A2SEVEN

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a co-founder and the COO of the Kazooky Media Inc. We’re the parent company of Zooky.ca, a neighborhood search portal and marketing platform supporting real estate agents across Canada.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lodoss Team?

We needed to move from the POC phase of our system to the production phase, but to do this, we needed a frontend team skilled in a JavaScript framework. Lodoss helped us choose the right framework (React JS) and was suited to work with our backend team.

What were your goals for this project?

The system consists of a property search engine and a private real estate agent marketing console. This was a rebuild of the entire frontend, which uses React JS and is integrated with Zooky's custom API.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Vendors were vetted based on their proposal for our phase one requirements. This considered development methodology, technology, cost, and timing. Initially, we had about a dozen serious contenders. We narrowed this down to three and then chose Lodoss because of their business lead. She was able to not only understand our business requirements but also to consider the stage our company was in.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project consisted of building a frontend framework for our platform and integrating it with our custom API. The entire site is built dynamically through the connection with our API. We had requirements and technical documentation for the project. However, when we were short on documentation, Lodoss was patient and helpful in that process.

What was the team composition?

The Lodoss project team has consisted of up to five people: two developers, a QA resource, a project manager, and a business lead. To date, team size has changed based on the requirements. Lodoss has been flexible as our requirements have changed in intensity.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re still in the early days of our commercial release, so we don’t have any metrics that illustrate the impact of the project. That said, we can now start the process of onboarding customers. Also, our portal has been approved by industry regulators, which is due, in part, to Lodoss’ work.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management process with Lodoss has been exceptional. Communication has been clear and consistent, and delays and technical barriers are discussed well ahead of time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their speed and accuracy stand out the most. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly Lodoss understood our requirements and, subsequently, how quickly they implemented the changes. Also, their communication is top notch. They work hard to ensure I’m always up to date with progress and potential issues.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Lodoss is clearly an experienced and efficient software development team. There are no obvious areas that need improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Cutoutcow is a high-volume image editing solution for e-commerce, photographers, and online retailers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lodoss Team?

We needed web application development.

What were your goals for this project?

To successfully develop an enterprise web application for image editing. We wanted to have a 100% fully-automated digital asset management system.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They provided support for our initial test project.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They used AWS, Angular, and MongoDB for the development of the web application.

What was the team composition?

There was a project manager and several developers, including a senior full-stack developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve gained more traction than ever since they developed the new application. Their work has saved us loads of time.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They managed the project flawlessly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their responsiveness was impressive.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the CTO and a co-founder of a startup called ComboCats.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lodoss Team?

We needed support with building the backend of a social platform for gamers.

What were your goals for this project?

Our objective was to create a server in Node.js and MongoDB that was ready to scale for thousands of concurrent users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We reached out to multiple development shops as we looked for a vendor to work with. Lodoss was the most responsive team we contacted. After we got in touch, they immediately started suggesting solutions for the problems we had.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Our engagement involved full-time JavaScript development. We worked on this product together for about a year.

What was the team composition?

We initially hired a single developer from Lodoss Team. After six months he left the company, so we started working with a different one.  They worked together for a few weeks, and the code base transition between two developers was almost flawless.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Unfortunately, we ran into funding issues which prevented us from continuing with the project. The backend Lodoss Team built, however, worked quite well during the testing phase.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used Trello for task management and Slack for instant communication. Lodoss Team was always very responsive during working hours.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their development team is amazing. Lodoss Team worked capably on their own for days at a time. They delivered the correct results we needed without any hand-holding from our side.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

In a couple of instances, the developers were unavailable due to unforeseen causes like illness. We had to reach out to their management to learn that this was the case. It would be better for them to notify clients about their developers’ unavailability as soon as possible. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a company that provides corporate training and consulting in sales and negotiation. I'm a co-founder and the current CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lodoss Team?

We decided to develop an app that would help teach people how to handle tough negotiations more effectively. It would provide assistance in real-life interactions with others, as a kind of digital coach.

We came to Lodoss Team with iOS work we’d developed with another provider, whom we decided to drop. We had worked on the product for about half a year, but we didn't like how it was going and were shopping around for a new provider.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed mobile platforms for iOS and Android, the latter of which was done from scratch. They had to catch up the Android version to the iOS one, which they did quickly. We were on parallel schedules within three months, with the same tasks were being completed for both platforms. They did a great job of porting the tool to Android.

They also developed the frontend from scratch. We had some backend elements when we came to them, but there was no frontend. They integrated a payment system, an SMS confirmation and two-factor authentication system, and a notification system. They also made an integration between our frontend and the MailChimp service. We could use our frontend to compile user groups, then send messages to them through email and push notifications.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had three different project managers throughout the year, all of whom did a great job. One of them was particularly outstanding, which made it no wonder that she was promoted quickly. We got a new project manager and the old one became their supervisor.

