Altamira

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Digital Marketer of 2Ring

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We sell and develop real-time reporting and productivity add-on software for contact centers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Altamira.ai to accomplish?

• To build and develop a website to display our extensive product lineup.
• To build and develop a program for sending installation packages to clients.

SOLUTION

How did you find Altamira.ai?

Referral

Why did you select Altamira.ai over others?

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

What was the size of Altamira.ai’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

The scope encompassed the design and execution of a website that would feature our products under a menu structure that would enable users to sort available solutions (products) based on integrations for platforms said customer had/has and for which we offer integration support.

Altamira designed and executed this vision. Along with that, the website features components such as product pages with associated informational sub-pages and submittable forms for prospects interested in our services to fill out/interact with.

The final component was an interface/program that enables us to send clients install packages for our software. This deliverable primarily consisted of a program that can authenticate a user and then grant them access to a particular software bundle.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Successful deployment of the final iteration of our planned website

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

Project management was consistent, timely, and well communicated to our team. Our expectations were met throughout the course of our collaboration.

What was your primary form of communication with Altamira.ai?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Altamira worked with us via a small team, with great attention to detail focused on providing personalized care to our project. They were very flexible and were willing to accommodate scheduling changes to suit our timeline.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Altamira.ai could have done differently?

No, there weren't any noticeable areas where Altamira was lacking.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a digital profile platform for pets. We have a lost and found function.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Altamira?

We needed help with web and mobile application development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Altamira has built three web applications that speak to a mobile app. They’ve used Flutter and Angular for development. Initially, we did a brief and talked to them to figure out a program that would do what we wanted. 

The app is a platform to store all the documents for a pet. It’s a digital profile for the vaccines, health records, and so on. Also, it has a QR tag that users can scan to send a notification with the geolocation of the pet ID tag. The web application is free for pet breeders, stores, and brokers. They can upload prior documents for the pet, and when the owner signs up, the information gets sent over to the mobile app on Android or iOS.

What is the team composition?

We have about 15 people working on everything from the front- and backend to design and business analysis.

How did you come to work with Altamira?

We hired a trusted person to interview companies for us. We chose them because they were the best developers who met our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent more than $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in May 2021 and are still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched two weeks before Christmas, so we’re still new. However, downloads are up into the thousands. There have been quite a few bugs, but they’ve been pretty responsive. Overall, the app works well, and they’ve met our expectations.

How did Altamira perform from a project management standpoint?

The project is well-managed. Recently, they switched to Teams; we used Google Meet before. Additionally, they use Jira and Confluence as tools, and we communicate over Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The project manager is one of a kind; she’s fantastic.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One of our biggest challenges is keeping an adequate staff through our low times. We’re new, so we need a big team, but we're in a transition right now. It’d be nice to have part-time people and not always commit to full-time developers.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear picture of what you want before you start.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of a small software company creating mobile and web applications to solve everyday problems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to build a mobile application to help riders of the Washington State Ferry (WSF) network, one of the largest in the United States. We wanted an app that was fun to use and helpful for both the occasional ferry rider and regular commuters. We needed to integrate into the publicly available WSF REST API with caching, as internet access can be spotty when riding the ferry system. We wanted to build using Flutter & Dart so that we could have both an iOS and Android version of the app available on Day 1.

SOLUTION

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

We had already shortlisted them from a previous project and were looking for the right opportunity to engage. This project was well defined and small enough to be a great pilot project. What really impressed us was the excellent communication and quick turn-around of questions.

The program management team really kept the project on track and were great a communicating. Language was never an issue. The developers seemed sharp and knowledgable, which gave us a lot of confidence that the end product would be good.

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

I started with a mini-spec that was turned into a set of project steps in Jira. A Confluence page was created for each piece of the application where we could discuss and refine. Once development started we had a mid-point check-in to review the app with the developer. The final coding sprints resulted in a completed app with only minor refinements required.

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

There were 4 or 5 people on the core team, including a program manager, developer, devops. Additional specialists were brought in as needed, for example to setup the application on the Apple iTunesConnect site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to complete the project ahead of schedule in time for the summer sailing season. Customer feedback has been very positive and we are working on a set up upgrades for a future version of the app.

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

We did weekly video chats, communicated on Slack almost daily, and used Confluence wiki pages as a way to capture project notes and feedback.

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

The process was very smooth and relaxed. There were no surprises and no drama.

