Octobot

Introduce your business and what you do there

I'm the CEO of an international remittance firm.

What challenges were you trying to address with Octobot?

We needed help with custom software development.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We've been working with Octobot on several projects, including integral development from outlining to design. They've helped us develop a back office platform for remittance management. Also, recently we worked on an update to help us make our process more scalable, which implied networking our software to an international platform. We also were looking to integrate different payment methods and create a frontend solution that could be a self-management platform for our clients.

In terms of tools, they use the latest technologies, like React, AWS, and Django.

Currently, they're providing maintenance to the platforms.

What was the team composition?

We've worked with Guillermo (CEO), a manager, a team of developers, and a tech lead, among other members of their team.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

I knew about them through Guillermo, who I know personally.

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we've spent around $100,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

We have weekly sprints with the developers in which they handle different requirements, and we evaluate how satisfied we are with the results. So far, regarding design, they've met our expectations, and our team is delighted with how they've responded and handled communications.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

Their response time has been outstanding; the project was determined to last about four months, and we're in good timing. Regarding communication, we use Slack, emails, and weekly follow-up meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their key attributes are their project management skills, organization, and great follow-up process. Also, the price-quality ratio they offer is great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could arrange meetings with the product owner on our side once every month to communicate the project's progress.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about your needs, and work on your outlines before working on the development itself.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the technical co-founder and senior director of software development for an online marketplace that provides a service for dog owners, such as dog sitting, walking, and training.

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

We were looking for developers to supplement our software development efforts.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought in Octobot to supply us with software development experts that specialize in the Django, Python, and React frameworks. Our partnership is largely remote, but we still have people come to our office periodically for some of our in-house operations.

What is the team composition?

We’re currently working with about 11 software engineers and developers.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

One of our senior engineers met somebody from Octobot at DjangoCon.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent about $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in October 2021, as we start to ramp up our partnership.

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

We measure the success of the partnership based on development velocity and positive feedback from both industry managers and senior engineers on the team and so far, they’ve been performing up to our expectations.

They’re able to fill the roles we need rapidly and we highly appreciate the skill set and communication skills of their individual engineers.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

Octobot performs well from a project management standpoint, as they consistently meet their deadline and budget.

We mainly utilize JIRA and typically communicate through Slack and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with how their technical focus perfectly aligns with what we’re looking for, and their efforts in implementing a diverse pipeline when it comes to hiring people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any constructive feedback as Octobot has exceeded all our expectations. Getting everybody on board has been a smooth process and it has accelerated our entire project in a meaningful way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to communicate with their leaders clearly because they’re extremely accommodating.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is focused on the electrification of the world. We’re after improving sustainability through efficient motors and batteries. I’m the product lead for the data warehouse and for our product quality group.

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

I brought in Octobot to complement my digital thread and product quality teams.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Octobot works with us as consultants and contractors. 

What is the team composition?

All of the people that I’m working with are individual contributors who are either architects or general engineers. One of them leads my digital thread team, and the other is on their way to becoming a lead for my product quality team.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

When we asked them to look for someone in data engineering, Octobot said that they have someone on their side who has those skillsets. This person was doing project management for Octobot since they didn’t have any data engineering work for her.

We took this person on, and we were so pleased with their technical background, collaborativeness, and communication that we decided to move forward with the partnership.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since the fall of 2021.

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

Octobot always closes their tickets and completes their work. They’re agile, reliable, and accurate. In fact, there are other teams within our company that have hired Octobot.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

We really like them because they’re thorough and easy to work with. They understand direction and take ownership of a ticket. Even though they speak varying degrees of English, they all speak well enough to collaborate with us and get work done. 

We also like how they ask great questions and inform us of any staffing changes ahead of time. In that respect, they’re very reliable. Working with them is like managing the already self-managed. If I could have my whole team be like the Octobot team, that would be ideal.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They execute and they’re high-performing. I like that I don’t have to spend money or get charged for managers that I don’t need; I can simply integrate individual contributors from their team into ours and approach their leadership when we’re facing certain issues. They’re very quick to figure out solutions or correct any mistakes, which in turn has made it really easy for us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t see anything that can be improved, and it’s a big thing when I don’t have any complaints. I simply wish there were more of them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t come after my guys — but if you do plan to work with them, don’t micromanage. Let them perform to the maximum potential, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Vice President of Engineering at Edquity, a company that is building a platform for emergency aid and cash assistance programs.

