Binary Studio

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder and the CEO of Hummingbird Trading, a Forex trading application and mobile exchange for cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Binary Studio?

Using React Native was definitely one of the best choices we've made for this particular business. It’s a library that Facebook initially set up for internal use, specifically for their advertising app. Since this library is so new, Binary Studio is one of the only engineers we found who knows how to develop with it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

My team in Berlin specified, designed, and defined the requirements prior. Afterward, we send the complete functional specs over to Binary Studio for development.  As a mobile-first trading application and company, we use React Native as our primary frontend technology to display our product on mobile phones. This unique technology allows us from one single code base to publish our app on Android, iOS, and even Windows phones.

They worked very hard on an updated financial trading chart for the first 2-3 months of 2018. We built the first iteration of Hummingbird in the native code for respective platforms because there weren't enough existing libraries and React Native. This complex new chart fluidly updates fluidly in real time and requires particular indicators. It's quite an impressive feature.

When it comes to code reviews, they address bug fixes as soon as we notice an issue. I'm pleased with our current full-time maintenance resource who also develops new add-ons. He follows our complete QA guide before he even sends me a build of the application for final sign-off.

What is the team composition?

Since I oversee all the work myself, we didn't need a project manager. Binary Studio first assigned us two developers, which we later scaled down to one after completing the heavy development.  They've also mentioned having an in-house designer, but I've never met or worked with that resource.

How did you come to work with Binary Studio?

My good friend had initially developed the first part of the frontend application. When I needed additional support, I searched for San Francisco based vendors who were experts at React Native. Since they're actually offshores, I found Binary Studio purely by accident via a link at the bottom of a website.

The main reason I hired them was their substantial JavaScript specialties, especially compared to other vendors. I'd already worked with lots of amazingly skilled, hardworking, and ethical Ukrainian outsourced coders, as well. Choosing to work with Binary Studio was a no-brainer, and offered me major benefits.

How much have you invested with them?

I've probably spent around $40,000–$50,000 on their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed a contract with Binary Studio in June or July of last year, 2017. They're still providing ongoing development work for us.  Our product has been live since January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We currently have a worldwide reach of over 70,500 installs to date. As of five minutes ago when I happened to check, we've been averaging around 5,000 monthly active users. Regarding paying customers, we're in the low thousands.

Binary Studio offers a much better value than expensive US developers or ones in Germany where I'm based. Furthermore, they provide better deliverables than cheaper firms in the Eastern hemisphere. Despite competitive prices, the quality of both Binary Studio’s teammates and coding is exceptionally high.

Our app has a 4.5-star rating on Google Play and a 5-star rating on the iOS App Store. Most of our user feedback is pretty good. Most negative feedback on either platform are complaints about financial trading loss, rather than the app's usability and technical side. Occasional bugs that slip through the QA process that get a negative response. Overall, though, the UX receives positive comments that indicate people seem to like the app. One comment that stood out was that it's "revolutionary."

How did Binary Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

My company is spread out across offices in New York and Europe plus contractors in Ukraine, India, and the Philippines. Since we're already a delocalized and decentralized team, we use Slack as our primary communications channel. The entire team is used to working far apart from each other, so adding Binary Studio to our correspondence was easy. My CTO is based in eastern Ukraine on the opposite end of the country from Binary Studio. Having similar linguistic and cultural connections makes the work much easier.

One advantage we found was that Binary Studio' time zone proximity to our backend development makes it easier for those teams to communicate during the working day. We've been using Trello to design and track progress on sprints and provide all the bug tracking tools like Bug Snag we have available. They take this process quite seriously and usually spend a few days up to a week checking for errors.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like their salesman, who's such a nice guy. He flew me out along with some of my other developers internationally to meet the Binary Studio team. I had a great time getting to know them in person; they're very welcoming and a lot of fun. They go out of their way to make clients feel the developers at Binary Studio are part of your team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't like their invoicing schedule, which is different than what my accountants are used to. They bill us before the next month's work, which frustrates my accountants because it adds more work for them. I've asked them to change it, but I assume they've been burned by unreliable customers in the past. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It's important to know how to manage these types of projects remotely. When outsourcing development, you need to be entirely in charge of all the preparatory work. Tasking a contractor with those responsibilities will likely end in disappointment.

