Soshace

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of DigiSigner, a software company that creates electronic signatures for virtual documents.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soshace?

I needed to create new functionality for part of my application. My goal was to add a field-filling feature that allows signatures on various pieces of online content.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Soshace’s team updated my application so that I could display documents in an online browser. The development work was done using JavaScript, jQuery, and Angular.js.

The functionality they developed was only released for new users because I didn’t want to impact the old users until I see how it’s working. Overall, they completed all of my requirements.

What is the team composition?

They provided a user experience specialist for the frontend development portion. I also interacted with a project manager.

How did you come to work with Soshace?

I found them on Upwork, and chose them because they were well-versed in the old version of Angular.js that my application is written in.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May, and wrapped up in July 2019.

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

We were very satisfied with the developer assigned to the project. He did great work and was very communicative. He did a lot of work in two months and I believe it will positively impact my company in the long run.

How did Soshace perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team was very responsive. I could always contact them via Skype and they responded promptly. They quickly solved any issues I had and organized meetings frequently to update me on our progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their developer was very experienced. He was one of the best I’ve seen, and I was pleased with the progress he made in the short amount of time he worked with us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, working with Soshace was an excellent experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to communicate closely with the assigned developer every day. It will yield impressive results.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a cloud-based physical access control system. We manage office or enterprise building door securities, mostly on a cloud. We manage access for who should get in and what kind of access people should have. Everything is automated. When employees are onboarded, they get access to the office automatically. When someone gets offboarded, we remove the access automatically. Administrators of the company don’t have to worry about deleting unauthorized access from their physical security system.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soshace?

We needed help with frontend development of our administrative dashboard. The dashboard is used by our customers to manage their offices and employee access. We believe in simplicity when it comes to dashboards, and we put a lot of emphasis on UI/UX. We wanted to simplify access control so that anybody can use it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built the frontend using JavaScript for our administrative dashboard. We had the initial version, and they added a lot of new functionalities. They did the frontend integrations with Okta and OneLogin and flow configurations for onboarding and offboarding employees. We also built a reporting and analytics dashboard on the dashboard that shows users reports such as attendance.

We also did a building sync with them, which was another good feature. A building has its access control, and the tenants do as well. Often, tenant and building communication is broken, so tenants have to carry two cards or chase staff people to get access to the building. We automated that flow. 

What is the team composition? 

I was involved in selecting the developers from their side. We had three developers initially, but now we only have one since we’re mainly in maintenance mode. There was a project manager who mostly handled their time and availability. I worked directly with the developers, which is what we wanted.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2017 and the work is ongoing.

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

The developers understood our vision that having an easy UI/UX was important.

How did Soshace perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was great. We use an agile methodology, and everything was tracked in Jira and GitHub. They provided a lot of details, and, most of the time, we met our timelines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their expertise in the technology we use is impressive. They not only encourage their developers to get technical training, but I’ve seen many of their developers enroll in taking English classes too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Currently, we give them business requirements and make sure they understand what needs to be done. If they could provide end-to-end lifecycle for software development, like capturing the high-level business requirements and breaking them down into functional systems specs and wireframes, and handle the execution, it would offload a lot of work on our side. I’m hesitant to try that right now because they focus on the technical side.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you give them clear requirements, they will get it done. If you give just high-level details, they won’t be able to make it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of a cloud-based solution provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soshace?

We engaged Soshace to provide frontend developers for one of our products.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our internal team had prepared the backend and the overall design, but we relied on Soshace to complete the frontend of our cloud computing platform using React, Redux, and Angular.

What is the team composition?

We work with a group of three developers.

How did you come to work with Soshace?

I found Soshace through Clutch.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in February 2019 and remains ongoing.

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

Soshace has provided excellent work to this point. They are professional, and they accomplish our tasks on time.

How did Soshace perform from a project management standpoint?

Instead of having an intermediary project manager form their agency, we communicated directly with the developers, which is our preference. They feel like full-time members of our team because of that arrangement. Soshace has a talented network of engineers in many time zones so that we can work around the clock. We communicate well using Jira, Confluence, and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our team is quite technical, so we appreciate that the absence of a project manager allows us to work directly with the engineers completing the work. Further, the price range is really competitive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Soshace has proven their ability to find developers all around the world, but I think they would be better off by creating small teams of 2–3 people that have previous experience working together. For our project, it took a little while to figure out the group chemistry because the engineers had never worked together before.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Soshace has team members in many different countries, including the United States, so it’s important for future clients to pick the time zone they are comfortable with.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of RiskHub, a startup. Our product is an organizational tool based on risk management.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soshace?

