S-PRO

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a crowdfunding company.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We needed to outsource our tech development for our business.

What was the scope of their involvement?

S-PRO has been doing additional features on our site through a developer they provided us. They do a lot of backend work where they deal with the database for the info we collect; they focus on helping us view and store data and reports.

Overall, we have a full-time person solving our bug-fixing needs or developing a new feature for our platform to streamline its processes and user-friendliness for our clients.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with three members of their team, including a developer, a project manager, and a sales business development specialist.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

They were referred to us by someone who previously worked with them.

How much money have you invested in this partnership?

We’ve spent about $50,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

They’ve met our expectations, and we’re seeing an increase in our website’s traffic.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Discord as a project management tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They've done a great job for us, which is impressive because they operate in Ukraine, and they’ve been able to continue to do what we needed despite the Russian invasion.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of a SaaS company. We develop apps for businesses to manage their workflow.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We were looking for a software partner to support us with some of the design aspects of our workflow app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Several components of our app were already designed, so S-PRO helped us specifically with training mockups. The designed over 100 new screens for our app.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a total of five people from their team. There were two designers, one business analyst, a project manager, and the account manager.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

Our primary focus was finding a partner with whom we could work as a team.  

We looked at various sites, including Clutch, and compiled a list of about 50 businesses. From there, we shortlisted 20. We conducted interviews, assigned small tasks, and surveyed existing customers.

After visiting S-PRO’s site, we decided to partner with them. We appreciated that they were in our time zone, and the team was a good fit in terms of culture. 

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost between $10,000-$25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February until June 2019.

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

Although we didn’t gather any specific metrics as we were still in the design and development phase, we’re very happy with what the team delivered. 

The app's capabilities increased greatly, growing from 30–40 screens to 150–180. S-PRO’s work focused on the user, and they implemented great, animated design.

The team conducted several tests with users to gather feedback and continuously improve the product. With their help, our product was able to really grow.

Overall, the quality was great. We’re satisfied with the work they did.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style is above average. 

We communicated daily over both Slack and Skype. Sometimes, we traveled to their office to meet with them personally, in order to ensure alignment between our two teams. We received reports every three weeks, and the team used Jira to track progress. 

Whenever difficult situations arose, S-PRO was very helpful in providing solutions. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really appreciated the constant availability of our account manager. Whenever we required anything or had questions or concerns, he replied within minutes. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Looking back, although we agreed upon status reports every three weeks, it would’ve been helpful to receive them more frequently. Other than that, we had a great experience with them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as clear as you can about what you need. We approached S-PRO with some of our mockups, processes, and ideas already formed. That level of preparation enabled them to understand our project and how they could most efficiently staff it on their end.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Wonop a cryptocurrency company. So far, I’m the only employee, which means we’re in a very early start-up phase where I am mostly managing everything through outsourcing. This is so I can make sure the gets work done without having a long-term commitment to actually pay employees.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

I asked them to build a mobile wallet for me.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a mobile wallet that manages ERC20 tokens. People can add different ERC20 tokens and manage their native Ethereum tokens in it. It’s biometrically enabled so users can authenticate themselves via fingerprints. It also has a built-in KYC system so the provider can get confirmation that the user has a verified identity.

They used React Native to create a cross-platform mobile wallet for Android and iOS. Overall, they’ve been working with the Ethereum cryptographic library. They’re working with Node.js but also working with a mystic graphical wallet which involved the generation of Entropy and a bunch of other technical things. They also used Web3 technology for sign-on and interacting with the Ethereum blockchain. Also, they’ve been using Infura as a backend service.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Olga (Project Manager, S-PRO) as well as with Nadia (Sales Manager, S-PRO). I had a few calls with the developers, but I wasn’t in contact with them that much.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I think I just did a Google search. I went to a bunch of companies, but S-PRO’s portfolio looked pretty solid. They started out making a proposal for what they were going to do and clarified any misunderstandings that they had. On that basis, they went ahead and did it.

How much have you invested in them?

I have spent between $10,000–$50,000. I think I paid $5,000 upfront for just doing the planning but to be fair, I think it was absolutely necessary to do that.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them from July 2019 to January 2020. We’ve finished the first phase and I need to raise some funds to continue the work.