Completing the processes from design through the specifications beforehand will yield a much better UX. It wouldn't be Binary Studio’s fault if the designs aren’t satisfactory since that's not their area of expertise.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a customer software development company that helps businesses with cash flow management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Binary Studio?

We designed a product that connects to accounting packages to track balances and customer payments, but needed assistance on developing the front end and designing the user flow. The product had to walk users through the software in a way that’s intuitive and easy to follow.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided Binary Studio with our API, server information, and initial build of the product, and they designed the entire front end using a React framework. This included everything from implementing a user authentication feature to designing the server flows that guide the user through the system. The service requires a very specific user flow with various forms to fill out throughout the sign-up process, and they built a front end that encompassed all our needs.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked primarily with two developers that led the project, and had occasional discussions with the CEO and CTO on how everything was going.

How did you come to work with Binary Studio?

They were recommended to us by a colleague.

How much have you invested with them?

About $40,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did Binary Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We used an Agile methodology, and had weekly sprint calls while using JIRA to track progress. Since we already have a team of developers ourselves, they were essentially an extension of our team, despite being in different locations. We communicated every day, Monday-Friday, using a combination of Slack and Google Hangouts. Within about a month of working together, we established a very productive work flow with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The developers worked very efficiently, and adapted quickly to understand our preferences and meet our requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, none that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a custom application development firm solving large business efficiency problems. I am the owner and managing executive of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Binary Studio?

We needed an additional temporary resource for a 6-month period. We wanted to contract with someone without having to find and hire qualified developers ourselves.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The developer’s task was to create a standardized RESTful API using a specific framework and following best practices within it, including for structuring. He used well-documented, IDE [integrated development environment]-specific notations that allowed us to follow and contribute to the work side-by-side.

What is the team dynamic?

In addition to our developer, we also interacted with their CTO and their salesperson, Edward.

How did you come to work with Binary Studio?

We found them through a Google search. We had never used a resource like this before, so we sent them an email request using their website. Binary got back to us and scheduled a Skype conference call with their sales lead and CTO. We asked each other a lot of questions and made sure that the team was a good match, and that they could find us the right person.

Binary got back to us within a couple of days with a few resumes and suggested one they thought would be the best match for us. We reviewed some of his code for internal projects, which aligned with what we wanted: It was well-documented with a best-practice structure. We agreed to try him out and they gave us a contract with pricing. They also offered us a risk-free 15-day trial, where we only had to pay for the time we’d used if we didn’t like the performance. We went ahead with it and started working with the developer daily.

Their classification of developers is based entirely on years of experience working for clients. We got a junior developer who had graduated in computer science, with 2 years of a very specific web focus. He had 6 years of coding and educational experience, as well as 12 months of internal experience. He was also a graduate of Binary Studio Academy, a very competitive internal training program they hold every year which takes on thousands of applicants from across the country and puts them through a gauntlet of challenges. The developer we received was one of only five hired out of his group of over three thousand Academy applicants, and his work definitely demonstrated why he was able to pass the program. I have hired several senior and junior devs with much less experience.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Binary in June 2017. Our contract is up in December, and we plan on renewing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I would’ve paid a lot more for the same amount of work, especially for a developer with 7 years of experience on a 6-month project. In terms of helping our business, Binary provided a great utility, with everything we could’ve hoped for. Since we could dispose of it after 6 months if we chose to, our risk level was low.

