Python & Data Engineering Experts
SoftKraft provide business and technology leaders with talent and expertise for building software to use data for insights and impact. CTOs, Development Leads and Product Managers from start-ups and SMEs engage SoftKraft to implement their software projects or to augment their in-house teams with designers, developers and expert consultants. We typically consult on, design and engineer cloud-based data processing software solutions and layer them with intuitive visualisation dashboards. SoftKraft helps their clients to drive software-based innovation in the products, processes and business ventures they undertake to bring to life.
► Data Processing & Visualisation, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence / AI, Machine Learning / ML, Dashboards, BI, Business Process Tools
► Python, React, Cloud, AWS, GCP, DevOps
headquarters
Focus
Portfolio
Atastic, Hey Noggin, Fils, Acrolinx, Software Innovation Lab, ZenMate, Neutopia, Dzone, CFEngine, Twelve Springs, TMC America Group
Video Streaming Platform
The client had previously developed a video content platform - an internet TV site - for the distribution of client’s video contents along with thedropout.tv application - a functionally independent paid service with premium contents. What was needed was a devops infrastructure for supporting the latter service application.
To meet the client’s challenge, our team designed and implemented an AWS-based devops infrastructure environment dedicated to running the client’s premium video content streaming service. To implement the latter solution, we programmed a set of scripts which enabled to automate the process of application deployment in the AWS environment as well as the process of AWS infrastructure provisioning. The automation implemented made the application maintenance much more efficient and cost effective as well as substantially shortened the time-to-market thus meeting the client’s key requirements and project objectives.
The solution was based on a few AWS services such as AWS EC2 for servers management, AWS ECS with the Docker containers runtime environment for faster application deployment and scaling out (meant to accommodate growing traffic loads), AWS ECR - a Docker container registry for storing applications - and AWS Route 53 - a highly available / reliable DNS manager.
To sum up, the AWS-based devops infrastructure built, the Ansible-based deployment automation as well as the Jenkins-based CI/CD pipeline ensure fast and efficient infrastructure provisioning and automatic application deployment, which enable a significant reduction in time-to-market, i.e., - among other things - changes in the application can be immediately deployed to production.
E-Commerce Sales Flow Software Solution
The service was delivered to the US-based Software Innovation Labs - a consortium organization who serve software building clients with a broad spectrum of technical and domain expertise for even the most complex software development projects. The client who needed to further develop their software solution was PressedJuicery - a company active in the processing, production and distribution of premium juices. The client intended to implement a new sales flow process, which was to be supported with an existing legacy python / flask application.
At its core, the sales-flow software solution delivered is a new python application built atop the existing legacy system. The approach enabled the client to implement and run the new sales flow process in a reliable and secure way. The sales application is comprehensively covered with unit tests and operates independently from the legacy system codebase; still the added functionality runs in the same context of one and the same software system.
As regards integrations, the application was integrated with PixelPoint POS. We chose to implement the integration by creating a dedicated EOI Agent for the latter. The EOI Agent is installed in every store operated with the software system. The agent exposes a secure API which enables the customer to check for stock status and place the order. Technically, the python application communicates with the software agent installed in the selected store to conduct order placement.
With the solution in place the customer is now free to order and pay for the products offered online and later collect the products at the store terminal, avoiding the hassle of shopping and queuing in the store. The order placed by the customer online is sent directly to the store terminal for execution upon the customer arrival. The client using the software solution is in a better position to drive their sales with a new sales flow channel.
NLP Contents Processing
The client was after designing and implementing a SEO editing software that would enable content creators to automate their SEO optimization work performed while producing texts. The writers were to gain access to a software tool which would support them in the process of generating and modifying texts created for search engine optimization purposes. With the solution in place, the client would gain a position to deliver their services faster, at a lower cost and at greater scale, i.e., to a significantly larger number of clients served.
