Successive Technologies

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Leaderspace is a consulting services provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with Successive Technologies?

They made our website, from creative design to technology implementation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Successive was responsible for the ideation, in terms of user personas, workflows, and designs. I wanted a simple, clean website that would explain my concept. There’s a bit of storytelling involved as well.

They set up the navigation flow from one page to another, calls to action, and contact forms. The team also did some custom work on how we can categorize our contacts.

Successive translated that into visual designs using a standard WordPress theme as the basis. They translated those designs into HTMLs and did the WordPress implementation.

What is the team composition?

I worked with four people from Successive: a UI/UX designer, a WordPress developer, someone responsible for hosting and deployment, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Successive Technologies?

I’d known about them for a while, and I had an informal conversation with their CEO when I had a project. He proposed WordPress and a number of solutions that would fit the budget I was comfortable with and would make the site easy to maintain. It was an existing relationship that turned into a business relationship.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was between $5,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from July–September 2020.

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

It’s quite early to define the impact in terms of metrics, but I’ve had more than 100 visitors per month. Getting that kind of foot traffic is great for me, and the site is useful for starting conversations with potential clients.

I’m happy with the overall look and feel of the site. It needs to evolve in the long term, but it’s exactly what I need at this point in time.

I showed the site to friends and family, and everyone told me that it’s nice and clean and simple to navigate.

How did Successive Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the great things about Successive is that they assign a project manager for each implementation, large or small. Even though I had a small project, I was able to interact with the project manager assigned to me. Another thing I liked about Successive was the fast turnaround time. They implemented the solution end to end in not more than two months.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with their technology know-how. There were instances where I wasn’t satisfied with any of the options Successive provided, and they adapted to the feedback and made the changes as per my needs, while also making sure that they weren’t deviating from the budget.

Certain features I wanted were hard to implement from a technology perspective, but Successive provided the right workarounds. They went to the WordPress community, did some research, and provided the right solutions.

No solution is perfect given the limitations of the platform, but I’m happy with the final outcome.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They need a bigger client base in order to do larger implementations than they currently are. They should increase their brand awareness and market messaging on what types of services they do.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Successive is a great partner for clients looking to build custom technologies. They’re able to come up with multiple solutions, so long as the client is clear on what the problem is. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of ATP Images, a photography company. We’re a B2B company that allows photographers to sell their photos to various publications.

What challenge were you trying to address with Successive Technologies?

We needed someone to develop the website for our new company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a website where we can sell photos. We are using AWS technology. They have a cloud as well.

What is the team composition?

There are four or so developers and a project manager, but my main point of contact was Ritu (Project Consultation Manager) who arranged everything for me. 

How did you come to work with Successive Technologies?

I found them on Glassdoor. I also saw them on LinkedIn. I also read their reviews on Clutch and decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $15,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and the work is ongoing.

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

The website is working very well. I have a team testing my website and they told me it’s working well. We had a meeting with them about the search engine, and I told them it wasn’t working well. My technical team tested it after, and they told me it’s now working well.

How did Successive Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is good. They were on time. We had a lot of challenges with the project manager but they fixed everything for me. They’re honest and professional. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were honest. When I spoke with them, they told understood me. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I told them they should implement a structure at the start. We had a small challenge with them, but we have spoken, and they fixed it. I’m satisfied. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My suggestion is to put everything line by line in the first contract.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Dentsu World Services, previously Isobar, which is primarily a digital marketing and e-commerce company. We mainly work on creative content for our parent company, Dentsu Global. Our firm uses web technologies like Node.js, Magento, PHP, AngularJS, Adobe Experience Manager, and Sitecore.

I head the program management team at the company, working with different project managers and partners. Moreover, I also take care of the financials and resourcing needs of multiple projects.

What challenge were you trying to address with Successive Technologies?

They’ve helped us fulfill our resourcing needs in areas where we lacked competencies through staff augmentation services. Successive Technology is the primary partner we go to when we get projects on urgent priority from different markets and clients. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Currently, we’re building three regional Magento websites for clients in the Americas, Canada, and Europe.

We reach out to Successive Technologies primarily for Node.js, Magento, PHP, and AngularJS development. Additionally, we also rely on them with CMS implementation, including Sitecore and Adobe Experience Manager.

What is the team composition?

At present, we are running a huge project with 40 people involved for which we’ve onboarded three people from Successive Technologies.

We also have 8–10 people from Successive Technologies working with Dentsu World Services and there are 60–80 people from their team working with our parent company, as far as I know. 

How did you come to work with Successive Technologies?

