Alvin

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a talent management consulting firm.

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

We hired Alvin to develop manager dashboards for data visualization to report survey results. It was a very tight time frame as another developer we had dropped out at the last minute.

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

We selected Alvin due to his prior experience, customer reviews, responsiveness and clear thinking about how to approach the project.

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

He and his team designed the dashboards using Jango. We gave him a custom design we wanted and he developed the SAS application with reporting with data from an SQL database.

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

Two or three people. They were all great to work with.

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

Client loved the reporting solution. There was minimal "tweaking" we had to do to satisfy our customer requirements.

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

They are reliable, met all deadlines and we had regular weekly updates.

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

They know how to listen to customer needs and they do what they say they are going to do.

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

No, everything was good.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a tech startup where we’re building a social media app.

What challenge were you trying to address with Alvin?

 We needed a vendor that could help us build our mobile app from scratch. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They primarily provided frontend development services for our iOS app. Their team also provided feedback on app designs and helped us simplify some of our features. The language they used was Swift. 

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact was the founder of Alvin who is also a senior engineer. 

How did you come to work with Alvin?

We received a referral from a mutual friend. Alvin also had the relevant experience and skill set that we needed. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000-$35,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement began in June 2019.

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

We don’t have any specific evidence to support the impact of the engagement because we’re still an early-stage startup. The app launched a few months ago and we’re working on rolling out regular updates. 

How did Alvin perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Asana to manage the team. They do a great job following the workflow and delivering on time. One of their strong points is communication. They’re responsive and easy to get in touch with. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I found their level of communication to be very impressive. Their skillset and transparency are also important to us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m overall very happy with their service. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

It’s a good idea to pitch the idea to them and see if their experience fits your needs. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the charter and operations coordinator at Skyways Ltd., a private jet charter company. We primarily do business and pleasure jet charter trips.

What challenge were you trying to address with Alvin?

There are notices that are put out by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), and they’re called NOTAM (Notices to Airmen). Whenever there’s anything going on at an airport that would affect a flight going in, there’s a NOTAM. Before you fly in an airport, you always look at the NOTAMs, and they can be added at any time.

I wanted a service to be able to send automatic updates to users when a NOTAM is added to an airport.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Alvin created the NOTAM notification system, using Django and Celery coding technologies.

If a pilot is flying into LAX, they text the phone number we have with the airport identifier code. The system will send them a list of current NOTAMs, and it automatically subscribes you to that airport.

As soon as a new notice is posted, you get a text notification. In the new link that’s sent to users, the update is at the very top of the list, so they don’t have to search through and see which one was added.

What is the team composition?

I work with one developer from their team.

How did you come to work with Alvin?

I did a search for a few local companies on a website that had web developers for hire. I looked for the closest company, and Alvin popped up.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested over $10,000 in total.                         

What is the status of this engagement?

This project began in March 2019, and our work is ongoing.

The platform is mostly complete. We’re going to explore adding weather notifications, but that might not be feasible since there are so many more changes with the weather. We’re still going to explore that possibility and see what works best.

We might expand on it once the userbase gets bigger, too.

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

The service they created just made our jobs easier. We have 113 pilots signed up for it already. Our own company only has seven pilots, so word has gotten around pretty well for not even really advertising. I’ve just been telling pilots I know, and they’ve talked to other people. Everyone is very happy, and they think it’s one of the coolest things they’ve seen in years.

How did Alvin perform from a project management standpoint?

They exceeded our expectation for project management. They gave us a timeline of when they would have something done; it was always done at that time or before.

Whenever we had a meeting, they would just send an Outlook request.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team was always on point. They were super easy to talk to and work with. Their flexibility was great; if they said they weren’t available one day, they would immediately suggest another one.

I didn’t have to wait to hear back from them. Their communication and follow-ups were great. We never wondered what they were doing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. It wasn’t too intensive of a process, and I have no complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They like as much detail as possible, so it’s best to have what you want, organized as best as possible beforehand.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a software engineering manager for a hardware startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Alvin?

We needed help building a POS mobile application. We wanted to provide a simple way for consumers to make donations in our business ecosystem.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us develop a POS iOS mobile application that collects donations using the PayPal SDK. We provided a proof of concept and led the design in house, and Alvin did all the development. 

The application allows users to select various organizations and choose a donation amount. The app charges the user through the PayPal Chip and Tap Reader. Users can either pay by using the Chip and Tap Reader, swiping a card, or utilizing a card with a chip.

Development challenges included authentication and ensuring the solution agreed with our business systems. The complexity came from all of the associated structures needed to make a deployable solution. Users have to perform a handshake function with the PayPal server. Since it’s a hardware device, it could also require updates from PayPal. 

