Ardas

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We provide a wide range of design services on a one-time payment basis.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our clients collaborate with designers and set tasks on our platform. Over time, we had some new features to implement, but the website needed a back-end update for this. We needed development support, and it had to be really qualified and experienced guys since our platform is a mandatory component of the work and our projections for this project are very high.

SOLUTION

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

Ardas provided us with PHP developers to review and evaluate the existing functionality and work with new features.

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

Our platform already had necessary functionality that stuck with updating. Ardas developers were engaged in evaluating the system, creating a plan to update it and, accordingly, improving and implementing several new features.

As we work on a subscription basis, the developers were engaged in building an infrastructure that would allow customers to receive certain privileges depending on the chosen subscription plan.

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

We agreed on 2 PHP developers and BA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developers were quick enough to find the problems and fix them, as well as complete all their tasks. Everything works perfectly, including new features. We also received many positive feedbacks from clients about platform performance and usability.

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

We were communicating effectively through Slack, developers are polite and organized, they timely and reliable.

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

I plan to continue working with Ardas, and specifically the developers assigned to my project. They finished all the work on time and within budget, which I really appreciate.

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

I’m perfectly happy with the results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as the marketing director for Cerri.com AG, a SaaS company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ardas?

We hired them for their custom software development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ardas provides us with custom software development services. Initially, they developed the first version of our project management software using Python and Angular. It had three key functionalities: project management, task management, and timesheets. Following this, they helped us rebuild the same software using .NET and implemented some plug-ins for Google and the mobile version. Currently, we rely on them for maintenance support.

What is the team composition?

We work with seven people from their side.

How did you come to work with Ardas?

I met with one of the company’s partners at an event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2015, and our collaboration is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall, they’ve done a great job of delivering what we need, and their team is very professional.

How did Ardas perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style is amazing. I don’t remember the tool we’ve been using to manage tasks, but we communicate mainly through Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been honestly impressed with their project management and QA team. They have a structured approach and are a professional team. They’re also not cheap, but the level of services they provide is according to the price they charge.

Are there any areas they could improve on?

Our choice of technology has negatively affected us down the road, but I don’t think it’s their fault. Other than that, everything else has gone according to plan.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Estimate everything beforehand and make sure all the project specifications are clearly outlined.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Saldo Apps Affiliate Manager. We offer solutions for accounting and sales automation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were developing a management system with orders, invoices, accounting, etc. At some point, we realized that we hadn’t enough experience and we were really short on time, so wanted to find a team or just 2-3 developers who would help us with coding and business analysis.

SOLUTION

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

Ardas became our outsourced partner and they strengthened our team with talents. They provided us with two developers, UI/UX designer and BA.

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

We started with business analysis as we stuck with our approach and needed to change it. Ardas BA was consulting us and helped my team to create a detailed plan. .Net developers from Ardas helped us implement critical features for proper accounting and invoicing. We also had some security issues, so these guys helped us find choose the best solution and implement it.

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

Company provides us with two .NET developers, one BA and one UI/UX designer. Later we also asked for help with testing and Ardas provided us with two QA engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had serious issues with experience and we’ve been stuck with the developing approach. Ardas guys helped us find new solutions, restart our project, build a strong core system and resolve security issues. They also taught my team a little bit and shared their experiences, so now we have enough product support and maintenance knowledge.

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

Everything was going like clockwork. Ardas guys shared our values and were open to any suggestions. We were communicating on Slack and had some online meetings.

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

I would continue working with this company in the future. And this, I think, the best describes my impressions.

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

The developers, designer, and everyone else did a great job. I have no comments on this.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO and Founder of UppLabs, a software development company specializing in Fintech, Healthcare and Real Estate domains.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I found Ardas with the help of our mutual contact as at that time we needed some .Net enforcement to develop a lending solution for one of our latest clients. As both our companies represented the Fintech domain, I was sure that these guys will be our reliable partners. They were professional in .Net, and we lacked a few skilled .Net engineers.

SOLUTION

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

I picked Ardas not only because I knew them and heard of them earlier, but also because I had seen their portfolio and talked to their engineers. The team impressed me, so we shook hands. I was confident about the success of the collaboration.

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

We worked in a frame of an extended team model. Ardas’ developers helped us to speed up the development and brough the expertise we lacked.

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

There were 3 .Net developers we hired from Ardas.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ardas team helped us to develop a stable, scalable, compliant and bug-free product we are happy to share with our clients. Their technology expertise saved a lot of our time nerves.

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

We were absolutely pleased by the communication style used by Ardas team. They showed a new level in regular updates: everything was structured, clear and on time. Our main communication channels were Skype and Slack.

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

Ardas team is a great partner! They knew everything about the product we were working on. Moreover, they weren’t afraid to share best practices with us. Will be happy to work with them again.