In terms of technology, the application was developed in Golang and Java, and was based on a suite of external services. The tool collects textual data from analysed websites and processes the texts using microservices programmed in Golang and Java. The microservices in turn leverage some external services such as AWS (including AWS Lambda and EC2) and other cloud machine learning services (IBM Watson) to optimize the quality of the processed text in terms of targeted SEO results.
The data processing pipelines implemented in the solution collect and analyse textual website data and make it much more convenient for content creators to detect what keywords and keyword phrases should be used to achieve better SEO scoring for the modified website contents. The data pipelines use machine learning algorithms for text decomposition and analysis. What is more, the tool is also fitted up with DynamoDB - a database which scales automatically depending on the traffic loads, which allows for flexible cost optimization, i.e., the costs are dependent on and reflect the loads processed by the client.
All in all, website textual contents are fetched by the tool and fed into the application data pipeline, where they are processed and optimized with the support of external services; the modifications are automatically produced for the writer working on the text, who can then accept or reject the changes suggested.
Machine Learning in E-Learning Platform
Neutopia is an online education and publishing platform that invites a new type of learning experience. It caters to organizations who promote their resources/courses and learners who explore the subjects that interest them. The user is enabled to find the most relevant contents and aggregate playlists of their favourite educational materials organized into specific categories such as articles, books, events, courses, videos, websites as well as people with expertise in the fields they are into. The materials can be gathered from different sources, tagged, rated, reviewed and shared. The user can also create and manage their own influencer profile and add comments and ratings to other profiles. The contents can be added manually or embeded from YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon, SlideShare, MeetUp, EventBrite, Facebook and other integrated web services.
As regards the technologies used, the service built is based on the Spring Boot framework, which exposes a secure REST API and enables the scheduling of ML related tasks (e.g model retraining). We also used Apache Spark to ensure the option of horizontal scaling and thus fit the system up for supporting significant data volumes in the future. It is also in preparation for high loads that we built the platform using an asynchronous approach. The recommendation engine was developed with the collaborative filtering technique following the associated Spark documentation recommendations; still we adjusted the solution with some improvements to make it better fit the specific context of the project.
DevOps Infrastructure Maintenance for VPN Provider
ZenMate is a Berlin-based company providing products and solutions in the domain of internet security and privacy. The firm delivers their VPN service to more than 40 million users worldwide (as of mid 2017). The core product ensures fast and secure internet access as well as enables the user to protect their IP and online behaviour by encrypting the user’s online traffic. The service also allows the user to change their virtual location, gain access to localized contents and download them privately, securely and at high speed. The service features and functionalities are particularly useful in geographies with censorship to bypass. The VPN also helps to secure Wi-Fi connections.
The client needed to augment their in-house team with devops engineers to take over the system infrastructure and manage it in a professional and reliable way.
All in all, the collaboration with the client could be divided into three stages. In the preliminary two-week phase, SoftKraft engineers were collocated to work with the client team on-site in Berlin, which ensured efficient kick-off and onboarding.
While delivering the service the engineers engaged - among other things - maintained the existing system infrastructure, developed the system features pending in the backlog, added new features to reduce client VPN service delivery cost as well as improve the service itself. All in all, the service delivered was geared towards maintaining the infrastructure as well as making it more durable and more performant.
In the final stage of collaboration, SoftKraft’s job was to support the smooth onboarding of a new devops engineer to take over the job on a permanent basis. During the final stage the engineers again collocated with the client to ensure broadband communications and effective takeover of the devops function.
AWS Redshift based OLTP-to-OLAP
Acrolinx came to life at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, and has been developed by the world's leading AI experts in Natural Language Processing. The company provides an AI-powered platform for enterprise content governance. Their customers use the solution to deliver consistent strategy-aligned content at scale, across multiple teams, projects, and locations. Following a three-stage process, the customers -
- define specific content guidelines to fit their goals by leveraging existing style and terminology guidelines and by running existing content through the Acrolinx engine and then adjusting the initially generated guidelines;
- create content aligned with the guidelines; Acrolinx uses AI technology that enables content contributors to shorten their editorial process with automation - content contributors can create or optimize their existing content with a Sidebar offering real-time feedback and suggestions along which to fix issues and improve the text;
- track and analyze the quality and performance of their content for optimization.
