We build products so you can build companies
FarShore Partners (FSP) is a full-service Custom Software & Product Development Design agency. We help entrepreneurs, consumer-facing start-ups and Fortune 500 companies fuel ideas from conception to fruition.
For over 14 years, we have built our success in seeing clients as partners. Headquartered in Chicago, we have grown to be a company with over 130 talented employees with offices also in Anchorage AK, Croatia and India.
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Farmers Fridge
Farmers Fridge makes fresh meals and fills Fridges with wholesome, delicious salads, bowls, snacks and more. This page: FarShore developed the native iOS and Android applications that provide directions and item availability.
Oars + Alps has achieved success in the growing Athleisure market with their powerful yet chemical-free product formulation, aiming to improve men’s skincare routines at an affordable price.
With a strong brand strategy centered around their all-natural formulas and the lifestyle of their archetype “Oarsman”, Oars + Alps brings a unique value to a competitive market. An optional subscription and build your own kit model helps to further reach this on-the-go target consumer. Oars and Alps are now in over 500 Target locations and in 2019 were acquired by SC Johnson.
Even with a modest inventory, E-commerce is the most essential component of the Oars + Alps sales strategy. They needed some of the highly configurable flexibility found with larger platforms, without a large catalog to warrant the high associated costs. Additionally, with a goal to reach the market in time for the holiday season and satisfy investor requirements, delivery had to be accelerated.
Oars + Alps engaged with the FarShore team to build out a new site that met all of their functional criteria and kept within the target timeline. The scalable platform, Shopify, was utilized to deliver on these initial goals and also accommodate the growth of the Oars + Alps business over time. After a successful launch, a Dedicated FarShore developer was assigned to offer additional support for new features.
Tide Cleaners is a concierge laundry service, that provides users with quick access through hundreds of 24/7 drop locations.
Our partnership began with Pressbox, prior to the P&G acquisition, by building out their mobile application. Pressbox, founded in Chicago in 2013, started with a goal of modernizing the concierge services industry. Users placed their damaged or dirty items into a locker and submitted an order for service through the mobile app. Pressbox picked up these items and brought them to a 3rd party service provider, then returned the cleaned and repaired items back to the locker, notifying the customer through the app that they can collect their items. In 2018, Pressbox was acquired by P&G and work began integrating Tide Spin and Pressbox into Tide Cleaners.
The business has two separate components. The physical lockers and laundry services, and the technology portion that coordinates these services through the mobile application. When first starting in their founding year, Pressbox determined a need to hit the market fast but scalable in order to maintain manageable ongoing support costs for the business as they grew. This scalability only become more important after the acquisition, when it was determined that the existing Tide Spin app would be replaced by the Pressbox application, and rebranded to Tide Cleaners.
Britannica Digital Learning is a division of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. that provide access to innovative digital materials for educators and students
The Digital learning (EBDL) site is one of many initiatives under Britannica’s digital media offerings, providing an online resource for students and educators to access valuable and relevant scholastic materials. This includes downloadable e-books, training courses, videos, and more.
Maintaining mass amounts of up-to-date content in an accessible format was becoming increasingly difficult with the existing EBDL website structure. The front-end left much to be desired as well with an outdated design that was not mobile compatible or engaging to users. A move to a new platform would require a large port of data into a new CMS without information loss or disorganization.
FarShore was on-boarded to scope, design, develop, test, and launch a full migration to the versatile and content-focused WordPress platform. As frequent content updates were a priority for the EBDL team to make themselves, we provided post-launch training for maintaining and updating the pages of their new site.
Artifact Uprising
Building scalable eCommerce on the Magento platform. With the AU mobile app, printing photos from your camera roll and Instagram feed is now easy
Raken
Raken is a daily reporting platform for contractors. Manage accidents, delays, site safety, quality control, project photos, weather and more.
Apptuto has created an advanced exam preparation platofrm for CFA candidates.
Apptuto began with two simple ideas: first, that preparation and training were key for individuals seeking to take the Certified Financial Analyst Exam; second, that the process of preparing for the exam did not need to be as complex or complicated as some of the curriculum the test itself involved. What they envisioned was a results-oriented tool that would maximize the opportunity for success for test-takers. Apptuto launched with the goal of making every CFA test taker more prepared to achieve their targeted objectives while studying for any of the 3 CFA exams.
