Cortlex

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Ascendle is a custom software development firm. We focus on delivering business value to our clients. For each software project that we take on, we hire contract software developers. Our specialty is to manage these software projects so they result in commercial-grade software on time and on budget.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

A fortune 100 company wanted us to build a web portal to view the data collected by an existing cyber security system that they created. The purpose of this portal was to allow the users of this system to instantly see the status of the system and be alerted of any threats.

It was to also give the client the ability to manage the overall system, and perform customer service for their users. We hired Cortlex to provide us with a .NET back-end developer to be part of the development team for this project.

SOLUTION

How did you select Cortlex and what were the deciding factors?

We did extensive research for a software development partner. Cortlex was selected because we liked that their developers specialized in .NET and had good communication skills in English, and they were very responsive to our requests for developer candidates.

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

Ascendle is an Agile Scrum expert. All of our projects use our highly refined Scrum process. The project started with a Strategy phase where we had multiple meetings with our client to build and prioritize a Product Backlog.

Once the scope of the project was defined, we hired Cortlex to provide a developer for the development team. After the initial scope of the project was created, we started to run 2 week production sprints. It was required that "potentially shippable" user stories were completed each sprint by the development team.

To achieve this, experienced developers were needed. The project was to use Microsoft Azure cloud services, SQL Server database, .Net Core back-end and an Angular front-end.

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

We used one person from Cortlex. He worked with us as a Software Developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was a complete success. We completed the project on-time and on-budget. The client was amazed at the accomplishment because they were more accustom to projects going off track.

The initial project was 6 months in length, but they ended up hiring us for many more projects including adding additional functionality to this portal.

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

We did all of the project management, using our Scrum process. This included Sprint Planning sessions, daily Stand-Ups, Backlog Refinement sessions, Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives.

Communication was primarily done using Zoom meetings and by leaving comments in Jira issues. We also used Slack for impromptu conversations.

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

Cortlex provided us with a developer, Dima Dubovets, who had all the back-end expertise we needed. Dima turned into one of the leaders of the project. If extra work needed to be done to complete a sprint, he was always there to help out.

Also, his communication skills in English was excellent. This was very important for the performance of the development team.

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

It was great working with Cortlex. I can't think of any improvements to make.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO at the full-cycle software developing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cortlex?

Our client is a lab that does medical testing (blood, urine, saliva). They had a portal that was running in old outdated technology, which was going away in a couple of years and it was difficult to support it. To start the project, we lacked 2 back-end engineers and we decided to collaborate with Cortlex.

What were your goals for this project?

The client wanted to redesign the portal using modern tech stack (.Net core and Angular) and add advanced features.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I was acquainted with Cortlex Founder for a couple of years (we met on the networking event). I knew the company was a reliable and well-qualified vendor.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The initial product was allowing doctors to be able to log into a system, view reports, order supplies. And the client also wanted to add some new features into it.

One of the features provided analytics to notify users about lack of supplies, to foresee the future needs, and to create orders automatically. Cortlex back-end engineers integrated in our team and worked as our own team members, just the remote ones.

What was the team composition?

7 people: we had 2 .Net back-end engineers from Cortlex side in addition to 2 Angular front-end engineers, a designer, a QA and a Project manager on our side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our client is excited to have something new, fresh, and with extended functionality.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project manager was on our side. We worked with an agile methodology and Cortlex engineers took part in all project activities: daily meetings, planning, retrospectives.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their communication ownership sets them apart. We were never left in the dark.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing comes to mind. There is always a desire to get the project quicker and cheaper, but the project is delivered on time and the end-client is satisfied. They did a great job.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Experts in global mobility, Ineo is the only company to offer comprehensive global mobility management software, outsourced mobility financial management, and specialized mobility tax services. For decades, some of the world’s largest corporations and relocation management companies have relied on us to efficiently manage their global mobility programs. My role is Chief Technology Officer overseeing all development efforts within Ineo.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cortlex?

We are developing a next generation connected application platform for our customers. Cortlex provided two amazing developers to work with us in building platform support services within our product.

What were your goals for this project?

