Apriorit

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of engineering for a cybersecurity startup based in California and Belfast.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We were looking for extra development and QA resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our company produces cybersecurity platforms that large enterprise and government organizations use to analyze the intelligence specific to their system for different vulnerabilities and threats. They have been working on developing that platform along with the in-house staff.

The platform is a cloud-native extended detection and response (XDR) solution that correlates with the world’s largest global actor, technique, and indicator intelligence repository. It's aimed to deliver a one-of-a-kind extended detection and response solution that continuously detects threats and prevents attacks before they happen.

Apriorit worked on a roadmap project as part of the team with our internal developers and the QA test automation. They take on projects and code, work through the development life cycles like everyone else, and are an essential part of our team. They also host our web services on Amazon, and we also have some on-premise offerings as well.

We initially gave them some training and a statement of work. Now that they are up to speed, they pick up tasks like the rest of the team.

What is the team composition?

There are 11–12 members of their team working with us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in August 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work has been brilliant; they operate like full-time staff and are fantastic and easy to work with. They are also hard workers with good technical abilities. In addition, their team follows up on issues, and if there are any problems, they immediately bring them to our attention.

Overall, I couldn’t speak more highly of them; they are lovely to work with — if they don’t have enough work, they come and ask for it. All of our stuff goes through a solid QA cycle, so we haven’t seen any issues with their work. It is really solid.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

They operate as part of our project team and report directly to me for their work tasks and deadlines; they are integrated into our team and work alongside us. Also, they've met all the deadlines we have set.

Regarding communication, we use Slack and daily stand-up meetings to discuss what is going on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work ethic, communication, and technical ability are outstanding. We have a benchmark because we have tried other agencies, and it wasn’t the same experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything they can improve on — they're great to work with, and it has been a positive experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Include them and make them a part of your team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Varjo is world leader in professional VR and XR headsets. We produce the highest quality, resolution devices for the simulations, design and research markets for the likes of fortune 500 companies and governmental organisations. I'm founder and CTO at Varjo.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Varjo had to find a high quality partner to solve the image processing and transfer challenges over optical fiber connections so that a high end pc could process the incredible resolution of our mixed reality cameras in real time with a few millisecond latency. This involved also interfacing with alpine ridge thunderbolt controller on the PCB. Later on we extended similar solution to work on USB as well as well as extended the system to work on Nvidia based AMD products.

SOLUTION

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

We spend time looking for companies with background on similar know-how and similar timezone as the work mandated close collaboration between varjo and the camera ISP vendor. Apriorit had the experience and know-how and we felt like a team from the first call on.

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

Project was done in 3 phases:

1. Windows Driver Support
2. Video camera adaptation for Varjo USB products to Linux platform on ARM
3. Low latency USB driver At each phase

Apriorit did implementation, code review, tests on per varjos request, documentations and final QA testing + bug fixing.

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

Project manager + 2 software engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Varjo established itself as world leader in video see through based mixed reality with the launch of XR-1. Far surpassing any expectations out there. Additionally, with the help of moving from thunderbolt to USB, the XR-3 enabled wide spread use in the commercial space of the technologies that Apriorit was intrumental in developing.

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

Apriorit is always available on slack. Clear agreement on deliverables ahead of time and weekly adjustment on the progress in addition to daily synchs with the software developers.

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

Apriorit was always able to keep schedules, quality, and cost. Almost unforseen in any subcontracting world, but doing it on the difficulty scale we had to do was simply incredible.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of HomeWAV. We provide video visitation and communication services for correctional facilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We had a new mobile product for our operations and needed help creating a custom platform to manage it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, I provided Apriorit with our requirements, information, and details about the product we needed to build. After a month, they created a mockup of how the product would be, which gave me great visibility into what they were capable of doing. Then, they started a development process divided into sprint cycles to manage the delivery of all the features they mentioned in their proposal. Finally, they delivered the product.

What is the team composition?

