Infinum

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The Museum of Broken Relationships is a global crowd-sourced collection of remains from failed love relationships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We have been on the market for 6 years and had not updated our website since the beginning. It was not responsive and was rather poor in terms of content, user experience, and so on. We decided to invest into a new one, so we searched for the best possible agency in Zagreb, Croatia.

We had worked with a different company for the initial website. It was a small group of 3–5 developers. They were great at the time, but probably not enough 6 years later because we became far more ambitious.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The basic goal was to create a new, responsive, and more informative website. We wanted it to be an extension of the museum in virtual space, to house a community, giving people a chance to interact with us, especially ones from parts of the world where we’ve never been. The museum has 2 permanent displays, in Zagreb and Los Angeles, but we have also been on tour around the globe for the last 10 years, with 50 exhibitions held in different places. Still, there are places where we haven’t been and never will be, so we were looking for some way of being close to all those people in the virtual world, if not the physical one.

There were different programming languages used on our site, including JavaScript, React, Ruby on Rails, and so on. We have worked with 1 project manager from Infinum’s side, who was the best part of the collaboration. I’m not sure how many developers were used, but I estimate that there were 5–10 being engaged at different times, from the beginning to the publishing phase. We stayed in touch with the project manager, the communication manager, the designer, and the head of the development team.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

We looked at 3 or 4 of the most popular and skilled agencies in Zagreb at the time. Infinum seemed to be the best option for us, so we started working with them. We were right in our decision.

How much have you invested with Infinum?

We have invested around 7% of our annual income in the project so far, between $45,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Infinum in late January 2016. The first phase of development took 9 months to complete, and the site was launched in the last quarter of the same year. We will continue the project with the redesign of our web shop, after which we’ll move on to a mobile app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our new site instantly brought significant increases when compared to the same quarter in the previous year: +106% in sessions, +73% in page views, and +27% in museum visitors.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

I didn’t expect to be as satisfied as I am— Infinum is excellent, even in terms of deadlines and cost. I don’t know if the same is true everywhere, but in Croatia, even though developers and creative agencies can excel in many areas, when it comes to deadlines and budgets, there are always problems. In Infinum’s case, we only had one small delay in the summer, which was beyond their control. The projected cost was adhered to as well.

What did you find most impressive about Infinum?

They know what we need, sometimes better than we do, and how to make it better. We expressed what we were thinking about in short sentences, like having an extension of the physical museum in the virtual space. Infinum came up with the idea of highlighting breakups on the world map in the first or second workshop we held, which I found fascinating. This has been my general experience with them, and I’ve never had to explain the same concept for hours and hours.

Are there any areas Infinum could improve?

They can be quite an expensive option for an entrepreneur in the museum business from a small country. We are planning to develop a web shop with Infinum — even though they are expensive from a Croatian point of view, the results are worth the money.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Na Zvezi is a Slovenian company developing an operations management solution for online gaming. We have developed several products using our proprietary platform, all related to the sports betting and online casinos market. They are mainly intended for the European market. I am the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We needed to develop and application. Infinum is our supplier for the mobile application part of our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided our APIs to Infinum, both for our platform and for our AMS [Account Management System]. Infinum used our documentation and development environments in order to build an Android and iOS sports betting application.

We did a lot of research analyzing our competition and developed the concept behind the application together with Infinum. Infinum used their experience to help us build a very good product.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

We found their company through a Google search. Infinum happened to be located in one of our neighbor countries, Croatia. We had several offers on the table, and after having very detailed interviews with each provider and their team, we decided to choose Infinum.

How much have you invested with Infinum?

Our budget for the mobile applications was around €600,000 [$630,000]. Infinum's hourly rates are between €70 and €100 [$73–$105] per hour, per developer. This is an idea of how much time and effort was put into developing our applications.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Infinum almost six months ago. We have an ongoing contract for maintenance and upgrades. We work through a retainer fee, as well as time and materials for anything which extends beyond our normal agreement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We think that, at the moment, there is no better product on the market than ours, for this area.