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

Edquity intended on launching a new product in addition to the education focused emergency aid. As more staff was required, we chose Octobot to help with staff augmentation

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I searched online for staff augmentation companies that met the following criteria: Little to no language barrier, little to no time zone difference, and familiar with our company's tech stack. Octobot easily met all three.

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

As developers were onboarded to augment the internal dev team, they quickly integrated into the team and increased our velocity by 950%.

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

Five full stack developers worked closely with my internal development team while we were increasing staffing. There were also 2 members on the leadership team that helped ensure everything was working smoothly and efficiently.

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

Our new product launch has several interested partners that have initiated conversations in order to integrate into our platform.

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

We used daily standups with the development team and weekly meetings with the leadership team.

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

The company leaders are fantastic about keeping open and consistent communication and asking for feedback on not only the developers but also the process itself.

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

No, the launch of our product went off without any major problems.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product lead at SES-imagotag, a global leader in providing digital solutions for retail companies. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

Our company has done business with enterprise-level customers globally. However, we wanted to shrink our product footprint into something more appropriate for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). As a result, our team reimagined the way our systems worked in the form of an app, and we hired Octobot to serve a pivotal role in this campaign.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Octobot started working with us by providing a UX designer and an engineer to develop the entire solution, which was a mobile app for iOS and Android. We started with a blank slate, and our teams went to an exploration of the app’s UI/UX design. Part of that was learning about our existing system. We also sent them some hardware as they dove deep into our enterprise software. 

With their UI/UX design team, we prioritized the features we could include in the SMB version of the enterprise software. Ultimately, much of the app’s UI/UX design was simplified immensely. From there, we created a clickable prototype, which we used to get feedback from the entire team. 

At the moment, we’re at version 1.2 of the app. We have a monthly cadence for version releases, and our team conducts weekly sprints and daily standups, adhering to the standard agile scrum development methodology. We’re using React Native and Firebase on the backend to build the app. We use internal feedback and guidance to iterate the product’s design and development as we add new features every month. 

What is the team composition?

The team composition has varied throughout the engagement. In the beginning, we worked with 5–6 people from Octobot, including a developer, a UX designer, and a senior architect. Meanwhile, for the last few months, we’ve mainly worked with one lead developer, one junior developer, and one UX designer. 

How did you come to work with Octobot? 

Most of our resources and third-party developers were in Europe, but we wanted to work with a company that was more closely aligned with our timezone. As a result, I searched online for a vendor in the Americas and eventually found Octobot via Clutch. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $40,000 on their services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2021, and the project is ongoing. 

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

While we haven’t gone to market yet, I’ve shared the app internally. A vast majority of people who’ve used it have been impressed with its design and functionality. Based on their feedback, we should’ve built the app a long time ago. Overall, the reception has been positive both in terms of its aesthetics and ease of use. 

Anecdotally, we’ve enjoyed working with Octobot. They’re well-versed in all the modern technologies we use; the team is familiar with the right tools to get the job done. 

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

Octobot doesn’t provide a dedicated project manager — that’s my role. However, I’ve been surprised by their lead developer’s ability to help me. In a way, that developer doubles as a project manager because he’s great at staying on top of deliverables and keeping himself accountable along with the junior developer. 

In terms of communication and scheduling, they’re great. The lead developer is usually the first person on every call, and the team doesn’t miss any meetings. For tools, we use Jira for project management, Figma for design, and Miro for brainstorming sessions. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The attitude that Octobot’s resources bring to the table stands out. I’ve worked with other third-party development shops that have communication and transparency issues. By contrast, the Octobot team has a positive attitude, and they’re great at communicating. We never feel we’re in the dark, and they quickly bring in experts if we have problems — they offer this service quite liberally. Overall, Octobot is great at fostering values around good communication, and I’m deeply impressed by that. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Octobot should let us know early about resource constraints. For example, when their lead developer had to take a vacation, it was brought to my attention a little late. 

