Solidstudio - eMobility Software

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT product manager at True Energy, an EV charging company. We have an app that helps users charge their EV cars in a climate-friendly, cost-effective way.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a company that could help us develop a mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Solidstudio Software House to help us develop a mobile app for iOS and Android. The app helps users charge their EV cars at our public charging points. We provided Solidstudio Software House with the scope, business analysis, and tasks, and they took care of the app’s backend development.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two lead software engineers from Solidstudio Software House.

How did you come to work with Solidstudio Software House?

We chose Solidstudio Software House for this project because they were the best match in terms of the skills that we needed and the value for the price.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $10,000–$20,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2020–May 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Solidstudio Software House team’s contributions were integral to the project’s success. They were able to deliver what they said they would. We’re getting good user feedback with the app, which currently has a three-star rating.

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

Solidstudio Software House exceeded our expectations in terms of project management. They delivered everything on time, which allowed us to test the app and go live according to our schedule. They were also great at managing our expectations and working with our internal team members.

We used Jira to create reports.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were most impressed with the Solidstudio Software House developers’ responsiveness, friendliness, and availability. Their account manager was also incredibly responsive and helpful throughout.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could benefit from having more developers available.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to have conversations at the start of the project with the key account manager to set your expectations and agree on what the deliverables will be. It’s also essential to provide them with a clear scope.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Zimicharge, an electric vehicle charging network and service company in South Africa.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed bespoke services to build a mobile application and management app to manage our electric vehicle network.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Solidstudio Software House provided custom software development. We initially had an analysis phase to look at the set of requirements for our application. We wanted to create an iOS and Android app that people could use to find charging stations, add their payment details, and do transactions. We were also looking to add a web management dashboard where we could manage and configure the charging stations and view utilization metrics and analytics around them.

We provided our set of requirements, brand guide, and CI guide around our styling. Solidstudio Software House worked through wireframes and UI designs. For the web management dashboard, they used AWS for the backend and JavaScript and Node.js for the frontend. For the mobile apps, they used React Native.

The app allowed users to see the nearest electric vehicle stations. People could search and filter based on multiple attributes of the station, like their power rating, distance, price, or type. If someone arrived at the charging station, they could initiate the station, start charging, view how much power is being charged, stop charging, request support, and so on. Users could also add their payment details, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and credit or debit cards. The system would deduct the charged amount from the user’s account.

Additionally, users could see analytics, including their charging stations history, the amount of energy charged, and the price of the charging station over months.

What is the team composition?

We had six people on our team; it was a mixture of managers and front- and backend engineers.

How did you come to work with Solidstudio Software House?

We found them through a Google search and liked their background and expertise in e-mobility. They gave us favorable terms, and their pricing was very competitive.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €10,000 (approximately $10,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2021. After six months, we launched the dashboard and apps. However, our relationship is ongoing; they currently provide maintenance and support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the apps, which was a big achievement. Moreover, the feedback from users has been significant. People love the interface, and the app works smoothly. We’ve had some significant engagements thanks to it. Overall, Solidstudio Software House saved us about 18 months because we went ahead instead of building out a team that had to gain experience. They also saved us about €90,000 (approximately $93,000 USD).

We’ve done subsequent releases to the app stores with bug fixes. The team is quick to address any bugs; they address the cause and come up with good solutions.

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

We were happy with their project management. We focused on the outcomes rather than the deadlines. However, the team always aimed to deliver as soon as possible.

We communicated through Slack or video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were flexible in working with us, our situation, and our requirements. Overall, they were great at guiding us through building a good solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could integrate more project management tools, such as Jira.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate your strategy and be clear on what you want to achieve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a digital leader for a consulting company called Mercer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our business deals with the manipulation and validation of data, and we had an internal tool that we were using that wasn’t working very well. We hired Solidstudio Software House to build a new tool that would validate and correct data, then report on that data to be built in the cloud using AWS.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

This is an agile project, so we started by explaining what we had and what we wanted. Solidstudio Software House consulted with us on all of this information and came up with solutions that turned out to be better than what we initially came to them with. 

