Sonatafy Technology

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Cforia LLC

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Streamlines and automates the order-to-cash process.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sonatafy Technology to accomplish?

• Add to development and test teams
• Take part in development and test activities as assigned
• Be fundamental part of our teams

SOLUTION

How did you find Sonatafy Technology?

Online Search

Why did you select Sonatafy Technology over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Sonatafy Technology were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

C#/.NET development and testing. Significant feature additions to legacy application. Bug-fixing, testing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Working to sprint definition to fulfill user stories

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team (four developers, two testers) were extremely affective. They immediately became part of our team, and connected will with our virtual team. They were able to produce great results quickly.

What was your primary form of communication with Sonatafy Technology?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Cultural fit was excellent. We are a 100% virtual company so bringing on team members in Mexico, Columbia, and Brazil wasn't difficult. The Sonatafy team had great communication skills and contributed quickly and completely.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Sonatafy Technology could have done differently?

The team probably held back a bit more up front than we'd hoped. Perhaps they were a bit shy. Would have liked a bit more insight into how the team was feeling in the first few weeks. This was not an issue, really, but anything that can make the team feel like "part of the larger team" is probably good.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Health Scholars is a VR education company. We provide VR training and assessment for doctors and nurses in the US. I’m the technical and managing lead of our web services team; we build the APIs, tools, and web services needed to make our company run.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sonatafy Technology?

Some team members left our company, so we needed to hire new employees for our team. However, we could only afford to hire so many new employees locally, so we decided to hire more people outside the US. Still, we didn’t want to hire far away to avoid vastly different time zones, so we hired Sonatafy as our nearshore staff augmentation service provider.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sonatafy helped us hire developers from Mexico and South America with similar time zones to the US. Initially, we had a couple of different meetings with them. First of all, we had a meeting to figure out what Sonatafy’s culture was, who they usually hired, and what their philosophy was.

Once we felt Sonatafy was a match for our company, we provided them with job descriptions and an ad hoc description of what type of staff members we were looking for culture-wise. We also worked with them on the interviewing process so that we could be part of the overall hiring process.

Ultimately, we ended up hiring three developers through Sonatafy. The resources we hired joined our existing team remotely and helped us with web development. They joined all of our meetings and processes, so no one was able to tell they were resources from Sonatafy unless we told them.

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with Steve (CEO) from the beginning and had regular communication with Joseph (VP of Account Management). Additionally, I worked closely with the teammate in charge of HR.

How did you come to work with Sonatafy Technology?

I found them online when looking for staff augmentation companies. We weren’t sure which company to hire, so we vetted 4–5 companies. We ultimately went with Sonatafy because the values written on their site were very good, and the company had very good reviews on Glassdoor from people working with them who were very happy.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2022, and our engagement ended in August 2023 because we were forced to downsize — it had nothing to do with Sonatafy.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sonatafy’s work exceeded our expectations. Their team was very good at finding and interviewing different people to join our team.

There were a couple of times when Sonatafy found people outside of the price range we could afford or without the skills we required. However, as we provided feedback, they refined the process so that candidates didn’t make it to the final interviews unless they were a match. The last two candidates we interviewed were a perfect match, so we just went with them.

How did Sonatafy Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

Sonatafy delivered on time and on budget.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Steve followed our philosophy and was extremely bright and competent. I really loved working with him, and I would be happy to work with him again. I would also like to give a shout-out to Joseph.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everyone I worked with from Sonatafy learned really fast and got what they needed to excel in their job. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish we had been able to work with Sonatafy for longer to get to know them even more. We only worked with them for web development services, but they can hire talent for more areas. In addition to that, it would have been great to know more about the holidays the candidates would be taking off at the beginning of the hiring process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you haven’t worked with people outside your native country, ensure you have patience. There are many extremely talented employees who may not have a great handle on other languages, so be patient with them.

