ITOMYCH STUDIO

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief technology officer of Primadesk. We provide software-as-a-service that unifies access to cloud-based file repositories like Dropbox, Google Drive, and many others. Our product is a web and mobile application that is supported on both iOS and Android.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTomych Studios?

We needed help with implementation in iOS and in Android, as well as support for the website implemented in Java.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The collaboration was primarily software development for the website and the iOS and Android app. We would provide design, direction, and architecture that we had pre-existing. They would add new features, fix bugs, and provide overall support for the development of the application. The website is based on Java and Spring. There’s an endless list of other technologies that are related to those things that you must have if you’re doing a stack application, but it’s a typical set of a Java stack. The Android application was built using Java and the Android SDK, and the iOS application was built using the Apple Mac OS X development environment. We had four software developers dedicated to our particular project. They didn’t run any marketing campaigns for us.

How did you come to work with iTomych Studios?

We had used other providers in the past and moved on from using them because we were not terribly satisfied with the working relationship. I actually don’t know how we came to work with iTomych because they were introduced to me by the CEO of the company. However, the primary criteria must have been flexibility and responsiveness.

How much have you invested with iTomych Studios?

We have paid $200,000–$1,000,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been with them for more than a year, possibly two. They have completed the project, but they are in maintenance mode. We still occasionally talk and ask them to look at things, but they have very little involvement at the moment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have approximately 120,000 users on the App Store. However, it’s not easy to point to a survey or anything like that to measure things. They have provided the kind of service that we might get from a more local shop.

How did iTomych Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

For a relatively small team, it’s been great. The communication was quite good. We had no trouble communicating by Skype and email. In terms of being able to produce the deliverables on time, they did quite well. The only thing I would say is that we didn’t really stress out any of those types of concerns because the project was relatively small.

What did you find most impressive about iTomych Studios?

I’ve worked with a lot of consulting firms that do software development for clients, and there are some firms that work very similar to the way we would expect our own developers here in Silicon Valley to work. In other words, they understand a lot of different aspects of being responsive, being flexible, getting stuff done, understanding what is it that we are trying to get done, and then being creative about how to get there. When you lump all that stuff up, it’s a culture more than just a specific skill. The thing I was very impressed with is that they really have that down, even though they are based in Ukraine. A lot of other offshore software development houses don’t have that. Maturity is a catchall, but it has to do with understanding that when you are building a new piece of software—especially for a startup—you have to be pretty flexible, get things done pretty quickly, and have a good level of quality. At the same time, you should not over-engineer things because you have to move fast. Communication is a very important part of that.

Are there any areas iTomych could improve?

For what we asked them to do, I think they did a good job. I suppose they could have gone way over and above what we asked them to do, but that would have been a different thing.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with iTomych Studios?

One thing that colors our experience is that when we brought iTomych on, we’d already designed and architected our product. iTomych was replacing a previous group of people who we were not satisfied with. We had a lot of designs already done and their primary job was implementing stuff in that design. Most of the time, when you are doing a new software startup, you’re trying to work with developers as partners in developing the design as well. I don’t have a lot of experience with what iTomych can do there, but I do know that they have a lot of other clients and they seem to do pretty well. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, but it’s just something that we haven’t really looked into with them. It just means that you have to be careful about this, but it doesn’t mean that you won’t do well if you work with these guys.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We run a marketplace for relationship advice. We provide websites and various tools with advisors that give advice on different topics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTomych Studios?

We had a website for many years but never had a mobile app. iTomych created an app that took the web functionality and put it on a mobile app. Eventually, we will create a more custom mobile experience, but for now, they created all the same features as the website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We created the wireframes but we didn’t need a lot of documentation because were just mimicking what was on the website. iTomych built both an iOS and Android app. We started with two resources from their team; one for iOS and one for Android. Now, we’ve grown to up to seven people. They’re also thought partners in helping us determine what else we can do.

How did you come to work with iTomych Studios?

We had good references from two people. One of them was one of our developers who personally knows Igor, the founder, so that was our main deciding factor.

How much have you invested with iTomych Studios?

We have spent over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They finished the initial version in four months. They have been maintaining it and adding new features. We began working with them over a year ago, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their speed of development was pretty good. If I compare it to their cost, it’s almost a slam dunk on the amount of productivity we get per developer. We have a complex website and they built the initial version in three to four months, which is pretty impressive. My architect looked into their code and he was happy with the way the apps are architected.

How did iTomych Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They met 80% of the target dates we gave them and even the 20% was not delayed by too much. Our project manager gave good feedback about their team. We set up a daily call with them on the phone or Skype. The majority of the project management was done by our team, but they gave us timely updates. We used JIRA to write tickets and they closed them out.

What did you find most impressive about iTomych Studios?

The amount of work they turned out every month was the most impressive thing.

Are there any areas iTomych Studios could improve?

