iLeaf Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of software for a company developing internet of things devices for homes. These devices allow homeowners to monitor what’s happening inside their homes (e.g., fire alarms, temperature) remotely.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iLeaf Solutions?

The company was started four years ago. As business grew, we needed more help in software and product development. Initially, I looked for a company that could help us with a new project, but wasn’t prepared to start the project without being confident in the people I was going to work with.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, iLeaf helped maintain one of our existing products. After a number of weeks, I determined that I could delegate a bigger portion of a bigger project to them, so we brought them on to help develop an update to our iOS and Android apps. The apps needed a new look-and-feel and new feature sets. Later on, we included them in our backend work.

Our app has a large number of features—some of them developed by iLeaf, and some by our internal team. These are all part of one system, so it was important to maintain integration.

What is the team composition?

They dedicated a project manager to us who made sure that our processes were being followed, and that they were consistent in working on things the way we did. In total, the team included two employees dedicated solely to our projects and two working part-time on our projects.

How did you come to work with iLeaf Solutions?

I posted a job on Upwork and several parties responded. I sent a test task to everyone and was happy with iLeaf’s answers.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent around $30,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2017 and are still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have generally been on time with all deliveries. We are a small team with a big customer base. We have a delivery to make every two weeks or so. Had iLeaf not taken things seriously and delivered according to our timelines, we would have had delays and not been able to send things to our business team on time.

How did iLeaf Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They picked up our internal processes and systems and became an integrated team. We use Jira as a ticketing system for task delegation. They had another system in place, but we suggested that they adopt ours. This is probably why they assigned a project manager to work with us.

We also have daily meetings during which we go through tasks. Their project manager makes sure that the process is followed. They follow up on questions, don’t drop the ball, and make sure that their commitments are delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They aim to be professional and reliable, and they make a conscious effort to do this. I’ve forgotten to follow up on certain things, but in those cases, they took the initiative. They want to be an accountable, reliable, and professional team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m happy with them and am going to work with them on a long-term basis. They are doing the right things.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the manager of Flexi Cash AS. We provide point of sales software, calendar systems for scheduling, and CRM customer systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iLeaf Solutions?

In the beginning, I needed mobile app development resources. I reached out to iLeaf Solutions to develop my project from scratch based on our specifications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iLeaf Solutions programmed all of our apps for Android and iOS. First off, we provided our overall functionality and design specs. We periodically approved the designs they created and refined. The first app is mostly native with some elements of HTML. It’s a reporting tool that shows any store manager their revenue for security reasons and tracks everything in the point-of-sale. For security purposes, it checks that sales are actually being registered and the income’s really going to their company. 

The team also built a fully native app for hairdressers that has booking and scheduling functions for salon customers. They’re currently developing a web platform in HTML and Ajax JS. It’s a new type of online point-of-sales system. The team also provides all the publishing support we need.

What is the team composition? 

I don't interface directly with the development team. Instead, I work directly with my point of contact Jaison. Our primary backend developer is located in India. He conducts most meetings with the developers. I’d assume that 1-3 resources were assigned to our project at any one time, and source supplemental people like designers for tasks outside the primary part of development. 

How did you come to work with iLeaf Solutions?

I found them many years ago when I was sourcing developers through Upwork. 

How much have you invested with them?

I've spent about $50,000 on their services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We first started working together in December of 2013. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

iLeaf is very transparent while trying to find the best solution to a problem. The team also has a substantial system and architectural knowledge base. They really understand what they're talking about, which is great. 

The first app was very well received among our user base. The second app has been working decently well, despite internal issues with our own developer and not providing a good API. I plan to work more with them on the web component, so it's premature to have metric-based results. 

