Yalantis

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of engineering for a startup acquisition marketplace. I’ve been working in this capacity since June 2021, and I oversee all of the engineering efforts within our company alongside our VP of product. We come up with new features and innovations and find ways to get those to production and, eventually, to release.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yalantis?

Our main product is a marketplace for buying and selling startups, so we launched a side project with the goal of building a platform that could come up with valuations for startups. After our users have created their accounts and connected their Stripe accounts to our platform, we wanted to be able to draw data from their Stripe accounts and other external resources to come up with valuations for their product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Yalantis for two phases of our project, one of which happened prior to me joining the company. I came in towards the end of phase one, which Andrew (Project Manager & PMO Associate) mostly helped with. We then launched phase two of the project and took the product to market.

Yalantis built the platform from scratch using React on the frontend and Golang on the backend. We deployed it on AWS. 

What is the team composition?

Because of a bit of a delay on our side, there was a shift in personnel between the phases of the project. Generally speaking, however, there was one frontend developer, one backend developer, a DevOps engineer, a designer, and a project manager. 

How did you come to work with Yalantis?

I wasn’t yet involved when our company found Yalantis, but when I took over for phase two of the project, I had reviewed all of their code and found it to be very organized. I had also heard from people involved in phase one that the Yalantis team was easy to work with. 

How much have you invested with them?

It was within the range of $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from April–November 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When working with an outsourced company, we look out for three key things: trust, competitive pricing, and reliability. Yalantis checked all of those boxes; they were very open and transparent about their pricing and the use and release of credentials. They also put a lot of diligence into breaking the project down into engineering hours per person. They went on to track that on a weekly basis, which was key to making sure that we were on track with our goal while staying within our budget. 

On top of all of that, the Yalantis team wrote really great code and was flexible in terms of the process. A lot of outsourcing companies either stick to their own process or hope that we would be the ones to implement our own while they provide the muscle. Yalantis, however, adapted to our toolsets and straddled the line between working within our existing infrastructure and bringing in new ideas. It was really turnkey.

How did Yalantis perform from a project management standpoint?

Despite the fact that we had a little bit of personnel turnover due to delays on our side, Yalantis was able to restart the project and get the new people ramped up quickly. By the time we were ready, it was like we hadn’t missed a beat, which was great. Yalantis was so good at detailed and high-level planning that we even had to take them a step back when everything was good enough. 

We used Jira for project management, Excel and Google Sheets for cost estimation and tracking, and Slack for communication. They were very responsive and highly involved in making sure that the project was proceeding the way we wanted.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Yalantis’s impressive organizational structure and project management system really made us feel like the project was progressing in the right direction. We always had deep insight into what they’re working on and how they’re tracking that against our goals and budget. They’re easily one of the best outsourcing companies I’ve worked with in terms of high-level planning.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we had a great experience with them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Yalantis is happy to drive the project by putting their own structure in place or by adapting to yours, so you can expect that level of flexibility whether you want a hand-off type of project or want to be heavily involved in the process. My advice is to think about how you want them to fit into your organization and guide them on how much of their own process you want to use or how much you want them to integrate with yours. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product software for an electric vehicle (EV) charging network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yalantis?

We hired Yalantis to fill the gap in our engineering resources. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Yalantis team is helping us develop a piece of software for our business. The details of the software are confidential.

What is the team composition?

We’ve requested multiple resources for Yalantis, including a project manager, an iOS engineer, an Android developer, and a QA engineer. 

How did you come to work with Yalantis?

We found them through an internal reference from our company; we also saw their known work. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere around $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Yalantis in December 2020, and the project is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The KPIs on this project are limited because the goals are moving targets. Our business has had a lot of changes in direction since we’re a startup, so success metrics are pretty hard to nail down.

Anecdotally, the team is proficient in mobile development. They can use some more strength in terms of backend Node.js development, but they also seem to quickly find new resources and meet our high standards. 

