Recurship

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the Founder and CEO of BackTable. We're a healthcare platform for physicians to review medical devices and share information about procedures within surgical subspecialties.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Recurship?

We hired them to create our web platform and corresponding mobile apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired a separate design firm and handed their wireframes to Recurship for development. They built a database based on a list of medical devices we provided. Users are able to write and post reviews of these products. The platform also includes a strict registration process, requiring new users to provide credentials proving they’re a physician.

With the web platform complete, we wanted to improve accessibility. Recurship built an iOS app modeled on the website and they’re currently developing an Android version.

They also provide routine updates.

What is the team composition?

At least three people work on our project, though I communicate directly with a project manager.

How did you come to work with Recurship?

They came highly recommended by a business partner who worked with them on previous projects.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $40,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017 and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform’s functionality has been great from day one. I’ve been very happy with the products’ quality, as well as Recurship’s follow through.

How did Recurship perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very task oriented; they’ll get the job done as long as you clearly articulate your priorities. We communicate through Skype occasionally, and while we tried project management tools like Trello and Asana in the beginning, we’ve found email to be the most effective way to coordinate.

Recurship is also highly responsive to feedback and quick to fix any bugs. I test updates they provide and they typically perform any change requests within 24–48 hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

After speaking with other entrepreneurs who’ve worked on similar projects, I think Recurship’s quality of work for the price is outstanding. I'd recommend them to anyone looking for developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything right now. I'm very happy at present.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a software company providing an automated test platform for mobile app developers. Before an app is published to the app store, it has to be tested for regressions, compatibility, general functionality, etc. We help developers perform tests for many different devices and we provide reports, screenshots, device logs, and so on.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Recurship?

We were looking for additional help in terms of development. I came across their company, gave them a few test projects in the beginning, and liked their work.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Recurship has been involved in the development of our platform since the very beginning. We discussed certain requirements with them and implemented a series of new features. We used them in conjunction with two other developers.

Our platform was developed using Scala, Bash, Self Script, JavaScript jQuery, CSS, HTML, and native Android technologies. We also created a Mac app for which Objective-C was used.

Recurship has provided us with a five-person team. We interacted directly with the developers. I think that it's important to have a close contact with them, because if our requirements go through another person, there will be lost information.

On some parts of the development work, we decided what technologies should be used, but there were also others for which Recurship provided a solution for us. We mainly went with their recommendations. For scenarios in which we wanted to implement a high-level feature, we might have been aware of two or three options in terms of languages, architectures, and procedures to be used. Based on those, we asked for a recommendation from Recurship. 80-90% of the time, we went with that recommendation.

How did you come to work with Recurship?

I was studying for a Master's degree in London and came across Recurship while developing consumer apps. They had done work for other startups and were part of the university network. I believe that a professor recommended them to me. We initially engaged with them in order to get help on an app project. We were happy with the outcome, so they became the first point of contact for our current venture as well. We considered another 5 vendors besides them, both companies and individual developers, offshore and local ones. We were looking for the best ratio of cost and quality. It's usually hard to get a low price and good quality, but Recurship provided a good combination.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working together for three and a half to four years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We've worked with Recurship on building consumer apps which have received 4-5-star ratings. Our test platform has been used by both small startups and Fortune 500 companies. We have a pretty good standing in this sense.

How did Recurship perform from a project management standpoint?

They stuck well to budgets, even though it can be hard to make initial estimates for a development project. Recurship gave us a good, realistic estimate for elements which could turn out to be more complicated than initially thought, or which they hadn't encountered in the past. There was never a case of having an initial estimate of one week for a task and having to expand it to three weeks; we were always told in due time when something might take longer.

What distinguishes Recurship from other providers?

They are an eager team, keen to using new technologies. They have a big interest in learning and being open to new ideas. Many offshore providers obtain experience in a certain technology, but when a newer and better one comes along, they may not recommend it to a client because they simply don't have adequate skills for it. Recurship has mentioned new approaches to us, even though they are not experts in them. They are willing to learn, which we feel is best for our company.

Is there anything Recurship could have improved or done differently?

We've always looked at certain sprints in retrospect and found small improvements which we could have made, but there's nothing major that comes to mind. At the very beginning, the communication flow was not what we'd have wanted it to be. We had a chat about it and Recurship improved their efforts.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Policy in Practice models complex government policy on behalf of citizens. We determine how changes in government policy may affect regular people, and we also provide policy change models for local organizations and governments, using large datasets to predict how those changes will affect the population.

