BrightMarbles

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a software engineering company. We operate at 4 physical locations and have more than 50 experienced engineers with strong educational backgrounds.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BrightMarbles?

We cooperate with BrightMarbles on multiple projects. We use their professional services for creating production-ready, complex, and mission-critical enterprise solutions. We use their experience, consultancy, and services in the field of software engineering.

SOLUTION

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

Before we got in touch we heard about their occupation and the quality of their service. After some time we got in touch and started the first negotiations about possible cooperation. Soon after we have started the first project.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project is within the Healthcare industry for our end client in the USA. We have started at the project after the MVP phase and then we engaged BrightMarbles to help us in project organization and in frontend development.

Our two teams work together like a charm and the client is happy. We managed to develop a production-ready system out of MVP and nowadays we still develop and maintain it.

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

Their CEO was heavily involved at the beginning in order to set everything up correctly. Afterward, CTO joined us with 3 software engineers. Nowadays two teams work as one with the client. CEO and CTO were always there when we needed structural things to discuss and we know they are quickly and always available as escalation posints if needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We pushed the system towards production together and that was done with success. End-users use the application and the client's business continues to grow.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

As stated previously we find BrightMarbles personnel as our internal one. We noticed their personnel is trained to work in the service provider model.

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

They are hardworking people and experienced engineers. Their leaders and directors are people to whom you can openly talk and make fair agreements without too many games and words in between the lines.

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

Project management is challenging when you have a system in production. Developing new features and maintaining the existing is a hard job and this is where they can gain more experience.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a global talent platform where we connecting top tier software development companies to our fortune 500 partners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We contracted bright marbles as we needed a highly Senior frontend team to be able to work with our channel partner and end client concurrently.

SOLUTION

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

We selected the vendor based on their ability to attract top technical talent, how quickly they could provide talent and ultimately how they trained and educated their team to bridge the gap between hard technical skills but also the required soft skills to manage the various stakeholders involved in the project.

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

The scope was to deliver a strong technical lead proficient in React but also adept in .Net. In addition we needed them to hit the ground running but also build the necessary knowledge transfer to scale up additional resources.

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

We worked with 4 people all together. Their CEO and CTO were onboard as the caliber of the project was quite high and it was a complex team build. In addition we worked closely with their head of engagement and technical recruitment lead.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their resources earned us a lot of praise. They delivered exactly what we asked and were extremely flexible with so unforeseen out-of-scope tasks arose. Their selection of talent and speed at which they delivered them cemented them as one of our elite partners.

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

They were extremely flexible, and they delivered everything on time.

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

Their team was able to go big picture quite easily but also get extremely tactical at the same time. I really appreciated how all of the individual team members were aligned on their core vision and mission of the company, which to me was, always taking care of the client, focusing on deliverables and providing expert advice when necessary. I felt like we had a partner not so much a vendor.

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

I mean, they delivered across the board, but if I was forced to give some advice on improvement, I would say to let future partners know of the extra services they provide upfront. Halfway through the engagement, I realized I could have used some of their cybersecurity services if I would have known.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Technical Director at a Digital agency of close to 300 people. We primarily focus on custom mobile & web development and design.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BrightMarbles?

Our company is growing rapidly, and we're having a hard time upscaling our internal development teams for new projects in our sales pipeline. BrightMarbles came in like a savior to increase our delivery capabilities toward our clients.

SOLUTION

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

Last year we started an outbound campaign, focusing on agencies from Europe who would be the best fit for us (both technical and cultural fit) for cooperation through a staff augmentation model. One of the companies we've talked with suggested reaching out to BrightMarbles. After reviewing their Clutch profile, we decided to give it a try. Our deciding factors were customers' level of satisfaction, Clutch ratings and reviews, and a list of reference projects.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Our projects are usually long-term, where we're cooperating with our clients in a dedicated team model. This gives us the flexibility to have overall control over the project in design, development, QA, growth...

Work is usually organized in a 2-weeks sprint, where we're focusing on developing new features or improving the overall user experience. Key deliverables are usually measured on each sprint, where we are both trying to deliver the features defined on the sprint planning sessions.

