SoftPositive

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a small custom software development company. We use offshore software developers to build solutions for American clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftPositive?

We needed help with software development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked with them on several occasions. In one of our larger projects they helped us build a logistics platform for a Fortune 100 in the United States. The tool was a graphic interface for managing the location of resources. They provided the software development but also the business analysis and client discoveries. The team used React.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 3–24 people from their team.

How did you come to work with SoftPositive?

I hired their owner in the past and I’ve known him since the early 2000s.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $2.1 million in total with them. For this specific project, we spent about $190,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2007, and our work is ongoing. This particular project was in February 2016 and lasted through July 2016.

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

They were instrumental in exceeding our client’s expectations. I was also able to use a hands-off approach with this project while still maintaining efficiency.

How did SoftPositive perform from a project management standpoint?

They ran the project with direct communication. The team was outstanding. We always used Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their code was very reliable. When it was delivered, it worked.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. I could be biased after 20 years working together, but we’re inseparable at this point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They don’t play the “bait and switch” game at all. The estimates may seem high, but they’re accurate of what the project will actually cost.

Please describe your company and your position there.

General Manager responsible for overseeing the web development, branding and sales growth strategies, marketing, and operations for 3 stores.

For what projects/services did your company hire SoftPositive, and what were your goals?

We are migrating three stores to a shared cart, single-store instance but the project has faced disruption challenges from both client-side changes in management as well as changes in the agency handling the development.

SoftPositive came on board to help my team finish this multi-year project and launch the new stores public. The legacy platforms were on end-of-life servers and so one of the biggest challenges has been identifying development work, testing, and configuration left to be completed while working rapidly to ensure the new platform are ready to be customer-facing in the event of a legacy site failure.

This was particularly difficult due to the nature of this project changing hands and leadership and the lack of important documentation. During the course of the project, we have discovered limitations in how the native code on the NopCommerce platforms handles key jobs as well as some inefficiencies in some of the older custom code.

SoftPositive has helped discover and diagnosis many of those issues, and continues to work in tandem with one of our internal developers to test all new code to ensure the site speed is quick to give customers the best experience possible.

How did you select SoftPositive and what were the deciding factors?

While we contracted the development work through another agency, SoftPositive's developers have had some involvement with the project from it's inception. This continuity was incredibly important to ensure we stayed on timeline and to cut down on discovery time.

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

This project involves a single instance cart for three stores built using the NopCommerce platform. The nature of our product catalog requires extensive categorization and a robust search functionality. SoftPositive's part of this project has been to finish key functionality, ensuring that all tracking scripts are in place, key scheduled tasks and jobs are running, and to enhance site security.

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

My team worked most closely with Michael Tsapenko (project manager) who helped prioritize tickets and identify action items that need to be addressed and with Andrii Plypenko, the lead developer, who we partnered closely with to establish business requirements and through UAT.

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

This project is on-going. The team has been responsive to shifts in the timeline, priorities, and continues to collaborate with and work in tandem with our other internal development teams. As issues and bugs have been discovered, the team has been quick to diagnose and respond.

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

We used JIRA to track and update all open ticket progress and TEAMS to communicate regularly. Most of the discussions happened openly between myself, the project manager, and the developers involved so that everyone was up to date and could weigh in with their ideas, issues they needed to report on, and changes in the timeline.

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

This team came in at the end of a difficult project and is pushing through to ensure that our new site is delivered in the next few months. Michael's team has been adaptable, is willing to collaborate with other teams, and offers fair advice on how to prioritize key tickets.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As far as areas of improvement go, I would offer two:

1. Provide more clear instructions on the best way to perform UAT
2. Ensure that business requirements for each ticket are fully understand and ask for more clarification where needed.

I do think that, since my team is marketing/business and the tickets are mostly very technical, there may occasionally be points that are lost in translation.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former enterprise architect for a marine transportation company. The company transports raw materials, which are primarily coal, through the inland rivers of the U.S.

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftPositive?

We wanted to develop a new fleet management system, but we did not have enough time or resources to complete the project internally.

What was the scope of their involvement?

SoftPositive assisted our in-house developers with building the fleet management system. Their team oversaw every stage of the project, from development, to business analysis, to project management. The frontend was developed using Microsoft MVC and Angular, while SQL Server was used on the backend. They also integrated Microsoft Web API and Entity Framework on the platform. Per our requirements, the software allows us to schedule our fleets while coordinating with third parties. SoftPositive’s biggest challenge was incorporating our color-coded spreadsheets into the UI.

What is the team composition?

The size of their team fluctuated throughout the engagement, but there were typically 6 – 8 developers and web designers assigned to our account.

How did you come to work with SoftPositive?

