Axon

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Shinez.io is a storytelling platform that distributes entertaining and engaging stories across social media and the open web to 45-50M readers that consume 500M page views a month.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Axon?

We hired Axon for team augmentation services.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking for software engineers to augment our team. Axon was chosen based on recommendations from the company that already works with them.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

Our platform helps content creators thrive, by providing a robust set of monetization and content distribution technology. We help content creators understand who is engaging with their content and find similar readers across the web. We have engaged software developers from Axon’s side to produce a list of technical improvements for the platform.

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

Axon augments our team with two React developers and 1 Node.js developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We continue our cooperation with Axon as was previously planned. Currently, we are migrating the old app to the new architecture, hence we implemented many changes: Migrated from AWS redshift to Clickhouse database, improved database query performance a lot. Migrated old microservices into new monorepo architecture that is written with Nest JS and react and uses Kubernetes for deployment. At this moment we are satisfied with the intermediate results of our work.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

As we cooperate with Axon in a team augmentation form, we organize the entire workflow on our side. The development process runs smoothly and we communicate with people from Axon without any problems, they are getting things done in a timely manner.

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

At Axon, we have met professional software developers who have done their work responsibly and competently.

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

I don’t think so.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Xtra Point Group is an organizational development company devoted to enhancing the effectiveness and success rate of people within an organization. Specializing in the Staffing Industry and the Sports Industry, Xtra Point focuses on talent, retention, performance, and culture strategies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Axon to produce a job search platform for student-athletes. This web solution is aimed to connect students with companies and universities in order to help them quickly find relevant jobs.

SOLUTION

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

Our choice was based on their strong expertise in web development.

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

The project involved the development of such features, like an admin panel that allows admins to create and manage universities’ profiles, universities roles that allow their representatives to create admins and users, admin roles for companies, student roles for creating personal profiles. The system is also enhanced with СV templates, as well as a matching mechanism between users' profiles and job posts.

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

Axon has built for us a team of 8 members:

• Project Manager
• Frontend Developer
• Backend Developer
• QA Specialist
• UX/UI Designer
• DevOps Specialist
• Business Analyst
• Architect

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The development team at Axon has already launched the major functionality scope for the platform and we are satisfied with the result. Currently, our cooperation is ongoing.

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

The project management was organized on Axon’s side, they kept in touch with us via email and Slack. We also were able to track tasks’ performance in Jira.

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

Axon's team has impressed us with their level of involvement in the project. They are flexible when it comes to our business requirements and provide quality services.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Meest is the international group of companies providing postal and logistics services since 1989 by operating in 20 countries including Ukraine, USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Czech Republic, Poland, China, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel. The main activities of the company are international postal and logistics and financial services for companies and individuals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Custom software development services.

SOLUTION

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

Axon’s Business Development Manager contacted our representative at the moment when we have faced the need for the development of the software solution for a new business model realization.

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

We have developed a business model allowing us to organize mini-post offices in the sales points of retail chains. Our primary goal was to create a software product able to serve the operational activities of these offices. We enlist Axon to organize all our business requirements and bring them to life in a web solution. End-users of the solution are simultaneously operators and retail workers. That’s why the important requirement was to produce a solution with a simple and intuitively understood functionality.

Another requirement was to create a web solution able to adapt to any version of browser or OS of mobile device, to provide end-users with the possibility to utilize an application whether they use work or personal device.

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

Axon team is working in a collaboration with the developers on our side. They have built a team of project manager, JS and Java developers, DevOps engineer, QA engineer, business analyst. The number of developers is changing during the development stage depending on the workload.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The development stage is ongoing actively, we are satisfied with the progress.

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

From the beginning of our cooperation, Axon kept us with updated information regarding any changes and progress on the project. All tasks are performed promptly.

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

Axon team has proved a flexible approach to the development of our product. They are ready to change the priority of tasks depending on the needs of the business.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Nightbus is a start-up business that will offer a subscription-based service by which students will be able to access shuttle buses. Buses will run late at night in order to provide a cheaper, safer alternative to the taxi services. I am one of the founders and acting CFO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Axon for the development of iOS and Android mobile applications.

SOLUTION

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

Their Business Development Manager contacted us when we were at the beginning of the planning stage of Nightbus. After the presentation of their services and past projects we started the discussion of the project, Axon provided us with the development estimation and we started the development process.

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

The Nightbus app provides users with a few primary features. The main use of the app is to give each user a barcode or QR-code unique to each student and bus journey that can be scanned by security as they get on the bus.

The app has also an integrated payment system to allow users to quickly and easily pay for their subscription and a live schedule for bus departure and arrival times. The app provides functionality for customers, bus drivers, as well as security personnel.

