Melon

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a full-service agency. We develop any type of digital products from chatbots to mobile apps and we also provide services like SEO and design.

What challenge were you trying to address with Melon?

As a business, we work a lot with partners and we really like working with specialists. For this reason, we engaged them for SharePoint development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Melon provides consulting services, which include finding out the best ways for solving problems for our clients. They design the look and feel and manage everything from development to deployment and support.

What is the team composition?

I work with about four people including a project manager, one or two developers, and the director.

How did you come to work with Melon?

We went to Bulgaria several times and met with several partners. It was more of a lucky guess, but we decided to work with them. We worked with them here and there and then were no longer working together for a bit. I was asked by my fellow directors if I knew anyone that worked with SharePoint and I thought of them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about £30,000–£40,000 (approximately $42,000–$56,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them around March 2020 and the partnership is still ongoing. At first, it was an ad hoc collaboration, but now we have retained services.

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

Our clients have given us positive feedback many times regarding their work.

How did Melon perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of technical project management, they’re the best team I’ve ever worked with. They communicate well and are very detailed and organized. After their delivery, I can’t remember anything other than minor fixes. They use Microsoft Excel, Jira, and Microsoft Teams. The project manager is great, adapting to the tools we use and being methodical.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In my experience, most agencies have some sort of project management without full supplies tend to lack some accuracy and productivity. This particular skillset they’ve provided us with allows for no surprises. I don’t have to question or check; I trust them implicitly. They always deliver, do the right thing, and never overprice. I can rely on them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re not super cheap, but that’s more of a pricing point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend them for sure.

Please describe your company and your position there.

bexio is the biggest SaaS book keeping solution for SMEs and Accountants here in Switzerland. I work there as Product Owner for multiple areas like mobile app development, APIs and our Accountant Platform.

For what projects/services did your company hire Melon?

We already worked with Melon before the bexioGo project. Together we developed multiple mobile apps before: bexio Scanner, bexio Contacts and the bexio Timetracker apps.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal of the bexioGo project was to merge the existing apps (Scanner, Contacts, Timetracker) into one single app and with this, having a stable base for future developments and reduce costs for support and maintenance.

How did you select Melon?

As bexio worked with Melon before I was hired for the job at bexio, the partnership was already existing. I could get a good impression about Melon when we did the maintenance work for the "old" apps before we started with bexioGo. And as we liked very much what they did and how they did it, it was a natural choice to proceed with Melon.

Describe the project in detail.

bexio provided the high level business concept of how these apps can be merged together into our new app bexioGo. Our UI/UX designers provided all the detailed screens and user flows. Melon took over the concept/screens and developed the whole app A-Z for Android and iOS in a very transparent and agile way.

What was the team composition?

On bexio's side: 1 Product Owner (me), 1-2 UX Designers, 1 Quality Assurance / Tester. On Melon's side: 1 Project Manager, 2 Developers, 1 Quality Assurance / Tester. It showed that the initial setup of people is fully sufficient for the project so we had no need to change team size over time.

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

We released the initial bexioGo app in June 2020. Since then, we are steadily improving the app with new features and functionalities. There were no major issues from the get go. Of the over 40k customers of bexio, over 6k of them are using the bexioGo everyday now and are quite happy with it. As the app was tailored especially for our customers on the Go (hence the name "bexioGo" ;-) we get very positive feedback from that target audience.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We defined clear roles and responsibilities in the beginning of the project, as well as how the project should be managed (communication, tooling). This worked out really well. Melon proactively made suggestions for improvements on their own and worked out concepts how a specific issue could be solved. All our inputs and feedbacks were processed very fast and the discussion was always very constructive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very professional on every level: company partnership, project management, and the whole phase cycle. I always had the impression that they deeply care for the project and for bexio as a company - which was not always the case for other development partners I worked with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We had some smaller quality issues with the UI development for the "old" apps. This was discussed with Melon before the bexioGo project and they reacted and improved on this very quickly. So there is not much room anymore for further improvements in my opinion.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Technical Lead and responsible person for the technical realisation of Custom Software Development products at one of the big four audit companies. Within our department we focus on customer experience and customer-centric products and solutions.

For what projects/services did your company hire Melon?

Given the current global and federal state management and business continuity solutions are an important instrument to fight the current COVID-19 pandemic. We developed a COVID-19 business continuity solution, including a platform to safety manage company sites and protect employees on-site.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal of this project is to develop a market-ready solution to be used by large enterprises to enable their employees to return and work in the offices in a safe and risk-controlled manner.

How did you select Melon?

Melon is one of our preferred partner on Custom Software Development in the native mobile domain. We hold a long-standing relationship with Melon and selected them for support and collaboration on this strategically important product development due to the established trusted relationship.

