IT CRAFT

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company works with other businesses. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

IT CRAFT has supported us with multiple projects. Most recently, they helped us develop an extensive website for our company.

We needed to find a way to create numerous forms for all of the services we offer. Each one requires a client to go through a five-step process which involves filling out many forms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT CRAFT designed a website with many complex features.  After leading us through an amazing discovery process, they began product development. 

Using PHP, IT CRAFT developed an extensive backend admin panel on a Laravel framework. It’s entirely for internal use and processing orders. They created a vault within a custom database to store form questions. Rather than programming each new version, we can duplicate copies to modify for slightly different types of services at any time.

The system lets us control every aspect independently, including how orders are displayed and the channel we use to send clients order confirmations. In addition to emails, it generates additional styles and layouts for the invoices. 

Since the product launched, they've continued to add new features and modify the forms to prevent duplications. Based on interesting responses and follow-up from users, we improve the questions and remove conflicts we identify. 

What is the team composition? 

We’ve worked with about five people from IT CRAFT. They assigned us a project manager to serve as our main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

IT CRAFT contacted a former boss of mine for many years. Once I started working with the team in my previous role, I immediately appreciated how well they operated. They set up their business manager, designers, and project manager to run in a very efficient manner.  For this more recent project, I felt completely confident they were the team I needed. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We completed the first website in two months last year. Since then, we've built another site and started another. The newest website we've been developing is much more detailed, comprehensive, and technologically robust. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All of IT CRAFT’s deliverables have been beautifully executed and exceeded our expectations. The team is amazing; their technological skills and teamwork are superb. They understand how to effectively plan projects ahead of time. Delivering this project was an impressive accomplishment in light of the complex build. I feel very excited about and confident in IT CRAFT’s abilities based on the work they produced.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager from IT CRAFT was an excellent leader with a background in programming, so he was very well-versed. He was available 24 hours and stayed on top of every task. We could always reach him.

IT CRAFT always delivers solutions within less than a week. For every feature we wanted to add after the site launched, they provided accurate hourly estimates and completed them on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've used many offshore vendors, and I’ve never seen as professional and skilled of a web development team as IT CRAFT in my entire career. The team’s breadth of technical knowledge is up to par with the best companies on the market. 

IT CRAFT helped us achieve the best success we could have hoped for. They executed the project perfectly, promptly, and at a competitive price point.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind that they need to improve. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a SaaS analytics company. Our product manages link redirects and requires creating a number of new technologies to make it work. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

Our partnership started with an R&D project to create an automatic installer that installs our software onto our clients’ servers. From there, the relationship has expanded to cover all sorts of other dev projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT Craft built the web app from scratch, using PHP and MySQL. The installer enables someone to install and set up databases remotely. All they need is the STP information, and the product sets everything up on wherever the website is hosted. They also built technology that allows the site to communicate in real time and send analytics back to the SaaS dashboard. IT Craft configured all of the databases, working with some pretty complex analytics.

What is the team composition? 

The team’s ranged anywhere from one person to 15. I usually work with one developer, but I’ve also interfaced with a systems administrator and project manager.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

We found them online.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first partnered in 2005, and the work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been working with them for the past 14 years, so that should show how great of a partner they are.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

I do most of the project management, but they have excellent communication and provide accurate quotes. They work according to our schedule and implement best practices.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with a lot of providers, and IT Craft has been one of the most reliable. They have specialists in all fields of their work, and the staff is completely loyal. I’ve had the same people on my team for the entire 14-year engagement.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.
 
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If you have a big project, hire a project manager. You can adjust the size of the team depending on your needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a business process startup. Our mission is to improve the operation efficiency of businesses and thus, increase their revenue.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

We needed a development partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our software using .NET Core on the backend, which is written in C#. On the frontend, they’re using Electron while the database is MariaDB. The software optimizes business processes.

What is the team composition?

