Uptime Poland

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a software development company based in Stockholm, Sweden. We primarily do mobile app development, web development, augmented reality, and virtual reality. I am the COO in charge of all of our projects and general operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vimanet?

We have our own in-house developers but partner with other companies based upon the technologies we need. We were hired to work on a .NET project and we didn’t have that expertise in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was an employee self-service portal for handling tenants. It allowed administrators to access different sections of the application to help specific clientele within an Azure cloud platform. It was part of a larger solution and operated in tandem with other sections and modules. They covered all aspects of software development lifecycle, including design, development, operations, and maintenance.

What is the team composition?

I had direct contact with the technical lead, a developer, and a project manager on their side.

How did you come to work with Vimanet?

We sent out an RFP and looked at our contact network for a good development company. They were recommended, so we had a discussion with them and looked over their background. They had the right competence and level of seniority for the project so we decided to work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in late March or very early in April 2018. We delivered the initial scope by the beginning of May 2018. There were other changes and updates that took place after that first deadline.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We usually base project success on the originally estimated work effort in comparison to the outcome. They finished everything within the allotted time and the final product matched the client’s desired functionality and quality. They did a great job and the client was very happy with the end result.

How did Vimanet perform from a project management standpoint?

They were confident and always followed up with us on hours and invoicing. We had weekly discussions with them and they were involved and professional. They did a fantastic job of staying on top of the scope and the deadlines. We were very happy with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re competent and quickly understood what our client wanted. They give the impression that they’ve done a lot of this type of project. They delivered everything within a very tight timeline and made good suggestions for enhancements and improvements that went beyond the original prompt.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were very professional and we had no issues with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be flexible and accepting of change. Often, solutions may be different from original expectations and it’s helpful to stay openminded. This is a general comment and not a critique of Vimanet’s work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of MD Consents. We are developing an online medical consent platform. We want to help healthcare clinics engage patients as customers rather than just cases that need a medical solution. Our comprehensive informed consent process tackles education, compliance, government, and audit components. This product makes the process more efficient for clinics and more convenient for patients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vimanet?

We needed platform development for our start-up. Although digitizing processes means less face-to-face interaction, offering compassionate, personalized service online reduces travel time for patients who need counseling and consent sessions. Our product frees up clinic staff like nurses to focus more on medical work by offloading nurses’ admin duties.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vimanet helped us create a platform to solve problems for healthcare clinics, from business processes to patient wellbeing. Our products educate patients about treatments options from a medical and legal perspective. Fertility Consent, our first product, has serious legal implications like ensuring parenthood and other complex forms are signed properly. Clinics have made mistakes in the past with paper forms and had patients attempt to forge signatures. Putting forms online for patients to sign electronically reduces the amount of paperwork involved and ensures compliance.

Vimanet spearheaded the technical design, development, process mapping since we don’t have in-house coders. We presented high-level business requirements and specs for the platform’s functionality. They created user journeys and wireframes to show how the user interface should look. Vimanet programmed the entire frontend and backend using .NET and Microsoft Azure. The platform involved advanced .NET techniques and encryption to protect patient data.

The prototype they first built included all the core features for us to show our clients in the UK. Our original analysis hadn’t shown the full scope of this SaaS platform, which needed extensive customization. We built iterations for each healthcare sector to accommodate specific requirements. All the major iterations we’re now doing now are for international markets’ legislative differences. Since the product needs to integrate with other systems, they’re also developing APIs that allows third-party systems to push and pull data from our consent platform.

What is the team composition?

The core team includes 3-4 people, but we’ve scaled up to five as needed to increase velocity. Vimanet’s CEO is our account interface. We hold in-person meetings every 6-8 weeks in Poland. The full-time lead developer is a .NET specialist. Another full-time frontend developer who works with him. A part-time QA person runs all of their internal testing, while we conduct end user and acceptance testing internally.

How did you come to work with Vimanet?

I found them through an online search. As a startup, we’ve done many software projects over the years. Our key criteria was value for money. We had a lot to accomplish on a fairly tight budget. Vimanet works at the cutting edge of Microsoft technologies. Like many firms in Krakow, they have English-fluent IT resources. I interviewed six companies in Poland.

Vimanet stood out from the competition based on their technical credentials, flexibility, and communication skills. Since they’d worked with other start-ups, they understood the challenges we’d face. They offered flexibility with planning the implementations.

How much have you invested in them?