The Apptuto founding team sought a development partner which could help
materialize the vision of the concept and translate their test prep innovation
tools into a fully digital experience.
Guardsman
Building scalable eCommerce on the Magento platform
Reviews
the project
Mobile App & Web Dev for Utilities Company
"I’m very impressed with how flexible they are with our hours and ever-changing demands."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the co-founder of MeterGenius. We build mobile apps for energy companies to help them better communicate with their residential customers.
What challenge were you trying to address with FarShore?
We wanted to create a good visual customer experience through web and mobile apps.
What was the scope of their involvement?
FarShore helps us develop both iOS and Android apps, and they've done some backend development for our web application. They use PHP for some of the backend development, Objective-C for iOS, and Java for Android. They help with the frontend design of the pages, executing the designs that we create.
For one of the projects, we built a mobile app where customers can log in and see rich detailed usage plots. FarShore helped us with the development of that. We also have other tools that customers can engage with, such as answering questions about their electricity consumption.
What is the team composition?
We work with Ivan (Technical Project Manager) and Luka (Architecture Team Lead). We’ve had various engagements with FarShore, and each time we have a few dedicated Android developers, mobile developers, and backend developers depending on the project. Throughout the entire process, we’ve worked with Sky (Managing Director of US Operations).
How did you come to work with FarShore?
I came across them when I was in grad school at Northwestern. They were working with the entrepreneurship program there and providing services to entrepreneurs who were launching digital companies.
I became acquainted with them there, and they did some pro bono work to get started. We liked the work that they did and the team, so we kept working with them.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent about $400,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve been working with them for six years, beginning in the fall of 2014, and our engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Customer engagement was the key metric, specifically the time spent using web and mobile apps. For our customers, it was a little over 20 minutes per month, which was 3,000% higher than the industry average.
We really wanted to develop a web and mobile app that engaged residential customers and gave them value so that they would spend time using it. That’s exactly what we got with the help of FarShore.
How did FarShore perform from a project management standpoint?
Things have been good in terms of meeting deadlines. We typically get estimates to begin with, and then we start the work. The team is always very communicative if there are ever any obstacles. We have weekly standing meetings, and the communication has been great.
Sky has been fantastic at helping us communicate with the FarShore team that’s offshore, as well as with the executive team here in the US. She’s very organized and detail-oriented, and she’s helped us maintain a relationship with the developers.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their work is detail-oriented. They’re also responsive and do everything in a professional manner. We were a little apprehensive at first about working with a team across multiple continents, but Sky does a really good job of managing those teams.
There aren't many communication barriers or timezone problems. I’m very impressed with how flexible they are with our hours and ever-changing demands.
Are there any areas they could improve?
One issue that we did have, is that there was quite a bit of turnover with the teams. Even though they did a good job of trying to keep continuity as far as the team goes and trying to keep projects flowing as smoothly as possible, there were some issues with tasks being dropped or taking longer to be completed.
There’s a natural onboarding time that happens when they change developers because it takes some time for them to get up to speed with our projects if we’re expecting them to jump in the middle.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Define the tasks clearly to begin with. As long as you’re clear with them about what is expected during the tasks, everything will work out fine. The more organized we’ve been as we’ve developed and defined the tasks, the better each project has come out and with fewer delays.
the project
iOS & Android App Dev for Mortgage Services Business
"Compared to our previous partner, FarShore actually delivered."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the co-founder and CEO of Bee Mortgage App.
What challenge were you trying to address with FarShore?
We needed software engineering skill sets and leadership in terms of project management. We had everything on the frontend developed, we just needed a talented team to work hand-in-hand with our teams and code out the architecture according to our specs and backlog.
What was the scope of their involvement?
FarShore provided an iOS and Android mobile engineer who coded out the architecture. They also provided advisory services. When we couldn’t figure out logic sequences to capture the UX we were after, Nick (CEO & Founder) and JC (President) stepped in.
What is the team composition?
I worked with a total of 6–7 teammates, including Nick, JC, a project manager, and iOS and Android developers.
