Soft Industry Alliance

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO at a blockchain technology company developing a decentralized consumer backup and storage App.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Soft Industry Alliance, and what were your goals?

Complex networking protocols and backend infrastructure, requiring deep skills in C++, Devopps and cross platform apps development

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We peeformed deep interview and testing processes toany cadidates from several vendors and found that thier engineers were the best, as well as very competitive rates.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

On client side developing a distributed networking technology in c++, and apps in Flutter for 4 operating systems, including complete file management system, encryption and comprehensive GUI. On server side building from scratch a highly robust and scalable infrastructure based on Kubernetes, written un PHP and Python .

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

4-6 people. Software engineers, DevOpps and UX design

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Project yet to be launched

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Excellent communications and responsiveness from project managers and management, helping to resolve complex situations, such as outages and delays due to the UKR-RUS war and Covid pandemic

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We're impressed with the talent of their engineers, good rates, contingency strategy, responsiveness of management

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Certain HR issues should habe been mitigated in a better manner. Had difficulty staffing all of our requirements so we ended up contracting additional contractors. That said, collaborate with other competitors extremely well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

As Vice President at CHI Software, I am responsible for building partnership relations for the implementation of complex projects, performing the best distribution for our customers. I am always looking for ways to strategically develop business, expand the company, and open new markets and opportunities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Soft Industry Alliance, and what were your goals?

We hired them to develop together electronic payment system.

SOLUTION

How did you select Soft Industry Alliance and what were the deciding factors?

Their level of quality work and communication stand out.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We communicate through Skype and Slack, which makes the process very effective. They’ve been available to us almost at all times of the day and their communication and follow-up are wonderful. We can share documents, text material, icons, and images directly as they show up.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

1 Senior JAVA developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

They’ve met our expectations on this project. Our customer is happy with the deliverables too, and he plans to continue working with us.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

I wasn’t directly looking into Soft Industry Alliance’s work on a day-to-day basis. The tasks came specifically from the client. There was daily standups with the client where they specified which tasks and issues they should be working on.

They also had tools like Jira and bug-tracking software in place. They’ve met deadlines.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their diligence and eagerness to get things right and done and provide the best value are what’s most impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No, we're very satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a Russian IT company. Our company has 50+ employees. We create web products for business in various fields and we help companies expand their dev team. I manage the company and handle the business expansion.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Soft Industry Alliance?

We have a client who needed help with developing an Android App for the banking sector. As we didn't have available specialists at the time, we decided to search for a skilled specialist who can handle the project well.

What were your goals for this project?

The developer's main task was to finalize the existing application and to implement the new functionality.

SOLUTION

How did you select Soft Industry Alliance?

Our team was looking for Android developers among our partners and we found several suitable candidates for this project. After interviews, the client chose a candidate from the Soft Industry Alliance company for this project.

Describe the project in detail.

During the project the developer worked on:

• development, updating, and redesign forms of investment products
• updating and redesign of onboarding in the application
• modification of the registration process
• development of a module for trading financial instruments with real-time stock quotes
• Development of a module for analyzing user actions in the application
• Supporting and updating of legacy application code, bug fixing.

He was responsible for the frontend part.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a developer, an account manager from the Soft Industry Alliance side, an account manager from our side, and also there were about 10 developers provided by the client.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

During the work on the project, the developer was able to implement a number of functionalities in the application, according to the requirements and terms of the customer, which helped to speed up and simplify the interface for comfortable use by clients

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

During the project, the employees of the Soft Industry Alliance have proven themselves on the positive side, as exceptionally reliable partners, showing high professionalism, efficiency, and high organization in the implementation of the assigned tasks.

We also would like to thank the account manager Julia Hart from Soft Industry Alliance. She is really competent specialist who is able to find a solution in any situation

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team in the Soft Industry Alliance displayed great communication and problem-solving skills. We are pleased with our collaboration with the Soft Industry Alliance company.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were satisfied with the Soft Industry Alliance teamwork and we wish the best going forward.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a software development company located in Berlin, Germany.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Soft Industry Alliance, and what were your goals?

We needed a reliable development partner for a long cooperation, someone who has experience working with European countries and understanding the special requirements of the European market and laws.

SOLUTION

How did you select Soft Industry Alliance and what were the deciding factors?

We have been working for more than 10 years and different projects and we know about the quality and reliability of their work.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The project is a combination of - data processing and - applications.

The key task is the implementation of tasks related to master data management as well as the implementation of web applications to deliver different kinds of custom reports as well as data preparation for different campaigns, like customer surveys, etc.

