OTAKOYI

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a web design agency in Belgium.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OTAKOYI?

I hired OTAKOYI for web development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at OTAKOYI completed several small web projects and one larger one. One was a web to print platform that was for me. The others were for clients, but I handled all of the communication. Before sending the products to clients, I make sure everything is working well.

For the websites, we gave them the designs, and they made the wireframes. Some technologies used were PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, Laravel, and WordPress.

What is the team composition?

I had two main points of contact, including Oksana (Project Manager, OTAKOYI).

How did you come to work with OTAKOYI?

A friend of mine had worked with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with OTAKOYI from April 2018 to June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Clients are satisfied. In development, quality can always be improved, but it’s a matter of cycling through the software at different times. They listen well to what’s needed but also think on their own. The team at OTAKOYI proposes, interacts, and creates a good collaboration.

How did OTAKOYI perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style was very good. In the beginning, there was some miscommunication about deadlines, but once we put this on the table, it was handled properly. Since then, we had frequent communication via Skype and ActiveCollab.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their flexibility.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, we had communication issues around deadlines.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The team at OTAKOYI is full of good developers and think with the client. They’re getting bigger and better in what they do. I would recommend them to anyone.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Panem, a digital marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OTAKOYI?

We hired OTAKOYI to develop a custom CRM for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OTAKOYI developed a custom CRM that we use for tracking customers, tracking keyword positions and the sales health of our website. It’s a web-based single-page application using Java. Their team enabled it to develop invoices and reporting. They also helped create an internal scanner that works to find issues. The system develops invoices and reporting.

On top of this, they’ve also created a lot of different websites for our customers. If our customers need their sites to be optimized, we also utilize OTAKOYI. They use PHP, Angular, and Java for the development and, if the customer needs it, they provide designers.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with senior developers on their team.

How did you come to work with OTAKOYI?

They found us 5–6 years ago and we did SEO for their website, promoting them in our local market. Afterward, we started to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent in the $250,000-$500,000 range. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2011 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They built a good software for us and provide smart developers for the projects we assign them. We use the CRM they built for us daily. 

How did OTAKOYI perform from a project management standpoint?

They dedicate good project managers to the projects. There are times where they work directly with our clients, but we also manage the processes if our customers prefer that. If we know it’ll take too much time for us to manage a project between OTAKOYI and our client, we let them manage it. 

We use Google Docs and Worksection. Their team works using Basecamp or Trello. We essentially work off of a to-do list in Google Spreadsheets, which is convenient for seeing any changes and updates.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their CTO is one of the most skilled developers we’ve come across. Their team can find any solution for any kind of problem—their developers are smart and clever. They react quickly if we need something. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

To make their service better, they could use more time and people. Sometimes, when we ask them for something, we have to wait a little while because they have another customer.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start by working with simple tasks and you’ll see that OTAKOYI is working perfectly. Afterward, they could go forward with a more complicated project for you and provide a perfect final result.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I'm the CEO and owner of a marketing agency. I do a lot of branding and growth projects, as well as graphic design and website development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OTAKOYI?

I mostly needed help with website creation, development, and design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I hired OTAKOYI as my vendor for website projects. If a client hired me to create a website, I’d talk to the sales manager to go over the scope of work. We’d discuss the project requirements and the amount of time it should take. Then they would offer their own suggestions on how to move forward. We did about 4–5 projects together. They would provide website design or development. Depending on the project, they sometimes did both.

What is the team composition? 

Volodymyr (Sales Manager, OTAKOYI) was my main point of contact. During projects, they'd appoint a project manager and then a developer or developers. 

How did you come to work with OTAKOYI?

They happened to call me out of the blue right after a client approached me to build a website.  

How much have you invested with them?

I spent between $10,000–$25,000 for all total projects.

What is the status of this engagement? 

Work started in June 2015 and all projects were completed by April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Most of the websites turned out really well. One client had a difficult time operating their site, but I was satisfied with it. Another client was very satisfied with the site OTAKOYI did. It was high-functioning, robust, and super impressive. In general, I was happy with the results. 

