Effectus Software

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own an online software application called Teachery, and I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Effectus Software?

We needed a development company to come in and handle our Rails web application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their work included managing all of the codebase for our course creation software for teachers. They helped with updating new features, fixing bugs, and having resources on hand for any other projects or fixes that came up as we went along.

What is the team composition?

Between our project managers, developers, and frontend leads, I work with about 6–7 people from their team.

How did you come to work with Effectus Software?

I had a really hard time finding a development company that I was comfortable with, so I reached out to a couple friends who also run similar software companies. One of them recommended Effectus Software to me, and that was what led me to take a chance on their team.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of the project is about $4,000 a month, so we’ve spent about $30,000–$40,000 in total so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I basically measure the success of their work but how much I am able to give them a feature and let them run with it, while still receiving a relatively error-free product that does what I need it to do.

They’ve done a fantastic job of providing that service and being really easy to work with on top of it. Even in cases where we do find errors, they are always more than willing and capable of going back to fix those and make sure they understand what had gone wrong.

How did Effectus Software perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the biggest criteria I had for any partner I brought on was the ability to clearly communicate without a lot of difficulty. They do a fantastic job of making sure that they understand what I am asking them for and asking questions when they need something to be clarified.

They use Jira to track all of our progress toward specific milestones and everything, and they’ve done a great job of organizing things on there and making sure that I feel comfortable navigating it to understand what the developers are working on and exactly how much time is being spent on each task. Their process is extremely efficient and easy to use.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Not only do they do very high-quality work but the team is very capable of rolling with quick changes in requirements, which is a huge need in the software startup world. I haven’t run into a challenge yet that I haven’t been unable to take to them and come back with a solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly don’t think there’s anything in particular I wish they had done better. I’ve been totally pleased with the quality of the work they’ve done for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that if you don’t have a clear process for how to work with a development company like them, you ask them to give you a process they’ve used before so that you can work with them in a way that they are comfortable with. The fewer hoops you give them to jump through, the easier to manage the partnership will be.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is involved in commodity trading business. We buy and sell commodities (grains) in different countries. My position is CFO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Effectus Software?

We requested Effectus to develop a global controlling system for the company. The system should involve all variables in the business - we mean prices, exchange rates, interest rates, quantities, etc - and serve as a controlling and forecast system. Our main objective is to simulate and forecast every variable involved in our business.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal is to have a system that using the statistical information of the company, could calculate risks, forecast variables and controll all the operations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

By a contact recomendation.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project consisted in meeting with CFO mainly in order to create a system as described above. Effectus provided a platform to see the developmenst of the project and a team that helped us build the system. Furthermore they code and develop all the features of the system.

What was the team composition?

1 project manager 3 developers and QA testers all from Effectus.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have used statistical information gathered by the system to set risk limits to positions taken in commodity futures contracts with suppliers. These risk limits helped us to manage our risk. We got through this statistical information limits that applied to the business keep us in control of our risk. When we run the system backward we can prove that those limits were very effective in managing risk.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

A system was build in the first three months. This system was validated. Currently we are working on a second part of the system that will include new features using more flexible methodologies. This part of the project will last around 6 months.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very quick to answer and they fulfill deadlines. Moreover they're very open to hear ideas from the company and try to find solutions. Is a team work.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I wouldn´t know. In may experience they have provided a very good service considering the constraints of any project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The company has been selling land lots all over the country for different target clients since 2010. It became one of the key players in the industry. My position is Chief Technology Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Effectus Software?

All management aspects were handled separately and not as a whole. With the solution effectus provided, we could integrate collection, interest, stock, sales, and human resources in one user-friendly software. It helped to maintain full control of the company and made us more efficient and improved our sales.

What were your goals for this project?

Initiate and sustain in time the digital transformation of the company with an efficient software to keep track of the main aspects of the management. As the company had always been handled manually, it was not an easy task from the effectus point of view.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Comparing the different custom software providers and doing a price-quality balance. We spoke to them personally first to see if they would fit and understand our necessities.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They did a customized software designing and analyzing the requirements.

What was the team composition?

Two frontend developers, one backend developer, and a product manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It provided a common open information source for all employees to check and compare. The collection was more efficient and our sales augmented by 5%.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Initially, we had constant meetings to design the software. While they were developing the communication turned more into mails and some meetings to discuss a particular aspect. We use the Scrum framework, and that was very useful for us. The post-service was done via mail and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

At every stage, they were straight to the point and complied with the deadlines. We were satisfied with their service, and we still contact them for other similar tasks.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that I can think

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the HHRR of Jackson Bar, which is one of the biggest dance clubs in Uruguay with more than five years of experience. We’ve remained leaders in our field for most of those years and plan to continue growing in the years to come.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Effectus Software?

We hired Effectus Software to create a platform where our clients could participate in a gift. We’ve always given a present to our customers for their birthdays, but since we are closed due to the current situation with the COVID-19, we aren’t able to do so. For that reason, we thought about a way of letting them redeem their prize once we open again.

What were your goals for this project?

