Appsilon

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a small software startup, and I’m the chief of staff. I help with the product roadmap, organizational development, and more.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appsilon?

They helped with RStudio development, which is an open-source software development environment.

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the first phase, they developed a web application using Shiny, which is well known in RStudio development tool. There have been multiple tasks, but the main one is to improve the UI of one of the tools on our platform.

The tool is web-based, and Appsilon helped us deliver a text message scheduling feature. They also redesigned the application, built a new log-in page, and created components that we could use in the future to train users who are less experienced with Shiny development.

Initially, we provided a project plan, as well as some charts, pictures, and ideas around UX. We pointed them in the right direction, and Kamil (Full Stack Engineer) contributed some ideas. It was a joint effort.

We’re starting up again next week with the second part of the project.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two developers, one being Kamil, and Anton (Head of Sales) is our salesperson. Anton handles all the operational aspects of the project.

How did you come to work with Appsilon?

We decided to partner with them because of their experience with Shiny. We specifically wanted people well-versed in building in that environment, and they’re one of the most well-known Shiny contractors.

They were already selected when I came on board, and our CEO knew of them previously.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $60,000–$70,000 on the first phase.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first phase ran from December 2020–until March 2021, and phase two kicks off in April 2021.

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

We haven’t put the application into production yet, but we’re really happy with the outcome and how it looks. Kamil was strong at recommending behind-the-scenes components to build that will help us in the future, even though they weren’t critical at the time.

How did Appsilon perform from a project management standpoint?

The lead developer was really good at project management. We worked with him directly, and we could run with a lot of tasks without having to involve the CTO, which was good.

Initially, I gave a project plan, and then they developed a more in-depth version. We aligned our two views and moved forward. The second time, we used the same approach but implemented a GitHub board to agree upon priorities.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There is a strong trust element between us. By the end of phase one, I really trusted Appsilon with my ideas. I brought ideas to them and they came back with recommendations that I felt placed our best interests first. Kamil is definitely a trusted partner.

We’re switching up our people a little bit for this second stage, because of their availability. Kamil is moving from a full-time posting with us to a part-time posting — we didn’t want to lose him.

They are based in Poland, and we’re based in California. My team works pretty late, and they’re flexible, but organization is critical when face-to-face time is infrequent. Organization helped us be successful. We wouldn’t have been successful working with just any group because of the time difference.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They really improved over time in terms of project planning. Looking forward, it would have been nice to be able to meet the person we’re going to be working with before signing the contract for phase two.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In-depth project planning will be very helpful to you. It was the easiest way for us to showcase our goal.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a director at a big pharma company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appsilon?

We needed software development services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Appsilon did a full frontend software development lifecycle in agile sprints. They did the coding using R Shiny, and they also did the testing and deployment. It’s a data analytics solution and frontend interface to reduce the effort and cost in preparing key documents.

Additionally, they’re helping us install CI/CD through the use of the Jenkins package, which will allow us to do automated testing.

What is the team composition?

We work with a team of three developers.

How did you come to work with Appsilon?

Someone else on my team found them, and we chose them because of their expertise with R Shiny apps.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $1.5 million annually. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership with them began about three years ago, in 2017, and it’s ongoing. 

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

We have rollouts of new versions of the software. We look at the number of improvements and their ability to do the work in the appropriate timeline, and they’ve done a good job of getting things done on time. 

They are nimble when it comes to updating the code, providing new features, and identifying errors and bugs. We have weekly and daily meetings.

How did Appsilon perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage the project, but they use all the expected tools, including Jira, Confluence, and BitBucket — the whole Atlassian suite. 

They are very flexible about altering the work from one sprint to the next, which is the point of the agile methodology. Appsilon has shown a lot of initiative in terms of finding problems and fixing them, which is helpful. We communicate using Microsoft teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their speed and flexibility are impressive. For example, when we have an issue on a particular day, by the time we come back the following day, the issue is resolved because of the time difference. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Initially, they missed some bugs, but Appsilon recommended that we adopt automated testing with Jenkins, which will help solve that problem.

