Digis, a Fiverr company (NYSE: FVRR)

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CTO of the company. We develop applications to help build research communities on college university campuses and virtually showcase research work. I work with our business team to decide business priorities and technical needs and work with our dev team for implementation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have an ongoing web development project with DIGIS where one of their developers is actively involved in the development of a virtual events application we've built over the past year.

Our goals have been dynamic, our roadmap has had new large projects set month to month and the DIGIS developer has actively given feedback on the technical aspects of project design and has been involved in implementation.

SOLUTION

How did you select DIGIS and what were the deciding factors?

We selected DIGIS as the developer that we interact with's resume stood out, in interview they shared some example code they worked on which also was obviously complex. They demonstrated knowledge of their example code that let us know they'd be a meaningful contributor.

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

The DIGIS developer is actively involved first in giving feedback on technical requirements of a project and timeline. The developer then has worked with a team of other developers to create code, review code, and actively communicate their progress while sticking to this timeline.

After roadmaps they give feedback on improvements on technical processes and technical improvements across the site. In particular, we are working with a full stack developer, with expertise in Angular and Node JS.

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

1 person from the team, full stack developer with emphasis on Angular and Node JS.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They've been an important part of coding features that were demonstrably wanted by our clients. So far we've gotten qualitatively strong responses from clients and our business team to features that the developer has been involved with.

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

Currently, this aspect of the project is run entirely by us. They've been responsive on Slack, available in Google Meets meetings, and have been active to meet timelines.

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

Their account manager (or recruiting manager, not sure exact role) helped identify good candidates very quickly. The developer we've worked with has ramped up quickly and we're finding continuing to grow in efficiency contributing to the site.

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

The main spots for growth right now would be a continued increase in efficiency of coding + code reviewing and growth in ownership of particular projects. Based on the current trajectory, I think as more opportunity arises this will happen organically.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a scooter company. We develop scooters and stations where riders can charge the battery. We also offer a mobile app to use as a service. There’s an IoT part that corrects the data and offers the data through APIs. From the other side, we have a mobile application where we’re reading the data and can control the data. It’s connected to the IoT.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DIGIS?

The scooters have to be charged, and it usually takes a few hours. Instead of a rider charging their battery, we charge it for them. They go to one of our stations, remove the battery from the scooter, and we provide a new battery within 60 seconds. They’re full again and can go riding. We needed someone to develop our mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DIGIS developed our mobile app for those who purchase the battery swapping service. Our teams had a discovery meeting where we came up with a proof of concept (POC). We needed a lot of user research. At the end of that project, we were able to prove that it could work.

Last year, we raised €60 million (approximately $71 million USD) in order to produce the scooter and finalize the development and do the marketing. We’ve also created a backend in order to have all the logic for the commercial part of our information system. We created a web app in order to sell the subscription.

What is the team composition?

There is one iOS developer and one Android developer. There’s also a backend developer and a software developer who work on the website. Our project manager handles their team and a tester. We also have a DevOps person.

How did you come to work with DIGIS?

DIGIS was recommended to us by a partner. They started working before I joined the company. Their team came before the fundraising stage to deliver the POC.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between €150,000– €200,000 ($178,000–$237,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2019, and the engagement is ongoing. We’re in the phase where the MVP is satisfying our customers. It’s not as intense as it was a few months back but we’re doing some more improvements on the mobile app, the web, and the APIs. They continue to provide ongoing maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started from scratch with them, and I see them as a partner. There was a part of the project where there were some delays. There are many companies that would have charged me in order to fix that. However, DIGIS really understood and took responsibility.

They’d work evenings and weekends in order to support us without charging us for the extra time. Their team did that quite a lot of times. They were truly committed to helping us succeed. The quality of work is good, and I’m happy with them. We started in Paris and have our first customers on the street since 2021.

