Vention

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior engineering manager at a restaurant title company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

They’re supporting the legacy app and doing both iOS and Android work for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They reached out to me during a time when I was looking for someone to take a small iOS/Android project off our hands. We did that as a trial project, and their developers proved to be super-competent. Later on, we contracted them to do a full development project. They provided a team of engineers, QA resources, and a tech lead. The team was fully-autonomous for this project.  

What is the team composition?

I work with six of their resources: developers, QA assets, and a project manager.

What is the status of this engagement?

They’ve done a series of month-long projects with us. The current one started in January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was nice that they were able to carry the project to completion. We didn’t have to hire a staff of people for a singular project. After the engagement, they answered questions we had about integrating the work into our operations. They’ve been available to make sure we can move forward with their products. 

In this current product, they’re showing competence in getting a legacy platform up and running. It’s nice to not have to worry about supporting that app in-house.  

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

I communicated with their team daily. We communicate with them through Jira and Slack. Our team handles most of the project management, but they are great at communicating and delivering on time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a great team and a good group of people to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s a time zone difference, so we have to make sure that we’re organized on our side to accommodate questions they may have on the job. If we aren’t on top of their requests, it’s easy to lose time. That, of course, isn’t their fault.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Webfinity, a platform that enables partners and vendors to work together across all types of content and data. We bring in opportunities, leads, accounts, documents, articles, and blogs from various vendor systems. Then, we enable the vendor to share those with their partners. After that, the information gets broken down into specific tagging that’s based on which content is delivered.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We’ve always struggled to find motivated developers. Our main goal was finding a partner that could help us onboard new staff members, including QAs, DevOps experts, and developers, in a quick turnaround. We didn’t want to waste resources or spend time interviewing hundreds of people.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed help developing a single-page application that sits on AWS. It uses .NET and Angular on the frontend, with SQL and other Amazon databases on the backend. After speaking to iTech Art Group about the types of people we were looking for and the holes we saw in our business, they helped us identify what we needed.

We were looking for three to four people initially. After setting up a few calls and having brief discussions, they flew their team out to work in our UK offices, where they spent between 10-14 days working with our existing development team. It’s a continuous cycle of conversations and feedback sessions with the development team and account manager.

What is the team composition?

We work with around six people from iTechArt Group.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

iTechArt Group was recommended by someone who’d used them for a previous project. We were in the early stages, looking at our options in the space. After the strong recommendation, we had conversations with their team and felt confident in their offerings.

How much have you invested with them?

iTechArt Group has a three-tiered level service plan for personnel. Depending on their level, each developer has a yearly salary of $60,000-$80,000. Most of the people on our team are on the higher end of that range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with iTechArt Group around mid-2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The fact that we continue working with them speaks volumes about their impact. iTechArt Group’s team has experience across front- and backend development. Their DevOps team understands how to deploy their services using specific technology. They’re eager to learn and skilled. Their team blends incredibly well with ours; we can’t distinguish them from our other members. They each take the lead on different aspects.

From our perspective, it’s been a complete success. I’m confident that without their resources we wouldn’t have been able to push the product forward as quickly as we have.

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

The process has been a combination of day-to-day interactions, Slack for communication, and Hangouts meetings. I have frequent conversations with our account manager that involve catching up and running ideas and feedback. We talk about any issues or challenges, or if we need to invest in other technologies or services. I’m working across all of the teams and have conversations with someone from each one.

Projects are run through agile development. Their team takes on user stories and delivers on time, often going above and beyond. They do whatever is required, based on what our teams have agreed upon.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The key thing I look for when it comes to people involved in our business are people who can take responsibility and ownership over their work. I don’t want to direct people every day, telling them what to do. While people work best with guidance from above, everyone has to be willing to stand up and make changes or enable us to make changes to processes. We got lucky with iTechArt Group because they fit that mold and with our team perfectly.

We don’t have to worry about finding a new developer. I could get someone tomorrow from their team that would be of incredibly high quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One potential challenge is the language barrier. Their English varies, but they speak it better than I could ever speak a different language. It can be noticed at times, but a lot of conversations are through Slack, and their written English is absolutely perfect.