So, there was an issue, they suggested a better solution, and now we’re implementing it. This will help all of the applications we’re working with. They did a great job of identifying and fixing the issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They're great service providers and partners. I highly recommend Appsilon.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of data and analytics at SeQuel Response. Our company is an all-encompassing direct response and advertising agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appsilon Data Science?

We had an online tool that we were looking to rebuild and reconfigure. We wanted to use our studio because a lot of our data scientists are familiar with Python. So, we brought on Appsilon Data Science to help us develop a real-time online analytics tool using our own Python.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a direct mail campaign. Appsilon Data Science built a tool that takes the customer file and matches it back to the mail file that we mailed to determine how many we actually mailed and could take credit for mailing in that situation. 

From there, it actually rolls up the response rate or customer sales rate on the list we mailed and the different creative packages, and it gives an all-encompassing dashboard. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with between 6–10 different teammates, but we mainly interacted with 3–4 main people.

How did you come to work with Appsilon Data Science?

We reached out to our studio and got a list of preferred vendors. We met with several of them, and we chose Appsilon Data Science because they fit our needs the best and their pricing was what we wanted. 

After meeting with them, it was obvious that they were the team we needed to work with because they understood our work and asked good questions.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a little over $30,000. We also have a studio license from them that was a little over $18,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed the initial agreement with them in April 2020. Although we ended this project in September 2020, we’re still going to need some help with the development. 

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

The quality of the work and service was as high as it could’ve been. 

How did Appsilon Data Science perform from a project management standpoint?

We corresponded mostly via email because of the time difference, and we also had weekly online and in-person meetings. Appsilon Data Science was outstanding in terms of deadlines. 

We made a lot of changes on a regular basis, but the team was great at staying on-track and getting stuff done within the timeline they thought was reasonable. They were also very open and honest, so if they thought something couldn’t be done within a certain timeframe, they let us know.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge was outstanding. A lot of this was unknown to us, but Appsilon Data Science was able to do their work efficiently and quickly. Their overall demeanor and personality were great as well.

The team always seemed happy and willing to work. In those two areas, they were above and beyond anyone we could’ve worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions. Everything ran smoothly with them. I’m happy with the end result. They were a great team to work with and they should just keep doing what they’re doing. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open and honest with Appsilon Data Science about all facets of the project. They can’t help you unless they know what you’re thinking. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Product Developer for a Fintech company based in Dublin (Ireland).

For what projects/services did your company hire Appsilon Data Science?

We had to bring our reporting capabilities to another level. So far everything was based on a manual process, which mainly rely on multiple excel files. The entire process was long, highly fragmented and inaccurate, so we needed to outsource the entire redesign and rebuild.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have an automated reporting process, which give us the full controls of data and final reports. We had to replace manual and disconnected reporting workflow with fully automated ones.

How did you select Appsilon Data Science?

We come across Appsilon Data Science during an online conference (eRum 2020). Appsilon clearly was the one who could offer us the best services.

Describe the project in detail.

We worked remotely, we never met in person. Nonetheless, everything worked fine. Appsilon has been since the beginning, well organized and highly collaborative. They delivered on time, perfectly managing different consultants all along during the delivery process. Highly recommend.

What was the team composition?

Project manager, data engineer, data scientist, data visualization expert.

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

Initially, we were assigned a project manager to design the final apps and serve us us the main point of contact during the whole project. More than 3 consultants have been involved in the final delivery, leaving us really happy about the choice made.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

In one word: perfect!

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Young, well prepared, incredible well organized, friendly approach, open, honest, innovative.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I am sure there are ... but we were not able to see any.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Principal Modeller and Programmer at a health economics consultancy based in the UK.

For what projects/services did your company hire Appsilon Data Science, and what were your goals?

We had developed a R Shiny application in house, however we needed assistance with some software engineering tasks. We required an authentication layer to be added to our application allowing us to control access, alongside an easy way to deploy.

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

We came across an article online which discussed a deployment solution Appsilon had developed for another client. The problem sounded like ours, so we decided to get in contact.

