Helpware Tech

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of a B2B e-commerce marketplace for food producers, manufacturers, and retailers. Our platform enables users to directly trade with each other, simplifying the food supply chain, delivering fresher produce, and reducing waste.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire eTeam?

We wanted to build the MVP for our product.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a progressive web app (PWA) that had a stable and scalable foundation.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After an extremely long and arduous interview process, we decided on eTeam over the 20 other agencies we considered. They showed the best understanding of our goals and had the right skill set.

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

We provided designs and a detailed statement of work. eTeam followed our directions closely, building the platform from scratch using React.js and Ruby on Rails. It’s a multi-sided e-commerce marketplace with integrated chat technology, approval mechanics, and a backend administrative panel.

What was the team composition?

We worked with three full-time teammates and two on-demand resources. They assigned one project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to eTeam, we’ve launched an MVP and secured our first customers. Their services sped up our process, completing the project in a quarter of the time and delivering twice the quality level than we would’ve been able to internally.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We primarily spoke through Slack, with scheduled demos and catch-up meetings via Zoom. We recorded any bugs or requested changes on Google Slides. Across all communication channels, there weren’t any language barriers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re fast and responsive. The team understands that there will be changes during the project, so they approach their work with flexibility and agility.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

They should allow more time for clients to make requests and use more accessible terminology when discussing technical details.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of emerging technologies for a fintech enterprise.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eTeam?

We often work with complex programs and needed a consulting firm to help us with a development effort related to one of our e-commerce channels.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Considering we try to build new solutions, we often look to eTeam for their creative input regarding UX and listen to their recommendations for how to solve specific challenges. Their usual deliverables include wireframes or websites. They’re able to keep communication fluid and complete tasks quickly. That kind of relationship makes it easy to improve existing products and build onto new concepts.

eTeam assists us in developing software demos that show different customer experiences without having to program an entire system. For example, we might want to emulate the user experience of activating a gift card without actually using the card. They’ve helped develop software that enables us to analyze new approaches without creating discrepancies within our production system.

eTeam recently developed a website for us that uses a WYSIWYG tool to facilitate an easily customizable platform. Using that tool, I can load new images or do all kinds of styling tasks without having development expertise. The finished website allows us to create proof of concepts with having to initiate an internal build process. We’ve also run a couple of projects that required us to make a sandbox type of environment for our partners. The purpose of that is to create a space where our partners can review and edit the specifications of different APIs without impacting adjacent systems. Building those product sandboxes is the current project we’ve allocated to eTeam.

What is the team composition?

Eugene (Product Owner, eTeam) is our primary contact regarding communication and project management. However, we’re usually working on several projects simultaneously, so the particular entities that lead each project vary accordingly.

How did you come to work with eTeam?

We already had a relationship with some of the individuals who started eTeam. Plus, a few people left their company and joined us. Therefore, our working relationship with them developed from having a deep understanding of the products they’ve created. Having that information made hiring them an easy decision.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000–$200,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2013 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve significantly improved our ability to present customers with practical demonstrations of the services we provide. Even their sandbox environments perform a useful function within our sales cycle by allowing our products to be vetted by potential clients. Being able to address feedback and engage with our clients in real-time gives us a strategic advantage over similar firms. Overall, their efforts fill in the gaps that are often created when our internal team is working on multiple projects at once.

How did eTeam perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re happy with their level of documentation and responsiveness when coordinating. They organize projects from an outside perspective by holding regular meetings and reminding us when they’re waiting for deliverables. They always keep our momentum moving forward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The biggest difference between them and other consulting firms is their ability to take a minimal project outline and run with it to completion. They’re also quick to provide valuable recommendations and exciting starting points for discussion. I find that aspect of their service to be unique.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve misinterpreted what we were looking for a few times, but that’s the nature of our business.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend that future clients provide eTeam with everything they need to move forward. We struggled to do that at times. Luckily, eTeam reached out to us whenever they required certain deliverables to progress.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're a cyber security company. I'm a principal scientist.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire eTeam?

We needed frontend development for an AI-based video analysis software.

What were your goals for this project?

The software has to have an appealing interface using modern web-based technologies. It has to be easily ported to mobile devices. Some of its aspects are novel, including non-standard, not well-documented aspects of contemporary web development.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They'd been recommended to our CEO by a third party. We were looking for a partner capable of quickly developing the software we needed that could bring quality, professionalism, and a good price.

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

They provided design and implementation for a web-based application frontend, displaying a large number of augmented video streams. In addition, it required a database, user management, and integration on the backend side. The deployment used docker, and the project skeleton provided a proof of concept through close cooperation with their engineers.

What was the team composition?