How did you come to work with FarShore?
FarShore reached out to me via a cold email. We did some online work with them, and we also talked to JC who was very impressive. We rolled out a limited job scope, and when we were impressed with them, we transferred all of our development needs to them.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent between $50,000–$75,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We began working with them in May 2020, and our engagement is ongoing. The Android app went live in May 2020, and the iOS app went live in August 2020.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Our internal QA specialist was very impressed with FarShore’s work. We’ve also seen a lot of downloads of the app since it went live, and we’re getting a lot of positive consumer feedback.
How did FarShore perform from a project management standpoint?
We’re pleased with their project management. Nick and JC are very hands-on, and the project manager stayed on top of the development scope and sprints. We use Slack for communication.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Compared to our previous partner, FarShore actually delivered. Their ability to work with me and our team and translate our vision is great. It was a challenging project, and their team provided brain trust. The last team we worked with on Upwork couldn’t figure out the logic. I was impressed with FarShore's process.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, I was happy with their service. We’re going to give them more business.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Communicate with them.
the project
iOS & Amazon Dev for Smart Kitchen Supply Company
“They were on-the-ball and delivered the things they promised.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
We’re an IoT startup developing a hardware product that interfaces with a cloud-based system and a smartphone app. The three elements work together to deliver features and benefits to the consumer. I’m one of the company’s two founders, and I’m in charge of the product side.
What challenge were you trying to address with FarShore?
Neither I nor my co-founder had a technical background, and it was just the two of us at the time. We were looking for a company that could become a real partner in taking on the development side. It was hard to define what we needed, and we didn’t even know what the challenges were going to be.
What was the scope of their involvement?
FarShore worked hand in hand with us to take our raw idea and turn it into functional software. They developed the iOS app and will be developing an Android version as well. They also developed our AWS backend, as well as an Amazon Alexa Skill, which was unique back when we started with them.
What is the team composition?
JC (President) was our main contact in Chicago, Tom (Senior Relationship Manager) helped with the high-level strategy and deep thinking, we had a team of four people in Croatia architecting the whole thing and managing the project.
There was a flexible team of programmers based in India. We had a lead on the graphic implementation and one programmer for coding. As needed, they were able to bring team members in and out of our project month by month to accomplish our goals.
How did you come to work with FarShore?
We vetted a lot of companies, and FarShore was one of the few that had the ability to develop a skill for Alexa. They reached out to us initially, but we didn't respond at first.
A couple of different options fell through, and we were looking at people and organizations we knew. Something about FarShore’s email stuck us, so we reached out. We ended up meeting them, and they just seemed to understand what we were trying to do, beyond just the technical aspect of the thing. They saw the big picture, which was important for us. Often, technical people get bogged down in the details and ignore the overarching goal. They do one thing very well, but it doesn’t accomplish the goal of the project.
FarShore also had a team of architects, developers, and project managers across the globe, so they could do a great job executing the technical part. Another big reason for engaging with them was their ability to flex their staff to meet our needs. This would’ve been impossible with in-house staff, and really difficult to do with other companies we considered.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve paid them less than $200,000 so far.
What is the status of this engagement?
We first contacted them in March 2018 and wrapped up in December 2019. We had a big push to get ready for CES, which was in early-January 2020.
We’re not billing them regularly given the phase of our project, but they’re still involved with us. As we move into the next phases, we’ll start the billing cycle again.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
There was no way we could’ve done it on our own, but we now have a working app with Alexa Skills. All the elements of the system that we’d dreamed about are now a reality. I don’t know what metric this represents, but it’s a big deal for us.
We’ve shown it to a lot of investors, who were tight-lipped about giving praise given that we put them in a compromised position on the negotiation table. We’ve also shown the product at CES in Las Vegas, as well as at the International Home + Housewares Show. We got rave reviews from consumers, and we had tons of writeups in blogs and websites.
The way the public sees it has been incredibly positive, and that can only have to do with FarShore’s work. Anecdotally, people love the app and how simple it is, and FarShore played a huge part in that.
How did FarShore perform from a project management standpoint?