How did iLeaf Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Their internal development has been pretty good but not perfect. Since we did most of the testing, though, they really haven't been too involved. Sometimes we have to repeat things that need to be fixed, but it was probably difficult for them to actually track and process the input to run the project properly. For communication, we simply use Skype or an IRC system. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

iLeaf is very forthcoming, helpful, and has a well-structured business approach. All these strengths make it very easy to work with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The project manager and most people we've spoken with are quite fluent in English, but some of the developers could work on their language skills. The language barrier is a widespread problem among most comparable teams in India.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a project manager for a software innovation company developing complex projects for Fortune 500 clients. We have been in business for a year and are constantly growing worldwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iLeaf?

We had too many project requests to handle internally and decided to outsource a part of our work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our first project with iLeaf was a React Native lifestyle application. We also contacted them for a ReactJS frontend project for the speaker platform of one of the biggest German worldwide publishers.

We are working on a few other projects, mainly using ReactJS, React Native or GraphQL databases for authentication. We’ve used Stripe as a payment provider, Zero as a verification and signup third-party tool, Facebook app events, branch.io (which is a deep-linking service), and common React-Bootstrap frameworks for app interfaces. Most of the work with them is frontend.

What is the team dynamic?

For the React Native project, we had around 5 developers from their team. I’ve been in contact with their project manager. We’ve used a single developer on a project for our own company’s website. We’re also using a single developer for the latest project.

We typically start with a requirements document outlining the entire project, which also serves as a backlog. Based on it, we make an estimate and hire their team. We use Skype, GitHub, the Google Docs suite, Upwork, a tool for frontend changes, and taiga.io (a tool for Agile development, especially scrum).

How did you come to work with iLeaf?

A colleague of mine found them through Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of their work has been around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with iLeaf in April 2017, and we have an ongoing relationship. Our React Native project took 5 months to complete.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

iLeaf did a brilliant job on every project we’ve worked on together. They can understand our clients’ business demands and work as a self-organized team without continuously double-checking or asking for the meaning of various user stories and requirements. This has helped us increase our development speed.

How did iLeaf perform from a project management standpoint?

Their developers were able to self-organize based on our briefings, and there weren’t many questions about the scope of the work. It was delivered within perfect timing and with good quality. Overall, I’m very happy with the communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by their business understanding and sharp sense for details.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could provide a better sense of what our kick-off dates are. This isn’t really a negative point, just the advice I would give to iLeaf. So far, I’ve been satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My current company is in the field of corporate social responsibility. I’m a UX architect, but I also head up the development of a grants management solution that we offer to enterprise corporations and foundations. The product helps them manage their corporate grant offerings to individuals and nonprofits.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iLeaf Solutions?

Our core application is maintained by an engineering team of 20 in-house. We knew we needed to get into the grants management space, but we didn’t necessarily have the resources here to accomplish the task.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s a multi-tenant web-based application with responsive web—not necessarily trying to conquer the native app side of things right this moment. A lot of the BA work and design and frontend development is handled on our side, and a lot of the core application coding is what we rely on the iLeaf team for. We needed a team that did Node.js application development. We were looking for something that aligns, as best we could, to the tech stack we’re using internally. For the most part, iLeaf was able to accommodate that and help us get going. There was a year of research that went in before we even had iLeaf come on board.

On our original engagement model, we would put together a spec of work that we felt would take them anywhere from two to three months. They would analyze it and we would come up with a SOW [statement of work] so that everyone was in agreement on what we were going to do and about how long it would take. Then we would start knocking it out. We just changed to a different model, though, and brought on a team full-time. We’ve now moved to more of a dedicated model where we have three developers, a project manager, and a QA resource on their side.

How did you come to work with iLeaf Solutions?

It really goes back several years before I even joined the company. I had startups of my own, and we were doing a native iOS application with a lot of geolocation based stuff. We had outsourced work to an individual in China who stopped returning our calls.

We did another round of interviews. We came across iLeaf and I discussed the possibility of working with Jaison [CEO]. They were able to pick up that source code and we were actually able to get that app finished up and pushed out in the market. We worked with Jaison on that a handful of years, so my history with them goes back pretty far.

