Differenz System

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder and chief product officer at a management consultancy. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Differenz System?

We were looking for a product development partner. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Differenz System is developing our micro-consulting platform. I’ve built the product visions and roadmaps after a discovery call where we documented our requirements — I’ve also handled all of the UX/UI design. Now, Differenz System is developing the designs and implementing the key features we’ve requested. Their team is integrating SendGrid and WhatsApp; we also plan to have Differenz System integrate AV features using Agora. The platform will serve as a marketplace where users are matched through requirements via our algorithm when it is complete. 

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager and backend, frontend, and full stack developers.

How did you come to work with Differenz System?

My business partner knew Differenz System through a previous relationship with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $50,000–$100,000 with Differenz System. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Differenz System began in August 2021, and it’s ongoing. 

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

Differenz System got up to speed on our project after an initial lull. After 3–4 months, their project understanding has improved significantly; they only have 1–2 questions about project tasks after they’re presented. Differenz System is on track to succeed. 

How did Differenz System perform from a project management standpoint?

I do most of the project management in Jira, but only 1–2 of our deliverables have been presented on time. However, they’re still within our budget even when deliverables are late. Most of our communication is through Slack and Zoom. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Differenz System always does their best to deliver for us; they don’t say no to projects. Their team will invest time trying to achieve exactly what we’ve requested.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Differenz System’s developers aren’t all senior-level, so they spend a lot of time researching the project. They have good talent, but Differenz System needs to invest time in training their resources. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend customers hire Differenz System for staff augmentation instead of hiring them for development from scratch. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a digital innovation company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Differenz System?

We needed mobile development for the in-house application we were building.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Differenz System did mobile development for us from scratch. We needed to integrate it with a website and a CMS backend so that all channels could be talking to each other effectively. We also provided them with designs, and they’ve implemented them beautifully.

Their services also include QA testing to ensure that everything runs smoothly and third-party integrations with Zoom, Apple Pay, and Stripe.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with around five members of their team.

How did you come to work with Differenz System?

We found them on Upwork; we sent out an RFP, and they reached out to us. After looking at their work and rates, we gave them trial tasks, and they did a great job. From there, we continued with their service.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around $50,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

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

They get us weekly results so that we can see the project’s progress through a communicative approach — those communication habits are important metrics that we care about.

How did Differenz System perform from a project management standpoint?

Their turnaround times and communication are great. In terms of tools, we use Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re not money-oriented, so their team is always willing to make updates or changes without charging extra. Other providers would nickel and dime us for everything, but Differenz System just includes it if they’re sure that it’s a better way to do it. Overall, they’re very keen on our satisfaction versus billing us every second.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve with their QA; we’ve caught things that they didn’t, which are minor issues, but it’s something that they could do better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Plan your project accordingly and know exactly what you want. It’s also important to talk to them; they’ll have a lot of questions for you that you have to answer. Jumping into the project without having a clear idea of what you need will cost you time and put Differenz System’s team on a spot where they will not perform the best.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a cofounder of ShiftAlarm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Differenz System?

We hired Differenz to provide development solutions.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Differenz implemented our wireframes, mainly using Xamarin. 

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Brijesh (Co-Founder & Director, Differenz System).

How did you come to work with Differenz System?

We found them on a freelancer site and chose them because they were inexpensive.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €3,500 (approximately $3,900 USD) for about 250 hours of development work.

What is the status of this engagement?

The development for the iOS product was completed in August 2019.

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

The app is ready—my colleagues and I tested it, and we are comfortable with its performance. We may use Differenz for the Android version as well.

How did Differenz System perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was excellent, despite the time zone difference. Any time there was a problem with the app, we reached out to Birjesh, and he made sure that it got fixed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

This was our first time working with an external team, and the collaboration was very good. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any areas that they need to improve.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a company that provides a smart counting solution that has both software and hardware pieces to it.

What challenge were you trying to address with Differenz System?

We hired Differenz System to develop and manage some pieces of the software.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They worked on both iOS and Android smart apps for us.

What is the team composition?

We were dealing primarily with one person from their company, but there were a couple of others supporting him behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Differenz System?

I found them on a service provider site, and their profile matched what I was looking for in terms of skill set and in terms of other’s reviews. We decided to give them a try, and things have gone well since then.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $10,000 in total with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started around October 2018, and we are still working together.