The platform enables customers to create engaging, readable, consistent, and compliant content in an efficient and cost-effective way at scale. You can choose to watch this explainer video for the Acrolinx solution overview or this demo video for some more detailed product introduction. Some brands using the Acrolinx product are: Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Sony, Volvo, Scania, Boeing, Siemens. Acrolinx has an OLTP relational database used by their transactional system. The relational database schema wasn’t designed for the purpose of running complex analytical queries against it. Acrolinx needed to mirror their existing OLTP into a new OLAP warehouse store so they could run analytical queries against their data much more efficiently.
Reviews
the project
E-Commerce Cloud Migration Services for Pet Retailer
"They are their own biggest critics — they spot project problems before we can."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the senior operations manager at Kölle Zoo, a pet retailer that runs an online shop. I'm responsible for all IT projects and manage the external interfaces with providers and suppliers.
What challenge were you trying to address with SoftKraft?
We were building a new online shop and wanted to move our entire operation to the cloud to scale up our operations in the future. Our team was finding a lot of structural deficits in our existing system, and we needed a new provider to help us with the cloud migration.
What was the scope of their involvement?
At the beginning of the project with SoftKraft, we had a briefing meeting where we outlined our vision for the shop's workflows. We provided SoftKraft with the scope of work, infrastructure layout, data processes, and project expectations. During that briefing, we also provided them with documentation outlining the standard practices we wanted them to follow when coding in PHP and communicating with databases.
Once SoftKraft received our requests, they brought in industry specialists to provide us with the resources we needed. Their cloud engineer gave us a clear cloud framework, and then we interviewed several back- and frontend developers before working with them.
How did you come to work with SoftKraft?
We wanted a firm that was native to the cloud environment. SoftKraft's services were referred to us by another IT professional who worked with them on another project.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve already invested €100,000–€250,000 (approximately $109,000 – $272,000 USD).
What is the status of this engagement?
Our engagement with SoftKraft began in August 2021, and it's ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
In June 2022, we plan to launch the shop and hope to keep SoftKraft for further development projects. Internal IT sourcing is complicated in Europe, and we're pleased with the agency model; we're planning to set up a permanent partnership with SoftKraft. However, I don't have any objective metrics because this development project is all from scratch.
When we explained our situation and examples of specific problems, SoftKraft responded and rectified our issues within 24 hours. I appreciated their accountability, which contributed to my positive evaluation of our partnership.
How did SoftKraft perform from a project management standpoint?
We use Asana and email to collaborate with SoftKraft. For our day-to-day communication, we use Microsoft Teams. Outside of that, we have about three meetings and phone conferences during the week.
What did you find most impressive about them?
SoftKraft is very professional and pays a lot of attention to the quality of their deliverables. They are their own biggest critics — they spot project problems before we can. I value their ability to rectify their mistakes. They aren't expected to perform at 100% every day, and when they don't, they're very transparent.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I'd advise customers to allow SoftKraft to participate in their business process modeling. Customers must share their business goals, motivations, and project ideas — SoftKraft is good at the technical aspect of each project and can also provide insights on how to improve it.
the project
Custom Software Dev for Fintech Company
"They facilitated great project management."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I'm the Head of Talent Development at a leading Fintech company that empowers financial institutions to accelerate their digital transformation through their omni-channel platform.
For what projects/services did your company hire SoftKraft, and what were your goals?
We worked with SoftKraft to create an app to upload files to the employee document tab in our HRIS, BambooHR. We would manually upload pdf documents in the app and, based on a unique identifier (employee number), would automatically upload these documents into the individual employee file in BambooHR. With this we are streamlining our administration process as previously we had to manually upload all documents one by one.
