The BitByBit Company

Please describe your company and your position there.

medVC.eu sp. z o.o. is a company providing the medVC system, a remote collaboration tool for medical professionals allowing real-time audio-video communication and the usage of specialized medical services. It is designed to be installed in operating rooms, conference rooms and doctors’ offices and makes it possible to send multiple High Definition (HD) video streams coming from cameras, microscopes, endoscopes and other medical equipment. The doctors can pause videos, draw on the picture, take snapshots, collaboratively work on DICOM images, record a session or even broadcast it live over the Internet. Furthermore, medVC can transmit stereoscopic (3D) video from surgical robots or 3D endoscopes. All these features make medVC a superb remote collaboration and education tool for medicine. I am the CTO and Vice-President at medVC.eu.

For what projects/services did your company hire The BitByBit company?

One of the dangers brought by the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is the potential overload of our healthcare systems. To help avoid that, medVC.eu wanted to offer a video-room service for free to all hospitals. We wanted to help by giving all hospitals the possibility to unblock their telephone lines and stop patients from overcrowding the emergency rooms. Thanks to this service, each hospital that registers can let its doctors see the patients using videoconferencing. We had our webconferencing platform for doctors, but we wanted to quickly create a frontend and backend, to turn it in a emergency audio-video phone for hospitals.

What were your goals for this project?

To create within 3 weeks a solution where we could register hospitals and enable a various doctors from the hospital to answer audio-video calls from the patients.

How did you select this vendor?

Based on our previous experience with The BitByBit, we were sure they can develop such a service in a very short time. The have collaborated with us in some previous project and the sped and quality of code was always superb.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The fronend is a ReactJS application and the backend in Django. Everything has been delivered as a Docker image and made the deployment very easy.

What was the team composition?

The team from The BitByBit was a project manager and 3 developers.

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

The service was ready within the panned 3 weeks and was immediately offered to hospitals. Within 1 month 40 hospitals from various European countries are using the system.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

During the project time, we had checkpoint calls every week.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive is the speed in which they have grasped all the details of our concept, and the speed and quality of the produced code.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everythng was good.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a director and co-founder of a social enterprise that provides research consultancy services in urban resilience. My organization uses participatory mapping technologies to bring communities together through the exchange of knowledge, observations, and ideas. 

For what projects/services did your company hire Bit by Bit?

We hired Bit by Bit to create a responsive, web-based participatory mapping platform that could accommodate numerous projects and provide administrative functions. The product would allow users to initiate custom mapping scenarios and would be designed for civil society organizations. 

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to build a mechanism that would encourage civic engagement through mapping data. We wanted our product to draw from current open source projects, but with enhanced UX elements.

How did you select this vendor?

We met Bit by Bit at an academic conference. We shared with them some of the problems we were experiencing with our in-house development team and felt that they'd be able to partner with us to provide feasible solutions. 

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project began with an initial meeting where we briefed the Bit by Bit team on our goals and requirements. They took this information and created a web-based platform from scratch. They've built many key functionalities, including responsive maps and administrative features that allow users to input and edit posts and create projects.

The team has also developed a second platform with additional components that facilitate data download and audio input processes. Users can also customize questions and categories to fit specific needs.

What was the team composition?

We liaise directly with Marek (CSO, Bit by Bit) on a regular basis. He manages resources from their side.

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

We've won successive funding awards for the projects we have completed with Biy by Bit, and we've come to rely on the digital tools they've built to advance the mission of our organization. 

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We communicate with Marek by phone and through Google Meet and GitLab. This has proven to be very effective, and all issues have been dealt with expediently.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team is very responsive and organized, and we feel lucky to have them as a partner. They are quick to solve any issue, partly due to their in-depth knowledge of civic technology. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a funded team of academic researchers who required a custom-made mobile phone application.

For what projects/services did your company hire The BitByBit company, and what were your goals?

We required a mobile phone application to collect systematic data for academic research with geospatial capabilities. We required the data to be entered and saved in different ways for different survey types and we needed a custom made interface.

How did you select The BitByBit company and what were the deciding factors?

BitByBit was selected due to their excellent bid submission which won out among other contenders.

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

We required a smartphone application with the ability to create a user profile, have the geospatial capability and create user histories.

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

I believe a team of 5-8 people with Marek leading this team.

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

The product delivered to us was exactly what we asked of BitbyBit. We communicated constantly and they were very adaptive in their approach leading to the delivery of a perfect final product.

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

Project management was 10/10 with BitByBit constantly showing us Beta versions and allowing us to give feedback. We had to adapt to feedback from users and we relayed this to the team who updated the application in a swift and efficient manner.

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

They have the ability to take a concept and turn it into a product. We had an idea and they brought it to life.

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

Occasional gaps in communication.

Please describe your company and your position there.

This a third level educational institution. I am a Social Science Research Assistant on a trans-disciplinary project.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bit by Bit ?

The research focus is to engage stakeholders with online mapping. For this we needed to realise an established project design in an online platform format which would capture data effectively via a range of online mapping and survey processes.

What were your goals for this project?

The solution needed to capture the specifities of a number of research interests and objectives whilst ensuring simple usability processes.

How did you select this vendor?

The vendor was recommended via professional relationships and was subsequently selected through a tendering processes, as is required by the funding bodies of the project. The project is a mid-term project and a reliable company was required to facilitate swift rollout of the many project elements. Moreover, good customer service and communication was a priority.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project is ongoing. Thus far the project team have assisted in a range of ways such as completing the online mapping facility and a number of interactive platforms over three project strands.

What was the team composition?

The project team has a number of people with whom we interact depending on task. However we have a specific contact person, a project manager, who is our main point of contact ensuring very satisfactory communication.

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

Because of the nature of the task, it is too soon to quantify the impact on the overall research project to date as development is still ongoing.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The communication is very satisfactory and problems are communicated in a timely manner.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The communication and willingness to understand our requirements are very impressive. Also we found they were willing to offer suggestions and advice when our requests were perhaps unrealistic within a given timeframe.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is nothing to my knowledge to improve within the context of our project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organization of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space. I had a software engineer position when this project has been run.

For what projects/services did your company hire The BitByBit company, and what were your goals?

Proof of concept of an alternative web-based user interface for a big control system (as a replacement of a legacy Eclipse-based one).

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

Internal decision process

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

Development of a proof of concept - a fully functioning component reproducing basic functionality of the legacy one.

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

I was interacting with two leading key personnel.

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

The deliverable was an ice-breaker and started a new direction, which is now followed intensively, also in many other areas. It was a tremendous success.

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

They focus on the customer satisfaction - it was a highly positive experience from our side.

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

Short decision paths, low amount of bureaucracy, attention to customer wishes, taking deadlines seriously.

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

Sometimes they are a bit shy :) No need to be shy, you are doing a great job!