Among the used technologies are ETL Tools as well as Java, .Net and PostgreSQL databases.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There are 4 people working as developers, one of them as lead developer, one specialist for Testing and QA as well as a designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Sill working very successful.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We are using Scrum, planning 2-week-sprints with CI/CD.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The trust and reliability we can put on this partner is a lot.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I think, they are always improving and educating their stuff.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I am a software developer working in the industrial automation, control, and reporting space. I work within the mining, oil, and gas utilization and reporting area of software.

What is your position?

I am an independent consultant working as the development manager for a West Australian company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Soft-Industry?

I had a couple of projects that were a little too big for me and required skills that I didn't possess.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

They primarily work with .NET web development projects for me. I've used them for developing very advanced modeling and statistical analysis applications for industrial automation, particularly maintenance.

I've also used Soft-Industry as part of a personal product development consisting of a calculation engine utilizing .NET DLLs.

We were involved in some big Silverlight projects when that platform was popular.

I find that I can throw any new tools at Soft-Industry. I tend to use Telerik Kendo controls for front-end UI [user interface] components. Recently, for example, I needed a bunch of unusual programming done with interactive graphics on a web page, which included grabbing widgets and drawing. I throw many new components at them within the Microsoft stack and have plenty of confidence in Soft-Industry's ability to absorb them. I'm technically oriented myself, so I make sure that I can understand a component before offering it to them, in order to have the ability to evaluate what they turn around, portability and aesthetics-wise.

They have deep SQL server knowledge, providing storage procedure and database design work, although I typically handle database design myself. Soft-Industry is heavily involved in our current project, offering four of their developers.

How did you come to work with Soft-Industry?

I researched directories of the offshore service providers that were available in 2004 and 2005. Soft-Industry was one of three companies that I contacted at the time, with the other two being from Russia and India. The initial engagement I contacted them for was to do with a mobile application. It was a small job of about 200 development hours, by my own estimations. Soft-Industry and the Russian company gave an estimate of less than 200 hours. The Indian company returned a total of nine months, so they didn't get the job.

I didn't choose Soft-Industry for that first project, but I came back to them for subsequent work. There was a certain humanity in their way of dealing with me. They spoke human, not "managerize." The next project I needed help with was to do with databases. Soft-Industry's skill set was closer to what I needed than that of the Russian company.

They have been the only offshore provider I've used since that time. Their managing director is a nice guy. We came to show each other snapshots of our families quickly, so there was a personal connection that remains to this day.

Also, the longevity of their key employees made me continue the relationship. I've come to feel as a part of the family and know many of their people, even if it's only through emails. Even the technical exchanges come with a bit of humor and banter. Still, I wouldn't use them if they weren't good at what they do. They come up with solutions that please me every time.

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

The total cost for their development services so far has been around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I've depended on Soft-Industry on and off for more than 10 years. There have been periods of up to a couple of years when I didn't require their services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Before coming on board with my current company, I'd worked on two major projects that stood out in terms of performance. The first one finished close to delivery. The second one was much larger. It was delivered three days early and its budget was spot-on. To get that kind of accuracy within any kind of software project was unheard of in my 25-year career.

I am getting plenty of good feedback from the company I'm working with at the moment regarding Soft-Industry's performance, in terms of the amount of work that they can deliver and their testing abilities.

Before Christmas, we had Soft-Industry develop a very large and invasive feature branch on our product. Everyone was a bit nervous about the amount of breakage that would occur in the product because we were changing core constructs within it. It was the first time we formally engaged Soft-Industry's testing department to produce a test plan. After a few iterations, getting my approval and finessing the test plan, they undertook all of the testing. The feedback I received from my boss and passed on to Soft-Industry was that it was the best test plan they'd ever seen. The success of the testing was such that, when we merged that branch back into the trunk, nobody realized it had been done. Nothing broke and it was quite unspectacular.

How did Soft-Industry perform from a project management standpoint?

Part of our synergy implies a learning process on my part as well. Being a developer, I find it hard to distance myself too much from analyzing how the code is written. In the beginning, I would break the jobs into suitable tasks. I wasn't getting enough value out of Soft-Industry as a result because I was spending a lot of time myself in the development process. I made the job so easy for them that their turnaround became very fast.

I've also learned that, under times of pressure, I gave them too much work. They didn't have my level of familiarity with the project and came up with results that I had to rewrite and break into smaller chunks for them. There is a Goldilocks zone in terms of breaking up tasks into chunks that are not too small and not so large as to bring a major deviation from my initial vision.