We have invested between $200,000–$1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since October 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have interested clients based in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and France. When we started this process, we weren’t expecting to internationalize so quickly. Based on extensive testing, the quality is flawless. We rarely see bugs over rounds of feature and layout changes.

Many clinics use outdated on-premise systems with rigid databases like ones from the 90’s. When we show our cloud system’s cutting-edge interface, people are blown away. They’re especially impressed with the tablet e-signature function. Our product streamlines tasks that usually require piles of paperwork, meetings, conversations, and mistakes into an intuitive and attractive workflow process.

How did Vimanet perform from a project management standpoint?

They have been pretty good. We have thrown a few curveballs at them through the project because what we thought we wanted and what we ended up with is a bit different. We have had to manage that change process and scope creep on both sides. Their flexibility and ability to adapt are very high, and they are very good at delivering code on time as well.

We communicate through a combination of face-to-face and remotely. Email doesn’t work as effectively for what we’re doing. For testing, we actually record videos. We can highlight issues on the screen as we discuss what needs to be changed.

They have started sending videos back to us as well. Screen recording helps explain and archive queries. Our weekly Skype calls usually focus on prioritization and updates on progress within sprints. We use Microsoft Visual Studio to manage all the requests, bugs, tweaks, and new bits of development which is shared between myself and the development team. I am heading to Poland next week where we will do a run through the latest developments of the product and also map out the next big bits of work that need to be done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I always can expect strong quality code from Vimanet. From day one, the quality of Vimanet’s code has been strong. I go to them with feedback, problems, or challenges, and occasionally ideas for improvement. Rather than just taking that at face value, they look at the big picture and challenge us to achieve even better results.

Sometimes, they’ve come up with much better solutions to problems than we even expected. Beyond writing the code, they want to actively get involved in understanding our business in and goals. Recognizing time and budget constraints, they turn work around quickly. I’m delighted with their work and collaboration style.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be completely open, honest, and transparent about what you are trying to achieve. Be completely upfront and treat it as a partnership rather than a supplier/customer relationship. You’ll get more value and collaborate much more smoothly. It’s easy to pick up the phone or have a Skype chat with them. They’re good and honorable people that feel like an extended part of my business, which is what most comparable clients want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Innovators’ Bridge is an educational organization that organizes events and provides online education for product managers. I’m a CEO and program director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vimanet?

We needed to know how to start with the technology to design a solution that would be of maximum support to what we were doing. Krzysztof [CEO, Vimanet] advised us on which technology to choose, how to organize work, and where to start.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Part of the website is a conference, the main functionalities of which are subscribing for learning of programs, getting to know available speakers and all different parts of the program.

We are developing a content part of the website that will function as an expert blog. Also in development is a tool to sign up for mentoring sessions available during the conference and all year.

They helped partly with the design, but the UX/UI was done by us. The whole solution is programmed for the Kentico platform, using .NET.

What is the team dynamic?

Krzysztof provided a project manager who helped us with all preparation stages.

How did you come to work with Vimanet?

Krzysztof participated in one of our conferences and liked the idea of helping us with designing and implementing the online part of what we were doing. We agreed on the scope and the way we would proceed with work, and started preparation.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2016, and the project is almost complete. We've developed the core functionalities, but we have others planned, so we will be extending the scope.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've had satisfactory results for the existing website and service.

How did Vimanet perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was smooth and professional on their side. We’re happy with how the collaboration worked. They're responsive when it comes to implementing all kinds of changes or upgrades. We’re using the Agile approach so the scope changes with time, and they're supportive when it comes to implementing changes and fixing bugs.

The collaboration was smooth and friendly. Even in situations with unexpected challenges, the team at Vimanet responded quickly to our requests.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their Agile approach gave them the ability to accompany us through the development process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

My and our team’s experience is positive from the whole collaboration. If we were to wish for more, it would be UX and UI support or skills on their side, a complete solution design. The development part was professional, and we definitely recommend them as a software house. It was a good experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be in contact throughout the creative design process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Hawk Search is a next-generation site search platform. Our main customers are B2C and B2B e-commerce merchants. They use our technology to drive and optimize shopping experience. When you think about any type of e-commerce site, whether you’re using a search box, whether you’re navigating through the site, whether you’re seeing merchandising being presented to you, all the way up to actually making a purchase, that’s what Hawk Search drives for our clients. I’m CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vimanet?

