ZESIUM

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Comb GmbH is a Swiss startup with German roots. The goal of the company is to provide IT services. I am CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ZESIUM?

We hired Zesium to help us in the development and realization of our mobile native app. Our requirements for CombMe were highly complex; an acute attention to detail were necessary to complete the task. It was essential for us to have a mobile app developer with many years of experience, a team that competently accompanies us in all phases of app development.

What were your goals for this project?

The challenge was to keep the simplicity and develop an app that allows users of all ages to organize with each other so that both small children, grandparents or professionals can use the app without any problems.

SOLUTION

How did you select ZESIUM?

After a long search for a suitable partner for app development, it was clear. It had to be Zesium. Novi Sad is home to Serbia's best software companies and IT experts. Zesium convinced us in numerous conversations.

Describe the project in detail.

After the phase of defining the mobile app requirements, the design was developed in numerous on-site, online meetings and innovation workshops. The development was worked out in intense cooperation with the project manager and the development team.

What was the team composition?

We work in a team with an project manager as interface and support during the project phase, frontend and backend developer, mobile app designer as well as web designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Together with Zesium, we managed to bring a mobile application onto the market within an intensive development period, which for the first time is a professional planning tool for private use, all age groups and group structures.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They understood vision of our app from the beginning, were highly collaborative in working through technical challenges and providing smart solutions. They were also flexible in cases where we had to retrace steps / pivot from original direction. Communication was excellent throughout - made themselves available pretty much around the clock.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We are very impressed with the high level of professionalism of the vendor. Even over a long period of cooperation, the quality of the work they delivered to us was impeccable at all times. Zesium is an considering and active partner. After more than 20 years of project experience in major European projects, our expectations have been more than exceeded by the progressive and innovative approach of this team

Are there any areas for improvement?

Zesium is constantly working to improve its own processes. We have absolutely no suggestions for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a CEO of a company that works with better utilization of parking spots, 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ZESIUM?

We hired Zesium to develop all from system architecture, native mobile applications for IOS and Android as well as design, UI and UX and front end development.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to create a scalable application and build a diversified platform that is ready for different kinds of integrations with other services.

SOLUTION

How did you select ZESIUM?

My team and I contacted over 10 development companies, had interviews with 5 and then directly after that Zesium felt like a right match. They shared a vision of making something great and they had villingness to put their skills and competence not just to execute the project but to come up with new ideas and solution to it.

Describe the project in detail.

The idea of the project was to make c2c platform for parking sharing. We made specification and went through them with Zesium team multiple times to have a clear vision and to with the lean method develop a scalable product that has the possibility of adding different services and features in the future such as payment solutions, connection to different real estate IT solutions etc.

What was the team composition?

From the start, we were working tight with the project manager as well as a senior backend developer who is also one of the founders together with CEO of Zesium. We had a designer, backend developer, 2 mobile developers, and 2 QAs to make sure that everything goes as planned.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within the first 3 months after we launched the app, we had over 2000 downloads on IOS and Play store with 4+ rating. Feedback from the users was good and we continued making some tweaks to make the user experience even better.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have a continuous workflow with daily updates and weekly meetings between our CTO and project manager. We have weekly targets and workflow has overall worked very well.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to come up with new solutions and develop our ideas in the best possible way is most impressive. Zesium employees have a strong comprehension of new trends and the ability to propose better implementations on our existing ideas.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are always areas for improvement. I hope that Zesium becomes even bigger as sometimes after the main project was done they could not always under understandable reasons allocate extra help we needed right away.

But that was mostly due to their focus on other main projects and we should have employed dedicated support even after developing the product.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of the software development department of the company. We’re part of the line of business responsible for advanced distribution management systems (ADMS). We cover high-, medium-, and low-voltage distribution, and we’re number one in the world in this field.

I’ve had this position for less than a year. Before this, I was the deputy head of development. Previously, I was the project development department director for four years. I was a team lead before that, and I was a senior software developer before that.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ZESIUM?

We started developing our web solutions seven years ago and needed help. Previously, we were using client-server-architecture desktop applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ZESIUM developed our frontend web solution from scratch, and they customize it for each customer’s requirements. Customers order both outage management systems and work order management systems from us. Everything is built on ASP.NET and AngularJS. The mobile versions are also web-based.

We have web applications for field technicians. If there’s an incident such as a tree knocking down a pole, our system will recognize where it happened, and someone in the control room will create a work order. It will go directly to the crew, and the on-site technician will use an app to assess the situation. This was previously done using walkie-talkies.

What is the team composition?

We started with a small team, and we now have two scrum teams from ZESIUM, totaling 15 people. They’re integrated into our teams.

Darko (Co-Owner & CEO) is in communication with my director. My main contact for the last year has been Snezana (HR Manager). I was previously in communication with Jelena (HR Manager).

How did you come to work with ZESIUM?