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

There were two iterations to our collaboration. In the first phase, Appsilon Data Science constructed a workflow allowing us to easily deploy our application, built a staging environment to facilitate quality assurance, and added an authentication layer so that we could control access.

The solution used a combination of technologies: Ansible, ShinyProxy and Auth0. We were very impressed with the quality of work and rigorous approach, so we then hired Appsilon Data Science for a second phase where they refactored existing code to significantly speed up performance of in-app calculations.

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

We predominantly worked with 2 people from Appsilon, a data scientist who also managed the project, and a software engineer. We were also in communication with an account manager.

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

All objectives of the collaboration were met within the timeframe agreed. Appsilon Data Science also added a lot of extra value by providing additional recommendations on code structure and ways of improving the performance of the application.

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

Appsilon Data Science had a very methodical and rigorous approach. The project began with a kick-off meeting where they raised questions about the deliverables. A way forward and timelines were then agreed.

They were very communicative throughout the process both via email and video calls where they demonstrated the delivered solution. They also provided comprehensive documentation and were very responsive to any queries raised.

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

The high quality of their work and excellent communication made them a pleasure to work with. We hope to embark on further collaborations in the future.

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

No

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a company that specializes in working with professional athlete data. I am the director of analytics for our company, in charge delivering projects related to product + analytics.

For what projects/services did your company hire Appsilon Data Science, and what were your goals?

We hired Appsilon to build the prototype for our new web application. We already had it designed, we needed help getting the project off the ground so that it could then be handed off to our internal team. We needed an MVP quickly, in short.

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

We met Appsilon at an industry conference and our #1 deciding factor was their expertise in the tool/language we required - RShiny

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

The main technologies used were RShiny and GitHub. We delivered the design and required features to Appsilon for the app, and they were charged with delivering a fully deployed app that met all of these requirements.

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

Over 5 people worked with us across all levels of technical experience (junior to VP), along with their account manager. All fantastic folks to work with !

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

It was delivered on-time, under budget, and met all our requirements.

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

We had sprint meetings 3x a week in addition to a slack channel. Communication was always 100% clear.

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

The technical prowess of their engineers is exemplary. They are able to write elegant, clear code that makes difficult requests seem pedestrian.

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

No.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a scientist working in Central Africa with the National Parks Agency of Gabon and University of Stirling, UK to understand how ecosystem change impacts on biodiversity. My research combines the latest hardware and software technologies to collect data on species' populations and their distribution in tropical forests.

For what projects/services did your company hire Appsilon Data Science?

I contacted Appsilon Data Science through their AI for Good Initiative to seek assistance with developing user-friendly, offline software tools to run machine learning models that identify species in 'camera-trap' images.

Our projects often collect millions of images of animals across remote landscapes to inform conservation and biodiversity policy but the datasets can take months or years to label manually, which causes a significant delay between detecting potential threats such as hunting pressure and subsequent conservation action.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed high-accuracy machine learning models that could be run offline using very simple, easily-installed software. It was also essential that we could add multi-language functionality.

How did you select this vendor?

Appsilon Data Science regularly publish impressive blog posts and example code via LinkedIn and their website. I was using some of their R code to assist with my own R Shiny projects when I came across their AI for Good Initiative.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

My inquiry to the AI for Good Initiative received a rapid and positive response from the project's lead (Tadeusz Bara-Slupski). Tadeusz worked with me to develop and design an MVP, and communicated all details of our project's needs to the Appsilon Directors, software engineers and data science teams.

Appsilon then allocated a dedicated team of engineers led by Marek Rogala and we used an iterative approach to refine the project's goals and expected deliverables. We also co-wrote a successful Google Cloud Education Grant to fund the computing resources required to train machine learning models.

Appsilon ran a week-long hackathon to initiate development of a MVP and I worked with data scientist Jedrzej Swiezewski to supply training data for the machine learning model, and to validate their output.

What was the team composition?

We had a dedicated lead for the full term of the project and I had direct contact with two senior data scientists/software engineers. At least five other members of Appsilon worked on the project in the background and we had at least two large group discussions during the early stages of development.

