Fively

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was CTO at FriendlyData. FriendlyData helps enterprise companies make data accessible for non-technical people by providing natural language interface to databases.

I was leading the engineering team, setting up the development process, communicating with customers and translating business needs into software requirements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Fively?

At FriendlyData we were developing NLQ technology to simplify access to structured data. While we were doing well with the technology itself we decided that along with existing API solution we the customer facing part.

So we hired Fively to help us to build GUI for our technology as well as optimize our database structure.

What were your goals for this project?

We had existing API based product and we wanted to provide our customers with some GUI to help them better communicate with our technology and to help them to configure it on their own.

SOLUTION

How did you select Fively?

For some time I lived in Belarus and I have many friends there, including software developers. I am conversant with the CEO and some of the engineers in this company. This was the main reason why we decided to work with them.

Describe the project in detail.

We had an onboarding meeting where we discussed our needs and Fively described us their vision of the solution. In the next two weeks they provided us with the MVP of the GUI and several valuable database advices(which we implemented).

After we accepted proposed MVP Fively continued to provide on-time releases of the Front-End solution as well as helping us to make it work better with our existing database architecture.

What was the team composition?

I worked regularly with two people, but depending on the tasks to complete, their number varied. They were mainly front-end developers and database engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working together, we have created a high-quality and cutting-edge product that has been in demand all around the world. The contribution of Fively in this project is that they were able to provide us with all the necessary advice in terms of designing and developing databases, as well as engineering of frontend for our software.

They were involved at all development stages and without their assistance the result would be completely different. The most trustworthy prove of the high product quality is the acquisition of FriendlyData by ServiceNow in October 2018. It shows how good our product was.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were always in touch. If questions that required speedy resolution arose, they immediately let us know. We did not have a language divide and the communication process was never difficult.

Of course there were things that needed to be done as soon as possible. And even in such situations, they always met deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

These are people who are really good at what they do. We did not have to spend time on error checking or something like that. Their team delivered their work to the highest standards as it was expected.

They also advised us on technical issues and in many aspects we relied on their professionalism.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We never encountered any problems, so I'm not sure I can say anything specific.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a startup out of San Francisco. We automate insurance billing in the dental segment of the healthcare market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fively?

Based on the level of growth we had planned for the next couple of years, it was challenging to attract local talent as fast as our product roadmap demanded it.

As such, Fively has been a really big strategic help for us to fill that gap and provide easy access to strong engineers at a fraction of the cost.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fively helps us with both internal and external tools and the backend for those. We set them up as a remote software development team. They’re part of our team and work hands-on with everybody, not just our in-house engineers.

They get big chunks of the work, and they take part in our sprint planning. The technologies used are Python, React Native, and Node.js.

What is the team composition?

I work with a team of six engineers from Fivelyl; three frontend and three backend. Most of them are mid- to senior-level engineers. We have a main point of contact, but they’re a part of the team.

How did you come to work with Fively?

I received strong references from a close mutual friend. We were looking for strategic partners, so we had a discussion with them and started raping up, first with one, then 2–3 engineers, and then six.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost so far is $25,000–$50,000. Compared to the US, they’re 3–4 times less expensive.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Fively in November 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Qualitatively, the feedback is amazingly strong. They’re part of the team, and they have some strong engineers that manage the rest of the team there. They do a good job of understanding where our roadmap is and what needs to be done.

How did Fively perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good. Fively stands out overall for being articulate and disciplined in terms of timelines and communication. We communicate through Slack, Google Hangouts, Zoom, email, and a whole suite from Atlassian, including Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re highly professional. Usually, my experience working with small remote teams out of Eastern Europe has been that it’s a bit lax, and people always try to play catchup. Our team at Fively is very organized, disciplined, and sharp on timelines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

My advice is to engage them as much as possible. A few of them can be very good managers for the rest of the team there.

They’re very good in terms of teaming up together when there are more than 1–3 engineers on their side. It’s almost like building an extension of our team somewhere else, instead of using individual remote team members.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of Volt. We provide services for events across Europe, including mobile charging and digitizing services. We work in the crossroads between physical services and digital systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fively?

We have a CRM through which customers can pre-book all our services. We’re outsourcing all of the development for our new CRM to Fively.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

To start, Fively studied the old system we had in place. Based on that, they worked on creating a smarter system for our needs. The main service they provided was custom software development. They handled front- and backend development, along with creating the software architecture. The system uses Laravel PHP, React Native, and JavaScript. 

What is the team composition?

I had direct contact with the developers initially, but we changed so that we had a project manager on their side. We worked a lot with Igor (Co-Founder & CTO) as well.

How did you come to work with Fively?