Our director had an existing relationship with theirs, and we went to them when we started looking into going mobile.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with ZESIUM in April 2014, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our teams are a mixture of our people and ZESIUM’s, and we’ve had examinations on a quarterly basis over the last two years. We look at their performance and attitudes toward work. ZESIUM has had an average rating of 3 over the last two years, which means that we’re satisfied. A 4 would mean that we’re more than satisfied. The examinations are done by our team leads and theirs.

We’ve just finalized the cycle for Q4 of 2020, and their average rating is 3.46.

How did ZESIUM perform from a project management standpoint?

Their developers are using our system, which is Team Foundation Server. They have the same rights as our developers, to access all the parts. Planning, estimations, grooming, retrospectives, and standups are all done on the system. We’ve been using a scrum framework for the last six years. Because everything is done at a team level, we don’t have a very clear picture about their project management level. Examinations actually give us clear details about how each employee is performing and progressing.

We have around 70 scrum teams across the business, developing various applications. Our project management for customer projects is in a separate operational sector, and they’re doing project management. From our point of view, we just have a backlog with what has to be done. We do reviews with all the stakeholders at the end of a sprint, and any corrections are set for the next sprint.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve helped us a lot on the mobile front. We didn’t have any resources that actually had the knowledge on making mobile apps. We now have four mobile teams, two on our side, and two on theirs.

We’ve been with ZESIUM for the last seven years, and we’re really satisfied. We don’t intend to replace them with internal resources. They’re doing well and progressing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always room to improve, but we have really good communication, especially when it comes to examinations and evaluations. We have communication on a sprint level, talking about the status and potential risks.

We have finite capacity, and there are challenges with that. There are huge companies coming to our market, which can offer better conditions and take away developers. We’re working on preventing that and providing better conditions. There are benefits to smaller teams, including that people can feel like part of the family, and we’re leveraging that.

ZESIUM is doing well, and we communicate periodically about risks. We’re in the same city, so we can organize a meeting within a couple of hours if there’s something urgent. Their CEO is always available and responsive, and we have close communication.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They organize meetings quickly and they’re open to discussion. I haven’t seen any biases that could prevent a good collaboration with them. I can only wish them luck.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CPO and one of the co-founders of a trucking platform. We’ve tried to digitize the construction and transport business around the world, but starting in Sweden.

We’ve been built a platform and a mobile application to support it.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ZESIUM?

ZESIUM provides us with IT services, primarily with development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We don’t have in-house developers, and we use ZESIUM for complete development services.

The team does everything from native iOS and Android app development to backend .NET, frontend code, and architecture. They designed and developed our mobile app and supporting web app.

The mobile app is used more by truck drivers to navigate and do their work. The clients can use the app to make inquiries. The web app is more for our company's transportation admins and the transportation admins who want to keep track of their truckdrivers.

The clients can create inquiries through the web app too. They’re two matching systems.

They’re even involved in the business development part, so both the business and IT aspects. When we founded the company, there were just three of us that weren’t working full-time, so we required a lot of support both with business and IT.

We provided them with the requirements of what we wanted, and they wrote the whole specifications and came with improvements and their own ideas.

What is the team composition?

When we initially worked with the company, there were up to 10 developers at a point in time. Now while we’re in a more operational state, we don’t need that much support.

We always have a business engineer or product owner that works with us full-time, and then we have one or two backend developers, one frontend developer, and sometimes, it’s only the app developers.

How did you come to work with ZESIUM?

I’ve been working with a lot of different IT companies abroad, apart from Sweden. We chose Serbia because we actually did some benchmarking with them and other countries, and they seemed to be very competent while offering a good price.

We went to Serbia and met ZESIUM. My family is also from Serbia, so we have connections there, and everything just fell into place.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in August 2018, and we were live in February 2019. We’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s all been positive. The team at ZESIUM has been very flexible with us, especially when accepting the fact that we sometimes need 10 developers and that sometimes we only need three. I know that some companies don’t like that.

In terms of quality, I’ve been satisfied with that too. They’re very quick with solving bugs when they do occur. I do have some knowledge and experience from much more tech-heavy industries. ZESIUM is pretty good at keeping up with what’s state of the art.

They also come to us with ideas, even if it’s something unexpected or requires them to question our own requirements.

How did ZESIUM perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they performed really well.

One of the reasons we decided to go with ZESIUM was that when we told them about our product's vision and story, they really liked it. It’s very important to collaborate with an IT company that believes in the same vision as you.

We’ve accomplished great things with ZESIUM, and I think we will continue doing so. Along with Slack and Skype for communication, we use Jira as our planning and project management tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their initial engagement and involvement in the project. They’re involved as much as we are in the success of our product.

Their team is very flexible as well. It doesn’t feel like they’re consultants; it feels like we’re the same company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If they were to improve on something, it would be QA and testing. Not that it’s lacking, but if I had to find something, that would be it.