How many resources from the Axon team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Axon has built a development team that includes: Java developer, JavaScript developer, Flutter developer, UX/UI Designer, DevOps, QA Engineer, Business Analyst, Project Manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At this moment the project is in the development stage. We are planning to continue our collaboration with Axon.

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

The project management is performed on the professional level, we are satisfied with the communication between our team and Axon. We communicate with the development team through the messengers, task management tools, as well as we are provided with the project management documentation.

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

Axon is a team of professionals, They demonstrate an experienced approach to ensure that we always get high-quality results from their services.

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

I don’t think so.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

VP Engineering. Running engineering portion of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Software development services.

SOLUTION

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

Through a recommendation.

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

We enlisted Axon for the development of the web application that needs to perform the above-mentioned functionality. The product development also required the integration of third-party SaaS systems such as ZenDesk, jFrog, MkDocs.  

The solution is also represented by the mobile application by using which users can access various voice assistants in one place, as well as access favorite brand’s voice services without switching accounts. This is an on-demand voice services library allowing direct connection to multiple voice services, including Alexa assistant and Spotify, and so on.

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

Project manager, business analyst, designer, 3 frontend developers, 2 backend developers, a QA specialist were working on Axon’s side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have recently finished the development of a web application that was successfully delivered into the production stage.

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

Professional approach to product development, software quality, and solid expertise.

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

The team had great communication and development services, and they adapted to changes quickly.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had a system for registering money claims and to perform debt collection services. The primary goal for this project was to provide our end-users with a new functionality.

SOLUTION

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

Axon’s Business Development Manager contacted us and based on the promises and guarentees in the end of the negotiation stage we decided that this vendor fitted best with our requirements.

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

We wanted to expand our value chain to include:

• KYC validation
• Sync financial overview based on data from accounting systems
• Dunning processes
• Debt collection management
• Automatic bookkeeping with payment tracking

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

1 Project Manager, 1 Business Analyst, 1 Backend Developer, 1 Frontend Developer, 1 Solution Architect and 1 QA engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Unfortunately, after 7 months of collaboration, we had to stop the collaboration since:

• The sync to accounting systems took 3-4 hours (few minutes before we had Axon working on it), so our clients are now prevented from using our system.
• The KYC functionality did not store some users confidential information (copy of driver's license and social security card).
• The dunning function is sending wrong formatted emails with PDFs that cannot be opened.
• The deadlines for debt collection management and payment tracking were delayed by months.

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

Really good communication with the project manager who was fast to reply. We spent many hours for daily communication with the Project Manager and Business Analyst. We were supposed to have demo sessions after each spring, but unfortunately they only gave us 1 demo session. We communicated through Jira, Confluence, Slack and email.

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

Things were not developed as it was scoped, but instead wrong implementations described correctly in the specifications were classified as bugs. The communicate all the time to make you believe everything is well, but the software is full of bugs.

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

They are one of the most expensive vendors in Ukraine and we expected the quality to be good. Unfortunately, every core feature we asked for did not work when we finally had to stop the collaboration after 7 months.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on April 27, 2021.

Axon is a vendor, well-appreciated by its client-oriented, transparent, and open form of cooperation. Since the feedback presented barely meets the actual statement of facts, we would like to present our perspective on the situation.

Firstly, it is worth mentioning that Debito as our client has a significant amount of debt unsettled for duly performed and accepted IT services. Hence, we assume that it could cause such an aggressive tone of feedback. 

Despite the fact that Axon was very open during the cooperation, Debito representatives always had access to our communication channels and could track the work progress, neither concerns about the quality of services were addressed until the moment when the issue with unpaid invoices became critical. Moreover, we have received very positive feedback in personal messages from Christopher himself. 

Since these circumstances were very disappointing for Axon and refrained our team from further cooperation with Debito, we have made several attempts to reach Christoffer and offer him to enter into good faith negotiations (we offered payment plans, even considered working on several functional tasks remaining before the debt is settled in full). Unfortunately, to no avail. 

That being said, we will continue to preserve our reputation and values by taking further actions respectively. In this case, the only thing we stand for is fair corporation and performance of its agreed terms and conditions. 

Hope for your impartiality and understanding in this regard and wish everyone only decent and trusted contractors!

Respectfully, 

Axon Team

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a CEO of Fieldbit. We develop mobile and web software for the field-service workforce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Axon?

As an Israeli company, we had challenges recruiting high-level software engineers. We approached Axon with a very sophisticated software development task.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We deal with AR for smartphones, which requires algorithm development. We asked Axon to develop a small project, and they succeeded. As a result, we started working with them on a monthly basis.
 