We broke the project into deliverable chunks, including user management and a series of business rules, and we started to do the data manipulation in Python. They built everything from scratch, but we provided them with examples of business rules that varied in complexity. 

We classify the business rules into natural groupings and run those groups against the data set. This delivers a report containing all of the data and results. We’re currently in the final stages of production and conducting user acceptance testing.  

What is the team composition?

We work with Paweł L. (CEO & Co-Founder) and Paweł G. (Co-Founder & Software Developer). We also work with two UI designers, a QA person, two coders, and a project manager. 

How did you come to work with Solidstudio Software House?

I’d previously worked with Solidstudio Software House, and they did a fantastic job. They were available quickly, and we decided to move forward with them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2022, and the work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The data sets run about 70% faster than the previous system; with this new system, we can code the business rules ourselves. Solidstudio Software House has modularized the system so we can write Python scripts, upload them, and they'll run from there. This gives our company more control over the business rules. 

The software can easily run 500,000 rows of data in less than seven hours which was one of our goals, and the reporting is instantaneous. Penetration testing has shown zero errors, and the UI look and feel is intuitive. 

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

Everything has been delivered on time so far. The project has been extended, but that was because of things on our end, not Solidstudio Software House. We have two weekly reviews and daily stand-ups, and our team working directly with Solidstudio Software House has been very pleased with everything that goes on in those meetings. We use Jira, Google Meet, and Zoom. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciate that they suggest alternatives to improve the system when we come to them with a problem. They want what's best for our company, and they’re willing to consult us on everything to ensure they’re delivering.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We can’t think of anything that they could be doing better. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them everything up front, and don’t hold back. Let them know about the problems you’re running into, so they can look at the whole issue. They can offer holistic solutions and help you solve whatever you bring to them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and the CEO of Petroleum Tax Tools, a startup that provides tools and services to aid petroleum transport and oil and gas companies in meeting their respective regulatory requirements, specifically around registering fuel loads and licensing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Solidstudio?

We originally contracted a company from India to build the first version of our website. We got close to the end and realized it wasn’t going to meet our expectations, so I started looking for a provider that could review the work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I first reached out to Solidstudio for an audit of what I had. As I feared, it turned out that the website was subpar, and that we weren’t getting what we paid for. Even though I didn’t go to them for development, they did such a good job on that first engagement that we moved the project to them.

Solidstudio developed our web app and landing page from scratch. We weren’t able to salvage anything from the first iteration. They built the entire infrastructure on AWS, both the user acceptance testing (UAT) and the production environment.

What is the team composition?

I work with Paweł (CEO), and I currently have two developers assigned to me. I’ve worked with as many as five teammates as we’ve gone through the project.

How did you come to work with Solidstudio?

I was doing market research on the best areas for software development, and I went through ratings and rankings platforms to see what was going on in the industry.

I found a well-written article about where in the world the best software companies are. Russia, China, and Poland were at the top. I started looking at Polish companies and found Solidstudio.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost at this point is around $100,000. I anticipate working with them for at least two more years, and the overall estimate for the period is $200,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The audit of the initial site was around October 2019. I was still working with the previous company, trying to solve some of the problems that Solidstudio brought up, and I moved the project to them in January 2020. 

The production version of the web app went live in June 2020, but I’ve maintained two Solidstudio developers on staff. We’re still improving the platform, and I anticipate having a multiyear relationship with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re extremely sharp programmers. I’m fairly technical, and they exposed their development cycle to me. I had a view into both their code repository and pipelines, so I could see the journeys, what passed and failed, and the automated regression testing across the software. 

We have AWS CloudTrail set up, and I have access to all of those resources as well. Solidstudio is extremely good at letting me know about any issues that come up, but there really haven’t been any. We usually find bugs when we start stretching a system out, and my user base is growing. 

