Revolve Healthcare

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a producer of interactive mirrors — surfaces on which advertisements and other content can be displayed. We provide our products to companies such as clothes shops or hairdressers who can then use a surface that is already present as a place for advertising.

What challenge were you trying to address with revolve?

In the early stages of our business, we needed a partner who could help us develop the software side of our product. We had to add functionalities like data collection from the sensors mounted in the mirrors (distance, gestures, temperature, and so on). 

We also needed a web page which would enable our customers to create their own accounts for managing the content on the mirrors. This was the most important reason for starting a collaboration with revolve.

What was the scope of their involvement?

revolve provided website and app development. There were also some tasks around the management of the content on the mirrors through gestures and facial recognition.

There were applications which used distance sensors; when a person comes closer to a mirror, the content changes dynamically. At a two-meter distance, there would be product information displayed, along with an encouragement for the person to come closer. After taking a few steps forward, more information about the product would be displayed. When the person came right next to the mirror, they would see the full product information, as well as have some interaction possibilities through touch, for example.

We used the Kinect technology on the hardware side, as well as infrared sensors and touchable frames.

What is the team dynamic? 

The team size depended on the specific task and ranged from three to seven people.

How did you come to work with revolve?

One of our founders had been engaged with revolve, and recommended them. We were satisfied with the initial work and decided to continue the collaboration.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of the project was 100,000 Polish Zloty. [$27,000]

What is the status of this engagement?

We started work with them in June 2016 and the project ended in November the same year.

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

We couldn’t have begun selling our product prior to the collaboration with revolve — it was just not ready for customers. We have since started selling the mirrors and have sold around 100 across Poland and the rest of Europe. One of them has been bought by Sederma, a French company, to be taken to the U.S. for a technological event.

Our clients are satisfied with the product. We continued to collaborate with several of them, among which is one of the leading banks in Poland, Alior Bank. Our mirrors are installed in 35 branches across the country, and, currently, we are providing them with new content and new abilities for using those mirrors.

How did revolve perform from a project management standpoint?

revolve developed our product, while client-side communication is handled by our company. The collaboration between us and their team was good. Our offices are close to each other, which definitely helped the process; distance can be a big obstacle sometimes. All the relevant information was given to us at the right time. I cannot remember a situation when I or any of the other people involved with the collaboration were disappointed with revolve.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The focus they had on timelines. If revolve promised to have something delivered in a defined amount of time, it was. They were always reliable, which is the most important thing.

We have collaborated with other companies, and the results didn’t always satisfy us. There was no such situation with revolve. We were satisfied with the quality of their solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be a bit cheaper, at least by Polish standards. However, in my opinion, the most important thing is to have a partner to rely on, not the money we have to pay.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder of a consortium of highly specialized software providers in the central European region. I engage and interact with them to provide dedicated solutions based on the fastest partner in the field. Another initiative I’m involved with is expanding the IT market, specifically in North America and western Europe. Additionally, I’m also a partner with a Scala company from Poland, where I’m trying to work in the international phase department to engage clients and develop new markets. This has been my main focus for the last few years.

What challenge were you trying to address with Revolve?

I had a client in Germany, and we were starting to ramp up the business based on Scala, so we were trying to fulfill competence in that area. Another company tried to meet their requests, but in a few weeks time, the same client asked us for team expansion in both the front and backend. The frontend was developed using AngularJS, while the backend was developed using Node.js.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I can’t speak much about the product due to high confidentiality with the client. They are from the e-commerce market working with the big brands in Germany, and are developing their own product. They have a full team of stack developers, including Scalac for development of the backend, and Revolve for the frontend specifically. They’re using AngularJS, CSS, Ajax, and some Node.JS references for development. The focus was more on AngularJS, and recently they’ve started Ember.js development as well. Revolve’s team was not originally competent with Ember.js, but they were able to rapidly develop the skill and can now employ it productively for our client.

What is the team dynamic?

Currently, we are only using two people for the project, and it’s been running since the beginning of 2017. The contract lasts until the end of 2017, but there’s a high probability it will be prolonged. This is the only area where I am interacting directly with Revolve on this project. However, Przemek [Head of Business Development, Revolve] is exploring some initiatives within another American market with me. He’s one of the initiators of the new consortium starting around the end of the year that will attempt to fill the needs of the Nevada IT market.

How did you come to work with Revolve?

I was trying to explore the market in Poland very quickly, and I’d already knew Przemyslaw [Co-Founder, Revolve] for a year. We had met traveling together to the US while running an economic mission between the markets in Poland and Nevada. Once we came back to Poland, we started to correspond via emails as well as phone calls, and eventually established mutual trust. Earlier this year, I approached him for help with the frontend of this project.

