ASSIST Software

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a gaming studio startup. 

What challenge were you trying to address with ASSIST Software? 

We hired ASSIST for their game development services. When I decided to build a video game and commercialize it, I wanted to see first how far I could go in terms of building a proof of concept (PoC) and putting it in focus groups. I initially wanted to see how feasible the game would be in real life before releasing it. Put another way, I didn’t want to build an organization and developers and marketing people only to let everyone go six months down the road. As a result, we first developed a playable demo. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

ASSIST has helped us develop a playable demo for a game for desktops running on Windows and OSX using Unity engine. I explained my initial concept to them and asked the team to build the graphical front of the game. This playable demo served as our PoC.

In terms of the game’s mechanics, it’s a programming game where players write short scripts in Python to control bots, which they send on various missions. Some missions are single-player while others are multiplayer, where users need to cooperate with other players to accomplish a bigger task. They may also have to go against another player to compete for various things.

Overall, this is intended to be a fun game for people who enjoy coding. There’s also an educational aspect to it in terms of learning new programming languages. Right now, we’re generating some in-game footage to build a community around the game. We’ll do a fundraising round and put the footage in front of investors. If everything goes well, we plan to release the game in 2024. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with four graphic designers, and one of them is the project manager. Around 3–4 developers have also been involved in the process. 

How did you come to work with ASSIST Software?

I searched for teams in Romania because it was cheaper to do so; I was also originally from there. I searched on Google for development companies in Romania and found 3–4 vendors. I then reached out to those vendors and ASSIST was the first to respond. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $150,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

The whole project is divided into milestones, and five of them have been completed. We expect the sixth one to be done sometime in mid-April 2022. So far, I’ve received every deliverable according to our milestones.  As a result, I don’t have any concerns about the quality of their work. 

Meanwhile, most of the people I’ve talked to about the project have been ecstatic about the game. ASSIST has built high-quality graphics that look great. The general feedback about the game’s concept has also been positive, which is encouraging for us. 

How did ASSIST Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management has been great. The project isn’t done yet so it’s hard to tell how well they’ll perform until the end. However, we’re on track so far. The budget is also predictable because the project is priced per milestone, and I’ve received all deliverables. 

In terms of tools, we use HacknPlan to manage the project. This tool is similar to Jira, but it’s geared toward game development. We conduct calls twice a week on Teams, where we discuss the project’s status and see the latest code and graphical assets we have. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

ASSIST’s enthusiasm is great. When I give them an idea, they don’t only run with it; they also come in with good points for improvement. That’s been highly valuable to me. They don’t simply do what I tell them to do without any comments. Moreover, the quality of the graphics they’ve delivered has been amazing. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. I’m happy with the results we’ve seen so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know what you want to build, and listen to the ASSIST team’s suggestions. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

We build and launch technology companies. Assist has been building mission critical infrastructure and cutting edge software and Web based solutions for us with over a dozen companies over a decade. They are our most trusted partner. More trusted than our own employees, who might come and go. There is no better software engineering group in the world on a cost to value ratio. You biggest challenge will be getting them to agree to take you on as a new client.

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

We have had them assist in building software products and internal systems at over a dozen of our companies

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

We chose assist software based on trust. Secondly value for the cost. Lastly their ability to solve hard problems.

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

Full stack software development from ideation through commercial release and ongoing commercial operation.

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

We have worked with over 100 different people at assist. Some are world class most are great, a few are just very good.

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

They built from ideation a product that got over 20 million daily active users after launch.

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

They can be slow taking on new projects. Once they start they like to move very fast.

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

Speed to market and price to value ratio. However they have invented some amazing things.

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

I have referred new clients to them and they have been slow to take them on. They only hire the best and tend to keep them so during periods of strong demand its hard to get them to take on new clients

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former VP of monetization for an advertising company.

What challenge were you trying to address with ASSIST Software?