We’re still a startup, but we haven’t released any duds. We’ve been surprised and had to refactor, but there’s nothing that Solidstudio missed the mark on. I’ve worked in IT for multibillion-dollar companies in America, ones with full staffing for all of their cloud and local infrastructures. 

All of the same development techniques used in these big corporations were used at Solidstudio. Even if we found a bug, they adjusted their journey tests, and I didn’t have to worry about the regression testing going forward.

How did Solidstudio perform from a project management standpoint?

The main thing that stands out to me is that there were no shortcuts. The process was what I would expect from any large corporation. We’re a small business, so all of those could’ve been set up manually, but Solidstudio set us up for success. 

They used GitHub for all code pushes from UAT to production. The APIs were built with Swagger Documentation so that the applications wrote their own documentation. All of those things add up and are really a luxury for a small startup.

They work in an agile environment, and I have weekly conversations with Paweł on all scoping and cards. I also have access to the developers themselves. There’s a shared Slack channel between the team on my side and Solidstudio. 

Even though there’s a time difference, we don’t notice it. We can communicate with them pretty much instantaneously. The project management is great. I deal primarily with the owner, and I get to see how our requests are broken down into cards. If something isn’t clear, we discuss it even before development starts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are perfectionists. They don’t promote anything to production without UAT from my team, but I’ve seen them just not like the way something looks or acts and pull it themselves. 

Solidstudio has a very high standard, and UAT is a breeze because things normally work when they come to us. I’ve also worked with the same developers from the team consistently, so they know the intent of the software.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Meetings and Slack communication are great. The only improvement would be introducing a dashboard with all that information built in.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The recipe for success for me is to trust Solidstudio with the project. They use modern practices, so, if the client has a legacy mindset and wants things to happen in a certain way, they might have a problem with it.

Solidstudio works the way I would expect a modern company to operate, so trying to shoehorn them into antiquated processes won’t bring out their full value.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a student services app. We offer a mobile app for universities to help them regroup student services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired them for tech support and front- and backend development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They completely redid the architecture of our backend and helped migrate the platform to another service provider. They also adjusted the frontend of our app to make changes based on the backend of our app.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 4–5 people including a backend developer, an Android developer, a co-founder, and CTO.

How did you come to work with Solidstudio Software House?

We discovered them through online research and a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $28,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2020 and we completed the project in September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched last week and there were no bugs. Their work is impeccable.

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

They were super responsive. It felt like we were working with one team. They were super nice and dynamic. Communication was done either through email or Slack. We integrated them on our Slack channel. They made a proposal and started working right away. We were on a tight schedule so we only had one big deadline and they hit it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness. They were really part of our team. There was no difference.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It really helps when your team can work directly with theirs, rather than having a middleman. That makes the process easier and faster for everyone.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager for a company called ChannelBytes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to build an online community for people who work in the tech industry. We came to Solidstudio with an early version of the product that had a lot of issues with functionality, security, and scalability. We needed them to take over the project and refactor the platform to set us up for growth.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave them detailed wireframes, which they modified for the build. Their team refactored the platform and launched new features.

Solidstudio essentially developed the entirety of the feature sets. After joining, users can create either public or private groups around any IT topic. People are able to invite others to join groups or people can find them on their own. Users can also post photos, links, and files. As well, people can tag others, upvote and comment on posts, and reply to other users.

Their team helped to build web, iOS, and Android versions of the app. They used NodeJS, VueJS, and MongoDB. The mobile was all done in Cordova.

What is the team composition?

We started working with a project manager and a senior developer. About halfway through the project, we decided to move a little more rapidly. At that point, we brought on another developer.

How did you come to work with Solidstudio Software House?

I researched offshore developers and searched for software houses in Poland. Solidstudio came up high on Google. I actually then found Clutch and read through their reviews, which were positive. When I looked at their website, I was happy with what I saw and reached out to them. We talked, received a quote, and then started the project.

How much have you invested with them?

At this point, we’ve spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the pre-planning phase in March 2020 and kicked off the project in April. Our partnership’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we came to them, we didn’t have a usable platform and now, we have a usable and scalable platform. We can easily onboard users, and people can use the platform without experiencing many bugs. Internal stakeholders are extremely happy.  

