Asap Developers

I’m Head of Software Development at Trafilea, an e-commerce company that builds online brands. Our leading brand is Shapermint.com, which made over $100 million in sales worldwide in 2019.

At Trafilea, we wanted to develop our own checkout technology. Our main goal was to design and implement this checkout system to help us gain a competitive edge. So we hired asap to develop this software for us using Python.

We chose the company after a thorough selection process using a decision matrix. There were around 19 companies involved in the process and we selected asap based on various criteria, such as size and location.

Asap provided us with this payment system, which is really valuable to us because it also incorporates some of our key business flows. It also allows us to get the highest traffic volume in Shopify (other than Shopify itself). This means this tech is important in terms of competitiveness as a brand in the global market. It gives us a competitive edge given the volume of transactions it can process and how it incorporates our main business strategies.

When it comes to the team, over the course of a year, the composition has changed somewhat but we are currently working with three people. One tech lead and two developers under a project manager from our own company. Regarding the project management itself, we were happy overall and believe it was effective. As I’ve mentioned, we have our own PM that deals with daily communication with asap development and their developers work as an extension of Trafilea. There is also a facilitator from asap if needed.

This project has given us a competitive edge. Most e-commerce companies don’t tackle this type of project and use pre-existing tools instead, as that’s easier. Moreover, this tool means we can now support subscriptions at a checkout level, which allows us to get our clients subscribed to our various services. A subscription-based system is nothing new, but it is not usually offered in this way in an e-commerce platform.

I am a writer and run Conectorium, a PWA that is basically a digital publisher of curated authors focused on local content with the ultimate goal to grow globally. I hired asap to develop the app and they now also provide support for it.

I wanted to create a medium to impart a philosophy that makes sense in today’s world; I wanted more philosophy and less clickbait. I believe the world needs people to stop and think why they are doing what they’re doing; to break away from the current confrontation narrative, to find things in common, and to work on ethics, empathy and common sense. If we don’t, we won’t be able to tackle the social, environmental and economic issues that we didn’t realize had been piling up.

For this project, I decided to look outside my home country of Bolivia, and I knew Uruguay and Brazil had some of the best tech talent in the region; as Uruguay has a more similar culture, I decided to look for developers there.
I found asap through reviews from some sources. I contacted several companies, but not all replied. From the ones who did, I liked asap’s proposal the best. I felt they were very clear, honest and transparent.

I'm an unusual client, and my project changed several times during the discovery phase. As a writer, I initially wanted an app where I could publish either a book or a magazine. That idea eventually evolved into an app where others would also write content.
Upon meeting Pablo G. and Pablo D., they helped me realize that making such an investment would only make sense if I was sure there was an interested audience.
With their help, I settled on an app to highlight local authors, where they could publish weekly articles or book chapters. At the same time, I wanted those pieces to be connected as a way to create a global conscience.
The resulting app that asap developed is a space for local writers to publish their content, all of which is connected, regardless of where they are. asap developed a simple subscription-based app with a home page that displays a new and different set of articles and/or book chapters every 24 hours. Users can discover additional content by following the links on each article or chapter.

As for the team, I had great synergy with Pablo Giampedraglia; he was able to help me find the solution I needed. Pablo Dacoll was also great to work with.
Once we discussed the project, we started talking with a creative team (Fabricio and Valentina, who worked in the UI/UX design throughout the project). We worked on a discovery phase and then the project changed. Then, once we started the development, the technical team (Gonzalo B., Patricia, Igor, Gonzalo L. and Libny – Patrica and Gonzalo going out of the way to find solutions) worked efficiently. They were very receptive and open to what I asked for and solved any issues that came up.
The project was fixed-price and they were very flexible at times when the situation in my country and my search for funding got complicated.
Project management was really good. The project ended up taking longer than planned because I added things along the way and some things were not as easy to develop as asap expected. Even then, the team did a great job of adjusting to the changes. It may not have been the most efficient path, but it was definitely effective. I’m really happy with the results we are getting.

It has also taught me to work with people and to trust others. It has also helped me see the value of committing to something all the way and trusting that you are doing something worthwhile, even when the path is not clear and you’re not sure what you’re doing.
When doing business, I usually go straight into action without much planning in advance other than financials and a basic overview. This project has taught me that I can’t do everything as I go, but that more planning and focus are necessary.