How did Yalantis perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management and communication skills are great. In fact, I’m planning to turn their project manager into a program manager because he’s going to take on multiple projects. In other words, the individual I’ve been working with directly has been going way above and beyond his responsibilities. In terms of tools, we use Jira. We also use Slack for communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

What sets them apart is their dedication to the project and availability. Our working hours are different, and they essentially work when we’re asleep. However, I’m still able to reach their iOS engineer at around 2:30 in the afternoon our time, meaning it’s 12:30 at night in their time. He doesn’t have to tell me anything or need to be on Slack, but he’s there. He answers questions and does tasks. Simply put, their dedication to the project is a bit unexpected but highly appreciated. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Some of their practices work well with ours, but some don’t. That’s partly because they’re firmly used to those practices while our startup has an open-ended format. This problem occurs on the engineering side. 

To be fair, we’ve only worked with them for over a year. It’s a little hard to criticize their process knowing our own processes somewhat get in their way. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come as prepared as you can; the more prepared you are, the more Yalantis will be able to help you. Set the urgency and scope of the project if you want, but their team is totally capable of taking the project off of your hands as long as you know what you want — they can be a powerhouse for your project. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Rakwireless, an IoT manufacturer. We’re in the business of hardware and software and we deliver modular, semi-, or completely finished solutions, depending on the industry and need. We are mainly focused on B2B.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yalantis?

We wanted to create a solution to help customers manage a fleet of devices more efficiently, so we approached Yalantis.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yalantis is collaborating with third-party designers and security specialists, as well as with our internal architecture team, to create a web application using Node.js. They are focused on the development of an application that could interact with our gateways. The architecture is Circulus. 

After each delivery, Yalantis stresses the system to see how it performs under pressure and to ensure that the APIs are able to handle the load.

What is the team composition?

The team from Yalantis currently exist out of the following roles:

- Project Manager
- QA Engineer
- BE / FO engineer
- Performance engineer
- AT Engineer

How did you come to work with Yalantis?

We searched online and considered a few companies. Yalantis gave a rather detailed proposal for a good price. We had a good feeling with them, so we chose them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2020, and our partnership is ongoing. Yalantis is currently involved in three other active projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Yalantis team does a good job of meeting our requirements, and we find their codes to be of good quality. As many teams from different companies are involved, it took some time to get adjusted to each other in the beginning but Yalantis was able to pick things up quickly. 

Yalantis quickly resolves any issues we bring to their attention. They produce satisfactory work 99% of the time, and I don’t see the partnership ending any time soon.

How did Yalantis perform from a project management standpoint?

We missed the first deadline because the team slightly underestimated the project. That was understandable, though, since the work is really complex and difficult to estimate. We have since collaborated to prioritize tasks and they’ve met all of our deadlines. 

For project management and communication, we use Slack, Jira, Confluence, and a few other tools. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Yalantis has proactive management, solid technical skills, and good inputs for solutions. They work quickly and precisely. We see them as part of our team and treat them as such.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s easy to underestimate the work required for complex technology like ours, so for our projects, Yalantis should (and already is) including more technical people in the beginning stages to ensure that there is a full understanding of the project scope.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If they are a good fit for your needs, I definitely recommend working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Truhoo.es, an internet real estate portal company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yalantis?

We needed a development partner so we hired Yalantis.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yalantis developed our web portal and also still handles UX design for me. The design is created according to our brand book.  They’re an extension of our own team and are still working with us as we try to put the scope of the rental process fully online.

For the development, there is a comprehensive search algorithm that’s involved. Our portal is the first one in Spain that can search for houses based on amenities and features both inside and outside the house. For example, if someone wants a gym close to their apartment, they can look for a place within those parameters. With Yalantis, we created an app that integrated with Google’s mapping resources and some additional APIs. This allows us to pull the data and search the surrounding elements.

What is the team composition?