I needed a developer to help build my software.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed my SaaS web app with React and MySQL. I sent them the document of my idea and they found the developer. I explained my idea to the developer and they did full-stack frontend and backend development. It’s a risk management app. It has residuaries, inventories, and more. They included a task management function and a dashboard.

What is the team composition?

I worked with one developer.

How did you come to work with Soshace?

I found them online and found them to be the right developer for my idea.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $28,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January–June 2018.

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

I have access to software that shows me everything they’re doing. The project went well and I’m very happy with everything they’re doing. They’ve taken a lot of work off my hands. I told them if I had a problem in the future, I would ask them because I like them.

How did Soshace perform from a project management standpoint?

Their management was effective. They found the right developer in a short time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They chose the right developer for me and my idea. We had a lot in common and we made a good team. I was happy from the beginning.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything went well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Find the right man for the project like I did. I hope another customer is as lucky as I am.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a flash sale site called Modnique. We sell clothing, jewelry, accessories, and handbags online.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soshace?

Our need was fairly unique and situational. I had known our previous developer personally for about 12 years. He became so overloaded with work that he had to simply leave one day while we were still in the startup phases of product development. 

Since he was the only person familiar with our code, I urgently started reaching out to different companies.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Soshace has worked with me every step of the way. At the start of our project, I created a rough outline that described our needs. Based on our requirements, our account representative found three people who were perfect for the position within a few days. She sat in the interviews for each candidate and touched base afterward to ask how I felt they had gone. 

The first two candidates weren’t interested in working with our code because it is relatively old, but one developer was both willing and had the rare experience with that exact technology. He is a senior professional developer who works remotely for us full time. For his compensation, I pay Soshace directly.

The scope of his capabilities is extremely large. His expertise includes Java, Oracle, Apache, Apache Tomcat, and jQuery. Rather than being limited to a specific project, we can assign him any task that relates to coding. 

The developer has integrated a new payment gateway into our site and has identified and fixed numerous bugs. By tweaking the code independently, he finds new ways to improve features like our search and item filters. 

Right now, he’s designing a mega menu. When users hover their mouse over a category on our site like "men," a dropdown menu displays the different clothing and jewelry options we offer for men.  Clicking through takes users to a pre-filtered page of products. 

Even after Soshace connected us with the right resource, they continued to make sure everything goes smoothly. Our account representative has listened to all the needs I've had so far. She continues to contact me to check in. 

What is the team composition? 

Alina (Head of Sales and Business Development, Soshace) has worked with us from the beginning as our exclusive point of contact. Their staff augmentation services yielded one developer. 

How did you come to work with Soshace?

I was referred to Soshace by a family friend. Since I'm not a developer, I didn't have a formal resume. Instead, I described the basics of what we needed for this project. 

How much have you invested with them?

I've spent about $6,000 on their services. They offered an amazing two-week trial period for a small deposit of only $1,000. Had I been dissatisfied, I wouldn't have been liable for the entire cost, and Soshace would have found an alternative resource. This option would be especially useful for positions like graphic designers. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with Soshace since February 2019. 

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

In the current market, it's very difficult to find a developer that fits specific business needs. Even though we needed non-standard resources, Soshace sourced the right type of resource extremely quickly. 

The developer they found works quite efficiently. In the month and a half he’s worked for us, I’ve only seen good things so far. He had a minimal learning curve and has produced very high-quality work.

Soshace made the entire process very clear, simple, and easy. They supported me every step of the way.  Many companies will harass clients to make faster decisions, but I never felt pressed on time at all. I was pleasantly surprised.

How did Soshace perform from a project management standpoint?

Unlike the tendency in the industry to over-promise and under-deliver, Soshace stuck to their promises. We set up very tight deadlines, and they promptly provided a valuable development resource who always delivers either on or before the deadline. 

Our company's CTO communicates with the developer directly. They have daily check-ins via Skype, which they also use for ad hoc discussions and to contact the other developers and designers on the team.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Soshace’s transparent pricing and excellent customer service set them apart from the competition. Their slogan seems to be "the client is always right." It can be challenging to help someone like me who lacks development knowledge find the perfect programmer. Based on their high-level technical knowledge, they connected us with the right resource.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there are none.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise being upfront and transparent about the budget and requirements you feel comfortable with. If you don't have the required technical expertise, have someone like your CTO write these documents. 

Express what you're willing to spend on a developer per month and provide a simple outline of the development work you need. I'm sure they have other account managers, but I highly recommend Alina. She was excellent. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager at a company that is developing a SaaS product that will help agriculture appraisers streamline their work.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soshace?

