Vention

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Software Engineering Manager of a financial services company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Payroll savings and payroll deductions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Product Enhancments

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Working in small Scrub teams , responsible for development and testing of product enhancements.  There have been many key deliverables as Vention has been apart of our development team for quite some time, but here are a couple.

1. Employee Saving Accounts - ability for employees to save diretly from their paycheck and for employers to match.
2. Managed Accounts Integrations with partner companies using APIs and SFTP file transfer.
3. Many items related to processing 401k plans such as loans, conversions, rollovers, payroll processing, census ingestion.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

1. Improve Plan onboarding
2. More Assets under management
3. Keeping churn low.

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

Project management responsibility is in-house and is not the responsibility of Vention.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their developers are highly skilled and detail-oriented.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was originally published on 6/12/2018
Director of Engineering, Financial Services Company
Financial services
New York City, New York
11-50 Employees
Apr 2017 - Ongoing
$200,000 to $999,999
Not verified
Project summary
Vention (formerly iTechArt Group) took a minimum viable product and built a web app that’s ready for market. They utilized Scala, Swagger, Ahkka, and Slick to deliver a payment processing platform with isolated modules.

Feedback summary
Vention's (formerly iTechArt Group) work significantly contributed to the final product’s success. Their highly-skilled developers performed so well that the initial short-term engagement evolved to form a long-term partnership. They’re a talented team that benefits from frequent communication.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering for a financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We lacked the resources to accomplish a quick development project, so we outsourced the work to iTechArt Group.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iTechArt Group allocated to two developers to help further develop a 401K retirement web app. Specifically, they created functionalities related to payroll processing and built isolated modules. The platform’s main function involved creating payroll files, breaking them down, uploading them to our system, and then processing them further. They built a validation system into the modules, produced stronger code, and performed the necessary testing. I dictated what technologies we wanted to use and they adhered to those specifications. We initially used spray, but later transitioned to Akka and Scala. They also used Slick to configure backend databases and learned Swagger during development. The goal was to transform the minimum viable product (MVP) to a platform that could be ready for production.

The project was a success and we’ve since extended our engagement with them. They currently provide frontend and backend development as needed. They also perform QA testing on any product we have.

What is the team composition?

We’re currently working with nine full-time developers from iTechArt Group. There’s also a local representative that fields our questions regarding logistics.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

They were recommended to me by a colleague who worked with them previously. We evaluated multiple firms, but iTechArt Group seemed like the best fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve likely spent around $200,000, but I don’t have the exact number.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2017 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They gave us an advantage by getting the product to market quicker than we could have alone. They made an effort to learn about our business so they could raise insightful questions. The initial two developers performed so brilliantly that we’re now long-term partners and treat them as part of our team. Overall, our platform is growing and there’s a market for it. iTechArt Group’s contributions are responsible for a portion that success.

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate with their developers daily as they’re a part of our regular stand-ups. We include them in product discussions, so they don’t have to approach a new project without the necessary background information. Working in different time zones is a challenge, but not an insurmountable one. We’ve learned how to adjust our processes to facilitate a better experience for both parties.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If I have a question, they’ll jump on the issue and respond quickly with a solution. They proactively communicate changes in their staff or other occurrences that might affect our projects. I’m happy with the skill level of their team. Some of their team members are just as strong as our top internal resources and they perform to our expectations. Additionally, I appreciate the feedback they provide on the specifications we give them. That approach might not be for everyone, but I find it yields a better product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The cultural differences between our companies caused some communication issues. Everything runs smoothly now, but it did require an adjustment period. They’re currently taking classes to learn American culture and broaden their ability to communicate.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t treat them like remote resources and assign tasks without background information. Like any human being, they’ll burn out and won’t be emotionally attached to their work. If you spend the time to educate them on the project, they’ll deliver the results you need.
STAR RATINGS
Overall rating: 4
Quality: 4 They produce quality code, keep up with technology, and understand the latest trends.
Cost: 4
Schedule: 4 They work hard and give accurate timeline estimates.
Willing to refer: 4 We have a good working relationship.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Engineering of Tape

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A platform for experiences: bringing together leading creators, curators & consumers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Find full-stack people to work on our small team.

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

API and CMS development using Typescript, Nest.js, NestJS and Postgres. Focus on building a performant, optimized API service with test coverage for a rapidly iterating and evolving product. Implementing pixel-perfect designs for web.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Product is still evolving, but implemented features as specified by our team to our demanding standards

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

Good communication and particpation in our daily huddles and weekly planning sessions. Effective use of our ticketing system and Slack to keep us updated on progress

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Email or Messaging App

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

They have a great selection of quality candidates and ability to work closely with Vention during our time with engineerings

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

None come to mind

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Software Development Manager of Euroflorist

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Gifting industry with a focus on flowers online

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Establish a new e-com platform
• Gain efficiency and outcome

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Vention over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

During a 13/14 months we built a new ecom platform - using the composable architecture utilized by Commercetools and Magnolia and switched market by market over to the new platform. Key deliverable was to have conversion rate at the same level or increased. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Delivered in a timely fashion.
• Conversion rate the same or higher compared to old platform.
• Decreased number of incidents with new platform. 

