Sigli

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a pet store e-commerce company. We dabble in distribution and have been doing retail e-commerce for years; we've built up our entire platform with all in-house technology. We've been getting more into the distribution side and have been working with retailers and are building SAS products and offerings that will be available for pet stores to sell our stuff from behind the counter and we're going to be doing the recommendation, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cortlex?

In January, Petflow was acquired by a pet food distributor called Phillips and they took us on as their innovation team, their ongoing technical resource. that gets the stuff done for them. They're a pretty big company and are behind the times on the engineering side of things, so we came in for that. With that came a bottled up roadmap, they had a lot of things they wanted to do to get a competitive edge in the industry, because frankly none of their competition are very good at executing technology projects. We stepped in and were given a lot of projects. Due to the scope of these projects and the amount of new products we were building, we needed to bring in outsourced help to get through the first wave and catch-up.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cortlex worked on one thing for us. It was a three-month contract where they worked on the foundation of this application - a behind-the-counter special ordering app. That is a SAS solution we're giving to our Phillips clients, a log-in to the web based app where they can place orders for their customers. They can see products, they can recommend ones, etc.

Cortlex worked only on the backend in this case, we were using Laravel 5.4 and a bulk of the work was setting up a secure off base API that our frontend application team could use and be confident that it was secure, safe, and could provide a building block that we may build on later, because there's going to be different clients consuming the API.

What is the team dynamic?

We had one senior backend engineer and we had their account manager slash project manager.

Have you worked with a team like this in the past?

I've done similar work before with a couple other shops in Eastern Europe, but Cortlex were the most responsive and down-to-earth. They responded to my inquiry really quickly and provided resources really quickly, put talent in front of me, and integrated with our team seamlessly. They joined our Slack, calendar, e-mail and started working with us. It was really cool to have that close relationship set up pretty fast.

How did you come to work with Cortlex?

They cold-called me on LinkedIn and sent a message. There were a couple other companies I talked to at the time. Ultimately, Cortlex were accepted due to the speed at which they worked with me and I had a really good feeling about them.

How much have you invested with them?

The project was somewhere between $10,000-$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in April 2017 and was completed July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They accomplished everything we gave them. We work on an Agile cycle here and have a dozen or so stories we handed off to them and they did it. We signed a three month contract and they finished it, pretty much right on time. That was all pretty good.

How did Cortlex perform from a project management standpoint?

We talked daily, there was three hours of overlap with our team and we would do a standup with them, and every other week we would do a planning session to set the next goals to hit.

They are really well spoken in English and type just fine.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The turnaround and ease of integration, for sure.

We did a short contract with them, so I don't know what else they have to offer in terms of specific skill sets. I don't think there was anything super standout. They were pretty quality and better than other outsourced shops I have worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think so. The size and scope was pretty straightforward. Their engineer could have communicated a little bit better, he seemed a little shy sometimes; he would do some work and it would turnout that he went down the wrong branch for a couple hours and then talk to us and realize he was supposed to have been going a different way. But, it wasn't that big of a deal.

Advice for potential customers?

Make sure your projects are well-defined and what you're building makes sense. Be in communication on a daily basis. With any outsourced company, the worst thing to do is let them go at it for a couple weeks and hand off something that doesn't make any sense.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a practice director at a software consulting organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cortlex?

We were looking for additional software resources who were not necessarily based in the US.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were looking for additional development capacity. Our team tends to be a fairly senior set of people, and we needed more mid-level people with 3–5 years of experience to supplement our team. Cortlex did C#, JavaScript, and Angular development for us on two projects, but I was only involved in a single project. Two of their developers worked with us.

How did you come to work with Cortlex?

Our company had worked with them on a prior project, so they were referred to me.

How much have you invested with Cortlex?

I believe we spent $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Cortlex in October of 2016. We had two developers working with us for about seven months, but we recently rolled a developer off the project. We’re still working with the other. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I think they did accelerate our delivery, but we also needed to provide a bit more oversight on their work since they’re more junior developers than our team.

How did Cortlex perform from a project management standpoint?