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

The machine learning models are already rapidly reducing the time between data collection and analysis, for example we were recently able to extract over 1200 images of wild gorillas and chimpanzees from our database of over 50000 images and assess the prevalence and environmental drivers of a zoonotic disease in the population.

The MVP will be fully deployed in 2021 to become integrated into the standard biodiversity monitoring protocols used by the National Parks Agency of Gabon.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had a dedicated contact throughout the entire process who managed deadlines and tracked progress towards the project's goals. We received regular updates by email and regularly held discussions using Google meets. All code was documented on Github.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was extremely impressed by their ability to rapidly understand our project's needs and to develop innovative solutions that we had not previously envisioned. We have previously found it challenging to clearly communicate our objectives from an ecological perspective to pure data scientists, but this was not a problem at Appsilon.

Are there any areas for improvement?

This was my first experience working with an industry partner to develop software and machine learning products and I have been extremely impressed throughout the process.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a postdoctoral scientist at Ghent University working on the valorisation of microbial management technologies. Ghent University is a top 100 university and one of the major universities in Belgium. Our 11 faculties offer more than 200 courses and conduct in-depth research within a wide range of scientific domains. Ghent University Global Campus is also the first European university in Songdo, South Korea.

For what projects/services did your company hire Appsilon Data Science?

We were in need of a cloud-based dashboard that could be integrated seamlessly with our custom software. We had no prior industry-grade experience with building such an application from scratch and needed expert support in building this application.

What were your goals for this project?

The application had to be compatible with our existing software architecture but at the same time be flexible enough for future developments/iterations. The primary goal was to reach a minimum viable product (MVP) on which we could further iterate either internally or in future development projects with Appsilon.

How did you select this vendor?

We contacted several vendors but the decision for Appsilon was made based on cost-efficiency, expertise in Shiny prototyping, and the time needed to initiate the project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project started with a workshop held at Appsilon HQ during which we came to a mutual understanding of the scope, deliverables and milestones of the project. We approved a wireframe & mock-up. The actual development started approximately one month later.

The development consisted of 4 sprints. Functional versions of the application could be tested during spring 3 - 4. Improvements were made during each sprint at our weekly development meeting.

What was the team composition?

The project team consisted of two full-time developers (one full stack developer) and one graphical designer. Depending on the necessary skills additional developers were included during the sprints. There was some turnover of developers during the development (i.e. one fixed developer and several floating developers).

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

Not yet.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was effective and direct through Slack communication. All milestones were reached on time and responsiveness of the Appsilon team to our feedback was fast and professional. Tools used for supervision/communication: Slack Github Google hangouts

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The culture as a vibrant young, flexible and creative company made it easy for us to work with them. The collaboration felt natural and we had great confidence in the technical proficiency of the Appsilon team to deliver on this project. In addition, the way they are able to operate internationally from different remote working locations is also impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

During our project there was some staff turnover that caused some confusion on our end and the testing of the application could be incorporated earlier in the sprints such that we could provide more feedback. The planning of the sprints did also change quite a lot during development which sometimes caused a mismatch with our timing for feedback. Overall however, given the speed at which this application was built, these are not significant issues.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Project Manager who supports client implementations and is working on our new software application.

For what projects/services did your company hire Appsilon Data Science?

We are looking to take some of our best practices and existing development and refine a new application that addresses key pain points and adds flexibility to engage new markers.

What were your goals for this project?

Develop the tools to setup clients for the app, add data entry widgets, and create a clear output that leads to shorter time to value for the customer.

How did you select this vendor?

A representative from R Studio pointed us to their full service certified partners, https://rstudio.com/certified-partners/.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We worked in sprints of between 5-10 days, with pauses in between. The pauses were per our request, as this allowed our developer to absorb updates and new code with existing frameworks.

For a typical sprint, we discuss objectives and user stories throughout the work which helps us “sync” up on what we outlined in the beginning with the work as it unfolds. The customer response and service from Pedro and Maria has been excellent and we are able to meet ad hoc as needed to discuss changes or in response to development.

