Appspring

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a SaaS startup that develops mobile applications for public transit. The app allows users to purchase bus passes on their phones. Recently, we went through a venture capital round of funding for $1 million dollars.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Appspring?

A customer came to us with a special request that required deep technical knowledge that we didn’t possess. We ended up looking to Appspring for a series of deliverables ranging from maintenance to mission-critical updates, like the customer-requested module.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Appspring helped architect, plan out, and develop several features. They also helped us create an agile methodology for our company to use internally. Currently, they assist with background app operation, keeping the app functional and monitoring and pushing out other important updates. The app is for iOS and Android, using Swift and Kotlin respectively.

Their team has also done a bit of design work. We aren’t very design heavy, but they’ve helped create a few frontend web components for an internal website.

What is the team composition?

We have three developers from their end working in the same position. They hold senior titles within our company; we decided that would be best given their experience.

In terms of points of contact, we have one for app development and backend development, and then another for contractual and administrative items.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $15,000–$20,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new module created an entirely original sales pipeline for us that has shot to $30,000 in sales. We’re 100% satisfied with Appspring.

How did Appspring perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done very well in this regard. Appspring’s staff is well trained in project management techniques, and we have daily Zoom stand-ups. Slack also helps us keep in touch.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Excellent communication is their strongest point; it differentiates them from others.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This is a tough question, as we’re really happy and will be sticking with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make the most of your time and allow Appspring’s team to be creative. They have good input and great creative ideas. Be open to listening to their suggestions. It’s been a very positive decision for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CTO of an agricultural technology company based out of Toronto. We create information and tools for farmers to cut costs and increase their operational efficiencies.

We use a neat meter, which is our hardware sensor. It latches onto the electrical panel and reads data and electrical metrics right away. Then, we do data analysis to provide actionable insights to farmers so they can take preventative measures to run farms efficiently.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Appspring?

As a startup, we needed development support. We were only working with one developer. It was a lean operation, so we couldn’t scale things nor add features in a short amount of time. Therefore, it made a lot of sense to bring in somebody like Appspring.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Appspring provided software development services, mainly for web applications and services like APIs. They worked as staff augmentation, so we initially gathered the business requirements. As a startup, we didn’t have deeply documented artifacts available. They took that all we had, and we had a couple of scoping sessions with Appspring’s management and lead developers.

The onboarding process required Appspring managers to understand our entire operation, infrastructure, and architecture in greater detail so they could distill information to their developers. That way, it didn't take a long time for developers to onboard onto our system. It only took 2–3 days before they started delivering code that went directly to production. Then, it was tested and executed at a higher level.

We worked in an agile environment, so Appspring developers worked closely with us. We created new requirements every two weeks, and the deliverables came to me directly on a weekly basis. They mirrored whatever they saw and clarified a few concepts and architecture areas that helped the final understanding of our situation.

We already had our visual language, which included our color palette, fonts, sizes, and so on. Appspring didn’t do many things from scratch, but the frontend developer worked on the design and improvised seamlessly upon it.

The features developed are currently under test and beta testing. These features are in the collaboration, task assignment, and data visualization areas. The APIs were built in the AWS cloud infrastructure and Django Python framework.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people. Two of them were senior software developers that focused on the backend, and one of them was a junior developer with a front and backend hybrid focus. In the last couple of weeks, we worked with a fourth developer.

Also, two people from the management side were in the background. They weren’t actively working with us, but they were readily available for any sort of escalation. They checked with us every month or so.

How did you come to work with Appspring?

One of our employees knew about them, and we met them through them. I think they were previous colleagues, either at school or a previous workplace.

We started talking to Appspring, and they came prepared for all of these meetings. They were eager to get our business and make adjustments based on our reality and financial position.