The code quality is better than anything I could ask for from a senior developer with 15 years of experience. It’s nice to not have to deal with many educated guesses. We have strict-standard patterns, documentation, and best practices, which are helpful for any kind of RESTful API. I was expecting the work to be at that level, but the documentation, unit testing and notations involved, as well as the GitHub flow commits and pull requests are enterprise-level.

Even with 15+ years of development experience, I'm still learning new tricks and techniques from our developer. 

How did Binary Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They made accommodations based on our time zone—our developer works on a schedule that aligned well with ours. We use Agile Scrum boards, making sure that the paths are completed, and use GitHub for pull requests, as well as merging and resolving conflicts.

Their sales manager is active on Skype every day and asks us questions to make sure things are progressing correctly and that we are happy. Their CTO reviews the code, making sure it’s up to par. My developer is almost always on Slack, and, even when I send out a request beyond working hours, I get a response back.

They’re even helping me input tasks to our Agile development platform to help facilitate a documented timeline of when things are being published. I’m busy with a lot of other work and sometimes fall behind on creating tasks for them. The developer knows exactly what needs to be done regardless, but they’re still good at following up with project management software and creating, completing, and moving tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s difficult to name just one thing, but the code quality definitely stands out, as well as the communication level. They’ve gone out of their way to schedule meetings and recaps.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. They’ve exceeded my expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide a data-modeling software for NoSQL databases. It was a pioneering effort since no one was doing this at the time. I am the founder and CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Binary Studio?

I specked everything out from a functional point of view. I had detailed requirements numbering between 80 and 100 pages. This was my forte, but I needed someone to translate this information into a design and an actual application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Binary Studio has developed our Windows, Mac, and Linux solution. There is a graphical aspect to the client application, as well as backend components. Binary Studio has handled the technology aspects of both components in a fantastic way.

I wanted to have full transparency, so I set up the source-code control, and have overseen all the work committed to our repository by Binary Studio’s developers on a daily basis. I was also attached to having an Agile development approach, and one of their fortes has been the communication. Even though I didn’t meet them for several months, we had a fantastic working relationship, thanks to the great communication. At the end of each two-week sprint, we underwent a retrospective via Skype, and everyone on the team took part in the call. I came to know everyone by their first name and knew the role of each person on the team.

Our business is a startup, so I wanted to have some market validation for the idea. After creating a prototype and signing up with Binary Studio, we scoped out an effort to produce a minimum viable product which I then presented on the market to get that validation. I scaled down the team after that point to just one maintenance person during the summer of 2016. I scaled the team back up in September. Some of the team members were no longer available at that time, since they’d been assigned to other clients. Binary Studio was able to facilitate the knowledge transfer to new team members, who came up to speed fairly quickly.

How did you come to work with Binary Studio?

I had conceived the product a couple of years ago, with very precise specifications for the design and functions. I shopped around for the outsourcing of the application development, and initially selected around six firms, and went to the more thorough selection level. It came down to two candidates, Binary Studio and another firm in India. I couldn’t make a choice, so I gave them a prototype to build, allocating an equal number of workdays to both groups, so that they could produce it. Based on the output of that, and everything else that went around the exercise, I chose Binary Studio, and haven’t regretted it one bit. It’s been a fantastic experience so far.

How much have you invested with Binary Studio?

This is proprietary information.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Binary Studio in February 2016. The work was scaled down in August, scaled back up in September, and is still ongoing. The product has been seeing a fair success on the market, so I’ve kept investing in its development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I receive constant compliments on the application’s visual aspects and usability. Binary Studio has achieved the level of ambition I had for the application itself.

Our first customer was eBay, after which we worked with Air France and Honeywell. There are major companies interested in our tool right off the bat.

How did Binary Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Binary Studio has a clear way of communicating the design and technology to be built, in a way which gave me confidence that they were the right partner. I have continued to have daily exchanges with my single point of contact, the lead of the team. I briefly met them face-to-face, but 99% of our interactions have been through email and Skype. Binary Studio has been perfectly aligned in terms of vision and technology for developing my solution. The biggest forte, aside from their development skills, has been Binary Studio’s communication.

