5StarDesigners Ltd.

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company, Trakker Apps, develops proprietary custom enhanced accounting software based upon our patented database technology. I am a licensed professional engineer, the managing partner, and the chief programmer.

For what projects/services did your company hire 5StarDesigners Ltd., and what were your goals?

I engaged 5 Star to develop a mobile app on apple and android platforms and an accompanying desktop internet application. I had never developed a mobile app before. My goal was to design a simple to use but very powerful and highly sophisticated enhanced double-entry accounting application, with advanced database calculations and customized searchable reports.

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

My luck was very good and I did very well when I chose 5 Star. I went with my guts. I have since developed a total of 4 outstanding apps and website applications, with more on the way.

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

I new the concept of what I wanted to develop. The project steps consisted of developing a complete set of operational wireframes develop a complete library of user stories construct the program in 4 or 5 "sprints" based upon user stories and sprint schedule. project completion

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

This vendor is resource rich and has as many and for whatever your resource needs are based upon your project. No problem. These guys rock.

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

I have developed a suite of 4 apps with 5 Star over the last 3 years and have more on the books. These apps are very advanced database calculators with advanced mathematical concepts, however they are very simple to use and learn, thanks to the brilliant project manager RR, who designed my apps and did all the UI/UX.

user interface / user experience. My apps are an outstanding collaboration between the designers and the programmers and I am am very satisfied and proud of the functionality and results of the 5 Star project team.

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

All communication is remote and virtual. This posed no communication or collaboration issues at all. 5 Star has all the software programs and tools necessary to accomplish this. Typically we met weekly when designing and constructing the apps.

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

This crew of designers, programmers and engineers are off the charts uber good and uber smart. These guys did their work, and they knew what they were doing. They produce stunning apps for me and service me very well.

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

This was definitely a learning process and learning curve for me. Had I understood the process and importance of reviewing the user stories on the first app, perhaps some later work could have been avoided. I won't make that mistake again.

Please describe your company and your position there.

WILLPORT allows users to connect family and friends and is 5 APPS in 1 and I'm the Program Manager looking after the product. You can schedule money payments and gifts for up to 14 months. You can schedule a one-time or recurring payment to family and friends, add a message, and/or voice message.

Send Electronic gift cards that are trackable and downloadable to your wallet. Send an experience like kayaking or flowers. You can create an e-greeting card from your gallery, or featured artist and add a voice message, or create a video. The APP reminds you of birthdays and special occasions and will deploy out the gifts on the exact day. This is a B2C platform with a B2B2C application.

For what projects/services did your company hire 5StarDesigners, and what were your goals?

We hired Jonathan and his team to help us revamp (redesign and develop) our company website. Our current site was outdated from all aspects (design and WP / Plugins versions etc) and also needed a new look with updated product information.

How did you select 5StarDesigners and what were the deciding factors?

We were referred by an associate who had previously worked with the company. Being a startup, we weren't too optimistic about working with an offshore company and only decided due to word of mouth and competitive pricing made it worth the risk.

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

SOW included Custom Design & Development of the website based on WP. This included 6 months of support at no additional cost (which was amazing). The SOW was clearly laid out in terms of timeline, milestones, and deliverables. Once executed, we were assigned a project manager and business systems analyst to go over the fine details.

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

We had overall five resources engaged which included a project manager, business systems analyst, UI/UX designer, web developer, and QA engineer over the course of the project.

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

After completion, we had our new site up and running which was also optimized for mobile devices. This was important as it wasn't responsive earlier, and the new site had all the latest product information. Since we had used the latest WP and better plugins, our site stopped getting compromised.

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

We had daily status updates along with the typical weekly update from the project manager to keep all parties involved on the progress. We had Slack and Jira setup to collaborate and manage tasks which made it a super easy and transparent process.

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

The fact that it isn't a typical business that'll execute and walk away when the contract is complete. Jonathan and his team go the extra mile with suggestions, taking additional out-of-scope requests and most importantly providing support months after the project had completed. They truly mean when they call themselves our partners.