How did OTAKOYI perform from a project management standpoint? 

Communication was very fluid and easy. We used email, spreadsheets, and Jira. They were quick learners who adapted easily to different needs that arose during a project. They also provided excellent input. They're quick to iterate and always willing to go the extra step to accommodate a client. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

They were adept at making adjustments and were able to move quickly. Sometimes I wanted them to move a bit faster, but I understand how development projects work. Overall, I think they did a really good job of managing the project. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

There was one project where my client had to continuously tell us during development that their site wasn't optimized across different channels. It's something that I expected OTAKOYI to do automatically, but that wasn't the case. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Make sure you set expectations about the requirements in advance. They're easy to work with. I've worked with other developers and had a lot of headaches.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Fervent, a strategic web development agency. We serve clients mainly in the nonprofit sector in Sweden and develop primarily WordPress sites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OTAKOYI?

We wanted to change our model to replace our own staff that was based in Ukraine with an outsourced partner that could communicate directly with our clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OTAKOYI has developed a number of WordPress websites for us as well as some using the Yii PHP Framework. They’ve managed sites with several subsites and with custom integrations like payment gateways and administrative systems. For example, they’re currently working on a WordPress platform for which we did the initial strategy and first mockups and for which they did all the prototyping. They managed the full design process through multiple iterations and are now in development.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with a project manager. Beyond that, there are around four developers, two or three designers, and a QA person on our team.

How did you come to work with OTAKOYI?

We found them through Clutch. We interviewed about 10 companies and ultimately found OTAKOYI was the best choice for us. They had a good sense of what it means to serve customers and we needed a team that could be in direct contact with our customers. OTAKOYI responded to our requests and it was clear during our conversations that they understood what we were talking about. They demonstrated an interest in understanding us and our business. They also had a good level of English.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2018 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Clear and consistent communications with clients are extremely important to us—and they’ve handled it incredibly well. For example, on the project for which they worked through the whole prototyping and design process, the client is super excited about the work they’re doing.

How did OTAKOYI perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager directs all of the communication with us and with our clients. They keep communication open and up to date with the clients and meet deadlines. When they’ve had a delay, they’ve made efforts to speed up so they can catch up with the project. They provide great service and have a real sense of ownership for the work that they do. We can trust the answers we get and the plans that they set.

Project management is one of their strengths. I have had to be less involved than when we had our in-house team. They run things smoothly and effectively with minimal efforts from my side while ensuring that the client is happy—it’s the best possible outcome.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Again, I think it’s their project management. When they started, they took over projects we had problems with. They jumped in, worked hard, and resolved the issues. They worked weekends if needed. They can understand how a Scandinavian company wants to communicate. The sense of ownership they exhibit is something I haven’t experienced before.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Even though they are great and better than any other Ukrainian company I’ve worked with when it comes to ownership, I think they can still improve because it’s one of the most crucial elements of any project. Their design and development work has been solid but the challenge for Ukrainian firms is staff turnover.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear from the beginning about what’s important to you and to your clients if you want them to be in direct contact. Be clear about what you want to get out of the relationship. If you haven’t worked with a Ukrainian firm before, given the cultural differences, it’s important to make sure nothing is taken for granted so that you’re on the same page.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager at Kadabra, an online marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OTAKOYI?

I was brought into the company to create a product department. There wasn’t a development team in-house, so I was responsible for finding an outsourced team to start work on our first product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OTAKOYI does ongoing web development for us. Their team uses PHP (Laravel), HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for a variety of projects. We build everything from scratch. It’s an opensource environment.

Their team built modular content management platforms based on WordPress, expanding it for our needs by adding data integrations through APIs. We’re using Lumen for API interactions. The sites are for different products. One has gone live, and we’re working on the second product now.

What is the team composition?

We worked with nine people from their company. There’s a Scrum master on their side who is helping manage day-to-day operations.

How did you come to work with OTAKOYI?