There are challenges that come with being remote. I can’t see how they could improve it except to relocate to San Francisco, but that isn’t an option.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have a technology that takes videos and converts them into a readable comic book style format with two product lines in mobile and web-based versions. We’ve been around for over two years now. I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTomych Studio?

We started working with some studios and production houses in Hollywood and did this for a few movies like Zorro and The Three Stooges. It was a service model we would work on. As the business developed, people started telling us “How does the magic happen? Give us the software.” That’s when we went into developing the software for use in the outside world, where anybody who owns video or has content can use it themselves. That’s our B2B aspect. While doing that, we also decided to come out with a light and smaller version of it, so that the general consumer can take their small videos and images and quickly convert them into a Dilbert-style comic strip.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we went to them with requirements for a mobile app. We were focusing on iOS only at that time. I started working with Igor who is the head of the company. He sat down and he understood the business requirements. Our product is a mobile product, but there is also a backend or service side component. I had some people from our end who were working on the service side, but we moved some of that to Igor’s team because I liked their understanding of the product and, most importantly, the speed in which they were able to deliver. With being a start-up, resources are always a problem. On my end, it was slower because I had a lot of part-time folks on nights and weekends. We also moved a lot of the server work to iTomych Studio. I’m at this point now where the mobile app is almost finished and ready to go out the door. They’ve done both the frontend and the backend. They didn’t do marketing or strategy work for us. I haven’t explored that with them. The design of the app was done by my in-house designer; they just did the development for us.

I did not interface much with the developers, but I have a CTO who works with them. I think there were two mobile developers we worked with and a project manager as well. I know that whenever I gave them requirements to meet a stricter deadline, they would put more developers on the job and got it done. I mostly interfaced with Igor and the project manager.

We have since expanded the scope of our engagement with them to the web product. They are starting to work on that right now. We’ll be using their in-house designers as well. For the entire lifecycle, we will deal with them: from design to deployment.

How did you come to work with iTomych Studio?

A friend of mine here in the Valley had worked with this team before. He recommended them and a bunch of other developers. I interviewed all of them, and I chose iTomych Studios to develop our mobile platform on the technology that we had already worked on.

How much have you invested with iTomych Studio?

We have invested between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started in September/October 2016, and it will be completed in March 2017. We are almost done with the mobile part. It’s a complete product with the backend and the frontend, and we went through several iterations during this process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From my experience, you have to engage a lot with any external service provider. iTomych Studio was very receptive to this, especially their project manager. I would ask for daily calls, and I would get daily calls. It’s important for me to always work with them as if they’re my team. Igor’s other approach that I like is that he always starts with the business objective. He’ll say, “Forget about the product. Tell me what the business objective you’re trying to solve is,” and we’ll start from there. That’s something that I thought was different from similar services that I had worked with. Most of the others were very technical: “Give me the requirements,” and “What’s the product? These are the technologies or the stack that I will use to get it done.” Igor does this, but he always starts with the business side.

The third thing is speed. I was happy with the pace of work. With our product, we had to go through many iterations and things were designed in a particular way. We figured out that it was not the best workflow and that we had to change it; they helped with that. Of course, this was also a change of scope and we had to pay for it, but they were encouraged and believed in the product we were doing. They worked with us on the scope and sometimes would not charge if we had to do things again. I liked that flexibility. You have to have a very close communication line open with them; otherwise, things will slip through the cracks, or when things come back to you, it won’t be exactly what you had asked for. I was able to manage it well because I had regular, daily communication with them, which I think is important. They were very receptive to that mode of work.

How did iTomych Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of project management, we just had daily Skype calls and the frequent builds to monitor progress, but there’s no structured project management tool that we used. I don’t think this project required it; it was very informal in that nature. The project manager I worked with didn’t have very extensive project management charts.

It’s not a very complicated app, but it had its own challenges and a unique development path with all of the iterations. We had regular builds that we could test and go back to, and get a better version to work on other things. They have engineers with a good mastery of technical aspects, so they are able to use the latest technology and recommend ways in which to do things better. They were always open to suggesting newer or different ways of doing something, especially with what we were trying to achieve in terms of image processing and some complex stuff going on in the backend.

What did you find most impressive about iTomych Studio?

Of all the things that I’ve said, I would highlight two things. One is the way Igor always approaches things first by understanding the business objectives, and second is the speed. I’ve worked with a lot of other companies before, and I think these guys are very quick in their turnaround. From my experience, that has stood out.

Are there any areas iTomych Studio could improve?

If I was building a big enterprise-based system where it had a lot of functionality, we would need more elaborate project management practices to track projects. Maybe our web product will evolve to be that someday. One project manager and I could pretty much keep a handle on things here because it was a small mobile product with a technically complex backend, but not very complicated in the feature set where we needed to track a bunch of things. I haven’t seen that aspect of theirs where they have extensive project management processes that they follow, but that’s because I haven’t engaged with them in that way. It’s just my lack of knowing that part of technical development, more than anything else, with them. I can’t comment on it, but I’m hoping they are capable of it since I know there is a bigger project to do.