Existek

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an IT managed in a transnational pharmaceutical company that sells and distribute medications in the Middle East and Europe

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

Our company hired EXISTEK to create a mobile application for our sales department. What were your goals for this project? We needed a mobile application for a sales and field force managers to make communication across the team more efficient and keep the records about their tasks.

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

We’ve been looking for the company with experience in enterprise ERP solutions and found EXISTEK among them. We liked the communication so after the discussion and initial discovery/ documentation stage we hired their team for a smaller side project which is a mobile app.

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

We have a sales department that is distributed between different subsidiary companies in our business group across the globe. We needed an efficient tool to enable our sales people to communicate with their managers and teams, and keep the records of the joined sales activities. For this project EXISTEK offered us a hybrid mobile application development approach leveraging cross-platform framework Flutter.

As a first stage they’ve created a specifications requirement documentation that described each feature and detail and a mockup for UI/UX. After that we proceeded with the development while the EXISTEK team kept us posted with the demo version of the app and regular updates calls. We saw the progress almost in real time. After we completed the features that we planned for a first release, we decided to add some new features and EXISTEK was very helpful in this as well.

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

For this project we were provided with BA, Project Manager, two mobile developers, one backend developer, and UI/UX designer.

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

The application is about to be deployed for our users so we can’t give a specific answer, but we feel like we easily built what was lacking for years and a lot of our internal workflows will be greatly automated and enhanced which will result in a significantly higher sales force efficiency.

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

EXISTEK has assigned a project manager that was in charge of both the product management and project management. We were extremely helpful, provided us with regular updates, and ensured smooth and clear communication.

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

Their reliability was impressive. That is a huge deal since we wanted a team that shared the same views with us.

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

Everything is perfectly done. Nothing I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Please describe your company and your position there.

Initial Force is producing various software and sports hardware for golfer and baseball players. We have applied a number of technologies as part of our brands: Swing Catalyst, Swing Catalyst Baseball and Motion Catalyst.

All of the products form a unified ecosystem to train athletes all around the world. It includes different software solutions, sensors plates, cameras, ball/club tracking, and other accessories. I’m Stein J. Gran, CTO at Initial Force.

For what projects/services did your company hire Existek?

We are always interested in providing value for our customers and meeting customer needs.

We wanted to expand our ecosystem with two mobile apps based on customer requests. Mobile app development enables a fast and seamless experience, better engagement with customers and good accessibility.

We were looking for a professional team of app developers that would create software for both iOS and Android platforms

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to create a camera-based app which integrated with our cloud services and desktop application.The developers we hired had to implement apps which offered the core functionality we wanted as well as come up with additional functionality based on customer feedback.

The main project purpose is to establish direct communication between golfers and instructors that are not limited by place and time. Mobile apps was the best solution to go with

How did you select this vendor?

Initial Force has already had a WPF developer from Existek and were really satisfied with the results of this developer. We also knew that they had app developers, so when the app project was defined we contacted Existek to inquire about the availability of experienced app developers.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The hired developers were involved in the entire mobile development process. As our apps are video apps, efficient handling of video encoding and high framerates was essential.

The tech stack we agreed on consists of Kotlin (Android development), Swift (iOS development), FFmpeg, and Google Service APIs. The app developers were used to these technologies, and were therefore productive and constructive in using the full extent of the chosen tech stack.

What was the team composition?

To meet the project needs, we decided on a team of three people: one iOS developer, one Android developer, and a project manager.

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

Our business offers a full ecosystem for golfers and instructors. Accessibility is one of the main product purposes. Customers can now record and review their progress via mobile devices. Moreover, it is easily integrated with the rest of our products.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

There was a project manager on-site with the app developers, and this worked out really well. We communicated with the project manager, which communicated with the app developers as necessary.

We could also talk directly with the app developers if there was a need for that, so overall a very flexible and practical approach to project management in this project

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They had several suggestions for good improvements in our products, and their employees have a good work ethic.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing that I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Initial Force specializes in sports performance software, technology, sensors and biomechanics under the Swing Catalyst brand for golf instructors and golfers. We also provide software for baseball and skijump athletes. The company was founded in 2006 in Trondheim (Norway). We are delivering user-friendly analytics tools that make up a comprehensive training ecosystem including hardware and software. Our customers are well-known tour players like Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Suzann Pettersen, Matt Kuchar, and coaches - Cameron McCormick, Sean Foley, Chris Como, Chuck Cook, Mike Adams, Tony Ruggiero, Jonathan Yarwood. The review is submitted by Stein J. Gran, CTO at Initial Force.

For what projects/services did your company hire Existek?

As our customer base was increasing, we were in need of a desktop developer that would be involved in our product development in close cooperation with our on-site development team. We had basic but rigid requirements. We looked for someone who would be proficient in technical aspects, open for cooperation and committed to the job.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to further improve the user-friendliness and user interface of our desktop application, and the focus of the job is therefore to polish the user interface so we are sure to meet our users expectations when it comes to ease of use and great design in or software. In addition, we needed more resources for maintenance and implementation of new feastures in our software.

How did you select this vendor?

