Softnauts – Digital Innovation Partner

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We contracted Softnauts to work with two different companies, the first one being Gift Card Granny. That company is like a Kayak.com of gift cards. It aggregates various discount gift card deals and gives users the best deal. The other company was SaveYa, which buys and sells discount gift cards from users.

What is your position?

I am the mobile platforms manager, in charge of Android and Apple app development for both products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Softnauts?

We've contracted Softnauts to develop everything in the app and every feature in regard to our mobile strategy. We incorporated them with all our internal development and used that to augment our productivity year to realize the features that we wanted to build in our apps.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They were involved primarily with the development. We would come up with specs, mockups, and rough ideas, and then we would send it to them. They were great at providing the standards of modern app development with regard to Android and Apple. They definitely helped influence the direction of features. They would give us the code, we would test it, and we were the ones who would release it.

On the Gift Card Granny side, I know they had integrations with the device location system. Basically, all the apps that they worked on communicated with our APIs [application programming interfaces], which did all the real heavy lifting of integrating with other systems. They handled user logins.

How did you come to work with Softnauts?

My CEO actually came across them. I think from some sort of website review. I'm not exactly 100 percent on that. We reached out to them and started doing a trial period with Gift Card Granny. They actually started out with two developers, one Android and one iOS on our Gift Card Granny product. After working with them, we saw the value of having them, so we incorporated them into our other project.

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

It cost between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They work until next week [July 2016], I think. We started building up our team internally, which removed the need to have external development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our apps consistently grow in retained users. That, of course, is a multipronged effort of marketing and other aspects of the company.

How did Softnauts perform from a project management standpoint?

Softnauts were great. They were very proficient in English which could be an issue working with an offshore team. Communicating with them was very easy. Softnauts turned around the features very fast, and they were always done very well. There was very little QA [quality assurance]. We could take what they had done in a prior sprint and do a minimal amount of testing on it and release it to production without issue.

What distinguishes Softnauts from other providers?

Personally, I have never managed any international contractors, so I don't have a great base to compare them to. It was nice being able to communicate directly with the development resources. Oftentimes, if you work with a contracted company, you're playing the telephone game where you communicate one thing, they communicate it to another person and, by the time it gets to the developer, it's all misconstrued. Being able to communicate with those developers directly was an excellent service that Softnauts provided.

Is there anything Softnauts could have improved or done differently?

There's probably stuff that we could have done on our end. Softnauts exceeded our expectations. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company makes construction equipment for recycling industries. We export the machines from Ireland to various countries in the world. Our biggest export market would be Europe. We also have a growing base in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and some parts of Asia.

What is your position?

I’m the office manager of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Softnauts?

We were looking to create an app that we could distribute to our sales personnel.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Softnauts was fully responsible for building our iOS app that our sales team uses end-to-end. It’s a simple app that shows dealers photographs of machines, videos and specification sheets. It allows the dealers to go online and browse. There’s a backend content management system that I have access to, which allows me to upload videos, photographs, and documents. The content can then be downloaded, saved locally and accessed offline.

How did you come to work with Softnauts?

We had tried a few other contractors and the results were not good. In fact, one of the contractors we had from Europe actually ended up being paid for work that they didn’t deliver. We used oDesk (now Upwork) and it turned out that the guy was fraudulent. That cost us a few thousand dollars, and we were very skeptical about using another offshore development company. I spoke to the guys at Softnauts, and they seemed to be more professional in their approach. We went with them and it turned out great.

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

The cost of the project was about $7,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them back in June of this year [2015]. The project was finished about a month ago. It didn’t take them very long. Softnauts did a good job. They were very responsive to, any questions I had and they understood what I wanted very quickly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I’ve only really started to push it out to our dealers. They’ve all been happy with the app. It’s not something you can measure, but it helps the dealers meet with their customers. In the past, they had hard copies of brochures and now, this way, they have everything on their iPods. Our process is a lot more efficient thanks to the app.

How did Softnauts perform from a project management standpoint?

Softnauts were very thorough. Madeline was the initial contact that I had. She pulled the quote together. They were very professional and quick at coming back with prices. Once we agreed to a price, it was handed over to Chris, who was the project manager. There were two developers working on the app. It was seamless; the first prototype didn’t have any bugs. Whatever internal processes they had, it seemed to get most of the bugs out before it was delivered to us. They got me to sign onto Amazon Web Services as well. Once it was all finished, they published it to the app store. I didn’t have to give them a whole lot of direction. They were very tuned into what I wanted.

Is there anything Softnauts could have improved or done differently?

They took my initial design and ran with that. They didn’t actually provide any variations. I didn’t ask them to either. They did everything I wanted them to do, and there wasn’t anything they didn’t do properly. I would use them again. It was a simple project, but they still did a great job.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company builds websites for art galleries. We build an online system for those galleries to manage their inventory.

What is your position?

I'm the IT [information technology] director of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Softnauts?

We needed additional manpower. We needed to find good, talented developers that we could work with and establish an ongoing relationship with. We work with Softnauts to develop both our inventory application and custom websites. It's worked out quite well. We talk to them every day and even though they're on the other side of the world we consider them part of the team.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We do all the design. We'll deliver the design and requirements to the development team at Softnauts, and they develop the platform from there. We use the Symfony framework on PHP. We use MySQL back-end, and we use our own proprietary administration tool, which they haven't had any trouble adapting to. It's all proprietary so it's probably not the easiest thing to understand, and they've done really well with it.

How did you come to work with Softnauts?

I think originally they responded to an advertisement we put out on Stack Overflow.