When we didn’t have the resources in-house, I recommended them to our CEO. It’s been about a year now, and they got our grants manager app to a production-ready state. When it comes down to it, they’ve always been reliable.

How much have you invested with iLeaf Solutions?

I think $10,000–$50,000 is an acceptable range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in March or April of 2016. We’ve launched the product to clients. We ramped things up to a dedicated team model, so we are looking at fairly continuous aggressive development until at least the beginning of 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our engineering team had some hands-on experience in database architecture and general guidance, so there’s been a lot of collaboration there. Everyone’s happy from a code and architecture perspective. The company and the clients that we serve are generally happy with the look and feel and functionality of the app.

How did iLeaf Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve definitely been really good about communication. We’re both working on opposite ends of the day so I’ve never really had any complaint about availability, whether that’s us chatting with them at night or them chatting with us in the morning. Tools like JIRA, if utilized well, make everything extremely easy. They’ve been proficient at leveling those tools.

As we’ve gone along and gauged a little bit of our velocity, we’ve been able to stagger our deadlines. We made the beta that we needed to push out on time and moved it to production when we needed it to move, so everything was generally done on time.

What did you find most impressive about iLeaf Solutions?

Communication and general documentation. They’re always very helpful and happy to send across a ten-page deck for anything that we’re discussing. They’ve been great.

Are there any areas iLeaf Solutions could improve?

Not necessarily. For this project and the team that we have here, we’ve addressed a lot of things and just seen the improvements in them. A lot of that’s just on communication and how we handle all the different tasks and everything. We had some comments about midway through, and everything’s settled out just fine.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Yufi is an educational technology, limited liability company registered in Hong Kong. Now four years old, we specialize in creating apps and software that allow younger users (as young as age four) to post work to their blog at school. We are a small startup company with four initial investors and co-founders. I’m the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iLeaf Solutions?

With iLeaf Solutions, our objective was to develop an iPad application that was a blogging platform for students of different age groups. The most challenging part was the UI/UX and the usability, as it needs to be appealing to all user types. Also, the platform supports features such as in-app viewing of blogs, commenting, privacy controls, and syncing between iPads.

In the search for a quality mobile development team, we reached out to iLeaf Solutions. They had a good understanding of our industry and product goals, which made them an ideal development partner. They hit the ground running and impressed us with their professionalism and technical expertise. As a startup, we change directions. The ability to accommodate those changes while continuing to execute within tight timelines was really a challenging task that they addressed well. They felt like part of our team and addressed all of our requirements in a well-optimized manner. iLeaf’s engineers have played an essential role in the evolution of our product. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project involved building a feature-rich iOS native app with challenging UI/UX features. It’s basically an education app with multiple sub-platforms that create an interactive informative system. The app needed to be able to support multiple user roles and connection scenarios. It also needed a robust backend with a well-designed database and web services to support the logic, data feed, and user actions within the app.

The app was designed in accordance with the features that Easy Blog was seeking to build, including supporting multiple sub domains, user roles, and the unique blogging feature that allows people to create a narrative through written content, photos, and video. Native iOS features were leveraged along with extensive custom code to make the application work. For the backend, WordPress technology was used, along with custom design and implementation to achieve the desired functionalities and behavior. iLeaf was involved from the conceptualization to implementation of the project, resulting in a robust, scalable application.

They utilized WordPress, PHP, and MySQL for the web application. They used Objective-C, Swift, and Core Data for the iOS application.

How did you come to work with iLeaf Solutions?

We were looking for a development partner we could trust with our big ideas and limited resources. It was through a reference that we reached out to iLeaf. We had a slow start with some pilot tasks, and they delivered with outstanding quality in a timely manner. We had a bad experience with outsourcing previously where we ended up with a poor delivery and coding standard. iLeaf helped us by reviewing the existing code base and addressed the drawbacks, equipping us with a stable first product. They became our official development partners from there.

How much have you invested with iLeaf Solutions?

