S-PRO

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Kephas TV Corporation, a video technology company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

S-PRO helped us build an Android- and Apple-based TV application that people can access from home. They also built a prototype for a custom website. We have an internal development team that manages our broadcasts and the platform. S-PRO collaborated with them to integrate their work into our systems. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We built a free TV app for our current viewers. We have a television station in Germany, so the app offers a convenient way for viewers to access our content, see our live broadcasts, and browse our archived content in a video-on-demand platform. We went through a design phase to model the app. Then, we integrated the app into our current broadcasting platform. Finally, we had a roll-out phase where we delivered the app for an event at a media conference.

We needed to connect our live broadcast platform with our scheduling platform. We also needed the broadcast platform to connect with all of our archived content so users could access that as well. Our user base is a fairly older demographic, so the app had to be simple, without too many options or touches needed to navigate.

What is the team dynamic?

We had a project manager, a designer, and a couple of developers for both Android and iOS. There were probably other people that I didn’t know about that helped as well. My main point of contact was the project manager. S-PRO decided which resources would be best for the project. At most 5–6 people worked on the project.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I usually search online to find different vendors that interest me, and then I conduct a selection process. I don’t remember exactly how I found S-PRO. I looked at 3–5 other vendors. S-PRO had experience delivering TV apps. I liked that they were European and had reasonable prices. The process went pretty smoothly.

How much have you invested with S-PRO?

We’ve spent between $15,000 and $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working on the project in February 2017, and the app launched in June 2017. 

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

Our users are engaged on the platform, and there are no major issues. S-PRO delivered what we expected.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager and I spoke once or twice a week. Everything was delivered on time and within budget. We didn’t have any problems with the time difference. I would normally get a response to any questions within the same day.

What did you find most impressive about S-PRO?

They have really experienced engineers, and their prices are reasonable compared to bringing people in-house to manage the project.

Are there any areas S-PRO could improve?

No, I was happy with everything about the project.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of Myntelligence Limited, an ad tech company. Previously, I also worked with S-PRO for a company called Shallet, a mobile app and stock image library.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We needed to build a web application for Shallet, a startup. As part of the effort, we needed a consumer-facing website as well as some tools.

For Myntelligence, I worked directly with 3–4 of S-PRO’s team members, who made up the core of our development team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

S-PRO worked with me to design, develop, test, and deploy the Shallet platform. The original design of our public-facing website was supplied to them. S-PRO also worked on the ones for our central services, which are a series of RESTful APIs. They created a Python application that integrated with the central set of APIs developed by our team.

We gave S-PRO a full design spec for the web application. They worked together with our team to realize the functionalities required. Initially, they also helped us with some initial project management, but we stopped this later on and created one big team. While they were working on the visuals, their own project manager split up what was required into smaller stories and tracked the process. Once we got to a certain point, S-PRO’s developer was integrated into the bigger team.

We worked in an Agile way, with the focus of the effort being 2-week sprints. The QA was sometimes done by S-PRO, depending on the part of the project we were addressing, but it was also done by our project manager. We worked with around 3 people from S-PRO’s side, and the team size fluctuated. We interacted with them every day for the project.

The Myntelligence project was large and complex. For this engagement, we use 4 people from S-PRO’s team.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I went on a website called Upwork, which provides freelancers. I posted a job for ReactJS development, which would be used for our moderation platform. I then interviewed a developer, who showed a detailed understanding of React and other JavaScript frameworks. Based on this, I gave the project to S-PRO. When it came time to work on the Python application to for the consumer-facing website, I decided to give the project to them since I’d already worked with S-PRO. I and was happy with what they did for me and they had the skill sets required.

I also chose S-PRO for the Myntelligence because I knew they were good.

How much have you invested with S-PRO?

The cost of their work was around $150,000 overall. We spend around $15,000 per month on S-PRO’s services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with S-PRO for the Shallet project in May 2016, around 1 year ago. The development for Myntelligence was started in January 2017 and is ongoing.

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

A development partner can either deliver the product in a functional form or not. Whether the business succeeds or not is down to us. As a partner, S-PRO is professional, skilled, and knowledgeable. They have a great attitude and have made delivering easier.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been mostly integrated with our own team. On the parts that they managed on their own, S-PRO handled the task well. They have good interactions with our own project management team. We worked directly with the developers, and they were integrated into the broader team. This made our lives easier.

What did you find most impressive about S-PRO?

