Byndyusoft

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a founder and backend engineer of a company called Sociograph, which provides analytics for Facebook groups and pages.

What challenge were you trying to address with Byndyusoft?

One of my goals was to find a UI [user interface] designer who could help me do the frontend work. The customer-facing flows in our analytics product were not as simple and intuitive as I wanted, so I was also looking for someone with experience in UX [user experience] to simplify it and make it easier to use.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided me with UX assistance. They have a lot of experience describing and thinking about different customer flows and they can also implement it. I provided the basic ideas and goals for new features, which they then thought about and tried to define a prototype for the UX. After a couple of cycles of interaction over the proof of concept and the inclusion of my ideas, we started to implement the frontend and backend.

It's not just about the colors, fonts, and graphics; I'm looking for a simple approach to a relatively complicated problem. Statistics and analytics are quite complicated. How can I show an Excel sheet with a lot of numbers, and simplify it, show it visually on a graph, so my regular users can understand it? It's designing the flow and simplifying the flow. They used Webpack React. JavaScript, HTML, CSS is the stack for the frontend.

What is the team dynamic?

Andrew Shapiro [UX/UI Design, Byndyusoft] was the main guy in the design front, and I worked with him for the user flow. Additionally, I worked with Konstantin Khabalkin [Frontend Developer, Byndyusoft] who made the UI development for me, and a woman who helped me with the design. I worked with 3 people, but the woman replaced someone else who worked on the UX front.

How did you come to work with Byndyusoft?

A friend of mine recommended them to me. They did UX and UI design work for his startup. Previously, I tried to work with a couple of different companies without much success.

How much have you invested with them?

There's no hard budget, but it’s been $50,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began to work together 2 ½ years ago.

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

My customer base and traffic to our website grew over the last 2 years. It’s been a success from my perspective. The number of paying customers is growing as well. The major factor for success is the speed of development. Now, I'm able to release new features as fast as I wish, and I don't need to wait for months or years for a new feature to be released.

How did Byndyusoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They do great. We schedule calls and they're always available. I can call them any day at any time. They always answer my emails. If I need some financial invoices or change agreements, they're ready to do it, and they're always available for new ideas. I had no problem or issues with that.

The workflow is really simple. I provide the main idea, we discuss it over phone or Skype to explain why I need certain features, the development timeframe I have in mind, and then they deal with proof of concept for UX. They show me a PDF or they build a small website for it.

We discuss it again, and we iterate over different types of ideas. Once I'm happy with one of the designs, I approve it, and then we work with the frontend developer on implementing it. He does the frontend and I do the backend. We used no special tools for collaboration, just phone, Skype, PDF, and website.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to be flexible, simplify complicated things, think about my ideas in different ways, and provide me with different approaches. They helped me make analytics simpler.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve the speed of work. Sometimes, I'm in a hurry, and they know, but they don't want to work fast and produce bad results. On the one hand, I would like to receive my work faster, but on the other hand, I appreciate their patience. They don't want to release anything of bad quality.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company called 100andMore Corporation. We have developed a fun and exciting way for people to exchange their business contact information. We hope to replace paper business cards.

What challenge were you trying to address with Byndyusoft?

We hired Byndyusoft to develop a backend that would help us with our business card solution. The server’s purpose is to store the large quantity of information that users exchange through the server. The content is quite heavy, so that’s why we needed a well-structured and well-protected server.

What was the scope of their involvement?

During the first two weeks, we built a roadmap for the development of the project and based on that roadmap; we defined the steps we needed to make in terms of the development of the backend and front-end.

We also defined the consumer’s journey, and Byndyusoft helped us develop the core value of the server and what we could develop on our end. They were an extension of our internal development team. We have our developers who built the front-end, and Byndyusoft worked on the backend, which allows us to exchange and store all of the data. They developed all of the APIs for the project.

How did you come to work with Byndyusoft?

We knew that we needed somebody who could develop the backend of our product, so our CTO asked several people for their recommendations, and that’s how we learned about Byndyusoft. We spoke with one of their clients and asked them if they were satisfied with Byndyusoft’s work. The client gave us a good recommendation and positive feedback, so we decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with Byndyusoft?

We have spent around $80,000 to $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2016, and the work is ongoing.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They provided professional feedback on our requirements and requests. If something happened outside of normal working hours, they worked with us to resolve our questions. I liked that, because it’s something they do beyond what is expected, and it confirms that they’re committed to their work. They want to do the job well. The team that worked for us is the most professional team I've ever met. There were very few, if any, bugs in the system. We are quite happy to work with Byndyusoft.

How did Byndyusoft perform from a project management standpoint?

I appreciated their dedication to our project. Byndyusoft was well-structured regarding the work they do. Regarding planning, they were quite well-organized, and they have a good attitude toward their clients.

