Conovo Technologies

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CPO and one of the co-founders of a B2B SaaS solution for sales enablement.

What challenge were you trying to address with  Conovo Technologies?

We needed custom software development support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Conovo Technologies to co-develop and then create our SaaS platform and manage all of the data and the big data sets on the backend. The platform is mostly built on Laravel, and the database is MySQL. We had initially designed the platform and created the business case before we started working with Conovo Technologies, who then created the actual plan and executed the development of the initial platform. The initial database had been created by another vendor, but Conovo Technologies took that database, owned it, and kept adding to it.

After we launched our platform in 2021, Conovo Technologies became the development backend for our company full-time. They now have a number of FTEs that work full-time for us and are exclusively dedicated to our product. They’re responsible for providing technical support as needed and creating and implementing new modules and features.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with their CEO, CTO, and COO.

How did you come to work with Conovo Technologies?

We found Conovo Technologies through a freelancing marketplace.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

We were pre-revenue when we started working with Conovo Technologies, and we now have multiple clients and customers. The platform has daily users, and we've been able to secure outside investment because of the work they've done. Overall, I’d say the project has been a success.

How did Conovo Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

There have been some delays here and there, but Conovo Technologies has been incredibly responsive in general, both to feedback and when we're having actual problems. If there are any issues, they tend to respond really quickly. If I have issues with a member of the team who I feel is not performing as well, they're very responsive and willing to make changes. They're always communicating back and forth about any issues that are coming up.

We use Jira to manage the sprints, tickets, and development plans, and we typically communicate through Slack and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with Conovo Technologies’ willingness and ability to adopt new technologies and approaches to help solve our problems. For example, they've developed a plug-in for Salesforce. That was not something they were familiar with or had worked with before, but they were very keen to read the literature and develop that skill internally.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

SOMA Breath® is the online global school that allows you to take charge of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health with the support of like-minded experts and peers. Using your breath. My name is Andréas Lengyel and been part of the SOMA movement as the company's CTO.

For what projects/services did your company hire Conovo Technologies?

We hired Conovo Tech to outsource the hosting, development and maintenance of our sites for us to be able to focus on our core work, grow the tribe and movement globally.

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

We interview a vast amount of competitors and decided to work with Conovo mainly because of their holistic approach.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

Focus was on finding out what we needed using scope, time, cost as corner stones. Once decided on solutions presented we carried out implementation as planned. Main task was to move hosting from wpengine to AWS. And other tasks included simplifying and cleaning out existing code base.

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

Aqeel as the CEO of the company was our main contact throughout our collaboration. Together with his team of expertise, we had designated resources on hosting, security, wordpress development, AWS, S3, Laravel and node.js.

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

Conovo reviewed all our code base and made simplifications that saw instant proof of performance resulting in less used resources and faster response times. They also cleaned out a lot of undesired code regarding security threats.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

During the time of collaboration we had daily follow ups via Slack on different levels in their organisation. We had weekly effective follow ups on management level.

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

Their ability to put their ego aside, grow with the challenge, and work together as one team was impressive.

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

Ask more questions and help slow down the process at occasions.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a small technology solutions company. We focus on a niche where we help small start-ups with their early-stage tech challenges; especially where they are resource-constrained, or without skilled mobile development capabilities.

What challenge were you trying to address with Conovo Technologies?

We used Conovo for additional development resources to support start-up projects mainly focused on a mobile user experience. Their development team is strong on the mobile development front.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We do a lot of the business process mapping with our customers and arrive at a set of development requirements and needs. I would then go through those with the Conovo team and we would usually use some form of a collaboration tool like Slack or RocketChat to communicate — a lot of our communication and planning happens in a digital online environment.

We would generally scope the requirements in terms of time and effort, and then they would allocate a set of development resources that would work against a predefined set of tickets that we would create. 

As we push through those tickets and moved them from planning to actually being done, we have an agile delivery approach to begin the software build. There is a set of technologies that we as a company want to stick to. We want to stick to Android and Java from the mobile side, and then for the backend and the web services, we stick with a Django and Python framework.

While they do have design resources that we lean on a couple of times, we primarily use them on the development side. 

What is the team composition?

Their CEO is my go-to contact, but with them having more work and bigger projects, we were assigned a project manager, who has been really great in collaborating and keeping communication going. They’re also good at making sure that all the blockers that pop up are addressed.

