Brocoders

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of Casers - Ukrainian case community aimed to improve the higher education in our country. On Casers, companies publish their real business cases that students can solve and gain practical experience in their sphere.

Casers unites the ministry of education, businesses, educational institutions, and young professionals and leads to a productive partnership among them. Cases are proposed to be resolved on the basis of competition and students can work either individually or in small teams. Later on, they pitch their solutions to the company and have a chance to win prizes or get an internship at the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brocoders?

I hired Brocoders to design and develop the whole platform for me which is the main resource for my EdTech project.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to develop the platform to make it very appealing, easy-to-use and user-friendly for students but also quite professional for businesses who are to publish their cases. I didn't have any preferences in terms of technology and relied on Brocoders choices.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I met Rodion, CEO of Brocoders, at a local entrepreneurship event in Ukraine, we exchanged thoughts and I presented my idea to him. Since he owns a development company, it was a natural partnership and decision to work together on Casers.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The team started working from scratch, having only the idea from my side. Brocoders created documentation, prototype, design screens and then started the development. The whole process is led by the Project Manager on Brocoders side.

The latest initiative that is being tested on the platform is Championships. This feature allows to create more than one case in the same area of study and engage a bigger number of candidates to join the competition.

For now, we are at the maintenance stage and planning new functionality on the platform to allow universities to publish their cases, too. Also, the team takes a proactive approach, participates in meetings regularly and is very trustworthy.

What was the team composition?

The team is composed of a project manager and 2 developers. At the first stages, there was also a designer working on the prototype and UX/UI design. Rodion also joined the team as a mentor and technical lead. We selected the agile approach in order to have the possibility to quickly test the functionality, get feedback and adapt to the students’ needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

To create the platform was the main thing that was needed in order to successfully run this project and business overall. So I can tell that this was a major achievement and the foundation to make Casers known in Ukraine and start all the other operations, such as promoting the platform, getting companies to create their cases, partnering with universities, and working on the monetization models.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

As stated above, the whole process was led by the project manager who made sure of the following: get my needs and priorities, document the functionality and website matrix. Then, the manager organized the team and was monitoring the prototyping & development process, scheduled regular meetings, features and sprints planning, retrospective meetings.

We use Trello for management and Skype for communication and everything proved to be very effective. The team is always available, honest with timing or any issues appearing, so I was aware of everything happening.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by Brocoders startup mentality and ability to think long-term, taking a proactive approach in discussing the future of my project. It seems that they take my project personally and aspire to make it succeed. I felt that they were truly interested in the idea and wanted to make the best out of it.

They were always very quick to adapt to my changes, new ideas but at the same time could suggest what could be improved. We are even visiting each other offices now as friends so I am happy about how everything turned out.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I was satisfied with everything Brocoders has been delivering so, in fact, there is not so much they could improve. The only suggestion might be to improve the onboarding of new developers onto the project because the newcomers need more mentoring at the beginning in order to be more efficient and proactive.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder of a company that provides a network of independent doctors for insurance carriers to collaborate with on disability examinations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brocoders?

I hired them to add new functionality to my application but they convinced me to develop a new project from scratch, which was the right decision.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main goal was to have a fully-fledged application.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I spent at least three months on freelancer websites interviewing and trying out various developer teams through a virtual hackathon period. Brocoders was the most professional, but most importantly, they were the best developers.

What was the team composition?

I worked with their lead developer and he had a team of two or so developers for handling most of the work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

The project was turned in on time with all our specifications included, which is truly unbelievable in this line of work. Their team was wonderful to work with through the twists and turns of development, delivering everything I asked for.

I've worked with many teams before and can empathize with anyone that has had bad experiences—it's the worst. After working with Brocoders, I literally felt the world was a better place.

How effective was the project management?

They were the best hands down.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to get things done on time and within budget is what’s most impressive about them.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

I don’t have any recommendations for Brocoders. They’re doing an amazing job.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a B2B education platform for enterprises. I am the founder and CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brocoders?

We were building the second version of our platform and it was critical for us to find partners who could code and think strategically from a product development standpoint. Brocoders helped us achieve our goals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brocoders learned our goals and objectives, got behind the coding and specs, and really listened to us. This allowed them to provide insights we may not have had, and was exactly what our product development needed.

The backend was built using Ruby on Rails and Javascript. More importantly, Brocoders provided advice on the technologies being introduced and how we could solve specific problems. For example, Brocoders found the solution for some video conversion issues that worked best on our platform.

