Go Wombat

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of an HR company. We do AI career mapping and talent management for HR departments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Go Wombat?

We needed more stability in our data pipelines. We also needed to work on our backend and add new frontend features.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially gave Go Wombat a brief to start working together. They solved a bug in our platform that our current team couldn’t fix; they did it much quicker than another organization that tried to help us with the same bug. From there, we’ve continued our relationship.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been in contact with 5–6 team members, including an account manager, a project manager, a senior backend engineer, a senior frontend engineer, and a senior DevOps engineer. However, those areas scale up and down according to demand.

How did you come to work with Go Wombat?

I found them through a freelancing profile.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2023, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Go Wombat came on board to help us with a small project, but we actually ended up working with them full-time. We continue to work with them, so they’re very successful and good at what they do.

How did Go Wombat perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is complicated to assess because things move over time. However, they’ve delivered mostly everything on time and within budget.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

The account manager is fantastic. He’s constantly checking that things are going well. Also, we’ve been working with the backend engineer for the longest time. He’s super knowledgeable and experienced; he just gets down with the tasks for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve had a pleasant, excellent experience with Go Wombat.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I wouldn’t want to say anything bad about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re working with an agency, you need to provide good design specifications and understand how those may evolve. Overall, delivering technology is a complicated process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of an IT services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Go Wombat?

We needed support developing a custom product we had designed. Our goal was to work with a team that could provide good quality development work. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Go Wombat introduced me to the development team that would work on my project and shared a timeline. We follow up until the completion of a project before moving to the next one. Go Wombat works mainly with Java and Django and uses AWS servers. Go Wombat works in an IoT product device that communicates with the backend. Our product has AI features, although our in-house team is responsible for developing these AI features. 

The team has created an admin dashboard working on Angular and integrated it with the frontend. Go Wombat integrated the servers and the IoT device in the field, as well as all product features. Our product owner works hand-in-hand with Go Wombat's project manager.

What is the team composition?

I communicate frequently with Go Wombat's project manager, solutions architect, CTO, and CEO. We also work with the team's designer, backend developer, and other teammates.

How did you come to work with Go Wombat?

I found Go Wombat on Upwork, and our relationship and payments take place via Upwork. We chose the team because of their knowledge and skills in various development areas. I asked Go Wombat for an estimate of their services because I needed to evaluate their price range since I'm familiar with the work we needed. The team provided a fair estimated budget, and we agreed on the price.
How much have you invested with them?

We've spent more than $10,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Go Wombat in November 2023, and we're still working together. The team has completed several projects, and we continue adding product features. Go Wombat is our ongoing technology development partner. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Go Wombat has knowledge of various technologies and is using deep tech to develop our software. The team is able to jump quickly to assist us and provide a development team for our project. Go Wombat's work has exceeded my expectations.

How did Go Wombat perform from a project management standpoint?

Go Wombat communicates well via Slack, and Oleg's communication is precise and off the chart — he's an experienced communicator. The team meets deadlines when we set them. At the moment, we have an open deadline because we're constantly opening and closing projects. We collaborate via ClickUp.

The efficiency of our spending has risen, and we've saved time by working with an efficient team instead of other service providers who probably wouldn't have been able to fulfill our requirements. Go Wombat has helped my company a lot, and our budget has definitely been well spent.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Yevhen (CTO & Django Python Developer) is extremely aware of various technologies and answers my questions quickly. He thoroughly describes the steps required to develop features that benefit the entire team. Oleg (Business Development Wombat) is a fantastic CEO.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I work simultaneously with other service providers, and Go Wombat stands out as the best because of their reporting and communication abilities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We've worked with three different backend developers from Go Wombat. I'd like to work with the same developer so we don't need an onboarding phase every time a new developer comes to the project. This is the only area for improvement I notice. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be clear about the project's objective and goals because Go Wombat can handle complex projects. Set long-term goals, and the team will handle them very well. I didn't have a plan at the beginning of the project for other reasons, and I advise future clients to set a clear plan because Go Wombat is very good at development. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CTO at a healthcare organization that produces source services for the healthcare industry in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Go Wombat?

We needed to quickly rewrite a mobile application that worked only for Android, and we required an iOS version.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Go Wombat started by reviewing our existing mobile app and creating a detailed written description. The team then gave us a fixed price for the app's redevelopment, and we decided we wanted the app to be written in React Native. Go Wombat has developed, architected, and tested the app. Then, the team handed the app to our team, and we did a QA process, where we found some things that Go Wombat had missed in the description. 