I found them on LinkedIn and went to their website to review their testimonials. My leadership team and I had a call with them and we gave them a small test project. The engagement went well so we gave them more work.  

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work overall is $8,000–$10,000 per month but it may increase in the coming months. Usually, we negotiate the price at the start of each partnership and it stays the same even if there’s a resource change or a similar issue – they’re flexible in this respect.

What is the status of this engagement?

The large project started around December 2019 and we expect it to go live in February 2021.

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

Successive Technologies has performed excellently on both fronts, even working on weekends.  Their commitment and knowledge levels are excellent. We have numerous partners and Successive Technologies is a very good one.

The large project we’re running is very stringent in terms of timelines and cost and we couldn’t make any compromises. If someone became unavailable, they are immediately replaced with a resource of a similar capacity. Aside from that, we’ve just spoken to Successive Technologies about a new engagement.

How did Successive Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a fortnightly connect with all our partners, including Successive Technologies, and we closely monitor their performance. We take close feedback from the project managers and I talk to the resources as well. The feedback that’s come around Successive Technologies has been great. We let them know of any improvement points and they’ll take care of those by the next time we meet.

Second, I can call them at any point in time, including after office hours. Even if they’re busy, they’ll line up someone to take my requirements and guide me to the right person. We often get urgent requirements which need to be started the next day. The team generally deliver results within 24 hours without us having to remind them. They’re quite proactive and vigilant with demands.

Their resources can work as individual contributors and they don’t require micromanagement. Our project managers feel comfortable working with Successive Technologies’ resources because they’re self-managed. We use Jira across the organization, seconded by Microsoft Project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m very impressed by the nature of the responses we get from them. Their agility and responsiveness are excellent, as is the subject matter expertise. Further, they have cost-effective solutions and they are a hardworking team. We’ve never been disappointed by any engagement with Successive Technologies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Successive Technologies could increase their resource count. They’re in high demand, mainly from our parent company and I’ve sometimes felt challenged getting resources. Despite that, they always try to help, either by finding a new timeline or reassigning a developer. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I would recommend them for Node.js and Magento work. I don’t know what other competencies they have because we’ve never gotten the chance to explore them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I help in Marketing and expansion of a family-owned clothing business.

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

Project: Cross-Platform Mobile App Development and e-commerce website

Goals: We were looking to do the transition from the traditional to e-commerce solutions and this Pandemic gave that opportunity and a strong purpose too.

How did you select Successive Technologies and what were the deciding factors?

I was hunting for the companies which can help me build this project and while searching on Linkedin I found this company which promised me to deliver for a better price, timely delivery, and post-delivery support for the application

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

The company started to wireframe the application, I sat with the project team and brainstormed ideas about my business, website, mobile apps, payment gateway, woocommerce, and other features. Later, we discussed the design, user experience, and development of the project for the next quarter. The application is still in the development phase.

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

The team consists of a Project Manager, Developers, QA team and UI, and UX team.

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

They have shown the Beta Version 1.6 of the IOS and Android application, and the UI and UX part pretty decent.

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

Project Management Style: Collaborative and Transparent Communication Tool: Slack and Redmine are the 2 main tools

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

1. The constant support from the development team was very impressive
2. The Project Manager was very supportive and helpful
3. One-touch support and timely iteration

Are there any areas for improvement?

In the first phase of the project went smoothly and discussing for the next phase and plan of action with the Team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director for an international association of civil defense lawyers. We provide continuing legal education and are an advocate of the defense bar.

What challenge were you trying to address with Successive Software?

We wanted to develop a cost-effective interactive app that would allow our members to better network with one another.

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the beginning, we worked together to refine the scope of the project in order to have it completed on time and on cost. We documented the scope and kept it highly detailed. Successive provided the wireframes, which we reviewed and edited together.

The members-only app is for Android and iPhone and allows users to communicate in a safe and secure way. Members can refer and track business from one another. They can also create personal circles in which to network. The app provides access to registration lists for our seminars, allowing users to establish on-site meetings to further business.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with the president of Successive and our project manager.

How did you come to work with Successive Software?

A local company here in Chicago referred Successive, and we vetted them thoroughly. Based on their expertise, fee structure, quick project turnaround, and work product, we selected them.

How much have you invested with them?

This project started in March 2017 and has already finished. We’re currently working on another project, though.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve spent between $10,000–$50,000.

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

We did a soft rollout at the beginning of the year, so it’s too early to provide specifics. It's been well-received by members, and I anticipate the app will be used greatly. Any code issues that came up through the testing were handled quickly and successfully.

