Instil

I’m the director of development for a software agency that produces a POS product. My job entails providing implementation of software roadmap direction, managing developers, and providing resources that the business needs to develop its own products.

We were trying to rapidly build a product for a new market opportunity. We needed an Android version of our product, as we already had a newer version of it running on iPads.

Instil Software collaborated with us to build a POS product for the Android platform. Our requirements were for it to be cloud-based, high-performing, and extremely reliable for people to use to run their businesses — it’s not a new concept, but its execution was critical. There are multiple versions of the product on the market. We already had an iOS version which is regarded as an excellent product.

We initially talked with the CEO, development manager, and principal software developer for the exploratory phase. We set up a number of lab sessions where we worked on the specifications of the product for five days. On the last day, they presented the first prototype of what the product would look like and were blown away by their flexibility.

I previously worked with them on other projects, but I found them the first time through a recommendation.

We started working together in March 2017, and the partnership is still ongoing.

We have metrics that show the number of crashes and incidents or problems raised by our customers' experience, but the results are so low, it’s almost negligible which is excellent. In addition, we also had a target to launch on the Google Play Store, which was a big milestone for us. As a software leader, I know that there’s no universal scale of measuring the architecture of a software. I know when things are architected well when the software is easy to change and make additions to.

Since they’re in the same city as one of our offices, the developers came to work in our offices a number of days a week. When they couldn’t, they would be in touch through Slack, which we use as an internal communication tool. We also use Jira, GitHub, and Zoom, and Google Meet for meetings that can’t happen face to face.

I’m very impressed with their attention to detail and how invested they are in our success. They’re a very impressive team that’s generous with their knowledge and if you get that for a development partner, you’ll be very lucky.

We’ve had such a good relationship with them that nothing has ever come up. There’s never a point where we need to sit down with them because they’ve always handled things very professionally.

My advice is to be as transparent as you can about the project. You should absolutely work with them and you will not regret it. Your team and your business will be better for it.

Instil Software was responsible for this app — they helped design, develop, and write the code for it. They worked closely with our designers and our customer to create something new and different for the industry. They internalized all of the information and developed the software.

I worked with around 11 people from Instil Software’s team, but my involvement was more at the executive level. I worked directly with Tara (CEO) and the product management team. I only interacted with the development team at the beginning of the project. We discussed scope and details about how the team was going to work and what needed to be done.

I worked with Tara and other people from Instil Software at a previous organization. My impression of them was high enough that I recommended them as a potential development partner for this new project. We objectively evaluated, critiqued, and graded them against another development team, and they came out to be the top pick for the job.

We worked together from approximately October 2019–May 2020.

We put together a development plan that was agreed upon between our company and Instil Software; it included specific deliverables based on dates. They delivered what they said they were going to deliver and more — they always over-delivered on what they committed to. I was satisfied with Instil Software's services and would definitely work with them again.

Instil Software was very good at meeting deadlines. We had daily meetings with them — communication was never a problem. I wasn’t necessarily involved in the day-to-day development of the software. However, my team that was responsible for that had nothing but good things to say about Instil Software’s development team.

There were a couple of times when they were collecting information for us, and we didn’t hear anything back from them for a while, which was concerning. I knew they were working on the project and coming up with estimates and plans. However, it would’ve been nice if they’d let us know that they were still working on the project or asked if we had any questions just to make sure there were no long periods of silence.

Make sure that Instil Software gets as much information as they can. Based on that information, they’ll be able to come up with a fantastic solution. Even in the absence of information, if you describe what you want or need and trust them, they will come up with a good solution.

I’m a senior technical lead at an IT company, and I lead our digital banking engineering teams. I primarily work in the London office.

The most recent kind of business challenge that we’ve worked with them was launching a new product to market. It was a large complex technical platform, and we hired Instil to build a banking app for one of our clients. We wanted to finish the project within six months.

Instil primarily provides software engineering capability. They’re augmenting our teams and providing experienced software developers to help us deliver our proposition quickly. They also provide QA on all our deliverables.

At the peak, we’ve worked with five people from Instil. We continue to work with two people from Instil today.

I worked with Instil for a number of years. They had a good reputation in the local market, particularly for their quality work above all else. That was something that was really important to us because we wanted to ensure that our products would be done exceptionally. The market recommendation was the primary reason why we started working with them.

We’ve spent roughly $750,000.

We started working together in January 2020, and they’re still working with us today.

We’ve been able to have initial releases within six weeks, and that has been impressive.

We had a kickoff session, and after that, we got together and planned our activities. Now, we use Slack to communicate, and we use Jira for reporting. Everything’s been really good from a project management perspective: they’ve been integrated with us, and they provide regular updates.

The quality of their work has been fantastic. If they don’t believe they can deliver a piece of work in the time we want them to finish or if there are cost constraints that they identify, they’re open and honest about that. They clearly tell us if they can do something or not. Furthermore, they’ll explain the limitations why they can’t provide the solution.

I’d love for them to scale with us because sometimes it’s challenging getting resources from them. They don’t have a lot of developers, but apart from that, I’m very happy with their services.

Make sure you use Instil’s experience well. They have a huge wealth of experience, and they have the ability to produce high quality. That works best when you’re open and honest about what you’re trying to achieve.

Body Worn Video camera manufacturer and direct supplier to end user customers. Founder, Managing Director.

To develop a ground up, all new Digital Evidence Management software system for review of secure video files. It was essential that the software was user friendly and scalable for the end user.

We had met in 2013 and had a good impression of the Instil team and management.

Initially Instil prepared a detail elaboration report in order to assess the viability of the proposed project. This gave us a clear idea of costs and realistic time frames for the new software development. All key deliverables were met on time, often exceeding expectations.

There were four people in the core Instil development team. We had regular weekly meetings that also included two additional people from the Management team. We had good access to the commercial team when appropriate.

The project was completed and software was delivered on time. Very professional throughout.

Project management and communication with all the team at Instil was excellent. Very respectful to our team and very professional with the highest software development ability based on our experience.

Communication was excellent. Professional consistency made for a very calm and enjoyable experience for us. At no stage did we have any doubt on the complete success of this rather extensive development project.

None that I can think off.

I’m a software developer and architect for a wireless company.

Our primary need was to engage a leader in the software development arena to design, create, and test value-added service applications based on our specifications. We wanted a partnership with a team that was able to work both alongside our internal staff as well as independently. Instil also went a step further and provided both leadership and training to augment and improve our team’s knowledge and understanding of new, relevant technologies.

Although our department took care of deployment into production for the multitude of applications in which Instil was involved, their team covered nearly every other stage of work. They conducted research, created designs, implemented the code, tested the results, and deployed the end product into our staging platforms for unit integration and end-to-end testing. Their team provided documentation and 24-7 support for all of the above.

During our overall work with Instil, we have invested between C$2-5 million.

We began working with Instil in 2011, and we are currently in the process of wrapping up our final projects.

Due to the varied nature of our work with them, I do not have any concrete metrics to share on the results of their work.

Their organization was particularly impressive, with each project having its own clearly defined schedule to which their team would adhere—even when our timeline changed with little notice. It was very clear that our priorities were of the utmost importance to them. If their progress was going to be delayed, they would indicate so with advance notice.

Their competitiveness and their intelligence make them stand out from the crowd. Instil’s sheer breadth of knowledge makes their software services very desirable. Although they were located across the pond, our team developed a close bond with them on a personal level. Despite the distance, they worked with us exceptionally well.

In an ideal world, they would open up an office in Toronto. New contractor guidelines at our company regarding the distance of collaborators have meant that we have had to part ways with Instil on future projects, even though we would prefer to continue to work with them.