The team has fixed the issues found, and the app is now in the production phase. We're currently transitioning from the old app to the new one for all our customers. Our old app's UI was fine, and Go Wombat hasn't changed it. However, depending on the configuration, some parts of the app weren't easy to access, and the team has made some tweaks and added functionalities. Go Wombat has worked on another mobile app since we started our engagement. 

What is the team composition?

We work with 6–8 teammates from Go Wombat, including 3–4 developers, an architect, a tester, product managers, a dedicated project manager, UI experts, and executive accountants. I only have contact with Go Wombat's key accountant.

How did you come to work with Go Wombat?

We had previously worked with another consultant company that recommended Go Wombat for this project.
How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $50,000–$80,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Go Wombat two years ago, in May 2022, and our engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had technical issues with the second mobile app we've worked on with Go Wombat. The app connects to a medical cabinet and is meant to open locks and keep track of who opens them. The app had technical issues, and Go Wombat flew two developers to Sweden who worked with us for a week. The team broke one of the developers' vacations, which proves Go Wombat has always been very quick to respond if something isn't working. 

Go Wombat has a very professional way of describing the tasks their team will be responsible for and which tasks are our responsibility. The way the team sets expectations is very professional.

How did Go Wombat perform from a project management standpoint?

Go Wombat stays within the fixed budget, and when our scope has changed, the team has adjusted the price. Go Wombat uses Jira and has Microsoft Teams meetings with our team. The team also uses Azure DevOps to keep track of work. Go Wombat's response time and reaction to issues have been very good throughout our engagement. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Go Wombat has been able to meet our high demands regarding reaction time. When we've needed quick deliveries from the team, they've fixed issues. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Go Wombat can improve on the documentation of their work. Aside from that, we're very happy with the engagement.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

All products require a good description of what you need. Ensure you have your requirements written well because Go Wombat is good at following instructions. Our challenges have been caused by not being very clear on what we want, which has cost us time. My advice is to put a lot of effort into writing your requirements. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a sales manager at Developers Shore. We assist our clients in finding development resources.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Go Wombat?

We needed a company that could provide us with additional development resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Go Wombat provides us with staff augmentation support. We work with them on a lot of different cases and clients — they provide us with project management support, architecture and front- and backend development resources, and system and application design services.

Go Wombat has created several mobile applications and websites for us. Our clients normally approach us with mockups, wireframes, specifications, or their own UI/UX designs, and the Wombat team is in charge of handling the whole project from there. For instance, they’ve developed an iOS and Android mobile app that allows users to review local sites, restaurants, beaches, and other tourist destinations.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked directly with two people from Go Wombat, both of whom are project managers.

How did you come to work with Go Wombat?

We found Go Wombat through online research.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $200,000–$1,000,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I have a lot of happy clients who keep on coming back to us, and they’ve praised Go Wombat’s quick response time, curiosity, and excellent way of handling issues. Go Wombat has helped us keep our clients happy and satisfied with their work.

How did Go Wombat perform from a project management standpoint?

Go Wombat has performed well in terms of project management. They’re always on time, and they’ve never missed a deadline or a meeting. We appreciate how they leverage their industry expertise into valuable guidance and recommendations.

The Go Wombat team is also incredibly responsive and professional. We primarily communicate through Google Meet, email, and Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re most impressed with Go Wombat’s strong project ownership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of a software company, and we just released our first product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Go Wombat?

We had the functional requirements of our project, but we hadn’t designed any of it. Go Wombat is creating our first product, handling everything from design and coding through to hosting.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Wombat took our document and mapped it into a design, creating all the frontend components and instituting the proper workflow. There are some rules around scoring, as our tool is an online assessment for gauging candidate suitability for sales roles, and they were involved in developing that scoring system. We weren’t at the wireframe stage either, so Wombat created all our layouts and workflows in Figma.

This is a cloud-based application, and the idea is that it will empower startup founders in the technology space to make their first sales hires. The solution is built out of 13 sections and uses a combination of different assessment techniques to test the candidates. After they finish the assessments, the system scores them and applies a rule to determine whether they’ll be a good fit for the role.

Hiring companies have access to a dashboard where they can look at the assessments people have taken for their openings and discard those who aren’t fit for the role. There is a set of graphical UI features that helps companies sort through candidates and compare and contrast them. The applicants receive email notifications about whether their applications pass to the next stage or won’t be advancing any further. This way, the hiring companies don’t have to actively communicate with candidates who aren’t a good fit for the position.

What is the team composition?

I’ve properly worked with 10 different individuals, not necessarily at the same time. They were not all full-time resources for the project, either. Specifically, there is one project manager, one UX designer, 3–4 frontend developers, and 3-4 backend developers.