We have spent between $50,000 and $150,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

This is an ongoing project. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

In the initial stages of the engagement, a Time and Materials development model was adopted where 100–120 hours per month per resource was utilized. But, as the project development appreciated, iLeaf suggested that a DTM [dedicated team model] was more effective to achieve our anticipated goals, and now that’s what we have in place for our projects. The team is a combination of project management, mobile development, web development, QA, and UX/UX professionals. Our initial release was with very minimal features, and currently we have seven feature-rich applications in stores.

We had no hesitations in suggesting iLeaf Solutions to some of our acquaintances who had mobility development requirements, and we always hear good news about their collaborations.

How did iLeaf Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

A good project management process is the key to any software project’s success, and iLeaf does this exceedingly well. We are extremely happy with the project management process at iLeaf. The Technology Project Managers understand the ins and outs of the software infrastructure, and they direct us in the right path. They are familiar with several project management tools and processes that make the project development process efficient and effective for us.

What did you find most impressive about iLeaf Solutions?

iLeaf has made the necessary effort to understand our business. They don’t just execute our requests; they add value to our business. The team always has a positive attitude and can pull it together quickly to meet last-minute changes and deadlines. Their team’s technical expertise, customer focus, and flexible approach are truly commendable. Throughout the course of the project, iLeaf has focused on the benefits of the solution to the customer's business. Their iterative development approach to mitigate risks has been one of the best that we’ve witnessed. The key to our successful interactions has been their project manager's ability to understand our needs through regular meetings and effectively translate these requirements to the tech team.

Are there any areas iLeaf Solutions could improve?

No. They are capable, and we are pretty happy with their professional approach. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is creating a platform that helps users organize events and keep memories of those events by taking pictures or short videos. I’m the president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iLeaf Solutions?

iLeaf Solutions helped me create the applications, using my designs and the like, for both the Android and iOS platforms. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the iOS app, there was an app that was already existing. However, it was only doing 60% of what I wanted it to do. I redesigned the app completely using an outside designer, and then I provided iLeaf Solutions both with the design and the code at the time when I started working on that. I explained to them what the app should be doing. They worked a specification and started development for iOS. Then, when the iOS app was almost ready, we did the same with Android. The same designer that did the iOS also did the Android equivalent. There wasn't any code to start with for the Android version, but they already had the iOS code, so they recreated the code or the platform for an Android platform. iLeaf Solutions didn't have any creative input in the look and feel. It was more that they were implementing the design created by other designers from a programming perspective. I also created a web version of the platform, and the designers of iLeaf Solutions did that one from scratch. It was a frontend web app developed on ReactJS.

As to the specific functionalities we wanted for the apps, we needed to be able to communicate through a JSON API through the backend. We needed to be able to take pictures. The way it works is a user sets up an event and invites friends and family or whoever they want, and then all those invitees or guests are able to take pictures and post them automatically to the backend (S3). Then, all those assets are used by the person who actually sets up the event to curate an album that's going to be publishable, both through the platform and emails. They needed to be able to, in terms of the app specifically, have the app work with the backend but also take and send pictures directly. The pictures didn't go through the backend, so the backend would provide the URL for S3. They would be able to put that directly to S3, work on the security aspects in terms of logging in and off, and also restrict access to the images.

I want to say around probably five or six people that were at different times involved with the project on different things. I had at least two on iOS, one on Android, and one designer for the web interface. Sometimes, they would also have someone, on an hourly basis, help me with AWS [Amazon web services] tasks or issues that I had because I did the backend myself. They had enough resources for whatever I needed, and I just requested the resources on an as-needed basis.

How did you come to work with iLeaf Solutions?

