Blumilk

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Product Owner of an IT company which provide software to Insurance market in Poland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our company was in need to rework crucial backend part of our system. During this project we builded huge scalable and standalone service to which we can connect from our current software across worldwide markets. Goal of the project is to have a unified solution to connect to Insurer API's in Poland and foreigner markets. At this moment solution is done and it is being improved every day. It also increased our revenues and performance.

SOLUTION

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

We had opportunity to work with Blumilk employees in different company.

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

Blumilk designed and delivered large and complex solution for unified connection with Insurer APIs in Poland Market. Workflows and mockups were delivered by us so the Blumilk team studied description provided review together with estimations. First scope was delivered after 4 months but project is still ongoing due to expansion to other Insurer APIs, other microservices and other countries.

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

There is a 4 people in the team, including 3 senior developers and a technical lead.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After first 4 months we already been able to connect to most important APIs on live environment.

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

We use Slack, JIRA, GitHub and GitLab for project deliveries. Project management plans are delivered on time and without any defects.

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

Blumilk team does more than delivering ordered functionalities. Whole team feels like a part of project for which they are responsible. Blumilk have their own excellent ideas about delivering the product functionalities.

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

Everything is great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a freelance contractor. I have my own business registered in Poland. I mainly offer IT services, namely web and software development. I’ve worked on e-commerce, e-learning, and similar products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blumilk?

I received a contract from a university in Poland to build an online learning platform for their courses. The contract was quite profitable, but it had a short timetable, so I needed help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blumilk took the role of the development team, and I took the role of the product owner. They built the platform from scratch on Laravel PHP and Livewire.

The platform was separated into two areas — one for teachers and one for students. It hosted video courses with text transcriptions, textbooks, questionnaires, and so on. The administrative part would be used by teachers and lecturers of the university, mainly to post content.

To jumpstart the project, I provided Blumilk with all the specifications, along with sample courses.

What is the team composition?

Three people from Blumilk were assigned to the work.

How did you come to work with Blumilk?

I’d worked with one of their founders in the past. They’d just started the company, so I decided to ask them for help with my project.

How much have you invested with them?

The gross cost was $20,000–$25,000, but I paid in Polish zloty.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran between December 2020–March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The university was very happy with the results. It was fortunate to find Blumilk. I didn’t have the necessary staff to run the project myself, and they were a cost-efficient option.

The project was successful, but it was profitable mainly in terms of business connections. In the beginning, they said that I wouldn’t want to pass this contract on, and when it worked out perfectly, it got me a lot of new contacts and projects from the university.

How did Blumilk perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was well-organized and quick. We mainly communicated through Slack meetings, but I also met them in person a few times during project development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They didn’t treat the project as just something to earn money. Blumilk connected with the product, and they delivered the best possible output.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to say what they could’ve done differently. Everything went smoothly, and I’m still working with them.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be as open as possible about the requirements and go over everything. Blumilk can get inside the requirements for this kind of project.