I work with a project manager and business analyst. The business analyst spends a lot of time considering the decisions we make to ensure they make sense — asking us why we want a feature or solution. There are head architects, back- and frontend developers, and a DevOps team. We also deal with UX teammates and their customer success manager. We have direct channels of communication with each person.

How did you come to work with Yalantis?

We selected Yalantis because they offered us the highest amount of due diligence around helping our investment team, keeping a record of progress, tracking money being spent, and developing the concept much further. 

Before we selected them, we looked at a total of four companies across multiple locations. We compared not just their experience, but also what they could do for us, their pricing, timeframe, and the professionalism of their sales people, and how well they understood our needs. Yalantis ended up winning over the other companies.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent between €500,000-€600,000 (approximately $606,600–$727,900 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2019 and our project will be finished in April 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The portal is working, so far, and we’ve had incredibly positive client reactions. Looking at the metrics we’re tracking, typically, we get more value for our money with Yalantis’ work. There are always times where it’s impacted by teammates being out, but they always perform above what we expect.

If we create a scope for two sprints, they often outperform the scope. I’m more than happy to recommend them. The work they’ve done has gone beyond our expectations.

How did Yalantis perform from a project management standpoint?

We use a project management tool that works around the schedule performance index (SPI), cost predictive index (CPI), and the KPI. It shows us if we’re tracking our costs effectively in terms of how much money we’re putting in and how much work Yalantis is completing. There’s also a timeframe index to track if we’re completing our tasks at the speed we want to achieve. 

The project manager is my main point of contact. They set up direct Slack channels with us so we can all connect and have real-time communication. We have a 24-hour channel that we can engage during any downtime for us. We use Jira to track all the tasks and timeframes, and we use Confluence to unify all documentation.

I have a weekly meeting with the project manager to track the progress of the team and their overall project performance. We meet to understand if there are changes needed or how we’re being affected by general situations that happen.

The scope is all laid out and the project manager organizes the sprints into tasks. We have a sprint on a biweekly basis. If we have a task we need to quantify in terms of costs or hours, he will engage with the developers and quantify how many hours they expect something to take, what anomalies could happen, and best- or worst-case scenarios. 

Communication happens between our teams often on a daily basis. We engage with the team quite closely during sprint reviews to track what we could do differently. Yalantis is pretty transparent about any issues they find or how their work can be improved — they often request feedback. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve worked in very trying times with Yalantis; times that most companies wouldn’t have to deal with in their first year of creation. We’ve been impressed by their flexibility and facilitation during really difficult situations. 

More than anything else, I’m incredibly impressed with the effort that they’ve made, not only during these situations but also in terms of managing my investment team — the investment team was very concerned about investing further in a project during a pandemic and financial crisis. 

With Yalantis’ level of detail in project management, they've saved me several hours by not having to recalculate everything. I trust the work they’re doing because I verified it so many times before. The numbers they put forward are consistent — I know we’re going to overperform every sprint. I know the team is willing to put in the extra effort. That combination makes it really easy to deal with an investment team in the worst conditions we could imagine.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re such a small company and we work with them as an extension of our team. I may be stretching to find something to improve, but it’d be cool to get to know some of the developers that don’t partake in the day-to-day. For example, the backend developers tend to be more passive — sometimes they might leave the team and we won’t know that they left until we have a new backend developer later. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Zillow, the top real estate website in the U.S., is building an on-demand real estate experience. Whether selling, buying, renting or financing, customers can turn to Zillow’s businesses to find and get into their next home with speed, certainty and ease.

I am a senior manager of engineering for the renovation team that is part of the Zillow Offers organization, implementing and providing tools for renovation field operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Yalantis?

