vm.pl Software House

Please describe your company and your position there.

apronic GmbH provides digitalisation and iot systems for manufacturing industry.

For what projects/services did your company hire vm.pl Software House, and what were your goals?

The focus was to extend our digitalisation platform for manufacturing industry. We searched for a partner that can provide us with the skillset and flexible ressources according to our needs.

How did you select vm.pl Software House and what were the deciding factors?

I was working with vm.pl previous projects already and I had a very good impression about their work. Furthermore they were able to provide us immediately with ressources.

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

Technologies we used: NodeJS, Angular, SQL, Typescript and others. The scope was to extend and build new features and harden the system.

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

We worked with several people from vm.pl. Mostly Frontend, Backend and Tester. People unfortunately changed within the project, but we managed this issue in a good way.

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

The deliverables were at the beginning unfortunately not in a good tested condition. Over time, the project team understood better and better our applications and the deliverables today are sustainable and in good conditions.

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

We started with slack and moved to Jira by time. There is no real project management in our project needed from vm.pl as we are doing the plannings and coordinations by our own together with the developers.

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

They're great people who really want to help you. If there are troubles in the project, in the collaboration or what ever - we always found a good solution for both sides to fix it.

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

Because people are offshore, we asked to increase transparency of the work of the developers. We are working on that.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Pacemo is the leading cloud provider for the funeral industry and develops and operates modern software products for everyday use in funeral homes throughout the German-speaking region.

For what projects/services did your company hire vm.pl Software House, and what were your goals?

VM.PL supports us in the development of existing and new applications. The biggest challenge was to bring our existing system from an old tech stack up to date and not to interrupt day-to-day operations. We use agile software development methods that work extremely well in cooperation with vm.pl.

How did you select vm.pl Software House and what were the deciding factors?

The cooperation with vm.pl came about through a network of friends and I got in touch with Lukasz the CEO and then with the actual developers. On the basis of an induction phase, we have checked the cooperation and continue to do so with new team members. The cooperation works particularly well here, as we are also looked after by customer support and our requests are taken into account.

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

The cooperation exists to support the further development of our core application. In the first phase, it was about support in bug fixing, small improvements and in the meantime we have revised large parts of the core application and brought it to a completely new, technological level. Our colleagues from VM.PL were always at our side with their advice.

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

A customer advisor is available to us at all times and so far two developers.

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

At VM.PL I experience proactive communication, an understanding of agile methods and friendly and open feedback.

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

The corporate culture of VM.PL appears to me as a customer to be very open, friendly and human. The employees have the opportunity to work freely and proactively and thus to accompany their customers in the best possible way.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a system engineer for Welotec GmbH. We are a solution provider for IT and OT (operations technology) communication in critical infrastructures. We also specialize in digitization and cloud integration.

For what projects/services did your company hire vm.pl Software House?

We hired the team to re-engineer an existing device management platform.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to set the existing software on a new foundation. We wanted to integrate a framework, increase the security level, and enhance the performance. Furthermore, we wanted to improve the UX based on feedback from customers.

How did you select this vendor?

The team contacted us directly via email and explained their service offerings. A few weeks later, one of their employees came to visit us. Their pricing model appealed to us, and we liked the idea of hiring a specialized development team for a specific project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We provided the existing source code, documentation, and test applications. They met with us for two days to discuss the project plan. Then, vm.pl began implementing the solution.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of four employees: a project manager, two developers, and one project administrator who performed accounting tasks.

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

We are now able to offer our customers an improved, all-in-one solution. Furthermore, we have been able to develop additional software based on the device management platform they created. This new software has helped us open a whole new market.  

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They managed the project by sharing documents and graphics on Google Drive. They used Bitbucket to manage the source code. In the future, we will use Jira to track bugs.

The team was very professional from the beginning. The suggestions they’ve provided aligned with what we needed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by how knowledgeable the developers were. They had an excellent understanding of our goals, and their suggestions were a value-added. They were able to understand a complex application use-case very quickly. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

We ran into small errors in the documentation they created for us. However, overall, we were very happy to work with vm.pl Software House.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and a co-founder of Advalyze. Our main focus is on modernizing classic businesses to perform digital transformations. 

