Monterail

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of a compliance management company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monterail?

We were using an outdated system. We needed to modernize our web app and create mobile apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
Monterail built a mobile app for incident reporting. The platform allows people to report an accident at a company site or an environment incident from their mobile devices. Those reports go into our internal system.

Recently, they built a progressive web app for conducting audits and safety inspections. Their team used Angular for frontend development. They built a progressive app, meaning it can be used from mobile devices too.

Users can plan and schedule their audits through the platform. Using their mobile devices, users can conduct inspections. Users can take pictures, generate reports, and look at dashboards.

The overall modernization of our system is an ongoing project. They work on smaller, focused projects as needed.

What is the team composition?

We started the project with two backend developers and a frontend developer. Now, we work with two frontend developers, a project manager, a part-time QA teammate, and a part-time UX designer.

How did you come to work with Monterail?

I conducted Google searches for development agencies. We spoke with 15–20 different agencies on the phone. Before hiring Monterail, we visited their office. We eventually decided they were the best fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly €750,000 (approximately $824,000 USD) on the project. We spend about €250,000 (approximately $275,000) per year on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2017, and it’s an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we had new products, we had to train clients to use them because they were complex. Monterail developed products that are self-explanatory and don’t require training. Feedback from our users has been positive. They like the platforms' performances and ease of use. Users also like the look and feel of the apps.

How did Monterail perform from a project management standpoint?

We use JIRA, Slack, and Google Drive for documentation. Their communication and project management are transparent and straightforward. They always meet timelines. We’re satisfied with their project management style.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Monterail has all the necessary resources in-house. Their team can easily scale up or down as needed. They aren’t too big, so their CEO is available whenever you need to talk.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had issues regarding the estimated timeline during the project. However, they quickly resolved them with a dedicated account manager who sets clear timelines for their team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s helpful to visit their office and see the quality they provide.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am principal consultant for Brodick Consulting, which was formed in 2016 with focus on the UK water and energy utilities markets. Primarily a specialist data consultant for those markets, we also look to provide toolsets, especially for the smaller companies for whom some enterprise-scale solutions may be too large.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Monterail?

Monterail was hired to help turn a broad vision into a tangible prototype that could help communicate our concept to potential customers.

What were your goals for this project?

The project had three goals:(i) translate the vision into a demonstrable prototype, (ii) establish the framework for developing fuller capabilities beyond the initial focus and (iii) inform the likely costs and timescales to move a full product.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I engaged Monterail after a tender process, having shortlisted six companies that appeared to suit the needs of our project (from general research and through appraisal sites, such as Clutch).

Monterail demonstrated that they understood the challenge, gave a clear vision for how the project would be delivered, while also recognising that there were areas of uncertainty and opportunities to enhance what was proposed. This last aspect was key: we wanted a partner that would use their experience to build on the specification but not to be limited by any inherent biases or blindspots within.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project began with a two-day discovery workshop at the Monterail offices, which gave us a chance to all meet, build the relationships and develop a deep understanding of the project requirements. Monterail set up the team working side of things and developed mock ups of what the solution would look like.

Iteratively, we stepped through the evolution of the mockups, which focused on the core outputs of the tool (the key data viz capabilities) as well as the non-functional aspects needed to maintain the data. I had a regular catch up conversation with the Monterail project manager, as well as joining some of the team's daily sprints as needed to resolve any specific questions.

The final output from the project was an interactive prototype that has been used to socialise our vision with customers, generating a lot of interest itself and raising our credibility as a consulting service.

What was the team composition?

The core Monterail team was four people, with specific input from the wider team as required. We had a dedicated project manager, with specialists also looking at the technical requirements, the user experience design and the data visualisation outputs. Szymon - the co-CEO of Monterail - would also check in with me from time to time to ensure that I was satisfied with how things were progressing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The demo has helped with establishing credibility and has directly resulted in two projects, albeit not directly related to the demo itself. The project has also helped us to better understand potential client appetite, readiness and priorities (the market is a young one, with non-household water becoming competitive in England fro April 2017). There is clear interest in adopting the fuller version and we still aim to revisit and build on from what was delivered.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was very straight forward and effective: there was a clear single point of contact for any questions and the costs/timescales were clearly communicated at each step of the process.

