number8

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering for a technology company that provides a meal plan subscription service online and through mobile apps.

What challenge were you trying to address with number8?

We needed to address our backlog of work in a cost-effective and timely manner. We hired number8 to expand our development team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve augmented our team for full stack web and application development. They’ve done everything from traditional software engineering and development tasks. At this point, they’re completely integrated with my team.

What is the team composition?

There are three full-time contract developers on my team, but I also work with two account managers that help recruit talent. We’re also in the process of bringing on a data developer as well.

How did you come to work with number8?

I found them through Clutch. We were looking for a partner for nearshore staff augmentation and talked to several agencies. They sent us samples of their work,  I talked to some of their existing team people, and I checked their references. In the end, they could provide the best talent for the most reasonable price.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000­–$200,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first developer started working with us in September 2020 and we continue to work with them.

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

By adding one software engineer, we increased our throughput by about 30 percent. Since then, we’ve brought on two more developers.

Anecdotally, they fit right into our team. They’ve become trusted partners and resources.

How did number8 perform from a project management standpoint?

Our partnership has been seamless. They’re in the same time zones as us, so we’re able to contact them easily, which helps us turn everything around quickly. To communicate,  we use Zoom for video conferencing

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their engineers have exceptional technical abilities.  They clearly understand the facets of the project and can work across a broad tech stack.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything specific they need to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

New clients should understand that there are different ways to work with a nearshore provider, and how they manage that partnership can have a big impact on the success of their project. They need to be willing to support them.

Also, like with any partnership, there may be some challenges that are outside of their control. For example, we had to reschedule an interview because they were hit by a hurricane and lost power. So, new clients should have realistic expectations and flexible in their partnership.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Software Developer III at a freight company headquartered in Fort Smith, AR. We provide integrated logistics solutions for a variety of supply chain challenges. I am responsible for implementing and improving our IT systems as well as overseeing various team projects.

For what projects/services did your company hire number8?

Our company currently uses an in-house browser built off of Internet Explorer which allowed us to keep our existing web applications in a deprecated Internet Explorer version. We decided to start moving towards allowing users to use modern browsers, but needed these older applications to work in them as well.

We did not have the resources to devote to converting the numerous applications to HTML5 standards and outsourcing seemed to be our best option.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted each system to be able to successfully run in Chrome, Internet Explorer, and our in-house browser. Each system also needed to remain virtually the same from the users perspective which presented a difficult challenge. We anticipated that this would help us move from supporting our in-house browser to allowing users to use a browser of their choosing.

How did you select number8?

I was not personally involved in the selection process of number8, but I was the first person from our company to work directly with them on a project. The quality of the programmers they provided encouraged our company to use them on other future projects.

Describe the project in detail.

The project had already been underway when we decided to add a vendor to the team. I started as a developer on the project and soon moved to project manager when we added number8.

The overall scope was to convert all applications which had already been identified to HTML W3C standards (currently HTML5). The vendor was responsible for taking the applications they were given and updating them to HTML5 standards based on the given instructions.

They would then fully test each application in Chrome, IE and our in-house browser. Once tested the application was given back to me and I would pass it on to the user for further testing. The vendor had to not only learn our conversion guidelines, but also business knowledge on each new application.

What was the team composition?

Initially, we started with one programmer from number8 and as our project grew we added two others in order to speed up the conversion process.

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

Once completed all of our applications will be able to run in a modern browser which will allow for newer development and better user experience.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was excellent. We had daily stand up video meetings each morning in order to get a quick update from each programmer. This was vital in making our team work so well together. I also have a monthly check-in call with the vendor manager to ensure progress is being made and their are no issues.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive thing about number8 was their people and their integrity. Our team quickly became a "family" despite us not all working for the same company. I could trust that work would get done in a timely manner and I always felt like I was updated on task status.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I do believe we worked at a slower pace, but I believe with that came quality work versus if we had worked faster it might have been less quality and more quantity.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a managing partner at Elko, a software development company.

What challenge were you trying to address with number8?

We were doing a custom software development job and we needed additional staff on the project. We wanted to have a way to quickly scale up the project in order to get it done faster. As a result, we hired number8 to leverage the skills of their .NET developers and get some more expert developers from them.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team took over our integration project, allowing our system to be connected to multiple different apps. It would’ve been like a POS, a financial accounting system, invoicing system, and inventory management systems — these separate apps were connected to seamlessly work together. 