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

The payment schedule was defined up front, but it took some time for us to set up international wire transfers facilities. Some assistance in this area could have really helped us get started more quickly. For example, having more payment options would be useful.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of CTRL. We have created a sports training compression sleeve that learns an athlete's unique ideal motion and teaches them to reproduce it every time.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire GBKSOFT?

My team is very small and we have had to prioritize our software development. We chose first to develop for iOS and hired GBKSOFT to port our application to Android and refresh our UI.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted feature parity with our iOS application and a new UI that built on and meshed with the high quality, luxury feel of our physical hardware.

SOLUTION

How did you select GBKSOFT?

I searched online for app studios and spoke with a couple of friends that had used app development studios before. All other companies I met with, even with personal references, failed to present themselves as organized and committed as GBKSOFT. From the very first call to the proposal I received, it was clear that GBKSOFT would produce a very high-quality application and UI.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was to develop and new, refreshed UI and port our iOS application to Android. From the beginning, we knew that the port would be a difficult job. We have developed our own proprietary motion sensors and GBKSOFT would need to integrate with them seamlessly to accomplish our goals.

We began with a kickoff meeting to meet our dev team (PM, SM, designer, dev, QA). Then week by week we groomed the scope of the project. The PM would constantly contact us with any questions they had and help us lock down our tech specs and design for the developers to implement. At the same time, we would update the iOS application to match the new UI.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager, scrum master, designer, android developer, and QA engineer. The team was amazing and did their job extremely well. Team members did not change during our project, barring one or two instances where one member would be gone on vacation and we were assigned another team to take their place for that short period of time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our app is set to be released in just a few short months. During the development period and after, we have had internal testers tell us that they love the functionality, flow, ease of use, and visual style. Overall, they are very impressed by the UI/UX that was created by GBKSOFT.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was truly amazing. Their team was organized, reached out whenever a question needed answering, and they work fast. We used a combination of Slack and Confluence to handle quick communication and show the plan moving forward.

Throughout the project, they asked for feedback on how they could improve their services, and I had none to give. That is how well they worked together and with us. I cannot understand how they are able to balance multiple projects and still make it feel like we are their #1 priority. It was a fantastic experience.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was blown away by how organized they are. It taught me quite a bit about running an effective software development team. Their abilities to manage the scope and put ideas into an actionable plan are unmatched. They sought to understand not just our product, but the industry we are in so that they could build the best user experience possible.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I really can't think of anything they can improve upon. We had a wonderful experience working with GBKSOFT

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the project manager here at HDR Print, where we specialize in wholesale large format printing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We originally built a custom website when we started the business but it didn't have the functionality and the pizazz that we needed to get the business to where we wanted it.

After working with our previous developer we realized that they didn't have what it takes to be able to build such a robust website.

SOLUTION

How did you select GBKSOFT and what were the deciding factors?

After speaking with many developers I was almost ready to give up as no one was able to help with the features that I wanted.

I than heard about GBK Soft and was highly recommended by a few other companies to use them.

Since we started I have never had such an easy time! Wether it was communication, tight deadlines, and robust features, GBK Soft was there and over delivered!

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

Since we started from scratch we started from the basics of the website and went through each feature and each plugin together with the team.

Everything was tracked and managed through confluence with such detail, it was hard to make mistakes!

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

There were 4 amazing people that I spoke to on a weekly (or daily) basis and then many more that were working behind the scene.

Alexander Nesterenko was the salesman and stuck with us through every update, and every meeting. I couldn't be happier with a salesman! Always looking for the best solution, and always with a smile!

Alexandra Restova is the team leader. She was my mane point of contact for the web development. It was unbelievable how she would explain each robust feature in a simple way. And there was never a time where there was a feature they didn't have a way around!

 Anastasiia is the in charge of the finances. When spending a great amount of money on a project everyone is always asking where the money is going. Well Anastasiia always went through our weekly finances and down to the penny what our bills were accounted for, also with weekly reports.

 And last but not least Denis, who is the head of front-end development. Your demo's were amazing each and every week rolling out new features as we went along the project, it was amazing to see the project come together more and more each time!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With rolling out this project we were able to cut manpower as the website did a lot more work than the previous one, also the mistakes that happened while ordering won't happen again, because of the clear cut process of our new website!

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

The project management was impeccable! Everything was done through Jira and hangouts, which was a blessing especially during COVID.

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

We were able to communicate on a level of my understanding which is really important that you have a team that will take a feature that you explain and put into writing so that every part of the project will work together.

