Apriorit

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Global Technical Lead, Heifer Labs of Heifer International

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Heifer International is a nonprofit working with smallholder farmers in 19 countries to end hunger and poverty.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Operate, maintain and update existing web and mobile platform
• Create and test automated backup procedure for cloud environment supporting web and mobile platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Apriorit?

Online Search

Why did you select Apriorit over others?

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

How many teammates from Apriorit were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Maintaining and updating existing documentation (hardware and software requirements, supported versions of Android, installation, and use)
• Operating, maintaining, and monitoring platform digital infrastructure in the cloud provider where the environment is running;
• Receiving, responding to, and resolving support tickets via email for Platform not working properly or not responding;
• Creating and sharing with client any and all bug fixes to existing web and Android code base to address user issues;
• Making any Android-required currency updates 
• Providing reports and analytics as requested by client
• Creating and testing Terraform scripts for archiving of cloud resources used by application
• Performing backups and restores of cloud environment used by application

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Successful operation of web and mobile platforms and delivering services to 1,000 field users for 2 years
• 30+ bugs fixed on code Apriorit did not originally develop
• Improved platform quality from Apriorit testing
• Improved administrator and user docu
• Successful backup and restore of cloud environment supporting application via automated script that Apriorit developed
• Monthly project and app status reports that exceeded our expectations

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

Apriorit's project management was exceptional, based on my two-decade-plus experience of being involved in or leading projects in the tech sector with IBM. The project manager assigned to us, Oleksandr, was extremely responsive, courteous, professional and technically skilled, which helped with task assignment and detailed updates. Apriorit delivered everything on time and responded to questions or requests within an hour, often even in off-hours (which was not required, but we appreciated it that much more).

What was your primary form of communication with Apriorit?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their level of professionalism and skill throughout the process was impressive: project initiation / need determination, project management, software development and test, and communication and updates. Their energy and positive attitude were great, too; they're excellent teammates.

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

No, nothing comes to mind. Would *gladly* work with Apriorit again if/when the need arises and I recommend them at the highest level.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Manager of an ecommerce company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We deliver cutting-edge technology that simplifies the development and implementation of virtual filesystems and operating system request interception.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Perfor Code Review of macOS Implementation
• Analyze performance and security aspects

SOLUTION

How did you find Apriorit?

Online Search

Why did you select Apriorit over others?

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

How many teammates from Apriorit were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

An in-depth analysis of an existing product for synchornizing files on macOS using a mix of custom code and existing platform APIs. Deliverables included reports on areas of concern, suggestions of how to make improvements and details of any potential performance or security risks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the information provided after review was good. Suggestions and questions about the implemetnation after the code review demonstrated that Apriorit was able to provide quality feedback. We improved our product as a result of the review.

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

Apriorit communicated frequently and deliver all items on time or early. They were happy to join meetings or work with us on any special requests or timelines during the project.

What was your primary form of communication with Apriorit?

Email or Messaging App

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

The level of expertise in a realtively niche area of computing was very helpful. Combined with their customer-first approach this was a very beneficial relationship.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm an executive at IRIS Audio Technologies. We make audio-based technology. One of our algorithms is a noise cancellation/noise reduction software system. If a user is working in a place with a lot of background noise, such as a call center, they can use our software to remove all the noise in the background and leave their voice intact.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We were pushing our noise cancellation software for Mac computers, but we didn't have any Windows expertise within our team. Therefore, we were seeking a partner to help us with Windows driver development to launch our software for Windows as well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Apriorit has worked with us on Windows development. Initially, we provided them with a full briefing document to kickstart the project. As for the technology stack, the team has used .NET, C#, and C++ to build the solution.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 6–7 teammates from Apriorit, including Michael (Program Manager), Vitalii (Software Developer), and Anastasiia (Test Engineer).