Up to this point, we mainly were cooperating on backend & native mobile development (Rails, Android), but we're hoping to expand this further in the next couple of months.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We typically send them an overview of the skill sets we need for a specific project, and they respond if they have suitable candidates. From there, we do a short interview to see who's a good fit for our team before signing them on.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s hard to put direct metrics on their success since they change from project to project. Usually, the most important thing for us is that our clients and our internal development teams are happy. Each quarter, we conduct satisfaction surveys on their work, and they are usually performing at 4.7 out of five. Our clients are delighted with the work BrigthMarbles has done.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow is usually set up in a way we do the project management from our side and have direct communication with their developers. We're using the standard set of tools here, like Slack and Zoom. Their developers fit well into our organizations and deliver all requirements without missing a deadline. If a deadline was moved, it was primarily due to the clients' own restrictions.

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

Their willingness to learn constantly is commendable. We're an agile company that regularly works with new technologies or is experimenting with new platforms processes. Also, we must have a partner who can accommodate our often hectic schedule. The requirements and scheduling plans are changing daily, and BrightMarbles was always responsive to the changes.

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

No, I'm pleased with the way they perform. It's a joy to cooperate with them, and I always enjoy our talks with their CEO. Boris is an incredible person, and I'm looking forward to building our partnership even more. It's a great relationship.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CFO and Lead Front-end developer of a dating app based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed more development power for various features on the mobile Flutter app. We had various projects which were valided and designed which needed to be implemented. The secondary goal was to have a second opinion on many of the code architecture and improve the app generally.

SOLUTION

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

We searched to hire an app developer ourselves but had a hard time finding people with enough experience/quality. We had a recommendation from a fellow startup founder who had gone through the process of finding one of the intermediaries for software engineers. We decided to work with BrightMarbles because we were happy with the quality and price which could be offered.

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

We have had 2 employees who worked with our own teams on various tasks assigned to them on the sprint. One was a senior back-end development in Go and one medior front-end development in Flutter.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the developers met the expectations, the BrightMarbles team was quick in following up on our feedback on performance.

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

The BrightMarbles team was quick in following up on our feedback on performance. We would based on our preferences quickly check in with them whenever needed.

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

The quality and experience of developers are able to provide relatively new frameworks, even with limited people.

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

The speed at which we were given a good enough quality developer could have been higher sometimes, especially compared to their promises. But overall we were happy with their efforts and updates on this.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director at Saga d.o.o. Beograd, an IT company. We provide relationship and communication platforms, and we’re dedicated to providing AI-based solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BrightMarbles?

We wanted to create software development kits (SDKs) and channels to easily integrate our smart AI assistant into any native mobile app. That way, our AI platform would able to support each and every channel. Once we realized that we also had to support virtual assistants (VAs) on the mobile apps, we struggled because we didn’t have an internal team. As a result, we hired BrightMarbles.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BrightMarbles developed mobile SDK components for iOS and Android. They ensured that the SDK components would be able to support all the features such as support voice messages and short text messages based on our documentation in any social media platform.

They also developed our APIs, and they developed functions such as integrating a small Facebook Messenger inside the mobile app. The whole project was pretty complex because the app needed to support many different media such as action buttons, voice messages, and more. We gave them very strict features set, and we guided them through the project. Based on the documents we created, they conducted beta testing. 

What is the team composition?

Two Android developers and two iOS developers worked on our project. 

How did you come to work with BrightMarbles?

I contacted them based on good recommendations from other companies around — they said they were very skilled engineers.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership ran from November 2020–March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BrightMarbles delivered bug-free components for both platforms, and those components were able to support chats. From the first delivery of their team, they produced an acceptable level of quality. The team met our expectations, and they did exactly what we asked from them. Overall, we didn’t have any misunderstandings regarding our expectations.

How did BrightMarbles perform from a project management standpoint?

They worked using an agile approach, and they showed a very high level of dedication to the project. The BrightMarbles team delivered within the planned timeline and they showed that they want to provide good quality work.

We communicated via email and phone calls. We also used Microsoft Teams. Overall, they were highly engaged, and we were highly satisfied with their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a great attitude, and they did their job properly. We appreciated that they had a high level of seniority in their business. Whenever we asked for something, they instantly replied to us — they were responsive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I had a couple of bad experiences with other outsourcing companies, but my experience with BrightMarbles had been great. For smaller companies, it might be important for the team to provide guidance to the company. This wasn’t our case but if it is, they need to make sure they have the ability to do so. Additionally, they didn’t have a product portfolio, but maybe they could create one and show it to others.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clarify your requests and document everything. I’d recommend BrightMarbles to anybody who needs a mobile development outsourced team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of a travel mobile app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I wanted to find a development partner to handle the whole build of my project: back end infrastructure and iOS/ Android front end.

