Helpware Tech

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the COO of Helpware

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Helpware is one of the global leaders in the Business Process Outsourcing industry with a focus on tech-enabled digital customer experience solutions operating out of 15 delivery centers across 10 countries

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Software development of the Microtasking platform

SOLUTION

How did you find ETEAM?

Referral

Why did you select ETEAM over others?

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

How many teammates from ETEAM were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Eteam has assembled an engeneering team for Helpware to develop microtasking platform. The team has consisted of different roles, such as Front-End&Back-End developers, QAs, UI/UX designers and managed by a dedicated Project Manager. Once the roadmap was defined, the deliverables were discussed between parties for each 2-weeks sprint.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Product release milestones completion, product features development progress

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

The Project Management was very structured and user-friendly. Most of time all sprint items were completed on time, and the team has been very flexible to accommodate our changing priorities

What was your primary form of communication with ETEAM?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their great tech talent, strong expertise in software development, and remarkable project ownership are impressive.

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

We are pretty happy with overall cooperation, and all the feedback we had was addressed in a timely manner

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of nedyx software GmbH, a modern, cloud-based low-code platform for the fast creation of business apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

eTeam helped us create the product from the beginning. We had to assemble a capable team in a very short time frame, and eTeam was able to provide that.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Actually we found eTeam on clutch.co, and compared to their competitors, no other was able to react as quickly and flexible to our requirements.

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

nedyx is a cloud-based platform to easily build business app. We are using a stack with React, Apollo, node.js and PostgreSQL, and eTeam was able to provide us a team with the required skills. The realization is based on Scrum principles, with according meetings, roles, 2-weeks sprints and regular production updates.

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

We have 2 frontend, 2 backend developers, 2 qa and 1 project manager. Plus support from a UI/UX expert and a devops team by demand.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to present the early phase of the product already after 4 months to prospects and partners, and after 15 months the product already went to production. Which is very short for a product of this size and the very rich provided functionality. Presentations have been very successful right from the start.

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

Very effective project management, any upcoming problem or challenge is processed very quickly with a good quality and resolution. We are using Jira, Slack, Confluence and Github for our communication and process lifecycly management.

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

All work is done in an always surprisingly short time frame, may it be the realization of product increments, UI/UX design deliverable, devops activities or project management tasks. All involved people are very skilled and extremely committed.

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

One good and important aspect is that any upcoming concern or improvement option is always processed very quickly, so there is no open improvement option known which could be shared here.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a UK-based startup, and our first product is an educational app for grade-schoolers. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eTeam?

We needed help developing an MVP of our app. We worked with another app developer, but they failed to deliver on the app’s core mechanism.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

eTeam developed a working prototype of our application. Our app serves as a phone lock, and to unlock their phone, kids need to complete math, spelling, or geography challenges. After a specific amount of time set by the parent, the phone locks again.

eTeam created features such as the multiplication challenge, parent login, child setup, rewards, and phone box. They used React Native to build the app.

We’re currently looking for new partners and investors. As soon as we find financing, we will engage with eTeam again.

What is the team composition?

Our project manager was our point of contact, and I also worked with Alex (CTO).

How did you come to work with eTeam?

I reached out to my network for a new partner, and a colleague recommended eTeam.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2020–September 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My CTO had experience working with large multinational companies, and he said eTeam worked better than the IT teams of giant organizations. 

eTeam was very organized, and their code was open — we could get any information we needed from them. They were also good at their reporting, and they followed the highest of standards with their work. Our CTO sang praises about the quality of their code.

How did eTeam perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a weekly catch-up and a bi-weekly demo. During catch-ups, eTeam would tell us last week’s accomplishments and this week’s priorities and backlog. They followed agile methodologies. They were very flexible and patient — their team was great to work with.

Our project manager made sure everybody was present, and she was fun and engaging. She would always have a PowerPoint presentation with an agenda of our day’s goals. Everything was super clear. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

eTeam’s communication, process, and structure were impressive. Their team had good people — you would want to work with everybody on their side. They were professional, and our collaboration was a pleasant experience overall. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only part that I found challenging was they wanted complete payment upfront. That was tough, and our investor wasn’t happy with that. Not that I didn’t trust them — I just had a bad experience in the past.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have all your money upfront, and you’re ready to go. You should also prepare as much information about the project as possible — they’re very good at extracting everything they need from you. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Co-Founder of a Fintech company aiming to serve open banking payment solutions to the underbanked communities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired eTeams for the Discovery Phase and Development of our platform. We needed the Font-End, Back-End, and UxUi designs of the platform in both IOS and Android.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We found them through their very high Clutch reviews. We decided to work with them after the introductory meeting: the team seemed very prepared, confident, and very trustworthy.

