Andersen Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company supports various customers with custom implementation of web applications. I am the leader of the development team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen Inc., and what were your goals?

Last year we implemented a platform for our customer, which needed to be extended in several ways to support the latest use caeses of the customer and to replace another old system from the customer.

SOLUTION

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

We worked together with Andersen on another project and asked them for assistance here as well as we had positive experience working together.

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

We had mockups done by our designer. Andersen managed the project in Jira, implemented the web frontend (React and TypeScript) and was responsible for QA of the whole project.

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

We had three people working from Andersen:

• Business Analyst
• QA Specialist
• Senior Web Developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our customer was highly satisfied with the outcome of the project and already got positive feedback from the users of the platform. The expectations of the web application were fully met.

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

We had weekly sync meetings to talk about open questions and decisions. Tasks were managed in Jira and most communication was done in MS Teams.

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

Most impressive for me was the level of professionalism the communication was prepared (Tasks, QA Reports, Meeting Minutes). Also the quality of the web application was very high and we did not need to conduct separate tests.

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

With the amount of time I was available the team from Andersen did the best what was possible. For some pages in the application the development took a bit longer than I would have expected.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a medical artificial intelligence company, developing solutions for the diagnosis and management of neurological conditions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen, and what were your goals?

Andersen was tasked with developing a comprehensive web-based cloud processing platform, allowing for high-throughput multi-modal data processing.

SOLUTION

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

After speaking with a number of other vendors, Andersen was selected based on the competitive pricing offered, relevant background, and enthusiastic approach to understanding and delivering the project.

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

As part of the project, an initial scoping piece was carried out by engaging with a business analyst at Andersen, creating UI designs, and user stories and describing the required tech stack needed to deliver the project. Subsequently, the actual development work started, which involved sprints defined based on the user stories described by the business analyst, and continuous feedback from our team.

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

approximately 6 personnel: 1) project manager 2) business analyst 3) dev-ops specialist 4) UI/UX designer 5) front-end developer 6) python developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was delivered within budget and time and captured all the requirements set out by us. The team at Andersen were very accommodating of unforeseen changes or requirements that came to light during the development phase.

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

The project management was carried out very effectively, using various reporting tools to communicate spring objectives, what has been delivered, cash burn rate, outstanding issues and bugs, etc. Tools such as Jira and SharePoint were used to achieve this.

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

They enthusiastically worked with us to understand our needs and proactively offered solutions and improvements. They wanted to deliver an end result that even went beyond our anticipated goals for this phase of the development.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the digital marketing director, web developer, and product manager for an e-commerce publication at a commercial printing company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We hired Andersen to develop our website. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andersen is developing our new site from a legacy site that's existed for over 10 years. The site is built in ASP.NET MVC in a SQL Server, and the frontend is in Razor. Andersen is also using some Javascript for the development. They've added some bells and whistles, including single sign-on, and refactored our old application. Andersen is also performing some bug fixes and maintenance where it's needed. 

What is the team composition?

We're working with three teammates from Andersen, and the project manager is our main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with Andersen?

I did a quick Google search and reached out to them because they seemed the most professional. Their team got back to me quickly, so we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested around $75,000 with Andersen thus far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project with Andersen began in August 2021, and it's ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site is still in development, but Andersen is performing very well for the price, given that they're remote developers. I am 90% satisfied with Andersen's work thus far — they've exceeded my expectations. 

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

Andersen's project manager isn't very involved with our project because we're not paying them for that service. Their developers generally meet deadlines and stay on budget, but there have been some minor delivery issues. We constantly communicate via Microsoft Teams and have biweekly 30-minute phone calls with the Andersen team. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Andersen's technical ability is excellent — they provide excellent developers for a reasonable price.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Andersen requires that I have a hands-on role in architecting technical solutions. That is a general issue of having remote developers who don't take ownership of an application, but I would prefer if they took more initiative to architect solutions. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd advise customers to be very hands-on with the system architecture and be prepared to provide Andersen's developers with the architectural solutions and marching orders for the development. Customers shouldn't expect a lot of feedback regarding architectural solutions either. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

VERSES is creating the protocols for the next generation of the web, connecting people, places, and things. Our Spatial Web Protocols are universal and open standards for the next generation of the web that connects people, places, things, and currencies into a single, digital network - The Spatial Web.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen, and what were your goals?

We hired Andersen for redesigning the user portal for one of our Spatial Web Apps in the logistics sector.

SOLUTION

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

We researched dev shops online and shortlisted a few. After speaking with the team at Andersen, we selected this vendor based on their previous designs, which looked outstanding.

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

Deliverables: new wireframes & designs, build re-usable components, add charts and metrics tables.

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

We hired one Project Manager, 2 Frontend Developers, 1 Solutions Architect, 1 Business Architect, and 1 Designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Better user experience (we received great feedback from our clients), some of the portal components were re-used in other projects, increase efficiency and resilience.

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

Weekly dev review and management meetings; in constant communication on Slack; multiple tracking and release notes regularly provided to us.

