Gaurus d.o.o.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Milun savjetovanje d.o.o.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

I'm the author of financial educational project "S Milunom do milijuna" and Lecturer In Mathematics at Algebra University College.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Gaurus d.o.o. to accomplish?

• Develop a mobile application to help citizens of Croatia deal with tax refund

SOLUTION

How did you find Gaurus d.o.o.?

Direct contact from Vendor

Why did you select Gaurus d.o.o. over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Gaurus d.o.o. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We needed a company to develop a mobile application to help our citizens deal with tax refund based on the advice provided on my web pages, youtube chanall and blog articles. We already had most of the relevant information and the tax refund calculator available on our web pages, but we wanted to reach more audience through a mobile application. 

The company developed the mobile application from scratch based on input from my colleagues about the visual design and user flow and based on my algorithms for tax refund calculation. They developed the application, tested it with us, resolved issues in a few short iterations and finally delivered the application to users through all major platforms (PlayStore, AppStore, AppGallery).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• We partnered in January 2022 and they delivered the application in February 2022 as the end of February is deadline for tax refund application in Croatia. Application was ready for personal use. We had more than 5000 downloads, and save tax payers money with calculations from the app. Since then, they have delivered credit calculator functionality to the application as well as some other incremental updates.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Even when we reported last minute bugs with strict deadline over our heads, we never felt the stress in their team.

What was your primary form of communication with Gaurus d.o.o.?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting

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

They were quick to respond to any of our requests and had a full understanding of our deadlines. Even when we reported last-minute bugs with strict deadlines over our heads, we never felt the stress in their team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Gaurus d.o.o. could have done differently?

I wish them to have bigger team in the future so that they could do big projects but to do so, they need great clients that will support their growth! I will definetly use them in the future.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of CMS and Processing System Department of mStart plus d.o.o.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our business segments are: consulting services, system integration, ICT infrastructure, e-commerce solutions, cashless payments, digital office and security solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Gaurus d.o.o. to accomplish?

• We needed a company to maintain and upgrade our e-goods distribution system “mDigital”.

SOLUTION

How did you find Gaurus d.o.o.?

Referral

Why did you select Gaurus d.o.o. over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Gaurus d.o.o. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Gaurus is doing regular and proactive maintenance of the mDigital system. In its core, mDigital is a transaction processing system with backend built in Java. It communicates with various internal and external systems using different communication and message protocols as well as web services.

 It uses PostgreSQL as it’s main data storage. It allows users to configure all parameters of the system and maintain data about business partners and merchants directly from the web browser, using the front-end web application. It is also a comprehensive reporting tool delivering different business reports. Gaurus team process and delivers change requests for upgrades and functionality improvements. 

Since the team members participated in the early development of the solution, they are very familiar with the architecture and design of the mDigital solution. In short, Gaurus is mainly involved in resolving operational issues, bug fixing, developing new functionalities, supporting our business team and consulting in the area of future development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

mDigital is a transaction processing system working in 365/24/7 mode. It serves more than 150 partners (merchants, issuers, distributors) in different countries, processing requests and delivering more than 350.000 various types of e-goods monthly. It is interconnected with several external sources using various technology for data exchange. It’s very reliable and ensures seamless business operations. 

Additional development and all upgrades are delivered on time and within the budget with minimum downtime and almost no impact on our other systems.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We work closely with Gaurus project manager in order to align our priorities and define execution schedule. We are mainly concerned with daily operations, so our involvement is focused on defining requirements and follow up the execution. All the rest is managed by Gaurus PM. They are very reliable and responsive. Items are always delivered as scheduled.

What was your primary form of communication with Gaurus d.o.o.?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Gaurus is a small but quite efficient team. They are very professional and well educated. They know the technology, but they also understand the business. Therefore it’s very easy for us to communicate our business requirements and they very successfully convert our needs into the final solution.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Gaurus d.o.o. could have done differently?

We would like Gaurus to extend the team in the future so that we can involve them on much bigger projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Division Manager of an IT support agency.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES SUPPORT AGENCY

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Gaurus d.o.o. to accomplish?

• DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT

SOLUTION

How did you find Gaurus d.o.o.?

Other

Why did you select Gaurus d.o.o. over others?

• Referred to me
• Other

What was the size of Gaurus d.o.o.’s team?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Gaurus developed Taric calculator module as per specifications of our client and delivered it in the technology (JavaEE) and platform (Websphere Liberty Profile, OpenShift) required by our system architects. They were autonomous in their project and communicated directly with our client with minimum supervision from our side.

Their involvement included requirement analysis, system design, production of functional and design specifications, iterative software development, internal and end to end testing and delivery of fully functional software into production use.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Gaurus has made 2 major deliveries into full production H6 Taric calculator in July 2021 and H1 Taric calculator in January 2023. Both calculators are integrated within our own system HRAIS2 and are fully operational 24/7. HRAIS2 system is handling all imports to Croatia in real time and as such is critical for customs operations in Croatia

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Gaurus d.o.o. is a self-managed software development unit that is fully integrated into our development processes. Since their software is clearly divided from the rest of the HRAIS2 system the project management could also be separated while coordination with our other teams and our client has been well handled by Gaurus project manager thus ensuring timely deliveries.

What was your primary form of communication with Gaurus d.o.o.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their knowledge of customs systems and their flexibility to adapt to new platforms and technologies. They are a small team but have no problem with adopting enterprise technologies used by our company and adhering to rigorous processes and security standards.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Gaurus d.o.o. could have done differently?

They could be better at providing more detailed scope statements.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Assistant Director General of Ministry of Finance, Customs Administration

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Ministry of Finance, Customs Administration

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Gaurus d.o.o. to accomplish?

• To make and maintenance Integrated Tariff System with subsystems

SOLUTION

How did you find Gaurus d.o.o.?

Other

Why did you select Gaurus d.o.o. over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost

What was the size of Gaurus d.o.o.’s team?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The company took over maintenance and upgrade of the ITMS system as they employed the team that participated in the initial development of the system. The maintenance includes support to our business team, resolving day to day issues in the system operation and various upgrades of the ITMS modules as per our requests for changes. ITMS is a set of JavaEE applications integrated mutually and with other national customs systems as well as with EU customs systems (JMS messaging via IBM MQ, web services).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• making the necessary applications within the budget and on time

What was your primary form of communication with Gaurus d.o.o.?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Minimum project management is required from our side as their project manager is taking care of all the operative management. We communicate regularly on operational issues, but when it comes to project management, our involvement is reduced to proposing requirements, reviewing reports and financial parameters, testing solution of the project and adjusting them according to our needs.

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

We partner with several companies for maintenance of our other systems but Gaurus is the best performing partner and always helpful in complex situations when it’s not clear which system is causing the problem. They are always proactive in problem-solving and finding a solution for our business challenges.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Gaurus d.o.o. could have done differently?

Nothing in particular