They’re refactoring quite often, and testing is something that I always wish that developers would do more, but I think more automated tests would be good.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Eipix is a game development company founded 12 years ago. We have around 400 employees, five offices, and headquarters in Serbia.

Our sister company is called ‎Outmagine. It's an innovative startup hub through which we develop hardware and software projects.

I am a co-founder of ‎Outmagine and the head of business development. I am also the head of our Eipix R&D department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ZESIUM?

We have 400 employees, which implies a large automotive fleet. We wanted a solution for managing this.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ZESIUM is developing a native Android and iOS app for our company. It's meant to function as an internal fleet management solution. If the app is successful, we may even offer it to the public down the road. Since this will be an internal solution, we've given ZESIUM freehand in choosing the technologies behind the apps.

How did you come to work with ZESIUM?

We found ZESIUM through a mutual acquaintance. We've known each other for a few years but hadn't done business together. When there was a need for it, ZESIUM was the first on our list. We knew that they had a good project portfolio, and had done work for one of our close partners. It was a no-brainer to contact them first. ZESIUM's offer was also good regarding quality/price, so we didn't look for a second quote.

How much have you invested with ZESIUM?

The cost of ZESIUM's work was below $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with ZESIUM four months ago. Since we are working on other projects internally, there was a two-week break in the work. The project is within the QA phase. The last build we received should be the final one, barring a few frontend design changes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Not many people have used our app, as of now. There may be 15 users overall, who've seen the app and played with it, and everyone has had great comments about it. It works well, and the collaboration with ZESIUM has been smooth.

How did ZESIUM perform from a project management standpoint?

Since we are running our own business, we've appreciated the fact that there was no need to send ZESIUM a multitude of emails regarding the project. We communicated via Trello, email, and Skype calls. I was on top of the work and can say that everything went smoothly. When our project manager was off for a two-week vacation, ZESIUM assigned us a replacement. The transition was smooth.

What did you find most impressive about ZESIUM?

We haven't been in contact with many other developers, so it's hard for me to say if ZESIUM is better or worse. My experience was good. There were no problems, which I think is all we can ask for.

Are there any areas ZESIUM could improve?

There's nothing I could say which would be worth mentioning. We did have to fix small aspects around the frontend, but the result was very good overall.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

RTI is a Serbian company working as a general distributor for the John Deere organization. We also work with other brands like Pakelo Oil. We provide maintenance services to all the customers buying our machines.

I am the business development and marketing specialist for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ZESIUM?

We needed help improving and digitalizing our services and business. We also had a problem with gathering client information, and the after-sale communication was not very good. We wanted to build an application which could give us better customer communication, and one through which they could ask for services as well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a couple of meetings with ZESIUM, brainstormed ideas, received some suggestions, and started the development process for our Android app. The project was coordinated through their principal, who was our main contact. I also met one of their Android developers.

How did you come to work with ZESIUM?

We chose ZESIUM because they were good at providing information and at helping solve our problem. The team was flexible during the initial process. We've had a few meetings, discussing options and making changes.

How much have you invested with ZESIUM?

The cost of ZESIUM's work was around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was finalized within our timeline. The application is working perfectly at this time. I was able to contact ZESIUM about any issue after the development finished.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We work in the agriculture industry. All our users were impressed with the application and appreciated the solutions we came up with. John Deere Europe was also impressed with our solution.

How did ZESIUM perform from a project management standpoint?

ZESIUM was very good at maintaining the timeline. They never delayed or postponed anything, and came prepared to our meetings. ZESIUM's team provided new ideas and put a lot of innovation into our application. We communicated through email, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings.

What did you find most impressive about ZESIUM?

ZESIUM was open to everything we proposed and they were innovative in coming up with new solutions around how the application would look and function. They're a team of young professionals in the IT industry, so they know how to solve problems in a novel way.

Are there any areas ZESIUM could improve?

The IT industry is increasing, and so are the prices, so I can understand why our project was high-priced. In the end, the quality was very good. We were skeptical in the beginning, though. In the future, ZESIUM could provide a better understanding of this point to people outside of the field, including how long the work will take, how many people it will require, and so on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the president of the Sport Club ARAO, based in Transylvania. We promote grassroots sports to young people.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to develop a mobile application that will provide a checklist with the necessary equipment for different types of hikes.

SOLUTION

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

We had a video call with them and their promptness and active approach convinced us.

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

We had a few meetings to discuss the app's features. We provided their team with the content and some ideas for the design. They quickly sent us a version of the interface to approve. They listened to our feedback and soon, the app was developed. First, we had the iOS, which we tested and we offered some improvement suggestions that they incorporated immediately.

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

A project manager was assigned to keep communication with us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In less than 3 months, both iOS and Android versions were launched. Everyone appreciated the design and the friendly user interface.

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

The manager was always prompt, friendly and understanding. The communication went smoothly.

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

They addressed all matters with promptness and professionalism. All users appreciated the design outcomes.

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

We are pleased with the work done.