Sunscrapers

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Engineering Manager for the internal advertising agency of a large packaged goods company based in the United States.

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

We hired Sunscrapers to augment our development team to meet specific project deadlines set for this year.

How did you select Sunscrapers and what were the deciding factors?

Several of my peers and I have worked with Sunscrapers at a previous company and had a great experience.

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

We had several websites that needed to be converted from one platform to another as well as needing help rebuilding some internal tooling specific to our serverside development.

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

We contracted a full stack developer, a backend developer as well as a QA resource.

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

We were able to meet our project deadlines with plenty of time to spare.

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

Working with the Sunscrapers devs was very seamless. We were able to integrate them into our daily standup meetings and continue communicating with them over Slack throughout the day. Additionally, we used ticketing and pull requests for develpment specific communication

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

Their ability to source good fitting candidates quickly and easily. was impressive.

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

Sometimes there can be some communication that needs clarification due to language barriers but it has never been a big problem.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO for Inspiration Company, a Stockholm-based company that helps our customers get more motivated employees and more loyal customers through dedicated reward programs.

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

Our tech-department had a very intense project roadmap, and we needed additional people in order to manage the workload. We didn't want to outsource projects wholesale, rather, we wanted people who could work within the existing team. Basically, we wanted someone who would act as close to a regular employee as possible.

How did you select Sunscrapers and what were the deciding factors?

We wanted to make sure to keep our development operation within the EU. We did a broad survey of the region, and eventually settled on Poland and Warsaw as our first choice. From that initial search, we narrowed our search to 3 potential partners. Out of those, Sunscrapers won out due to a combination of consultant profile strength and a professional handling of the procurement process.

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

Sunscrapers have assisted us with continuous development work on projects as well as individual tickets. Our stack primarily consists of Django and Vue.js. We also made it clear that we wanted someone to work with relative independence, rather than just building-to-spec, so the work has also involved weighing in on architectural issues, and suggesting parts of the code to refactor and modernize.

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

We've had one senior developer, who has worked as part of our in-house development team.

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

Sunscrapers has given us a significant boost in our development speed. We have managed to take on and deliver on much larger tasks than we could previously manage. Moreover, Sunscrapers has given another set of eyes to the team, suggesting changes that have greatly benefited our work.

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

Sunscrapers has been integrated in our existing development workflow, which uses Jira and a Kanban-like model. We primarily communicate using Slack, Zoom and e-mail.

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

The candidate quality was impressive. It's rare to find someone whose experience matches our own stack so closely. I was also impressed by their professionalism during the procurement process.

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

None that I can think of.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a professional development platform, and we create learning solutions for corporations who want to promote better team interaction. We conduct cross-cultural training to create inclusive environments for employees through our learning platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sunscrapers?

We’ve always had a small development team that we needed to expand, so we specifically looked for someone who could help us with frontend and React development. I tried outsourcing development resources, but we weren’t happy with the results from it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sunscrapers has assigned a dedicated developer to work with us full time. We brought them in and are really happy with their work. They provide us with management support on the site so that their developers can keep growing and learning in their roles.

We have this complex management system for all our resources and they support all of our frontend developments. They do maintenance work on the system aside from development work, and they contribute great ideas to provide effective solutions for our customers.

We’ve been so happy with the work that they’ve done that we’ve decided to bring in an additional backend developer. They feel like an in-house solution much more so than hiring from a third party so it’s been great.

What is the team composition?

We have a frontend developer and a backend developer, and we’re in the process of bringing in someone who can engage in full-stack development.

Our main point of contact is Kamil (COO), and we also have access to the CEO and CTO who I feel comfortable reaching out to whenever issues come up. But ultimately, our day to day contacts are the developers themselves.

How did you come to work with Sunscrapers?

It was a referral from a long-term partner of ours who gave us advice over the years. They had a similar arrangement with Sunscrapers where they brought in a single developer for a project who ended up becoming a full-time employee for them.

That model wasn’t something I was familiar with, so when I heard about that and the level of talent that was coming from Sunscrapers, I was impressed. I reached out to them to just fill in for an in-house role left by someone from the company, but they ended up becoming permanent members of the team.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend approximately $300,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership started in June 2017.

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

It’s nothing formal — we measure them more by the velocity of their work. They’ve really worked efficiently and are able to deliver on our project goals very well. I can’t give you numbers or statistics but just the overall impression that I’m very pleased with what they’ve done.

How did Sunscrapers perform from a project management standpoint?

We have one challenge that’s not necessarily their fault. They’re based in Poland, and the rest of our team is in New York and Los Angeles. So, there have been some time overlap issues we’re hoping to resolve with the new hire we’re bringing in. 

