Cerebrum

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and executive director of EXR, a real estate firm based in New York City that provides pre-development and leasing services to landlords across our city.

What challenge were you trying to address with Novus Cerebrum?

We were launching a few projects, and we wanted to create a marketing website for them, so we hired Novus Cerebrum to help us out.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Novus Cerebrum helped us mostly with frontend development work, using technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. First, Novus Cerebrum collaborated with our marketing and creative teams to create a mockup. Then, they converted that mockup into code, after which they uploaded it into our repository. Additionally, they handled integrations with mapping APIs on our backend CRM and other tasks of that nature.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a developer, who handled the project, and a manager, who communicated with us, kept us updated, and answered our questions.

How did you come to work with Novus Cerebrum?

I found Novus Cerebrum on Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent less than $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2022. The project is now complete, but we will definitely hire Novus Cerebrum for future projects.

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

Novus Cerebrum offered a quality service. They understood the deliverables very well, and they were able to work with multiple of our teammates on the content, design, corrections, and improvements. The project was very straightforward.

How did Novus Cerebrum perform from a project management standpoint?

Novus Cerebrum’s performance was great. They were very responsive, communicative, and easy to work with. We had a very straightforward task, and they executed it in the timeframe that we asked them to. We mostly communicated via Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Novus Cerebrum is a high-quality provider. Other development agencies in the market are eager to get to work, but they might not be as easy to communicate with. Novus Cerebrum’s communication and responsiveness were excellent. Additionally, part of their staff is based in Ukraine. The fact that they could still hit the deadlines, considering the situation they were living, was very impressive, and it spoke volumes of the quality of their organization.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything went well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go for it. Hiring the right team to execute these kinds of projects is always a big challenge. However, starting off on the right foot by hiring an organization like Novus Cerebrum is always a huge benefit.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a web solutions agency; we primarily focus on web design and development.

What challenge were you trying to address with Novus Cerebrum?

We wanted to scale our development capacities; most of our development and design resources are outsourced.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Novus Cerebrum provides web development and UI/UX support for our customers; their efforts go from landing pages to e-commerce websites.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with three members of their team, including a project manager and their development and design staff.

How did you come to work with Novus Cerebrum?

They reached out to us through my co-founder on LinkedIn. They talked with us and explained how they could help businesses with our scale. We liked their propositions, gave them a small trial job, and after that, we decided to provide them with formal projects.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve invested around $5,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Our customers are delighted with the site that Novus Cerebrum has built for them. Overall, the quality of their work is good.

How did Novus Cerebrum perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very prompt with deadlines and have good communication with us around timelines. In terms of tools, we use Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communicative approach is outstanding; they’re very responsive and clear. They feel like an extension of our team rather than an outside contractor; we can have ad hoc conversations as needed, and it doesn’t feel separated. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on — we’re delighted with their work so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set clear requirements; they seem to respond well to that.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO in a company that specializes in turnkey B2B medical tourism solutions. The Tourismo turnkey solution gives access to all the tools: technology, CRM, payment solutions, VOIP, marketing, support and training to acquire customers and to refer them to the best cosmetic treatment clinics in the world.

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

We built a new system which unifies and handles all the needs of our B2B customers into a single system. The backend of the system was built in Python, however the front end was a mix of plain HTML and JavaScript. The front-end was a mess, and we wanted to beautify it by applying new CSS and JavaScript.

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

We searched Upwork for freelancers based on price, level of English and reviews. I didn't see that many reviews on Novous Cerebrum, however Upwork indicated that they are a rising talent, so i approched them and started to ask questions regarding development, time, cost and i seemed to find a good match.

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

We had a kickoff meeting to describe the project scope, where it was divided into 2 steps:

1. Explaining to Novus Cerebrum what exactly i wanted to do and how the system would look. The goal was to have a Figma with our approved design. After a couple of zoom meetings and 3 days later, the figma was ready and approved from our end.
2. Apply the figma design into HTML+JavaScript. I have created a new Git branch for Novus Cerebrum to first download the dev version for them to work and to push the commits to the new branch. After several Zoom meetings the version was ready.

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

1. Main contact person - R&D manager was present on all calls
2. CEO
3. Two Web designers
4. Two developers

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

The deliverables were on schedule and on budget, everything we asked for extra was done as well.

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

We used Zoom meetings and WhatsApp messages to communicate. Their timeline was spotless.

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

I used to work a lot with outsource teams, especially in Ukraine, however this company caught me by surprise. The deliverables were on time and on budget and the quality was spot on.

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

None

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of an IT company based in The Netherlands, we primarily focus on the retail of custom made software focused on improving e-commerce websites.

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

Our main focus as a company is to create custom software for all sorts of companies. We however were using an outdated customer relationship management tool. We wanted to out source the creation of this tool for a few reason. Mainly time constraints, as we were, and still are very busy working on big projects.

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

I first heard about Novus Cerebrum via upwork. Their company seemed to fit our needs perfectly, and their price range was very attractive. Furthermore they understood our needs and respected our values. The main deciding factor however was their professionalism, and desire to work with us, and not for us.

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

To realize this project we asked that Novus Cerebrum worked with the double-diamond method. We wanted them to approach our issue in clear steps. We held mutliple meetings on a weekly basis to ensure our targets were being hit. Some key deliverables were the: creation of CRM system and integration in to current system.

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

Personally I had contact with:

• Marian was the main contact person and leader of the company
• Sergei was (I think), their lead developer
• both Taras and Anhelina were also developers

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

The CRM system that Novus Cerebrum made for us helped streamline our services. Our overall workflow increased by approximately 20%. And general consensus of my employees was very positve. It also fit our housestyle seamlessly, and there were minimal to no issues during the implementation phase.

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

We mainly had contact with Marian, we scheduled meetings that worked for us both. These meetings were always held via Google Meet. Some of Novus Cerebrum's developers were also there, this really helped with convaying our idea behind the system.

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

Their dedication to reach our goals. They really seemed to care about the products they were delivering and did not fret when changes had to be made.

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

There were some small mix ups with time, this stemmed from the fact that there was a timezone difference between us. But this was a minor issue and only occurred once.