OSSystem

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’ve worked with OSSystem at two different companies. One was a startup called Hunterz.io, where I was the VP of engineering. My current workplace is Silverstein Properties, and I'm the director of engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OSSystem?

We required staff augmentation services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OSSystem provides us with staff augmentation services. We didn’t require any documentation to start the project. Instead, I initially explained to them what I needed. For the startup, we needed software developers on a part-time basis. I was looking for software engineers with JavaScript experience and DevOps engineers with AWS knowledge, so I provided OSSystem with the job descriptions.

After that, they returned with several candidates and sent me their resumes. We had a regular interview process with the candidates, during which I assessed their technical abilities and background — I hired the ones who passed my assessment process. For the DevOps work specifically, we hired OSSystem’s resources on an hourly basis, whereas for the software engineering, we hired the resources on a monthly basis.

What is the team composition?

When I worked at the startup, we had three full-stack engineers and a DevOps engineer from OSSystem. Now on Silverstein Properties, we work with a DevOps engineer from their team.

How did you come to work with OSSystem?

They were recommended to us. I was looking for outsourcing companies in Ukraine, and someone referred me to them. I ultimately decided to work with OSSystem because the person who recommended them is someone I trust.

How much have you invested with them?

For the startup, we were paying them in the range of $10,000 to $12,000 a month. For Silverstein Properties, we are paying them $5,000 a month.

What is the status of the engagement?

For my previous company, the partnership with OSSystem began in January 2020 and ended in June 2021. For Silverstein Properties, we started working together in September 2021, and the partnership is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The candidates that I’ve hired through OSSystem have been perfectly aligned with our requirements. I’ve been very happy with their competence and knowledge. I’ve even recommended them to another company, and they’re also extremely happy with their work.

How did OSSystem perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m very happy with OSSystem’s prices. They’ve met our requirements and delivered tasks on time while staying on budget. We’ve used Jira and monday.com for project management, as well as Skype, Slack, and Zoom for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

OSSystem’s communication is great, and their English level is very good. Moreover, they’re very available, considering that we’re in different time zones. I can get a hold of them on the weekend and after hours.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One time, we proposed hiring someone from their team for a year, and if we were happy with them, we would hire them permanently. However, they didn’t go for that. It would be great if OSSystem considered that business model.

Any advice for potential customers?

When working with people in a different time zone than yours, you need to be very specific about the tasks you assign to them. Ensure to talk to them daily and get a good assessment of how long tasks will take.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a small startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OSSystem?

We needed a company that could help us complete a mobile app that we were building.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired OSSystem to design and develop a networking app for iOS and Android. It’s a mobile app that encourages kids to meet in person and play sports. It allows users to create neighborhood play groups and play with other teams.

We have someone on our team who started building the app, but they were strapped for time, and their skill set is more backend. We brought OSSystem on to fill in the gaps where we didn’t have someone on our team to do it, but they ended up building the app from scratch. We provided them with wireframes that had a lot of design already in them, so they just improved those and designed the UI/UX. The technologies used include React Native, Node.JS, and GitHub.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with the founder, two tech people, a project manager, and a frontend designer.

How did you come to work with OSSystem?

We found them on Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in August 2022. The first version is already out, but we’re continuing to work with them to optimize it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had some playgroups use the app and meet up in the last two weeks to test its functionality, and the parents loved the app’s concept and ease of use. Although it’s a fairly new concept, OSSystem did a great job of making the flow easy to understand.

How did OSSystem perform from a project management standpoint?

OSSystem has done great in terms of project management, especially with communication. They sent weekly reports on the same day every week. We did have to increase our budget a couple of times because the scope of the functionality changed, but they always let us know and were highly transparent about it. They’re also incredibly receptive to our feedback.

We typically communicate through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with OSSystem’s excellent communication. I get daily updates and questions through Slack, which made me feel that we’re an actual team and that there’s actual progress happening.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on. They’ve been great to work with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you have a good idea of the core functionality and what you're looking to accomplish and to really bring them on as a team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and Founder of a legal tech startup servicing the commercial real estate industry

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Taking an existing application after the departure of the original CTO, and ensuring it was stable and robust, and then working on building additional functionality

SOLUTION

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

A small-medium sized agency, offering good value, which focused on our particular tech stack. They also had customers in Australia (where I am based) who I got to meet and speak to, which was reassuring.

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

First step was to familiarise themselves with the application and set up a functional and efficient working relationship. Then there were a series of steps to stabilise certain items of functionality so that the platform could operate effectively and reliably. Then there have been a long series of new functionality items as directed by the CEO.

The system focuses on legal contract review, so includes a document processing pipeline, so has a series of web forms for data capture, and then a further series of reporting outputs, whether it be written reports, tabular pages or charts and other visualisation tools. The system is built using javascript (react / node), with PostgreSQL, and hosted on aWS

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

For the entire duration there has been at least 1 full time mid / senior level full-stack developer, overseen by a senior part time project manager. From time to time this team has increased up to 4 full time developers plus part time PM, ranging from junior to senior.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Throughout the 2.5 years of working together, we have never had issues with the application limit our ability to take on new projects or deliver our services. That was an early risk so is a significant outcome. Workflow improvements have collectively reduced human input time by c.30%.