We are pulling our current market solution forward into our new platform while expanding the existing capabilities to deliver a mobility focused market leading solution.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I have prior knowledge of Cortlex and from recommendations by colleges within the industry, they were the logical choice.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Our project is based on the Microsoft stack with a web spa front end built in the current version of Angular. Cortlex assisted in the development of supporting services primarily in C#. They were responsible for the implementation of support services which would be consumed in our macro service architecture. They were responsible for the entire service implementation including: architecture, process and algorithm design, integration interfaces, persistence, coding and testing.

What was the team composition?

Our overall team is comprised of 5 on staff developers, 2 Cortlex developers with supporting staff in build, devops and product QA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to provide an outline of the service requirements and expected capabilities. Then we worked with them as needed to deliver the capabilities in a MVP model. They were considered and respected as developers on our team and functioned in that role. The impact was, I had 2 solid developers which I did not have to find and was able to take advantage of the longer work day as a benefit of them be 10 hours ahead.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We have a dedicated SCRUM master who oversaw the effort. The Cortex developers were linked into our core communication protocols; teams and jira. We are familiar with remote workers and they were the same as our remote workers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

There commitment to finding the right people. If the developers we chose were not the right fit, they would replace them and eat the cost of getting the new developer up to speed. It was a no risk proposition.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We had some rough patches at the beginning and were able to work with the developers to smooth out the communication and process. You need flexibility and patience as the cross culture idioms do not always come across properly which leads to interesting assumptions. Be clear and thoughtful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior developer and software architect at Sensotec NV. We are an assistive technology company that works with people with visual disabilities such as blindness, reading problems, short-sightedness, age-related reduction in vision, as well as dyslexia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cortlex?

We have several software products and a few hardware solutions, and we were lacking manpower. We initially started out with two other companies but it didn't go too well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We treat them as part of the team, so they are a part of every meeting that our developers are involved in. They get assigned tasks of various complexities and durations depending on the projects.

We operate in markets that aren’t usually found in software development, dealing with all kinds of speech recognition, text prediction, and text analysis. Cortlex quickly picks up on the systems and invents new ones is needed.

In addition to doing software development, Cortlex also provides valuable feedback in the design phase. They design new features as well as make sure that the design is translated into a workable piece of software. The team works with us from the start of new features right until delivery, but I’m the one who makes the final decision whether to go with a certain solution or not.

One of the teammates took our basic online speech server and turned it into something that can convert text to audio at absolutely amazing speeds. Another developer is going to help us with other projects we inherited from our sister company because he specializes in PHP.

What is the team composition?

As of now, we work with four main and four short-term developers, along with two project managers. We started by taking on one developer as a test case, and they managed to save the project. Since then we’ve expanded the team to four permanent developers and will expand the team as the need arises.

How did you come to work with Cortlex?

They approached one of my product managers through LinkedIn. I had my first contact with Olga (Senior Business Development Officer) and, when I told her about my reservations, she quickly explained how Cortlex works and put me at ease. After some hesitation, considering our previous experiences, we decided to hire them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2018 and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team has rapidly reduced the number of bugs in the system. It’s not that they don’t write bugs as well, but they quickly follow-up and make adjustments based on feedback from customers. The work they do is incredibly valuable. We haven’t had a single major bug in two years. We’ve occasionally had a server hiccup because we were a little too hasty in deployment but that was more a failure on our part. 

Cortlex is really amazing — professional and very driven. They’re quick to point out potential problems and integrate well with the rest of our development team. Their technical skills are very high. I hope our partnership will go on for a few more years because they are very pleasant people to work with.

How did Cortlex perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s constant communication among all the members of the team, so it feels like they’re part of the team. They don’t manage sprints but they do keep track of all tickets and do minor project management tasks. 

Cortlex quickly readjusts when deadlines are being shifted around, managing themselves quite well. I had reservations about there being a language barrier but it’s not a problem. Overall, the engagement has gone really well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their language and development skills are good and they're on top of their game. They’re everything one would hope for when looking for reinforcements for a team. We had an urgent need for a PHP developer and, when I reached out and asked them for on, they had one ready for us four days later, which was pretty impressive.

