DevCom

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of an online marketplace that strives to provide a safer platform for college students to buy, sell, and trade items.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire DevCom?

We hired DevCom to prototype and scope out our entire platform and unique algorithms, as well as develop a complete website and two mobile applications.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to establish a long-term, cost-effective relationship with a development company who not only knows the technical aspect of what they are doing but truly cares and believes in what they are building.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Because we have had numerous experiences with terrible developers and development companies in the past, we were very thorough in our interview process. We were impressed by the first representative we were in contact with, Natalya [Designer, DevCom]. She was very professional and thorough in communicating with developers and providing an initial detailed estimate. On our second interview, Dima--one of the company's founders--and his team spent two hours on the phone with us on Thanksgiving Day brainstorming project ideas, setting clear expectations of how we would be working with their company, and discussing the value that they would be able to add to our project.

Describe the project in detail.

CollegeBom is an online marketplace that allows college students to safely buy, sell, and trade all types of items with other students at their college or university. CollegeBom is unique in the aspect that it has complex matching algorithms that automatically find compatible buyers and sellers on campus and pairs them, allowing them to complete an exchange or transaction in a significantly shorter period of time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The development of our project has been progressing well. I can't stress enough how much the detailed elicitation process recommended by the DevCom founder has helped to clearly outline the full project scope, facilitated smooth technical development, and really helped us stay on budget. This has been undoubtedly the smoothest and most progressive development project we have been a part of, from a client standpoint.

How effective was the project management?

We work directly with about three members from DevCom, including the company founder. They provide excellent communication and are very professional and thorough in all that they do.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

What we find most impressive is the fact that everyone in the company genuinely seems to care about the project. They are not a bunch of "yes men" who will do and say "yes" to whatever you propose. If they believe that an idea may not be the best for the project from a technical standpoint, they will say so. Or, if they believe that they may have a better solution to accomplish the collective vision, they will propose it. My business partner and I make it a point to always strive to work with professionals who are much smarter than we are in a specific field, and, with nearly two decades of experience in software development, this couldn't be more evident than with DevCom. You can tell they really know what they're doing and they are very good at it. You can tell that everyone in their organization is passionate about what they do, almost as if they do not work for the number of hours that they can bill a client, but for the amount of value that they can add or create in a product.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

DevCom has hit the nail on the head with everything they have done, and we are glad to be working with them for the years to come.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a nonprofit organization aimed at helping internal auditors advance their concessions. We provide training, publication, and membership services.

What is your position?

I am the director of IT [information technology] and applications development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DevCom?

We had some unique development needs, and there was the consideration of cost from a nonprofit perspective. We were looking for flexibility in terms of the engagement model, so we didn't want long-term contracts. Our budget is determined year by year, which means that one year can differ greatly from the next in this sense, regardless of needs. We had to be careful about long-term, expensive engagements. Because we work with a variety of technologies, we also wanted to find a company that had the same skill sets, instead of having to hire five to six different vendors. DevCom fit the bill for our goals.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

DevCom initially developed a web-based .NET integration application for our company. They used SQL server tools, SaaS [software-as-a-service] packages and FTP [file transfer protocol] external data sources. We use third-party software that is hosted off-premise. For example, we've recently completed integration with GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting, which enabled us to create events remotely. We sell seminars through another third-party system so, when someone signs up, we want to register them automatically through the GoToWebinar API [application programming interface]. DevCom created integration components for this.

We also integrate with the eTouch event management system. Once people register for events, we need to push the information into our accounting system. We created integrations with a learning management system called DoceboLMS, which users can use for self-study, signing up for courses, watching videos, and taking quizzes. We needed to pull all financial information from it as well.

We have an annual nomination process through which members vote for new committee and board members. Our old one was run through a ColdFusion system that had been inherited from someone else. We migrated to a hosted system for which DevCom provided support, allowing us to push and pull data out of it.

We also used DevCom for a large SharePoint development project as well as many integration projects, which involved moving data from point A to B using a variety of ETL [extract, transform, and load] tools, many of them from the Microsoft stack.

After this, came a custom dynamic CRM [customer relationship management] development project that was used for our customer portal. We've also recently completed an e-commerce implementation of our bookstore, from a legacy ColdFusion system that DevCom had been maintaining up to that point, providing basic support for it. They transitioned our platform to an open source, .NET-based version, with customizations and integration capabilities for our fulfillment partners. This involved using various web services and FTP integration.

We sell many event registrations for seminars and conferences. DevCom built 10 to 15 SharePoint sites for our company, many of them portals for special types of customers.

How did you come to work with DevCom?

I had worked with DevCom before, for a different company, so I had an idea of their capabilities. DevCom is my go-to developer, out of the variety of companies we've worked with in Washington, D.C., and India. We've tried different things for different projects through time. DevCom was not our exclusive partner but, because of their flexibility and variety of skills, they became our first choice.