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

Workflow is largely client driven, with communications by chat (occasionally video, where required), with ticket status managed in a PM system provided by OSSystem. Their project manager was consistently involved to ensure instructions were delivered clearly and timelines were met.

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

Very reliable. Great flexibility as our team size requirements moved up and down. The project manager, in particular, is excellent - always available and a great problem solver, and managing to be involved when needed but not stifling workflow.

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

The time zone difference did present some challenges, with me having to stay up quite late in some instances - but they also stayed up late to help me many times, so I guess we are even.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of operations at Digigram, a French company specializing in audio solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OSSystem?

We wanted to launch a cloud-based service solution. We used our in-house team to develop hardware and software, so the cloud solution was relatively new, and we needed help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OSSystem is building our custom cloud-based solution using Node.js and MongoDB. The system they created is already implemented, but we’re looking for new features to enforce.

What is the team composition?

There’s one senior developer, one junior developer, and one project manager involved in our project.

How did you come to work with OSSystem?

We were introduced by someone we knew in common, and we chose them because we were happy with their quality of work.  

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent €80,000–€100,000 (approximately $90,500–$113,000 USD) with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything has been delivered on time, and they’ve stuck within budget — we followed all the KPIs from the scrum methodology. Overall, we’ve made good progress, and I think that if we had done this internally, it would have taken more time.

How did OSSystem perform from a project management standpoint?

Our engagement is straightforward; together, we decided to use Slack and Jira, we have video conferences three times a week, and at the end of each sprint, we have bi-monthly meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re an excellent team; they've given us a lot of suggestions to improve our solutions, which is great because it shows that they understand the use cases we wanted to answer for our customers. Also, they’re adaptable and flexible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything they can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We decided to invest in 2–3 weeks to better understand the details of the solution we wanted to develop. It saved us a lot of time during the project because they had a deep understanding of what we wanted.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and the CEO of an AI-based startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OSSystem?

We were looking for additional developers, both front- and backend and DevOps. We were working on a complex system and had a tight schedule.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We integrated OSSystem’s resources into our development team. Milestones were the key development of the platform, including a responsive web app with a lot of complexity, dependencies, and JSON calling. The backend is built on Java and has multiple algorithm and database calling capabilities. We didn’t build a mobile app.

What is the team composition? 

We started with one developer from OSSystem had added two more. One of them is fully frontend, one is doing more complex backend and architecture work, and the third one also works on the backend.

How did you come to work with OSSystem?

They were referred to me by an R&D manager in my network. They’d used OSSystem before, and they did a great job. I reached out to a couple of companies I’d worked with before, but they couldn’t provide people with the type of capabilities we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost so far is $100,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with OSSystem in May or June 2019. The work continues and is expanding.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We constantly measure bug counts, code quality, and adherence to timelines. We also look at the quality of the communication, transparency, and documentation. The fact that we’ve grown our team at OSSystem speaks to how satisfied we are with the resources and the quality of their work.

How did OSSystem perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve been extremely satisfied with the overall communication and their ability to meet deadlines. We have daily status calls, and we use Slack. There’s constant communication. We have a good level of teamwork and transparency.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of communication and the quality of the work are the two big things for me. Adding to that, it’s their seamless teamwork. We embedded them into our team and work with them the same way we work with our internal developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They should truly partner with OSSystem and give them clear requirements and KPIs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the head of integrated data sciences at a computational drug discovery company.  We focus mainly on small molecule therapies. Currently, we've been looking at a lot of new ways to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OSSystem?

We have a web application, which is a brain project of mine for when we first started the company, and it had been growing over time. We needed more people working on different parts of the application. 

SOLUTION

 What was the scope of their involvement?

OSSystem managed the development of different views for our application. The entire application was built in React and JavaScript, with a backend in Python using Flask and integrating with PosGres and MongoDB. We also had visualizations in D3 and Plotly, which were just used as reactive frameworks.

What is the team composition?

We had one member of their team working with us full-time.

How did you come to work with OSSystem ?

We thought they were the best value. The head of HR had heard of them on LinkedIn and reached out to us from there.

How much have you invested with them?    

We've invested between $12,000 – $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They're extremely responsive. We're somewhat of a tech company, so it's very easy to assess what's getting done.

How did OSSystem perform from a project management standpoint?

I'm the project manager from our side, and they've been very good about executing my vision in a clean and efficient way. We communicate on Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness is what we value the most. We contact them at any time during the day and random times at night and they always found a way to respond. It was almost like they don't sleep. I was really excited to have someone that was willing to answer questions about their code outside of the 9-5 time frame.

The code they created was very professional and well documented. They even taught things to the lower level developers here, which was very much appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I'm not the most critical person. They've been very honest, which is all I ask for. In principle, it would've been nice if they had more domain knowledge on what we focus on here, but it's not necessary or expected from a software development firm. Additionally, the management process on their end could be a little bit better, but they could probably say the same thing about us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you're someone who knows how to manage software projects yourself, they'll be a golden and perfect option for you. This is the best experience I've had so far with software developers.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner and CEO of Startsystem IT. We develop web-based and desktop applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire OSSystem?