Przemek [Head of Business Development, Revolve] was partnering with another company, and they were doing software development services under one roof with a focus on Node.js. I called them and received a quick response, and they were easy to communicate with due to being a small company. It took about three weeks to go from engagement to agreeance on formal arrangements, so the partnership had a really rapid start.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2017, and the relationship is ongoing.

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

We were afraid that a small company wouldn’t be able to engage with a customer who has a lot of experience in the field, because they can be quite responsive and demanding. Our team is composed of both senior and junior developers, including one senior and junior from Revolve. This is a perfect match, and the team works incredibly well by being able to educate and balance each other. The overall quality of the project is really good.

We have a monthly evaluation call with our client, and most of the opinions and improvements are directed at the team in Germany instead of the one in Poland. The team performance and quality are both very high, and we are pleased because we expected lower than what we actually received.

How did Revolve perform from a project management standpoint?

The project is quite easy to manage through Slack. There is one product owner from Germany who is managing both the team there and the one in Poland. There is no formal project manager. They’re using a Scrum framework and getting some arrangement estimations for Sprint planning. They’re currently working in two Sprints, and the initial period was located in Germany. Both teams spent some time in Stuttgart to get on track and to really dive into the project.

I am not the product owner of this project, but as far as I know, most of the modules and tasks are delivered by the deadlines and are good quality. There are some improvements around development speed from both the Polish and German teams, but none of it is critical.

We see requests from the customer asking if the team can work a bit more in terms of sliding hours because they start work from 9 AM-5 PM, and normally, our team works from 8 AM-4 PM. There was easy migration and prolongation of hours, and we meet the client’s expectations because we work in almost the same time zone and environment. We are parallel in that sense, and we act as a copy of what is happening in Germany. The team there is doing quite well, and there have been no issues. It’s been a really good partnership because we don’t have to worry that the team isn’t meeting expectations beyond the technical stack of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I only met the people from Revolve once in person when we began discussing the development team and management. They are a small company that is hungry for projects and desires knowledge from the external market. They are also responsive and committed. They excel in task specialty because they are working on a variety of projects. They are working for a Polish client, an external client, and a variety of others, all of which involves a wide array of tasks. They are skilled people, and I don’t have any problems trying to explain things to them. I really appreciate everything their team offered to this project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The legal process is a challenge for a small organization like Revolve. Things like templates could be improved a bit more, but I also understand they are a startup and need more experience in the market. Their size also may be an issue, and although it’s perfect for them, it’s not easy to scale up. I would like to see them keep up with development, get good people and projects from the market, and try to improve their internal processes regarding operation with clients. They could also work on gathering everything to bring to market level, which again, isn’t their problem specifically, but more a problem with small companies in general.

Please describe your company and your position there.

From trust to evidence in preanalytics.

For what projects/services did your company hire Revolve Healthcare?

App-Development

What were your goals for this project?

Develop App, bring to App-Stores, refine app according to customer needs.

How did you select Revolve Healthcare?

Value for Money, Experience

Describe the project in detail.

App is available in App-Store, very good customer feedback

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Scaling the app

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Communication with the team is straight and simple, clear bookkeping, always accesible.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Some devlopers have more experience than others. Of course everybody wants them first.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a software house obsessed with open source software.

For what projects/services did your company hire Revolve Healthcare?

Staff augmentation on various projects where we need coding help for DJango technology.

What were your goals for this project?

Various projects, but mainly evolutions of existing platforms based on DJango.

How did you select Revolve Healthcare?

We shortlisted a few similar companies based on price and skills and then we decided for Revolve.

Describe the project in detail.

As I said above, various projects, but mainly evolutions of existing platforms based on DJango.

What was the team composition?

It was usually a technical lead, 1 to 2 frontend developers plus a devops where needed.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Well, we successfully deployed and launch multiple platforms based on the work from revolve team.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their proactivity and communication skills were pretty good, they tried hard to integrate wit our meeting which does not often happen with such type of companies.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The committment to delivering good results. It happened a few times that we needed to do some extra hours to complete some work and they were always positive and helpful.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nope

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of an IT company that produces and sells Windows desktop applications for the transportation industry.

For what reason(s) did your company hire revolve?

We wanted to introduce our first mobile application to our customers.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to create a mobile application for Android.

How did you select this vendor?

We picked 3 companies that we wanted to work with and I ended up choosing revolve. Not only did they have a good reputation, but they also had the best offer regarding price, time, and quality.

Describe the project in detail.

They built a mobile app for transportation companies.

What was the team composition?

We worked with revolve's project manager and an Android developer.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have managed to sell about 250 licenses of our app so far. It was a really successful project.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I think it was an effective cooperation, run in a very timely manner.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of their code is what's most impressive—it’s very neat.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.