App Updates for Performance Optimization
- Custom Software Development
- $200,000 to $999,999
- Jan. 2008 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"The mere length of our business relationship may well serve as the best recommendation to choose them."
- Advertising & marketing
- Warsaw, Poland
- 11-50 Employees
- Online Review
- Verified
Sidnet developed updates for a mobile app for better performance. They optimized the database query and caching mechanisms while responding to end user’s needs.
The platform is more reliable and functions well. Sidnet is professional and responsible. Their team communicates effectively and is very transparent. The success of the partnership has led to an ongoing business relationship.
The client submitted this review online.
BACKGROUND
Please describe your company and your position there.
We are a marketing agency. We have been testing, creating and monetising digital products and services since 2008. We work with corporations looking for new sources of income as well as Venture Capital and Private Equity funds. The list of our clients includes Kruszwica (a Bunge company), Bonduelle, Business Insider, CNBC and Kolbe Corp among others. At Iconaris, I hold the position of Product Owner. I am responsible for product development and ensuring effective project implementation.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
For what projects/services did your company hire Sidnet?
In 2008, the Iconaris team (at that time still under a different name and without my presence) began working on a culinary blog aggregator for ZT Kruszwica. The client wanted our agency to handle the entire project, even though our team lacked the programming expertise required. We thus needed a subcontractor to take over the part of the project related to programming the web application.
What were your goals for this project?
ZT Kruszwica (part of the Bunge group) is our long-time client and is the largest oilseed processor in Poland. The company owns many well-known consumer brands, such as Kujawski, Oliwier, Masmix, Smakowita and others.
Working with Sidnet, we support the online presence of our client’s brands and we have created a number of websites and applications with their assistance, the goal of which is to strengthen brand recognition and consumer involvement.
Examples:
- Blogi z pierwszego tłoczenia (‘First-pressed blogs’)
- a culinary blog aggregator used to promote the client’s brands (Kujawski, Palma), as well as partner brands (e.g. Bonduelle).
- Fooder - a website and a mobile applications for Android and iOS users. It is a platform for saving internet recipes which is used to promote the client’s brands (Kujawski, Oliwier) and partner brands (e.g. Bonduelle). - Smakowity Chleb (‘Delicious bread’) - a website dedicated to baking homemade bread, used to promote the Smakowita brand.
- Pomagamy pszczołom (‘We help the bees’)
- a website for a social educational initiative that strengthens Kujawski's image as an environmentally-responsible brand. These individual projects required the implementation of specific functions, such as external website content processing, search engines, mass newsletter sending, as well as integration with social media services and Google Analytics. In addition, the Fooder application was supposed to make A/B tests possible.
Such tests involve several versions of application builds with different functionalities, which are then tested to find which version is better suited to the client’s needs.
Over the years, Sidnet developers have consistently indicated the most appropriate technologies (e.g. Perl language for the web scraping functionality in ‘Blogi z pierwszego tłoczenia’) and have adapted flawlessly both to the solutions already in place (e.g. PHP and Laravel in Fooder) and to client’s new requirements (e.g. WordPress as the engine for the ‘Smakowity Chleb’ website).
SOLUTION
How did you select this vendor?
Over 10 years ago, our technological partner at the time invited Sidnet to collaborate on an online content aggregator - ‘Blogi z pierwszego tłoczenia’. That partner had already worked with them on implementing several smaller projects and was pleased with the results.
Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.
We work with Sidnet based on the Time & Material model. The developers rely on the specification, graphic design and mock-ups that they receive. Apart from the solution itself, they also provide an accurate description of how it works and how it is made. We have tested various work methodologies during our longstanding business relationship. We can thus confirm that Sidnet developers perfectly understand Agile methods and effective remote work principles. Whenever we needed on-site support, they would come to our office to work from there. Not only do they create software for us, but they also play the role of technological advisors.
The Sidnet team has proven many times that they are perfectly familiar with content aggregation and web scraping technologies. For our client, they built dedicated mechanisms for automatic downloading and processing Internet content. Fooder and ‘Blogi z pierwszego tłoczenia’ allow users to save recipes from external websites on their accounts in a unified, standardised form. The developers always respond to the current needs of our client.
They added search and newsletter functions to the clients’ websites and applications and made conducting A/B tests possible as well. We worked with Sidnet both on websites built from scratch and projects taken over from other development teams. Such an example of a successful takeover of an existing project is Fooder.
Sidnet specialists updated the website and replaced two native mobile applications with a single one, written in React Native. A majority of the joint projects for ZT Kruszwica are still being maintained and developed by Sidnet programmers.
What was the team composition?
We typically employ the support of 3-5 Sidnet developers at a time, including a dedicated contact person. The team’s size and composition is flexible, and changes based on the current needs of our clients.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?
Sidnet developers released several updates for the Fooder mobile app, making it work faster and optimising the database query performance as well as caching mechanisms. Fooder rignt now has well over 500,000 registered users.
Reliability and speed of both the web app and mobile apps are crucial for our business metrics. Sidnet makes it possible for our clients to get exactly what they expect - solutions ready for A/B testing, custom mechanisms facilitating analytics and notifications about user activity (or inactivity). The developers also assist us in responding to the needs of end-users, for example by introducing a search engine.
How was project management arranged and how effective was it?
The Sidnet team are true professionals. They remain in constant contact with us and do all they can to meet the deadlines. There is no need to convince them to report on their own work. This transparent process reassures us that individual tasks last exactly as long as they should.
The Sidnet team handles pricing for programming works as well as planning programming-related tasks and allocate the resources needed to perform them. Other organizational matters as well as communicating with the client is the responsibility of our agency. Although we occasionally meet with the Sidnet team in person, we primarily work on our joint projects using remote tools like Asana, Slack and Skype.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
The guys at Sidnet understand the needs of a marketing agency very well. They are great at remote collaboration on projects. We have always valued Sidnet for a professional and responsible approach to their work as well as transparency in our collaboration, effective communication and attention to detail. The mere length of our business relationship may well serve as the best recommendation to choose them.
Are there any areas for improvement?
We have never had any reservations as to the functionality of the product. Nonetheless, in some instances, there were slight discrepancies between the approved design and the final appearance of the website itself. Resolving this problem was as simple as pointing this fact out and they have been putting a stronger emphasis on visual coherence ever since.
And although the implementation deadline may occasionally shift, it never exceeds the acceptable project standards. The latter is, of course, due to many factors, which are not necessarily Sidnet’s fault. Whenever any improvements can be made (e.g. better feedback collection or planning), the Sidnet specialists always propose an implementation plan out of their own accord. We always receive information on the causes behind any delays as well.
RATINGS
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Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
"Competitive quality-price ratio"
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
"They remain in constant contact with us and do everything the can to meet the deadlines."
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Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"Competitive hourly rate"
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"They were recommended to us, and we would be happy to recommend them to others as well.