They helped us with software development, mobile app development, and UI/UX design.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ASSIST Software is developing a backend and frontend system, as well as a native mobile application for iOS and Android. In the beginning, we came to them with some ideas of what we wanted to build and presented some wireframes. They then handled both the development and design for the product — it doesn’t exist anymore, but it’s a consumer application developed using Swift.

What is the team composition?

There are about 10 people from their team working on this project, including a project manager and an architect who leads the development and implementation of technical components. I also work closely with the CEO, who assigned one of his main leaders to work with us as well.

How did you come to work with ASSIST Software?

They were recommended to us by a colleague I had worked with in the past.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around $100,000–$200,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2012. I left the company in 2014, but to my knowledge, the work is still ongoing.

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

They’ve done a fantastic job, especially with the design. The feedback we’ve received has been positive; people are happy with the solution.

How did ASSIST Software perform from a project management standpoint?

The great thing about ASSIST Software is that their communication level is really good, which usually tends to be an issue when working with other similar companies. The level of their delivery is very good as well — deadlines are met, and there haven’t been many iterations, issues, or bugs.

We communicate on a weekly basis, and they use an internal tool to track progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re really impressed with their technical team; their level of delivery has been great, and they are flexible when it comes to negotiating their price point. Moreover, they offer different skill levels for developers, allowing their clients to pick the level that meets both their needs and budget.

Their CEO is amazing as well; he communicates very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything since they’ve never disappointed me. I’ve also recommended them to two other companies that have been working with them for years, so I assume their team is doing a good job, too.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very open with them about your needs and your budget.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Firmwave, an IoT solutions provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with ASSIST Software?

We wanted to build an IoT platform around SaaS and do lifecycle management of their IoT devices, including device management, security management, central management, and SIM management for cellular connectivity. It was to be a management platform for large-scale IoT deployed devices.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ASSIST Software developed our native mobile apps for iOS and Android. They also developed web-based applications and UX as well. We asked them very high-level requirements, and their team was good at translating that into real technical conditions.

We’re currently engaged with them for consultancy and projects.

What is the team composition?

There are 5–10 people involved, including project managers, a product owner, Cristian (CTO), and Gheorghe (CEO), who works on the commercial and legal side of the contracts.

How did you come to work with ASSIST Software?

They were referred to us by someone who used their services in the past, who is a trusted source.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $100,000–$199,999 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2016, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

They’re very experienced and good at cloud infrastructure and development. Their team is also good at mobile app development and UX tasks and has a very good methodology for high-quality work. Overall, they’re a very knowledgeable and flexible team that always delivers more than expected.

How did ASSIST Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They work in an agile methodology, are strong on meeting deadlines, and commit to follow-up processes. The company's culture is also very good because their team seems to like their jobs — they’re very enthusiastic about solving customer problems. In terms of communication, we use Redmine, Jira, and Figma.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a problem-solving culture, which is outstanding — they’re not a typical consultancy company only looking to charge per hour or day. They want to solve our problems and exceed our expectations in the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything they can improve on — we would use them again for any projects. We've never had a bad thing to say about them, and we recommended their work to many other companies because of the value they bring to us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you need and transparent with the problems you need to solve — the more information you give them, the more they can help you.

Please describe your company and your position there.

1. IBM Global Service, IBM Communication Division, IBM Software Group, as IT Architect, IT Networking Specialist, IT SW Consultant, IT Project Manager
2.  public service company since 2008 as IT Consultant

For what projects/services did your company hire ASSIST Software?

We collaborated with ASSIST in various IT areas, e.g.

• productivity and quality in the software development process,
• QA and testing workflow with defined procedures,

team roles and responsibility

• best practice of documenting a project,
• improve efficiency and productivity of development teams.

