Gepard Bintime

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a marketing technology software provider. We help brands make their websites shoppable by adding purchase options, both online and in-store, to the brand’s website, allowing consumers to buy their products of preference at participating retailers. We have a multitenant technology platform that brands use on a subscription basis.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Gepard Bintime?

We went to them to develop our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Gepard Bintime developed our entire solution from scratch.

As we’ve moved forward and added new functionalities, key deliverables have changed. One of the core ones was to build a database for all client retailers and their inventories with purchase options on the brand’s website globally.

Over time, we’ve expanded on that by making it possible to look for local or nearby availability. We’ve indexed all offline retailers with store locations, directories, and opening hours. We’ve delivered other requirements over time, with regard to scalability and reporting.

What is the team composition?

We have a team of 16 developers at Gepard Bintime, who work with our developers in Amsterdam. Our CTO manages the collaboration, and his points of contact are their project manager and HR manager. There’s contact at the CEO level between myself and Sergey (CEO).

How did you come to work with Gepard Bintime?

In the early days, we started with one developer from their team. We didn’t really do a competitive benchmark analysis. They’ve just grown with us over time, managing the platform, accommodating our growth, and meeting development milestones.

We’ve had no reason to look around for alternatives.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between €4 million–5 million (approximately $4,800,000–$6,000,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around the time our company was founded in April 2011. The collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Gepard Bintime turned our idea into reality, and they’ve been growing and scaling it ever since. There are 200 clients making use of our platform – many of which are well-known consumer electronics brands. They all have our solution running on their websites, and we have great customer satisfaction.

We track the success of their work in terms of meeting timelines and cost. We use advanced tracking tools, and our CTO is in charge of them.

How did Gepard Bintime perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication is pleasant. If there’s an issue with a timeline, we can always escalate, and we haven’t had any major problems. They provide English training to their team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They manage to hire and retain good talent. Their team innovates with new technologies while delivering good quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They had some infrastructure improvements to make, but they’ve upgraded their remote collaboration and videoconferencing tools, internet connectivity, etc. We had some difficulties because of the available infrastructure in Ukraine.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients have to provide a well-defined scope of work with clearly-defined features and deliverables.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of 24TTL Cooperation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Gepard Bintime?

We needed support with our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked with them on multiple projects related to our platform. Gepard Bintime helped us develop the core of a rich content delivery system. It delivers content from big brands to retailers’ websites.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with close to 10 people from Gepard Bintime at different points in time. We currently have a project manager, 3–4 backend developers, two frontend developers, testers, software architects, and server admins.

How did you come to work with Gepard Bintime?

We have a lot of long-term partners in Europe, and we went to them for recommendations when we were starting to build our system. Gepard Bintime had built an online platform for one of them, and we started a conversation to see how we could work with each other. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We first worked with them around November 2019, and we signed the official agreement in January 2020. We’re looking to start a new project with them. They’re putting together a new team for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the system in April 2020, in MVP mode, and we’ve gotten 400 retailer subscriptions so far. We’ve gotten good feedback from them. 

The system works fast, and we haven’t found any bugs. We’re continuing to make improvements based on market feedback, and Gepard Bintime is good in that regard. We’re happy with their architecture and implementation.

How did Gepard Bintime perform from a project management standpoint?

We have daily communication using Telegram, and we have daily meetings using Google Meet. We’ve also used Viber in some cases. We use Jira and Asana for project management and GitHub as a code repository.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most important and impressive thing for me is the quality of their work. I have more than 20 years of experience working with different developers, and this was the first time I had no negative comments after receiving a result. 

It sounds impossible, but that’s how it was. We usually find bugs and other issues after the code is delivered, but not this time. I recommend working with Gepard Bintime. They don’t provide code without switching on their brains. 

They think about the client’s business values and architecture, and they aim to provide the best possible results. I’ve worked with multiple companies, and Gepard Bintime is the best. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Icecat. We are a global publisher and syndicator of data in the e-commerce markets for hundreds of manufacturers and thousands of retailers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Gepard & Bintime?

We needed help with some product information management, syndication, and infrastructures.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have a dedicated development team working on core infrastructures and client-facing projects for us. They work on things such as databases, Amazon integration, mapping data from a client to Amazon formats, and more.

What is the team composition?

We interact with Sergei (CEO) and roughly 10 of his team members.

How did you come to work with Gepard & Bintime?

I have worked with Sergei for about 10 years now, starting back when he was a freelancer. When we needed to bring a partner on, we decided to try his team. We were happy with the first project and continued to work together.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly €1,050,000 (approximately $1,231,000USD). We spend about €350,000 (approximately $411,000 USD)/year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around October 2017 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They are successful regarding the client-facing projects, having the mindset to work until the client is satisfied. They solve any problem that arises, whether it’s about budget, timeline, functionality, etc. Their team that works on our internal infrastructure often meets the 99% success rating. KPIs around functionality are generally good. We are quite satisfied with their team overall.

How did Gepard & Bintime perform from a project management standpoint?

In general, we are happy with their performance. They do well at understanding our requirements. We identify and discuss specifications and speak the same language figuratively and literally. There are the usual challenges in meeting deadlines, but it has very rarely cost us a client. They communicate well with us, and with clients.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The core team is very loyal. They understand information management and communication, and efficiency has increased due to our long-term relationship. They’re very useful, especially on complex projects. Being based out of Ukraine allows for a lower cost base, as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Testing could be more efficient and cost-effective. There are too many resources spent on it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Since its foundation in 2000, FuturumShop.nl has grown into one of the leading webshops for cyclists and mountain bikers. In 2012, FuturumShop.nl won the Thuiswinkel Awards for the second time in a row with a final rating of 9.2 based on consumer votes and numbers.

One year later, FuturumShop was voted Best Logistics Webshop of the Year! Performance of which we are all very proud! My position is IT manager and be responsible for all IT processes within the organisation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Bintime + Gepard?

The goal was launch an shopping APP for iOS and Android for our customers.

What were your goals for this project?

To create an APP for our customers so they can place easy and quick an order in our shop on mobile with a good user experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We already work with Bintime for around 15 years. So the choice was simple, Bintime already develop all our software.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

First step was on our side to create the designs. In March 2019 the designs were ready and we made a plan for develop the APP. Bintime made a plan to split all steps in our shopping process and develop them one by one.

We work with the Scrum method and use Jira for this. For us the shopping app has same functionality as our online shop for desktop and mobile customers. In the APP we would like to have an inbox message functionality + possibility to sent users a push notifications for marketing purposes and transactional information. Bintime was responsible to develop the APP.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, team lead developer, two developers and one tester from Bintime on this project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The goal was to have the first version of the APP live within a year and we reached that goal. The APP is running live now for a couple of months and we see that traffic in the APP is growing every month.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was very good. We use Jira for the sprints and Slack for daily communication and video calls.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are dedicated and will always help to find a solution for our wishes and problems

Are there any areas for improvement?

No