Additionally, think of outsourced staff augmentation as a cultural add. If you need to change a method of communication to adapt, that’s the best you can do to get the best results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of platform engineering at Freshly, a prepared meals delivery service based in the US. We cook millions of meals a year and deliver them fresh to customers every week as often as they want. I run half the engineering team dedicated to backend services and software that enables us to run our business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sonatafy Technology?

We were trying to be agile about staffing. Hiring is difficult in our current environment, so we were looking to solve some budgetary challenges by adding some outsourced talent to our team. Our goal was to add some redundancy to our engineering team so that we could scale up and down quickly and easily without going through all the complexities of searching for and hiring full-time employees. In other words, we wanted to inject flexibility into our engineering resourcing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sonatafy Technology is our outsourced engineering partner. They source candidates they think fit our needs, and then we interview them. Since we already have a large interface-focused team, Sonatafy Technology is dedicated to backend engineering.

What is the team composition?

We currently have 8–10 resources from Sonatafy Technology in our team. Our main point of contact is Joseph (VP of Account Management). 

How did you come to work with Sonatafy Technology?

We found them through a reference. They were hired before my time at the company.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend at least $100,000 a month with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sonatafy Technology has been an excellent contributor. Like any team, they have various skill and engagement levels, and we have a good mix of junior and senior members. They’ve been really good leaders within the organization, and we treat them like any other employee. Moreover, they’ve delivered a ton of our business goals. Overall, we’re really happy with the relationship and the work they’ve done for us.

How did Sonatafy Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a shared Slack that our Sonatafy Technology representatives are a part of. Meanwhile, the engineers are like any internal team member, so they’re in the same channels as our full-time engineers and participate in our meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been pretty lucky that the contractor resources we’ve worked with have all been pretty good, including with Sonatafy Technology. We’ve had o negotiate some things throughout our engagement, like how to engage their team members outside of office hours in an emergency. That was a critical issue where the team worked with us, and we devised a good solution together. We’ve worked with them to establish a standard where, if an employee has to work outside of regular hours, they’re accruing vacation time that they can track and take whenever they need to. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any negative feedback for them; we’ve worked together really well and hope to continue doing so. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Operations Manager of a book publishing company helping budding authors build their identity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To streamline our publishing process, we needed a robust cloud and mobile software that would not only help us manage our resources but also ensure we accomplish our goals from time to time. The application would keep track of all the existing projects and also send us timely inventory updates about our stock. We wanted to upload it to the cloud and have a separate mobile application so we can access it any time, from anywhere.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We first discovered them on the clutch website. We shared with them our vision and scheduled a call with their team. Over the call, they showed us their previous work, a few case studies, and shared detailed information about their services. Once we were satisfied with their work, we onboarded them as our technology partner for this project.

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

They undertook end to end development of a cloud-based software and a mobile application that would help us streamline our resources. There were a lot of custom features we needed in the application: things like real-time inventory notifications and a comprehensive dashboard which would allow us to have a bird’s eye view of all the projects undertaken by us. We also had to integrate via APIs to numerous other systems, and their team made this process seamless.

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

Sonatafy team provided a fully managed and dedicated development team with a Project Manager, 3 full stack developers, 2 backend, 2 QA and a UI/UX developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sure. After we deployed the software, we managed to increase our efficiency by 23%. That’s not all, due to timely notifications about our inventory — we were able to procure required materials on time. Last but not the least, we minimized our operational cost by 5% (although it may seem small, but considering the size and scale of our operation, it comes down to about a million per annum).

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

The project was headed by their project manager Salvador. He was agile, courteous and proactive. We would conduct weekly update calls and daily scrum meetings with the development team to keep up with the progress. Their team was very proactive and transparent about the progress. They didn’t make any false promises and ensured they would stick to their commitments.

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

Their agility and team strength makes them stand out. They worked tirelessly to ensure the project was completed before the deadline while keeping in check the quality of deliverables. They didn’t cut any corners and guided us in the right direction.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The design of the software could have been better - but nonetheless, it’s user-friendly and intuitive.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I serve as the CTO of Taproot Interventions, a healthcare software startup. We developed an app to improve caregivers' responses to folks with at-risk behaviors and dementia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sonatafy Technology?