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

I found them through a Google search. I was looking for a company with Windows experience and spoke to three of the ones I found. Out of those, I had the best feeling about working with Apriorit.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $600,000–$700,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in October 2021, and the partnership is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Apriorit's solution has enabled us to unlock our solution for Windows — without them, we wouldn't have Windows products. Currently, around 90% of our customer base uses Windows-based computers. Without access to this product for Windows, we would have a much smaller market, so we owe a lot of our business to them.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

We don't really work on a project basis; our work is ongoing, and Apriorit has become a part of our team. We work on a sprint-planning basis, so we give them a piece of the work, they estimate it, and they then deliver. Their estimates are generally very good and very accurate. Moreover, their team works fast.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Apriorit's core team has been great. Michael has been handling our account, and he has been excellent. Vitalii is also fantastic; he's very responsive and highly skilled. Moreover, Anastasiia has been very good and a fantastic QA person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Apriorit does a great job of finding the right resources to help us. Everyone has a great skill level, and they've helped us a lot. Therefore, our projects are running very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's nothing Apriorit could improve on. If anything, it would always be great if they were cheaper.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

We started working with Apriorit in a slightly different way than we should. We weren't communicating as regularly as needed. When you don't communicate regularly with remote resources who, in addition to that, speak a different language, it's easy to make mistakes and have miscommunication issues.

Therefore, communicate often with them and establish regular meetings to ensure everyone understands what you've said so that they can work on the project in the best way possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the former VP of product management at an IaaS company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

Apriorit provided us with software development and consulting services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I was involved in two projects with Apriorit. One was an external-facing software product, which was used to support the company’s software platform. When downloaded on a device, this product would run a hypervisor that gave users a virtual instance of macOS on their computer. The second project focused on a custom driver for macOS that would interact with a large-scale storage platform.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Nikita (Middle macOS & Linux Software Developer)  and a part-time project manager. When we had to do things quickly or needed a bit of assistance, Apriorit would bring in two additional software developers; they didn’t work full-time during the entire project, but we worked with them for a few months. There were also two test resources. In total, we collaborated with 2–5 teammates from Apriorit. 

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

We found Apriorit through a web search. Specifically, we were looking for an organization with expertise in macOS development and kernel-level knowledge in software development. 

How much have you invested with them?

The company spent around $300,000–$500,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The company engaged them in February 2022. I left the company in August 2023, and the project was ongoing at that time. In total, I was involved in the engagement for around 18 months. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Apriorit exceeded my expectations. Their work quality was great. In fact, most of the issues we had on the products were discovered by their team. We didn’t have to ask them to redo things since they highlighted the issues themselves and worked with us to resolve them. 

In other words, they didn’t just execute on what we asked them to do; instead, they were like an active partner to us. If we weren’t clear on our direction, they’d come back to us for clarity. If they felt that what we wanted wasn’t the best for the customers or the end product, they’d highlight that and ensure we were doing the right thing. 

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

Apriorit communicated truly well with us. For tools, we used Jira and Slack. We also had weekly calls via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other web collaboration tools. 

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Nikita was great at delivering on time and producing exceptional work quality. We changed our directions a number of times, and he dealt with such changes in an admirable way. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Other consulting firms simply execute on what we asked regardless of its result. Apriorit wasn’t like that at all. Instead, they constantly helped us refine what we were asking for to make amazing products. Overall, I was quite pleased with their work. They were great to work with all the time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Apriorit partners with you. They’re not just a software development firm that does whatever you ask. They have highly talented developers, and you can engage with them to get feedback on what you’re asking them to do — they’ll help you build the best product. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as a team leader for a competitive intelligence company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We needed very specific and talented engineers in certain areas, so we hired Apriorit to help us find these engineers and work with them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Apriorit helps us with development outsourcing services. Basically, they provide us with talented engineers to work as part of our research departments. Apriorit has a pool of multiple different engineers with different levels available at any time. When a new position opens in our company, I contact Apriorit directly.

As soon as Apriorit gets our request for a specific type of engineer, they prescreen candidates and send us well-selected CVs for our specific scope. For this particular project, we've mostly requested experienced reverse engineers in specific operating systems and with specific domain knowledge.