In terms of improvements or more expectations, there isn’t anything I would ask more of from iTechArt Group. They deliver what we ask them to provide, in a way that’s in-line with how we see all of our staff members.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

My main advice would be to have conversations with the account managers. They have a vast wealth of experience and can work in a variety of different projects. Even with companies who aren’t sure what they’re looking for, iTechArt Group can help define a role based upon the experiences they’ve had within the industry.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at an analytics company. We use cloud-based software to analyze preclinical research data and share it with the pharmaceutical industry, facilitating and accelerating the development of new therapies and drugs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We needed a vendor to create a cloud-based database that allows our clients to log in and generate data reports.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Before engaging iTechArt Group, we’d already build a prototype of the solution with working frontend and backend systems. We tasked their team with transforming the basic version into a sellable product. Following our detailed development plan, they scaled the product and added functionalities to make it more user-friendly. They also improved the solution’s flow and speed, making it more stable and reliable. In terms of technology, they used HTML, JavaScript, and D3.js in the frontend and Python and PostgreSQL in the backend. The entire product is built on an AWS platform.

What is the team composition?

We always worked with one frontend developer and one backend developer. The backend specialist stayed the same throughout the engagement, but the frontend specialist rotated based on our needs. Their company has a lot of depth, so they were able to provide an experienced resource whenever we shifted our focus or overall direction.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

I found them on Clutch. Initially, we considered several developers in our thorough interview process. It was difficult to choose the right vendor, but iTechArt Group allowed us to assemble a custom team from their large pool of developers. We were able to choose the resources best fit to work on our project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a bit over $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re very happy with the results. The iTechArt Group team was very transparent, providing accurate estimates up front. They prepared for unintended challenges, which helped keep us on schedule.

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They offered to assign a project manager, but we preferred to keep that responsibility on our end. We have a better understanding of the project, and how it relates to our business, so we decided it would be more efficient to have them focus solely on the technical components.

Looking at their work ethic, they were very focused, dependent, and goal-oriented. Each task was well executed. If necessary, they provided objective feedback on any problems and challenges that arose. We had a productive working relationship. We scheduled a long phone call every other day but communicated continuously in between. We started each conversation with a briefing to lay out our daily and weekly priorities.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They always delivered on time. If there was a problem, they alerted us days in advance and promptly address it. We never felt like we were in the dark. Additionally, they were also very flexible. When we decided to change the project’s direction, iTechArt Group was able to quickly rotate staff to accommodate our requests.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only challenging aspect of this experience was navigating the time difference. Other than that, I’m happy with their services.

Any advice for potential customers?

I recommend clients consider the time difference when deciding to partner with iTechArt Group. If the project can be planned ahead of time, they’re the perfect option. Overall, I recommend working with them. We had an excellent experience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the former VP of product for a security company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt?

We engaged iTechArt to help our team with a number of software development projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iTechArt collaborates with our internal development team to build out different software products. For the first project they worked on, we provided a one-page outline and general guidelines, and they took the project through analysis, development, and implementation. Each project consists of agile sprints and QA as well.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager on our end who works with a handful of developers and QA staff on their team who we're in touch with for daily standup meetings.

How did you come to work with iTechArt?

A CEO of another company recommended iTechArt to our CEO, so we decided to call them and give them a shot.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $100,000 in 2018, but the scope of work isn't yet completed.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The engagement has been very successful overall thus far. The work we've been able to quickly launch wouldn't have been possible without iTechArt's help. In addition to the quality of their code, they've also integrated extremely well into our team, adapting to our internal processes relatively seamlessly.