Describe the project in detail.

The project realizing this product is a long-running initiative with an overall project team size of 20+. The project is set up in multiple areas of expertise, where my and Melon's focus was sorely on the product development. The project is running in an agile, SCRUM based working mode with major releases at least every quarter.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed intercompany and interculturality. The product development group consisted of up to nine experts of different expertise (architecture, native development, design, qa, information security, ..) and was working in a full remote environment.

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

With the support and collaboration from Melon the product development team was able to launch the product from an initial idea and prototyping to a market ready, launched product within two months. Up until today the solution is in the market, operated and constantly improved.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their workflow and the overall working mode were very efficient. Onboarding took less than a week and after the onboarding phase there was not gap or any other aspects signalling a difference between internal team members and the colleagues of Melon.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The open and honest, though constructive and pragmatic culture especially when rapid changes in the project setup are required and/or small inefficiencies do occur are a differentiating aspect of Melon.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Talking about areas of improvement, one can only name the speed of onboarding to be further reduced, even though it's already very fast and the further closing of language barriers. Though the latter is not an issue at all, further investment in that area would potential result in even greater efficiency.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Podation. We provide a multi-station platform for digital media.

What challenge were you trying to address with Melon?

We needed to build a self-service platform for digital media providers to upload.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The key features we wanted were the CMS and an embed player. I needed a backend content management system that also integrated into other services such as micropayment platforms. I also needed frontend development and UI/UX design. They provided all these services.

During the process, they also assisted with Q&A. That included different browsers and also mobile interfaces.

What is the team composition?

There were about five to six people that were working on this project.

How did you come to work with Melon?

They have great knowledge. My CTO really trusted them, having worked with them on three or four different projects in the past at two different companies. He had a really good experience with them. He knew them well and they knew him, and that is why we went with them. Also being offshore, they were very reasonably priced as well.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between €50,000 and €100,000 Euros (between $60,000 and $120,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from March 2020, and the project went on until October 2020.

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

It was an excellent cooperation. They knew what they were talking about and were open about stuff when they didn’t know and therefore needed help and guidance.

How did Melon perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Slack as a communication tool and then Clubhouse for project management. We had a daily stand-up. They were always on time, worked very well, and did good stand-ups, telling us what they had done the day before and what the plan was for that day.

Also, there was good attention from management from both the CTO and the CEO. It felt like there was a very clear escalation part if something went wrong, and nothing went wrong.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I noticed that they had people that have stellar experience. You didn’t get a junior person; their team has people with 10 to 15 years of experience on the backend or frontend. That was really good. It is always a challenge when you work with other companies in other countries, as things can be lost in translation, but I found that their English language skills are excellent.

There was also a wide variety of services. When I said that I needed UX, they had that. When I said I needed UI design capabilities, they had that. I felt that they have a broad portfolio of skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have nothing in particular.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have very clear specifications and/or wireframes so that it is clear what it is that you want to do. I think that is very important in general, but if you work offshore, it is very important that you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve so that it is easier for them to get going.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a wearable tech company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Melon?

We needed help augmenting our wearable tech watch product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Melon performs several backend tasks involving development and testing on our advanced platform. They help out with a lot of different tech resources that we lack in-house. The team creates new solutions and updates to optimize the customer experience. For example, they’re helping us create a feature to make sure people social distance from each other in response to COVID-19.

What is the team composition?

We work with 3-4 people from their team.

How did you come to work with Melon?

We found them through our CTO’s network.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $25,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2019, and our work is ongoing.

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

Overall, the work they’ve done has gotten very positive feedback. The team is professional in terms of response times. It’s important for us to be ad-hoc and add new things, and they’ve been very good at adapting to our change in direction.

How did Melon perform from a project management standpoint?

Their CEO is fast and responsive. The service level is always fantastic. Overall, their flexibility has made our life easier.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Other vendors sometimes say one thing and the delivery is poor, which is not the case with Melon. They’re far better than anyone we’ve worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing I can think of right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be transparent about your strengths and weaknesses as a client. The fact that we’ve been very transparent has helped them to work in a very agile way.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Co-founder, CEO and product manager at Slick. Slick is a web-based booking platform and workflow management tool for hair & beauty salons and other appointment based businesses.

We have around 3k users of our platform from 700 businesses in the UK. We are partnered with L'Oreal for distribution and also have some integrations with them to enhance the experience for L'Oreal salons on our platform.

For what projects/services did your company hire Melon?

We have had an ongoing relationship with Melon right from the start of our business around 2.5 years ago.

Melon have provided us with front end developers (CSS and React Native) and back end developers (Python, Django) to help us build out our platform and evolve all of the features.

We have flexed between 0 - 6 Melon developers over the past 2 years and they have worked alongside our in house development team of 2-4 people.