We were looking for development support for the agricultural platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had two local developers initially and reached out to Soshace for extra help. The software platform assists property appraisers. It generates reports that detail what agricultural properties, like farmland, orchards, and groves, are worth. The application sorts math calculations and other statistics into the process and uses comparable listings to estimate the value of properties. Users can make adjustments according to differing variables.

Their team embedded tools we built, similar to Google Docs, within the software. The tools allow data to be sent automatically to the report and will enable users to create tools and implement content.

What is the team composition?

We are working with two developers right now and will onboard a third shortly. Our developers have taken consultant roles, while their team has taken the lead.

How did you come to work with Soshace?

We put an ad on Upwork and had two rounds of interviews. The process took about a month. We were happy with what Soshace wanted to accomplish. We weren’t looking for developers who code well; we wanted developers that could take on complex problems and also explain complexities. We chose their team because of their experience and how they did on the test projects we assigned.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Soshace in June 2018, and the project is ongoing.

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

The project is ongoing, but Soshace is a supportive resource for our team, leading to a faster development process. Our developers are happy with the code. With startups, sometimes there’s crunch time, and things change constantly, and Soshace takes everything in stride.

How did Soshace perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t use their project management services, but they are available to our team. Soshace is responsive and performing well. Their account managers continually seek feedback, and I’m impressed with that. Their team is enjoyable and accommodating.

We meet twice a week to discuss the scope and other tasks. We use Slack for regular communication and have a Trello board for the developers. Our team tries not to interfere and let them manage everything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The process has been extremely collaborative. Soshace has taken on the project as their own and contributed accordingly. Their thoughts regarding the project make their team part of our own. It feels natural working with Soshace.

We’ve come to expect skilled coding and enthusiasm. We’re onboarding new developers from their team. For someone to come in the middle of a complex project, it’s not easy, but their team has been helpful in explaining the process to new members.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m pleased with how their developers are doing. Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

For people looking to work with Soshace, it helps to be communicative. Understanding the scope is one thing, but understanding the intent behind it, is another. Soshace explains ideas that can save time. Their team contributes in more ways than code.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager at a web development company. We build mobile apps and other software solutions.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soshace?

We needed development assistance.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Soshace worked on the frontend for one of our products, aggregating then translating the legacy code into React. They built a high-functioning platform with new features like an integrated messaging system. Currently, they’re working on upgrading the software’s shipping deck and several other functionalities.

What is the team composition?

They assigned one developer to our project.

How did you come to work with Soshace?

We asked about 20 companies to complete a simple task, and Soshace performed the best.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2017, and the relationship is ongoing.

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

We’re very satisfied with their work. So far all the code that was delivered with the highest quality level and cooperation is very promising. 

How did Soshace perform from a project management standpoint?

We work in an agile environment, with scheduled daily meetings. For additional communication, we use Slack, Jira, and Asana.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The engineer assigned to our project is the best one I’ve ever met. The work consistently exceeds my expectations. They require minimal supervision, working largely autonomously.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it’s been a good experience.

Any advice for potential customers?

We’ve worked with several development companies with more resources, and Soshace is outperforming all of them. They’re communicative, hard-working, and committed to delivering what they promise.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m head of engineering for SalesHero. Our technology automates tasks for sales representatives.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soshace?

We’re trying to make the life of a sales representative easier. They spend a lot of time on Salesforce and their email—and synchronizing between the two. We automate that synchronization to save them time.

Our platform has a minimal frontend. Most everything—the automation, the artificial intelligence—runs in the background. We needed to develop the frontend for a smooth user experience. We didn’t have any frontend expertise in-house.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Soshace built the frontend of our application with a straightforward UI. The developers use a number of technologies including HTML, CSS, React, D3.

The frontend shows all the activities the sales representative has to do and generates a task list. This list requires a lot of logic embedded in a complex tree structure from which the sales representative will get suggestions of what needs updated based on their accounts. This task list – which they were able to build in 3 days whereas we had estimated 3 weeks – is currently in production.

What is the team composition?

We interact with two frontend engineers and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Soshace?

We posted an ad on Upwork. We found one of the developers through the site and contacted him. At that point, the project manager reached out to us and we started the interview process. I interviewed them as did my boss, our CEO. The devs’ technical knowledge was sound and right for our project. We decided we could work smoothly with them.

How much have you invested with them?

Approximately $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s ongoing from May 2017.

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

The quality of the code we get from them is very good and there are few bugs in it. Once something is declared in production, it’s pretty solid. The code is reliable, high quality and maintainable.