How did you come to work with Go Wombat?

I’d had some contact with them in the past, discussing whether they’d work on a project for a previous employer. I spoke to several other companies about our current software product, and most of them had issues with our more informal starting point. They wanted to be given formal business processes that they could code around, but Go Wombat understood that we weren’t capable of documenting those sorts of things because we didn’t come from a technical background. Their ability to sketch out ideas with us and then create a design from those ideas stood out to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $45,000 on the product build, and then the maintenance is another $1,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since December 2021. Currently, they’re maintaining the product for us on AWS and providing ad-hoc feature development work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product looks fantastic. Wombat’s design work has been exemplary. I can’t comment on the coding, as I’m not a technical person, but the system works exactly like it’s supposed to. It wasn’t a simple product either; there are a lot of rules built into it, and it’s a multi-tenant solution, meaning we can’t change the rules for existing clients, only new clients. None of the work our requirements were trivial, and the solution worked very well out of the box.

A few bugs did pop up, and I would have changed a few features in hindsight, but Wombat fixed all of those when they arose. Right now, I’m not aware of any bugs in the system, and we’ve tested it extensively. 

How did Go Wombat perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s barely been any interruption with the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Go Wombat has managed the entire situation amazingly. I fully expected them to put the project on hold for six months, but they never missed a beat. They kept on working. It was miraculous.

We typically communicate over Slack. In fact, we don’t really use any other tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

None of the members of our founding team have ever written a line of code, but Wombat has been able to both understand our initial concept and then turn it into wireframes a final system complete with the functionality we requested.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are two things they can improve. First, I wrongly assumed that we’d be able to smooth some wrinkles out of the design after the end of the phase, but developers see it as 100% complete and ready to code. The next time, I’ll make sure that I’m 100% set on the design before we hand it off to the developers.

Working with a Ukrainian company, it can be difficult to communicate directly with the developers. We had the double barrier of being non-technical and not having the same first language. The designers were quite simple to communicate with, however. These were the only two sticking points for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you’re 100% on the design, as they’re going to build what they’re given. Additionally, allow yourself extra time to work out the communication with the developers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of a Swedish company called Frontdesk Nordic AB. We are a Telecommunications company based in Gothenburg and Stockholm, Sweden. We provide a virtual telecom PBX (public branch exchange) system to our customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Go Wombat?

We wanted to increase efficiency by creating a portal to manage our online quotes and agreements and calculate gross margins and revenue. Our goal was to save time for our team and our customers, as well as improve cost savings for the years to come.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a booking system for customers to book meetings with our salespeople. They also used Django to create a tool that automates the process of counting deals, creating quotes, and completing agreements, which enables sales managers to view deals and search for agreements.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, 4–5 front- and backend developers, and the company’s VP.

How did you come to work with Go Wombat?

I went to Ukraine in 2017 and met with three different development companies. I got in contact with Vladimir (CEO) and we got a good image of the people and the company as a whole, so we chose them. We worked on our first project together in October 2017, and have been working with them ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we have spent around €80,000—€100,000 (approximately $83,000-$104,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2017. The quote tool project started in February 2021 and was completed in April 2021 and our collaboration is ongoing. We will most definitely continue to use them for other projects that we want to develop.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Go Wombat team helped us reduce the timeframe for administrative tasks such as making quotes and agreements by at least 40%, which improved efficiency for our salespeople. 

Previously, this was a manual process that involved around 5 separate forms, and salespeople were spending too much time creating quotes and deals with excel files. Now we can more quickly send out agreements to customers in real-time while we are in meetings with them. We have also increased our hit rate on closing deals by at least 10%. 

How did Go Wombat perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform very well in terms of project management. The group works well together when combining different departments such as the front- and backend development teams.  We maintain steady contact with the project manager through emails and some calls. 

We also have an ongoing dialogue with the developers and VP via slack. Everyone is quick to respond. We also have regular video meetings to discuss the project. They are very good communicators.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I am most impressed with how quickly they work. When we introduced them to the quote tool project in February, we let them know that the system needed to be in place by April 1st.

They worked very fast and managed to complete the project within the allotted timeframe and within the cost estimate. We’ve worked with other companies before and they are much better than the others. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing they could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The best advice I can give is to have regular project meetings with all team members. We’ve had ongoing contact with the front- and backend developers, and the project manager. We also find it is most effective to work as a group within one Slack community so you can have productive meetings.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a technology platform that monitors workplace culture.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Go Wombat?