The goal was to improve and enhance all various topics by intensive consulting

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

Long and constant cooperation with ASSIST, always with very positive results

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

To fulfil all goals onsite during the available yearly time frame was not possible. The most important topics were selected and in one2one or in team sessions discussed and solutions were shown. A review after several months took place how the solutions were implemented. Further onsite consulting for more topics were planned on a yearly basis

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

Many employees from each department which were involved and responsible for a specific area worked with me:

• developer,
• project manager, department manager,
• co-founder and managing partner of ASSST

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

The reviews of how the proposed solutions were implemented showed a great success in all areas. The employees also implemented their own ideas to further improve the overall productivity and quality of projects and their daily work

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

ASSIST uses the AGIL methodology (SCRUM) which requires a strict project management style and it was followed exactly. For communication MS Teams is used for chats, online meetings and presentations, different channels for specific topics.

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

All employees are very open, cooperative, and beneficial to each other. They are all very much technical skilled in their project responsibility, training and up-to-date education is implemented. Many certifications are acquired. ASSIST has many projects in many different industry areas, all of them very successful and with positive feedback from the clients.

ASSIST is also partner in many European research projects. Very impressive is how fast ASSIST grew over the last years. Beside the success in their business ASSIST is also engaged and supports the city community and with own social projects

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

I cannot think of any areas.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are located in Bukovina, a region in north-eastern Romania. An innovative and complex public higher education institution, which offers undergraduate, master’s, doctoral and post-doctoral programs and conducts scientific research in the fields of economics, technical sciences, engineering and computer science, natural sciences, humanities and health.

Through its three fundamental functions (research, teaching/learning and community services carried out under institutional autonomy and academic freedom), actively and explicitly contributes to the innovation and social development processes. In this context, we assumes the mission of education and scientific research having as main objectives:

• training of highly qualified specialists in the fields of study provided for by official national and European documents;
• harmonious modelling of students’ personalities, emphasizing their creativity and promoting their full development;
• continuous development of scientific research, at the level of contemporary international standards, aimed at affirming the scientific performances of members of the academic community, through their participation in the activities of the international community and in inter-university cooperation.
• continuous improvement of teaching and scientific research activities to achieve successful structural, qualitative and economic integration into the European higher education system and become a prestigious university on a national and international scale.

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

The STP project is a technology transfer project between us and ASSIST company. Our goal was to promote scientific and technological developments and ensure that they are accessible to a wider range of users, who can then exploit them into new products.

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

We and ASSIST partners participated in a project competition. The proposed project ranked first.

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

The project consists of conducting research for the further development of a smart software platform, Smart Tracking Platform (STP) for identifying and tracking resources, based on Cloud, artificial intelligence and blockchain / Distributed Ledger Technology.

The efficient management of the supply and distribution chain is a constant concern of economic operators in the Member States of the European Union and beyond, being implemented in practice in a growing number of companies and organizations.

Unfortunately, in Romania the number of companies that have complied with the regulations in the field is quite low. The project envisages the adoption of advanced information and communication technologies for the development of a traceability platform, with an important role in the product quality system.

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

8 specialists from the company were involved. They have been involved in industrial research and software development.

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

Within the project, studies and research reports were elaborated. Also, various solutions for the identified problems were designed and developed and several components of the platform were developed.

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

The project management was excellent, and they met all deadlines. As communication tools we used Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, GitHub.

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

We had frequent meetings with the teams involved and together we were able to resolve the issues identified.

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

Although the collaboration was good, it would have been useful to pay more attention to the documentation.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a technology solution provider for sports performance. We provide B2B and B2C services.

What challenge were you trying to address with ASSIST Software?

On the B2C side, we use applications. We hired ASSIST Software to help us with the software development of our mobile applications, our iPad application, and some of our other products.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ASSIST Software is our development partner. They've helped us develop many applications for different products, such as iOS and Android apps as well as Windows and Mac-based applications. 

For example, we wanted to put the data our hardware produces on an iPad. Our hardware used to work post-session and wanted an app-oriented solution to show the data live. We entered a service-level agreement with ASSIST Software, and they worked with us to develop our live iPad solution. We provided them with a framework and a wireframe, and they handled the whole development, with one person from our side as liaison. 

The ASSIST Software team also developed dashboards for us using input from our clients. Our clients can pick and choose these dashboards to use the application in a robust and friendly manner. 

