Samsao - Out of Business

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a private Canadian company founded in 2006 that provides a ridesharing platform for posting and booking long-distance rides in North America. I am chief technology officer. I manage the team of developers. I propose the features that will be implemented, and I chose the technologies we will use. I also participate in recruiting new employees or partners.

What challenge were you trying to address with Samsao?

We wanted to program a mobile application. We did not have mobile developers in house.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The aim of this project was to offer a mobile app to our members who have all the features offered on our mobile website: ride search, book any seats, post a ride, view my trips, manage account, user warnings, authentications, management updates, FAQs, and mode maintenance. They handled about half of the features we needed.

How did you come to work with Samsao?

We chose this company because they are specialized in the develop we needed and because it is a young, dynamic company. Generally, companies that develop mobile applications are also developing web applications. We did not want a generalist company.

How much have you invested with Samsao?

It was approximately $65,000

What is the status of this engagement?

We started officially in early June [2016]. We closed the project in September [2016]. We decided to recruit developers in-house to continue the project for business reasons.

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

Overall, they taught us to think mobile because we have a web background. We especially liked the UX [user experience] design. Their UX designer gave us lots of ideas. After that, our president has decided to change our web design.

What did you find most impressive about Samsao]?

They are dynamic and offer many ideas.

Are there any areas Samsao could improve?

Technically, when they deliver the features, they often overlook the small details. There are little things that do not cost much time but does attract the customer's attention.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a full marketing and advertising agency. I am the digital project manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with Samsao?

We needed to get support for app development and production. We don’t currently have resources to do that in-house, so we partnered with Samsao.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Prior to building the app, Samsao helped us scope and determine the requirements for it. They worked in a consulting role in the discovery and design. Then they worked with us to produce the app. Samsao also provided testing environments as well as the services to launch in the app stores. Our app was on all platforms: iPad, iPhone, and Android.

How did you come to work with Samsao?

We were quoting against a freelancer who could come in and work with our company. But we felt that the price Samsao quoted was very good. They were close to the Montreal office and had the full team and experience we needed. Since we were working with a very tight budget, that allowed us to meet our goals. We felt confident that they could deliver based on their experience.

How much have you invested with Samsao?

We spent $10,000 to $50,000 on Samsao’s service.

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

The app has been released on the app stores and has had 2 updates so far. We’ve got some great feedback. Any bad feedback is not attributed to the app or its production; it has to do with the web service that feeds it. So I wouldn’t count that against Samsao. I can’t speak about the quality of the code and the development because I haven’t had another developer assess the code yet.

What did you find most impressive about Samsao?

They’re laid back and easy to deal with. At the same time, they were able to deliver on time and on budget. I know we weren’t their biggest client, but they did a good job of responding quickly even after business hours. Their expertise was good; I would say they knew what they were talking about. Overall, I had a good experience and would definitely look forward to working with them again.

Are there any areas Samsao could improve?

No, not offhand. Some areas were underestimated, so I wouldn’t say that they’re the best in the world. But for what we needed, I think that the service was very good. I can’t really ask for them to be more than they are. I’d say they do a good job given the size of their team.

Please describe your organization.

We are an agency that focuses on interactive website applications, managing of social media, branding, and some offline advertising. We do many things for our clients to be a one-stop shop for everything that's related to communications.

What is your position?

I’m the Director of Strategy for the agency.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Samsao?

We used to have an in-house iOS developer, but at a certain point, it became difficult to have him full-time, considering that the projects come and go. We needed a team that specialized in app development both for Android and iOS. Our former in-house developer was mainly focused on iOS development.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We use Samsao for both Android and iOS development. We keep everything that's related to strategy, design, and User Experience [UX] in-house.

How did you come to work with Samsao?

I wasn't involved in the selection process.

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

Our partnership with Samsao is in the range of $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This is an ongoing partnership.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

So far, we’ve done two projects with Samsao. The first project rolled out the Android version of a taxi application, a bit like Uber but within the existing industry, instead of against it. Samsao did the Android version and the white labeling of that application because we wanted to sell it to different taxi companies around Canada.

The second project was for a start-up that never saw the light of day. It ended, so we didn't get to launch that product. Unfortunately, in terms of success stories, it's pretty limited for that particular project.

What distinguishes Samsao from other providers?

Samsao’s involvement in the strategic questions and challenges that we faced was a differentiator. They don't just do what we ask. They give their input in a way that we get to achieve a better product. They have knowledge of the best practices. Samsao came up with easier ways to achieve the same goal and offered insights into ideas to improve the consumer’s user experience. It was nice to see that they contributed to the strategic challenges, and didn’t only deliver exactly as we asked.

