CodeWave

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an advertising agency owned by one of the largest publishing groups in the world. I’m the technology director—the lead technologist responsible for delivering all projects.  

What challenge were you trying to address with CodeWave?

We needed to find someone who could work fast over short deadlines, who was good at communication with creatives, responsive to input, and agile-oriented. Our projects are usually big, with fast turnaround times. We also needed a cost-efficient provider. We wanted to produce a very good and detail-oriented product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed a multi-localization, multi-language CMS that could provide a good workflow for the approval process with all stakeholders. They helped us establish that flow and update the CMS in terms of exporting and importing content in different languages and formats. This part was dropped on them in the middle of the project—it wasn’t expected, but they fulfilled the requirements without a hiccup. They used Symfony on the backend and the Bootstrap framework with typical HTML5 and JavaScript on the frontend.

The work is still ongoing. We have built a CMS, and now we want to introduce some apps into it. They will provide notifications to users about energy savings. We are building a large infrastructure.

What is the team composition?

The size of our team has varied. At its peak, it was more than 10 people, including front- and backend developers, DevOps, system administrators, database managers, and project managers.

How did you come to work with CodeWave?

We always triple-bid our projects. I had worked with CodeWave before with another company, so I kept them in mind. We typically provide a scope and budget frame to the candidates. They came out on top in terms of cost-effectiveness. On top of that, they guaranteed the quality of the product. I wouldn’t expect this from developers in our country, so it’s appreciated.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $200,000 in their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We had a first discussion about the current project in January or February 2017 then started work in March of that year. We had a release in May, then a refresh, followed by a phase two and a phase three. We have another phase that we will be introducing in around three weeks.

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

We were nominated for a Webby because of their good work. They did a pretty good job when it came to administrating the service. We were expecting high traffic of around 100,000 concurrent users, and the servers were set up for autoscaling so well that we had no hiccups whatsoever.

We’ve run a new campaign drawing traffic from web paid media. The traffic fluctuates, but we’ve never had problems from a code or application perspective when it comes to the service of the site or portal itself. This pretty much speaks for itself.

How did CodeWave perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always on top of the project, even when things were changing constantly. We used Redmine and Slack for communication. 

We didn’t experience a language barrier as they all speak English well. The time difference was sometimes an issue, but they worked long hours to compensate for that. It was surprising and good on their end.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re hardworking people looking for a challenge. Beyond doing what we ask them to do, they always try to come up with interesting solutions that make everyone happy and save money on both ends.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Creative technology is a hard domain. When presenting something to creatives, I expect some creativity on the developer’s end, which can be difficult.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to be communicative and to bring the team to the table as soon as possible so they can understand everyone’s goals. They’re not just workers.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m an E-Commerce Senior Manager at the Global IT department of a large, international company in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods vertical.

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeWave?

CodeWave has been supporting us with Content Management System developers and DevOps engineers, who support our global infrastructure for our E-commerce and brand sites.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main objective is to maximize our sales, we’re hiring CodeWave to help achieve that by maximizing the availability of our e-commerce and brand sites and optimizing our software delivery processes.

How did you select this vendor?

They were referred to us.

Describe the project in detail.

The contract is multifaceted, but the 2 most important areas are CMS implementations for microsites (each country/market has their own web presence) and dev-ops support of the cloud-based server infrastructure.

Since 2016 CodeWave has been maintaining our global server infrastructure in order to provide high availability of our services to millions of clients across the globe.

Since 2018 CodeWave has also been providing cross-functional teams that support CMS rollouts to new markets as well as migration projects, where we help upgrade existing CMS systems and/or help implement standard templates that comply with a global style guide that has been developed recently.

It is also our role to integrate these new sites with any 3rd party service providers, e.g. age verification APIs that help our client ensure that regulated content is only shown to the appropriate audiences as legalised in a given country.

Finally, thanks to the highly-available architecture that CodeWave has implemented – it’s trivial for our dev-ops engineers to ensure minimal downtime during the migration phase or during consecutive application updates.

On a higher level - they were also responsible for creating our disaster recovery plan for our global e-commerce services as well as for optimization of the underlying server architecture

What was the team composition?

The team composition varies, depending on our need we are able to quickly scale up and down, but we constantly hire 2 full-time DevOps engineers.

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

They have been supporting us for the last 3 years and the number of markets we’re serving online has grown in that time by 300%.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their project managers are very clear and to the point.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We really appreciate their involvement and professionalism. They helped us in numerous cases, while 1st and 2nd line support of our cloud and service providers could not find solutions.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of any at this stage.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a co-founder of a technology startup called Polarize.

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeWave?