How did you come to work with Conovo Technologies?

It’s been a number of years now, but I believe we originally found them through Upwork.

How much have you invested in them?

Across all the different projects, it is certainly in excess of $25,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered with them in January 2018, and we’re still working together.

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

I think the most important metric for us is being able to deliver the scope within the budget — that is always a key priority for us. We assumed that there would be a 5% to 10% slippage and that any project is for the unknowns, but so far, they have stuck within those parameters. 

They have been very meticulous at tracking hours. Whenever we have questions about the time spent on a certain feature or a certain component, they provide us with very detailed data that can support where delays come in and why they exist.

The data also shows whether it’s from our side with bad requirements, or their side with a reduction in development resources — it has been pretty efficient for us.

How did Conovo Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

I think they’re a very collaborative team. From what I have now seen across a couple of projects, they are very interested in the actual subject matter, and they built up a fair amount of expertise in order to deliver on the requirements. They go beyond just crunching code and really try to understand the end-user we're developing the product for. I have found that to be very helpful and it makes sure that the solution meets the needs.

For communication, we use either Slack or RocketChat, and for ticket management, we use GitLab.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very flexible and they can pivot quite quickly when the need is there. Because of the nature of the projects that we are in, the needs do shift quite quickly, and they have been very accommodating to shift along with those needs. I have found their flexibility to be very useful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One thing that we probably need to improve on is better documentation. I suspect that if we actually asked for better documentation, they would be able to provide it. It’s hard to lay that one at their feet because I don’t think we have really asked for thorough documentation. Maybe building in that documentation and code commenting as a habit would be one thing that could be improved.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think the advice I would give is to draw up a big picture of the product scope where you think the product will be going, and introduce that big picture scope early on. This is so they can do the planning that is necessary in terms of technical capacity, resource needs, and so on. 

However, make sure to provide very clear and concise delivery requirements. The more precise we’ve been, the quicker we’ve landed on a solution. The more we’ve left things undocumented or not specified, the more rework was required.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Technology Smart is a ingenuity development and consulting firm. I am a principal in which I'm founding partner.

For what projects/services did your company hire Conovo Technologies?

Conovo was responsible for the initial to end of project scope, to entail, coding and improvements when requested. They developed both IOS and Android versions of my app.

What were your goals for this project?

The ultimate goal was to develop user friendly yet engaging project with advanced functions.

How did you select this vendor?

This vendor was selected after vetting several others, I contracted through an online source.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Conovo was responsible for the overall development of both IOS and Android versions of my app. They initiated the platform codes and followed through until the end. They also regarded my feedback and made all requested changes/improvements to the project.

What was the team composition?

We were appointed specialist that entailed skill directly related to each app platform.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The development and public accessibility has allowed my company the advantage of allowing members an on the go ability to be engaged.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was appointed with those skilled in meeting the demand of the project. We found it to be very effective, as the appointees suite the skill and development level necessary.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Most impressing was the professionalism and dedication to making certain the job was completed to the extent of satisfaction. They made certain to check-in, making certain that each expectation was met.

Are there any areas for improvement?

With this project improvements will be ongoing as the demand presents itself.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of the company EDTx. We are providing Hight end educational methods and technology for the professional education sector

For what projects/services did your company hire Conovo Technologies?

app development and backend api

What were your goals for this project?

well-integrated app solution for both metadata, user managemant and planning functionality

How did you select Conovo Technologies?

By recommendations

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

We were happy with the delivery its was meeting our demands and was also upgraded with som sugetions from the team. All in time.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The company has a great team with full-stack developers, this reduced the time and test efforts for us.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Let's Sync is an App for mobile phones that syncs Audio across the phones. It can be used for Silent Dances and more complex uses.

For what projects/services did your company hire Conovo Technologies?

Aqeel and his team did a wonderful job working on a complex custom software application in Obj C. It was a difficult project and they stuck with it until it worked perfectly. I will be working with them again in the future and I highly recommend them.

What were your goals for this project?

Create a custom Objective C program to be used in the audio assembly of events

How did you select this vendor?

From Upwork and an interview

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Auto assembly of audio dialog into theater plays for use in the Let's Sync app. A complex and difficult task.

What was the team composition?

Aqeel and one other programmer for my project. I think there are many other people working for this company.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The software works well

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Aqeel oversaw the project. He is very kind and easy to work with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They did not give up when the project got hard.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None I can think of.