SoftwareHut

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a UX/UI design agency located in Poland, specialised in delivering stunning IT solutions for our clients. We offer UX research, product and web design, product development and design for innovative solutions, including VR/AR interfaces.

We are also a part of UX Fellows, a global network of experienced user research companies. Providing our global clients with design services, we often need a hand with software development, which SoftwareHut developers are great at. Working with their employees in extended team model, we can deliver complete products to our clients.

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

We need to have access to experienced software developers on demand, ready to join our projects and work with us effectively as a remote team.

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

We have worked with the company before.

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

As we offer a wide range of custom software development and design, we need to have access to web and mobile app developers, experienced in a wide range of programming languages and frameworks.

Having worked with a proptech company, ecommerce brands, mixed reality solutions, etc., we wanted to make sure that we can find support to our team whenever we need a skill that we don’t have. SoftwareHut continuously supports us with their developers, working with us as our extended team.

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

The team consisted of software developers, a project manager, and QA testers.

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

Working with SoftwareHut, we continue to complete the projects that are meeting our clients’ business goals. SoftwareHut team delivers their assigned tasks on time, and the code is always of good quality.

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

For the majority of the projects, they include a project manager responsible for maintaining ongoing communication between us and their software developers and software testers. They have been open to feedback and easily share their own ideas for improvements.

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

Currently, we still work with SoftwareHut software developers, and this cooperation continues to be satisfying for us.

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

I can’t think of any major area that they could improve.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a Business Director of the company. Zonifero is a rapidly growing proptech platform offering workplace management, parking reservation system, lobby management and guest reception.

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

SoftwareHut has created Zonifero as an internal project, initially aiming to solve office management issues. The tool has grown from an internal project to a 6 figure startup in just 3 years and is now an independent company.

We needed to create backend and central database for our solution, as well as iOS and Android applications for mobile devices.

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

We have worked with the company before.

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

We have worked with the company before. The solution evolved from digital office management app to a complete proptech solution, which involved constant testing and development, as well as seeking new business opportunities and veryfing the solution with the market.

SoftwareHut provided us with custom software development of the backend, database development, and mobile app development for iOS and Android devices.

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

The team consisted of software developers, a project manager, and QA testers.

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

Zonifero has grown from an internal project to a rapidly growing startup. Our solution has been already implemented in offices in Poland, and we’re working on attracting new clients. We maintain and develop new features of the app, adjusting to the needs of our clients.

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

They involve project managers in every project, who is responsible for maintaining the project documentation and communication. They are very open to feedback and respond quickly to request.

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

SoftwareHut hires a wide range of specialists experienced in different technologies, meaning that there is rarely a task they can’t do.

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

None that I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We provide communication services to small businesses worldwide and have paying customers in 170 countries. Over 1.5 million small businesses have a Sonetel account. We are listed at Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Stockholm.

Our main service in the past has been to help entrepreneurs worldwide increase sales by providing them with low cost local phone numbers in remote countries where they want to increase their sales. Showing a local phone number at your web site increases trust and conversions.

Since 2017 we have been investing further into our SaaS platform, by expanding its capabilities into text communication - with support of Artificial Intelligence. This is offered within a Freemium model to small businesses worldwide. The new services were launched in BETA during fall 2019 after several years of development. I am the CEO, founder, and largest shareholder in Sonetel.

For what projects/services did your company hire SoftwareHut?

We needed to develop a brand new customer web portal and mobile apps to cover the functionality of both our old phone number related services, and our new text/AI related services. In addition to this we needed to develop a chat widget for customer web sites and some backend micro services - although most backend work was to be done by us.

What were your goals for this project?

To create easy-to-use apps for mobile and desktop covering both text and voice communication - for both customer and team communication.

How did you select this vendor?

We received quotes from a number of vendors. We selected SoftwareHut based on their proven experience, reasonable size (not too small and not too large) and the price that they offered.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project involved the development of a Web app and native mobile apps in REACT, as well as the development of a chat web widget for customer interactions, and various backend micro services.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a project leader, a few QA resources and handful developers with different skill sets.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The project has allowed us to move our business from being a provider of local phone numbers with call forwarding, to being a full-range provider of communication services (text and voice) to small businesses.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

There has been a project leader assigned by SoftwareHut, that has managed the scheduling of work - based on the priorities we have provided.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The project was complex and large. The original estimates did not hold - which commonly is the case with such projects. Softwarehut however took responsibility and absorbed a reasonable share of impact of this, and have additionally worked hard to find constructive solutions allowing us to make the project a joint long-term success.

