BairesDev

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

We were fully satisfied with both BairesDev as a development firm and the individual resources they provided. They enable us to further our goals by increasing the number of projects we can tackle simultaneously. We've been impressed by the timeliness and reliability we've seen from the individuals on their team. 

BairesDev helps us accomplish more work within a shorter timeframe than we ever could before. The caliber of their work has been consistently great. Since poor quality was a problem we frequently had with previous vendors, this was an important strength. As we move forward, we’re continuing to scale up our efforts together.

How did BairesDev perform from a project management standpoint?

BairesDev is very flexible about the way we work together. We found it more effective to integrate their resources into our internal teams rather than send them specifications to build alone and show us a few weeks later. 

The developers participate in our daily standups as part of an Agile process. We used Zoom for communication and meetings with the account manager and project manager. The language discrepancy didn’t pose any challenges.

BairesDev has met all of our expectations and stuck to the deadlines. The developers were open to using whatever technology we use. Once we set them up on our Microsoft Teams account, they quickly adapted to our internal processes. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

BairesDev performed especially well with identifying the exact type of candidates we wanted instead of sending us irrelevant options. They zeroed in on the specific resources we needed and always proposed people who were a good fit. Additionally, we appreciated their flexibility and quick pace. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't have any criticisms at this time. There are always areas for improvement, but we've been very pleased with our engagement and interactions with BairesDev. In fact, we're expanding our partnership as a result. 

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

Over the past five years, our development team has helped a company of only 100 employees with a single app written in very old technology with an average database scheme grow into a company of over 300 employees. They’ve built many robust apps that are responsive, mobile friendly, and accessible, which helped the company become more modernized.

Furthermore, we’ve done a good job of getting the data that our field employees need on time and where they need it.

How did BairesDev perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m absolutely pleased with their communication. They’ve worked with the project management software I use, which is Basecamp or Asana. BairesDev’s staff communicate just as well, if not better than my in-house developers. We have daily stand-up meetings with our team and a monthly check-in with their sales and project management team, which really adds a lot of value.

I’ve worked with offshore and nearshore contractors, and it’s a huge win for us to work with a team that we don’t have to wait for 10 hours to reach. Another thing I really like about our arrangement is that they thought of everything, going as far as to include a rate in our contract for bringing one of their developers on site in case we need to.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their key strengths include their diversity and portfolio. Other companies are successful, but they don’t have access to a wide range of developers. If you need someone that can write Android programs and also do HTML markup, BairesDev can handle it.

The second full-time hire we made with them was when we transitioned from using a mom-and-pop accounting package to full-blown SQL driven ERP software. They actually had a developer that could work with that tool. Even though he only worked with it a little bit, he at least had some knowledge. We were able to get him for $150 less per hour than if we had hired another company to consult and do the reports.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would suggest that they train their developers further, but maybe this goes on without my knowledge. I don’t know how much they’re pouring into their staff, but I would love it if they were constantly adding skills to get better.

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

They’re very well-connected and have strong recruiting capabilities, which is great for us. They provide excellent engineers and increase our talent pool. Their talent retention is also very good.

How did BairesDev perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t use them for project-related work, but I do work with their managers who watch over our account. They work through our issues and are very responsive. They focus on providing good service.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Again, their recruiting capability is terrific. They’re very reputable and have access to great talent. They work at a high standard and have connections all over South America.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re doing a good job. We still need more Scala developers, but they’re tough to find. That’s more of a general problem with the field.

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

I’ve been very happy with the results. The speed to market on getting resources was as fast as I thought it would be. It exceeded my expectations. We had a very transparent process of getting resumes and were able to communicate directly and interview the candidates.

We had our UX designer participating in things even outside of what he typically does. He would take our screens and prototypes and do some user testing with them. We don’t have the results from a functioning product to know that quality, but from a UX designer perspective, we’re very happy with the work completed. Ultimately, we’re going to know if it was successful when and if we’re able to raise the money to build it. The kind of screens and the prototype that they built will be kind of front and center in that process; it could be a big part of the equation in terms of success or failure where we go.

How did BairesDev perform from a project management standpoint?

We ran the whole team on Atlassian products, which is the combination of JIRA and HipChat for communication. We gave them access to our email as well. I had some issues communicating with some candidates that we would interview in the process. We were able to identify those quickly and found candidates that were a better fit from a communication perspective. Once the project was up and running, we were very happy with the expertise and the fundamentals that the project manager and the UX designer brought to the table. They are very fluent in running projects and how to communicate back and forth to stakeholders on a recurring and iterative basis so that there’s no long periods of time without feedback and detail and questions. We’re always in the loop on the status of the project.

The timezone local to Chicago with English speaking resources was also a huge value-add. They don’t treat themselves as an offshore or outsource development shop. They really pitch themselves as augmentation that is part of the team, the product, and the culture.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the primary motivators and differentiators that I saw was their culture that they are team members of ours. I have not seen that in my career working with other offshore development shop models. That and the fact that we’re allowed to interview and screen the candidates, has been great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They tend to get a lot of candidates from all over South America. A good chunk of the people that we interviewed and talked to seemed to be working from home. We don’t have any problems with that, but it caused a lot of requirements to communicate strictly over a voice over IP protocol. We were doing a lot of interviews over Skype, for which I needed to be on a hard-wired phone. Oftentimes, I don’t think that shop was set up to do that and they were potentially reluctant to let them use their mobile phones. At times, there was a little bit of breakdown in terms of the quality of those conversations because we were using things like Skype on older, different phones, and operating systems. That’s the only improvement I can point to.