Beap

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and co-founder of a marketing analytics product startup based in Boston. I head up product technology and data science in our company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Beap?

We’re developing a mobile app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a road map of features and modules that we’re building for our product. Beap has taken on a piece of the web application development of the UI, building new features for one of our products. Some of those new features have been built from scratch, and others have been built on top of an existing platform.

They’ve used Angular, and they’ve probably worked with backend API development while integrating data to display on user interfaces. They’ve used JavaScript and TypeScript, and we have our own UI framework in JSON that they have to integrate with. 

This has all been within the deployment architecture of our continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) system, where code changes are deployed and tested. If code passes tests, then it gets promoted to production. Beap integrates their code into that CI/CD system so that their code can make it through into production. Beap has design competencies, but they’ve only performed development work for us.

One of Beap’s projects was a user data download feature. When one presses a download button, there’s logic as to what you download, because the data that is viewed in the user interface and the data that is pulled may not be one-to-one. There is a business meaning to what data you pull, so you may have to pull it in a particular way to get a complete dataset. 

There’s also nuance to formatting how the dataset downloads. There are many things in the UI to be taken into account when issuing a query. Finally, Beap coded the formatting of the resulting data download file.

The second feature that Beap worked on was building a new dashboard for an analytics product that we were moving from Tableau to Angular. They transferred the whole dashboard with its complex formulae from Tableau to Angular, but not completely one-to-one, as we also had some new mock-ups for them to adhere to.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two people from Beap so far, Goran (CTO) and Davor (Founder & CEO).

How did you come to work with Beap?

We partner with another company in Croatia, and we asked the founder of that company for a referral. They referred Beap, and we felt that Beap’s engineers were very smart when we interviewed them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $50,000 dollars with Beap so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Beap in Q4, around October 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. We expect that we will have a long partnership with them. They have a full roadmap in front of them that they’re currently working on.

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

All of Beap’s work has gone into production, and it’s all been deployed as part of our product now. The code quality has been fantastic. We absolutely love the quality of the work that they have developed so far. 

Beap’s people have been fantastic to work with. They’re very competent, senior engineers. There haven’t been any bugs, nothing egregious. After interviewing them, I did have high expectations — they have met, and to some extent exceeded, my expectations.

How did Beap perform from a project management standpoint?

Beap has strong project management, and they’ve kept to all of their delivery timelines. Any complexities and nuances get discussed and processed as a routine part of our regular execution. These are complex projects, and they’re not cut and dry. Beap helps us shape the timelines, and they constantly keep us up to date on where they are.

Beap is not just working as vendors, they’re integrated fully into our team. They take part in our routine calls and project meetings, including weekly sprints and daily stand-ups. They’re easy to partner with. We include them in discussions about ideas for new features, new products, and code architecture. We collaborate with Beap via Slack, Zoom, and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Beap’s people are strong senior engineers and architects. I don’t have to be on top of them, they’re very professional. They have strong code quality, development ethics, and best practices. I feel like I can just take a project, give it to them with strong requirements, and they’ll get it done. 

With Beap, I never need to worry that the resulting code will be like spaghetti, or that it will be patchy. I never doubt that they’ll adhere to good practices, deploy well, or take care of the hyper care afterward. They know how to execute, and they’ve fully integrated into our environment. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Yes, I need more of their quality work, so I’ve asked them to expand their team. They’ve got a mandate to go get me a team of five people on the side. Hiring is not for everyone, but they’re trying. I’d love for them to grow, build out a team for me, and then execute more work. That’s been a challenge, but it’s the one thing that I’m hoping they execute better, stronger, and faster in the coming months.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat Beap like a partner. Work with them to figure out the best way to cut up a project and engage in a particular stream of work. Let Beap shape the contours of the projects and execution with you so that you get the best outcomes.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Laut Digital Creative Agency. We are an agency based in Austria. The majority of our work is white label projects for companies around the world.

For what projects/services did your company hire Beap?

We needed to redesign our digital online experience. We wanted a fresh take on our creative brief and test the waters with a new possible future partner for UX & UI development.

How did you select this vendor?

Beap was highly recommend by another startup we work with. After an initial call it was clear that we don't have to look further.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The Beap team took our brief, did their research and finished their tasks on time. Upcoming challenges were communicated before they became an issue. Their workflow was excellent always in sync with our idea of project development. The project managers on both teams had an outstanding accord and did a great job.