How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?
We found SoftKraft through reaching out to various companies and one of them said they couldn't do the project but referred me to SoftKraft. We selected SoftKraft due to their uncomplicated approach in a way that they could also help us with the maintenance of the app after go-live, without buying recurring maintenance hours.
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.
We first went through our requirements in a call and then the SoftKraft project manager made a proposal for how the solution could look like. He always looked out for making steps more automated, even though, due to technical constraints (missing API key on the sending side), we couldn't reach this goal in the end. We had weekly meetings where I learned about the progress and timelines. Once ready, we engaged in testing as well as in a code review and SoftKraft followed up on any issues or change of requests quickly.
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
1 main contact from SoftKraft to work with me, he is the Client and Team Lead.
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
We uploaded about 800 salary letters into the individual employee files in one go, which helped us to tremendously reduce the manual effort.
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.
Project management was great. We communicated through email and had a call once per week. There was transparency on progress, issues and provided different possibilities to fix issues.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
Straight forward, uncomplicated approach. They facilitated great project management.
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
In the end, we required more budget than what we first anticipated. This is because of a change in our requirements to make sure we are compliant with internal requirements through the code review. Nevertheless, this could have been monitored more over time. At the same time, our contact was always transparent in terms of the effort for new features.
the project
Custom Software Dev for Technology & Telecommunications Co
“SoftKraft’s key ability is their reliability; I can always depend on them to achieve what we need to get done.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the chief development officer of a technology company working in the telecommunications/data-communications space. We have customers with global footprints, and we work with hundreds of technology-related suppliers.
What challenge were you trying to address with SoftKraft?
We needed help with developing an enterprise application.
What was the scope of their involvement?
SoftKraft has helped us develop an enterprise application for the community of users who work with us, and they’ve made it extensible and available to customers and two suppliers. They’ve built it within the GitHub environment, using development languages like Python and Django.
Creating this application has been challenging for SoftKraft because they’ve implemented different user workflows. Within this application’s functionality, they’ve also helped us implement processes for data management, data visualization for customers, and content addition for suppliers.
What is the team composition?
We’ve worked with about 12 people from SoftKraft so far. Their core team consists of 7–8 people, including the president and CEO, database engineers, backend developers, and frontend designers.
How did you come to work with SoftKraft?
One of my friends in the technology space recommended SoftKraft to me when I was looking for an offshore development partner. We went through a fairly rigorous review vetting and evaluation process with five different vendors worldwide, including them, looking at their skill sets and how good our dynamic was. Ultimately, we went with them.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent roughly $800,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in November 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve set many metrics to keep track of our different milestones, and SoftKraft has always achieved and exceeded those metrics along the way. However, the most successful metric is the value that our new software has given to our company. It took around a year for our software to be known, but our company’s valuation exceeded our expectations tremendously once it did.
When we started this project, we knew that it would require a heavy lift from the UI design side. Our software had to be highly functional while looking very different from other conventional enterprise software pieces. Still, SoftKraft’s engagement in the design process exceeded our expectations. They understood from the beginning our challenges, and they’ve continued to step up to them using different resources and implementing different tools to provide us with what we need.
How did SoftKraft perform from a project management standpoint?
We work on a sprint-based rapid application development model, and the execution of SoftKraft’s work has been within our expected timeframe. Regarding communication, they’re very candor, and they’ve never hesitated to tell me the truth. They never try to tell me what I want to hear to make me feel good. SoftKraft uses an internal ticket tracking system. Additionally, we communicate via Slack and have regular Google Meet calls.
What did you find most impressive about them?
