Incora

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an early-stage startup. We’re creating a solution to improve laboratory processes to diagnose diseases based on images from a microscope. We’re also improving employee happiness because they don’t need to look under a microscope all day.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incora?

Our solution was complex; it involved hardware, software, and a platform. We needed help to create the platform to manage data from microscopes to connect specialists and review results.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Incora is building our web platform from scratch. We’ve had iterations, and they’ve helped us with the wireframes, designs, prototypes, and engineering. We had a proof-of-concept MVP, and we’re currently working on one of the versions. We’ve worked on continuous development and are adding new functionalities and pages.

Our users are clinics and medical specialists. Clients can upload images, connect the system with a microscope, check the results of different orders, and see the status of AI recognition images. From the other side, medical specialists can check how the system works and agree or disagree with the machine learning results. We have a system in place to double-check that everything is correct.

The main technologies for this platform are JavaScript, Node.js, React, and MySQL.

What is the team composition?

We have two frontend engineers, two backend engineers, and others working part-time on the project.

How did you come to work with Incora?

It was through a referral.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent about $300,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership began in June 2021, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have regular check-ins within our company to see how the project’s going. The team has seen many different versions and progress, and they’ve been happy with it. There have been some bugs, but we understand that they’re okay. We catch them in the testing environment, and they take care of them.

How did Incora perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything’s good regarding timelines. We don’t over-plan nor push impossible tasks into the sprints, which is why we can achieve what we plan. Also, they’re pretty responsive. If anything goes wrong, they’re quick to fix it, which is the most important thing. Overall, we’re happy that we’ve found them.

We use Slack, email, phone calls, texts, and Google Meet for communication. Additionally, we use Jira for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention to detail is their strong point. They think about parts of the project that our team hasn’t considered. They really understand the project, so we don’t need to go over trivial things.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t say anything needs to be improved; we’re happy with their work. We know how software engineering works, so we don’t have huge expectations. We always discuss the plans, expectations, cost, and when things should be done.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In general, it’s crucial to think about what you want beforehand. We had a clear expectation, which has made the engagement easier. We haven’t needed to redo any of the work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Softrange Technology is a US based custom software development consulting company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have multiple projects that require high quality engineering teams to implement solutions that are innovative, and require extreme attention to detail and quality. This includes, but is not limited to development of software as medical device (SaMD) system. We hired Incora to help us build teams to meet these challenges.

SOLUTION

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

When we pick a vendor we always plan for a long term partnership and our criteria include the quality of the developers both technical and in terms of soft skills and the quality of the communication with people involved in team forming process.

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

We have multiple projects that are full stack javascript implementation with React.js front end and Node.js backend. The projects involve creation of new applications, as well as adding features to existing applications. The developers are required to fully understand the product features, as well as acquire domain knowledge to be able to be effective.

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

There were 5 Incora developers who worked with us who were senior React.js and Node.js developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developers from Incora completed all the work with very high quality and on time. They participated in architecture and software design. I was especially impressed by their ability to learn new areas of applications and become productive quickly.

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

We use agile project development in our team with tools like Jira to support task management.

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

Incora has provided very good developers for our projects. Incora has impressed us with the personal attention and effectiveness of their account managers. When a new project comes Incora is the first company I contact.

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

I wish Incora to continue growing and spreading their strong company culture to wider range of clients.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of IT at Arizto, a real estate company. We focus on software, and we have several agents around the country that focus on house sales.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incora?

New Zealand is far away from everybody, and when we had the lockdowns for the COVID-19 pandemic, it was hard to find people to help us continue to develop our software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Incora worked with our existing team on the frontend development of our mobile apps using React Native. The app is a single tool where all our agents can sell properties in New Zealand from beginning to end by creating a lead from any vendor, putting it to market, photography, copywrite, creating offers, creating appraisals, and even signing the agreements. All the agents need is the app to do the entire process, and anyone who wants to look into properties can also use the app.

The app is live to the public. The app allows users to sell houses and track what’s happening, like talking with the agent — it’s mostly a tool between the agent and the seller.

What is the team composition?

There’s a maximum of three frontend developers depending on the needs.

How did you come to work with Incora?

