Java & .NET Development for Computer Software Startup
- Custom Software Development
- $50,000 to $199,999
- Quality
- 4.0
- Schedule
- 4.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"FreezePro Software is really good at delivering on what they say."
- Other industries
- Oslo, Norway
- 1-10 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
FreezePro Software is implementing an agile, step-by-step architecture for schedule management software. They also developed mobile versions of the software and have been retained to implement new modules.
FreezePro Software’s test-driven development has resulted in an exceptional quality of work. The team consistently and reliably delivers on accurate estimates and is responsive to recommendations for improvement. They use flexible project management that produces results and gets products to market.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Please describe your organization.
We produce software within the HR [human resources] business, so it's about time keeping. Our targeted customers are mainly small restaurants and coffee shops who need to schedule and manage the time of their employees. Certain work periods would typically give them higher salaries than other work periods; certain tasks would also influence this. Also, everything needs to be regulated according to the Scandinavian rules of employment. That pertains to how many hours you are allowed to work, how much holiday time you accrue, and so on.
We make the software, and we market it to restaurants and coffee shops. What we're trying to do is to establish a platform for HR software, much like a platform for service. That would be our ultimate goal, but we're just getting one inch into the market at this time.
What is your position?
I am the chief executive officer.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What business challenge were you trying to address with FreezePro Software?
The basic challenge was to design and implement our software architecture. We wanted a software architecture that would be Agile enough to allow us to branch into the different markets that we are targeting while, at the same time, not being so general that it required a lot of investment. We had a short timeframe to market as a goal while not sacrificing the technological and architectural agility to make necessary changes later.
SOLUTION
Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.
What we asked FreezePro to do was to come up with a suggestion for the architecture and a proposal for implementing that in different phases. We wanted to utilize the architecture step-by-step, but still give us something that we could go to market with at each of those phases. It was not a long journey, but rather a series of intense, small journeys that would result in value at each step.
I'm not too deep into the technology part, but I believe Silverlight was used, .NET was used and probably some Java stuff was also used in the back-end. FreezePro also made the mobile versions for the iPhone. I don't know what technologies they used for the mobile versions, but it works in Android and also in iOS. I don't know the details, but it does work.
We have recently expanded the scope of their involvement. We have contracted several new modules that we will have them implement, which will utilize the basic infrastructure that has been established. Still, we are not looking to do this big bang sort of thing – we're doing it step-by-step. From our perspective, what we are most concerned with is the market, obviously. Their work has grown in terms of our targeted markets.
Right now, we have a team of five developers from FreezePro, including the project manager and the architect. They are not all full-time resources, but play five distinct roles. I think the project manager is something like 30 percent and the architect is more like 50 percent with us, and the three others are full-time developers.
They are doing the whole circle, including quality assurance and testing. We adopted a development strategy that focuses a lot on testing in progress. We start out by defining the acceptance tests, and they code until the software passes those benchmark tests, at which point it is, by definition, quality assured.
How did you come to work with FreezePro Software?
I've worked quite a lot with offshore development companies in the past. I used to be the Nordic director of a very large company – actually the largest company in the Nordics for HR and payroll. I had been working a lot with Indian, Malaysian, and Ukrainian developers. I came across FreezePro while I was in that earlier position.
I chose them because their initial offer included spending some time actually working out the architecture and not just start from day one with coding. They were willing to spend time discussing the overall goal of the project, what it could become in five years, and so on, in order to ensure that the architecture actually does work. That is why I'm so pleased with these guys. They made this suggestion themselves, and this sets them apart from other companies that I had worked with in the past.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?
I would say we have spent somewhere in the vicinity of $60,000 working with FreezePro.
What is the status of this engagement?
The engagement will be continuous. As long as we're in business it will just grow, and we will continue to expand our relationship with FreezePro.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from this engagement?
We've considered different possible KPIs [key performance indicators], but what we have landed on is actually just exposing FreezePro to what we need in order to succeed in the market. We have been pretty involved in the process, but we have kept the project management onshore. Our project manager has been very involved and is steering the development as they go along.
We have had some private customers trying out the software, and they have made suggestions for changes, which have been implemented. Overall, the quality of work that they've delivered has always been exceptional. Test-driven development has been a huge success.
How did FreezePro Software perform from a project management standpoint?
We use JIRA as a project management tool. Our in-house project manager is participating in the sprints and in the sprint-planning process. Then, they work on their own, and then they produce something on the other end, with some features not implemented and some implemented, and they adjust accordingly. It hasn't been textbook Agile, but it has been a flexible process that does work. It does produce results, and it does get things to the market.
What distinguishes FreezePro Software from other providers?
What FreezePro Software is really good at is delivering on what they say, because they're pretty small – they are only about 50 people or so. They actually do deliver on their estimations. For smaller businesses like ours, FreezePro Software is an ideal size in terms of actually getting the job done.
In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?
It all boils down to what is always an issue in offshore situations. They need to spend even more time understanding our business. But, this is actually not really an offshore issue; it's more like a general software development issue. Developers typically tend not to be too familiar with the domains they are working in. They would benefit from giving even more energy to the domain knowledge of the market that I am in, as a customer.
Based on my experiences from other companies, they have been very good. Indian companies don't work at all in this respect, although some Ukrainian and Russian companies that I've worked with have managed to pull this off, but FreezePro has been the best so far. Still there is room for improvement – definitely.
RATINGS
-
Quality
4.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
4.0On time / deadlines
"The reason I'm giving them four for these two questions is that nothing is ever perfect. In my book, four is actually the best, so five should be reserved for something that is extraordinary – something cosmic."
-
Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"Definitely.