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

They have been very timely and within budget so far, so I have been completely satisfied. The quality of their work is very good, and we find significantly fewer bugs than I have experienced in the past, and that’s the main reason I continue to work with them today.

How did Differenz System perform from a project management standpoint?

We use spreadsheets, smart sheets, and GitHub to coordinate. Their team is always responsive, and I’ve really enjoyed working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What I like most about them is that they’re accountable. They pick a project or a task, and they drive it to the end. There is a real sense of ownership in their work, and that’s what is most important for me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to my mind.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I manage new customer acquisition and technical support for a company that connects people with digital methods of ensuring that employees are paid correctly on time. We developed a web-based software and mobile applications to assist agencies in becoming paperless.

What challenge were you trying to address with Differenz System?

We were looking to design a mobile app to connect with our web app. At the time, we had developed something in-house that wasn’t expertly created. We decided to reach out to them for a better solution.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built iOS and Android mobile apps from the ground up that connected with our existing web app. Because we saw early success with them, we decided to keep them on our team to bulk up our mobile solutions over time.

Additionally, they provided some HTML work. All of our current projects are complete, but we plan on contracting them in 2020 to implement some of our web features on the mobile apps.

What is the team composition?

We had one point person with them. That project managed a team of engineers and ensured that everyone was on the same page throughout the development. That way, we could liaise with our team to create a solution that best fit our needs.

How did you come to work with Differenz System?

We found them on a platform in which they were listed against other development service providers. Our team was impressed with their pricing structure because it allowed us to do more with our project. We were less limited because of our choice. They were also prompt in their replies, eager to meet our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

To date, we’ve spent about $100,000 with them. Their services cost us about $10,000 each month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between 2017–2018.

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

Internally, we enjoy the design and functionality of the final apps. We feel that their work is visually appealing, clean, and relevant. Their natural design acumen was impressive and pleasing. 

Their work has made us more competitive in the marketplace. The mobile app is something that current and potential customers wanted to see from our company. Now that we have them operating at a high level, we’ve been able to acquire new business and keep our current customers happy.

How did Differenz System perform from a project management standpoint?

We used shared Google Documents to manage the project and features. While we didn’t have official deadlines for the project, they were focused and intentional in working on our timeline. If something needed to be changed, they were helpful and asked the right questions to reach a solution.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of professionalism was consistent from the top down. Our project manager was personable, friendly, and keen on creating momentum. The turnaround time was impressive, likely due to their experience in the field.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We plan on redesigning a few things they incorporated into our web app. That isn’t a knock on the quality of their work, but rather the direction we want to take the product.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of an IT consultancy that regularly outsources mobile development projects which we receive as part of larger work contracts. We are active across Europe, Northern America, and East Asia.

For what projects/services did your company hire Differenz System?

We outsourced the creation of a customer-facing mobile application to them.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to have the app developed with little input from our end and high adherence to the specifications.

How did you select this vendor?

We posted a job on a popular outsourcing website and were approached by the vendor. The pitch they provided was the best fit for our requirements so we started them on a small sample task. Since that task was completed to our satisfaction, we handed the entire task over to them.

Describe the project in detail.

The app is written in Xamarin and, while broadly following an MVC pattern, required a lot of custom content. We provided them with XD files and spreadsheets of tasks and left the details to their project manager.

What was the team composition?

A project manager was our main point of contact. We then set up paying work contracts with several members of the company through the outsourcing website.

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

The team implemented complex workflows with virtually no input from our side. Apart from minor tweaks, we could always ship the product to the final customer in the state that we received it in.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

All of our communications went through the project manager who was always punctual, friendly and competent.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

That we can give them a task, leave them alone and come back to a working product. This is an extremely rare skill among outsourcing developers.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Short of the PM learning German (which I explicitly do not expect), there is nothing else they could have done to make the process any easier for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a manager for Sygnal Automation, a manufacturer of electronic controls for air conditioning and lighting systems.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Differenz System?

We needed to develop a labor and part management system for our production line. It had to be able to schedule our labor and ensure we had enough parts to build what we needed to build on the production line.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built the system themselves from scratch based on our specification that said what we wanted it to be able to do. They built a database and hosted it on AWS so all our users can access it at the same time. The tool allows us to put in the skills people need to perform each part of the assembly for each product, as well as what parts are needed.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people.  

How did you come to work with Differenz System?