Infinum adapted to our way of working, which was an important factor for us. We didn't know the company and didn't do a lot of research around it. The development was much more complex than anticipated. We estimated that we'd be spending around €200,000 for the apps, but Infinum came up with many new ideas which we adopted. I am thankful to Infinum for this, as it would have been possible to develop our product for 30% of our cost, but not with the same level of quality and at the same speed. Speed was crucial for us, since we developed a sophisticated product in a short time, from scratch.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

We decided to put project management in Infinum's hands. The timeframes we agreed upon contractually came with penalties if Infinum did not meet our deadline. Infinum finished the work without any issues. Infinum has a huge team, and they were able to use additional resources in order to speed up the project if needed.

What did you find most impressive about Infinum?

I appreciated the level of optimization and quality assurance provided by Infinum. Infinum optimized our product for less processing and power consumption and had excellent quality assurance protocols in place. We don't have the in-house capacity for testing our product, so we expected this from Infinum since day one. Infinum took the task very seriously.

Are there any areas Infinum could improve?

We haven't touched very deeply yet on the marketing features which are to be implemented in the apps, so I can't comment in that area. Still, based on the good experience I've had with Infinum until now, I can assume that the development of these features will run well. We needed to have a firm grounding before building additional features, but we will enter a new era with Infinum.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Virtual Post Mail is a service which scans people's mail, allowing them to receive it through the cloud. I am the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We were looking to revamp our entire mail management site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Infinum designed our platform from initial user functionality prototyping and sketching. We were planning to develop the site using our own programmers but decided to give Infinum a try for the frontend. We handled the backend ourselves.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

We came in contact with one of Infinum's designers via Dribble. Coincidentally, they happened to be a customer of ours.

How much have you invested with Infinum?

The cost of our project with Infinum was between $50,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Infinum in January 2016. Most of the development was finished in October. We plan to use Infinum again in the first quarter of 2017 for redesigning our website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Infinum's design was good, but it was also challenging. I'm a software engineer myself, which made presenting my vision more difficult. Things were squared away, and the final product quality was good. Infinum also did a good job development-wise. Because I have experience on the software side, managing that portion of the work was much easier.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

Infinum could improve in this regard. The project manager who was assigned to us was fairly new and didn't follow up in the manner promised to us. I've needed to talk to one of the senior people from Infinum, who squared away most of my issues.

What did you find most impressive about Infinum?

I've appreciated the fact that Infinum's senior designer was actively involved in our project. Most agencies have a senior designer who talks to clients but isn't the one actually doing the work. The same thing happens on the software side, which is why I've tended to stay away from agencies. Infinum has been good at actually assigning the people who initially talked to me for the actual development of the project, and not passing the work down to junior developers.

Are there any areas Infinum could improve?

Outside of the project management issue I've mentioned, I can't think of anything. The development workflow was great, and Infinum did a good job of accommodating me. For a Croatian company, the team speaks English very well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a B2B [business-to-business] marketplace for the overstock industry. We are similar to eBay, with the exception that our customers are buying hundreds of thousands of pieces at a time. This is very much an offline market at the moment and involves emailing Excel files between partners. We're trying to transform it, and have brought Infinum in to help us build the marketplace from scratch.

I am the chief technology officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We had a legacy solution which had been built upon a third-party platform. It was an okay piece of auction technology but wasn't fitting for our business needs and where we wanted to scale to. We looked at building on top of an existing framework but came to the conclusion that building from scratch would align with our business better.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Infinum handled the writing of our backend, including database design, modeling, wire-framing and building out the JavaScript front-end. I participated in the design process.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

I got Infinum's name from a friend who had worked with them in the past. I flew to Croatia and met them in person, in order to better understand how we could work together. I contacted a number of other options, but Infinum struck me as someone who could help us figure out how to build what we wanted, without having to come up with a complete design spec. We knew what general direction we wanted to take, but I left the user interface design up to Infinum. They came up with some great suggestions for this.

How much have you invested with Infinum?

The cost of our project with Infinum has been above $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Infinum in early-March 2016. The first iteration was completed mid-July, and the development has continued since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developers from Infinum whom I've worked with have been some of the best and brightest I've seen. They came up with good solutions and business ideas which we hadn't considered but ended up implementing. I've had a very positive experience with Infinum.