The most important part of this product was to keep our customers satisfied despite the quarantine. We need our business to continue being active in the eyes of our customers, and we think this project will allow us to do that.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I have a close relationship with a person who had hired Effectus Software in the past and had great things to say about them, so I contacted them through their website.

Describe the project in detail.

We wanted the user to participate in a game to win a gift and, after being told what they’ve won, to be asked for personal information to validate it at the Bar. The team created a series of authentication codes and an admin password for it to be as secure as possible, both for the company and the clients.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed of a Project Manager and a team of two developers, one in charge of the backend and the other one in charge of the frontend. All three of them from Effectus Software.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The current situation makes it hard for our business, so we hope this will increase the activity when we reopen. We expect to see the impact of the product in the long term given we are not currently open to the public.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We used SCRUM with a single sprint that lasted two weeks to create an MVP. After that, we gave feedback to the PM, and they spent three more days to get the required changes done.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We needed this product done quickly and we were very satisfied.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of the founders of Comida para Héroes, which resulted from the concern that me and some of my friends had about the impact COVID-19 was having on the society.

We wanted to help in some significant way to health care workers that we know are struggling with long hour shifts, little or no time to prepare themselves a good and balanced meal, tiredness, etc.

In addition, we thought about contributing with two other sectors in need which are the elderly and children in critical context. We started out by donating meals prepared in our own restaurant and then many other gastronomical companies joined us.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Effectus Software?

We hired Effectus Software to develop a webpage where users could donate meals to these three vulnerable sectors. We wanted to have a place where people could learn about our initiative and help through it using MercadoPago as a safe way of doing so.

The idea was to have a little help from everybody who wanted to, so that the restaurants that are together with us in this cause, could donate more meals to more people.

What were your goals for this project?

We know people want to help as much as they can, but they usually don’t know how to do it. We decided it would be great to have different food companies deliver healthy and balanced meals at a modic price.

We wanted to show support and gratitude to health care workers for their role in this difficult situation. As we know elderly people are the ones at higher risk, in first place we thought about providing them with food but it is in our short term plans to give psychosocial support as well.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

An acquaintance of mine had told me that they had worked with Effectus Software in the past so I contacted them through their website.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The most important part of the project was to try and help as many people as possible with the same action so it would be easy for contributors to do so. We wanted potential donors to trust in our project, and for that reason we decided to use MercadoPago which is known by most of the people and would make them more likely to help.

What was the team composition?

The team was integrated by a Project Manager and a developer, both from Effectus Software.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product has made it significantly simpler for people to donate money for our cause, letting us reach more and more projects that help families, kids and elderly people in critical contexts.

This is the case of Rugbi Inclusivo. We were able to contribute with their project by making it easier to get the food they need everyday to help over 50 families have a proper meal on their tables. In order to continue helping these people, it is crucial that we get as many donations as we can and that’s the reason why we wanted to create the website.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used SCRUM with 2-week-long sprints. An MVP was created after 2 sprints and after giving the PM feedback, some changes were made during a third sprint.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were really satisfied with the final product and the time it took to accomplish it.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I lead a small and nimble UX/UI consultant group, Unaffiliated, primarily based in Chicago, Illinois USA.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Effectus Software?

We needed elegant forms and HTML and CSS work building templates that integrated with an existing code base.

What were your goals for this project?

To produce and delver an excellent front end code to the back end team.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

When our previous vendor was too busy to handle the quick turnaround, I asked a few fellow entrepreneurs for suggestions and Effectus was recommended. After an introduction call they seemed like a perfect fit.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Coded HTML & CSS checkout and account forms to implement into an existing web site. Built out a new feature - allowing users to answer a series of questions to get recommended product results. Effectus was given access to the existing code library as well as designs. They integrated seamlessly within the team, creating pull requests, going through the review process and providing detailed release notes.

What was the team composition?

The project team had 2 people, with a manger overseeing them

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Couldn't be happier. The the backend vendor who received the templates had no issues, the project launched and the client is very happy. We were completely supported and delivered on time.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Due to the size of the project we had direct communication with the development team, and when needed talked with the project lead. Communication was amazingly smooth and consistent.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their friendliness and the ease of communication while still providing a solid service was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I see. I was very happy and will continue to find ways to work with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

QDC provides expertise and knowledge to help businesses attain goals and solve problems. We do this using a comprehensive approach to permanently increase the value that these activities represent for organizations. We help our clients go through a transformation process. I am the CEO of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Effectus Software?

We hired Effectus Software because we wanted to develop a tool that could obtain and process customer satisfaction data in real-time. The idea was to allow customers to answer surveys in which they scored different aspects of the service they received. Even though it may sound simple, A LOT of information can be extracted from the inputs.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to obtain insights about customer satisfaction levels to improve the services businesses provided. We wanted to make the software really simple and easy to handle.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I had heard about them a few time but decided to go with Effectus Software after receiving a direct recommendation.

Describe the project in detail.

