AVA.codes

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Quik.

What challenge were you trying to address with AVA.codes?

I needed someone to do our frontend development in React Native.

What was the scope of their involvement?

AVA.codes serves as an extension of our team. They work on our iOS and Android mobile apps with React.js and React Native. They also work on a lot of browser-based interfaces. They added plenty of features such as forms, video calling, media, scanning, auto scanning, and data capture among others.

What is the team composition?

I have a main point of contact, but their developers work within the team.

How did you come to work with AVA.codes?

I was approached by AVA.codes’ business development team. I decided to work with them because, after interviewing them, I could see that they were very hungry and talented.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

They are a talented and young team. I’m extremely pleased with their work. We still hire two of their developers on a constant basis because they’re very good and respected. In addition, their culture and skills are great.

How did AVA.codes perform from a project management standpoint?

They blend very well with our processes. We have ongoing Slack communication, and we also use Jira and GitHub.

What did you find most impressive about them?

AVA.codes has the ability to dive in and get the work done creatively with a lot of personal input.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they are fulfilling my requirements.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a partner in a company where we deliver EdTech products from different StartUps to schools in Scandinavia. I have worked with different EdTech companies since 2011.

For what projects/services did your company hire AVA.codes?

One of our concepts in reading & writing were going into a new phase, after clearing different pilots and alpha versions. We wanted to connect to a team that had a wide spectrum of skills, and who were interested in Educational Technology.

What were your goals for this project?

Producing a selection of modules for a web application with deadline fall semester.

How did you select this vendor?

After a long period where we got to know different vendors, we were confident that AVA Codes would be a strong candidate. They are young but represent a vibrant and broad-skilled team.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The first planning period of the project was probably the most complicated, where we had to ensure that AVA Codes knew the existing concept and tech well enough. A lot of the content is in Scandinavian languages, but we together we managed to work through this in an effective way.

The production phase was challenging with producing content in several languages at the same time, but AVA Codes were focused and solved issues very effectively.

What was the team composition?

One team member worked dedicated to the applications, and other members engaged in other and minor activities.

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

We use a lot of our resources on pilot groups, and in several instances, we noticed that we had to adjust the functionality based on feedback. AVA Codes worked patiently together with us on these cases, and in each case, a good result was produced. The cooperative quality AVA Codes represents are also really valuable.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was solved by regularly meetings, chat and video calls when needed. Very efficient!

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Early on in the production, I was impressed by the technical skills in AVA Codes' team. Their flexibility and genuine interest in finding the best solution for the product was impressive. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

It is easy to communicate with AVA Codes, and because of this, we solved all challenges fast and efficiently.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We automate the creation of project references after the completion of a B2B project. Founded in 2017, Xpertify integrates the project reference into the project lifecycle to automatically create landing pages for the content marketing of service companies.

For what projects/services did your company hire AVA.codes?

Our first Webdesign was based on PHP. With AngularJS/Javascript development as well as the design from AVA, we were able to transform our core product to a great new outlook and bring it to a state of the art technology.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to bring our core product (XPR - Xpertify Project Reference) to the next level and as well build a good basis for all future development with a modern back and front end.

How did you select this vendor?

With personal contact with the CEO, Alex Vasylenko, it was easy to get an idea of the working methods and spirit of the AVA.Codes-Team. We had several other meetings to evaluate a long term partnership, where AVA was clearly the most dynamic and ambitious team.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

After clarifying the requirements, a very professional design was already provided with the first drafts, so that we were able to commit on the design guidelines very quickly. Our features were including a worklow process, pdf creation, different views of the reference page, google analytics tracking, SEO, among others. AVA.Codes was in charge of providing the design as well as the development work with Angular framework.

What was the team composition?

The project team had 4 people who covered all skills needed for the project, which were Design, DevOps, Development and Project Management.

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

With the service of AVA.Codes we were able to improve our product on every level:

• SEO parameters: Page speed, ranking, etc.
• User experience, Look and feel
• Software Architecture: Infrastructure, Automatic deployment, etc

Additionally, we were able to offer new features like the pdf rendering of a XPR.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

For communication video chat and Slack was used. In this way the management of the project was always very proactively sharing information and reachable for a call if needed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The different and very profound skillset of the AVA team was very impressive. In this way they cover every area of a state of the art web development project. The team spirit helps to collaborate in an very effective way.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I was very happy with the work of AVA and hope they continue to work in the ambitious way they did in the past.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of parloo.de, an event management agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with AVA.codes?

We needed a platform through which we could offer our event services to customers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

AVA.codes built our platform from scratch including all the functionality and the backend infrastructure. They managed the AWS setup, the domain registration, and the SSL encryption. We released a core version after three months and are now implementing enhancements.

We provided them with a detailed briefing and met in person to discuss our idea and their suggestions for how to implement it. Customers can request services through the platform. They complete a questionnaire that helps them determine which services fit their needs. When they request the services they want, we receive a notification.