They were referred to us by people who knew about their work. After a few chats, the engagement went pretty straightforward, which I liked. We decided to give it a go, and it went well the first couple of weeks, so there was no reason for us not to keep going with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $100,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They keep delivering what they promise and are very helpful and easy to work with — there haven't been any complications. We’re not a big company, and it’s not easy to jump into an existing project. Overall, our team is happy with their work.

How did Incora perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is great; communication is good, and they stick to timelines. In terms of communication, we use Slack, Asana, and GitHub.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They've been great at understanding our company and the work we want to do. They took the time to understand who we were and didn’t rush or make suggestions that didn’t make sense. Also, there's a 12 hours difference between us, which means they stretch a lot of their day to match our days.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything they can improve on — they’re getting better and better over time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Tell them what you want, and they'll try to work around your expectations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Project Manager in Apiko - a software development company that works on both web and mobile applications. Apiko worked on the educational platform and needed assistance, so we decided to hire Incora developer to help us here.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The Education platform was built 5 years ago but it was unstable and needed refactoring. Our purpose was to review the previously made changes, decide how they can be improved and refactored, and work on the new requirements to implement in the project. Incora helped us greatly with front-end development.

SOLUTION

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

We searched for web developers who can assist us with the project. After interviewing Incora, we decided immediately we'd like to work with them.

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

They provided us with front-end development, and UI/UX consulting. We worked together on implementing new sections on the website to give users more options to book lessons with the tutors, improve their experience of searching for available tutors and redesigned the homepage completely - that all together gave us a boost in new bookings. The work used JavaScript, Twillio API, Stripe API, AWS.

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

We worked with one developer who was responsible for the front-end tasks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The redesigned homepage showed that more users are interacting with the website now, and the SEO changes improved ranking greatly. The changes to the Book a lesson flow gave users a better experience and the tutors received more bookings & we also redesigned the Tutor profile, so they could also fill it more and engage more customers.

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

The communication was easy and quick, we built good communication not only within the team but with the clients as well.

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

The tasks were always delivered on time and within the given estimation ranges.

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

Incora met all our expectations, so there's nothing that should be changed in their services.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a software business, and I’m the director. We have a variety of products including online courses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incora?

Recently, we’ve been building out an online course creation platform, and that’s what Incora has been helping with. We already had a backend team but we needed assistance with the React.js frontend.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided us with one frontend engineer, who basically joined our team for a four-month period to build out the frontend. They did a good job. The product itself was an MVP.

For Incora, the deliverable was the frontend of the course creator application. It’s a web app people can log into to create their lectures, upload videos, and create their whole course.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one frontend developer, as well as a contract manager, but we only spoke with them at the beginning. I arranged things directly with the developer. He joined our team for the duration.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $7,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July until October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was really about delivering the functionality that we needed in the frontend. There was a set of product specifications, and by the time we finished with them, we were able to sort out 95% of those. It was definitely a success.

How did Incora perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was good. I was coordinating directly with the developer, so he just joined our Whatsapp group. There were ad-hoc meetings and stand-ups as required. There wasn’t any formal management from their side. I handled it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical competence stood out. I interviewed 16-17 developers to fill the position, including a coding test, and there were a lot of not-great developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The developer we worked with is still fairly early in their career, so they needed quite a lot of guidance from me. They were able to execute tasks as and when required, though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Regular communication is definitely worth having — once a week at the minimum. This helps prevent miscommunications and ball drops. If you commit to regular communication you’ll get good results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a software development company established in 2011. We provide custom software solutions to customers in the government and private sectors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incora?

We have in-house developers, but we need to outsource from time to time, based on the volume of the project or a need to develop faster. We reached out to Incora for help with one of the most challenging projects in our portfolio.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Incora is helping us develop a restaurant platform. The overall scope includes building the backend, dashboard, and mobile app for placing orders. The owners can track orders through the dashboard. The platform has a loyalty point system, user profiles, payment gateway integrations, and driver tracking.

They’re using Node.js for the backend, HTML, and CSS for the frontend, and React Native for the mobile app. The backend is on AWS, and Incora is ensuring that it’s able to handle future upgrades.  

What is the team composition?

We have four dedicated engineers on Incora’s side.