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

A Discovery Phase in which they would lay out the architecture of the development and create a roadmap with a timeline and budget to pursue the development of the platform.

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

CEO, CTO, 2 Project Managers, plus 7 developers working behind the scenes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They delivered 100% of what is was asked for the best quality possible. Not only met but exceeded our expectations.

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

They used agile methodology. Slack for communication, with weekly meetings with the CTO and PMs assigned to our project.

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

The quality and diversity of their team were impressive. Its use of emotional intelligence to deeply understand their customers needs and their great ability to execute the tasks to the best of their ability.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product at an early-stage startup working on a women’s health app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eTeam?

We first launched the app about two years ago in iOS. It was written in Swift, so it could only be deployed in iOS. We worked with eTeam to build the app in React Native, a cross-platform language, so we could deploy it on Android and iOS with a shared code base.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They are replicating the current iOS app in React Native, so we provided all of the materials that we already had from the Swift app and gave them access to the code.

It’s a daily wellness and cycle tracker. eTeam has built functionality that tracks the user’s menstrual cycle through their calendar. They’ve also featured all of the visual content, such as the text, images, and videos from the iOS app that are specific to where the user is in their cycle. This gives users a better understanding of what’s happening with their hormones and allows them to track symptoms across multiple days.

What is the team composition?

We had one full-time and one part-time developer, a part-time QA engineer, and a part-time project manager.

How did you come to work with eTeam?

They were recommended to us by a startup in the UK. They had worked with eTeam in the past and said they were flexible and had an integrated approach within teams.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $32,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

eTeam started working with January 2021 and launched it in April, but our partnership is ongoing. We just signed another six-month contract to keep iterating on the app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We met our initial goal and were able to release the MVP on Android, but we still have a few features to build before we can launch it on iOS. Our CTO has reviewed some of the code, and she is very confident in the quality of their work. We will have more success metrics over the next couple of months as we look at the stability of the app and how many issues come up.

How did eTeam perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, it has been a great partnership. There were a couple of hiccups, but they rectified them quickly. When we needed them to, they removed people from the project and found replacements quickly so it didn’t impact the delivery dates. Now we’re working with a seasoned team member who makes us feel confident that they’ll do a good job.

We primarily use Slack to communicate, but we have a Zoom call once a week to check in with them and go through sprint demonstration.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This was my first time working with a third party on an app development project, and several people warned me against it because things could go wrong. However, I was pleasantly surprised by eTeam. We figured out how to work together and our partnership has been quite successful, so they will be our solution going forward.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could ask more questions. They seemed a little apprehensive to take up too much of our time by asking questions. However, it would have been more efficient in the long run if they had asked for clarification sooner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know what you need and what you want from the onset to avoid trial and error. If it’s not clear what your expectations are, there will be hiccups.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Chief technology officer at Kissmetrics, a person-based product and marketing analytics company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired eTeam to augment our team in our devops and infrastructure modernization efforts.

SOLUTION

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

eTeam proved capable of handling progressively more complex projects over time, and we now entrust them for large-scale modernization efforts.

They have consistently delivered in a timely fashion, they communicate and comprehend clearly, the management is very proactive and transparent, and they onboard and operate quickly and independently.

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

We have been modernizing a vast legacy infrastructure running in the cloud on legacy VMs so that all services are now containerized and running in a container orchestrator. Additionally, we are modernizing our CI/CD pipelines to improve deployment times and our rate of iteration.

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

Over time, we have worked with a total of three software engineers and two project managers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

eTeam has made tremendous progress migrating our legacy services to a modern infrastructure. We are wrapping up the migration now, and we expect to be fully transitioned to the new architecture in the coming months.

This allowed our team to deal with daily maintenance and focus on features we otherwise would not have been able to, trusting that progress was being made on an entirely new infrastructure which will vastly improve our productivity.