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

As we’re in different time zones, we mostly communicated via Slack. We used Loom to shoot videos, which was easier than just typing messages. We also had biweekly calls to do sprint reviews. The backlog was managed in Trello.  

I was happy with their project management. Their detailed pre-planning phase was one of the reasons that I chose to work with them. They followed the principles of Scrum. Their sprint planning and summarizing were organized. If I had any questions or wanted to make any changes, they were flexible.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work’s huge. Their team was willing to be and succeeded as the project’s technical owners. We don’t have a CTO or a person on our team with a technical background. They stepped up and provided recommendations based on what was best for our business. Their team understood our business use cases and filled in our knowledge gaps.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. I’ve been super happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you want. They have open channels for communication, but you have to take advantage of them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I develop software platforms at a central level that can be rolled out to different markets for a global leader in optical retail. Any platform that touches customer data is under my jurisdiction.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to build a piece of software including a CDP (customer data platform) for us to leverage our customer data. We needed to be able to pull data from different sources and consolidate that into one central data warehouse to feed into a variety of different applications including Salesforce Marketing Cloud and our e-commerce sites.

We wanted to use that data in a variety of different customer-facing applications. We wanted users to be able to log in and have their accounts populated with all of their past purchases and product recommendations. We needed to move fast with a self-contained team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Solidstudio Software House essentially completed end-to-end integrations. Our tech lead designed the architecture and then the Solidstudio Software House developers executed on them. They completed the integrations but didn’t put products live into production. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with one lead developer and two senior developers who worked with my tech team directly. I dealt with the CEO primarily. We increased resources when we needed to develop our own CDP, so another developer came on board.

How did you come to work with Solidstudio Software House?

A colleague worked with Solidstudio Software House and said that they were fantastic, so I reached out to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to €250,000 euros (approximately $270,400 USD) on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off this project in May 2019, and we’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The amount of work that their 2–3 developers completed over the course of the year was significantly more than would be produced by local teams of 2–12 people. Their team’s self-contained and more experienced than local agencies. They’re exceptionally cost-effective. While there’s always re-work, we keep Solidstudio Software House because they move quickly with minimal overhead.

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

Everyone was on a Slack channel. Their developers had multiple touchpoints with my tech lead each day. Usually, they had a daily stand up meeting.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their team’s extremely high. Their dependability and speed are significantly better than what I’ve been able to observe with other providers. There are top-notch developers everywhere, but Solidstudio Software House’s rates are superior to even the lowest cost firms in other areas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, I don’t think so. I’ve been happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Choose your developers. Solidstudio Software House has solid developers but make sure that the developers who work on your project have the necessary skills. Try to match quality and experience to your specific project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an end-to-end Software Development Company specializing in FinTech, AWS Cloud Applications. Blockchain and e-commerce. Founded in 2017 with HQ in Cracow, Poland. I'm the CEO of Rumble Fish Software Development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

For one of our clients that offers platform for health savings and flexible spending accounts, as well as health reimbursement arrangements we are responsible for implementing new functionalities and front-end related work. We needed additional expertise in Java-based legacy system migration to microservices architecture and to newer technology stack.

What were your goals for this project?

There were multiple goals:

• maintain and execute most urgent development work on legacy platform
• prepare a plan for migration to new stack trace (Java version migration, frameworks updated, changing hosting)
• execute the migration
• adjust existing code base to newer version of Java and Spring
• create new infrastructure solutions using AWS

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have a history of cooperation with Solidstudio and we did not hesitate to work with them again.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They prepared the plan of technology migration. Then they executed it, supervised deployment to production and maintained it. Main updates were in Java version, Java 6 -> Java 8 -> latest version and in all related frameworks.

Another scope of work was to prepare infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines for microservice-architecture. Lately, they are involved in implementing new features using modern technology, CI/CD pipelines and architecture.

What was the team composition?