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

Overall, I have been quite happy. There's very little they could have done to make me happier. I would be quite happy hiring them again and I am fairly sure I will.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great. I got regular updates from them and they delivered something on a regular basis that I could see.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We had an agreement that if I was unsatisfied at any point, we could terminate the contract with a full two-day notice which made me feel comfortable working with them. They sent me a packaged version of the wallet plus the source code. I have been looking over the source code and I'm happy with it, overall.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think you should just roll with it. I was quite happy with how it all went. I was a bit skeptical because it seemed quite expensive, but I think it is worth it.

Introduce your business and what you do there? 

I’m the co-founder of a physical & digital identity platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We needed some consultation about Blockchain.

What was the scope of their involvement?

S-PRO provided consulting and advisory services regarding Blockchain. They also helped with UI/UX and wireframes for the functionality and aesthetics of an app.

What is the team composition?

We worked with six people from their team, including a Blockchain database architect and full-stack developer, a business analyst, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

We found S-PRO on Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $9,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October–December 2021.

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

The S-PRO team was professional, and we achieved our goals. They over-delivered; we were quite satisfied with them. As a result, we would be hiring them to do multi-level Blockchain development soon.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management perspective?

They had a good project management process. They delivered within budget and were roughly a week late. We met twice per week via Google Meet and communicated via Telegram, too.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were willing to work hard and push themselves to provide quality products for their clients.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their project management could be better. The project manager seemed unaware of different things and didn’t keep the team on task very well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Negotiate terms to your satisfaction and comfortability.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of nect World. We created a solution that enables business professionals to be connected to secure, reliable internet on their laptop whenever and wherever needed.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We needed help with custom software development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our desktop app. We have our own hardware that we developed in-house. It’s a modem that allows you to connect to the internet. We used S-PRO to develop software that would allow our customers to change settings and purchase data plans through an API. They set up our own VPN servers and created an admin panel that allows us to provide customer support and change the settings of the system itself. They used Electron, a cross-platform app.

They had a cool onboarding process where we had a few workshops where we outlined the project stages.  We had a few 3-4 hour meetings where we outlined all the tasks and created a wireframe for our project. The launch date is set right now for mid-January, but we might continue working with them as a support team.

What is the team composition?

There’s the project manager, front- and backend developers, a QA tester, a designer, an Electron programmer, and a business analyst. My main point of contact is the project manager.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I met one of their sales reps at a conference a long time ago. We didn’t need the software development at that point but when we needed them, I reached out to my network. 

S-PRO provided the most simple onboarding process and was able to work alongside us to create a wireframe. They were a bit higher priced than some other competitors but their personal approach and onboarding process definitely made up for that.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2020, and the work is ongoing.

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

The goal was to have them develop both effectively and efficiently. The main metric was how far below the estimate they could go.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via Slack and weekly meetings, where we check their progress from the past week. We work in sprints with a general timeline and price estimate to guide the project. Our spend with them was always lower than the amount of the job already done. We were happy with their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their personal approach for us as a startup was impressive. We weren’t always able to provide the perfect wireframe and specification. They worked with us to develop those.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes there could be better communication. Since we worked in sprints and requested changes, there were 1–2 times where there was some miscommunication. It’s very minor, though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Allow them to introduce you to their processes. Try to integrate with their process, allowing you to have the highest quality work. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the general manager and co-founder of a business that offers sales competitions and sales training for brands. 

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We reached out to S-PRO to have our brand sales and marketing mobile app developed. From a brand perspective, the app shows the brand from their best sides with sales competitions and learning features. The app is for people who work at different retailers—for example, if a sports brand wants to reach out to all the people who work in a sports store. We wanted a complete product in a certain amount of time and within a certain budget. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

S-PRO did most of the development from the start. One feature is the actual sales competition where users can register their sales and see rankings. Another module or feature lets them earn points. The app also has a messaging feature where users can communicate with the sales staff in the stores.