Is there anything Samsao could have improved or done differently?

There could be a little improvement in terms of quality assurance and making sure things have been tested correctly. It would have been better to have a product that was almost without any bugs. They sent us some products occasionally that could have been tested a bit more.

Please describe your organization.

We are Pelmorex Media and have been in business 26 years. We are the parent company of The Weather Network.

What is your position?

I'm a software developer manager. When we worked with Samsao, I led a team of six developers, four of them were working to develop the mobile application.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Samsao?

At that time, the challenge was lack of resources. We needed to deliver a top-notch mobile application in a short amount of time.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Samsao helped augment our application development team.

How did you come to work with Samsao?

We found Samsao through a prior relationship. They won a previous project of ours.

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

The team augmentation cost less than $50,000.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The results were good seeing that we had a short amount of time. Samsao was able to deliver the application on time and on target with the quality we expected. They were flexible enough to be able to work with us Samsao was able to help us develop some of the changes the client requested that we needed to bring to the app. In that regard, the end client was happy with the result. The overall service that Samsao provided to us was good.

What distinguishes Samsao from other providers?

We worked close together in the sense that my internal developers were able to double check the quality in Samsao's code quickly. We had our QA [quality assurance] team here checking the features. They were happy with the robustness and quality that Samsao delivered. That helped us speed up the process and QA.

Is there anything Samsao could have improved or done differently?

Samsao works agile and we do, too. That was a key element in our project – constant communication and constantly delivering new versions to the client to verify the features. That was great. We were delivering two versions a week so some versions might not be as robust as we hoped, but that's the normal process. If they could improve a bit on that process, it could save some time. As agile as they are, business or other stakeholders are always going to want faster..

Please describe your organization.

My company is UGroupMedia. We are the producer of a website where people can personalize videos messages.

What is your position?

I'm the product manager/designer. I do the UX [user experience] design, and I'm the product manager for the website and mobile apps.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Samsao?

We were looking for an agency to help develop our mobile apps. We needed applications for both the iOS and Android platforms. 

How did you come to work with Samsao?

We were looking for agencies, so we started benchmarking different agencies in Montreal. We found Samsao on Google. We were just looking for mobile app developers. We were looking for a true mobile app player – not an agency that just does "some" app development. We wanted a team that specialized in mobile app development. We selected four or five companies. Samsao was a young company, and they were motivated. The price was fair as well. 

It was because the team was young and motivated, and we wanted someone flexible, someone motivated to work with us all year long

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

Our project with Samsao was around $50,000, and that was for two apps – the iOS and Android platforms.

What distinguishes Samsao from other providers?

I appreciated that Samsao has a startup state of mind. They were motivated and they wanted to under promise and overperform. I've worked with other development agencies. Typically, they have a lot of projects on their plate, so they work to do them as fast as possible without looking at the project as a whole. What I enjoyed about working with Samsao is that they wanted to come on board with us – they wanted to be part of our team. They were available. By the end of the project, it seemed like they were part of our team. They helped us to build something we were proud of. I love that. It's rare to have this kind of collaboration with agencies in general. 

Is there anything Samsao could have improved or done differently?

This is a young team. They started only two years ago or so. There are three founders, and they have started building a great team. They'll have to develop people on their team and give more responsibilities to new people because the founders can't be everywhere at the same time. Thus far, they managed it pretty well.

Please describe your organization.

Illogika is a game and app development company located in Montreal.

What is your position?

I am the CEO of the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Samsao?

We were discussing a project with one of our clients during a long period of time. By the time they decided that it was the right time to start the project, we were fully loaded with projects and couldn't deliver enough time to the project. We asked Samsao for some help. They luckily had an available developer, so we decided to go ahead and outsource part out the work to them.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Samsao provided us an application developer to help augment our team, while our other resources were dedicated elsewhere.

How did you come to work with Samsao?

We had previously worked with Samsao on different projects, but the roles were reversed. In the past, we actually provided them with developing services for a taxi app, and we found the working relationship with them quite pleasant. For this recent project, we emailed three companies, and Samsao was the only one available for that time period.

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

It was close to a $10,000 partnership.

What distinguishes Samsao from other providers?

Samsao has a strong and frequent communication style. They submit their code often, so it's easy to keep track of what's happening on the project. They also are reliable and were able to handle communication with the final client, so it was a smooth process for our team. I didn't have to go back and forth between Samsao and the final client.

Is there anything Samsao could have improved or done differently?

At the end of the project, there was a delay in delivering the app. At that point, the app still had some issues that should have been resolved earlier. However, the issues were addressed very quickly and, within those 24 hours, they were able to deliver a good, stable product. Other than that, they were very good.