Suria Labs

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Head of E-Commerce in an international brewery conglomerate.

For what projects/services did your company hire Suria Labs?

We engaged Suria Labs to design and develop the front end for our e-commerce app that allows customers to order drinks right from the app and have it delivered to their doorstep within the hour.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to build a modern, sleek, user friendly app that would make it as seamless as possible to order drinks. The app needed to fall in line with our brand guidelines but also follow design best practices. We wanted the app to be developed in React Native and it also had to integrate with our existing Magento back end.

How did you select Suria Labs?

I searched and contacted those in my network who were in the software development business. My team and I interviewed many candidates, reviewing their capabilities, past work, and proposals. The management and I agreed that Suria Labs would make for a suitable fit.

Describe the project in detail.

We needed to get the design right from the get go, so we started working closely with their designer, while their developers met with our Magento back end team to discuss and plan the integration. They came back to us with detailed user stories and a timeline with milestones along with the first few design concepts.

Once the designs were approved, they started the development work. We were very impressed by the speed and quality in which they worked. It was obvious they were a seasoned development team.

What was the team composition?

They offered us 1 designer, 2 developers and 1 Project Manager during the development phase. During the maintenance phase, one developer and their Project Manager remained.

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

Suria Labs was able to deliver on time and on budget. We were able to enter our UAT testing phase in the timeline that was agreed on. Now, one quarter down the line, we have over 10,000 downloads.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their team is very easy to work with. They are good communicators and have an established Scrum process in place. They simply came to our office once a week to demo the work that had been done and to plan for the next week.

The only struggle was the liaison with Suria Labs and our Magento back end team. As the front end work is dependent on having APIs ready, we did encounter some roadblocks in lining up the timelines between the two teams.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Speed and quality. I've done numerous software projects before and I understand that it takes time to build an app that looks good and works well. They nailed the implementation and accomplished it within the stipulated timeline. Their turnaround time to attend to bugs and enhancements was also very impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We had to request for several of enhancements as we were under the assumption that it was covered in the scope. It would have been good if the initial user stories was more detailed. That way I would be able to have identified any areas where our expectations were not aligned.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO, founder, and inventor of a music mobile artist to fan concert technology experience.

What challenge were you trying to address with Suria Labs?

We were trying to find the right strategic or technical partner that can build what we set out to do. We are a company that owns several patents in the area of music concert and streaming. In relation to that, we were in search of a team that can help bring our patents and technology to life, in the way we envision it working. Our main goal involves real-time streaming and sync of concert audio to video, and real-time broadcast audio to video — to enhance and improve a viewing audiences’ mobile experiences, whether it be concerts, broadcasts, or streaming events. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had nine things to accomplish on the backend side and the servers. Additionally, we wanted to make sure that what we built in the cloud was going to be migrated easily and transferred over to a data center when we are ready to scale. Moreover, we also wanted the team to understand the size and scale of the project so that they can build the right foundation in the right framework that would enable us to scale the project that we were building. They've used Python, C++, AWS, and the fingerprinting algorithm.

Our work has always required a lot of flexibility and understanding when it comes to how we're going to use the product on the user side and on the B2B client-side. Essentially we've been building for two ends, for B2B and B2C. The team has handled the B2B backend that the B2C will use. They've had to work on the solutions that work best for us.

Moreover, the team has also considered the limitations we've had such as the precise way that our concerts and broadcast was going to need to get to the cloud, based on bandwidth and packets of data, and more. They have offered many alternate solutions, but not all of the solutions have worked best for how we plan to use them for our users, and how to build them for our users and party users.

Currently, we’re in the beta test flight mode, so we're adding more testers to the group. In our testing efforts, we have had ways to see the reaction on the faces of our external stakeholders. We’ve also been able to bring on a senior VP of a major streaming company to product manage the solution we've been building.

What is the team composition?

Many people work on our project including a lead developer, lead architect, two developers, and 4–5 mobile iOS and Android graphics UI developers. 

How did you come to work with Suria Labs?

I have a long-lasting 20-year friendship with an MIT Stanford dspGuru. I trusted in his ability to find a competent vendor that could work for us. I also trusted his technical knowledge, foresight, and ability to find the best personality for the project. 

Before, we tried to get software developers, but they pushed us to use only the software they knew. In this case, Suria Labs took the time to learn and develop a product that our project manager suggested to go with. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $25,000.  We already have the next four components for things we want to build in the next phase and we’ve seen estimates for that. As a result, the next phase will probably cost $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started collaborating in January 2020, and it’s ongoing. We ended phase one this past week, but we’re going to discuss phase two and beyond soon.