SOLUTION

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

They came as a warm recommendation from a friend who also used them to develop his mobile app. They seemed very professional, friendly and came in at a more than reasonable price.

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

After a couple of discovery meetings, I was presented with a plan (Heroku for the back end, flutter for the front end). The team and I worked in Scrum Sprints with clear deliverables each step of the way. We had daily standups and weekly demos.

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

The number of engineers working on the project varied throughout. They were incredibly flexible and staffed the project based needs. Most engineers were quite senior and self directed. It was a pleasure to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app was released (roughly) on time. It works like a charm and they really went the extra mile to make sure it looked fantastic. Along the way, they kept making recommendations for improvements and took the time to clearly outline trade offs.

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

Clear communication all the way through, via Slack, video conference and the Jira board. I never felt blindsided or that I didn’t know what people were working on.

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

The CEO is the most genuine and friendly person, and it really reflects on the rest of the team. I have very rarely worked with people who feel as much like true partners as the BrightMarbles team.

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

Honestly, they were fantastic. We couldn't have worked any better together.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of a startup that provides an online healthcare service in the form of medical consultations via app. We serve thousands of customers through the help of dozens of remote practitioners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BrightMarbles?

Our Android and iOS native apps long needed maintenance and improvements. We lacked the engineering power to go through the effort so we asked BrightMarbles to upgrade the apps to the modern days and develop additional new features.

What were your goals for this project?

Upgrade the apps to current state of the art and implement two new features.

SOLUTION

How did you select BrightMarbles?

I already collaborated we their sister company, Vega IT, in the past while working at another startup. They suggested BrightMarbles as the perfect partners for our needs and after a satisfying first meeting and quote, we went for it.

Describe the project in detail.

After a couple of meeting we met the actual engineers that would be working on our codebase and set up all the necessary tasks and information sharing. Collaboration and communication was excellent.

What was the team composition?

We had assigned two software engineers, the first on iOS quite senior and the second a little less senior. I managed them as my resources, as part o my team, for 4 weeks with almost daily meetings and good communication.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Both native apps are now up to date, stable and will be good for the next year, while our customer and collaborators will enjoy the new functionalities.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I managed directly the two resources, via Skype, with daily meetings and a task tracker to describe and distribute the work. Also keeping an eye on software changes and code quality via central code repository on GitLab. No issues with language at all, they all spoke fluent english.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Above average seniority and expertise, I personally learn a lot from the engineers and the hourly rate was good considered my past experiences.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing worth noting here. Just an overall good work and good impression.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Founder and CEO of a pharmacy delivery startup based in Chicago, IL USA. We build tools for pharmacies to offer online checkout and delivery.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I hired BrightMarbles to build my MVP/ V1 product to take to potential customers. The product is a web-based consumer and B2B product.

SOLUTION

How did you select BrightMarbles and what were the deciding factors?

BrightMarbles stood out from the other firms I was speaking with. The founders were very involved in the business and very clearly understood my needs.

As a non-technical founder, it was important to me that the firm I was working with simplified lines communication and played the role of CTO.

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

The MVP was a web-based consumer and B2B product. The key deliverables were building web-based login and check-out workflows and a B2B admin product and dashboard.

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

Three BrightMarbles team members worked with me, the two founders, and a fantastic developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product BrightMarbles built was responsible for me landing a key initial partnership and also was highly leveraged for securing initial advisors and investors.

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

We used Slack and Zoom meetings to meet and coordinate progress and questions.

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

The team's ability to foresee my needs and execute on the plan we developed together with little additional involvement from me is second to none.

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

Nothing - BrightMarbles is great!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Spaze was founded during the beginning of the Dutch Covid-19 crisis by eight entrepreneurs. As a digital designer I was responsible for UX/UI for this project and worked closely with Bright Marbles to streamline the experience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BrightMarbles?

Because time was a key factor in the realization of this project, we were looking for a cost-friendly IT company that could build the app in a matter of weeks. Bright Marbles ticked both boxes.