The project manager made it clear when the team needed something specific from me and even things like having a specific Slack channel for where my input was needed by the group meant that my time was optimised, which was useful for both sides. I had access to Jira and other documentation as needed throughout the process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Even during the tender process, I felt that Monterail was prepared to suggest alternative ways of approaching something, whether in improving a specific visualisation or from other technical aspects of the solution. This continued through the project: the final output was different to the initial specification - and all the better for that.

The whole team was very engaging and very easy to work with. And each team member demonstrated a lot of expertise in their area and a very strong understanding of the project and its aims. Visiting the office and seeing the energy and enthusiasm across the whole company really helped confirm that we'd made the right hiring choice.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not particularly - I found the experience very positive and would have built further on the work had the market conditions supported it (and may yet still). We pivoted from building the first module of a full product into a demo option but the Monterail team adapted to that with great professionalism.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Afriwise, a legal tech startup. We provide online legal tools, solutions, and information for companies active in Africa.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monterail?

We needed someone to develop an online cloud-based platform that would allow us to build our own data in a flexible way and to easily input and update legal information. We also wanted it to be a social community base for legal experts in Africa.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Before we started working together, we held workshops on Python, Django, STX Next, Ruby on Rails, Transition, and PHP. We wanted the platform to include all the project features we required and didn’t want any giving in on that. We did the written scope of about 60 pages and part of their assignment was to do the UI/UX and the wireframing.

Then they developed our platform. Since then, they’ve been doing maintenance and developing new tools and features. We’ve built in APIs and a lot of stuff that wasn’t part of the original scope. Since COVID-19 struck, they’ve been doing pure maintenance.

What is the team composition?

There was a project manager, a senior backend developer, junior backend developer, a senior frontend developer, and one QA. For the first six months, we had a business analyst.

How did you come to work with Monterail?

We did a lot of research, using Clutch as well, to find an external development partner. We had a fixed scope and presented it to a few developers for workshops and proposals. We also spoke to a lot of the clients of each firm.

Eventually we shortlisted three development firms and ended up choosing Monterail after a quite lengthy assessment. The criteria we looked at was time, cost, product, and process. We needed the platform to be commercially viable by June 2018.

The platform development process needed to be efficient and consume minimal of our management time. We didn’t have internal project managers or business analysts and wanted a team who could do the whole legal setup and development without a lot of interaction with us.

We needed someone who could think with us in terms of building a scalable platform. Monterail had a very good reputation with their existing clients. They had done some similar projects as ours. We found an excellent team fit and approach with them during the workshops. They gave us quite an accurate cost.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent €400,000 (approximately $433,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2018 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The MVP was ready in June as we had requested and within budget. In September 2018, we launched the official product out to the market. We’re extremely impressed by their development capabilities. They developed everything we wanted. They’ve reached all the KPIs. They’ve been great in terms of backup and maintenance. They think with us. They’re always within budget. We’re happy with them as a partner.

The UI/UX is great. We get a lot of feedback that the site is extremely user friendly. It’s not an easy thing to do because it’s legal tech. People that use our platform are lawyers and aren’t tech savvy at all. We were a bit worried about that. Monterail did extremely well with the UI/UX.

We were afraid that any change we would make afterwards would cost us an arm and a leg, but they were reasonable.

How did Monterail perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management and business analysis, they were spot on and did extremely well. We got weekly reporting. They use Slack and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re down to earth. They’re very pragmatic. They think with us. We didn’t have to spend months on a whiteboard with the developers. They were able to quickly start developing and visualize things for us within two months.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a bit weaker on design compared to some of the other development firms. We didn’t use a separate design team. At a certain time, we had to bring in a separate designer to help them a bit. Things could be a bit better with design, but we knew they were a development firm.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with the right people. We were lucky to have the most senior team on board.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am one of the co-founders of an online marketplace for hospitality and VIP packages for sporting, music, and culture events. We are primarily a B2C platform, but we also offer a B2B piece of software that we can provide to our partners so that they can upload their inventory of VIP tickets and packages onto the platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monterail?