Since we don’t have a big team, we need to know whenever we lack any resources. If we’re losing someone, it should be brought to our attention early. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I wholly recommend working with Octobot. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by their service. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product owner of an intelligent barn operating system. It connects different devices in one spot and allows automation, tying other data sources such as herd and feed data. Overall, it’s a solution in the dairy space for everything around the barn.

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

We hired them to do all the development work on the product itself.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We layout the roadmap and requirements of what’s needed, and Octobot is the team that delivers and gets the work done. We use Figma for UI/UX design, and Octobot uses a couple of different programs for development.

What is the team composition?

There are now eight people on the team. We have a team leader, 2–3 backend developers, and about five frontend developers.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

They were hired before I came on, so I’m not sure how they decided to go with Octobot.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve been working on the project for about five months. It started in April 2020, and it’s ongoing.

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

It’s not an official metric, but we measure the progress based on the releases and our roadmap. We see if we’ve hit the mark and continue to add and solidify what we have. The end result will be the product on its running stage.

Moreover, we rely a lot on them to get the work out. Without Octobot, we wouldn’t be able to develop the product that we want. They’re crucial for our business.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication and deadlines are very important for our role together. We have planning sessions every other week for the sprints to come, and we use Aha!, a roadmap planning tool. All the team has access to it so they can follow along. We also use Pivotal Tracker — an agile system product like Jira — to store and organize all the work needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Compared to my experience with other development companies, Octobot has performed exceptionally well. The team is thorough and timely. If they have any doubts, they address them and ask us.

They’re also pretty intelligent, resilient, and accommodating. If there’s an issue, they’re willing to work late. Moreover, Octobot has similar aspirations as ours in terms of making a mark in their industry, and it reflects in their service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have difficulties sometimes because they primarily speak Spanish, so things may get mixed up a bit. However, it never affects the quality of the work; it just makes it harder to explain certain things, so we just have to rephrase questions.

Nonetheless, we don’t have any complaints. They’re an amazing group to work with.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Respondent 1: I’m the brand and marketing manager at a software platform for the dairy ecosystem.

Maite Muse: I’m a product owner.

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

Maite Muse: We needed help with development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Maite Muse: Octobot does all of the development for our software suite.

Respondent 1: They also do design.

Maite Muse: They developed our iOS app and successfully launched it in the app store. Since then, we also started developing an Android application. They designed everything with adaptations from the original mockups.

Respondent 1: We provided a pathway, and they took it to much deeper levels.

What is the team composition?

Maite Muse: We worked with project managers, developers, designers, and their leadership team.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

Maite Muse: They were a reference from one of our advisors.

What is the status of this engagement?

Maite Muse: We started working together in November 2020, and our work is ongoing.

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

Maite Muse: I’ve been really pleased with the communication and quality of work we’ve had with the Octobot team. They’re always coming up with new ideas for any issues we might encounter. Their design team did a great job creating an intuitive UI/UX for our users that makes it simple for users to visualize somewhat complex datasets.

Respondent 1: It’s especially impressive because the team wasn’t familiar with dairy metrics. They were able to dive into our world and create an app in a short amount of time.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

Maite Muse: We used Jira and Slack for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Maite Muse: They really bought into our mission, and they’re committed to it just as much as any of our other teammates.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Maite Muse: No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Maite Muse: The more open you are about your vision and your plan, the more they’ll be able to fill that need.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am an IT manager at an employment institution based in Uruguay.

What challenges were you trying to address with Octobot?

We recently with through a collaborative digital transformation with Octobot, which required them to develop a custom piece of software to help manage our different processes. This development represented the core of our institution.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Octobot used Python and Django for the development, and they also provided consulting.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

When we first found Octobot, they were a small company, and we had a very small development with them. Their work was excellent, and after that initial experience we increased our collaboration.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around $600,000 with Octobot.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our first collaboration with them in 2013, and we’ve continued working together since.

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

Octobot’s services have always been excellent. The developments they’ve done for us have brought great benefits to our institution. Additionally, not only is our institution happy, but our users and clients have also provided great responses to the platforms.

