Upheave technologies

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are Swiss Innovation Lab A.G., R&D company which is specialized in IoT products. We were founded in 2016 as a startup and from that moment until now we successfully growing as a business. My position is head of software development.

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

We have a completely new development for our product called device management on generic architecture for the IoT devices goal was to support frontend requirments.

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

The team lead of Uphave was an experienced senior developer in ReactJS and PHP technologies, and at the first meeting, he introduces me with his rest of the team which was on a similar level like he was in a technical manner. Most important factor was his references before where he was working for on the complex products in airport traffic and commuting sector.

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

Our company has described goals, metrics, technology stack, and architecture as a first meeting. We had 2 kick-off meetings to synchronize all details in the first week. At the end of the discussions we defined delivery plan and milestones of development. They had 2 weeks of preparation in which time we prepared initial backend architecture and service layer, after that we were synchronously develop screen by screen all requirements in development cycles.

Milestones were defined by weeks, not by dates so we were flexible with that. Testing was done by our side first on the requirement level so that we are sure that business logic fit after initial development. There were some modules which were defined later so we didn't have strict waterfall project organisation neither scrum. We used Kanban as a structure and define priorities based on available resources that week. Jira and Slack were main tools for communication, we have daily coordination and weekly general plan updates.

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

1 team lead as a general point of communication was a senior software developer, 2 other developers worked as support on this product.

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

10 supports stuff is working on that platform after the initial release which is still live and continuously updating. We are monitoring approximately 5000 devices with this platform.

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

They are opened minded agile software developers flexible for any kind of work. Slack Email and Jira are regular tools that were used in everyday communication and work.

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

They were fast with a very low percentage of the reopened issues.

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

Not on that project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work in PR for Lightfork, a company in the fitness industry. We prepare and deliver meals for people that want to lose or maintain their weight.

What challenge were you trying to address with Upheave technologies?

Upheave has been a really important partner for us. Our main income comes from our webshop, and they’re in charge of around 90% of our web work.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Upheave helped us create our e-commerce site. We gave them our ideas for the design and logo, and they gave us excellent options. Then, they started by creating the landing page very quickly because we were in a hurry to open our business in Croatia.

Later, we worked on further phases of this project, in which they designed and developed our full site. They have also helped us with some market research and showed us what we need to do and where we need to go.

What is the team composition?

We usually communicate with Boris (Co-Owner), but I’m not sure of how many people work for us in the background. 

How did you come to work with Upheave technologies?

A cousin of Boris is my best friend, so we had seen some of their projects before. Upheave works internationally, but Boris accepted our project even though it was smaller than their other projects because of the relationship I have with his cousin.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent a little under $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2020, and it is an ongoing partnership.

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

We were new to this industry, so Upheave was able to help us in the beginning and put us on the right track — they have done everything for us.

It is impressive how they work; they were really flexible with the short timeline to launch the landing page, which was great. We still use their designs, and we haven’t wanted to change anything on the website.

Additionally, we’ve had good testimonials from people that have visited our page. They’ve said that it looks professional and new in the food industry here in Croatia. We’re happy with the good feedback.

How did Upheave technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Upheave is very professional. We have Zoom meetings, live meetings, and talk on the phone. We also communicate on WhatsApp when something is urgent, and they respond within seconds. I’m really happy about that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Upheave’s responsiveness is impressive. When we want something new or redesigned, they come up with new ideas quickly. We don’t need to look around for other ideas; they are really professional and creative.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know. Upheave has been perfect for us, and we haven’t thought about anything that they need to change.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If someone wants to take their business to the next level and want it to look professional, I recommend Upheave 100%.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of RAMP medical. We developed a medical device that helps doctors perform treatments for their patients.

What challenge were you trying to address with Upheave technologies?

We needed a new interface for our software. We wanted to move to React, which would allow our software to easily integrate with other applications.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We split the project into different phases. First, Upheave looked into the technologies that we could use and the cost. We provided the design and the API. From there, Upheave did the development and built the entire software into a Docker container. 

The platform works as a web application and is available offline. It has a complex and dynamic sidebar for choosing drugs and multiple parameters based on the patient’s condition, age, and other aspects.

Right now, we’re working with our own frontend developer that Upheave recommended. Our developer is more junior and mainly works on forms of that nature. However, Upheave always helps us with any question that we have or any difficult task.

What is the team composition?