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

Standard agile development cycle with a weekly sync. We communicate over slack and via task management software. Their timelines have been very reasonable. I imagine they would adopt their style to the environment as needed.

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

They are able to execute independently, which helps save our bandwidth for the other issues we're inundated with.

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m in senior business development at a B2B payment gateway in Indonesia. We serve Indonesia and the Philippines.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eTeam?

We needed to develop a mobile app because we don’t have mobile developers in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve been working with them on a mobile app project. We started from scratch. They started with an MVP that we needed for audits. That finished in December, but we’re still working with them now to get the MVP to go live. 

The interfaces we’re working on for iOS and Android app and an admin dashboard. We are using native iOS and Android tech stacks. On the backend, we use Node.js and Typescript. We are running it on AWS, and we’re using PostgreSQL.

What is the team composition?

We started out with one iOS developer, one Android developer, one QA, one backend, one full-stack, and one project manager. Since then, we’ve grown the team. 

We’ve added another iOS and Android developer and another QA. Right now, we’re in the middle of adding more personnel. We will end up having an additional iOS developer, Android developer, and backend developer.

How did you come to work with eTeam?

I found them through Clutch. Their reviews caught my attention. I talked to multiple dev houses in Ukraine, India, and Indonesia. eTeam understood our requirements best.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $160,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

eTeam met the hard deadline for the MVP. The fact that we achieved that is the first success. They also helped us by working overtime and on the weekends which we compensated after. A success metric going forward will be on reliability of the app and on time production.

How did eTeam perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Slack. We have shared channels, and I have direct messages with the project manager when needed. We also use Jira. Typically, the project requirements come from me as the product owner. Then the project manager is the one who makes the towel pass.

What did you find most impressive about them?

eTeam really understands our business needs and the needs of a startup. That’s very unique to them after talking to quite a bit of companies. They don’t feel like a contractor. From the founders to the project manager and the developers, they’re aligned with what we’re trying to achieve whether its timing or product quality.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

We believe in continuous improvement. There are things we’re still trying to improve in how we work together with them. One of the things the project manager is working on right now is on estimations. 

It’s not their fault because during an audit MVP, we put that on hold. Something we can do better moving forward is our estimates for each sprint. We have no complaints on our side.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We’ve learned to give them the overview of your business goals and also what you’re working towards. They’re able to give the best advice on how to approach the development and the technical side too.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the development manager at BlueSnap, a global payment processor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eTeam?

BlueSnap acquired a company and we needed to build a team to grow it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide team management, software development, and hiring support. They continue to work on our core product and were able to integrate it with our new partner's product. It's an invoice management and automation system, and they use Ruby on Rails, React, and JavaScript. 

What is the team composition?

There are quite a few recruiters, HR, account managers, and the founders.

How did you come to work with eTeam?

I personally knew the founders.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2019 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re building one of our core platforms right now. Everyone is happy with their work.

How did eTeam perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is good. I have nothing to complain about. We use Jira, a Slack channel, email, and weekly calls with management to maintain communication. With COVID-19, they handled everything to make sure everyone on the team could work remotely.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really focused and goal-oriented. They tried to understand our exact needs. They do their best to support us in all ways that they can: with resources, administrative support, and technical expertise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a really good partner that’s really comfortable to work with. Even if you don’t have a clear vision, they will help you build a vision and narrow down what you want.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We’re working to make money better—for everyone. Whether it’s your paycheck, pension, or piggybank savings, money matters to us all.

So, rather than relying on banks—with their fees, delays, and fraud risk—we stand for money without limits. That’s why we support Bitcoin Cash, a global digital currency that only you can control.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired eTeam to work on Bitcoin.com Maps. The simplest way for users from across the globe to find places to spend their cryptocurrency in person.

The goal of the project was to create an improved experience for mobile and desktop users, in addition to supplying a developer friendly api to be used by 3rd parties and internally across our other product lines.

We also required an administrative dashboard for our support team to more easily manage location moderation.

SOLUTION

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

We selected eTeam based on their recommendations from peers who have worked with their team in the past. After several interviews both with management and engineering it was clear we found the right fit.

