Bacancy

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of a small software company that focuses on multi-tenant applications. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Bacancy?

We brought Bacancy on to help with software development. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

My company is building a multi-tenant application to serve as a case management application for alternative dispute resolution. The app's primary function is to schedule and manage court cases that have gone to mediation. I'd run through a discovery phase with a different vendor before bringing on Bacancy, so we don't focus on the discovery process now. Now, I collect requirements from the customer and move them into Jira so Bacancy can begin development.​​ Bacancy's team uses Ruby on Rails in AWS Fargate with PostgreSQL RDF for development. Bacancy has already developed several features from scratch, and they generally don't do any UI design unless we need to add new features. 

What is the team composition?

We primarily operate with a developer, the developer's superior, and the CTO. 

How did you come to work with Bacancy?

I was looking for a new provider with Ruby on Rails expertise, and after talking to Bacancy's references, I hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested over $50,000 with Bacancy. 

What is the status of this engagement?

My partnership with Bacancy began in October 2020, and it's ongoing. 

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

I primarily focus on Bacancy's story output, complexity, and the number of bugs when I determine the success of our partnership. Also, I evaluate how well they adapt to new technologies, which are usually on AWS. Overall, we're really happy with the current developer we're partnered with from Bacancy. 

How did Bacancy perform from a project management standpoint?

I control a lot of the development process, so I don't utilize their project management services. However, they do always stay within budget and deliver on time. We leverage QuickSight for reporting and use Jira to manage tasks. Typically, we communicate through Slack, emails, and our weekly Google Meet meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bacancy has excellent communication. Their team is very open, and we can leverage their entire team if we need to. Whenever we have questions for them, they're very open to answering them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We worked out all the usual initial issues we had with Bacancy during the onboarding phase, so I don't have anything for Bacancy to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd advise customers to speak up if they don't think they have the right resources for their project. Bacancy will find someone who will be a better fit if customers request resources changes. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of operations for an e-commerce company that sells furniture online.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bacancy?

We were trying to build our own internal platform. Instead of licensing an ERP vendor, we looked for a technology partner that could provide us with developers who’d help us build our platform. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we had a call with Bacancy where they learned about our needs, timeframe, and development roadmap. We then scheduled a call with the actual developer they were going to assign to the project. Then, we did a simple onboarding process, and the developer started working on the project. 

At present, their Ruby on Rails developer is developing our ERP system. We have an in-house developer, so their developer is handling the backend side of the product. In other words, Bacancy is working in conjunction with our internal team. 

In terms of features, the ERP system they’re developing is a combination of a CMS integrated with inventory and order management functionality. It’s connected to Magento, which is our backend e-commerce platform. We’re also looking to develop the financial and accounting components of the ERP system. 

What is the team composition?

Apart from the developer, a project manager also works with us. That person assists us whenever we have escalations. 

How did you come to work with Bacancy?

I found Bacancy on Google. We found a couple of other companies, but they were the most affordable team. On top of that, connecting and signing up with them were seamless. I researched the other companies, but they were pricier and had a long and complicated onboarding process. As a result, we chose Bacancy. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $3,000 per month; the total investment is around $36,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

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

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

We don’t have any specific metrics of numbers. However, we have a list of bugs that we’re working on as we complete items. In terms of our overall goal and where we want our ERP system to be, we’re about 80% done. Moreover, the developer that Bacancy provides knows what she’s doing.

How did Bacancy perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve kept the project management simple. Bacancy’s developer, our in-house developer, and I work on Trello. In terms of communication, I have a meeting with them every morning for around an hour. I tell them everything I need in the morning because I don’t talk to them throughout the day. We’ve used Teams and Slack to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their price is impressive; their services are truly affordable. They also have good developers that know what they’re doing. In other words, their price for the quality of their developers is highly reasonable. 

On top of that, they’ve truly been accommodating to our needs. We’ve been quite demanding in terms of deliverables, but their developer makes time for us — she even works outside of normal business hours. We appreciate that effort. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our engagement is a bit challenging because of the time zone differences between our teams. When issues occur, they can’t be solved until the next day.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know your timeline and requirements. Prepare everything ahead of time because Bacancy’s developers do exactly what you tell them. As a result, having a good plan of requirements will be beneficial. You should also figure out how to work around time zone differences. 