They seemed to understand the project straightaway. We had a few people look at it, and Differenz System’s price was very reasonable.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $25,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March 2014 until August 2015.  

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

When we put production orders in, the system lets us know in advance if we have shortages in labor or parts and how to address them. We have products that can contain up to 100 components, so being out of one component can shut down the whole production line.

Beforehand, everything was manual. Now, we have an automated system that takes care of all the problems changed our business dramatically. We’re able to avoid major roadblocks and hiccups in getting our products out in the marketplace. It helps us schedule ahead.

How did Differenz System perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re communicative and good at keeping us up to date. We hardly use them now because we have so few issues with the server, but they still let us know about holidays coming up and tell us if they’re not going to be available in advance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If I had a problem, since I’m not a technical person, I could give them an outline of how they’d do it. They’d come back with lots of options for me, including cost considerations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. I was very impressed.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a startup developing my own app for travel and tours.

What challenge were you trying to address with Differenz System?

I wanted to develop an app that allows users to take self-guided tours with the ability to edit and save routes, build detours, and share their routes with others.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The app started out as a pretty simple idea, but as I’ve worked with Differenz System over the course of the last year, it’s evolved to include more and more options in the developer platform. They’ve provided more and more support in terms of the functionalities of the app in iOS and Android.

What is the team composition?

I talked to three members of their team primarily, one of whom worked on Android, one on iOS, and one managing the backend database.

How did you come to work with Differenz System?

From the beginning, I liked how flexible and well-priced they were. When I looked at other ratings where I found them originally, they had a lot of good reviews, so I decided to go with them.

When I was choosing them, I was talking to multiple companies. The thing that I liked about them is that they were a full development company and had developed a lot of different apps in the past.

They had experience working with different areas and they already had some code developed, so they’d be able to develop a little faster and would know how to integrate things on iPhone and Android as well as AWS and Google Maps.

I thought that was a really good asset because they had more experience but were also very affordable. It’s my own personal project, so I was the only one responsible for choosing.

How much have you invested with them?

My total investment so far has been a little over $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September 2018 and are continuing to work on the project together.

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

I don’t have totally solid metrics as I’m launching next month, but I am really satisfied with how everything works and the testing and development phase as a whole. They’ve been very patient with me and very committed to the project.

How did Differenz System perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very good at communicating. Since we’re in different time zones, we generally have a morning every morning when I get up, and at night, they send me messages about what they need for that day. They break down every process and then systematically set deadlines for each step. They almost always stick to that schedule, but if they don’t it’s because they ran into a problem and they are very clear about communicating that as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their billing structure is something I really appreciate about them as compared to other developers. Sometimes people will quote you a certain number of hours and then raise that number if they run into a problem. Differenz system will always bill you the amount they initially quote you for, regardless of how long it takes them to finish it, and I really like that aspect of them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything that I wish they did differently.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a Mindfulness mobile application catered for the corporate world.

For what projects/services did your company hire Differenz System?

We hire Differenz System to develop, maintain and update our mobile application and related back-end systems.

What were your goals for this project?

To provide our customers with the best possible experience when introducing mindfulness to their organisation.

How did you select this vendor?

The vendor was introduced to us via word of mouth.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed, developed and launched the mobile application and related back-end administration systems. All systems are continuously being maintained and updated by Differenz System based on provided designs.

What was the team composition?

The team is composed of a project lead, serving as the main interface between us and the development team; and a team of developers ranging from 4 to 6 depending on the workload in a given month.

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

Our business rests entirely on a functioning mobile application. The team at Differenz System has been amazing at solving any arising issue in a timely manner; and proposing improvements when and where possible.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

A project lead serves as the main interface between us and the development team; which makes for a very smooth and effective process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team has been continuously great at finishing the required work on time, without any surprises at the end. Once a roadmap has been defined, you can trust Differenz System to deliver.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a real estate software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Differenz System?

We hired them for development services.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Differenz System is developing our software for mobile and web. They used between 4–5 technologies including Node.js and MySQL.

What is the team composition? 

We’ve worked with anywhere from 2–16 team members.

How did you come to work with Differenz System?

I started out with three service providers, and Differenz System ended up having the best team, so I awarded them the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them on September 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

The software is still in development, but things look good so far.

How did Differenz System perform from a project management standpoint?

Shyamsunder (Project Manager, Differenz System) does a great job.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work fast and got a lot done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.