One of my ex-interns asked me for some advice on a certain project, so I recommended him to Cortlex. His boss told him to send me a huge thank you for getting them in contact with a company that can deliver good developers on such short notice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CIO at The Divi Project. We're a cryptocurrency startup that provides software to make it easier for non-technical users to earn store cryptocurrencies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cortlex?

We needed a vendor to help us develop our software. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cortlex used open-source software to which they made some modifications. Then, they created our biggest USP for Massimo software, which is essentially a mining software. We gave them a unique set of requirements, which no other company has been able to replicate. Cortlex used Electron, which is a JavaScript framework to deploy cross-platform desktop applications. The app itself is written in AngularJS. The developers they assigned to us are very experienced with .NET, so they have a good understanding of the low-level requirements of an operating system, especially when it comes to Windows. (If you don't know low-level programming, you can run into a lot of problems, so we appreciate their expertise).

What is the team composition? 

We work with two of their developers. 

How did you come to work with Cortlex?

We found them through one of the talent management companies. They seemed very knowledgeable and they were able to provide the right resources at a reasonable cost, so we chose them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We pay them $17,000 a month, which is about $200,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working with them in June 2018 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From a qualitative standpoint, we've been regarded as the easiest cryptocurrency wallet application on the market by a number of media outlets and influencers in our space. That can definitely be attributed to the development work that Cortlex has done for us. We have a different vendor that handles the design, but our application wouldn't exist without Cortlex.

How did Cortlex perform from a project management standpoint? 

We do most of the project management, and Cortlex has been able to integrate with our workflow. Over the course of the relationship, we've used Slack, Azure DevOps, Wrike, and GitHub for project management. Cortlex has been very flexible and able to use any tools we've thrown at them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They feel like they're dedicated members of our team. We can get hold of them whenever we need them. (Some consultants we've worked with were difficult to reach and tried to stay away if we ran into an issue).

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were times when I wished they took a little more liberty. But that's related to our management style, so it's not really their fault. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep an open line of communication. They're very open and understanding, but you have to communicate your requirements clearly since there might be a language barrier. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a collaborative consulting and software development lab that specializes in working with owners of critical infrastructure and systems integrators. I work as a Client and Sales Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cortlex?

We hired Cortlex to fill software development positions.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to build a custom web platform for our customer.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected Cortlex based on the feedback we got from their previous clients and did not regret that.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Cortlex provided a body-lease model of software development services.

What was the team composition?

We took one software developer to our team from Cortlex. He was working remotely. This was never a problem for us, as he performed his tasks in a very professional manner.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project we used Cortlex' competence for, was one of the biggest for us at the time. The customer was a new player in the energy sector and it was really important for us to make a competent impression and perform our tasks at the highest quality.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management on Cortlex side was flawless. The communication was very quick and easy. We always got in contact with them when we needed and had absolutely no problems.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Cortlex is a good choice when you look for people who do their work to the highest standards, are reliable and responsive to your needs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Softrange Technology is a custom software development company that provides a hybrid development model. Our project and product managers, system architects, and other key client contact roles are based in the U.S., while our high-quality development teams are in Eastern Europe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cortlex?

Our client wanted to develop a full system for managing an IoT [Internet of things] system for remotely accessible sensors and devices. It collects data from multiple remote devices via the Internet and SMS messages. This allows users to control remote devices and receive notifications. The system also provides high usability presentation and data management.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to develop a full system based on a prototype.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected them based on several interviews as well as their previous experience with smaller projects.

Describe the project in detail.

The team was responsible for the delivery and testing of all the software components. They also participated in both the feature and system design process. They used .NET, legacy APS.NET MVC [model–view–controller], and AngularJS.

Explain how the solution addressed your business challenge.

The solution was the software side of our client's hardware.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed of a .NET server-side developer, an AngularJS web developer, and a QA [quality assurance] engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

They delivered software that’s well-designed and implemented.

How effective was the project management?