Top management has been involved on both sides in a constructive dialogue, which eventually enabled us to launch the new services during fall 2019. This personal engagement from SoftwareHut management has been instrumental. Their team and resources have generally been of high quality, with a great deal of personal commitment and pride.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We have kept the responsibility in house for UX design and architectural work for backend components, and most of the backend development - as this wasn't a key strength area of SoftwareHut - at last at the time we took that decision.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the general manager of a financial services company.

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We wanted to create a mobile app that allowed our customers to access their bank accounts but didn’t have the expertise to build it in-house. Another company created a series of designs, but we didn’t want them to deliver the app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

SoftwareHut designed and developed our mobile app, which is for Android and iOS. They developed the apps natively.

We first introduced them to our products, team, and goals. We then shared the wireframes and let them have a look. Their team then worked in Agile-based iterations, delivering the app in stages.

We began with a simple bank account app where users could log in to view their balance and recent transactions. Their team expanded on it, so customers could do more with it. Users can activate and use a MasterCard. They can contact us and set up direct debit, which is essentially a means of making regular payments to bills.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a general corps of 5–7 people from SoftwareHut.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around £20,000 (approximately $24,900 USD) a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our engagement around November 2016 and their team iterated on the app until 2019.

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

The evidence is the app, which is reliable. We haven’t had problems with it. SoftwareHut did a good job designing it. We’ve had positive feedback on the platform.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was excellent. They were efficient and straightforward. We could rely on them to be proactive and do what we asked of them.

We were impressed with SoftwareHut. They were better than any other supplier when it came to meeting deadlines or be straightforward if there was a reason why they couldn’t.

What did you find most impressive about them?

More than any other provider, we enjoyed working with their team. It felt like we were on the same team. We trusted SoftwareHut to make the right suggestions and calls for our product.

One of their best qualities was that there wasn’t staff turnover. We generally worked with the same people, so they developed a deep understanding of our product and company. They were one of the best suppliers that we’ve engaged with, if not the best.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Paxport. We work in the travel industry, on the software tech-side. We aggregate fares and hotels and run a virtual card payment B2B service for our customers. We also provide outsource operations for leisure charter airlines. We take the bookings and control prices and manage processing. We’re essentially a technology software company with an outsource service.

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

The project was to be an extension of our development team. They maintained and set up integrations with the suppliers. The software connects carriers to the reservation inventory systems so we can aggregate that into the book system that we offer.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We get an API provided from a carrier. Then, SoftwareHut foes the work connecting it to our main system, which then it’s configurated so we can offer one API to our customers with all of those carriers and hotels. SoftwareHut conducts the integration, and helps with some frontend work. We have a pack shop where passenger can choose seating and things like that. But the bulk of their work is the backend integration and maintenance.

What is the team composition?

On average, there were 7–8 people. We directly dealt with a project manager and one other person.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

We were working with another development company that didn’t go very well. We found information on SoftwareHut when looking at some information from another company. So we went to see them in Poland.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend between €25,000–€45,000 per month (approximately $27,000–$50,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in October of 2018 and it’s ongoing.

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

Most of our customers are online travel agents, so if there are bugs or problems, it’s an issue. SoftwareHut has gradually decreased the downtime we have. Ultimately, the quality of their development is critical. They can integrate quickly as well.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. We liked that they have some developers on the bench, or not fully utilized, so when we needed to add more people, it was a quick process. They’ve reacted quickly and have been very flexible. When we communicate, they’re transparent and clear.

They have some knowledge of the airline business, which is definitely beneficial for us. The CEO has also been involved when it’s relevant.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve needed to reduce the number of resources due to budget cuts because of the COVID-19 outbreak, and they’ve been very cooperative. I think that shows that they’re dedicated to a long-term partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any major criticism.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Scoping and identifying your key factors, and transparency in your expectations,  all of that is very important.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a venture builder.

