Honeycomb Software

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of a software development company.

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

Ongoing development work on a video editing web app.

How did you select Honeycomb Software and what were the deciding factors?

They offered experienced services using our technologies at a great price for value.

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

We had a meeting with technical leads and a developer from Honeycomb Software to discuss the project. After that the developer has joined the project to work on it in a full time capacity adding features and improvements to the web app. We have daily stand ups that are also attended by the architect who provides technical advice from an experienced background.

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

At the start a project manager helped coordinate and facilitate the initial meetings. The CTO helped flesh out the broad technical requirements. Then a developer was assigned to the project to work in a full time capacity on development. An architect also provided supplemental oversight of the development.

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

So far Honeycomb soft has delivered several impactful new features and also contributed to a cleaner more efficient code base. These features include:

• Adding social sharing 
• Adding a new page for managing video exports
• Adding better video thumbnails - Integrating with a stock photo AP
• And more

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

After initial meetings to introduce the project. A developer from Honeycomb Software joined my team and we worked closely together to work on the web app. We have daily stand ups.

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

The attention and concern with delivering well designed code on top of high value features. The folks from Honecombsoft care about the project and are great to work with.

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

Not yet.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We produce electrical design drawings. Backing this service up with online drawing management and additional support software. The company commenced in the 1999. I am the operations manager.

For what projects/services did your company hire Honeycomb Software?

We have aging software which was originally developed some 10 years ago. The original software also relied on many third-party applications which were no longer supported and falling over. We needed direction on the best solutions out there as we really were out of touch on the options available to us.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a solution that was built from the ground up for us and did not rely on third party applications. This was in the hope that the system could be more easily maintained over its lifetime. So, we first needed to be educated on the options to weigh up the pros and cons. With so much new tech around the corner we wanted to be in a position to capture this. From there we wanted to enhance the user experience with more tools and functionality.

How did you select this vendor?

This was a bit of a process for us. We explored local solutions here in Australia but due to the cost it seemed the project was likely going to need to be reduced in size. We explored hiring developers in Singapore directly but with development not being our core competence we opted to find a development company with the full stack of skills required. From there we spoke to companies in Singapore, India, and Ukraine. The Ukraine time zone starting as our workday finished was an advantage to us as work could be done while we continued our day to day operations. Ultimately our discussions with Honeycomb Software (HCS) gave us confidence they could meet our needs.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

HCS helped us with the whole process. From design, development and rollouts to existing and new client environments. We first started with reviewing the existing system and brain storming where this system is going to need to go in the future. From there we reviewed the potential solutions and then began development. The project has been easy to manage using DevOps and an Agile project management methodology. Sprints ran 3 weeks with many rollouts to test environments between this for testing and reviewing changes.

What was the team composition?

Commencing with a senior developer to give us the depth of knowledge required to find the best solutions. As the development commenced, a middle developer to assist with code and a junior developer to assist with testing. As the build progressed an additional middle and junior developer were introduced to meet the workload.

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

We had two deadlines which needed to be met by separate clients. They required functionality that our existing software did not contain. We me this deadline and ultimately maintained our strong relationship with the aforementioned clients. The software also moved from a windows XP look to Windows 10 which has meant all our clients have made the right investment.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was managed through close communication. Emailing and skyping almost daily and having a weekly update meeting with the whole team to ensure all were informed on who was doing what. All issues were managed within DevOps which made for a transparent experience.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to work in with us. We have had some hard deadlines and financial barriers. Each time HCS has been able to give us the solution required.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The area for improvement is probably more for us. If you do not quiet know what you want. Either because you do not know what is possible or how a change might affect other parts of the system then be prepared to have to rework sections until you have it right or spend more time scoping.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of a Software Development company in Israel. We're doing work for several start-up companies in Israel in multiple fields including algorithm development and data analytics.

For what projects/services did your company hire Honeycomb Software?

Analyzing texts and extracting key features from it.

What were your goals for this project?

Build the first part of our text analyzing algorithm.

How did you select this vendor?

I got a recommendation from one of my colleagues.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project included defining and implementing tools that text free text, analyze it and extract key features we're interested in.

Honeycomb helped us define the implementation, find the relevant open source and other tools available today and to implement the whole solution.

What was the team composition?

2 developers, 1 Project manager, 1 QA

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

everything they delivered. We’ve tested it with our clients and everything worked perfectly. They exceeded expectations by showing a lot of personal interest in the success of our project.

Their suggestions were unique, and we hadn’t thought of them before. Unlike other software companies, they really contributed to our vision to ensure that the final result was successful.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was one of the factors that impressed us the most about Honeycomb Software.

Despite the cultural differences between our teams, we didn't experience any communication issues like timing or a language barrier. They have always been extremely responsive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Not only did they have excellent leadership, their staff genuinely cared about our project. It always felt like they wanted to help us reach our desired outcomes.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing I can think of now...

