Anadea

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the chairman of the board and founder of Bulletin, a Swedish digital newspaper

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The newspaper was envisioned as entirely digital and using high-end software built from the ground up, and integrated with social-media as well as databases to measure output. Additionally we need integrated publishing-software for our journalists to write articles, put pictures and plan publishing. The main website page is accessible for any visitor, some articles are available for everyone to read for free, but most are behind a paywall. Part of the article (title, preview image and introduction text), is available as a preview. The rest of the content is accessible for subscribers only. Anadeas

Services Included:

• Project management
• UX/UI Design
• Testing
• Frontend development
• Backend development
• Promotion
• SEO
• Google context ads

One major challenge was the I and the rest of the founders have no background in tech and did not know how to create the software for the newspaper, this task was for the firm to do entirely, including learning best practice in digital newspapers.

SOLUTION

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

We approached the process of selecting a tech company thoroughly. At the start, we wrote a standardized letter describing our project and emailed it to 20 companies or so, chosen among those who had good reviews online. We than evaluated their answers based on how well they understand the task, how professional the answer was, the level of English and if they understood the task well enough to suggest own ideas. Then we picked four or five companies and interviewed them.

Ultimately, Anadea was the best because they wrote a very detailed outline of how to design the paper and clearly understood the steps involved. Moreover they were skilled at communicating with our founding team who at the time lacked IT-expertise

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

The milestones of the project were:

1. creating an MVP,
2. further work on adding features and UX/UI,
3. polishing the product, testing and promotion.

Technologies were:

• For backend: Kotlin Spring PostgreSQL
• For frontend: TypeScript Angular Bootstrap

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

The team composition was the following (not counting slight deviations):

• 1 project manager
• 1 UI/UX designer
• 4 software developers
• 1 QA engineer
• 1 SEO/marketing specialist

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Anadea met and in several regards exceeded our expectations in terms of launch, budget, and most importantly the quality of the product we presented to our users.

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

Communication was all in the slack, daily calls, demos at the end of the sprint. Development was carried out according to Agile + extreme programming

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

We needed a company that had people who could think for themselves, not only to program. Being good programmers is not only a technical question but a question of understanding the end product and being able to think creatively to solve problems and improve the product. And that ability is in our experience very rare. This is the reason I would recommend Anadea, since they showed the ability to learn our particular and quite specialized needs, in this case publishing a newspaper.

At the end of the day, many clients are not going to be IT experts; they're going to be engaged in their various fields. It's good for us to have an IT company as a partner who is creative and intelligent enough to understand our field and communicate with us and help us develop our product.

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

None that I can think of. There were some technical problems at launch, but this was ultimately due to lack of time and expertise in our team, and they were fixed fast

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Im the founder and CPO of The Electric Car Scheme.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We built out our quoting engine and backend customer management system from scratch, as a key driver for growth. Anadea have now become a long term partner in our tech team to work across all our challenges for business growth.

SOLUTION

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

1.  Communication - they have very good English across the team, and communicate clearly with what they need and what they can do.
2. Breadth of talent - they have a great set of developers, designers, project managers etc. and are flexible about how to put teams together.
3. Cost - they are very well priced

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

The first project we worked on together was to improve our website quoting engine from MVP to a well functioning, well designed system, which had proper management in the back end. I had no other technical staff so managed this myself with very limited time.

They were able to deliver this on time. Now we have an internal CTO, and staff the rest of the technology requirements with Anadea to cover all our technology needs.

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

5 people. 1 account manager, 1 technical lead, 2-3 developers, and 1 designer that was able to work flexibly with some of her time

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The technology Anadea deliver consistently help us push the business forward. They work across our full stack, from web pages, back end systems, to integrations with other services like payments, or e-docs providers.

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

We manage our technology development in 6 week cycles. Our CTO leads a daily standup, and we have weekly demos / reviews. This works well for us. Anadea have been flexible to how best to manage this, and Im sure this could be done in many different ways.