Axon is providing additional resources for the development of a very complex iOS AR app for field-service workers. When a technician needs to service equipment in a remote location, they oftentimes don't know how to solve the problem and require expert advice. This is where the AR app comes into play. Axon is developing the app in Swift.
 
What is the team composition?

Axon has provided one fulltime iOS developer so far. That developer works as a part of our team.
 
How did you come to work with Axon?

Axon approached us, and we decided to give them a test to gauge their expertise. They came up with a nice and elegant solution within the timeframe and cost we defined, which confirmed that they had the qualifications to develop complicated software.
 
How much have you invested with them?

The AR app project cost $50,000–$100,000.
 
What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Axon over two years ago, and it’s ongoing. The AR app project completed in late-2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were very satisfied with the developer working on this project. Our challenge was that it’s very difficult to find this type of developer in Israel, and that’s what the success of the relationship with Axon consists of.
 
We launched the app in early-February 2021, and we’re looking forward to having a lot of sales. The feedback we’ve gotten on the beta version is amazing.
 
How did Axon perform from a project management standpoint?

They used all of the tools that we were using, including Jira, and they worked as part of our environment. Axon is very experienced in terms of software development, and they consulted us on a frequent basis.
 
What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve had very good consulting calls with their CEO on how to run a team of developers: what’s important, what the challenges are, how to hire new people, and so on. This is just on the management level; I’m sure that our CTO has gotten other benefits from their developers.

There are many companies like Axon in Ukraine, and we’ve received various calls and approaches. However, we continue to work only with them because they’ve proven to be experienced and sophisticated.
 
Are there any areas they could improve?

Not at this point. If we were to expand the project, we’d need someone at a higher level. For the level we’ve worked at, we’re satisfied.
 
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to have involvement in the overall project, not in the details.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CTO / Co-founder

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We initially hired this company to utilize their team augmentation services. Axon engineers augmented our in-house team in order to build a FinTech solution - late payment and collection service for SMEs.

SOLUTION

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

We actively searched for an IT services provider with foundational expertise in the FinTech domain, Axon as a vendor matched our requirements.

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

In simpler terms, our solution offers Whitelabel late payment receivable management to SMEs. The integrated technologies allow users to accelerate payment and recovery cycles, which results in better working capital, higher recovery rates, and leads to better customer care.

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

The augmented team included 1 JS/React + 1 Python developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a continuous collaboration relationship. At the current stage, we are satisfied with the project results.

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

The project management is performed on our side, our respective teams collaborate by maintaining daily communication. We have been extremely satisfied with the workflow effectiveness.

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

We were initially impressed with their level of engagement in the project, they have paid great attention to the business requirements of the product. Their team has expressed their concerns and kept our greatest expectations in mind.

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

None at the moment

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Delivery Manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Axon to develop an educational part of the Lectera platform. Our goal was to build a flexible development process with a team in order to satisfy and meet our primary business challenges.

SOLUTION

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

We investigated several options of collaboration with IT companies. Our choice aligned perfectly with Axon because of their сlear and straightforward communication style coupled with their representatives and their base expertise in our business domain.

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

They provided front-end, back-end, and mobile development services.

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

Our development team included 20 members: 6 front-end developers; 3 back-end developers; 4 mobile developers; 2 QA engineers; UI/UX designer; DevOps engineer; software architect; business analyst and project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As a result of our cooperation with the Axon team we received a market-ready application suited to our needs with a set of great features.

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

We are completely satisfied with the work of the Project Managers at Axon. Their engagement has allowed us to simplify the whole process management making it more efficient.

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

At Axon the most impressive thing from our point of view is the way they organized the project work. We clearly made the right choice in their favor.

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

None that come to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an energy company the main objective of which is to reduce emissions and build a hydrogen infrastructure through the integration of hydrogen into smart grids. I am the Co-Founder and CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Axon for web development services. Our purpose in cooperation with Axon was to create a web solution that will show a number of energy indicators for end-users.

SOLUTION

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

Their business development manager, Dmytro Nalyvaiko contacted me at the exact moment we were looking for an IT services provider.

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

They created a web solution for the demonstration by using such technologies as TypeScript, React.js, Jest, React Testing Library. We are planning to continue the development process and further improve the solution.

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

Our team at Axon consisted of 3 people. There were JavaScript Developer,Project Manager, and Business Analyst.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The engagement of Axon’s team in our development process allowed us to implement our business plan on schedule.

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

We are completely satisfied with the project management capability that Axon has provided us.

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

We were impressed with their team cohesion and professional approach in the development of our solution.

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

No.