SapientPro

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Contentoo, a managed marketplace that operates in 18 countries. We provide content writing teams with freelancers that work for our customers as an add-on to their in-house team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SapientPro?

We’re a tech company, and we hired SapientPro to build our platform’s front- and backend.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SapientPro has helped us build our entire platform. First, we provided them with briefings. SapientPro created wireframes to understand how the platform's UI/UX design would work. Then, SapientPro built an MVP before building out the entire platform. 

Since then, we've scaled up our corporation and professionalized the development process. Now, we brief SapientPro's developers on each task, and they sketch out the requirement for us to know how the functionality will come out. We provide the UI/UX design, and they develop it in the frontend. For backend tasks, they also sketch things out to visualize them. 

SapientPro has built a billing system into the platform that sends invoices. The platform also includes all the necessary workflows, such as matching freelancers and end customers. SapientPro has also developed uploading mechanisms, briefing workflows, and communication modules to enable messaging back and forth.

We've taken some tasks back internally because we're growing and need to control our data. Currently, SapientPro provides full services for our platform, including maintenance and QA.

What is the team composition?

We work with 10 teammates from SapientPro, including a frontend developer, a backend developer, full stack developers, a project lead, the CTO, and the COO. 

How did you come to work with SapientPro?

I joined the company in 2019, and SapientPro was already our partner. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about €500,000 (approximately $528,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in Q1 2018, and our structural partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to SapientPro, we’re able to provide services to freelancers worldwide. We have customers in 18 different countries, which speaks about the success of our company’s proposition and platform, which SapientPro has helped us build. 

How did SapientPro perform from a project management standpoint?

Although I’m not leading this project directly, based on the roadmap versus what they deliver, SapientPro always meets deadlines and stays within the budget. Their success within these two parameters puts a smile on my face. 

We work with Jira for project management and communication. Within this tool, we communicate with SapientPro about priorities and stories. We also use Slack to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The billing engine is a super complex piece of our platform, and SapientPro did a remarkably good job building it. Looking at the entire platform, I’m super excited about where we are with the platform’s modules, which is a testament to SapientPro’s skill. Based on all my experience with development parties, I’m super happy with our partnership with SapientPro.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From my level, there’s not much they need to improve. Although they might sometimes miss a deadline or have operational issues, they always present a plan to address that. Overall, there’s always something to do better, but SapientPro hasn’t missed the mark on anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Working together is the best way to get the most out of your engagement with SapientPro. Don’t just give them a brief; ensure they have a lot of interface time with your team. Seeing SapientPro as part of your team and engaging with them will help your partnership be successful. You should also expect their team to collaborate with you so that you understand each other.