It was through a recommendation. They had already worked with a friend of mine. He had worked with independent developers before, and he wanted a company that had more resources and could move faster. He was really satisfied with their performance, so he told me about them when he knew that I was looking for similar services. I started working with them, did a few tests, and was satisfied with the quality of the work. That’s how I decided to proceed with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September or October of 2015. I had a few things I would want to change on a piecemeal basis, but they wrapped the last task in November or December of 2016. That one project has been completed, but there are a few others that I’m starting right now; we're in the initial processes of getting those going. Those are not entirely completed; it's just that for now I've stopped investing in the development, but it's operational/working. There are a few more things I want to do but I’m postponing until the end of the year. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

I don’t have any measurable results at this point because I did a soft launch of the app. That's why I want everything to remain private because there are many things that are happening right now. I still have a full-time employer who is in a different industry, but it's a very regulated industry. I was basically asked by my employer to stop working on it. I didn’t go ahead and launch everything publicly with marketing and whatever is needed. I stalled that for now. It's still going to happen by the end of the year. That's why I was saying earlier that there may be some more to do toward the end of the year, but I had to stop everything, and that's exactly why I want it to remain private.

In terms of all the functionalities that I was expecting the apps to be able to do, they met those standards. People were able to use them in the way that I expected them to be used. Everyone who has seen it was very enthusiastic about it and really liked it, but that's a very limited sample from word of mouth. It's basically friends and family who all used it before I shut it down. It was basically in beta and was restricted, so I had to allow every single person who’s going to the platform to join. I was getting interest from many people—maybe like 50 people talking about it—but then I had to stop before I could really launch it.

How did iLeaf Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

I think they do quite well, and I tend to be a little demanding. Because I was on my own, working on the project from the company standpoint, sometimes I would be a bottleneck, but they really performed well from their part. They were able to meet the deadlines I set for them for the various milestones and the eventual wrapping of the project.

In the beginning, I had to set expectations on response time, keeping me up to date where they were, and letting me know if there were any hiccups during the project. It did not appear that it was going to be the case (maybe I'm just too demanding). But, once I communicated that and set those expectations, their response time was very quick. As I said, whenever there was a bottleneck, it was mostly on my part because I was doing many things at the same time and didn't have the time to focus.

We communicated with Skype and email. I would mostly communicate with the project manager on an ongoing basis, with Jaison [CEO, iLeaf Solutions] every once in a while (when needed), and sometimes with developers.

What did you find most impressive about iLeaf Solutions?

I've worked with independent contractors, both here in the US and abroad, and I would say that they are extremely reliable. Some of the things that I really appreciated because they really fit my profile are their flexibility, helpfulness, and resourcefulness. I would spend weeks where they needed me to provide something, and I just couldn’t because I don't have the time, and I wouldn't be penalized for that financially. For someone who's trying to build something on the side, that's a very important trait. I really appreciated that. There was never a time where I needed a resource for something and they couldn’t get it for me. I think that they have some relationships with some other firms that do different things: if I needed something that was not necessarily in their area of expertise, they would find a sister company or a partner on their end that would help me get what I needed.

Are there any areas iLeaf Solutions could improve?

Nothing really comes to mind right now. Not all the developers are very fluent, but I saw it more as a cost of doing business with outsourcing or offshoring. Most of them are fluent, so I was able to communicate directly with them, but sometimes I just had to make sure that the project manager was also there. Sometimes, I needed to communicate something directly to the developer because I wanted it to go faster. Those calls could take a little bit longer because it would take more time to communicate since English may not have been the developer’s first language. Although they would all understand me and speak, they weren't as fluent as I would have liked. Those processes or calls may take a little bit longer, but I saw that as normal. It wasn't a big problem for me. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a large Swiss radio station in the German part of Switzerland. I’m the head of digital services. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iLeaf Solutions?

We try to handle as much development as possible without the use of an agency, but there are certain areas for which we don’t have the right abilities. In our case, we needed an Android application and don’t have any Java developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iLeaf Solutions wasn’t involved in the creative process. We showed them our iOS app and requested a replica for Android. We gave iLeaf Solutions our source code, which they transferred to Java.

Our app is mainly used for listening to the radio station. A second functionality is providing podcasts for news and shows through which people can listen to prior broadcastings. There is also a forecast tab that shows weather conditions, as well as a Twitter feed. We also needed an integration for push notifications.

