Devodrome

BACKGROUND

Please provide a description of your company. 

I’m the co-founder of a health care startup. Our goal is to match patients with specific ailments to the doctor or health care professional best suited to treat them. 

What is your role at the company?

I'm one of the co-founders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached Devodrome?

We were looking for an experienced team to help us develop a native app for iOS devices. We're still a young company, so I don't want to go into too much detail about our specific business challenges.

What were your company’s business goals for the project?

At the start of the project, we knew the basics of how we wanted the app to look and work, but most of the design and all of the development was outsourced to Devodrome. 

SOLUTION

Can you talk about the scope of the project?

They were responsible for designing, building, and testing the app.

What was your process for selecting Devodrome with which to work?

I found them through my own online research. I decided to work with them after several interviews where I determined their quality and pricing.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms or personnel work hours?

It was between $5,000 and $10,000.

When was the project completed?

It was completed in November 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project, and are there any statistics or metrics you can share?

The app was delivered successfully, and has been live on the iTunes App Store since November.

When working with them, was there anything unique or special about them compared to other companies with which you may have worked?

I’m very happy with their performance. You usually compromise on two things when you outsource a project. The first is quality, but I found Devodrome’s designers and developers to be some of the best I’ve worked with. I’m not sure I could have gotten a better quality app if I had decided to go with Australian developers. The second is communication, but again Devodrome defied the stereotypes and was very responsive to my feedback and comments.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that they could improve or you would do differently?

This is just a suggestion, but I would recommend they set up regular video conferences with their remote clients. In my experience, it provides a great way to meet the team and build rapport, which is often absent in geo-located projects. However, we never made this a requirement of the engagement, and I still feel that the communication between us was strong.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

I work for an online gambling website. We're based out of the U.K., and our primary business centers around providing a forum for sports gambling. Our site hosts betting forums for all the major sports where users can share tips and place bets.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the chief technology officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Devodrome?

We've been looking to expand into the mobile space for some time, but there were some false starts on how exactly we should do that. Ultimately, we went with Devodrome to design and build a native app for us from scratch. 

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Devodrome with which to work?

I had worked with them on a Web development project before. So, going into the selection process, I was pretty familiar with who they were and what they were capable of. I asked for an RFP [request for proposal] from the Devodrome team, and we decided to partner with them shortly thereafter.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project?

The results were great, and we're happy with how the final product turned out. The bottom line is they came very close to recreating the functionality and aesthetic of our website in a native app. That's all we were looking for, and that's what we got.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

There were some problems at the beginning of the relationship. I think they had a lot of stuff they were working on, and we felt like our project wasn't moving at the pace we wanted it to. However, once we made our concerns known, they fixed the problem immediately and, at the end of the day, we're happy with the work they did for us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

[Our company] is a new firm focused on innovative forms of health care. We connect the patients with their physicians and their own health care data through apps or web services. This gives them an opportunity to manage their conditions and diseases. What we’re doing is quite innovative in many countries.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the president and founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Devodrome?

They helped us with a project on promotional Web materials. We’ve also engaged them on certain elements of our product development. They’re contributing to the actual core engine that we’re deploying through our sponsor clients. We have multinational themes, and they’re contributing to that overall development process.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They provide primarily programming services at different levels of programming. They’ve done database programming. They’ve also provided more sophisticated programming services, such as JavaScript Angular JS. 

What was your process for selecting Devodrome with which to work?

We went through some tester projects. We had some long-terms goals of having some of our team being offshore. We went through a process where we touched base with about 40 vendors. Then, we selected about 10 to interview and invited six to eight of them to provide proposals and did initial starter projects with about five of them.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

Each one is probably a couple months' project. It’s probably 200 to 500 hours per project.

When was the work completed?

There have been multiple subprojects. They have delivered some of the projects and have done so successfully.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

We’ve had good feedback from end users.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

Yes. They’ve made adjustments to their working style and working hours and those things that you need to do when you’re an offshore group working with other countries. 

Is there anything unique or special about Devodrome that really makes them stand out compared to other online marketing companies?

They’ve asked questions and been involved instead of just being told what to do. We have good access to them when something goes wrong. They are reliable and dependable and are able to adjust as need be. I think they’ve got a good amount of international experience. The methodology of work that they do is very useful. That separated them from a number of the other development shops that we looked at originally. They understood quite well what we wanted to do and were able to feedback into that specification process.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

There are some adjustments that we made to campaigns along the way in terms of timing. We probably could have made that adjustment a bit earlier. Just managing time zones and feedback, so we don’t lose a day here and there is critical and also to be able to scale. We’ve got work where we could be using them more if they had the size and resources to do it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a small online fashion marketplace in Europe, I am based in London.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m a former CTO of a large company but now run this newer firm serving as founding partner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Devodrome?

We started out working on a product ordering application that had two main versions for delivery drivers and customers. We later split the concept to be two separate applications. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

We ordered an app from Devodrome for same-day delivery and we had some developers working on an hourly basis for three months.

What was your process for selecting Devodrome with which to work?

I found them through Elance. I posted a project and I had 20 bidders for the work. I found that their price and offer seemed very reasonable and they had good reviews. That’s why I chose them.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

Their offer was $10,000 and I’ve added some extra add-ons to that.

When was the work completed?

We’re not finished with the app yet, but that has nothing to do with them. They’re on hold now. They’re waiting for us to send them the consumer part of the design. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

The app is not ready yet, but that’s our fault, not theirs.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

We are absolutely satisfied with their work. They are very professional and their communication is good. I’m quite happy with their patience. I’m in touch with the CEO [Victor Costache] and he’s very easy to work with. There are no problems whatsoever.

Is there anything unique about Devodrome that really makes them stand out, compared to other online marketing companies?

I can’t say because I haven’t had contact with any other developers. This is the first app I’ve built.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

Yes. They respond normally through Elance. Sometimes, I wish the response could be quicker. After some time we began communicating through Skype and I spoke directly with the developers. My developers talked with their developers. That has really increased the speed. I would suggest that they do that more often.