But in terms of overall delivery, they’re working really well. We recently hired a project manager to oversee projects and she works very well with the Sunscraper team, along with our technical leads in the US. They communicate with us on Slack and through the project management system that we use.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say the quality of the work and attention that we get from them. I’ve worked with lots of third-party development providers and firms, and we’ve never had the kind of engagement level we get from Sunscrapers with any of them.

Their development competency is much better than our experience in the past. I believe part of that comes from the investment they have in us.
Aside from that, the level of partnership that we have with them encourages greater quality in the work we can deliver.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really, the only issue that we’ve had is the overlap of time. They’ve done a good job taking on this new requirement presenting us with several great candidates who are going to work the extra hours for us. It’s not really something they could improve on, but it’s the only thing that comes to mind when thinking about the challenges of working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say be really clear about the requirements for the work or role you’re hiring with them. Also, constant communication is really important. Don’t think of them as an outsourced team, think of them as being part of your internal team as this was an important part of what made this partnership successful.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the co-founders of a company called health plan, and we’re building a platform for doctors, patients, and other health providers to prepare, manage, and review health plans for patients with chronic disease.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sunscrapers?

We are a family business. My dad is a doctor, I have a background in finance law, and my brother has technical experience but not to the scale of a project like this. Given how we’re hoping to scale it in the future and the sensitivity of patient data, we thought it would be most appropriate to bring in a third-party developer.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project is a web-based platform that allows users to set a plan in place for a patient as to how they’re going to manage and mitigate chronic diseases. The whole thing has become a lot more complex than either we or Sunscrapers envisioned in our early interactions, but we’re now reaching the final stages of development.

The backend is Python with a Django framework, and the frontend is written in React. Those are languages my brother is familiar with and thought would be most suitable for the platform, so we settled on those fairly early on. There are a lot of interacting features such as plan creation, data logging, and communication capabilities going on in the background as well.

What is the team composition?

We work with a core team of three which consists of Pawel (Operations Manager, Sunscrapers) and one backend and one frontend developer as well. At a few stages, we added a couple of others to speed up the process, but that has been their team dealing with us quite regularly.

How did you come to work with Sunscrapers?

We actually found them on Clutch. We were recommended to look at developers based in Poland by a couple of people we know in Australia who have worked with teams there before, and the most useful resource that came up was Clutch.

We got in touch with 8–10 developers on your platform and went through a pitching process. At the end of that, we decided that Sunscrapers were a perfect fit.

How much have you invested with them?

The total development and design cost will be about $200,000 Australian dollars (approximately $138,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in April of this year and are still working together, though we are in our final sprint for the project.

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

It’s a little early to tell how the application will be received, but just last week we started using it with a few surgeons and nurses that are developing health plans for their patients. So far, the feedback has been quite positive.

They all say it’s a useful platform and provides them with all the features and flexibility they need to do that kind of work. It basically does exactly what we wanted it to from the outset.

How did Sunscrapers perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very responsive to all of our requests. We speak with them on a daily basis and make sure that everyone is on the same page, and then communicate back and forth as needed if we have any issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been extremely easy to work with. I have plenty of experience dealing with other teams on projects over my career and I really think that Sunscrapers do a great job of mailing themselves easy to work with and making the process enjoyable for everyone. On top of the fact that their technical standards are so high, I think they really stand out from the competition.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think our key issue has been the overall cost of the project, which has gone outside of what we budgeted for, but that has been more because of how complex the project ended up being. They quoted us in line with all of the other teams that we spoke to, so I don’t think there’s anything that Sunscrapers could have specifically done to stop that from happening.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s good to focus on the backend structure before you get started on the project. Making sure everyone’s on the same page and really developing that structure before you start to flesh the project out will save you a lot of time in the long run.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a microcredit provider operating in Poland and Brazil, and expanding to a new market in Latin America. We focus on customer credit as an alternative to traditional banking approaches. We use big data and machine learning methods to assess the credit worthiness of our customers.

Our services are fully digital and online and comprehensive, covering everything from customer acquisition to the credit check and loan servicing. Everything happens through our website and app.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sunscrapers?

The goal of the project was to create our own landing platform from scratch using our experience with similar applications. We had a SaaS application model, but we were using different software in both Poland and Brazil, which led to operational overhead and reporting trouble. The aim was to build a single piece of software that would be our property, increase business value, and unify all our processes.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a lot of experience using similar applications, and the project was built from scratch. There were no wireframes, but we had fine-grained requirements at hand. The platform was built in Django Python, with a React.js frontend. Sunscrapers handled all the coding for three separate apps. Though they’re standalone solutions, they work together.