What did you find most impressive about Binary Studio?

I’ve been in business for decades, and have had several experiences with offshoring and outsourcing. I knew exactly how to manage this type of relationship, and many of my selection criteria were around communication and ways of working. Binary Studio has been a fantastic partner, not just a supplier. I view them as a part of their team, and appreciate their enthusiasm and interest in our product. From our first interaction, Binary Studio proved to be the most enthusiastic vendor to get back to me, and that continued through to the prototype I was describing earlier.

Are there any areas Binary Studio could improve?

Binary Studio is not the cheapest developer, but I get what I pay for. I decided that it was worth it to pay a premium, and receive high quality. I have no regrets in this sense.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Binary Studio?

We could have a full conversation on this question alone. One of the triggering factors for the success of such a venture is that we are both good at what we do, in our respective roles. I provided detailed specs for what I wanted, which made it easy for Binary Studio to perform. At the same time, it’s easy for me to shine with a product by having a partner which produces quality output. This is why I consider Binary Studio to be more than a supplier. Anyone looking to do outsourcing should make sure they know what they want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is a travel technology startup that I set up with my co-founder two years ago.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Binary Studio?

Binary has helped us build the whole user interface, and they provide frontend and backend support. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In Ireland, we have a UX designer and a lead engineer who architects the design of our system. I’m kind of a project manager, and we work in an Agile way. We do all the research and upfront preparation on the problems we’re solving, but we don't necessarily spec out solutions. Once we prioritized what we wanted to be working on and the problems we wanted to solve, then the guys at Binary Studio worked with us on coming up with solutions. All of our frontend work now is done with them, so that obviously guides a lot of the solution building. The API that you need to build to support the UI is driven by the UI.

I’m from a development background myself, so we’re not overly reliant on what Binary Studio might produce. I'm not a big believer in upfront spec work because I don't think it works very well. I prefer to do small, quick iterations and test them. It’s taken us a while to get used to working like this as a startup and to settle on a process, but it’s been good so far. We have a strong, stable platform after 7 or 8 months of proper product building, and we’re pretty happy with how Binary Studio has settled in and has been able to work like that. We’ve evolved the process slightly. Every couple of weeks, we reevaluate how things are working, and we make tweaks here and there.

They’ve helped us build the whole UI. We have it built as a React JS application on our frontend, which is all Binary Studio’s. They’re heavily involved in that. Our API is built as an event source microservices architecture, which is quite specialized and is not typically how you would build the first version of anything, but it was a calculated and considered decision to build it that way. Binary Studio has been heavily involved in that too and has worked on the backend. One of their team members, Michael, is pretty central to it all. He’s kind of our lead engineer’s right-hand man to a certain extent. He’s a very experienced developer. So, those are two of the main areas that are contributed, as well as the features. There are probably not as many features to talk about that would be of any interest, but Binary Studio is heavily involved in all of the features we build.

How did you come to work with Binary Studio?

We’ve been looking for technology partners like Binary Studio since the second half of 2016 to help us to grow our startup. Dublin is quite a competitive space for developers in particular, and we were looking for an external company—ideally, one from Eastern Europe or Ukraine—that is known for giving critical feedback. Some of the tech companies in Asia and India are more used to doing only what they’re told, which we didn't really want. We wanted a company that was more of an extension of our team and that worked in an Agile way. We have quite a specific architecture and development style that we’re doing, and that actually showed up in Binary Studio’s blog, so it showed that they have an interest in it.

While looking at companies, we engaged with Binary Studio and a few other businesses. After reviewing the pros and cons of all of them, Binary Studio came out on top. They just ticked a lot of our requirement boxes, and they were a better fit overall. In hindsight as well, we were kind of glad we went with them because we liked the way they had set up their company. They should probably promote it a bit more, but they have quite a good setup in terms of bringing graduates through. We also were looking for a long-term arrangement, and Binary Studio was probably one of the few that quoted us per month for a developer. A lot of the companies quoted us per hour or per week.