We handle the project management on our end. I think they did a good job with communication and meeting deadlines. We used a combination of Slack and either Screenhero or GoToMeeting calls, usually once a day. We put quite a bit of detailed tasking information into VersionOne, which is the tool we used to manage the project. We found that more detailed tasking information facilitated better success overall.

What did you find most impressive about Cortlex?

When we had a problem, they were pretty responsive in getting it resolved and escalating tasks.

Are there any areas Cortlex could improve?

The biggest challenge involved communication. One of their developers was pretty fluent in English, but the other wasn’t. I think the first had to act as a translator sometimes. 

This review was updated on February 2, 2018 by the client due to a breach of contract that resulted in termination of the engagement.

UPDATED REVIEW

What has happened with Cortlex since your original review was published?

Cortlex was a subcontractor to us. Part of our contract with them stated that they would not solicit business directly from our customers, but they did it anyway. A couple of contractors from Cortlex ended up working directly with our customer.

Cortlex worked with our customer to conceal that their people were involved. The contact at Cortlex gave the client different email addresses and didn’t talk to us about it. This was happening during our project and we found out accidentally when some of the people involved checked stuff with their Cortlex email addresses. It was a bad situation; they deceived us instead of sitting down with us and the customer and explaining everything.

Did you bring this up with them during the project?

It caused the whole arrangement with them and our customer to implode. Our management team was very unhappy. We brought it up but ended up pulling most of our resources off the project.  

Did they try to do anything to remedy the situation?

They tried to work with our CEO to come up with a remedy, but it was already a mess at that point. It broke our relationship with the customer, which is hard to recover from.

Have you taken any legal action?

I don’t think we did. We obviously aren’t going to work with them in the future. We went from being a good reference to a negative one.

Did the issues stem from the team versus the quality of their work?

I wouldn’t change the quality, schedule, or cost ratings in the initial review. I was happy with them and willing to refer them, but that has since changed completely.

In your old review, is there any particular section you would like to elaborate on?

I had said I rolled off a developer in May 2017. We actually ended up rolling two other developers off about a month later. The latter two were contracted directly with our customer without our knowledge. That’s when things started to fall apart.

Has this engagement changed how you approach companies going into the future?

We’re a lot more reluctant to work with offshore companies in that area. We’re now working with a group in Croatia that seems much more above-board.

Do you have any advice for potential customers in order to avoid this type of situation?

Read the reviews that people post on Clutch’s website because this could happen with anyone. When working with a new partner, you never know how they’re going to behave. I usually wouldn’t bother reaching out to leave a bad review even if things went a bit awry, but this is pretty grievous.

Is there anything else you want to add to the review?

They may be fine as a direct provider, but I wouldn’t recommend using them as a sub.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company develops custom software for web-based business applications. I’m founder, president, lead developer, business analyst, and sales and marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cortlex?

They’ve been helping us with both internal project work and billable client work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The technology stack for the internal project work is ASP.NET with Angular 1.5, SQL Server backend, HTML 5 and they’ve been doing full stack development for that. I give them requirements, and they’ve been doing the development for the project. They’ve done two projects on the billable work side. One of them was like the stack I just mentioned. For the internal project, I had done about 50% of the work already. For the new project work, they’ve been doing all of the development themselves. 

How did you come to work with Cortlex?

A year ago they were helping on a project that I was also involved in. That client had found them, and after that project was completed, I reached out to Cortlex and asked if they would assist on one of my projects.

How much have you invested with Cortlex?

We’ve spent an average of $50,000 per project with Cortlex.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’re currently working with them now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They make sure there’s no duplicated code and that we’re using the appropriate design patterns at the right places. The code is clean, and they delivered to the framework to the best of their ability. Mike has been great to work with. I meet with him every morning.

How did Cortlex perform from a project management standpoint?

I do the project management for the project. Everything has gone well.

What did you find most impressive about Cortlex?

They will do anything to make sure we’re satisfied with the work that’s being delivered. I worked on a project with them where the client was very difficult, and they did everything possible to make sure the client was satisfied.

Are there any areas Cortlex could improve?

No.

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.