Two to three people were assigned to our project most of the time. Two worked for us full time, and the third worked for us part time. Byndyusoft has a good organizational process, and they are quite good regarding planning. We learned how to work better from collaborating with them.

What did you find most impressive about Byndyusoft?

They are committed to their work, and they have a good, professional attitude. In general, I like how organized they are and how the project went. I really like the people with whom I work, because they’re quite professional. I would like to have them on my team.

Are there any areas Byndyusoft could improve?

They could improve their design and front-end work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is a global leader of application delivery and cyber security solutions for virtual, cloud and software-defined data centers. it was founded in 1997. I am the user experience director in charge of all public web properties. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Byndyusoft?

We needed some fairly complex .NET development and it proved complicated to find the right partner. We have some design and development resources inside the company, but assigning the work depends on its scale and deadlines.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have worked on around 7 to 9 projects with Byndyusoft over the course of our collaboration. Most of them were for .NET development, with only our latest one being for app development.

Byndyusoft was initially assigned with developing one of our web site's modules which is responsible for delivering large amount of documentation to end users. Later they developed application for presenting company’s financial data in real-time, document and video repositories, as well as multiple integrations with different Marketing Automation Systems.

Our most recent project involved making some UI and code updates to our iOS application.

We typically work with 2 to 3 developers from Byndyusoft for any project. The resources are assigned to us are usually people who have worked on our previous projects and are familiar with the infrastructure, the code, and the environment. We interact with both a project lead and with the developers themselves, employing an Agile methodology.

Usually before any project starts we’re having multiple conversations were I’m explaining to the team how final product should look like and listen for the input and suggestions.

How did you come to work with Byndyusoft?

We spent a lot of time searching for the right company. Byndyusoft was eventually recommended by a friend. I contacted them and gave Byndyusoft a test project, on the basis of which I decided to continue to work with them.

How much have you invested with Byndyusoft?

The total cost of Byndyusoft's work has been between $60,000 and $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2013. Our collaboration is ongoing and we are currently planning to start a very complex project with Byndyusoft. 

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Byndyusoft’s work can be easily tracked. I never saw any errors in their work and there was little need for corrections, which was a big difference compared to other companies I've worked with.

We never have any problems and even the initial project we had Byndyusoft do is still functioning well. The general quality of the code has been the most important aspect for me. I have preferred to assign more complex projects to Byndyusoft because of their experience in the field. I'm very happy with the quality of final product.

How did Byndyusoft perform from a project management standpoint?

We found it easy to work with Byndyusoft. They're a professional group and all our work was completed on time. We had calls every couple of days with Byndyusoft's team and we were also assigned a project manager. Their process was efficient and worked well for me. I always knew what was going on with projects, receiving demos every 2 to 3 days. Byndyusoft has always been happy to assist us, even when I reached out to them with code that was developed by other vendors.

What did you find most impressive about Byndyusoft?

I appreciated the quality of Byndyusoft's work, very often they’re ready to go the extra mile. I've had challenges working with previous vendors – going over budget, not meeting deadlines etc. But team at Byndyusoft always were able to find right solutions.

Are there any areas Byndyusoft could improve?

There is nothing to improve from my point of view. I am completely satisfied. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

OZON.ru is one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in Russia. We sell almost everything; our site has an assortment of almost 4 million items. Over 30,000 orders are processed on our platform each day. I am the business applications director of the company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Byndyusoft?

As a part of our IT infrastructure, we have a verification engine that is responsible for calculating prices and delivery dates in the checkout process. The Russian e-commerce market has a huge diversity of delivery options, such as networks of self-pickup points and different courier services. We have to take all that into account when calculating prices for customers. Our legacy system had done this successfully in the past, but it was outdated in terms of flexibility and scalability. We also had some issues during peak periods, specifically near weekends and during holidays. We needed to develop a new system from scratch, which is what Byndyusoft did. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have been working with Byndyusoft for a number of years, during which time they've solved a number of issues our company had. For this project specifically, Byndyusoft covered the whole development process for our platform. They started with understanding our business requirements, interacting with our partner delivery companies, and deploying the service to our DevOps team. They covered the entire software development life cycle from the beginning. From a technology point of view, Byndyusoft used the Microsoft stack, namely ASP.NET MVC and SQL Server. They used JavaScript on the front-end.

How did you come to work with Byndyusoft?

I attended several professional conferences related to IT development, where I met Byndyusoft's principal and saw some of their presentations. A major factor was Byndyusoft's experience with technological stacks that were similar to ours. We have our own development team, so this similarity in skillsets has played a role.

How much have you invested with Byndyusoft?

The cost of our project with Byndyusoft has been above $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working on this project with Byndyusoft in May 2015. There have been 2 major releases, but we are still in the development process of a third one. 

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It would be difficult to evaluate the project in numerical terms. To give you an idea, we used to have performance and capacity issues with our previous checkout system. With this update, we can sustain 400 checkouts per minute on the new platform. Previously, we were only able to handle 80 checkouts.