What were your goals for this project?

Spaze uses QR to monitor the amount of people inside a venue and uses that data to prevent people from forming a queue outside by warning them that it's busy and by forming a virtual queue instead. Because this solution is almost entirely Covid-19 related it was important that we could publish and promote the application as soon as possible.

SOLUTION

How did you select BrightMarbles?

I personally asked around for IT companies that fit our needs. Eventually I stumbled upon a Dutch design company through Facebook that worked with Bright Marbles on a regular basis. After a few virtual meetings we realized that we found the right fit.

Describe the project in detail.

We started off the project with a few sparring sessions. I was responsible for all design so I created a high fidelity prototype. We agreed on building a demo version first so we could start doing sales as soon as possible. Once they got their hands on the designs they immediately started building the demo. While we contacted retail companies they continued building the mobile application and the desktop dashboard. We had weekly meetings where they would show their progress and we would provide feedback. The work they should was clear and of great quality.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a project manager, a flutter developer, a backend developer and a frontend developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It's hard to demonstrate success thus far as it's a two sided marketplace and we're yet to sign our first client but as far as I'm concerned they delivered on all three key aspects: quality, speed and cost efficiency. A variety of businesses responded with great enthusiasm while trying the dashboard & mobile app.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager was a great communicator, was always open to a discussion and guided us through the process really well.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Probably the dedication to the project. They have shown great passion and were keen to give quality input from start to end. On top of that, they live up to their promise and worked extremely hard to get things done within the given timeframe.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Evidently there have been slight miscommunications throughout the process but nothing worth mentioning. Mostly they were caused by language barriers (we communicated in English).

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a software development company based in Serbia. We have a 200-developer team, and we’ve been the fastest-growing company in Serbia for years, and one of the most desirable ones for employees. Our clients are mostly in Western Europe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BrightMarbles?

We need help with our projects from time to time, for which we engage with companies like BrightMarbles.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BrightMarbles has done both complete projects on their own, as a white-label team, and they’ve worked as an extension to our team. They mainly provide software development, but they’ve also offered project and product management services. The main technologies involved are Java, .NET, and JavaScript, but they’ve also worked with Flutter and React Native.

We work with them when we have a peak in demand and need additional resources, or when we require skillsets that we don’t have in-house.

What is the team composition?

If we need them as an extension for our team, we’ll usually only get developers from BrightMarbles. If we give them a complete project, they will form a team consisting of project managers and other roles as well.

How did you come to work with BrightMarbles?

We knew their founders since before they were part of BrightMarbles, and we knew how skilled and hardworking they were. We gave them a chance, and it went great. The other people in BrightMarbles have similar work ethics.

How much have you invested with them?

The overall cost of their work so far is around €400,000 (approximately $475,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with BrightMarbles in early 2017 and are continuing to partner together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When working with BrightMarbles, we don’t have to worry at all that the job won’t be done on time, that the quality will be lower than what our internal people would deliver, or that there would be confusion on their end on who’s doing what and who’s covering the cost.

We can fully trust them, and we know that they can complete the work just as if they were our internal team. They see our partnership not as a one-time deal but as something continuous.

How did BrightMarbles perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything goes smoothly when we work with them. We use a number of project tracking tools based on what the client is demanding, including Jira and Basecamp. BrightMarbles is flexible to using any tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re able to hire great engineers and keep them for long periods of time. This makes us feel comfortable because we know that we’ll get great engineers for our projects and that the people we’ve worked with won’t leave after we’ve invested time and money onboarding them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing they could’ve improved in terms of the actual work, but it would be great if they had even more people. There have been times when there was more work than our team and theirs could handle. I don’t see this as a negative, given that BrightMarbles is investing in growth.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

One thing that works great for us is building a level of trust. If we give BrightMarbles our full trust, they will put the right people on the right projects. We wouldn’t insist on having the person with the most years of experience on a project, because we know that a mid-level developer can sometimes be better at specific technologies and deliver better results.

We don’t insist on having every single detail as we’d imagine it in best-case scenarios. We give BrightMarbles a lot of freedom to suggest the best solution for us, both when it comes to setting up the team or proposing technologies.

I’d suggest that clients start with a smaller assignment and earn BrightMarbles’ trust, then go with a full-trust approach.