nexocode

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a fast-growing forwarding company, specializing in express transport in Western European countries. I work as a CIO, my role is to manage the IT department, and to produce software to support processes in the organization.

For what projects/services did your company hire nexocode?

The main challenge was to create a tool that will support the unique on the market process of customer service, as well as allow for the measurement of required parameters.

What were your goals for this project?

Main goal was to build application integrated with Exchange Online, providing control over sale process. We preferred using .Net environment on backend. Business expectation was to increase the number of succesful deals.

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a CRM solution that could support our specific process, unfortunately we did not find any. So we decided to start creating our own solution with a partner.

After preliminary negotiations with several partners, which was not succesful, Nexocode was recommended to us. They convinced us with a professional and flexible approach, and with providing good solutions for the problems.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The scope of work included:

• design and implementation of a customer communication system integrated with Exchange Online, Google maps
• preparing the monitoring and support functions of the agents' activities
• system for calculating KPIs for daily activities 
• integration with existing company systems

What was the team composition?

2 x Frontend Developer, 1 x Backend Developer, 1 x Lead Engineer, 1 x Product Design

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

Everyone that has used the system has left positive feedback for us, the software was found very useful, especially when users had to work from home. Our team feels very strongly about the quality of the work, so we are optimistic about the impact that it is going to have on our business.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Perfect. Starting with an in-depth analysis by Design Thinking, through agile methods during software production. Production of subsequent versions in SCRUM sprints proved to be very effective and allowed to provide the most effective system functions for business.

We had communication team meetings, where we quickly defined the scope. Nexocode is flexible and capable of adjusting quickly to changes in the scope, without impacting the product at the end. We used Jira and MS Teams for communication throughout.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have a very high level of customer needs analysis skills and an ability to choose effective technologies to implement them. The high level of programmers and DevOps engineers is also impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It's hard to point anything out, because Nexocode is a high-class partner.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior program manager at an internet company. I work on our developer ecosystem.

What challenge were you trying to address with nexocode?

We needed to build a tool to help onboard new chapters in our global community program. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

nexocode built an end-to-end platform to verify and onboard new chapters in our community program. It’s both externally facing to capture information through an external form and internally facing to guide my team through the steps to interview and onboard a new chapter. 

We developed this tool in partnership with nexocode. It allows for custom views of the information taken in from the external application form. The customized steps match our internal process and our team’s workflow. Finally, there are customized reporting and statistics tools based on the information coming through the platform.

What is the team composition?

We work with five people: two frontend developers, two backend developers, and a lead engineer.

How did you come to work with nexocode?

They built a similar tool for a sister program, which some folks on my team had worked on and were familiar with. The tool works really well and saw positive feedback internally and externally for its user-friendliness. When I spoke to the program owner, he indicated that the development process was really smooth as well. That’s how we ended up choosing nexocode to build this platform.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in January 2019. The initial launch was within a quarter, but each quarter in 2019 saw a new release with new features. We’re still adding minor features at this point.

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

Our internal teams were pleased about the tool. It was nice to come from a shoe-horned solution to a custom-built one. The UI is really clean as well. We made a few tweaks to the visualizations and groupings, but overall, we have no concerns. but 

How did nexocode perform from a project management standpoint?

We set up an agile methodology and had a weekly sync where we continuously reviewed the latest sprint and prioritized upcoming feature requests. As things got built, we interfaced with the tools and moved certain features up or down on the priority list or removed them entirely. 

The entire process has been really smooth. nexocode communicates well and delivers a lot of excellent weekly updates, mockups, and walkthroughs that make the workflow seamless. They’re always very transparent and clear about what will go into the next sprint. Anytime we have to adjust what was going into the next sprint, nexocode will deliver.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was really pleased with the ease of working with nexocode. Working with their lead developer was especially smooth. What’s really helped is that they already have a good understanding of the nature of our program because they had worked on a tool for our sister program. This baseline knowledge made our weekly meetings go smoothly. Lastly, their costs were great along with their ability to adapt to their clients’ needs and allocate developers to meet our timelines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. 

Any advice for potential customers?

As with any vendor, have a well-scoped-out project. Also, make sure your side is available to give feedback, participate in meetings, and overall be very communicative. nexocode has some solid knowledge and communication already, but agile methodology works best when both parties are highly involved. Our participation in our weekly check-ins kept the project on track.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project owner at Predica, a Polish company that specializes in Microsoft technologies. We help organizations be more efficient and future-proof by working with cutting-edge technologies, which can sometimes be early betas or alpha releases. We are a Microsoft gold partner on 14 different areas.