We are a startup, so our goal was to create this online marketplace from scratch. We worked with their team to build all of the necessary functionalities and features from scratch into a cohesive software for us to offer to our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project started with us going out to their offices in Poland and holding a three-day workshop where we dug deeply into our goals and the challenges that we would have to overcome in order to get there. They came back with a proposal, and we hit the ground running from there.

We worked with their team in weekly sprints, prioritizing the biggest challenges first so that we could get a basic MVP up and running as quickly as possible so that we could start building a brand identity and awareness around that.

Then we continued the development on top of that, adding the sales aspects and the more fine-tuned functionalities. We worked in Ruby on Rails for the backend and something called Elixir that we added into the framework to help manage high volume traffic during sales, as well as React for the frontend.

What is the team composition?

The composition of their team has changed over the time that we’ve been working with them, but at the highest, it was around 8–9 individuals and at the lowest was more like 6. We have a project manager and developers specializing in back- and frontend as well as QA and design.

How did you come to work with Monterail?

They were recommended to us by one of our connections within the industry, and we approached them with our business proposition and objectives. As soon as we met them, we were blown away by the impression they gave in terms of their competence, talent, and professionalism, so we knew we wanted to move forward with them.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we’ve spent around $300,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2018 and are still ongoing with them now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Initially, the bounce rate from our website and traffic was around 89% and we’ve managed to lower that to 29%, which is really significant. Our conversion has tripled in that same amount of time, and our traffic has grown to nearly 20,000 users per month.

Overall, we’ve made a massive amount of improvement with them and are making progress towards building trust and client relationships through the platform. We’ve started to sign up a lot of partners using the B2B software and people seem really interested, which is exciting for us to see.

How did Monterail perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done a great job of managing their work with us. Even through a change in project managers, both individuals did a great job and handled the transition very well. They keep me up to date as much as they can and lay out very organized plans ahead of time so that I always know what the next steps of the project will be.

Monterail’s team is very good at providing opinions and suggestions, as well as staying within schedules and budgets without us needing to ask for any of that from them. They really operate as part of our internal team. We communicate through Slack, for the most part, which really helps to keep the two teams connected.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The sheer talent that they possess is incredible. They are determined, passionate, and unbelievably committed to your success as a company. You couldn’t even compare them to the other options we considered for the project because they have been so astronomically ahead of everyone else in terms of the quality of their work and the value they are providing for our money.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If I had to think of something, there were a couple of really rare moments where we had small miscommunications, but that was honestly the closest we’ve come to a problem throughout the entire thing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be absolutely open and honest with them about what you want to achieve, and then be ready to listen to their advice as well, because the collaboration with them is what’s going to produce the best results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of engineering at fromAtoB, a travel company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monterail?

Development resources are very scarce. We needed development resources with a top-notch skillset to match, which was even harder to find.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with web development. We use Ruby on Rails in the backend and Vue.js on the frontend. There were one or two projects where they consulted us in terms of design, as well. Our UX team provided the wireframes or mockups ahead of time.

Since we sell transportation tickets, we need to integrate with all kinds of providers. They’ve helped us with at least four major integrations and they’re all live, so we’re receiving bookings through those integrations.

They help us with really technical projects like the migration of our front- and backend services.

Our collaboration has only intensified since we started. We started with one developer and have continued to grow our team.

What is the team composition?

There are 12–15 people. We have a main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Monterail?

Our former CTO had worked with them in the past and had a good experience. They’re perfect for us because they’re skilled with the same technologies that we use. We also liked that they’re only 3–4 hours away from us and we can travel to each other’s office if needed.

How much have you invested with them?