What challenge were you trying to address with vm.pl Software House?

We’ve worked with vm.pl Software House to support several of our clients, mainly in the IT area. They have specialized expertise in AngularJS and Node.js.

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of our projects together was for a German electricity company. The client wanted to test a new way of selling electricity on the market by using an app with gamification elements. vm.pl Software House was responsible for developing the backend APIs. They also built an admin interface that allows us to manage users and perform other tasks.
 
What is the team composition? 

For most of our projects, we generally work with 1–2 teammates from vm.pl Software House. We’ve interacted with about 5–6 different people in total. The average size of our in-house team ranges from 3 to 15 employees.
 
How did you come to work with vm.pl Software House?

vm.pl Software House initially wrote to me on Xing, a German portal for business contacts. We were looking for AngularJS developers at the time. After we met them, we started a collaboration.
 
How much have you invested with them?

The projects have ranged in cost between €50,000–€1,000,000 (approximately $56,000–$115,000,000 USD),
 
What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2016. All our projects are complete, but we’ll go back to them as soon as we have the need.  

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

Based on my review of core parts of the deliverables, vm.pl Software House’s work is state of the art. I have no complaints about the quality of their software, and neither do my clients.
 
How did vm.pl Software House perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage the initial parts of most projects with vm.pl Software House through email and occasional phone calls. When we start a new project, we usually have a kick-off meeting with the team.  After that, we communicate exclusively over Slack.
 
What did you find most impressive about them?

vm.pl Software House is always eager to solve our problems and satisfy our needs. I think it’s awesome that whenever we need a specific resource, they’re enthusiastic about finding just the right person. 
 
Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not from my perspective. vm.pl Software House does a very good job.
 
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

vm.pl Software House is a great choice for clients who need individual or teams of developers who deliver code on time.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the head of computer science at The Society for Academic Study Preparation and Test Development. We’re a nonprofit recognized for its German testing and higher education aptitude test.

For what projects/services did your company hire vm.pl Software House?

We needed to develop a digital platform for e-assessments that supported DUO functionalities (an e-learning platform).

What were your goals for this project?

The platform had to allow us to create and input exam items, support web-based assessments, and feature media management tools.

How did you select this vendor?

vm.pl contacted us. After doing our own research and comparing them with several other companies, we had a favorable impression of them.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They’ve assigned software developers to assist us with a number of tasks including extending our complex system for creating and editing exam items. Their other efforts revolve around continued development of our e-learning platform, the introduction of new technologies, and QA. 

What was the team composition?

We work with five Java developers.

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

We wouldn’t be able to achieve our milestones without vm.pl’s developers. Throughout the cooperation, they’ve shared their technical knowledge with our in-house developers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It’s well organized, and vm.pl is very responsive to inquiries. They’re always ready to take in-person meetings to communicate more directly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We’ve had open and honest exchanges about our cooperation and ways to improve it.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The developer selection process could be even more focused. Some candidates haven't possessed the necessary language skills, which wasn’t apparent from the profiles we were provided with. Overall, however, hardly anything needs to be improved.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the head of IT for ElbeZeit GmbH, a tourism company located in East Germany. We provide cruises on the Elbe river for roughly half a million passengers per year. In my role, I’m responsible for the IT infrastructure as well as the development of our web-based online systems such as our ticketing software, online shop, and home page.

For what projects/services did your company hire vm.pl Software House?

We were looking for resources who were familiar with Magento 2 and its ecosystem. Since our previous agency couldn’t deliver as expected, we needed web developers who had excellent technical knowledge, understood our quality standards, and could work independently.

What were your goals for this project?

We hoped to resolve all bugs in our online shop and implement new features. In addition to selling more traditional products such as souvenirs, we wanted the online shop to sell tickets for our cruises. Furthermore, vm.pl Software needed to connect our backend systems through APIs.

How did you select this vendor?

We found them via a newsletter and met with them at our headquarters in Germany. After talking with them, we were impressed by their commitment and willingness to help us as soon as possible. They were also able to converse with our CEOs and project team in German, which was a big plus.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

When interviewing resources, they initially presented a selection of developers to choose from along with reviews and sample work. Their CEO asked us to not only consider the person's past projects but also their language skills.