What challenge were you trying to address with nexocode?

We were looking for specialists with .NET and Microsoft technology skills that could help us build a solution for our customers. We were creating a bigger solution overall and this was a separate chunk of it—somewhat independent. It’s a sort of black box that receives information and outputs data. We decided that we wanted to work with nexocode because this was a challenging task and we needed skilled people to complete it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We work in a DevOps model and mostly do Scrum projects. They were in contact with the customer to gather the requirements for the module they’re building and incorporated them into the backlog tool, which is Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS). They’ve managed the work by themselves and after some tests, they showed us the progress and we presented it to the end customer. The solution they delivered was ready for production and deployment.

The project involved consulting, gathering requirements, development, testing, and deployment. They also provide ongoing support, as we’re still stabilizing the project with the customer and there’s still a lot of work to be done.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with three senior developers from their team at the moment.

How did you come to work with nexocode?

We found them by accident while looking online for companies that had similar specialties to ours. We reached out to nexocode and they told us what they did and how many people they had on board. We requested résumés from their senior staff to see what projects they were working on and how good they were. Finally, we decided we could trust them with this task, and that’s how it started.

How much have you invested with them?

I think the total cost has been around $100,000. Though we have an international collaboration, everything is done in English and invoices are in U.S. dollars.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with nexocode in August 2018. They’re currently helping us maintain the solution. The customer is also requesting some changes, which nexocode is implementing. We think we will be collaborating on this project until the end of the year and I hope we will be able to work with them again.

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

I don’t think they’ve had any direct impact on our company, other than the good reputation we’ve been able to maintain. They keep up with our way of working, they’re trustworthy, and they deliver on their promises.

In terms of the project, there’s a lot of value in the work they did; it was high quality, stable, an on time. There were no misunderstandings and the customer was happy. From whichever angle I look at it, the project is a success.

How did nexocode perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed really well. We communicate through phone, email, and Microsoft Teams. VSTS is the Azure DevOps tool we use for project management. It’s useful for hosting assignments, comments, descriptions, requirements, test cases, etc. Whenever there’s work to be done, we’ll have a conversation about the particular item in the project management tool. All the communication is recorded and everyone can track what was said in order to align with how everything needs to be done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s not easy to answer this question because we tend to choose our partners well and we don’t collaborate with companies that don’t feel trustworthy. However, the best thing about nexocode is their responsiveness.

On one occasion, a customer needed an urgent modification by the next morning when it was already the afternoon. Although they’re situated in a different city, I reached out to nexocode, and they organized themselves. They were in our office by the next morning, which was really nice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing I could mention is that they’re a really young team, which was a surprise for us and the customer. If they had beards and gray hair, they would’ve looked more trustworthy, but they looked like students to the customer, which was odd. Still, it wasn’t a student approach; they were professional and they have a lot of experience.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Trust them; they have skills and a good attitude, as well as a lot of interesting ideas. If a potential customer has a problem, they should give it to nexocode and they will find the perfect solution.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO and head of business development at Tripnet. Our company provides and enhances sales of hotel services for business clients and travel agents. Our platform handles over 10,000 bookings each month.

For what projects/services did your company hire nexocode?

We wanted to create a tool that would utilize Tripnet’s API and integrate several other services. We hired nexocode to create a standalone booking platform that will gather online bookings in one place. We needed a full team that was able to design, develop, and deploy the software from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to provide a complete B2B travel platform that would appeal to our clients. We wanted to increase our online sales by giving companies and their employees the ability to easily book and manage all business travel.

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a company that had proven industry knowledge. We interviewed several other firms, but nexocode had an extensive portfolio of completed works in the travel technology industry.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

As we were planning to build new software, we needed the whole range of IT services—including project management, user experience research, user interface design, and frontend and backend development. nexocode is responsible for the designs, code development, database architecture, deployment, and infrastructure management. As the product built by nexocode offers several travel options, the team integrated Tripnet’s own hotel solution as well as other providers. The system has expanded from being only a booking software to one that enables business clients to manage bookings and travel expenses. nexocode was very careful and user-centric when designing the system. 

