Developer Spotlight: Hire-Experts

SocialEngine - Community Software

Our Developer Spotlight is back! Eldar Galiev, from Hire-Experts, shares the inside scoop of being an active SocialEngine development team. These guys offer customization services and develop top-notch add-ons, pushing the possibilities of our SocialEngine platform. Thanks guys!

SocialEngine: First, thanks for the interview! Let’s start at the beginning, how did Hire-Experts get started with SocialEngine development?

Eldar Galiev: Thank you, Matt. It’s a pleasure for us to share our great team and our future plans. We’ve worked on SocialEngine for so long that it sometime seems I’ve done so all my life! It began quite simply. After developing many client projects with SocialEngine, we eventually fell in love with the software!

SE: Since Hire-Experts is based abroad, what do you say to people who are concerned about working with developers based in another country?

Eldar: Customers often ask about our location. We just simply say, “we’re far away from you!” Our company is located in a far city – Bishkek(Kyrgyz Republic). We celebrated our 3rd birthday recently, that’s a long time with SocialEngine, and we’re full of energy and desire to grow and create new plugins for the community. It is important for us to provide quality products and support services, and we work hard so customers are pleased to work with us. As a result, we have many clients whom we work with over the years.

SE: You’ve developed dozens of add-ons, how do you approach plugin development?

Eldar: Frankly, we’ve released so many add-ons I’ve lost count :), but about fifty something. Of course, we’re quite experienced with plugin development now. Our team is very responsible when it comes to plugin development – we constantly improve the process, host practice workshops with the team, thoroughly test using bug-trackers etc., consider each suggestion from our customers, and so on. But the most important, is the goal we set for ourselves – we are not trying to include everything that can be included in a plugin; we want to preserve the basic idea of ​​the website, and only supplement it with new features.

SE: Which of your plugins are the ones SocialEngine users MUST check out?

Eldar: If only I could I would mention every plugin we have 🙂 I will try to distinguish the most important for most websites:

  • Pages Plugin enables social pages for businesses, brands, public figures, etc.
  • Wall Plugin provides an advanced wall feed with lists, privacy, and tagging.
  • Friends Inviter Plugin allows members to invite friends from popular social networks and email services.
  • Touch-Mobile Plugin provides rich features and a user friendly mobile version of SocialEngine.
  • Newsletter Plugin enables mass email campaigns, and can notify members of new content.
  • Credits Plugin allows members to earn credits for activity, and they can purchase and spend credits.

SE: Are you hired often for customization? How popular are your customization services?

Eldar: Yes, we are often asked to customize SocialEngine, maybe due to our company name? 🙂 Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time to help everyone, so we do our best to provide helpful consultation.

SE: So why develop for SocialEngine? What are your thoughts about our platform?

Eldar: We had worked with many different platforms for creating social networks, but decided to work with and contribute to SocialEngine because it is very flexible and limitless. It really allows you to realize everything you can imagine. We’ve tied our future to the SocialEngine platform, and we do our best to help SocialEngine grow and become even more popular.

SE: What can we expect from Hire-Experts in the coming months? Any new plugins in the works?

Eldar: In order to know what to expect from our company, you need to know the philosophy we adhere to – do not focus on a plugin, work on a complex solution. We work hard to provide plugins which cover all needs of our customers, and are perfectly integrated with one another. We don’t give you only shoes and pants, we also provide you with a shirt, tie and suit. The watch is missing, but we are working on that now 🙂 To be more specific, very soon we are planning to release a new Badges Plugin, followed by a Coupons Plugin, followed by … many interesting and useful plugins, which are must-see. Follow us on Facebook to learn more about our plans!

SE: Thanks again for the interview. We look forward to your future developments. Any last words for the SE community?

Eldar: Thanks SocialEngine for the opportunity to share Hire-Experts with the SocialEngine community, and thanks to all our customers for their trust and support.

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