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Ilya Abramov, I”m a System Engineer at Mobi. We’re offering Smart Cities a SaaS solution addressing the problem of traffic congestion. We also integrate novel V2X communications as part of this task.

For what projects/services did your company hire Honeycomb Software?

We're looking for a reliable and quick-to-respond software development partner, responsible for end-to-end integration in a multi-party complex system.

What were your goals for this project?

The project intent is to showcase the combination of traffic management software and emergency communications in a smart city environment, as well as a method for improving transit time for trusted trader traffic across a national border.

How did you select this vendor?

We've been working together for some time now. So the choice was straight forward.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project will result in a semi-permanent demonstration capability for a scenario that leverages V2I (and I2V) communications with trusted trader vehicle(s) traversing a city to a border crossing, involving a traffic incident that involves routing emergency responders to the incident while rerouting the vehicle(s) via an intelligent traffic management system.

The approach to the border involves passing trusted trader documentation and routing of the vehicles to specific border-crossing lanes based on the validity of the documentation. This will demonstrate communications between the vehicles, the city managers, the first responders, and the border authorities, as well as demonstrating ways to improve trusted trader traffic efficiency. In addition a PowerBI-based page allows deep understanding and optimizing traffic on a municipal level.

What was the team composition?

2 HoneyComb developers

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

This is a 2nd cooperation between Israeli Mobi and Canadian Amika under CIIRDF, performed in a dedicated V2X testing location- L5 Ottawa.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was conducted cooperatively by Amika and Mobi through frequent status calls, eventually coordinating activities with L5 Ottawa team. Then more technical sessions were conducted between Amika, Mobi and Honeycomb. The project hasn't been completed yet.

Finally, work will be performed by Mobi in Canada, with real-time cooperation with Honeycomb. Challenges included coordination of sessions and working hours over distant time-zones, and eventually a cross-ocean development and testing with coordination in real time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are a very high proficiency team that can overcome any technical challenge. High learning skills, flexibility to change working days/hours in order to meet the deadlines.

Are there any areas for improvement?

In certain situations the developer is expected to ask for clarification of prioritization/requirements by Mobi before significant time investment into (perhaps) minor tasks.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a software consulting firm in the United States. Our specialty is building custom applications for the enterprise or government organizations.

For what projects/services did your company hire Honeycomb Software?

We hired Honeycomb to assist with the development work of a custom SaaS product for one of our clients. We used several resources to help with a range of technologies including .Net Core, React, API development, and QA.

What were your goals for this project?

The solution had to meet all the requirements of a legacy application that it was to replace. Timeline and budget were also important considerations. This application is absolutely core to our client's business. If we failed to deliver, their business would be unable to continue.

How did you select this vendor?

We considered several candidates, both individuals and other agencies. Honeycomb was able to consistently provide the most qualified candidates.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We provided project management and overall technical supervision. Honeycomb provided solution engineering support as well as the coding to implement the software.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of five key individuals: Project manager, Business Analyst, QA Analyst, API developer, and React developer. (It's worth noting that the API developer and React developer are both full stack developers and were able to work very well together.)

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

We are close to launching the application to the first customer of our client. There are several additional customers waiting in line to use this application. The impact to our client's business is tremendous. Without this application, they would struggle to stay in business at all.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We use a combination of tools for managing a project - Trello, Active Collab, Azure DevOps. We found all the Honeycomb team members to be very conscientious about keeping up with the communication and following our process. Honeycomb is based in the Ukraine, but our team all had very solid English skills and were easy to communicate with. The difference in timezone was rarely a problem as our team had a substantial overlap with our workday.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive thing is the quality of the developers provided by Honeycomb. All have been highly skilled professionals. Also, the responsiveness of our point of contact has been outstanding. Pavel is a pleasure to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Offhand, I can't think of anything to suggest for improvement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a senior developer at Tracir Financial Services, an analytics company that does business intelligence, scripting, and business analysis.

What challenge were you trying to address with Honeycomb Software?

We needed a SaaS platform as a catch-all solution for our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Honeycomb Software created a Gantt chart for development and then built a cloud-based minimal viable product (MVP). The project is still in phase one and we’ve added an additional resource to their team. We plan to roll out the platform by the end of 2018.

What is the team composition?

We work with two developers, one tech lead, and one project lead that serves as a coordinator.

How did you come to work with Honeycomb Software?

We searched for a technical partner that could fulfill our business specifications and technical requirements. We then interviewed Honeycomb Software and liked their proposal. The team was detailed, prompt, and accommodating.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in April 2018 and the partnership is ongoing.

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

The MVP successfully consolidated all of our data. We enjoy working on the project’s subsequent phases and roll out because the team is a great group to work with.

