Digital Beings

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at a company that provides risk management services to agricultural companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital Beings?

We were using their services to load market information and data from a US government source.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had two projects, and one is currently underway. They started by defining the requirements. After signing off on those, they proceeded with the development process. They were also required to put together a development environment or stack that lined up with our system.

What is the team composition?

For the first project, there were four people involved. For this one, I believe maybe four or five people are involved.

How did you come to work with Digital Beings?

They came through another third-party recommendation. We went through a simple process where we got to know each other and describe our business. Their attention to detail and willingness to understand our problem thoroughly were convincing. The way they presented their skills sold us.

We also considered their cost and time zone when looking at nearshoring our services.  

How much have you invested with them?

Each of the projects has been less than $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Digital Beings started at the beginning of 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our pilot project is completed, and we’re working on the second project. I’ll continue to put projects together with them. The team delivers high-quality work at a quick turnaround. Their code is well-written and easy to understand.

How did Digital Beings perform from a project management standpoint?

Digital Beings put forth an agile process that included project management. They’re incredibly responsive. Digital Beings completely understood what we were trying to tackle. They asked deep and astute questions, which I found uncommon. To get to those core questions quickly, it’s very valuable.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver quality code and software.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we have nothing but positives at this point.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We make real-estate software for title companies. I am the principal engineer, building a suite of solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Digital beings?

We needed assistance building a system to produce a React UI based off of a server request. This system allows for rapidly deploying new forms, that are inherently responsive.

What were your goals for this project?

- custom, responsive grid system - ability to write stylesheets for individual components - ability to provide a theme configuration for the entire web app - implement custom components - build the UI with a template - store the collected data in redux / in a database - rehydrate the data on page refresh - component validation and error handling

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Word of mouth -- another customer recommended Digital Beings to us.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We opted to hire a senior front-end developer, full-time, to supplement our team.

What was the team composition?

Engineers based out of NY/NJ, TX, and Argentina.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The success of this project has enabled us to rapidly integrate with vendors, without hardcoding UI's every time. It's the foundation for our application's UI.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Diego did a great job making sure we had the resources we needed. He has a variety of talented engineers and designers available.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Digital Beings provided continuous follow through. The consultant we hired to work on our US based team was a natural culture fit, and he had immediate impact on our development velocity. His expertise and personality rounded out our team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of anything. There was solid communication throughout the contract. Everything was addressed in the process. It was a pleasure working with Diego at Digital Beings, and I look forward to future work with their team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a decentralized systems company. We provide tools for developers who are building blockchain applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digital beings?

At the time, we had a platform for blockchain token sales for the general public, but we needed someone to take care of the product as we were diversifying out of it. We wanted a team to be able to work without much supervision from our side.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Digital beings helped with blockchain development. They used React and Redux on the frontend as well as Node.js and MongoDB. The web application was simple, and they handled it well.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with one project manager and two developers.

How did you come to work with Digital beings?

One of our investors had worked with the COO of Digital beings on a prior engagement. We wanted someone we could trust. Plus, we didn’t want to have to talk to a lot of different firms and do a tender. Our initial meeting went well, so we ended up hiring them without shopping around too much.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $10,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in early 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It took them a little time to get up to speed with how the product was built, as it wasn’t a great codebase. The other part we had was the blockchain component. Basically, the web application would connect through the blockchain, and it was pulling some data out of it. It wasn’t the main focus of engagement, but they didn’t have the time to get fully up to speed. We ended up canceling the whole process and putting it on hold.

How did Digital beings perform from a project management standpoint?

They worked in an agile style, which worked really well. We had biweekly planning meetings and daily standups. They missed some deadlines, but this was partly due to the state of the codebase. It was a pretty positive experience overall.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were always motivated and interested in what we were doing. Even when we decided to put everything on hold, they tried to help us from the business side of things and get it back to life. They were quite resourceful in trying to find solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We didn’t have an idea of how long it would take them to get up to speed. We hoped it could have been quicker.