Moreover, you might want to consider hiring more than one developer from them. The whole process of fixing existing issues and doing new releases is difficult, so think about asking for more developers from them. If you insist on working with one developer, a waterfall approach will be better than an agile one.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of a management consulting firm, who helps companies to leverage their decision knowledge to make better, more founded and more sustainable decisions across all areas of business - recurring processes or strategic projects.

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

As a consulting firm we have no in-house developers and searched for a remote team to help us building our consulting tool belt. We hope to give our clients a tool at hand to substantially increase their value in decision making processes.

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

We searched online and with the help of our network. We picked Bacancy Technologies from a recommendation and the deciding factor was the experience someone from our network made with them.

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

We only had some abstracts in our heads and tried to produce some mockups, wireframes and descriptions out of them. The team from Bacancy first hand just picked those and implemented one-by-one as starting points to discuss.

In the ongoing process we got better in describing what we want and they got better in reading our thoughts and made something useful out of the abstract ideas we vented in thee meetings. At some point we had the majority of function points and started to create an UI around them.

Currently we're in an alpha state and try to make it a flowing process. Further iterations and a lot of enhancements are already planned or wait in the icebox.

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

A project manager was our main point of contact throughout the process. There were 2 full stack developers and 1 UI guy involved.

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

At the moment we don't have any measurable outcomes in terms of customer success, but given what we got, we're sure it adds a lot of value to our customers business.

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

We have a constant connection via a chat tool, a weekly meeting and on-demand one-on-one's. That was all that was needed to enable the project to proceed. Apart from (video) chat we used GitHub issues and Google Docs.

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

They inspired us with their ability to put themselves into the problem and to transform our sometimes rather confused thoughts into something productive. In addition, there is a high level of motivation and willingness to move things forward among all members of the team.

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

There always are things to improve. But it would be unfair to enumerate them, because they might cast a not-so-favorable light on things. After all, most of the improvements would have to be made on our side. The team has essentially adapted to our style.

The only thing that could be listed would be that I would have imagined that some things and issues would have been brought up more quickly and not wait until the next meeting. But that really falls into the category of "bean counters" ;)

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of JAGZ, a mountain biking and cycling mobile app for traveling around the world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bacancy Technology?

We realized that we had some foundational issues with our mobile app. That led us to reach out to Bacancy Technology. We hired them to rebuild our app from the ground up.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We requested Bacancy Technology to develop a user-friendly layout and color scheme for our app. They built the Android and iOS app using React Native so that one code could work both ways. 

On top of that, the app they made enabled our end-users to use features such as bookings, chat, photo uploads, calendars, and more. Our external clients could also access a list of tours and rent bikes through the app. The team continues to follow the roadmap of features they still have to develop. 

What is the team composition?

We’re working with a frontend developer, a part-time backend developer, and a part-time manager.

How did you come to work with Bacancy Technology?

Bacancy Technology was recommended by a group on LinkedIn.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in March 2019.

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

Our external stakeholders have mentioned that our app is user-friendly, appealing, and it does what it’s supposed to do. Overall, our external customers have a high satisfaction rate with the app the team has developed. In addition, there are always going to be bugs, but Bacancy Technology has been consistently dealing with them.

How did Bacancy Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re based in India, and they’re very good people. In addition, they’re trustworthy and hardworking. We communicate through email, Slack, Zoom, and Google.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I haven’t worked with a lot of companies before, but Bacancy Technology’s availability has been impressive. The time difference between us can be extremely annoying, but somehow they’re always available to communicate with us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If I have to mention one area they can improve, it’s probably their turnover rate. For example, if you have a little team just like what we have, it can negatively affect the project if you’ll lose the frontend developer or backend developer. It will be great if Bacancy Technology can keep the same team for longer periods of time. However, I know that it also comes with the industry they’re in.

In addition, I have a difficult time understanding their English sometimes, depending on the person I’m talking to. Other than that, I have no complaints anymore. I just want to emphasize that the two issues that I brought up are really not their fault. If they can have somebody here in the West to help them communicate with their clients, that can be a great opportunity for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I definitely recommend working with Bacancy Technology. If you decide to partner with them, remember to clearly communicate your goals. I don’t have a lot of advice because there isn’t a lot of negativity or issues that you should prepare in order to work with the team.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of The Credit Repairmen.

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

I had a software program built by another company that was 3X over budget and time. It was incomplete and had lots of technical issues. My goal was to finish the software, fix all the security and performance issues and streamline my business.

