The Software House

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a company called iSwim Academy. It is a swimming school located in Dublin, Ireland. It has been running for 2 years and already has over 700 young members. Currently, iSwim Academy is led by 6 qualified instructors and organises swimming lessons in 4 swimming pools.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Software House?

We hired The Software House to run a workshop with us. It was supposed to be the beginning of our closer cooperation over custom web application development. It covered the initial business analysis and product design concept.

What were your goals for this project?

In order to automate and streamline administrative work for swimming classes management and prepare for scaling up, iSwim Academy needs to implement a future-proof CRM/workflow management platform. Preparing a complete CRM product design documentation was the first phase before starting the software development project.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

One of our business partners recommended The Software House.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

During the workshop, The Software House covered a few important issues, such as analysis of business context and objectives, end-users mapping, business processes mapping, user story mapping, system workflow design and system architecture design.

What was the team composition?

Team composition for the workshop purposes included Business Analyst, Project Manager, Product Designer, Technical consultant and New Business Manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to the workshop, we better understand what kind of application we need to improve our business. Together, we were able to create a concept and a complete CRM product design documentation.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

In this peculiar workshop management, the Project Manager was responsible for supporting Business Analyst and managing the communication between us and The Software House team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The Software House is a very reliable partner, focused on the details. Their consulting and business-oriented approach was very impressive. Also, they are willing to solve real business problems.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The Software House team met all of our expectations during the workshop. The cooperation was fruitful and it’s difficult for me to point out any areas for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m CTO at a company in the ad tech industry. We provide a modern digital solution for publishers interested in streamlining and automating their sales as much as possible, resulting in increased volume and improved efficiency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Software House?

In order to successfully grow our customer base and provide them with a reliable solution, our architecture needs to be highly efficient. To that end, the company needed skilled DevOps specialists to stabilize and future-proof the infrastructure. At a later stage, we also needed front-end developers for adding new functionality to our user interface.

What were your goals for this project?

The primary goal was to scale and stabilize the existing solution in terms of its ability to handle incoming requests. Once that was achieved, the remaining goals included the development of an application, conceptualization of new features and maintenance.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We got connected through the common network. They visited our office and we had really good conversations. A few weeks later, when we needed DevOps help, we decided to reach out to them. As they proved their skills, we also used them also to speed up our development

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

DevOps services for platform scalability on the Amazon Web Services cloud, with Kubernetes and Docker, optimization of the backend in PHP/Symfony and frontend web app development in Angular.

What was the team composition?

In total, five different specialists from The Software House participated in various projects as part of their work for my company. This included two DevOps specialists, one back-end developer (PHP) and two front-end developers (Angular).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to the optimizations made by TSH DevOps engineers, we could continue expanding our customer base within the existing infrastructure. At the same time, their swift and efficient work on the web app allowed us to show it to business partners, impressing them with its potential for highly improving the ad campaign management process.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was entirely managed on our end – The Software House provided developers only. TSH developers worked as part of our internal team and proved very efficient and cooperative with our management.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of development, straightforward and efficient communication, and their ability to quickly understand our business needs and how they connect with technologies.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As far as I am concerned, they met all of our expectations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Reservix is the second largest ticket sale service in Germany in terms of the sales volume. Company empoys 450 people in 8 cities and has two major brands: Reservix and ADticket.

Target market for the company are all events, where tickets are being sold. Reservix cooperates with thousands of B2B companies to help them sell tickets online. Reservix is providing comprehensive services:

• selling tickets online through ticket platforms, white label shops and media partnerships
• selling tickets via grid of 3000 kiosks located around the country
• online and offline marketing services for live events
• providing infrastructure and manpower for live events
• providing additional data on events for promotors

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Software House?

We hired TSH to build the content management system based on the UI designs and business model we have prepared internally. We hired a team of of developers with Quality Assurance and Project Management specialists to advice on our technical concepts and to build a working MVP.

What were your goals for this project?

To build a tool which would help company’s content editors to create, collect and relate content through relevant data entities. It should also be able to provide data to all consumer touchpoints.

As this was one of the first projects where had development done entirely through an external software development team, we also used this project to proof-test this kind of cooperation and build our internal procedures to ensure smooth cooperation with external vendors.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have reviewed couple companies on Clutch. We’ve picked the most interesting ones and conducted technical workshops. The TSH offer was the best fit to our needs. They have been open-minded and proposed some interesting technical solutions.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project took 4 months. The team has delivered the solution in given deadline. During development we have followed the agile principles. We have provided the UI designs and devops support. The team has provided development work both on backend and frontend side with quality assurance tests and project management service.

