Valor Software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the President and CTO of TORQ-COMM, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Industrial Computer development

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Valor Software to accomplish?

• Develop an Android software program to control industrial torquing processes
• Develop a cloud interface to configure work instructions and collect and display process data

SOLUTION

How did you find Valor Software?

Online Search

Why did you select Valor Software over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Valor Software were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Developed the handheld and cloud software to our specifications based on a previous product but with considerable improvements and functionality.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We submitted a priority list of functionality required and a tentative schedule for the development.

We met three times per week to review the requirements, address any questions and discuss the options avaialble to meet the requirements.

Software revisions were submitted for off-line testing by the Torq-Comm team and results were fed back to the Valor team.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They presented their timeline based on our requirements priorities and target dates managing their resources as necessary.  Additional resources were brought on as required.  The timeline was reviewed once per week or so as required.

The items were delivered on time.  Any delay was discussed early so any resulting issues could be addressed.

Our expectations were managed well.

What was your primary form of communication with Valor Software?

Virtual Meeting

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

The entire team was extremely enthusiastic and open to our suggestions, observations and subsequent changes.

They worked odd hours in order to get the software revisions as quickly as possible.

They understood the business aspects of the project and the need for changes to the content or schedule.

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

This team and all of its members were excellent.

Their management team were very easy to work with and supportive our our project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Digital Support & Marketing Coordinator of HMR Circle

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Working to reduce social isolation amongst older people in fun, innovative ways!

Civic and Social Organizations

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Valor Software to accomplish?

• We worked with Valor Software to develop a new, streamlined mobile app for our NGO, which focuses on disaster relief and community development. Our previous app had been overly complex, difficult to maintain, and expensive to operate due to custom-built solutions, including a bespoke authentication system and proprietary payment gateway. These complexities caused delays in decision-making, high maintenance costs, and created technical debt that hindered our progress. When we approached Valor, our goal was to build a more efficient, cost-effective app without custom development where possible. Valor proposed using a pre-built design system, out-of-the-box services, and existing cloud solutions to reduce both costs and complexity. They also suggested transitioning from AWS to Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which better aligned with our needs and allowed for smoother integration with Firebase services.

SOLUTION

How did you find Valor Software?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Valor Software over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Valor Software were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Valor utilized their design system to speed up the development process and implemented Firebase Authentication, which simplified our user management. The Stripe API was integrated to handle donations, significantly lowering transaction fees compared to our previous setup. Additionally, they reduced the overuse of microservices, replacing them with Firebase Cloud Functions, which streamlined our backend.

Despite the challenges of working with teams spread across different time zones, Valor adjusted their schedules to ensure smoother communication, holding regular meetings during overlapping hours and using tools like Jira and Slack to keep everyone on the same page. They adopted an agile methodology, introducing sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and a focus on delivering features incrementally, which kept the project moving forward efficiently.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The automation of mobile app testing with Appium, integrated into their CI/CD pipeline, allowed us to reduce our QA team size by 70%. This cut down on costs and sped up deployment times, improving our ability to respond to feedback and issues.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Throughout the project, Valor consistently delivered on time. They communicated openly and addressed any challenges we faced promptly. Their project management was highly efficient, with regular sprint planning sessions to prioritize features that aligned with our goals.

Valor delivered everything on time, and their ability to streamline processes while maintaining a high standard of quality was particularly impressive. We didn’t encounter any significant areas for improvement, and overall, the experience was incredibly positive. We would highly recommend Valor Software to anyone seeking a reliable and cost-effective tech partner.

What was your primary form of communication with Valor Software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What we found most impressive was how Valor Software managed to simplify such a complex system without sacrificing functionality. They gave us a robust, scalable app that not only met but exceeded our expectations. Their ability to work within our budget constraints, while still delivering a high-quality product, was remarkable.

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

We don’t have any areas for improvement to suggest.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Project Manager of Skyland Transportation

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

My company offers full-service project management for real estate, handling everything from scheduling and documentation to client communication and compliance, ensuring smooth and efficient transactions from start to finish.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Valor Software to accomplish?

• We hired Valor Software to address significant issues with our existing data pipeline and warehouse. Our company was struggling with inefficiencies in data processing, particularly during peak load times, which was causing slow reporting and negatively affecting customer satisfaction. The previous system, built by another vendor on AWS using Lambda functions and Redshift, wasn't scaling properly and led to frequent delays in decision-making. The machine learning model we were using also produced inconsistent results, and our global teams faced communication challenges due to time zone differences.