Additionally, Apriorit handles the entire outsourcing model. This includes managing the engineers' compensations, working conditions, and offices. They also offer onboarding and training services, but we haven't asked them to do any technical management. My company is in charge of all the technical aspects of our engagement with the engineers. Still, I know that they even offer project management, where clients interact with a manager in charge of a development team.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with a total of three reverse engineers from Apriorit. Currently, we have two reverse engineers on our team.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

I wasn't part of the company when we started working with Apriorit, so I'm not sure how we found them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in January 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've embedded Apriorit's engineers within our team and had them work on a key product. We've measured their goals and KPIs, and they've proved to be very talented. Each of them has worked with us on key projects successfully.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

Apriorit's engineers have been very responsive. We communicate via Slack and email.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

We currently have two very talented reverse engineers from Apriorit: Slava and Dennis. Both are very strong performers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about Apriorit is that the engineers they provide are very strong.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Apriorit is very expensive, as their commissions are very high.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If you come prepared with a very specific need and a clear idea of how you want to structure the work, whether with a project manager or directly with their engineers, you'll achieve the best results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering for a cybersecurity platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We needed help with software development, testing, and project management.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve used Apriorit’s services for various projects. They’ve worked on development and our cloud-based solution.

What is the team composition?

We have roughly 12 developers working at various levels and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

The team was acquired; I don’t know how they started.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them since January 2013; our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Apriorit has worked on many projects, and they’ve delivered everything on time with good quality.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t have a budget as such; the contractors are on a full-time basis. They communicate well on what they need and what they’re working on. We stay in touch through Jira and internal meetings.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Their development coordination and account manager have been amazing. They take care of the projects and are self-sufficient. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The engineers’ technical abilities are excellent. They’re skillful, smart, and transparent. Moreover, they go beyond their responsibilities if necessary and let us know when something can go wrong.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there hasn’t been special feedback so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear on the project scope and requirements. They execute well as long as the scope is well-defined.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CBDO of a software development company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company is an international software development & technology consulting company that delivers tailored software solutions for different industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Develop a custom AI-powered chatbot
• Implement end-to-end encryption for the chatbot to protect user data
• Implement custom Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning algorithms
• Build the backend and create a database for storing user data
• Integrate a chatbot with our client’s CRM system and third-party services

SOLUTION

How did you find Apriorit?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Apriorit over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Apriorit were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We needed a trustworthy partner to enhance our in-house team with AI and data security expertise. The task was to create a custom AI-powered chatbot for our SaaS client. They wanted a chatbot that would process customer queries on the website and in messengers, providing end-users with accurate product information quickly. 

For a better user experience, our client wanted the chatbot to be able to interpret end-user questions and respond in a human-like manner. Apriorit leveraged natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to develop the chatbot. They established a Python software environment to train the AI chatbot using our client's diverse knowledge base, comprising various file formats such as PDF, DOC, CSV, website texts, and more. 

Additionally, they employed Language Models, embeddings, and Generative Pre-trained Transformers to enhance the chatbot's capabilities. Another task for Apriorit was to build the backend and set up a database for collecting and storing user data. We needed this to let our client analyze user data from the chatbot and improve live agents’ answers. We also needed to protect the personal data that users share with the chatbot, so Apriorit developers implemented end-to-end encryption for it. 

Lastly, Apriorit worked together with our team who was responsible for the client’s CRM system. Together, we connected the smart chatbot with the CRM system so that the conversation data is transferred directly to the CRM. Now, our client can offer personalized assistance to chatbot users based on their previous interactions and purchases.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Implementing an AI chatbot allowed our client to enhance the customer self-service experience with fast and personalized responses. 
• The chatbot automated routine tasks, allowing the client’s team to focus on complex issues and boost productivity as a result. 
• Our client got data-driven insights about their userbase. 
• The chatbot improved the automation of the sales processes. 
• Our client received improved security of end-user data through end-to-end encryption.

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

Apriorit worked together with our in-house team as our partner. Their project manager participated in online meetings with our client. The Apriorit team was extremely reliable and consistent. They demonstrated high responsiveness, proactiveness, and attention to deadlines.