€50,000–€60,000 per month based on the current team size (approximately $660,000 USD in total throughout the partnership.).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The successful integrations allowed us to go into new markets and sell more. The backend migration also helped us scale up our architecture.

They’re very good with the technologies they use. They’re the perfect match. We’re happy with their work. They pick things up pretty fast and the juniors on their side are very high quality and well-coached.

How did Monterail perform from a project management standpoint?

We decided that anything related to project management would be done on our side. They helped us with things like personnel issues like if someone needs to take a long time off or whether they have to swap between different projects. We use Jira and, in the past, we used Monday. We are constantly talking on Slack or GitHub.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical skills are very impressive. We’re particularly happy with the frontend migration they did for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If there’s room for improvement, it’s on our side in terms of how we organize ourselves.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Establish clear communication channels. In our case, we clearly defined how many approvals are needed from their side and our side before we merge any code. Make sure you put in some time to see the team, chat with them, and see how they’re doing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of a global parking App, providing ticketless and cashless parking to visitors of malls and offices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Monterail?

We decided to engage Monterail as our full time software development team to build and maintain essential services. This includes our mobile App, online administration tools and overall platform / server functionality.

What were your goals for this project?

Without adequate quality assurance and development, real users suffer. Downtimes are unacceptable in our business environment and we face an ever demanding and increasingly complex competitive landscape. Thus is it imperative for our software team to be able to react quickly and communicate clearly.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We searched on Clutch.co and interviewed many software agencies, as well as meeting with key candidates to explore keeping development in house.

After narrowing down the field to a handful, we selected them for their ability to answer our initial brief and questions in the most impressive way. They showed an adequate understanding of our technical limits and future edge cases / tech debt that might come up.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Initially, we had to bring our code base up to Montrail standard and unify the many disparate parts of our system and code. Subsequently, we have increased our work with the team to handle all aspects of our software development on an end to end basis.

What was the team composition?

Our team fluctuates but in general comprises:

• Project manager
• Senior Full Stack
• Mid range full stack
• Front End
• QA
• Account management

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since working with Monterail, new development cycles have reduced in cost and time to market. Our inbound customer support tickets have remaining roughly constant whilst our user base has doubled - this shows that we have taken care of many of the bugs and issues with our software in our work with the provider.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management is done primarily via Slack and Jira. This is an area that could be improved. Many of the tools and ways that items are communicated are designed for internal software development teams and are frequently difficult to understand for non-technical people.

Advise would be to utilise a more simplistic tool (Trello etc) or to arrange more frequent updates. We have implemented a few of these ideas but unfortunately they fail to stick and the developers tend to fall into old habits.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their dedication to providing quality, timely work — even when some extra hours are needed is exemplary.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Described above.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of chickpea. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monterail?

We were looking to develop a nonprofit app that would crowdfund a solution to world hunger.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Monterail put together a comprehensive scope. Once we approved it, they created the application; both front- and backend development and design. We’re still in the beta phase of the app, and it hasn’t been released to the public.

What is the team composition?

There are 5–10 people working on the project: front- and backend developers, frontend designers, and an account manager.

How did you come to work with Monterail?

They worked with another company I was involved with. They were amazing on that project, so I wanted to work with them for this one.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in June 2019, and it is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As a customer, we're very satisfied with the work they’ve done. It seems like things worked with only one test run, which is rare. We hope that once the app is launched, world hunger will be impacted.

How did Monterail perform from a project management standpoint?

They're great and ask the right questions. Communication is primarily done via Slack, but we also email as needed. We have weekly calls with the team. Overall, they meet deadlines, but if they’re unable to do so, they communicate that to us ahead of time. There are times they inform us they will be done ahead of schedule, as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their QA and testing of functionality are wonderful. Their development, the way they look at things and build apps, is amazing and their accountability is also outstanding. For example, about a month into the project we came to realize that a lot more needed to be done to get the project where it needed to be than they had originally estimated. They took full responsibility and said they would finish as promised as well as take any additional cost.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I feel a bit overwhelmed at times by the number of questions and involvement required of me. It’s not things I really expected them to handle, just a lot on my plate that I didn’t realize would be there.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask a lot of questions upfront and try to be as prepared as possible to help streamline the project. Expect to be heavily involved and be ready to answer a lot of questions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Bluevogel. We’re in the sales acceleration space so we allow people to send personalized or tailored emails faster. We’re similar to a mail merge, but more personalized.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monterail?