Initially, we worked with seven people from Apriorit, including five developers with different areas of expertise and two people in managerial positions. After some time, we decreased their team to three people. However, we need new features, so we might increase their team again.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

I first searched for a partner through Clutch to see what people thought of the different companies. During this research, I found three companies capable of doing exactly what I needed. I interviewed the three of them and looked at their developers’ resumes.

Ultimately, I decided to hire Apriorit because their developers stood out. Additionally, I found their blog very attractive. They updated it every day, actively talking about solutions on very interesting topics.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m very satisfied with Apriorit’s performance. Throughout our engagement, their team has completed 15–16 deliverables. After each delivery, we’ve done the QA in-house, and we’ve rarely found any issue. Given that they’re building a very complex product, I’ve always expected more bugs and issues, but they’ve always delivered a very clean product. Whenever I receive anything from Apriorit, I’m confident that it is going to work fine; that’s the best evidence I can share about the impact of their work.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

We have sprint cycle planning, backlog meetings, and scrum meetings to manage the project. We had a very active channel on Skype before moving to Slack. Now, we talk daily on Slack to discuss issues and how to resolve them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Apriorit’s work quality is impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great if Apriorit improved their budgeting. Their services are costly, and sometimes, they’re not very clear about how much something will cost. For example, they provide me with an estimate for a project, and the billing at the end is different from what I expected. Of course, these projects present unexpected challenges, but given Apriorit’s expertise, it would be good if they gave me a more accurate estimate.

However, the quality of their work is worth their cost. I’m sure other developers charge half of what Apriorit does, but none of them has their processes, professionalism, and quality.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that you discuss the budget with them and let them know about your budget limitations. Additionally, provide them with your entire requirements from the get-go; it will save you both time and money.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of research for a risk assessment and cybersecurity company. We have a product for software security for the automotive and IoT industries. We do a complete scan for different software bugs and vulnerabilities. Our customers can also manage the whole lifecycle of vulnerabilities in our system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We have a model that applies to vulnerabilities we wanted to find. This is a very complex approach that we developed in-house. We needed more hands to develop the complete solution. We wanted to outsource these tasks.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We used their developers to work on our project with us. There are three main models in the project. Starting with a small scope of work, we sent the first task to them, which was related to reverse engineering a solution and developing from there. It wasn't core to our project, but we used the trial project to establish a connection with the team and learn how we work together. After we saw that they did very good work, we moved to a complete project.

I already had the whole description of what needed to be done. Their goal was to implement existing designs into an app solution.  There were three integration processes over our year-long engagements. They took the product of their work and integrated it back into our product. Their code is now integrated with our internal code, which directly serves our customers.

In order to get this project done, there were two required skillsets. The first skillset is anything related to reverse engineering. There are many tools for this, such as IDA Pro, Ghidra, and more. The second skill we needed was development skills. Eventually, the goal was to write new models using automation for reverse engineering. In order to implement this, they used Python.

What is the team composition?

My daily work was with a senior developer and a junior developer. There was a project manager that I sometimes had talks with, but she wasn’t very involved. There was another representative that introduced us to the company and decided who to assign to us.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

I started by posting the job to Upwork and other platforms. The responses weren’t satisfying. Then, I decided to go to a more dedicated project company. I contacted several of them. Apriorit was fast and up-to-date. After one or two discussions with them, we were already set to go to the project. It was very efficient and comfortable.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February 2020–January 2021. We're continuing to work with them on another project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I had complete and clear specifications of what I wanted to achieve and tests I wanted to pass. Eventually, they passed all the tests, which was the main measurement of success for me. The main goal of the project was to give us an advantage over our competitors. With them, we enhanced and improved our dedication to the automotive market through technological solutions.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great. When doing a big project, accurate time estimates can be tricky. There were almost no surprises. We estimated this project would take about a year, and that's how long it took. We had daily meetings where they updated us on their progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re professional and independent. I gave them specifications, and they were able to handle most of the work completely independently. Except for our daily meetings, I didn’t have to deal with them. The results were good. All the integration processes led to increased dialogue with them as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d like to hear more of their opinions on the process. They were driving the implementation process, so I'd appreciated if they'd share their thoughts on that process or other ideas on how we could improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should come prepared. Have a strong vision of what you want to achieve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of software at an audio technology company. We make consumer and professional electronics for making music.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We hired Apriorit for a couple of software development projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Both of our projects with Apriorit were very similar, and they each involved porting two of our existing applications from 32-bit to 64-bit, to make them compatible with Mac OS Catalina. The projects involved updating the user interface (created with VST GUI) to more modern frameworks.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from the team: a project manager, a developer, and a QA tester.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