At the end of the day, we really felt as though they are a part of the team. I consider the developers I’m working with now from S-PRO to be a part of Myntelligence.

Are there any areas S-PRO could improve?

No. I have a back channel to S-PRO’s CEO if there are any issues, but I haven’t needed to escalate anything so far.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with S-PRO?

My general advice for people looking to work with an outsourced partner is that, if the client knows what they want, the developer can help them realize it. If not, then the partner can help build prototypes and give a better understanding of use cases.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the consulting IT Director for a manufacturer of floor mats. I’m helping to streamline development and take the company through an agile transition. The company has grown dramatically since it’s beginnings in 1999, working closely with facility services companies in the US, Europe and around the world.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

S-PRO helped us create an app that our salespeople could use to expedite their interaction with their clients.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project with S-PRO started before I joined the company, but my understanding is that they have headed up the front-end development and that has certainly been their focus while I have been involved. The application is effectively a SPA and heavily reliant on JavaScript, so they have played a major role.

They have worked closely with the User Experience designer and backend developers, contributing ideas and solutions for the application design and for architectural issues.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

S-PRO were contracted through Upwork. Several candidates were interviewed but S-PRO stood out and were brought in to head up the front-end development.

How much have you invested with S-PRO?

As the project started before I arrived, I don’t know the exact budget, but it would be in the range of $100,000 to $150,000, and that would have been distributed amongst all of the team members working on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began around December 2015 and has recently been completed. S-PRO is still helping us out with a couple of minor issues.

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

The app has only just been released in beta, so we don't have any hard metrics yet. Stakeholders within the company are pleased with the final product. Feedback from the test group in the field has been very positive. Other customers of the company who don’t yet have access to the app are looking forward to getting their hands on it.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

This project was difficult in that it brought together several independent developers who had not previously worked together. S-PRO were able to settle into the project quickly and begin delivering usable iterations with each Sprint. Despite the team being distributed globally, S-PRO delivered their tasks on time, attended meetings promptly and were able to liaise effectively with other team members, overcoming problems and impediments quickly.

While S-PRO didn’t take a project management role in this project, they were organized and worked well with the team. Certainly, with regard to planning and daily meetings, S-PRO was clear about what they were doing. They delivered what they said they would deliver, and it was on time and budget.

What did you find most impressive about S-PRO?

Before this project, I had never worked with a bunch of developers who had not worked with each other previously. Also, a team in India was introduced to the project later in the game. So, we have India, Europe, the UK, and the US all working in collaboration with each other. That tends to require flexibility regarding your availability and the hours that you're prepared to work to get things done. The whole team was good at that. There were never any issues with somebody not being available for a meeting. There were never any issues with somebody not producing what they said they would produce. Obviously, there were problems along the way, but as the issues arose, the team worked together and could overcome them. S-PRO's commitment to the project was evident. They were an important part of the team, and they helped make everything move forward.

Are there any areas S-PRO could improve?

Not really. There were very minor communication issues arising from background noise on conference calls, which combined with the accent, occasionally meant that a point would need to be repeated. The level of English in the S-PRO team ranged from understandable to very good.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with S-PRO?

The team at S-PRO know their stuff and work well together. They don’t need to be over-managed. I've already recommended them to people and would definitely use them again.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Canadian Recreational Sports Development Corp deals with hockey. We are based in North America. We’re building an application right now that will allow us to organize sports, collect payments, and manage events. The name of the application is Breakout.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We needed help with building our application. To give you context, there are two big problems that we see every day in our business. One is the need to collect rich [inaudible, 00:58] from players, and there’s not really a good solution to make group payments. If you run a team of any sort, what happens is that the person who runs the team has to collect all the money. That means there’s no way to allow the players to give monthly payments. The app solves that problem. The second problem is that when you run a team, what happens is that you need to know how many players are coming to each game. It takes a lot of time to figuring out if you are sending text messages or emails. Our application solves this event management problem.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was my vision, but S-PRO did the execution. I did not provide any wireframes, but I did provide specs as far as what particular things I wanted to build. These were improvements of those things that they built. They built everything from the start—the system, database design, user experience, user interface, and design. We now have a React-based app for Android and iOS that they built. They essentially did all the development that I requested them to do. We work in one-week sprints and every few weeks or months when we need something. They didn’t do any marketing for us.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I looked for two years to find the right combination of value and technical ability. It was difficult. I found them on oDesk at the time. I found Igor, the principal of the company, and we started talking. We did a test project to see if they would be the kind of organization that we would want to work with. When we did the test project, the results were good. The product I request them to build has to be of quality, along with the communication part. If something was wrong or if there are any issues that need resolving quickly, then I need access to someone that would be able to help to figure this out. They definitely did that. I figured that we could continue with them and started to go in that direction.