How did DIGIS perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very connected to the project. It’s not always very easy because as with any IoT project, it doesn’t always go as planned. There have been many delays and changes. We have daily contact or may touch base three times a week. We manage the project in Jira so everything is centralized there. Our teams communicate via video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re committed and have the ability to scale up in order to deliver fast. DIGIS always does their best. For example, I started on a Monday and by that Thursday we had to meet investors to show them the system was working. On Monday morning, I had a call with DIGIS and found the coordination between them and the IoT world wasn’t as good as it should’ve been. It wasn’t their fault. Yet, three days later, they made it work so we could show it to investors to raise money. I was quite shocked.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The little testing that they did wasn’t good enough. That’s something they can improve on. They’ve been able to react to that and it’s much better now, but it was something that was a concern at one point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You can’t expect them to understand everything because of the fact that they work remotely. You have to invest a bit more in the specifications and architecture before working. This would apply to any offshore company.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Facedrive. We’re a rideshare company in Canada focused on the environment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DIGIS?

Our existing mobile apps reached the end of their lives, and we wanted a team to develop a new set of apps with us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DIGIS collaborated with us to develop two native mobile apps for iOS and Android from scratch. One app was for the drivers and the other app was for the riders. Their team helped us replace all of the functionalities from the previous apps and add referral, promotion, and coupon features to the new ones.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a product manager, a project manager, Android developers, iOS developers, and two QA analysts.

How did you come to work with DIGIS?

We previously worked with them to fix bugs and then approached them for this larger project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $300,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between May 2020–February 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

DIGIS professionally finished all of the products’ functions and features in accordance with customer expectations. We’re currently in the testing phase the feedback's positive. People say they’re happy and impressed by the apps. Overall, it was a successful project.

How did DIGIS perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was excellent. We used Trello, Jira, and Confluence. They had sound processes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical resources were the most impressive part of our engagement. Their team included extremely talented senior resources who knew what to do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their communication skills a bit to better integrate with North American companies.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a talented team that can deliver.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Founder of NVO Ltd. Our company works in advertising and digital marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

They helped us with our app redesign. We wanted to improve our users’ experience, make our product more up-to-date.

SOLUTION

How did you select DIGIS and what were the deciding factors?

We had already worked with them and were absolutely satisfied with their approach. They are an innovative and experienced team of individuals and it’s a real pleasure to work with them again.

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

They asked a lot of questions about users and our business. During the whole process, they provided us with intermediate results for approval: user analysis, sketches, wireframes, etc.

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

We mostly communicated with the DIGIS Project manager, but as far as I know, there were 2 designers and 1 frontend developer besides him.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the new version release, users’ feedback was positive, and the number of reports dramatically reduced.

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

I enjoyed their work organization. Their team followed the set timeline and everything was delivered on time.

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

Their designers got our ideas so fast and they were so open and nice as if we were friends. All this resulted in quality design and our good mood.

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

No, as I remember there aren’t.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Chief Software Architect at a software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire DIGIS?

We hired Digis to build a react-native mobile application for our users.

What were your goals for this project?

We are a software company that specializes in web application development, and were looking for a company that could meet two different needs:

1. First, deliver the mobile application we needed;
2. and second, deliver high quality code that would serve as a launch point for our developers to begin working in mobile space.

SOLUTION

How did you select DIGIS?

We posted a job description with what I consider to be a fairly complete set of requirements. DIGIS responded with sufficient questions and comments to indicate that they had read through and were attempting to understand these requirements before providing an estimate.

They made our short list, and after a zoom interview with their project manager - they convinced us that they would be a great fit.

Describe the project in detail.

We provided a detailed specification doc describing the needed features in the mobile application, including hand-drawn wireframes. DIGIS had a designer that turned our wireframes into actual designs, which the developer then instrumented. The process was interactive (using Slack for day-to-day communications) with weekly team meetings.

The mobile app had 3 broad functional areas (login, information retrieval/display from our API, and integration with a mobile web browser). The app was developed with react-native, and DIGIS published for both iOS and Android.

What was the team composition?

DIGIS brought one project manager, one designer and one developer. Over the course of the project (about 6 weeks), the PM was present the entire time. The designer was involved for the first 2 weeks and the developer for the rest.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The application met both of our goals - it has the functionality we wanted for our users, and their developer built a very well designed application and presented it to our develoment team very effectively. It should prove to be a great launching point for our own development efforts.