What was the team composition?

TSH: Three fullstack developers, Quality Assurance Specialist, Project Manager

Reservix: Product Owner, Technical Leader, Devops, UI/UX Specialist

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We now have the solution which is being tested by an internal team. We plan to publish the solution in near future to improve the quality and efficiency of our content creation workflows.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had a Product Owner on our side and a Project Manager on TSH side. We used common tools like Jira, Confluence and Slack, worked in two weeks sprints with daily standups, demo and planning sessions to ensure good communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

TSH was extremely well-prepared from the very beginning. This helped to jump-start productivity at the start of the project. Their technical expertise became very evident throughout the process and instead of only doing just enough to reach our goals, TSH proactively gave input for improvements on the product.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Every improvement we suggested in terms of collaboration, was picked up quickly and open communication helped to keep impediments to a minimum.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a CTO at a SaaS company in the travel market. We want to ensure the best possible holiday experience for all. We do this by providing white-label apps to travel agencies and Touroperators that allows them to offer a seamless travel experience to their clients. We provide trip information, advice from travel professionals and other travelers and a photo book share option.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Software House?

We hired a DevOps team to set up cloud infrastructure based on AWS and migrate the current solution from Heroku in order to improve the scalability and security of the entire platform.

What were your goals for this project?

To create a stable and scalable and of course secure environment, complete the transition with minimum downtime, improve monitoring as well as the performance of the whole solution.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I found TSH’s profile on Clutch and realized that their strengths and quality maybe what I needed in my project. Their experience in AWS, Google Cloud Storage, Docker, Jenkins or Kubernetes was noticeable. I also appreciated the fact that we were able to meet in person in Amsterdam and they happen to be there quite often.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The scope included many expert DevOps services, in particular: creating Dockers for the web app, preparing deployment scripts for Lambda's, setup correct VPN's, Redis and DB instances and other work on the AWS platform, integrating with third-party apps and more. This all in such a way that it is repeatable and deployments are fully automated.

What was the team composition?

We had a DevOps team of four people and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main reasoning behind the project was to take full advantage of the power the modern AWS infrastructure offers for performance and security. TSH developers were able to get us where we wanted, eliminating bugs and improving monitoring in the process. It will help us to deploy faster and saver by using continuous code checking tools and a fully automated CI/CD setup and future-proving our platform as well.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

During the project, we used JIRA with the Kanban-driven ticket process. We also had daily calls to discuss progress and blockers and the day-to-day communication was based on Slack. Overall, I consider the management and communication to be smooth.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Attention to detail. Proactive attitude. Quality of the developers. But most of all the pasion to deliver a high quality result.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The team met all of my expectations during this particular project so it’s difficult for me to say.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company builds, designs, and supports charitable and other positive organizations. I’m the head of a division within the firm that provides services and support to those organizations through technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Software House?

We were looking for a company to provide additional support to our technical team on a major project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were working to develop a specific software for a large UK bank’s grant program. The solution was complicated and expensive, so we relied on The Software House’s specific technical development and program management expertise. They’re effectively the entire development team, offering full-stack support and design services.

We provide the specifications and requirements, based on our own client, and monitor their work to ensure everyone is aligned. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of 13 people, including a dedicated project manager. 

How did you come to work with The Software House?

After researching several companies, we decided The Software House’s capabilities exceeded their competitors’. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $300,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with The Software House in May 2019, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team has done a fantastic job. The quality of work we were able to deliver to our client couldn’t have been achieved without The Software House.

The solution is reliable and functional, and our client is extremely pleased with it.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform very well. The project manager makes dealing with the rather large team easy and simple.

The Software House delivers all their work on time and within budget. We track the project on Jira, communicate through Slack, and employ Zeplin and InVision as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Software House is far more diligent and conscientious than other agencies I’ve worked with in the past. They often come up with potential issues and solutions for those issues before they even arise, which is incredibly helpful. 

It’s evident that the whole team is engaged with the project. If there are delays on the client’s side, they make a concerted effort to still deliver work within deadline. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind. We’re very happy with the quality of work they’re providing and don’t want them to do anything differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about what’s required in your engagement, and work with them to ensure they understand the project. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

A government sponsored program aimed at helping SMEs and Entrepreneurs in growing their businesses. I am a Product Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Software House?

Our company hired The Software House in order to design, develop, and maintain our current online services (Web and Mobile Apps).

What were your goals for this project?