We started with 1 Lead Software Developer to do initial work. Weeks after that we scaled the team to 6 people, including QA, Dev-Ops and senior developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The plan was carefully prepared and then executed step by step to minimize the risks and to maximise the confidence we have in the system. Now, all new features are created using the modern stack trace and more and more components of legacy system are operating in new environment.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their communication skills are excellent, we never had any issue regarding language barrier, different time zones etc. They used our collaborative tools, but also introduced Trello, Slack and Google Meet. For account management we never had any issues as well - requests for scaling the team was executed very fast.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Technical seniority of developers is outstanding. They can manage any technical difficulty with ease.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is almost nothing to improve - I can recommend their services without hesitation.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Aaron Deadman (Engineering Manager, Ingresso Group Limited): Jeffri (Engineering Manager, Ingresso Group Limited) and I work for a small to medium-sized enterprise. Within our division, we have a total staff of 30–50 people. Our development team totals about 15 people.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

AD: We wanted to grow our ticketing platform, which involved connecting to supply systems. We didn’t have the personnel to meet the large number of opportunities that were coming to us. We identified an area of our engineering product that could be outsourced.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AD: Solidstudio Software House joined our team to help develop our products. Whenever we come across a supplier who uses a technology or software platform that our system doesn’t support, their team builds an integration using a web API to connect the product with our platform. Essentially, their team helps build supply integrations and API connections with our core system. Their team manages development using Async Python and HTTP—basically cloud platform engineering. They also contribute to the planning process, outlining the next phase of development.

What is the team composition?

AD: Initially, we started with one teammate. When it became obvious that they were competent developers and had a good working relationship with our team, we increased the number. Now, we work with two active developers and are considering expanding that number.

How did you come to work with Solidstudio Software House?

Jeffri Abu Bakar: I reached out to their team and other outsourcing service providers in Poland, which I knew through my contacts. Solidstudio Software House was a fairly small startup at the time. Our teams shared a similar mindset as we’re also a fairly small operation. Cost was also a consideration. Being relatively new to this area of development, Solidstudio Software House was able to offer us a good deal.

AD: As well, we didn’t want services from a large company where we would make up an insignificant portion of their total revenue. With Solidstudio Software House, our project would represent a significant percentage of their work. We figured it would make the working relationship more effective.

What is the status of this engagement?

AD: We started working with Solidstudio Software House in March 2019, and our collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AD: We’ve seen a return on investment from ticket sales of products Solidstudio Software House has built into our system. As recently as yesterday, they concluded another project, which has gone live. We’ve already seen a return on investment from tickets sold on new connections developed for new suppliers. Three or four connectors are live and in production. Their team built another three, which are waiting for production deployment. Another two or three connectors are under active development at this point.

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

AD: It has more or less felt like we have two additional employees. They’ve maintained a shared calendar. We’re fully aware of the developers’ schedules so any time off is known early. Day to day, their team has been active in our chat channels as well as our planning meetings. We've never experienced any problems with communication or scheduling.

Solidstudio Software House has always been responsive and completed work quickly. Their team holds themselves to a high standard of work. When requirements have shifted, they were agreeable and understanding. If there was a time crunch when we’ve needed to make last-minute changes to a sale due tomorrow, their team has checked-in after hours. We’ve been happy with the level of communication and work ethic from Solidstudio Software House. They’ve joined our team effectively.

What did you find most impressive about them?

AD: We’ve had no problems communicating with them despite language barriers. There hasn’t been any miscommunication. We’re consistently impressed with the speed at which they’ve taken on projects and produced results. They’ve been able to iterate on products quickly too. We’ve gone from absolutely nothing to having a product that’s actually workable. In some cases, we can start using and getting a product into acceptance testing within a week and a half or two weeks.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind specifically.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

AD: I would highly recommend them. As with any outsourcing relationships, be aware of what you’re trying to accomplish and make sure the scope of work is well defined.