Once we picked a developer, we described the project via email and video chat because we lacked written documentation. The developer grasped our ideas quickly and began working on the project immediately. We’ve since launched the site, and vm.pl Software House continues to provide resources across different fields as needed.

What was the team composition?

For the online shop, they supplied a full-time developer for a couple of days per week.

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

Thanks to their help, we were able to launch the online shop within the planned schedule, which would’ve been unlikely with our previous agency. As a result, we’ve improved our online sales volume.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I handled the project management myself.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I appreciated their dedication to the project. They understood the customer’s journey and assisted at every point of the software development process.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

No, not that I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the business development manager for a software development company. We design and develop custom software for our clients. I’m responsible for sales, account management, and partner management.

For what projects/services did your company hire vm.pl Software House?

We were looking for a subcontractor to provide additional resources for our development team.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to increase our development pace and grow our client’s project quickly.

How did you select this vendor?

We knew vm.pl through a partner network and had had prior experiences with their management. We considered several subcontractors for this project, and vm.pl was best suited to meet our needs. Our shared trust and business values were the deciding factors, as was the availability of their skilled developers.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

We’re part of long-term development cooperation with a client who owns a project management solution for creative industries. vm.pl’s developers, who we interviewed to test their technical and interpersonal skills, are responsible for both front- and backend development and have already introduced a PHP Symfony framework. We also utilize their Angular skill set. Though our client submits the features they want implemented, the developers still make a number of technology decisions.

What was the team composition?

Initially, a senior full-stack senior developer joined our team. A junior developer started working with us a few months later.

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

The vm.pl developers integrated into our team and quickly became productive, which ensured that we met our initial goal. They’ve also been willing to take on work outside the original scope.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

vm.pl’s developers’ and management’s responsiveness is outstanding. We monitor their productivity on Jira and use Slack to communicate. Their team is comfortable working in English, and both developers we use have professional English skills.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They set a high standard for responsiveness and customer service. We’ve also been pleased that the developers pitch their own ideas that are then put into practice.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Because vm.pl developers are proactive and press for positive change, they can grow disappointed when it doesn’t materialize. This isn’t a true disadvantage, as it helps our team advance and evolve, but it does speak to how expectations should be structured.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the editor-in-chief of a selective book publisher in Poland who produces 50 new titles every year.

For what projects/services did your company hire vm.pl Software House?

We needed someone to develop a web-based tool that allowed us to coordinate our work on and calculate the cost of new publishing projects.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a secure tool that could calculate royalties for each product type of a certain title (hardcover, paperback, e-book, audiobook, bundle) as well as create production and publishing schedules for distributors.

How did you select this vendor?

We had bad experiences with companies that had no prior knowledge about the book market a few years ago, so we’ve been searching for a vendor that’d already cooperated with publishers. vm.pl Software was one of four vendors we considered.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

We contributed documentation with our desired features and functionalities and gave them access to the previous software we used. Nevertheless, they prepared updated documentation, mock-ups, and a graphic layout.

It’s going to be a web-based solution so our remote team members can access it through their browsers. They’re also creating different levels of access, for our seven different user types, and prioritizing flexibility, so we can improve it based on our future needs and market necessities.

What was the team composition?

We worked with five people from their side.

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

It’s too early to say as we’ve just started preparing our 2019 publishing plan.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We’ve had two or three meetings in-person while the rest of our communication is done via email, telephone, Skype, and an uxpin.com, an online UX design platform.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re devoted to us and make authentic efforts to understand our project. They were also flexible in finding a satisfying cooperation model.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

They should improve an initial time estimate for projects.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the digital delivery manager of the Warsaw office of an international education company. I am responsible for delivering digital content to our market, which is in Central and Eastern Europe.

What challenge were you trying to address with vm.pl?

We needed the ability to provide our publications in a user-friendly digital format. They should also be available on different operating systems and devices.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have worked on several projects with vm.pl. The first one involved building digital course books for students of English and German as a second language and interactive whiteboard software for teachers of English and German. The material needed to be as interactive and rich in multimedia as possible to make it more interesting for users learning English and German on any device.

