Algotech Solutions

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a fintech company that specializes in short term working capital lending to businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algotech Solutions?

We’ve worked hard to keep our staffing model flexible, especially on the technology side. In the early days, the reason we brought Algotech on board was to provide high-quality development talent in a format that was virtually the same on our side as having a full-time team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Algotech first worked on our mission-critical software. My company and customers use this system every minute of every day.  

At the outset, we had an MVP with a PostgreSQL database, NodeJS backend, and Angular frontend. They refactored the system, making the code more reasonable and logical. They refactored the entire backend, so the server-side.

Since then, they refactored more of the system's elements to improve efficiency and accuracy. Their team also develops new features that perform a wide set of operations including transactional functions such as calculations. They also built features to make the UX/UI more aesthetically pleasing and intuitive.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with at most three people from Algotech at any one time. They were all JavaScript developers, working on frontend and backend projects.

How did you come to work with Algotech Solutions?

I worked with another business in Romania that introduced us to Algotech.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2018, and the partnership’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Based on my experience with them, their productivity and efficiency are good. The quality of their work’s high and there haven’t been any trade-offs in working with them. While they're totally committed, we maintain the flexibility associated with contractors.

Their team refactored the backend quickly. We still use the same framework that they laid out.

How did Algotech Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage all of their work through Trello. Through that, we track card completion rates and time to complete.

We worked closely with their development throughout the first 3–4 months of the engagement. As they got accustomed to our environment, we became more comfortable letting Login (Full Stack Software Developer) run projects. We also decreased the amount of detail in our specifications over time as he began to understand our needs.

We provide business-oriented specifications. Then, they translate those specs into code, develop a project plan, assign responsibilities, and set a timeline. Throughout a project, their team keeps us up to date on their progress. While we manage QA and testing, they direct a whole lot of the development process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They operate and behave like they’re on our team. It feels like Algotech doesn’t have other projects because they’re always available, hit timelines, and remain focused.  

What makes them different is their commitment and willingness to embed themselves into the project. They’re also a good team that I trust, which is different from my experiences with other outsourced providers where the relationship is totally transactional.

Algotech builds solutions for the long run. They’ve gone above and beyond. For example, if I ask them to fix a bug, they might also fix two others in the system that I didn't notice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Our experience with them has been so good because we invited them into our team. We didn’t hold them at arm’s length. Rather, we made them privy to the business’s performance. We let them see behind the curtain and talk about why we want to take on certain projects. That created empathy and passion on their side. Algotech’s a talented team, so we only needed to get them excited about applying that talent to our project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Parfiniti Inc. We help manufacturers increase revenue and margin by reducing the time it takes them to send out a quote.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Algotech Solutions?

We hired them for web app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s a SaaS platform and it’s the core of our business. It’s PHP on a Zend Framework, of course with JavaScript, HTML, and all that. MySQL database, Solr Indexing and all kinds of different libraries.

It’s a B2B web app. Our customers sell to other businesses and our customer use our application to send price quotes to customers. Typically, they’re used for project-based businesses in cabling security and wireless installations.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people.

How did you come to work with Algotech Solutions?

I found them through an online marketplace. They went through a testing process. We paid about 10 different people to take three different tests. As we narrowed it down, they were the clear winners. We evaluated them based on skill, time,  and communication between our team and theirs.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It has been ongoing since April 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They average at about 97% completion for each sprint. We use a ticketing system and rely on them to complete the tasks we assign them.

How did Algotech Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. Their communication is excellent. They all speak English very well. They’re not afraid to ask questions for clarification, as well as to make suggestions on things that they think would be better.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re extremely detailed when it comes to coding standards and quality of code. They’re very strict, down to capitalization on variable names and following processes.

That, and honestly, communication was a big deal to me. I’ve worked with other developers where that is a problem, so I really appreciate that they’re good English speakers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For sure, hold daily stand-ups. I find that keeps everyone on track, and that has been the key to our success with them—constant communication.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a consulting firm based in the Bay Area.  I'm the co-founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AlgoTech Solutions?

We hired them to build a FinTech application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built our web-based application from scratch. It was a very complex project with a lot of layers. They used Laravel, PHP, MySQL, and Python. It helps calculate renewable energy, as well as gathers data, processes it, and determines whether specific properties are delinquent or not. They're currently still supporting and maintaining it.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 4-8 people from their team at any one time.

How did you come to work with AlgoTech Solutions?

I came in touch with them through a friend.

How much have you invested with them?    

We invested $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2016, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The best indicator of success is that we were able to go into production with a very large FinTech application around a year starting the project, which was a big success.

How did AlgoTech Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They used a really good agile approach and it was really easy to work with them. We tracked all of their success through Milestones.  We didn't have to do much organizing around their development team because they're very self-applied. They were really easy and flexible to work with. They managed to scale their teams with us, with new team leads to manage subgroups.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very good at what they do altogether and they're very fluent in several coding languages, too. Overall, they're very professional. Having worked with them for around four years, their communication is great and they do try to understand us and our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don't think so. They're great all together.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to have an open conversation with them and they'll be happy to help.