SoftKraft’s key ability is their reliability; I can always depend on them to achieve what we need to get done. We’ve had some slippage, but they’ve always been very reliable, demonstrating an immense work ethic. Behind their reliability, SoftKraft has their technical skills. They have a depth of resources and capabilities, which is very impressive.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Know yourself, your organization, and your objectives, and see if your approach matches with the vendor. SoftKraft is very responsive to their clients’ points of view.
the project
Web App Dev for Research & Education Organization
"They were highly dedicated to producing a satisfactory final product."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the monitoring and evaluation officer for a research and education organization.
What challenge were you trying to address with SoftKraft?
We were looking to develop a web app that could collect information about geopolitical situations in real-time and in a more streamlined fashion.
What was the scope of their involvement?
SoftKraft developed our web app from scratch and designed a simple UI for it. We didn’t want to put too much emphasis on big, fancy logos; we were more geared towards developing the needed functionalities.
What is the team composition?
I worked with an administrator, an operations manager, two project managers, and two web developers.
How did you come to work with SoftKraft?
Clutch provided us with multiple options for vendors, including SoftKraft. We conducted an internal selection process and interviewed those vendors. According to our metrics, SoftKraft had the most capacity to think outside of the box. They also showed a good understanding of the requirements. Though they weren’t the cheapest, we decided to work with them simply because they met our standards.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent $10,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project lasted from February–December 2021
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
SoftKraft had good quality control throughout the engagement. Their team responded quickly to any issues that we would encounter with the beta version of the web app. They also addressed anything that didn’t fit within the scope of work.
How did SoftKraft perform from a project management standpoint?
The project management wasn’t perfect as there were instances of miscommunication. Their team missed the mark a couple of times due to the convoluted nature of our application, but the overall outcome was satisfactory. SoftKraft was open to having different discussions whenever we requested it.
We communicated via email and phone calls.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Though the initial phases of the development were a bit bumpy, there was never any negativity from SoftKraft. They remained positive and open to feedback, recapturing the essence of our requirements and adjusting their practices accordingly. In that regard, they were very successful. We saw that they were highly dedicated to producing a satisfactory final product.
Are there any areas they could improve?
They should have a structured method of reporting, especially if the client has specific deadlines. This would be better than having to go back and forth on a random timeline.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Even if you’re directly in touch with the programmers, don’t hesitate to reach out to their higher management. They’re responsive and able to clearly communicate issues that you’re facing.
the project
CRM Development for Event Attendee Data Company
"They are straight forward and easy to work with."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
Yotme is a events management CRM for brands and non-profits. I am the founder and CEO.
For what projects/services did your company hire SoftKraft?
Front end software development on a collaborative project.
What were your goals for this project?
To launch several new features
How did you select this vendor?
Softkraft came highly referred from a person that I really trust.
Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.
1 front end React developer, 20-30 hours per week collaborating with the team of existing developers
What was the team composition?
6 developers
Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?
They did a great job, project was finished on time and on budget.
How was project management arranged and how effective was it?
we have our own project management and the Softkraft developer fit right in.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
They are straight forward and easy to work with. They delivered what they said they would.
Are there any areas for improvement?
No
the project
Full Stack Development for Education Tech Platform
“They took the time to understand what I wanted to build, so they were able to provide really valuable feedback.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CEO of a tech startup.
What challenge were you trying to address with SoftKraft?
When I started this company, I was trying to decide if I should hire developers or outsource the work. We’re developing solution to enable one-to-one video conferencing between students and teachers.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We had a PowerPoint type of thing that I developed in Keynote, and a series of screens. Basically, they built it from scratch based on what I wanted the architecture to be. We talked about where it should be hosted and the benefits of going with AWS versus something else.
Right now, it’s all cloud-based and works on Google and Firefox. We’re currently looking into creating a version for mobile devices. I wanted a clean UI with minimal information for folks to deal with. We went through several iterations throughout the project. Users can make requests, and then teachers can say whether they can help, and then they’re connected through the video conferencing platform.
What is the team composition?