How did you come to work with Incora?

One of my colleagues closed the deal with them, but I checked their profile and talked to their account manager. He told me that all their members were fluent in English and that they were up to date with the technologies we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost has been $90,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Incora in late-October 2019, and the project is ongoing. We hope to continue working with them for the years to come. They’re one of the best teams we have right now, and their rate is competitive.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Incora’s developers produce good-quality work. We have to follow standards, and our customer isn’t easy to deal with, so it would be impossible for us to neglect security or hand over the code without comments.

How did Incora perform from a project management standpoint?

We have standup meetings on a daily basis, and we have a Skype group. We work as one team toward our objective. They can adjust the number of working hours per week depending on our workload, and they’re also willing to work on weekends. We can rely heavily on them, and they respond quickly. They were patient with us when we had difficulties paying their invoices. We’re doing our best to ensure that this will be a long-term partnership.

We’ve worked with another outsourcing company, and their developers didn’t speak English very well. We haven’t had any language issues with Incora. All of the employees speak English, and we can understand each other without having a translator.

We’re responsible for managing the team members they provide. We schedule their time and ensure they have eight hours of tasks per day. We use a standard task management tool, and they can ask questions either on the actual cards or on our Skype group. We’ve had calls with the customer in order to solve issues and for their backend team to provide us certificates and keys. Incora collaborated with us on that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have excellent written and spoken English skills, they’re up to date with the technologies they’re using, they’re responsive and comfortable working with us, and they’re proactive in suggesting solutions to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Having more face to face communication would improve our relationship and add value for both of us. I’d like to have continuous sessions to improve our processes so that we can work together as one team.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to log the working time and to keep the team motivated. It’s difficult for them to keep going without having the necessary inputs in place. We reply to them immediately when they ask for something, and we let them know that we’ll ask the customer when we don’t know the answer. 

They shouldn’t be left without something to do. There should always be a backlog full of tasks for them. One of the worst scenarios is to have nothing for them to do because we’re waiting for credentials or for the customer to reply. It’s also important to review their work and report bugs or issues immediately. Clients should deal with Incora as though they were part of the internal team, and not just an outsourcing company.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO & Founder of Health Explore, a novel web-based platform aiming to map all infectious and non-infectious diseases, linking associated conditions to one another according to common elements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Incora?

The unique aspect of our website is an interactive three-dimensional map which features different diseases and connections representing an association (e.g. genetic link or subclassification). We outsourced the design of the map to Incora. They were also tasked to build a dashboard which allowed the map to be updated in real time.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to use this 3D disease map as the centre piece of the website, allowing visitors to learn about medical conditions in a visual format.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

While conducting an RFP to build the disease map, Incora reached out to us via email to see if we would be interested in working with them.

Describe the project in detail.

After a kick-off call we decided they had the expertise to handle the project. Following this, we received a detailed timeline breakdown of the development plan and signed an agreement. The first steps were completed on schedule and the map soon took shape.

What was the team composition?

I worked directly with an Account Manager at Incora. We set up a series of calls and worked over Slack to address queries and keep the project flowing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The map was designed and built in a short period of time and I was impressed with the results from the beginning. There were aspects of the project which I didn't anticipate including, but Incora did a great job of proposing new features within the agreed budget and made quick progress on design specifications.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication works well between Incora and our team. I find they are responsive to our needs and are always available to jump on a call if we need to discuss things in further detail.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Incora has a talented team of developers capable of turning a high-level description into reality. I also appreciate the time they put into performance testing to ensure the website is compatible across different browsers and devices.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Overall I've been really impressed with what Incora has been able to develop with the Health Explore project. There are still a few key features pending with the map development which first require a solution—it would be great to have a road map presented in the near future.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a startup company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incora?

I decided to do a restaurant booking app. I have designers and developers in-house, but they specialize in game development in Unity. This project was front- and backend development in Angular and Node and I needed someone with that expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

All the design work, testing, and project management was on our side. They developed the front- and backend of the app for iOS and Android. Functionality allows customers to make a reservation, choose their chef, and determine the number of people that can sit at a table. They can book the table for a certain number of hours or all day. If two users book the same table, priority is first come, first served, unless the first user doesn’t pay.