What did you find most impressive about Infinum?

Infinum engineered things correctly while remaining proactive about making sure to create the right code, rather than finding shortcuts. Infinum asked many questions about our design, which we hadn't thought to specify, and erred on the correct side, without us having to request this. Some other developers I used in the past might take some shortcuts unless I specified otherwise.

Are there any areas Infinum could improve?

No software is ever developed as quickly as we'd like it to, but this is the nature of the field. I have no specific criticisms of Infinum. They've done a good job.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our department works for a government-owned Croatian postal bank. I am the deputy head of direct channels for the company. My main responsibilities include digital and mobile banking, and the contact center.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

Our bank was using an out-of-the-box mobile solution from another vendor, with only its colors customized for our institution. That software was outdated and the challenge was to make a new, modern banking app which could make a difference in the market and stand out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Together with Infinum, we built a new banking app for Android and iOS. Infinum handled design and development, including an API for the app.

At the beginning of 2016, we added an account opening functionality to the app. Through a video call to our contact center, new customers could be introduced to the bank. This was a completely new service for the Croatian market.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

I first worked with Infinum in 2011, for another bank, developing a mobile application, but I wasn't working for my present organization when Infinum was brought in.

How much have you invested with Infinum?

The total cost of our project with Infinum was under $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first approached Infinum one year ago, and finished the first version of our product at the end of 2015. The upgrade project began in early 2016 and was completed in May. It was a large project with a strict timeline, but with the help of Infinum, we managed to pull it off.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We currently have around 60,000 mobile banking users. We've received an award at the Weekend Media Festival one month ago, for the best banking app in Croatia. The app has made a big impact on the market. The Croatian Bank is more traditional, and other banks didn't expect that we could pull this off.

What did you find most impressive about Infinum?

I have been personally working with Infinum since 2011, and see them as more of a partner than a software development company. Infinum has given us suggestions on how we could create a better app and better user experience. Infinum's key strengths are the quality developers who have managed to deliver everything on time. Banks usually have different approaches, but Infinum brought in its experience in developing for other fields.

Are there any areas Infinum could improve?

Infinum could employ more designers, but they don't have any particular improvement points.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Hungry-For-More Enterprises was formed in late-2014 in order to develop Foodfaves, a picture-intensive food app aimed at foodies and anyone that gets hungry. It features a unique concept called a "Crave Quiz," where users search and swipe sequential images of food in order to determine what they're hungry for.

I am the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We knew from the beginning that our app required a complicated search algorithm, probably the biggest challenge we faced when choosing a software developer. The provider needed to understand our needs, be responsive to our financial hurdles in the startup space, while also delivering the right product. Because our product is heavily structured on social media, we needed a young group of social media-savvy developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Infinum developed an initial build of our product for iOS, and a full-featured website. The app will eventually be built for Android as well.

Our Crave Quiz concept works as a sort of Tinder for food, allowing people to swipe dishes right or left, based on whether or not there is a visual appeal. We envisioned this as the central piece of a minimum viable product but ended up achieving a much more robust, full-featured and functional product over the course of 18 months. We attribute this largely to Infinum's ability to understand our vision, and contribute to its design and functionality.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

We vetted Infinum from a field of developers both in the US and offshore. Infinum in particular, was recommended by our legal counsel, an international firm, on the basis of positive experiences between Infinum and their other clients.

How much have you invested with Infinum?

Infinum has logged close to 4,000 hours of development and design time over the course of 18 months, which is indicative of our project size. The scope grew over the course of development, becoming larger than we'd anticipated. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Development with Infinum began in February 2015. Our project has been completed and made ready-to-launch to the app store in September 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are very excited and confident with the quality of our first build.  As Foodfaves was just launched, it’s too early to measure traction. 

We've asked Infinum to achieve something unique and difficult, in terms of the actual search algorithm powering the Crave Quiz. Not only did they succeed in development, its “uniqueness” earned the co-founders a formal U.S. patent on the Search Algorithm itself.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

Consistency was key. Where this was a team effort by over 25 developers & designers, Infinum's project manager, Luka Maric was our main contact through the entire project, responsible for understanding our needs, helping us fine-tune our vision, and ultimately getting it done.  