I was doing some research on kernel extensions in Mac OS, and I found a very good article on Apriorit’s website. It sounded like they knew what they were talking about, and we didn’t have the engineering resources in house for this project, so we decided to partner with their team.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between £25,000–£50,000 (approximately $32,000–$65,000 USD) with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2018–August 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Not only did Apriorit complete the work we asked of them, they also found and fixed other bugs within the existing software. The team has definitely improved the quality of the software.

Since the launch, we’ve had very few customer complaints. Users have been able to continue using their hardware, which is great. 

In this way Apriorit have helped us ensure our products continue to work with Apple's latest operating systems.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. Apriorit had a dedicated project manager who was always available for us. Throughout the project, the team’s communication was exceedingly good. If there was ever a need to clarify scheduling or goals, we could always hop on a call. Also, they always let us know if the schedule was ever going to go over. 

We kept in touch mostly over email, and used spreadsheets and tables to track progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the work delivered is most impressive to me. Once the work was developed, we didn’t even really need to review it — it was excellent quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for these products. Apriorit delivered everything we needed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a clear specification of what you need before you meet.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company’s called Cycle Clarity. The company works in the AI space with health care. We incorporated ultrasound in health care using AI to better understand an ultrasound.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We needed their help in understanding how to develop a platform of AI to read ultrasound videos.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Apriorit helped us with a proof of concept phase to demonstrate that our idea could be done. Their team built the tool primarily using TensorFlow. They then used a variety of technologies to annotate, allowing us to show AI what was normal and abnormal. After three generations of adjustments to the platform, we now have a functional platform available to assist in health care.

When we conduct ultrasounds, we take ultrasound videos of different body parts. Our product then uses AI to read the ultrasound images and define the different body parts and look for pathophysiology. If there’s any pathology, the tool annotates, describes, and measures it for us.

What is the team composition?

We interfaced with a project coordinator who helped us with the job descriptions and the scope of work. We also work with 1–2 different programmers.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

We found them on the web and then spent a fair amount of time interviewing and understanding them. We also talked with some of their references.

How much have you invested with them?

When we started the project, we knew how much it would cost and that’s what we paid. We’ve probably spent around $40,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the partnership in January 2020, and phase three wrapped up in August. I’m sure there will be a phase four and five as we continue to fine-tune the product.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started without any experience in the AI space. With their help, we reached a precision rate of 90% and a recall rate of 97%. They developed a platform with a high degree of accuracy. We’re happy with them.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

Apriorit spent time understanding what we wanted to conceive. They then spent a lot of time on the scope of work, which meant we knew our goals and costs going into every phase. They met every deadline. Their customer service and communication were great.

We used an annotation tool that was available online. We also leveraged a variety of different tools to dissect the images into individual files that we annotated and then recombined into a video and then sent back to them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team developed a highly accurate product in a short period of time. They also communicated well. Their team told us about any potential challenges. When they had them, they tackled them in efficient and effective ways. Apriorit did an amazing job.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly think they did everything well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Help them to understand your goals and how you want to reach them. Have a constructive dialogue about how to implement the project in regard to phases and a budget. If you communicate well with them, they’ll get the job done.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is called Cryptonomic and we’re a software company centered around watching technology in the financial industry. And we build open source products in the financial industry. I’m the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

It’s really important that our software is secure. We built a new product that was geared towards users around the world, and it needed to be audited. We needed someone with deep expertise in security to look at the code and deployment to find any security issues, and advise on how to fix them. Then, once we fix the security issues, we want them to certify that the fix is effective.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We didn’t have to do a lot, which was great. They have decent knowledge in computer security and cryptology. We gave them all the details, pointed them to the source good, and answered a few basic questions. They came up with a timeline that was responsive and quick. Then they proposed a project structure that looked good. Once we gave them the go-ahead, they ran all the tests and got back to us.