We were, at the time, a team of three: my co-founder and I, and an internal developer. We were looking for a team that could build the software from scratch for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we initially went with them, we had some front- and backend code in place, so they did an audit and determined that it wasn't very functional. They started from scratch and genuinely built out every piece of the software. They’ve done the front- and backend development and set up our systems, which run on Amazon Web Services. They’ve also taken on development operations as well. They’ve basically been the entire I.T. department for the company.

The tool itself is entirely browser-based, and works with Mail Gun, our mail server. It allows users to create the content of the message, through a text editor called Summernote, and upload a list from Excel, which is supported by an API integration.

What is the team composition?

We had a dedicated project manager and worked with two developers on the backend and one on the frontend. We also had a QA resource, as well as a floater who would do design work. There was also a salesperson available to answer any related questions.

How did you come to work with Monterail?

My co-founder did some internet research, and may have actually found them on Clutch. Monterail was pretty highly rated, and we ultimately decided to go with them after reaching out to several companies.

Prior, we had been working with a Boston-based company, because we were concerned about communicating with an offshore firm, but we hadn’t had the best experience. This time, we looked for someone in our general price range and we were geography-agnostic. Another big thing for us was website quality, since we were a web-based company. Monterail’s website gave us the most confidence, and then speaking to them on the phone solidified that choice.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $70,000-$90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September to December 2017, where they delivered the beta version. We’ve continued to fix bugs and add additional features since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a few hundred people sign up, and have had 30,000 emails go through the platform. They exceeded our expectations in what they were able to build. It didn’t scale quite how we had hoped, but that isn’t a reflection on Monterail in any way. We’ve had some success and we’ve seen benefits, even for ourselves as users. From a business standpoint though, we just weren’t able to drive it forward.

How did Monterail perform from a project management standpoint?

They used the Scrum methodology to work through the project, and we communicated over Trello and Slack. We also had weekly calls through Google Hangouts, and during the brunt of development, those happened multiple times a week. Sometimes we spoke with just the front- or backend developer, but other times it was the entire team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication really stood out to us, which was probably our biggest hesitation in going with an outsourced firm. The open line of communication, using the combination of Trello and Slack, and really sticking to the weekly calls, allowed us to forge a great relationship, and a really good friendship, with their team and the developers on it. We obviously didn’t work with everyone over there, but the people we did interact with did fantastic work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don't think so. There were certainly things where their lack of experience in the sales acceleration space slowed things a little bit, but that's something we saw with other companies we’ve worked as well. I don't think it's a reflection on them at all.

Any advice for potential customers?

The location of a company doesn’t end up mattering as much as you think it will. As long as the company has good communication, which Monterail does, you can get a great product out there. In terms of working with Monterail, remember that they know how to do things, and that they’ve been doing it for a while.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO of a company that builds technology to help users find retail products that fit their individual requirements. For instance, a jogger, a DJ, and a gamer could each use our platform to find the best headphones for their respective needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monterail?

Having written the initial codebase ourselves, we hired Monterail to scale up our offering and speed up development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve helped develop the complex React.js frontend of our web application. It features a responsive design that adjusts for differences in desktops and mobile devices. We also have an intricate Ruby on Rails backend. We use Amazon CloudFront and EC2 to scale the platform and host Elasticsearch.

We partner with publishers and utilize questionnaires tailored to particular product categories. We embed custom assistant components based on the product type—fitness trackers, headphones, juicers, etc.—and this requires a machine learning component to pair individual users with relevant content. The platform monitors the effectiveness of those suggestions for future adjustments.

