ByteAnt

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I run a one-man company, where I design and create customized merchandise, which I sell on online marketplaces.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ByteAnt?

I was spending too much time creating my designs manually, so I hired ByteAnt to help me build a software that could automate most of the process.

What were your goals for this project?

My goal was to develop software that I could use to easily create and download my designs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I created an online project and received bids from multiple vendors who were all interested in working with me. But after speaking with ByteAnt, I quickly realized, that they were the right vendor for my project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

I gave ByteAnt clear guidelines on what kind of software I was looking for, and they delivered exactly what they promised. To begin with, the software was a simple application that I could use to create and download designs.

Over time, we’ve added a lot of new features, and now I have a very advanced software solution that has the ability to turn my designs into products and upload them directly to Amazon and Etsy using their APIs.

What was the team composition?

Different people worked on the project in the beginning, but after some time, one person took over all responsibilities. I've been working with him ever since, as he knows the code inside out, and I'm very satisfied with his work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The tool has drastically reduced the time I've spent on creating my designs and increased my earnings, as I'm now able to upload multiple products faster.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used Trello during the main development, so it was easy to follow the whole process of the project. I could easily see what they had done and what needed to be done.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of their work is impressive. They work very hard and never give up until I am 100% happy with their solution.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of any areas that I would like to improve, as ByteAnt has improved a lot over the years.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a real estate brokerage in Miami, primarily focusing on residential properties.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ByteAnt?

We’re working with ByteAnt on a site that is our main source of lead generation and main outlet to the public. It allows people to search for condos, in addition to giving us an opportunity to write blog content to attract people. We use it for PPC purposes and organic SEO.

Our previous developer’s service quality had diminished over time, to the point where the communication and project management were lacking too much for me.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide all development and support for the website. The projects include performance improvements, redesigns, and feature enhancements and additions. Development is their main strength, but they’ve brought in designers to streamline the process.

At this moment, we’re primarily Microsoft-based and use AWS Elasticsearch too. We are hosted on Azure, with a traditional setup of an SQL Server and Windows Virtual PC.

What is the team composition?

Depending on my budget at any time and my needs, the team has 1–4 developers and a project manager.

How did you come to work with ByteAnt?

I found them through an old business partner, who was using them for his company. I called for some proposals, but it’s always good to go with someone with a personal experience.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with ByteAnt around three years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When I have a trusted development team, I don’t lose sleep over whether they’re going to deliver. I can focus on finding the right solution for my customers. In terms of value, the amount of traffic I get from the site and the user satisfaction is good and they’re a key component in the mix. They developed my vision of what users want.  

How did ByteAnt perform from a project management standpoint?

I interfaced with Valeriy (Founder and CEO, ByteAnt) regularly, as one of the project managers. He’s very level-headed and trustworthy. We use Trello in order to have 100% transparency over what’s in development, under review, and in testing. When something’s ready for me to review, it’s put in beta or something similar, so everything is very clear at all times. We work in batches, and they give me timelines for them. We don’t always hit deadlines, but that’s often because I changed requirements or added new things.

What did you find most impressive about them?

ByteAnt inherited this project, and it’s not easy for a development team to do that, especially when it’s not been developed that well. They were still able to piece it together and build on it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be good if they knew when to push back on what I’m asking. We tend to miss estimates as they spend a lot of time on certain things; they could pad their estimates for unforeseen events. That way, everyone can have a more realistic timeline.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I mostly worked time-and-materials with them. We came up with estimates, then they charged me for however long the work took. I carefully managed the project, so I take responsibility for however long it took. If I was structured differently, I might go with a fixed-project basis, but I haven’t had that experience with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a partner for topsoft | schmid + siegenthaler consulting gmbh. We provide a yearly trader fair, a comparison platform, and other services to compare business software products by Swiss vendors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ByteAnt?

Our web presence is very important for our business. We engaged ByteAnt to maintain our presence, and our comparison database serves as a central element.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to increase market awareness of our product and to earn money through advertising and posts on the platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Professionally selecting vendors is a core part of our business. We considered key factors such as technical knowledge, eagerness to work with us, a sense of trust, and budget-conscious prices. 

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Our platform serves as a marketplace for users to shop for Swiss software vendors. Visitors can use selectable parameters to navigate over 1,000 vendors with 2,500 products, 2,500 references, and 2,000 edited posts. We receive a return on our investment through advertising, and we also use the platform to provide information about our trade fair.  

ByteAnt helped us build on the comparison platform through individual software projects. They proposed we use Umbraco as our CMS and conducted end-to-end development services, including designing the GUI (graphical user interface) and workflow.

What was the team composition?

ByteAnt provides up to 10 people depending on the project’s needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Without this project, our business would not exist anymore. This platform is the backbone of our company. 

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We work in short, agile sessions. ByteAnt provides all the tools necessary to efficiently work together, such as Trello, Bitbucket, and an Azure server. The project team has fluctuated over the long time we’ve worked together, but it hasn’t had a bad influence on the project. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We always can rely on our close relationship and work together in an efficient way. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the managing director of a development and consulting firm that specializes in real estate. We provide SaaS [Software-as-a-Service], custom software, and digital consulting to help mid-sized brokerages achieve their production and efficiency goals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ByteAnt?

We’re a small company and our on-site lead developer abruptly quit in the midst of a very large project. We needed to hire a team that not only possessed exceptional programming skills but one that could quickly familiarize themselves with the tens of thousands of lines of code, framework, and logic of the project.

What were your goals for this project?