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

I have absolutely no complaints they did something no other company was able to do!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder CEO of a mobile app startup. We have a live streaming platform for music.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GBKSOFT?

We hired them to develop the MVP for our app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave them a fair bit of flexibility; we didn’t provide any wireframes. The app is for iOS and Android.

What is the team composition?

We worked with about nine people.

How did you come to work with GBKSOFT?

I did a web search and then I did my due-diligence through platforms like Clutch.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We initially contacted them in June 2020 and we’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work is high-quality and high-value.

How did GBKSOFT perform from a project management standpoint?

It has been great. We do our best to stay on track, and they usually deliver on or around the deadline. Communication is great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They think of things that I wasn’t able to think of myself.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Look into them yourself. They do a good job. Give them a shot; they won’t disappoint.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and sole employee of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire GBKSOFT?

To build some creative assets for my landing page which included UI/UX screens for the app, icons, social media assets, and branding/logo

What were your goals for this project?

I needed assets to complete the landing page website and social media profiles

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I came to clutch co and saw they had good reviews.

Describe the project in detail.

As stated above I came to GBK with a concept for an app. I knew they had worked on similar apps and could leverage their experience my specific application.

To start with I needed assets to build a website and social media profiles. These are all creative assets (UI/UX screens, logos, icons, and branding). GBK provided a quote for this service and turned out with great speed and quality.

I am very happy with their service and wil continue to use them in the future.

What was the team composition?

I was assigned a project manager and designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They turned around the project very quickly, were responsive, and produced an excellent final deliverable.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

they were responsive and understanding.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very responsive and thorough in their approach to each project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only thing would be we could be more flexible with meeting times, but this is not GBK's fault as we are in very different time zones. I am in USA (New York) and they are in Ukraine

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of SOLJETS. We’re a private aircraft acquisition and brokerage.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GBKSOFT?

We wanted to revitalize a website that was developed with an inflexible set of technologies that didn’t permit us much growth.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team built us a WordPress website from scratch. We had requirements and style guides, GBKSOFT put their interpretation into the designs, which they presented to us. Then, we vetted, scratched, and worked through the organization.

They put together a unique experience with features. Their team built a tool that effectively compares multiple aircrafts from a chosen airport to identify the different ranges of those planes. They also built a database backend. Their team built connectors between the proprietary system and our website.

They used a LAMP stack, so their team built a MySQL database architecture. Their team also used Elasticsearch and other established frameworks to build out the UI controls.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, a frontend developer, and two backend developers to build the proprietary database. We also worked with a project manager, a UI designer, and initially three developers on the website. We reduced the number of developers to one experienced and proficient developer who I kept on retainer by request.

How did you come to work with GBKSOFT?

We started by looking for a US-based local development shop to help us achieve our goals. We quickly realized through the design process and the early development phases that going that route would be cost-prohibitive.

We wanted a team that could design and develop our platform cost-efficiently with our future goals in mind. I started searching for offshore groups and came across GBKSOFT. We wanted to work with a development shop that used portable technologies, meaning if we stopped the relationship, we could take the product anywhere else. They passed our litmus test, so we gave them the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this project in January 2018 and wrapped up in March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve used the website feature to show clients how we come to our conclusions during our sales pitches. We’ve used our backend tools to drum up the appropriate analysis and data research to help clients make decisions. We’ve seen success through the quality of their development. We’ve had the confidence to present these products live.

How did GBKSOFT perform from a project management standpoint?

Right off the bat, they hit the nail on the head in terms of budget, timeline, and deliverables without too much direction. We used JIRA, which is where they maintained all of their documentation and code repositories in conjunction with GitLab. We also used Trello and Slack as our project task and communication platforms.

We had an issue about halfway through the effort and made our concerns known to GBKSOFT’s leadership. Within a couple of weeks, they made internal changes and assigned us a new project manager who exceeded all of our expectations. She ended up closing the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their project estimations are one of their strongest points. At times, their process seemed over the top with the number of questions and iterations. It’s part of their process to give a timeline and cost estimates that they can meet. There were numerous times when they exceeded their estimations, giving us an early deliverable and kicking back cash. We’re definitely going to work with them again because of the quality of their work. They’re a really honest team. We didn’t feel that they were gaming us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone can improve but we’re overall pleased. They could improve their UX/UI design skills. Their team does a good job, but it’s not as refined as it could be.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You’ve got to know what you want.  They have a pragmatic approach, so they’re not going to help you take a dream and put it into a concept. If asked, their team will think outside of the box. But they’re looking to take your ideas and put them into a technical concept.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief of operations and finance for Nelson Precast Products LLC. We’re a small business in a niche industry. We manufacture highly custom construction materials.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GBKSOFT?