It’s quite complex, with several customer-facing components involved, including the landing pages, registration form, and a back-office panel (single-age JavaScript application), where our employees take care of loan servicing and credit checks. There’s also a connection to our machine learning scoring system, as well as a couple loosely-coupled components we consolidated into a digital credit platform.

What is the team composition?

At our peak, I believe there were four main developers, a QI tester, and a designer. With the project manager, that makes seven people in total.

How did you come to work with Sunscrapers?

I made the architectural decision to build the project in Python, so I looked for software houses in the area. I first focused on Poland, mainly Warsaw, since we’re also based there, and we figured out that being in the same geographical location would be beneficial to the relationship.

Our requirements weren’t formally written and mainly consisted of brainstorming sessions, which we did in-person. I looked on Clutch and shortlisted a few potential companies. We interviewed three of them and chose Sunscrapers based on their personal feeling and connection.

How much have you invested with them?

Up until the project stopped, the commitment was of about 700,000 Polish Zloty ($179,300 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We hired them in August 2018, but there was a three-month period prior to that for discussing the legal bits and pieces. The brainstorming and requirement-gathering sessions started in December of that year, and work started in January 2019. The project ended in mid-July 2019.

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

We haven’t launched, but we’re currently in the middle of a Series-A investment roadshow. The app is 75% finished, and we’re showcasing it to potential investors. The feedback we’ve been getting has been nothing but positive, but we can’t show off anything concrete. There aren’t any production environments to put processes in, but we can share screens and details about the project in general.

How did Sunscrapers perform from a project management standpoint?

We followed the scrum framework, adapting the pieces that suited our task: two-week sprints, with features planned for each one ahead of time. The communication was daily during this time, for us to provide answers to any questions the developers had.  I liaised with the project manager on the Sunscrapers’ side, and I think the communication went smoothly.

There were a few misunderstood requirements in the beginning, but this is normal when building up incrementally without prior documentation. Biweekly feedback sessions allowed us to bring up issues and look for solutions.

It was also our wish to be involved in the smaller processes and internal communication of the team. We had a lot of business domain knowledge, and Sunscrapers had the resources to program and make things work. Our communication was daily, and we used their dedicated Slack channels.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I hadn’t had experience with other providers, but I wish everyone would have the same experience we did on this project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a few minor points, but Sunscrapers rectified those upon me mentioning them. I have nothing to add on this matter.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Anyone considering outsourced development should come with clear knowledge of what they’re trying to accomplish, as to not waste time. If you don’t manage these things properly, a time and materials engagement can accrue serious expenses without delivering any value in return. Fortunately, we had clear expectations and knew what to do. I recommend that clients watch their budgets in relation to what they want to do.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a life science company who develops and manufactures innovative products that simulate the fluids inside the stomach. The uptake of our products and technology will help speed up drug development and reduce animal testing. We're based in London, U.K. and have customers all over the world. I am a co-founder.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sunscrapers ?

We hired Sunscrapers to build and maintain our website, for both the front and the back-end, and also to build some bespoke software for use within our business. And we try to continually evolve and improve our website.

What were your goals for this project?

In addition to having an aethetically-pleasing website, we also need rock-solid E-commerce functionality that has a great UX as well. And when we do encounter technical difficulties or bugs, we need these resolved as quickly as possible.

How did you select this vendor?

We have known one of the co-founders for many years and we elected to use his company's services when he started this business. We have kept on using his company's services for over 10 years since their inception, because we're happy with how they work and the quality of their work.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Sunscrapers have built our website and maintain its front and back-end functionality. We required a highly usable e-commerce website and some custom-made software applications to help with the running of our business.

We continuously add to or re-develop our website and software applications as our business evolves. Therefore we need a tech partner who is sufficiently agile to cope with our increasing demands.

What was the team composition?

The team composition from Sunscrapers is a project manager and a dedicated website coder.

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

We know from the moment we have gone live with either a new website or upgraded feature, whether or not it is working. Either a notable increase or decrease in customer feedback, will indicate how a particular project has gone.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management is based around organising tasks into 2 week sprints and monitoring this process using Trello and Slack. At the end of each sprint there's a review with Sunscrapers and us about how these tasks have gone. Future tasks to be tackled are placed on a backlog board. We've found this to be a highly effective way of working.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Sunscrapers' way of working is highly methodical and organized. this makes the geographical distance between us and them not an issue. Furthermore, they are good communicators, so if there are any minor issues to resolve during a sprint, they can be resolved swiftly and painlessly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Over the years we've worked with Sunscrapers, they've always given a lot of thought to how they work and have updated their methods accordingly. Their current sprint-based approach is undoubtedly very effective. Having said that, they are still receptive to customer feedback and suggestions.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of a machine learning firm on a mission to give people their time back.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sunscrapers?

