CHI Software

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CEO of Piligrim.ua, an online travel agency in Ukraine. Our company was established in 1999. The company is part of the It-tour group, which provides IT solutions in Ukraine's travel market.

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

CHI Software is developing our new website. Development is carried out from scratch. The goal is to create a website for searching and booking travel services provided by tour operators in Ukraine.

How did you select CHI Software and what were the deciding factors?

I met the CHI Software team on the recommendation of a friend who is a development manager at a large Ukrainian bank. The main selection criteria were:

1. Possibility of flexible step-by-step development in full interaction with the customer
2. Qualification of company team
3. Projects previously made by the company and feedback about the company.

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

Phase One: Basic Tour Search Functionality

1. Design of data structure
2. Development of general site design and UI component design
3. Description of the consumer's journey from interest to purchase
4. Front-end and back-end programming of the tour search and booking system
5. Minimum hotel database functionality.

The second phase: a limited set of landing pages, hot tours, basic CMS functionality.

1. Creation of landing pages for two destinations
2. Functionality for searching and booking last minute offers
3. Minimal CMS functionality (reference books, meta tags, linking)

The third phase: sections of news and tips, expanding the CMS's functionality to create and manage landing pages.

Fourth phase: enrichment of the hotel database, expansion of the CMS for this.

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

It was a team of six. We had close cooperation with business analysts, project manager, and devoted designer. Also, JavaScript- and PHP-developer worked on the project. DevOps joins the project on request.

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

As I mentioned, we had to create a site from scratch. The development process is ongoing and rapidly changing. The team attentively listens to all ideas and tries to implement all of them to the project.

Even if these ideas are different from the start-point agreement. CHI Software tries to delve deeply into my business needs and suggests ways to achieve them.

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

We communicate in daily stand up meetings with the development team and product owner. It helps us to sync, stay agile, and remove blocks. All additional communication We had close cooperation with Dmitry, who was responsible for the design part. It was at the beginning of the project. Now we meet just from time to time if it’s needed. Skype and Jira are our standard communication tools.

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

The most impressive thing about CHI is how easy it is to communicate with them and their availability. They are also very business-oriented and have this capacity to find a solution to almost anything.

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

Several points caused us controversy. But we promptly eliminated them, thanks to the responsiveness and involvement of the С-level management, which is involved in solving any sensitive issues. The team's willingness to improve the results and workflow also prompted the progress.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a project manager at QArea. QArea provides software development services covering the full cycle from design and development to testing.

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

A client of ours requested changes to a project we developed for him two years ago. Unfortunately, our in-house team did not have the resources to help them with this at the time. We hired a full-stack developer from CHI software to implement our client's new features and update some of the code we worked on in the past. This project is currently ongoing.

How did you select CHI Software and what were the deciding factors?

We created a detailed job description and list of requirements for the developer we were looking for, which reflected the requests of our client and our candidate criteria. CHI software quickly sent us a CV of a candidate that fit our request perfectly. We interviewed the candidate, found that his experience met our requirements, and began working with him.

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

The full-stack developer was expected to familiarize himself with two legacy projects, review and investigate the software, and take control of updating the projects and implementing new features. Both projects use a similar tech stack and have the same architecture.

The developer is working on implementing the following features:

• Add auto-logout for public and private users;
• Update and improve the existing signout and password reset user flow and functionality;
• Add integrations with payment gateways;
• Add two-factor authentication.

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

Chi Software provided us with one middle full-stack developer.

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

The project is still ongoing, but we are satisfied with the developer's performance, attitude towards the work, and clear and consistent communication.

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

We use an agile development style. Our clients provided detailed requirements, and our internal team prepared several possible approaches to meet these requirements. We use Skype for communication with both the client and the developer from CHI Software.

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

CHI Software responded promptly and was able to provide a fitting candidate quickly

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

The project is still ongoing, but CHI Software has been able to meet all our expectations so far, and the developer we are working with is making good progress on the project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the COO at Soft Industry Alliance, a technology service provider. We provide our clients with high-class full-cycle development.

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

One of our clients had a specific request for a Magento website development. As this is slightly out of our tech stack, we reached for the help of our trusted partner - the CHI Software team. The main task was to implement a new version of the existing site using Magento 1.6.

How did you select CHI Software and what were the deciding factors?

About two years ago we began to work as partners on various requests. When our need for Magento appeared, we knew CHI Software team has solid experience with it, so with no hesitation, we offered CHI Software to work together on this project.

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

The client already had a web platform that needed to be improved according to new technical data. The main task was to implement a new version of the existing site using Magento 1.6.

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

The team was quite small but efficient: 1 PHP developer with Magento and Symphony skills, 1 Quality assurance engineer, 1 Project Manager.

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

During the work on the project, the developer was able to implement a number of functionalities in the application under the control of our PM, according to the requirements and terms of the customer, which helped to speed up and simplify the interface for comfortable use by clients.