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

Very high quality at a good price. This means I am confident we can grow the anadea team alongside the growth of our company.

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

We have had one occasion where a new joiner to the team wasn't skilled enough to contribute well. We escalated this within a week and it was dealt with immediately.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of an edu-tech company, we support students on their journey through university and work

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Anadea to custom develop our web platform and mobile application, where our students can watch courses and exercise for their tests

SOLUTION

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

I looked online and found anadea, i saw their respectable portfolio and their work ang got hooked by their previous projects

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

We immediately started working on a timeline and on a priority-based task system, which ended up being really useful for never losing focus on what was important in each sprint.

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

The team expand and shrinked based on our demands. We worked with several backend, frontend and flutter developers. Anadea offered help from busyness analysts too and a team leader, an always present point of contact for everything

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

the new platform's launch has been the most profitable we've ever had, users are really thrilled by the possibilities that we offer them and we have a major advantage over competition

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

We've had daily meeting on slack, most of the task are managed on their proprietary tracker, but i was always free to create and share documents to better explain my view to the team

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

I found anadea's team incredibly skilled and friendly, all members of the team went ahead to make sure they would create the best work possible

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

Nothing major comes to mind, maybe a slight update to the tracker system to include a priority grading or more little features

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an independent designer. I have my own company, but it’s just me.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Anadea?

I needed to create a program to translate a MIDI file, which is an audio file, into the music language that I made. It represented music through colors, and they had to develop a web application to create a music database based on my language.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I initially provided the design and how it should look, and Anadea made it from scratch. They developed it using Ruby on Rails.

What is the team composition?

In the beginning, I had meetings with a broader team of engineers, but only one person worked on the code.

How did you come to work with Anadea?

I searched on Google and looked everywhere. Then, I decided to book an interview with Anadea, and one of the senior engineers knew about proper music theory. When I talked to them about the music language, I thought that if they knew about code and music, they could be my team.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $8,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our engagement in January 2022 and took a break in April 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is private for now; I’ll wait to make it public. In terms of functionality, 60% of the songs would work in the beginning. Then, we refined the code. Now, 95% of the songs work in the system, so it works excellently.

How did Anadea perform from a project management standpoint?

It was good. A business development person oversaw the project and got in touch when something needed attention. However, I was generally in touch with the developer. Every time I needed to meet him or had a question, we had a Slack channel. The communication was fluid. Even when I raised issues, it felt very smooth. Moreover, I liked their attitude — everything was solvable.

We usually communicated through Slack for minor things or to set up meetings. Additionally, we used video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a can-do attitude and delivered on their promises. Everything went great, and Anadea’s team was really professional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would’ve been great if the coder had better English, but I didn’t have complaints, honestly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them a clear and detailed brief. Although they have design capabilities, they’re great at following the lead. In our case, it was really helpful to give them the design.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as the Director of Operations and Marketing for a senior living service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired them to build out a directory for our website. We also hired them for SEO.

SOLUTION

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

We compared them to a few different companies, and they were the best priced and guaranteed more functions.

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

They used Ruby on Rails, and installed a directory on our website from start to finish.

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

5 people worked on the 2 separate projects. - 2 people (Manager and Wordpress manager) on the SEO project - 5 people on website development (manager, back-enders, front-enders

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The directory was developed with a fully functioning.

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

The project managers were extremely responsive, excellent at scheduling, and kept to a specific timeline they promised. They completed work quickly and constantly asked for feedback.

When challenges came up, they contacted me before they could proceed and, because I asked for a lot of edits, they constantly accommodated. They used an internal tracker for what tasks needed to be done, and even estimated timelines.

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

Nothing was out of the question: they could add anything to the website that I had wanted.

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

I am someone that would like to see an in-depth strategy roadmap. While Anadea worked with me to create the strategy, they simply asked what I wanted.

In hindsight, I didn't exactly know what I wanted and had a vague idea. It would be great if they implemented something along the lines of design thinking to help me think through it! That way, we wouldn't have had to go through so many edits.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We develop a idea management software that we serve to our customers as a SaaS.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Anadea?