We have worked with 3-6 people from Brocoders’ team over the last several years.

How did you come to work with Brocoders?

We had bad experiences with firms we’d worked with in the past. We reached out to the worldwide development community, which led us to Brocoders in Ukraine. We spoke with them and besides their technical skills decided to work with them because of their ability to think outside the box and not just think about the coding.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Brocoders in the fall of 2014, and I visited them at the beginning of 2015. The initial phase was completed around March 2015, and we’ve since continued to work with them on improvements and technical issues.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a finished product that is being sold in the marketplace. The important thing to us is that the platform does what it was designed to do, and that customers are happy with it.

How did Brocoders perform from a project management standpoint?

We can speak freely with their team, identify what needs to be done, and refine it. It’s important to define what needs to be done, mock up the concept to ensure that it performs accurately, and then code.

What did you find most impressive about Brocoders?

They listen, provide input, and actually care about what we’re doing.

Are there any areas Brocoders could improve?

I’m pleased with my relationship with them. Brocoders has gone beyond the call of duty, and has always been there with an idea, response, and an ear to listen. I highly recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and owner of a consulting and recruitment firm working with technology companies. We have a small MVP consisting of an auction website. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brocoders?

I needed help with expanding the idea and conducting the development of my MVP. I reached out to Brocoders in order to get a sense of the cost and possibilities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brocoders was responsible for the entire codebase of the project, as well as wireframes. They developed everything from the ground up and turned my idea into a more functional scope.

They used Ruby on Rails 5.0 on the backend, which had been recently released at the time, in July 2016. All of the backend developers on Brocoders’ team are Rails people, but I don’t know if they’d used the 5.0 version before.

We used ReactJS on the frontend and a Bootstrap theme. The platform was hosted on DigitalOcean. We rely on Twilio for SMS authentication. This tool allows users to verify their accounts through the use of a mobile number, which lets them receive confirmation codes. We also have a MailChimp integration.

Brocoders handled all the sign-in integrations. Users can log in through Google accounts, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The algorithms that power the auction engine sit at the core of the platform. There is a level of automation through which users can generate their own auctions. This means that they’re essentially playing against the system and receiving instant feedback, giving an impression of playing against someone else. Brocoders built this logic into the Rails framework.

They brought others members on board for the frontend elements and supplied coders for hardcore elements. A few people on their team have a deeper understanding of software development.

I communicated with a project manager from Brocoders’ side, and I also had a dedicated frontend and backend developer on the team. All the communication was done through Slack, and a few additional people worked on ad-hoc components. Overall, 4–5 people touched the codebase.

How did you come to work with Brocoders?

I found a team member on Upwork and prodded around Google until I found Brocoders’ site. I reached out to them because I felt they had a clean and stable tech stack. I do a lot of recruitment within software development and can usually spot good developers. I researched some of the people on Brocoders’ website and looked at their public repositories. I was fairly impressed with the consistency of the technologies they were using, especially the Ruby on Rails stack and ReactJS. I didn’t have my current platform in mind when I first contacted them, but I wanted to have a conversation and find out what they were like. One thing led to another.

How much have you invested with Brocoders?

The cost of their work has been around AU$20,000 [$15,000].

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Brocoders around May 2016. The initial phase of the project was completed in December. The collaboration is ongoing, and I will assign more work to Brocoders. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any metrics since the whole project was built as an MVP, and I’ve run it concurrently with my day-to-day activities. Brocoders excelled in building the technology side, but there are massive gaps in terms of marketing and launching the platform. Those are areas I’m looking to manage.

How did Brocoders perform from a project management standpoint?

There is a big time-zone difference between our teams. I communicated on Skype 2–3 times a week with their project manager, usually during the evening on my time. We reviewed what the team had been building, and any issues I had would go straight into Trello or Slack for further action. The communication has been almost instant, despite the time difference, and they’ve implemented swift updates.

What did you find most impressive about Brocoders?

My project manager has been helpful with suggestions—from wireframing and ideation to letting me know when I needed to stop. If I had my way, I would’ve kept building and adding unnecessary features. Brocoders told me that they could build whatever I wanted, but it didn’t make sense to keep spending money when I hadn’t validated what was already in place. This demonstrated a lot of integrity on their part. They genuinely wanted to help me achieve my goals.