SOLUTION

How did you find Valor Software?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Valor Software over others?

High ratings

How many teammates from Valor Software were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Valor Software stepped in and transformed our system. They designed and implemented a cloud-native data pipeline on GCP, which has made a huge difference. Previously, we relied on AWS Lambda functions and Redshift, but the costs were mounting, and the performance just wasn't reliable. Valor’s solution was more agile and scalable. They implemented GCP’s Dataflow for real-time ETL processing and replaced Redshift with BigQuery as our main data warehouse. This change cut our operational costs significantly, while greatly improving the speed and accuracy of our analytics.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We had also been struggling with the results of a generic machine learning model from AWS SageMaker, which often led to inconsistent predictions. Valor created a custom ML pipeline using TensorFlow on GCP’s AI Platform. This was a game-changer for us. The new model delivered far more accurate, tailored recommendations, and we noticed an immediate improvement in customer engagement and conversion rates.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Throughout the project, Valor team maintained a high level of communication, despite the global time zone differences between our teams. They adopted agile methodologies, using tools like Jira and Slack to keep everything on track. Deliverables were provided on time, and they were always quick to respond to our queries or requests. Their project management was seamless, and we felt confident that the project was in good hands.

What was your primary form of communication with Valor Software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What stood out to us the most was how deeply Valor Software understood our business and the tailored solutions they brought to the table. They didn’t just offer a one-size-fits-all approach; they took the time to understand our challenges and crafted solutions that were specific to our needs. We were especially impressed by the improvements in our machine learning capabilities, which had previously been a major source of frustration.

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

Looking back, there’s really nothing we would have changed about the process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

SalesGig provides outsourced cold calling as a service for small- to mid-sized B2B companies on a fractional basis to increase market reach, awareness, and fill the funnel with targeted opportunities. I am Founder and CEO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Valor Software?

Valor built our marketing site, landing pages, operational platform, integrated vendors, and helped design our investor template. They help us with design, project management, development, and testing.

What were your goals for this project?

Build an exceptional platform and marketing to impress our clients.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

This company and team crushed it! They are excellent. In fact, I refer them business as a very happy customer.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They provided full service design, development, pm, and support.

What was the team composition?

We have multi level developers, project manager, designer, and testing team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website speaks to their level of quality.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They meet weekly via zoom, worked closely on Slack, and honestly feel like they are our team members versus a 3rd party. Great group and easy to work with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The level of quality delivered prior to testing was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Overall they are great. English is very strong, but sometimes we need to review grammar. Not a big deal, but hey no one is perfect.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CareerBuilder is a global, end-to-end human capital solutions company focused on helping employers find, hire and manage great talent. Combining advertising, software and services, CareerBuilder leads the industry in recruiting solutions, employment screening and human capital management.

While at CareerBuilder I served as a technology leader and architect for our Talent Discovery Platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Valor Software?

The team was responsible for the vast majority of the creation for our new platform. They also did quite a bit of design support, QA trainings and test coverage. We also had them do a performance benchmark and creation of APIs, including the migration from .net to NodeJS.

What were your goals for this project?

Initially our goals were to have some staff augmentation to get us past the initial hurdles of the project. After some progress was made we realized that Valor is much more valuable than just a few pairs of hands on keyboards. They became mentors to our in-house team and critical to the success of our project.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

When we were encountering some issues on GitHub with a third party library that Valor maintained Dima (their founder) was helping us to debug them. Through our interactions with him in the Open Source community we realized that there might be an opportunity to work together.

Describe the project in detail.

Initial scope of the project was a re-write of a 7 year old compensation analysis platform. This evolved to encompass the entirety of our Talent Discovery offering which was initially 5 applications. Valor crucial in assisting us in combining into a single platform for the first time.

What was the team composition?

We started off with 1 developer however within two weeks we realized that he was much more productive than our in house team, we rapidly scaled to 7 developers and 5 qa to work on the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In just over a year we took 6 completely disjointed product that were all on separate technology stacks, brought them together and created a platform that became our core product offering for our business.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Valor influenced our organizational workflow and actually helped us to create better development flows, qa processes. They truly believe in embedding themselves in the team and becoming

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The personalities and dedicated nature of the team were incredible. I've worked with offshore teams before and in general they have been passive and tend to wait for instructions.

Valor is proactive and conducts their own research and gains their own understanding of not only the platform they are working on but the organization they are working with.