They’ve done a hybrid of backend and frontend development for us. We’ve trusted them along the way and gotten good advice. We’re not well-versed in technology. They always let me know if we need to do some upgrades or changes. The app is built on Ionic for both iOS and Android. We’ve finished version 1, but we’re continuing to working with them.

What is the team dynamic?

About 4 people were involved. There was a project manager, a frontend and a backend developer, and at some point, there was a guy working on our app who got promoted. So, now he’s more like a manager. The original manager quit.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

We read reviews on Upwork, and they seemed like a trustworthy company. We had Skype meetings with 3 companies—an Indian company, a company in Spain, and S-PRO. Based on our feeling that S-PRO would do a good job, we chose to work with them. They fit our profile and were a good match. We had a lot of changes along the way, but they’ve given us great advice and are a reliable partner. They communicate well. All in all, it’s been a really good experience. Since I’m in and out of the country and don’t really have any references that I know personally, I never know what we’ll end up with for outside vendors. We are still working with S-PRO and doing new projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together January 2017, and our collaboration is ongoing. 

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

This is not a consumer app. We measure our success by how happy the brands are and what the marketing director is saying. So far, they’re very happy. We’ve done reviews in the app using the survey feature. As part of the survey, we asked users how happy they are with the app. We got really good scores. These campaigns are customized for a smaller audience, so we can’t really measure success in numbers.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent and follow-up well. Language could’ve been a barrier, but they had a supervisor or a project manager to minimize any issues. We interacted on a daily basis, first through Upwork and then using Skype as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s hard for me to compare S-PRO since we don’t have many other providers. All I can say is we are thrilled with the work they did, and we reached our goals in finishing the app. We’ve had few problems with performance and downtime. Everything works well.

They’ve helped us change our hosting and did an excellent job. I wouldn’t recommend them if they didn’t. I get at least 5 offers every week through LinkedIn and email from developers who want to connect with us. We’re sticking with S-PRO.

A friend of mine was looking to do a SmartWORKS app. She asked me for a reliable provider, and now she is talking to Igor [Co-Founder and CEO, S-PRO] as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

For us, it’s important to work and talk with the same people in order to keep a close connection. There’s nothing I can think of that hasn’t been working. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Collabri Ltd., a P2P freelance app.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

I needed someone to look at my idea and tell me if it’s doable or not. While I had the idea, it needed to be developed further.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a consulting phase where they reviewed my idea. I only came with a business idea. They made a proposal of all the things that I needed to achieve what I wanted to and gave a lot of advisory services.

Next, we entered the design phase. I had a previous agency working on the design and S-PRO reviewed everything that was done. Some things were missing and there were gaps in the user experience flow. Their team was able to analyze that and create new screens and finalize the user experience.

They developed the custom mobile app for iOS and Android, a platform where users can have peer to peer connections with other users. Users can also post services for different tasks. Users can see tasks on the map and connect with the people and transact. Their team integrated Google Maps and have all the individual services and tasks listed on the map. I also wanted to have list views where I could sort functions to sort and filter and the ability to chat with people. Whenever a task was performed, the S-PRO team went back to the task to rate it and have ratings of users filed in their profiles so other users can see how they performed.

In the beginning, I asked them to include a payment system integration and make me a proposal. I decided the payment system was too much of an investment at this point in time. At some point, if I’m feeling ready and confident this app is going to work, I may do that.  

By September, they completed 90% of the tasks. Then we began a phase of bug fixing and beta testing.

What is the team composition?

We worked with seven members of the S-PRO team, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

The design agency I had previously was in Switzerland and their proposal for development was too expensive. I did a final Google search to check for other agencies in Ukraine because they have a lot of talented developers and are fluent in English. I browsed 20 companies and retained three and contacted them.

S-PRO was the company that we had the quickest connection with. They were really interested in the project. They got back to me right away. They had a really nice relationship manager, who I am still working with. Based on what they delivered in the discovery phase, they made me a proposal, and we started with development.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested about $85,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with S-PRO ran from March–September 2019.