At one time, we were working with two frontend and two backend developers from Binary Studio, but then we had the opportunity to hire a DevOps guy, so we had to downsize, unfortunately. Now, we’re down to two frontend and one backend developer with Binary Studio, but we hopefully will be increasing that at the end of the year.

How much have you invested with Binary Studio?

I think we’ve spent around $130,000–$140,000 over the last 8 months.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we started working on the first contracts in August 2016, and we’ve been working with Binary Studio ever since. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is in the middle of beta at the moment. We’ve got it with a beta customer, and we’re working on updating a few features. We’re in the middle of getting the first version out of production now. Our product is a more complex build than you would typically do for the first version. I'm happy so far with Binary Studio’s improvements on my suggestions. They always come back with something better, and they’re very responsive to what we need. The quality of what they’re producing is good.

We don't have experience working with other suppliers on this scale. We’ve done more short-term (3- or 4-month) projects that were already specced out and needed deliverables. I’ve never worked on this kind of a team extension and Agile approach with another supplier.

What did you find most impressive about Binary Studio?

The quality of the team’s language skills is really high. They do weekly English classes, written and verbal, which is important for us. We do daily Google Hangout calls, and a lot of our communication is done using Slack. They are comfortable and rarely have any issues communication-wise. I think their internal educational programs are strong. One of the new guys on the team didn't have great communication skills at first, but they have improved over the 6 months or so that he’s been working with us.

Are there any areas Binary Studio could improve?

I’m always going to say that businesses can improve their rates, but other than that, nothing really stands out that Binary Studio could improve. We ultimately would like to have the ability to bring developers onto our team on a short-term basis. I kind of agree with the philosophy of making that difficult because they obviously don't want their developers to leave them. For instance, I would like to bring some of the core functionality, API, and backend stuff in-house and full-time, and I would like the option of bringing them over to work with us. They do make that very difficult, but I can understand the justification for it. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a software company that provides a software-as-a-service [SaaS] solution for professional services firms. We help them manage their incoming news and other content related to their corporate brand so that only the right information surfaces for end-users.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Binary Studio?

We hired them to assist in the development of our platforms. Binary Studio worked closely with our in-house PHP developer. At one point, our in-house developer left, so Binary was the sole developer on that project. They didn’t build the solution; they continued development and made it solid.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed new features, upgraded existing ones, and made the platform more widely available to admins and end-users alike.  We’re still engaging them for some further debugging work. They had one developer involved in my project and I managed him directly.

How did you come to work with Binary Studio?

It was several years ago, but this developer was recommended. We interviewed him and felt that his skill was right. We’ve been delighted with his commitment to resolving the issues. The challenge for him was feeling like he was a part of the team, and they did an excellent job keeping him motivated. He provided very good service.

How much have you invested with Binary Studio?

We’ve spent over $130,000 over the last few years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with this resource since July 2014. Most of the main work is done, but they help us periodically for bug fixes. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any specific data. The success comes from the fact that we have continued to build up our client base on that platform. We developed features for our clients, meeting their requirements, and we did a massive migration in terms of infrastructure, which all works very well. Over the course of the two years that we’ve been working with Binary Studio, our business has continued to grow and our products have been further improved to allow us to take on more clients. Our continued growth is surely at least in part related to the successful build-out of our digital platform.

How did Binary Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Fantastic communication. They came out to the U.K. to work with us for one weekend, and our CTO has gone to meet them in Ukraine a few times. The commitment was exceedingly good and the quality of the code was nothing to complain about. We used FlowDoc, which is affiliated with Slack, as our main communication tool. We also had daily chats and video calls for regular communication.

What did you find most impressive about Binary Studio?

