NodeArt

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm one of the co-founders of 2Canoes Studio. We do post-production for US, Australian, and UK photographers, mostly wedding photographers but also portraits, etc. Most of our work is on color correction for wedding sessions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NodeArt?

We were trying to make a more convenient process for our clients to place orders.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I asked NodeArt what we could do to make it easier for our clients. I had my own ideas, and I spoke to them about how I see it, what I want, and we worked together on these ideas. They provided their own ideas too and developed a client dashboard and admin dashboard. Those dashboards have a lot of roles because we have moderators, our own administrators of orders, and retouchers. It was a challenge for NodeArt to make it convenient for us.

I wanted to use dedicated hosting, but they told me that Firebase would be better for me because the cost is cheaper. There are a lot of uploads from our clients, and I didn't know that it could be done for less than a couple of hundred dollars per month. It's amazing. We also decided to use Angular Material. I'm happy with the result of our work.

What is the team dynamic?

There were 3 people from their team who were working on our project.

How did you come to work with NodeArt?

Some of my friends have worked with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested $10,000 – $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since March 2017. We've finished one of the stages, and we are using our app. At the end of this month or next month, we will continue our work because we still have a lot of new features that we need for our system.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People say it looks good and is convenient. We have had some reports of bugs, but they fixed them immediately. Everything works fine at the moment.

How did NodeArt perform from a project management standpoint?

They used some project management systems. I also have some permission to log in and submit any of my ideas or bugs. We speak with their project manager via Slack, Skype, or through the phone. We mostly use Slack, but for some key points we use Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They can give you nice features that you wouldn't know about. For example, they told us to use Firebase. It was a brilliant decision for me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't know because it's our first experience with an outsourcing company. At the moment, I'm happy with the results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of an online casino called 7Bit that provides gambling services across Europe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NodeArt?

I needed to find a partner with expertise in developing online gambling platforms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

NodeArt developed our web product using Node.js and AngularJS. After the 7Bit website was completed, we worked on a second product a year later.

What is the team dynamic?

I was given the portfolios of several designers and chose 2 of them for a test project. I worked with one of their designers after that point.

How did you come to work with NodeArt?

During a Berlin conference in 2014, they were referred to me by a friend who said that they were good at frontend development.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work has been €6,000–€7,000 [$7,108–$8,293].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2014. The 7Bit website took half a year to complete, while the second project started in 2015. They continue to support my projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Casino users like the design; we received excellent feedback from players in the previous year. At the time, Mars Casino, my second project, was the second-fastest casino in Europe, but we had to refactor it in order to get its performance to that point.

How did NodeArt perform from a project management standpoint?

They need to improve their project management system. I hired a separate technical specialist to maintain contact with NodeArt and make the process faster.

We have mainly used Skype, Slack, and email for communication. My technical support enters all issues in JIRA.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From my experience, they deliver good quality. The first version of 7Bit wasn’t good enough due to the technologies we were using, so they made multiple refactors for free just to deliver a satisfactory product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are 2 product managers in place, which can lead to delays in getting the tasks entered in JIRA or Slack. However, NodeArt’s web developers and testing staff are good enough.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a small company working on our own gambling website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NodeArt?

We were looking for an outsourced company that would be able to create content for our online Coin Palace casino.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

NodeArt created a frontend for our casino based on the SoftSwiss platform, which is a software provider for casinos. The platform is web-based and also has a mobile version—NodeArt developed both.

How did you come to work with NodeArt?

We found them through GitHub. They had previous relevant experience with the SoftSwiss platform, and, based on our discussions, we determined that we could hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

The product cost was around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with NodeArt around January 2016. The project was completed in three to five months, ending in April or May of the same year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall, we have had very nice feedback. The SoftSwiss platform is very popular and there are many casinos based on it. We were actually called one of the best in terms of frontend design.

How did NodeArt perform from a project management standpoint?

I really enjoyed working with them and I would recommend them to future clients. The communication was done through Skype, Slack, and over the phone. We talked to several people from NodeArt, but not the whole team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They can dig deep into details and really try to understand business needs. This made NodeArt a great partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Owner of OLO

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We do best video chat app

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire NodeArt to accomplish?

• Develop app
• Develop backend

SOLUTION

How did you find NodeArt?

Referral

Why did you select NodeArt over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from NodeArt were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

• clarify project goals 
• plan solution
• make technical decisions 
• deliver solution
• add and support CI/CD processes 
• monitoring and alerting systems 
• clarify and work with tech debt 
• support dedicated and cloud infrastructure 
• support solution in production

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People can install it, make video calls, make chats etc. The app looks and works like planned on a both platforms. Marketing integrations works as expected with installation tracking etc. And the main - video calls are good and not laggy compared to other solutions.

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

Project management is always hard - we need everting for yesterday :) In common there were fails and success in project management, in some iterations we achieved good processes that fic out needs.

What was your primary form of communication with NodeArt?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We're impressed with their genuine dedication to our project's success. There was many situations where guys do supper efforts to achieve better outcome. Passion to solve problems with existing instruments instead of building bicycles: instead of classical approaches used solutions to cut the edges and improve velocity, like hasura, n8n, graphql etc.

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

Better Project Management from start