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

I see no critical points to improve. The team was awesome.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the MD of a transportation solution provider assisting mainly corporate clients with their group ground transportation needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were already working with a white label solution for our admin needs but really felt that the product was over-engineered and that the communication with the provider was not working sufficiently well. Hence we needed a tech partner that had high communication skills and that could assist us creating an admin system that would really tailor to our needs.

SOLUTION

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

Through market research we found the prospective partners, and after several reviews, interviews and referral checks we settled on Ardas who showed most promise among the roughly 10 candidates.

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

The project full project consists of multiple steps, of which the MVP system was the first. We needed an admin booking system that allowed us to store all our customer orders. We also needed a pricing engine that allowed dynamic pricing according to the unit prices we entered coupled with a google maps API that allowed for unique pricing per booking.

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

There's been a rough 5 staff members working with us, ranging from Sales to Project Manager to Business Analysts to Head of Delivery as well as System Architect.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the product within the timeframe which was much appreciated. Initial indications allows us to estimate that the product reduce admin time with 66% for the tasks it currently covers, something that we see as a success and intends to expand upon.

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

Ardas was chosen partially because of their communication skills. We're always kept up to date, we receive information in a timely manner and have been ery happy with it this far. The work in general is structured and we've always been able to make the changes we need, which proves a great deal of flexibility.

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

It's the first time we outsource tech so in some ways it's difficult to say what's unique in this industry, but what I do enjoy is the commincations and flexibility which we really make use of.

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

Too early on our part to tell. We haven't found it yet.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CTO of Cardiolyse, a medical technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ardas?

We were developing a cloud and mobile application for our device and algorithms. We only had two internal developers at the time, so we started looking for a service company to create the software we needed for our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was an API-based cloud platform that worked with electrocardiogram devices. The devices would send data to our cloud, and we’d send back analyses. All the data was contained in JSON files. Most of the wireframes and documentation were prepared by Ardas. We gave them a basic explanation of how our hardware device worked, and a description of the API we had at the time, but they prepared the rest of the technical documentation.

We started with an estimation and design phase, working with Ardas’ data analysts and developers to create an MVP of our product. This made sure we could do it cost-effectively and deliver all the value we wanted to our customers. That was a short phase of 2–3 weeks, and we created specifications based on it.

The overall development was split into stages, which we clarified before starting. We had an agile style of software development. Ardas helped us define the scope of each stage or release, and handled development, QA, and deployment to production. We gathered feedback from users and made improvements based on it.

We used AWS to host everything, and we used Jenkins Docker containers in order to better-scale the service. The programming language was Java.

How did you come to work with Ardas?

We had a tender and vetted four companies. Ardas impressed us with a good understanding of our business domain, logic, and marketing. They also provided some examples from their portfolio.

We had an internal competition and selected four companies to send requests for proposals. We met in person with all four, and we were really impressed with the deep knowledge of our domain that Ardas had.

Quality of code was another consideration. We asked for a couple of references and talked to people who’d worked with Ardas before. I personally met with all the stakeholders involved in our project and loved the proactive approach to communication and development they had. The overall process was really good on Ardas’ side.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $35,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Ardas between August 2016–November 2017. We ended the collaboration because we hired an internal development team. Ardas was good, but we no longer had a business need for their services. They continued to consult us and provide our internal developers a better understanding of the code, the infrastructure, and architecture.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main metric for us was development time. It was crucial for us as a company, since we’d signed contracts with clients and had to deliver what was promised. Ardas helped us build the platform, and it was crucial for our success. We didn’t track other KPIs.

How did Ardas perform from a project management standpoint?

I rate them a 5/5. Everything was great, and they delivered on time. They were very proactive and actually delivered 2–3 days before the deadline sometimes. I don’t recall any situations where they missed the promised deadline. Actually, there were a couple of issues with our cloud, and Ardas helped resolve those quite quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What I really liked about our communication was that they were friendly and explained additional possible options that might improve our product. That was really helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything was okay for me, so, fortunately, I don’t have any suggestions for how they could improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I don’t have any specific advice, but I’d definitely recommend Ardas to any client looking for a reliable and accountable partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Softcube. We create video ads automatically and run campaigns on Facebook and Google for our customers. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ardas?

We have a huge data stream and needed a system to help us process it. We had a tool previously in place that gave us issues with performance and cost.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ardas created a backend system for processing the data we’re getting from Google and Facebook. The system is built on Java, but I don’t know the exact framework used. It’s deployed internally on our servers. 

They had several goals to achieve during the development process, including horizontal scalability and optimizing the performance of one processing node. If we want to process more data, we can simply deploy more servers.

What is the team composition?

We had a project manager and a Scrum master who handled all our communication. However, we also knew every developer in the team, and our CTO communicated directly with them on certain tasks.

How did you come to work with Ardas?

