Bladeware

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a small startup that is interested in developing a very unique way for families to communicate.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bladeware?

We have contacted Bladeware to develop an Android version of the application according to the vision we had. We had a clear definition for 70% of the project while the rest required researching prior to the implementation.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to implement a commercially working application that is ready to be offered to the customers.

How did you select this vendor?

We had a selection of 7 vendors. All of them were checked and interviewed. Bladeware showed an outstanding understanding of the work required, budget, time and complexity of the logic. We were presented by a detailed explanation of the work plan which turned to be very very precise.

Describe the project in detail.

HedzApp is children and family connection tool. 2 applications are connected by scanning QR code on the child's screen. The idea of this family mobile app is to prevent messages to be lost among other notifications. Parent's messages to a kid's cell phone will stay on top of the screen until the kid responds to it. One might think that kids can easily chat with their moms anytime through other apps. However, they might miss messages easily because there are so many notifications.

HedzApp makes sure messages stay on top by displaying it in a different way. The messages are big, colorful and self-descriptive and they pop on the screen once delivered. It will make sure kids read and respond to the message. It is almost like if we were attaching a real sticky note to the mobile phone screen. Features include:

• Easy to set up and use. Scan a code and it is connected.
• Makes sure your kids read and respond to your message - by removing the message you will be notified immediately.
• Self-descriptive - messages are big and colorful drawings that are easy to understand without reading.
• You get a status once the message arrives and once gets responded.
• It looks and feels like a game - it is great if you have young and developing children.
• It is a fair game - kids can send you messages as well. Once the kid opens the phone the message is seen and cannot be overlooked.

What was the team composition?

We have the Bladeware team dealing with mobile, a backend developer working out of HedzApp facilities, designer, provided by HedzApp and the business team.

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

Since June, we have released 6 internal versions with the production one going live on September. Since going live, we have released 2 more versions and as of now the HedzApp Family Messenger is on 3rd place Parenting category of Ukrainian Google Play Store.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We managed the communication through Slack with daily chats and regular voice calls. Trello and Google Docs where regular tools to use. Everything went smooth and with great effectiveness.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team is very quick and responsive. All the work plans are exactly as described and all the problems (if any) are communicated immediately.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We do not see anything to be improved. The team did great and we are very happy. We will definitely continue working together.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Full stack developer.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bladeware?

Building an Android VPN app.

What were your goals for this project?

A functional VPN app.

How did you select this vendor?

Through past collaboration.

Describe the project in detail.

They did the app, we did the backend.

What was the team composition?

One on frontend, one on backend.

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

5 stars on Google Play.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We worked in Github, they responded well to feedback.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Fully remote.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are 3 important components to workflow:

• - Quality of work
• - Good relationship
• - Timeliness

The work was good, the relationship was good, the timeliness was sufficient for this project. For more intense projects I would need more guarantees of making deadlines.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO & head of product at Cleanly, complex logistics company dealing with clothing care daily challenges.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bladeware?

Our mobile iOS application was created over three years ago, but we didn’t have an Android solution and were noticing a significant number of users demanding one. After internal discussions, we decided to invest in developing an Android application, but we didn’t have any in-house Android developers, so we outsourced this portion of our development.

What were your goals for this project?

To see an increase in our mobile app engagement and to increase the number of Android users we had. We wanted to provide an easy to use, well-made solution for our customers.

How did you select this vendor?

I searched online for developers with the experience I needed for this project. After interviewing a few, I had decided that Bladeware offered the best solution.

Describe the project in detail.

They replicated our customer application from iOS to Android.

What was the team composition?

We worked with one Android engineer.

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

Within four months, our first prototype Android was released. Initially, it wasn't perfect, but they worked hard, and it slowly became a stable app with all the needed requirements.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very effective; we had a direct line to the engineers themselves.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was amazed by the ease with which they started immediately working on our project without needing to fully understand every small aspect first.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They could pay greater attention to detail.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO for sports news aggregation platform.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bladeware?

Our android application was lagging behind our iOS app as far as feature set and certain design features. Bladeware helped us to both modernize the app by shifiting to use Kotlin, and to catch up to iOS counterpart by working through a big backlog of tasks.

What were your goals for this project?

To have Android app that has super high ratio of crash-free sessions and matches our iOS application as closely as possible.

How did you select this vendor?

I have interviewed multiple companies and Bladeware did best both as was as the answers and the results of the demo task.

Describe the project in detail.

Once Bladeware was hired, tasks were assigned using Jira, with most of them linking to corresponding iOS tasks. After tasks were completed, Bladeware was also documenting anything that was Android specific in our internal wiki.

What was the team composition?

- CTO (in house) - Project Manager (in house) - iOS Developers (in house) - Android Developers (provided by Bladeware) - Backend API Developers (in house) - Testers (in house)

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

The app caught up to iOS and climbed to have 4.5 stars within the Play Store

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There were no issues to mention.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Ability to work mainly within Pacific Timezone despite being located more than 10 hours behind.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing specific.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of a content startup. We have a web service where users can download and consume content that other people have created. We are backed by a venture capitalist, and we also create software for other companies as well.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bladeware?

We developed our iOS app ourselves, but as the app grew we also had a need for an Android app, and we didn’t have the skillset in-house for that.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We recruited Bladeware to help us make the application available for Android in the Google Play Store. They used Java and Android Studio.

What is the team composition?

I had one main point of contact, but there were several people doing the coding behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Bladeware?

I found them through a freelancing website such as Upwork. I posted on there and received a lot of offers. They are a smaller company like us. Things aren’t as flexible when you work with a bigger company, and the people you speak to upfront are generally marketing people. As a developer myself, I needed to be able to speak technically with the person I am communicating with.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from 2018 until 2019.

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

What I asked for was completed, but at this time we are concentrating on other projects. I am willing to work with them again, and the code was high-quality and smooth. I could ask for anything, and it was nice to be able to speak to a technical person who could tell me if something was or wasn’t possible.

How did Bladeware perform from a project management standpoint?

I already had the tools I wanted to use, and they adapted to those. Communication was straightforward, with no time wasted.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are aware of current trends, and it was very helpful for me to be able to know what the best practices were.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything was good.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the COO of a consumer hardware company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bladeware?

We hired Bladeware to build an Android app for managing our hardware devices.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to release the Android app quickly.

How did you select this vendor?

We searched in our network and on freelancer platforms to find a skilled and not too expensive person with virtual private network (VPN) app experience. When we found Bladeware through our network, we decided to hire them.

Describe the project in detail.

They converted a web app that hooks into hardware API into an Android app.

What was the team composition?

The product owner and hardware API were in our team while Bladeware provided mobile app development resources.

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

We successfully got the Android build we were looking for.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had great communication. They had the perseverance to learn new skills related to hardware devices.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were impressed with the quality for the price.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It's hard to find something to improve. However, it would have been better if they were already experienced in making controller apps for hardware devices. However, they were quick to learn.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CTO & Founder, networking and telecommunication company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bladeware?

To make a brand new android app, which had a lot of R&D and tech challenges.

What were your goals for this project?

To achieve the R&D part and deliver to production in about 3 months.

How did you select this vendor?

By word of mouth, was highly recommended.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

SaaS project which provide service to secure user's network layer on their mobile.

What was the team composition?

1 designer 1 project manager 1 CTO + bladeware

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

We could successfully delivered the app after 3/4 months of development.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Remotely and using kanban board, was quite effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their commitment, technical skills, and deliverability were all impressive. Communication was good too.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None.