I’d never built a tech product before and needed to build it out beyond an MVP because it needed to go live immediately for a client project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the beginning of our partnership with Go Wombat, I delivered a product roadmap for our web application. From there, they estimated the tasks and carried out the work. Their team utilized Python on the backend and React on the frontend. The first major build, which was between March–June 2021, revealed that the product needed extra functionalities. Since March 2022, we’ve been working on and off with Go Wombat on product improvements; we've launched a new service on the existing platform. 

The app’s primary service is a dashboard that monitors poll and survey results provided by our customers’ users. From there, the app monitors and provides insights using the collected data. The newest functionality is an automated feedback service that provides personalized development feedback. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with a project manager, the COO, and a team of five developers. We’ve always had one teammate dedicated to QA. 

How did you come to work with Go Wombat?

I found Go Wombat on Deazy. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between  £40,000–£50,000 (approximately $49,000–$61,000 USD) with Go Wombat.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Go Wombat began in March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don't have any specific success metrics, but Go Wombat has been amazing. I've heard many bad stories about outsourced developers delivering rubbish that costs £100,000 (approximately $123,000 USD). However, the value for money I've gotten from Go Wombat is amazing. I've been able to go to market with their output and have never missed my customers' deadlines. Any bugs have been rectified through rigorous testing. 

How did Go Wombat perform from a project management standpoint?

Go Wombat has stayed within our budget and met deadlines. We've used Jira to manage the project. We communicate through a combination of Slack, Google Meet, and emails. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Go Wombat has gone above and beyond, even when they don't need to. The goodwill they've shown when we need something done quickly is impressive; they act quickly and deliver great work. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I'm happy with Go Wombat's team — I can't say what else I could've wanted from them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd advise customers to trust Go Wombat. As someone who has never built a tech product or worked with an overseas team, the idea of this partnership made me nervous; I didn't know what I was getting into. However, Go Wombat has proven themselves, and I trust them 100%. Customers should trust their judgment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the VP of R&D at a big-data AI SASS startup in the domain of electronic components.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to quickly build our product, automating the collection of million of images from customers and continuously running AI algorithms on those images.

SOLUTION

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

We evaluated many contractors on Upwork and directly. We started with assigning small projects or tasks and eliminated many contractors as they did not deliver per our expectations.

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

We started with one cloud software engineer, supported by an architect from GoWombat. They helped design the cloud solution and implement it. Later we added more developers from GoWombat and the initial GoWombat engineer became the leader for significant parts of our service development.

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

In the last 6 months we have one lead engineer and two developers from GoWombat. We also receive services with an as needed basis for QA, Security, Database management, and other experts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We provide online high quality services to our clients at a cost that are within our budget. Even though the load and data scale are above our original plan. With the help of GoWombat our architecture evolved from monolithic to become a modern micro-services based.

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

The project management changed over time as more responsibilities moved to the GoWombat team. We started with direct management of each developer by us, and gradually moved to relying on their leadership to manage developers. We use Discord for chats and Zoom for meetings. GitLab and Jira are used for task management and code reviews.

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

GoWombat is flexible to our work methods, communication style, and changing needs. They often take the initiatives to suggest improvements in the process and our product. Their engineers are highly engaged with us, our customers, and the product quality.

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

It happened that after a while we learned that one of their engineers was not delivering at the expected velocity. They took the initiative to replace him before we even raised the issue. They have even credited us for the waisted costs on our side.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a company that’s creating a product to monitor traffic and perform video analytics. We’re also working on edge devices for surveillance cameras.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Go Wombat?

They’ve been helping us with web development for around five years.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve created a number of products with them. One that we’ve completed was a full UI design. Go Wombat created the web interface of the product from scratch, including some new technologies that we hadn’t used previously. We chose the technology and then they developed the design. They helped with the architecture

It was a React development that required them to create a set of automation tools. It works with both video and real-time data, providing users with critical interactive features. HTML, CSS were also used.   

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people for this project: a manager, who created the environment for us, one core developer, and one additional developer doing maintenance and small tasks.

How did you come to work with Go Wombat?

We found them through word of mouth, via a friend of mine that was a part-time developer.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $200,000–$999,999. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We already have 1,000 users around the world, and we hope that sales will continue to grow, as we just started selling it. We’re 100% satisfied. When we started, we didn’t know where the project would bring us or whether it was even possible to put all the features that we were looking for into the edge device. Go Wombat was able to create a modern interface that accommodated all of our requests.

How did Go Wombat perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve kept the budget under control as tasks pop up. The project is fairy self-manageable, so we didn’t need much management from their side.