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

Honestly, all our feedbacks or suggestions were always accepted without any push backs. In terms of the project, we did not have any issues at all. However, I do wish they also provided SEO services that would have made it a one-stop-shop for everything we need.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a start-up called Kumea. I have been building a network from seed to connect farmers in rural Africa with access.

For what projects/services did your company hire 5StarDesigners, and what were your goals?

My goal was to connect my users with three key pillars, inputs, services and markets. Additionally each user has a digital record of all farming activities recorded.

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

I was referred to this particular team

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

Our scope of work was first stated, we then proceeded to work on design and flow of the system, with several iterations. We then proceeded to finaliser the design and flow of the app and website. 5* worked on building what I worked and implanted the project as excepted. I revised the payment feature during this last stage and they were happy to accommodate my changes

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

They were about a team of 5. Designers, Relationship manager, and Developers

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

We are a start up, but we have within a few months grown our user base to 200 users.

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

We had weekly meetings to discuss progress. We made use of Freedcamp as a communication tool and broke the project down into 4 stages with specific deliverables.

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

The communication was efficient. They were willing to walk me through their ideas and provide suggestions when I wasn't sure about something.

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

Not really.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the head of project management for a technology innovation delivery agency that helps startups and enterprises develop their ideas. I was providing oversight on all projects being handled by the organization.

For what projects/services did your company hire 5StarDesigners, and what were your goals?

We hired 5StarDesigers for the complete development cycle of a Financial/banking application. The objective was to develop, test and deploy their application over a period of 6 months.

How did you select 5StarDesigners and what were the deciding factors?

Their portfolio, their process, and the skillset of their resources.

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

The scope of work was to revamp the financial institution's existing application. The project deliverables were as follows:

1. Requirement Gathering
2. Sitemap Finalization
3. Website UI Design and Development Services
4. Content Management System
5. Quality Assurance services
6. Deployment Support
7. CMS Training
8. 30 days post-deployment support The techstack used was - LAMP, WordPress, HTML, CSS and Javascript

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

1x Project Manager 2x Software Engineers 1x Test Engineering 1x UI Designer

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

The client was really impressed with the work that was furnished by 5StarDesigers. The refreshed look and feel of their web property gave them a new outlook.

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

We had daily stand-ups with their project manager and team. They were quite effective when it came to identifying potential risks and also always had a mitigation plan ready. They were quite transparent and prompt with their communication.

Since the scope was very well defined a hybrid approach (waterfall+agile) was suggested by them, which really worked well for us in managing the deliveries. The project was managed on Jira with Basecamp and Slack and Zoom for communications.

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

The quality of their engineers and the communication was really impressive.

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

The requirement gathering process could have been a bit better since there were a few misses during UAT in terms of acceptance criteria.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director Projects Delivery. An Oracle implementation partner

For what projects/services did your company hire 5StarDesigners, and what were your goals?

We hired 5star for their expertise in web application development, specifically Java, html and CSS to work on the development and upgrade of a public website for one of our clients, part of the Australian Government.

How did you select 5StarDesigners and what were the deciding factors?

5star has years of experience in designing and developing custom web solutions. After a series of assessments and interviews with 5star management and technology resources, it was evident that 5star was more than capable of handling the task

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

Scope of the project was to design and develop a public website for one of our clients in the Australian government. The technology chosen was Oracle Content and Experience cloud. The project was delivered using agile methodology

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

5 star provided a team of 4 resources including, lead designer, lead developer, lead tester and and security architect.

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

The project was delivered in time on budget as per specification. It was perfect!

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

5star follows an agile approach to project delivery with emphasis on open communication and transparency. Daily scrums sessions were conducted with task tracking on JIRA Kanban board. Microsoft teams was used as the main tool for communication and collaboration.

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

5star maintained a high level of communication and transparency throughout the project, from inception till end, by keeping me informed about the progress and any issues that emerged along the way. The quality of work and assurance practises followed were very impressive and were definitely a key factor in delivering a high quality product at the end.

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

5star should expand their operations and size to be able to take on more work.