Osedea

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a technology platform that provides kids with strategies to manage their emotions better.

What challenge were you trying to address with Osedea?

We hired them to help us build our MVP.

What was the scope of their involvement?

For phase one, we met with Osedea and determined the type of technology we should use to build our platform, as well as the cost, timeframe, and resources needed. From there, they developed the MVP from scratch using JavaScript.

What is the team composition?

I had direct contact with the project manager and the developers. 

How did you come to work with Osedea?

We found them through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $25,000 CAD (approximately $20,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2019–September 2020.

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

Osedea was very helpful in directing us regarding what we should do and how to build the platform.

How did Osedea perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptional at communicating and sticking to schedule and budget. We used Jira for project management, and we typically communicated through email, video calls, phone calls, and text messages.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed by Osedea’s ability to respect timelines and budgets. They had the right people working on my project; the teammates understood it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There wasn’t really anything they needed to improve. If anything, they could have had more resources working for us. At a certain point, we were getting too big and needed more developers that they didn’t have because they were too busy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would 100% recommend Osedea!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a director at Aquado, a company that offers at-home swimming lessons. My role involves dealing with all the instructors and customers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Osedea?

Many customers register each year, and we used to do registration by phone, which took really long. We’d built a web application for registration and booking, but it wasn’t working as well as we’d wanted, so we connected with Osedea to improve our application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came to Osedea with all our app’s problems, and they came back with the solutions to those problems. The team worked on the app’s booking system, which is complicated because we have a customized calendar, many customers, and 90 instructors. Currently, they provide support for our application.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four teammates from Osedea in the first year of our engagement, and we’re now working with another four people. In total, we’ve worked with eight people, including a product manager, developers, and project managers.

How did you come to work with Osedea?

Although it wasn’t me who found them, I believe we found Osedea through Google research.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent almost $40,000 CAD (approximately $31,200 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around January 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Thanks to Osedea’s work, our customers have been able to book their classes with fewer issues than before. Moreover, the team is there for us; they solve our questions or problems when we have them. If they’re not problem-solving, they’re proposing solutions that could help prevent issues in the future.

How did Osedea perform from a project management standpoint?

We use email, Google Meet, and Slack for communication. For project management, we’re using ClickUp, though we used Google Drive last year. Osedea always communicates with us and lets us know what’s going on and how they’re doing. 

We give them a checklist of the things we want to solve, and they give us an estimated timeline and budget. We have a daily 15-minute meeting where they talk about the previous day’s work and what they’ll do that day. We also have another meeting to see if they’re on schedule or need more time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate that Osedea has many developers who are specialized in different things. As a result, our product manager can determine who would better fit each issue. 

Moreover, they’re able to find solutions within our budget. Since we’re not a big company, we can’t put that many resources into our applications, and the Osedea team makes an effort to find fixes that work with our budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have a developer available every day. At the moment, they don’t have a solution to support us if we have an issue during the project’s off-time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to talk to Osedea ahead of time to make sure they’ll have time for you and that you’ll be free to work with them. They ask lots of questions and want you to be involved in the project, so you must make time for it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-owner of Emyx Technologies, a project and timesheet management software for construction companies. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Osedea?

We wanted to develop a prototype for the second version of our product. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Osedea developed a complete UX/UI prototype of our mobile and web applications. My team provided some basic documentation for the website. The mobile app was targeted at employees and ran through an existing API; the web app is for employers. The app was used to track employee and project schedules. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 teammates from Osedea, including the project manager and a UX developer. 

How did you come to work with Osedea?

I found Osedea through LinkedIn. I knew someone who worked there and reached out to him when we debated whether to do development in-house or with a different firm. In the end, everything seemed to work out between us, so I hired them to do the prototyping.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $40,000–$45,000 CAD (approximately $32,000–$36,000 USD) with Osedea. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Osedea from August 2020–January 2021. 

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

We developed both applications from the prototypes Osedea developed; we were delighted with their final deliverable. Their team had a lot of great ideas and was always up-to-date with the latest development changes. We were a great match: they knew everything about development, and we knew everything about our business. 

How did Osedea perform from a project management standpoint?