How did Honeycomb Software perform from a project management standpoint?

The team accommodates me because I have to deal with the business end, as well as the technical side of things. Although we’re in different time zones, they work during my regular business hours. Overall, the team is on-point and I cannot complain; I look forward to more collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m happy with their whole team. The developers are knowledgeable and use state-of-the-art technology, which is necessary for a cloud-based platform like ours.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have lost developers because of vacation days, but that is something that can always be worked around. If we are still working together next year, which I intend to, we would work around that issue a bit better so that progress isn’t hampered.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If the client’s tech specifications aren’t clear, the team may get lost. In addition, since I got less than two weeks’ notice for a few developers’ vacation days, I suggest customers should plan accordingly. I should have asked about breaks at the start.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I do freelance management consulting. I have a customer here in the United States who needed certain developments but they didn't have the time, the resources, or know how to manage an offshore team. So my job was to talk to the customer, gather all their business requirements, turn those into a document, and manage an offshore development team.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Honeycomb Software?

We wanted to make software that would help American servicemen in Japan pay their Japanese utility bills, like rent and electricity, using American credit cards.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The software solution was implemented by Honeycomb. AngularJS and .NETCORE was used to create the frontend. The framework that tied it all together was called ASP.NET Zero.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a few different people. One of them was the chief technology officer and the other person had the job of communicating between me and their development team.

How did you come to work with Honeycomb Software?

I opened a posting on oDesk and looked at ton of different companies. I did trials with a few other companies and after doing one with Honeycomb, I wanted to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spend $40,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from November 2017–April 2018.

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

We were able to translate the business requirements into functioning software very efficiently. There wasn't a lot of waste. They would need something, I'd help them flesh out their request, and it would get done.

How did Honeycomb Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a good job. It was always clear what they working on and what their time expectations were. There weren't many moments during the project where I felt like things were taking too long- I felt pretty good about everything.

On the communication side, we used visual studio team services. That was used to communicate the work, weekly phone calls, and the occasional email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their technical ability. I'm a technical person myself. When I've previously looked at other offshore teams, it almost felt like a scam because they're really bad at doing technical stuff. Honeycombs was really high quality, very educated, and smart staffed. I didn't feel like I was compromising at all when came to using their offshore services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their English is pretty good but it could always be better. I would give their English a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Their work was good but sometimes during meetings, there was miscommunication because of language. But it wasn’t too often.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you have detailed requirements beforehand and have planned out at least a month or two worth of work. Don’t just wing it, make sure you’re prepared with a queue of work to give them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run the online department at a jewelry and giftware manufacturer, which manages e-commerce, social media, and development.

What challenge were you trying to address with Honeycomb Software?

We wanted to launch 2 different e-commerce websites before Black Friday 2017, having never previously sold our products online. I needed an effective team that could accommodate the tight timeframe without exceeding our budget.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team built the website using Shopify and customized the fronted to make check-outs seamless, user-friendly features, and easy-to-use promotional offerings. In addition to an intuitive design, I requested direct integration with my ERP system to produce inventory reports and enhanced interactive user experiences.

During development, I requested services from their team that they did not have in-house. They found other vendors for those projects to stay on deadline. As a result, we launched the websites more than a month ahead of Black Friday.

They will develop business dashboards starting January 2018.

What is the team dynamic?

Their team was comprised of a team leader managing the frontend developer, QA staff, testers, the CEO, and CTO.

How did you come to work with Honeycomb Software?

One of their previous clients referred me to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $30,000 to date.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started February 2017, and work is on-going.

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

We launched well ahead of schedule. That metric went from zero to 100.

Next steps include building dashboards and business intelligence tools intended to increase productivity and efficiency.

How did Honeycomb Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They made development seamless. I talked to them every day on Skype to review progress, but they’re almost always ahead of schedule. Their code is clean, organized, and written in a process that’s transparent to the client.

We use Visual Studio to conduct test measurements. The team provides realistic analyses and expectations. They adhere to deadlines and budgetary constraints. I gave them a number early on and they are proactive in keeping costs below my budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re fantastic, transparent, and a pleasure to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a foreign company and the time difference presents some hurdles, but that is not their fault. They adjusted their operating hours to communicate in real time.

Most employees speak English well, but occasionally we need middle-man interpretation.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate deadline and budget constraints clearly and right away. They work according to clearly-defined strategies and will accommodate those needs.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the US team lead for an e-commerce company. We have online websites for our internal staff to manage our products. We also have backend services and attempts at artificial intelligence to help manage product deliveries to the public.

What challenge were you trying to address with Honeycomb Software?