There was one permanent developer and a permanent project manager. We had regular daily standups to coordinate between our own engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is still ongoing, but we're very pleased with the work and attitude from their team. Their project management guaranteed continued progress in case of delays in the backend development. For our business, this means that we can meet internal deadlines and deliver to our client on time.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management is effective and we're pleased with the style. They identified bottlenecks and offered solutions, effectively using daily standups.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're polite, friendly, and communicate professionally. They're very flexible, even with projects and approaches that are non-standard, such as more scientific-related context. They have a diversity of skills they can bring to a project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of CIENCE, an outbound sales organization. We help high-performing sales teams find more prospects and partners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eTeam?

We originally needed some sophisticated technical help on several challenges. We're a technology and services business, but we don't have a big technical staff. We needed a vendor that could easily scale up and down on demand. The vendor also needed to be sophisticated enough to tackle our technical challenges.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

eTeam is our on-demand, outsourced technology team. We're likely to be doing something with them at any given point. The scope of the projects varies widely. We may have just one person spend a few hours monitoring a system. Other times, we may have several of their employees working directly with our team on large design or development projects.

We do a lot of data manipulation, either normalizing or standardizing large data sets. The off-the-shelf tools only get the job done part way. We use eTeam when we need to develop technical approaches to processing large lines of data. A lot of what we're trying to do is to automate connections between various platforms and tools (e.g., G Suite, HubSpot, and Salesforce). eTeam helps us to create custom connectors between the various systems in order to streamline our work.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with anywhere from just 1–2 people to 6–10 people, depending on the project.

How did you come to work with eTeam?

They were a recommendation from a mutual business contact. We decided to try them out on a project because good word-of-mouth matters a lot in this space.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $40,000, but it varies across the types of projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first engagement was about 18 months ago. At that time, I was in an advisory relationship with CIENCE. I joined as CEO about a year ago, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

eTeam is much better at accurately estimating budget, timeframe, and scope than most other vendors. While they don’t always hit their deadlines exactly, that's actually not the true measure of success in this space. It's almost impossible to accurately estimate those aspects of software projects. More importantly, they're quite good at working through changes as projects unfold. They excel at being nimble when changes during the development process change the scope. As our projects unfold, they do a great job of providing data points that help the company make good business decisions.

How did eTeam perform from a project management standpoint?

Their superior project management is one of the primary reasons that we continue to work with eTeam. Project management is one of the most difficult things to do in a remote setting. They really shine in terms of communication and making sure they always understand the project requirements. Their well-honed project management methodology is thoughtful and elegantly constructed.

They're willing to use whatever communications stack we prefer. Our primary mode of communication with them on projects is Slack. We also use Basecamp and Jira for some projects. They’re nimble enough to adapt to any tool and interact well across any platform.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their executives are especially thoughtful, articulate, and smart. I think of them as colleagues and friends. Beyond knowing how to project manage and how to lead a technology team, they’re humble. I really appreciate that they’re willing to admit when they don't have a good answer. I know I can rely on them to speak honestly. If I asked them if something is technically possible, they’re going to give me an answer based on their actual skills and not just them trying to make a sale.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would like to see them develop content aimed at educating audiences about technology tools. There’s a gap in the market around what does or doesn’t work well in this space. It’s not a criticism, but a suggestion to invest time and energy into education.

I would personally benefit from them their knowledge about frameworks, toolsets, and development approaches. We’ve already learned a lot from that helps inform the way we think about overcoming our technical challenges. I’d like to see them create some great video and/or text content. I suspect a lot of their customers would also find it would useful.

Any advice for potential customers?

It’s not going to be a typical outsourced vendor relationship. The more you can integrate their team directly into your business, the more successful the engagement will be. Your team members that need to interact the most with them should have a direct connection to their team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a product manager working with a digital technologies team at a financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eTeam?

We needed a company to help us develop microsites. eTeam worked with us on a smaller project previously, so we decided to expand their scope of work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They build microsites for us to help us manage promotional transactions. The microsites integrate with multiple APIs within our own company or other companies we work with. They do a lot of custom development for individual websites that have a mobile focus. The websites are international and public facing. Additionally, they have built an enterprise level tool to allow us to quickly and easily spin up our own microsites.

What is the team composition?

We work with a product manager, who is our primary point of contact, a couple of engineers, a frontend developer, a part-time QA expert.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2015 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were helping us build individual websites when they saw an opportunity for us to use a new tool. After that, our business has been growing. When I first came on board, we were building 4–5 websites a year, the following year it was almost 80, and last year we built 175 websites. We use templates to create many websites on our own and they help us with custom development.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very flexible and responsive. We communicate with eTeam via email and use Smartsheet to manage our projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They've become an extension of our internal team and understand our needs and challenges exceptionally well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don't think so. I'm happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them all the information upfront and let them come to you with solutions. They often have much better ideas than we do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company specializes in financial technology and I'm the director of financial services. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eTeam?