We worked with four people. I communicated with a project manager, and then we had one person working on the backend and infrastructure and one on the database modeling, as well one developer as building out the CMS.
How did you come to work with SoftKraft?
Initially, I went through Clutch. I went through the selection process and identified three companies in Poland and got quotes from. One company didn’t give me much detail on what they would do and quoted a very high price, and another recommended an architecture that I didn’t think would support what I wanted to do, so I selected SoftKraft.
They really showed that they wanted to know what I was trying to build and why in our initial meetings. The focus of our first meeting was identifying my priorities and ensuring that the team knew what I wanted to buy.
How much have you invested with them?
I’ve spent about $42,000 so far.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started in November 2019 and I’m still working with them.
the project
Lending Platform Dev for FinTech Solutions Company
"The technical expertise and quick grasp of information by the team for new concepts was impressive."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
The company provides financial solutions for online applicants. My role is the CEO.
For what projects/services did your company hire SoftKraft?
To develop the full platform.
What were your goals for this project?
Aquire regulatory approval to operate through providing a functional platform.
How did you select this vendor?
They were recommended by another vendor who could not accept the project due to time constraints. After interviews with other service providers, we believe this vendor showed the best grasp of the project with the most appropriate pricing.
Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.
They developed, tested, configured an online portal to manage and review loan requests. The workflow was managed through two week sprints with a weekly meeting to discuss progress.
What was the team composition?
The team consisted of professional individuals working throughout the project interchangeably from 3 to 5 members, all team members possessed great experience in their fields and provided great insight on best approaches to meet required deliverables in a timely manner.
Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?
The project was the initial kickstart for our business. It helped us launch with our desired offering
How was project management arranged and how effective was it?
Communication and project management was excellent. The team always met our crazy deadlines and set realistic expectations for deliverables.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
The technical expertise and quick grasp of information by the team for new concepts was impressive. and the ability to translate deliverables into small tasks with full clarity and tracking of progress was a big help
Are there any areas for improvement?
My only advice would be to clearly communicate the required documents and frameworks before starting the project to arrive at a mutual understanding of expected end-results.
the project
Infrastructure Dev & Scaling for VPN Provider
"Challenges were discussed on their team to find the most optimal solution."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I was the former CTO and managing director of ZenGuard, a VPN service provider. Subscribing for a VPN on our website grants users the ability to connect to different locations in about 30 different countries. Once a user logs in, we provide full encryption for total web traffic.
For what projects/services did your company hire SoftKraft?
The infrastructure of ZenGuard consists of the application that handles the user which is cloud-based and the several hundreds of real servers all around the world that are working as VPN nodes. Both parts have to be maintained and improved.
What were your goals for this project?
The goals were to maintain and improve the technical infrastructure during the time where our own team was not fully stuffed.
How did you select this vendor?
I worked before with Selleo and while searching for a company that could support us with system engineers we found out that Selleo and SoftKraft are well connected and as I had already a high trust in Selleo we also introduced the people from SoftKraft to our team.
Describe the project in detail.
For the application part, we had to deal with raising loads as the user based was increasing. There we had to improve the infrastructure that peaks can be handled while having a good cost control. For the VPN infrastructure, we introduced a lot of automation to handle the amount os virtual and bare metal servers.
What was the team composition?
One of the system engineers from SoftKraft worked with us on a full-time basis remotely. A more senior engineer supported their work as a from time to time. He worked as a steering partner.
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
The projects involved work on our internal infrastructure. As a company in the cyber-security space, we cannot share any insights as this might reveal possible weak points.
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
The workflow was very effective as the people of SoftKraft were very good embedded in our own team. They take part in the regular meetings of planning and worked very direct with their counterparts, mostly using Slack.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
SoftKraft has extensive knowledge of cloud technology and more traditional system engineering. Challenges were discussed on their team to find the most optimal solution.
Are there any areas for improvement?