We were looking for a company with experience in mobile development that could create an MVP version of a chat application.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to avoid any unnecessary bureaucracy in hopes of having an efficient project timeline.

How did you select this vendor?

Codewave was the ideal vendor for us. Their service was not limited to development, as we were supported during the app submission process and they even created a few simple tutorials for us.

Describe the project in detail.

We relied on CodeWave for the full development of an iOS chat application.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and two senior full-stack developers.

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

We have a working MVP app that we are in the midst of submitting to the App Store.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our communication with them was great. They were responsive and efficient.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

CodeWave has an experienced development team. From what I understand, all of their developers are senior- or middle-level experience at least.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, nothing stands out as needing improvement.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of Halo-Polska Ltd, a multichannel contact center.

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeWave?

We commissioned CodeWade to design and develop a multichannel CRM system that integrates multiple communication modalities such as telephony services (through a voice-over IP, or VoIP), email, text messaging, and web forms.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a system to help our agents better handle their heavy workload. It needed the ability to scale according to demand spikes for our services. After realizing that market systems didn’t meet the level of flexibility that we wanted, we hired CodeWave to create a custom solution for us.

How did you select this vendor?

We hired them through a referral.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They started with an 8-week analysis period where their analysts and project manager interviewed our staff on site and discussed the project’s goals with our leadership. They tried to incorporate as many viewpoints and ideas as possible. After finishing the analysis and budget negotiations, they prepared and presented a draft user interface. They then developed the system and migrated all customer-related data from our old system, a task that we didn’t expect they would be able to achieve. After clarifying some discrepancies, they completed the final product and launched it seamlessly just before Christmas.

What was the team composition?

They had a small team with a half-time project manager, two backend developers, and one frontend developer.

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

CodeWave’s system is entirely web-based, which has eliminated our hardware and licensing costs. The team provided a VoIP backend which helped us cut down costs on our VoIP hardware. In addition, the new system has shortened service times and thus wait times for our call services by 20%. Lastly, our agents find the system much more intuitive and easier to use.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We met with the team every two weeks to discuss progress and discrepancies in our scope, and the PM was accessible whenever we needed their help.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were always willing to try new things and suggest new solutions.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

They worked slowly at times, but having a bigger team might have resulted in more frequent communication breakdowns.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the digital and interactive project director at CzART. Sp. z o.o., a creative agency.

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeWave?

We needed a custom web CMS to help administer our client’s large community outreach program.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for a technology partner to support us on all of our efforts for our client’s website.

How did you select this vendor?

We already had a long relationship with them and knew that they’d deliver.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They helped us with business analysis and scoped the project to meet our client’s timing and budget requirements. They then built and deployed the system, providing support for any of our later requests.

They built the system to support multilingual content (for several Central European countries), a complex review process, and an external user login. It’s also scalable, which allowed the platform to handle a large amount of projected traffic.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, a full-stack tech lead, a backend developer, and a frontend developer.

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

We’ve been working together for over 15 years and have used their resources on hundreds of projects.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had a well-organized communication plan as well as routine meetings and calls. We also used their chat and ticketing systems to communicate directly with the developers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Instead of hiding behind the contracted scope, they were flexible and willing to look for solutions. They always found ways to make us happy. 

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I can’t think of anything, actually. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the managing director of a successful digital agency. We specialize in content marketing, SEO, multilevel web analytics, and marketing technologies for big brands.

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeWave?

We were looking for a strategic and experienced partner to provide expertise on IT technologies, including web development, server administration, and technical support. Having a technical partner would allow us to focus on things that we are good at.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to optimize and maintain a culinary recipe management platform for one of the biggest brands in the food industry. Our client wasn’t happy with the previous software house since the platform they provided was underperforming. It was full of bugs and difficult to maintain, resulting in a huge loss of active users almost every day.

How did you select this vendor?

We had previously worked with them on another account and were quite happy with the work they did.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They developed and implemented a repair plan for the platform. We were surprised at how quickly CodeWave’s engineers identified so many of the platform's problems. Their recommendations were always exactly what we needed.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of four engineers, including the tech lead, one senior full-stack developer, and a project manager.

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

We got the first positive results after just three weeks of development. They helped us decrease the site’s load time by 600% and significantly reduce the number of issues. They also improved the platform architecture and reduced technical debt.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their project manager was extremely helpful. We had weekly status calls and several in-person meetings. Our team found it convenient to use their online chat solution and bug tracker for all project-related communication.

