OrangeLoops

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a Canadian manufacturer of solar-powered attic vents. I’m the CEO of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with OrangeLoops?

We wanted to create a technology tool to our installers, which would involve a sensor and a mobile app. The tool was intended to evaluate the temperature and humidity of homes.

What was the scope of their involvement?

OrangeLoops is developing our mobile app. We provided documentation on the sensors along with a general idea of how we wanted the app to function. Most requirements were discussed during our weekly meetings.

They did research on the challenges that would come with the device, which was custom-made by our team. During this stage, they examined the Bluetooth connectivity and handling data retrieval.

What is the team composition? 

There are six people from OrangeLoops working on our app.

How did you come to work with OrangeLoops?

We evaluated several candidates and chose OrangeLoops after reviewing their proposal and having several talks with them. They were recommended to us by a contact. We chose them because they presented the team and planning structure early on.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost so far is a bit over $40,000 CAD (approximately $32,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with OrangeLoops in December 2020, and it’s an ongoing relationship.

We’re currently testing the app with our hardware, and we’ll get back to our work with OrangeLoops after that to finalize the app.

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

I’m happy with them now. The documentation is clear, and the presentations are great.

How did OrangeLoops perform from a project management standpoint?

They send us summaries of every detail discussed during meetings along with lists regarding their progress. They’re using several systems, and we have access to all of them. Everything is transparent. I can check source code comments and all the screens through the design software.

They handled the holiday period well. One of their members was replaced during the project, and the person who replaced him had all the information. OrangeLoops is great in terms of project management and coordination.

They provide monthly reports with the number of hours spent on each task. We usually communicate through Slack and Zoom calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with a couple of providers before OrangeLoops, and their level of transparency stands out. I can see everything they’re doing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I couldn’t say what they should improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They should discuss the terms in the beginning. We did that, and everything was very clear. We discussed the estimated project hours and rate. It’s important to brainstorm as much as possible on your end. The project will likely grow beyond your original expectations. The first step should be writing down all ideas and discuss them with OrangeLoops.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Loog Guitars. We’re a line of guitars that are designed to make it easier for children to learn music. We’re also developing an app to teach kids how to play. 

What challenge were you trying to address with OrangeLoops?

We hired OrangeLoops to help us develop our music teaching platform.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

OrangeLoops created an AR feature for our iOS/Android music learning app. It’s similar to how Instagram’s live filters work. Kids can pose in front of their selfie cameras with their guitars. Then, AR dots will appear on the fingerboard to show them the correct finger positions.

What is the team composition? 

My main point of contact was Gabriel (Co-Founder & CEO), and there were three additional people working on the project.

How did you come to work with OrangeLoops?

I met Gabriel through a Malaysian panel that we were both in. At some point, I came up with the idea for the app and figured that Gabriel and OrangeLoops could handle it. This was an exploration project for both of us because Gabriel had some experience in AR, but neither of us had done anything quite like this before.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $38,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from March–October 2020.

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

We’ve received very positive reviews. The app’s capabilities went well beyond our expectations, too. We were aiming for an accuracy of one frame per second and achieved even better on our iOS version. That’s pretty mind-blowing, all things considered.

How did OrangeLoops perform from a project management standpoint?

OrangeLoops always delivered on time and within budget. Again, we had that initial accuracy goal, but when they realized that things looked promising enough to surpass it, they decided to go for it. It was a close cut, but I’m very grateful that they worked overtime to make those improvements. And, the end product was so much better because of it.

They used Trello to stay on top of things. This isn’t our main business line, so I sometimes had to focus on other priorities. In those cases, they would push me to come to our regular meetings so that I could give them the necessary requirements.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What made them such a strong partner was their mix of technical and business savvy. They had a pretty integrated idea of the product that they’d created versus the commercial implications and opportunities open because of that new technology.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re always searching to improve their product because that’s the nature of technology. As machines learn to better analyze images, AR technology will continue to grow. I have no doubts that OrangeLoops will evolve with it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to their suggestions because they have a lot to bring to the table. You might hire them for one thing and then realize that their ideas will give you a better end product. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a fintech startup, and I am the founder of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with OrangeLoops?

They worked with us to develop the iOS application of our MVP.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our company is building a fintech platform to help families teach their kids to develop better money habits. We delivered a full specification list down to individual UI/UX design components and worked with the OrangeLoops team to bring a high-quality experience to our customers and use a rigorous process to get there.

Although we had a lot of documentation around what we wanted to do, their team was able to provide perspective and insight into both the implementation as well as the design. We worked collaboratively throughout the process to arrive at the final product, which was an iOS app built using React Native.

What is the team composition?

We had interactions on varying levels with up to 10 different members of their team throughout the process.

How did you come to work with OrangeLoops?

Our team conducted an exhaustive search for potential development partners to work on an iOS frontend. We interviewed about 10 firms to create a shortlist and ultimately chose OrangeLoops based on their reputation, past experience, and quality of our interactions.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in November 2019 and is still ongoing.

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

As a team, their discipline, documentation, and follow-through were all extremely high quality. They were able to quickly achieve a pretty high-efficiency development velocity and have maintained that ever since.