What were your goals for this project?

Our platform has to be usable across a range of devices and browsers and it also needs to be incredibly user friendly since the majority of our target customer base is switching from a paper diary to digital.

Since our customers are using Slick to run their entire business daily, the platform must be super reliable, stable, and fast when performing quite complex tasks.

In addition most parts of the product require information/actions from other parts of the product, so there needs to be a good understanding of how everything fits together and seamless performance across the platform.

How did you select this vendor?

Our CTO had worked with Melon before and was confident in the quality of the developers, their availability and flexibility, and also the cost. He had a good working relationship with the CEO of the business, Krum, and was confident that this is the best agency he has ever worked with (having worked with several before), so we were confident this was the right choice.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The team at Melon have worked across a variety of features such as online booking, stock management, financial reporting, payments processing integration, client data management.

Some of our features have been built almost entirely by the Melon team from scratch and others have been co-built with our in-house team.

The Melon team have also worked on some of the custom L'Oreal integrations such as a salon locator hosted by L'Oreal which links to online booking for salons using Slick.

What was the team composition?

On average we have been working with 1 backend developer from Melon and 2-3 front end developers. This has fluctuated over time according to our financial position and our product needs.

The great thing is we have always been able to work with the same developers at our request, so there is continuity for us. The Melon team have always been fully integrated with our in-house developers and we work together as a team.

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

Thanks to work on usability improvements across the whole platform from the Melon team, we have reduced bugs reported from our customers by almost 70% in the past year.

A module that was built almost entirely by Melon developers was our marketing module which has resulted in an average of 20% increase in revenue per customer for us.

The Melon team have gone over and above what is asked or expected of them in order to help us meet delivery deadlines, and i am always confident I can rely on them not to let me down.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The Melon team are all offshore and also for the past year our entire team has been remote. This has never been a problem and the team have excellent communication and exceptionally good english language skills so we never have misunderstandings.

We communicate primarily through Slack, hosting a standup call daily at 9:30am and a sprint plan every fortnight. We each then have 1-1 contact and catch up calls to discuss problems or share progress. We use Jira to manage tasks and workflow and then we use Github.

The melon team easily picked up our processes and adapted well to any changes. Their communication is always excellent and they are very reliable on deadlines or letting me know if there are any issues meeting them and why. Usually though, they do whatever they can to meet deadlines, so I am never disappointed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Excellent communication from the top down - I have met with the CEO and CTO in London which is a classy thing for them to do to ensure we are looked after as a client.

Resource management always responds almost instantly and they are incredibly accommodating for our needs, always trying their best to get me the developers I want to work with. The quality of the developers we have worked with is outstanding.

But also their work ethic and communication skills are excellent - it's clear they receive very good training, guidance and support from Melon and it's clear they respect Melon as an organisation and enjoy working for them.

Honestly I couldn't be more complimentary about Melon. They have supported us the whole way, but most especially when times have been tough for us. They are very understanding and collaborative to help us achieve our goals. I absolutely love the developers we work with and they feel 100% part of our team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Genuinely struggling to think of anything that needs improving - things work perfectly exactly as they are! The only tiny thing I can think of is maybe giving a little more advance guidance on national/public holidays for developers in their respective countries and what the expectation is around working/not working.

And also what the guidance is for holidays (annual allowance, notice of requests) ie is this something Melon specifies or I should specify. It's not caused any issues at all to date; I'm just not sure what the developers' expectations are and who has responsibility for this ultimately.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior manager at RARE, a conservation and development nonprofit.

What challenge were you trying to address with Melon?

We hired Melon to add additional features to an Android app written in Java that has a backend admin system. They worked on the front- and backend.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The app is a fisheries' catch recording app. We work with small scale fisheries in developing countries and try to get fisheries data in our project community to record their data. What we're trying to do is to replace traditional methods of recording fisheries data and move that into a digital platform. We've developed an Android app to collect catch data in small-scale fishing communities.

Melon was brought on when the previous developer had other responsibilities and we needed to continue development. We get feedback from users, filter what’s feasible, and then pass that on to the developers to add requested functionalities.

They fixed a lot of bugs and built a feature to track profit, aimed at fish buyers. The tool is a financial one, that assists the buyers with managing incoming income, expenditures, and profit in order to motivate them to use the app and continue to provide the fisheries data that we need for managing fish stock and enhancing ecosystems.

What is the team composition?

We usually had one person working on the backend and one person working on the frontend. There’s a project manager as well, and 4–5 people join our weekly meetings.

How did you come to work with Melon?

They were recommended by the previous developer. He put us in contact with us and we seemed to fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2017, and are still working together.