They were on-the-ball and delivered the things they promised. JC was always available for us. We had biweekly lunches with him to keep up to date on everything going on.
It was great to have a local connection to make sure things were going well. Going the other way, if there were any concerns from his team, he would let us know in person. Especially with how the world works these days, with so much development labor being outsourced overseas, it’s nice to have a face-to-face point of contact in our city.
The project management from the team in Croatia was great. The time difference made it a bit difficult, but we always had weekly standup meetings, and they were great about updating us on everything.
We set up a flexible retainer with them, based on the number of hours needed to accomplish something, and they brought people in as needed. They could bring 100 people in if we needed something really fast for a presentation. If we were waiting on something from the hardware team, FarShore could pull members off.
What did you find most impressive about them?
A lot of providers can create a beautiful-looking app or website. That’s standard at this point, in the tech software world. What FarShore does is really to build a deeply functional product, whether it’s an app or a website. Given the amount of data transferred between the app, our hardware, Alexa, and our servers, we were having trouble finding providers that could build a functional product, not just a pretty one. FarShore delivered.
Are there any areas they could improve?
At times, it seemed like things took longer than we expected them to. I remember the subject of a lot of project management meetings being things that were supposed to be done the past week but were still being worked on. I don’t whether that was a communication issue, FarShore being too aggressive with estimates, or just us not understanding the process. It should be mentioned that this is the first tech project we’ve done.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
My advice is to engage with their owners. They have a lot to give, and that sets FarShore apart. I’m sure we’d still have an awesome product with just the teams in Croatia and India, but what set them apart was the time invested by the team in the US.
the project
iOS and Android Mobile App & Web Dev for Food Kiosk Company
“They were definitely on the upper-end of technical proficiency.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m currently the owner of an enterprise software consulting firm. I mainly do design and some build on a project basis.
When I worked with FarShore, I was the CTO of Farmer’s Fridge, a touchscreen kiosk POS company that sells freshly made food. They primarily sell food in high-traffic areas, like large office buildings and airports. I was responsible for the entire technology roadmap, everything from the embedded system that runs on the kiosk, to the cloud-based backend that tracks sales during the day and handles just-in-time production ordering.
What challenge were you trying to address with FarShore?
We had a really small internal team, and my background is more in backend development. I’d been involved in web mobile projects as a project manager, not based on my skillset. We needed to either hire, train, and get an internal team up to speed, or look for a contract solution. Time- and budget-wise, we didn’t have the bandwidth to do the internal option.
What was the scope of their involvement?
FarShore handled a relatively small web component, updating the existing website to plugin to the backend infrastructure so people could get real-time information about what kiosks were open, what stock was available, and things like that.
The bigger part of the project was developing an iOS and an Android app that gives customers real-time status information about the products available in the machines. It also has sales promotion and marketing features, such as giving customers coupons they can use. When I was there, I don’t think we got to the point of actually enabling customers to purchase through the app, but I believe they have added that since then.
The iOS side was in Swift, and then the Android side was Java. I did the architecture of the app, providing the app flow and all of the wireframes. They worked off of a relatively well-specced problem.
What is the team composition?
The project continued on significantly after I left, so I believe the team expanded. However, during the time I was there, I worked with an iOS developer, an Android developer, and an architect project manager. We worked with three full-time equivalents per month.
How did you come to work with FarShore?
I talked to about six offshore shops, and they were the first ones that I felt were convincing in terms of technical competence and some reasonable alignment to best practices I was familiar with. I wasn’t convinced some of the other companies would be able to execute well.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent about $15,000 a month, so during my time there, it ended up being about $150,000 of billable.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project began in April 2016, and my involvement ended in January 2017 because I was no longer with Farmer’s Fridge. I think that project continued for at least another couple of years, but I can’t speak to that.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Overall, I was satisfied with the development. This wasn’t my first project with an offshore firm, so I didn’t go in expecting the same process you’d get domestically from an internal team. We gave them a relatively well-specified problem, and they executed. The project was completed in the time we expected.
How did FarShore perform from a project management standpoint?
They worked in weekly agile sprints, which were very predictable and consistent with what we were used to. We had weekly calls so we could know what was getting done the next week. The process was very transparent.