I was amazed to see that they became true "owners" of the platform and were 100% vested in what we were doing. This was refreshing and exciting to see.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I think the biggest area for improvement would be learning to detach more from bad decisions that we (as customers) make. Sometimes as customers we make decisions that are detrimental to the platform or to the team because of a underlying business need.

One of the greatest aspects of Valor is their becoming part of the team, that is also one of their biggest challenges because they also feel the pain of decisions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are Gapminder Foundation. It's a non-profit independent and non-religious foundation based in Sweden. We produce educational material for children and adults all around the world, and our mission is to fight devastating ignorance with a fact-based worldview. We provide data visualizations so people can understand what the world really looks like. I am the project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Valor Software?

When we first approached Valor Software, we had a very particular project called Dollar Street. The business challenge was to find a way to display millions of photos on one platform, in which people can see and compare them in a very user-friendly way. It's a platform for understanding different standards of living across different income levels with pictures and data.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Valor Software developed the Dollar Street platform. It’s a very innovative project; it doesn't exist anywhere on the internet yet. They are now working on our CMS in which we want to provide easy ways for the users to contribute by translating content amongst the community. They are also helping us develop our server, which is a backend data project. We combine data from different sources, harmonize it, and put it into one of our visualization tools so that regular users can understand it.

How did you come to work with Valor Software?

We started working with them a long time ago through a freelancing company.

How much have you invested with Valor Software?

We spend approximately $60,000 per month, on average.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Valor Software two and a half years ago, and the partnership is ongoing. Last year, there were approximately 10 developers from Valor Software working in Gapminder's projects. Now they are developing two big projects for us and five smaller sub-projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Dollar Street was the first project, and we are just launching it now. The projects are still ongoing; they haven't been released to the public yet. What I can tell you is that Valor Software is very, very knowledgeable and very helpful. Since we have them, we don't even need a CTO [Chief Technology Officer] anymore. The people at Valor Software are the ones who work as the architects of our infrastructure and our technology. They are affordable, which is very good, and they are extremely helpful. They always provide urgent support when needed. They also are very good at planning. When we share our plans with them, they always give us feedback, telling us what is and isn’t possible. They always come up with very interesting solutions to our problems. They always find a way of implementing the things we want. We have no regrets with Valor Software and we recommend them to everybody.

How did Valor Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very, very good at project management. Since they have their own operational manager, they have helped us to manage our projects better by building our roadmap and keeping us within schedule.

What did you find most impressive about Valor Software?

There are many things. I think what sticks out the most is their capacity to find solutions instead of just saying what cannot be done. They know how to develop any feature that we request, and they are very good at user experience. They also know how to communicate with non-tech people. I think that makes them quite special because any client can communicate with them.

Also, for us, they are not that expensive, but they are not the cheapest ones in the world either. We do appreciate how good they are at what they do, so we would like them to be very well compensated for it. I would say, all in all; it's a very good cost for the quality they give us.

Are there any areas Valor Software could improve?

They are the ones helping us to improve, so no. We are very, very happy with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company I worked for at the time we worked with Valor Software is a leading financial and insurance products comparison engine in Dubai. It’s effectively an aggregator where users can find financial products (credit cards, loans, etc.) and apply for them. I was a CTO there.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Valor Software?

I was looking to do a whole restructure of our technology infrastructure, which was very old-fashioned and poorly customized. I was looking for a particular technology skill set which was MEAN stack; it’s JavaScript technology end-to-end all the way from the database.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The whole tech infrastructure was MongoDB in the backend, Node.js as the API [application programming interface], AngularJS on the front-end, and some other technologies around it like ElasticSearch, Nginx, and Redis for caching and for storing sessions. I worked with Valor Software for a bit over a year until we ramped up our in-house team, and then we switched from partially outsourcing to full in-house. They worked on everything from the initial setup of the product specifications and requirements all the way to the first iterations, even helping with the infrastructure and Amazon AWS. I ended up working with a team from Valor up to three or four people at some points on very tight deadlines. It was a tough project, but still, they did very well. They pulled it off.

How did you come to work with Valor Software?

I was looking to find this kind of skillset to build a team in Dubai, and it was very difficult. Those technologies were still new back then. It's always a challenge to find talent, but Dubai is even a bit more so. My second resort was to try and find a company that I could work with remotely. I went through a very rigorous process of trying to find developers that could help me with this implementation, and I ended up finding Valor Software.

How much have you invested with Valor Software?