What did you find most impressive about Infinum?

One of the most positive things I can say about Infinum is that instead of working as a group of software coders who only responded in step with what we asked for, Infinum actually tried to understand what the client was setting out to do, and used their creative instincts in helping us achieve our goals, even when we sometimes didn’t know ourselves.

As a practicing physician, there's a saying in my field which applies to many different industries: the three colors of excellence (or three A’s) have been described as availability, affability, and ability. Infinum has certainly displayed this. They were easy to work with, responsive, and delivered what we asked for.

Are there any areas Infinum could improve?

I can't think of anything off the cuff.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company's one aim is to make the lives of truck drivers crossing Europe easier and safer. We do this by showing them the best and safest parking spaces across their routes. We have developed an app and web portal, and have over 300,000 users at the moment, so our business is going well.

I am the managing director of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

Our business strategy is to help truck drivers in their daily routines, and we needed an expert company able to transfer our technical requirements into the perfect app for our users.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Infinum is responsible for the majority of the work on our website, including maps, logins, user registration functionalities, and so on. Infinum has also built our iOS and Android app in its entirety.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

We approached the purchasing director of the German-based software company which owns us, asking about a developer which could support our group. Infinum came out on top.

How much have you invested with Infinum?

The cost of Infinum's services has been between $150,000 and $200,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Infinum 2 years ago. We've used them for development on additional apps, including one for our US market.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The number of users we've attracted is more related to the marketing part of our business.

Infinum has been able to advise us on which direction we could take on the development and improvement of the app. I met Infinum's team for a day, in Zagreb. I was impressed by their building and by the young but skilled team. They're able to think in terms of mobile application integrations with websites and portals, getting into the heads of the target groups. I've been impressed by this, and find Infinum to be more than a company developing apps from a technical point of view.

What did you find most impressive about Infinum?

I tend to only provide Infinum with portions of the requirements, given that I'm not a technical person, but they've always impressed me with the feedback provided.

Are there any areas Infinum could improve?

Improvements are always a 2-way street and depend on whom we're working with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a large photo concessionaire in the cruise business. We collaborate with various international cruise lines, over a total of 40 cruise ships.

I am the managing director of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We had been trying to move our business from an analog to a digital model, whereby we would not only take photographs digitally, but have the whole process in the digital space from end to end, including viewing and delivery.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Infinum has helped us implement different elements of our solution. They've been involved in developing a variety of guest-facing, web-based technologies. Because cruise ships are often not connected to high-bandwidth internet, many of our solutions are running akin to an intranet approach, rather than being web-based in the true sense of the word.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

We were introduced to Infinum by someone else in the industry. We started working with Infinum when they were a much smaller, younger company. We were impressed with the speed at which Infinum was moving, and the flexibility with which they operated. As Infinum has grown bigger and bigger as a company, those aspects are still there, which is a positive factor.

How much have you invested with Infinum?

Unfortunately, this is proprietary information.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Infinum in 2013. We've continued to collaborate on multiple projects, all tied to an overall platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don't run metrics for this type of development, given that it's more of a custom approach. That being said, our satisfaction with Infinum has been high.

The work has been generally bug-free. For projects as complex and authoritative as ours, there will never be perfect results. We have a very structured testing and development program which exists in order to get rid of the known or anticipated problems. Infinum has always made sure that, by the time the product goes into production, it will be ready.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

Infinum has delivered continually within the bounds of when they said they would deliver and they stuck to general cost estimates. We have a high regard for Infinum.

What did you find most impressive about Infinum?

Infinum has worked quickly and flexibly. Seeing this on a consistent basis has been good. Developers can vary in skills, but we've stuck with Infinum because of their quality.

Are there any areas Infinum could improve?