I was in touch with some companies based in Ukraine and Croatia. One of them mentioned OTAKOYI. We asked all the contacted companies to provide examples of their previous work. Our team focused on the performance aspect and concluded that the examples from OTAKOYI were the best suited. Their websites and apps were the highest performing, and their rates were affordable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $250,000–$500,000. Their team is paid hourly.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in February 2018, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve gotten positive feedback on the work OTAKOYI has done. Their team members are motivated and proficient in their technical skills. Through implementing our requests and creating a product, they helped me realize my vision.

How did OTAKOYI perform from a project management standpoint?

The team at OTAKOYI is dedicated only to us, co-located in their own space. We’re in touch daily and travel to them once a month for about a week stay. The work isn’t driven by deadlines but by business value. We successfully implemented Agile methodology and the Scrum framework within their team, with support from OTAKOYI.​

​​​​​​What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate their flexibility and willingness to accommodate my requests. They’re also agile, changing their work process to supply a dedicated team and the opportunity to expand to more teams in the future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their team could’ve switched to an agile methodology on their own.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Before working with OTAKOYI, we spent a lot of time building a full project document. We should’ve started working with them as soon as we had the first few ideas. Their team could’ve participated in the planning of the specification document. I would recommend starting with a small cross-functional team working with Scrum, instead of waiting for a full spec to be ready.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the brand manager at Intersono IVF Clinic, a large fertility center that provides international fertility patients with treatment services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OTAKOYI?

We needed someone to develop our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OTAKOYI developed our site, basing it on their own CMS. We discussed the technical functionalities the website needed to have, and then they did design, dev, and testing. One of the key tasks was for the site to show all the information about our activities to our international patients, letting them know of our products, advantages, and clinic descriptions. They also built the website for an international company that performs deliveries for the IVF market. They currently do maintenance and support for both sites, and we plan on partnering with them next year to build a mobile app.

What is the team composition?

My main points of contact were the project manager and web designers.

How did you come to work with OTAKOYI?

I found them online and received a referral from a friend.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around €30,000 (approximately $34,100 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They created a great web design. When the site first launched, there weren’t any bugs, and it still works well. It’s brought me a lot of organic traffic.

How did OTAKOYI perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly communicate through email, but we also use Skype to discuss tasks in real-time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Web design is their biggest strength; that’s why I chose them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They do good work and have been making incremental improvements.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have a good reputation, are responsible, and do excellent project management. I’m satisfied with their work, so others should definitely consider hiring them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and managing director of Foxtrapp, which is a software development company based in Dubai.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OTAKOYI?

We’ve worked with them in an outsourcing capacity. We kicked off the development of different projects for which we needed additional resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OTAKOYI has built e-commerce platforms for us including custom WordPress, PHP, and Magento sites.

We’ve had multiple projects with them—around 10—and they’ve demonstrated a good understanding of business requirements during briefs. OTAKOYI takes on the full development process from A to Z using best practices and industry standards.

All our products have had some kind of analytics embedded in them, from simple websites to e-commerce platforms. However, the most important thing before developing any technology is defining business requirements, and we do this knowing who the stakeholders will be in order to develop the right user journey. I can do a great job of development and coding, but if the user journey is bad, there will be a problem. That's where OTAKOYI comes in.

How did you come to work with OTAKOYI?

We found them through networking in Ukraine, where they’re from. OTAKOYI came highly recommended so we tried them out for one job, where they performed well. We continued working with them and the relationship has been getting better and better. More importantly, there is a chemistry between our people and theirs, which has played an important role.

How much have you invested with them?

I don’t want to provide numbers, but we have been working extensively with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with OTAKOYI at least a 1½ years ago—at the end of 2015. The collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The success is based on the key performance indicators we set for the actual technology, and there are multiple factors which play a role. Overall, the quality is great, from following the process of execution down to the end products and timing.

How did OTAKOYI perform from a project management standpoint?

We work on concrete project plans and have a two-way collaboration. Delays usually come from our side but we work hand in hand to make sure all projects are delivered on time.