I’ve worked with several outsourcing companies, and I would say they’re above average. I’m really only dealing with one resource, so it’s hard to generalize about the whole company, but he’s a good egg. Good quality of work, good diligence, and so forth. I consider him to be somebody I can trust and rely upon. Trust comes into it a lot, actually: can you trust them to get it done? He’s a nice guy as well, so when he did come over to visit he mixed in very well with people. Those cultural and social aspects are actually important parts of communication, and he’s at a good level on the personal side.

Are there any areas Binary Studio could improve?

We were fortunate to have someone work so well for two years; the unfortunate thing was when he needed to move on for his own career. That’s when our contract came to an end with Binary. It’s totally understandable; we knew it was a risk that the one resource would want fresh challenges. But he’s been very open to us engaging him on an ad hoc basis if necessary.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Binary Studio?

This isn’t necessarily specific to Binary, but in terms of hiring in tech in general, there are two sorts of outsourcing. One is where you’re providing a service and one where you’re providing a team. But at one point we had a project that Binary didn’t have the skill sets to handle, so we engaged a company out in Ukraine who said that they could provide a team outsourcing, but all they wanted to do was provide a service outsourcing. We then had a difficult time disentangling ourselves from that company and moving to a different one. So my suggestion is to do your due diligence. Speak to other clients. Don’t go after an outsourcing company you have no connection to if you haven’t really done your research because there’s too much risk. The big companies have lots of experience outsourcing, but when you’re a small company trying outsourcing for the first time, so many of those situations end up in disaster because people don’t fully appreciate all the risk involved.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business.

Perform is a leading digital sports content and media group. Our mission is to connect the world of sport by producing the quickest, most detailed and most engaging content, and managing a network of media brands with a significant global scale.

Perform’s Content Score Board (CSB) provides pre-match and In-Play statistics for different kinds of sports as well as live data visualization to customers and millions of end-users around the globe. The product is easy to embed, benefits from the fastest data service on the market and is highly reliable. The CSB also provides a video player. 

I am the product owner of the CSB who has worked with the Binary Studio staff on this project. We collaborated with Binary Studio who assigned two of their developers to work on the CSB for more than 3 years. Over time, these developers acquired broad industry knowledge and made significant contributions that led to great improvements to the user experience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address together?

The unique challenge of CSB is to visualize live data coming from different sources around the world, in real-time, which implies showing not only HTML5 visualization but also a live video stream. The product was built to be integrated into a myriad of other products, so it needed to be highly engaging and run smoothly on a desktop, mobile or tablet devices. Furthermore, the CSB had to deliver a great experience to millions of users and gracefully handle the load.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of the engagement?

Our Content Score Board is an HTML5 product, which is not only highly customizable but also secure and reliable.

The assigned engineers helped us deliver key initial parts of the product. They turned our design concepts into a fully responsive widget that is able to present the dashboard elegantly on any type of device. 

They also developed a solution to integrate advertisements into the CSB widget and improved the overall performance of the widget.

The following platforms, languages, and technologies were used in the development of CSB: Node.js, Socket.IO, JavaScript, Jade, Stylus, jQuery, Backbone, Marionette.js, Require.js, underscore, WebSockets, Grunt, and Jenkins.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What results or outcomes can you share?

The implemented solution resulted in a growing number of customers and a significant increase in traffic. Binary Studio helped us to get started on this project without much of anything. They were proactive, professional, and honest throughout the development process. The engineers we had were very committed to the success of the work also very knowledgeable when it comes to customizing solutions to very specific business circumstances. 

BACKGROUND

Could you describe your organization?

I work for an IT [information technology] firm that specializes in business intelligence software. 

What is your position?

I’m the managing partner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenge that you were attempting to address when you first approached Binary Studio?

We had already built the back-end of our business intelligence solution, but we didn’t have a front end designed. We looked for technology companies both in Germany and overseas that could design and deploy the front end because we had no expertise in front-end coding. We wanted to make sure that we had an intuitive UI/UX [user interface/user experience] design that complemented our custom developed business intelligence solution. 