How did you come to work with iLeaf Solutions?

I found iLeaf Solutions on oDesk; the company’s descriptions, as well as our conversations with their principal, seemed promising. I had worked with them before this on a private project. They did a very good job there, so we decided to give iLeaf Solutions a chance on our radio app.

How much have you invested with iLeaf Solutions?

The cost of iLeaf Solutions’ work has been between $3,000 and $4,000 overall.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with iLeaf Solutions in 2014. The project had a 3-month duration. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

We didn’t have an Android app before the one built by iLeaf Solutions, so I couldn’t reference any measurements for comparison. We were very pleased with our download count, as well as with the Google Play rating. I believe that the app has around 4.5 stars.

How did iLeaf Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We are satisfied with iLeaf Solutions, but we did have some issues with overcoming the work style differences. We’ve had a bit of a trial period in order to see what everyone’s work style was. It was our first time working with an agency from another country, so there was some experience to be gained on both sides in working across different locations, time zones, and languages. It was interesting to figure out.

What did you find most impressive about iLeaf Solutions?

We are very happy with how everything turned out. It’s a smooth and easy communication process, and iLeaf Solutions remained responsive and fast. They’ve done a great job.

Are there any areas iLeaf Solutions could improve?

Overall, we’ve very happy, and I don’t think there’s much room for improvement on iLeaf Solutions’ side. One tiny area with which we’re still struggling is exchanging code. We do post on GitHub, but we would have liked something similar to TestFlight on iOS for our Android beta APKs [Android package kits]. We usually receive deliverables via email, but that means that we have to upload the work on our servers manually. It’s not a big issue at all, though. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide an application that allows people in the same vicinity to interact with each other as well as with local businesses. It’s a social network centered around location, more than on a contact list, as would be the case for Facebook. I am the founder and CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iLeaf Solutions?

We needed help maintaining the app and continuing its development. We had decided to let go of the full-time team and needed some reliable, high-quality developers who could work as needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The product requirements and specs remained my responsibility. When I determine that a feature needs to be implemented or adjusted, I will create product documentation and design, to some extent. iLeaf Solutions would then create high-fidelity designs, come up with technical solutions, and implement them on Android and iOS. They have worked exclusively on our main application.

There has been a lot of optimization involved in the project. iLeaf Solutions has performed a complete QA analysis of the product and identified a lot of hidden bugs and stability issues. They upgraded it to the latest version of Swift and made improvements on the geolocation accuracy. iLeaf Solutions changed our user interface based on my updated requirements, simplifying certain modules. During the first three or four months, iLeaf Solutions worked on identifying what should be changed and maintained in the application. It wasn’t working well when it was first brought to them, but iLeaf Solutions managed to improve its reliability.

They assigned three full-time engineers for iOS and Android, as well as a project manager who interfaced with me. He is the principal of the company, and I can get in touch with him whenever I have a problem. We have also engaged QA resources and a designer, although I do tend to do all the design work myself.

How did you come to work with iLeaf Solutions?

We interviewed around 12 shortlisted companies. iLeaf Solutions seemed to be the company that best met our requirements in terms of technical ability, eagerness and price points.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with iLeaf Solutions around December, and we have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The only thing I could attribute to iLeaf Solutions is timely delivery and the ability to maintain price points. They haven’t had a role in our growth or user retention since they’re not involved in those aspects. iLeaf Solutions has been stellar in delivering within our schedule and keeping costs low.

How did iLeaf Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Our three key performance indicators for iLeaf Solutions’ team include the ability to deliver within an aggressive timeline and budget. They have analyzed our problems and discussed solutions with me. We agree on implementations, and I am kept up to date on the progress. We achieved our timelines on 98% of occasions.

We tend to use Trello internally, but it hasn’t been needed in the collaboration with iLeaf Solutions so far. We work on set sprints and maintenance, but there’s no ongoing backlog that would need to be tracked.