We were getting smaller clients and were building our base. We did have a ton of great client feedback, and we also got great strategies in terms of how to build a road map. We were looking for a company to augment our team. People on our team worked well with their country in terms of the people base. In 2014, they joined the team and have been with us ever since.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re primarily working on product development and also helping out with research and any other advisory roles when we’re managing and launching new things. We augment e-commerce systems. When you think about clients that are using Hawk, they wouldn’t be replacing their e-commerce platform. They would be having us run in parallel with their e-commerce platform. Out of our 300+ sites, we have clients with homegrown e-commerce platforms all the way up to Magento and Oracle Commerce, etc. So, it’s a wide gamut, in terms of where our B2B platform lives. We’ve essentially integrated with them all.

When we’re building out the product, we start off with a search box to see how people navigated throughout an e-commerce site. One of the things that we added to the road map was building out product recommendations. If you’ve been on Amazon, it’s those products that are coming to you that show up as “you might also like” or “other people bought this.” We didn’t have that functionality before. That was a big aspect on the product road map, and that’s something where Vimanet actually helped us with architecting it. They were using things like MongoDB, Machine Learning, and Apache Spark. Those are aspects that we essentially collaborated on to build out a new module for our platform. They were part of that leading force to get that module up and running. About two and a half years ago, we released the product recommendations, which has been a great add-on. A lot of our clients turned it on. And then, we even have clients using us just for the product recommendations feature.

They provide two to three resources full-time.

How did you come to work with Vimanet?

We were looking for different service providers on Google. We narrowed them down to people that had .NET experience, because the platform is written in .NET. Our chief architect was from Poland, so he also looked at that as being a possibility. He goes back every now and then, so that helped with that process of narrowing it down and the credibility and trust. They were a good size team that could work with our team. We wanted to work with a company closer to our size versus a big firm or a much smaller team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in the summer of 2012, and the work is ongoing. We have monthly releases that go out, so there are always items in the product road map. They help with smaller items like enhancements and bug fixes. We have a bigger development project now called Personas, and they’re actively leading that charge.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When people are using our products, they’re subscribing, and they’re lasting a long time like four or five plus years. The first main project was the product recommendation portion. That alone has increased a ton in terms of revenue. I would imagine it’s about 20% to 25% of the revenue. In terms of impact, they’re obviously a key to that. We have clients that range from $2,500 a month all the way up to $18,000 a month to use our service. When we have a feature like product recommendations coming out, it’s essentially doubling that $2,500. It’s a significant product added to our mix. On the monthly release side, that’s also a key part of what people are paying for, where there’s continual development on the site. Because they’re full-time on the team, those monthly releases help prevent any churn. We don’t have a lot of clients leaving, and people are staying with us.

How did Vimanet perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great to work with. They interface with people on our team, there’s no confusion in terms of communication and they get stuff done. Again, with our monthly releases, we have a tight timeline, and they’ve been sticking with it for years.

What did you find most impressive about Vimanet?

I think it’s their people and communication. Obviously, when it comes down to developing, writing code, that’s obviously one aspect that’s fine and great. But just the relationships we’ve built, I think, are key. It’s not like they’re just rotating resources. We’ve had one resource for years. He even came to visit when we had a trade show, and it was great to meet him face-to-face. We value that a lot. The team is smaller, and we try to be lean on our end, but it’s great having that long-term relationship with them because he knows the product well, and then the rest of the team knows the product well. That’s why whenever we have a new idea, there’s not a lot of ramp-up time. He understands where things can fit in, and the rest of the team supports that as well. Being able to have trust and dependability is something that we don’t want to switch from—someone that might have delivered well on something that maybe they’re passionate about, who drops off when it comes to maintenance and support. These guys have been consistent across the board, and based on that, we don’t want to leave them. We just want to keep on working with them.

Are there any areas Vimanet could improve?

I’d love to use more of their team, but we don’t have any complaints.

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

Make sure they ramp up to the point where they completely understand what the product’s doing and how it’s benefitting the client. Instead of us telling them just random stuff to do, they’re understanding the big picture. I think that’s the key, especially on our side, because it is a long-term product. I know they do things like system integrations and software implementations. Those are more project-based. But at least in our case, I think it is key for them to just understand why the product exists and how it’s helping our customers, because that helps them make the decisions that they’ve made in the last couple years.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

KeyFocus AS is a small Norwegian company that provides services to mangers. We are consultants delivering software services for key management processes. I’m head of development and head of consultancy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vimanet?