Additionally, ASSIST Software developed our Apple Watch application using Swift. We started this project from scratch, which involved ASSIST Software visiting Apple’s offices with us. 

ASSIST Software was responsible for the back- and frontend development and UI/UX design for the iPad and Apple Watch projects. All of the hardware is on us, and ASSIST Software handles the software solutions and some of the connectivity and integration between different products, such as iPad, Mac, the cloud, and Apple Watch.

What is the team composition?

There’s been a team of about 20 different developers across multiple platforms working with us for the couple of years we’ve been with ASSIST Software, and they all have different niches. 

For example, when we want Android, they bring in Alex (Software Engineer); when we want iOS, they bring in Vlad (Chief Product Officer), and when we want something else, they bring a different teammate.

How did you come to work with ASSIST Software?

Initially, one of our hardware developers introduced us to ASSIST Software. At the time, we’d been growing as a business and knew we needed some help from a third-party group to help us ramp up and scale up our business. 

We tendered for many businesses, and ASSIST Software was in that tender because of their connection to our developer. Their team came out well on top when we went through the tender process, and that’s how they came about working with us. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2017, and the engagement is ongoing. We’re more involved than ever with ASSIST Software.

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

ASSIST Software provides great QA for their products; they’re very comprehensive and come into our ecosystem. They make sure everything is fine through their process, and then we run it through our tight QA department and our Agile process. Any QA issues coming out tend to come from our own developers rather than theirs!

Additionally, both the Android and iOS apps they’ve developed have a 4.6 score on Trustpilot. The apps also have a four-star rating on the App Store and Google Play respectively.

How did ASSIST Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Due to our market, we have some really tight and constrained release dates, and ASSIST Software has been very good at meeting those deadlines. There are certain windows that we have to release a product; if we miss them, we miss them for a year, and we’ve never had this issue with ASSIST Software. 

A project manager from ASSIST Software works with us to make sure that we micromanage deadlines and bring up red flags or constraints along the process. The team sits in on our daily stand-up and our Agile meetings, so they’re very much an extension of our own workforce.

We typically communicate with them through the Agile system called Jira. They go on to our boards and create their own boards. We manage our interactions, project management, and development process through Jira. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by ASSIST Software’s diversity. Our business has scaled up since we’ve been with them, and they’ve been able to work with Windows, Mac, and the cloud — they’ve been excellent on the cloud.

ASSIST Software’s performance with the Apple Watch app stands out more than anything. That project involved a high-level customer and new platforms and releases related to the Apple Watch. ASSIST Software scaled up their developers very quickly to be competent in Swift and enabled us to hit the deadlines that our client set for us.

We’ve always been able to work well with their team. They're at all of our meetings, tap directly into our ecosystem, and always hit our deadlines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing they need to improve comes to mind; we’re very happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to let ASSIST Software in. Sometimes clients keep third-party providers very much outside and have them feeding in on whatever platform they have. Then, they have to integrate those responses into their platform.  

We allowed ASSIST Software to come into our Jira world and our boards for our collaboration. We configure it so that they can see the entire project they’re working on and are able to update the projects dynamically as they work through them. Let ASSIST Software do their job, and they will deliver.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Partner at a venture capital startup studio. We help founders and pre-revenue startups validate their ideas, build their MVP and raise their initial funding rounts.

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

We partner with ASSIST to staff our earliest stage startup teams with the engineering resources they need to hit the ground running as they engage their first customers. We need small engineering teams that can come up to speed quickly, are comfortable with ambiguous design requirements and can deliver a range of different skill sets.

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

We work with a variety of vendors and ASSIST is among the best at being able to respond quickly to our project requests as well as having a great range of expertise and a professional and efficient working partnership.

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

We have relied on ASSIST to provide front-end and back-end SaaS platform development. These are React applications supported by Node.js, python, or Javascript and connected to cloud-based RDB and NoSQL resources. We have also leveraged ASSIST to configure the initial DevOps and security infrastructure for our startups.