No
the project
Development of Custom Data Analytics Application
“They have a very strong leadership team.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
When I worked with SoftKraft, I was the CTO of TMC Group. It's a real estate firm that invests in venture capital.
What challenge were you trying to address with SoftKraft?
We wanted to build a web application that could process large datasets, so we were looking for a vendor to help us.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We gave SoftKraft our ideas and they turned them into reality. They used Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, Apache Spark, and Apache Kafka to develop our application. It's an AWS platform that is used for data analytics. In addition to the development work, SoftKraft provided consulting services and helped us throughout the entire process.
What is the team composition?
We worked directly with three or four members of their team.
How did you come to work with SoftKraft?
They were recommended to us. We were impressed with their depth of knowledge, so we decided they'd be a good fit. Also, I knew one of their team members from a previous project we had worked on.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent about $150,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked with them between 2017–2018.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The application helped us dramatically in our underwriting services. We relied on it quite heavily, so we were able to work more effectively. Everything functioned as expected, and we were able to resolve any issues quickly.
How did SoftKraft perform from a project management standpoint?
The project management was very solid and they were able to work through all the challenges. We used Pivotal Tracker, GitHub, and Google Docs to keep track of the project.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They have a very strong leadership team. Also, they were willing to work with us and accommodate our needs.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I can't think of anything.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
There are some teams out there that are used to the agile approach. While SoftKraft is very good at that, they also really take their time to go through the process and think about the software.
the project
Custom AI-Based E-Learning Platform
"We were very impressed with their commitment to achieving a high-quality outcome."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
Neutopia is a highly flexible learning experience platform that supports lifelong learning and the many ways that people learn in the 21st century such as social, peer-to-peer and flipped learning models. To increase curiosity and motivation Neutopia is designed like a “Spotify for Knowledge.” It harnesses an Artificial Intelligence-based recommendation engine to provide relevant personalized content based on individual preferences. It combines 3 types of systems: Content lIbraries for self-guided learning, Playlists for guided learning and social networks for peer to peer learning. I am the founder and CEO.
For what projects/services did your company hire SoftKraft?
We came to SoftKraft to develop a machine learning / A.I. based recommendation engine that could create personalized feeds of content and weekly recommendations based on the topics most relevant to each learner. Technology wise, the solution was based on Spark and MLlib - its scalable machine learning library.
What were your goals for this project?
Our goal was to develop the AI-based recommendation to see how we could improve personalization and relevance for the learner. A secondary application was to improve content recommendations for the course designer to speed up the time it takes to construct a course by providing additional up-to-date learning resources.
How did you select this vendor?
They were recommended by Selleo who have been doing our software development since 2014.
Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.
They began the project with research and began testing various solutions early on. Then refining the solutions once we had a sense of the correct direction to move in.
What was the team composition?
Our team consisted of 2 people.
Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?
The team has completed the work commissioned. Based on early testing we had very good results. We will be returning to collaboration with them when the functionality they attend to reaches the top of our backlog again.
How was project management arranged and how effective was it?
Softkraft managed the project well with weekly updates on progress. They were flexible in their thinking to find the optimal solution to what we were aiming to achieve.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
We were very impressed with their commitment to achieving a high-quality outcome and their willingness to explore a variety of possible solutions for our goal. They researched several possible approaches using the latest best practices and technologies in an emerging and complex field of AI and ML. We appreciated their openness to a collaborative style of interactions with the client.
Are there any areas for improvement?
The management and team at Softkraft are extremely diligent and committed to high-quality outcomes for their customers. There is very little I can think of that they can improve. Certainly providing as much thinking and pre-emptive research from the client side along with the goals of the business can assist the developers in moving quickly towards solutions.
The client plans to launch the cloud-based e-commerce store in June 2022 and will retain SoftKraft for further development. SoftKraft's team holds themselves accountable for project issues, which they rectify within 24 hours. They're very professional and closely monitor their quality of work.