There were two iOS developers, two Android developers, a backend developer, and a frontend developer. In total, there were six people on the development side and one project manager.

How did you come to work with Lodoss Team?

My partner was following their CEO and founder on Facebook, and he liked what he read. He suggested that we reach out to Lodoss Team and talk about our project. We organized a video conference with their founder and a couple of his key people. We had a great conversation, so we decided to run a pilot milestone. We gave them the next task we wanted to complete, in order to see how comfortable we’d be, and how it would go overall. It went smoothly and we were satisfied. They were tight in terms of schedule, and they asked good questions. We decided to continue with the collaboration, which we have until this day.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work has been $150,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're still in the rolling-out phase of the project as we consciously made a decision to do quite a bit of development first, before hitting the market. We’re now beginning the process of dealing with our first potential customers. There's been some great feedback from the first users. We've made about $5,000 from in-app purchases.

Ultimately, Lodoss built what we wanted, even though it’s a new product and concept. We weren’t even sure if some features would be possible, so it took quite a bit of brainstorming on their end, thinking of how to actually bring what we wanted to life. They successfully managed it. Our first customers give positive feedback, saying that our product is something new and helpful.

How did Lodoss Team perform from a project management standpoint?

One of their project managers was always available and there for us, which is one area in which Lodoss shined. They understand how critical it is to maintain communication between the customer and the developers, while having someone constantly overseeing the project, in constant touch with all parties. This made a huge difference compared to our previous provider, where the project management was terrible, making everything terrible.

We use Trello as a project management tool, which is very convenient. They respond promptly and I’ve never had an issue comprehending what they’re saying. The project manager makes sure that the team communicates clearly around the issues we need to make decisions on. The PM can translate between developer jargon and human language.

I'm not an IT person, but I have advanced my understanding of development in the last year, thanks to Lodoss. They’ve taken time to explain things, helping me make informed decisions about where we’re going and where we should invest our money. Their communication is definitely one of their strongest points. It’s timely, clear, and educational.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're in the same boat with us and we feel like they’re part of our team. It never felt as though they were outsourced. Other people I’ve talked to have suffered from their development teams not really being involved in the project, not really caring, or working strictly nine-to-six, with no availability outside of that time.

With Lodoss, I feel like they are a part of our team. We've had difficult situations, where they really went the extra mile and stayed long hours in order to fix an urgent issue. They’ve worked during weekends to meet our deadline.

They’ve sometimes given us advice about not doing something we wanted to do, even though they could’ve made money doing it. They look deeply into issues to advise us on certain features or to find cheaper solutions. They always seemed to care about optimizing the process for us, as well as optimizing costs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have made a few suggestions, which they have listened to and applied. After discussing a particular feature with them and having them build it, we sometimes found that we didn’t like something about the final output, in terms of design or UI. The feature would work, but it wouldn’t quite function or look like what we thought would be convenient for people. We agreed that, in the case of new features, they would always send mockups to us, so that we could see how their team intended to bring it to life and make a choice we were satisfied with before the actual implementation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the co-founder of TripPost, a startup social platform for modern day travelers. We allow users to create, budget, and share itineraries with the travel community.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lodoss Team?

We needed help to develop a minimum viable product (MVP) and landing page for the app.

What were your goals for this project?

Our platform will help inspire and prepare travelers, as well as let them share their trips.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We searched and interviewed vigorously to find the right team because, unfortunately, we've had some bad run-ins in the past.

Describe the project in detail.

They drew out wireframes and designs, used industry-smart decisions to craft the UI/UX, and created our mobile app in React Native so it could be published for iOS and Android. They also provided a simple landing page with a complex backend.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two project managers, one React Native developer, one landing page developer, and one UX designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re just finishing the application now. Not only are we impressed with their work internally, but our beta users are surprised at how robust the app is.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Lodoss was able to work during our hours, keep up with weekly meetings, and was very understanding when it came to deadlines. We also used a storyboard workflow platform. There was no language barrier, since their team is fluent in English.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re the most professional vendor I’ve experienced, and they put in the extra work and time necessary to succeed. They’re not only professional, but they have the portfolio to show it. They are extremely intelligent and hard-working. Pavel and Alexandra were amazing project managers, and had a slew of very talented developers.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the head of the IT department at the insurance company BCS Life Insurance.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire A2SEVEN, and what were your goals?

Initially, our collaboration with the team began with the BCS digital platform project. This is a B2B system for selling life insurance policies. Later we got involved with the A2SEVEN team in developing a personal account for clients of our insurance company. Despite the fact that these systems have long been in production, we continue to work on expanding their functionality together with A2SEVEN. For the last year and a half, we have paid special attention to the DP-policy project, this is the functionality that allowed us to enter online sales of life insurance policies through the World of Investments mobile application.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We have over 3 years of successful experience working with this team on various projects. The key factors have always been: high technical skills and strong management.