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

I started interviewing software companies in both American and India. I found Bacancy on google and sent them a message. It only took a couple minuets before someone reached out to the to discuss my project.

The reason I moved forward with Bacancy is because during our initial call had the developers review my program and put together a roadmap of things I needed to do to fix it. All the other providers I was interviewing were focused on me signing a contract and Bacancy let the work do all the talking. They were also extremely affordable and had all the resources I needed in 1 place.

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

My program is a .net backend with angular front end. Since hiring Bacancy we fixed all the bugs in my system, built a digital contract signing feature, rebuilt the customer interfaces, and completely finished the program.

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

I have 1 .Net developer, 2 Angular developers, a Project manager and QC. We have had designers and architects on the team to help us complete different modules.

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

We did such a good job finishing the software that I am in the process of turning it into a SAAS that will be its own business. I couldn't have done it without the team.

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

Communication is awesome and the team is extremely responsive even afterhours. We use slack, google hangouts, and Trello to organize our projects. Everyday I get a report of what everyone did and we do regular calls to discuss projects.

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

The thing that I like the most about Bacancy Technology is their responsiveness. They have all made themselves available even when they are not working to help with issues. Communication is easy and is better than any other software company I've used in the past.

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

I don't have anything negative to say about Bacancy. We had to change a couple developers because of COVID issues but I was alerted to an issue and the solution at the same time so I felt really good about it.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am VP of Business Development for Pack Leader DVM. Pack Leader DVM is a veterinary software development, implementation, support and training company for general, specialty, multi-specialty, and consolidators creating solutions for A/R and Electronic Health Records for animals.

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

No Electronic Health Record exists in the veterinary space with true data for analytics. Most products on the market are older technology and rely heavily or solely on text documents. Therefore, research on clinical outcomes is laborious and ineffective. The Pack Leader DVM software is built for data analysis on Open Source technology increasing research data while reducing operating costs. The software is customizable, by veterinarian, so that each may practice medicine in a way comfortable and efficient to him/her.

How did you select Bacancy Technology and what were the deciding factors?

Bacancy was selected based upon three primary criteria: 1. When demonstrated our legacy software, the Bacancy management team seemed to grasp our concept quickly asking relevant questions throughout the presentation. 2. References were important to us. Their references were honest and good. The references all gave good insight into the development process they had experienced. 3. Bacancy provided expertise in the exact open source technology we had selected.

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

Pack Leader DVM developed a veterinary software using Microsoft tools on a legacy technology. The software proved cumbersome and inefficient. Bacancy was contracted for a full rewrite of the Pack Leader DVM software, including many new features and enhancements. This was, in essence, a full development of an Accounts Receivable, Electronic Health Records, inventory, estimates, scheduling, drawing, and medications software.

It would include numerous interfaces to laboratories, appointment reminders, and merchant services. The new software was developed in React with a PostgreSQL database. Our team delivered numerous videos and written documentation for the project. The project was divided into modules within the software for ease of delineation for the development team.

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

Around fifteen programmers were utilized in the project including many senior level developers. At the onset of the project, one developer grasped the total concept quickly, while others simply worked in their lanes with no concept of the bigger picture. Once the senior developer was allowed to provide technical assistance to his colleagues, the project began moving much quicker. We conducted weekly meetings with the project manager.

Three project managers worked our project, but when the third and final project manager was added, the project began to move at its best pace. She was skilled at communication and objective in her approach. With projects as large as this one, her input was invaluable. As the project neared completion, the team of developers was reduced to six senior developers. They attacked the most intricate and difficult parts of the software.

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

The Bacancy team brought much technical experience to the project. They assisted our team in selecting the best set of development tools for providing the most efficient product. Their expertise also introduced some third party software that will reduce our operating cost far into the future.

They also made some practical suggestions, throughout the process, that will make our software better. There was some concern on the Bacancy side with Mac products, but those were eventually addressed. In the end, the delivered product was better than we expected or even hoped. It is an amazing piece of software.

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

The Project was managed from start to finish by Project Managers. In the early stages, the Project Manager, the development team, and our staff conducted daily phone calls. Written information was done via Slack, and communication remained constant and consistent. The project was initially quoted at four months, but it ran well over that timeline.