There were numerous goals such as improving some of our business logic processes, incorporating Angular charts, and debugging a lot of functionality that wasn't working as anticipated. This all needed to be done in a reasonable amount of time in order to meet our rollout deadlines for our existing client base.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were one of several vendors that responded to the ads that were placed on various sites. For each response, I gave a simple synopsis of my challenges and asked what their course of action would be. ByteAnt was, by far, the most articulate, communicative, and detailed of all the vendors in their response. They also took the time to ask relevant questions before accepting the task, which made me feel a lot better about moving forward with them.

Describe the project in detail.

The project itself involved a very complex and industry-specific CRM [customer relationship management] system with an integrated intranet. Since most of the project was already built out, I only needed someone that could fix the myriad of bugs that existed within the platform. There were various WebJobs, Azure security implementations, workflows, bugs, and platform integrations that needed to be taken care of.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of an account manager and a lead developer. The size of the overall team varied based on the amount of work that was required and the amount of time that it needed. At one point, there were two additional developers that were working alongside the lead dev and account manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All of the bugs were fixed and we continue to build new functionality. Our average daily user count has increased by 35%, and one of our clients was so happy with the product that they immediately renewed their license. The results of this project have far exceeded my expectations in both quality and completion time.

How effective was the project management?

ByteAnt is extremely effective in project management. We primarily use Skype for real-time communication and Basecamp for project management. There were absolutely zero issues regarding any type of language barriers.

Communication is perfectly clear, concise, and frequent—their skill in this area surpasses that of some dev shops located within the U.S. They’ve done a great job of reporting issues as they arise and deadlines are almost always met. Whenever there’s a delay, I get an advanced notice and clear reasons as to why.

In terms of accessibility, I've never had any issues with being able to get a hold of them. They are available during U.S. business hours and they’ve even gone as far as to give personal numbers so that I can reach them for potential emergencies.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their level of accessibility and communication is what sets them apart from any company, regardless of where they may be located. ByteAnt oftentimes goes out of their way to make sure they’re meeting our expectations. Even though they take on a myriad of different projects, I always feel like they’re a part of my personal team and that they’re just as invested in the success of the project as I am.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

There really isn't any piece of feedback I can give. I've used several dev shops over the last 10 years and ByteAnt is by far the best I've ever engaged with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Managing Member of a SaaS start-up firm. We provide compliance management tools to the construction industry to help facilitate their environmental compliance activities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ByteAnt?

We are a small start-up and needed help with programming and development. Due to our size and limited budget, we needed third-party expertise in order to build and improve existing features quickly. We sought ByteAnt's help to improve the overall structure of the program, databases, code, etc.

What were your goals for this project?

The project consists of various tasks, including the development of items such as a payment gateway, responsive UI re-design, automated and logic-based reporting as well as new proprietary features.

We are in the process of migrating to ASP.NET Core using Azure services. We anticipate this project will positively impact our business by giving us a viable product to sell upon which we can continue to add and improve.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found them through a freelance site and initially used their services for a smaller API related project. We narrowed the field to approximately three companies and chose ByteAnt because they had specific experience doing the work we needed. They performed the work well and quickly. Their speed, communication, and cost allowed us to partner with them on a more full-time basis.

Describe the project in detail.

They build various features for our SaaS compliance program. The development has been ongoing for two years, with ByteAnt having joined on a per-project basis in December 2016, and then full-time in May 2016.

ByteAnt was responsible for project management and development of new features. I provided scoping requirements and documentation for each task and performed the testing.

The project has included approximately 30 different tasks ranging from small bug fixes to large builds. The tasks included email notifications, implementation of a responsive UI design, payment gateway, alerts/notifications, and proprietary forms.

What was the team composition?

I am the only resource on our side. ByteAnt provided one consistent project manager that has been available throughout the work. As work increased, they staffed the project with 2-4 programmers, both junior and senior. The work was overseen by two senior level people. I did not play a role in assembling the team other than providing an anticipated budget and timeline. The size of the programming team has fluctuated over time due to my schedule and ability to test and provide results or feedback to their team. When needed, ByteAnt was able to staff up quickly to meet our deadlines.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have higher customer interaction with the system due to the improvements and feature additions resulting from the work.

How effective was the project management?

ByteAnt provides their own internal project management platform to gather documentation and facilitate communication between me and the programming team. We use Skype to communicate as well and transitioned to using Slack and Trello. We also used GitHub at the outset of the project and later moved to Bitbucket.

They communicate early and clearly, keeping me up to date on progress and deadlines. They update me regularly regarding issues they find, along with solutions to resolve them. They also provide business analytics in terms of possible new features to improve the overall service and performance of the platform.

The entire team is responsive and available almost all day. The team speaks English very well, which helped the project move quickly. The team has also made great efforts to be available during US business hours.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their communication is effective and better than prior programmers we've worked with. It's obvious that they are knowledgeable about what they do and strive to provide options for improved performance and design.

ByteAnt is great to work with;  they have been very helpful, patient and effective.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Product Manager at Education company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I needed to test an idea for one business model and hired ByteAnd to build MVP to test it.

SOLUTION

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

I sent a cold email to the ByteAnt team. They responded very fast and spend several meetings to get the details of the project correctly. I was impressed with their transparency, openness, effective communication, reasonable pricing, and good references.

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

The MVP platform contained several pages, with the main functionality of catalog, search, filters, and user account. The platform was built on Umbraco CMS.

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

3 people worked with me, Valeriy - head of the firm; Marian - senior/head engineer of the project, and Polina - project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We successfully launched the MVP in under 10 weeks timeline.

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

We used slack, jira, and confluence for communication. Email for billing questions and WhatsApp for smaller casual updates. We had 1-2 weekly sync-up meetings and were constantly in touch via messengers. The team did a great job accommodating for my preferred messengers and time difference.

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

Expertise, responsiveness, detail and result orientation, level of commitment.

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

There were minor, non-critical improvements that slightly extended the timeline of the project.