What was your primary form of communication with Apriorit?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The most impressive part about Apriorit is their ability to solve complex tasks that involve multiple components, like backend, and API management, and make them work together seamlessly. They also always kept the deadlines and maintained the high quality of their work throughout our collaboration. They asked genuinely insightful questions that helped us understand the business logic better and make the right technology choices.

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

We did not experience any problems during our partnership.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive for a media storage technology company. We focus on the media entertainment industry, so we develop storage and server products for postproduction companies, TV stations, movie production companies, and other companies in the media entertainment vertical.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

One of the challenges in our market is the very high demand for storage performance. However, storage performance in this industry isn't the same as in the classic IT industry and bursts of random access. In content streaming, the video has to be played back at a very specific bit rate so that the user can see it playing smoothly at the speed it was filmed and produced.

In our products, there’s no advantage in playing content as quickly as possible. To achieve this smooth playback, we needed to provide a very specific performance, which was a very complex challenge. Thus, we had to develop a specific driver that helped us enable this functionality on our storage platforms, so we hired Apriorit to help us out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Apriorit has helped us develop a low-level driver and other software pieces for our storage products. Initially, we described the challenge, provided them with screen recordings, and had some online meetings to put them in context for the project. Additionally, we gave them remote access to our development environment.

In the beginning, we worked with Apriorit on a project basis with a fixed scope. Now, we have three of their developers working for us as dedicated developers on a monthly basis. These developers are working with us on a couple of projects simultaneously.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager, two active developers, a junior developer working on junior tasks, and a QA team. I don’t know how many people are in Apriorit’s QA department, but they verify the developers’ work.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

We found them on Google. Throughout the vetting process, we talked to a couple of different companies and evaluated them to see which one would be the best fit for our project. Apriorit was one of the few companies with the skills and knowledge to develop file-system-related drivers on a close-to-hardware level.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Apriorit has done a really good job. The driver that they’ve developed for us has become a key component of our product stack. That component is just a piece of the puzzle of our entire technology stack, but it is a very important piece. Overall, we’re very satisfied with their work.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

Apriorit performs very well, and they’ve always delivered on budget. Moreover, they’re very straightforward, easy to communicate with, and always available — they usually respond within hours. Our relationship has grown over time, and they now work almost as if they were permanent members of our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Apriorit’s skill set and technical understanding of our challenge are outstanding. There are a lot of software development companies out there, but most of them focus on normal user applications. If someone requires well-performing low-level software deep down in the OS, there are only a few service providers to choose from, and Apriorit is one of them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing Apriorit could improve on. On one occasion, we didn’t do enough testing on our end after Apriorit delivered something, and we found out that there were a couple of bugs later on. Thus, we had to go back and get the code readjusted. However, this issue was caused mainly because of the lack of testing on our end.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend working with Apriorit for file-system-related, close-to-hardware driver development. That’s their niche.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of products of Strivacity, a customer identity and access management company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We needed someone to create sample demo websites that we can use to demonstrate how login, registration, and user management would fit into the workflow of any brand or product company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Apriorit provided us with custom web development. We started with a discovery phase to discuss some high-level wireframes to get the look and feel of a proper web page, as well as implementing authentication protocols.

Apart from that, we had requirement meetings where we talked about the scope of the project and sent them designs, which we also had to clarify. We also did estimation sessions to understand the costs of building the products and had several meetings to provide feedback on the various development iterations.

We mainly used React for the frontend framework and OpenID Connect as our primary authentication protocol.

What is the team composition?

We mainly interacted with a project manager, lead developer, and a few QA specialists.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

Our company’s founder has been professionally acquainted with each other for about 20 years.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–June 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They delivered the project on time and on budget and met all of the requirements we requested. Thanks to them, we can now demonstrate the login, registration, and user management flows along with a single sign-on process so overall, the partnership was a success.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well from a project management standpoint, and every interaction we had was done via Zoom and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were very impressed with the quality of their work, customer service, and responsiveness — they were able to make changes to the iteration quickly based on our feedback.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve on the reporting aspect of the project and it would’ve made the partnership more seamless if they had a portal for visibility in the progress.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To get the most out of your engagement, I would advise you to be communicative, give as much information and feedback as needed, and be clear with your requirements.