Wiser Technology

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Resource Manager at BGO Software, a company specializing in digital health-care products and solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ITIDO, and what were your goals?

We hired ITIDO when the project - developing а health-care mobile app for an international client - needed an experienced Android developer. We had an iOS engineer but lacked an Android one. The Android and iOS developers were challenged to get used to the code base and start fixing some bugs and legacy code. As we were pursuing strict deadlines, developers started implementing features with almost no project onboarding.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We have heard only good things about ITIDO from our partners we talked to. We held a technical and cultural fit interview with one of ITIDO's lead Android developers. He acted more professionally than other candidates and it looked like this was our new colleague for the project. And he was!

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

At BGO Software, our goal is to be the main player in digitalizing the health care induction. The solution that we built consists of mobile, web and backend. It helped a lot of people manage and monitor their diseases and health conditions. The ITIDO colleague is a leading mobile developer and he is suggesting ideas on how the app could be improved and how the goals could be achieved quicker without compromising quality. He is a valued member of the team.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were three Mobile developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

There is definitely a lot of progress. After a few months, the crashes and defects in the Android app were dramatically reduced. Now the app works smoothly and the client is happy.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Project Manager used Scrum style. It features quick development sprints, called scrum sessions. Small teams focus on specific tasks, and team members rely on each other’s input during daily meetings called scrums. Regular communication between team members makes this approach highly collaborative. Priorities can shift during scrum sessions, so adaptability is key. We used Jira and Teams for project coordination.

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

The most impressive thing about ITIDO was their positive working atmosphere. When you go into their office you see bright, motivated people that work with pleasure and have fun. We had some issues during the project and the ITIDO management team was always looking at how things can be improved, not seeking an excuse as to why it can't be done. So any problems get resolved really quickly.

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

ITIDO is an excellent company to work with, but as always there is room for improvement. ITIDO has knowledge and experience with widely-used programming technologies like Java, Python, Angular, Android, and iOS. However, they do not have competence in C# and .NET that we at BGO work with. So that could be an area for further professional development at ITIDO.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Nova Broadcasting Group is the biggest multiplatform media company in Bulgaria, part of United Group - the leading multi-play telecoms and media provider in South East Europe, providing customers with a full range of telecommunications services. My position in Business Development manager. I am responsible for the development of streaming OTT services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Bianor, and what were your goals?

Our goal was to have a premium Direct-to-Consumer streaming platform to merge all AVOD, SVOD, PPV applications into one robust, next-gen UX platform with live streaming & on-demand applications.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We chose Bianor because of the previous experience with premium live events streamed with Fite and their willingness to adapt to our needs.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Sports streaming app across Web, mobile and big-screen casting with Chromecast and AirPlay. Supporting 3 live sports TV Channels and PPV events with 7-day catch-up. AVOD entertainment catch-up app available on web and mobile devices with 60 000 active video assets.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The team consisted of:

• Project manager
• back-end developer
• web developer
• iOS developer
• Android developer
• UX and UI specialist
• QA managers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The solutions were delivered on time with excellent quality. Any issues arising were addressed with the needed focus and the team ensured quick and effective resolution time.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Excellent, fast and supporting project management.

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

They are a reliable and supportive partner, easy to communicate with.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of a venture company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITIDO?

We needed help with mainframes and app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ITIDO helps the startup teams to fulfill their development goals; they do custom development. For the last projects, they’ve been tasked to stabilize and improve the blockchain-based platform. Also, they’ve tackled supply chain transparency in the food sector. The specific task in the software framework was that the application was hosted at AWS, and they used Angular as a product development framework.

What is the team composition?

We have direct contact with the management team. We can also contact the developers directly; they’re really transparent.

How did you come to work with ITIDO?

I’ve been in contact with them for several years; I’ve used their services for most of the technology companies I’ve invested in.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2018, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They deliver the projects in a timely and sound manner, and the products work efficiently. Since we do small-scale projects, it usually takes 2–6 months to develop. Then, they’re in charge of supporting the teams and helping out with shortfalls of the internal development resources.

How did ITIDO perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been able to tackle technical issues and deliver on time. Usually, they fulfill tasks in line with the budget. The team has onboarded us on their internal Slack and GitHub. They put everything on GitHub, so we can log in and follow the task they’re doing. Also, we have regular calls and video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They can deliver large-scale projects in a dynamic environment for startups. They’re also capable of fulfilling technical needs on a specific level in a short amount of time. Most of the time, they understand the frameworks, environments, and business models they get into. ITIDO looks at the development tasks they have to fulfill and advises us based on other projects and experiences they’ve had. All in all, they’re really forward-thinking and client-oriented.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they suffer from the same topic as all the other technology companies. The more successful they get, the more resources they need to get, adapt, and implement into their teams. Therefore, the hardest challenge they face is keeping up the excellent communication and delivery while scaling the company.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Present the business model and scope of work and include them in the discussion. They can be beneficial by adding their knowledge and resources from other projects. I’d encourage everyone to share the project's larger horizons and development framework.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Infoleven is a software development company that’s based in Bulgaria and has a sales office in Germany. I’m the COO and co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITIDO?