We've had a very close working relationship with Infinum. There are always areas for improvement, but we've been satisfied with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company has developed a collaboration app for the iPad. I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We tried to replicate the ease of working with a local team using a whiteboard during the ideation process of a project. When working remotely, I found that doing the same tasks over the phone was a much less productive process. Our business challenge was to create an application that replicated the in-person feel of people sitting around a whiteboard, brainstorming.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I engaged Infinum for all the iOS development work, including the features of the app itself: drawing, text, incorporating images, and so on. Infinum also developed a backend infrastructure which enabled users to save sessions remotely, via cloud. It also facilitated a sharing mechanism for all the users in a particular session, showing them all the changes being made as they happened.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

I was introduced to Infinum by a designer that was working with us for the user interface and user experience of the app. I had also gotten a recommendation for Infinum from another group that I was talking to. When I gave Infinum's team a briefing, they quickly understood what I needed and what would go into building the app. Infinum's pricing was fair as well.

Mobile app development involves building software for a relatively new platform, unlike web development for example, where the process has matured enough to allow for accurate estimates. Our app came with many uncertainties and a lot of inventing. Infinum understood this really well and enabled us to have some flexibility in some areas.

How much have you invested with Infinum?

The total cost of our project with Infinum was within the $10,000 to $50,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our app was launched in January 2015, after a 6-month development period.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the development offered by Infinum was great. Our app did exactly what I had designed it to do, without any issues.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

We had to over-communicate and be very clear with each other, by phone and other mechanisms. We were able to do this well through weekly calls. Infinum has also developed a project management platform called Productive. We employed it successfully throughout the project.

What did you find most impressive about Infinum?

The quality of the development offered by the iOS team was top notch. I worked directly with Infinum's lead engineer and Chief Technology Officer, who were both excellent.

Are there any areas Infinum could improve?

I wouldn't call any single issue out. I've had a good experience with Infinum's team. The only downside was related to working with their team remotely. Being able to meet them in person would have been useful, but that was impossible, given our setup. Infinum's Chief Executive Officer spends most of his time in the US currently, building a client-facing team for project management. This will be very helpful to have.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Memory Web is a photo app with the unique twist of allowing the user to store all of their photos in their phone. We utilize specific technology for organizing the photos, navigating through them and sharing them privately.

I am one of the founders of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

I started this company along with my wife. Neither of us is a developer, so we needed a specialized firm. We tried two companies, one in the US and one in India, failing each time. They were in it more for the money than actually helping the client build something. Infinum was unique in the sense that they had made wireframe mockups right from our first call.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Infinum helped built our app for iOS. We've come to use them as our outsourced development team. We're constantly modifying the product, implementing different UI elements and changing features.

We changed the scope over time and used Infinum for other things besides development, like putting together initial versions of our website, video production, and design work. Infinum has provided us many resources for building the components which we needed.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

Because of our frustrations with the companies we'd already tried out, we came to talk to someone we knew in the East Coast. They highly recommended a Croatian company they'd used. We researched Infinum and saw that they'd won various European awards for development. We were weary of using an overseas partner again, but once we saw what Infinum were putting together, we decided to contact them. Besides capabilities, Infinum's cost structure was really attractive to us, compared to a developer in the US. We decided to give it a go, and Infinum has been our team since then.

How much have you invested with Infinum?

The original design built by Infinum had a cost of between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Infinum in September 2014. Our app was launched publicly in April 2016, after an extended period of modifications and tweaks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before launching our app, we gave demos to many potential investors and major companies. The constant feedback which we received was praise for our UI and how well the app was put together. They were basically talking about Infinum's work.

What did you find most impressive about Infinum?

Infinum is not in it for how much money they can extract from the customer. Their goal is to build a product, which was a big distinguisher for us. We have weekly update calls with our project lead, for which we're not charged. He wants to make sure that we're satisfied.

A unique factor about Infinum is that they've always told us if an idea was good or bad. Nine out of ten times, they're right, which is invaluable feedback to me.

Are there any areas Infinum could improve?

Infinum has its own tracking system for tickets which allows us to manage our own project. One downfall of this is that they're very busy and their company keeps growing. There have been times when we wanted to work on something, but they were booked up. This can be tough when launching a product to the market and things need to be achieved on a dime. Resource allotment has come up a few times, and we had to make sure that Infinum could feature us into their calendar.