What was the team composition?

From our side, we had one developer and two project managers. On theirs they had 1 project manager, Maria, and 1-2 developers, typically Pedro.

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

This project is a chance for us to increase scale and value in the data we generate while also reaching new markets. They have fueled new ideas and we are working toward a product we can show to customers. For our case, our interaction with Appsilon has allowed us engage in valuable “R&D” work to grow our company in the future. As is the nature of R&D we are still in the concept and proving phase.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

From our side, we gathered user stories for each sprint, provided context, and some direction toward the intended outputs and functionality. We revisited and course corrected when needed. Project Management by Appsilon has been very effective. Maria worked to ensure that objectives were reasonable, deliverables were tested, and documented.

They are a good team and their project management is outstanding. They never missed a meeting or deadline, and deliverables for success were always clearly communicated and agreed upon.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They (Pedro and Maria) have been professional and productive, but most importantly, I have always felt like they are part of our team and have our customers in mind. This sense of a shared purpose and their willingness to contribute their ideas to our own to achieve the goal has been tremendously valuable.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We have not identified any at this time.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is a scientific research institute located in Laxenburg, near Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1972, IIASA conducts policy-oriented research into problems of a global nature that are too large or too complex to be solved by a single country or academic discipline.

I am currently working at IIASA as a Research Scholar in the Advanced Systems Analysis program where I undertake research on environment-economy-finance interactions.

For what projects/services did your company hire Appsilon Data Science?

We hired Appsilon to develop a web application to showcase COVID-19 related socioeconomic, demographic, and heath indicators for regions within Europe. Since we don't have in-house capacity to develop such applications, we hired Appsilon to develop the web application. The website is currently available here: https://covid19.iiasa.ac.at/interactive

What were your goals for this project?

The primary goal of the project was to develop an interactive web platform to showcase various COVID-19 related indicators for regions within Europe. At the back-end, the aim of the application was to provide IIASA with a tool to regularly and independently update the maps as new data becomes available.

How did you select this vendor?

A former colleague at IIASA had worked with Appsilon and highly recommended their services. After an initial online meeting, Appsilon showed a keen interest in the project. They also mentioned this project fits very well within their "AI for Good" initiative. Given the urgency of setting up the interactive website, Appsilon was also willing to put in additional hours at zero costs to have it up and running within a 7-10 day time frame.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Appsilon designed, developed, programmed the website application after several consultations with myself leading from IIASA.

Appsilon helped us configure the website on IIASA servers, deployed and optimized the website for fast previewing of maps, and gave us a backend to update the interactive maps regularly. The process of the website development was made transparent through a GitHub repository that is accessible by myself and the ICT team at IIASA.

What was the team composition?

The project was led by Damian Rodziewicz, one of the co-founders of Appsilon, who was personally interested in working on this web application. Damian was bringing people in as needed to optimize the deployment. During the various calls there were about 5-8 people present.

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

IIASA has a huge outreach with a over 4000 alumini from around 100 countries. IIASA regularly interacts with policymakers, the scientific community, universities, think tanks, and scientific advisory boards through various activities. IIASA also has a very active social media presence.

The website was advertised extensively and is still promoted regularly on various social media platforms. The website has helped promote IIASA's work on COVID-19 related projects being done by various teams. Some projects will generate new indicators that will be showcased on the website as well.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was fast-tracked including approving of Appsilon as the web developer, the budgets, and the deployment, all of which was completely in a 7 day time period with a couple of additional days for fine tuning the deployment.

An enabling factor in this was the personal interest of IIASA's directors and Appsilon's leadership. Additionally, almost regular one-on-one with Appsilon helped develop the website as a fast pace.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Appsilon was very accommodating in our requests, especially in helping us deploy the website and giving us feedback on how to effectively process java and python scripts for deployment. I always got an immediate response from Appsilon and we usually ended up doing quick online chats to keep the process rolling.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It will be great if Appsilon can showcase the various projects they have developed on their own website. While we got previews of some projects during the presentations, just by being able to preview them online beforehand, helps tremendously with the decision-making process of selecting vendors.