We had very little direct communication with the developers, who were typically in India and sometimes Croatia. I almost exclusively dealt with JC (President) on the business side or an architect on the project management side.
They had an internal board for issue-tracking, and they typically adapt to whatever the client uses. I believe we used Trello or something with more of a Kanban structure. They would interface with our board, but then I think they were plugging it into their internal one. We didn’t adapt to their PM structure; they adapted to ours.
What did you find most impressive about them?
In general, they were definitely on the upper-end of technical proficiency. One of the hurdles with offshore firms is that you don’t know what you’re getting on the development side, but what FarShore advertised is what they delivered. They were good at development and communication, so when we did have issues — which you always do on a longer-running software project — they were definitely quick to make changes and resolve things.
Are there any areas they could improve?
The only thing would be making sure you avoid staff changes. We had an architectural change during the project. We actually ended up with someone we liked better, but I think having consistency of staff in projects like that is pretty critical. Changing an architect can be a risk; in our case, it ended up working out better, but I was initially a bit concerned.
Any advice for potential customers?
In these situations, you need to talk to multiple firms. I’d definitely put FarShore on the list of firms that you talk to, and then see whether what they’re giving you resonates with your needs and thoughts. There are a lot of things that they do well, and if it’s something they don’t, they're always forthcoming. It’s good to have that kind of trusted partnership, and I think they’re definitely on a shortlist of firms that can do that.
the project
Augmentation of Web Developers for Operational Exchange
“They really believe in a collaborative project and will work with you to accomplish your vision.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the co-founder and current chief executive officer of a third-party life insurance operational exchange.
What challenge were you trying to address with FarShore?
They are one of our main development partners in the technology space of our business.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Their team helped us to build out the initial architecture of what we’re doing, as well as the initial phase of building out the features supported by it. That included the backend coding and elements of the frontend design as well. The platform was all originally built on Rackspace and has utilized a lot of different technologies over the years.
What is the team composition?
They provided a team of about ten people to work on our project, including our main point contact who is one of the partners at the company.
How did you come to work with FarShore?
We found out about them through a word of mouth recommendation from someone we trust based on how well that project had gone for them.
How much have you invested with them?
The total cost of the relationship has been around $60,000–$70,000 so far. We started out providing ad hoc compensation for the work they were doing and have more recently moved to a monthly retainer structure instead.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our partnership started around January 2019 and is still ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They have accomplished incredible things for us and have really helped us to get our business model up and running successfully. Everything that they’ve designed is very versatile, and they have continued to surprise us with the range and depth of technologies in which they have expertise. That flexibility makes them incredibly easy partners to work with.
How did FarShore perform from a project management standpoint?
Their team is extremely accessible to reach at any time of day. They structure the process out really well, building in weekly updates on all the progress we’ve made toward specific deliverables. We had meetings to discuss both what we had completed and how the plan might have changed going forward as well, which really helped us to stay on track
What did you find most impressive about them?
As a startup company, they’re great people to work with because they will always have your back. They really believe in a collaborative project and will work with you to accomplish your vision no matter what that is or what changes it requires after you’ve started the project. We’re getting ready to do a massive next phase of the build and have no reservations about continuing to work with them going forward.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Honestly, I don’t see how their service could be improved.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
To really fully take advantage of their skill set, you should allow them to partner alongside you on the project. They can build whatever you want ad-hoc, but they are a far more full-service agency than most other vendors in their space.
the project
Custom Software Development for National Laboratory
"Their work was really high quality, and at their price point, it was unbeatable."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m an electrical engineer at a national laboratory.
What challenge were you trying to address with FarShore?
We’ve been working on a new technology for vehicle charging that allows non-network charge stations to be integrated into the smart grid. We partnered with FarShore to help us develop the product.
What was the scope of their involvement?
FarShore came on board to develop the front- and backend and the dashboard for the technology. We’d envisioned what we wanted, breaking it down from a UX standpoint. We collaborated together to design each page of the platform, and all the details of how it would look. The team used PHP, Linux, and CSS, for the most part.
From there, the team built out the frontend. They then got to work on the backend, and finally, developed a mobile app for Android and iOS.
What is the team composition?