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

Altogether, the projects have cost between $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them for three years [as of October 2015].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I cannot share any statistics to respect our clients' privacy. They're responsive even though the time zones are different. We seemed to work with the different time zones really well. When we start our day, they're half way through theirs. They've got something ready for us to see in the morning. Then, we can work with them the rest of the day before they wrap up. They've been good about bringing on new developers if we need to ramp up. That's been a plus. On short notice, they can get someone new if we need someone new for a short-term project.

How did Softnauts perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. We've rarely had any issues. If we have, we've gone back, and they've made it right quickly. We have a great working relationship with Softnauts.

What distinguishes Softnauts from other providers?

I've worked with many remote developers in many different countries and in many different time zones. The Polish culture and American culture seem to get along very well. We seem to have the same values and the same type of culture. We get along well, and they feel like they are a part of our team.

Is there anything Softnauts could have improved or done differently?

No. I feel that would be my responsibility. If I wanted something done differently than I would say so, and I'm confident that they would make it happen.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is an independent development company.

What is your position?

I am the sole employee of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Softnauts?

My app is a photo-sharing app that allows users to upload pictures and respond to posts. I was looking for an iOS developer to help me bring my idea to life. That's why I partnered with Softnauts.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Softnauts was mainly responsible for the development of the app. I provided them with wireframes that I had previously developed, and Softnauts gave me ideas on how to improve them and add more to them and the app. Softnauts did a lot of the actual coding of the app, which included a member login functionality and integration into various other software and social channels, such as Pinterest.

How did you come to work with Softnauts?

I found Softnauts through one of their employees on Upwork. I was working with him independently, and he introduced me to the rest of the team.

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

The cost of the project is in the $10,000 to $50,000 price range.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership in ongoing. We've been working on it for more than a year. We've done various iterations of the app since we first started working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I don't have any stats to share, but I have done work with other companies and working with Softnauts is definitely the best experience I've had. I don't need to micromanage them. They take on responsibility for the project and deliver a great product.

How did Softnauts perform from a project management standpoint?

I'm very happy with their project management and the work that they've done for me.

What distinguishes Softnauts from other providers?

Softnauts' ability to suggest things and think outside the box is incredibly valuable. Softnauts is great at what they do, and they don't need to be instructed on how to set things up. They also have so much experience in app development, that they can give you concrete examples of how to do things and why a certain choice is better than another. They are extremely trustworthy and creative.

Is there anything Softnauts could have improved or done differently?

No. I really can't think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is Trade Router. We develop trading apps and trading solutions for banks and online brokers.

What is your position?

I'm the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Softnauts?

We have offices in Belgium and in the Netherlands. We were having a hard time finding good app developers locally. We needed a developer to help us build the iOS and Android apps for our trading platform. We needed a team that understood our concept and what we needed from a developer. We partnered with Softnauts for those reasons.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We have worked with Softnauts on three apps, and they set up our company website. We are currently developing iOS apps with Softnauts. Soon, we will start working on our Android app. Softnauts was mainly responsible for the front-end development of the iOS app. They also worked on the user interface and user experience for us. For the latest app, Softnauts worked on the design of it as well as some programming on the back-end. We now have a TradeRouter API [application programming interface], and Softnauts is working on developing things further based on that API.

How did you come to work with Softnauts?

We did a simple Google search and they were one of the first companies that we found. We reached out to them and had a brief Skype call with them. They understood what we needed right away, so we decided to work with them.

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

The three apps and the website combined cost us between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We are a white label company. We sell our app to a bank and what we see is that website traffic is decreasing and app use is increasing. Users like the user interface, and we have gotten a lot of positive user feedback on the apps that Softnauts developed for us.

One of our apps currently has 1,000 users, which is a huge number for our industry. The app manages money and accounts, so they have to be incredibly stable and trustable, which they are. Our app manages accounts from 5,000 euros to 1 million euros [approximately $5,500 to $1.1 million].

How did Softnauts perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is great on their end. Everything is always done on time, and we get to choose the team and the developers that work with us, which we always appreciate. Their work is always great. In the rare case that they make a mistake, they don't bill us for those hours and fix the problem right away.

I like working with Konrad [Przyludzki, CEO and founder of Softnauts] and his team. We've always had great communication with Softnauts. Our project manager can speak and understand the English language very well. That is not always the case when working with offshore companies.

What distinguishes Softnauts from other providers?

Konrad makes the company special. He's a great person to work with. He understands your business case right away, and knows that different cases need different solutions. We know that our product and our company are in good hands working with Softnauts. They care about our success.

Is there anything Softnauts could have improved or done differently?

Project management and communication is great through email, but it'd be great if we could have a constant video stream so we could see what the other team is working on at all times.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Vice-director of Juwenalia UEK 2019. The event created at and under Cracow University of Economics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Softnauts?

We hired Softnauts to create the "Festival App"

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to gain the visibility of our project and help people attending the festival move around and gain information about it easily.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I heard about the company from friends.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a meeting to describe my needs and to discuss possibilities. Then every issue was resolved by email.

What was the team composition?

We had the Project Manager assigned and with her we had main contact. At the meeting were present also developers and designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A lot of people downloaded the application and showed their satisfaction with the app.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Work between teams was very effective. Softnauts was responsive and cared about our needs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were in constant contact, and they were patient about all of the changes made during the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of Preglife, the leading pregnancy and baby app in northern England.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Softnauts?

We needed iOS and Android development help from time to time.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for an ongoing development partner.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We decided to work with them after interviewing their CEO.

Describe the project in detail.

They provided Android and iOS development when we needed it.

What was the team composition?

We worked with both Android and iOS developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve helped us remain number one in the industry.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had a good workflow with the developers they dedicated to us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re a source of great developers.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I’m not aware of any.