We spent around $7,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Valor Software from April 2014 to June 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We were trying to work in a sprint mode following agile methodologies. At some point, we ended up being able to track our velocity and our completion rate. We were above 90%, which means the planning and implementation were going well. Regarding the end result and how this impacted the business, throughout that period we grew revenues, we grew traffic, and we dropped loading time, so things worked very well.

Even though we worked in a technology which is feared amongst the SEO community, which is AngularJS, Valor Software pulled it off, and we ended up almost doubling our SEO traffic. That was a case study regarding how AngularJS can be used in an SEO-heavy website. We got featured on MongoDB for the implementation that we had and how MongoDB helped us scale up. Again, the guys played an instrumental part in getting to grips with how MongoDB works and what was the best practice of deployment.

How did Valor Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very sharp on that note as well. As I said, we were following agile methodologies in which they were very well versed. They have excellent analytical skills when it comes to breaking down the requirements and being able to figure out the deliverables and the action items.

What did you find most impressive about Valor Software?

I never felt like they were a remote team. Valor Software made it feel like they were here with us, helping all the time. They are very nice and smart people to work with. They have good English, and they are very competent when it comes to the technology area, especially JavaScript.

Are there any areas Valor Software could improve?

In some cases, we went down the road of riskier implementations, which perhaps looked risky to me because I didn’t have that much expertise. The end result, which was very good, proved me wrong. It ended up working fine, and they handled it very well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Specialist of Hyperlab Digital

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

AI Development

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Valor Software to accomplish?

• Mobile App Development
• Front-end Development
• Code Refactoring and Migration

SOLUTION

How did you find Valor Software?

Referral

Why did you select Valor Software over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We partnered with Valor Software to enhance a job and production management application that enables users to track projects, coordinate schedules, and organize contacts in a simple, user-friendly platform. Our primary objective was to migrate the mobile application from Ionic 2 to Ionic 8 to leverage the improved performance, functionality, and maintainability of the newer framework.
Valor Software proposed a comprehensive migration plan, emphasizing codebase stabilization, bug fixing, and front-end improvements. By the end of the project, the application was more reliable, faster, and offered a streamlined, intuitive user interface that enhanced the overall experience.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Valor Software managed the migration from Ionic 2 to Ionic 8 seamlessly, utilizing Angular and RxJS to optimize app performance. They focused on codebase stabilization, addressing existing bugs, and applying refactoring processes that improved the app’s maintainability. The Ionic 8 transition also included UI enhancements and ensured smooth integration with backend systems.
Their project management approach was organized and effective, with regular updates, issue tracking via Jira, and open communication through Slack. Using an Agile methodology with sprint planning and regular check-ins, Valor kept the project on track and responsive to feedback.

Valor Software completed the necessary work scope, emphasizing the upgrade from Ionic 2 to Ionic 8. This involved stabilizing the codebase, extensive bug fixing, and optimizing UI components to improve overall usability and performance. Their careful management of the version transition ensured all existing features remained intact while delivering a smoother, faster user experience.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Valor Software was proactive and highly organized, keeping the project on track through effective sprint planning and frequent communication. Their use of project management tools and agile methodologies allowed them to prioritize tasks efficiently and stay focused on deliverables, ensuring all project goals were met on schedule.

What was your primary form of communication with Valor Software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Valor’s technical expertise and ability to navigate the complexities of migrating a live application were impressive. The upgraded app not only performed better but also felt more intuitive and polished. Valor’s attention to detail, commitment to quality, and ability to work within our timeline made this a positive experience.

Their technical expertise in stabilizing the codebase, resolving bugs, and enhancing the user experience during the migration to a new framework was outstanding. In addition, their professional consultancy provided valuable insights into the most efficient and effective tech solutions for our needs. We highly recommend Valor Software to anyone seeking a dependable, skilled partner with expert guidance for complex app development and migration projects.

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

We have no suggestions for improvement at this time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Growth Marketing of a software company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide educatoinal software to K-12 school districts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Valor Software to accomplish?

• Optimize and assist with the day to day management of our public facing marketing website.

SOLUTION

How did you find Valor Software?

Referral

Why did you select Valor Software over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Valor Software were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Optimze website infratructure, performance, and support ongoing userfacing and backend management enhancements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Client satisfaction, ease of site management, website core vitals performance.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Wonderful support and project management. The primary consultant is knowledgable, collaborative, and highly responsive.

What was your primary form of communication with Valor Software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Level of expertise and responsiveness.

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

No.