What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We are very happy with their work over the last three and a half years. We haven’t had even one bug. It’s an advantage for us that we can scale the team whenever we’d like.
Our clients are very happy about the percentage of uptime, which is extremely high. The software is very solid. They put in sufficient tests and live protocol to test new software. New releases are very solid and our customers hardly noted anything about maintenance.
The setback is almost all the developers we knew are not available, which is normal because they can’t be waiting for us. Last winter, we had to restart the team. It comes with how we work, but it would be interesting if their backlog for transfer of knowledge to new teams could be a bit more consistent.
I understand if we don’t build anything for a year’s time, they have to move on. My solution for that is that we visit them once in a while. We take two or three days to invest in the time to get it all up and running again. We are very happy with them as partners.
How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?
Their project management is really good. I’ve been having troubles with account management because I’ve had some account managers who came in after the project manager did her work and started it all over again. I don’t have time for that. I’m very honest about that and am sort of blunt sometimes. They’re very open to whatever we need even if it disrupts their structure.
The core of it all is the project manager. I have a real connection with the project manager and the coders. At first, I didn’t have a bond with the account managers. They were flying in without asking. I didn’t see their value until a few weeks ago when I met the new account manager. He does what he should do and he’s really adding something to the project manager. He thinks with us and helps us to position things. He’s a contextual guy, which is really good.
We started communicating with email, but at a certain point, we had to bring everything into a ticket system. I hate it, so I hired an AI student to take care of my tickets. She’s been the middleman between me and Netguru regarding the ticket system.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I really like that the people at Netguru add some things to the deliverables I want or need. I know quite well what I’m looking for and they come up with the smart solutions to do it so much better than I could think of. They are so solid.
What you see is what you get. They’re really young and are so good at this–they never make promises that they can’t keep. Estimations are secure.
We had a workshop with them last winter. We were visualizing the customer journey of the new software to be built. One of the coders asked us to take another 30 minutes to guide him through the process. It was a courageous thing to do rather than just pretending to get it all. Through that, we found out we missed a few things too. We’re very happy with them as a partner.
Are there any areas they could improve?
The account manager should be aware of how a customer works. I’m a content person and I like to know all the details because I have to sell it to my customers. The project manager is key for me. I don’t feel the account manager needs to be the person in charge. If I were Netguru, I’d reconsider how they divide responsibilities in their company.
Everything they do is highly protocoled, but it would help them to have cultural awareness of how other countries function.
Netguru delivered an aesthetically pleasing app to the satisfaction of users. The team invested time to understand the project’s vision and accommodated product ideas, establishing a dependable partnership. They guided the engagement with valuable suggestions to support continued collaboration.