We were referred to Existek by a consulting company we have worked with earlier, and this worked out well.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We are working on creating software for sports athletes, in sports like golf, baseball and skijump. Currently, Initial Force can offer a software package which includes support for sensor plates, ball/club tracking, cameras, and other accessories. At that time, we looked for a remote desktop developer that would be familiar with WPF, C#, .NET, and Win32, and could become a member of our team. The project included feature development, integration of new ideas, fast delivery, bug fixing, and lots of research and insights.

What was the team composition?

Existek has assigned one full-time desktop developer to meet the project needs.

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

We have increased our development bandwidth when it comes to implementing new features and changing existing features in our software, as well as finding innovative solutions. We are satisfied with the services Existek have provided for us on a regular basis.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management is arranged on our side, the developer from Exitek takes part in our agile software development process as a team member. The developer from Existek was clearly used to this way of working, so minimal training was necessary.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are flexible, and are able to allocate extra developes to us if we have an immediate need. Short decision processes are also a big plus.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We have worked with Existek in delivering constant improvements to our products, and they have been a valuable asset in this regard, proving to be flexible and pleasant to work with. We cannot think of anything immediate to improve on for Existek.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the managing partner of an IT consulting company. Our company provides software development services and IT consulting services for US clients.

For what projects/services did your company hire Existek?

We brought on Existek to develop a mobile CRM app with advanced features for one of our clients.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to deliver a sturdy, robust native iOS and Android app with a solid Node.js backend within a strict timeline and budget.

How did you select this vendor?

We wanted a company that is both experienced in widely used technologies and specialized technologies. We wanted to work with a partner, not just another standard development agency that only saw the short term gain. After our initial conversations with Existek, we felt comfortable trusting their leadership, management, and development teams. 

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We tasked the team with delivering two native iOS and Android apps with a server-side written on Node.js. We planned and implemented integrations with the most popular CRMs and customer management platforms. The apps have a feature that collects and stores data about companies and contacts.

Existek implemented optical scanning of the business cards with a machine learning context-aware component. It recognizes the type of the field (e.g. whether it’s a business name or an office address) along with regular recognition of data in each field.

What was the team composition?

Existek allocated a team of one iOS developer, one Android developer, two full stack developers, a QA engineer, and a Project Manager. The project manager communicated with us almost every day and reported consistent development progress. 

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our Project Manager deserves a special mention, as he was always willing to help. We were regularly updated on the development process, and he quickly reacted to any changes we wanted to make.

He eagerly outlined our requirements into clear, addressable tasks for their development team. Tasks were effectively prioritized to make sure we met the deadline and didn’t go over the budget. Also, he introduced some valuable ideas, including a monetization strategy for the app and some important features that we had missed. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

From start to finish, the folks at Existek have proven to be true to their word. I think "consistent" is the best word to describe them. They are methodical, competent, efficient, and willing to help. They are the type of company you can count on to go through the trenches with you—they easily deal with sudden challenges. Existek effectively overcame difficulties and ultimately exceeded our expectations.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Regardless of the execution, there is always room for improvement. However, this project was so smooth that I have nothing notable to add in this section.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder of a startup that offers a blockchain-based payment system.

For what projects/services did your company hire Existek?

We’re preparing for the launch of our minimum viable product.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to attract beta users and pitch our startup to potential investors.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Existek provided us with the technical consulting and development assistance needed to implement our vision of a peer-to-peer payment solution. The platform is mainly written in Java. A dedicated team developed the wireframes and platform architecture plan. Existek’s blockchain experience proved to be quite useful. They contributed to the general system architecture, showing us how something could be done better or faster. They also helped us launch the pilot project for one of our investors.

What was the team composition?

We worked with an excellent team with advanced skills in software engineering, including two backend developers and a frontend developer. We were also in contact with their project manager, tech lead, and one QA engineer.

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

We are quite happy with the final result. In fact, we plan to continue our collaboration after the launch of the pilot project, as one of our customers wants to add new features.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

After a few weeks, we didn't feel like we were working with external developers. It felt like we had an in-house team working with us in the same office.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We’re impressed with their collaboration, project management, and communication.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Nothing really comes to my mind, as everything was of the highest possible quality.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the chief digital strategist for a small consulting company that helps customers achieve their goals on the way to digital transformation.

For what projects/services did your company hire Existek?

A customer of ours requested the development of a custom enterprise resource planning (ERP) and CRM system for their sales department.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create mobile versions of the CRM and ERP system and integrate them in a single unified database that can be accessed by all employees using any device.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Existek developed mobile apps for the field agents, which duplicate the existing CRM’s functionality using the same database. They put a team together within three weeks and started the development using an agile methodology.

What was the team composition?

They assigned a business analyst, a data engineer, a backend engineer, two iOS developers, two Android developers, and a project manager.

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

The project was completed on a tight schedule and didn’t exceed our budget. The pharmaceutical industry was relatively new for Existek when we started the collaboration. Their business unit significantly improved their understanding and expertise in this industry during the engagement.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Communication was excellent. We also managed to transfer a lot of industry knowledge to them. Existek is one of the rare providers that can transform a pure idea that started on a napkin into a customized software that meets all needs. Their technical and business expertise allowed them to come up with suggestions that added significant value to the final results.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most remarkable thing about Existek is that they're capable of delivering the most advanced functionality as requested and adapt to their customer's demands quickly.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

There’s always room for improvement, but in this case, we started off with a small scope and managed to complete the project smoothly.

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.

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.

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.

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.