Lionwood.software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive of Hofgut Lilienhof GmbH

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We operate an event location and offer our own Software as a Service (SaaS) solution tailored for event venues

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Lionwood.software to accomplish?

• Our goal was to completely rebuild our SaaS solution from scratch to ensure it is up-to-date with current technology, allowing us to continuously develop it further (modular design).

SOLUTION

How did you find Lionwood.software?

Online Search

Why did you select Lionwood.software over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• They appeared very competent in the selection process.

How many teammates from Lionwood.software were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We aim to entirely reconstruct our offered SaaS solution to align it with the latest technological standards, allowing for its continuous development with a modular design. This encompasses not only a design overhaul but also the creation of its software architecture, the redevelopment of existing features, and the development of new functions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have completely redeveloped our SaaS solution, added more features, and hope that even more will follow.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

It was a very trusting collaboration. Of course, not everything in a larger project always goes exactly according to plan, but good cooperation proves itself in precisely these moments. The communication with the stakeholders was excellent, the needs around our software solution were well understood.

During the further development they were always looking for optimization and the best way to achieve revenue for all stakeholders, which in my opinion is an outstanding feature of the developers and the project management.

What was your primary form of communication with Lionwood.software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We're impressed with their personal communication and effort to understand not only our needs but also our customers. And the will to find the best solution for all involved.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Lionwood.software could have done differently?

Of course there were points that could have been made better afterwards, when is that not the case? But as already mentioned in the other points, we had a very trusting working relationship and were able to address these points and get them out of the way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Technology for AgSource, a herd and dairy farm management software company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lionwood.software?

We’ve hired Lionwood.software to modernize our application to better scale and onboard larger dairy farms into the system without creating data backlogs. We have internally operating software primarily used to help our customer service representatives send reports to farmers managing dairy farms. The software aims to be able to manage and send out health values and statistics for our dairy farms. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lionwood.software is updating our web-based application to address scalability and modernize the tech stack. We are moving to AWS microservices and ETL tools; we currently use a .NET core. 

What is the team composition?

We work with about six individuals from Lionwood.software.

How did you come to work with Lionwood.software?

I don’t have the answer to that question. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t rolled out the modernization effort yet because the product is still in development, but we’re hoping that it will help us in our goal of scaling. 

How did Lionwood.software perform from a project management standpoint?

We haven’t been thrilled with the initial project managers, and the project has taken longer than we thought it would. However, this is something that we’ve actively been trying to resolve, and we’ve recently been assigned a new project manager. We’ve also added a technical project manager to help ensure estimates are accurate. We use the Atlassian suite of products and Slack for project management.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team is dedicated, efficient, and we appreciate their work. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think that I have enough insight into Lionwood.software to answer that question. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Manager of Smart Solutions

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Smart Solutions - international HR-provider. We provide BPO services, HRoutsourcing services and IT staff expansion services

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Lionwood.software to accomplish?

• Software Development services
• Staff augmentation

SOLUTION

How did you find Lionwood.software?

Referral

Why did you select Lionwood.software over others?

• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

What was the size of Lionwood.software’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

From the initial consultation to the placement of the staff members, their team was attentive to our needs and provided exceptional support throughout the entire process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• The staff members they provided were highly skilled.
• They exceeded our expectations in terms of productivity and quality of work.
• They seamlessly integrated into our team and demonstrated a strong work ethic and positive attitude.
• Clear communication and prompt responses.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Lionwood.software team was highly organized and demonstrated a high level of flexibility and responsiveness to our needs throughout the project. They were always available to answer any questions we had and proactively provided solutions to any challenges that arose.

What was your primary form of communication with Lionwood.software?

Virtual Meeting

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

A commitment to innovation and staying ahead of the curve. Lionwood.software team members were constantly looking for new and creative ways to solve our problems.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Lionwood.software could have done differently?

Lionwood is a strong company with many positive attributes, but there is always room for improvement. I appreciate their willingness to listen to feedback and I believe they could become even stronger.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a co-founder of Blue Fetch. We are an early stage startup that sources and offers same-day delivery of construction materials.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lionwood.software, and what were your goals?

We needed to develop a mobile app that our independent drivers could use to view, accept, and update progression on available deliveries.

SOLUTION

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

We looked at online reviews and had multiple interviews with Lionwood before we made the final decision. They responded to all of our communication and questions quickly.

