Uncanny Consulting Services LLP

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Managing Director of an export facing horticulture company based in Tanzania

For what projects/services did your company hire Uncanny Consulting Services LLP?

We had recently launched the Odoo ERP in our organisation and were struggling to get the right level of support for the customisation and hosting that we needed

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We searched on Upwork and shortlisted Uncanny from a number of applicants

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Initially it required a review of the current set-up followed by a series of customisations of both reports and company documentation (invoices etc.) The second phase was to recommend a more appropriate hosting service for the ERP moving forward.

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

We worked directly with the two key members of the Uncanny team

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

We now have a clear path forward in-terms of the hosting services which will move to AWS at the expiry of our current contract. Ina addition we have our company documentation templates in place and working as required

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very easy to communicate both aurally through Googlemeet and also via email.

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

Their ability to provide personalized attention even to relatively mundane tasks is impressive

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

Not that immediately comes to mind - we are very happy with the work they have done

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Audinc. We make customized hearing protection for any type of use — industrial, music, communication, and so on. We do all of our manufacturing by 3D printing. We are located in the Netherlands and currently provide services to Belgium and Germany as well.

What challenge were you trying to address with Uncanny Consulting Services LLP?

We had a lot of different systems and programs — invoicing, shipment, production, and printing. None of them were connected to each other, so we were doing double or triple work. As we grew, it became way too much. We wanted a program that combined all those systems.

It was hard because we’re a very niche market, and our software and products aren’t very common, so it was a big challenge.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We knew which open-source ERP system we wanted to implement, so I came to Uncanny Consulting Services LLP (Uncanny) with that intent. They developed everything from scratch and provided all of the software customization, so there was a lot of work.

Since I’m not a developer, I just explained the work overview; I created a work document to present the company, our production process, and the services for our clients. I put a lot of screens from the programs and all the different kinds of steps. They gave us advice and created the project from there. We arranged a time schedule, moving on from one task to another, and so forth.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with the owner, but there have multiple developers.

How did you come to work with Uncanny Consulting Services LLP?

I found them on Upwork. When we published the new job, a lot of people reacted — more than 20 in 30 minutes— so we had some conversations with companies and software providers. We had tried small companies in the past, but we already knew that they weren’t interested in results; they just wanted to do cash fast enough. When we came to Uncanny, everything went faster from that point on.

How much have you invested with them?

We have been continuously spending around $26,000–$27,000 a month for 15–16 months.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in February 2020. The project is finished but the partnership is ongoing since there are still small things that need to be done or updated.

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

Every aspect of production has improved with their system. Feedback has been positive because everything is now combined, so customers can see their orders. Thus, there have been fewer calls because people know when their order will arrive and in which production step it is. It brings less pressure and more clarity to both customers and production engineers.

How did Uncanny Consulting Services LLP perform from a project management standpoint?

All the work has been remote because they’re from India. We use Trello to track the progress of the project; I can see which step is in process, which one I need to check, and which hasn’t started. Everything is clear and updated.

We mostly communicate through Skype; they show us what they’ve done and we review it together.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If I need to compare them with the best developers, I’d say it’s that they write very clean code. They’re very professional; they know what they’re doing. The owner is very responsive; I normally call him. Also, transparency has been very important, especially since this company is so far away from us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, there were a few times where I asked them to do something over the weekend. Now, if I think about it, I understand that they didn’t want to work on Saturdays and Sundays, but they had said they would do it, so I was expecting jobs to be done by Monday. This happened a few times, so they should be clear about it to customers because we expect certain things to be done even if it’s the weekend.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re the best option for me, so I would be positive about it and say they’re 100% a good option.