wei.software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company is a farm`s feeding retailer based in Germany and Ukraine. We’re specialists in feeding retail for farms. I’m the co-founder and managing director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire wei.software, and what were your goals?

Our company was engaged in the wholesale supply of farms. There came a time when we critically needed to go online, provide wholesale deals, and meet the needs of retail customers.

Since we had no expertise, we found and hired a company wei to develop such a platform for us. I was worried that the delegation would be risky because our business depended on the performance of the external team. However, I'm glad I decided to go with this team.

SOLUTION

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

We searched for eCommerce agency and shortlisted 4. After interviewing this company was only one, who suggested the solution vision, with the operational cost analysis, timeline and alternative solution.

They were trying to define my business model and the way we were operating the business so stat they could design a proper solution for our business needs. I loved that.

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

we had a kick-off meeting after which we've spent 3 days developing the delivery plan, defining the scope items, mock-ups, and wireframes.

After 3rd iterations, we've got the MVP and did release live version. Another 4 iterations were needed to add all wished scope items from backlog and fix minor issues.

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

We had a Slack for team communication, daily updates, and fast communication. PM has built a team of two developers and QA, where we were acting the role of the product owner. The CEO was present at planning meetings, demo, retrospective, and release sessions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

after launching the site, around 85% of retail deals arose. Our sales manager left the retail direction and started to operate with the farms. We decreased the time needed for synchronization, inventory planning, and delivery. We've also got an additional 7% growth on-farm market.

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

We had a daily sync meeting, which was driven by PM(he was certified scrum master), after which we were getting the notes and info if we`re on track, and requests for additional information(if needed). also, we had sprint demo meetings to review the results, retrospective for process improvement.

We had a particular meeting with PM to review the payment plan, schedule, release, and some minor items to discuss. We were Using Slack, Zoom, and emails.

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

Because these guys are experts of what they were doing. Also, and it was important for us - they patiently explained the Scrum framework, our role, the development process, etc. to people, who had the first experience with such kind of work.

They were responding to our needed and didn't make us nervous. At least, they were taking the commitment and didn't tell the long stories why something has failed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They have to become a bigger team, for sure. However, they used to work remotely, so this is an open question. It was a good collaboration, I think.