They were also willing to discuss technical matters directly with the client and third-party vendors. In fact, they often took over all the communication, so our nontechnical staff didn’t have to worry about that. They were extremely open about everything they do. Every single staff member engaged in the project was always available in case we had any questions—they didn't hide behind their project manager.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

When it comes to technology, we always valued their opinion and expertise. We were impressed with their knowledge of web application scalability, without which we wouldn't have succeeded. They acted more like our internal development team than a vendor.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Please describe your company and your position there.

ChatPirate is online chat solution that integrates with a website and streamlines communication with potential buyers. We sell to the website owners. I was a board member of the organization backing this product.

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeWave?

We needed them to build our platform before we transitioned development to our in-house team.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a platform that would streamline the work of a contact center in terms of outbound communication with website visitors. The platform gathers information about the users’ behavior on the site and allows the agents to initiate chat and audio communication with the visitors. It also allows for inbound chat from the visitors to the agents.

How did you select this vendor?

They were referred to us.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They built a platform to support multi-tenancy, allowing multiple seats for agents within a single tenant. The agents can then see live as visitors browse the site and can chat directly with the visitors. They built a backend, an admin interface, a client interface, an embeddable chat, and tracker plugin for the client sites.

What was the team composition?

We worked with three engineers and a project manager.

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

Their deliverables made it possible to gain our first clients and start further development in-house. Their service was excellent and they supported us throughout the process.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had regular meetings and they provided demos of their work. We also worked directly in Redmine, CodeWave’s project management platform.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They delivered a very complex platform in a very short timeframe.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the former CEO of MedAdviceOnline, a platform for online health and lifestyle guidance. With our product, patients can schedule online visits with experts to seek consultations regarding diet and healthy habits.

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeWave?

We were looking for a development team that could quickly build our health platform. It needed to support audio and video consultations, handle payments, and schedule visits.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to build an initial version of the platform to begin onboarding experts and then market it to patients.

How did you select this vendor?

We had previously worked with them and were very happy with their work.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

CodeWave’s team provided full-service development to build our health platform, including back- and frontend development, server configuration, and code deployment. The platform featured audio and video streaming capabilities for online consultations as well as third-party payment integrations.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a project manager, who was the tech lead, and three engineers: a DevOps specialist, two senior full-stack developers.

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

Unfortunately, we can’t share too many metrics about our project, but CodeWave developed a solid platform. They designed the system to handle periods of high traffic spikes with ease. 

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was quite effective, and we were happy with the results. We used a handy mixture of in-person communication, Redmine to track bugs, and an online chat solution. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Not only did they work quickly, but the team was very interdisciplinary. For whatever problem we had, they’d immediately provide a specialist who could solve it.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They’re a little expensive, but it’s worth the price.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We’re one of the universal banks in Poland that belongs to the international Credit Agricole Group. I work as an e-learning team manager, overseeing several IT systems that support our HR processes.

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeWave?

We were looking for an experienced web development agency that could adapt our legacy appraisal system to the new competency model and modified rules. Our main objective was to update our forms to be easy to use and nice-looking.

What were your goals for this project?

Because we wanted to keep most of our old solution, we didn’t want to alter the backend while updating our forms. 

How did you select this vendor?

We released a request for information (RFI) into the local market, and CodeWave came up with the best offer.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

CodeWave developed three types of forms for our appraisal system, each featuring dynamic content, two language versions, and PDF exporting capabilities. First, they streamlined the form layouts and then built out the functionalities. Because of our system’s limitations, their team made all customizations on the frontend and optimized our system’s performance for legacy internet browsers.
 
What was the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, a full-stack tech lead, and a frontend developer.

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

In less than two months, the team delivered fully functional appraisal forms that complied with the new data collection competency model. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from users on the revamped system.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had direct collaboration between our small teams and mostly used online tools to communicate. If we encountered harder issues, we could also go on site to ask for support.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Even when we faced challenges that were beyond the contracted scope, they always tried to find the best solution. The team was quick and effective in resolving atypical problems.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They could focus a little more on keeping track of regression bugs, but, aside from that, there wasn’t anything major for them to improve.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the head of process management at a game development studio. We are known for the Dying Light series.

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeWave?

We hired them to conduct a business analysis for a complex ERP project.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to get an outside view of our IT system and internal processes. We needed to see how they fit into the features and workflows of off-the-shelf ERP systems. Based on the analysis, we could then develop the spec of an ERP system that would work for us.

How did you select this vendor?

CodeWave was a referral.

What was the team composition?

We worked with one business analyst.

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

CodeWave’s business analysis gave us a good starting point to find our ideal ERP solution. Eventually, we decided to build the system with a different vendor.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their business analysis was mostly self-managed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

CodeWave was quite open. They weren’t afraid to tell us that we would be better off with a different vendor.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can’t tell.