xBerry

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of AI of Coco Delivery

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Coco uses robots to deliver food within two miles within 15 minutes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire xBerry to accomplish?

• Build software for the robot that can scale to hundred of robots integrated with teleoperations and fleet monitoring
• Build AI solutions that allow the robots to be driven autonomously

SOLUTION

How did you find xBerry?

Referral

Why did you select xBerry over others?

Referred to me

What was the size of xBerry’s team?

10+

What was your primary form of communication with xBerry?

Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

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

- Built ROS based software for robot operation for 100s of robots - Backend for uploading & managing logging for more than 1TB - AI solutions including ML based perception, planning and control allowing autonomous operation

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Can't give this up

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

Weekly sprints on Jira board with quarterly OKR planning. Team quite flexible to adapt to changes in project management and even took ideas to their own project management. Pretty flexible mindset.

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

Talent at the price point: Senior ICs without paying US and bay area salaries. Would highly recommend the company for robotics & AI projects.

Are there any areas for improvement or something {provider_name} could have done differently?

Set up a required feedback process that allows companies to formalize feedback on individual employees for longer term projects for two way accountability.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of software for Formic, a robotics as a service company. I’m responsible for running all of our software activities, and I’ve been with the company for seven months now.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with xBerry?

We needed to augment our development team. We were looking for some specific skill sets because we needed engineers with experience in robotics and industrial automation, so we reached out to xBerry to help us out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, I explained to xBerry what we were looking for — we needed an engineer to help us with a project related to robot remote monitoring and robotics automation systems. Their CEO helped us clarify what we were looking for and the skill set required for this position.

From there, it took xBerry a couple of weeks to find the right talent. When they did so, they returned to me and presented the resume of the candidate they had found for this project. After that, we conducted the interviews. I talked with the candidate in one interview, and another person from my company talked with them in a separate interview.

We started working with xBerry's engineer on the project two weeks after the interview process. He has been working with us since then. This resource is knowledgeable in Python and programable logic controller (PLC) programming.

For this project, the engineer has designed an automation system, which we’ve continued to develop together. We also have other engineers on our team, so this person interacts with them frequently to help them ramp up on this automation and show them how to interface with specific robots.

The main feature of this system is its robot monitoring capabilities. It has a few elements that allow us to monitor everything that’s happening on automation systems in real time. Additionally, xBerry’s engineer has built several dashboards using Grafana to utilize the data we gather.

Essentially, this monitoring system collects all the data from all robotic systems, aggregates it, and shows it on a Grafana dashboard. Moreover, it monitors any malfunctions and elements that might be broken within the system, immediately sending a notification via Slack if something is wrong.

What is the team composition?

xBerry currently provides us with one engineer.

How did you come to work with xBerry?

I had worked with them before at my previous company, and they proved to be great. That was the reason why I looked for help from them again. Additionally, augmenting our team through them was more cost-effective than hiring similar talent in the US. Originally, I believe I found them through Clutch, but I’m not sure.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $35,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

xBerry has done a great job at finding the right candidate for the job — he’s spot on and we really like him. Thanks to him, the project has been very successful. He has delivered a lot of things that we needed for automation monitoring. Moreover, he’s very innovative and proactive, constantly proposing different solutions and proving to be a true expert in the field.

Thanks to this monitoring system, we’ve seen a more accurate detection of malfunctions in our systems. Before, customers used to call us to tell us there was a problem with the system. Now, we have a near real-time issue identification capability, so we can detect problems instantaneously without customers calling us. Therefore, we’ve seen a lot of positive feedback from our customer success and maintenance team.

How did xBerry perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re in charge of project management internally. Still, xBerry’s engineer has performed well. His English is perfect, so we haven’t experienced any communication issues. Additionally, he’s very flexible with the working hours. xBerry is in Poland, and we’re in the US. Still, the engineer is very open to staying up late or jumping on a call in late hours to be in sync, which has been very helpful.

Moreover, xBerry’s engineer delivers on time and is very proactive at letting us know when some tasks are taking longer than originally planned, which is normal in software development. We use Jira, Slack, and Google Meet to collaborate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

xBerry’s ability to find the right expert for our needs is their main strength. Additionally, they’re very open in their communication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything xBerry could improve on; we’ve been very happy with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Define very clearly the talent and skill set you’re looking for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a CTO in a company specializing in design, installation and service of parking systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire xBerry R&D House?

We have hired xBerry to create and integrate new functionalities that we can offer our clients. Due to our business model these functionalities had to be integrated with external, closed ecosystems.

SOLUTION

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

We have found them via Google, their portfolio matched our needs.

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

They helped us review our current system and its capabilities. Building on that we’ve established cooperation with system vendors and created a list of necessary changes. That allowed us to easily integrate online reservations, LPR and ECR with xBerry working as an integrator for all these services

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

We have mostly worked with the project manager assigned to us. During the course of work there were two python developers as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their analysis of our previous system and change in approach reduced our costs by a factor of three. They have delivered a working product and helped resolve any installation site specific issues.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Person of contact was responsive and easy to communicate with. We’ve used internal chat for informal and mail for formal communication. Due to being close to the whole process we were always informed of any potential deadline crossing beforehand, but they usually delivered on time.