How did Octobot Perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve always had a very close relationship with them. They’ve shown great involvement in all our projects. Flexible and technically adept, Octobot always prioritizes project success. They are very personable as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s hard to choose just one aspect. Octobot has great technical skills and they also have a great ability to understand the needs of their clients.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

IPV Capital is a venture capital and private equity firm. I’m an associate, so a junior member on the investment team.

What challenge were you trying to address with Octobot?

We wanted to revamp our website to make it more professional and attractive.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Octobot built a completely new website. We had an existing website for them to work with but their team developed the new platform from scratch.

Octobot initially sent us a mood board with several different themes. We chose one of the themes for the website and then they started designing the product. Their team sent us PowerPoint presentations throughout the process, so we made edits to different sections of the website during the design and development phases. We finally launched the website four months later.

After developing the website, they built a data room where users can access files about our company. Users can create accounts and then enter our digital file repository where we can upload files such as tax records and presentations. Users can download these files. Octobot built the whole backend ecosystem supporting it.

What is the team composition?

Guillermo (CEO & Co-Founder) was our main point of contact, but we worked with 2–3 of Octobot's software engineers.

How did you come to work with Octobot?

We found them through referral. One of our partners at the firm was familiar with Octobot because his professional contact used their design services and was satisfied with them. We decided to work with them based on the strong referral.

How much have you invested with them?

For the website project, we spent around $20,000. The data room was an additional cost. We had a lot of back-and-forth changes for the data room, so it probably amount to $5,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in January 2020 and launched the website around April 2020.

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

We came to them without ideas for how we wanted our website to look. All we knew was that we wanted it to be simple. Octobot came to us with several different ideas and several different layouts, which blew us away. The website’s design impressed us.

When we had ideas, their team was willing to work with them. Throughout the project, Octobot was willing to come up with new ideas, which surprised us.

How did Octobot perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via email but also had video chats during which Octobot presented their work in progress. Throughout the project, we communicated about every other day.

Octobot was super engaged and helpful throughout the whole process. We had them make a lot of changes to the templates, and their team was always open to different ideas. They were open to our constant back and forth. Their team responded quickly and did quick work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness was phenomenal. We came to them with a lot of different changes and updates. Every time we made a request, Octobot was open to it. They were never frustrated by our constant changes in direction. Their team was responsive to our changes and supportive of them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to find an opportunity for improvement. If I could make one recommendation to them, I would say that their team could’ve presented more ideas on how the website could look. They could’ve brainstormed additional thoughts, layouts, or ideas.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend working with Octobot. Present your ideas but also give them room to think of the best way to execute the project. Be communicative about how you want to structure the website but let Octobot handle the design. They will give you a lot of unique ideas.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Milk Specialties Global creates high-quality ingredients designed to optimize health and nutrition. The human nutrition division focuses on industry-leading whey and milk protein isolates, concentrates, and hydrolysates. The animal nutrition division is a leading supplier of functional fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

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

Marketing our products to our clients by creating a web app where they can simulate the outputs of our products to see the difference compare to competing products. These tools also help our clients achieve their calf weight growth goals by generating accurate output models of the product depending on the condition.

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

Octobot was able to meet us on the timeline and budget that we had allocated for the product. We also went through a couple of recommendations from Octobot's previous client and received very positive feedback.

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

The project was to implement the following

1. Replacement of the legacy calf-growth toolkit
2. Design a web app that can use browser/os agonistically
3. The app should be able to work PWA on mobile devices
4. A major portion of the app should be able to function offline
5. Dedicated customer workspace for testing using our products

The project followed an agile approach with releases every week and meetings scheduled accordingly with a focus on step-by-step feature implementation. PHP, Django,Azure

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

Octobot's team has the following structure

• Project manager X1
• Business Analysts X1
• Web Developers X2
• UI/UX designers X1
• Systems/Technology integrator X1

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

We have achieved 100% of functionality and feature that was initially requested. Octobot's team was very flexible and proactive with our requests and understood the requirements. The feedback from business users and clients is very positive and the Marketing team is very excited to use the tool.

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

An agile approach to the project with a proactive approach was vey helpful Tools -Slack -Emails

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

The team is stable (no frequent switch of team members) and very tightknit and the communication is always on point.

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

More visibility on the Internal Agile process of Octobot