In addition to human-based questions, the platform collects as many data points as possible, while also taking semantic data like user reviews into account. Suggestions also consider pricing, comparing results against a number of retailers.

Every question compiles the expertise of authorities in each product area to determine what factors are important for individual users. When a user selects a product, they can see a set of scores against all relevant options in our database.

What is the team composition?

We work with five or six people on average, though the team size varies depending on our needs. They provide a project manager, frontend and core-app developers, and infrastructure experts.

How did you come to work with Monterail?

I did extensive research on offshore vendors, and we ended up focusing on Ukraine and Poland because companies in those countries tend to specialize in Ruby on Rails. We eventually ruled out Ukraine because of its greater time zone and cultural differences.

I researched a number of Polish vendors by reading Clutch reviews and conducted Skype interviews with every candidate. After narrowing the list to five, my co-founder and I traveled to Poland to meet each vendor in person.

Monterail exhibited the ideal combination of technical expertise, professionalism, and flexibility. While the other companies seemed more focused on their own bottom line, we found Monterail’s team to be highly personable and interested in our success. They were also a decently-sized company with a broad skillset and the ability to scale up if needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around €450,000 ($550,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2016 and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a range of metrics related to conversion and engagement rates, all of which are very positive. Around 80% of users interacting with our questionnaire go all the way through, which is a very high engagement rate for our industry.

How did Monterail perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m a very hands-on person, so I’ve played an active role in management. While they typically use Jira, we rely on Trello since I prefer its lightweight, visual approach. We have a number of boards and process items into a completed task board, with each column representing one week. We use Slack heavily for communication and met in Poland during the initial stages of the project.

Monterail’s team is efficient, reliable, and works to maintain our specific processes. They inform us of any changes in staff or upcoming holidays. Plus, they’re willing to work with us on costs to account for the exchange rate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Monterail’s founders are understanding, conscientious, and passionate, and these traits have permeated across their entire company. They care about our success and make us feel like partners, rather than clients. I also appreciate their inclusive atmosphere. We’ve worked with a nice balance of both men and women.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re responsive and take proactive steps to address any minor issues that arise. We couldn’t ask for more.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Visiting them in Wroclaw can be a positive and beneficial experience. The team is hospitable, and a face-to-face meeting can help build a strong relationship moving forward.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a software development and consulting startup. We provide accounting solutions for leasing companies, banks, and other financial institutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Monterail?

We needed frontend support to highlight our API for clients. We had an existing interface, but lacked the in-house resources to expand it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our clients tend to be visual learners, so we needed a more market-oriented solution. We provided interface specifications and discussed priorities for the coming months. Monterail then worked closely with us to develop an add-on for our API that allows administrators to manage tokens.

What is the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager who conveyed our priorities to a developer and a tester. A fourth individual was in charge of code reviews, and an additional programmer was assigned when we needed to speed up the project. Szymon (Co-Founder, Monterail) also got in touch occasionally to ask if we had any concerns.

How did you come to work with Monterail?

I saw them mentioned on Twitter in connection with the Vue.js framework. Their skillset matched our technology stack, and we were also impressed by the fact that in addition to delivering our software, they also take an active role in contributing to the open source community.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between €35,000–€40,000 ($43,000–$50,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2016 and the collaboration finished in November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provided us a fully functional frontend for our sales and marketing. Through the application, we are able to demonstrate the value of our software in a visually appealing manner.

How did Monterail perform from a project management standpoint?

We had difficulty outlining the project, but Monterail helped us find solutions, bridging any technology gaps. We communicate through Slack, GitHub, JIRA, and video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re transparent and communicate frequently. They’ve also been flexible enough to scale with our needs and budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a brief pause between the first and second phase of the project. During this time, one of their programmers left, meaning we had to onboard a new developer when we started the project back up. Still, the process was quick and she ultimately did a good job.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to have a detailed plan when working with outsourcing companies. The project would have gone smoother had we realized this in the beginning.