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

We came with a problem and idea of what we thought was our ideal solution. Instead of complying, they did some research and proposed a completely different approach. Their proposal cut our costs while delivering everything we wanted with better and more sustainable quality.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the lead engineer of a Telecommunication and Power Engineering company. We specialize in the expansion of railway networks across the country.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire xBerry R&D House, and what were your goals?

Drivers are notoriously ignoring rules regarding railway crossings which often result in accidents and fatalities. In order to reduce the number of such cases, we have hired xBerry to design and create a sophisticated automatic infringements detection system for railway crossings.

SOLUTION

How did you select xBerry R&D House and what were the deciding factors?

xBerry's offer won the public tender to create such a system.

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

They have designed, implemented and adjusted the offense detection system. We have started with PoC on a test dataset. On that stage we were able to detect vehicles and trains. That stage has been extended by creating algorithms connecting various events into road offense detection. Afterwards, that data was used to create a notification of an offense along with evidence of that offense. We have installed that system on four real-life locations in order to adjust models trained on dataset to the real world usage.

How many people from xBerry R&D House team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were 4 people on the core team, including frontend developer, ML engineer, backend developer and project manager. Other members would come and go as the project progressed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to install and test PoC on 4 locations which function to this date. Within three months we were able to collect enough data to plan next steps and confirm the correct approach. During that time we have collected over 10,000 road offense reports. We have decided to further develop our product in the current manner.

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

Project management was fine, they missed some deadlines due to COVID but apart from that the cooperation was exemplary. We have used Taiga, Rocket Chat and Gitlab in order to ensure proper communication.

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

They fully understood our needs, and the project scope was elastic enough to introduce changes during development. Their agile approach allowed us to avoid a lot of unnecessary costs and provided solid functionalities we didn't know we needed.

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

They were growing rapidly while making our project, so we experienced few changes in the management style which was a bit confusing for us

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a shareholder of a company managing rental properties.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire xBerry R&D House?

We have found an opportunity to automate the rental service. We hired xBerry to develop such a product. Our goal was to help our clients and ourselves manage rentals by controlling access to the apartments remotely via Bluetooth and WiFi.

SOLUTION

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

Our partners recommended xBerry to us. We’ve decided to work with them because of their previous experience with IoT.

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

They have designed and developed hardware for bluetooth controlled lock along with WiFi bridge and mobile app for control and management of them. We’ve started from workshops to fully define our business needs. After that they proceeded by developing hardware and software for lock-in one-month sprints. Work was reviewed in regular intervals.

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

There were four people in the core team. Project manager, lead engineer, frontend developer and backend developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Due to technical issues delivery was late by around 20%. We were informed about possible delays along the way. Apart from that the product delivered lived up to its expectations. To this date we have delivered over 70 units to our clients. Feedback was mostly positive.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their management style suited us very well. For communication purposes we’ve used Rocket Chat, Gitlab and mail. We have also had monthly in person meetings.

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

Their accessibility. They were always eager to help with resolving our issues and answering our questions.

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

Everything was fine.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am president of a company specializing in programmatic advertising space management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire xBerry R&D House, and what were your goals?

Our company was struggling setting up and maintaining a new prebid system. Previous contractor developed a flawed software that wasn’t working properly. Our goal was to refactor the whole system, deliver core functionalities and build further on that depending on the effect.

SOLUTION

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

Our partners recommended them. Key factor was their reputation for fixing others' mess.

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

They audited the current solution and presented us with the results. Based on that we’ve decided to carry out code analysis, refactor, cost optimization and deployment automation of the core functionalities. One of the key milestones was to put our system for our client to test.

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

There were 5 people working with us, including an analyst, project manager as well as backend and frontend developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our platform in its basic capabilities was up and running in less than two months. System uptime was increased to around 99.7% whilst reducing the number of errors by around 80%. We’ve decided to continue our cooperation with them and further improve our service.

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

There was a lot of pressure and rush for effects from our side. We were pushing them for more but they didn’t give in once. In retrospect, we dodged a bullet there. Speeding up this process would probably cause an effect similar to that provided by the previous contractor. Their project manager really did a wonderful job there. We have used weekly reports for work monitoring, contact was mostly via google meet or in person.

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

Their objectivity and professionalism are most impressive. We’ve come to them with a bunch of pieces from their competitor. They have refactored and used what they could from that, added what was missing, and held their ground when we tried to put the pressure on their process.

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

.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of the RnD project that is trying to research a quick and reliable tool for monitoring publishing trends and plagiarism. https://rejestr.io/krs/782396/ultraspotter

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire xBerry R&D House, and what were your goals?

We hired Xberry as they were the perfect match for our needs. They presented us with the team ready to help us with the product from scratch.

SOLUTION

How did you select xBerry R&D House and what were the deciding factors?

We picked them, basing on our previous experience with Advantage Media projects.