We work with three people from Upheave. Mario (Co-Owner) is our project manager, and we also have one developer and one infrastructure specialist.

How did you come to work with Upheave technologies?

Since our product is quite complex, it isn’t easy to find good developers. However, a former developer from our team already knew Mario.

How much have you invested with them?

Since we’re a startup, we have a small budget. We’ve had contracts of between €6,000–€8,000 (approximately $7,300–$9,700 USD). So far, the total cost is between €25,000–€30,000 (approximately $30,500–$36,600 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around September 2019, and the partnership is ongoing.

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

In terms of results, Upheave delivers what we ask for, and everything’s been working fine. We found a bug once, but it was due to a misunderstanding about a medical aspect.

Some people are using the device. However, we’re not selling it everywhere because it’s still in the validation phase. We still have to certify it and make minor changes to comply with the medical regulations.

In 2019, we won two European Awards in Medicine, and one of the awards was for a version we adapted for COVID-19.

How did Upheave technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack and Zoom to communicate, which has been very efficient. During the main project, we’d have half-hour meetings once a week.

Upheave delivers everything precisely within the timeline, which is really impressive. One time, there were some requirements that weren’t defined clearly, which took them more time than anticipated. However, they did a week’s worth of work but only charged us for half. Everything ended up being ready by the deadline.

Mario is a good and super helpful manager. He always consults with us on everything through a phone call, which makes our requirements easier to explain. I’m not a developer, but he always explains everything in an easy way. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Delivery has always been a problem for all the agencies that we’ve worked with, which made us have very strict contracts. However, Upheave delivers what they promise and invests themselves into that. They meet every delivery date that we set. Our collaboration with Upheave has been really good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Upheave recommended a really strong infrastructure person, but it would be better if they had more capacity for us.

Any advice for potential customers?

Upheave has a professional team, but things can go wrong if the client doesn’t provide the necessary information and designs. I don’t know how well it would’ve turned out if Upheave had to do all the designs. They could be good at that as well, but I don’t know.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CTO of 2e Systems at the time we worked with Upheave. Since January 2021, I’ve been the head architect. We have a head office in Germany and the second biggest office in Croatia, that I founded, so I’m also the director and part-owner of it.

We’re a service provider mainly in the aviation sector. We provide SaaS to airlines for the purpose of flight booking. We build a white label solution that the airline can use to sell tickets directly to the customers, and we do the same thing for online check-ins.

We also do passenger notification products, where we inform passengers of delayed or canceled flights, delayed baggage, or any disruption to their journey.

Additionally, we have products for pilots and cabin crews that allow them to see and be informed in real-time of their schedules’ changes especially during disruptions, such as snowstorms, strike action, and more. We have about 10 airline customers from around the world and one of our main clients is in the United States.

What challenge were you trying to address with Upheave technologies?

We were involved with an RFP with one of our existing customers — we were recompeting for the business. We always did two tasks for that particular airline: creating their entire website and providing services for the booking process. They were considering using their own development team to build the UI while we'd remain working as the service provider for backend services. At the last minute, they asked us if we could also do a new frontend UI for them.

The opportunity came across our desk and we jumped at it. We pitched that it would do exactly what they envisioned, and it would be the latest technologies built in an up-to-date, modular way. We had our own developers, but we weren’t familiar with the technology that needed to be used. As a result, we needed to get a development team very quickly that had that knowledge and boost our own team to get to grips with it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The technology used was React.js. Upheave helped us primarily with staff augmentation. They offered us a little bit of training on the job, so we put them in a senior position where they were helping our developers understand how to do certain things.

The CEO of the airline threw down the gauntlet and gave us a very strict deadline, so we made a project plan and divided it up into different parts. We asked Upheave to commit to estimates of the work for which we assigned to them. We gave them core parts to the system and their team brought in expertise for HTML.

They had extra people on their staff who were used from time to time to take an image of a screen concept and then slice it into smaller pieces so the development team could integrate those broken-down components.

The airline designed the actual screen, but Upheave prepared it. The team took the screen design from a picture and made it something real. They developed the interface based on the concept, put in the architecture, and broke it down. This process required certain skills because if they did the process well, future changes would be easier; if not, they would generate more trouble and efforts down the road.

Upheave also worked on a second project with us for another airline that used a mobile application for the pilots and crew. We built a new UI for their iOS and Android app. They did their own software testing and helped us deploy it to the test systems, as well.