We’ve worked together using multiple tools including Slack and platforms for documentation and for checking code. OTAKOYI has done a good job in terms of project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

OTAKOYI has a very good design team for user interfaces, which stands out as being a bit above average.

They have demonstrated very good expertise in the projects we’ve worked together on, especially in defining the user journey, designing the user interface based on best practices, and doing the programming needed depending on the language we choose.

More importantly, we feel that we’ve worked with them as one team with one objective, deeply analyzing requirements and the best approach for bringing a solution to life.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always areas of improvement in our business, but as long as we follow the process based on industry standards and best practices—which OTAKOYI has been doing quite well—we’ll be on the path to something good. This needs to be maintained and OTAKOYI has hired the right talent for it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Petterson Apps started in April 2016 with a four person team. Currently, we have 80 members, mostly outsourced. The focus is 70% iOS and Android development, and 30% Unity and web development. We have 2 offices, with the headquarters in Uzhgorod, Ukraine.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OTAKOYI?

From the start, we saw our company as a mobile-focused agency. We have various clients, and they will sometimes come to us needing web development. We don't want to say no to them, but we also don’t do much web development so we needed to find a partner who could meet our needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve worked on a variety of projects for us, including a website for a large port, as well as one for a Dubai jewelry client. They have also provided design services, as well as backend PHP development for an iOS project that we’re developing the frontend for. On certain occasions, we pass a full project on to OTAKOYI and do not get involved. Other times, we work directly with the client and subcontract the work out to OTAKOYI. These projects tend to be the smaller ones.

One example is a CRM integration project we’re currently working on. OTAKOYI's focus is WordPress, but they also have their own PHP-based engine called OYi.Engine. When I receive WordPress requests, I give them to OTAKOYI.

What is the team dynamic? 

We’ve used a team of at least 10 people, including developers and project managers.

How did you come to work with OTAKOYI?

I was looking for companies with a similar profile to ours: dynamic partners with a good reputation who had been in business for a while. I made a shortlist—looking within a specific location, Lviv, Ukraine—and then sat down with each candidate. 

I searched within my network and received recommendations for OTAKOYI. We had some meetings and decided to start working together.

How much have you invested with them?

The scope of our CRM project was $6,000 to $8,000, over a month. In total, we’ve subcontracted 4–5 projects to OTAKOYI, over the course of 2016. Most are a similar size, though some are as low as $2,000, and some are a little over $10,000. In total, we’ve spent up to $30,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with OTAKOYI in May or June 2016, at the outset of our company and we continue to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve referred a client who I’ve worked with for many years to OTAKOYI. They started working together, and, from what I understand, there are about 6 or 7 projects running at the same time. This speaks to their efficiency, since, if the work is not done well, the client wouldn’t have stuck with them.

How did OTAKOYI perform from a project management standpoint?

We usually keep Gantt charts for projects, in order to maintain visibility. The team is clearly specified, so we know who to approach with issues. I’ve actually taken some things I saw in OTAKOYI’s workflow and applied them to my business. 

They’re organized and don't overdo things. Their project management works well to ensure that things are running smoothly, efficiently, on time, and on budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When I was looking for a partner, what attracted me to OTAKOYI was that their site came on top of search results. They’ve put some work into that. In terms of communication, being pleasant to work with, and making me want to come back for more business, they have met my needs exactly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone has room to improve. I haven’t thought about this for OTAKOYI, but it’s a valid question. I would like to mention something, but nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Escape Room Israel specializes in room-escape games. We have 20-25 employees.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with OTAKOYI?

Our website had been built internally using WIX, which is a limited platform. We are running around 15 quest rooms in Israel; whenever we added a new one to the website, we needed to spend two or three days on the process. After one year, we decided to create a better version that would meet our company's needs.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We had an initial three-week period during which we discussed the project's requirements and put together documentation. OTAKOYI created a proof of concept and gave us a couple of design options. After approving the concept we liked best, we started development. We finished in a few months and continued to work with OTAKOYI for six months after that.

How did you come to work with OTAKOYI?