One of my friends had worked in Ardas a few years ago. We had a specific high-level task, and a generic company couldn’t deliver on this profile. Ardas had worked on such projects before, so we met to discuss it.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent up to €80,000 (approximately $89,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from August 2018 until September 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had an organized scrum process where Ardas delivered tasks every two weeks. They didn’t meet the schedule for every sprint, and the project lasted a bit more than we expected, but that was mostly due to us adding some extra tasks and processes.

Our main goal was measurable, namely the performance of a particular node. It needed to process around 1,000 requests per second, and Ardas accomplished that. It led to a huge cost reduction for us—much more than we expected in our goals.

How did Ardas perform from a project management standpoint?

There were some points where we disagreed, but we were okay with their communication in general. We liked that it was simple and straightforward. If we had an issue, we could just talk to the developers and get it resolved.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ardas delivered what they promised, which was the most important thing. We selected them because they had the expertise to work with high-load systems. Other developers wouldn’t have known how to deal with such tasks.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some crucial changes, but everything worked well. I don’t have any big issues to mention.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to set goals for every two weeks and to understand step-by-step how to get to the end and at what pace to move.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of TouchIt, an educational application company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ardas?

We wanted to develop a tablet app for kids that introduces a new program for schools. We wanted interactive animations and for everything to be in 3D.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had the basic idea and presented it to Ardas. They developed the entire app in six months and then spent two months testing it. They supported us once we launched the whole project.

What is the team composition?

We had one project manager, and seven other people were working on every part of it, like the web development and design, the testing, and the creative part. 

How did you come to work with Ardas?

When I was looking for someone to take over the project, I liked them the most. We did a tender with three companies. Ardas had the best price, but they also seemed to have the most technical knowledge for their price range. They offered everything, from A–Z, in one package, including testing.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2016–February 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I left the company, so I don’t have access to the metrics anymore. I really liked the software they developed and the 3D animations they designed. The way they did the project and the support they provided was great.

How did Ardas perform from a project management standpoint?

They were usually ahead of schedule. Our company wasn’t in much of a rush; we set more relaxed goals. We had an email chain that everybody was on. We also used Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication was good, and they were really nice. They didn’t just give short answers; they actually explained stuff I didn’t understand. When questions arose, their responses were thorough and detailed, which I found surprising for technical people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a couple of times we misunderstood each other just because English is not our native language, but we sorted it out right away.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them everything you want. Even if you ask them to do more, I think they would do it. Let them do their thing. They developed some ideas that weren’t on my list before and added some things that weren’t planned for, which I liked.

BACKGROUND

What challenge were you trying to address with Ardas?

We brought Ardas on board because I no longer had enough internal resources. We built the technology over the course of 3­–4 years, and the changing marketplace demanded that we update it.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first gave Ardas a small project which they did very well at. After we decided to take them on for our project, they provided technical specifications and concepts around the functionality of the system.

Ardas delivered the actual programming of the system, including penetration and user testing. They endeavored to abide by our high standards; we required their ability to document and future-proof the product.  

For the first 2­–3 years, it was pretty much pure development work. We then started to get into concepts with initial clients in the UK and later on, in Asia. They helped support those concepts where we were developing specific capabilities.

For example, we built what was probably the first secure Blackberry messaging system, which they integrated into our entire suite. This was executed and tested in Asia, where we had a client.

What is the team composition?

The team size grew over time, culminating in a team of 17 Ardas people working for us. I dealt directly with one of their founders.

How did you come to work with Ardas?

We met them through a site that promoted their services. We began to have a conversation and decided to give them a month-long test project. We wanted to see how well their team would work and communicate with us. We needed a capable partner who really grasped the essence of what we were trying to do.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around $1,500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from 2006–2012.

SOLUTION

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

Throughout the years of our engagement, they became our exclusive team. They were excellent to work with because they had the creativity and came up with unique solutions. Instead of simply taking orders, they came to us with their own ideas, and this was very refreshing.

It was pretty fantastic to see them deliver on their own initiative. Their entire team was proactive and enthusiastic. I still keep in touch with Alexey (Owner, Ardas) even though we haven’t worked together in a while.  

How did Ardas perform from a project management standpoint?

They were impeccable, probably better than we were. They excelled at setting and meeting deadlines. At times, I came to them with very demanding requirements, and they’d still be able to deliver.

Using an internal program to communicate, we collaborated all the time. Alexey even flew to Hong Kong with me, later in our partnership. It’s pretty remarkable that we worked together for four years, and I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with them before we even met.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In the 13 years that I’ve known them, I’ve never once doubted their honesty or integrity. I wish I could say that about other suppliers. They’re scrupulously honest, and they care about what they do. Their passion is truly outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything in our collaboration they could’ve improved, except maybe their English proficiency at some small points. We did find spoken English slightly challenging at first, but using text-based or written English was fantastic. I suspect that after 13 years, their English has improved significantly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very upfront about what you really want. Give them the bigger picture, though, because giving comprehensive requirements gives them the freedom to deliver something fantastic.