We also engaged vm.pl in a formative assessment project, creating an online system through which teachers could register classes, download tests, feed in results, and create progress and efficacy reports (i.e., individual reports for students, classes, and schools to manage and compare results and progress against region or country population). Currently, vm.pl has developed an Android app and is soon delivering an iOS app for us.

How did you come to work with vm.pl?

vm.pl was recommended to us by people from our trade. We considered one to two other companies, but, on the basis of our initial conversations and vm.pl's past experience, we decided to select them.

How much have you invested with vm.pl?

Sorry, this is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with vm.pl in 2012. The work is still ongoing. We have been working on a major upgrade for our platform since 2016, making our tests available online through mobile devices and computers.

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

vm.pl worked within our agreed schedule and budget. More recently, we've adopted the Agile approach, which has led to more flexibility in terms of budget and timelines. vm.pl has been able to adapt to our constraints.

How did vm.pl perform from a project management standpoint?

vm.pl's team is constantly learning, which has happened during our collaboration as well. Their project management skills weren't as good when we started working together. But, later on, vm.pl introduced a Scrum master and started working according to the Agile methodology. This has paid off, so we've been more satisfied with their project management and communication skills. One of vm.pl's managers is constantly in touch with us.

What did you find most impressive about vm.pl?

vm.pl's team is very flexible and can react quickly to what is happening in our market. They've stayed up-to-date with technology evolutions, suggesting improvements for our requirements.

Are there any areas vm.pl could improve?

vm.pl is a small company and our impression is that they work from one order to the next. This means that, if there's a period of reduced demand, vm.pl can have a problem. In our recent project upgrading our assessment system, vm.pl needed to employ more programmers. I think those programmers were likely let go after the work ended. In terms of becoming a stable company, vm.pl has some progress to make.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with vm.pl?

Make sure that vm.pl has the necessary resources available, and take an active role in planning and delivery.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Digital Projects Manager at Macmillan Poland. I am responsible for all digital products Macmillan delivers to public school teachers in Poland (i.e., interactive whiteboard software, online interactive content, and other online solutions like diagnostic tests).

What challenge were you trying to address with vm.pl?

About 8 years ago, vm.pl was one of very few companies in Poland dealing with educational technology. They already had some experience in the field, and that is why they became our main developer and supplier of the IWB software.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their job was to develop the complete software: from requirements list up until delivering a master copy DVD-ROM for duplication. They designed the whole user interface, all the teacher functionalities (annotation tools, zooming, tools for own content creation), developed all of the interactive content (interactive activities, audio, video), ran the tests, and encrypted the application. Over the years, the application became significantly enriched and updated with a lot of new functionalities and interactive activity types. All in all, vm.pl developed the IWB software for 4 book series which have been used by thousands of teachers in Poland in public schools, mainly primary sector.

How did you come to work with vm.pl?

I honestly don't remember, sorry.

How much have you invested with vm.pl?

Unfortunately, I cannot share this information.

What is the status of this engagement?

They began working for us 8 years ago and continued until 2015. Currently, we are not planning any future projects together due to change in company policy and market situation in Poland.

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

Unfortunately, this is very difficult to measure in our case. The software is distributed to schools together with course books and other materials, usually in packs, so there aren’t any specific figures to reflect impact or sales. And as to the quality, there is only occasional feedback we receive from the teachers. In the case of vm.pl products, it was generally very positive.

How did vm.pl perform in terms of project management?

vm.pl delivered all projects according to our expectations and requirements.

What did you find most impressive about vm.pl?

vm.pl is currently one of the most recognizable education tech companies in Poland. They deliver high-quality products and, most importantly, have a unique understanding of the educational field. Their experience is vast: from interactive textbooks to diagnostic portals, data management, and training. What I consider most valuable about vm.pl is their impressive technological background and knowledge; special compliments to Łukasz Borzęcki, their CEO and head of IT.

Are there any areas where vm.pl could improve?

Scheduling and delivery time.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with vm.pl?

Related to the above; it helps to schedule ahead.