We found them by word of mouth from another company.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost was above $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Fively in April 2019 and we’re no longer working together because of the Coronavirus pandemic. We’d still be working together, but since our company works with festivals and that scene isn’t currently active, we’re not. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results are more qualitative since our project was cut short. Before we stopped working together, we were able to sell the system to some festivals, so that’s a good thing. Their reconstruction of our system made it a lot better and smarter. 

How did Fively perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed really well and were agile in a rapidly changing environment. They were great at understanding our needs and creating solutions. We had weekly meetings with them and were happy with how they managed the project. There was one instance where there was trouble meeting the deadlines, but they worked day and night to meet it. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were highly professional people while also being extremely friendly. They did really well in adjusting to our needs as we went along. We really enjoyed working with them and I’d give them the highest recommendations. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

From our perspective, there’s nothing for them to improve. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s worthwhile to have a discussion with Igor about business needs. They understand client needs better than the client themselves. Keep an open mind and allow Igor and Alex (Co-Founder & CEO) to challenge what you think the business is supposed to look like IT-wise.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is Webinar Ninja, we’re a webinar platform for small businesses. I’m the co-founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fively?

We needed more backend development. So, we needed developers who were well-versed in PHP.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve made sure that they maintain the code, fixed bugs, as well as develop new features for us. We did a whole rehaul on our automated webinar system. We wanted to offer more functionality in terms of more availability for dates and times, creating on-demand features, being able to upload directly to the platform, as well as patch replays.

We also did a whole bunch of optimizations to increase site speed, and resolve bugs on the user side. We recently worked on an on-site registration to allow users to register on their own website for their webinars through a registration form.

We used PHP and JavaScript. They also worked closely with our frontend developers.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two backend developers.

How did you come to work with Fively?

Our CTO did the hiring, I believe they had an online ad on a job posting site. We went through an interview process and found them to be the most qualified candidates.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in October 2019 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their code is well-commented and was tested before it was released to our customers. One developer, in particular, volunteered to work on things they’re proficient in and work outside their job description.

How did Fively perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve worked well with our existing team members. Our whole team is remote, so we value clear communication. We do a daily remote standup. We used Jira to track where they were in the project and Basecamp and Slack for team communication.

They could pivot and change direction at a moment’s notice if we needed to focus on something. They’ve been really flexible. It’s just like they’re one of our team members —they’re on board and they communicate very well.  They’re dedicated to the software and our customers.

They always show up to meetings, I was actually quite surprised with their communication skills. They have great English skills despite being an overseas team. They’ve always put in extra time to fulfill a deadline, so they’re very committed. It’s one of the best experiences I’ve had with a vendor.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Both the backend developers had to jump into preexisting code that wasn’t well documented. Then they had to fix bugs and it was very difficult to do without breaking anything. With minimal instruction, they were able to come up to speed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t really think there’s an area for improvement,

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you give them enough autonomy to solve the problem. I learned to give them the outcomes that we’re looking for, and they’ll come up with the solutions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Insly is simple software for the complex business of insurance brokers, agents, MGAs and insurance companies. Today we already have clients from 50+ countries. I have been in Insly team from the beginning and currently holding the CTO position.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Fively?

Insly started co-operation with Fively to make React front-end for our new product. We are trying to launch totally new product in 2020 and they are covering all front-end works.

What were your goals for this project?

This project is going to take our business to whole new level. We want to think that we will revolutionize insurance market with it. From the tech point of view we would like to create as simple as possible solution- as our slogan state- Insurance Easily.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have a lot of personal connections in Minsk and they were recommended to us. We had several candidates in our choice, but their attitude and mindset were closest to ours. Also their portfolio was quite good.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They were heavily working with us (they still actually are) together with our back-end developers. They acted as a part of our team. Their responsibilities were to develop front-end solution. For that they used React. We really did the project in a very agile way- we did not have good specifications for them or any other good materials. They thought together with us to come up with the best solution.

What was the team composition?

Two constant developers, but all together 6-7 people were involved with our project from Fively side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As we are still in the progress of finalizing our new product, it is very hard to say business impact.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Managing our front-end project was pretty effective. As they were working with our guys together then there was not much of management from Fively side. But whenever we need more resources or help, we got very good results from their management.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I really like the communication- it very easy to talk with them. They understood our needs and problems right away- did not have to explain it many many times. At the same time they are very professional. As for now- they have been able to deliver what they have promised. This never can be underestimated it IT development.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I think they could be a bit more aggressive. They are well educated and have great amount of experience. They should be more active of saying their opinion of how things should be made.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Skilled builds scheduling and routing software for contractor and distribution businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Fively?