We had the main project manager, a business analyst that writes the specification for every button and process, six developers, one QA resource that does automated QA, and two that do manual QA. We have a part-time designer as well who designs all the buttons, logos, and every screen.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

We read several reviews on Clutch and reached out to some companies. I went to Ukraine with my partner and met with eight of them. We chose IT Craft because they had the infrastructure in place, they demonstrated background skills, they were a medium size company, their price was in the middle, and they seemed like a very knowledgeable group of people. They had the project manager and the lead developer ready for us when we met them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $50,000 a month. I’m very happy they offered a flat price, which many other companies didn’t.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our internal team is continuously testing what they provide to us and we’re very happy with how things are going. They have the knowledge of what tools to use for each task.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re happy with the way they interact with us, and the communication is very smooth—we have two status calls per week. They’re on time for these, and all the relevant people join. They’re very responsive too, so if anybody needs to get on the call, it’s immediate. We get a full report of what’s going on.

We’re using Jira and Confluence for documenting everything and to keep track of all the tasks and features being built. We can see everything in real-time. We also use Slack for daily communications, which means we don’t have to wait a day or two for somebody to be available.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a research and development scheme where if the lead developer doesn’t have a current project to work on, they put that person to a special team where they can raise their level of knowledge while they’re waiting for the next project. This is all paid for by the company and it means that developers are really happy to play with some interesting things such as AI or AR.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m 100% happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No, I can't think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development for International Fintech UAB. We help clients open corporate bank accounts in Europe and then help them manage these accounts with fully-integrated online platforms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

We engaged IT CRAFT to develop new systems to expand our banking portfolio.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT CRAFT provides ongoing development services for us. The team works with our CTO to flesh out new technical ideas for online platforms. They then develop the front- and backends of those platforms and fix bugs in completed systems.

What is the team composition?

We work with four developers.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

We searched online for agencies based in Ukraine and Russia and found IT CRAFT. They have an office in Ukraine—where I’m originally from—which made direct communication easier. I reached out to their contact person, and we discussed their service offerings. We also collected feedback from IT CRAFT’s other clients and partners. After several chats, calls, and interviews, we signed a contract to work together.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $20,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2018, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve switched all our requests and product development to IT CRAFT, and we’re looking to scale up the number of developers in 2019. IT CRAFT consistently provides exceptional quality work on time and at reasonable rates. We’re highly satisfied with the partnership.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

The project has run smoothly since the beginning. IT CRAFT supplies everything we need—from developers to invoices to information—with speed and efficiency. My point of contact responds to queries rapidly. Whenever an issue arises, I can get in touch with someone 24/7.

What did you find most impressive about them?

IT CRAFT makes the collaboration both effortless and enjoyable. Their team of highly experienced professionals completes work quickly without sacrificing high quality. They also check on the managers assigned to our project, which saves our side the effort of doing so ourselves. We’ve never encountered an issue working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything. We look forward to growing alongside IT CRAFT as we continue our partnership.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

We initially had a project manager, but we decided that we prefer to communicate directly with the developers. However, other companies might find it helpful to have a point of contact that guides them through the process and helps them translate their needs to the developers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a medical company that manages an online healthcare portal for patients and care providers alike.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

My team had developed the fundamental technical documents for a custom PHP software that we wanted to implement. We designed everything in HTML, from the screens and flow to the user experience. However, I needed additional qualified and skilled developers as well as business analysts who understood my vision well enough to execute it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As I’ve mentioned, my team crafted everything that we wanted for the site in HTML, which we gave to their business analyst. She converted our documents into a format that their developers could use. They then built the platform using PHP and MySQL. The site featured credit card and user sign-on functions as well as audio and video integration. Currently, they’re developing four more iterations of the software before finalizing the project.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with around eight members so far, including a business analyst and a team of developers. The analyst serves as our liaison, conveying our ideas and vision to the rest of the team.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

