Bit Zesty

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the management accountant at a nonprofit organization that deals with volunteering and safeguarding around the world and within the UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bit Zesty?
Our original CRM developer was closing down, so we needed to find a new one.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
We initially hired Bit Zesty to redesign our system and website and bring them up to a modern standard. Our website was very outdated, which was especially evident during the handover and transition.

Bit Zesty worked with us to determine what we needed to do and provide a detailed timeframe for the changes. They used Ruby on Rails for this project, which took them about a year to deliver. We’ve continued working with them for site feature updates and general site maintenance and improvements.

What is the team composition?
We work directly with Matthew (Co-Founder & CEO), Anita (Principal Project Manager), a UX designer, and a couple of developers who work on our system.

How did you come to work with Bit Zesty?
Our previous CRM developer recommended Bit Zesty to us. After reviewing them and several other companies, we decided to go with Bit Zesty because they offered us the best opportunity to improve and a charitable discount.

How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent about £370,000 (approximately $463,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in October 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Originally, we compared their work to our previous developer’s work. Now, we measure success based on the time it takes Bit Zesty to deliver, how effective the solution is compared to our initial planning stages, and any recommendations they suggest.

How did Bit Zesty perform from a project management standpoint?
Bit Zesty has performed well in terms of project management. They always give us accurate timelines and are good at recommending the best ways to do new projects.

We typically communicate via email, Microsoft Teams, and phone calls.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?
Anita has been great and has always looked out for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?
The Bit Zesty team is extremely friendly and professional.

Are there any areas they could improve?
I can’t think of anything they could improve. They’ve been good at providing everything we need from them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Don’t be afraid to ask them for ideas or recommendations to help improve your systems.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of ReelLearning

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Used by top educational institutions and training organisations, Reelplatform is an online video tool, that enables educators and trainers to deliver content through bite-sized video clips.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bit Zesty to accomplish?

• Rescue a failing tech platform
• Upgrade the e-commerce system
• Upgrade the reports system

SOLUTION

How did you find Bit Zesty?

Referral

Why did you select Bit Zesty over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Bit Zesty were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

BitZesty inhertied a platform that had not been properly maintained for several years. They had to start by executing updates to the code base, adding in automated tests to stabalise the platform. Once this was completed they were tasked with updating the video player to stream high and low res vidoes depedning on the users bandwidth. They were also tasked with updating and reintegrating the e-commerce platform, Stripe, which had failed due to lack of updates (before Bitzesty were comissioned). This upgrade required a signficant number of changes to the entire admin area of the platform as the whole e-commerce platform process changed. Finally Bitzesty upgraded the reporting function within the platform to calculate platform useage monthly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

1. Stable site regulalry maintained
2. New and enhanced video player
3. Enhanced reporting module
4. New e-commerce purchase and subscription process for customers

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

BitZesty have very proactive approahc to project management with clear plans, regular updates, open cimmunication via email for general enquiries, calls if needed and Asana for tasks. They deliver on time and provide reports on progress and time spent and expected time remaining to deliver work. They are attentive to our needs and our budgets and offer incredible flexibility to meet our needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Bit Zesty?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We are delighted with everything Bit Zesty does. From our perspective they are the template for how all tech companies should work. From the onboarding process, through to they manage day to day enquiries. They communciation is oustanding, they are clear in what they can and cannot do within a budget/timeframe, their techniucal execution is excellent. They always go above and beyond in terms of what they deliver and have amazing flexibility in letting us borrow support hours hours ahead, when we need. 

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

None. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Movement Industries

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide a comms platform which progressive organisations use to win campaigns.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bit Zesty to accomplish?

• Technical assistance
• Feature development

SOLUTION

How did you find Bit Zesty?

Online Search

Why did you select Bit Zesty over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Bit Zesty were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Bit Zesty helped specifically with:

1. backstopping technical issues/bugs by responding with fixes
2. devops and fixes to the platform
3. developing new features

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We normally look for the following from technical providers and contractors:

• expertise and ability to hit the ground fast, e.g. solving complex issues or real problems efficiently
• low maintenance: no need to do a lot of check-ins for well defined tickets and requirements
• value for money: time input correlates well to output

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Bit Zesty's project management was always very responsive and solid. There were a few times where we had a bug on the higher end of urgency and an extra email or two to communicate would have helped. For example, at the end of working hours, for example, to indicate the bug was still being resolved and it'd be fixed the next day.

What was your primary form of communication with Bit Zesty?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The retainer and SLA for fixing bugs was interesting and a requirement we needed at the time. Not many other vendors offered this.

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

As noted sometimes we did find that bugs or deployments were dropped and we didn't hear back, and we then had to circle back and deploy these ourselves.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a lead software developer for a company called Easol. We're an experience commerce platform that allows creators to build and develop their events online. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bit Zesty?

Our company was growing rapidly and we had a shortage of engineers. We brought Bit Zesty in to help us build crucial systems.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with various pieces of software development. We had independent projects that we briefed them on, and they worked closely with our team to build everything. They helped us make our email system more efficient, upgraded us to a newer version of Ruby on Rails, and set up our two-factor authentication system.

They also assisted us with recommendations on how to improve our infrastructure to make our platform better overall.  

What is the team composition?

We primarily worked with Matt (CTO & Co-Founder) and Lubos (Developer), but we collaborated on multiple projects with Bit Zesty, so we worked with various people depending on the project. 

How did you come to work with Bit Zesty?

Someone within our company knew about them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between December 2021–September 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback from projects we collaborated on has been very positive. From an internal perspective, our team enjoyed working with their developers, and they helped us to achieve high-quality work. 