We needed extra hands with Ruby on Rails development, from bug fixing to small features development, and specially to write a full test suite.

What were your goals for this project?

To reach a good level of code coverage with our test suite, so we would be comfortable to refactor and evolve the product.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed a number of competing agencies. We were looking for somebody on the East Europe area, for timezone and cultural closeness, compared to other regions popular for this kind of services. We wanted a developer that could join to our team as if he was part of it from day one, removing all possible bureaucratic and intermediate processes. We were looking for an agency with a strong record and we were looking for a reasonable cost.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Anadea placed one developer that joined our team as a remote, and worked alongside other team members in the selected tasks, specially in coding the test suite.

What was the team composition?

One junior developer, working with as full time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All the goals were achieved in quality, time and cost. With the desired test suite, we were able to start a new phase for the product, that included its full revamping and update. This work allowed our in house team to move faster and more reliable.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Anadea succeeded in locating the right developer, setting a clear and agile administrative layer and basically getting out of the way as we requested. When any issue appeared, they were super fast to diagnose and find solutions.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Everyone we interacted with was driven, disciplined, understanding and intelligent. They were also very fast and honest in their communications, which made things really easy.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We had an initial developer working on the project with a very scarce knowledge of English, which was not a good fit for the kind of communication we required. That was exchanged fast, but it would have been better to know such limitation in advance.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the president of a wellness app startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Anadea?

They designed and developed a WebApp + Chrome Extension for us that helps people get better at focusing.

What were your goals for this project?

Responsive Design Animation Front-end and back-end coding Website Development WebApp Development Dev Language: React JS, SCSS, Ruby on Rails, HTML, Javascript.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I interviewed ten companies I selected from Clutch and reviewed their projects closely. Anadea has outcompeted them all in terms of response speed, customer service, professional etiquette, and developer competency. Their UI/UX designs were also amazing.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They have closely communicated with me and designed and built my project in accordance with my expectations. Also, they suggested brilliant ideas to improve the UI/UX of the app and how to approach development in a cost-efficient manner on a weekly basis. We talked everyday and the developers were able to stay on schedule by following clear requirements delineated by the project manager, UI/UX designer and business analyst. Everyone works closely in the team.

What was the team composition?

Two developers, one business analyst, one project manager, and one UI/UX designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Anadea was able to quickly adapt to our business and development needs. I think it's one of the most adaptive outsourcing agencies out there that can also develop very high quality projects.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Fulfilled deadliness, exceeded expectations and offered cogent and constructive suggestions that improved product quality. The project was arranged via Slack, a project management software and No language barrier and time difference issue.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are disciplined, customer service-driven, and intelligent. Everyone was able to think logically, offer great suggestions and maintain professionalism.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We help tenants to find the next place they will call home. We're a Qatari tech startup founded in July 2019. The Qatar Science and Technology Park incubates us - The Incubation Center is a technology-focused incubation program that aims to foster local tech entrepreneurship in the State of Qatar. I am the co-founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Anadea?

The team was looking for a company to develop its platform (website). We knew from day one we wanted to create a very user-friendly platform that was compatible on a desktop and mobile browsing.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal and focus of this project are to deliver a user-friendly real estate marketplace to help tenants find the next place they will call home.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

When we were looking for vendors, we had a budget in our mind and only shortlisted companies that had similar work experience. We were building a real estate marketplace, so it was essential for us to hire a company that created such platforms.

Therefore, we sent a high-level scope of work to all companies, but Anadea was one of a very few that gave us feedback, solutions and understood every requirement in details. We also had a few meetings with the team we would be working with, which gave us the confidence that they will deliver our vision.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We provided a high-level scope of work document and some designs from other websites we liked. Anadea then gave us 3-5 design options to select from and then every time we wanted a change; they would do it until we were 100% happy with the final layout. After the design works were approved, back and front end work started.

What was the team composition?