Osedea was great at meeting deadlines, if anything, my team was late with deliverables. Whenever a team member from Osedea was out, they’d bring someone on quickly to ensure there were no project delays. We had weekly and daily meetings during the project; we talked to the project manager daily in a scrum meeting. We also communicated with Osedea through email and Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed that Osedea could stay up-to-date on the changing UX/UI development world. They were also very talented; their team made the app very user-friendly. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, I have nothing for Osedea to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d suggest that future customers have open communication with Osedea — customers need to be precise in their vision and feedback. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director and product owner of a company specialized in the traffic counter industry. We sell counters mainly to retail stores in order to collect and analyze data of how many people are coming into the shops. With that information, we’re able to provide recommendations to the sales manager regarding how many sales representatives they should have on the floor.

What challenge were you trying to address with Osedea?

We wanted to create a mobile version of an application they did for us in the past. We wanted to be able to offer it as a COVID-19 service, where stores could see their traffic in real-time and ensure the proper amount of people were inside.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did a three-week discovery sprint where they learned our exact necessities and what could create value for our customers. We did some remote sessions where they asked us about our needs, the market we were aiming for, our main goal, and the type of product we wanted to deliver at the end. 

They came up with a progressive web app that you can use on mobile devices, but users don’t have to download the application to use it. In terms of technologies, they developed the app with UGS. They also used Figma to develop the UI that they provided at the end.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Thierry (Project Manager) and a UI designer.

How did you come to work with Osedea?

We’ve worked with them in the past. A former employee of ours recommended them to us back then, and we found good reviews about Osedea online. We wanted their expertise on this new product, so we contacted them to discuss our first draft of the work together.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $10,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We work through March–April 2021. We’ll probably continue to work with them in the next few months.

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

The application will be released next week, so we’ll start to collect feedback from customers then. When we showed the final results of the dynamic prototype to the president of our company, he was very satisfied and complimented the work done by Osedea. When they promise something, they always deliver a quality product on time; it was easy to build confidence with them.

How did Osedea perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work and professionalism distinguishes them from other providers. They’re honest and have respect for timeframes; they made sure to deliver the expected results on time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Be open-minded. They bring new and nice ideas to the table.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the client relations manager for ROBIC, an IP law firm that covers trademark, patent protection, and litigation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Osedea?

We didn’t have paperless billing and were printing a lot of invoices. It required a lot of time and effort and it wasted a lot of paper.

What was the scope of their involvement?

At first, they helped us replicate our process for approving invoices electronically. We have three different processes that we needed to put in place depending on what type of invoices we were doing.

After our first draft, we realized that recreating our system electronically was ineffective, so we had to rethink the way we operated. They helped us through that process and developed a second platform that fit our needs better. Now all of our invoicing processes are online.  

What is the team composition?

I worked with a couple of programmers and a project manager directly. On top of that, the president of Osedea was very involved in the project.

How did you come to work with Osedea?

We met Osedea at an event at which startups pitch ideas to solve our problems. Their proposal aligned with what we were looking for and was much better than other companies we considered. They were able to pinpoint what our problem was.  

How much have you invested with them?

Our initial contract was $35,000 CAD (approximately $28,000 USD), but we asked them to do some additional work. We ended up spending an additional $14,000 CAD (approximately $11,000 USD) in support. In total, we’ve spent about $71,000 CAD (approximately $56,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in October 2016 and the final platform was delivered in April 2017.

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

The project was a big success. We’re able to bill clients in about half the time it used to take. We also wanted to show that we were a paperless company, so this increased our visibility. Clients were happy to see we were going that way.

How did Osedea perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a great relationship with Osedea. They took the time to sit down with us at every point during the project to make sure their work aligned with what we hoped to accomplish. Since the project ended, they’ve continued to stay in contact with us to make sure everything is running smoothly. I know we can count on them. They’re available at any time, and if there is an issue, they can fix it.

We added new requirements a few times throughout the project, so it was difficult for them to meet our deadline. Still, they were very organized and they reminded us about the deadlines we had agreed upon. If they missed a deadline, it was probably our fault and not theirs. They were on top of everything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re dynamic and innovative. They had great ideas and they opened our minds to new possibilities. We received the best service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They did everything we told them to do, but they did miss a few small things in the UX.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

New clients should focus on the results they want rather than how they plan to go about the problem. Initially, we were so focused on recreating our process online, we lost sight of our intention to improve it. Osedea made great suggestions, so new clients should listen to their input.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an IP-focused law firm that does trademarks and patent protection. We also have litigation. I’m a client relations manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with Osedea?

