Insalgo

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of The Knights of Unity. We develop Unity games and apps for clients from around the world. We mainly work on a time-and-materials basis. We specialize in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) gaming, as well as console ports.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Insalgo?

We didn’t have the capacity to take on the projects arriving to our company. Insalgo had some free Unity developers that met our quality standards. We vetted them, and they turned out to be skilled.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve hired Insalgo for a few projects, including VR, native Android and iOS, and Unity development. The VR projects used Samsung Gear and HTC VIVE. They used C# for the Unity work. They have helped us build four or five apps.

What is the team composition?

They assigned three people from their team to work with us.

How did you come to work with Insalgo?

I was introduced to them by one of my friends. We give a 3-hour Unity test to every individual candidate and company we’re looking to work with. Insalgo passed it and proved that they were a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work has been around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Insalgo in February or March 2017. We haven’t used them since the end of our last project four months ago. We have extended our internal team since then, so we don’t need to hire external companies. Hiring people directly is cheaper than working with a software house.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our clients have been happy with the results. It’s been a successful collaboration, and we will definitely reach out to Insalgo if we need more hands on deck.

How did Insalgo perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve used Jira for project management and Slack for communication. We haven’t had problems with developers disappearing. They’ve always answered on time during standard business hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were competitively priced. We expected software development houses with such skills to be more expensive, but Isalgo is based in another city so they may have a different perspective. We’ve been happy with their price and quality. One of their developers worked through the night to accommodate our client. We had a nine-hour time difference, so their morning was our afternoon. The developer from Insalgo worked during evenings and nights just to be in the same time zone as the client. We were really happy with their sacrifice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could acquire more onsite devices. We had to send them VR sets. This is the only improvement point that comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of QueryHome.com, which is primarily a question-and-answer platform. We have five categories: technology, puzzles, sports, general knowledge, and entertainment. We plan to add more categories in the future. Our enterprise arm helps other organizations, websites, and mobile apps add Q&A to their platforms. In short, we help them integrate their own version of Quora, Stack Overflow, and so on.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Insalgo?

We reached out to Insalgo because we were looking for a partner who could build a mobile app for our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Insalgo developed the Android and iOS app for our platform. I don’t know how many developers were assigned.

How did you come to work with Insalgo?

Insalgo came with a reference from one of our clients. We discussed the project with them and gave the team the go-ahead.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Insalgo in September 2016. The project ended in December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Android app is already live on Google Play, and we have submitted the iOS version as well. It should be live within a month, after which we’ll gather some data. The Android version has been downloaded by 2,000 people.

How did Insalgo perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t use any project management tools, but Insalgo may have had something in place internally.

What did you find most impressive about Insalgo?

We were very pleased with the quality of work. We would refer Insalgo to our clients.

Are there any areas Insalgo could improve?

I cannot find anything negative about them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My former startup was developing an app similar to Snapchat.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Insalgo?

I needed developers who could build the app, which would have real-time effects for videos.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We used four developers from Insalgo’s team. They developed our app for iOS using the standard Objective-C and the Cocoa OpenGL 2.0 Shader Library.

How did you come to work with Insalgo?

I received a reference from a company that convinced us we could trust Insalgo. Being based in Poland, they offered good value in terms of knowledge versus price.

How much have you invested with Insalgo?

The cost of their work was around $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Insalgo in 2013. We worked on the app for around one year and finished 75% of it. After the startup project, we started investing in resources and stopped outsourcing. This is why we’re not working with Insalgo anymore since they are a purely outsourcing company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Based on my personal experience, Insalgo has undeniably good iOS developers.

How did Insalgo perform from a project management standpoint?

At that time, we were a startup and didn’t have a continuous deployment and integration system. Instead, we split the tasks into milestones. There were no delays for the timelines set by Insalgo.

Since the team was too small for a proper Scrum process, we employed the Kanban process. We used Git and JIRA for task and code management. We used Slack and Skype for communication.

What did you find most impressive about Insalgo?

Insalgo focused on building the app as best they could. If that required more time, they took long hours even when we didn’t require this. Their team was solid, and they were offered incentives to finish the job.

Are there any areas Insalgo could improve?

The project took place four years ago, and Insalgo has evolved a lot since then.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of a small software house based in Gdańsk, Poland. We have been in business for eight years, working for different customers from Italy, Germany, the UK, Switzerland, and so on. Most of our jobs consist of building web applications for different sectors like financial, insurance, museums, universities, and a few others.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Insalgo?

A startup client company from Italy wanted us to build a mobile application. Our expertise is in web applications, so since we didn’t have much experience in this field, we asked Insalgo to help us out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Insalgo assigned a full-time iOS Swift developer for the period of the project. Another part-time person joined later on. We integrated Google Maps and Firebase into the application. We handled the backend development internally.

How did you come to work with Insalgo?

We made a post looking for an iOS developer, and one of Insalgo’s developers contacted us. We chose him based on his experience, and the fact that he was part of a company served as insurance that the quality would be good. The price was also reasonable, not the lowest nor the highest.

How much have you invested with Insalgo?

The cost of Insalgo’s work was around €15,000 [US $16,811].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Insalgo in March 2016. The project took five months to complete, ending in August.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Because we were working together with Insalgo’s developers, from a communication point of view, it was a good experience. They were proactive, and since we didn’t have much experience with mobile applications, Insalgo gave us a lot of information and knowledge on the field. In terms of skills, I can’t say anything bad. What we needed to do, we did, and it worked very well.

How did Insalgo perform from a project management standpoint?

We handled project management on our side using JIRA and Confluence. We created accounts for Insalgo on our systems and ran the operations. We had no delays, and the tasks that we planned were done on time.

What did you find most impressive about Insalgo?

They were very open to new ideas and proactive. Insalgo came up with solutions we hadn’t thought of. I also appreciated the honesty. When they told us that something would cost a certain amount, it did. The quality was very good as well.

Are there any areas Insalgo could improve?

Nothing, in particular, comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the managing director of a mobile games and apps development firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Insalgo?

They support us with iOS app development, mainly working on an application for a leading Polish bank. We have our own team but since the project was quite complex, we needed more developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Insalgo has developed parts of a customer mobile banking application. We are using one Objective-C developer from their team. The app itself is very complex, and it’s still in development. In total, 20 to 30 people are working on its backend and frontend.

How did you come to work with Insalgo?

They answered our advertisement on a Polish outsourcing platform. During our conversation, Insalgo gave us good references. Their price offer was also reasonable. We gave them a chance and have continued to work together.

How much have you invested with Insalgo?

The overall budget will be between one and two million Polish zloty [$250,000–$500,000], but Insalgo is only a part of the whole deal. We have an Agile project without a fixed price.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Insalgo three months ago. The first version will be submitted within two months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We work on code together with Insalgo and send it on a regular basis to our client. The bank’s IT division hasn’t had any objections about the quality so far. We are happy with the collaboration, which is why we continue to use them. I can anticipate that the project will be delivered with good quality, based on the code we’ve seen from Insalgo.

How did Insalgo perform from a project management standpoint?

We are using a single developer from Insalgo, so there is no need for project management on their side. He is simply at our disposal, and we can assign him tasks directly. Generally speaking, there is good communication with Insalgo’s owners and shareholders. If I need to discuss something, I can easily contact them. They’re reasonable people.

What did you find most impressive about Insalgo?

After only three months and one project, it’s too early to tell.

Are there any areas Insalgo could improve?

We’re using only one developer from Insalgo, so my answer is the same as above.