I was looking for agencies in Ukraine and reached out to about 20 of them. IT CRAFT had a strong company profile, so I included them in my list of potential vendors. Initially, I gave them a small-scale test project to gauge their skills, and they came back with strong results. It was more than easy to communicate with them, and I was impressed by their proactive approach. They suggested solutions to problems that I hadn’t even noticed. Once they wrapped up the beta test for that project and completed another one, we decided to entrust a large portion of our development to them.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent about $30,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work began in January 2018 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From a qualitative perspective, they’ve done such a good job that I’ve quadrupled my involvement with them. We haven’t completed the software yet, but they’ve gone through multiple iterations so far. We’re actually going to ramp up their involvement on a larger scale over the next year as the software iterations get larger and expand.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

The team collaborates closely with me to understand exactly what I wanted to build, and they manage their time lines beautifully. I can also talk to them as often as I need. Typically, I work with the business analyst on a daily basis to review the developers’ builds. Beyond that, they hold weekly meetings as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Besides their open communication, I appreciate their ability to understand what I want to build and then accurately create it. I also enjoy how proactive they are, the strength of their development, and the business analyst’s efforts.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. In fact, I wouldn’t have increased the development to this extent if they couldn’t deliver what I needed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Everyone has to figure out their workflow themselves. However, I suggest being optimistic with IT CRAFT because they’re able to deliver. Despite our initial skepticism, they pushed right through and handled the work. If there are any problems, more often than not, it’s because the client hasn’t communicated the development requirements properly. Once they understand what’s needed, they’ll deliver it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of digital business and product development for a language service provider in the northern region of Europe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

We’re developing a portal for our clients to access different services, like machine translation and so on. We worked with a previous agency, but they weren’t able to handle the workload, so we needed a partner with more resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT CRAFT immediately took over the previous agency’s project before moving onto our bigger project, which we provided designs for. Most of their work involves integrating different systems together, like our product system or online payments. We have a trained machine translation engine, and IT CRAFT built that connection through the APIs. We also built the frontend for our clients to be able to log into the online order portal. We have thousands of clients logging into the cloud-based platform daily, and IT CRAFT created that architecture.

What is the team composition?

We have three PHP developers, one HTML coder (who also does graphics), and a project manager. We work together on a daily basis. We used to assign tickets to the project manager, who would split them between the team, but now we work so close with the developers that we do that. We know who’s working on what, so we can get the tickets directly to them. The project manager now keeps track of time and other logistical elements.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

I found them through a Google search. They had decent prices compared to our budget and expectations and seemed able to deliver, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $70,000–$90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2017. We launched in steps, but the full platform was launched in November.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This tool has given us a totally different position in our market, which is quite competitive. It has helped us become a unique player that can offer our clients something most of our competitors can’t. Whenever we approach new clients, they’re all interested in this feature, so it’s been great.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

IT CRAFT delivers on time and on budget. We’re really happy with their whole team—they’re professional and transparent, giving us access to everyone on the team. They provide feedback and make suggestions, acting more like a colleague than a hired agency.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Every single person at IT CRAFT, no matter the department, is incredibly professional. Sometimes, you get a company that’s only professional at the executive level, but that’s not the case with IT CRAFT. Our previous company engaged with our work, but IT CRAFT goes above and beyond. They’re spot on every time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I'm really happy with them.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

IT CRAFT can help you with almost any part of your business but keep open and clear communication. If you’re not well-prepared, it will reflect poorly on you and limit what IT CRAFT can do. Take command of the project and have good management on both sides.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I co-founded MyCarrier TMS, which is in the integrated transportation management industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

We are developing a transportation management system for the less than truckload (LTL) industry. The Transportation Management System (TMS) application needs to connect bulk carriers and shippers without needing a middleman or broker.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve developed our application from scratch using .NET in Java and a SQL Server database. The project initially focused on building the app’s customer side, which the shipper uses. We deployed that aspect in August 2017 and then proceeded to work on the carrier portal until completion in November.