How did Byndyusoft perform from a project management standpoint?

We had our own project manager assigned to the work who interacted directly with Byndyusoft's technical lead and team. Byndyusoft mostly offered analysis and development resources, but they also communicated with the development teams in our own company as well as those from partner companies. The Byndyusoft team had a good level of communication.

What did you find most impressive about Byndyusoft?

We have worked with other development companies. Unfortunately, many of them focus on development tasks, requiring detailed requirements from our own side that are followed to the letter. Byndyusoft stood out by working in an Agile fashion. It's very easy for us to change specifications during the project. This is so important because we've gone through discovery steps and discovered new requirements throughout the project.

Are there any areas Byndyusoft could improve?

I can't think of anything significant. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Libertex is a multinational brand with almost 20 years of financial market and online trading experience. We've been helping our clients to trade stocks, currencies, indices, commodities, gold, oil, gas, etc. since 1997.

There are over 700 employees working for Libertex, providing over 2.2 million clients from the Americas, Asia, and Europe with top tier service. I am the Team Leader Software Analyst Team.

What challenge were you trying to address with Byndyusoft?

The system that Byndyusoft developed is essential for Forex market analysts, which are spread around the world. Our analysts need to be able to evaluate information in the world financial markets without delays. This system provides service for reducing risks related to the making of investment decisions. We must analyze our risks on the Forex market, so we need Byndyusoft’s system to manage the information that goes into this.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Byndyusoft was given the task of creating a monitoring and risk management system for the Forex market from scratch. The system was required to collect and process live information streams from internal information systems of the company, analyze data and display results in such a way that the analyst can track all changes on a real-time basis.

In the process of designing the system’s architecture, special attention was given to the ability of the analytical service to withstand high loads (about 100,000 changes per second). Also in providing protection from unauthorized access and demonstrate a high level of fail-safety because even a brief failure in system operation could cost up to $10 million.

Byndyusoft was involved in developing the system’s architecture to achieve independence, sustainability, and changeability of different parts of the system. They also fulfilled requirements during the project that resulted from changes in the service’s development and delivered micro-releases. The delivered new, operable versions and releases every day.

How did you come to work with Byndyusoft?

Byndyusoft was a recommendation from our partners.

How much have you invested with Byndyusoft?

The project cost about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in February 2013 and finished in August 2013. After several prototypes, the system was completed and handed over to my company. Currently, it is integrated into our infrastructure and is in operation as one of the internal services of our company.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Byndyusoft was able to meet the deadlines and made it possible to finish integration into the company’s infrastructure on time. Thanks to the utmost technological competence, Byndyusoft was able to design the system which meets our requirements in response rate, reliability, and scalability.

How did Byndyusoft perform from a project management standpoint?

The Byndyusoft team uses Agile and Lean principles, so we got new versions almost every day. Before the project started, we wrote down technical specifications, but while we were working on the project, we found better ways to achieve our business goals. Our teams together found the best way to implement the project quickly.

What did you find most impressive about Byndyusoft?

Byndyusoft is very flexible to meet the needs of the clients and can adjust itself for the required processes, which is highly valuable and rare to see. When the programmers of Byndyusoft were working on my project, I realized that flexible methods of software development can really reduce the lead times and improve quality.

Are there any areas Byndyusoft could improve?

No, I can't think of anything.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

SCANIA RUS is a distribution company in Russia. I am a developer in the web projects department.

What challenge were you trying to address with Byndyusoft?

We needed to create a public web application for an online calculating and contracting service. It was intended to calculate costs and maintenance programs for vehicles. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Byndyusoft team worked on the publication of internal corporate data online. They created an isolated application that actively uses business logic and provides our users with internal corporate data. They used techniques such as Impact Mapping, Customer Journey Mapping, and User Story Mapping. These strategies helped us dive into business goals and strategy. Plus, we used the JS framework from www.telerik.com—KendoUI [html framework] & DataAccess ORM [.NET tool]. The project took around 300 hours.

How did you come to work with Byndyusoft?

I discussed a lot of IT questions with them. Alexander Byndyu is well-known in the Russian .NET community, and I know him personally. His team has successfully implemented a lot of complex projects.

What is the status of this engagement?  

The application took around 2 months from screencasts to release. 

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Byndyusoft built a web application for the online calculation of service and contract costs for vehicles. Every day, it calculates 20 to 200 contracts and saves hundreds of working hours.  

How did Byndyusoft perform from a project management standpoint?     

I was the project owner and controlled each stage of work. The Byndyusoft team used a Kanban dashboard and the project’s progress was tracked online. Everything was delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive about Byndyusoft?

I have not tried other providers on .NET stack. I was satisfied with Byndyusoft and it was great to use them in order to achieve business goals.

Are there any areas Byndyusoft could improve?

Everything was fine. They have nothing to improve.