Polcode

What was the scope of their involvement?

Polcode developed the brief and built our platform from scratch. The main the main task was web development which they did everything to get a fully customized site, including wireframes, UX, and web design.

The platform is built on Symphony per their recommendation. It features a number of API integrations including an automatic lottery ticket purchasing system and a syndicate management system that automatically allocates customers into different syndicates. There’s also a third-party payment system to process recurring billing transactions.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and three different developers, including a primary developer who was with us for the duration of the project. They provided additional developers as and when we needed them.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

I’d worked very briefly with them in a previous role. At that time, I found them on Upwork. I’d had a very good experience with them and knew that they had good developers on staff. I invited them to pitch for the new project.

They stood out compared to other firms by helping us to flesh out our idea into a brief. They eventually ended up telling us exactly what we needed and how it should work, which was fantastic.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from about February 2017 to February 2018.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done multiple server migrations. One project was in Laravel and another was in Opencart, which is PHP-based. In addition, they’ve improved sites’ e-commerce features, extensions, and marketing capabilities. Although this is an ongoing collaboration, we’ve had emergency support scenarios in which Polcode triaged services. In these instances, the team resolved functionality issues from previous vendors’ work.

What is the team composition?

Their team has about four people.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

We looked for an international vendor with more affordable costs. The agency needed to know open- source platforms, PHP specifically. We found them via an online search; they looked like a quality company.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in April 2017 and is ongoing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Polcode built an intranet for me via Ruby on Rails. I wrote out the workflow for the first process, which included a sample request, and then we implemented document sharing. They created the workflow based on my guidelines.

We started with 1 application, and 10 years later, we now have a dozen applications that a couple of hundred of users across the country utilize. We interact with our customers and suppliers this way as well. We’re able to send our suppliers automatic notifications, and when their quality assurance documentation is out of date, we’re able to send notifications to our customers. When they make a complaint about a product arriving late or something being mislabeled, we’re able to document that.

What is the team dynamic?

We’ve worked with at least a dozen people. There were 2–3 people working on the project at any given time.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

After the previous developer left, I began searching for Rails developers. I wanted to find an agency that would provide redundancy in case I found myself without a developer again. It was important to be able to retain coders and project managers in order to keep the project flowing.

I went on oDesk (now Upwork), and put out an RFQ [request for quotation] and statement of work. I reached out to Polcode because it looked like they could help me. I spoke with the project manager, and found that they were very affordable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $500,000 over the course of our relationship.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2007.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Polcode essentially recovered the older code of the apps, and brought it back up to date, as well as added new functionalities, as requested. One of the main ones was further integration with the website, which hadn’t been working well until that point. There were many smaller things which had been removed by the previous company, like speeding app playback, adding favorites, using local storage to download episodes, and so on. Many of those functionalities were broken, so Polcode was in charge of fixing or adding them.

The app was developed natively for iOS and Android, using Objective-C and MySQL on the backend. Polcode also provided very limited design work for the apps. The client provided basic design guidelines, for the most part. The app had been completed prior to Polcode taking over, but it was severely out of date. They leveraged the same design and framework, and rebuilt some of the foundation.

The podcast is hosted on the client’s website, and the data ultimately feeds into the apps as well. Whenever a new podcast is posted, it generates an RSS feed which is ingested by iTunes and Google Play, as well as some other third-party services. The client also has an app which leverages an API for communication between the website, the apps, and the database. The information is pulled based on a user-management system and a description process.

I estimate that there were around 5 developers from Polcode’s side assigned to us. We had a dedicated project manager who was with us for the whole time, while the developers cycled in and out, and had various responsibilities ranging from the app development itself, to work on the WordPress website and QA.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

My CTO had worked with Polcode for his previous company, and recommended them as reliable developers.

How much have you invested with Polcode?

The cost of their work has been around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Polcode around February 2016. The project is ongoing. Our expertise is specifically around dedicated shared hosting and infrastructure, and we never wanted to get into the project management and development game. We initially acted as a middleman between the client and Polcode, given that the client was not tech-savvy. We translated many of their requirements and worked directly with Polcode and their project management in order to break those into a project plan for the developers. The long-term plan has been to hand the reigns over to Polcode entirely, and let them manage the project with the client. Our portion of the engagement completed in February 2017, but the work with the client is still ongoing, and we continue to consult them.