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

The most impressive factor in working with Bacancy was their overall expertise in the Open Source Arena. Their suggestions and open source third party add-ons made the final product a better one.

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

The quoting process on time and cost was well underestimated.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Origin.gg is a SaaS [software-as-a-service] platform helps organizations and players in the e-sports arena to setup their own web presence. We focus on taking that burden from them so that they can focus on what they do. I am the chief product officer, and try to contribute code when possible, but spend most of my time on marketing tasks. We have a two-person team in the U.S.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bacancy Technology?

Creating an e-sports organization is difficult. There are many things that go into it, beyond how good a player is, and how much prize money they’ve won. We wanted to create a scalable system that helps organizations focus on their core competencies.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’ve contributed minimally to the development of our platform, with the vast majority of it being done by Bacancy. I am not a great designer or visionary when it comes to building things, but rather the person who can handle the operational side. As such, I didn’t have full mockups in place, or a set scope. I provided a general framework of what I needed, Bacancy produced a first draft, and we iterated from there. If someone provided Bacancy with a comprehensive development plan, I am confident that they will produce it almost exactly as it was drawn up, but this wasn’t the case for my project.

We’ve also gone through a lot of testing and trials. Bacancy took a lead on design, set up servers using NoSQL and SQL databases, and developed the application using Node.js on the backend and React.js on the frontend. The app is web-based as of right now, with mobile optimization.

What is the team composition?

Bacancy assigned three fulltime resources (two developers and a project manager), and others as-needed.

How did you come to work with Bacancy Technology?

I did a lot of research on overseas development. As much as I wanted to keep the work within the U.S., the cost difference was too hard to ignore; an offshore firm would charge 25% of what U.S. firms offer. There isn’t an ultimate authority on the market, which is why checking Clutch is always a good idea. Pretty much anyone in the industry will have a good portfolio on their website, but I never check with listed references.

I found Bacancy through some gray hat techniques I learned from the people I had worked with previously, and reached out to a few clients on LinkedIn. The feedback was quite positive, so I decided to go ahead with them. Outside of this due diligence, my general plan was to simply try a company out for two to four weeks, and, if it didn’t work out, it wouldn’t be a big deal, since the price wasn’t that high. Bacancy exceeded my expectations, so we’ve come to the fourth month of our collaboration.

How much have you invested with them?

The project is on a rolling basis. The cost so far has been $15,000, and I expect to reach $20,000 in a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We technically started working with Bacancy in September 2017, but there were some delays, including a major Indian holiday. We didn’t fully ramp up until October.

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

We’ve always been on track, and there hasn’t been an issue with missed deadlines. The scope is constantly changing and expanding, and we haven’t come to a stable-enough point to have reliable burndown metrics. This reflects more on me as a general manager than it does on Bacancy. In terms of measurable points, we’ve hit our development velocity precisely.

Feedback is to be determined. We do have users and customers, but not at a scale that would reveal inefficiencies in the code base. There are always trade-offs between solid code and just getting something out there, and we’re in the latter mode. I’m sure that if Bacancy’s team had it their way, they would love to go back and refactor parts, but we don’t have time for it. I give them high marks for reliability, but I can’t provide qualitative feedback until we’ve had thousands of users on the platform and it crashes in the night, but, even then, it would probably reflect more on me than on Bacancy.

How did Bacancy Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

They are extremely responsive. The time difference is probably the biggest issue. Had they been on our side, I’m sure more people would have used Bacancy’s services. It’s challenging, but it wasn’t an unexpected factor. I’m on Central Time, so there is an eleven-and-a-half-hour difference with India Standard Time. For the most part it hasn’t been an issue, which is mainly due to my flexibility. I can be up at the most convenient time for them, because it’s important for me to have consistent feedback. Had I been doing this as a side-project and not as a fulltime job, it would be tough, but this is also the reason that I can pay 25% of what a U.S. developer would cost.

We use Skype, Slack, videoconferencing, phone and every other available technology for communication. We’ve worked within an Agile scrum model, and communication has been primarily between myself and their project manager.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their design capabilities are far better than mine. I usually want my partners to be very involved creatively, but I don’t think I made it a specific point, given that there were no specs for what we’re doing. Bacancy had freedom to deviate, but they made almost exactly what I gave them. Upon seeing their other work though, I asked them to redesign the platform as they saw fit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They run a tidy operation. You can always nitpick, but I’ve worked with many developers over time, and our collaboration with Bacancy has been great.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If the client is not at the stage of having designs and specs laid out, they should let Bacancy provide input. They’re very good at it.