What did you find most impressive about iLeaf Solutions?

The main challenge for us has been proactively identifying instabilities and improvement areas. iLeaf Solutions has done better in this task compared with previous teams. Their agility has been good, and the team understands what it means to be a partner rather than an outsourcer who bills the client as much as they can. I appreciate the fact that while I don’t have a very lucrative project, iLeaf Solutions has still done it with full dedication. They never gave me the impression of being deprioritized. They’re out there with anyone I’ve worked with during the last five years.

Are there any areas iLeaf Solutions could improve?

As with 80% of the development firms out there, iLeaf Solutions could always do more on the design front. Their skills are good, but everyone outside of Silicon Valley is one step behind. It may not be realistic advice, but it’s what I’ve been pushing my employees and partners to do. You have to be neck-in-neck with competitors if you want to be a good software company. I would say that iLeaf Solutions is within the 80^th percentile, but they need to get to the 90^th.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Nexercise was an app that motivated and awarded the user for exercising. I was the co-founder and VP of engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iLeaf Solutions?

We had developers working on the iPhone app but I needed help to develop the app for our Android client. I managed the development, the QA, and the deployment of the product. Another developer and I did some of the backend coding on the server.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The iPhone app already existed so we were trying to duplicate the functionality of that for the Android version. There wasn’t a lot of wireframing at the beginning of the project because we knew what we needed to do. We expected them to give us advice on what Android standards were and they did do that.

There were some Android-only features that we ended up implementing and some of those helped us get featured in Google Play. iLeaf was instrumental in both the design and development of some of those features. I did the final deployment to be able to check on things. There were a few times when it was taking longer for Google Play to propagate which I told them. I did the deployment around when I knew they’d be able to confirm. I would deploy before going to bed and would have iLeaf confirm. If there were any issues, they would look into it and fix it before I got up. I know we were one of the first apps to interface with Android Wear and also interfaced with Google Fit for a competition.

At the peak of development, we had three Android developers and a full-time tester who would test both our iPhone and Android apps.

How did you come to work with iLeaf Solutions?

I was looking for an individual Android developer. I found Jaison on an online platform and thought he was an individual developer but it ended up working out well that they were a company because we could add more resources if we needed to. They were always quick to oblige if we needed more developers. Part of our agreement was that I would have direct access to the developers and they agreed. After that, the next three years were great.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2012, and the work was completed in December 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We had way fewer support tickets on the Android version than we had on the iPhone version. We got featured in Google Play twice which leads to an increase in users. While we were actively developing the Android app, it was really outperforming our iPhone app from a usage and user standpoint. We attempted to do a corporate wellness feature but I don’t remember what all the comments were. Google Play will not feature you if you don’t follow a certain set of standards. Last year in June, we took the app out of the App Store. Before that, we stopped innovating and were only fixing critical bugs for nine months.

How did iLeaf Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

I opted to talk to the developers directly on Slack and Jaison agreed. He was part of the channel, too, and if we needed him we could bring him in. I also communicated with them by email and, on occasion, Skype. If they didn’t reply to my requests within hours, they apologized for the delay. They were very dedicated.

My company was part of Techstars, which is an accelerator, and during the accelerator, we wanted to get a brand-new version of our iPhone and Android app out. iPhone was so far behind that rather than ask the accelerator for another two weeks, my cofounder asked if iLeaf could work through the weekend and we can release the Android version in a couple days while the iPhone version has another week or two. I asked the team and they agreed to do that even though it wasn’t their fault. They were good with deadlines. They would send me a new build every day with a status report if necessary. Nineteen times out of 20, they did it, and the time they didn’t, there was some technical issue that they were trying to resolve.

What did you find most impressive about iLeaf Solutions?

I had some previous experiences that did not go as well as this project did. When we were in the Techstars program, a number of the other startups were shocked that I was able to have such a good working relationship with an outsourced team. I think that’s a credit to them of how much they went above and beyond and how dedicated they were whenever I asked for anything. When I would thank them for the work they were doing, they would say it’s their responsibility.