The developed system is a customer feedback tool that allows businesses to measure and analyze specific and overall satisfaction levels. Administrators can create and manage an unlimited amount of questions that can have different answer types associated. The data collected can be accessed and analyzed via a dashboarded and used for further in-depth analysis and to forge solid customer relations. Now, a new feature has been added. Surveys can be accessed by scanning a QR code. The dashboard has been re-designed based on a user-centered design with great focus on the experience and its graphics.

What was the team composition?

The team was integrated by a Project Manager, three developers, and QA tester, all of them from Effectus Software.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is used by big-scale businesses belonging to health-care, hospitality, and pharmaceutic industries. They have made a lot of improvements based on the collected data from the questionnaires. AskMe surveys have been answeres more than 3000 times.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project management was extremely effective. We worked using the agile framework of SCRUM, which allowed us to give feedback regularly and allowed them to tailor the product according to our needs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

An initial MVP was developed together with an app and a web dashboard after three months. All the delivery dates were respected, and we received what was promised on time. After some time, we decided to add some more features to the product, and we called Effectus Software once again because we were really happy with the previous results. The feature added was being able to access online surveys by scanning a QR code. The current sanitary conditions caused by the COVID-19 made this feature to be necessary since it was our way of reaching out to customers without any physical contact with devices. The time for developing this was really short, but the team worked swiftly, and the product was out in the market with its new functionality in no time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of the Perez Scremini Foundation which is dedicated to conquering childhood cancer in Uruguay with the help and hard work of 130 dedicated people. These include specialized doctors, nurses, laboratory workers among many others. Our services are totally free and include medical appointments, treatments, hospitalization, medicines, psychosocial support, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Effectus Software?

We hired Effectus Software to develop a software product that could allow us to securely save the institution's data and information related to patients, medical appointments, expenses, etc. Centralizing the access of information in a single source was of great importance since it could facilitate keeping data and information updated and making it more easy for both employees and volunteers to access it.

What were your goals for this project?

We used to have a set of Excel documents where we kept all the information regarding everything we do in the foundation, so it was really hard to keep track of it. We had duplicated data and very often it was not up to date. We needed a system that was easy to use given that our staff would have to start using it sooner rather than later and where we could have our information centralized and updated.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

One of the founders is an acquaintance of mine. I remembered he worked developing software and decided to check out Effectus's website. After going over their projects and reading about their workflow strategy I was determined on working with them.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The product's main function is to structure and store all the information regarding hospitalization, psychosocial support, medical appointments, etc. of all of our patients. There are different types of users that have different permissions according to the role they have in the organization.

It allows them to fill in information related to their role so they don't have to spend time looking for the place where they have to add it. This makes the system a more simple platform to work on.

What was the team composition?

The team was integrated by a Project Owner that works in PSF, a Project Manager and a team of two developers from Effectus Software

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developed product has helped us keep record of specific things that we had no control of but knew that were happening. For example, there was no information regarding to which kids skipped their medical appointment.

Now we have all the data and it allows us to make reports and to analyze trends. Another thing that we began to keep track of is the money that is given to parents and family members that can't afford transport tickets and fares.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used SCRUM setting sprints that lasted 2 weeks. The project was completed after 5 sprints. It was super effective because communication was good and this helped foster a good working relationship. They really listened to our feedback after every iteration and all the changes and adaptations were correctly implemented in the version that followed. The final product meets all our needs and requirements exquisitely.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The professional and pro-active communication set them apart. The team continually demonstrates that they care for your business and will help you succeed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

My only suggestion is that they could have written a comprehensive user manual.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a digital tech agency, mostly focusing on building products in the fintech space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Effectus Software?

We needed some developers to augment our team so that we could hit the timelines needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had them work offsite on a Ruby on Rails project. The developers delivered APIs and backend structure to support the end result. While they weren’t developing the backend architecture directly, they did deliver key components to support the experience.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with four different developers, but no more than two at a time.

How did you come to work with Effectus Software?

Our CTO found them. We had technical calls to review experience and size up their overall skillset.

How much have you invested with them?

It was over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work started in November 2018 and will wrap up at the end of April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve facilitated development on two projects and their work was very solid. We’ve had a lot of success. It’s almost as if they were trained as our own staff. They did help facilitate very tight deadlines with a polished end result.

How did Effectus Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great to work with. There was a time difference, but they were available for our standup meetings and team-wide calls. They were communicative and worked well with the senior development team. Their team was very proactive at highlighting potential concerns and roadblocks so that we could address them.

We generally used Slack. Video conferences and JIRA were also used.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their overall quality was very high. They were task-focused.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve been great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you chat with them so they have a good understanding of the skillsets of key members. There are differences in skill levels and understanding, so having the right person will allow you to be successful.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of StartStak

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Business services and solutions supporting founders from $0-3M in revenue.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Effectus Software to accomplish?

• UI/UX for StartStak's SaaS product
• Seamless integration with business experience

SOLUTION

How did you find Effectus Software?

Linked In Outreach

Why did you select Effectus Software over others?

Skills

How many teammates from Effectus Software were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

develop UI/UX experience for StartStak's SaaS product.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They delivered an exceptional design.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes.

What was your primary form of communication with Effectus Software?

Virtual Meeting

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

Consistency in resources. Understanding of our product.

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

No