There are less than 100 companies in the country that do anything even close to what we do. And that was that's been a big problem for us because we've had a very hard time finding business software that actually understands the logic of our very niche business.

Everything we’ve tried in the past as off-the-shelf and was unable to adapt to our workflow and didn’t have a great interface, so we brought on GBKSOFT to create a solution specifically for our operation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I put together a document explaining what I wanted the software to do. Then, I spent several months working with their business analysis team and their project manager and they asked a lot of questions. We tuned that document into our specifications. Then, they developed a product that met those specifications.

The software they built has a built-in browser PDF editor that connects annotations in the PDF to database objects, and significantly reduces the number of steps our project managers need to do one key aspect of their job. This dramatically reduces possibilities for error because they’re only entering data once.

What is the team composition?

We had a project manager and a few different business analysts because there was some turnover.

How did you come to work with GBKSOFT?

My boss heard about them from a colleague. He told us that they were reasonably priced and did very good work, so we looked into them. We had an initial conversation with them, and I gave them a scope for the MVP. They said they could get it done in six months, and for a price that was comparable to an off-the-shelf software system.

How much have you invested with them?

The MVP cost just shy of $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Development lasted from August 2019–January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product is beautiful, seamless, quick, and responsive. Everyone I showed the product to was completely blown away. I’ve thought about the impact that this would have on our business for nearly a decade, and when my team finally saw it, they recognized how much easier it will make our jobs. It’s going to free us up to move away from data entry and enables us to do more productive work. We’ve been training people to roll it out in March, but because of COVID-19, our implementation schedule has been delayed and I don’t have data yet to reflect the impact it will have.

Throughout the specification process, they asked excellent questions. They saw potential issues and contingencies, and they took that rough document and refined that to create a more complete workflow.

Some of the ideas I had were off the wall, but they went with it. They took on some unusual challenges and they created a solution that no one has made before.

How did GBKSOFT perform from a project management standpoint?

Jira and Confluence were the main project management software we used to communicate. That’s where all our specifications were written up. Their management was top-notch. I’ve worked with people in various industries, but GBKSOFT is good. They can be the single point of contact with the contact and can make sure that their team and our team have all the information we need. They kept us informed while keeping everything on schedule. Overall, their project management was absolutely excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their price is very competitive. On top of that, they have an excellent project management team. They do wonderful work, and everything they built met our specifications exactly. Their design team is excellent—the program is beautiful.  Across the board, they provided a service I would have expected to pay 2–3 times as much for.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The turnover in the business analyst position was challenging to deal with. As a result, there were a few times where I had to explain our business logic all over again. That was a minor frustration, though. I would never hesitate to recommend them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It probably helps to have someone with a technical background on your internal team. I do think that accelerated our process. Be prepared, too, to have someone be responsive to them. They’re very productive and will give you specifications and designs every day that require your proposal. So, you need someone responsive to prevent the project from slowing down.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a mobile application that was designed to assist Military Aviators in studying for their designated helicopter. The application was designed to combine educational resources in one location.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire GBKSOFT?

I hired them to design an extended feature in the application that they had previously designed.

What were your goals for this project?

My goals were to add on an extension into the application and remove some features that I had previously requested. Most importantly it needed to be a stable application.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I had chosen them back in 2015 to originally create the application based on their communication and understanding of my intent. They were able to successfully put my ideas to paper and then into a digital form.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was designed to add another helicopter that was needed. There had been a few features that I had paid them to create that I needed to be removed in this latest update. Their job was to recreate features already present in the app and implement them in an organized manner.

What was the team composition?

I initially spoke with a liaison of sorts who then passed me off to the Project Manager. The Project Manager spoke with me about concerns and questions that the developers had. This individual served as not only a medium between my ideas and their implementation but also as a linguist as there could have been somewhat of a language barrier.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within less than a month the team had successfully created the update to my liking. It is the most stable version of the app that I have seen and was done in an extremely timely manner. Any initial issues that may have risen were addressed immediately.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I was very happy with the workflow between myself and their team. Responses were addressed quickly especially considering the time zone differences.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

What I found most impressive was their willingness to correct any shortcomings. If there was something that needed to be addressed it was immediately corrected.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can not identify any areas for improvement at this time. They are a great company and I will continue to work with them on my mobile application.