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

They have been knowledgeable about presenting solutions for the products that we’ve been building. Our product works and it works the way we envisioned it. In addition, it can help us create new opportunities to expand our infrastructure in our team later on, and that’s probably the best way to measure it. 

How did Suria Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent. We mainly use Slack to communicate — it’s been very simple. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Once they are in a rhythm with our team, their ability to work through problems and find solutions have been impressive. They tell us how much time they need to work on something and they plug away what they need to do. They’re very consistent and focused on getting things to work. Moreover, they communicate properly when they need more time. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I honestly can’t think of anything. I have a lot of plans with their team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you have a dedicated company project lead that can definite the scope of work and be really clear about what you want to do. Have a schedule with their team to test. In our case, they’ve gone above and beyond in testing our product. Testing wasn’t in the original scope of work, but they didn’t say they can’t do it — they just made it happen.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Carpit is an automotive startup that makes car maintenance easy for car owners. The app provides access to engine and tyre services at transparent prices. I am the co-founder of the business.

For what projects/services did your company hire Suria Labs?

We have Suria Labs to help us come up with the initial MVP from design all the way to launch of the beta app.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create a minimum viable product to validate our business model in the market.

How did you select this vendor?

We searched online for various mobile app developers. We selected Suria Labs from the previous projects and their ability to help create apps using the agile development framework.

Describe the project in detail.

I had a meeting with Bjarte to describe the project, he then assembled his team to initiate the initial discovery workshop which lasted for a whole day. We received the project estimates and started working on the project on two week sprints. Every fortnight, we will hold a verification meeting to go over the developments and to plan out the next two week sprint.

What was the team composition?

He had a project coordinator, Sam in constant contact with us. He helped translate our requirements to the project team for the tasks required to complete. The project team consists of usually two developers and a designer.

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

Although I have close to zero experience in tech development, Suria Labs was able to help set us up for our MVP launch. It was shaky for us to embark on a tech business and we learnt alot from the development team.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

At the time of development, my team was also tied up with a corporate exercise but Suria Labs was able to continue with the sprints and roll out the project with minimal delays.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The founders Bjarte and Robert are well experienced in building software solutions. They are able to guide us on the right structure and wireframe for our app. We have sent the codes for audit and the feedback received is usually the codes are clean and there are multiple tests built to ensure good code quality.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It would be better to spend a bit more time on the UI/UX designs and conduct some validations before building the backend. Although it will take up a longer time to build the project, it will reduce the change requests and development budget.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a startup. It’s a hybrid between a gig economy and neobank platform that acts as a peer-to-peer money payment service. I’m also responsible for the UX.

What challenge were you trying to address with Suria Labs?

We hired Suria Labs for the development and design for a React Native application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Suria Labs developed and designed our money payment application using React Native and Ruby on Rails for the backend. They also created our company website. I provided the wireframes while they enhanced the concept.

What is the team composition?

There were about five people on their team.

How did you come to work with Suria Labs?

I had a relationship with someone who used to have a company in Europe and then became a partner with Suria Labs. I visited them, saw what they could do, and then decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost between $100,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first phase of the project took place between September 2018–March 2019.

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

Suria Labs exceeded expectations, producing high-quality work. The second stage of the project will begin shortly. We didn’t have a specific system in place to measure metrics, but their team met every deadline we had in place. We also ended up spending lower than our expected budget.

How did Suria Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style was excellent. They ran an agile process. We communicated frequently and had sprints with reviews weekly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to pivot and roll with the punches was impressive. I also appreciate their level of communication. They took responsibility for meeting the requirements from the audience, not just following the plan. Their team was excellent at balancing, so the startup got the value and services we wanted. The end users received the value they expected.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their team could do a bit more testing. There were a few bugs we found after launch that we could’ve fixed before. They did take all responsibility.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go visit their team. Clients shouldn’t see the engagement as a clear outsourcing relationship where they only correspond through email. Suria Labs is an excellent team that can contribute as much value as their clients let them. Let they have a say in the final solution and fully engage in your mission. They want to deliver solutions, not only technology.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our ompany is running an app and website based for homestay/short stay rental and I'm the founder of the company

For what projects/services did your company hire Suria Labs?

To get it launch on stable foundation and fixing the bug as well as app enhancement

What were your goals for this project?

To provide a stable mobile app with user friendly experience

How did you select this vendor?

We came to know surialab thru our search on the internet

Describe the project in detail.

We have trello to keep us update and project monitoring as well as slack for team communication

What was the team composition?

1 project manager & 1 developer

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

It was effectively delivered to us

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They communicate very well

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nil