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

Since I'm a sensible users, I tested the app from top to bottom. Everything is working and there are no bugs. They captured my vision and mission. S-PRO does a great job, but you still need to be there to check the quality and give them feedback because they rely on your comments to improve what they did. It’s a team effort.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was good. They were always available. In the beginning, we had weekly calls. I knew they were working on it, but at the time I didn’t have Jira and was a bit outside the loop. I asked for a closer work collaboration which is when we implemented a daily call and I was given access to Jira.

I wasn’t an easy client. The app is complicated and there’s room for a lot of dualities. They handled it well despite the difficulties along the way. It wasn’t easy sometimes, but they were very attentive to my feedback. Whenever there was a critical issue from my side, they were very reactive and took it very seriously. They handled my requests really well. We got along extremely well and we’re friends now. Whenever they need my help, I help them. They’ve become closer partners to me.

We were slightly above the budget but it's because we redesigned the platform multiple times at the beginning. My budget was extremely tight. I explained to the client relationship manager that I wouldn’t be able to pay the full amount of the bills for it because my cash flow was diminishing and I needed more time to pay. She said it wasn’t a problem and that they’d find a solution. We easily found a solution that went well for them and worked for me as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really wanted to make me feel happy about the project and delivered the right quality at the right time. It was a very positive experience and I learned a lot.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything went well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Engage in a discovery phase and really define what you’re looking for. Set clear targets and goals you want to reach. Be involved in the project. If you don’t track it, then you’re probably not going to get the result you hoped for.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Kephas TV Corporation, a video technology company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

S-PRO helped us build an Android- and Apple-based TV application that people can access from home. They also built a prototype for a custom website. We have an internal development team that manages our broadcasts and the platform. S-PRO collaborated with them to integrate their work into our systems. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We built a free TV app for our current viewers. We have a television station in Germany, so the app offers a convenient way for viewers to access our content, see our live broadcasts, and browse our archived content in a video-on-demand platform. We went through a design phase to model the app. Then, we integrated the app into our current broadcasting platform. Finally, we had a roll-out phase where we delivered the app for an event at a media conference.

We needed to connect our live broadcast platform with our scheduling platform. We also needed the broadcast platform to connect with all of our archived content so users could access that as well. Our user base is a fairly older demographic, so the app had to be simple, without too many options or touches needed to navigate.

What is the team dynamic?

We had a project manager, a designer, and a couple of developers for both Android and iOS. There were probably other people that I didn’t know about that helped as well. My main point of contact was the project manager. S-PRO decided which resources would be best for the project. At most 5–6 people worked on the project.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I usually search online to find different vendors that interest me, and then I conduct a selection process. I don’t remember exactly how I found S-PRO. I looked at 3–5 other vendors. S-PRO had experience delivering TV apps. I liked that they were European and had reasonable prices. The process went pretty smoothly.

How much have you invested with S-PRO?

We’ve spent between $15,000 and $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working on the project in February 2017, and the app launched in June 2017. 

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

Our users are engaged on the platform, and there are no major issues. S-PRO delivered what we expected.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager and I spoke once or twice a week. Everything was delivered on time and within budget. We didn’t have any problems with the time difference. I would normally get a response to any questions within the same day.

What did you find most impressive about S-PRO?

They have really experienced engineers, and their prices are reasonable compared to bringing people in-house to manage the project.

Are there any areas S-PRO could improve?

No, I was happy with everything about the project.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of Myntelligence Limited, an ad tech company. Previously, I also worked with S-PRO for a company called Shallet, a mobile app and stock image library.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We needed to build a web application for Shallet, a startup. As part of the effort, we needed a consumer-facing website as well as some tools.

For Myntelligence, I worked directly with 3–4 of S-PRO’s team members, who made up the core of our development team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

S-PRO worked with me to design, develop, test, and deploy the Shallet platform. The original design of our public-facing website was supplied to them. S-PRO also worked on the ones for our central services, which are a series of RESTful APIs. They created a Python application that integrated with the central set of APIs developed by our team.

We gave S-PRO a full design spec for the web application. They worked together with our team to realize the functionalities required. Initially, they also helped us with some initial project management, but we stopped this later on and created one big team. While they were working on the visuals, their own project manager split up what was required into smaller stories and tracked the process. Once we got to a certain point, S-PRO’s developer was integrated into the bigger team.