How did Bit Zesty perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t work on a deadline, but their time estimates were usually reasonably accurate, and they always engaged in the feedback process with us. We used Asana, Trello, Slack, email, and we ran daily stand-up meetings over Zoom. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were incredibly adaptive. When we gave them feedback they always incorporated that into their work, and they actively tried to adopt our workflow. They were detail-oriented and proactive about mentioning things to us when they saw something that didn’t look right.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

We struggled with the responsiveness of some of their teammates because we were all on different schedules. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront about your expectations, and explain your company’s style and the way you want things structured.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an NHS doctor and NHS England's Clinical Entrepreneur and UCLPartners Innovation Fellow. I am the founder of a healthcare recruitment agency. We connect NHS Hospitals with doctors and nurses from overseas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

NHS is under severe strain because of significant staff shortages. Brexit, Covid, Ageing population, and lack of Govt strategy have compounded the issue. We are a small team of doctors who started the idea of a digital recruitment platform for qualified professionals from overseas to the NHS. However, we are doctors and never built any software tools.

We sought bit Zesty help for this project. Bit Zesty team drew the plan and delivered the product to our specification in the right amount of time for the right cost. They gave the copyrights to us. They did everything by plan and to our expectations at a reasonable cost. They helped us with the initial website as well and logo selection.

SOLUTION

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

I happened to meet the founder of Bit Zesty at an Entrepreneurs event and got impressed by his knowledge of the field. He was passionate and seemed like someone I could trust. Luckily, it worked out well as the Bit Zesty team delivered what we expected.

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

1. We had a raw idea.
2. Discussed this with Matt at Bit Zesty.
3. Did a storyboard and initial plan layout.
4. They delivered the product (platform) on ruby on rails in 6 months' time.
5. We asked for the IP rights to be held by us and they agreed.
6. Bit Zesty team continued to support the platform for any further needs of the platform.
7. We continued to use their service for any enhancements in the platform functionality. 8. We intend to use their service for a similar platform built for nurses as well in the future.

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

Around 4 to 5. But, one or two at any given point in time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The idea of the platform is to decrease the time taken to recruit an overseas staff from 4 months (average) to 6 weeks. Bit Zesty team built the product to our specifications and we continued to enhance it based on our feedback.

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

Timing - perfect. Always responsive. Tools - Trello

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

Personalised. Smart and quick. They understand the pulse of the customer and do not hesitate to make recommendations which I think are essential ( for someone like us who has no prior knowledge).

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

They are good. I do not think we could have done it differently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Senior Digital Officer at a London-based charity. We advocate for better corporate respect for human rights.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The existing support arrangement for one of the project websites we run had expired. We don't have any in-house IT or Dev capabilities, so we were looking for a reputable firm to take on the maintenance and support for the site, as well as complete a feature development sprint.

SOLUTION

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

We carried out a Request for Information process, during which we sought details from 5 different vendors on their development process, past experience and pricing. We held a number of follow-up meetings, and selected BitZesty based on their competitive pricing and flexible approach to support options.

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

We had an onboarding meeting in which we set out our expectations for the relationship and priority areas of work. Trello was used to manage this work through the development process, with an initial focus on remedying some long-standing bugs.

The sprint work was more involved, and we held several scoping and design sessions where we collaboratively defined EPICs and user stories for the sprint, along with the associated blocks of technical work.

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

BitZesty were always keen to bring the relevant team members to the table. Our Project Manager served as the main point of contact, but over the course of our work with them we also engaged the CTO, Designers and multiple full stack developers as appropriate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working with BitZesty led to a marked improvement in our bug remediation process - issues which had gone unfixed for years were now being looked at. The sprint work delivered a very complex new piece of search functionality which enabled us to interrogate the data on the website in new ways, supporting our data analysis and report writing.

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

We had regular meetings with the project team, outside of which we kept in regular contact via email and Trello.

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

BitZesty really took the time to understand our needs and propose ways of working that fit with our organisation. They didn't hesitate to challenge our thinking, deconstruct ideas, and propose solutions we may have overlooked.

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

The complexity of what we sought to achieve in our sprint work did result in an agreed overrun on the sprint - BitZesty were great in bringing in extra skills when needed to overcome the challenges we were facing, at no extra cost to us, in order to get us to launch.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Director/CTO Occupational Health and Safety Management software as a service provider for chemical and property industries

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Upgrade/rewrite of 2 existing applications, add new functionality and provide support for the existing applications until decommissioned.

SOLUTION

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

Their agile approach to development made a big difference as we had many changing requirements from our customers which needed a flexible team to work with. Other vendors were less flexible in their approach.

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

Rewrite of 2 ruby on rails applications. Initially take over support of legacy applications and then create a development plan for upgrades to include new requirements as well as report generation, rest api and mobile application. Technologies used: Ruby on Rails Ruby, Python, Javascript, Java Couchdb Postgresql Elasticsearch SOLR DocX4J Linux/Freebsd Docker Vmware AWS

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

We worked closely with Biz Zesty for over 10 years and dealt with project managers and developers including regular catchups with their CTO and CEO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Both legacy applications were fully supported during their rewriting and decommissioning even though Bit Zesty had not been the initial developers. We had made on boarding commitments to a number of customers by a certain date and Bit Zesty allowed us to deliver on our promises.

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

Email, slack, trello, assana, telephone calls, meetings. For any urgent issues we were able to contact them quickly.

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

Ability to quickly change focus in order to tackle any urgent issues or change of priority. Managment/CEO/CTO took time to understand our company and goals.

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

They could have pushed back more against our internal company thoughts on hosting. For example Bit Zesty encouraged us to use AWS rather than Vmware machines be we disagreed. As time has passed we now realise we should have followed their advice.