Anyone considering using overseas developers, where there would be a language barrier, should be aware of what their expectations truly are. I’m a developer and have technical knowledge, so I can get in there and interact with the team on a level which would not be possible for a non-technical client. The process has been great, but I can see how miscommunication could happen, and how things could not turn out as expected. People can end up spending a lot of money going back and changing things if they’re not really prepared for what the process looks like.

When I read online reviews, for the most part, they seem to come from ordinary people with an idea for an app, who hired someone without fully understanding the hurdles that come with any software development project. Those hurdles can then be exacerbated by time zone differences and language barriers. Adding them all together, it becomes clear that this isn’t for everyone.

Please describe your organization.

Kingdom Candidates is in the church staffing industry. The company provides a digital network for pastors, church administrators, and leaders in the church market to find one another affordably, empowering them to make informed decisions about one another faster. Our goal is to make church staffing simple. 

What business challenge were you trying to address with Bacancy Technology?

There is a position in the market for a positive disruption to be introduced to the church staffing website/consulting industry. Kingdom Candidates is a positive disruption to the church staffing world because it is a highly functional website that is an effective alternative to hiring expensive church staffing consultants and using other church staffing websites.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bacancy Technology built a digital platform to aid Kingdom Candidates' pursuit to bring affordable and effective church staffing solutions into the 21st century. The successful completion of the project helped us digitize the search hiring process for churches by building our website. They developed the means for churches to build informative profiles online that entice high caliber talent and then organize that talent. There is no competitor on the market that does this.

Further, Bacancy aided our business's pursuit to streamline the hiring process by providing a platform for candidates to upload all the necessary information that churches require—beyond a resume—to get hired (cover letter, resume, sermon videos, statement of faith, philosophy of ministry, personal salvation story, personality assessments, and pictures etc.).

Additionally, Bacancy helped us create a questionnaire that aids employer's assessment of the candidate, their background, leadership ability, ministry experience, and emotional IQ. Bacancy's design and development abilities have given our business the ability to be a positive disruption to the church staffing world. They brought our vision of a highly functional and effective church staffing website into reality. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The duration of the project was was 4.5 months. 

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

It was a pleasure to work with Bacancy. They succesfuly implemented every component of our agreed upon Phase I work. Bacancy has a desire to produce not only excellent work but lucrative websites and tools for companies that depend on the internet for a portion, or all, of their income. 

How did Bacancy Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

Whenever a problem was discovered that needed to be fixed in order to guarantee website efficiency, particularly from a website user perspective, the team at Bacancy was creative and accommodating. They placed our company's needs first.

What did you find most impressive about Bacancy Technology?

Any issues we found on with the website were fixed by Bacancy within 24-48 hours. They understand that our success as a company translates into their success as a company. 

Are there any areas Bacancy Technology could improve?

We were informed the project was completed on time (in early June 2017) only to discover there were some important functional components of the website that were not working. In hindsight, these issues came from a breakdown in communication and a misunderstanding of website functional expectations. When the issues were clearly pointed out and expectations made clear, Bacancy was extremely accommodating and implemented all necessary changes and fixes to make our website highly effective.

From a control perspective, Bacancy would benefit from completing projects prior to informing the client and forming a test team and then testing, retesting, and testing again the final web project before presenting it to the customer. Prior to going live, we spent many hours testing and retesting the website with our own team and other leaders in our industry to discover what did and did not work on the website.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Department Manager of Microminimus. Wicked Weasel Bikinis & Microminimus are a manufacturing/publishing business based in Byron Bay, creating high-quality swimwear and evening wear. We operate an online community platform for our community of 30,000 devoted brand advocates and bikini loving enthusiasts. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Bacancy Technologies?

We needed a developer who could grapple with our very outdated and underperforming IT system that was almost entirely undocumented, falling apart, and in need of urgent repairs.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were assigned a developer named Hiren who, after some weeks exploring and investigating our system and its inherent troubles limitations and dependencies, was tasked with bringing the system back under control so it would be able to be developed upon again. We use Ruby on Rails for our community site including forums, groups, user profiles, gallery submissions, internal currency, moderation, and subscriptions. It also has integration with another Ruby eCommerce project.