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We were looking for the flexibility of augmenting staff as needed because we have limited operational in-house developers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve worked mostly on web development, some Shopify projects, Android and iOS mobile projects, UI/UX design, and general app development.

Some of the technologies they use include Liquid and Liquid.js in JavaScript, CSS, CMS platforms, and MEAN Stack. Additionally, the team has provided some advice on architectural design.

What is the team composition?

The team size varies with project size and complexity. I’ve worked with at least 20 of their staff and we’ve had multiple project managers over the course of our engagement.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

They reached out to us initially. We’ve worked with several different offshore and nearshore contractors over the years, trying to find the right fit. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $500,000–$1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September 2016, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

We do internal evaluations on projects, measuring on-time delivery and budget. On both metrics, they’ve met our expectations. That is where profitability lies for us.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very organized and have helped us set up smart structures. The team ensures that we’re aligned before a project starts, setting expectations. SoftwareHut uses a starting point methodology and, learning from them, I’ve relayed this methodology to others. 

The team is proactive, has good communication skills, and gives honest feedback. This is superior to the experiences that I’ve had with other contractors. We have met face-to-face a few times, and there’s no language barrier for us because our main point of contact speaks Swedish.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver what they promise. I’m impressed with their ability to deliver on time and within budget every time considering the number of projects we’ve done together. SoftwareHut has high technical knowledge and skillsets, and they’re willing to advise us on how to set up architectural structures and run projects. Additionally, they make suggestions for shortcuts or anything else that might benefit us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions. My only complaint is the bad currency rate we currently have, over which they have no control.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as specific as possible about your goals and expectations. If you write them down and make sure the team fully understands what you’re asking for, you won’t be disappointed.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a digital asset management platform provider. It allows companies to manage all types of files — images, videos, marketing material, documents, and any other type of asset — and distribute them to different marketing channels, like social media, e-commerce websites, and so on.

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We were building a native iOS and Android app for our platform, and we were also running a customization project for a client in Finland.

What was the scope of their involvement?

SoftwareHut was tasked with design, project management, and development. The app allows users to upload files, tag the files in our database, and share assets with other parties.

What is the team composition?

I worked with their account manager and the project manager, both of whom they flew to our location in Sweden for a couple of days. I’d say there were a couple of developers.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

One of their salespeople contacted me through LinkedIn. We’d been looking at building this app offshore, and I thought SoftwareHut would be a good option. I’d tested other offshore agencies, but SoftwareHut’s salesperson was originally from Sweden and was working in Poland, so there were no language barriers.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SoftwareHut around January 2017. We haven’t done any projects with them since December 2018.

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

It was great working with them on the project, but there were certain things I wished they could’ve helped us with by being more proactive. They gave us what we asked for and delivered on time, but they weren’t proactive about providing different suggestions and solutions. Other than that, I think they were very professional.

We’re very satisfied with the app. We’ve done some further development since working with them, and we’ve seen a good response from our clients. There were some things that we hadn’t thought of that SoftwareHut needed to fix, but that wasn’t part of the project. I wish they’d been more proactive in telling us about potential issues.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

I have nothing to complain about in this respect. They gave us updates on time, and we had status meetings. One thing I would’ve liked is for them to communicate when we exceeded the budget; I only found out about it when the next month’s invoice came.  However, the end result was great, and it wasn’t like we didn’t want to do that development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understood the task very well, and they learned our APIs and tools very quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only things I can think of are the budget issue I mentioned and them being more proactive in suggesting solutions.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should make sure that everything is transparent and that they’re aware of all the hours being billed.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Grow Uperion, an HR platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

I was looking for a  software company to develop my platform from scratch. It was previously made by a different company, but it had bugs and other problems.

It needed to be redeveloped with additional features, models, and new components I invented. I was looking for a partner that would recommend the best and most suitable solutions because I needed technical expertise and support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed my platform from scratch. There were modules sourcing the data from different platforms such as SAP or Phase 4. They were essentially handling KPI development in a visual way. Their team also developed the user module, which dictates how to add and delete users.

