Areus Development

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

NNC Services is a B2B marketing consulting company working mainly with technology businesses. We have an office in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as other locations across Europe. I am the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Areus Development?

With our main focus being marketing consultation, we don't have a strong arm in technology. Sometimes, customers will require us to take on some technology projects with heavy-duty front and backend development, especially if they're happy with how we're managing their websites. We use different contractors in these situations, and it's how we came to find Areus Development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We've had several projects with Areus Development, with a major one being completed in 2016. It was for a customer working with some of the biggest retail chains across the US, who needed additional development for their direct-mailing platform. The software was used by stores like Best Buy in order to setup all direct mailing operations, including printing and expedition. It can take over lists of addresses and manage content like coupons from multiple sources.

It was a decent project size, but Areus Development handled it easily. I was particularly impressed with how Areus Development managed customer communication. The client is considering extending the collaboration with our company.

We have also worked with Areus Development on projects for large US hospitals, involving solutions for crowdfunding platforms.

How did you come to work with Areus Development?

We found Areus Development through a reference from a US marketing partner who'd used them for some development projects.

How much have you invested with Areus development?

The cost of Areus Development has a blended rate of $40 to $50 per hour, for a 4–5-person team of senior developers. Our direct mailing project had a cost of around $100,000, but we've worked with Areus Development on projects ranging from $40,000 to $500,000, the largest one involving work for a public sector institution.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our mailing distribution project had a one-year duration. I'm not sure when it started.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did Areus Development perform from a project management standpoint?

Agile development comes with a lot of noise around who does what on a team, but Areus Development has Scrum masters, as well as good development and project management resources. We're happy with their quality of work. Areus Development is responsive in its communication with our team.

Compared to the many other subcontractors we've used so far, Areus Development stood out in terms of flexibility. Other companies have been reluctant to receive constructive feedback and take it in a positive way, but, because Areus Development works in an Agile manner, they can implement our feedback fast. This can make a difference when implementing time-sensitive changes.

Areus Development meets deadlines, even with last-minute changes. This is a feature which we haven't seen very often with other subcontractors. This could be because Aerus Development has more mature developers, or because of the larger team. Areus Development can have quick ramp-ups, although I'm not sure of the size of the team.

What did you find most impressive about Areus Development?

Areus Development has been careful to respect our budget, which is an important thing for us. We don't want to have surprises regarding contractors exceeding our set cost and milestones. Areus Development's team is very dependable, responding during moments of crisis and even over weekends. Overall, we're happy with how things are going.

Are there any areas Areus Development could improve?

We've told Areus Development that it would be great to have more customer-facing resources which could provide strategic consultation. They have implemented this for our bigger and more sensitive projects. It was the main thing that helped us scale the size of our projects with Areus Development.

I'm not very involved with project executions, but I think that I would have been the first one to hear about any complaints from customers. I haven't heard a lot of negative feedback about Areus Development, so I think that that's a good thing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Quantrio Consulting is a Romanian-based company started in 2009 as an HP software partner, later becoming a systems integrator. We have around 40 consultants, as well as a delivery team, and mainly address projects in Romania and Central and Eastern Europe. I am a business development manager of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Areus Development?

We had a project for a Romanian customer who needed an implementation of a mobile application that could provide capabilities in the region of environmental supervising.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Areus Development was tasked with a part of the project, focusing on the mobile app part of the system. The app is related to environment protection. Its frontend allows users to register and receive geographic information system data about protected environmental areas like forests, rivers, and other sites. A user can overview an area and report environmental incidents based on different criteria. They can also look at other reports and information about the protected area, including its native animal and bird species. On the backend, the app can generate reports on user activity, define layers and protected sites, and so on.

We were allocated an architect and a project manager, who supervised the work performed by various suppliers. Areus Development supplied the entire application, but I don't know how many developers were involved. We've worked on a fixed-scope project with no marketing services involved.

How did you come to work with Areus Development?

We chose Areus Development from a list of other companies, specifically because we knew of their other customers and had been impressed by those references as well as by the quality of the team.

How much have you invested with Areus Development?

 The cost of Areus Development's work was between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Areus Development in August 2015. The project ended in 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app was pretty much a hit from a user perspective, given that there were no other solutions of this kind in Romania. User and customer feedback has been overall good.

How did Areus Development perform from a project management standpoint?

It was a very easy collaboration. We managed to keep time and cost on the safe side during the project. The few problems which appeared on the way were immediately resolved, which rarely happens in the software development world. We've been very satisfied with Areus Development.

What did you find most impressive about Areus Development?

Areus Development was deeply involved in the project and came up with many good ideas that we hadn't thought about during development.

Are there any areas Areus Development could improve?

I can think of nothing at this point.