How did iTechArt perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very responsive and accessible; we can always reach them through Slack. They do a great job of setting our expectations and providing feedback where they feel it could improve project outcomes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're easy to work with and very communicative. They've been able to blend very well within our team and work collaboratively to achieve our goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I've been very pleased with everything thus far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat them as part of your own team and set expectations at the start of the project. It's also important to maintain an open line of communication and be as transparent as possible, so they're better able to meet your needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a security company. We’re a spoof identification platform for enterprise business customers. We identify if the caller ID is authentic for inbound call centers to help them detect fraud and increase efficiency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We needed MVP software development for our startup but had a very limited budget. As a result, we sought access to the most talented engineers we could find at the best price for our company. We also wanted to find engineers that had a good mix of doing what was asked of them while knowing when to push back. They needed to know when to add their own input and offer commentary.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Since day one, they were our sole developers and worked with us through every challenge. They helped to build our website, including all the frontend development work as well as everything on the backend (e.g., the database and infrastructure). They also did the programming for our matching algorithm.

What is the team composition?

We worked with between 1–10 team members over the years.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

My former co-founder worked with them at a previous company, so he already knew them and their work quality. When it came time for us to choose a firm, we defaulted to them because of his previous good experience.

We needed people with a pretty good command of the English language, which is also an issue when you’re dealing with outsourced developers. I felt that we got all that we were looking for from them.

How much have you invested in them?

We invested around $25,000 per month for 60 months.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project from April–September 2013. Overall, the collaboration has spanned around five years in total. We currently don't have any projects with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We used the product they built and got into a startup accelerator called the Y Combinator with it. We had over 100 customers, including large, well-known companies. Everything our company provided to the marketplace in our legacy tool was the direct result of iTechArt.

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

It was pretty good. My former co-founder was responsible for managing them. We communicated multiple times a day. They were as good as any onshore or in-house team that we worked with. Some things were outside of their control. For example, because of our time difference, they didn’t have an opportunity to ask us the right questions in time. However, at max, we only lost 10% of efficiency given the time zone difference and the language barrier.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re good engineers. Anyone that has employed people has always dealt with challenges in managing attitudes and mentalities, not to mention bringing in external stress and frustration into the job. But iTechArt truly had some of the most professional people I’ve worked with. They were as much of a model team as they could have been, considering they weren’t actually on our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. They were transparent with billing. The team was talented, and the price was very competitive. They even invited us to their office in Belarus, and we went out there as a team for two weeks to meet. Konstantin (Vice President of Business Development, iTechArt Group) personally hosted us, took us out to dinner, and showed us the city. Everything was top notch, from their professionalism and customer service to their billing structure. If I ever use a service like this again, they will be my first and only call.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It would be helpful to have a relationship manager in the US to help bridge the gap and get the appropriate people upfront. This would allow us to get the most out of the relationship, making sure that expectations are managed, especially if there are several developers. If you are looking for one or two people to do short-term project work, it’s a straightforward process with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal product manager for an agency that provides digital rights management services and targeted advertising on social video platforms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We were building out a new version of our software platform and were looking to augment our internal resources to speed up the development timeline.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project involved expanding our digital rights management software from one platform that works with YouTube, to an extendable software that can connect to multiple social platforms, like Facebook.

We started with a general onboarding phase where we discussed the current state of our product and provided iTechArt Group with some necessary background information. We offer a niche service, so we took the time to help them form a good understanding of our customers, our users, and the problems we needed to address.

From there, the team worked in tandem with our internal resources to scope out the different components of the project. We released an internal MVP for our users to review video content for our customers on Facebook. Then, using an agile methodology, we started working on new feature sets with scheduled milestones throughout to help us track our project. We collected feedback on each update, made the changes, and continued developing in an iterative fashion.

The software’s front- and backend are built with Python and React. We’re integrating the system with both the YouTube and Facebook APIs, but, ultimately, the design will be able to accommodate any platform.

What is the team composition?

We work with about six developers: three in the US and three overseas.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

I wasn’t involved in the process, but I believe that someone on our team of engineering executives had worked with them previously and recommended that we use them for this project. We still interviewed a multitude of companies, but iTechArt Group offered the most appealing arrangement. They provided a collection of resumes and allowed us to choose the individuals that we wanted to work with, rather than contracting an entire company.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2017, and the project is ongoing. Our current agreement is through the end of this year, but we’re hoping to get budget approval to continue the partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This product is pivotal for our business. iTechArt Group is helping us develop a niche experience that is scalable, accessible, and user-friendly. Externalizing this software will transform our company, allowing our customers to better review and manage their video advertising.

