Surprise.Design

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the sales director at a software development company that focuses mainly on software as a service (SaaS) products like ERP, CMS and CRM systems. We sometimes work with startups, but 80% of our current engagements are with large corporate systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Surprise.Design?

One of our clients was moving their application development from the U.S. to Poland because of the experience they’d had with their development team. A contact recommended us to the client, and they reached out to us for an AngularJS and Firebase project.

Since AngularJS is a leading frontend technology, most of our resources are fully booked at all times. We told the client that we would be happy to take on their project, but that we simply didn’t have the necessary resources. We proposed using a trusted partner for the task, and although the client was not very trusting initially, they decided to move ahead. This turned out to be a good decision.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Surprise.Design has developed a web and mobile application for booking box seats at sports events. They provide AngularJS coding, while we handle the backend development and project management.

What is the team composition?

They assigned two senior developers for this project. Our client wants to onboard a third resource.

How did you come to work with Surprise.Design?

I personally knew their CEO, who is a good developer himself. I also knew that Surprise.Design’s quality standards and processes conformed to our requirements.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work so far has been $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Surprise.Design in October or November of 2017. The scope of the work is increasing as we add new modules. The client wants to publish the platform no later than April 2018, in time for a championship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We couldn’t have taken on the project without Surprise.Design’s involvement. The client has been happy with the quality of work they’ve provided, which makes us happy as well. An additional developer has been requested from Surprise.Design for a new scope of features.

How did Surprise.Design perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very responsive. The company has a flexible policy around working hours, which means that their developers sometimes work at night. The daily organization is not very strict, but I can’t think of any occasion when this impacted our project. As long as they deliver, we are completely fine with their model.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Surprise.Design has a talented team of developers who have mastered AngularJS. The vast majority of their projects are based in this technology, and their team members have at least five years of experience. They can immediately respond to every single question the client may have.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their communication could improve at certain times by having more rigid working hours, but we’ve never encountered any issues because of Surprise.Design’s schedule.