Zillow's big transformation around the real estate transactional model required strategic and fast investment in software development that is essential for renovation field work. We needed to scale our development teams quickly and be ready to hit the ground running with little overhead and ramp up.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to model our relationship with Yalantis as an embedded scrum team in multiple dev teams within our group. This model would allow us to have a long term relationship on various initiatives the reno team plans to work on.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Yalantis was a recommendation from an internal team within Zillow which has been working with them for a few years.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Reno team works on development of renovation project management tools for Zillow. This includes a web application, a mobile application, and backend work that integrates with multiple other platforms. These tools enable our field operators to efficiently get their job done while offering a centralized technology around the company.

What was the team composition?

A web application team, a mobile team, a backend team, and a testing team totaling 10+ engineers from Yalantis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The biggest and immediate benefit of this partnership was development velocity. We had a number of important milestones we had to meet in the short term.

Yalantis was able to jump in and rapidly onboard the developers who were highly capable and contributed to multiple project rollouts productively while maintaining high quality in our work.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

For our daily communications, we leverage Slack and emails heavily. When we don't need to sync real time, we balance that with offline messages using confluence documentation and video recordings of our meetings to overcome some of the timezone difference challenges.

For our project management, we use Jira exclusively along with gitlab as our source code. Video conferences are enabled by BlueJeans and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Yalantis seems to follow similar core values as Zillow when it comes to creating an environment that values customers, that allows their employees to thrive and grow.

The outcome of this is visible through the work they produce, the level of engagement in commitment. Minor communication challenges and timezone differences are easily outweighed by their level of professionalism and ownership.

There is also a big benefit of having their recruiting and project coordinator deeply engaged in our day to day work, which has led to quick resolutions on any blockers and continuous improvements in our process.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Yalantis has started to create more official processes around their retention policy, feedback loops, and recruiting visibility. I believe there's more room for improvement there as we continue to identify other processes that can help increase development and operational visibility bidirectionally.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a financial advising company. I was consulting with the company through another software company where I’m a partner. I came on as the CTO in February 2020.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yalantis?

We’re competing in a space with high-level competitors. Right now, we use a mash-up of different software which is complicated both for our team and clients. 

We wanted to provide a better experience. So, we hired Yalantis to work on a cohesive software suite that does financial advising and offers investing services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yalantis has been working on creating a web app. They use React for the frontend and Node.js for the backend on AWS. They built integrations for document signing and making credit card and bank payments. 

Additionally, they’ve also done mass amounts of internal data collection for storing client information. The team has also handled security in terms of the secure storage of client information and processing of transactions.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with a project manager, business analysts, QA teammates, and front- and backend developers. The composition over time. We initially started with seven team members, but throughout 2019 we scaled up to develop a lot more. 

So, we were working with about 17 teammates. We’ve scaled back down and up again to address our budget and scheduling needs. Right now we’re working with 12–13 team members.

How did you come to work with Yalantis?

Through my experience of working with Yalantis when I was consulting at the software company, I brought them on when I made the transition to my current organization. We had some exposure to what they were capable of.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $600,000–$800,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in February 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software they developed is amazing and the website is of production quality. My background is in software, so I’ve done code reviews of their work and everything looks great.

Additionally, the main thing is that the team is communicative and very transparent with their planning and expectations. They are also agile in terms of presenting their plan for each sprint and release. Everything is hands-on.

How did Yalantis perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re able to go in and see what’s being worked on. If our expectations aren’t met, it’s on our own shoulders because the Yalantis does an amazing job of presenting the details. In terms of schedule, they stick to the timelines that are set.

The only con of their agile nature is that some of the prototyping and MVP work is a little slower because it needs to be planned out into a sprint which might not seem necessary to the rest of the business team. The quality has been fantastic, so it’s a trade-off.

We use Slack where they give us daily updates about what each teammate is working on. They also use Google Sheets and Jira. We can go anywhere to see what’s going on and make sure that we can do our own planning and make decisions on our end. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I almost never find any bugs. The quality of the software makes them standout. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their ability to break the mold and go off the planning for MVP or prototype work. There are some cases where we could skip out of the more detailed project management and QA work to develop those prototypes or MVPs, which would allow us to make decisions quicker.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take advantage of the fact that they’re so transparent and have open communication. Yalantis writes down all of their information along the way so if some things have changed you can catch it before anything goes wrong.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of an on-demand delivery app. We were set to launch in March but postponed the release because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yalantis?