We needed someone to staff our software development team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sonatafy Technology provides us with software development resources. They screen and test potential candidates which they will then send to me for the final interview and selection process.

What is the team composition?

I work with the CEO, CTO, HR manager, and account manager.

How did you come to work with Sonatafy Technology?

Sonatafy Technology was referred to me by a trusted colleague.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in December 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work is better than any team I’ve worked with in the past. The cost per quality and the team’s productivity has been consistently excellent.

How did Sonatafy Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

I manage the team and work in a very strict agile environment. It took us a couple of months to figure out everyone’s work velocity, but we were able to accomplish that and the process has worked out extremely well for us so far.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like that I’m getting the same value I would get from a local vendor at a significantly cost-effective rate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think they need to improve anything because their team is highly communicative, continuously improving their process, and consistently checking up on us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Technical head of a leading gas manufacturer with over 5+ factories across the nation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

As our business expanded, it became increasingly harder to hire and manage our own software development resources. So we wanted to find a partner to build a dedicated software team that would focus on expanding the functionality and modernizing our internal enterprise software systems. Because we were not able to hire and manage our own internal software resources, we figured it’d be ideal if we partnered with a reliable outsourcing company.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I interviewed several outsourcing companies and selected Sonatafy as I like the “nearshore” model of having resources available in the same timezone as our US-based teams. They had an impressive and accessible Senior Executive team, a flexible engagement model and a strong team of experienced software developers that spoke very good English. Not to mention, their case studies and client portfolio was impressive, too.

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

We shared with them the scope of work, our vision for the future, features, third-party integrations required, etc. They then started working on the project. The team was able to get initial versions of the new software up really quickly. After getting feedback from our team, they conducted a thorough quality assurance process prior to going live. We keep adding more features in phases and are excited about how the project has progressed.

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

The team composition was as follows:

• 3 Sr. software engineers
• 2 Mobile Developers
• Project manager
• 1 UI/UX expert
• 1 QA analyst
• 1 Technical Report Writer

Apart from their software teams, we also were in touch with their CEO and CTO. They both were actively involved in the project and gave valuable inputs as and when needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Yes, the software they have developed is next to perfect. Everything from the UI to the performance is seamless. We used the beta version of it and are extremely pleased with its look and feel. Their team really worked hard on the aesthetics while ensuring the software delivered a consistent user experience and high performance.

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

We had weekly calls with them discussing the project specifics. Apart from that, the communication mostly happened over emails. For tracking the project, the Sonatafy team used Jira / Confluence and provided weekly status reports.

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

The involvement of their CEO and CTO added a great value to the project. So far, we have worked with many outsourcing companies, but working with Sonatafy was different. They genuinely care about the product and their services and do everything they can to ensure it’s as good as it can be. Their team was proactive at communication and technically sound. We’re happy we collaborated with Sonatafy for the project.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

They handled the project very well. Couldn’t be any happier.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of a frozen food start-up. We prepare and pack freshly cooked meals into bite-sized chunks that are ready to eat, anytime, anywhere.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to build a robust custom enterprise software system for managing our products, resources and distributors. As a company, we have over 36 outlets across 10 cities. Keeping track of all our products, resources, and distributors was a real challenge. So we needed a custom software solution that could manage the end to end process and give us a bird’s eye view of everything in a single dashboard.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We had been interviewing a couple of software development companies for the project. Sonatafy stood out to us as we liked that they had a US based executive team with software engineers throughout Latin America. They had also developed similar software applications previously and had a flexible engagement model.

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

As we began the project, we got on a discovery call with their team. We shared our vision with them and determined KPIs, milestones, features of the software, etc. They then started developing the software once they knew what we were looking for. The first phase: they designed the UI of the application and after a couple of iterations, we finalized a concept that reflected our values and resonated with the vision. After this, their team built features and custom modules that were essential for the app. They also helped us integrate several third-party add-ons and plugins that we used on a day to day basis.