We started looking for service providers in Russia and Ukraine, and found OTAKOYI. They had experience in building these types of websites for other escape-room companies. Since there was a framework in place, we found OTAKOYI to be the most cost-effective option.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost of OTAKOYI's work was around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with OTAKOYI in September or October 2016. We continue to develop new features on a monthly basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

According to the feedback we've gotten from partners and customers, we have one of the most beautiful and usable websites in the Israeli market.

How did OTAKOYI perform from a project management standpoint?

OTAKOYI handled all the work well. We were in charge of the project timing and oversaw the work. Whenever we didn't like something and needed some changes, they fixed it immediately.

What distinguishes OTAKOYI from other providers?

OTAKOYI has great design vision: they come up with beautiful and creative ideas for us. They brought a lot of innovation in the projects we've developed.

Is there anything OTAKOYI could have improved or done differently?

OTAKOYI needs to validate and check the work more carefully. We've had a lot of back and forth with their team before receiving a result that was on par with our requests. We typically provide high-level requests and need to have an active process in order to receive satisfactory results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Castles runs the Castles.today web page around the world. We have fewer than ten team members from Poland, Japan, Ukraine, Slovenia and Malta. We are a small team spread in different countries.

What is your position?

I am a co-founder and the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with OTAKOYI?

Our main business challenge was to find a cost-effective company which could deliver high-quality work, and which could sustain our project for a long time. We didn't want to have a one-shot deployment, but rather a long-time engagement. We needed to deploy the platform itself, from the content management system to the web portal.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

OTAKOYI initially created the design of our page, which was followed by the deployment of our content management system, and the site itself. During the project execution, OTAKOYI delivered the changes requested by us. They were always responsible for the two parts of the project, design, and implementation. At the end of 2016, we also engaged OTAKOYI for the deployment of our mobile-responsive web page.

Our website is a tourist/history page which offers information about castles. The information is meant to be delivered in the user's local language. At this time, we offer content in Ukrainian, Russian, Slovenian, Japanese and English. The site offers pictures and descriptions of castles, virtual presentations, and drone videos.

Our CMS was developed and deployed by OTAKOYI. We were thinking of selecting an off-the-shelf product, but we decided that the design and future evolution of our page would require some custom adaptations. We decided to use their own CMS. OTAKOYI is customizing it for our needs.

OTAKOYI has also provided translation services, but more as a niche activity.

How did you come to work with OTAKOYI?

I was researching the Polish market, looking for a good organization. I came upon some advertisements for OTAKOYI through Google and tried to benchmark their solution and prices against those of the Polish market. At that moment in time, OTAKOYI's offer was very attractive, so I decided to work with them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost of OTAKOYI's work has been up to $20,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with OTAKOYI around March 2014. 

We plan to continue working with OTAKOYI for the next months, in order to make small changes to the system, and gradually enhance the functionality and look-and-feel of the site and its CMS.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The success of our page depends on more than OTAKOYI's deployment. It's been successful because of the content we've created, even though OTAKOYI gave us the tools for publishing it.

How did OTAKOYI perform from a project management standpoint?

Over our two-year collaboration, the project management from OTAKOYI's side has changed. In the beginning, it was a bit messy, requiring me to take on some micromanagement, even within their team. At this moment, I'm quite satisfied with the situation. I have a dedicated project manager with a clear escalation path to OTAKOYI's CEO, in the case of any issues. The project manager has been hiding the complexity of the team from me, but we can have dedicated calls with their designer or with the software producers. We typically communicate via email and don't use any project management tools.

What distinguishes OTAKOYI from other providers?

We can trust that OTAKOYI's team will deliver the quality of service we want. They have good turnaround and can adjust to client needs, instead of sticking to their own approach. We have worked with OTAKOYI for a long time, and, even though the team doesn't work fast, they deliver good quality solutions for a mid and long-term evolution.

Is there anything OTAKOYI could have improved or done differently?

I would like to see OTAKOYI extend its services to areas beyond what they're currently offering. I'm looking for a partner who will be able to design web applications, which OTAKOYI doesn't currently offer.