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

Vention with Pawel as our primary customer contact, was extremely attentive, always available, always delivering to our needs and bringing us great candidates whenever we had a need. 

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

A feeling of familiarity. Pawel are able to create an "us" athmosphere where achieved things together. 

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

None. They delivered at the highest level. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of a software company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

SAAS Soluiton for Anonymous Reporting 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Fast to Market
• Quality of Work
• Diverse Capabilities

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Referral
• Relationship with a Principal

Why did you select Vention over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

End to End Platform development includding Database, IOS app, Android App and Web App. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Complete end to end solution.  

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

Very High quality work always delviered on time. Very responsive to changes and updates to the project. 

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

The quality and experience of the team is excellent. They have resoruces to meet all of our needs. 

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr VP of Engineering of CoverWallet

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

InsurTech

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Team augmentation
• Expertise in specific technologies

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

35

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

We are building a digital platform and Vention has been part of the team since the beginning. Their engineers have created APIs, Backends, UIs and also helped with QA strategy

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our company works based on OKRs and goals; our relationship with Vention is not tight to one particular project, it is a partnership. We measure based on the success of our projects to which their engineers are contributing.

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

Yes, their engineers are always highly skilled, motivated, and engaged. They consistently deliver on time and with high quality.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

They always respond fast to our continuously changing necessities and always provide experienced engineers. 

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of Catch

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Point of contact scam detection software for email

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Build our MVP
• Maintenance and improvement of the product
• Expansion to new features and modes of communication

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

• Helped build our MVP Gmail add-on
• Handed all bugs or issues with the app
• Built improvements and new product features

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our app is live and fuctions great with the 100+ users we have on the platform

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

We had daily stand ups and used project management software

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

Vention had a great team with a lot of experience.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of Product of Interactio.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Remote Simultaneous Interpretation Platform

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Improve user interface design
• Standardize design system
• Create user-friendly platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Vention over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Interactio needed to strengthen the area of UI design, and we were happy to collaborate with Vention. We created a design system together and completed user interface changes in our product, which is quite complex,

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have improved the user experience satisfaction rate by over 30%. Reduced time we work on projects internally (engineering and product) by at least half.

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

All were delivered on time and very much to the point of our needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

People

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

Nothing to mention

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Software Development Manager of Paper Edu

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Support students and school systems across north america.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Bolster engineering resources
• Build prototypes and innovate

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me
• Other

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Full stack feature development, Video content serving, Complex logic implementations, Infrastructure as code, etc

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Utilization of features by users, reduction in costs and efficiency gains.

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

The team of 3 developers was amazing, they adapted to any circumstance of more or less guidance, and always delivered on time and within reasonable boundaries. Kiryl, Andrei and Yaraslau were always great at responding to our needs and asked for clarification or pushed back when necessary - for example, when there were perceived flaws in the planning.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The three developers assigned to us were a pleasure to work with

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

Learned much later there was also a 'project manager' assigned to us? Didn't know the use of that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Blender Networks Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Online Marketing and Search Arbitrage

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Maintaining current codebase
• Create new features and functionality

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

Online Search

Why did you select Vention over others?

Good value for cost

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The project consisted of maintaining and improving our existing code base. Since this is an ongoing project, the key deliverables would be stability in our overall system and web properties, along with creating new features and functionality in a timely fashion, while self testing everything.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Measurable outcomes were overall performance and stability of our system. Timely releases and overall low number of bugs createad.

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

The team was very auto functioning on its own and our project managers at Vention were very responsive for any of our needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

We've been impressed by their flexibility and response time in finding engineers for us

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

Pricing could be more competitive but they are worth the cost.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am a Director of a Kafene

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Kafene is point-of-sale financing platform that helps offer underserved consumers more flexible purchase options through transparent lease-to-own (LTO) agreements

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Diversify our engineering organization
• Improve our output quality

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Collaborate with different team members across the organization including the business team and closely follow our SDLC to deliver scaleable and performant system made out of micro services with many data sources that flow into our data lake.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

New code vs refactor/bug fixes, output quality that was felt outside the engineering team, communication, engineering culture.

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

The team is always ready to respond to any immediate need including quick time to resolution with impactful production issues. The team is fully integrated in our team and under same project management that helped improved communication and our ability to deliver on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

The ability to find good quality resources matching our need and the flexibility with adding or replacing resources when needed.

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

N/A