DIGIS delivered the project on time, and met our functional specifications. The costs ended up a little higher than the original estimate reflecting some scope creep.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Effective. Using Slack for day-to-day conversations was very efficient. We did have some misses in the overall project coordination, which I believe may have contributed to the project running over budget. But the team members were all very responsive to questions and conversations.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The designer was very very thoughtful in turning our concepts into a strong design that reflects our brand. The code that the developer wrote is very high quality and code we are happy (as a software development company ourselves) to bring into our product line.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Better timeline management to help us keep track of overall progress towards final delivery to help identify cost overrun potential before it happens.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of an online jewelry media business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We approached DIGIS initially to work on Android application development. Shortly after, we also started working on iOS and dashboard applications together. Our goal was to create a photography application that could produce consistent quality results across all smartphones.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking for a long-term partner in the digital space that could scale and grow with us. We found Digis online and spoke with the sales director for several weeks before meeting the founder. We were provided with confidence through the contracts and communication during our calls. Digis was happy to accommodate our NDA and contractual terms too.

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

We work together in a fast pace environment where we have to catch up almost daily to keep up to date. The scope of work was to develop new functions and features in mobile apps to accommodate our growing business.

Project steps would usually involve breaking down tasks into deliverables before scheduling them into project management systems with priorities and statuses. Project updates would be provided on a daily basis and tasks were restructured based on priority and requirements.

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

We work with a team of six talents:

• 1 full stack developer
• 2 Android developers
• 2 Apple developers
• 1 UX designer
• 1 project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Digis was able to turn an unstable application into a reliable application that is ready to scale; further improvements in the codebase and infrastructure are a direct result of this. Over the last several months, we were able to connect our apps to dashboards, perform unique photography and editing actions on the app. We're just getting started and have lots more to come.

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

Communication was run through daily or weekly calls through Skype. We used Monday.com to manage tasks and work statuses. Our project manager is invested and holds a deep understanding of the project. Priorities of each task were delivered with a strong balance between business and development goals.

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

Digis work as an extension of our team; there is a strong understanding of our business and culture. We work with a common approach to challenge the norm and achieve the impossible.

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

We are happy and grateful to be working with DIGIS, there is nothing we would change for now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the project manager in a company that creates and manages different web applications: dating sites, ad posting sites, investment platforms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire DIGIS?

We had really old IOS and Android apps - almost non-functioning, with many bugs and errors. We have decided to rewrite those apps using React Native, using the newest technologies and best programming practices.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have 100% working app that would make our customers happy, something that they could recommend to their friends. We wanted to increase downloads of the apps in AppStore and google play, also we wanted to start advertising our apps in apps environments.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found this company on Upwork, they were very active in replying to all our questions, communication went great, they also suggested how we can improve things from our side to make the programming process faster.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we decided to continue our collaboration, we had a skype meeting with the developer and the project manager. They have provided us with approximate timeframes for each feature of our apps, all the tasks, questions, and suggestions were uploaded to the task manager.

By the end of the day, the developer uploaded the app to the test environment so we can test and register the bugs, make the comments.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager for our project and we had one developer who made all the programming tasks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

So far it is difficult to say if the apps are a success, but they are definitely better than they were before. Two weeks after the release we haven't received any complaints from users, the apps are working as they should, they do not crash and that is enough for us for now.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was easy to communicate both with the developer and the project manager. They were always ready to help with the questions, solve the misunderstandings, explain things, etc. Really happy with the collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by the knowledge the developer and project manager had about the react native and how it functions, I liked that they were always looking for the best solutions (not only implement what's faster and simpler). Also, we were satisfied with the productivity of the developer.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Cannot think of any.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a FinTech startup. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DIGIS?

We needed to develop a mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DIGIS is doing front- and backend development of our mobile app. They’re responsible for its UI/UX design as well. It’s a collaboration, and we’re working together. The app is being built for iOS and Android.