We weren’t satisfied with our initial vendor that messed up the project. We needed a more capable team, so we went to Yalantis.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yalantis designed and developed our on-demand delivery app for iOS version. After the iOS product launches, we plan to build the app for Android. As well, their team will add more features based on user feedback.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of 7–8 people including a project manager.

How did you come to work with Yalantis?

A colleague recommended Yalantis. I reviewed the work available on their website and downloaded one of their apps. It worked perfectly fine.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost between $86,000–$87,000, excluding the fees associated with a freelancing platform.

What is the status of this engagement?

I intended to start working with Yalantis in 2018, but ended up giving the project to a different company. This project ran from July 2019–January 2020. However, I plan to keep working with them for bug fixes and changes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We tested the app and it works perfectly fine. My team and I got positive feedback from people who saw the app. They were responsive, and everything went as planned. Yalantis did a good job.

We haven’t launched the product, so I don’t have customer feedback yet. I planned to take the product to the public, but the COVID-19 epidemic happened. Now, everything’s on hold now. There’s a 14-day shutdown in my city, and nothing is working. 

How did Yalantis perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through Skype, Zoom, and Slack, which the whole team used. We used Zoom for meetings. The process was smooth, but we had some challenges. The initial project budget was $50,000, so the rough estimates that Yalantis gave were low. But we couldn’t achieve our goals with that amount.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Yalantis was responsive to feedback. Their team fixed any aspects of the app that I didn’t like.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should be more accurate with their budget estimates. Yalantis can suggest alternative approaches to reduce costs, which is a good quality.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I definitely recommend Yalantis because they’re a good company. I plan to stick with them after the iOS app launches to build the Android version. All they need to do is be more accurate with their estimates.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a logistics platform. We offer first-mile, last-mile, next-day, and same-day delivery in our region.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yalantis?

Budget and resources are always dependent on technology. We onboarded Yalantis to deliver a 6–7-month technology project that we couldn’t do in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first brought in Yalantis for development. They delivered an AngularJS web application with a Node.js backend. It integrates with our platform, using a couple of Node.js microservices and RESTful APIs talking to some AngularJS components. Yalantis received business requirements from us, and they also handled project management, QA, and release management. They’re currently handling support.

Since then, we discovered that we could staff through their team. We now have two full-time senior Node.js developers from Yalantis among other resources.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with 12–15 people from Yalantis in total. These include an account manager, project manager, business analyst, 3–4 Node.js developers, 2–3 AngularJS developers, and a couple of QAs on their team. I’ve also had calls with their resource manager and discussed the commercial part at the project’s beginning with their business development manager.

How did you come to work with Yalantis?

I researched the Ukrainian market and reached out to a few companies, including Yalantis. Part of our technology team is in Russia—making collaboration convenient—and I knew of a UK company that had worked with Yalantis. They were also listed as a top technology company on Google and came recommended by one of my resources. I approached them, had some discussions, and found that they knew what they were doing. 

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost more than $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration started in October 2018 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any metrics so far, but we’ve tested their software with our management and received approval. The work Yalantis delivered was good quality.

How did Yalantis perform from a project management standpoint?

Yalantis is awesome in this respect. They handle the business analysis parts with excellent attention. They help whenever we need to push on anything, and they really care about the parts they’re responsible for in a project. We have weekly calls talking about the team and address any issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Yalantis delivered high-quality technologies, which means their QA testers are great. They also deliver on time despite the changes from our side. Every part of their team—from project management to account management to business analysis—is really good. Yalantis is a very good company. For what we paid, we get really good quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had some issues transferring money because of our location, and Yalantis doesn’t offer flexible support plans. Improving this flexibility would add value to them. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I don’t have any specific advice. Yalantis is a good company to go with. If we deliver requirements correctly, validate the work, and help them with the delivery, we get a very good piece of software.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a senior project manager at Digital Surgeons, and we are a creative marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yalantis?