UI/UX development of software that clearly displays complex data and allows users to intuitively manipulate that data.

What were your goals for this project?

Our software had some issues with the way data was presented to users as well as some serious issues with the infrastructure of the front-end code itself and the lack of best-practices used when it was developed.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Fively came recommended to us by a trusted business associate.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Developers from Fively studied our software baseline before jumping into our kanban development process. They recommended best-practices to use based on their extensive front-end experience and then began taking existing tasks off the kanban board backlog. They would work those tasks off to completion and then take more.

What was the team composition?

The Fively team consisted of two developers, and they fit in well with our existing team of 6.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It's difficult to quantify the value of UI/UX work. Users intrinsically demand a certain quality of ease-of-use or else they won't use your product. All of Fively's work receive positive user feedback.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team worked remotely and spread out in various locations around the globe. We would have a daily call to review items on the kanban board and discuss obstacles and progress. Fively would typically report to this call at least twice a week, which was sufficient.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The Fively developers were always positive and hard-working. Their work was always indicated quality craftsmanship.

Are there any areas for improvement?

One of the team members spoke perfect English, while the other could be challenging to communicate with at times. While we could generally correspond effectively over DMs, it may have been better for the member who spoke perfect English to represent both during phone calls.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at Uniqkey, a company that makes password management software for businesses. Passwords are encrypted on an individual’s phone.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fively?

We needed to hire developers for all aspects of our projects. We ran into trouble finding developers through a different company, so we needed a new solution. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve been working on our mobile and web applications. The mobile work is done on iOS and Android. The web application is built with React and the web extensions are with Angular. We define a plan of how we want the UX to look, and they carry it out. We've also been talking to them about doing backend work in the future.  

What is the team composition?

We work with four people from Fively. The CPO and I do project management for their team.

How did you come to work with Fively?

We originally had an external development company that didn’t deliver the quality and effort we needed. They had trouble finding developers and were slow. Some people we knew recommended Fively, and we started working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $150,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in December 2018 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In general, I'm really impressed by the developers and the way they carry out work. Anecdotally, what I really like is they challenge us and propose solutions to our design and architecture. If they find something that could cause trouble down the road, they tell us rather than doing whatever we tell them to do.

They have their heads in the game, and they care about the project rather than finishing it as quickly as possible. We’ve recommended them to other Danish companies that have been using them.

How did Fively perform from a project management standpoint?

They're good at giving estimates on when projects will be finished. Sometimes, there are delays as stuff comes up during the project. However, they're clear at letting us know if something will delay the delivery and changing the estimate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think they work really hard. If we have something critical, you can be absolutely sure they are putting in extra hours. I think they’re very talented and understand business. They ask for descriptions about business requirements and really try to understand why projects happen and what the end user needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’ve been really happy working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Explain stakeholders' business requirements and tell them why they are doing what you ask them to do. Once that happens, they can think for themselves and understand what they need to do.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP R&D of Avo

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We build AI for organization

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Fively to accomplish?

• Building the product

SOLUTION

How did you find Fively?

Linkedin

Why did you select Fively over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Fively were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

5ly team joined our R&D team in the project and where part of all of our development effort

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The team is strong and professional. Highly responsible to complete there tasks on time and help with any thing that emerge during the sprint

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team was very align with our needs, willing to do context switch when needed and preform well under pressure

What was your primary form of communication with Fively?

Virtual Meeting

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

They're very professional, easy to work with, and good at communication

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

I could not think of something

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a financial services firm

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Fively, and what were your goals?

Challenge was to integrate our UX vision into a working homepage.

SOLUTION

How did you select Fively and what were the deciding factors?

We have worked together before and it was nice to experience working together again.

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

We provided Figma files with a new design and started going from there. Very smooth process.

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

We had 2 developers, both senior frontend developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was released on time and if there were small changes introduced by us they still managed those within the deadline.

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

They are very open to fit into our internal sprint methods.

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

Their speed of getting us needed resources.

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

It's hard to say, mostly everything went so smoothly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are venture catalysts. I am founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Fively?

We often need strategic brand design & web development. Fively delivers without hassle.

What were your goals for this project?

Build brand identity. Establish web app & site for growth & operations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Trust in transaction. We've done many projects in the past with Fively.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Fively delivered the brand book, web app and site we needed for beautifully capturing and displaying the client business opportunities.

What was the team composition?

We had multiple dedicated UX designers and developers throughout the project. Team scaled with project needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Client is pleased with product. It's simple, intuitive, powerful.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Excellent communication, straightforward and practical operating method.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Fively impresses with the excellent outcomes they achieve with service-minded attitude they maintain.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Looking forward to more collaboration!