Building an app that helps organizations make the best possible choice - a marketplace for software
Nowadays, the software market gives companies beautifully vast possibilities when it comes to choosing what digital tools they want to use. The availability of services is overwhelming, and selecting the right software is not as easy as it might seem - each year, companies spend billions of dollars on software.
Vast amounts of money go to waste when the product is not fitted to organizations' needs. SelectHub offers a helping hand to all managers, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers who need to choose the right tool, at the right price, with the right features. The app was noticed by the industry and opinion-makers and made it to Forbes' Top 15 Emerging Technologies To Watch, 2017 - 2021'.
"’Their reliability is what distinguishes codequest as qualified engineers. They continually improve their methodologies by promoting growth within their own company.’"
LUIS HERNANDO BLANCO - VP OF PRODUCT ENGINEERING, SELECTHUBChallenge
SelectHub was looking for the right software house partner who could create a hybrid of the marketplace and the platform that will allow companies to assess the quality of software for enterprises quickly. The main idea of the venture was to give companies a tool that will help them to choose the best-fitted software for their company's needs. SelectHub team wanted to create a service for enterprise software product evaluation, vendor sourcing, and IT procurement.
The product was designed to ease the pain of choosing the right software. That is why it needed to lead the customers through all the stages of research, usability analysis, contract negotiations to make the purchase process fit the company's guidelines. The platform needed to be easy-to-use, enable efficient vendor communication, and functional validation. After accepting the technical features, there was a need to create a possibility of financial due-diligence and contract negotiation.
Solution
Just after a few days from the introductory call, the SelectHub team traveled from Denver, Colorado, the US to Warsaw, Poland, to start cooperation on the project. In the end, that first visit was not the last :).
The project kicked-off with a Discovery Phase to clearly define the idea for the Procurement Management tool with a collaborative environment. The SelectHub and the codequest team went through a series of constructive discussions to identify all crucial features of the product, which allowed us to create wireframes and then interactive designs of the app. When the SelectHub team approved the visual part of the plan, the codequest development team stepped in to start coding. Both teams went together through all the idea iterations and various pivots on the way to the fully-fledged product.
codequest engineers used Ruby on Rails, Backbone.js, HTML5/CSS3, and Solr to create a stable and secure to maintain the app with intuitive UX.
Outcome
SelectHub and codequest went together through all the phases of the startup life - supported the team from Denver in building a very successful and recognized by the industry venture.
codequest extensive experience in building scalable web applications and semantics gave rise to a long thriving business relationship and developing a unique platform that helps people from various industries interact with each other to save money and time.
What is more, people who worked in both teams created long-lasting friendships #cooperationgoals. For a few years after product release, codequest was still SelectHub technical partner and supported team in Denver in this venture.