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

The main stages of work were:

• requirements gathering
• business and system analysis
• work planning
• development & testing
• technical support

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

At the moment we are working with a team of 12 people:

• 1 project manager
• 1 technical lead
• 8 developers
• 2 QA engineers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I am very pleased with my collaboration with the team - you can always feel their careful attitude towards the projects, as well as the high level of management and serious technical skills. With the development of projects with A2SEVEN, our business accomplishments are constantly increasing. In 2019, the B2B digital platform received an award in the category "Digital Platform of the Year" from the Financial Market Award "Financial Elite of Russia 2019". In the same year, the analytical agency "BusinessDrom" awarded the "Quality Mark" rating of "BCS Life Insurance" at A1 level - the highest level of quality of services and customer service.

In 2020 the rating agency "Expert RA" assigned the financial strength rating of "BCS Life Insurance" at the level ruA- (moderately high level) with a stable outlook. This rating was assigned to the insurance company for the first time. Among the main positive factors the agency singles out a confident growth rate of insurance premiums - 53.3% in January-September 2020 compared to the same period of 2019.

Moreover, since the company was founded in 2017, we have entered the top 150 and ranked 46th among Russian insurers, which was possible largely due to the rapid development of our digital products. Turnover in sales of our products is also growing, and it is even easy to trace their growth every year - in 2019 we launched sales through the B2B system, and in 2021 we launched online sales.

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

I am very comfortable interacting with A2SEVEN due to their high-quality management - the manager is always available, very quickly responds to any requests, any issues are solved in the shortest time possible. We communicate both through chats during the day and by online team calls - there are a system of meetings has been built, as we are running 3 projects simultaneously.

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

I enjoy working with people who are as interested in the success of the product as I am as a client. A2SEVEN takes projects very seriously and celebrates our success as their own.

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

For now I am more than happy with everything. By the way, the guys themselves regularly request feedback on their work, and try to promptly correct any comments or remarks.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a multi-award winning, full service advertising agency with a reputation for building enterprise apps, re-imagining digital advertising and producing innovative video content. My role as digital project director is to guide, motivate and support team members to deliver innovative digital projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire A2SEVEN, and what were your goals?

I knew that A2Seven had the skills and the drive to deliver this complex project on a short deadline.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Previous experience working with A2Seven to successfully deliver a similar project was a deciding factor to approach them to assist, however their quick grasp of the brief and ability to select the best

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

This project is designed to attract marketing companies to sales. The application analyzes the orientation of the company, using company data, to provide statistical data, on the basis of which the user chooses the path of further development of his enterprise. The project should lead the user to further information about the solution.

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

Full-stack developer (Andrew) Frontend developer (Tatiana) QA engineer (Roman) PM (Sabrina)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Not at this stage

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

Slack Email

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

They delivered the tool on time with no issues.

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

Clearer communication to confirm what technologies were going to be used.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Senior Developer at Custom Software Developer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire A2SEVEN, and what were your goals?

Develop custom functionalities for an existing production project.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We found them through internet serach.

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

They help us in all stages from draft requirements to final production implementation

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

There wer 3 people.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All the work was completed on time and on budget

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

• Great and fast communications • Easy requirements refine process • Excellent quality and documentation

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

Team members were very knowledgeable and was easy to work with them.

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

They really adapt to our timeline, deliverables and all tasks were done. I didn't have any issue

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am head of product working with an ecommerce company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire A2SEVEN, and what were your goals?

Our goal was to develop new features to our highly customized ERP which serves a fast-growing e-commerce platform, mostly on our catalog and product management systems. Development involved back end, front end, APIs, embedded graphic editor, code optimization, in a remote, agile development working method, using MEAN stack.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Based on interviews and tests.

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

Custom software development.

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

1 full stack developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developer assigned to the project was exceptional, the delivery was in high level and in time, with smooth and friendly communication. We were very satisfied with the results and with the progress and definitely recommend a2seven.

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

Video calls, chats, project management tools.

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

They have good communication, high-quality work.

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

We were satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

BCS Life Insurance, CTO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire A2SEVEN, and what were your goals?

Development of a microservice for opening a channel for the sale of life insurance policies, via a mobile application.

SOLUTION

How did you select A2SEVEN and what were the deciding factors?

We have previously worked with the company on the project for creating a b2b system for the sale of insurance products.

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

Project stages:

1. Designing the microservice structure and relationships with external applications
2. System analytics
3. Development
4. Testing
5. Implementation on the prodaction
6. Support

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

• 1 project manager
• 1 tech lead
• 2 developers
• 1 QA

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At all stages, the team showed high expertise in all its works. The development was completed in a short time with a minimum number of errors.

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

The project manager always gave timely feedback on all issues. Was available 24/7. She organized effective communication between the customer's team and the development team.

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

They provide a very high level of competence and communication. He helped build the microservice architecture of the application.

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

At the moment, all completed tasks within the project have been completed successfully and on time. We plan to continue developing the project with the current development team.