For the last several years, both Soft-Industry and I have been working nicely within this zone. The lines of communication are casual enough as not to present problems when asking for clarifications when I might have missed the mark with my descriptions.

Soft-Industry uses JIRA as their standard project tracking system. They base their billing on it.

What distinguishes Soft-Industry from other providers?

I don't have a vast experience with other offshore providers. The relationship and human aspects are important to me. Soft-Industry has plenty of depth in terms of expertise. There were times in which I needed to have graphics work done. They have a couple of graphic designers on their team who've turned around stunning work. As an example, I had them create a logo for a couple of vans I operate locally.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a consulting firm.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Soft Industry?

We were looking for affordable and reliable development resources for building an e-commerce website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Soft Industry developed the site using the Drupal CMS. They also work extensively with PHP and SQL. We've since worked on multiple projects, including financial applications for the banking industry, education applications, and others. Our latest project is Java-based and uses complex backend databases. Everything we've worked on has been cloud-based, using Amazon Web Services.

Most of our projects include mobile aspects. Although they're not necessarily native applications, they have responsive designs.

The largest team assigned to us included 11 people. We have interacted both with the developers themselves and with their project manager, depending on the size of the project. On very small ones, there was no need for a project manager.

We've built a .NET project and also needed engineers who specialized in Java, as well as a front-end designer. The greatest thing about Soft Industry is that they manage to scale up and down based on our demand and the specific expertise needed. The turnaround for their engineers is very low. Most of the people I was working with at the start of our collaboration are still there. This is important because, when working with people for extended periods of time, you will get a clear image of their capabilities.

How did you come to work with Soft Industry?

They were recommended to us. We contacted them and met their team.

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

I cannot provide a total cost estimate, but as an example, we've worked on a project that cost $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I bring the final product to the customers and interact with them directly. Feedback has been very good. Just like with any software development process, we go through many stages. Their engineers are very good, and we've had very positive results.

How did Soft Industry perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira, GitHub and other similar tools in our project development cycle. We have Agile and Scrum methodologies for ensuring that we keep track of all our goals.

What distinguishes Soft Industry from other providers?

They are extremely reliable. I've worked with other teams in the past, either from India or Belarus. My concern was always about having the same people available for the next project. Soft Industry is always there for us, and always addresses our issues. When we need them to synchronize to our time zone, they always accommodate us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is specialized in network monitoring, testing and analytics. One of our key products is designed for providing monitoring and analysis of telephony networks, both next generation and legacy landlines, such as SS7 and TDM, and mobile lines. It is a complex product, featuring multiple probes that can be installed in multiple locations, which communicate with regional operating servers, providing an overview of the entire network, for both reporting and diagnostic purposes. Typically, it is sold as-is, and our customers are telephony service providers as well as cable companies and other kinds of integrators, small providers, and so on.

What is your position?

I am the director of engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Soft Industry?

Sometimes, our product is integrated with solutions from other companies. We had a strategic partnership with a large equipment manufacturer. They won a bid in Saudi Arabia to provide monitoring services for their network infrastructure. The client had good mobile solutions, but they didn't have anything in place for next generation networks. They asked us to provide a solution that could be integrated with their products. This was not part of our typical operations, so the management decided to outsource the project. We wanted to find someone who could build this for us.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Phase one of the project was limited in scope. They worked with the help of our local developers, who helped them in the training phase. The team was initially composed of only four people, one project manager, and three developers.

Phase two was much larger in scope. It entailed a lot of development of additional modules, which had to be integrated both with our product and with that of the client. The team was expanded to 12 people, which were also trained by us. Soft Industry came up to speed quickly and delivered. What was more surprising was that, after connecting them to the customer directly, they were able to perform upgrades by themselves, debug the system, provide support and troubleshooting, and so on. Overall, it was a positive experience.

I requested that Soft Industry create very detailed schedules on a weekly basis. The biggest positive surprise for me was that they never deviated from them. They were always on time.

How did you come to work with Soft Industry?

We looked at various vendors. Soft Industry was recommended by a friend. Being from the Ukraine myself, it was easy to communicate with them. We spoke on the phone a couple of times. We also met in person and liked their team as well as their approach and expertise. We chose to hire them for this project.

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

On average, the pricing for the second phase was $5,000 per month, per person. Soft Industry charges different hourly rates for different developers, depending on their level of experience.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted two and a half years. We didn't win the next phase of the project, and the relationship ended as a result. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Unfortunately, I cannot share any figures or metrics as those are strictly confidential. I can tell you, anecdotally, that we've been more than impressed with their performance.