The project management was conducted by U.S.-based employees, and their communication skills were exemplary.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by the quality of the engineers, their ability to work independently, and the decisions they made.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a pet store e-commerce company. We dabble in distribution and have been doing retail e-commerce for years; we've built up our entire platform with all in-house technology. We've been getting more into the distribution side and have been working with retailers and are building SAS products and offerings that will be available for pet stores to sell our stuff from behind the counter and we're going to be doing the recommendation, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cortlex?

In January, Petflow was acquired by a pet food distributor called Phillips and they took us on as their innovation team, their ongoing technical resource. that gets the stuff done for them. They're a pretty big company and are behind the times on the engineering side of things, so we came in for that. With that came a bottled up roadmap, they had a lot of things they wanted to do to get a competitive edge in the industry, because frankly none of their competition are very good at executing technology projects. We stepped in and were given a lot of projects. Due to the scope of these projects and the amount of new products we were building, we needed to bring in outsourced help to get through the first wave and catch-up.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cortlex worked on one thing for us. It was a three-month contract where they worked on the foundation of this application - a behind-the-counter special ordering app. That is a SAS solution we're giving to our Phillips clients, a log-in to the web based app where they can place orders for their customers. They can see products, they can recommend ones, etc.

Cortlex worked only on the backend in this case, we were using Laravel 5.4 and a bulk of the work was setting up a secure off base API that our frontend application team could use and be confident that it was secure, safe, and could provide a building block that we may build on later, because there's going to be different clients consuming the API.

What is the team dynamic?

We had one senior backend engineer and we had their account manager slash project manager.

Have you worked with a team like this in the past?

I've done similar work before with a couple other shops in Eastern Europe, but Cortlex were the most responsive and down-to-earth. They responded to my inquiry really quickly and provided resources really quickly, put talent in front of me, and integrated with our team seamlessly. They joined our Slack, calendar, e-mail and started working with us. It was really cool to have that close relationship set up pretty fast.

How did you come to work with Cortlex?

They cold-called me on LinkedIn and sent a message. There were a couple other companies I talked to at the time. Ultimately, Cortlex were accepted due to the speed at which they worked with me and I had a really good feeling about them.

How much have you invested with them?

The project was somewhere between $10,000-$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in April 2017 and was completed July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They accomplished everything we gave them. We work on an Agile cycle here and have a dozen or so stories we handed off to them and they did it. We signed a three month contract and they finished it, pretty much right on time. That was all pretty good.

How did Cortlex perform from a project management standpoint?

We talked daily, there was three hours of overlap with our team and we would do a standup with them, and every other week we would do a planning session to set the next goals to hit.

They are really well spoken in English and type just fine.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The turnaround and ease of integration, for sure.

We did a short contract with them, so I don't know what else they have to offer in terms of specific skill sets. I don't think there was anything super standout. They were pretty quality and better than other outsourced shops I have worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think so. The size and scope was pretty straightforward. Their engineer could have communicated a little bit better, he seemed a little shy sometimes; he would do some work and it would turnout that he went down the wrong branch for a couple hours and then talk to us and realize he was supposed to have been going a different way. But, it wasn't that big of a deal.

Advice for potential customers?

Make sure your projects are well-defined and what you're building makes sense. Be in communication on a daily basis. With any outsourced company, the worst thing to do is let them go at it for a couple weeks and hand off something that doesn't make any sense.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a practice director at a software consulting organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cortlex?

We were looking for additional software resources who were not necessarily based in the US.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were looking for additional development capacity. Our team tends to be a fairly senior set of people, and we needed more mid-level people with 3–5 years of experience to supplement our team. Cortlex did C#, JavaScript, and Angular development for us on two projects, but I was only involved in a single project. Two of their developers worked with us.

How did you come to work with Cortlex?

Our company had worked with them on a prior project, so they were referred to me.

How much have you invested with Cortlex?

I believe we spent $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Cortlex in October of 2016. We had two developers working with us for about seven months, but we recently rolled a developer off the project. We’re still working with the other. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I think they did accelerate our delivery, but we also needed to provide a bit more oversight on their work since they’re more junior developers than our team.

How did Cortlex perform from a project management standpoint?