We wanted to set up a platform to run our business, so we were looking for a company to help us with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did everything from product ads to testing and launching. We have a program by which our customers receive barcodes that help them pay bills. Customers can make payments to our network retailers or fund online accounts just by using a barcode – so they don't have to stand in line or fill out the information manually. We worked collaboratively with eTeam to develop the wireframes and then they helped us with all the technical elements of the transaction. 

What is the team composition? 

We have a project manager and we work with one of their cofounders. They have a fairly substantial team that is always willing to help out.

How did you come to work with them?

Our company had an existing relationship with them, so it was natural for us to choose them for this project. They haven't let us down.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working with them in early 2016 and the relationship is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform helps drive traffic to our retail locations. We're tracking the uptime, which has been very high, as well as the transactions and the dollar volume. They took the project seriously, making themselves available when needed.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They put together a plan and followed it, meeting the timelines that they had set. They're very transparent and update us regularly on the progress of the project. If something comes up, we're always able to get in touch with the right people and address the issue immediately.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They stand behind what they produce and truly believe in what they do. Also, they're flexible and understanding when things change.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Talk to their cofounders about your project. They're a pleasure to deal with and always give us the level of attention that we need.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Founder of Aiter.io

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A marketing AI tool that generates ads, content and strategy ideas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Develop an MVP, support further development

SOLUTION

How did you find ETEAM?

Online Search

Why did you select ETEAM over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ETEAM were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We asked eTeam to develop our marketing tool that uses AI tech. The workflow was very smooth: we provided them with all the documentation, which they helped to edit and elaborate. After that, they provided a mock-up of the interface we could click and modify. After we had the interface clean and polished, they delivered the actual products which we were able to deploy very fast.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've got our first 10,000 visitors in a couple of months. The product started to grow virally because people recommended it. No major bugs noticed.

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

Fast responses, we used Jira to track the project's progress. We communicated via Whatsapp, email and Zoom. Their process was very clear and transparent; we always knew who was doing what.

What was your primary form of communication with ETEAM?

Virtual Meeting

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

"Easygoiness", I'd say. They guys are really easy to speak, communicate and deliver. I like this mix of informality and effectiveness.

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

I liked their approach, no comments.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-founder & CMO of Fintellect

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A financial toolkit for project-based b2b service companies

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Set up a clear product development roadmap.

SOLUTION

How did you find ETEAM?

Referral

Why did you select ETEAM over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ETEAM were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We develop a SaaS web app for project-based SMEs. eTeam helped us with product discovery, roadmap development, user research, and development planning. They have a precise vision of how a web app should be properly built, what services to use, and what issues to avoid. It saved us from a lot of pitfalls, and helped to create a clear roadmap for future development, and saved a ton of money.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Growth of product metrics 
• Clear product roadmap

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

Their project management was on point. Everything was fast and clear.

What was your primary form of communication with ETEAM?

Virtual Meeting

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

• Their internal process build perfect  
• Team is very competent

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

All good

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Chief Operating Officer @OPEN B GATEWAY LIMITED.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire eTeam?

Starting from the ground up, we needed to develop an online platform that takes advantage of the Open Banking initiative. Our clients are finance lenders - we help them by securely sharing the online banking data of their prospective borrowers so that they can check that the borrower can afford the monthly loan repayments. The borrower benefits by not being burdened with debt they cannot afford, and our client benefits by being able to make better credit decisions.

What were your goals for this project?

To develop a secure, streamlined, extensible Open Banking platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

First we investigated hiring a team within the UK, but quality and price lead us to investigate outsourcing. We researched various global sites and settled on Ukraine due to time zone, quality and price. This lead us to find 6 potential development partners in Kiev - we booked meetings with each and flew out to Kiev for a week. eTeam immediately stood out to us as being a great fit.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

eTeam have helped with scoping and developing requirements. They are good at taking quite loosely defined requirements, building on them, and turning them into an end product. We believe that outsourcing works best when the outsourced team is not afraid to apply common sense to minor problems, so they can be resolved without input from the hiring side. This approach really takes the pressure off and is invaluable. We run the project in phases, with each phase being broken down into 2 weekly sprints, with a demo at the end of each sprint.

What was the team composition?

1 project manager 2 back-end Golang developers 1 front-end dev 1 QA tester part time devops part time UX

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've gone from zero to platform in 6 months.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management is very good. We communicate via Slack. We have a weekly meeting each Monday morning, and a bi-weekly end-of-sprint demo.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The overall quality of the product is very good. And eTeam make it easy my life easier by being able to work independently.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is very little that could be improved.