How did OrangeLoops perform from a project management standpoint?

We work in a very rigorous sprint environment, and their ability to not only match but also thrive at that pace was very impressive. We have weekly executive meetings to follow the progress of the project, as well as biweekly group meetings between the two development organizations, and almost constant communication via Slack and JIRA.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It really came down to their quality and thoroughness throughout all of their work. We are a very disciplined work and they met us exactly where we were at. Their ability to follow through has been a hallmark of the relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I think their rhythm and talent allow them to meet any challenge that faces them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you develop products that are highly specified and enjoy a structured and fast-paced development environment, they’re definitely the right partner for you.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are the Enterprise side of Grubhub. We build branded Mobile and Web apps for clients who want to provide their customers with a personalized experience. I lead the Program Management team, as part of our role, we work with OrangeLoops on the development of our apps.

For what projects/services did your company hire OrangeLoops?

The original engagement with OrangeLoops was to help us with a mass app update that required us to update roughly 200 apps in pretty close succession. Because this was a one off situation we did not want to staff up internally. We were very happy with the. work the OrangeLoops team did so we kept the engagement with them and they transitioned to helping us with app development.

What were your goals for this project?

For the initial engagement the goal was to be able to update the apps in a short period of time so we needed a team that was able to get up to speed quickly and was able to deliver results with very little guidance from our team. We have both iOS and Android versions of our apps so we needed the team to have expertise with both operating systems.

How did you select this vendor?

OrangeLoops was recommended to us by another contractor team that we used at the time. Because they were recommended by the other contractor team we did not look for another company. The team was very professional from the start which gave us the confidence to start working with the OrangeLoops teams immediately.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The original engagement was to provide Mobile app development for iOS and Android. We needed to do a small update on a large number of apps so we needed a team with the expertise and capacity to help extend our team. The relationship with the OrangeLoops team has evolved since that original engagement, we now have a running engagement with them where they are essentially an extended part of our development team. We work with the OrangeLoops team to develop our Mobile and Web applications as well as create tools to help improve how our teams work. Over the last few months we have also started working with the OrangeLoops team to improve our internal development practices.

What was the team composition?

I was not around for the original engagement so I don't have the details of the size of the team at that time. With our Current engagement we are at five resources per operating system, meaning five for Web, five for iOS and five for Android. The team has increased slightly over time but not by much.

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

With the help of the OrangeLoops team we have been able to develop a larger number of applications that we would have been able to do so without them. The team has also been instrumental in helping us improve our software development kit. They are familiar enough with both our SDK and the operating systems that they usually find potential issues and have suggested solutions for those issues. We've been very pleasantly surprised at the quality of their work and their level of professionalism.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project Management is handled by our team and we work with the OrangeLoops team to communicate priorities and timelines for each of the applications we assign to their team. The dev work is organized using GitHub and the projects are tracked using Jira. For communication we use Slack channels as well as weekly video conference calls to sync up on projects and status.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The thing that has impressed me most about the OrangeLoops team is their professionalism and their drive to always improve the quality of their work. They have a sense of ownership that I have not typically experienced with other contractors.

Are there any areas for improvement?

So far we've been very happy with our work with the OrangeLoops team, if there is ever anything that we do see as areas of improvement, we typically bring it up with them and they work on addressing.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Infomatrix Enterprise Solutions Ltd., a data reporting company. We have a main tool that reports and connects various sources of data and brings them together into a user interface. It has great traction with the C-suite, and we’re very active with the property and medical inventory sectors.

What challenge were you trying to address with OrangeLoops?

We were trying to modernize our main product. I became the CTO over a year ago, and realized we needed to employ modern techniques and modern software.

I employed Orange Roots to do a technological audit on our product and give us recommendations for the future.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave them access to our repositories, source code, and any other information they needed. They spent two weeks analyzing everything, including the source code, the architecture, what we’re doing, and how it works.  They conducted interviews with our CEO, the delivery personnel, and the software developers.

 They spent another two weeks putting together the conclusions of the audits and making recommendations for our future path. We had an extended session with the CEO and representatives from other organizations, where they presented the conclusions of that report. Finally, they delivered the full report.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Gabrielle (Co-Founder, OrangeLoops) and Daniel ( Co-Founder, OrangeLoops).

How did you come to work with OrangeLoops?

I’ve known Gabrielle since 2008. We worked together in different incarnations for three years, developing various bits. We kept in touch, and when I needed the audit work done, I just gave him a ring.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took about five weeks. We started in June 2018 and finished in July.

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

It was a very top quality report. It was well-produced, structured, well-supported, and well-analyzed. It had a lot of code analysis and function diagrams.

How did OrangeLoops perform from a project management standpoint?

OrangeLoops performed very well from a project management standpoint. I was always in constant contact with Gabrielle and Daniel. They were good with communication, feedback, and everything else.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a very deep understanding of the current technical landscape. They know what they’re doing and they’re aligned with that broader context.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve been very good. They’re at the top of their game.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise potential customers to go ahead and use them. They’re very good.