We use Slack for communication and have Zoom calls when something is urgent. For our current project, which is very complex, we’re using DevOps to manage tasks and track time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We know the capability of their team and expect them to do everything on a high level — and they do. We’re working with them because I expect them to perform at a higher level than a normal team.

They’ve provided resources capable of handling complex architecture properly. Additionally, when I have a problem, I can speak directly with their CEO, and they will guide me to the proper resource to solve my task.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes we have to wait for resources, and I know that’s typical in this type of business, but it could be a bit better. Overall, however, I’m satisfied, and I understand that I will need to be on the waitlist for projects sometimes. The wait has only ever been about 1–2 weeks.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s the same advice as for any company: start small and see how they perform and how responsible they are. You can also check the history of the company.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing operations manager at a manufacturing company that produces products in the recreational vehicle (RV), agriculture, and construction industries. I oversee the day-to-day activities in our CRM, marketing and sales, web technology, and APIs. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Go Wombat?

We needed to produce an API-based web client portal that would allow our customers to interact with their information. We wanted it to have a slick UI that was fast and modern and that could also interact with our older enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Go Wombat helped us in the development process. We started with the concepts and features that we wanted to do. Then, their team helped us turn our vision into wireframes as we walked through the UI/UX development phase. We used Figma as our primary platform for UI/UX design.

Once we got the wireframes approved and we were happy with the functionality on the portal’s frontend, Go Wombat started to scope out the development documentation. They then began the back- and frontend development.

The key deliverable was a functional web application, so we went through many different phases of testing and revisions. Go Wombat deployed the software onto an AWS instance for us. It was a fully modern stack where our cloud ran the static HTML through an S3 bucket and we had EC2 in the backend. 

What is the team composition?

I was directly working with 4–5 people, who also had interns and assistants to help them. I dealt a lot with the UI designer, especially in the beginning. On the backend, we worked with two developers from Go Wombat, and some people were also assisting them. On our side, there were two developers and a project manager. 

How did you come to work with Go Wombat?

We first found Go Wombat on Upwork. We put a job listing out, and they were one of the applicants that replied to us. We took a broad-stroke filter and looked at companies that worked within the tech stacks that we were comfortable with, which included Python. We wanted a company that was familiar with the Django web framework; we wanted to ensure that we could contribute and maintain things after everything was done. That was our main filter. 

On top of that, looking at the examples of the applicants’ previous works was also important. We noticed that the Go Wombat team had some projects in their portfolio that had very similar concepts to what we were trying to accomplish. We also liked their philosophy around how they created those apps. 

They made it to our shortlist, which consisted of three companies. We could tell that Go Wombat had a high level of confidence and competence after talking to their team. Their communication was also absolutely bulletproof; time zone differences were never an issue. 

The other two vendors that we interviewed had some difficulties in getting things together. We thought that if that was happening even before the project started, we wouldn’t know where they’d go if things got tough. Meanwhile, even when we hit those snags with Go Wombat, they never backed down and were always available. 

How much have you invested with them?

For this project, we spent around $80,000–$100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2020, and we wrapped up the first release in December 2020. At that time, we had the functional application, but we also had other internal projects that took precedence, so we hit the pause button on this project. 

At present, we’re getting back into the process and planning out some functionality releases. As a result, our relationship with them will probably continue perpetually as we have different needs that arise. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Looking at client-side performance, the latency of API calls was very low, and backend calls took only between 20–40 milliseconds. That was the only metric we had since we didn’t have any sales-type metrics like engagement or conversion rates. Nonetheless, we achieved the functionality that we wanted, and they ultimately did a fast and modern implementation of the web app. 

How did Go Wombat perform from a project management standpoint?

We utilized JIRA for project management, and Go Wombat did an incredibly good job of keeping things organized and up to date. Everything was documented so we didn't forget things and events. 

We had daily meetings; we were in different time zones, but it worked out well. The meetings were between 30–45 minutes, and Go Wombat would start them with what they'd accomplished and what they wanted to do. Then, they’d ask me what they needed to deliver next so they could continue working. 

I’d spend the day going through their work, talking to stakeholders, bundling the target deliverables, and sending those over to their team. By the end of my day, they’d have everything fresh in front of them and they could start working. This was our general cycle. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Go Wombat had the ability to keep everything on track even when things got drawn out a bit or when there were confusions. Their project manager did an extremely good and tactful job at ensuring that everything would get reined back in. After that, we’d continue to push through to our goals. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. Go Wombat knocked the project out of the park on all levels. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As far as the tech stack that we used is concerned, Go Wombat is very knowledgeable. If you have a project that requires that stack, you’re going to be happy with them.