Are there any areas iLeaf Solutions could improve?

In the beginning, I asked if they were familiar with Bitbucket and the source code control and they said yes but somehow they did something that messed up our repository. I was very upset but they came in over the weekend to fix it. That’s when I asked for direct access to the developers. The relationship didn’t start out that good but they learned from their mistakes and made it one of the best working relationships I’ve ever had.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company develops apps. I’m the CEO. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iLeaf Solutions?

We needed to outsource the development of three apps while staying within our budget. We wanted to find talent that could develop the apps in a timely manner. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially hired iLeaf Solutions in 2014 to clean up the mess that other engineers had made on one of our apps. The app wasn’t even opening and was crashing all the time. They did a great job with that; after we launched that app, we moved on to creating a scheduling app on iOS, which was pretty complex. There were a lot of features that were hard to understand, and I was impressed with how they understood what I wanted and gave suggestions to make the app better.

The third app was an iOS app that is like Snapchat for your voice. All of the apps were coded in Objective-C. We developed the wireframes in-house, and they would look at them with us to make sure they were intuitive. Sometimes, they weren’t, so I’d work with them to find open source to make it more intuitive. They had creative insight into the UX after we received the build, noting if the mockups we made would fit in reality. The head of iLeaf Solutions is Jaison; we worked with a PM and a frontend and backend engineer. Depending on the contract, they also brought in a beta tester. If you want to have them beta test the product, you can, but sometimes I think it’s better to test it yourself since you know what your product does.

When we finished the first version of an app, we would write all the things that needed to be done in the second phase, which would sometimes require us to start from scratch. We would discover those in beta testing.

How did you come to work with iLeaf Solutions?

I found them on Upwork. In their profile, they referred to themselves as something like “engineering rock stars” or something that had a sense of humor. I feel like when you’re developing, you need to have more than a robotic approach to it. Some developers are black and white, but because iLeaf Solutions had humor in their profile, I was drawn to it and felt that they would have these sensibilities and would understand things that weren’t 100% obvious when they developed. They seemed to have a profile that wasn’t just for-hire nine to five; it was more human.

How much have you invested with iLeaf Solutions?

We’ve spent between $10,000 and $50,000 per project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2014, and the work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

The last app we made was the biggest app, with thousands of downloads. The app was featured in EK Magazine. We got five-star ratings from app bloggers. The apps were received well by everyday people and also by those who specialize in reviewing, testing, and experiencing apps.

We have something built into the apps where users can send us feedback. We also have automatic crash reports where the user can send the report immediately when the incident happens. We also get feedback where the users give suggestions on how to make the app more intuitive or improve the design. Sometimes we agree with them, and sometimes we don’t; but, we try to accommodate those suggestions when we develop the next version.

How did iLeaf Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They did really well. We use Skype to communicate and worked on fixed contracts. Usually, developers will say they’re only getting paid for a certain amount of hours, but iLeaf Solutions would still work overtime. With fixed contracts, I know exactly how much I’m spending, which is advantageous to me. However, when bugs arise and more hours are needed, it’s not as advantageous to iLeaf Solutions. Nevertheless, they’re still willing to work beyond what is required to get the job done. Sometimes, they were working at 2:00 in the morning. Most developers would say, “That’s not my problem. I’ve put in my hours.” But, the value proposition for iLeaf Solutions is, “Let’s get this done because we can’t move on until we do.”

What did you find most impressive about iLeaf Solutions?

Nothing goes as planned when developing apps, and things take longer than they should because bugs arise and take weeks to resolve. What is noteworthy about iLeaf Solutions is that they will continue to work on a task until the problem is solved. I know a lot of engineers who will give up or say it’s out of budget.

Are there any areas iLeaf Solutions could improve?

When you have the timeline set, you try to follow it as closely as possible, but things don’t always go as planned. We had some delays, but that is expected with any agency.