We needed to develop a software product for one of our customers, but we didn’t have enough specialists and experts in-house. We hired ITIDO to provide support for front- and backend development as well as with QA.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For this development project, ITIDO’s team and mine used React and JavaScript for the frontend and TypeScript and Node.js for the backend.

What is the team composition?

We’ve scaled up and down during the course of the development, but on average, we work with three people who are software developers and QA testers. 

How did you come to work with ITIDO?

We've known ITIDO for quite some time, and we first met through business acquaintances. We’ve also worked together on past projects, which is why we brought them in again for this one.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent between $50,000 and $199,999 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project began in January 2021, and we are still in partnership with their team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

ITIDO’s team has helped our own to continuously improve the software product. We work with our end customer on a scrum basis, and so far, the deliveries are being produced according to plan. The quality of the software is good, and our customer is happy with the results. 

How did ITIDO perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve never had issues with ITIDO’s deliverables. They meet deadlines, and they’re open to both receiving and sharing feedback for the improvement of the final product. There is good collaboration between us. 

We use Jira to track and manage the project, and most of our communication is done through there or through emails and Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Even with their team having a mixed structure, they’ve been able to keep up really good communications. It’s not easy to integrate with an international team from five different countries, but they’ve done that quite well. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Thus far, we’ve only done manual QA, but we’re now in discussions about implementing automated tests. ITIDO will be working on this for the next few weeks or months.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be sure that you structure things in a way that works for both of you. This way, you will have better results. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Covessa is telemedicine app, providing flexible, self-administered, remote Covid-19 antigen testing via our own application at app.covessa.de. Users get remote video assistance by medical experts so that performing proper antigen testing is guaranteed.

We see ourselfs as a tech solution provider bridging to medical labs who approve and varify a test result. The generated QR code of the test result is also integrated in the European Corona Certificate App. As one of the co-founders of the company, I am involved in all major business decisions as well as in partnering with our key stakeholders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ITIDO?

We asked ITIDO to perform a comprehensive technical review (audit) of the Covessa application in an early stage of development. Our product serves the public health domain. This is why we have certain regulatory responsibilities and commitment to the general public.

We wanted ITIDO to:

1. a review all aspects of Covessa that touch on security and performance
2. as a result, give us recommendations for corrective and mitigation actions

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

A trusted business partner of Covessa has previously worked with ITIDO and highly recommended their services.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Our application was up-and-running in Germany for several months already. It was built and deployed quickly so while we kept the development ongoing we wanted to ensure that major technology gaps (if any) are addressed simultaneously. Besides the security aspect, the review team was also tasked to look into speed, database problems, code quality and scalability of the app.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

ITIDO's review team consisted of a lead software engineer, a deputy software engineer and a delivery manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The review was completed in August 2021 and results were summarized in a report ITIDO prepared for us. The most critical findings were related to data protection practices we had to improve. ITIDO really opened our eyes for some inherent blind spots in Covessa.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was a relatively short project so most of the time Covessa's technical representatives and the team of ITIDO worked in joint virtual meetings and in one-to-one sessions. The collaboration was smooth despite the significant time zone difference.

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

They managed to quickly assemble a reviewing team with the right expertise to explore Covessa's technology stack. The staff of ITIDO employs a wide range of technologies and is familiar with the latest trends in cloud computing and database systems. Plus, the engineers proved to be detail-oriented which is a big advantage when it comes to performing audits.

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

No. We were 100% satiesfied with the service provided.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director and one of the co-founders of a software development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITIDO?

We needed their support in developing a product for one of our clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ITIDO's engineers helped our in-house team expedite the completion of one of our client projects. They offered full-stack development services and assisted our engineers in building the product's UI/UX via React JS.

What is the team composition? 

We worked with three senior developers from their team.

How did you come to work with ITIDO?

ITIDO was referred to me, but our companies also belonged to the Bulgarian Software Association.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €40,000 (approximately $46,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from August 2020–January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

ITIDO's expertise and understanding of our goals and requirements enabled us to complete the project on time; everything was perfect.

