Adoriasoft

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a carbon financing nonprofit organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Adoriasoft?

We’re developing plugins and tools for digital asset marketplaces and cryptocurrency exchanges. We hired Adoriasoft to help us with the whole project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Adoriasoft is designing the UI, the database, and the backend. They are building various tools to be integrated with the cryptocurrency exchanges. 

What is the team composition?

We work with four full-time teammates, including Vlad (CEO), Anton (Marketing Manager), Bohdan(CTO), and four part-time teammates. 

How did you come to work with Adoriasoft?

I had three face-to-face meetings with them before I decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The total scope will be about $180,000, and we’re just past the halfway mark on that. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in February 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m very happy with their transparent cost structure and how quick they are to understand the more complex elements of the project. It’s been a pleasure to work with them.

How did Adoriasoft perform from a project management standpoint?

Adoriasoft’s communication is excellent and smooth. They’ve met all of the deadlines. If any issues come up, the team is good at informing me in advance. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They communicate in a timely manner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I did my own homework so I was able to ask pertinent questions and assess their answers very quickly. I would advise other customers to do the same. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a software development company providing a product called FaceRig, which is currently being sold on Steam and mobile stores. I am the administrator and CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Adoriasoft?

We have collaborated with Adoriasoft for the development of our system’s webcam driver. Our developers do not have kernel driver development as a competency. We were using a DirectShow filter thay would work with some apps, but not others. We looked to outsourcers in order to solve this problem.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Adoriasoft wrote the virtual driver which ships with FaceRig, and identifies the software as a webcam device on user’s machines. The driver takes video frames from a shared memory area to which we provide access, and exposes that area as a webcam video stream on the system. It essentially allows us to interface with any program which accepts webcam input.

We have essentially outsourced the entire development effort to Adoriasoft’s side, including the install script. They provided both compiled binaries with digitally-signed installs, as well as the source code, in case we would want to recompile it further down the road. We did offer them an initial brief, stating what we wanted the virtual webcam driver to do, but, aside from that, we were only involved at a very high level.

On our side, we only had a lead programmer for the project. I’m not sure of the size of their team, but I believe Adoriasoft assigned two engineers, aside from the management overhead.

How did you come to work with Adoriasoft?

We came across them on Upwork, which was still called Elance at that time. Adoriasoft had all the necessary qualifications, and the price/performance ratio was right, from what we could see. We did consider other providers, but Adoriasoft had a good financial offer and many good reviews, whereas the other companies we talked to had less extensive track records for writing driver kernels. Geographic proximity was a factor, since we are based in Bucharest, Romania, and could easily visit Adoriasoft in Kiev.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Adoriasoft in September 2014. We’ve had several iterations, the last of them in April 2015. There have been a few additional touch-ups, and we’ve gotten in contact with Adoriasoft in 2016. Driver digital signatures periodically expire, and we wanted a fresh compile with a new key, compatible with Windows 10, which was launched in 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have been very pleased with the results, as well as with Adoriasoft’s communication, operating mode, and interfacing skills. The software is being used by around 400,000 users, and not one of them has reported bugs related to the virtual webcam driver. The metrics speak in Adoriasoft’s favor.

In regards to our feedback, there were some driver modules which had names that could be considered offensive by users. Adoriasoft used the names of chemical warfare gases from World War 2, which created a bit of an anecdotical issue for us.

How did Adoriasoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They kept us in the loop regarding progress, stuck to deadlines, and delivered very good results. We were given access to Adoriasoft’s issue-tracking systems and could use them online. If I’m not mistaken, they used Atlassian, JIRA, and Bitbucket.

What did you find most impressive about Adoriasoft?

It would be difficult for me to do a comparison since this was the only piece of tech we outsourced to another developer. Overall, our experience with Adoriasoft has been fairly positive. They are well-organized and knowledgeable, from a technical standpoint. Kernel driver writing is not an easy field, especially if done right. There were absolutely no bug reports from our users regarding the driver developed by Adoriasoft.

Are there any areas Adoriasoft could improve?

Nothing comes to mind. The naming convention I mentioned was only visible to people going to the program folder and looking at the files themselves. It was not something accessible on the frontend in any way. We simply would have rather not dealt with it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a software company that develops software for improving the performance of users’ PCs. I’m the product marketing manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Adoriasoft?

We lost some of our in-house development team and were looking to increase our resources by using an outsource team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Adoriasoft developed an application for us from scratch. They also maintain a website that includes a lot of different reports and databases. They have done dozens of different projects for us. Within each product, there are different aspects of technology that are involved.

There are four major projects that they work on, and within those, there are maybe 10 smaller projects.  The four projects are the actual product application itself, maintaining the database related to the project, the matching algorithm of the product, and the DLL and API for the product. I know they use PHP, Linux, and Delphi technologies.

I regularly interact with 3 different resources but I’m sure there are many other resources working behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Adoriasoft?

There was a preexisting relationship between them and one of the owners of our company. He liked their work and hired them to work with our company as well.

How much have you invested with Adoriasoft?

We have spent $300,000 over the course of our relationship. We usually use them between 400 and 800 hours per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2012, and the work is ongoing. Over the years, we have increased the amount of work that we do with Adoriasoft

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Over the years, we have increased Adoriasoft’s responsibilities, so I think that’s an earned responsibility based on the work they’ve done with us. We’ve been satisfied. They came in, took over several products, and needed to learn about each one. Other projects, they created on their own. There was a learning curve for the projects they inherited and they did a great job in taking ownership of the projects. They know more about these projects than anyone else in our company does.

How did Adoriasoft perform from a project management standpoint?

We give them the requirements of a project and ask for an estimate of the cost. We approve the work and it seems to be going well. They provide a project manager who is the resource that I communicate with most often. Most of communication is through email or Skype. They also use JIRA for project management. The PM does a good job organizing things on their end, including holding meetings to discuss our projects and coordinating the work.

What did you find most impressive about Adoriasoft?

They communicate very well, which is extremely important, especially when you’re dealing with different time zones and languages. They’re very prompt, attentive and organized. They’re a very professional organization.

Are there any areas Adoriasoft could improve?

Any areas where they’ve needed improvement, they've improved over the years. Any relationship is a work in progress. If any issues come up, we improve it immediately