They focus on listening and acting. I had a single point of contact, who was able to act on what I requested and provide constructive input. I spent a few hours chatting with him on Skype about subjects outside of the project itself. It became a friendly relationship as well.

Their team is close-knit. I don’t know how many developers there are on Brocoders’ side, but they seem to be a bit of a brotherhood. There is low staff turnover, which is a big positive when it comes to understanding each other’s way of working.

Are there any areas Brocoders could improve?

They’re very good at backend and frontend development, but there are other areas where I need help, especially for the marketing, branding, and UI/UX of my site. I could make use of these services, but they’re not offered. Brocoders supplies project management and consultation on products, but there are gaps in the offering. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of XellarDoor. It’s a web-based platform where fashion influencers can curate a collection and publish it for their subscribers through their blogs, SMS, or web pages. Whenever our influencers make sales, we share a commission with them. That’s basically the model of our services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brocoders?

I’m not a tech guy — I majored in entrepreneurship — so I hired Brocoders to help build a web application for our company. I had been using another website, Polyvore, as a reference for our web app. I did some research and figured out that my reference website was using Ruby on Rails as its programming language. I had a hard time finding affordable developers in the United States who used Ruby on Rails.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brocoders did the mock-ups for the whole web app. I think we finished the mock-ups within a month. Afterward, they did its frontend and backend development. I'm not sure how many developers they have, but I had 2 assigned developers. When there was an issue, Brocoders would assign 10 developers to work on the problem at once.  

How did you come to work with Brocoders?

On oDesk, I found a list of developers who provided Ruby on Rails services. I think I interviewed 15 developers, and Brocoders was one of them. Brocoders’ leader and CEO was really devoted. He was the fastest to respond to me. It was also convenient that even though he’s from Ukraine, he could speak English well. All of his project managers spoke English, so the language barrier was not a challenge for us.

I asked all the developers to review Polyvore and tell me about the website as a way to see if they really checked it. A lot of the overseas developers would say, “I visited it and saw it,” without actually reviewing it. Brocoders really seemed to check out the website and my order request. Their price was also good.

How much have you invested with Brocoders?

We’ve spent roughly $50,000 on Brocoders’ services.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial project started in May 2015 and concluded at the end of September 2015. In March 2016, we started working together again to add other features. That lasted for about 2 months. In September 2016, we asked them to implement a new design on the web app. That project took about a month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Brocoders was great at keeping to the schedule — every estimate they had for how long a feature would take was correct. This was the main reason I kept working with them after each phase.

We haven't opened up our website to the public yet. It’s still in the testing phase. Our test users are the social network influencers, and they’re competent in the web app. To be honest, I think we have better features than our reference website.

How did Brocoders perform from a project management standpoint?

Brocoders assigned a project manager, Yulia, who helped me connect with our developers. If there were any problems, we would connect via Slack right away. If we needed to make a phone call, she would contact us immediately. I would call her or send her a message if we found some bugs. As soon as she got my message, she would update the Trello list.

One thing that was convenient with Brocoders was that we did sprints each week. On Fridays, we discussed what we would work on the next week. Monday through Thursday would be spent working on our sprint, and then we deployed the work on Thursday night. I could see our progress each week within the development. Within 3 months, we had finished the initial phase of my request.

What did you find most impressive about Brocoders?

Brocoders’ time management was really impressive, and all of the work was done on time. If they couldn't complete something within the deadline, they were willing to work overtime and would explain why they were delayed.

I had a chance to meet the Brocoders CEO in New York, and he was a really nice guy. He cares about his customers, and he’s always trying to reach out to them. The whole Brocoders team is friendly. Even though our work together has ended, I'm still in contact with the project manager and the CEO. We talked on Skype, and I asked how they were doing and how the website was doing.

Are there any areas Brocoders could improve?

Not really. The only thing I would recommend is that they hire 1 or 2 decent web or app designers. I really wanted to work with them again for the design improvement, but they didn't have any designers. I had to find another designer and then give their design to Brocoders to implement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief AI and Innovation Officer of a media company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The largest digital news publication in Estonia

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Brocoders to accomplish?

• Create an automated gaming platform POC

SOLUTION

How did you find Brocoders?

SolverX

Why did you select Brocoders over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Brocoders were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Help create a scope for the POC
• Create a rough mock-up of the UX
• Connect OpenAI with our news
• Generate unique games using the connection
• Create the POC

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

POC to move forward with a larger investment

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Their project management was really professional. Always keeping track so that I would deliver my promises. 

