing certain back-end technologies, including search functionality, automatic deployment of backups, and so on. The technologies they used were the Symfony PHP framework and MySQL.

We pushed a basic setup initially for deployment procedures and made more complex implementations for integrating our platform with running services. We have several API [application programming interface] request points on different parts of our application, which connect to external vendors. Accesto also worked on frontend development using jQuery.

They offered us between one and two full-time developers during the development process.

How did you come to work with Accesto?

We found them and a few other offshore firms online.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The development process took 18 months and involved up to two people on Accesto's team. The costs were typical for Poland developers, very competitive and much cheaper than their American counterparts.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Accesto weren't involved significantly in the front-end design of the platform. The general opinion about our platform is positive. People appreciate our features, and we're getting requests for more features and courses to be added.

We, as the team that worked directly with Accesto, are generally very impressed with the quality of their output. I would recommend them for back-end development. User interface and front-end design is something they're only currently working on improving.

How did Accesto perform from a project management standpoint?

We've had a long relationship, which allows us to interact efficiently during the development process. We simply had to specify what tasks we needed doing. We use Trello and Skype for communication.

What distinguishes Accesto from other providers?

They seek to build long-term relationship when working with us. They don't push us to hire more developers from them, but try to work on our solution. They are sometimes occupied with other work, but that's never gotten in the way of giving us more resources when needed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company does two things. We are an IT [information technology] service provider, but we also build our own products.

What is your position?

I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Accesto?

We needed more developers to increase capacity, and Accesto had a lot of great developers that we could use. We needed them quickly because we've been building a product, and we needed a team to help us build it. They were the best choice for us because they could work quickly and at a reasonable price.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We used around three or four developers over the course of the project as well as a project manager. Their project manager was also responsible for quality assurance and control. Accesto developed in PHP and, on the front-end, we used AngularJS. I gave them the visual collateral, and they were responsible for implementing it. They can do wireframes as well, but we didn't need those for our project.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Tens of thousands of dollars.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've maintained an ongoing relationship with Accesto for a couple of years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We don't have that kind of data, but we are satisfied with Accesto's work. The feedback we've received from internal stakeholders has all been great, and the site works fine. We had some difficulties at the beginning, some minor problems, but they were handled very well by Accesto. They have a good maintenance package, and they solved all of our problems at the beginning and afterward.

How did Accesto perform from a project management standpoint?

There are no problems with project management. They're the best I can get.

What distinguishes Accesto from other providers?

Probably the fact that they're working on the whole project is most valuable. As I said, they've been doing the programming and development for us, but Accesto can also do the graphic design, project management, and quality assurance. They can manage the whole technical side of a project. It's been really good to work with a company that you don't have to manage on a daily basis. They know the priorities, and they can do everything themselves, without needing to be micromanaged. For me, this is the thing that differentiates them from others. It makes them very efficient.

They seem to be experts with front-end technologies like PHP and in AngularJS. If you're using these kinds of technologies, Accesto is a very good company. They can also do things in other technologies, but I'm not sure how proficient they are in other technologies.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

The price always could be cheaper. With every service that you get, it can always be cheaper but, otherwise, everything was fine.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is a website where you can place an advertisement about your car. If you want to sell a car, you can put your advertisement on our website, and if someone who sees it wants to buy it, you can be in contact. It's basically just a platform that allows people to advertise and sell their vehicles to others online.

What is your position?

I am the CEO [chief executive officer] of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Accesto?

When we decided to create this portal, we needed to work with some companies because we didn't have in-house expertise in web design. After many failures with other companies, we found Accesto, and they helped us finish this website and make it the way it is right now.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We presented them with our ideas and they executed what we wanted but, nevertheless, they were very creative. Sometimes, they gave us better solutions than we had originally thought of by ourselves.

During our cooperation, we expanded the scope of their work a little bit as we found other ways to improve the site. They did a lot more than we asked for in the first place. We offered the strategic and creative elements, and they built all the functional components.

How did you come to work with Accesto?

We found them on Internet after searching through many companies. We decided on them because they wanted to help us even though the project was already started and abandoned by another company. Their good price was important as well.

What is the status of this engagement?

The website was completed a week ago [June 2015].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We don't have any statistics yet. It will be a month before the website starts operating normally.

How did Accesto perform from a project management standpoint?

We are very happy and pleased with Accesto. There is nothing bad I can say about what they've done for us. They were always on time and never missed a deadline. In comparison to the experiences I've had with other companies, they are the best thing that happened to us. We wouldn't even have a working website without them.

What distinguishes Accesto from other providers?

Yes, they have one great feature. After closing each milestone, we receive a report of everything that they did, point by point. It was fantastic, and I have never seen anything like it.

In our opinion, they're a nice company to work with. They are not afraid of challenges. They took a project that was already started by someone else; I never met a company that gladly does that. I would recommend them to anyone.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

The one thing that they could improve is their website graphic design. They didn't have such a great background in it, and we had to use other sources. They're definitely experts when it comes to development, but it would have been nice to have access to some more design expertise rather than having to go to a separate provider.