Magora Systems

Please describe your organization.

We are in the travel and tourism sector. We have an internal operations department. We have a fleet of luxury cars. We have contracts with several large embassies in the United Kingdom where we provide cars for their VIPs.

What is your position?

I am the technical operations manager.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Magora Systems?

Our goal was to improve internal operations with a new management system for the core team. We have a relatively small team in the office. We have many cars and many drivers on the road, however.

To streamline the operational side, we needed a system to help us manage the vehicles, know where they are, and be able to respond to jobs more efficiently. We're also working with maps and Google as well on different parts of the system to help facilitate GPS and picking up clients.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We're not completely finished. Hopefully in the next month, we should be launching the system. We're doing many tests at the moment. The reality is because of the way the system operates, they can't do many tests on their side. It has to be done in the U.K. because our cars are here.

We have trackers in our cars. There has been a disconnect with certain parts of the testing. Our team must do the testing in the U.K., which has caused project delays. Magora Systems cannot handle the testing. They've been very good with their part of the engagement. We haven't required support yet for the system. We were involved heavily with the system from the beginning. We're completely aware of how it operates.

How did you come to work with Magora Systems?

I like working with Russian firms. I've heard many good things about companies from that area. There were a few companies through Elance that we spoke to. Magora Systems seemed a little more professional. That's something we were looking for.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was from $200,000 to $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's ongoing.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We are satisfied. You can tell the scope is quite large. It's a very complicated system. They've been very good. In any development, there's issues, but it's how you resolve those issues. They were very professional and all the issues have been resolved. We're very happy with Magora Systems. I cannot share any metrics now because it's all internal statistics.

How did Magora Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

The project is delayed, but that's not Magora's fault. They have managed their portion well.

What distinguishes Magora Systems from other providers?

They're very professional [when it comes] to getting the work done. That's the most important thing.

Is there anything Magora Systems could have improved or done differently?

I think their costs are high and that could improve. They could possibly lower prices. Beyond that, everything's great.

Please describe your organization.

We're a startup that provides technical solutions to the hospitality industry.

What is your position?

I am technical director of the company. There are eight people in the company. We aggregate data inside the food service vertical. 

What business challenge were you trying to address with Magora Systems?

We have two direct developers and then for some of the work that we had, which was slightly larger than what we could handle in house, we were looking for an external contractor.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

It was for staff augmentation development services. We had them assign us a PHP developer and then a CSS [cascading sheets style] and hybrid CSS JavaScript developer. The actual tools that they were using were up to them in terms of the developing environment, but we controlled everything through agile methods.

We set up a two-week work period. We assigned issues to our own local developers and then created workflows for each of the developers and assigned issues directly. All of the work we were doing was reasonably straightforward and much of it was query on queries on PHP or to create widgets or similar things. 

We did have them do a number of integrations with some third-party software. They were a bunch of other APIs [application programming interfaces] that they connected through where they had to read the API documentation and follow the instructions. 

Nothing was particularly complicated. We outlined the issues and advanced after making sure that they were entirely comfortable with what they were doing. Whenever we were happy with their work, they would just repeat the process. 

Initially, we had them do a number of issues that were predominantly development of a larger module. Within that, they understood our system and knew it slightly better than our own developers did. After they had written a number of sizable issues, we did go back and have a number of iterations within that. I guess you could say that was ongoing support. It wasn't the type of thing that required special skill. Magora's work was just to save our own developers time.

How did you come to work with Magora Systems?

Through a number of different projects, I've come across customers through Elance. I had used another firm in Russia near where they are. Whenever I came to additional jobs that we were doing, we decided instead of going to the original firm, we'd put it out to the open market and see what bids we get. 

We initially selected one of the Indian contractors and, within 48 hours, we realized it was a terrible mistake because of the language issue. We went back to the Russian developer I was working with, but they didn't have the availability when we needed it. 

We came across Magora through Elance and appointed them for a contract for around –six to nine months and totaled $30,000. Magora was our third choice, but it turned out to be a lucky find. We tested them on a couple of issues up front to make sure they were good enough and understood the requirements clearly. Then, we just started assigning them more and more.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It's between $30,000 and $35,000 total. We have worked together for around a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work is ongoing and growing is size and cost.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I can't give you stats off the top of my head. I'd guess there's 10,000 lines of code. In terms of number of hours, I would guess it was around 1,000 hours. They're great, which is the reason I always go back to Magora Systems.

I think one thing we learned is providing the person that is writing up the issue for the developer to complete specs in such a way that's clear. There were one or two issues where one of our developers had written up an issue and put it across to them, and they had to come back a number of times to clarify just because of the language aspect of things. 

How did Magora Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

They are great at managing their group.

What distinguishes Magora Systems from other providers?

They're fairly generic capable developers. They do offer a product management service I understand, which can hand hold you through a particular project. We didn't need that. Their PHP developer was very strong for us. He was incredibly quick for the quality of work that he produced. I would say PHP and SQL [structured query language] are right up there for them much more so than any of the other contractors and considerably better than some of our local developers that we pay more for. I don't think they're spectacular on the front end, but for what we needed, they were perfect.

