OSOS

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former product manager at Sviesa Publishers, a publishing house.

What challenge were you trying to address with OSOS?

We wanted to create an electronic diary. Our competitors were already in that business and began to publish textbooks, so we needed to keep our share of the market.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did the architecture, programming, and some design, helping us with some business planning and decisions as well. For the backend, they used Python while the frontend was Angular. They built the wireframes according to what we wanted.

There are five or six different user profiles, and each has its own functionality. For example, the administrator has many settings and can set up a diary for the whole school, with users, timetables, lesson times, and lessons, etc. Then there are school teachers whose main activity is to enter evaluations and put information that is related to the lectures. That includes topics, homework, class work, absence of the pupils in the school, and timetables.

What is the team composition?

There are a project manager and six developers.

How did you come to work with OSOS?

They were recommended to us.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

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

We wouldn’t have our electronic diary without them.

How did OSOS perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager is quite qualified in IT, which meant we’ve had very good recommendations from his side. Generally, their service is very good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We liked their level of proactivity when talking about potential technological problems in the future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some problems when certain elements were done by junior developers. It would be nice to only have senior staff working on project development.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I managed the Marketing department. I was in charge of multiple product campaigns.

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

We hired OSOS for their web development experience. They developed our projects Mode247, ApcoPay and a few others.

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

We asked our partners to recommend someone in the web development area. Received recommendations and chose OSOS. Their portfolio, expertise and ideas won our trust.

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

We arranged a project briefing meeting. Discussed all needed features of CMS and frontend, as well as deadlines. OSOS suggested developing websites on custom cms based with php laravel, html, css.

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

Four - Account Executive, Project Manager, Backend and Frontend Developers.

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

Communication was professional. Projects were finished on time. Testing and UAT phase were easy and fast. Since all websites were based on custom cms with the same logic, learning how to admin websites was super intuitive.

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

We used emails and Skype calls. Mostly I talked with the project manager. There were some delays related to the last minute changes in features and content.

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

They delivered all websites with the same level of attention and dedication. They recommended us to use custom CMS instead of WordPress. It was a good decision.

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

They could be cheaper. :)