What is the team composition?

We had a dedicated team of five people working on our platform.

How did you come to work with AVA.codes?

They were recommended to us. We gave them our briefing and met to discuss it. We looked at a number of agencies, including many based in Germany where we are. We chose AVA.codes for multiple reasons. For one, they offered the best technical knowledge. They weren’t just a WordPress agency, they had a range of skills. Also, they could start working immediately and they gave us a very good price.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between 10,000–15,000€ (approximately $11,2000–16,800 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019 and it’s ongoing.

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

They’ve built the platform on which our business model is based. We now have a means for gaining customers, from whom we’ve heard positive feedback about the look, feel, and usability of the site. They delivered a good design and strong performance. When we started working together, we believed that the price-performance ration of their offer was good—and that proved to be true.

How did AVA.codes perform from a project management standpoint?

We work on one-week sprints and had meetings every Friday. We use Jira for tickets. They’re responsive. They understand the idea quite well which means they can advise us on how to best implement the solution. They work well on their own without too much guidance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been impressed with the whole AVA.codes team. There are a lot of companies that offer similar services but we’ve had an end-to-end good experience with them.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

For us, no.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Meet AVA.codes in person and discuss your ideas. What was impressive about them wasn’t just their ability to receive our requirements and begin implementing but rather their understanding of the idea behind what and why the implementation was requested.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO of a large nonprofit that arranges entrepreneurship training programs for youths. Each year, local entrepreneurs act as coaches, and the trainees take part in lectures to help them guide their business journey.

For what projects/services did your company hire AVA.codes?

We wanted the people in our program to be able to do accounting through a mobile app instead of paper. AVA.codes was hired to build the app for iOS and Android.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to have an app ready to be tested out in the field.

How did you select this vendor?

We were previously in touch with them for another project, but we realized they were overqualified. Once we had a more suitable project, we touched base again. Our team looked at their previous work and skillset.

Describe the project in detail.

In the beginning, we had clear specifications along with an interactive mockup. After quick discussions, their team began implementing all the features. The app needed Firebase authentication, photo upload and storage, and an API built with Node.js.

What was the team composition?

One team member worked on the backend API, while another worked on other aspects of the app. Someone else was involved with communications.

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

Because we had little interaction, I was impressed with how well their team was able to deliver within a short amount of time. Whenever we found a bug, AVA.codes came back immediately with a fix. Working with AVA.codes was flawless from start to finish.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication was fairly simple. We talked through chat, and all requirements and mockups were sent through Google Docs and Sketch Cloud.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed with AVA.codes’ level of technical skills and work ethic. Their team has excellent communication skills. They deliver on requirements within budget and on time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are none that I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founding CTO of a startup. Our company aims to change event discovery and ticketing using distributed ledger technology (DLT).

For what projects/services did your company hire AVA.codes?

We needed them to create an MVP. We needed front- and backend development for our web solution and only frontend development for our mobile solution.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a working MVP of our product.

How did you select this vendor?

We met with them personally and discussed the project. We really got the impression that they would be easy to work with and smart.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

AVA.codes integrated themselves into our team and helped develop our product. Their team always suggested any improvements we could make and didn't blindly follow our orders. We gave them direction, and they ran with it. Our development speed improved as they helped us fix any complications. We were hands-off sometimes, and they, surprisingly, still produced good and sensible work. We never worried about having to stop to fix errors or babysit their work.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two of their developers.

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

They helped us significantly speed up development. At the time, we didn't have the manpower, and it would have taken much longer without their support.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We choose to conduct project management ourselves.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Even though they're a young company with a young team, they're passionate, energetic, honest, and friendly. It was a pleasure to work with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Vadincy, an internet consultancy. We worked on this project for Tabor & Mentone, an online yacht charter broker.

What challenge were you trying to address with AVA.codes?

I wanted to create a progressive web app for customers to easily charter a yacht.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They had to connect to an API with very limited documentation. It used a yacht database provided by a third party, which was a challenge. They asked us whether they could use Node.js in order to speed up some things. They used PHP and Node.js on the product. They probably used some JavaScript. When they wanted to use technology that wasn’t specified beforehand, they asked us. We focused on keeping the design work on the frontend lean and simple.

What is the team composition?

We have worked with 3–4 people from their team, including a manager, two backend coders, and a designer.

How did you come to work with AVA.codes?

My co-founder met them in Berlin. I believe he made an initial connection with them on LinkedIn.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was $2,500.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with AVA.codes in April 2018. We had a two-week turnaround time, and the initial phase is done. We needed the app for a boat show in Barcelona. The web app was completed according to our contract, but it may need some fine-tuning so the work might evolve.

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

We showed the app to potential customers at a boat show and gathered some remarks, and we plan to review it with AVA.codes to see what we can improve. We plan to release it live after that. I am generally pleased with their work.