We were not paperless for billing, which required us to do a lot of printing to approve invoicing. It also took a lot of time.

What was the scope of their involvement?

At first, we wanted to replicate our process for approving invoices in an electronic format. There was a standard workflow. There were three different processes or rules for approving invoicing, but we learned that this was a mistake after the first draft. Therefore, we went back and rethought the way we worked. Osedea helped us through this process and created a second draft. Our whole process is now done online on a platform they created for us.

What is the team composition?

I dealt with a couple of programmers directly, as well as a project manager. The president of the company was also very involved and still is.

How did you come to work with Osedea?

We met them at a start-up event in Montreal. They listened to our needs, and their proposal was closest to what we asked for. We wanted something dummy-proof and clear, and their concept was in-line with everything we’d given them.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial contract was $35,000 CAD (approximately $27,600 USD), and then we went over asking for extras and doing a second draft, so we added another $14,000 CAD (approximately $11,000 USD). In total, now, we’ve spent around $71,000 (approximately $56,000 USD) CAD.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2016 until April 2017.

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

The project was a big success in that we’ve seen a 50% decrease in the time it takes to go through billing. Second, as a law firm, we wanted to be able to show clients that we were a paperless company, so this has helped with visibility.

We had a great relationship with Osedea throughout the process. They took time to sit with us at every step to ensure they were in-line with our expected results. They’ve stayed in contact even after the project to make sure everything’s okay. We could count on them at any time, any hour.

How did Osedea perform from a project management standpoint?

There was a bit of a deadline issue at the end from our side adding on extra asks. They were very organized and reminded us of agreed-upon deadlines at every step.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a dynamic team and have really good ideas. Additionally, they’re young and they have new ideas about how people work. Even their office is innovative. I love how they see things. They opened our eyes to new possibilities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m not able to say, as I mostly dealt with their president and had A1 service. But, if I had to pick and choose, I would say they could improve their validation of the UX. They did everything we told them to do, but they lacked on some little stuff.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I had the chance to recommend Osedea to another law firm for the same project, and I told that person we focused more on recreating what we had than improving it. I would tell someone else to let Osedea suggest what you do, rather than telling them what to do. Try to improve what you have.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide cutting-edge engineering services and high-precision machining for innovative and complex projects. We provide engineering and manufacturing services for the manufacturing and transportation industries. We work on aircraft parts and ones for the automation industry. On the engineering side, we do analysis, design tooling equipment, and so on.

What challenge were you trying to address with Osedea?

We have a lot of different machines in our manufacturing facility, programmed by our on-site CNC programmers. At the time of working with Osedea, our idea was to provide a way for those people to work remotely.

We get new projects on a weekly basis, and, as soon as we do the programming for the machines on the shop floor, we’ll have to do some debugging. The people at the office will go to the manufacturing floor and help the CNC technicians solve those problems. This is a complex task that requires taking many different parameters into account. They have to be there to see and hear what’s going on, and working remotely is very difficult in that context.

Our idea was to create a platform that would help people working remotely, and do it in an efficient way. It would basically mimic the presence of an on-site person.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Osedea helped us develop a web platform through which we can see feeds from several on-site cameras. The big challenge was to integrate off-the-shelf IP cameras along with mobile cameras that we were developing at the time, and Osedea did this.

Another big challenge was to make sure that all the video feeds we were seeing were in real-time and high quality, and that they would be accessible from anywhere in the world, as long as there was a good connection.

Osedea developed the software that combines all our camera feeds, and they put together the webserver to host those feeds. The platform is accessible via web browsers, and the servers run Linux.

What is the team composition?

We worked with them on and off over three years, and they had one project manager, one or two developers, and one graphic designer working with us for most of that time.

How did you come to work with Osedea?

We drafted a 1–2-page business case describing what we wanted to accomplish, and we submitted it to close to 10 companies. Osedea’s proposal showed the best understanding of our project, and they had a reasonable cost compared to the other companies.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was close to $100,000

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Osedea between January 2018–December 2019.

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

We tested the platform, and we’re satisfied with Osedea’s work.

How did Osedea perform from a project management standpoint?

They were pretty good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Osedea’s team is extremely dedicated. They worked late to make sure we were achieving our goals and that everything was working as expected.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We made some changes on the project during the first few weeks, which led to a misalignment in expectations regarding the project and the expectations for the first phase.