We handle the project management on our end. I think they did a good job with communication and meeting deadlines. We used a combination of Slack and either Screenhero or GoToMeeting calls, usually once a day. We put quite a bit of detailed tasking information into VersionOne, which is the tool we used to manage the project. We found that more detailed tasking information facilitated better success overall.

What did you find most impressive about Cortlex?

When we had a problem, they were pretty responsive in getting it resolved and escalating tasks.

Are there any areas Cortlex could improve?

The biggest challenge involved communication. One of their developers was pretty fluent in English, but the other wasn’t. I think the first had to act as a translator sometimes. 

This review was updated on February 2, 2018 by the client due to a breach of contract that resulted in termination of the engagement.

UPDATED REVIEW

What has happened with Cortlex since your original review was published?

Cortlex was a subcontractor to us. Part of our contract with them stated that they would not solicit business directly from our customers, but they did it anyway. A couple of contractors from Cortlex ended up working directly with our customer.

Cortlex worked with our customer to conceal that their people were involved. The contact at Cortlex gave the client different email addresses and didn’t talk to us about it. This was happening during our project and we found out accidentally when some of the people involved checked stuff with their Cortlex email addresses. It was a bad situation; they deceived us instead of sitting down with us and the customer and explaining everything.

Did you bring this up with them during the project?

It caused the whole arrangement with them and our customer to implode. Our management team was very unhappy. We brought it up but ended up pulling most of our resources off the project.  

Did they try to do anything to remedy the situation?

They tried to work with our CEO to come up with a remedy, but it was already a mess at that point. It broke our relationship with the customer, which is hard to recover from.

Have you taken any legal action?

I don’t think we did. We obviously aren’t going to work with them in the future. We went from being a good reference to a negative one.

Did the issues stem from the team versus the quality of their work?

I wouldn’t change the quality, schedule, or cost ratings in the initial review. I was happy with them and willing to refer them, but that has since changed completely.

In your old review, is there any particular section you would like to elaborate on?

I had said I rolled off a developer in May 2017. We actually ended up rolling two other developers off about a month later. The latter two were contracted directly with our customer without our knowledge. That’s when things started to fall apart.

Has this engagement changed how you approach companies going into the future?

We’re a lot more reluctant to work with offshore companies in that area. We’re now working with a group in Croatia that seems much more above-board.

Do you have any advice for potential customers in order to avoid this type of situation?

Read the reviews that people post on Clutch’s website because this could happen with anyone. When working with a new partner, you never know how they’re going to behave. I usually wouldn’t bother reaching out to leave a bad review even if things went a bit awry, but this is pretty grievous.

Is there anything else you want to add to the review?

They may be fine as a direct provider, but I wouldn’t recommend using them as a sub.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company develops custom software for web-based business applications. I’m founder, president, lead developer, business analyst, and sales and marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cortlex?

They’ve been helping us with both internal project work and billable client work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The technology stack for the internal project work is ASP.NET with Angular 1.5, SQL Server backend, HTML 5 and they’ve been doing full stack development for that. I give them requirements, and they’ve been doing the development for the project. They’ve done two projects on the billable work side. One of them was like the stack I just mentioned. For the internal project, I had done about 50% of the work already. For the new project work, they’ve been doing all of the development themselves. 

How did you come to work with Cortlex?

A year ago they were helping on a project that I was also involved in. That client had found them, and after that project was completed, I reached out to Cortlex and asked if they would assist on one of my projects.

How much have you invested with Cortlex?

We’ve spent an average of $50,000 per project with Cortlex.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’re currently working with them now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They make sure there’s no duplicated code and that we’re using the appropriate design patterns at the right places. The code is clean, and they delivered to the framework to the best of their ability. Mike has been great to work with. I meet with him every morning.

How did Cortlex perform from a project management standpoint?

I do the project management for the project. Everything has gone well.

What did you find most impressive about Cortlex?

They will do anything to make sure we’re satisfied with the work that’s being delivered. I worked on a project with them where the client was very difficult, and they did everything possible to make sure the client was satisfied.

Are there any areas Cortlex could improve?

No.