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

Because we don’t have an assigned project manager, it’s a bit of a challenge for both sides. The developers take on a lot of responsibility, and everyone really has to pitch in to keep the project running on track. We plan to hire someone to take on that role within the next couple of weeks, which will be a huge help. iTechArt Group does a great job of organizing the workflow, but it shouldn’t have to be their focus.

Currently, we have a scheduled daily standup to discuss updates and address any questions; any other communication is done via Slack channels. We use Jira for ticketing, commenting on each task to note major decisions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work very fast, but still consistently deliver high-quality work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything specific. We started with a short-term contract and decided to extend it to over a year. We’ve been very happy with the experience.

Any advice for potential customers?

I recommend clients invest a decent amount of time in bringing the iTechArt Group team up to speed on the project, their business, and why the outcome is important. If they know exactly what they’re building, they’ll be able to ask better questions. They’re very thoughtful in their work, so its beneficial for them to have a well-rounded idea of how the product matters to its users.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder and CTO for Dialogue. We provide telemedicine services as a corporate benefits package. We market our primary care services, mental health treatments, and other health services to HR managers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We were growing very quickly. Nearly three years into our business, we were managing tens of thousands of patients. We were pressured in terms of delivering a quality patient experience and maintaining an appropriate internal support system. To help us operate at this scale and account for our continued growth, we wanted to recruit experienced software engineers to augment our in-house teams.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We conducted compressed, 30-minute interviews with resources from iTechArt Group that had the right skills to help our team, and were available to provide support. We made our selections based on past experience and their communication skills. We integrated the chosen resources into the four scrum teams in our development unit. The onboarding process was fairly quick. They met with their internal teammates for an introduction to the company, our expectations, and their responsibilities. Once they were informed, they started participating in two-week sprints with the rest of their team. So far, we’ve run several sprints with iTechArt Group’s resources.

What is the team composition?

We use six resources from iTechArt Group to augment our four scrum teams.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

We were looking for experienced and flexible development resources. We really appreciated the ability to conduct interviews and chose individuals on our own, not a lot of outsourcers offer that option. In that process, we noticed the range of talent within iTechArt Group’s roster and decided to work with their company.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay an hourly fee per resource. It adds up to over $50,000 each month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2018 and its an ongoing engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With their different skill sets, the iTechArt Group resources have made significant individual contributions to their assigned scrum team. They’re a great addition to our set of full-time employees. With their help, we’re able to run our integrations and deployments with more efficiency. Currently, we’re launching updates every two weeks.

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We treat them as part of the internal team. They are part of our Slack channels and have access to Jira. We have daily standups and communicate frequently. They’re very engaged in our development efforts and generally complete their work on time.

At one point, we had problems with an individual from iTechArt Group who was underperforming. We terminated that relationship and it didn’t have any negative impact on the partnership.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with how quickly they were able to integrate into our existing teams. Despite their remote locations, they’re already embedded within our internal operations. They easily adjusted to the dynamic and continue to manage a high level of communication to assure they’re always on pace with our full-time team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have to accommodate for time zone differences and language barriers, which slows the workflow and can sometimes result in confusion or misunderstandings. Their resources’ speed, quality, and dedication are at a slightly lower level than our employees and they are less willing to take initiative. Additionally, we would’ve liked if the cost of their services was eligible for domestic tax credits for research and development, but when outsourcing, it’s not possible.

Any advice for potential customers?

I recommend clients be clear on whether they’re looking for staff augmentation of a full staff. iTechArt Group can provide both, but it’s best to set the right expectations and understand the level of management necessary for each. I also suggest they take advantage of the ability to select their own resources.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Carson Living software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt?