Key features include automated testing and onboarding in approximately 10 seconds. This tool avoids the usual 48-hour ticketing to process credentials. Once credentials are up, the customer can: run rate quotes, book shipments, and track deliveries. IT CRAFT has also integrated third party providers to standardize carriers’ APIs, which enhances the customer experience.

Per our business model, we license the software to one of 36 LTL carriers that transport goods for the national shipping companies. We’ve been finalizing these carrier partners, which constitute 98% of the market, to upsell the application to their end customers.

What is the team composition?

We have: one full-time project manager, one full-time senior developer, two full-time middle developers, and one full-time junior developers. The team does fluctuate in size as the scope changes. For example, we’ve occasionally had too much work for one QA specialist, but not enough for two. We’ve also had: one full-time QA engineer, one part-time engineer, two part-time developers, and one part-time designer.

I speak with the project manager and senior developer daily. Discussions with the whole team occur every two weeks to align with new releases.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

We did a three-month search for off-site agencies, specifically targeting Ukrainian companies. Development firms in this country have promising reputations. We picked IT CRAFT from three Ukrainian finalists because they impressed us on manly levels.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $250,000 – $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in April 2017 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although we don’t have live customers yet, we’ve gotten tremendous feedback from industry executives.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re tremendous at documenting progress and follow through. Their diligence gives me more freedom to run my business. For example, they trained a new developer for two weeks when one specialist left the company. That initiative kept the project on track with minimal disruptions on my end.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The design impresses people; it complements the development well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything specific. There were some unexpected responses and APIs, but those mainly concerned the third party vendors.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They make development easy for clients with more business expertise than technical savvy. Based on my past experience with other developers, I recommend hiring IT CRAFT.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of an on-demand laundry service. We offer pickup and delivery services for about a thousand people in the city every month. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

We needed to tackle a big update. IT Craft wanted to redo my entire system because we had a lot of bugs in the older version.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our previous system was intricate and detailed, and I needed a real developer to give me a new, smooth, open-box system. We were already in business and were using a system we had been adding to for a long time. Other developers had done previous work for me, but they all fizzled out. After I made the agreement with IT Craft, I stayed with them because they did a good job.

They custom-built our entire system. They added route management, CRM [customer relationship management], email notifications, recurring orders, and scheduling. They also developed an Android mobile app for our drivers. In an on-demand service like ours, everything is based on time and location. For instance, if we have 20 people ordering from 6–8 a.m., we’ll sweep the city and get all of those orders before moving to the 8–10 a.m. customers, then the 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. customers, and so on. IT Craft automated our system based on having 3 or 4 drivers in the city at a time. Previously, the route management was basically its own entity and would automatically go to the driver’s phone.

What is the team dynamic?

Generally, the same people from IT Craft remained working on our project. Recently, I haven't been doing as much with them, so they transferred me to another primary contact, but he’s just as good as the first, so I have no complaints. They’re responsive, which is what I really want. When I’m dealing with somebody overseas, I want to know who I'm talking to.

Our primary contact had 2–3 developers under him. He understood my project intimately and spoke with the other developers. Sometimes, we would meet with the developers when we had something major to discuss, but I generally like having a single contact person.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

IT Craft was the fourth development company that I went to because it was hard to find somebody with our targeted set of skills. They were very professional. We decided to go with them after interviewing a bunch of people.

What is the status of this engagement?

The product is live, and we’re still doing business with IT Craft. I think we started working together 3 years ago, around 2013–2014. We constantly had new launches with the product because we were always implementing new features. I just had a single rule: never launch anything on a Friday. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

IT Craft excels in this industry, and I’m happy with them. They’re not perfect, but no vendor ever is. I’ve dealt with enough developers to know what to expect. I appreciate that IT Craft communicates properly, understands me, and cares about the project.