I interacted with Sky (Managing Director) and a few other team members.
How did you come to work with FarShore?
I got multiple quotes from multiple companies, but we ended up picking FarShore in the end because they were local, personable, and their proposal was the most attractive given our budget.
How much have you invested with them?
The project cost about $175,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started in March 2019. We’re currently wrapping up the MVP, and we’re planning to kick off phase two shortly.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Everyone who looks at the platform is impressed with it. The feedback we get is fantastic. The MVP is very professional, functions correctly, and integrates well with our devices. We’re really excited about it. It was really cool to be able to take an idea and work with the FarShore developers to turn it into something that people can use.
How did FarShore perform from a project management standpoint?
FarShore performed pretty well. They didn’t meet their expected timelines, but it wasn’t a problem because we understood that the project got more complex the further into it we went.
From a project management perspective, we didn’t have any issues. If we did, I knew I could reach out to Sky to work it out.
We used Google Docs to track the project and Slack to communicate.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their work was really high quality, and at their price point, it was unbeatable.
Are there any areas they could improve?
A lot of their developers are really PHP based. It would be nice to see them expand into Node.js or other technologies to upgrade their capabilities.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
The more documentation you can have going into the project, the better off you’ll be. The project will go more quickly and smoothly.
the project
Custom Software Development for Security-Focused Startup
"Project management was sufficient and efficient."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
Tembo is an early-stage startup focused on providing security teams with real-time threat detection + actionable intelligence by analyzing movements and crowd behavior using indoor positioning. Founded in late 2018, we are developing out our technology. I am the founder of the company.
For what projects/services did your company hire FarShore?
We needed to lay down the exact design of our minimum viable product. This included investigating how the software would interact with the hardware, what sort of information we would collect, how we'd run analytics, and what features we would want to provide to our clients with our MVP.
We hired Farshore to help us with gathering the functional requirements and laying out a plan on how to build and test the MVP.
What were your goals for this project?
The document had to exactly describe how we would deliver the functionalities required by our clients. It meant understanding the hardware, the cloud architecture, the software design, and the integrated analytics. The document had to serve as the foundation for how we build out the technology.
How did you select this vendor?
I was introduced to them through the University of Notre Dame about a year ago. Farshore did some work for me then to create design mockups of our web app and mobile app. They turned that around beautifully and were high quality, high fidelity designs.
Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.
They did background research on the hardware system we are planning on using, the software and analytics engine, and the needed cloud architecture. They did further research on how we would need to test the system (as a proof of concept) once deployed and how the testing would inform the MVP development.
They laid out all the research into a really comprehensive, 20-page document that laid out exactly what the functional requirements of the MVP were and how we would build it out in order to provide those required functionalities and what the associated costs would be.
What was the team composition?
The project team consisted of an account manager, a project manager, a software architect, and a solutions architect. In addition, we had constant communication with Farshore's head of business development.
Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?
The documentation has not only helped inform our product development process but has also guided our fundraising needs. We plan on using the document to further verify to potential partners and investors that we have a clear technology development plan put together by experts in the field.
How was project management arranged and how effective was it?
Project management was sufficient and efficient. As the project was not overly complicated in terms of number of moving parts, there was not much to manage.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
Speed and quality of the work, as well as open communication lines.
Are there any areas for improvement?
N/A
the project
Custom Development for Golf Shop Platform
"We’ve been very successful because we have a great partner in FarShore helping us grow sustainably and creatively."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the managing executive for Vanguard Pro Shop, a golf shop platform.
What challenge were you trying to address with FarShore?
We hired them to be the developer for all aspects of our online golf shop solution. They’re our go-to for everything involving our online stores.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They handle everything, a good amount of frontend work, and everything on the backend. They use PHP and Magento. Anything about speed, servers, distributing servers across the different sites we run, integrating technological upgrades — they handle all of that.
How did you come to work with FarShore?
I actually inherited this partnership. We were a minority partner in a group that purchased Vanguard outright. They’re from Chicago and Vanguard is a Chicago company. However, they’ve been great and we’ve never felt a need to change.
How much have you invested with them?