How did you come to work with Bacancy Technologies?

This was conducted by our Managing Director and Human Resources team who assessed numerous companies and chose Bacancy for their Rails experience.

How much have you invested with Bacancy Technologies?

Somewhere between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

February 2017 to present.

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

Hiren was assigned to investigate and fix our broken system. There was no documentation, old versions of Ruby & Rails, conflicting dependencies and many other issues that caused problems for our members. Hiren's work has essentially fixed the key broken components, which has been instrumental in our doubling subscription revenue in just six months.

How did Bacancy Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

As good as can be expected. I have no problems with how they work at all. In fact, Hiren has worked late, overtime, and under a lot of pressure, while always maintaining a good, positive attitude despite the fluid nature of the project and its requirements.

What did you find most impressive about Bacancy Technologies?

I also was “thrown in the deep end” with this project and my lack of knowledge in managing an IT project such as this was made so much easier with the patience and perseverance of Hiren and his counterpart, Ankita. Never have I experienced such a fantastic commitment to the tasks at hand.

Is there any area that they could improve?

Nothing.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a startup company in the Boston area developing a web app to help families and professional caregivers share care plans, schedules, tasks, health data, notes, and communications. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Bacancy Technology?

The senior population is growing rapidly, and 1 out of every 5 seniors over the age of 65 needs help with activities of daily living. Tracking and coordinating care can be time-consuming and stressful for families, who often have no good way to communicate with professional caregivers or see how their aging loved ones are doing.

We were looking to create a new web-based app that would allow families to communicate with their professional caregivers who were taking care of seniors in their homes. We needed a vendor to build the solution completely from scratch. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

In this project, we provided Bacancy with wireframes and mockups for what we wanted. They provided a detailed scope of work based on these mockups. They did all of the frontend and backend development of the app.

Right now, the app is a web portal. It allows us to enter information about all of our clients and caregivers. Everybody can see the care plan and client information—their needs, their preferences, and allergies or conditions that they have. Tasks are set up for the caregivers to complete every day or on an ad hoc basis. Everybody can see what the tasks are on a daily basis, and then the caregivers check off tasks as they complete them. Also, caregivers can record health data or observations about the patient like their temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, weight, and anything like shortness of breath, dizziness, or increased frailty. That’s all fully customized, depending on the client. Users can also share notes for both clients and caregivers. Often, a family member is the direct client supporting the caregiver because the seniors may have Alzheimer’s disease or dementia and not be able to advocate for themselves.

Through a chat-style function in the app, caregivers can share notes about how the patient is doing or questions or concerns that they have. The family members can share notes about tasks, things they want the caregiver to pay special attention to, or feedback.

The app is built in Ruby and React JS. We have a project manager/Scrum master, 2 frontend and 2 backend developers, and a testing person.

How did you come to work with Bacancy Technology?

We looked at quite a few companies. We had bids and proposals from at least 3 other providers. We weren’t satisfied, which is why we hired Bacancy Technology. Our CTO had prior experience working with them and recommend them for our project. They also had the most competitive price and the right resources to complete all aspects of our project on a tight schedule.

How much have you invested with Bacancy Technology?

We’ve spent about $35,000 or $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2017, and the relationship is ongoing. 

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

We’re going into beta testing right now. We have a product that works, and we’re getting really good feedback about the app. People like the interface. The app does what it’s supposed to do, and we’ve been sharing it with potential customers. A few people want to beta test it with us so far. We’re pretty pleased.

How did Bacancy Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well. This is the first time that we’ve worked with them. We had to develop a cadence that worked well after a few little bumps in the beginning, but the work has been going well. They’ve been really helpful in terms of managing the project and keeping track of all the different features, bug fixes, and things like that. We use Trello to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about Bacancy Technology?

We were pleased to see how quickly the project developed from concept to a working product. The development team easily grasped what we were trying to accomplish and made it happen.

We’re not technical people, so I’m not able to evaluate the code specifically. But, in general, they work fast and are able to create what we want. There are always bugs, but we received a lot of features quickly and the right functionality.

Are there any areas Bacancy Technology could improve?

In the beginning, we didn’t feel the communication was always clear regarding the next steps. This affected priorities, from our perspective, of the different things that we wanted to work on. As a result, the scope was a bit off. We didn’t get quite as much from the first phase of development as we expected. But, overall, we’ve been pretty happy.