We wanted the ability to rapidly get a team in place to do software development. We needed a skilled team that could quickly ramp up and stay for the long term.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First they held an exploratory meeting with their development person here in the U.S. We told them the scope of the project. They explained that they're not a project-based company, but we still wanted an estimate of cost and time for the initial project. Their proposal seemed reasonable based on the proposals we got from other companies. Once we were ready to proceed, they sent us the resumes of people they recommended to be on the team. We interviewed them and chose the ones that we liked.

For the project itself, they used various open source software including Django on the backend, Swift for iOS, and Kotlin for Android. It's primarily a native mobile application but is web-based as well. The app is a property management application for small residential buildings. It enables communication between property managers and residents. It has a robust API on the backend for integration with hardware like cameras, access control systems, online payment systems, and property management accounting systems. It also has to be user-friendly for residents and property managers.

What is the team composition?

Our initial hire was three people, and we ramped up to four.

How did you come to work with iTechArt?

One of our partners had previously used a team from iTechArt and was very satisfied. That was a big selling point.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in May 2017 and the beta version launched in January 2018. Development work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product is very successful and their work has been outstanding. The service they provide is outstanding. They’re excellent engineers who know all the tools.

How did iTechArt perform from a project management standpoint?

During development, we’re in touch every day as part of our daily stand-up. I communicate with them mostly through Slack and Trello. The team performed very well. They’re good employees, they show up for work on time, and they go the extra mile if needed. We treat them as an integral part of our organization. It's a very good arrangement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their people are really good and they deliver consistent quality. An advantage to working with iTechArt is that they're big so that if one employee leaves, they have replacements at the ready. Plus, they don't bill us for the knowledge transfer time. We had one employee turnover but the transfer was completely seamless. When we wanted to add a QA person, they had a great resume for us the next day.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s a minor issue but I would like it if they switched from bi-weekly to monthly billing.

Any advice for potential customers?

Treat them like real employees if you want to get them excited about what you're doing. You’ll get the best results if you don't treat them like code robots.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of operations for a software development firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt?

We needed to build a complex recruitment application for a client. As a young company, we wanted to avoid the costs of hiring in-house developers, so we reached out to iTechArt to create a MVP based on our specifications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The web-based application essentially removes bias from the recruitment process. It creates a job application form and various sets of questions based on key behaviors and critical criteria, improving the onboarding process for large companies.

To begin, we validated the business model with our client and provided a full specifications document prior to our engagement with iTechArt. We also worked with a local design agency to create wireframes. From here, we passed this information to iTechArt and they assigned a development team to build the MVP based on our needs.

With the first version complete, we're currently in the process of outlining the second and third iterations. We plan to create mobile iOS and Android version of the app and integrate machine learning and artificial intelligence.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and two senior software developers.

How did you come to work with iTechArt?

We vetted between 20–30 offshore companies, but weren’t happy with any of them. iTechArt was referred to us by a business colleague. We were impressed by their portfolio, which included work with respected education platforms like Canvas and Blackboard.

We conducted a Skype call and talked about requirements. Their team was friendly, but also seemed to understand our project and asked the right questions. While other companies claimed to grasp our concept, their brief’s suggested otherwise.

We also appreciated that iTechArt provided a detailed project outline. They made a spreadsheet that gave a clear outline of phase requirements and a cost breakdown. Since this was an MVP, they understood the need to maintain a reasonable budget and were able to accommodate us.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $50,000–$60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between October 2017–January 2018. We plan to hire iTechArt to create the follow-up versions of the application.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re happy with the product. It functions almost exactly as we envisioned, and while there were some minor bugs, their developers addressed these issues immediately. The MVP has been passed to the client, who is now responsible for integrating their database before we create the second version and license the product out to larger companies.

How did iTechArt perform from a project management standpoint?

Their effective organization played a crucial role in the project’s success. We were very impressed with our project manager, in particular. She was professional, communicated on a daily basis, and answered any questions we had. She was also unafraid to ask us questions, if needed, to ensure she understood our needs.

iTechArt has guaranteed us the same project manager if we hire them to build the second and third versions of the application.