They used .NET on a Microsoft Azure platform. Along with that, they helped with planning and selecting the technology for my solution. They dealt mainly with development, but they also coordinated everything for me.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with the project manager.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

They were recommended to me by a person who was working on our team.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $100,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2019, and the project is ongoing.

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

It will be launched soon, but we don't have any metrics yet. I track their hours dedicated to the project on their internal system. They’re immediate with problem-solving. They give expert advice.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Microsoft Teams, video phone calls, and email. I was able to see the progress of the work and had the ability to communicate with the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They combine high-level IT expertise with top-quality project management skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s good to know what you want to accomplish. Be sure you have the final goal in mind, briefing them thoroughly beforehand. This will help you to create the strategy of the overall work. Help them to gather the proper people around the project by communicating.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a travel platform the encourages sustainability.

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

We hired them to develop our website and our mobile apps. We worked with another company before SoftwareHut, and it was just a mess. We needed them to come in and clean it up.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve been involved in planning this redevelopment, and they will be doing all the coding. They’ve also worked on a temporary site in the meantime. They organized files and cleaned up to procedures we had in place.

The platform itself features a carbon footprint calculator that travelers can use to measure the impact of their trips. The traveler can offset their footprint by contributing to projects that have been certified by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These projects offset greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. We’re also going to add the same function for hotels.

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

I participated in an event that was hosted by an organization that supports startups in the travel agency. In a pitch competition, they offered a grand prize worth $2,500 service with SoftwareHut. I thought their services were perfect for what we wanted to accomplish. I contacted them, and they gave me some feedback, and we decided to engage with them.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $30,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2019 and our engagement is ongoing.

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

We haven’t launched anything yet, but things are much more organized now. Our QA person has tested everything they’ve done, and it’s all gone well. Their team is very valuable for planning because they contribute significantly to creating a development framework and have planned everything for the next few months. We’re about to start the next phase, which really is redoing everything. Internally, we’re pleased with everything they’ve done.

How did SoftwareHut perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication has been great. If there’s an issue, they bring it up, we discuss it, and it gets resolved. We use Slack and Jira. Communication is one of their strengths.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very professional and knowledgeable. We tell them what we’re looking to accomplish, and they advise us on the best approach.

Are there any areas they could improve?

So far, I haven’t recognized any issues. We’re very satisfied with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have someone on your team who is knowledgeable, because it just makes everything easier. Once I hired someone with a bit of background in software development in the travel industry, communication between teams became simpler.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a small Swedish e-commerce consultancy, and I’m the founder and CEO.

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftwareHut?

Given the difficulty of finding development partners in Germany, we were looking abroad for resources in creating our products.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our product allows for the management of e-commerce and provides billing solutions for businesses. In creating that, we mainly worked with one developer from SoftwareHut, whose tech stack included PHP, Docker, Microservices, and Magento. He also used ReactJS.

What is the team composition?

I worked primarily with Roman (Senior Developer, SoftwareHut) but my initial point of contact was Andrzej (International Sales Director, SoftwareHut).

How did you come to work with SoftwareHut?

I believe they reached out to me on LinkedIn. They had roots in Sweden, so we hit it off speaking Swedish. He invited me to come to their hometown to meet their developers, and we kicked it off from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from June 2017 – November 2019.

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

We were very pleased with their developer’s work, which is why the relationship lasted over two years. We plan on maintaining contact with him in the future, as well. When we were facing dips in our cash flow, they were more than understanding; they were willing to negotiate with us about split payments, which was very helpful.

How did Softwarehut perform from a project management standpoint?

While we handled most of the project management on our side, but it was mostly smooth. We used Slack for daily communication, and Roman participated in our stand-up meetings every morning. We used JIRA to track project progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very easy to work with. Anderzej, who was my initial contact, was amazing to communicate with because he was understanding of my company’s position. I got the sense that they truly understand the limitations of being a small, fluid company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had two contracts that were previously cancelled because these developers lacked sufficient Magento expertise. I’d appreciate if they had more staff who could do more Magento work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any outsourcing project, I think it’s important to meet before starting a collaboration. Poland is quite close to Sweden, so it was easy for me to fly to go see them. It facilitates the development of the relationship.