I can go to number8 and tell them whenever I need developers and state my requirements. Then, they will fill me in the next day with resumes and tell me the staff that can help me. They also set up a time so we can talk to their developers. After that, I'll do a text screen with their developers, and the one I like the most, I hire to be part of my project. 

I still have a project manager that oversees them, but they have senior-level developers on the project to knock out the technical parts that we need to finish. At the beginning of every project, we communicate with our project manager and our manager tells the developers our milestones, what we need to complete in each time frame, and the dates they need to complete it. What we do is basically integrate them as part of our team, so we also have our own developers on our project. We have daily meetings with the team where we talk about what we’re going to do about that day and discuss what blockers we may have.

There have been projects that have ended, but because I’ve liked working with them, we’ve brought them on for a new project that’s currently ongoing.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had at least four people that we brought on to our projects at any given time. 

How did you come to work with number8?

We liked that they are based out of Kentucky and they're a US-based company that has nearshore connections. In addition, I also had a colleague that at one point worked with number8 and they had some good things to say about them. As a result, I gave them a call and I was impressed with their responsiveness and willingness to work things out with me. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2019 and  I’ve continued to work with them for over a year at this point.

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

We measure their success by what they're deploying and what they're being able to get into production on a daily basis, making sure that we are on track to hit the future milestones that we've committed to.

number8's developers are good at communicating things upfront and it extends beyond the team as a whole. They've checked in with us to see if everything is going okay. If we experience any communication breakdown, they've always step in and help with that as well. 

How did number8 perform from a project management standpoint?

We have very positive feedback on their timeliness. They also have excellent communication skills. Their developers have been quick to raise concerns or any flags they might see in the project, which is always appreciated because we can pivot ahead of time. They're experienced enough to say what they can and can't do, and also state why they can't do it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We've been impressed with the broad skillset of number8's developers. Whenever we have a requirement for something, chances are they’ll be able to dig up quite a number of well-qualified people — whereas if we go to other places and if we ask them hypothetically to handle our Java framework, they can get stumped. However, number8 has never been stumped yet, at least not for the projects we've been looking for. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have no real complaints about number8 or things that I would say they need to improve on. If anything, I should probably implement their communication and formal processes on my projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just understanding the project requirements ahead of time and being able to communicate that with number8 will allow them to provide qualified people. However, if you become very generic and just say you need a good developer, there's going to be a lot of interpretation for that. There could be good developers for mobile apps and for Apple Software, so a definition of a good developer could change drastically depending on your needs. So far, I’ve found that they can find the right person as long as you are accurate with your project requirements. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the director of packaged software development within a large value-added-reseller in the architecture, engineering and manufacturing markets.

For what projects/services did your company hire number8, and what were your goals?

We needed to augment our software development team, to be able to deliver more capabilities with better quality, in each release of software. We had challenging needs - encompassing both desktop and web development, and within our specific niche/ecosystems of computer-aided design.

How did you select number8 and what were the deciding factors?

We had recently acquired a company that had been in a successful relationship with number8 - so we decided to give them a try when we needed to grow our team.

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

Number8 brought in a software developer to augment our team. He has been a great addition and team member. We treat him similarly to our direct employees - he participates in daily standups, communicates well over MS Teams, and performs occasional direct support of internal and external customers. He has developed numerous key features in our products over time (both desktop and web). We hope to add another number8 resource soon.

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

One software developer, who was closely and constantly involved. One account manager who checked in frequently to make sure that we were being successful.

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

We increased revenue from this product line by over 33% in the time when the additional developer has been on staff. We've had increased customer satisfaction with the features we've included, and improved customer support by re-arranging the development and support staff (which we were able to do with him on staff). He has been a great addition to the team, and his work is both fast and high quality.

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

We have daily stand-up meetings with the team via Microsoft Teams. We communicate amongst the team throughout the day. We use Azure DevOps for source control and issue tracking. It's all working well.

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

There are a million outsourcing firms out there (I know. They call me every other day). We needed a resource that had sufficient domain knowledge with computer-aided design and our tools that could ramp up and be efficient quickly, and they delivered that.

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

None. We've been very happy with them.