Create an array of easy to use applications for our users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Before selecting The Software House, we went through multiple clutch reviews, and then selected a few vendors to interview before making the final decision.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The Software House worked on building multiple online platforms for our company, including a market place, booking system, payment gateway and Single Sign-On. In some cases, they provided both design and development services; while in others, operational support.

What was the team composition?

The team composition depended on the service provided. In some cases, The Software House provided UX/UI Designers, Frontend Developers, Backend Developers, Quality Assurance Engineers and Scrum Masters. In others, Full Stack Developers and DevOps whose role was to provide operational support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In one of the projects, The Software House helped us move from a manual based booking system which required constant communication between our team and the customer and keeping records in Excel, to an automated system with minimal operational requirements.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team always gave it their best and met the deadline. The product management approach used was Scrum/Agile while using Jira to maintain all documentation.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their depth of knowledge and ability to react quickly to our requests was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

If I had to pick an area for improvement, I would suggest increasing TSH's presence in other regions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CTO at an online marketplace for metal distribution. We closed down in May 2019, but we used to sell metal for small quantity purchases. Our customers were mainly small businesses requiring ongoing purchases.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Software House?

At the time, we had a shortage of software developers and were anticipating a rapid expansion of our development team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I wanted to get my foot in the door of our issue, by outsourcing some of our e-commerce development work. The Software House’s main task was to build up the backend of our system, given our existing PHP code and Symfony framework. In doing so, they perfected our logic and server-side functionalities.

What is the team composition?

They designated a single developer to our team who worked with us for the duration of the project.

How did you come to work with The Software House?

Originally, I found three companies I was interested in on Clutch. One wasn’t a good fit from the start, but I interviewed the other two more thoroughly. After speaking with a developer from each vendor, I selected The Software House because of their willingness to talk openly about the project. 

How much have you invested with them?

We ended up spending about €40,000 (approximately $44,300 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2018 but had to terminate our contract in May 2019 as we were going out of business.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their impact was positive, otherwise, we wouldn’t have kept them on until the very end. The developer was great at using the iterative scrum development method to deliver results. Their developer’s efficient services were exactly what we needed because we were able to cut through our large backlog of tasks. He contributed positively to our code-building, providing recommendations that improved the quality of our code.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

We had no issues during our work together. They initially assigned another developer to us, and that didn’t work out. But, The Software House was very understanding of the situation, finding another developer quickly. After that, we were on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a high level of technical proficiency and were able to handle complex tasks. Their understanding of our business logic and goals for the project stood out too. The Software House understood the technical implications of their work, managing to provide us the right resources to succeed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes the language barrier was a challenge, but otherwise, they were great partners.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have a network of good developers that you can rely on for complex projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a CTO and former Product Owner at TestaViva – the online platform for people looking for easy access to legal consultations as far as wills, proxies, marriage certificates, contracts, and other important documents are concerned. My job is to manage the technical development of the platform and oversee our technical partners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Software House?

We were looking for a company proficient in Symfony framework since our project was a Symfony-based web application with a massive database.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal of the project was the backend implementation. It required integrating all services and necessary features, creating logic and introducing algorithms.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We chose The Software House based on their previous web development experience, especially with the Symfony framework. The company was recommended by one of our previous technological partners and it was a perfect match.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

TestaViva platform’s deployment was a multi-layered process and included importing personal data and processing it, designing algorithms for calculation the “life score”, digital signature technology, queuing tasks, safe data entering, and much more.

What was the team composition?

The Software House really cares about a regular team for every project, so we received help from three very experienced PHP Developers and one Quality Assurance Engineer who were involved in the project from the beginning to the end. What’s more, a dedicated Project Manager was overseeing the project’s progress.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is a grand success. The user feedback is absolutely overwhelming – some people say that if it wasn’t for TestaViva they probably wouldn’t decide on creating a will or get their documents in order. We spread awareness all across Denmark that legal procedures are not as complicated as they seem.

Due to our strong business partner, more than 1.5 million Danes has access to free legal advice through our platform. Up untill now, we have created more than 30,000 legal documents of which 10,000 are wills - thats more than 25% of the total market in Denmark.

We constantly receive 5-star reviews online (Facebook, Google and Trustpilot among others) and “thank you” messages from happy clients.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The Software House works in agile methodology. At the very beginning during scoping sessions, we prepared the entire product roadmap and the development plan for the upcoming months. Every two weeks we organised sprints to discuss what has been done already, view the latest demo and decide what needs to be prepared before the next sprint.