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

Our creatives worked very close with Beap's UX and UI team.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We loved their collaborative approach and critical thinking. It is not often that one gets to work with such a great team of people. So far we tested the finished product with our most important clients and the feedback was extremely positive. Beap's team deliver great work because they care.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

From the beginning Beap established a clear communication and execution strategy. This structure enabled us to stick to an efficient and effortless communication throughout the project. Their friendly and positive approach made it easy to overcome challenges during the development.

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

They have great communication skills and a very good feeling when and how to address upcoming hurdles during the project execution. The whole teams English skills are outstanding and very professional.

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

We should have used them earlier.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a partner and digital product strategist at Resonate Digital, a digital strategy and design agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with Beap?

We needed them to develop our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We've worked with Beap's team on 3–4 different projects. They've recently developed our WordPress website and implemented the UI/UX, content, and visual design generated by our team. Beap has integrated site features that enable our users to learn more about our products through animated videos and product descriptions. Additionally, their team has developed and designed e-commerce websites for our clients.

We launched our WordPress website last April 2020 — to ensure its seamless operation, Beap conducted testings on different devices.

What is the team composition?

We're mainly in contact with Davor (Managing Director) and Goran (Head of Technology), who are also our full-stack developers.

How did you come to work with Beap?

We've worked with them on different projects over the past decade and have kept in touch. Though we’ve tried going for the services of other agencies, Beap has always been our best choice due to their experience, seniority, and reliability.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $15,000–$20,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Beap in April 2019, and our partnership is ongoing.

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

Our website has been working efficiently since its launch, thanks to Beap's attentive team. We've received positive feedback regarding its design and user-friendliness as well.

Beap is a detail-oriented and professional team that takes our feedback into consideration. They've been responsive in terms of addressing post-launch issues or changes, so we're always assured that the site is up and running.

How did Beap perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via Slack, Google Hangouts, and phone calls, while we use Figma for team collaboration. Beap communicates smoothly with us — they make it a point to explain technical terms and processes in that they're more digestible for us and our clients. We can always rely on them to respond to our needs, and we're really pleased to be working with such a cooperative team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Beap has strong technical skills, the capacity to comprehend client requests, and the patience to implement even the tiniest details. They’re the team to hire for peace of mind.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's an area that needs improvement; Beap just has to keep their quality level where it is.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Discuss your design concepts with Beap, and give them the opportunity to make suggestions as well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a customer service manager at CoreData Solutions, a record management company. We have a core software that allows users to control all of their information around the company. It gives a digital application from customers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Beap?

We needed help launching a new website in both Icelandic and English.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Beap was given the complete design and then developed the website. When users scroll down the website, they can see the pictures moving.

We were trying to change the setup because we have a software company. Our software is divided into many parts. We were trying to show that in one picture.

They were able to do it so that when a user scrolls, they can stop on the picture and then move in circles so that they can see different parts.

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with two people.

How did you come to work with Beap?

We found them through our marketing team. We liked the price and the timeline Beap offered.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Beap from May–July 2020.

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

Beap finished the website just as we asked. We just launched three weeks ago, and we haven’t started marketing yet. We receive more traffic, especially in the English market.

How did Beap perform from a project management standpoint?

My points of contact were fantastic and both very good in English. It’s really easy to get to know and understand them. It was easy to tell them what we wanted.

We had a weekly meeting to go through the last week and prepare for the next. They always had their things on time, and we used Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Beap delivered everything we asked for. We’re happy with the results. They were on time and helpful. Their communication was also great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything worked out well in the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have the design ready when you start. Be sure of what you want, and their team will deliver.

This review was updated by the client on September 30, 2020. The original star ratings were: Overall - 4.5, Quality - 4.5, Schedule - 4.5, Cost - 4.5, NPS - 5. New content is below:

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Since helping us launch our WordPress site, Beap took part in setting up the tracking tools for our user behavior analytics and online advertising campaigns.

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with the same two people.

How much have you invested with them?

This project cost less than $10,000. From a market point of view, they’re very fair in their pricing.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May–July 2020. The additional work they did wrapped up in August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After we released the first version of the website, we wanted to maximize its effectiveness by integrating growth marketing processes. That's been helpful as we're trying to grow all of our relevant marketing channels in Europe. We’re also looking into LinkedIn and Google Search ads. With these tools, we'll be able to get great reports on the results of what we do.

How did Beap perform from a project management standpoint?