Is there anything Magora Systems could have improved or done differently?

Availability was one of the issues we had. They seemed to be busy at times so we had to be sure to give them sufficient notice as in when you needed the issues completed. They're probably slightly pricey compared to some of the other contractors on Elance. You get what you pay for. I think our rate was $30 or $31 an hour. 

Unlike many other teams, their communication is great. Whenever you have a question, you will have either your project manager or their relevant developer come back to you even outside of their business hours. 

They're happy to make sure that you're satisfied. I was pleasantly surprised about that. I haven't had that with contractors before. They've been slow to return if they've got other things on. They tend to jump where the money was.

In our case, whenever we had very sizable amounts of work, they were very responsive, and we'd expected that when we tapered off the number of work for a month or two, they wouldn't be quite so responsive. Even for very simple work, they were on it in no time at all.

Please describe your organization.

[We are] an advertising technology company primarily focused on the ad exchange business and content marketing. We build and maintain software that allows us to traffic ads across the Internet. We have relationship with SSPs [supply-side platforms] and DSPs [demand-side platforms] that have advertising and have inventory of where they want the advertising to run. We generate revenue by managing these platforms and earning advertising dollars for everything that runs through our platforms.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm a product manager. I'm working on the content marketing platform business. That's primarily focused on helping brands and advertisers create content that resonates with their audience and then promoting this content so that it gets maximum reach, engagement, viewability, and readability on the content so that the users get warm fuzzy feelings about the brands and consider our partners when purchasing decisions come up.

Please describe the scope of their work.

They ran the site, maintained it, updated code, and changed it to what we wanted it to be. They administer our servers that the site sits on. They do project management for the work we're doing. Magora does project management, technical development, keyway testing, and operations.

What was your process for selecting Magora Systems with which to work?

Our CTO had looked at a number of outsourced development companies. He looked at their site and some of the case studies. We talked to them and the price was right, capabilities to meet worked out. We liked the work that we saw them do on other projects. They had the Java skill set that we needed to do our work.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

It was from $50,000 to $200,000.

When was the work completed?

It's ongoing work. We're going to stabilize what we have, and then we're going to ask them to refine it and get it leaner. Our code has been old and antiquated in some ways. We've been working them for five months.

Do you have any stats or metrics to track improvement from the project?

We've had some various spikes due to house ads that we run. They've helped us increase server and management of that stuff. We're happy with the support they gave us for that. Overall, the improvements that we've been doing with them is more like improvements to the workflow and process of how people use the site. That can't really be quantified. They have executed on the functionality that we wanted.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

I am satisfied with the results of their work. They've been very open and communicative as far as what it takes to get things done, why things may not work the way we want it to. 

Is there anything unique or special about Magora that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

They have good commitment. They've done work when we've had priority zero issues. They've been available via Skype, via text. They've been very communicative. That's very helpful for us. 

There have been times that they've taken a look at what we're doing, and they've come up with their own suggestions and improvements to help facilitate our goals. They'll share insights and you get the benefit of their experience.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

There have been hiccups and issues on certain things, but I think it's been more of a result of the fact that the old code that existed was written by a developer who is no longer available to us. So, we didn't have good documentation. There needed to be learning done by the tech team on code that was not documented. So, that presents certain challenges.

That's why we're going to have them update the code to something much better once we're in a stable place. When we were first starting the relationship, and we were going through the contract negotiation, they had some various concessions that they wanted.

They wanted some amount of money up front for work we were going to have them do later. They had been burned by people in the past so that made them leery. That process just took longer. Maybe that could be improved or they could have insurance behind them to help with that.

Please describe your organization.

[Our product is] basically an app to help people find over-the-counter products based on their symptoms and age. I'm a pharmacist and I came up with the idea.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm the owner and founder.

What was your goal for working with Magora Systems?

I needed a mobile app developer to take my designs and create a functional product.

Please describe the scope of their work.

They're developing and writing the code, and then I do everything else. It's just for iOS now.

What was your process for selecting Magora Systems with which to work?

I went on oDesk.com, and I submitted the project about two years ago. I had a bunch of applicants. I saw that Magora's apps were better than other people that I chose as finalists.

They had less glitches. The apps that they developed looked nicer than others. They have good communication skills, and they speak English well. 

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

It was from $20,000 to $25,000.

When was the work completed?

The main project is done. If I have updates or upgrades, I'll go to them to fix it.

I didn't have any money left for marketing after I built the app. I did very minimal marketing. I was able to get more than 500 downloads. It came out in September 2014. I've only been able to get personal feedback, but nothing from strangers. They tell me what I could make better.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

I don't know about their graphics team because I created all the graphics myself. My mom looked into their code because she's a software engineer, and she said it looked very clean. She was happy with their skills as well. Their coding is very good. 

If you have a contract with them and they sign it, then they will be doing work according to the contract in a timely manner to make sure the product is done in time. If there is no contract, then it's open and, hopefully, you get it done whenever you need it to be done, but the project can take longer.