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

The team is very professional, everything is clearly documented (business requirements, vision, scope, deliverables, progress), and the quality of the work produced is outstanding.

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

The process for approving user stories can be improved upon and made simpler.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Co-Project lead and Head of Digital Marketing Department

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen, and what were your goals?

We wanted to relaunch our website and therefore moved to a headless architecture with React. In order to support our internal dev's we needed external manpower.

SOLUTION

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

I was contacted by Andersen before the relaunch via linkedin and therefore was already in contact with them.

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

We used scrum for the development. The developer of Andersen were fully integrated in our processes like internal dev's. The development was done with React.

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

2 full stack web developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It took some time for the dev's to get used to our rules and coding principeles but it went smooth and the knowledge of them was on a very high level.

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

We communicated with Slack and Github during the whole project.

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

They are professionals and very well organized and friendly!

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

No, everything went smooth.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a young startup based in Vienna, Austria, founded around one and a half years ago. We offer business planning services and a software solution for sales forecasting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We’re a young company, and we don’t have a lot of resources. Thus, our initial challenge was scaling up our team. We were a four-person founding team, so we couldn’t cover all the positions required to develop the first version of our product. We had some technical experts in our team who had created our product’s backend, but we went to Andersen for the UI part.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andersen has helped us conceptualize, design, and implement our product’s UI/UX. The project has been done in multiple phases. Initially, we provided them with general concepts, mockups, and detailed technical requirements. These requirements included that the platform should work on all modern browsers and mobile platforms.

After providing our requirements, Andersen designed the final mockups based on what we gave them, which were then given to a frontend developer in the later stages. From there, we’ve worked on additional functionalities.

Most of their work has been frontend development, for which they’ve used React and JavaScript. They’ve also used Figma as a design tool, and we’ve collaborated with them through that platform. I’m currently collaborating with Andersen on implementing some functionalities we need for getting a funding program.

What is the team composition?

Initially, we worked with three people from Andersen: a designer, a project manager, and a UI/UX developer. We added a business analyst and a tester in the second phase. We’re in the middle of the third phase now, and we’re mainly using one developer and one project manager.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

We researched Clutch and other platforms extensively, looking for development partners that could assist us in building our product by bringing the right people with the right skills. We had experience working with external companies, so we had criteria to meet based on that. Andersen covered all of our technical requirements, and their cost was within our budget.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around €70,000 (approximately $81,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Andersen in May 2020, and we plan to continue the partnership for a long time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Andersen helped us find the right people for our project. They had a team already built, and they knew who among them would be the right people to support us, so we didn’t have to hire other specialists. Thanks to this great team, they helped us build a product that we can now show to our customers.

They’ve definitely helped us build a better product that our users like. For example, we collaborated on a big project with a large customer two months ago, and we got really positive feedback during the testing phase.

We’ve also been awarded an important funding program run by the Austrian government. This program has milestones that we’ve needed to meet, and Andersen has helped us reach those milestones. We’re now in talks with them to roll out our product throughout Europe and some other countries.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve missed almost no deadline, nor we’ve deviated from our budget. Whenever there has been an issue or delay, there has always been honest communication, and we’ve found solutions together.

We mostly use email for communication. We’re also using Slack for our day-to-day communication, and we have daily meetings on Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Honest communication is important for building a long-term partnership. Andersen works at a good pace and offers great communication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Andersen proposed a more encompassing involvement than we’d planned at the beginning, which affected our budget. It felt like they just wanted to have a bigger team involved to make some additional money. In the end, it turned out that it wasn’t really useful.

 Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Come up with a clear concept and precise requirements. It’s always helpful to have a clear understanding of what needs to be achieved in the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of IT developpments in a company that provide professionnal applications to entities who wants to be compliant with any kind of regulation / law / standard, in the easiest possible way.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen, and what were your goals?

Our application keeps growing with new game changing feature, and we were in a need of more skilled developpers to complete our challenging roadmap in time.

SOLUTION

How did you select Andersen and what were the deciding factors?

AndersenLab was already compliant with all our security needs. They provided intersting profiles of developpers.

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

After a few period of onboarding and learning our profession, every develpper was assigned to a new project to achieve. They were all together on different tasks, but at the same time involved in the same whole project. They were also involved in our discussions about internal improvements.

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

We hired 4 developpers to help us in our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Each developper was quickly able to work on real stuff. that was the goal and we did achieve project in time thanks to them ! Besides, they were always suggesting improvements on many topics, such as source code organization, processes, techs we could use and so. Really proactive mens !

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

The contract occured during the COVID 19. Therefore everyone was working from home. But we are using MS Teams as a central tool, which gives us the feeling to have everyone next to us all the time. Management didn't really change because of that.

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

The hability to provide helpful feedback report. That was really helpful, pointing out issues that were hurting but true !

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

One of our developper was a bit less english skilled as we thought, but we dealled with it correctly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Holistify. We’re building an online marketplace for practitioners of holistic therapy to enable appointment booking and offer information about the services offered.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

Andersen is developing our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andersen created user journeys, functional requirements, and mockups based on my specifications. We moved into the development phase from there, which we’re currently in.