What is the team composition?

There were three developers on their side.

How did you come to work with Incora?

A friend recommended three companies that he knew personally, and Incora was one of them. I gave them a smaller task, and they delivered good quality, so I decided to proceed with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $60,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2017–April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software is very good. We started with a soft launch in Ukraine so we could meet restaurant owners face to face. We got a lot of positive feedback and recommendations for modifications and changes. We’ve made a profit and the app is successful. We’re currently pushing it out to American restaurants and plan to make updates next year.

How did Incora perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily communicated via phone, which I prefer. They were proactive and always worked to solve issues and finish everything on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had the expertise I needed and their communication was great. Their developers managed the project very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did a very good job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them and give them the opportunity to prove themselves.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the COO and legal officer of Incubator LLC. We are a US-based software tech incubator that works on projects in many different verticals, including legal automation, blockchain, and IP security. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incora?

Along with our in-house developers, we use several domestic and offshore contractors. We work on an unusually broad range of types of projects and have experience working with teams from around the world. 

We hired Incora to handle bug fixing and bring a project to completion. They're also developing an app from scratch. They've done QA clean up and brought a product to launch in two other cases. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Incora supports our web development projects that involve Ruby on Rails and Node. They’ve always used some type of JavaScript for the frontend and the Postgres web stack database. We're currently working on an app that we'd previously shelved. Via manual QA, we’re going through and cleaning up software bugs to prepare it for launch. It’s almost ready at this point. Incora's core resources are also handling all the PHP and integration work for a WordPress platform. It includes WooCommerce plugins and numerous integrations with third-party APIs. 

Our other project is a build from scratch. We gave Incora a set of text and visual requirements for a web application. Using a word document, we wrote out descriptions and embedded images like screenshot mockups. The product has a Postgres database, Node backend, and Angular 6 frontend. We're integrating it with third-party APIs including our own installation of the community non-enterprise version of the Mattermost messaging system. 

What is the team composition? 

We use multiple teams, and Incora works with us in the same way as the others. They assign us a project manager, product manager, and two full stack developers per project. Other vendors have contributed separate frontend and backend developers. 

How did you come to work with Incora?

We found Incora through a software developer referral system. We interviewed several vendors and liked them the best. They had the skill set we needed and interviewed well, so we tried them out. Based on their performance on the first project, we started giving them progressively more work. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since May 2018. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our company is still fairly small, so we're not running metrics on contracted teams. Qualitatively, we really like Incora. They're performing well in relation to our senior developers’ expectations. These onshore developers have worked in software for 30 years and are used to overseeing offshore teams in a variety of contexts. They have high standards, and I rely on their feedback and assessments. Incora never violates the provisions in our billing guidelines. Our senior developers believe that they're coding efficiently. 

How did Incora perform from a project management standpoint?

We use multiple teams and have had to terminate more than half of them within the last two years based on billing or skill-related issues. We have high standards, but Incora is still on our list. We're an easygoing client, but are demanding about compliance with our billing guidelines. Incora has complied with all our requirements, terms, provisions, and agreements like NDAs. 

Incora is meeting our demanding requirements, and we're very happy with them. Our communication has worked well so far. We hold daily stand up calls via Skype. Regarding tools, we switched from Jira to Trello and also use Slack and GitHub. We've never had any billing issues or serious delays.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Incora is one of the fastest teams we’ve worked with. Their two developers we work with have graduate degrees in either math, computer science, or both. They're based out of Ukraine and are postgrad software developers. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The people we work with are lacking in English skills. They aren't as fluent as the other Ukrainian and offshore teams we've used; they're probably between the middle and bottom of the pack. It hasn't been a problem, though, and I don't expect everyone in the world to be fluent in English. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This applies to all companies hiring offshore developers; be very specific with your requirements. I've gotten better at it, but there was a steep learning curve. The range of people who use Clutch might be mostly sophisticated software development companies, but this advice is for someone who wants to make an app for the first time. 

Using images will help offset the language difference. Instead of describing everything in text, include visual diagrams and mockups. Microsoft Paint is easy to use as a mockup tool. Incora asks useful questions when they don't understand something and offers great suggestions for improvement.