Sangatek

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder of School Staff Surveys, a niche staff-wellbeing survey tool focused on schools.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sangatek?

We hired Sangatek to provide ongoing development and maintenance for our staging server, which had been compromised. Our freelance developer was not able to continue collaborating with us, so we wanted a team to continue with the existing work.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted our system to have increased functionality and updated security. Additionally, we wanted to have someone available for any urgent issues and maintenance needs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I posted a description of our project on various online freelancer marketplaces. After considering the reviews and experience of several candidates, I chose Sangatek for the project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Sangatek rebuilt our staging server and carried out several security checks on the production server. They make improvements to enhance the safety of the system and continually implement new features.

What was the team composition?

Lyubomyr (CEO, Sangatek) is the one main developer who carries out the work, which is all we need. However, Sangatek has a larger team available, if necessary.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The various improvements Sangatek has made contributed to a higher rating on various security screening services. Additionally, the new features have improved the functionality of our platform for customers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We use Trello as our main form of managing the project. We assign tasks and track updates through the platform. Lyubomyr is easy to communicate with and there are no language barriers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team works steadily and accurately while making helpful suggestions along the way. They ask sensible questions and provide useful insight.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There’s nothing I can think of for them to improve on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of a small mobile app development company based in Oslo, Norway. We mainly develop internal-use applications for medium and large-sized companies in the Scandinavian market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sangatek?

We’ve used them on two different projects. The first one was a small project where we needed extra manpower for developing iOS and Android apps. We first got in touch with Sangatek around this, and they did such an excellent job that we contacted them again a year later when we needed a fulltime Ruby on Rails backend developer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first project had a limited scope. It involved the completion of one application, which required around 100 hours of development. For the second project, they’ve been helping us develop our own CMS using Ruby on Rails and a RESTful API for accessing the data generated by that CMS from the outside.

How did you come to work with Sangatek?

We found them on Upwork. Besides the purely technical requirements, we needed to work with a team that was easy to communicate with and which understood our tasks so that our overhead on communication would be as small as possible. We did two or three interviews, and Sangatek seemed like the best fit.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of the work will soon reach $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with one main developer on our current project for over a year. We’re finishing up some small final tasks, after which the project will be done. We plan to keep Sangatek on board to help us with maintenance and developing new features.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve worked with a few outsourced developers in the past, but the two people we’ve worked with from Sangatek have been the best consultants. When it comes to the tech stack that we use, namely PostgreSQL and Ruby on Rails, they’re very talented.

How did Sangatek perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed really well. Their estimates are usually spot-on and I don’t have to follow up too much with them. Once we set a deadline, I know that everything will be in order once that date comes—tested, documented, and done according to plan. They also let me know in advance if there are any unexpected issues.

We’ve used the issue tracker on GitHub for the most part, and we also use Skype, Slack, and Trello for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve appreciated the ease of communication the most. They’re all fluent English speakers that can quickly grasp what we want to do. If they disagree with some of our technical choices, they will give us advice. Sangatek has saved us a lot of time and money by giving us tips on how we could change the design or architecture of our solution. They are almost an in-house team member for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could open a local office, but I’m happy with their work. I know that Sangatek will be the first group we’ll go to whenever we need consulting services.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I would include Sangatek to the conversation as early as possible during the project and I would use them as advisors when designing the architecture. They’re talented and can definitely offer some good advice.