What is the team composition?

There was one developer.

How did you come to work with Alvin?

We were looking for a semi-local company with iOS specific skills that had worked on transaction systems before. We identified the developer through LinkedIn. They’re about two hours away, and they had extensive iOS development experience. They understood authentication protocols really well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $10,000–$25,000 with Alvin.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019 and the engagement finished in May 2019.

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

Since we’re just now rolling out the software, we don’t have data about how many deployments there will be. However, we’re thinking we might deploy it in 100 places. 

We’re satisfied with the success of the project. The solution passed all the QA efforts, and we’ve handed it off to the customer-facing teams.

How did Alvin perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a smooth workflow. The synchronization between our business team and their project management team was perfect. Since we are a startup, we wanted to move fast. Even though the project had to be rewritten, Alvin finished it in time for our business teams to do their work. 

They participated in our Scrum process and delivered the solution according to our project management guidelines. We communicated via Zoom video conference, email, and the phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were responsive, especially regarding their ability to help find solutions during the QA process. Even though identifying update issues during QA was one of the trickier elements, they responded quickly to solve the issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have leveraged a little bit more of our internal technologies. While they developed the project from scratch, there are some components we had developed that could have been reused instead of recreated. It was a different workflow because Alvin was an outside team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Any guidance clients can provide is helpful, and they should make sure solution design is already in place. Also, clients should be very clear where Alvin has a free hand versus where they need to integrate technologies in a specific way. Alvin will move forward and do the work well. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a senior manager for search analytics and innovation at Adobe. We’re a digital media and marketing company with many products built for learning professionals, instructional designers, training managers, content developers, educators, digital analysts, and marketers. My role is on the experience marketing team, focusing on measuring the performance of our search marketing efforts.

For what projects/services did your company hire Alvin?

We needed help creating a web-based reporting dashboard to make accessing complex data easy for non-technical teams. This required front- and backend development work.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have a web-based tool that internal teams could use to select data sets important to their needs.

How did you select this vendor?

We’d kicked-off another project with their team and developed a great rapport. Yurii possessed the technical and communication skills necessary to partner with us on this project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They implemented a Django framework for user access control and coded in appropriate filters to ensure correct taxonomy alignment within queries. Saved files are available in the app, and the frontend is built for easy filtering and selection of outputs. The whole system is connected to Hadoop infrastructure.

What was the team composition?

I worked directly with Yurii.

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

My analytics team is no longer the only team with access to this rich data. The data spans the globe and all our business units.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We set several goals along the way and met weekly/bi-weekly to discuss progress. I would provide feedback, and Yurii would suggest better development opportunities. Once each goal was met, I would test it on my side.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Yurii was really great at understanding the business problem, in addition to providing development work. His insight was crucial in helping point myself, who isn't as technical, in the right direction if we were moving away from the overall goal. He was very friendly in his approach as well.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of Actiview. We create accessibility technology for the deaf, the blind, and foreign language speakers to enjoy movies and entertainment in theaters and in their own home.

What challenge were you trying to address with Alvin?

We worked with them on the Android version of our application. We have the in-house capability to build iOS apps, but we had no Android experience. We had very specific requests for how we wanted it to look on the Android platform.

They also helped with the redesign of our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The most important part was making the app accessible to deaf and blind users. There's a specific way to make it accessible to those users and a way of speaking the interface to them. The Alvin team was really capable of making that happen. Our app uses specific audio synchronization technology that we designed in-house. That technology not only listens to the movie and figures out which movie you're watching, but it figures out where in the movie you are so it can synchronize your closed captions and audio tracks of different languages.

After we finished the Android app, we were looking to redesign our website. Alvin said they offered those services as well. They provided us with a quote, and we accepted it. That site is built using django CMS. The owner conducted the entire redesign himself. He provided us with drawn and digital wireframes with the HTML. He made it available on django CMS once we gave him access to our AWS server to load all the assets.

What is the team composition?

The owner was our main contact. Everything from billing to the development cycle went through him. In addition to doing the web development himself, we were in touch with the owner for most other projects. We also had an Android developer and a designer.

How did you come to work with Alvin?

We put a listing on LinkedIn looking for an Android developer, and Alvin’s owner messaged us to say he would have the capabilities to build it. We interviewed about five other individuals and firms. The cost was too high for some of the bigger firms. And I didn’t have enough faith in the individuals we met with to think that I would receive a finished and quality product. Alvin had the best documentation and price point, so they were selected.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $25,000 on all services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our Android development spanned February through April 2018. The web project began right after in April and was completed in June 2018.