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

We provided basic mocks for the project. They gave us valuable feedback and suggested improvements prior to the start of development. They developed a Flutter mobile app to tie into our existing backend.

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

5. We worked with a project manager that communicated with us daily and was excellent at directing the project. A senior flutter engineer was involved regularly and also the flutter developer that we communicated with daily. Someone in QA was involved and a business rep that helped us with any business related questions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They completed the project in a very timely fashion. They would've been done faster if we had more internal resources to speed up the updates to our backend needed. They delivered an app that works very well for the first iteration, and we look forward to working with them again to add new features down the road.

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

The project management was great. We had brief stand up meetings daily to make sure everyone moving in the same direction. All questions were responded to quickly.

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

Lionwood was our second development team that we used on this project. What a difference!! We did not have a good experience with the first development team. They were organized, helped us work through some design flaws and produced a fantastic product that will help our business grow.

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

I can't think of anything. I was impressed with them throughout the entire process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the owner of Fenix company, a printing house that has been on the market for more than 20 years. Fenix provides a variety of high-quality printing services, starting from flyers and business cards production to printing on banners and wallpapers, making custom souvenirs, and dubond plaques with laser engraving.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lionwood.software, and what were your goals?

For developing web apps that handle internal business processes for the printing industry, from ordering services or products to tracking processes of delivering them to the consumer.

SOLUTION

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

We have the design for our app done by the Design agency who actually referred Lionwood.software to us to proceed with the development part.

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

Initial step was to gather requirements conducting Q&A sessions via calls and meetings, then documenting them as an acceptance criteria. The second step was to develop mockups according to the specifications of acceptance criteria. When the whole cycle of design was finished, Lionwood.software team started the Discovery phase to estimate and define timelines and budget. When the budget and timelines were agreed, Lionwood.software team started developing the App.

During the development stage, we were involved in demos and we could track all processes according to our agreement and mockups. In the end, we received a well-done product with the expected features. Also, later on, there was a need to connect our custom CRM with SmartKasa, a point-of-sale software, to create a service for communication with it and create a method for sending receipts.

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

• 1 UI/UX designer
• 2 .Net developers
• 1 React developer
• 1 PM
• 1 QA specialist

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our product covers all our processes, including counting items in the warehouse. Also, we have the possibility to track involvement of our staff and make reports, which help us count the salary for every employee (as we have an hourly pay). It saves our time and money, because we used to track it with many different tools and it was too complicated to merge all data. Now, we just use the report module and know how much time and money is spent on every worker.

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

The team of developers estimated and defined the scope of work ahead and were providing us with the updates communicating via phone calls, messengers or taking the meetings.

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

They are responsive, provide high-quality software development, stay within budget, and meet our requirements.

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

Sometimes we were waiting for some time to get the work done because of lack of the resources in their development teams. But what comes to critical bugs, they fix them immediately.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Owner

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lionwood.software?

UX Design, overall product design, development.

SOLUTION

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

Professional and fast paced team, produced quality products within our budget.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

From user experience design to development we had a great sync within their design/development team and our internal team.

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

Worked with 3 different designers, 2 full stack developers, project manager, case manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Overall quality product delivered within budget.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was a great sync between our team and their development team.

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

Professionalism and the will to work and get the job done, understanding the project in detail is what i liked most about their approach.

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

Front end improvements could have given better experience in exploring the product, so that can be improved.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Camden Live is a new music blog, content creator and live music show producer. I am founder and MD

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lionwood.software, and what were your goals?

We had a web application that we need to update and add new features. The main task of Lionwood.software team was to develop a new admin dashboard (which gives the administrator the ability to create and update online and offline events) and update the website according to the new admin dashboard. Also, the platform was slow so their task was to improve its performance and make a server-side rendering.

SOLUTION

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

Team is smart, capable and trusted. Lionwood.software was referred to Camden by one of our co-workers who has been previously working with Lionwood.software Co-Founder. We had a standard selection process and selected them as our software development provider based on good communication, their experience, and transparency.

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

The main goal we had was to give users the ability to get information about concerts, festivals, and gigs. Basically, the main stages of collaboration included:

• Identifying and prioritizing tasks and requirements
• Creating wireframes for the main website, listing, and admin panel according to requirements and expected user flow
• Creating mockups for each page
• Setting-up architecture (Dev environment, API methods, DataBase, Identity server, cron jobs, storage for media files, hosting and etc.)
• Developing layouts according to mockups
• Creating WordPress part for the main website
• Creating React app for the admin panel and listings
• Deploying to the dev environment.
• Testing the whole portal according to requirements
• Deploying on the prod environment.