What was the team composition?

nexocode provided us with a team of about five people, which included frontend and backend developers and a UX designer. Quality assurance tasks were spread among the entire team. Several other developers were acquainted with our business and the code base thanks to their peer code review system.

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

This solution is still in development, yet the first feedback gathered from executive leadership and stakeholders is more than promising. After the first months of our collaboration, we’ve extended the scope of the work, and now it also covers parts of a new module devoted to business travel management. The application developed by nexocode has been already presented to prospective business clients who will use the platform and were impressed by the system.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They are head and shoulders above other companies we know. The team was responsive and flexible by working with an Agile approach. We have regular planning sessions where we co-create as a team along with non-dev specialists from the travel industry. nexocode’s developers and designers were communicative and accessible to all relevant members of our team. They organized workshops like User Story Mapping that helped us plan the features and envision what we are building. Not only do we meet regularly, but we also use Slack, Jira, and Trello to communicate and manage our backlog.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have a transparent workflow and a skilled team that was able to capably deliver what was promised. nexocode is able to help you identify real issues, prioritize them, and find the best solution.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

There is nothing serious I could complain about. The only thing of note is that nexocode is still a rather small company, and they sometimes may not be too flexible with additional team resources. They are expanding, though, and this might not be the case in the near future.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a travel technology company.

What challenge were you trying to address with NexoCode?

Our existing software wasn’t compatible with our inventory suppliers.  We needed a development team to build a viable alternative.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re building a unified payment interface that connects our custom software to our channel managers’ solutions. These partners are mostly hotels and resorts. They built the solution from scratch, using our existing code as a reference point for the standard architecture to mimic.

What is the team composition?

We hired a team of three full-time developers who work with our technical director. I mainly interact with NexoCode’s owner and CEO.

How did you come to work with NexoCode?

A former employee recommended using NexoCode. Their past clients were similar to our company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2018, and our partnership is ongoing.

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

We are currently in the final stages of development. They’ve written high-quality code so far. All the work they’ve done has met our high standards. We especially appreciate the team’s responsiveness. Our partnership’s longevity is based on the quality of NexoCode’s programming expertise.

How did NexoCode perform from a project management standpoint?

We hold conference calls each morning to review the previous day’s work and plan next steps. The team always works efficiently. The timezone difference can be challenging, however. We can’t offer feedback during the bulk of their working hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Building good quality code sounds like a simple thing to accomplish, but it’s very challenging. You can’t ask for more than technical proficiency. Teams who excel at both coding and communication are hard to find.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There seems to be a discrepancy between employees’ titles and actual qualifications. Some senior developers exhibited a level of experience somewhere between a senior and skilled intermediate level. If they’d been open to working later hours, we could have established more overlap in our respective workdays.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Future clients should conduct frequent code reviews. Although they program strong code, they may face challenges adapting to unique, client-specific coding and architecture.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of a professional rental accommodations provider. We are a global business supplying large credit card companies and working with large travel companies.

What challenges were you trying to address with nexocode?

We supply accommodation and bring it through API feed integrations with other systems. We also have a complex website which allows travel managers and clients to report, place and cancel bookings, manage payments, perform currency exchanges, and more. We built this business with the help of nexocode and don’t plan to stop working with them.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Nexocode is almost an in-house IT company for us. They don’t treat us like a client, but rather like a partner. We treat them the same way.

They built our website and manage our Azure cloud infrastructure and static servers. They have handled design through to delivery for any part of our product. We use Java and .NET. We act as the product owner. nexocode brings their own ideas about how something should work, and we discuss it; the operational side is a mixture of their input and ours.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager, a business analyst, 2 main developers, and other resources on nexocode’s side.

How did you come to work with nexocode?

We never wanted to have in-house tech resources. We started working with another company initially, but we weren’t pleased with them at all. Radosław Kamiński [nexocode founder] left that company 18 months ago and continued to work for us on his own. As we grew, we sanctioned him to take on more tasks. nexocode was built through our relationship.

We were thinking of starting our own development company in Prague and looked at other companies as well. We worked with a large multinational, but Radosław offered us the services we needed and didn’t treat the work like a job, but rather like his own project. This is something which isn’t always found. When things go wrong (which they do sometimes), Radosław will be as stressed as I am about it.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we invested $1 million–$1.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with nexocode when the company was initially founded in February or March 2015. Radosław was involved in the project for approximately a year before this as an employee of our previous partner. The collaboration is ongoing.