We liked their approach because in our previous experience, some companies give an estimate for some absurd six-figure number, and then they don’t do anything. There's no kind of flexibility or freedom for us as customers. We also liked that they were approachable and ready to dig into things right away. It was solution-focused engagement.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $25,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–August 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re currently beta testing a feature that may turn an unpaid pilot into a paid customer. We’d engaged them, and they let us use their facility in exchange for the new features. When they saw what Appspring had developed, we saw the shift in their approach to our software. In my view, that's evidence in itself.

Moreover, other consultants leave you with unfinished work so you’ll rely on them for future work, which wasn't the experience with Appspring. After all of the work was done, it felt like we made the right choice.

How did Appspring perform from a project management standpoint?

As a project manager, my life became much easier. I’d assign the task, get updates on an ongoing basis, and solve issues as they arose. Overall, it was a pretty smooth engagement.

Their leadership was working in the background. They checked in with their people and had their own daily standup meetings. They knew about any roadblock or issue before we needed to address it. From our side, the employees were augmented into our organization. Team members were engaged and ready to answer questions and engage with other employees.

In terms of communication, we used Slack and Google Meet. Notion was our task-tracking tool, and Google Docs was for any sort of documentation.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Preparedness and thoroughness are the two things that come into my mind. Clients want to come in for a short time, so finishing mission-critical tasks is part of the overall journey. If a third-party consultant isn’t experienced in that, then they’re not doing their job correctly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One of the developers wasn’t proficient in English. We faced some issues with them, but it turned out the person was not confident enough to provide their opinion and engage with us. After that, we saw a good difference in the right direction.

Nonetheless, that was one area they could improve. Appspring could assess the language of the organization they're working with.

Any advice for potential customers?

Since Appspring is quite flexible, they’re ready to work under different kinds of customized solutions. However, make your expectations clear from the get-go so they can give you an estimate and engage with you. If you’re not prepared with the requirements, then you’ll probably face some issues. You’ll get what you give.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Universidad Sergio Arboleda is a renowned Colombian university with more than 12,000 and more than 100 programs, in different fields such as engineering, law, business, and social sciences, among others.I am Sergio Arboleda's digital marketing director and I am in charge, among others, of overseeing our website platform, its content and it interactions with students, potential students, and any other relevant visitors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

By the end of 2020, we faced various security incidents with our website, and we did not have a robust maintenance process. Therefore, we urgently needed several security updates and other upgrades to our website and our process to enhance the experience of our visitors and our virtual presence. Our website has more than 5000 pages, and we needed to fix these issues without affecting our SEO.

SOLUTION

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

We selected Appspring because of their solid knowledge of web development (WordPress, PHP, CSS, HTML, Javascript, React, ) and project management. Also, they were very flexible and tailored an engagement that was perfect for us and our website.

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

The project was divided into three phases that Appspring helped us define and transform into a prioritized roadmap.

1. Security and other core updates and upgrades. This phase was to fix security issues and conduct the essential updates and upgrades for our website. This involved setting up testing environments, database backups, deployment, and rollback procedures. We finished this phase in March 2021, with a successful deployment to production and go live.
2. Other bug fixings and Other Improvents: This phase was to fix all of the existing bugs and work on further improvements that our website needed.
3. Maintenance (ongoing): This phase consists of continuing maintenance support, where Appspring helps us with deployments, SEO analysis, and bug fixing, among other various activities we require to perform

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

We work with several people within the project:

• the chief architect
• the Operations manager
• 3 developers
• SEO analyst
• a project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Appspring fixed all the security issues and updated and upgraded various components from our website. They also set an agile software development process based on sprints and supported by Jira

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

It was absolutely effective. The Appspring team is well-versed in Scrum. Through the scrum framework, the requirements were very well organized and implemented by strict priority. The response from the Appspring team was always agile. Constant communication was maintained through different channels (Teams, Email, Phone) to ensure the processes

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

I found impressove that Appspring was able to onboard and handle this project very fast. They have a rigorous software development process. They are able to fix most of our site's issues very fast and propose creative and innovative solutions.

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

The whole process went according to expectations.