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

We regularly work with teams of two to three full-time engineers, supported by senior staff at ASSIST, including their CTO, head of Product, and designers.

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

ASSIST delivered the initial customer-facing products on-schedule and added a lot of value with creative suggestions for UX, back-end implementation and infrastructure. Our companies were able to on-board their initial pilot customers and raise initial funding rounds based on the developed technology.

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

We work with ASSIST using agile development with two-week sprints and regular standup meetings throughout each week. ASSIST also joins our Slack channels and maintains high-bandwidth communications with our in-house engineering teams. They are able to adapt their project management style to the individual needs of each of our companies.

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

The positive approach they bring to all of our development projects is amazing. We love the great communication with ASSIST, the specialized expertise that they can bring to meet our particular needs.

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

Overall great work. Moving forward, I think we could standardize the onboarding process to make initial team setup even more efficient.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder and CEO of Airwavz.tv.

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

We hired ASSIST Software to design, deploy and manage airwavz.tv, which is our custom news feed with complex back-end database. Airwavz.tv is an online resource that enables its users to create free, digital timelines. Users can gather their resources from anywhere on the internet and put it in a comprehensive, chronological collection organized as a timeline.

Airwavz.tv was created so users can generate "online visual representations of news history, providing viewers with the ability to conduct quick research with accuracy and facts from multiple, reputable and reliable news sources. Airwavz.tv was created so that its users could generate online visual representation of history to help internet users conduct research in a more efficient manner.

As the founder and creator of the Airwavz.tv site, I was spending a lot of time researching topics, but was having a hard time visualizing their order. Many researchers struggle with this concept, which is why it's ideal for use within an educational and research setting. Airwavz.tv allows chronological order and utilizes Web 3.0 tools, AI, Machine Learning and news resources aggregated across thousands of international media publishers.

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

ASSIST Software was the absolute best choice for this project and we will continue using them for all of our commercial web development projects. We were looking for a web development team that can handle very complex database development on the backend using Amazon Web Services, with a beautiful User Interface on the front end and ASSIST Software proved that they could handle the project perfectly. The ASSIST team was responsible for designing from scratch the entire database, graphics, wireframes, mapping tools, color scheme and deployment of the commercial product.

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

We submitted a formal RFQ for this project to multiple web developer businesses, and after selecting ASSIST Software we kicked off the project with bi-weekly calls to follow progress and testing. ASSIST Software uses a number of very helpful tools including Red project management for wireframe web staging, Skype, Microsoft Office, and host of confidential internal coding tools.

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

we had a small core team of 5 working on the project management.

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

www.airwavz.tv continues to be a go-to platform for news enthusiasts who are looking to read trustworthy, reliable headlines based on time and order. The platform supports big data and all types of media, including video, audio, written and published authors, blogs, biographies and legal documents.

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

ASSIST Software is an excellent company to work with, and i highly recommend them for all projects related to custom software development - web, app, or other - ASSIST Software has a unique team that are highly skilled in all things related to software code.

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

All team members speak, read and write multiple languages including English. Language translation is their strong suit. They are a united team that works effortlessly across all facets of the business to ensure the success of the project. They went out of their way on multiple occasions to ensure the project was done on time and within budget.

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

ASSIST Software managed all areas of their business with professionalism and diplomacy.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Managing Director of a Gambling and Crypto consulting firm

For what projects/services did your company hire ASSIST Software?

They have done a lot of work for me and my clients over the year, from web development, UX design and games

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

Competitvie bidding process initally and then developed a long term relationship becuase of the quality of the work provided.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We had an initial series of meetings, where they first created an overview of the development project. Once that was completed they brought on a project manager and two programmers to complete a corporate website and backend.

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

3 full-time staff

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

Just that they met and exceeded their targets both on timing and the quality of the resulting website.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent levels of communication using the state-of-the-art project management tools - everything was well documented along with the time of the work provided.

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

Strong desire to please by both the management and the core team - proud of their work and they think ahead of customer needs.

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

No one is perfect, but they are very close...i would use them again.