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

We won the Best Travel App of 2015 award from Sabre, the largest global distribution service in the world. This week, we won Best Trade Supplier from Travel Weekly’s sister publication, Travolution. We’re supplying the largest, blue-chip companies in this industry with the system that nexocode built.

How did nexocode perform from a project management standpoint?

Yesterday, Microsoft migrated our account without our knowledge. Even though we had global redundancy, they made a mess. Without even having to ask them, nexocode’s team fixed the issue. They immediately put an engineer on the case. Responsiveness has never been an issue; we’ve never had to ask where Radosław was. If we find a problem, he or his team will already be working on it. We can’t do any better.

We use JIRA for project tracking. nexocode’s team uses Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have worked with IT companies in the past but have never had the type of relationship we have with nexocode. They’re amazing. We’re all human, and we treat each other accordingly. Radosław treats us correctly, and this is the most important thing. He is fair and hardworking and has built a similar team around him, one which shares his ethics.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve by increasing the size of their team since we keep stretching them. They are working on this.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should visit nexocode and not just talk on the phone. This will give them a real feel for the company.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Google in the developer relations team. I’m a lead for the Google Developers Experts program to support the process in which we onboard new experts.

What challenge were you trying to address with NexoCode?

We needed some tooling. We went beyond the capabilities of our forms and various spreadsheets. It was hard to manage and we realized we needed a custom solution for that. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us redefine and improve the process itself. They proposed an architecture that was the frontend in Angular and the backend using Firebase. They also proposed some backend which was not only Firebase, just to tackle some of the functionalities we wanted, especially sending emails. They established the whole infrastructure, the staging environment, system environment, and production environment. 

They started implementing the screens, the backend, the login, the dashboards for onboarding, the application form, user management, and some administrative views in which we assign our interviewers and our regional leads. I work with the team of around 30 people who are spread around the world and who lead developer relations. They do the execution of my program on the ground and they also use the tool.

What is the team dynamic? 

We worked with programmers and project managers and a very talented UX [user experience] designer.

We started with just 1 backend developer and 2 frontend developers. Over time, we extended that to 3 frontend developers, 1 backend, and almost 60%–70% of the UX person’s time. She’s now also acting as the project manager from their side. 

How did you come to work with NexoCode?

We didn’t have a lot of time to find a supplier or to make huge assessments from the technical point of view. We posted about our needs on social media, and NexoCode was the most flexible and the fastest to respond.

Radoslaw [Founder, NexoCode] was very flexible. I knew them from other projects so I was sure they were what we wanted. We signed a contract that was fixed in time and money, but not on the scope. We had a fully Agile approach to that. 

We could have waited for another year to figure out the final architecture and the best company to implement it, but we made some quick decisions and they helped us with finding architecture and defined the details of the product. 

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent over $300,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2016 and the work is ongoing. 

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

The main business value for me is in the onboarding process, which is the main content they are developing. I had one person responsible for that on my team. That person was able to process 5–10 people to the next stage per week. After the solution was introduced, the same person was able to process 120–130 applications in the first 3 weeks. It’s 8–10 times faster and more efficient versus our previous process. 

Our users are happy. Users are candidates who have tried the program, but also other people from Google who are working with the tool such as regional leads or interviewers. The tool is used by 80–100 people per week, at least. 

How did NexoCode perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is very good. I consider myself part of the team in a truly Agile environment. We have weekly meetings. Whenever I need more information, they are responsive. We use email or we organize Hangouts over the video conference. They used JIRA to manage the sprint, the bugs, and the feature requests. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very flexible. They’re very good if they work with a customer who is also truly Agile. A lot of companies say they’re Agile, but they’re not in the sense that they always want a fixed term, fixed money, and fixed scope. I attracted them with having the scope pretty open, but I’m happy with the results. 

That’s the way to work with them. To keep the budget in some boundaries, you define the amount of money. They tell you how many people will be working on it. It’s somewhat well defined, but it also depends on how many people you want in your project. We were burning our money a little bit faster, but that was a conscious decision from my side. I would recommend them for these types of jobs. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had some different opinions on architecture, but it doesn’t prove them wrong. I’m a programmer myself and have developed many projects before. They are more traditional regarding architectures where you have a frontend, a backend, the database, and so on. Maybe they could be a bit more open to the newest technologies. However, it’s not like they’re using ancient stuff. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to the Agile approach in terms of scope especially.