Things became clear after that, and we made sure to have a discovery phase at the beginning of each new stage, to make sure that the budget was in line with what we wanted to accomplish.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Plan some time for the beginning of the project to lay out everything you want and to discuss it with the team. You might discover things that you hadn’t thought about along the way, and talking to the team beforehand will allow you to discard what you don’t need or to add things you might’ve overlooked. 

Having some brainstorming sessions with Osedea at the beginning of the project will allow clients to make best use of their money. It’ll prevent them from following a wrong path.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the Integrated Marketplace leader for Specialized Canada. We provide all categories of bicycles, ebikes, components, and apparel for riders in Canada.

What challenge were you trying to address with Osedea?

We were doing a finance-based project and needed web development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did the development of our web platform for desktop and mobile. We wanted to have monthly payment options, approvals, contracts generation, and an admin portal.

For the admin portal, they needed to manage the ongoing contracts. We produced the platform in English and French using 
HTML5, CSS3, Javascript and ReactJS.

What is the team composition?

They were 5–10 people involved in the overall project, and it fluctuated during the project. We were mostly in contact with the developer, project manager, UI specialist, and a designer at some points. There were also QA specialists, depending on the phase of the project.

How did you come to work with Osedea?

I knew about their company for some time from previous experience. They were within our budget and they were competitive in their pricing. They were able to deliver quickly, they were flexible, and they were highly motivated for the project which is why we chose them.

How much have you invested in them?

It was between $50,000–$199,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them within 2018.

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

I was updated and included in all the sprints planning.

How did Osedea perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through email, phone conferences, and a project management dashboard. We worked in agile sprints, and deadlines were respected. We used Trello as our project management tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Trust is important. They were great at building trust in our relationship through honest timelines and budgeting. That was essential for a big project like ours.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the end, we had some complications with the project, and we struggled a lot at some point. The size of some integration problems were too big for them, and we spent a lot of time and money on larger and complex functionalities.

We should have pulled the plug earlier in my opinion, so if I was going back, I would have appreciated them letting me know the project was too big for them for these features within that budget. At the same time, they did a large chunk of the project at their own expense, so I don't blame them at all. It would have been beneficial to both parties.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The number of employees over there has grown significantly since my project by 5–10 times. My guess is that they are now more capable than they were for my project. They have a skill set within the whole team that will enable a larger project.

I would support someone that would like to work with them because the trust is there since day one. The work ethic and culture of the company lead by the founder Martin Coulombe exceed the highest expectations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of IT at the Napoleon Group of Companies.

What challenge were you trying to address with Osedea?

Our internal development team isn’t up to speed on UX/UI development nor mobile app development. We could’ve taken those types of projects on, but they aren’t our expertise stack. That’s why we reached out to Osedea to help us navigate some of those challenges.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Osedea has been working on two concurrent projects: the first involves UX/UI design for some of our more advanced products, and the other has required them to migrate an older app into a more modern look and feel. 

Regarding the second project, it’s an app that works with one of our food measuring devices. Once connected to the device, the app collects device readings and alerts users about cooking temperatures, alarms, and more.

We’d reviewed the previous app and determined that it was relatively clunky and poorly-designed. So, our goal was to create an MVP with a pared-down feature set and improved UI design for the first iteration before adding more features in the second phase. 

Osedea is responsible for creating a better, more rationalized use flow and interface for both the iOS and Android tracks (four apps in total). The apps will be compliant for mobile sites, too, and we plan to make them compatible up to three generations back. 

What is the team composition? 

The team consisted of three people. Our project manager was in charge of orchestrating all of the various resources and making sure that we gave them the necessary details to complete their work. Then, there was a UX designer who created the mock-ups for us. Once that was done, we worked with a developer.

How did you come to work with Osedea?

We wanted to find a local company in the Montreal/Toronto area to get their expertise in app design and development. At that point, Osedea reached out to me via LinkedIn saying that they were fans of our product and wanted to help us with a mobile app. We ended up reviewing them along with two other developers, and they came out on top.

It was clear that Osedea was laser-focused on what they were trying to achieve. Rather than being generalists, they specialized in UX/UI design work, specifically for mobile platforms. Their more competitive pricing and the fact that they contacted us proactively made us lean toward them.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial project cost about $12,000 CAD (approximately $9,000 USD), and the other UI/UX design project was around $80,000 CAD (approximately $61,000 USD), which included developing four apps for us. 

