Existek

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a UK-based startup company developing software solutions for the waste and recycling industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Existek to develop a SaaS platfrom based on our visual prototype. The prototype was demonstrated to some industry professionals and required a few changes.

SOLUTION

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

We had to decide between Existek and the company who worked with on the prototype. It was a tough decision, but Existek seemed more experienced and we got a really positive impression from the company right from the start and throughout the consultation process.

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

The software application is a SaaS platform. Existek recommended a different technology stack than the company we used for the prototype. Existek was very flexible though and were ready to adapt if we felt strongly about the technology stack required. In the end, we let them decide the way they thought made the most sense and we are very pleased with the results.

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

Throughout the project, we were mainly in touch with the project manager. We were also in touch with the CEO directly on a few occasions which was really appreciated. The development team consisted of 5 people including 3 full-stack developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are about to release the application so we don't have customer feedback quite yet. But Existek has certainly done a fantastic job turning our visual prototype into a fully working application. The project was well defined, but since we had to implement some changes, Existek had some creative input also. We feel they really delivered on all levels.

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

Existek uses the agile development methodology meaning we could see development progress in real-time. We were using Slack to communicate with the PM/development team and we were also using other collaborative tools like Jira and Figma. This was a very efficient approach. The project manager was doing a demo of the latest build every 2 weeks so we could see how development was progressing.

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

Existek is really an excellent company all-around. They seem to have very talented developers and they are transparent which is very important to us.

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

In hindsight, we should have spent a bit more time on UI before going into development. This would have us some development time. On a few occasions, we didn't fully appreciate the implications of some of our requests. We wished in those instances we would have had more discussions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company delivers information intelligence software that indexes our users data at scale, enabling organisations to understand exactly what they've got, and to act on it. I am the Head of Engineering where I oversee our front and backend teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Existek?

We needed immediate burst resources to work along side our existing frontend team on both new feature work, and defect resolution. We needed developers proficient in React, Redux, and working on dynamic single page applications.

What were your goals for this project?

Extending the capability and capacity of our front end resources to enable faster feature development, and research into some new areas we were exploring.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had been recommended Existek from a colleague - after a few phone calls, we settled on Existek as being able to work most closely with us.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The Existek team were involved with all aspects of the development lifecycle - from api dprototyping of new feature requests, through to adding enhancement requests from Front of House, and also defect fixing where required. The entire team had no issues with our existing React & Redux stack, and were able to start delivering value immediately.

What was the team composition?

2x full time front end developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Existek team very quickly became part of the company's family, and within a few weeks were adding huge value to our project through things like a hot module reloading system that they were asked to implement. The communication was great, and we engaged with them almost every day via teleconferencing or calls.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Management of the team was delegated to our Head of UI/UX, who engaged with them almost daily. Absolutely no problems, and their English was fantastic.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Reliability. We had zero issues with availability, and the quality of their work was fantastic.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of!