What is the team composition?

We dealt with a single person, Marina (Full-Stack Developer). She asked questions on behalf of their team and answered our queries, which was really convenient for us.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

We had a position up on a contracting platform. We received a bunch of proposals and checked out their website. Apriorit was pretty solid, we had a brief chat, and it was clear they knew their stuff.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2020 and wrapped up in July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our reputation was boosted because of the audit report. We released the results publicly so our customer could have more confidence in our product. It’s very important for financial software to be independently audited. Not only does it matter to us, but it helps our customers feel like their funds are secure.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed really well. The communication was essential; they only asked things that really mattered and they seemed to know their way around computer security. The module was set up in such a way that there was constant mutual understanding of where the project was going and I didn’t have to think too much about it.

The platform we used to find them had a built-in chat function, so that’s how we communicated.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very cost effective. We think other providers would have charged a lot more. As a startup, the cost was very important to us. On top of that, their ability to communicate is much better than other providers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind because they completed the project quickly and successfully.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Outline your goals and project plan upfront. The rest of it will take care of itself. Structure is very important.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Beam Solutions. We are a startup in the tech space, focused on enterprise solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We needed some frontend developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Apriorit does frontend development in Angular for some tools we made. There are tools for transaction monitoring, including an investigation tool for things like case management. Tools needed for any financial institution and money movement is the focus. 

We gave them limited, dedicated access at first, slowly phasing them into fuller access to the project. They work collaboratively with another company we hired to split work, as well as our internal lead engineer. They occasionally make suggestions to our design team.

What is the team composition?

There are two senior frontend developers working with us.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

They were recommended by two different contacts. We did consider several candidates, but we were satisfied with the skill that Apriorit showed in the coding test we gave them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $200,000 roughly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around November 2018, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Apriorit works well with our internal team as well as the other vendor we hired. They quickly adapted from a technical perspective, advancing in skills and experience over the course of the engagement. They work well with us and articulate themselves clearly. Our lead engineer has given outstanding feedback on Apriorit’s work.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira and Slack to communicate. We have meetings almost daily to stay on top of progress. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Apriorit provides great talent to us and quickly understands our needs. Their work is quality as well. We are very happy with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is a small language barrier, and their QA testing could be a little better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Think of a long-term engagement with them. Encourage them to collaborate in your time zone, if possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a software developer at a cybersecurity company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What Challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We have hired them for many projects, but this last project dealt with connecting our products in another way. Our product has an API, but there are some other side products that use our API and connect them in the way the customer wants.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In this project, Apriorit helped us with connecting our product and implementing the API to make it work with our protocol in order to protect customers from downloading suspicious files as well as customers who want to protect themselves from uploading suspicious documents to their web server.

They used .NET core, and it is written in C#. They used it with Docker technology that we wanted to integrate it with our system.

What is the team composition?

There was one developer who I was in direct contact with, and we also had a project manager. A QA person was involved as well, but we didn’t have any interaction with him.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

We had worked with them for a while on many projects. I personally entered the relationship with them after one or two projects were completed, so I don’t know exactly how my predecessor initially engaged with them. I do know that he was looking at many companies and in the end, he chose them. We have continued our interaction with them for several years now.

How much have you invested in them?

The total project has cost between $20,000–$30,000 USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project from January 2019–February 2020. There were two phases of the project with an interval between them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We recently gave them the second payment after we ensured that things are working. We performed our own QA and integration into our system. They were able to work with our system and then we integrated it fully. We are happy with the quality. They performed very well, as they did in all the other projects we have worked with them on.