How did Successive Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Successive was responsive throughout the entire development. The company’s president has visited Chicago numerous times, so we were able to sit down with him and talk face-to-face. The team is always available via phone, and they cater to our schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were detail-oriented, focused on quality, and easy to work with. They adjusted their work hours based on our Chicago time zone, which was incredibly helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

We worked with more than just Successive on this project, so if you do that, then you need to be aware of communication. Take into account that multiple agencies are working on the code and keep everything organized.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of an IT consulting firm. We primarily help clients with apps and websites.

What challenge were you trying to address with Successive Software?

We hired them to build a web and mobile platform for a client.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our main challenge was to build a platform with both a web component and an app. The website allows users to create multimedia content (e.g. text, images, collages, videos, Q&A posts) using an intuitive interface. Content is then consumed on the app, which needed some special features, including geolocation and QR code-generation. We also wanted to ensure seamless performance between content creation and consumption.

We provided the wireframing for the app and they fleshed it out from there. They also helped us with UX, since that was a critical element of the platform. We built the app using Xamarin, so we spent most of the time developing the app for Android first and then released an iOS version about a month later.

What is the team composition?

I worked with their main project manager, but we occasionally chatted with five other team members, including testers, developers, and a graphic designer.

How did you come to work with Successive Software?

Our technical requirements were uncommon, so we approached several companies we'd identified online and talked with them to see who might be a good fit for our work. We're ex-developers ourselves, so we had a specific idea of what we were looking for. We were impressed by Successive Software because their owner is also a technical architect, and he's extremely fluent in Xamarin. He wasn't directly involved in our project, but I'm sure he contributed in the background as we worked with their development team.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They worked on the app from May–December 2016.

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

They built this app for a client, so we don't have direct access to the metrics for how well it's doing now that it's launched. That said, Successive did a great job with the coding. Bugs were inevitable because of the project's complexity, but they undertook the work seriously and cleaned up any errors very quickly.

How did Successive Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We had calls twice a week through Skype, and we used Jira for project management. They were extremely responsive. If I could do this process over, I would've given them the requirements and let them build the app from scratch. I tried to be highly involved since it was our first collaboration, and I think I actually slowed them down.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In my previous experience with Indian developers, they're reluctant to tell you if something comes up that might slow down the project, but Successive was refreshingly upfront about any possible delays. We gave them some extremely demanding work and they provided excellent service in return.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish they'd assigned a bigger team to speed up the process more.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Explain clearly, and not just your requirements. You have to share the bigger picture of why you're undertaking the project so they can better anticipate and understand your needs. We found this helpful, as Successive’s team would evaluate different scenarios and come back to us with alternatives if they saw any flaws in our idea.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the managing director of App Developer Studio. We develop applications for clients, primarily in South Africa.

What challenge were you trying to address with Successive Software?

I had an idea for a wildlife sighting app for people on safari in Southern Africa, but didn't have the technical skills to build it myself.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We do the sales, client and project management and design work. They do the coding and most of the testing for iOS and Android apps, mostly back-end work.

Since the initial wildlife app, they've worked on a number of additional projects. They primarily build native apps, but are increasingly doing more cross-platform, as well as some web development.

Most of the apps are not off-the-shelf, and have very specific requirements. For example, they built a panic button app that contacts a security company when you shake or drop your phone. It can tell them exactly where you are and track your movements in real-time.

How did you come to work with Successive Software?

I found them through a freelancing platform, oDesk.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent just over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work began about five years ago, and is ongoing.

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

They've built about 50 customized native apps.

How did Successive Software perform from a project management standpoint?

In the beginning, things occasionally fell through the cracks on the more complicated projects. Now we understand how we work and they work, it's almost like we're one big team and it doesn't feel like they're really outsourced. Depending on the size of the project, we allocate resources to project management and when we do that it is managed well. 

We use Slack as a project management tool, and it’s working quite well. The team is very responsive and quick to address any issues that arise.

There are some challenges working with a remote development team whose first language is not English. We end up doing a lot of design and prototyping in-house, to help them understand the requirements and be able to provide an accurate quote.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very skilled at what they do, especially native, iOS, and Android development. They can do some of the more unusual and custom development that a lot of other developers can't do.

The team is very focused, hardworking, and honest.

Are there any areas they could improve?

A year ago I'd have said yes, but now I'm happy with the team. They’ve assigned us the team members with the right skill sets for our projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Because of the language barrier, it’s often helpful to describe things with pictures instead of words. Also, get to know the individuals on the team and their abilities in order to find the best fit for each project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run my own consultancy firm, but I was also a director of a fintech company in the solar industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Successive Software?