How much have you invested with S-PRO?

The amount we’ve paid S-PRO is approaching about $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I approached them in the fall of 2014. The work is ongoing because we still have a few phases that we need to complete.

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

I’m the lead in the project so not too many people engage with S-PRO. The results that they see is the product, and there’s been pretty good feedback about that. Our employees are achieving what they need to achieve, especially our accounting department because they use the product for the payment aspect of it. They don’t have any issue with it. If there are any problems that we find, they get fixed pretty quickly.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

I have a dedicated project manager assigned to our project. There’s a plan that we put together, and he’s in charge of making sure that plan gets executed. That’s the nature of our relationship. There’s a weekly sprint that we talk about. After that, I get a report of what has and what has not been completed, then we go forward and repeat the process. I typically talk to him on a nightly basis because they’re based in Ukraine. I haven’t had any issues communicating with them. We use three main communication methods. The project is managed on JIRA, and all issues are reported on there. We can go back and forth on comments, screenshots, videos, and whatever else we need to do in there. Direct communication is through Skype. If I need to discuss something in person, we use that. Of course, we use email when there are things that we need to record that aren’t that pertinent or urgent.

What did you find most impressive about S-PRO?

Typically, it’s difficult to deal with companies from other countries because of language barriers or different time zones. Anytime I needed anything, they were available for me, and that’s really important. If we’re in production and there’s an issue, it affects quite a few people we work with. I was able to resolve any issue we had. They’re flexible enough that we can always work out any issues in the business relationship or in areas unrelated to the product.

Are there any areas S-PRO could improve?

You can always improve on something. I would say that they can always add more technological capabilities to their company through more experience with their developers or in QA. Their QA was actually a little bit weaker, but it’s been better now in the last five or six months.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with S-PRO?

The most important thing is to do some research upfront and not to commit to somebody right away. We don’t really have a formal contract. Because of the nature of the development, it makes sense for me to continue with them. If you don’t do the research or test project, you might find yourself in a situation where you’re not getting the results that you want.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a startup company developing an instant-messaging smartphone application that helps people organize group activities. I am the chief executive officer of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We needed to develop our software and didn't have the right personnel on our team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

S-PRO developed our cross-platform application using Cordova PhoneGap. It has an HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frontend, and a Node.js and MongoDB backend. For the most part, the work was based on our own wireframes in the beginning. S-PRO also supplied a designer who gave us some very constructive inputs.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I found S-PRO on Upwork, which was called oDesk at the time. I was looking for developers for similar technologies to ours and went through a huge number of reviews. After whittling the list down, I had a Skype session with one of S-PRO's project managers. I was happy to go with them from that stage.

How much have you invested with S-PRO?

The cost of S-PRO's work was between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project has been completed after an 18-month period, but S-PRO continues to provide minor ongoing maintenance. I plan on moving on to another business and plan to maintain our collaboration with S-PRO going forward.

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

The app has had very few downloads so far, around 200 in total between the Android and iOS versions. We've seen very positive reviews from the people who have used the app. The software is functioning very well.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

I worked with two separate project managers from S-PRO's team over the course of our project. They had excellent English levels, so they were very methodical and good at translating the work for me. We used Skype for our day-to-day communication. We averaged 2–3 video calls per week, for cases where we couldn't understand each other. We also had one major weekly conference that lasted 1–2 hours. S-PRO was using Jira as well as another project management tool in which I was included. I could see all the tasks being worked on and could monitor the project in that way as well. With every large project, deadlines will rarely be met. We extended our original timeline but the overall collaboration was very positive and the vast majority of reasons for deadline extension came from our side.

What did you find most impressive about S-PRO?

I was very pleased S-PRO’s team and services. S-PRO's members are very good people. I visited them in Ukraine.  S-PRO has a great working environment and a young, energetic team who I could trust. They're trying to innovate on how the business is being developed.

Are there any areas S-PRO could improve?

Deadline estimates could be improved, but I can't think of anything else.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Advertising agency, Director of Digital Production.

For what projects/services did your company hire S-PRO?

React Native development.

What were your goals for this project?

To fix existing bugs and update software versions.

How did you select this vendor?

We found the vendor online.

Describe the project in detail.