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

Adoption rates of the app might be our best qualitative metric. We’ve seen continual increase and usage of the app until March 2020, when it dropped for obvious reasons. Once the app is adopted, users tend to stay on the app. This is largely due to the new features that Melon has been assisting us to develop.

How did Melon perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great and very thorough. They provide constant updates and prepare progress reports for our weekly meetings. I can’t complain. They’re efficient, get the job done, and stick to timeframes and cost points.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with the way they go about their work and the knowledge they have about what they do. They haven’t let me down ever.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I’m happy with the way they work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as thorough as possible on the project brief. I’ve been guilty of giving too vague of a description. Make sure you have enough detail for them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a social networking platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Melon?

We were looking to outsource the development of our app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Melon came on board to help us build the iOS app from the ground up. There is no Android version. They were effectively responsible for the backend, frontend, design, and everything else we needed.

We provide a video calling technology, and they helped us build the video capabilities, the payment solution within the app, the scheduling system, and all the other typical functions of a typical marketplace app.

Our chief engineer led the project and managed their team from Melon, but they had a team lead on their end as well.

What is the team composition?

We had three people from Melon working on this fulltime: one iOS and two backend developers.

How did you come to work with Melon?

It was a referral from someone in Bulgaria.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost has been $250,000–$280,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Melon in November 2019, and we will continue working with them.

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

The success metric for us is delivering on time, and they’ve done so for every sprint so far. They handle minor changes and bug fixes as part of the everyday process.

How did Melon perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a daily call to make sure everything’s working well and to plan for the day. Their performance is fantastic. We use traditional management tools, including Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver everything on time and let us know if they don't understand something. They’re honest and genuine people who're passionate about what they do. It's clear that they care about the client’s success and satisfaction.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not at all.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to be organized.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a mobile solutions company in the UK.

What challenge were you trying to address with Melon?

We needed software engineers for web development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve mostly done development work for us, working on Node.js in the backend and HTML JavaScript on the frontend. It’s a complex system that diagnoses faults and issues in mobile phones. They’ve also done design work and the testing structures are handled exclusively by Melon.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with 4 people currently, but some of the teammates have changed at different points in the project. There is a senior engineer and senior test engineer who have been overseeing the project remotely.

How did you come to work with Melon?

We were looking for companies throughout Europe, as it’s difficult to hire locally. A contractor working for us referred us to Melon, so we went with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $250,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in March 2019 and our engagement is ongoing.

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

We demonstrated the project to the customer and we’ve been pleased with how it works. Their work has been mostly on time and within budget, too. 

How did Melon perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has largely been handled on our side since we hired someone experienced in managing remote teams. To communicate, we use Jira and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Unlike other service providers I’ve experienced, Melon has a good combination of professionalism with the processes and flexibility within an agile environment. We had some initial concerns about having a remote team, but it’s worked so much better than expected.

They’re flexible and willing to help. For example, we had a delivery recently that they happily did extra runs on to ensure proper testing and made any fixes or changes needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

With any outsourcing or remote work, you should be clear about your needs and skills. Organize the project so it can be done well remotely. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT manager at Ovation Incentives, a global provider of incentives programs for multinational companies. Our main product is a universal voucher system, which users can redeem in our system for any retail voucher. We operate in 100 countries with multiple currencies.

What challenge were you trying to address with Melon?

We needed an IT team to help us with the development of our website application and provide technical support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their primary task was development. They also created APIs to enable our clients to connect their systems to our system. They used Microsoft .NET and MySQL. Additionally, they also developed an internal reporting tool using SQL Server Reporting Services. Our products need constant development so they did changes and maintenance.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a couple of project managers and dedicated developers. They also had a QA engineer, which was helpful.

How did you come to work with Melon?

I used to work in Bulgaria as a developer and project manager and knew that they were good, which is why I chose them to be our dedicated partner.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2009 until July 2014. We now have an IT team in-house and don’t outsource anymore.

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

Without this app, we wouldn’t exist.

How did Melon perform from a project management standpoint?

I was the project manager on our side. On a monthly basis, I sent them the specifications and details about what needed to be changed or improved. We used Mantis. We worked well together. They’re exceptionally friendly and they completed the projects professionally.

For our main project, there were no scheduling problems and they completed the work within our deadlines. On another project, the main developer left the company in the middle of the project so they needed extra time, but it wasn’t a big delay, and it worked out for us. Even though it took them additional time, they stayed within the fixed-price budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We wanted to work with a big company because we wanted to have sufficient resources and talent. The risk of working with a small company is they may not be able to replace experienced developers if a team member leaves. The team that worked for us wasn’t that big, but if someone leaves, they make good transitions and provide another resource.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the first month, we quickly determined our style for project management with one of the projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Use them. I’d be very happy to work with them again.