As a third project, they helped us with our backend services. The team connected different systems, pulled information, and manipulated data.

What is the team composition?

Upheave gave us three full-time developers including two directors who were working on the UI. We also had slicers for one of the projects. The slicers were contracted and used temporarily — whenever we needed them — for the frontend. In addition, we had one person in charge of our backend services. He worked for us for about two months towards the end.

How did you come to work with Upheave technologies?

Both Upheave’s directors were former employees of 2e Systems. I didn’t know they had started their own company until we heard about them through word of mouth. They were looking for this type of work because they had learned React.js and became proficient in it on their own. I got in touch with them and we went from there.

Upheave was contracted through my Croatian entity which is a subsidiary of the main entity in Germany. I was the executive for at least six months of the engagement with them, but I was still involved even after I stepped down from the CTO position — I was involved until the end.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $100,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from July 2019–July 2020.  We discontinued the engagement purely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Otherwise, we would have likely continued. It was a time of year when we had to lose some of our own staff and of course, the contractors had to be rolled off first.

Nevertheless, we have another project and I already called Upheave to ask them about their general availability because, if this kicks off, we will probably need help again.

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

The project was delivered on time, just as the CEO asked for. Upheave worked a lot of extra hours to met the hard deadline and the client’s expectations. Part of that success was due to the staff augmentation support.

Our team completely managed and took over the product successfully; this result was certainly a credit to their team. They built it and transferred their knowledge victoriously over to our developers. We haven’t had a word of complaint from our team since that.

In addition, we’re a very satisfied customer because Upheave did an excellent job. They asked us if they could use us as a reference, but we had to ask the airline if they would consent. In front of the world, 2e Systems was the one that provided the services to the end customer. However, it was Upheave who was doing all the work. Finally, our client agreed because they were also very happy with the Upheave team.

How did Upheave technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Jira to manage the project, Confluence for documentation, and we also had an online Gantt chart. Additionally, the airline had its own tool in Adobe to visualize the screens. We communicated through Skype for chat, WebEx for video calls, and they also visited our office. 

We worked with an agile team, and we had regular stand-up and status calls with the customer. The two main people of Upheave that worked on our project participated in those meetings and represented our company — they were really part of our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We could solve any issues and we had good communication. I don’t remember a single moment where I was unsure, didn’t get the answer I wanted, or couldn’t question them about something. I'd worked with them for a long time and the Upheave team was very skilled and easygoing — we were sorry to lose them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything Upheave could improve. It was a very professional collaboration.

Any advice for potential customers?

First of all, check with me if I don’t need them! Then, contact Upheave and tell them what you want. You have to be clear about how long the engagement will be. If there could be more work beyond that, give them as much information as possible. It’s very straightforward, and it won’t be an issue.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the co-founder and CEO of a healthcare company that builds remote patient monitoring software and services.

What challenge were you trying to address with Upheave Technologies?

Since we’re a startup, we wanted to scale our team in order to ramp up more quickly. We hired Upheave to focus on the frontend development of our web application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Upheave built out the frontend features of our web app using React. They collaborated with us when it came to the UI/UX design, ensuring that the workflow and usability were good. 

What is the team composition?

We used to work with three people. Eventually, we just had two engineers – one principal and one mid-level – from Upheave.

How did you come to work with Upheave Technologies?

They were a direct referral from one of our employees.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since the start of 2020 and the project is still ongoing.

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

The usability of our web app has improved dramatically through the UX design suggestions of Upheave. The productivity, efficiency, and ability of the platform to onboard staff members have all become faster and more intuitive, needing less training to use. 

How did Upheave Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Upheave is quite collaborative. They tie well into our structure, and we see them as a part of our team. The principal engineer really leading the frontend development makes the whole process easier. We use Jira to manage the project. 

They’re easy to work with and stay on top of any problems that we run into. They go out of their way to research and bring different viewpoints to the table, going above and beyond what engineers would typically do. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve worked with other firms in past but they're probably the best when it comes to frontend development. They're very organized, precise, and on time — everything we could want in a good development firm. They don’t just take what we say and do it; they really think about how to make a better solution and propose multiple options for it. Them putting their best foot forward always results in something top-notch.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to explain the business and the full cycle of what needs to be done. Provide Upheave with all the requirements and explain them from a business and an engineering perspective. The better you do this, the better they’ll be able to help you.