The team composition would change depending on the stage of the project. We had a designer that was responsible for web, mobile and logo design: back and front end developers, quality assurance engineer and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Building a platform is the foundation of our business. Along the process, we had initiatives to decrease our future operational cost.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management during the project was pretty impressive. The best part is that Anadea has an internal ticketing system that divides tasks into stories. This mean you will have an overview of what the developers are doing, and what stories are to be done this week and even next week. The system was very useful, and I enjoyed using it.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team spirit, project management controls, and how well they took care of the project impressed us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not much to say here, they were on point and available whenever I needed them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a company that focuses on preparing students for the medical admission test in Germany.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Anadea?

the focus was to build an e-learning platform where students can use our printed materials online.

What were your goals for this project?

The focus was to create a system where students can simulate the real admission test as efficient as possible. For the best user experience, we thought of several features, including rang function, comparison to other students, an specialised algorithm and a mobile responsive environment.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

To choose the right vendor for a project is a difficult task, so I had a lot of phone calls with different software companies. Anadea showed a strong commitment and interest in creating something valuable from the beginning. The first phone call was with Aleksandra (sales person) and Dmitry, the developer. We could talk about every possible feature we would like to have, they immediately responed how difficult it would be. Regarding the price, Anadea outruns the competition in many aspects, it was not only fair but we could work with a highly trained team that usually charges much more $$.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed our e-learning platform, developed back-end and front-end in a highly functional manner. Every request was fulfilled, even more. They did tasks that were not in the inital requirements and we were very happy about that. Our platform now is a lot better than it was planned at the beginning, thanks to Anadea.

What was the team composition?

The project team was built out of four people: Dmitry (developer) , Vladimir (project manager), Elena (designer) and Aleksandra (sales person) The responsiveness was remarkable, every question was answered via Skype within minutes.

For us, honesty and transparency regarding additional costs was important and they always gave us sincere and honest answers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Anadea solved every request in a perfect and quick manner. Going online was an important step for us. Before, we only had written books. The trend goes towards e-learning and Anadea helped us in an excellent manner.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Every deadline was achieved. Clear and straight communication. Nothing more to say.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I really appreciate the quick responses, the honesty and the clear structures. Everything was clear for us from the beginning to the end. I would recommend Anadea to everyone who wants to build something with an impressive and qualified team. The speed and preciseness of their work is truly remarkable.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is very little they could improve. Once, there was confusion about the initial scope of work so maybe a more clear, pointed out description of every scope task would be good. The rest is perfect.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and co-founder of Plei, an online platform that enables anyone to play soccer when and where they want. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Anadea?

We hired Anadea for end-to-end development of our app, including project management and QA services.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to see our designs brought to life. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After much trial-and-error with other development shops, we finally found Anadea. 

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They developed two separate platforms, the Plei system corresponding app. With the program, players can register and pay for a game at various soccer fields. The system allows soccer facilities to manage their business under one platform and includes a POS system through which employees can charge and collect payment from customers. 

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of one project manager and 1–4 developers at any given time. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We now have a platform that not only generates revenue, but that also represents our vision better than we could have imagined. Everything delivered was of the highest quality.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our project manager was assigned the minute the project started and worked beside us every step of the way. We spoke daily, receiving both regular status updates and quick responses to any question or concern.

We also used Anadea’s in-house project tracker, which allowed us to create and prioritize stories (or tasks) that they could plan for. We were able to see when a story was complete, review it, and accept it.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Finding Anadea was the best thing that could have happened to our company. Our founders are not developers, but finding a collaborative team that enjoyed working with us was important, and Anadea exceeded all of our expectations in that regard.

We were most impressed with Anadea's efforts to include us in every aspect of the project. We were nervous about outsourcing overseas, but now Anadea is like family. Their project managers truly cared about our project and treated it as if it were their own. We knew our technology was in good hands.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would like to see them expand their business closer to the Western hemisphere. Finding new developers in South America and training them on their methods could open up many new markets for them.