We designed a mobile app for a client of ours, but we don’t have any in-house developers. So, we needed to partner with a company that had the ability to develop a mobile app that could incorporate our client’s algorithms.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yalantis developed an iOS mobile app that tracks the user’s daily water intake. The app uses our client’s algorithm to calculate recommendations for water consumption and monitors progress towards a hydration goal. 

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with their CEO, two project managers, and a team of business analysts. There was a little turnover within the team when we paused development, but the transition was seamless.

How did you come to work with Yalantis?

We narrowed down our selection group to three potential partners and chose Yalantis based on their expertise, portfolio, and pricing. It was clear that they would be the right fit.

How much have you invested with them?

Our client spent $55,000 with them. Their team was sensitive to our client’s budget and warned us if anything would cause us to go over our quote.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from July 2018–March 2019.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is in our client’s hands, but they haven’t released it yet because they continue to alter their algorithm. Although we don’t have any success metrics, we definitely had a positive experience working with Yalantis. When we reviewed their work between sprints, we had very minimal feedback. The app had very few bugs, and we didn’t request very many changes to their work. They followed our design very closely. They’re a top-notch team.

How did Yalantis perform from a project management standpoint?

Although we needed to shift timelines a few times, they were very good at setting expectations and providing reports. They divided the project into sprints, and I was always aware of the project’s status, what was being prioritized, and what was being pushed to the next sprint.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their project management was superb and they delivered a solid product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a small language barrier and we faced a few communication challenges because we were in different time zones. However, these were easy to address with a little patience and cooperation.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more upfront you are with your needs and what your budget is, the better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We developed two native phone applications and are a technology company diving into the reverse logistics shipping chain. We pair e-commerce shoppers with on-demand independent contractor drivers. I'm a co-founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yalantis?

The industry pain point for the consumer is returning unwanted or damaged items. To get compensation for that item, consumers either have to return to the post office or go onto a webpage to schedule a pickup. We take the pain out of the consumer experience by managing that return process through an independent, gig-economy workforce.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we decided the market was ready for this kind of service, we realized no one was linking these aspects of the industry together. They built an aggressive sprint schedule to get both native applications for iOS and Android out by Q3 of 2019.

What is the team composition?

We worked with an account manager, a project manager, a business analyst, a UI/UX designer, an iOS designer, an Android designer, and a backend developer.

How did you come to work with Yalantis?

We drafted the specifications and looked at a number of global software development companies that could develop this with quality, cost, and expediency. They met all our requirements, and their documents were very impressive. After meeting their team, they seemed like the right fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from September 2018-May 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our biggest KPI is downloads. We market via social media and are branching out into AdWords. We did go back to them to enable Facebook analytics in the app, but they weren't involved in our marketing. We did finish below budget, and they delivered the finished product ahead of schedule. We learned a lot, and they helped us bridge the gap as we built this first-in-market app.

How did Yalantis perform from a project management standpoint?

They were stellar project managers. We had regularly scheduled calls for sprints, and we were very happy with how they handled the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were easy to work with, and we had a very good relationship with them. They were friendly, and we liked the partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We used Account Kit, which is a customer sign on and verification. That funnel is something we plan to do away with, and I would rather we just used the existing Facebook login. It leaves some room for error, so we plan to make some changes for the second version. That's a decision we made together, but it wasn't successful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have detailed specifications and have a team member work on project management and software development on your side. They are very sophisticated and detailed, so an intermediary on your side will help you focus on your business needs. They deal well with the initial development of a project, but I'm not sure of their capabilities on an ad hoc level.