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

We worked with a team of software developers, a technical lead, and a project manager. Their team was very friendly and cooperative.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With the software developed by the Sonatafy team, we have managed to increase our efficiency by 30%. It is user-friendly, intuitive, well-coded, and works seamlessly across multiple devices and systems. We’re happy how it turned out.

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

The project manager assigned to us ensured things were executed on time. He not only sent us daily updates but also set up calls regularly to share the progress and seek our feedback. We mostly had calls on Wednesdays and Fridays. Apart from that, we exchanged emails, and tracked the project via JIRA.

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

This was our first time hiring a software outsourcing company for a project. The way Sonatafy team has managed the software for us is truly impressive. They've guided us through each phase and were genuinely invested in the project.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing in particular.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I run a digital marketing company. We offer end-to-end enterprise level marketing services from development to marketing and everything in between for multiple industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our company has been around for many years and most of our software is on old legacy based systems. Based on some recent large clients we have acquired, we needed to accelerate our digital transformation to the cloud. The aim was to migrate our legacy systems to AWS without disrupting our operations and to ensure it fits the needs of the company moving forward. We wanted to add several custom features and enhancements as we are doing this migration.

Thus, we needed a team of seasoned software developers who can help us complete the project. Because we didn’t have enough resources, we hired a fully managed team of developers from Sonatafy Technologies.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Our technical consultant interviewed several agencies and selected Sonatafy as they had a sizable team and sound experience with digital transformations and migrations to the cloud

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

They quickly understood the scope of work and created a roadmap for execution. Their team divided the project into three phases: planning, development, and testing. They got to work pretty quickly and completed each phase just in time. We’re happy with the way they have executed this project.

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

We worked with a project manager, tech lead and a team of developers. They managed the project autonomously and were able to handle with minimal involvement from our team, which was what we were looking for!.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their team was very quick at adapting and developed the required features in almost no time. We were impressed by their flawless processes and impeccable execution. They kept us updated regularly and took the initiative themselves.

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

Their team has a very sound process as long as project management is concerned. We used JIRA/Confluence for regular updates. They also adhered to timelines.

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

Their dedication, overall involvement, and commitment towards the project are exceptional. From the very start, they drove the project and kept us informed while they worked their way up through each phase. They were very good partners and we enjoyed working with them.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

NA

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I run an ed-tech startup that helps students crack various competitive exams. As of today, we have over 300,000 active users across the globe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted a software development company who could develop a software platform that will act as a bridge between students and mentors. The mentors can add their courses and students can access it whenever they need to.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Sonatafy was recommended by our technical consultant. Based on his recommendation, we signed up for a meeting with their executive team to examine their capabilities. During several meetings, we found their team efficient and technically sound.

Because we were happy with their expertise and capabilities, we hired them for the entire project.

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

They developed the software from the ground up. This includes everything from mapping out the features to building custom modules for the software. Their team uploaded all the content to the software and integrated several third-party apps and services we were using.

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

We worked with a tech lead/project manager, a team of software developers, and QA engineers. Apart from them, we also had numerous interactions directly with their CTO and CEO who overlooked the entire project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software they have developed is robust and reliable. As for the numbers, it’s tricky to give any specific analytics here - but overall, we are extremely satisfied with how the project turned out. From the user interface to performance, everything is just up to the mark. We couldn’t be any happier.

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

The project was ledby the project manager who was assigned to us. We communicated with him via calls, emails, Slack and Zoom meetings ). He always asked for our feedback and coordinated with the technical team to ensure everything fell in its place.

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

They are dedicated, for one. And secondly, the level of professionalism they demonstrated was simply exceptional. We have worked with several software development companies before - but we felt Sonatafy genuinely cared about the end-result and thus ensured there was no stone unturned and the software was developed as per our requirements.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing to be spotted in general. We’re glad we collaborated with Sonatafy.