Vimanet has assisted us with developing some of our key processes. When I first approached Vimanet, I was looking for a better provider in Poland than the one I had. We had been working with another company developing a solution that we wanted to add to our consultancy services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I am an organizational psychologist and a management consultant, but in the type of service that we provide, we see that it should be fairly useful to batch some of the processes that we try to get across to the clients to make excellent software. We needed a provider that can take the type of needs and ideas and the concepts that we have and translate that into an excellent IT solution because we are not IT specialists. Vimanet needed to provide the architecture part and the programming part of the solution and understand what this complete solution is meant to produce. I had a concept and a pretty good idea of how the product should look and feel and how it should be used and what it should produce for the end users. But the design inside that, including the architect of the system and their frontend design, Vimanet had to come up with ideas how to do that.

How did you come to work with Vimanet?

The previous company that we’d been working with was not good enough. I was searching for Poland providers and found a company that had assignments in Norway and connected them. I took a trip to see what type of setup they have.

How much have you invested with Vimanet?

We spend 500,000 Polish zloty [$134,200 USD] annually with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them for eight years and we’re still working on the same project. I gave them a test assignment in November 2008 and they completed that successfully by February 2009. We then started on the real thing in March 2009. We are continuously developing it and Vimanet is responsible for the maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The best evidence of their success is that happy clients that continue to use them and have for the six years since we launched the first version.

How did Vimanet perform from a project management standpoint?

We have had an extremely close and tight cooperation. We have daily discussions with them, either directly with Krzysztof [Korbel, CEO and Owner] or with one of the developers in charge of it. That has been one of the most important aspects, this continuous dialogue on Skype and email. We continuously know where we are and how to solve large and small issues. I think that Krzysztof has had a good hand with putting together the right type of team that we needed. Sometimes I’ve had two developers full-time, sometimes six. It seems they are in control of what they are doing, and they are delivering.

What did you find most impressive about Vimanet?

What distinguishes them from the other company that I started to work with is they are able to discuss and find solutions with me as a non-IT person, which is extremely important. We might have had lengthy discussions, but they really try to understand what it is I’m really after, and then come up with solutions on a technological platform that can actually deliver it. We are informal and direct, and they have been able to match my way of working, and it has been an extreme pleasure.

Are there any areas Vimanet could improve?

Everybody can improve. Since I have been continuing to buy services from them for eight years, I am mainly very satisfied. Sometimes I would have wished that they had been a little bit earlier to give me a warning if some problems crop up. They are struggling to be able to deliver exactly what we agreed and, of course, sometimes they also get into unexpected difficulties. This is not a major issue because then they wouldn’t have been our provider anymore. Overall, I am very satisfied with what Vimanet is doing. They are reliable, and they are competent.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a digital agency and we produce eCRM [electronic customer relationship management] services, products, internet websites, as well as intranets and extranets across lots of different platforms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vimanet?

We wanted to find a trusted provider of quality code within the .NET environment.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vimanet worked specifically in ASP.NET and SQL across a number of CMSs. We worked on Kentico, Umbraco, and a couple of completely custom builds that were not based on the CMS control at all, but rather custom document management. We market directly to brands and organizations that require marketing services or communication support. The quality of Vimanet’s work is excellent. We worked in a very document-light environment and the team was able to understand the briefing and create fast iterations of proof of concept.

After that, we worked into the deliverables and had a couple of rounds of feedback before we released the product. Our client was an international media outlet and we had built a large extranet which included sophisticated document management and frontend experiences like serving of video, audio, downloading of documentation which needed to be integrated with a CMS, as well as custom time management across a calendar. It's not just a single function delivery; when new functions were added, those functions had to integrate seamlessly with quite a complex solution.

How did you come to work with Vimanet?

Our head of development had sourced them from a number of recommendations.

How much have you invested with Vimanet?

We spent between $50,000 and $60,000 annually with Vimanet.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2009 and we stopped working with them in 2013 because we moved away from .NET, which was one of our primary build technologies we used. When one of the larger clients closed the site down, we never needed to call on Vimanet anymore.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were able to orient themselves in a very document-light environment and then deliver effective and stable work for years. It’s a testament to their ability to understand, problem-solve, and to deliver quality code because, without that, you don’t get stability. They deliver quality work; there wasn’t an excessive amount of bug reports.