What is your position?

I’m the director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Recurship?

I needed to have an expert redevelop code and implement new features.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Recurship redeveloped some custom coding which was initially done by myself. Their owner makes all technical decisions relevant to my company. They built a web application from scratch. It is used by tens of thousands of people in the UK each month. They've also built the data analysis capabilities that allow us to effectively run the modeling engine applied across hundreds of thousands of records from our local authority clients, automating and standardizing the process.

The technologies used are JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, Node.js for big data functionalities, PHP, and MySQL.

Recurship's owner was our original developer. He has since put in place a team of up to four developers for us. At the moment, we are working with three resources.

How did you come to work with Recurship?

I'd met their owner in the United Kingdom while he was finalizing his studies. A friend of his recommended that I approach him for my project. We met and talked about what it was that I was trying to achieve. There were some architectural decisions around the technology which he approached in a very clear way. It gave me a lot of confidence in his abilities. At the time, our two companies were comprised of him and myself. Since then, we've both grown. From what I understand, he employs a team of 10 or so people. Throughout the process, we've had a consistent and highly responsive collaboration. As a company leader myself, I needed someone who would be responsive and capable of running a team. I kept working with Recurship because they were able to deliver this type of service.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost has been around $72,000 [50,000 GBP]. The work started out small. At the moment, Recurship works on a retainer of around $3,000 [2,000 GBP] for maintenance and improvements.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing engagement. Recurship is our development team. We have some capabilities in the UK for client-facing solutions or for different skillsets than the ones offered by their company, but beyond that, all the work is done by Recurship.

We're planning on doing some redevelopment work, focusing on design and user interface. Recurship will be in charge of the process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The site has been built to specification. It does what I want it to do and it does it very well, being one of the best tools of its kind on the market.

We model government policy, so accuracy is paramount. Their team takes a test-driven approach, which makes it hard for mistakes to occur. Quality is incredibly high and they are very productive and responsive.

How did Recurship perform from a project management standpoint?

When working with an outsourced team, there will always be a gap in communication. Recurship's owner comes to the UK once a year in order to stay close to our project. As far as working with an offshore team, I don't think we could have had a better experience. They understand what our requirements are and what it means to be professional, which isn't always the case.

We've tried tools like Asana, Slack, and BitBucket. The latter two are our most used applications. We also have a weekly development call through FaceTime or Google Hangouts.

What distinguishes Recurship from other providers?

Relative to developers of the same caliber working in the UK, the price was a big differentiator. They also offer a level of trust, professionalism, reliability, and credibility, which is brought by their owner in particular. I don't think we'd have worked with an outsourced team without this existing relationship. I have some staff turnover in the UK, but one thing that gives me comfort throughout the process is knowing that Recurship is there for me from start to finish. They know the software better than many of our local staff, barring myself. They're a core part of the team and understand Western business practices. Other outsourced teams with which I've worked have always buckled and offered unsatisfactory responsiveness. The communication barrier always exists, but it has never been the case for Recurship.

Is there anything Recurship could have improved or done differently?

They lack design capabilities. If Recurship had that, they could pretty much offer a full package. Their team is of a certain size and they are being built by the owner himself. There will always exist a challenge in finding people of the same quality as himself. The staff may be good, but they need to be great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

At the time of development, I was CEO of PlusGuidance, an online therapy platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Recurship?

We needed help building mobile apps for iOS and Android.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to increase therapy session access for our users through providing messaging and video conferencing on the new mobile apps.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our CTO interviewed and assessed 42 different profiles on Upwork and Mashhood [Technical Lead, Recurship] was the best candidate by far.

Describe the project in detail.

They developed the 2 mobile applications. Both had video conferencing and messaging functionalities to enhance the user experience.

What was the team composition?

On our side, we had the CEO, CTO, and product manager. Recurship did the majority of the work, including the build, deployment etc.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

We've seen an increased number of therapy sessions since completion. The project was done to a brilliant standard, our customers loved the apps.

How effective was the project management?

The project management was effective. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The speed at which the work was completed was very impressive.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

I would recommend Recurship for any software project. They are a high quality, honest, and fast team of experts who deliver what they say.