For one of our clients, we were rebuilding the user flow of a web application that eases preparing tax settlements. We were running short on time, so we asked Sunscrapers to help us boost the speed of development of the backend part of the project where the amount of work exceeded our capacity.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to rebuild the user flow, as that was essential for marketing strategy.

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended in our community. In addition, other vendors couldn't provide us an experienced developer within such a short time frame.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They helped with the development of a few critical features. They traced two bugs which otherwise would have presented serious issues. In addition, they helped to design the architecture of a new feature for one segment of customers.

What was the team composition?

They provided us with one experienced developer who joined a team of five.

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

We are building a long-term relationship with our customer, so every improvement in the process is very important for us. Their development assistance made a difference.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was solely on our shoulders. We had a single point of contact for requests from our side.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their flexibility allowed us to extend our team for a short period of time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would expect more direct feedback from developers regarding work that is planned.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the COO of a software development consultancy.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sunscrapers?

We hired Sunscrapers to augment our team working on a long-term project for a strategic client.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal of the project was to deliver a comprehensive, critical web app.

How did you select this vendor?

Sunscrapers had a reputation for being a team of great Django developers.

Describe the project in detail.

The project primarily consisted of a Django backend and JavaScript frontend. They worked with our team on the development and utilized PostgreSQL databases and AWS to build the app.

What was the team composition?

They provided a senior Django developer for our project.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Sunscrapers achieved all of the milestones we set for them.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had an amazing workflow between our teams. They were great communicators and their developer perfectly fit in with us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I appreciated their development skills, technical prowess, and strong communication. They had a great attitude, as well.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There was nothing to be improved during our project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a competitive intelligence and e-commerce performance agency working for e-tailers and manufacturers.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sunscrapers?

We needed to redesign our web application's appearance, which involved reworking the UI/UX design, graphic design, and coding.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to deliver improved functionality along with a modernized look and feel to our customers.

How did you select this vendor?

We found Sunscrapers through a recommendation from another happy client of theirs.

Describe the project in detail.

Sunscrapers supported us through the process of design, testing with customers, and final implementation. Sunscrapers not only helped our team but also led us through the process and assisted us in implementing good practices.

What was the team composition?

They assigned a project manager, a UI/UX engineer, a graphic designer, and a frontend developer.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We redesigned and re-implemented most of our modules to provide a better experience for our clients.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was perfect. Their team was responsive and eager to not only deliver what we asked for but also in suggesting their own improvements to the product and the process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We expected to outsource part of the work that we couldn't do in-house and what we really received was guidance and an ownership-based approach from the team at Sunscrapers. It's rare to work with vendors that take their own initiative and responsibility for the outcome and not only for billable hours.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were working on a time and materials basis through lots of the iterations, including our feedback and customer’s feedback. Because of that, there were slow periods on our end at times, but we also had to wait for Sunscrapers’ team to become available for us again, as they’d be assigned to other projects. Of course, this is something that we anticipated in choosing this model of collaboration and it was a trade-off that we understood and were informed about before starting the project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the VP of operations for a marketing and advertising firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sunscrapers?

We reached out to Sunscrapers to provide some additional development support for a creative management platform that enables us to build various versions of digital ads at scale for clients. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sunscrapers provides development support for our platform, including the frontend, backend, and overall architecture of the system, as well as coming up with new feature ideas and QA. They've used technologies that include Python, JavaScript, React, HTML, Django, Celery, and Docker.

What is the team composition? 

We work with two developers at the moment.

How did you come to work with Sunscrapers?

I wasn't involved in the hiring process, but I believe we were looking around for development shops with lots of Python experience. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested in the range of $200,00–$300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around June 2016 and launched the platform by September 2017, but our relationship is ongoing. 

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

Sunscrapers' development contributions to our platform have allowed our business to grow significantly.

How did Sunscrapers perform from a project management standpoint?

Although we handle project management on our end, their developers have been very communicative, accessible, and responsive. We have daily scrum meetings over video chat. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their consistency, dedication, and ability to scale resources as needed has been great. They take the time to find the right resources to work on our account and haven't charged us for the onboarding process when the person wasn't the right fit. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I've enjoyed working with them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be collaborative and open to other technologies or languages they may suggest, and try to help them understand the project holistically so they can find the right person on their team to meet those needs.