Main Technologies used: React, Redux, JavaScript, .NET Core, MongoDB, Identity Server 4, WordPress

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

1 PM, 1 Designer, 2 Frontend developers, 1 Backend developer, 1 Full-stack developer, 1 QA

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Having completed and delivered the project they continue supporting our platform. They do deliver in time and within the agreed scope and budget. We also worked on other projects together as our collaboration was successful.

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

Lionwood.software is always offering the best solutions and is easygoing in communication. Whenever we have some questions, we schedule a meeting and discuss them. We use Jira for tasks management and Slack for communication.

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

Lionwood team is very proactive and dedicated to their work. They aren't just developers but also a team of professionals who can consult, give advice, and deliver. They contribute to the project with new ideas to gain a good result. Their cost structure is very reasonable and their code is of high quality.

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

Nothing comes to my mind. This team is always booked so you should plan your collaboration with them in advance. But this is a certain thing when working with a team of experts

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Dizmo is a Swiss company which develops software that connects data, services and applications into one interactive workspace. We work in the field of intuitive decisioning platform, linking the physical and digital worlds, offering dynamic composition capabilities, compelling collaborative services and a range of IoT facilities. I am Chief of Customer support and my job is to oversee the development process, making sure customer requirements are translated into development specifications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lionwood.software, and what were your goals?

We are long term partners with Lionwood.software and this is not the first project we are working on together. The biggest challenge for this specific project was that two different teams, developing the components had to synchronize and make sure everything is compatible and works together. Since Lionwood.software are in the mean time very experienced with our software stack and our way of development, the process of cooperative development went flawless.

SOLUTION

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

Lionwood.software did a software development challenge, together with the other finalist of our selection process. Their work showed conceptual understanding and knowledge of the technology. We selected them also because of their open and relaxed approach of communication and administration.

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

They are co-developing with us an interactive platform for users to perform dynamic allocation of resources with an unprecedented level of usability. Our product empowers users to dynamically link resources and tasks to each other and interactively manage them in a timeframe.

The development is structured in short sprints, called Complexity Launches. Each individual launch has a main goal and is built on top of the previous one a successful launch, meaning that all criteria have to be met in order to prepare the next Launch. If the launch was not successful fixes need to be implemented and the launch redone. As technology, it is the standard web development stack used, mostly JS.

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

There are usually 2 people in the core team, 1 to 2 developers and a Manager. Sometimes a testing specialist is involved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are able to develop in sync and on time, despite of the military invasion launched on the territory of Ukraine, Lionwood.software managed to deliver without noticeable delays. We are still at the first milestones of delivery releases, but as seen from Project Management perspective, the project is evolving in a very good fashion.

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

The communication with Lionwood.software is very easy going and we have multiple official and private channels to keep business under control. With the help of standard development tracking tools such as Jira and Git, we are able to easily define priorities together and to work agile.

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

They are impressively dedicated and able to deliver even in the most difficult circumstances. They also demonstrate real and profound interest in the concepts they are developing and contribute with valuable ideas and solution for particular problems. They are very flexible and always try to find a solution or a compromise that is beneficial for all parties.

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

There is always field for improvement in any aspect, which is the beautiful process of learning and getting more experienced. In some cases a bit of additional time for testing in house the newly developed functionality would be beneficial, but it is also understandable that this might delay the commit for the sprint.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a Product Owner at a Car Dealer company ‘Lube Auto‘. I’m responsible for translating product managers’ strategies to tasks for development, learning the market and customers’ needs and evaluating product progress at each iteration.

Our company deals with car shipping from the USA, Canada and South Korea to Ukraine. There are 30 car carriers at our disposal. Our corporation consists of 17 offices all over Ukraine, American company Auto USA and Transportation company. Lube Auto counts more than 250 employees and is the owner of the biggest parking area in Western Ukraine.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lionwood.software, and what were your goals?

As our company is engaged in buying automobiles at American, European, Korean and Georgian auctions, we faced an issue with keeping track of the purchased car because of the vulnerable tracking system lacking security we used before.