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail?

We hired Binary Studio to custom design the entire GUI [graphic user interface] of our solution. They were exclusively responsible the front-end implementation, the GUI, using HTML-5. Basically, they did everything from the Web service down to the end user design. We offered guidance along the way, but they were the ones making recommendations around our overall UI/UX design and how our end-users should be interacting with the solution. 

How did you choose Binary Studio as your partner?

We approached five different companies, one in Germany, where we are based, and four others located abroad. Three were from India and one from Eastern Europe. We looked at a few companies and then decided on Binary Studio based on previous experience. For the first three months, we actually worked with several outsourcing companies in parallel to see which vendor would perform the best. The tasks we assigned to each were very similar, and it was apparent that Binary Studio would work best with us. That’s how we ended up with them.

When was this engagement concluded?

Our relationship remains ongoing. We started with one developer and now have three working on various projects with us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

In terms of the graphic user interface, our application is far superior to what the competition has built in our space. The developers at Binary Studio have built a far superior GUI to what others have built. End-users are consistently impressed with the functionality, usability and reliability of the product. The first developer to start with us is now the project manager on their side. He’s a very responsible and very dependable person, a true professional. He takes care of everything, and he’s in daily contact with us to coordinate what we want to see and how it translates into technical specs.

When working with Binary Studio, is there anything that you would consider special about their strategic approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

I don’t really know. I don’t have much to compare them to, but I can say that I’m quite satisfied with the end product. We wouldn’t continue using their services if we weren’t completely satisfied with their approach and deliverables. 

What advice, if any, would you give future clients?

They would probably need to prevent Binary from running freely and help them understand what they want to achieve on a daily or weekly basis. It’s very important to actively manage the project and keep a close eye on tasks and progress. Providing feedback throughout the process helps ensure the scope isn’t expanded and valuable resources aren’t wasted. That's the only advice I'd give. 

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for the information technology division of a large group in the U.K, and we’ve got more than 200 employees. As a group, we perform repairs and provide IT support to large companies like Argos, Sony Electronic, and LG Electronics.

What is your position?

I’m the director of IT.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges that you were attempting to address when you first approached Binary Studio?

We used Binary Studios for three years to supplement our internal development team. One of the projects we were working on was for Argos, which is the largest retailer in the U.K. We initially sourced two of their developers to build a system from scratch, which would control all the repair requests that they receive across their 750 facilities. That’s only one example, but they’ve been involved in custom development work across several different projects.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail?

They’ve performed systems integrations for us. One of the projects we had them do was a courier integration. A lot of the work we delegate to them revolved around custom development and testing. We provide them with the client’s specifications, and they develop the prototype. We then review it together and make necessary modifications where necessary. 

How did you select Binary Studio as your solution partner?

I’ve used freelance developers before. I’ve been using Russian freelancers for years and they were really good, but they were no longer available. As a result, I went looking around for someone else, and happened upon Binary Studios through some online research. We conducted an online conference call with them, a kind of interview, and exchanged projects specifications. They provided us with a price for a developer, and then I went to see them for a couple of weeks to get the project off the ground. We used Skype, SVN, and Redmine to administer the whole thing remotely, and it worked very well.

How long have you maintained a relationship with Binary Studio?

We’ve been collaborating with them for more than three years now. The most recent project was just completed about a week ago [October of 2014].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

I don’t have any specific metrics to share with you, but we kept using them for three years. We’ve got 750 Argos stores running on a custom application that they’ve written from scratch. In total, there are 3,000 in the call center, so there are probably about 12,000 users on it. That particular deployment was without issue. There were zero go-live issues and the feedback we’ve received from the client has been very positive. They’ve been extremely impressed with its operability and cross-functionality, all of which were developed with Binary.

