Polcode

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are the developer of a brain-sensing headband designed to offer real-time feedback on brain activity during meditation and sleep and insightful tracking over time. I'm the Software Engineering Director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were starting the development of a new system that would require a Senior Ruby on Rails developer.

SOLUTION

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

We worked with Polcode before on other projects with great results and positive feedback from the team so we reached out to them when the new project came up.

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

The project involved the following main phases:

• set up the staging and production environments for the new Application.
• set up the CI/CD flow.
• development of API endpoints for data ingestion from the different third-party SaaS services.
• development of a dashboard UI, including the Customer Care dashboard and reports.
• development of content groups and tagging solutions to support our CMS.

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

1 Full-stack Ruby on Rails Developer working with us for the whole duration of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Nothing to add here at the moment.

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

We had weekly sync meetings with the developer allocated to the project. We used Slack and Jira to coordinate and prioritize the work and releases to production which worked well for us.

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

Experienced developers that learn and adapt quickly to a new project. They are easy to work with.

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

I have nothing to add here.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Engagement Labs is an industry-leading data and analytics firm that provides social intelligence for Fortune 500 brands and companies. The Company’s TotalSocial® platform focuses on the entire social ecosystem by combining powerful online (social media) and offline (word of mouth) data with predictive analytics. I work there as the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Polcode?

We hired Polcode to augment our development team and then maintain our existing TotalSocial SAAS platform. At that point in time development workload was sporadic and we needed flexibility in resources that only Polcode could provide.

What were your goals for this project?

Goals were two-fold: on the technology-side, have a strong partner who could take on an extensive pre-existing project and make any change, fix or improvement to it.

On the management side, have the flexibility to sometimes operate with a few part-time devs and then with a full-blown team when work picks up again.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Benchmarking Polcode against a few other vendors having good reviews - but the unmatched flexibility of Polcode really was the decisive factor.

Describe the project in detail.

Extend the development team of a SAAS analytics platform (Symfony + Backbone JS) - then maintain the application as the development roadmap stalled.

What was the team composition?

For the most part, one senior back-end developer and one senior front developer. A project manager is also assigned to the team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our support system shows that bugs have been fixed while respecting our SLAs. We also saw less and less issues over time - to the point that we had to stop our engagement.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Given that we still have technical know-how internally, we were able to interact with Polcode developers over Slack, as if they were in our own team. We could review commits and pull requests on Github.

Polcode has picked-up our Agile project management sofware even though they did not know of it before. It really worked seemlessly as a team augmentation.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Flexibility and Quality. Flexibility as the ability to scale up and down the workforce and to adapt to our own tools, practices and workflow. The quality of their work, dedication, and professionalism set them apart.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Can't think of any right now.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of client services for a digital marketing agency. We offer online promotions, brand sites, apps, and other services in the digital space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polcode?

We needed support with WordPress, Magento, PHP platforms, and a specific Salesforce integration. Our ideal long-term consulting and development partner would take initiative and stand by their work product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re currently working on 2-3 projects together. Polcode completed all of the development, QA, and testing for our WordPress sites. A Salesforce integration lets our customers interact with the internal digital sales management software. They also developed our Magento project.

What is the team composition?

Polcode assigned us one developer along with a main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

Polcode’s great results and feedback on Upwork caught our attention. We reached out to set up an interview. After meeting the team, they seemed like a fantastic partner.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $10,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working since September 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Polcode delivers on their promises, offers great suggestions, and always comes in on the mark. The team is fantastic and extremely professional. They’re clear, concise, and communicative; I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to anyone. The Magento project is still pending because our client opted to put it on hold. We worked on that site with a brand-new build, so there’s no previous data for comparison.

How did Polcode perform from a project management standpoint?

Polcode uses a Redmine tool and managed the process effectively. If a task is taking too long, they’re quick to let us know. Joanna (Senior HR & IT Recruitment Specialist, Polcode) is great at her job. Our initial WordPress developer left the company, and she promptly found a replacement and had me vet the potential new hire. After being brought up to speed, the new placement has been just as good as the original resource.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Polcode’s commitment to their projects and attention to detail is a unique attribute that’s hard to find in the development community. Our business model involves more external developers rather than internal resources. We’ve had a lot of experience vetting companies, and Polcode stands out from the crowd. Keeping their promises, they deliver on time and within the estimated budget. There’s very little drama, and they’re great all around.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any suggestions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be frank and honest with them. If you have a strict budget limit, let them know. Giving them as much detail as you will help them accurately estimate the timeline and scope.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the partner and president of a digital agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polcode?

We specialize in the .Net platform. Our technical team needed additional help with PHP and Laravel.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done multiple server migrations. One project was in Laravel and another was in Opencart, which is PHP-based. In addition, they’ve improved sites’ e-commerce features, extensions, and marketing capabilities. Although this is an ongoing collaboration, we’ve had emergency support scenarios in which Polcode triaged services. In these instances, the team resolved functionality issues from previous vendors’ work.

What is the team composition?

Their team has about four people.

How did you come to work with Polcode?

We looked for an international vendor with more affordable costs. The agency needed to know open- source platforms, PHP specifically. We found them via an online search; they looked like a quality company.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in April 2017 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work is exceptional; there are no defects. The team finds deficiencies quickly in projects where they weren’t the original developer.

How did Polcode perform from a project management standpoint?

Although their remote location limits real-time communication, they use several platforms to keep the partnership effective. One team member worked over the holidays after his wife gave birth; the team provides exceptional service, but he particularly exceeded our expectations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their service offerings create value. The team is proficient at many skills; they also speak English well. They’ve made the process very smooth and cost-effective.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not based on my interaction. The relationship has been fantastic.