One of the aspects that give value in our industry is a great service level and attention to detail. Also, they have a very can-do attitude during emergency outages and critical priority situations. We were able to get on the phone and talk in detail with Krzysztof [CEO & Owner, Vimanet] himself or his team about how to solve the problems and triage the issues. They don’t have just a “build and ship it” mentality. They invest time and effort into doing a good job and were also key in helping us solve wider problems.

How did Vimanet perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent; they were always clear and managed expectations well in case there’d be an issue around a deadline delivery. If the solution was more complex, they were very quick to flag and negotiate small milestone tweaks, but in terms of hard, fast deadlines with clients, we didn’t miss any. We used a lot of old fashioned communication, however, we did have Redmine as a repository for the decided actions with the client.

All in all, it was quite a fast process for a .NET development and it was certainly very well structured.

What did you find most impressive about Vimanet?

I would say their attention to detail and their can-do attitude is what’s most impressive about them. For a commoditized service, it can be difficult to keep this at a high standard.

Are there any areas Vimanet could improve?

No. Whenever something came up that we felt needed to be improved, we always had open and frank discussions about the potential for improvement. Where possible, the team took our feedback on board and they also gave suggestions about how we might approach the project management or the documentation.

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

We were lucky to have Polish speaking staff when we initially worked with the team, but when that Polish staff left, there was no problem or difference in quality. I would’ve said that anybody who can speak Polish is going to work better with their Polish developers directly, but it didn’t prove to be the case.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a web development and implementation firm. We do design, frontend development, programming, and hosting of websites in various industries, including e-commerce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vimanet?

We were looking for someone to support us in the development, using ASP.NET and C#.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have our own proprietary e-commerce solution, and they helped develop that solution for us as well as assisted in the integration and implementation of that product onto live websites. The platform is in ASP.NET and C#. I believe they did JavaScript as well.

There’s been a flow in and out of team members. We have about six people from Vimanet working on my project, five programmers and one tester.

How did you come to work with Vimanet?

I wasn’t the person who found them, so I don’t know the details of that process. My memory is that one of our employees recommended them. We believe one of our programmers found them who is originally from Poland.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe it’s been a couple years. I think they worked with different departments of our company before I was involved. In general, the first team member started December of 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been integral in developing a lot of our e-commerce product. We have several of their team members working on our project, and their involvement varies. We could not be happier with our partnership with Vimanet. The code they deliver is very good. We find that they’re invested as well. They care, and they like to get things done when there’s a deadline. I truly feel that these guys are team members and not just an outsourced third-party. I believe they care about the work they’re doing.

Instead of just taking a task and doing it, they provide feedback if they think something should be done differently or better. They’re constantly working to improve what they’re working on. We definitely feel that they are not just laborers, but team members, and integral to growing our business.

How did Vimanet perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been fantastic. They commit to deadlines, they’re very responsive and incredibly detailed in explaining the process of their work. We’re incredibly satisfied with them.

We use TFS (Team Foundation Server). We also have an internal ticketing system that we use at times. For the implementations, we were using the internal ticketing system and email; they’ve been sufficient in all those modes. We also use Join.me for calls. Even with the time difference, they make themselves very available. We have calls in the morning, which means they have to stay after hours if the calls run long, and they’ve never complained.

What did you find most impressive about Vimanet?

That goes back to the care they have. They seem to be invested in their work, in the product and its success. That is what makes them different from other providers. Their English is also very good overall, so there are limited communication issues.

They have varying levels of skill within their team. We’re incredibly impressed with the work from one of the people working on our project. He can tackle anything we throw at him. He built an import/export tool from scratch for us, which was very impressive. When we get a junior developer, the owner of Vimanet, Christof, is very clear on that person’s skills. We know where to place them and how to divide the tasks so that the person with the right skillset has the right job.

Are there any areas Vimanet could improve?

Just like any group of programmers, some are better at responding to tickets in a timely fashion, and some have to be reminded. I think there are some people who do need to be reminded, but that’s the job of the project manager. Not everyone is as timely in updating the tickets as we would hope.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide automated invoice processing and digital mailroom solutions. I'm the chief executive.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vimanet?