We wanted to deliver front end systems that tied into back end pieces, and we wanted it done as efficiently and quickly as possible.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Honeycomb for one project, and they’ve provided development work for a variety of things within that project. Many of our front end web pages deliver analytic information from data collected and stored from various sources. Honeycomb aggregated the data in the database and made it available in a timely fashion so that our clients get the information concurrently. They wrote almost all the front end UI work based on UX designer specs. They used React framework for the front end, JavaScript, and they coded in C# for the backend. They also coded in C# for the ASP.NET pages, and C# for the middleware to complete that kind of development. They also have SQL staff to deal with the databases and optimizing queries. Honeycomb has a QA team as well that does some of our work we do in North America.

What is the team dynamic?

We only work directly with a few people, but they manage a bigger team underneath them really well.

How did you come to work with Honeycomb Software?

I came onboard after Honeycomb was hired, and I am not sure how the relationship came about.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Honeycomb in 2015, and the work is ongoing.

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

Honeycomb basically does the entire frontend UI type work. It completely alleviates us from having to hire people for that job. When we plan out 1—2 months in advance, Honeycomb actually interviews, hires staff and plugs them into our team. It has been an enormous timesaver, and their resources have always been excellent.

How did Honeycomb Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They communicate clearly, meet their deadlines, and do so without problems. We do 2 to 3 week sprints in an Agile methodology, and we observe the progress via specific tools. They regularly stay on top of the Agile process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For an outsourced company, they’re very quick and professional. We’re a startup company, and we sometimes change direction in the middle of planning. Honeycomb responds to that and picks up the slack with no problems. When there’s miscommunication, they respond quickly, and any outstanding issues are fixed. It’s nice to work with people who get the job done.

The time difference can be a challenge sometimes, but they’ll stay up late to troubleshoot any issues or to answer questions. They’ll apply their multi-years of experience to the problem. It’s like having an expert team that’s local and ready to go. They’re professional, courteous and good at what they do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s always a challenge to get developers to spend extra time to test the application or build automated tests. It would be great to see them do more of that.

Advice for potential customers?

Be as detailed as you can with your plans. As long as you can communicate your plans, Honeycomb is willing to be on the phone and listen to your ideas.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a founder of a SaaS-based [software-as-a-service] platform that does analytics on large amounts of data. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Honeycomb Software?

We’re a startup, so we wanted to build a proof of concept. Because we were making something from scratch, we needed to decide which technologies to use, what our architecture would be, and how to lay the groundwork for that proof of concept, which later became our actual product. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with the architecture and design and facilitated our decision of which technologies to use to implement the features we wanted. They did all the development on our proof of concept. They had to be skilled in Azure, SQL Server, C#, MVC, Entity Framework, and ReactJS.

We did the initial proof of concept and used it to get customers. We rapidly developed the initial proof of concept and then tapered off development for a few months while we showcased that. We ramped up again once we started signing customers because we needed to implement new functions and features. We had an initial set of developers, but we paused a bit. They’d put our developers on other projects, so when we ramped up again, we got a different set of developers.

Since December of 2016, we’ve had 2 Honeycomb developers, but we’ve recently scaled down to 1 resource and started to build out our own team locally. We like having the overseas developer to augment our local team because it gives us almost 24-hour development. We can hand tasks to the Honeycomb developer, and she can work on them overnight while we’re sleeping, come back in the morning, and keep going.

The team they provided included a project manager and a senior developer who oversaw a more junior developer. We got junior developer rates with the oversight of a senior developer to make sure the junior developer was on track. We did the QA ourselves.

How did you come to work with Honeycomb Software?

I found them on Upwork. Our project listing was bombarded with developers that want to work with us. I really liked Alex, who’s a principal at Honeycomb. He was tenacious. They were starting their company at the same time we were, and they seemed eager to get our business. After a few conversations with them, their technical prowess over the other candidates became apparent.

How much have you invested with Honeycomb Software?

We have spent between $200,000 and $1M on the entire project.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

Part of our platform is a dashboard tool that lets users look at their data. It’s customizable by the user, so building that feature wasn’t an easy task. I measure their success by the quality of work they produce, how many bugs we find, and if they’ve followed the specifications that we gave. They have definitely contributed to our company’s success.

How did Honeycomb Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They met deadlines and communicate well. We have daily standup Skype meetings with them. The developer we have now is on our Slack channel, so we chat with her when our days overlap. We use Team Services for project management.

What did you find most impressive about Honeycomb Software?

I think their model is helpful: they provide a senior developer that oversees a junior or intermediate developer. This gives us better quality results than we’d see from a junior resource for less than the cost of hiring a senior resource full-time. Alex acted as our project manager. He’s really good with UX stuff. It wasn’t part of the formal engagement, but he always questioned how things were functioning and whether they could function better. That allowed us to achieve a more user-friendly interface.

Are there any areas Honeycomb Software could improve?

My biggest concern was that their labor pool seemed small because of where they’re located. They’ve opened an office in a larger center, so that’s been addressed already.