They’ve automated some of our work processes, so I’ve been able to save time and reallocate resources. I used to have somebody managing the route, and I don't need that position anymore. Every time a customer makes an order, it goes into an automated schedule since everything is done online. I really like the new system, and it works perfectly.

We have different settings. On the weekends, we can plan for lighter traffic than during a weekday. Our system is integrated via API with Google Maps and a company called Routific for the route synchronization. Everything is recorded online, so when the driver scans a bag, the item is recorded on the backend, indicating which driver scanned which item and at what time. We pretty much get to see everything, even though we’re not there.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

IT Craft is honest and straightforward. They’re a good partner to work with. I’ve spent a lot of time with them, and I've dealt with development companies extensively. With IT Craft, I can speak to my contact person every day. I used to Skype, instant message, and talk to him all day. I felt like he was part of our team because we would go back and forth. He offered great feedback based on our requests.

The whole team is skilled. They have a lot of people involved, from what I understand. The person I dealt with came to New York once or twice to meet us. I appreciated that level of normalcy in a programming company.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re professional and usually deliver on time. I don't know how programming works. All I know is I want a certain task done by this date. As they worked, I could see that everything was working and clicking together. As a consumer and an end user, that’s all I really care about. As far as the quality of their coding, I have no idea. All I know is they charge me exactly what they quote upfront and accomplish every requirement. Sometimes, they lose money, but they’re more careful with their quotes. They’re definitely reliable, which I appreciate. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a religious non-profit agency that has been around since 1901. We deliver digital material and information that has traditionally been delivered in print media. We use it for training in different countries around the world and for delivering those materials in different languages, depending on what the needs are.

As more people have access to technology, it becomes more important for us to move into more countries and languages using that medium. I’m the director of information systems. I’m also the publisher of a set of materials. I oversee all the activity and the development and publication distribution for those materials.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

We needed help with various development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the guys on one of the IT Craft development teams got a hold of the materials we use and created a simple HTML prototype as a vision and presented it to us. It was a good idea. From that, we started working with IT Craft. Everything was pretty much done from scratch.

The biggest project is a web-based app to convert and deliver printed material. We have a series of 63 booklets that cover different subjects that we train on. We’ve created a way to not only display those and deliver them, but to create a relationship management tool for training one-to-one and one-to-many. That’s been a two-year project so far. It’s developed to the point where we can use it to deliver other types of materials as well. It’s probably something that’s going to continue. We’re just now starting to get user feedback. As more of that comes in, it will drive the direction of the project in the future.

The interface and database not only contains the content of the app, but also stores any sort of interaction that happens between a trainer and a trainee, notes, questions, and the state of an assignment. We had to figure out how to make that happen without crashing.

The other significant part of this project is that the materials are now available in 40 different languages. We had to figure out how to create a system through which we could easily translate the content. Every bit of text in the web app has a tag or a reference number assigned to it. We had to figure out ways to import and export translated text and add other languages. That’s the most significant feature; it allows us to quickly convert the app to another language.

We have an IT consultant who acts as the interface between us, the managers of the project, and the developers working directly on it. He would know more about what platforms were used.

The second product is a one-page web service to replace a complex download system that existed on another website. We’ve consolidated it into a simpler product that creates a download log and gives users more flexibility in terms of the different languages and types of booklets that they can access.

The third project is a simple landing page that directs people to a couple projects and some audio and video files.

What is the team dynamic?

They started working on those projects with three different people on their team. As time goes on, some people get shifted around and some people leave. A couple of the guys have moved onto some other companies or immigrated to another country.

Currently, the developer on their end that’s been primarily involved with us picked up some tasks for the other two projects. We’re starting to see some significant back and forth in the development progress of those projects.

There’s another guy that works with them on other projects who has always challenged them to learn new things. We’re doing stuff with native script development and some new platforms, like GO. We’re always looking for ways to push the limit.