We used Trello to coordinate the project, and this allowed us to monitor progress in real-time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The benefit of working with iTechArt is that it allowed us to focus on what we do best. We provided specifications for the overall concept and knew that their effective project management could take care of the actual development. They're an extremely professional company. We saw a consistent level of politeness throughout our correspondence, and because they kept us informed every step of the way, we could pass those assurances on to our client.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We spoke with a different project manager while considering a separate project. We found that this manager lacked the level of communication and professionalism we had experienced with other iTechArt team members. The specification document, for instance, was not nearly as thorough. They could improve by ensuring consistency across their management team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as detailed as possible in your specifications. Make sure the developers understand the project’s priorities and your long-term goals for the product.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and co-founder of a social platform that lets professionals within an industry connect with one another. It’s different from other similar platforms because the conversations happen both intercompany, interindustry, and intracompany—professionals can speak with others who work at similar companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt?

We needed help with software development, specifically our iOS and Android mobile platforms along with backend stack development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we first started, we employed a mobile and backend developer at 15–20 hours each to create a prototype of our current platform. We launched after about six months and attracted investors that allowed us to hire the developers full time. After another six months, we brought on additional developers to scale the project and build three main features: segmentation, analysis, and personalization.

Users provide a good amount of data when registering, both personally and through third party APIs we leverage on the platform. This data is then analyzed to place users in cohorts that are relevant to one another. iTechArt helped develop the algorithm that does that. The output is then personalized into a feed containing posts from other similar professionals based on their divisions, specialties, and titles. In short, the platform provides segmentation and personalization with an analysis engine that was developed with iTechArt.

The frontend consists of what you would expect for any traditional social networking interface. It’s a node.js core framework, and we use a MongoDB and node-sql setup for the backend that gives us flexibility. We need to maintain latency on our network and app, so we leverage an elastic database for some of the personalization and analysis layers because it’s a tremendous amount of data.

iTechArt also developed an email engine so we can deliver emails in high volume to our current and prospective users. We designed the engine and they developed the backend.

What is the team composition?

We have a team of five—three mobile developers, one backend engineer, and one QA analyst. They’re our primary dev team, led by our own project manager. iTechArt provides a set of developers, and we interview and select which ones we want.

How did you come to work with iTechArt?

I was introduced to them at my previous job. Another company was using them, so we decided to engage with them on a small project, and I was really impressed. When I started this company, hiring them seemed to be the best choice.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent upwards of $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in the summer of 2014, but the team has grown since then. They provide ongoing dev.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

More than 30% of U.S. management consultants are currently on our platform. For the industries we’re open to, we’ve gotten deep penetration at a quick rate. iTechArt allows us to iterate fast enough to appease user concerns, which isn’t possible if you’re a big company.

How did iTechArt perform from a project management standpoint?

iTechArt provides an account manager (AM), but we have our own project manager. The AM addresses the needs of the account and the company, responding quickly to our concerns. If we need a developer, the AM lets us interview a batch within a few weeks.

At a minimum, we have a daily check-in via Slack to make sure everything is going well. When we want to be more engaged, we’ll have a Skype call to discuss features for an hour or two. We also have one hour-long weekly meeting where all the developers review their weekly sprints with the project manager. In general, iTechArt works independently and requires little oversight.

What did you find most impressive about them?

iTechArt has a strong supply of grade A talent across numerous disciplines, which is important when you need to move quickly. They have high expectations for their employees, who deliver on time and are always professional. The individual developers are accountable and invested in our success—they want to please the client, which is unique these days. In many ways, they’re like an international extension of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The structure of their mobile account team isn’t necessarily unified. If you’re looking to replace or upgrade a developer, the teams are segmented so you have to specifically ask to go outside your team’s stable to find other developers. The assets are contained and constrained by the mobile team you’re assigned. They may have a reason for structuring it that way, though.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If the project is from early inception to late stage startup, iTechArt is a great choice. I can’t speak to big scale companies, but I imagine they’d perform well there, too.