Full Stack Dev for Education Management Company
- Web Development
- $200,000 to $999,999
- Jan. 2013 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 4.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"Railsware has always stood by what they've delivered, and quality has always been high."
- Education
- San Francisco, California
- 51-200 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Railsware integrated with an internal engineering team to assist with product management and full-stack web application development projects.
Railsware is easy to work with, passionate about the success of their projects, and highly skilled. The agency’s processes are streamlined and effective, but they are also flexible enough to adapt to new processes. Their high quality work and level of involvement make them a valued partner.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Please introduce your business and what you do there.
BrightBytes is a data analysis and research organization that works with school districts and departments of education to improve student learning. We focus on data analysis and research that aligns different operational components of the school environment, including technology investment, early warning dropout prevention, and intervention management. My title is director of products. I work with five product managers who presently manage a team of about 25 engineers.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Railsware?
Railsware has been part of our development process, part of our engineering team, for about three years. They were one of the first firms we contracted with, and they have stuck around, becoming an important part of our team. They're not in a majority, but they're a large part of our team, and they're deeply integrated with our present engineering team.
We originally contracted them for a combination of both product management and development expertise, particularly on full-stack web applications. We were not interested in native mobile apps, and we haven't done any of that kind of work with them. They helped us institute many of the product management processes that we still have in place as well as a lot of the development agile team structure. The way in which they do their work has influenced much of how we've defined our own processes as we've grown in size since that time.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
For our web application, they are using RailsApps, Node apps, JavaScript in Angular, React – mostly Ruby and JavaScript. There's been some use of GoApps. That's the primary stack they're on.
How did you come to work with Railsware?
We talked with a couple of firms in San Francisco. They were booked, but they referred us to Railsware. One issue was a matter of cost. As offshore contractors, they're just inherently less expensive than someone in the United States. That said, they have shown consistently high quality in what they do, and they're deeply integrated as a partner with us.
This is not your standard offshore, throw-it-over-the-fence-and-hope-someone-just-delivers-something-that-works kind of relationship. They're deeply integrated with our processes. Our team does not consider them a separate group, and it's not like they're on separate projects. We originally contracted with them because we needed someone to help define our processes, and we were willing to pay for high quality. There are cheaper contractors out there in the world, but we're not going to get the kind of quality we get with them.
How much have you invested with Railsware?
We've spent something more than $200,000 working with them. Our contract is hourly, and there's a monthly cap. Some guys need to work overtime on certain projects, so we'll get approval for that, but there's generally a fixed 40 hours per week, per resource, and per engineer. They'll invoice down to the hour with tasks per specific projects. They'll share that invoice with us monthly with the full log of every activity that their resources have done.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with them a little bit before I joined the company – I would guess in July 2013. We've been with them about three years.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
On a general level, they have produced super-high-quality work. At an interpersonal level, everyone there has been great to work with. From a quality level, they have provided consistently high-quality work, particularly given the strict demands of producing code that runs and works well. They're generally all senior developers.
As an example, we were running specific tasks that had to acquire data and map it into another location. One of those tasks was taking about two days to run, which caused many problems for the business. A rewrite by one of their senior engineers brought that two days down to about 45 minutes. He is a senior developer who was working on all parts of the platform, and we threw him into a highly technical challenge that he handled brilliantly.
How did Railsware perform from a project management standpoint?
They have a strict set of processes that work well, specifically for organizations that are a little bit less mature and need that structure. Certainly younger startups, companies that don't have proper management in place, need to be able to go to a contractor and say, "I not only need you to do this work, I need you to organize this work structurally." We needed that early on, and then we adopted many of their project management practices.
We also layered our own unique solutions on top of their structure, and they've been extremely flexible in integrating directly with our new processes – whether it's tooling or timing or structure. They're very good at being a hybrid where they can provide a specific designer, product manager or engineer all the way to how we're using them now – as our own in-house product managers – our own in-house designers. They're essentially senior engineers. They're embedded in our existing processes, and they're flexible with that, too.
What did you find most impressive about Railsware?
A couple of things on that point. One is they are definitely a partner. We do not see them as a contractor. We've not seen this as outsourcing. We wouldn't be where we are today without the knowledge that Railsware has put into the architecture and the systems that we've adopted.
The other piece is that they put a lot of importance on understanding our business and understanding why we're doing what we're doing both at a granular level and at the level of the larger market. They understand any updates we need to make in our business, anything that would matter even at a ground level from an engineering sense. Because of that, they're deeply embedded in our culture, and our success is embedded with their success. Much of their team is working on BrightBytes projects, and they deeply care about our progress as well.
Are there any areas Railsware could improve?
No. I don't think so.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
"Railsware has always stood by what they’ve delivered, and quality has always been high. Any perceived issue with quality has been addressed immediately."
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
"Railsware is always prompt from a meeting perspective and very flexible with timing. They are willing to work extra hard to get things done."
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Cost
4.0Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"I would definitely refer them.