They are consistent in their approach. I don’t have to explain a lot to get a feature done from them. With minimum interaction, we get a good amount of output. We hadn’t previously had a good experience with contract developers. We’re lucky to have very good developers this time.

How did Soshace perform from a project management standpoint?

They meet their timelines. I gave you the example before of how they finished something in 3-4 days that we estimated at 3 weeks.

We interact primarily with the developers. I hardly speak to their manager because it’s not needed. Sometimes he asks me for feedback about how they’re doing or if there’s anything he can help us with.

We follow a scrum approach and have daily standups. Those meetings are the communication platform during which we allow every developer to talk about what they’ve done, what they're doing and what they're blocked on. Our Soshace developers also join those meetings. If they have any doubts or need clarification, they reach out to me via Skype or Slack. We also have a sprint planning engine.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In my previous experience working with developers, I had to explain a lot and I still received bad quality code. With Soshace, that’s not the case. I communicate minimally and get a good outcome from them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Constant communication with the frontend developers is really going to help.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have an online marketplace. I’m managing a team of software developers that is responsible for building the UI of our web service.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soshace?

We are always looking for new candidates. We have a big team of software engineers, and we are constantly hiring. We exhausted all our usual hiring channels, and we are looking for some alternatives. We approached Soshace and another agency to hire additional permanent workforce members.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re willing to offer us a developer that can work with our team and be a part of our team. The developer was originally a member of Soshace, but now he is working with us. We have an agreement that if he works for us for a prolonged period of time and everything goes well, we will take this developer from Soshace and he will become a part of our team.

He is proficient with both PHP and JavaScript and all the things you need to know to perform efficiently as a full-stack web developer. This includes JavaScript frameworks, deployment, Jenkins, and whatever else. He has many years of experience, and he’s very efficient in the tasks that we want him to do.

He has done some new features from scratch from backend to frontend to user interaction. He’s compliant with our company practices and requirements that he needs to finish his features.

What is the team dynamic?

I have worked only with the developer that we are using from Soshace. We are considering that maybe we will hire more developers from Soshace for other teams.

Infrequently, I interact with a person named Ivan Rastvorov who is project manager for our communication with the developer.

How did you come to work with Soshace?

They applied to our job listing on Upwork. They responded as an agency offering one of their developers to take up the task.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2017. The developer is still part of our team. We hope he will work with us for years to come.

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

We are completely happy with his work. In comparison to most of the developers I have come across, his quality is good. His work is not completely bug-free, but bugs have never made it to production; they were all resolved before that.

How did Soshace perform from a project management standpoint?

They are completely absent in this interaction because they gave us a developer and we integrated that developer into our team. He works remotely, and we communicate through Upwork.

What did you find most impressive about them?

His dedication and his talents in delivering everything on time are impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think he could benefit greatly if he voiced his opinions more. Sometimes he doesn’t speak up about problems or opportunities for improvements that he sees. If he would be more vocal, it would be better.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a software company creating software for offshore oil and gas well planning. It’s software dominated by a graphical workflow, digitizing a manual process. I’m the CTO.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soshace?

We needed more resources in order to develop faster. We needed more manpower.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s not one complex problem or something that we’re not able to do ourselves. They’re helping us with frontend and backend development using React, React-D3, Node.js, and Mongoose. They provided us with additional manpower for ADI and the database.

They are also helping us with the interface for our geological app. We’re trying to illustrate using charts that geological data and different types of data will pass, etc. It’s touching on all aspects of the frontend and parts of the backend. At least half of the app is in a separate module. The server is the API, whatever is interacting with the database and whatever is exposing endpoints for the frontend. It’s API default, creating, rating, updating, deleting, and logic.

What is the team dynamic?

I interact with 1 great developer who works remotely in Russia.

How did you come to work with Soshace?

We posted on LinkedIn that we needed a developer. Initially, our thought was to hire locally. They approached us, and we decided to work with them. We worked with them through Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested $10,000–$49,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2017, and the work is ongoing.

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

The developer we’re working with is very good. He’s producing more than he’s paid to do. He’s made us more productive. The code is reliable and functional. All of the requirements in the defined scope were fulfilled.

How did Soshace perform from a project management standpoint?

I work closely with the consultant. We have meetings every day and talk frequently. We’ve had a good collaboration. They send me an email once in a while with administrative questions, but 99.9% of my communication with the company is through the daily workflow with the consultant. We communicate through Slack and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The developer is doing more than he’s paid to do. He’s very interested in what he’s doing and is motivated. He’s keeping himself updated on new technologies and trends, which is very important for us being in this industry.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. The developer has been 100%.