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

The work process was organized quickly with maximum efficiency, our PM worked directly with the developer. Everything went smoothly and deadlines were met.

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

CHI Software is a trusted and reliable partner we can always count on in case of any need. It was a pleasure to work together.

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

There is not much room for improvement, we only wish to work more often in the future.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO & founder of Blocksport. We are a sports tech organization, providing solutions to our clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with CHI Software?

We were looking to have a prototype and an MVP, built for a mobile product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed the MVP for a mobile app, doing front- and backend work, and UI/UX design. The app is a B2B2C product. Fans can shop, chat, participate in fan missions and collect points, increase fan-linking, browse social media, and more.

Their team used React Native on the frontend and Node.js on the backend. The app is available for iOS and Android.

What is the team composition?

We worked with six people including front- and backend developers, a project manager, and a designer.

How did you come to work with CHI Software?

We were looking for a reliable partner with experience in mobile development. We interviewed several vendors. Ultimately, we liked what CHI Software had to offer, as well as the pricing.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July–December 2019.

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

CHI Software was a team of skilled engineers. We were happy with their work.

How did CHI Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a good job with project management overall. We had daily standups and weekly calls. We used Jira, Slack, Skype, and email for project management and communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We found their ability to acquire resources and the quality of their UI design most impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were a bit disorganized with project management and missed a few deadlines.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think they are a good option for startups and smaller companies. They’re a reliable development agency.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the Founder of a tech consultation firm. My company offers technology consulting, data services, advanced analytics, automated and manual QA, commercial video processing, agile project management, application, and web development.

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

We needed an experienced and reliable contractor to support our client. Although the client has an in-house team, they don't have enough people for such a complicated project. As a result, we needed a team that could deliver a wide range of services: from coding and QA testing to ongoing development and maintenance. The client aimed to develop a service that is an integrated solution where landlords, renters, and brokers can cooperate on mutually beneficial conditions. The solution had to have a high-performance rate and a robust security system.

How did you select CHI Software and what were the deciding factors?

The CHI Software representative, Maria, contacted us two years ago. We decided to go with them based on their professional response, quality project scope, and reasonable costs.

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

The primary services are back-end development (NestJS, TypeORM), front-end development (React.js), and testing. Since the platform is one of the elements of a much larger system, there are many integrations with other services included, such as EqiuFax, TenantSafe, Yardi, and payment systems. The team developed a solution that covers clients' needs, such as checking compliance of the documentation with the rules and regulations, generation insurance documents and contracts, making payment transactions inside the system, and more.

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

It is an ongoing project. We work with the Project Manager, Business Analyst, React.js Developer, JavaScript Team (3 people), and Node.JS Developer. When we needed more resources, we were temporarily provided with additional resources such as a Quality Assurance specialist.

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

Our customer is satisfied with the cooperation with CHI Software during all this time. It is the outcome that describes the success of our partnership. For this project, we develop a great web-solution that already works and makes a profit.

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

We have a great Project Manager. She is responsible for communication and carrying out tasks smoothly and timely. The project has daily updates, sprints after each stage. Guys are always planning the next steps. We use popular communication tools: Slack, Jira, Skype.

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

Clear communication of opportunities and issues. Their adaptation to the project goals was quick and easy. As a result, we had significant delivery results.

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

I don't think so. They are technically well-versed and always ready to manage team composition according to the client’s needs. They are committed to doing an outstanding job.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are BetterTradeoff Solutions, building a personalized life planning solution. I'm the Technical Project Manager of the team managing the deliveries of the engineering department.

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

We have a lot of ongoing projects in the pipe and we have onboarded CHI to help us in the delivery aspects of our solutions mainly Front End and Back- End Developers.

How did you select CHI Software and what were the deciding factors?

We initially onboarded at least 2 developers from their side and because of the good quality of the work they deliver, we grew up this number to a couple of more developers to join and help us to which until now we are happy to work with them.

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

We are working on a methodology of Agile and we are doing our releases on a weekly basis. We try to scope sprint deliverables on a bi-weekly basis and onboard the developers on each project concurrently. As part of the development team, the team members are required to participate in the topic review and analysis, PR reviews, documentation (when needed), and coding.

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

As of now, there are 7 developers working with us. 3 Fullstack developers 4 Front End Developers

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

After onboarding the initial 2 developers we saw good output from their work, that now they are able to manage larger and bigger scope. This helps us in delivering our outputs in the roadmap well and aside from that, the good skillset of all the developers overall now has helped us reached our targets for the past releases we had. We review their work for each topic and understand the quality of the work they produced from the QA testing output and PR reviews.