How did ITIDO perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via Microsoft Teams and relied on Jira for project management. They were a cooperative team that seamlessly integrated themselves into our processes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're most impressed with their high-level proficiency in software development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We didn't encounter anything that needed improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Determine if their skill set meets your needs before you engage them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Co-founder and COO of ITIDO LIMITED. A software service company which provides digital solutions for enterprise and scale-up partners. ITIDO LIMITED focus on quality and long-term relation with our partners and collegues. Beyond just “coding” software, at ITIDO LIMITED we see it as a craft that must be mastered with decades of diligence and devotion. We call it Codecraft and live by it every day.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Bianor, and what were your goals?

At ITIDO LIMITED we were looking for a experienced engineers with specific domain knowledge - OTT / video streaming solutions. We had a tough deadline to deliver an MVP within a period of 6 months and we needed external help. Bianor are one of the lading companies in Bulgaria in this domain - video streaming solutions. This is why we decided to get in touch and start this project toghether with them.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Bianor has a very good reputation. They are one of the leading companies in Bulgaria who offers profesional video streaming solutions and software services. They've been in this business for many years and the service they offer is amazing!

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We have worked with Bianor on MVP development of a OTT platform. We started with a 1 month discovery phase. This phased helped Bianor to get faster on board. We discussed together the scope of the work, our expectations for the end result and success, the infrastructure, the technical stack and Project Timeline. The next step was the actual development. Together with the help of Bianor we launched succesfully the MVP in December 2020.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Bianor supplied us with 3 Java and 1 DevOps engineers. They came in as part of our team and worked on our existing frameworks and technologies.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The MVP launch was succesfull. We met our customer deadline and the product was working fine. It passed all tests and the IT audit of our customer. This was an important part for us, because our customer had very high-security standards. Passing all the tests is the best feedback we have. The second part was that it needed to be a functional and scalable. Fortunately all criterias were met.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The project management was done from our side but Bianor team was extremely supportive throughout the whole project. The communication with Bianor was excelent and very friendly.

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

Their professionalism, their good, friendly, and results-oriented team.

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

Bianor did a good job. They were very honest about all the potential risks in our project. What they could improve is to give to their customers a little bit more confidence that the deadlines will be met as it happened in our case.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a white-label online ordering solution for the restaurant industry. We operate in Ireland, UK, Canada, and the US, and we’re looking to expand to more countries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bulbera?

Bulbera is basically our outsourced IT team, so they look after the technology side of our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Bulbera helped us develop our MVP product, which required a lot of work on the backend because we integrate with a lot of different POS. Essentially, we have to pull out the restaurant’s menu from their POS and send it into our platform. Then, we add pictures and other elements to get the menu ready. We then push the edited menu through a frontend, where the restaurant’s customers can place their orders.

Once we developed the MVP, Bulbera helped us migrate all of our customers to the new platform. We were growing really fast during the first three months, so we spent a lot of time working on the security and stability of the system.

Currently, the project continues, and there’s no finish line anytime soon. We’re always integrating with a POS system or payment gateway, and at the moment, we’re working on languages.

What is the team composition?

We started working with six people from Bulbera, but we extended the team to eight people. We have four backend developers, two frontend developers, and two project managers helping us. We also communicate with Zhenya (Operations Manager) and Stefan (CEO & Co-Founder).

How did you come to work with Bulbera?

We started working with another company, but there were some issues around some of the details in the contract. Bulbera got in touch with my business partner, and they spent a month learning about our project to make sure that they understood all of what they needed to build, which was good.

After a month of working with them, we flew to meet their team in person and have a couple of days to discuss the project in more detail. It was important for us to have face-to-face interaction with them before making our final decision because this was an extensive project, so we wanted to make sure that we picked the right team.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $1 million. At the current rate, we spend around €400,000 per year (approximately $475,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Bulbera in May 2018, we launched our MVP in March 2019, and we migrated all of our clients in August 2019. We have a contract for 2021, and we probably will have a contract for 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We saw 3x growth in our business in 2020, and we expect the same growth in 2021. As we’re focused on restaurant ordering, our platform has to be stable, and the orders placed need to go to the restaurants in a timely manner. We track the order times and the number of orders we receive, and we make sure that the platform is reliable.

How did Bulbera perform from a project management standpoint?

Bulbera’s project management and organization are excellent — we always know exactly where we stand. We meet with them every week to discuss what we’re working on and the plans for the upcoming work.

Before COVID-19, I would usually spend a week per month in Sofia, Bulgaria. We also have offices there with customer service, sales, and administration teams, and I would spend two days per month with Bulbera.

Since COVID-19, we’ve used Google Hangouts for our meetings, and we use Trello to keep track of the development progress, for future developments and our active tasks. 