How did Soft Industry perform from a project management standpoint?

Our collaboration involved one person from our company working directly with only one person from Soft Industry. I was the one designated locally, and I worked with their current project lead. There were also two key developers with whom I communicated often. One was dealing with the server back-end work, and the other was in charge of databases. Soft Industry executed a Sprint project, and we kept track of any issues locally, through a spreadsheet. They were very proactive, not waiting until I'd asked about any issues.

We used OnTime for project tracking, a small application lifecycle management tool. We entered the requirements for the next Sprint cycle on it, which Soft Industry would break down into tasks.

What distinguishes Soft Industry from other providers?

They are very efficient and have a sizable talent pool from which to draw. Most of the IT [information technology] industry in Ukraine is centered on Kiev. Soft Industry is located in a city only 80 miles away, which is much less expensive. Chernihiv has a great university and, as such, a great pool of talent. Soft Industry is very good at recruiting young, motivated professionals.

Also, their organization model is very efficient. A project manager oversees their entire operations and is always able to communicate effectively when issues arise.

They never try to sell their capabilities in absolutes, saying they can do anything. I've worked with a couple of Indian companies. Their managers produce great slides, managing me instead of the software, which was something I didn't like. Soft Industry was very conservative in their estimations, but they always met them.

Is there anything Soft Industry could have improved or done differently?

Working with them was easy, partially because we have the same native language. Nevertheless, their written English level was very good, but not all of their developers can speak fluently. We never had problems in communicating with any of their key people.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Client Success Manager of United Software

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A company with a team of 200+ engineers. Our company follows a BOT (Build, Operate, Transfer) model and specializes in building and operating teams for international businesses

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Soft Industry Alliance to accomplish?

• We hired Soft Industry Alliance for a project related to our EMEA-based client (delivery service), specifically for the development of an iOS app. We needed some extra capacity added to the current team

SOLUTION

How did you find Soft Industry Alliance?

Referral

Why did you select Soft Industry Alliance over others?

• Great culture fit
• Other

How many teammates from Soft Industry Alliance were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The engineer has successfully implemented various enhancements, such as the addition of an auto payment feature. They have also introduced a generic biller flow to simplify the process of incorporating new billers.

Additionally, they have integrated analytics events to provide valuable insights to the marketing team regarding user engagement with our features. The engineer has further undertaken a redesign of the user interface (UI) to improve its overall appearance. Furthermore, they are currently working on developing new unit tests and UI tests to ensure the robustness of the system.

Technologies:

• Swift
• SwiftUI
• UIKit
• Push Notifications

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Overall, we have been collaborating with Soft Industry Alliance for 1.5 years, and both we and our client are highly satisfied with provided services

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

In terms of project management, we handle the organizational communication, while Soft Industry Alliance's manager is consistently available for coordination and updates. Their prompt responsiveness and talent in engineering have been particularly impressive.

What was your primary form of communication with Soft Industry Alliance?

Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their engineers' talent, competitive rates, fast reactions, and the management's responsiveness have left us thoroughly impressed.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Soft Industry Alliance could have done differently?

We have no areas for improvement or suggestions for Soft Industry Alliance, as we are completely satisfied with their services.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Partnership Manager of CodeIT

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

CodeIT is a software product development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Soft Industry Alliance to accomplish?

• Team extension

SOLUTION

How did you find Soft Industry Alliance?

• Online Search
• Other

Why did you select Soft Industry Alliance over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Soft Industry Alliance were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

What was your primary form of communication with Soft Industry Alliance?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Product development, optimization, testing and support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Work was done on time with a high quality.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The managers from Soft Industry Alliance are professionals. They provides quick response, high problem-solving skills and are involved on each step of cooperation.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They provides really good professional, high quality of cooperation.

Are there any areas for improvement or something {provider_name} could have done differently?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of a financial services company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company is revolutionizing household bills using proprietary software and personal support. Instead of being inundated by bills, having to remember deadlines and write checks, clients are enjoying life without these stressors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Soft Industry Alliance to accomplish?

• Mobile App

SOLUTION

How did you find Soft Industry Alliance?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Soft Industry Alliance over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Soft Industry Alliance were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

App to be build using Flutter and distributed using Web, iOS and Android

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• App delivery to match existing functionality

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes. All scope was implemented on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Soft Industry Alliance?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They have exceptional technical skills and work ethic.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Soft Industry Alliance could have done differently?

N/A