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

We are doing daily stand-up every day on slack and they re able to share their inputs from here. They are also participating in the demos for the topics they produce in our topic demo. They are good collaborators and we are able to work well with them even they are not with us on site. We used slack for communication, JIRA for ticket management and confluence for documentation.

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

They are hands-on with us and able to provide support to us as soon as we need them. I honestly like the professionalism of their management and people.

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

There were some challenges on some project delivery before but as soon s we've raised this they were very quick to provide the next course of action that we agreed with and proceeded.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company offers homogeneous database security experience in heterogeneous database environments in cloud and on-prem. I am a co-founder.

For what projects/services did your company hire CHI Software?

To perform external penetration tests of the system by authorized simulated cyber attack on a computer system, performed to evaluate the security of the system.

How did you select CHI Software?

We had a successful long-term project for several years. CHI Software performed very well. Since that time, this company is our reliable technological partner

Describe the project in detail.

We address CHI Software for support in penetration testing black box.

What was the team composition?

Our teams are based in the US and Ukraine. The CHI team of 10 people is part of Ukrainian technical forces.

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

We'll keep going with this company for several years. They provided feedback on findings of penetration tests.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Technical teams are in ongoing communication. They have everyday meet-ups and meetings with team leads to discuss the progress and outline future plans

What did you find most impressive about this company?

CHI Software is always good at assembling the right staff. They invest in their people, and you feel it. They have excellent hard-skills and are always playing as a part of your in-house team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are fully satisfied with their provided services.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m Co-founder at Binadox. Binadox offers homogeneous database security experience in heterogeneous database environments in cloud and on-prem.

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

My company was looking for a development team to proceed with the development process. We needed to set up a service which allows our clients to monitor, control, and optimize their Cloud & SaaS spend.

The main goal was to implement new features.

How did you select CHI Software and what were the deciding factors?

My experts interviewed and selected CHI Software based on their technical capabilities, project management process, price, and response time commitment.

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

The project was underway when we brought CHI Software to join. The team was open to work with our existing team and work on project development. The main task of the team was Cloud Cost Optimization & Subscriptions Management.

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

Our team was about 4 people. We worked with the Java, JavaScript, and DevOps developers. Project Managers Eugene & George made our cooperation smooth and efficient.

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

The company delivered services and technologies we need to reach our financial goals.

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

Overall very smooth. Their developers are embedded within our teams, so they are treated as the same for most purposes.

They did well in adopting our standards and practices. Even the time difference did not prevent effective work. We used Jira and Slack for communication mainly.

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

My team was great at communicating and project involvement. Some vendors do what they are told. These developers have insightful suggestions and wanted to see the project succeed.

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

They have been the perfect technology partner.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of an Israeli startup developing a political service system.

What challenge were you trying to address with CHI Software?

We have an in-house technical team but we needed a partner who could perform development in fields which we couldn’t cover.

What was the scope of their involvement?

CHI Software has designed and developed an iOS and Android application, including its server backend and the site crawler it uses — it’s a big part of our system. They started with initial designs and took the solution from a minimum viable product to its final stage. CHI Software has also managed the project for us and provided consultation on other technical matters.

How did you come to work with CHI Software?

We found them through our VP of R&D, who is a very technical person and knows many people in the field. It took us 3–4 months for us to find a company we’d want to work with. We chose CHI Software based on the testimonials from people that our VP trusted.

How much have you invested with CHI Software?

The cost of their work has been between $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with CHI Software 1½ yeas ago. We’re finalizing the iOS application.

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

We have been very satisfied with CHI Software’s team. We are still in the startup stage and haven’t gathered any metrics yet.

How did CHI Software perform from a project management standpoint?

In 2016, I would occasionally visit their facilities in Ukraine; they gave me good introductions to the place and the people in it. I’ve been very satisfied with them overall. They are very good in terms of planning and project management.

What did you find most impressive about CHI Software?

We’ve remained in touch with one of their account managers from the first day until now. This was different to the other developers I’ve worked with in past positions. CHI has very good customer service; I’ve always felt that there’s someone by my side. It’s very important for projects like these to know that there is someone to count on and not feel alone.

Are there any areas CHI Software could improve?

Everything went as planned with our project. CHI Software has given us much more than we expected.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with CHI Software?

Not particularly, but we have recommended CHI Software to 1 or 2 clients who called to ask about the company.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO of Say2eat, a company that develops food-ordering chatbots.

For what projects/services did your company hire CHI Software?

We hired them for business logic development.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed help with developing non-core functionality.

How did you select this vendor?

We chose them after multiple Skype interviews.

Describe the project in detail.

CHI Software helps us with multiple integration efforts with point-of-sale and online ordering systems.

What was the team composition?

We work full-time with an experienced .NET software developer.

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

The software developer is easy to manage, responsible, and independent. We are happy with him.

How effective was the project management?

We are responsible for project management.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are professional and cost-effective.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They need to invest in improving the English skills of their developers.