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

The Android app is currently undergoing testing. We have some rigorous security requirements for the technology we create, especially around the Hollywood studios who distribute content through us. The app is going through testing with them, and by all regards so far, that's going well. From a website perspective, it needed to be accessible by blind users as well as be very consumable by anyone going to the site, and we've only had positive feedback from it so far. We're very happy with how it's all come together.

How did Alvin perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team was easily accessible for any specific problem. The owner was always online and offered quick responses. We held calls with the owner and the developer at times, as well as one-on-one calls with them depending on what we needed to be accomplished. We were always able to speak with the correct person whenever necessary. They clearly made us a priority.

We used Slack for quick communications, email for longer updates, and Dropbox for assets that needed to be shared back and forth.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had an innate ability to look at problems, ask the right questions, and address them properly. I don't know many engineers who could do that as well as they did.

I feared that there might be language barriers because the Android developer worked overseas, but we had no such trouble. We had easy conversations. It was nothing short of fluent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything was done on time, but having more day-to-day benchmarks would have been welcomed. That said, we weren’t lacking in communication in any way.

Any advice for potential customers?

They were people that could execute the ideas that I had, but they could also ideate with us. We found it valuable to trust them and let them be additive to the cycle of building a product.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is based in Kiev, Ukraine. It’s called Innovative Media Solutions, LLC. I formed this company around 2011; we have a lot of clients in Ukraine.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yurii Sekretar Software?

I had the idea to create this bulk SMS platform. Yurii is the main freelancer and contractor who built and supported the system, and he is still supporting it now, helping us further develop the whole platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I was brainstorming and working with Yurii when I had this idea. Yurii was really putting down everything that we discussed, and he had his own ideas as well. Basically, it was his development. I was giving the guidelines and some ideas, but Yurii was perfecting them in some way and putting his own feedback into the project. He was making everything work and being efficient. He is familiar with a very wide range of technologies.

What is the team dynamic?

Yurii was the main developer and he is working with another person, Anton Sydorenko. They have a very beautiful team spirit. He inspired Anton. When they work together, it’s fantastic.

How did you come to work with Yurii Sekretar Software?

Because I have activities in Ukraine and I started to make this project, I looked around and asked people. I don’t exactly remember where I found him. From the beginning, you can understand if somebody is talented or great in one direction, or with one technology or technique. Yurii was one of the first developers I came across. He was just such a fantastic developer that I didn’t feel the need to work with anybody else. The fact is that he was very versatile, not just talented in only one direction. When we need to do something different, he always finds a way.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent between $135,000 and $140,000. Depending on the work, I pay $1,000–$5,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with him in 2011. The project took half a year. I’m continuing to develop the platform further. I even have ideas to take it more global, because at the moment it’s serving the market of Ukraine.

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

Yurii is a brilliant programmer. He does very efficient, very correct work. The system is working very nicely. The platform keeps growing. Every day we have more users, more SMS, and more trendings.

How did Yurii Sekretar Software perform from a project management standpoint?

In project management, he is working very, very well. I’m very pleased with the way he is working. He is very good at coordinating, because he works with some other people under him in this project. He is coordinating them in a very nice and efficient way. Above all, he inspires the team spirit. He sets milestones and works to accomplish them.

Our communication is mainly on Skype and various instant messengers. Yurii is always there, unless he is sleeping. He is there all the time to solve problems and fix bugs. He’s never failed me, not even once. He’s fantastic.

What did you find most impressive about them?

He does everything in a great way. I have come across a lot of programmers, a lot of talent in other areas; Yurii is unique. He is, I could say, one in a million.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I never had any complaints with anything he’s done. I know what I said sounds very perfect, but it’s the truth. I cannot lie.

Do you have any advice for potential clients?

Whoever works with Yurii will have a good relationship with him as a person because above all, in business and in life, he is a good person, with a good character, and he is accurate and cooperative. Just communicate with him; give him tasks, and he will accomplish them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an operations manager for Adobe Corporation responsible for special projects in the marketing organization.

For what projects/services did your company hire Alvin?

We had to develop a budget management tool from scratch to help allocate budgets across different vendors for our marketing programs. We hired Alvin to help us build this tool.

What were your goals for this project?

We set out to simplify budget allocations for our team.

How did you select this vendor?

After interviewing several vendors, we understood Alvin to be the most detailed and comprehensive in their understanding of our business needs.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed, developed, and helped QA the final deliverable.

What was the team composition?

One person helped us the entire project.

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

We’ve significantly improved efficiency in our operations, which means decreased operating costs and more time for other high priority projects.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We mainly used Slack and shared documents.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their attention to detail, flexibility, and ability to comprehend our business needs stood out to me.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There’s very little to improve. They had to research some APIs, but that wasn’t a big hindrance.