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

The main goal was to build a fully working MVP in 4 months. It was really challenging as we had to validate the idea of the project and then figure out how to build it.

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

We worked with two python developers, two machine learning developers, and one front end developer. Our main point of contact was the project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After presenting the MVP to VC we got the second financial round to build a fully working platform.

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

Everything was super agile.

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

They always deliver — that's the most important thing. We could pivot the project scope several times during the MVP with no issues.

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

I would not change a thing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a business development manager and a project delivery manager at a software development studio.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire xBerry R&D House, and what were your goals?

I was trying to find a solution to create an automatic tool for an automatic photo enhancement that would learn my clients preferences with use of machine learning.

SOLUTION

How did you select xBerry R&D House and what were the deciding factors?

Xberry provided an expertise in machine learning and photo processing to create assumptions for the photo enhancement tool. Xberry supported me with software development of the product and machine learning mechanics to teach the network of custom preferences.

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

Scope of work was consistent of frontend and backed software development, creation of neural network and local hosting of the app.

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

4 persons:

1. Project Coordinator
2. Frontend Developer
3. Backend Developer
4. Data Scientist

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

General outcome of the project was a working solution for automatic photo enhancement tool. Project was finished sooner than planned, in the evaluated budget.

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

Project Management was on spot. I was reported weekly with the progress, all the issues were taken care of immediately after addressing them, communication was phenomenal.

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

The most unique thing about Xberry is their knowledge of data science and image processing. Xberry has a great understanding of AI/Machine Learning solutions.

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

None that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager at SZAJNA Laboratorium. We’re an optical lens manufacturing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with xBerry R&D House?

We needed a partner with the right knowledge to develop an app for lens measurements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

xBerry developed our Android tablet app. It takes photos and determines exact measurements for lens manufacturing based on them. It’s available to our clients, namely professionals making the measurements. It’s connected with our e-commerce platform.

What is the team composition?

I worked with three people from xBerry: Marek (Founder & CEO), the main developer and architect of the app, and the project manager, who also did the UI/UX design.

How did you come to work with xBerry R&D House?

I asked some friends in the software development community for recommendations. xBerry had developed a software for a Swiss manufacturer of artificial bones, which measured bone sizes.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost was around 80,000 Polish zloty (approximately $20,878 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with xBerry in 2019, and the project ran for four months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We set a goal of selling the app to 100 users in a year, and we met that goal in the first two months. It was an enormous success.

The second measurement of success is measurement accuracy, and we met our goals in that aspect as well. The only difficulties we had were with getting accurate measurements across different lighting conditions. For clear photos, the measurements were highly accurate, down to half a millimeter per eye.

We identified some problems with the UX, but we fixed them in the first two weeks. The biggest problems in this area were with user competence and internet quality. Bad connections would interfere with the app’s functionality. Aside from that, everything was on a high level, and we’re very satisfied with the app.

How did xBerry R&D House perform from a project management standpoint?

It was quite easy to work with them. They were always available and ready to help. We had status meetings online each week, and they worked closely with us. They gave me access to a scrum platform, where I could create and prioritize tasks. We worked on wireframes using Figma.

What did you find most impressive about them?

xBerry conducted the R&D in a very short time. They gave us different choices for how measurements could be done. It wasn’t an easy task to build such an application, and they’d never done something like it before, but they took on the task and succeeded.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should’ve clarified the goals and cost of the work better. I wasn’t sure about certain costs on the invoices. They clarified it for me, and the invoicing was done completely according to the hours of work spent.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

xBerry is really good at what they do, and they work closely with the client, so I have no particular advice. I’m a marketing manager and not an IT expert, but I was able to talk to them and develop the app regardless. They also worked well with our other IT suppliers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Talenger—an agency that specializes in hiring developers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with xBerry R&D House?

We wanted to develop a custom platform because existing solutions couldn’t meet our needs. We needed a partner to build a solution that would enable us to efficiently manage job boards and the candidates who use them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After sharing our idea, xBerry developed our custom platform. In addition to the development, their team handled the product’s UX/UI design. They also helped us to come up with proper features.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 2–3 people along with a project manager and a QA teammate.

How did you come to work with xBerry R&D House?

A previous client of theirs referred us to xBerry. I knew that they did good work cost-efficiently.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $53,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between May 2019–January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re able to efficiently evaluate candidates through our internal recruitment process. It’s also easy to manage the job boards now. We write one ad and then publish it on multiple job boards. This allows us to focus on our work. We’re overall more efficient.

How did xBerry R&D House perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly calls and meetings. xBerry managed the project well, so everything went smoothly. Their project manager understood our idea for the product and proposed reasonable built it. We agreed to most of his suggestions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by how quickly they understood the project. Their team helped us to shape our idea into features and code. They ultimately delivered software that improved our company’s efficiency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their reporting. We communicated and set a budget. However, they could’ve helped us track our spending. We didn’t ask for it though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest. Share all your ideas. They will help you to translate it into the features. Don’t worry about creating specifications. Just approach them with what you have in mind and they will help you with the rest.