They recommended all of the technologies that are being put in place. We’re using Stripe as a payment provider, and the rest of the platform is custom-built.

What is the team composition?

To start with, I had a sales contact who helped me through the quoting and estimating period. He fully onboarded us, and he continues to check in with me.

Then, I worked with a project manager, a business analyst, and a UX designer. I currently have a project manager, a solution architect, three backend and three frontend developers, and two QA testers.

How did you come to work with Andersen?

I was initially looking for white label, off-the-shelf marketplace solutions like Arcadier, and Andersen was recommended as a development partner for that platform. I found a few companies, and I chose Andersen because they had a good understanding of the high-level requirements and could provide me with advice and guidance on what we were trying to do. Because they really understood what I was doing, they could also provide a reliable quote.

I took three development companies through a more detailed review, where I gave them some granular business requirements. Andersen was by far the best in asking clarifying questions, and they had a detailed and transparent pricing model. Where they found things that might not have been best practice or correct, they told me about it and gave me recommendations. They just became the natural leader in my procurement journey.

Their sales contact checked in with me and made sure I was comfortable before we went into a contractual agreement. Their whole approach of quoting for new business was spot on.

How much have you invested with them?

By the time we finish, the cost will be around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started contacting people in early-March 2020, and I signed the contract with Andersen in April. The design phase ran until late-May, and they gave me a detailed development quote on the back of the design. The project is expected to finish in February 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I measure the success in terms of inclusion of scope, or making sure that everything I ask for is there. We’re on a fixed-price agreement, so cost doesn’t come into it, but I’m measuring their adherence to the time scale. I’m also measuring the quality of work and their ability to collaborate with me. Once I have a live platform, I’ll measure various user test cases.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re working in agile with sprint cycles, and they’ve been very efficient. We predominantly use Jira for planning, scoping out each release, and reporting. We have fortnightly sessions after a sprint closes to review the good and bad parts and to scope out the next sprint.

I felt they were lacking on the project management side during the design phase. They were great at taking my business requirements, but not as good at translating them into functional designs. We had a bit of an issue there in that I didn’t have full transparency on how they were completing the functional designs. I raise that concern with them, and they put some actions in place to make sure it didn’t happen again.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve always told them that this is a two-way engagement: if there’s ever something that they can recommend or propose to me, I’m happy to take it onboard. If we maintain two-way communication and both work toward a vision, it’ll make for a successful partnership.

Andersen has really embraced that, and they’ve been leaders in communication. It’s made the experience go easily, even when I had the small issue with control during the design phase.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything ran smoothly after we went into the development phase. They were ahead of schedule, and they made internal quality checks on how the project was being delivered, along with the usual code testing. I’m incredibly happy with the development phase, but I would’ve liked to see the same rigor during the design phase.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I advise treating them like a partner. I’ve been open and direct in my communication, whether it was good feedback, constructive criticism, or a request. As long as they know what I want, they’re more than capable of delivering it over and above the standard.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

System Analyst, Product Owner at Management Events. Management events is an international business matchmaking service that covers over 15 markets in Europe and Asia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Andersen, and what were your goals?

Development of an inhouse designed custom ERP system for events business, a web application for our customers to manage their participation in our events including meeting booking, a web application for our staff for being in contact with the delegates in our events, a web application for our Sales to be in contact with our customers and a common API throughout the projects. Andersen team helped with realization of 5-6 main features, QA & AQA increased coverage, etc.

SOLUTION

How did you select Andersen and what were the deciding factors?

Through the commercial proposal with the best conditions.

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

Qualified resources using best practices (Development, QA and AQA Engineers), Reporting. Andersen team helped with realization of 5-6 main features, QA & AQA increased coverage, etc.

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

During more than 4 years of cooperation with Andresen the team was changing from 2 to 16 people. As the tech stack we had PHP, Yii, Angular mainly, also we had QA team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Satisfied users, users growth, App tech update for actual stack, etc.

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

The management was mainly on Management Event's side, however I can say that during the times when we had a PM from Andersen it was effective.

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

The transparency and speed of providing high-qualified resources.

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

Nothing stands out.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Choicely.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Andersen?

We hired them to do development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andersen has been helping us build an administration portal for our customers, which is an extension of our current platform. The team is using React and JavaScript, as well as basic HTML and CSS.

What is the team composition?

I work with a web developer, and I interact with Andersen’s management team occasionally. 

How did you come to work with Andersen?

They were recommended to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $5,000 per month, so we’ve spent $120,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in the middle of 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Andersen has provided good quality service.

How did Andersen perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to communicate what I need to the developer. We communicate via Slack, and we also use Google Docs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I get what I ask for and I’m in control of the process. I manage the project, and I prefer this direct approach to the process because is it’s easy to manage. The team has also been good at listening to my needs and meeting them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no criticism.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Andersen is worth a try. As with any software service, it’s about the customer’s ability to do the work that’s required to complete the project.