The day-to-day communication was conducted via. daily meetings, Slack and video conferences.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

In general, we were impressed all the way, but if I have to point out one thing, it must be the very skilled, professional and forthcoming staff – all the way from the managers to the developers. The skill level of the developers is very high, and during the project I learned a lot of new stuff.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don’t know if they are already doing this, but more and more of the “near-shore” companies are opening offices in Denmark, to make the communication easier. Not that it really was any problem, but having a go-to person in the local community is always nice.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO of Ticketpark, a ticketing platform for different types of events in Switzerland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Software House?

We needed to scale our platform to a growing user base. My company hired The Software House to improve our existing web platform and provide ongoing maintenance and support.

What were your goals for this project?

We strive to offer the most advanced software solutions that can grow and develop with technological changes.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My company wanted to outsource services to a Central or Eastern Europe developer proficient in the Symfony PHP framework. We found an insightful post by The Software House on the question-and-answer website Quora. After speaking with The Software House’s sales director, my team liked their workflow, process approach, and flexibility. We felt they were an ideal technical partner that would take us seriously as a client.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The Software House is responsible for web development, which includes adding new functionalities and enriching the technological stack. They maintain our Symfony PHP platform and fix emerging errors. They are also continually improving our platform’s performance to accommodate bigger events and more users. They have created a dedicated panel called SwissSkills that handles large events. They’ve also increased the flexibility of vouchers, developed CRM functionalities for event organizers, and implemented mechanisms that simplify and automate accounting tasks.

What was the team composition?

My team works with an account manager and two backend developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform has garnered positive feedback from users and internal stakeholders. The Software House delivered the modern technological solutions that my company wanted, and we believe they will create great value for users.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The Software House fosters a seamless exchange of ideas, which has bonded our teams. We plan large projects a few months in advance. The account manager is responsible for coordinating communication between our teams. We occasionally meet in-person at their headquarters because my team prefers direct cooperation.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to think beyond the code is amazing. They are not overly compliant developers merely seeking to please their client; instead, they challenge our ideas and propose original solutions we wouldn’t have thought of. We appreciate their agile, problem-solving approach.

My team is satisfied with the quality of the work and the new functionalities.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I cannot think of anything; in fact, we’re so pleased with the collaboration that we’re planning new projects for the upcoming months.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am an IT project manager at Weenect, a French startup that builds GPS trackers for families and pets. We produce four different types for adults, kids, cats, and dogs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Software House?

Since we didn’t have enough resources internally, we looked for a company to collaborate with us on building a new iOS app. Specifically, we needed frontend development support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve been working together on three projects so far. For the first one, The Software House helped us with a massive overhaul of a legacy iOS mobile app that’s written in Swift. 

They delivered the final version for us to deploy to production within about six months. Now, we’re working together in an agile loop to make continuous improvements to the app. 

Since we experienced success in building our iOS app with The Software House, we decided to similarly re-engage their services for the Android version.

The third project they've supported was the web version of our app, which required React and JavaScript programming.  They helped design the UX/UI for each of these projects, as well.

What is the team composition? 

We’ve worked with one part-time and one full-time developer each for both the Android and iOS buildouts, respectively. The team also includes designers and a project manager. A dedicated engineer built the web version of our app. The same QA tester has supported us with each project.

How did you come to work with The Software House?

After a quick online search, we found The Software House. Another company recommended them, and they had low prices compared to other providers.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ultimately, The Software House delivered successfully. They produced excellent screens and solutions and made the foggier aspects of our legacy product disappear. 

The team has excellent intuition about how to positively impact users and make our app user-friendly. 

Most of the time, we didn’t even need to explain our expectations or guide them; they found the right way on their own. 

The average rating for our app increased from a 3 to above a 4.5. Less than 1% of our users have expressed dissatisfaction about having to change the way they use the app. Everyone else says it’s great.

How did The Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

The Software House allocated a dedicated project manager to manage communication. Once the projects started to get more technically complex, we also started speaking directly with the developers.

The team is highly responsive and proactive. They always ask us for any missing information instead of waiting for us to send feedback and bringing the project to a standstill. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Software House works hard to make everything they deliver the best it can be. They’re a team of genuinely good and intelligent people who guide and educate us. 

We didn’t initially ask for designers, but they proactively dedicated resources for UX/UI for our project. They’re even more organized and experienced than I assumed at first. 

They’ve taught us a lot about how to involve more features to improve the UX in all our projects. We have a very productive collaboration.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some communication issues from both sides which wasted a couple of hours.