Bulbera is a very efficient and well-run organization. The communication flow between us works extremely well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bulbera’s ability to understand complex tasks and deliver them distinguishes them from other providers. If something is difficult, they tell us and don’t just say yes; they offer a lot of transparency and honesty. For example, if I want something built in three months, and the timeline is unrealistic, they tell me.

Our project is one of the biggest on which Bulbera has worked. It is a huge platform with a lot of different parts, and some of them are very complex. However, they’ve been able to manage the complex parts extremely well, and they have a very talented development team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything that Bulbera could improve on — I’m a very happy customer. Maybe they could reduce their bill, but ultimately, they charge us a reasonable price.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It is all about the organization; the more organized you are, the more organized Bulbera will be. When you’re building software, they’ll come up with a lot of questions, and you have to give them your full attention. I spent a lot of time showing them what we intended to build, and it took a month to go through all of the information.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive manager for a nonprofit organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bulbera?

We needed a new website built, so we brought in Bulbera.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We prepared a Word document containing examples of the images and text that we wanted to appear on the website, and we provided this to Bulbera. The team did all the necessary research and developed the website on WordPress. They also implemented an automatic translation function using the specific company we requested.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and a developer.

How did you come to work with Bulbera?

We found several service providers online, and Bulbera was one of the agencies that we considered for the project. I already knew about them beforehand, though.

A colleague of mine spoke highly of their work and their proposal was well-structured with clear timelines, so we decided to go with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2020–June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website is now up and running, with the classic look and feel that we were going for. The feedback surrounding its user-friendliness has been positive and overall, we are quite happy. Bulbera worked quickly to complete the website and fixed any glitches that were found. 

How did Bulbera perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager was knowledgeable, always available, and responsive. She worked in a timely manner and kept the costs within the originally presented quote. We communicated via Zoom and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are punctual and efficient.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s not part of their business model, but they could do more design work

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would highly recommend them to anyone for their punctuality and efficiency.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am co-founder of a social enterprise. We bult a social network that provides next level social entrepreneurship to everyone. The platform connects people and organizations who are committed to making a positive impact in the world.

We call it one stop shop for good deeds because it's a unified social network where absolutely everyone (citizens, NGOs, companies) can find absolutely everything connected with good-deeds-doing (causes, bazars, volunteers’ initiatives, financial and material donations, charity events, CSR campaigns, NGO and business profiles, on-line store for products/services with a cause and many more).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Bulbera, and what were your goals?

After 3 years ant the market Volontime needed of new vision and upgrading of the features. So, we hired Bulbera to jump on next level and build more sensitive and useful platform according to the users’ needs. By doing those changes and upgrading we wanted to increase our traffic substantially during the next year and to transform Volontime social network as one stop shop for good deeds.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We searched online for IT company and asked some friends to advise us a proper firm. Friend of mine recommended us Bulbera’s team. We had contacted Stephan and Deyan from Bulbera and after we met them and discussed what we needed of we have decided to hire their company. Bulbera offered us fast and sustainable solutions of our problems and the price was acceptable to us. 

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We started with kick-off meeting to discuss our goals. They introduced us the guys who were the most suitable persons to develop the new features. Bulbera also included a project coordinator, a girl who made the communication and the whole process smother and faster. 

Bulbera developed following features: 

• Donating by persons and donating by companies (everyone can announce a donation of materials, skills / training or services that would like to help someone develop with);
• Contests (everyone can organize a competition and reach the target audience or can take participation in a race);
• New vision of the landing page and every single types (Causes, Donating, Charity, Volunteers, Contests, Donation Campaigns);
• Better users’ experience with the newsfeed of Volontime;

Bulbera built notification button for all users/organization in order everyone to follow up the news and everyone’s post at Volontime according to their needs and interests. We had weekly meetings to follow up the development of the features. We used Trello for monitoring, following up, communication.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

3 persons:

1 front-end developer;

1 back-end developer;

1 project coordinator.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

All the mentioned featured in my previous answers are visible and can be tested directly at volontime.com We increased the users of the social network up to 20 000 (almost two times more)

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We used trello platform for the project, skype for direct connections and short questions, mailing. The project coordinator from their side scheduled weekly meetings with us and the developers.

Between the time from one to another meeting I was communicating with the project coordinator who transferred my questions or something else to the developers. The project coordinator also was making checks if the new feature works properly.

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

They gave us simple, fast decisions which save time and money but at the same time they are sustainable. They work as a team and the communication was easy and peaceful.

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

I guess they can think of providing 24/7 support (including weekends) to the projects that are used by users all the time or to sign a contract with the customers if there is an emergency problem during holiday what could be the time for fixing the problem by their team.