SoftCraft

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of Zaven - a process-driven Software Development Company from Wrocław, Poland focused on creating tools for industry professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Better Soft Services?

We needed additional support from .NET and React developers for several projects. BSS developers worked with us to develop applications for a client in the construction and cyber security industries.

SOLUTION

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

We worked with BSS on the IoT connectivity project in the medical industry and a solution used in shipping. We were very satisfied with that cooperation we knew their specialists, technology stack, so we decided to hire developers from BSS.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Project management application for the construction industry was meant to be a solution with a high ease-of-use, at a much lower cost than other project management and field tools. We have developed a web application for use in the office and a mobile application that employees can use in the field.

The main idea was to enable users put all the work plans, files and documents in the pocket of the field professional and ensure consistent quality through good coordination, communication and access to up to date plans and specs. For a cyber security client, we developed a tool to identify bugs in the organization's mobile application software.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

BSS manager first asks questions about the project requirements and augmentation needs (identifies missing gaps). That combined with the initial request for proposal details results with an offer and list of available candidates and their resumes. Candidates are either given assignments to verify if they are good fit for particular project technical challenges or are invited to the technical interview directly.

After assignments evaluation or/and passed interview candidate joins the team for agreed period. What I really like about BSS is the fact they always care about our projects and relationship with our customers. You can expect both flexibility and predictability. On-boarded developer will not be suddenly replaced by another resource or simply pulled out of your team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BSS promptly supported us by offering skilled developers which helped us preserving very good relationship with our key partner. Presented flexibility without compromising quality resulted with perfect possibility to ramp up and tighten cooperation between Zaven and key customers.

We expect to keep amplyfying our cooperation in future for mutual benefits to build stable, predictable and long-lasting partnerships. The most important issue for us was to meet the deadline, which was made possible by the effective work of the development team. Clients were satisfied with the applications we delivered, which means that we completed the project successfully.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Project management took place according to agile methods. We met daily on MS Teams to discuss the results of the work and plan priorities for the next days. As a result, the work went smoothly.

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

What I appreciate most is the high qualification of the developers, thanks to which we were able to meet the client's expectations.

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

I find our cooperation very fruitful and it went without any misunderstandings, I have no objections.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Red Cell Apps. We provide innovative software solutions to our clients. The range of services includes mobile and web application development, smart TV applications and OTT development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Better Soft Services, and what were your goals?

A client in the IoT sector approached us to build and manage a backend web application that could be expanded as our offerings and software portfolio grew. They also expected us to develop a simple mobile application that could be used by end users.

From what we knew BSS has a lot of experience in developing front-end solutions for Iot projects. We felt that they would be an ideal partner for consulting on a mobile application for visualizing cloud data.

SOLUTION

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

We worked with BSS on another project, so this time I approached directly to the CEO.

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

Our client’s main product is a leak monitoring system. They have an IoT device that connects to insulation or fabric mats. If the water hits these mats, we can determine the time and area where it happened.

We have developed a backend cloud application platform that connects to client’s hardware and then we approached BSS to consult on a mobile application that would display data, downloaded from the cloud.

The team helped us to create an app featuring useful functionality. For example, if someone manages to get a leaky pipe somewhere in their roof, the app tells them when. Or, if for some reason someone cuts a hole in the roof, app can let people know where the leak occurred and when it occurred so that they can take appropriate action

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

We work with 2 developers, one project manager and one QA tester from BSS and QA tester. On our side involved 4 developers and one PM.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BSS was very responsive to the feedback that we gave them early on. They were extremely helpful and friendly. They were handed a piece of technology that was constructed by another team in our country on a totally different platform than what they’re used to. However, they knew how to use it. They made minor modifications to it but understood what they couldn’t change.

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

The PM on the team always keeps our grooming and stand-ups flowing really well. He was absolutely devoted and has been helpful in organizing the third-party requirements and dependencies.

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

BSS was given a challenge of being able to deploy an unfamiliar solution, constructed by another team. They came up with quite clever solutions for problems that I personally don’t think twice about when I work on my own day-to-day work. It was really impressive to see them do that. I was most impressed with their expertise and honest qualities.

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

The only other thing I would say is there were some hiccups at the very start with scoping.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The purpose of the project was creation of an application complementary to the Grasp device which enables medical professionals to have access to advanced patient data with high importance providing more insight into their conditions. The result is an application that helps in better understanding and managing the users’ health conditions and pain associated to them, both physical and mental.

It analyzes the scale of motions (squeezes) collected through the device and presents the data in different aspects. With its use the treatments can be evaluated more deeply and certain habits and methods can be developed to better the comfort and lifestyle of individuals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Better Soft Services, and what were your goals?

The main challenge for BSS’s team consisted in creation front-end layer for both mobile and web application integrated with IoT device. Their job was also to design a unique user interface which enables simply and convenient navigating through the application.

SOLUTION

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

We find out about BSS through the recommendation.

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

The work included the creation of a mobile and desktop application. A web application for doctors has been created in Dotnet, while the mobile version was initially created in Kotlin and Swift, and then in Flutter. This solution made it possible to cover an Android market and provide the missing features. BSS work also included consulting and MVP development - a basic version of the Grasp with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development.