I was happy with their work. They’re so nice and easy to work with, and their communication is good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re easy-going yet dedicated to their work. One of our contacts even had a kid while working on our release. Even though he was going through a major life change, he was absolutely focused on our project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I was really pleased with their work and would definitely work with them again.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be focused on what you decided to do. If you need to make a change, they're nice to talk to.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company of 30 people. We’re one of the top AWS consulting companies in our region. We do enterprise cloud computing on our own premises, but we’ve been focusing on AWS for the last two years. We’re currently an advanced AWS partner.

What challenge were you trying to address with Beap?

We had a new project regarding the commercialization of one of our products, and, as part of it, we needed to establish an asset management database for our IT resources. We looked for open-source and commercial software, but we didn’t find anything that fit, so we decided to develop a custom software solution.

We decided to write this proprietary software on our own, but we didn’t have enough in-house resources to do it, so we started looking for a partner. Also, our software development team is focused on big data analytics projects, so this wasn’t something they usually did.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We didn’t have detailed functional specifications, so we showed Beap the few open-source tools that existed, explained to them what we thought was good about those, and described things that we didn’t find good examples of. They came up with specifications and database design to solve the request we had.  The important thing in this decision was that we needed to integrate with the Jira issue tracking system, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and with several other systems we had.

What is the team composition?

I worked solely with Davor (Founder and CEO), and I know that he included some other team members.

How did you come to work with Beap?

We’d worked together on a project for a hotel chain, where they did development and we handled cloud integration.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost was €58,000–€59,000 (approximately $65,000–$66,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Beap in February 2019. The main project has ended, but we have additional integration requirements, so we’re in constant contact with Beap. The project is in production and we’re using it daily.

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

Taking into account that we didn’t write a lot of documentation for them, the result that came out was very good. The product is a good fit for us.

There were some changes that we needed to do, but those were done very fast, in a matter of hours or a day, and not days or weeks.

How did Beap perform from a project management standpoint?

For start, I liked that we collaborated on database design over a cloud tool. They defined entities and SQL tables, and we conversed remotely over that. Also, they have an agile approach to software development, so we didn’t need to spend a lot of time on detailed functional specifications. We discussed them, and things went naturally.

The project wasn’t big enough to be done through formal project management. We met every two weeks, where they showed us what they’d done, and we agreed on what should be done next. That worked naturally for us, so we didn’t require special project management tables or steering committees.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing for me was that they could do such good work with so little information from us. It showed me that they think more broadly than other developers. They thought about the project itself, about the work they needed to do, and about the usage of our application. This saved us a lot of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really couldn’t say right now. I’d basically have to invent something.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They’re a small and very focused team, so it’s important to give them jobs appropriate for their size—something that needs complex project management, or that needs a capacity they don’t have. If they’re given a job that’s fit for them, there’ll be a very high rate of success.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a digital consulting agency based in Austria.

What challenge were you trying to address with Beap?

I was building a startup digital business for a large international corporation. We were trying to set up a very agile business model, which involved a web shop, so we needed an implementation partner for that. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Beap executed the technical aspects of this project. We set up a Shopify shop for our service, and they gave us a technical API for booking resources. We also created a delivery service for which we needed to track inventory, but Shopify didn’t have this functionality.

The API service had a frontend and a backend through which we could maintain our inventory.

What is the team composition?

We worked with around two people from their team. 

How did you come to work with Beap?

I’ve known Davor (Founder & CEO) since 2012. I’d worked with him on other projects in the past, and I’ve always been happy with his services, so I contacted him when I needed this solution.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost was around €30,000 (approximately $32,500 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project ran from October–December 2018.

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

The necessary administrative work noticeably decreased. Without Beap’s module, we would’ve needed to manually count our stock every day, and update the website. I don’t think it’s possible that we would have been able to run our service without Beap’s work. All of our needs were fulfilled, they delivered everything and I’d definitely work with them again.  

How did Beap perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was very easy, generally. I discussed business topics with Davor, he committed to a deadline, then we spoke directly with the lead developer. There were no unnecessary project managers in-between, which is what I’ve experienced sometimes with other agencies. It was straightforward and they delivered.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Communication is something they did very well. They engaged the right people at the right time, which worked for me. I have some technical understanding, so it was good to talk to developers. They had a very agile approach, which worked really well for me. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s not really anything for them to improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Try Beap’s services. I advise trying a lean agile start instead of having too many specifications, which is the advice I’d give for working with any external provider.