I’m not completely familiar with their structure. The people that I’ve worked with have been consistent. Any inconsistencies have been on our part, like when we request extra hours in a certain month. Sometimes as projects progress, there can be lulls, but on their part, it’s been consistent.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

IT Craft had a prior working relationship with one of the guys that directs information services here. As more opportunities became available for us to engage in development work, he started introducing IT Craft to the projects and the other people in our organization.

How much have you invested with them?

About $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2015 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There’s been a pretty big bump in usage in the past month. Part of that is because we added some people during a training event. We currently have about 500 users. About 50 of those are our Spanish-speaking users. We’ve started to roll it out to some of our main leaders and trainers in South American countries. We also have a small contingent (20-30 users) in India that’s using the app in Hindi. We’re planning to roll that out in a larger scale in the coming months.

The download page is up to about 150 users. These are primarily leaders and trainers of organizations that want access to the materials in order to use it for their ministries, churches, and conferences in different parts of the world. That scope is smaller, but the significance is that all the clicks are now on one page, whereas previously there was a cumbersome process by which they had to enter information and go to multiple pages thereafter.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

From the onset, we tried to fragment the requirements in a way that would show milestones along the way. We wanted to see how one thing built up to another, rather than handing over a list of things to do and telling them to make it happen. IT Craft is very responsive to our requirements, and our effort to specify those milestones increased their understanding of the projects.

I worked for a few years testing software for a company, and we didn’t have a system like that. We just had one big list of requirements. Fragmenting that out in a way that was easy to understand and taking small bites of it was much better. We’re mainly using Pivotal Tracker and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the differences for me was paying for an estimated number of hours per month in advance, and then comparing that with the actual hour report. It’s a different style than I was used to. It’s fine; it helps me think a little bit more in advance about what I anticipate.

Sometimes in a project, you don’t really know what to anticipate unless you’re doing a waterfall kind of development. In this project, we used key Agile processes to learn how to develop the solution as we went. That’s scary for a lot of people and they look at it as a black hole. For the vision that we had for the product, it worked very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Early on, one of the things that was a little difficult for us to figure out was the time difference. They’re eight hours ahead of us. Our window of overlapping worktimes is only very early morning. We’ve kind of worked through this. More recently, more of the guys there have been more flexible, and adjusted their hours so that we would have more of an opportunity for real time communication on things that we needed. That was a bit of a struggle initially, but it’s gotten better.

Do you have any tips for less experienced buyers?

For people who want to use developers in another culture, taking time to get some basic understanding about that culture is helpful. For us, that’s kind of normal because we work with people in a lot of different countries and many of us have lived overseas. It’s not hard for us, but for a company that doesn’t have people with that type of experience, that might be a bigger obstacle.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a bookstore with an existing but outdated website. I am the co-owner and have the full responsibility for this website project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

We wanted IT Craft to design and build a modern, mobile responsive website for us from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided a 50-page specification document for them to build in Magento. They designed and developed our website.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

We went through a tender process via Upwork.com. We had a shortlist of four companies that we had discussions with and checked references for.

How much have you invested with IT Craft?

We have invested $19,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They successfully completed the project slightly ahead of time. We are now working with them to make small improvements to the website that were outside of the initial specifications.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website was completed slightly ahead of time. I am the main internal stakeholder and I’m very pleased with IT Craft. They have a professional approach to project development and have been easy to deal with despite them being in Ukraine and myself in Australia. Our customers like the new website as well.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. They have their own very efficient project management software and they're always available on the phone or Skype if necessary.

What did you find most impressive about IT Craft?

They are very professional and they have excellent project management skills. They have a reasonable price and are speedy; items were addressed within 24 hours. IT Craft provided a realistic schedule at the beginning and ended up being a few days early.

Are there any areas IT Craft could improve?

Not really. I have had a number of unsatisfactory minor website projects through Upwork. However, IT Craft has been excellent throughout. I am still working with them on this website and would go to them with any new projects.