We briefed S-PRO team over the video calls, sent them the codebase to review, then received their initial thoughts and ideas, the estimates, and signed the contract. The work began as planned and finished on time.

What was the team composition?

We had a team of the Project Manager, Developer and a QA specialist.

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

Great quality of work, and work ethics. Timely reports and transparent communication.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective, we used Slack and Jira to communicate and track progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very thorough and transparent.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were very happy with the way S-PRO handled the task.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of a SaaS company. We develop apps for businesses to manage their workflow.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

We were looking for a software partner to support us with some of the design aspects of our workflow app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Several components of our app were already designed, so S-PRO helped us specifically with training mockups. The designed over 100 new screens for our app.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a total of five people from their team. There were two designers, one business analyst, a project manager, and the account manager.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

Our primary focus was finding a partner with whom we could work as a team.  

We looked at various sites, including Clutch, and compiled a list of about 50 businesses. From there, we shortlisted 20. We conducted interviews, assigned small tasks, and surveyed existing customers.

After visiting S-PRO’s site, we decided to partner with them. We appreciated that they were in our time zone, and the team was a good fit in terms of culture. 

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost between $10,000-$25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February until June 2019.

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

Although we didn’t gather any specific metrics as we were still in the design and development phase, we’re very happy with what the team delivered. 

The app's capabilities increased greatly, growing from 30–40 screens to 150–180. S-PRO’s work focused on the user, and they implemented great, animated design.

The team conducted several tests with users to gather feedback and continuously improve the product. With their help, our product was able to really grow.

Overall, the quality was great. We’re satisfied with the work they did.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style is above average. 

We communicated daily over both Slack and Skype. Sometimes, we traveled to their office to meet with them personally, in order to ensure alignment between our two teams. We received reports every three weeks, and the team used Jira to track progress. 

Whenever difficult situations arose, S-PRO was very helpful in providing solutions. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really appreciated the constant availability of our account manager. Whenever we required anything or had questions or concerns, he replied within minutes. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Looking back, although we agreed upon status reports every three weeks, it would’ve been helpful to receive them more frequently. Other than that, we had a great experience with them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as clear as you can about what you need. We approached S-PRO with some of our mockups, processes, and ideas already formed. That level of preparation enabled them to understand our project and how they could most efficiently staff it on their end.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Wonop a cryptocurrency company. So far, I’m the only employee, which means we’re in a very early start-up phase where I am mostly managing everything through outsourcing. This is so I can make sure the gets work done without having a long-term commitment to actually pay employees.

What challenge were you trying to address with S-PRO?

I asked them to build a mobile wallet for me.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a mobile wallet that manages ERC20 tokens. People can add different ERC20 tokens and manage their native Ethereum tokens in it. It’s biometrically enabled so users can authenticate themselves via fingerprints. It also has a built-in KYC system so the provider can get confirmation that the user has a verified identity.

They used React Native to create a cross-platform mobile wallet for Android and iOS. Overall, they’ve been working with the Ethereum cryptographic library. They’re working with Node.js but also working with a mystic graphical wallet which involved the generation of Entropy and a bunch of other technical things. They also used Web3 technology for sign-on and interacting with the Ethereum blockchain. Also, they’ve been using Infura as a backend service.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Olga (Project Manager, S-PRO) as well as with Nadia (Sales Manager, S-PRO). I had a few calls with the developers, but I wasn’t in contact with them that much.

How did you come to work with S-PRO?

I think I just did a Google search. I went to a bunch of companies, but S-PRO’s portfolio looked pretty solid. They started out making a proposal for what they were going to do and clarified any misunderstandings that they had. On that basis, they went ahead and did it.

How much have you invested in them?

I have spent between $10,000–$50,000. I think I paid $5,000 upfront for just doing the planning but to be fair, I think it was absolutely necessary to do that.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them from July 2019 to January 2020. We’ve finished the first phase and I need to raise some funds to continue the work.

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

Overall, I have been quite happy. There's very little they could have done to make me happier. I would be quite happy hiring them again and I am fairly sure I will.

How did S-PRO perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great. I got regular updates from them and they delivered something on a regular basis that I could see.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We had an agreement that if I was unsatisfied at any point, we could terminate the contract with a full two-day notice which made me feel comfortable working with them. They sent me a packaged version of the wallet plus the source code. I have been looking over the source code and I'm happy with it, overall.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think you should just roll with it. I was quite happy with how it all went. I was a bit skeptical because it seemed quite expensive, but I think it is worth it.