We wanted to work with experienced software developers with a solid team, and SoftPositive met all of our requirements. Everyone within their company works at a senior level, which is usually a guarantee for excellence.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project commenced in May 2016 and concluded in January 2017.

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

The fleet management system quickly became an essential tool for our company and all of our affiliates. SoftPositive helped us produce more work than we had delivered within the past five years. Their involvement was instrumental in bringing our vision to life, and we are thrilled with the results. 

How did SoftPositive perform from a project management standpoint?

Our team spent an entire year struggling to build the sophisticated management software; fortunately, SoftPositive was able to correct our mistakes and finalize development within a few weeks. They worked at an astonishing pace without sacrificing the quality of the product. It was comforting to have a reliable partner who respected our deadlines. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We had become accustomed to second-rate work from long-distance partnerships, so SoftPositive’s high-quality deliverables were a pleasant surprise. Their phenomenal results are a result of their agile work environment, which allowed us to modify our specifications during every stage of development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should consider building a universally compatible solution so that the software can be used on a larger scale.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We had an incredible experience working with SoftPositive because we trusted in their expertise.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Intelligence & Management of Information Inc. We’re developing a content-based search engine for documents.

For what projects/services did your company hire SoftPositive?

We hired SoftPositive to develop a desktop app. We needed it to integrate an API designed for the optical character recognition (OCR) for long PDF documents.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to have a product that can process large batches of lengthy documents within a short timeframe.

How did you select this vendor?

We connected via LinkedIn and chose them for the project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We gave the SoftPositive team our requirements and they developed the PC application. They built it to be capable of processing over 500 documents with 100–300 pages each.

What was the team composition?

They provided enough resources for the small project.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We’re now able to use and offer a desktop app that can quickly process lengthy documents for OCR purposes.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We primarily communicated through conference calls and emails to define our outcomes and progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their efficiency and responsiveness stood out. Additionally, they were affordable for the services provided.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Our project was small, so there was nothing they could’ve improved on.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder of a system integration and business process automation company. We perform an array of services for our clients, ranging from QMS maintenance to large-scale IoT projects.

For what projects/services did your company hire SoftPositive?

We had a client with a tight budget and timeframe, and we were unable to serve them in a way that would foster long-term success with those restraints. We needed to find a qualified development team to replace an existing manual sales process.

What were your goals for this project?

The client wanted to update their manual process to make order processing, stock adjustment, invoice generation, shipping, etc. become an automatic process. Their overall goal is for this solution to replace their entire stock management system.

How did you select this vendor?

I was contacted by SoftPositive, and my company researched their client reviews and overall experience in the industry. After looking at several organizations, we found SoftPositive’s work to be the level of quality we wanted at the right price.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

The SoftPositive team designs and implements features according to the client’s specifications. Before moving forward, they ask pertinent questions and gain a solid understanding of the requirements. They’re continuing to work on the project.

What was the team composition?

They typically provide three teammates for the project, and we work with two directors from our client’s organization. During development, I serve as the point of contact between the two teams.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

As a result of the speed and price SoftPositive offers, the client has been able to substantially increase the scope of the project. The quality of work produced has opened the end-client to the possibility of a long-term relationship with the developers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Initially, we had some difficulties with the outsourcing arrangments, but SoftPositive’s assistance refined and simplified the process. We primarily use Skype, Jira, and Bitbucket to manage the workload and communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of their coding is beyond comparison with others at this price point. Additionally, they offer direct access, making them an easy third-party team to work with.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

SoftPositive has given us no reason to criticize their work—any frustrations in the project have come from within our organization.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of WiserID. We create tools that allow people to turn their personal data into cash.

For what projects/services did your company hire SoftPositive?

I needed help with building a prototype of a mobile application so that I could use it to show to investors and other people.

How did you select this vendor?

I used to work for a consulting agency where I'd collaborated with SoftPositive for various assignments. They did a great job on those projects, so I decided to use them for my own work.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They assisted with the architectural design of the application and helped me configure my cloud servers and storage. Additionally, they developed the iOS application according to the specifications we documented.

What was the team composition?

I acted as the product owner, and SoftPositive assigned a senior API developer, a senior Xamarin developer, and a technical project manager.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

This application has allowed me to show people what WiserID is and gain interest from advisors and investors. It will also serve as the foundation for further development.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their owner handled the project management. He was always attentive and effective. He has done this a dozen times and is a project veteran. His guidance helped deliver the project under budget according to the desired scope.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

If you have your requirements well-documented, they are extremely fast executors, needing little back-and-forth communication regarding details. The entire project took less than a month to complete, starting from the environment set up.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

It’s hard to pick something just for the sake of answering the question. I wasn’t particularly dissatisfied with anything since I got the results I wanted, but if I had to mention something, it would be that the language barrier can make it difficult to understand each other. However, things always get worked out.