When working with Binary Studio, is there anything you’d consider unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

They were always more than willing to stay late to get things done, and that sort of thing. They would come in early when we had an important release. They were extremely accommodating with us and very knowledgeable. They’ve got a serious talent pool there, which they’re always able to leverage if and when something emerges that our own developers can’t handle. Having that kind of expertise on hand is a huge value-add.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Binary Studio could improve as a service provider?

I would have liked a fixed price contract, rather than the monthly payment system. Obviously, that works much better for them, for their cash flow. But, from a client perspective, I’d have preferred a fixed price.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your organization?

We provide software development consulting. We have a few proprietary solutions that we offer to clients, but most of our work is service oriented.

What is your position?

I’m a partner and senior engineer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges that you were attempting to address when you first approached Binary Studio?

We had a client with whom we needed to increase our development resources. They had a lot of needs and, at the time, I was the only full-time developer that could service those needs. We didn’t have the resources to hire a developer full time in our area. That’s when I decided that we should look for an offshore development team. I found Binary Studio through some online research, basically looking for different offshore providers. I was impressed with their site and the presentation of work, which seemed to differ quite a bit from some of the other offshore company sites I was checking. I decided I should reach out to them with my project, just to see what kind of proposal they’d come up with. That’s how the relationship began.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail?

It was all C# and .NET development, custom built. I didn’t use them for any of our visual designs. Our firm was overloaded with designers, but we didn’t have enough engineers. The thing that I liked about the Binary approach was not so much that it was a project-by-project basis, or any of the other traditional offshoring models. It was more that we got an employee, somebody who did just our work right alongside us. We paid their salary and that was very attractive.

How did you select Binary Studio as your partner for this endeavor?

I found Binary Studio through some online research [while] looking for different offshore providers. I was impressed with their site and the presentation of work, which seemed to differ quite a bit from some of the other offshore company sites I was checking. I decided I should reach out to them with my project, just to see what kind of proposal they’d come up with.

I’ve done offshoring before with some other companies, and technical expertise was a big deal. We wanted to make sure that we had someone that was very capable. We had very complex software, and it wasn’t something that we felt comfortable just handing off to anybody. We needed a proficient developer, and reasonably priced, but we weren’t looking for budget developers in that sense. They had three tiers of developers: junior, mid-level, and senior. We felt like the senior was the best fit, especially considering the complexity of our needs. It worked out extremely well.

How long have you maintained a relationship with Binary Studio?

Our relationship has remained ongoing for about a year and a half.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the quality of their performance?

At the end of the day, I’m the end user, because I’m the one who has to be responsible for maintaining and looking at the bugs, and also the one that’s keeping track of the code quality. I’m the gatekeeper. I would say that it started out mid-to-high level, and then it got to where the code quality expectations were extremely good. It was a dramatic improvement after I gave them some feedback. As they adapted to my coding style, the quality levels really jumped and I rarely found bugs or defects. It was terrific.

When working with Binary Studio, is there anything you’d consider unique about their strategic approach or development methodology that distinguish them from other vendors?

The senior developer that we worked with, Tatiana, she’s wonderful. I’m still in touch with her, and we’re still close friends. She’s a very intelligent developer. It was definitely more like a friendship than a temporary staff member. It wasn’t a situation in which you have a whole bunch of red tape between you and the person with whom you’re collaborating. They worked around my time schedule, and they were willing to go above and beyond on several occasions.

It was very much like having a full-time employee. We were in constant communication with them. They made the whole process extremely fluid. There was a good vibe throughout the whole deployment process. It didn’t feel like there was a lot of friction. My company ran into some unrelated financial issues, and they were absolutely willing to work with us. They really went the extra mile there. It felt very much like a partnership. It was something that I wasn’t expecting from an offshore company, that’s for sure.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Binary Studio could improve as a service provider?

No, not really. There really isn’t anything that they could have done better, from my perspective. We’re very satisfied with their performance.