We've got a cloud-based application—a buying platform where customers all around the world can log in and create buying requests in their business. The sorts of customer that we have are normally chains of hotels or restaurants. Our customers are organizations normally with multiple sites operating from multiple locations. They tend to be “larger” small businesses (50 to 250 users). That’s our kind of target. We're not really targeting enterprise customers. We’ve also got small users with 10-12 seats on our system, and others with 250 seats. We had developed that in-house for about two or three years, and we wanted to try and increase the rate of productivity. What we wanted was a company who could understand what we've created, try and understand the company, and then add some value. We outsourced the development to Vimanet.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our programmer requirements were quite straightforward: it's a .NET app written in C# with an SQL backend. They assembled a small team dedicated to us, and that's going quite well. They now are doing about 90% of the development on that app. At the moment, we got a team of three women: one is a senior programmer, the other is a junior programmer, and a dedicated tester as well. Then they brought in resources for special projects of a couple of integrations we had done. They found somebody who worked for them who could tag on to the team, but the core team is relatively small.

How did you come to work with Vimanet?

Based on where we operate in the UK, having access to quality developers is difficult. It's competitive, and there are not enough quality developers in the UK. I found them through their own website. I typed into Google “outsourced .NET development” and saw their website that was ranked. We approached them directly. I submitted a contact form, and they contacted me the next day. Their response was good.

How much have you invested with Vimanet?

It’s been about £35,000 [$45,600] so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them December of last year. It will be ongoing forever. The apps are in permanent constant development. We're going through a major release this year; in the next few days, that'll be out.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of the code that they do, we know that it's good quality code. I've got a senior developer here (my CIO is a programmer). We've evaluated their code, and we're happy with it. The app is working pretty well. We’ve had no issues with bugs.

Their ability to understand our problems and create features and modules that we request is good. They interpret our requirements really well. In terms of adding value, we're adding new customers every month. The feedback that we get from the customers is that they're very happy with our system. I can't say I’ve spent £50,000 [$65,100] on them and got £250,000 [$325,600] back—it’s not tangible like that.

The one thing we asked them to do is integrate our app with a cloud-based account system. We gave them some pointers but left them to go and investigate how to do it. The result was that the integration was done, and it’s working. It took about six weeks, which was in line with our expectations. They didn't do it in a way which was super sloth, but it was slow. They're a pleasure, and everything they do was in line with our expectations which was great.

How did Vimanet perform from a project management standpoint?

The team I have are good communicators. They all speak good English. We only had one person on the team who came in temporarily who was difficult to understand or work with due to language issues. But on the whole, their communication and approach are good.

They helped structure a way that we're managing the project now. They've moved us from this unstructured Trello and built-in, in-house managed TFS into a Visual Studio team server which is cloud-based and more robust. We've moved away from Trello now into a proper Kanban board and swimlanes. That's all coming from them. Now they're organizing to put us on Microsoft Azure, which we wanted to do but they have the expertise to do it. It's a transition.

We see them as a partner. It’s a good partnership. As far as I’m concerned, they're like our in-house development team; they just come to work about 3,000 miles away. They're very nice people. They seem to get us, and we get them. It's great.

What did you find most impressive about Vimanet?

It’s the understanding of our requirements. We're very used to the feedback from people who outsourced work to, say, India. They've said things like "You have to be very specific to what you want because some companies will give you back exactly what you ask for with no thought around that." Where Vimanet really set themselves apart is the fact that they would challenge us, saying, "Why'd you want to do it like that for? There's a better way of doing it." That's what you want from a partner. You don't want them to take ideas and just give it back exactly as asked for because they know there are better ways. I can think of a couple of specific ways where they've done that, and they've been right. That's really good—that's a differential.    

Are there any areas Vimanet could improve?

Not really. I don’t think that they need to improve anything. My summary of this is they don't work at a rate which is mind-blowingly fast or anything like that. They're doing a really good job, and I don't really want them to get any more customers because it might impact my work.

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

Invest plenty of time getting to understand them and their business goals. We did a site visit to where they're based in Krakow, Poland, and we found that to be quite valuable in understanding who they are. It worked well for us because we eased into the programming with them in the six weeks. We sent them nice, little tasks that we were very comfortable with, and then we gave them some bigger ones. I would suggest that that's a good way working. A more experienced company might approach it differently, but that worked for us. Test them out, get the feedback on what they provide for you, and then take it from there.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Team Lead of an engineering company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Engineering and IT for power industry

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Programming

SOLUTION

How did you find Vimanet?

Online Search

Why did you select Vimanet over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Vimanet were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Full stack development in C# and Angular/Javascript. DevOps. Ongoing product development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Good, tested code deployed to production environment.

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

They're made up of service-minded consultants who are easy to work with and eager to help.

What was your primary form of communication with Vimanet?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Mix of competence and personality.

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

Coming to our offices once in a while to work in person.