What is the team composition?

We interact with 5–6 people.

How did you come to work with DIGIS?

We found them online and met in-person to discuss working together. They’re a team of young, knowledgeable individuals.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in December 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We expect to deploy the app by the end of the year. We’re impressed with the DIGIS team and their work. It’s comfortable working together, and we’re quite satisfied. What’s more, there weren’t many bugs when we did testing.

How did DIGIS perform from a project management standpoint?

They do very well with project management. Their team has good communication skills and sticks to the timeline. They’re responsive and listen to our feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with the quality of their work to date. It’s a very positive experience compared to what I’ve experienced with other technical teams regarding communication, collaboration, and timelines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They deliver what they promise and meet the needs of their customer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a branch director of a Ukrainian insurance company. I’m also a senior manager of the group that combines our sales, IT, and accounting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DIGIS?

Our database was separate from our sales CRM, and it was 20 years old. We were getting leads online that weren’t connected to the database at all.

The process worked, but it wasn’t very comfortable to get a lead online and put the information into the database and the CRM separately. It was a huge problem that we’d created ourselves, and we needed someone to put our databases together. That’s when our collaboration with DIGIS started.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DIGIS created the connection between our systems from scratch. They’re separate databases in separate systems, and they had to be connected both ways. That way, clients could use our site to get insurance information from previous years, which was in our old database. We didn’t want to make a new database from scratch, so DIGIS connected the old one.

As I understand, our database is mostly PHP and Java, and our site is HTML5.

What is the team composition?

I mainly worked with Alexey (Founder & CEO). We have three people in our in-house IT department, and they connected to the rest of the DIGIS team. 

How did you come to work with DIGIS?

We searched the market, mainly through Google, and looked at multiple companies. We wanted the provider to have a presence in Ukraine because international payments are harder to make in our country. We also needed to get the project done quite quickly, and some of the companies we spoke with wanted more time.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost was 2 million Ukrainian hryvnias (around $71,737 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started looking for a company in October 2019, we found DIGIS in November of that year, and we started working with them in December. We finished the work in May 2020, and we’re not using their services now. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

DIGIS’s solution has been working for us for the last two months. We’ve increased the comfort and speed of using the platforms for both our clients and salespeople. One employee is able to do twice the work now, instead of doing the redundant job of inputting the same information into two systems.

How did DIGIS perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a few partner companies working with the database, so we were very strict in terms of deadlines. We also imposed some payment deductions for delivering late, and DIGIS agreed with this. They always answered our calls and updated us on the progress of the work. I appreciated having a single point of contact on their side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive part for me was that they delivered on time, which programmers aren’t typically known for. I also appreciated their patience in answering our questions. There were some problems with our managers during testing, who didn’t understand how all the connections would be made. We got in touch with them, and they sorted it out quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would’ve appreciated having more transparency on what was going on, but I’m not a programmer, so I’m not sure that it’s even possible.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important for clients to know what they want to get out of the engagement. We were told a few times that this was impossible to do in our budget, or that it would be better to just create a new database instead of a connection to the old one. We were appreciative to find a company willing to do what we wanted.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're an IoT company that builds software products and services for Transportation and Fleet Management industry. Director of Product Management responsible for managing software product development and software integrations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire DIGIS?

DIGIS software team was hired to implement IoT implementation for a very large customer project. The software developers at DIGIS did an excellent job in implementing the project on time and within budget.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals for this project included integrating customer's various internal systems with our platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

DIGIS has been a reliable and high-quality partner for many years for our company.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Software Development

What was the team composition?

Project managers, Software Developers, and Solution Architect

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was delivered on-time and within budget.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project Management was provided by Project Manager within our company while DIGIS provided us with the needed Software Developers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Quality of software developers

Are there any areas for improvement?

Sometimes being on a different timezone from DIGIS can pose challenges. Having developers operate on our business hours would be great. The DIGIS developers do try their best to respond to questions during our business hours, but the process can be better if our hours are exactly matched.