JAB: When we started our working relationship, Solidstudio Software House provided us with several potential engineers to join our team. Don’t just pick anyone they introduce. The company needs to know what your expectations are for their engineers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of T-Cup. We’ve built a well-being technology that helps track an individual’s health, mood, and ambition levels. It’s both a B2C product and a B2B tool that allows organizations to gain anonymized insight into their staff’s well-being.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I was looking for a development firm to create my product’s MVP and received a good referral for Solidstudio Software House. Once I started working with them, it was clear that they were engaged, technically capable, and very understanding. 

The project has since grown into a second phase, which customers have used, and I’ve retained them as a technical partner. They continue to enhance the solution and support our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Solidstudio Software House has developed the initial MVP of our app, which consists of three main parts. 

The first component is the B2C app for iOS and Android, which allows users to track their well-being, much like other health apps. There’s a notes feature, which functions as a personal diary, as well as a survey section.

To keep users engaged, we introduced gamification elements into the questions and answers and focused on giving instantaneous feedback. There’s also an interactive interface that displays user statistics through various mediums, combining in-depth graphs and forms over with fun animations. 

The second part is a desktop version that prominent blue-chip organizations can use to gather anonymized survey data on their employees. The third part is an overview dashboard that allows administrators to tweak questions, rules, and other survey settings.

In terms of the tech stack, Solidstudio Software House primarily uses Java and Progressive to build our solutions. They’re also skilled in several open-source tools and have used them to create dashboard animations.

What is the team composition? 

We’d worked with a business analyst initially and now coordinate between three developers. What’s so interesting about Solidstudio Software House is that they don’t really have junior developers. Instead, they’ve assigned two senior people and a lead.

How did you come to work with Solidstudio Software House?

I’d never outsourced my IT needs before, so this project felt like a bit of a risk. Based on my tech background, I reached out to a few large businesses and CTOs in the UK market, and they referred me to Solidstudio Software House.

I conversed with their CEO, arranged to meet them, and workshopped a detailed MVP proposal with them to see if they’d be a good fit. The team passed with flying colors, so I decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent between $250,000–$400,000. The MVP cost a reasonably modest amount because I just wanted to see how they’d develop it. When I saw that they’d exceeded expectations, my confidence grew, and I was happy to extend the scope of work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started to work with them right about February 2019, and the project is ongoing. The plan was to have them build the product and pass it over to our side to manage. But I’m not at the stage where I see them more as a strategic partner.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We work with large blue-chip banks, so our solution had to undergo an extensive penetration testing process. Suffice it to say, Solidstudio Software House nailed it on the first try. There were a few minor issues that they’d adjusted fairly quickly, but, all in all, it was very encouraging.

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

They’ve been phenomenal. Not only are they incredibly accommodating, but they’re also good at documenting their work through Trello. The team writes out all stories in detail, we sign it off, and then they build it.

I can’t praise them enough on their responsiveness. They haven’t missed any deadlines and communicate well. We work using an agile methodology, so they call in every Monday via Zoom for our stand-ups. In addition, we alternate visits every month or so to meet face-to-face.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Solidstudio Software House has been quite accommodating to our needs. Most IT projects suffer from scope creep and changes, but that’s the nature of working with a startup as a client. The core concept can sometimes change based on customer demand, and that inevitably leads to rework.

While that’s often a source of friction for some IT companies, Solidstudio Software House has been professional about making necessary key changes. They’re technically sound, use the latest technologies, and deliver secure code.

Are there any areas they could improve?

During the early stages, they relied heavily on Trello stories to work from. However, as with any management tool, writing out really detailed technical specs without discussion can lead to things getting lost in translation.

There have been times when we’ve had misunderstandings about what I wanted versus what they understood that to be. But that’s something they’re working on. I’ve encouraged them to write out their stories and talk to us first before releasing them to their developers.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
 
Even if you’re just looking to build an MVP, you should be open with them about the big picture from day one. What is your business trying to achieve and how? They have a lot of experience working with a multitude of different customers from various countries, which gives them a strong business sense. Once I started to share more about our vision with them, they helped enhance our system by a lot.