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

They took most of the planning on themselves when it came to project management, and they presented us with questions and prepared documents before starting. The interval we had was because of our internal changes. We were impressed that they could start working immediately on it again even though a year had passed.

They provided us with weekly updates and whenever there were technical or management questions, they would respond immediately. They were available whenever I needed them. We used email for updates and the code was through Bitbucket. I suppose they use tools internally, but we didn’t use any together.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In general, I think things went well. In particular, during the primary design of the project, we wanted to use a third-party library with API in order to complete the project on time. During the project, they saw that the deployment was a little bit too confusing and there was too much to do in order to start using it, so they rewrote the part themselves into .NET without adding to the budget or timeline.

I think this was especially impressive and a nice surprise. Their work made our lives easier when using it and deploying it, and in the future when we will need to investigate things, it will make things simpler for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The interaction with the developer was through the project manager at first. It was sometimes less convenient, but at a certain stage, we were able to have direct contact with him.

When I received the final product, I did have some comments on their code. I am a developer myself so I could look into it. There were a few things that could be improved when it came to code quality, but they weren’t severe problems.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise considering a long-term relationship with them rather than just something that is one time and short. It is good to have a long-term relationship with them as our communication and ability to understand each other really improved from project to project which then improved the quality of what we got as we understood each other well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and founder of a software company that makes data recovery and backup tools for phones and computers. We started as a digital forensics company, and we had a lot of regular customers who wanted access to digital forensic tools that were typically only available to investors and law enforcement. We wanted to provide data recovery solutions to everyday people, so we split in 2016. That has evolved into backup solutions for cell phones and computers. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Apriorit?

We needed to outsource development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Apriorit is our only developer; we’ve outsourced our development solely to them. They’ve developed our iOS, Android, and web apps. I believe they originally started with C++ and have done some Microsoft development. 

Apriorit does both design and development. They’ve designed our website, software, and software interface. We’ve worked with them in two capacities, the first of which is project-based work, where we have specific features to add. They prepare the statement of work and complete the project based on their quote. We’ve also hired full-time developers through them.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two different teams from Apriorit, one of which does web development, and the other does design. Right now, we have two full-time developers from their team working with us. We also have a QA person who is either full-time or half-time, depending on the quantity of work each month. I work directly with one project manager who manages all of the app development, and another project manager who manages website development.

How did you come to work with Apriorit?

I’ve been working with them for approximately 20 years, before they actually formed into the company that they are now. We found them through old forums around 2000. We needed them to do project-based development work, which they did piece-by-piece. We liked their work and eventually started hiring them full-time. At one point, our sister company had about 20 developers. We’ve worked with them for a long time.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $120,000 the first year, and then probably only $50,000 total over the next couple of years. In 2019, we spent over $100,000. Right now, we’re currently doing about $15,000 a month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project began around October 2016, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve been impressed by their improvements over the years. Whenever we start a project or feature set, we go through the whole process of writing up a document that outlines everything, from front to back, so that we can make sure we get the entire scope of work. Then, they give feedback suggestions, which is very good from my standpoint since I’m not a software engineer. They really educate me as we go.

Their QA process has also improved immensely, to the point that when we release a product, there are no surprises. There are inevitably bugs in software, but the scale of the bugs is a lot smaller than it used to be back when we started working together. They find bugs and eliminate them before the release. They’ve really improved their QA throughout the development process. 

How did Apriorit perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project managers are knowledgeable and on top of things, and that is something that I really appreciate about working with them. Even if their project managers aren’t developers, they know how to convey issues from a development standpoint. They’re very good at communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Based on my experience, their communication makes them stand out. The developers are also very productive and maintain an advanced skill level; we don’t waste time dealing with bugs from poor code.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Anything they could’ve done, they have, from my perspective. I can’t pinpoint anything that they need to improve on at this point.

Any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend having somebody that can dedicate the time to working with the project manager. They’re very efficient and productive as long as they have two-way communication.