We worked in an Agile way, with the focus of the effort being 2-week sprints. The QA was sometimes done by S-PRO, depending on the part of the project we were addressing, but it was also done by our project manager. We worked with around 3 people from S-PRO’s side, and the team size fluctuated. We interacted with them every day for the project.

The Myntelligence project was large and complex. For this engagement, we use 4 people from S-PRO’s team.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I went on a website called Upwork, which provides freelancers. I posted a job for ReactJS development, which would be used for our moderation platform. I then interviewed a developer, who showed a detailed understanding of React and other JavaScript frameworks. Based on this, I gave the project to S-PRO. When it came time to work on the Python application to for the consumer-facing website, I decided to give the project to them since I’d already worked with S-PRO. I and was happy with what they did for me and they had the skill sets required.

I also chose S-PRO for the Myntelligence because I knew they were good.

How much have you invested with S-PRO?

The cost of their work was around $150,000 overall. We spend around $15,000 per month on S-PRO’s services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with S-PRO for the Shallet project in May 2016, around 1 year ago. The development for Myntelligence was started in January 2017 and is ongoing.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

A development partner can either deliver the product in a functional form or not. Whether the business succeeds or not is down to us. As a partner, S-PRO is professional, skilled, and knowledgeable. They have a great attitude and have made delivering easier.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been mostly integrated with our own team. On the parts that they managed on their own, S-PRO handled the task well. They have good interactions with our own project management team. We worked directly with the developers, and they were integrated into the broader team. This made our lives easier.

What did you find most impressive about S-PRO?

At the end of the day, we really felt as though they are a part of the team. I consider the developers I’m working with now from S-PRO to be a part of Myntelligence.

Are there any areas S-PRO could improve?

No. I have a back channel to S-PRO’s CEO if there are any issues, but I haven’t needed to escalate anything so far.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with S-PRO?

My general advice for people looking to work with an outsourced partner is that, if the client knows what they want, the developer can help them realize it. If not, then the partner can help build prototypes and give a better understanding of use cases.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager for a blockchain development company.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We were asked to develop a piece of software by our client. We were at capacity, so we used S-PRO to help us with that project.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The client gave us a list of requirements. They had a new concept involved a specialized kind of financing. Instead of charging interest, it uses specific rules and workarounds to manage loans.

S-PRO helped us develop the business logic behind that. They developed everything from scratch, including the design and backend databases.

They went out of their way to understand how the product would work and how this kind of finance works. They had their own suggestions about what makes sense and what doesn’t, and what we could do. They used InVision for design, and we had an AWS cloud setup. They built an MVP that they hosted locally. After that created a full-on website we showcased to the client.  

What is the team composition?

I was in close contact with them. They assigned a project manager, a product manager, two front- and two backend developers, and a QA engineer.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

A friend recommended them to me. I considered different projects to work on with S-PRO, but those didn’t go through. When this specific project came to us, our company was at capacity. I brought in S-PRO then, and they were able to deliver.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $10,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with S-PRO in July 2019. The MVP is complete, but we hope to develop the platform further.

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

Everyone who’s seen the application told us it was great. The design was a bit too simplistic, but we were just developing an MVP. I’m sure S-PRO could deliver a better design if we wanted to build out the whole thing. I was more wowed by most everything else they did in terms of speed, communication, and so on

The project took longer to start from our side because we had to go through a back-and-forth with our client. The client didn’t confirm what they wanted, but we really liked what S-PRO built, so we’re pitching it to new clients. We’re looking to customize the platform more if we get clients.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

They sent us very clear breakdowns and timelines. I spoke to Misha (Sales Manager, S-PRO) over Telegram and WhatsApp, and I communicated with the team over Skype and Telegram whenever I needed to.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were able to make any changes I wanted very quickly. Misha, the person I spoke to initially, was amazing. He was always available, and he got things done.

They mostly stood out with their help on the business logic. They actually learned about the project and told us more about what could work better.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. I really like them, and I’ve recommended them to a bunch of people.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They go out of their way to help, so I don’t really have any advice. Whenever I connect someone with Misha, I know they’re in good hands.