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

Use cases: User is looking for a store nearby

View: map with the viewport of 20 minutes walking distance from the current location if stores exist. If stores don’t exist, an overlay message stating that with options to search for another location List of stores with address, ratings and (if possible) distance to them Link to Google Maps navigation (via android intent or url launcher)

User searching for a store in arbitrary location Search is done via google maps Results are displayed in the same fashion as use case 1 User adding a store Search for store name and/or address

Results are retrieved from Google Places Adding a store sends the information to moderator User receives a push notification if store is approved

User receives a push notification and a message if store is declined User reporting an issue with the store Store name + list of common issues if possible (e.g. Bitcash is not accepted)

Issue is sent to moderator When issue is resolved, a push notification is received with the message from moderator User commenting on the store Each comment includes rank of the store and a text comment (from the standpoint of bitcash operation) If moderator removes the comment, user receives push notification with the reason

Actor: moderator Use cases: Moderator reviews stores added by community Requests are grouped by google place ID/name so that multiple requests can be confirmed/declined at once If declined by moderator, additional message is required that will be sent to all users submitting the request (message can be done via presets)

Moderator reviews issues Process similar to above Moderator can take down the store from the app if the issue is confirmed The result of issue review contains a message from moderator

Store list management Moderator has the same lookup interface as the user In addition to the user’s features moderator is able to take down stores listed Managing comments Moderator can remove a comment from the store if he finds it inappropriate or irrelevant. When doing so he is required to provide a reason which is sent to the user who left the comment

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

We worked a team of 5 from eTeam, including a project manager, and four engineers who supplied frontend development, backend development, api development, along with quality assurance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Succssfully rebranded the project from Marco Coino to Bitcoin.com Maps Increased the speed at which new listings were added to Bitcoin.com Maps

Delivered full functioning mobile-friendly maps with submit listing functionality, and marker spidering for locations with large clusters of stores in a small geographical footprint (ie malls)

Delivered a full featured developer api for internal and external use Developed and provided staging and production servers for all features Developed an advanced administrative dashboard for our internal support team to easily moderate locations

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

The project management style suited our organization structure very well at Bitcoin.com. We held two weekly meetings to go over project milestones, and another to demo the progress made by their team each week.

Regular contact with their team was held via a shared Slack channel, in addition to regular emails. Communication was professional and insightful. eTeam went above and beyond in considering all possible use cases for an enhanced map to showcase stores/locations accepting cryptocurrency.

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

Very high level of quality of engineering. Our internal engineers have had a great time working with their deliverables. Their communication style and organization was terrific in working with two internal product managers along with designers.

Their flexibility with our often busy schedule was greatly appreciated, but more important than all of this was their complete ability to follow through on requests, along with setting very clear expectations and delivering high quality results.

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

I'm unaware of any ways they could have improved.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CTO with Genie, a recruitment company bringing together clients with candidates at pace using machine learnt algorithms available on the web and mobile devices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We required eTeam to take an early beta of our product and re-architect and engineer it for enterprise with the ability to scale. Additionally we required a full iOS and Android application to be built from the ground up using the new technology.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We sourced eTeam after a recommendation and interview process and were impressed with their credentials and ability to evidence previous work they had completed using our required technology platforms.

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

We required eTeam to re-engineer a legacy PHP code base sitting on Google cloud, move it to AWS, refactoring the code utilising Lambda, AWS Lex for chat and ensuring services and functions were available via API. Backend database schema changes were also required during migration.

eTeam also built from the ground up iOS and Android applications utilising the new architecture also providing the design expertise necessary for both application and web layouts.

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

At various times the team scales as to our requirements but a core team exists consisting of a project manager, account manager, back end developer, front end developer, QA engineer & mobile developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Both the internal team and our customers have expressed their praise for the design and build quality of the application and web interfaces produced by the team. Transitioning to a mobile application, facilitated by eTeam, has greatly improved our ability to directly engage with customers and clients, improving response times and assisting with revenue generation.

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

eTeam are very transparent in their management style, holding regular update meetings and working together on sprint goals, metrics and progress. We are always able to input and find the team responsive to our needs with a genuine desire to assist us in meeting deadlines.

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

eTeam have a truly collaborative approach to working with us, feeling like a part of our team with a real understanding that we succeed together.

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

At every point where there have been any issues, eTeam were swift to address and rectify.