With the fintech company, we were building a platform from scratch, replacing legacy software that was somewhat outdated. I was the technical lead of that project.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I started the work and brought  in their team a month into it. They did the work more or less from scratch. We built the platform on the LAMP Stack (which consists of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP), and used Laravel PHP as the framework of choice.

The finance application performs risk assessment for solar commercial projects. For example, if a $5 million solar project needs bank funding, that bank needs assurance that there will be a high chance of success. Our platform looks at the company’s financials and models the solar power system. It then calculates how much output the system will have, how much the total cost will be, how long it will take to build, and so on.

It then generates a report the bank can rely on to determine whether it will fund the project or not. It’s a matter of measuring the potential success of a solar project before beginning construction. It helps identify potential problems that would keep the bank from funding it.

They also do projects for my consultancy firm.

What is the team dynamic?

I've worked with 2–3 different developers from their team over the course of a year. They weren’t finally in charge of architecture. I was the main engineer of the project, while their team acted as assistant coders.

How did you come to work with Successive Software?

I posted a job ad on Upwork, and they applied, along with 10 other companies. I sat down and interviewed 5–6 of them, and Successive stood out from that group.

I have a lot of experience interviewing people, and they were on-point—I got a solid answer for each question I asked. The pricing was reasonable, the service level was high, and they took a lot of responsibility. They proved knowledgeable in the Laravel framework. They even came up with solutions I hadn’t thought of, in cases where they had more experience than me.

How much have you invested with them?

Totaling all the work they’ve done on the fintech project, I’ve paid them around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May or June 2016. The platform is an ongoing project, and it will never actually be wrapped up. I plan to hire them again in 1–2 weeks.

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

They added a number of useful functionalities. Their architectural decisions made it much easier to maintain the software and significantly increased its usability. I had a solution to implement, but they pushed back with a different strategy that ended up working much better. Their solution enabled me to track the workflow of the software in a completely different fashion and solve many of the problems inherent in my architecture.

I’ve worked with outsourced software services for at least 10–15 years, before sites like Upwork were available. I’ve never come across someone this reliable, especially in India. I genuinely believe that they’re very good—always on-point and very skillful. And that’s not simply to give them a good review. I’m an engineer myself, so it’s easy for me to measure their code quality and work ethic.

I’ve connected them with friends and other companies I know. They’ve used Successive’s services and have also been very happy.

How did Successive Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They are responsive. Even after the project was done and we hadn’t talked for a month, one of their employees let me know that he would be unavailable 10 days in advance. He didn’t need to report to me, but he wanted to make sure I knew in case something came up. That’s a level of care I don’t normally see even from full-time staff, let alone from an external provider who was done with the job. It demonstrated a certain responsibility for their projects, which I appreciate.

We have 2 daily check-ins—one in the morning and one at night. At the end of each workday, they push the code to a domain repository, where I see how much they’ve completed. We communicate equally through Skype and project management software (JIRA in this particular case).

I don’t want to hold the time difference against them, but it’s not always pleasant to wait until 10 p.m. my time to have a conversation. It’s usually easier to interface with people locally than across the globe. At the same time, Successive has been more reliable than my in-house staff.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve found them to be dependable—I paid for what I needed implemented. If 2 weeks passed and I found a bug or an issue I wasn’t happy with, they fixed it free of charge. Bugs happen to everyone, but their response times make the difference. Two or three times in the year I’ve worked with them, I’ve found a bug outside of office hours, and they’ve worked overnight to repair it by the next morning. That’s another example of the responsibility they take for their projects.

Their resources also got up to speed surprisingly quickly. I’m used to people needing a couple of days to become familiar with a project before they start coding. Every time a new resource joined the project, he’d start coding right away, and I’d begin to see implementations within the first day.

As a last example of their dedication, one of their engineers had a meeting in San Francisco. He actually flew to Los Angeles to meet with me just to sit down and have a cup of coffee. We’d been working together for a couple of months at this point, and he wanted to meet in person. This was a nice gesture, especially since it involved a cost on his end.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could be doing better. In fact, working with them has actually given me more confidence to take on projects personally. I recently took on a pharmaceutical app with a scope that’s a bit bigger than I alone could deliver in the given timeframe. Without even checking with Successive, I knew I could use their resources and get the project done in sufficient time. I know that they can deliver and that I can work with them to achieve what needs to be done.

Do you have any advice for future customers?

Be aware of the time difference when engaging in a partnership of this kind.