Sigli

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The business is a mobile barbering service where we send barbers out to homes to give haircuts. The app has an interface for the barber and also for the users where they can manage their account, set up appointments, and give feedback. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cortlex?

We needed a minimum viable product in the least amount of time, at a low cost without sacrificing quality.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I reached out to Cortlex and asked for one developer that had mobile development experience. I managed the specifications, designs, and wireframes, and worked in an Agile framework. I would have daily calls with their developer to get status updates and pass along new requirements. They were very proactive. The most resources I’ve had working with me has been 2 people, but most of the time it has been 1 person.

How did you come to work with Cortlex?

I worked with Cortlex through a company I had worked for previously and I kept in touch with them when I left that company. At that company, we had posted job listings for a software developer and Cortlex contacted us. They offered a two-week trial program where if we weren’t satisfied, we weren’t charged. We were happy with the results and continued working with them.

How much have you invested with Cortlex?

We spend under $10,000 a month with Cortlex.

What is the status of this engagement?

We are currently working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any numbers. I send them documents of use cases and they come back with estimates that have been pretty accurate. I’m very pleased with that aspect.

How did Cortlex perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a good job of communicating with me if there were any issues. They’re good at keeping track of their work and staying on our timeline.

What did you find most impressive about Cortlex?

They took ownership of the project. If there were gaps in the requirements, they would evaluate what the best point of action was and give me feedback on that. I trusted them from the very beginning because they did what they said they were going to do.

Are there any areas Cortlex could improve?

I can’t think of anything. I’ve worked with other offshore companies and Cortlex is the best one I’ve worked with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founding engineer of a website that helps high school students get accepted to colleges. Students who have already been accepted into colleges create profiles. They put in all their test scores and extracurriculars. They also share details about how they answered the essay questions when they applied to college. The high school students can then unlock their profiles and read about the students that got into a particular school. The site helps them see what their chances are and gives some advice on how to answer the essay questions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cortlex?

We're a seasonal business. Most of our business is actually around this time of year, toward the end of the year when people are applying to colleges. We had many new features that we wanted to implement in time for the application season. I'm the only full-stack developer and engineer in the company, so I didn't have time to do everything in-house. We decided to see if we could use contractors to help release many of these features faster and in time for the application season.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a couple of things that we wanted to release. One was a new profile entry system for users to create a profile on the site and upload all their information. Another one was a set of interactive charts. Both of them use a combination of back-end PHP and JavaScript both on the back-end and front-end. These are two of the main parts of the site. In the beginning, we worked with mainly one developer from Cortlex. There were two, but we ended up having just one that was assigned to us full time. That developer did an excellent job and was able to deliver everything that we requested.

How did you come to work with Cortlex?

I believe Cortlex contacted us. Cortlex reached out to us through one of our online profiles on AngelList or CrunchBase. We had actually been approached by several similar companies. Also, I personally had reached out to developers that I found. We actually tried five different companies in total. Some of them were just independent developers in the United States. Others were independent developers overseas and the rest were companies with multiple developers. At one point, we hired five different contractors at the same time. We gave each of them a small assignment. Cortlex responded better than everybody else. The quality of their work was better and their price was better. Everything about them was better, so we ended up getting rid of all the others and just keeping Cortlex.

How much have you invested with Cortlex?

We spent between $4,000 and $5,000 a month. In total, we spent about $15,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

It took a total of three or four months. I don't know the exact start date. I could look it up, but it started around April or May [of 2016]. We actually just stopped working with them last Friday, a couple of days ago [September 2016].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I have been a web developer for more than 15 years, and I've worked with many different contractors. I was hesitant to work with contractors because typically there are many delays. Also, the quality of the work has usually been subpar, in terms of code quality, visually, and the overall UX [user experience] design. With Cortlex, I was always pleasantly surprised. They were able to translate our vision, mockups, and wireframes into functional code and pages that were exactly what we wanted. In terms of the quality of the code, we did an internal code review after we got everything from them. Everything was very well written.

They did many things automatically without us even having to ask, like things related to security. They also made sure everything was compatible with different devices and browsers. I don't have any complaints or anything that they could've done better. Everybody else in the company, our founders, project managers, design people, and so on, they all feel the same way. It was actually said that we got everything done that we needed. We ended our relationship with them because they already delivered everything we wanted. It was not because we didn't want to work with them anymore. Everyone wishes we could've kept working with them longer.

How did Cortlex perform from a project management standpoint?

We had an account manager from Cortlex who handled the business side of things. Initially, she was on all the calls with us. After a few calls, it was just usually me, our project manager, and the engineer. They held our hands for the first few days, but then everything didn't require any other assistance. Initially, there were two engineers and one account manager. After the first couple of calls, we just dealt with our engineer that was assigned to us. It helped a lot that we had a daily call over Skype for about half an hour every day. They would show us everything that they built that day or the engineers that were working on it would show us. Almost every day I would say, "Oh, wow. That's nice." I was always pleasantly surprised with how things turned out.

What did you find most impressive about Cortlex?

On a personal level, they were very nice and very polite. They didn't miss any appointments. With Cortlex being overseas, you have to say things twice or in a different way just because of language. But, that wasn't really an issue. Everything was better than we expected, especially for people working overseas.

Are there any areas Cortlex could improve?

I don't think there are any areas that they need to improve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a collaborative consulting and software development lab that specializes in working with owners of critical infrastructure and systems integrators. I work as a Client and Sales Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cortlex?

We hired Cortlex to fill software development positions.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to build a custom web platform for our customer.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected Cortlex based on the feedback we got from their previous clients and did not regret that.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Cortlex provided a body-lease model of software development services.

What was the team composition?

We took one software developer to our team from Cortlex. He was working remotely. This was never a problem for us, as he performed his tasks in a very professional manner.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project we used Cortlex' competence for, was one of the biggest for us at the time. The customer was a new player in the energy sector and it was really important for us to make a competent impression and perform our tasks at the highest quality.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management on Cortlex side was flawless. The communication was very quick and easy. We always got in contact with them when we needed and had absolutely no problems.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Cortlex is a good choice when you look for people who do their work to the highest standards, are reliable and responsive to your needs.