Believe it or not, the UI design work was more elaborate than just designing any old mobile app. Creating a solution that was compatible with our physical products required a lot more feature-rich capabilities.

What is the status of this engagement?

It was a three-sprint project that lasted between June–August 2020. They’re still in contact with us as we go through UI testing, but their part of the project has been completed.

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

We haven’t released the apps yet, but we’ve already received feedback that the UI is a lot cleaner than the old app. And, the new solution actually works. If you look at our previous app on our mobile store, you’ll notice that 49 out of 50 reviews are negative. Seeing if consumers adapt positively to the app will certainly be a metric that we’ll look at.

We do plan to build a second version of the app before release to include some additional features. Osedea recommended localization updates for government-recommended cooking temperatures and other changes between our Canada, US, and Europe markets. We didn’t foresee that on our side, so we’re glad to have them there to guide us.

How did Osedea perform from a project management standpoint?

We meshed very well because they had the same agile process and understood our language. In each sprint discussion, we’d utilize Jira to track our progress. Their product manager would guide us through every use case and committed backlog item, and then we did stand-up scrum meetings once a day for three weeks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Osedea had a genuine and refreshing zeal to make sure we were satisfied with what they produced. Their future success is always predicated on what they do with the current products that they have, so they’re cognizant about making sure that their clients are happy. Keeping their reputation intact and insisting on a continuous flow allows them to deliver a reasonable effort within a reasonable time frame. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d suggest that they have a peer review on the UI/UX design as well as for the code design. We only had one person do the general layout, so they tended to produce the same kind of output. Now, they might already do that, but it’d be nice to demonstrate those reviews to the client, too.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a very agile and quick-moving company, and you’ll want to be working at the same speed. Be prepared to answer questions and do your part in terms of the design, QA, and user acceptance testing (UAT). They’re hungry for quick feedback because they want to do a good job. So, you need to have your resources ready.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and Founder of Aidi. Our objective is to provide and sell software specialized in construction project management. The product is meant for owners, both public and private. We’re also working with cities, hospitals, retailers, and municipalities—any type of property owner, really, that want to manage construction projects.

What challenge were you trying to address with Osedea?

We’re a technology company but we don’t have any developers, so we wanted to create a long-term partnership with Osedea. They provide their technical expertise (developing and maintaining the platform) and we offer professional sales and vision expertise.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve developed the entire platform including the architecture (based on our requirements). It was a web-based project involving many technologies. They’ve been working with us for eight years, and the technology has evolved a lot since then.

They’re focused now on continuous improvement. I get a lot of feedback from them about keeping the software up to date, changing technology, and enhancing security.

What is the team composition?

It depends on the work we have and the demands of it. Currently, we have two main developers working full-time, and we also add specialists as we need. Right now, there’s an AI specialist working part-time and a UX/UI specialist. In total, we’ve had anywhere from 2 to 4-5 full-time developers.

Usually, I deal with their CEO directly. On a day-to-day basis, I’m working with the developers involved in the project directly.

How did you come to work with Osedea?

I knew their CEO in a previous life at another job. I loved working with him, and when the planets aligned to allow us to work together (when he created his company), we jumped at the chance.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since March 2013.

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

The main objective was to develop versions of sprints ready when we need them. Additionally, if I bring on a new client then my main objective is to respect those deadlines as well. During the last year, they’ve been on-time, every time. And they’ve never been more than 5% over the timeline.

How did Osedea perform from a project management standpoint?

On their side, they have two project managers. I managed it myself, however.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing is that they really encourage everyone in the team to constantly better and improve themselves and the service they provide. I didn’t ask for anything, but they provided me with artificial intelligence expertise. They offer us to try new things all the time. They’re more like a partner than a supplier, keeping us up to date on whatever is the best solution at the moment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know. Everyone on the team is great and there isn’t any turnover. Everyone is respectful of us, our budget, and our deadlines. I don’t have anything to improve for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You’re going to hire Osedea because you can trust them and because they’re experts. Even though we’ve worked with them for eight years, every time we start a new big-picture project, we begin with a discovery phase. That’s the best advice I can give to anyone. The scope has to be understood by everyone at the table. Deadlines and deliverables have to be laid out. That was Osedea’s advice when we began with them. In our experience, it’s not an expense, but an investment.