We spend $60,000–$85,000 a year, but fees change depending on what we need to be done.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together beginning in December 2014, and the relationship is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The main metric I use is whether we’re doing well. We’re not metric focused — we’re team focused. As long as we keep growing and my team tells me things are still working, I’m a big fan.
Anecdotally, we like to push the technological edge and they responded and worked with us. A poor partner would show their reluctance, but they’ve done an outstanding job engaging with us. We’ve been very successful because we have a great partner in FarShore helping us grow sustainably and creatively.
How did FarShore perform from a project management standpoint?
They do a great job communicating. We submit 8–12 tickets a day. Considering how small we are, there’s a robust amount of communication. They’re relatively good at meeting deadlines, and we have a great dialog so if there’s a priority they jump to it.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They’re the only team I’ve ever worked with a team spread out across countries. They’ve done a fantastic job of being responsive and keeping the workflow moving. They’ve done an outstanding job.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I don’t have reasons to look for another partner. We’ve struggled on upgrading older platforms, and perhaps they could’ve done a better job. It wasn’t bad, but it might’ve been better.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
It’s a lot about communication and being open about where your project is going. The more you engage, the more they’re able to support your objectives.
the project
Web Development & Database Management for Analytics Company
“They were super flexible. We used Monday and Slack for project management.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the co-founder and CEO of a company that uses remote sensing and machine learning to help reduce wildfires from powerlines and increase the power grid’s up time.
What challenge were you trying to address with FarShore?
A lot of what we do is really highly specialized and it's very difficult to find talent. So all of our resources dedicated to talent have been focused on the esoteric stuff that we do. And that means there is no real room for us to do other development projects. We partnered with FarShore to handle that.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We work very closely with them for a number of years, and they’ve worked on a number of projects including Web development, backend development, and database development.
The implementation planning and granular design of how we built the backend came down to a discussion between our need and their expertise. They have such a deep bench, that whatever we need to work on, they have experts on how to get it done.
What is the team composition?
We usually interface with six people.
How did you come to work with FarShore?
I happen to know the founder from personal connections. We considered a few other firms, but they were the best to work with, so we chose them for all of our contract work.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent about $150,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in July 2015 and our engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve become more and more dependent on them over the years. Some of the things that we asked them to do hadn’t been done before, but they always figured it out and delivered the functionalities we needed.
How did FarShore perform from a project management standpoint?
It took about three months at about 4,000 man-hours. That’s what they projected, and they delivered on time. They're usually really good about hitting that stuff.
Our project was unique, so we took on more of a project management role that normally they would take care of themselves.
They were super flexible. We used Monday and Slack for project management.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They have developers in a bunch of different companies, but it was super easy to work with them, especially in comparison to other offshore development companies.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Nothing comes to mind.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be really honest with what your goals are and your management style. They’ve been super flexible, but that’s dependent on clear communication. For anyone planning to work with them, think about how you’re going to do that ahead of time.
the project
As-Needed Technical Support for Alaskan News & Info Site
"I'm their smallest client but they make me feel like my company is very important and they prioritize me."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
Our company is the premier news and information website in Alaska, with an outsized share of the market. I am the founder, president and CEO.
For what projects/services did your company hire FarShore?
Website development, maintenance, and technical support.
What were your goals for this project?
This is an ongoing contract to keep the website updated and optimized.
How did you select this vendor?
The owner explained that he would be willing to take on our company as a client and took a personal interest in the success of the venture.
Describe the project in detail.
This is an as-needed arrangement. Whenever the site is bogged down or if I need things swapped out, I contact the team and they take care of it. The open a ticket, resolve the matter, and usually it's within a day.
What was the team composition?
There's a person in Chicago that I loop things through, and a team overseas that works with my site and has been consistent with me from the start.
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
My Alexa ranking pretty much says it all.
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
Very responsive.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
I'm their smallest client but they make me feel like my company is very important and they prioritize me.
Are there any areas for improvement?
I don't know what I'd do without them. They've kept me alive.
FarShore’s efforts have had a notable impact, including a time spent on the app that is 3,000% higher than the average of the industry. The team delivers exactly as requested, and their project manager’s ability to facilitate communication is impressive. They’re an adaptable and responsive partner.