How did AVA.codes perform from a project management standpoint?

They had great execution. We communicated through Slack. We were able to get in touch with them 24/7 during the project. Whenever we posted something on Slack, they responded within an hour at most. The typical response time was within minutes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have good communication skills, especially compared to other Ukrainian developers. Their English is solid, and they have a fast turnaround and excellent project management skills.

Progressive web apps are in their beginning stages. We had the feeling that they didn’t have a lot of experience with this area, but we were happy with the outcome, regardless.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have to comply with Ukrainian contract rules and regulations, which was a bit of a hassle. They could draw up better initial contracts; ours was too broad and too vague.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They are very flexible. We asked for a progressive web app. They were a bit hesitant about it in their communication, but they did a perfect job. I would recommend them to clients looking for flexibility.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the managing partner and owner of a consultancy that provides integration and web-based solutions.

For what projects/services did your company hire AVA.codes?

We hired AVA to update a legacy Microsoft Access application that barely worked and was not optimized for multiple users.

What were your goals for this project?

Our client was a nonprofit organization that had a very organic and messy workflow. Aside from streamlining their workflow, we also wanted to migrate to a cloud environment that was more affordable. It should also require minimal management, as we wanted to give our client control over their data.

How did you select this vendor?

We had worked with AVA before on a few portal and database projects.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

AVA’s team recoded the workflow and created an intuitive UI that would mirror prior efforts and minimize retraining. They added a free-form search tool for exploring the database as well as an export facility to empower the client to do an ad-hoc analysis. They also implemented a simple security model to accommodate the numerous transient interns who work as part of our client’s team.

Our client provided thin specifications, so we trusted the AVA team to review what was provided and to inform us of any gaps; they did so wonderfully. AVA then migrated everything to a web-based infrastructure, which involved moving to an Angular/Firebase framework that was hosted on the client's Google Apps account.

What was the team composition?

This project was very focused, so I acted as the project lead and analyst. I funneled specifications and feedback to the AVA project manager, who then delegated tasks to other team members who were involved in database work, UI design, or middleware creation.

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

Our client was delighted with the turnaround. Since our client’s team was slow in providing feedback, they appreciated the patience showed by AVA’s team. Our client can now continue their push towards virtualization, as this database is a crucial part of their workflow. Since they are no longer dependent on their legacy code, they are free to expand their team even further, with little impact on infrastructure or performance.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They managed our expectations and met all deadlines. AVA had no issues stating clearly if there would be a delay before a patch was ready—usually because of the time zone difference. We preferred this approach because being realistic allows us to set specific expectations for the client.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I cannot emphasize enough how well AVA communicates and takes responsibility for deliverables. We could rely on their accuracy and speed.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I don’t see any need for improvement for a project of this scale. We look forward to engaging them in much larger projects in the future.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a growing e-learning platform that offers study materials for free.

For what projects/services did your company hire AVA.codes?

Our website needed a facelift. We wanted to improve the usability of our site by having a new design and a more responsive layout.

How did you select this vendor?

They had a good profile on Upwork. Their response to our challenge showed us that they were capable of doing the task.

Describe the project in detail.

Our initial designs were translated into working Bootstrap mockups. Among the languages they used were Bootstrap, JavaScript, and other JS libraries.

What was the team composition?

We had one primary point of contact who coordinated all the resources and deadlines for us.

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

Our site now has a modern look and feel. Most importantly, the new design improved our overall frontend performance, including mobile. This had an immediate impact on our usability metrics such as pages per visit, which increased by over 20%.

How effective was the project management?

We used Asana and other project management tools, allowing the team to meet tight deadlines. We also communicated via Skype chats to quickly navigate and clarify issues.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their speed, competence, and advanced JS skills were most impressive. I am happy with the overall performance.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for a marketing agency that often needs to tweak and develop websites for clients.

For what projects/services did your company hire AVA.codes?

I outsource most of our web development and coding work to them.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal of hiring them was to rapidly reproduce a template and customize it for specific requirements.

How did you select this vendor?

They had a high rating on Upwork.

Describe the project in detail.

At the beginning, we needed to install and reproduce a basic template, edit it, and redesign certain elements from the ground up. We also needed to install some complex functionality.

Some web forms weren’t working with our current server, so we asked AVA to brainstorm and come up with alternatives to route forms safely and securely.

What was the team composition?

We only hire one developer during any given period but have worked with several of their team members who have all been of high standard.

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

The websites we’ve built together have been produced exactly how we require them time and time again.

How effective was the project management?

Their project management is very impressive. AVA is always on time and provides high quality. You can tell that their developers care about what they produce and use their intuition to solve or translate complex requirements into real results.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

What’s most impressive about them is their customer service. Their project managers are always messaging me to ensure that the same quality of work is delivered time and time again regardless of the team member.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

There’s very little to improve but perhaps having a wider range of services to offer us such as graphic and web design or search engine marketing would be great.