As a result, the business lost a vast sum of money. Lionwood.software came up with a great solution which was supposed to solve our problem and offered to develop a system of monitoring and tracking of user activity that has total control over the car buyers. The main feature of the app is that it’s not bound to the browser and guarantees absolute security. A big plus is that the app can be unlimitedly extended with new functionality.

SOLUTION

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

I had experience working with Lionwood.software on another project, so I was familiar with their style of work, individual approach, and I was certain they deliver high quality service. It didn’t take too long to convince my team either as Lionwood.software provided us with bright ideas that helped our business grow. They are pretty flexible as they deliver the result in a relatively short stretch of time.

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

We started collaboration with Lionwood.software to improve our web app. Their team of developers made it easier to use, improved Logistics that now provides a proper car search, added Admin panel, Blog and Certification page.

Lionwood.software provided web app improvement using .NET Core and Angular technologies, mostly by adding new features. The system of monitoring and tracking user activity was delivered as 2 Desktop applications for MacOS and Windows and 2 Mobile applications for iOS and Android with such stack of technologies as Node.js, React.js, Redux, Feathers.js, Electron, Kotlin, Swift, SwiftUI, Combine.

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

The team composition varied according to the scope of work. There were from 1 to 3 .Net developers, 2 Angular developers, 3 Full stack engineers, 2 Android developers, 1 iOS developer, 1 DevOps specialist, 2 Project Managers, 1 Delivery Manager, 1 UX designer and 2 Quality Assurance specialists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to launch a tracking system with encrypted storing of logins and passwords. Since 30% of the cars bought at the auctions were not identified, it caused big fees and cost us a substantial sum of money. Tracking system solved our problem and it was our main achievement. App gives us 100% security, convenient filters for user’s search.

Also, it provides statistics about users, the possibility to choose an account, shows a calendar with a notification system and, what’s more important, it’s impossible to cheat the system. The team performed well, so we continue developing our business with a variety of digital solutions.

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

As we are located in the same city, it was easy to communicate with our vendors. We called onsite meetings on a regular basis planning and discussing new scopes of work and its execution. Apart from that, the team provides demo sessions and on-site staff training after product launch.

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

We experienced collaboration with other companies previously and once we established a partnership with Lionwood.software company, we were impressed how easy it is to communicate our ideas and always stay on the same page.

Lionwood.software is not only a technical partner, but also a partner who analyzes business thoroughly, gives advice for business growth and recommends effective solutions.

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

Sometimes there was a lack of available developers but the result has outdone itself.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m Anna Cegielska and my position is Head of QA and HR department in Gate-Software which is a team of 50 specialists led by experienced visionaries. We help online shops improve their sales figures by accurately translating business objectives into technology. Our company specializes in Magento 1 (maintenance, support) as well as Magento 2 (maintenance, implementation, and data migration).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lionwood.software?

Our team was developing an e-commerce project with tech stack Magento and Angular. All our developers who have skills in Angular were busy, and we decided to communicate with the software development companies to join our team of Angular developers.

SOLUTION

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

We had to choose between a few developers in different companies that were in our shortlist. I got a recommendation from a friend from Ukraine, Lviv, that Lionwood.software is a trusted partner and I could contact them regarding my request. They provide developers who have been working in their company for a long time, at the office and are trusted developers opposite to the recruitment agencies who may not know the developers they are presenting.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Lionwood.software’s developer had joined our project management system JIra, Harvest and Rocket chat. His main duties were to perform the development of the web application in Angular, and he was also responsible for reviewing code in the Angular web app.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

To choose the right developer we had a technical interview with the specialist provided by Lionwood.software. We conducted a well-structured interview with a defined 12 questions. Lionwood.software’s engineer passed the interview successfully, gaining the highest points. Also, his English level and communication skills were on the high level. As a bonus, the developer knows Polish, which was beneficial for us because the project documentation was written in Polish.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success?

Lionwood.software brought in the right talent at the right time with the right expertise. We are happy with the quality of their work.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had very good communication throughout the engagement. We had everyday scrum meetings, during which we went through progress and associated next steps. I can always reach my points of contact at any time. We communicate via Rocketchat, and we use Jira to keep track of the project. They’re responsive when we have issues or suggestions for improvements — they’ve helped us out when we needed it.

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

They’re very flexible. They have easily adapted to the requirements of the workload that we requested.

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

During the collaboration, any issues we raised were solved efficiently and there is nothing major I can think of.