Is there anything unique or special about Magora Systems that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

I've only worked with them and not other teams, but their English is very well spoken. They're eager to finish a project according to time frames. They provide a reasonable quote. They're nice in general as people. 

What advice would you give to future clients of theirs?

I would recommend negotiating a contract before starting the project to ensure timely delivery and reasonable expectations.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

In the beginning, I had trouble getting a response. They didn't tell me if someone was on vacation or sick leave. They did improve drastically on that measure. 

Please describe your organization.

My company produces technology conferences for developers.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the founder and CEO.

What was your goal for working with Magora Systems?

They’ve developed two applications for us. One is a hackathon management tool. It enables us to manage the attendees and our sponsors of our hackathons online.

The second tool is an online platform for technology vendors to list their integrations and their consultants and cover new integrations to build out their integration networks.

Please describe the scope of their work.

They did the graphic design, the Web design, the front end and back-end, the database, and all maintenance so far.

What was your process for selecting Magora Systems with which to work?

I went on Elance. I did an RFP [request for proposal], and I chose them based on their responsiveness, their quoted budget, and their portfolio.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work hour figure?

It was about $70,000

When was the work completed?

It’s ongoing. We started with them probably 10 months ago.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

It’s not launched yet, so no metrics currently.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

I would say they are the best outsourced firm we’ve ever worked with. Their project management skills are great – very transparent and very responsive to communication about fixes being urgent. 
They’re way above average in setting the expectations of how long a big project will take. They have way above average Web design skills. They have their own in-house Web designer.

Is there anything unique or special about Magora Systems that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

They’re very accurate in their time estimations. Also, their Web design is much higher skilled than other teams abroad.

What advice would you give to future clients of theirs?

It’s useful to be semi-technical just because instead of them charging you for project management time. If you’re a project manager, it would end up making the project cheaper.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

I believe we were their first large project using Angular.js. I didn’t know it would be so experimental. I think it took a few more man weeks than they thought to implement it, but I’m happy with the results. Using experimental technologies is a good and a bad thing.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the design director of an international baby sleep company based in the UK.

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

We wanted to develop a mobile app for our latest IOT product, Misty the Smart Cloud. Our users would be able control the device from their phones and home smart speaker. Our goal was to have a user-friendly platform that made our user's lives easier, helped them create a better sleep routine and a safer nursery.

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

We searched online for app developers and shortlisted 3. After interviewing them, we chose this vendor based on their past projects, professionalism, and cost estimate.

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

We had a series of discovery meetings to discuss our goals and objectives as well as introducing them to our hardware team. We provided their team with designs. Within two weeks, they delivered the first round of the iOS app. They incorporated our feedback and delivered the revised version. This was replicated for Android. Before launching, we ran it through stringent beta testing to ensure it worked not only through the mobile app but also through a smart speaker.

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

A project manager was assigned to be our main point of contact throughout the project. Due to the duration of the project two further project managers were assigned due to members moving on. Additionally, I mostly interacted with the lead frontend developers who leased with the backend developers.

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

The app is yet to launch due to development issues and the implications of COVID-19. We hope to see a positive response from our customer base when we launch the Christmas 2021.

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

The project manager was easy to communicate with and provided frequent updates. We mainly had video chats and phone calls, all feedback was documented through email. We utilised Trello and Slack also. Everything was delivered on time and separated into measurable milestones.

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

Their mobile app development skills were great. They managed to develop everything we initially requested. Since this was our first mobile app, they were also patient with our hardware team and willing to walk them through their process while they and us learned.

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

The only areas for improvement would be better communications with the development team. Due to them being based in Russia we kept encountering issues with email deliverability. We worked around this with Slack and Trello. Communications with the project managers was always on point and swift.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a co founder of a startup.

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

We approached Magora to help build an MVP for Web platform creation

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

Based on review sites like Clutch

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

MVP build from scratch

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

Around 12 people from project managers, QA engineers, BAs, front and back end developers

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

The initial BA team was great but as time wore on the team constantly changed and it became clear that Magora has a major talent retention issue. As a result Magora was unable to deliver the project in accordance with contractual obligations.

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

There are numerous examples of senior management making decisions that were not in our best interests as clients.

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

Frankly nothing

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

I wanted to give as strongly worded warning as possible to other startup companies about ever going anywhere near this company. There is no way for them to improve on a total failure to deliver work under contract.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Working as a solo entrepreneur

For what projects/services did your company hire Magora?

I worked with Magora to develop a clickable prototype for my prospective business venture.

What were your goals for this project?

I wanted to have a prototype to show to investors in order to secure funding, and to have a general understanding of the UX and user journey

How did you select this vendor?

I researched at length over google

Describe the project in detail.

Development of a clickable prototype in Figma

What was the team composition?

I worked directly with a Product Owner from Magora who then lead a team of developers

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

The team worked extremely well and was able to take on board feedback without much pushback. In the end I was very happy with the result

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was smooth and rapid, the team were quick to respond to emails

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their attitude towards helping out even when my asks might have been outside typical remit

Are there any areas for improvement?

Increased accuracy in getting things right the first time round to avoid multiple rounds of feedback