Existek

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Cofounder of Prismatext

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Prismatext makes learning a language as easy as reading a book. We blend the most useful foreign words and phrases into your favorite novels and stories.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Existek to accomplish?

• We looked for a professional development team to build new tech solutions from scratch. Prismatext needed an alternative approach to deliver language learning and reading services to our customers on mobile devices.

SOLUTION

How did you find Existek?

Referral

Why did you select Existek over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Existek were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

The project involved building an entire system architecture and creating a UI/UX design from scratch. The team worked on implementing the feature-rich and engaging mobile application to bring a new approach to providing language learning services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Existek’s team helped us create a unique platform to advance book delivery to our readers. They managed to blend the learning techniques with advanced technology solutions. As a result, we received the mobile application available in the App Store and Google Play and the admin panel to manage our Prismatext mobile app.

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

Their project management was exceptional. The approach is marked by meticulous attention to detail and a strong focus on communication. The team was also flexible in structuring the project schedule to accommodate changes and provided accurate deadlines throughout the process.

What was your primary form of communication with Existek?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Existek provides some of the most skilled and talented specialists, including developers, designers, and project managers. They were incredibly supportive, offering innovative services, regular updates and maintaining smooth and clear communication.

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

I can't think of anything. The assigned team was always open to changes and willing to adjust to new requirements.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the executive VP at Spellex, a provider of an assistive solution for reading and writing. We’re building a vast range of products for people who want to add some extra convenience in their everyday work regarding written text, and for people with reading and writing disabilities such as dyslexia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Existek?

We were looking for a development services provider with rich expertise in desktop software development, which is something that not many companies have these days. Our project required substantial modification of the standard MS Word functionality, so we needed someone that could help us with that and finalize our requirements with reliable and slick code.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

As mentioned above, our product aims to make everyday life and work easier. Since we prioritize the convenience of the user, we needed a vendor that’s really experienced in creating Windows applications, to make sure that everything ticks. We didn't know exactly how to implement the planned features, so the potential vendor had to not only execute the project but also help us find a way to do what we needed and embody that in code.

Right after our initial communication with Existek, we realized that they were a perfect fit for the project. Their team was able to come up with the solutions to our technical challenges on the go.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We requested the development and improvement of some features for one of our products—the Spellex Write-Assist. Existek created an add-in for Microsoft Word using a set of technologies that they chose, which includes C#, .NET, WPF, and Windows Forms. They were also tasked with the development of a zoom ruler feature, which is a significantly enhanced version of the Windows Magnifier tool that’s comfortable to use while editing documents. They also created audible alerts, a spell check report that summarizes a user’s spelling errors in a document, and a new licensing system for all our products.

There were a number of technical challenges that they had to overcome. For example, we needed to send sound notifications to users whenever a misspelled word is detected. The problem is that everything in Word is executed in code on the system level, so modifying the code wouldn’t help for the audible alerts feature. Existek found a solution for this complex task and leveraged some of the Win32 libraries to make it work bounded to Word through C# on the system level. This is an only small example of what was done for this project and how Existek approached it.

They indeed provided us with the custom software development services we needed. However, we had direct control over the development processes and felt like everything was in our hands.

What was the team composition?

For this project, Existek assigned two desktop developers. Both had great English communication skills, were always ready to explain what they were doing and why, and they were open to receive our feedback and adjust some aspects of their work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our clients were asking for some of these features for a quite long time, and Existek finally helped us implement them. While it’s too early to speak about the impact of our new product, we can say for sure that we now feel more confident because we have some of the functionality that is either absent or not working efficiently in competitors’ software solutions.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The progress was constantly observed by the management team and other experienced Windows developers to make sure we felt comfortable and that everything was going according to plan. Project management was excellent overall.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

One of their strongest attributes is that they can effectively adjust to their customer’s level of experience and technical competence. We were guided through the development process, and they were always ready to explain what they were doing and the advantages it would give our product. Last but not least, it was very hard to find a company that agreed to all the requirements we had for the desktop application.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I have nothing negative to say, as everything was of the highest possible quality.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

IntelliChief offers a Paperless Process Management (PPM) product. Focusing directly on each company’s specific business process, IntelliChief integrates with the customer’s ERP and line of business applications, providing visibility for each business document and workflow process. With IntelliChief workflow and ERP integrations, IntelliChief can automate the processing of AP Invoices and Customer Orders from the time the document is received to when it is processed into the ERP.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Existek?

We had a problem with one of our product’s features and wanted to reconfigure the coding while expanding the functionality.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We created a work order detailing the different functionalities we needed, as well as the types of platforms that needed to be supported. Existek then conducted research on how Windows applications interact with the desktop and various browsers to determine how we could collect data from those application screens.

From here, they built a standalone program that included the functionalities we were then able to incorporate into our product. They worked primarily with Microsoft’s .NET Framework and C Sharp.

What is the team composition?

We interfaced with a project manager who communicated our needs to a developer.

How did you come to work with Existek?

We came across them while doing online research. We were impressed by one of their past projects, so we reached out to discuss our challenge. They spoke very knowledgably about their field and explained in detail how they would tackle our problem. They seemed to have more expertise than their competitors, so we decided to hire them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted between July 2017–January 2018, though we’ve already hired them for a follow-up assignment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were easy to work with and provided quality code that my internal team was able to easily integrate.

How did Existek perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good about communication and hitting deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our project required a specialized skill set, so their expertise was a crucial part of this project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communication is key on any project, especially when working with an offshore vendor. Make an effort to keep the lines of communication open with any external resources.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a software company that provides treatment tools for therapists.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to migrate from another development team so it required coordination with the other team as well as getting up to speed on someone else's code. We wanted Existek to continue development as we expanded product functionality.

SOLUTION

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

Ease of communication with their CEO was a big factor. Having the right skill sets on call and a reasonable price.

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

Firebase backend with React frontend. We needed enhancements to our iOS and Android apps as well as a web front end.

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

There was a 4-person team at Existek ranging from the CEO to a UX designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They delivered the required functionality in a reasonable time frame. I felt the quality of the work was good and their productivity was too.

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

We used Jira and Figma to communicate, manage and plan, as well as weekly Zoom calls and daily Slack messages. It worked well and was low overhead.

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

Their flexibility to bring in other team members with different skills as needed impressed us.

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

No, I was really satisfied.