They developed project concepts based on our basic requirements, collected data from pilot programs, worked with research and development and cooperated with firmware and hardware.

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

In order to achieve the intended goal, BSS involved mobile and web developers (including back-end, front-end and full-stack), UX&UI designer and PM, who coordinated the entire project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The final version of apps help doctors make better diagnoses, examine patients better, and compare the effectiveness of different therapies between clinics. The advanced app infrastructure facilitates the collection of patient data. The pilot studies have proved that through effective data collection and clear presentation, our IoT solution works very well and has good chances for future growth.

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

We had regular meetings to discuss progress and set priorities. We also met live at the BSS office in Wroclaw, where we held intensive workshops on project development. The whole project management went smoothly.

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

The most impressive thing about Better Soft Services' project approach was the full commitment of the team and their willingness to find solutions. The delivered product met all our expectations, including those that were challenging from a technical point of view.

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

I am very satisfied with the cooperation with BSS.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

ANIXE is a tech company focused on delivering advanced technological sales solutions for the travel, tourism and other industries. I am Head of Ecommerce Business Unit here. We create software tailored to the customer's needs regardless of the industry and location of the customer. We have complete creative teams specialized in developing software from scratch & provide service, long-term support, software maintenance and improvements throughout its life cycle.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Better Soft Services, and what were your goals?

We started working with BSS to create a frontend in a mobile app for our travel client (selling tours). The main idea of the project was to create a mobile application that would enable printing documents on thermal printers using Bluetooth. The application is intended for internal employees who deal with the sale of travel offers - these people have printers and need an application through which they can order the printing of receipts and vouchers for customers.

SOLUTION

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

Together with BSS we belong to a cluster of IT companies - SoDA. When looking for a company to help us in creating a frontend for a mobile application, we took advantage of the privileges offered by membership in this association and chose BSS as a reliable partner for cooperation.

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

Better Soft Services did some research at the initial stage of the project and found out that the printers we are working with support an old communication protocol - #BluetoothClassic instead of BLE - (Bluetooth Low Energy). They also require printer specific communication protocols (Serial Port Interface profile, ESC/POS control commands). Additionally, after the PoC stage, it turned out that the PDF print quality was not satisfactory due to the hardware limitations of the printers, so we decided to pursue the second option, providing the highest quality, which required R&D work on the printer protocol support (ESC/POS).

The application was created cross-platform - BSS developers based on solutions available for Flutter, developing them with custom development necessary for the project in this area. At each stage of work, their QA team also provided support by preparing and executing test plans on the available hardware base.

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

The core team consists of 4 members on the BSS side (Developer, Project Architect, Tester and PM) and 3 teammates from our company (Product Owner, Lead Backend Developer and me).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app significantly improved the work of our client's staff. Printed documents are of high quality and the application is very easy to use.

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

BSS consulted all possible options, their pros and cons and our expectations (e.g., printer models needed for support). We worked in Scrum: every 2 weeks BSS presented us with a demo of the application and then we consulted the technical details. As a result, two variants of pricing were prepared - a cheaper one based on PDF printing and a more flexible one providing the best quality based on full printer control (via ESC/POS protocol). We also agreed that the final solution will be chosen by implementing the initial #PoC printout in the cheaper option, and then we will analyze the results.

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

They were always ready to face all the difficulties we encountered during the project. The whole team made sure that the product met our business and technical requirements.

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

I have not noticed any problems in cooperation with BSS. Communication was at the highest level. If there is a need, we will decide to do another project together!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of Better Media Solutions. We offer end-to-end OTT products to manage, monetize and distribute on-demand and live video content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Better Soft Services, and what were your goals?

We started cooperation with Better Soft Services for the purpose of creating a web streaming service application offering niche premium sports content to fans around the world. At that time, our team was too small to implement the project from start to finish independently. For this reason, we decided to expand the team with outsourced developers. The project's goal was to improve fans' existing experience using live and on-demand content. We wanted the content to be available at a convenient time for users. The app was to provide users with the ability to decide when and in what form they would enjoy their favorite content. The new streaming service was built on our product, a professional white-label solution designed for seamless management of video and audio content.

SOLUTION

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

First, we had worked with BSS before, so we knew what competencies they could offer us. The deciding factor was the experience of the developers and BSS portfolio, rich in front-end development projects.

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

Our white-label platform is created with highly customizable but also quickly deployable components. In order to meet the client's requirements, our team made sure to provide functionalities that allow people to consume content in a more engaging way. The application includes the ability for users to authenticate, discover content through search and catalogs, and watch the content of their choosing. Thanks to its flexibility, our solution eliminates the need for a lengthy and costly development process while offering a broad spectrum of configurative possibilities on both sides of the application, the visual as well as functional. The product was developed in React.

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

2 FE developers, 1 PM, 1 QA

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Through our cooperation, we have created new features for the platform before the schedule and therefore meet the needs of our customers.

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

Better Soft Services took the responsibility for project management and it had been running smoothly and efficiently. Communication was done through Scrum events.

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

What I appreciated most was their commitment and openness to implementing new solutions.

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

Efficient communication allowed us to avoid misunderstandings. I have no objections about how the project is going.