What was your primary form of communication with Brocoders?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The understanding of how our business should work with another field of business that we have not been apart of yet. 

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

From myside all went well. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Business Connections IT, an IT consulting company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Brocoders?

I needed a team that could help me complete software development that I wasn’t able to handle myself.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brocoders provided custom software and Android and iOS mobile app development services for a big software suite project for one of my customers. I gave Brocoders several business requirements I had, and once we got into the project, the scope grew considerably, so we facilitated the team with additional information for the extra services we needed from them. Regarding technologies, the team worked with React Native, PHP, Python, and Java.

In terms of features, the software was a dispatching platform that enabled users to complete and repair items along with giving them the best possible and most efficient route for each location they needed to go to, along with accounting information since users were collecting money out of the items they were dispatching and repairing.

What was the team composition? 

We worked with at least four Brocoders team members, including a project manager, an app developer, a frontend web developer, and a backend web developer.

How did you come to work with Brocoders?

We found Brocoders via Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

For this project, we invested $90,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on this project from February–July 2023. They completed the main work, and we added extra requirements after they finished the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Brocoders's work helped us save time and money. Doing this myself would've been a three-and-a-half-year project, and by hiring them, I was able to cut that. Overall, Brocoders exceeded my expectations.

How did Brocoders perform from a project management standpoint?

Brocoders delivered the project on time and within budget without a single issue. The team's communication was also over the top, using Google Docs, Jira, and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by Brocoders's ability to be innovative and find the most efficient best practices to complete tasks using the best available coding languages.

This was a larger project than I could handle myself, and the whole Brocoders team took this project and made it a complete masterpiece, which blew the minds of my customers because Brocoders was able to complete such a huge task and do a monumental job with it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn't think there was anything they could improve on. I felt like they would've done a great job and walked me through the process even if I didn't have my IT expertise.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have an understanding of your goals for the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chairman & Founder of SHINEUP AS

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Digitalize refurbishment of apartments

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Brocoders to accomplish?

• Develop the web-solution
• Assist us as hired CTO
• Participate in AI features

SOLUTION

How did you find Brocoders?

Referral, Other

Why did you select Brocoders over others?

High ratings, Good value for cost

What was the size of Brocoders’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Define system architecture , system requirement specifications, flow charts,UI/UX, front and back-end development , ML features

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Final system specification
• Evaluation of existing plattform
• Development of features according budget

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They constantly follow up with us and ensure good communication, enabling them to finish the development quickly.

What was your primary form of communication with Brocoders?

Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

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

Very service minded , understanding the scope and challenge very fast and giving ideas for solutions.

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

Nothing to mention.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a co-founder and CPO of a company provides a database that tracks product data throughout its life cycle and an easy and simple way to access product history in a form of reports.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our main product is historical device reports about current device status (including battery performance, repair history, functionality status. Goal was to develop easy to understand and helpful device report page.

SOLUTION

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

Brocoders were recommended by SWG. After having a call with company CTO, our goals aligned so decision was made to work with Brocoders.

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

A meeting with CTO, developer and project manager was organised. Most of the goals were discussed. After that a meeting with Minthive developer was organised. Later on development proceeded for the report page with constant communication with project manager about challenges, possible solution, etc.

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

I was constantly working with project manger as well as one front-end developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall I am happy with Brocoders. Still in the process of testing the report page, but our goal is to increase online shops conversion rates with the help of developed history report.

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

Had almost daily conversation with project manager. All questions challenges or problem were asked directly. In addition work could be tracked trough Jira.

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

They were always in contact and ready to help with any questions or problems.

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

For me everything worked fine, maybe little bit better management and communication about future or agreed on functions or solutions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an executive in an ed-tech SaaS.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We got started with Brocoders very granularly, we just started by getting some devops power and knowledge from the, then 1 FE person and now we have 6 engineers working from Brocoders on our product.

SOLUTION

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

We got a good recommendation from our network for Brocoders

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

We have worked on several projects with Brocoders, they have been goal oriented, wanting to think along and willing to learn/experiment with everything.

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

We initally started with just DevOps from BC. Then we got an additional FE developer, and now we have 6 engineers. 3 FE, 2 BEm 1 devops

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been growing steadily and have been achieving our goals.

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

They are very well organized, communicate well, and keep deadlines.

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

That even in their crazy environment they stay positive and manage to deliver day to day again.

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

Niothing that stands out