We specialize in desktop applications, but we decided to add a mobile app to our service offerings. We lacked the skills to develop mobile apps by ourselves. After a poor relationship with a prior vendor, we brought OSSystem to supplement our skills.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted an application for iOS and Android devices to support our desktop application. It needed to be simple, usable, and user-friendly.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A partner company had great experiences with OSSystem and suggested we contact them.

Describe the project in detail.

After selecting OSSystem, we had some meetings to discuss our deal and objectives. In two weeks, we received their suggestions for the project and a detailed list of costs. OSSystem then started building the iOS and Android app.

What was the team composition?

OSSystem assigned us a project manager to link us with their developers. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is still in progress, but we already had feedback from our tester clients. They are excited about the results and satisfied with OSSystem’s progress so far.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager was easy to communicate with and always available. They provided us with daily updates, and we talked over chat and email.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

OSSystem’s team was serious, professional, and highly skilled. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work with an industrial IoT software company that supports industrial customers in North America and Europe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OSSystem?

We were looking for the right team to augment our developers in creating an infrastructure on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re building an AWS infrastructure to support IoT devices in industrial settings. The software collects data from sensors and equipment, puts it in the cloud for storage and parsing, aggregates a data lake, and creates visualizations and predictive analytics. It’s a complex project that involves extensive database/system integration.

What is the team composition?

Their team fluctuates between eight and 11 members.

How did you come to work with OSSystems?

We hired a search firm and they worked with us to create a shortlist. We interviewed several companies and found that OSSystem offered the broadest variety of skill sets.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2016. The engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve completed several prototype customer projects. There’s a constant process of improvement on how best to devote resources and set our project schedule. In the long term, communication has been very fluid and there’s been a strong sense of collaboration throughout the project. Problems are bound to arise in development partnerships, and some teams are better at addressing them than others. The OSSystems team works proactively to solve problems quickly and thoroughly.

How did OSSystems perform from a project management standpoint?

We work within an Agile process and collaborate via Jira and Slack. The team integrated with our team very effectively, and the resulting process was incredibly fluid. Their English was solid and the team was very easy to work with. Overall, their project management has been excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Teamwork and collaboration require solid cultural alignment in terms of development strategy. OSSystems takes on technical challenges in a way that complements our team’s approach.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

These partnerships are all about communication. Make sure to leave the door open to foster constant communication throughout the project. We don’t need a constant stream of meetings to keep our development process going, but we meet with them on demand when issues comes up. This was incredibly effective for our needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a data analytics software as a service (SaaS) platform and I am the cofounder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OSSystem?

We engaged OSSystem to build the frontend for the customer facing portal while we built the backend of analytics machine learning engine.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I came to them with ideas and an initial wireframe. They got to know and understand what we were trying to do, and then they led the process. They expanded the functionality, along with the user interface (UI) design.  They had a really good understanding of what we wanted to achieve from a user experience point of view.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had the same project manager since the beginning of the project and he’s been fantastic. We communicated during the main development phrase, but we also have weekly updates including, delegation, feedback, and bug fixing. Overall, he’s been very responsive. We have also worked with a number of developers but we go through the project manager, rather than the individual, and that worked well.

How did you come to work with OSSystem?

At the early stages of any innovation project, software development can be expensive and risky. Initially, I put out a proposal through Upwork and OSSystem responded. But I elected to go with an independent freelancer. After two weeks when that clearly wasn't working out, I contacted OSSystem. I needed to have a professional services firm onboard that could provide the depth and range in order to get a professional product and outcome. That was two and a half years ago and we're still a very happy customer.

What is the status of this engagement?

I have been working with them since September 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're entering the commercial launch phase now. Trials with key customers have been extremely successful, and feedback regarding the professionalism of the design and user experience has been very positive.

​​​​​​How did OSSystem perform from a project management standpoint?

We talk daily to their project manager on the operational aspects of the project. Then sometimes I will have a separate conversation with the CEO of OSSystem from an account management aspect on how things are going. Our needs are always first and foremost, their written clarifications are good, and they’re proactive in leading conversations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their value for money is very good but high quality. The stability of their team was another thing that impressed me. The continuity of people, the project management, and consistency throughout the project was great. Lastly, I was impressed with their responsiveness and customer focus.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

With any software project you've got to know what you want to achieve. The success of the project and your ability to get high quality outcomes, really depends on your clarity as a customer and what you're expecting from them as a service.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Media of a software company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company offers Autonomous Software Development using 3000+ orchestrated AI agents to generate 80% or more production ready code, and refactoring enterprise code bases of modernization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Put our Platform to the test with accomplished developers
• Telemetry Study to compare Traditional Software Development with our autonomous development using AI agents.

SOLUTION

How did you find OSSystem?

Upwork

Why did you select OSSystem over others?

Other

How many teammates from OSSystem were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Telemetry Study with daily documentation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All requirements delivered for study.

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

On time and very responsive.

What was your primary form of communication with OSSystem?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Cooperative and solution focused.

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

We were pleased with their work.