We went through a formal internal process, selecting and grading different vendors in the beginning. I've worked with the company for six years so, after a while, I came to settle and find the best vendors for particular jobs. I have an established relationship with DevCom. They visited us on-site three to four times in the past few years.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We spend around $100,000 per year with DevCom. We have a fixed monthly support budget, but also work with DevCom on fixed-price projects and one-off time-and-materials situations.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with DevCom six years ago [since 2010], and we've used them on around 30 projects. DevCom's team has become integrated with ours and is a part of our support system. Any tickets that come from customers are typically routed to DevCom for resolution. From that perspective, there is a lot of staff fragmentation. I always have three to four people from DevCom engaged in support activities. Once DevCom implemented our bookstore system, they became the permanent support resources for it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The first project that DevCom developed for us is still in operation today. We've experienced very few bugs, and it has an active user base from all around the world. It's a global system used by 110 institutes from many different countries.

Our bookstore implementation had a specific budget and time, which DevCom stuck to. It went live three weeks ago [July 2016] with no issues, and allowed us to increase our revenue. The current system is better and more stable than the old one.

As the director of IT, I oversee all software development in the company. DevCom's work reflects on my livelihood, so I wouldn't have continued to use them if I wasn't satisfied.

How did DevCom perform from a project management standpoint?

I have been working with a stable technical lead architect, a project manager, and a part-time QA [quality assurance] person from DevCom. We receive status reports on a weekly basis for each activity, and DevCom keeps us informed about any resources that may become unavailable. Working with the same architect has meant that I don't have to spend too much time explaining what needs to be done. DevCom has been good at maintaining the same resource for me. Developers change, and some are better at a job than others, but I don't care very much about this aspect. I work with two people from DevCom who take care of this for me.

What distinguishes DevCom from other providers?

DevCom has a very flexible approach. If I need resources for a four- or five-hour task, DevCom will give me an estimate. Their rates are very good for a nonprofit, so our business has been very pleased with the results and cost.

I do have a local staff, and I have worked with other, more expensive vendors, but DevCom has stood out. Their communication is very good as well. I will be notified about any delays, so I always know where we stand. DevCom has deep technical skills, so I can throw anything at them. If we start using a new API, I can be sure that DevCom will figure it out within a week and make a proof-of-concept app build. I've used DevCom for a lot of research and technical analysis whenever we bought new software in order to see if we'd be able to integrate with it, how stable it, and how well it performs. I can't think of any other vendor that would provide the same services with DevCom's cost and timeframe.

Is there anything DevCom could have improved or done differently?

Most of the time, we've worked with DevCom on a remote basis. They could do a better job at testing and collecting requirements upfront. We sometimes had to catch up down the road, but this is to be expected from a remote relationship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a management consulting firm offering a range of services. We specialize in working with airlines, offering restructuring and operational improvement services. I'm an associate consultant.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevCom?

We're a small firm, so we need to leverage technology. We don't have the manpower to handle some of our more complex projects that we're given. For one of our projects, we acted as a project management office, which equated to nagging people until specific tasks were completed. This can be annoying for the people involved and it's also time and manpower-intensive for consultants. We decided to create a website that would automate as much of this as possible, sending reminders and keeping track of things.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had worked with another supplier initially, but the process didn't go very well. DevCom stepped in and gave us a good amount of help.

DevCom has since helped us with all sorts of different projects, most of them related to PHP technology with SQL servers.

At peak capacity, we worked with 4 people from DevCom. The size of our team has been irregular, given that we didn't have a constant workload. We've had a trust relationship with them, working with the same people for extended periods and training new resources when someone left the company. The selection process was handled by DevCom, but we've had a say in it.

How much have you invested with DevCom?

The total cost of DevCom's services has been around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship with DevCom. I doubt that will change anytime soon. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

DevCom has enabled us to sell projects and have at least a two-fold return on investment.

How did DevCom perform from a project management standpoint?

In general, DevCom has been very good at taking rough-sketch specifications and working on them independently. We don't have a lot of time for coaching DevCom or babysitting their project managers, but they've delivered in terms of taking small bits of architecture and building something out of those.

We use GitHub for project management and bug tracking.

What did you find most impressive about DevCom?

DevCom has been extremely flexible and multi-skilled in terms of technology aptitude. We use everything from C#, Visual Basic for Applications, PHP on Linux, to SQL servers, and so on. We are also able to pause development for a couple of months and resume the work without issues. Working with DevCom has been great because of this.

Are there any areas DevCom could improve?

DevCom has sometimes struggled with big technical issues. They're great at taking business requirements and turning them into a finished product, but when we asked them to trail-blaze and figure out how to use new technologies or libraries, we've sometimes had issues. There wasn't anything major, but I prefer to do this myself.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company develops and designs software for libraries. I’m the head of technical services here.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevCom?

We wanted to create a digital system that would allow us to manage and distribute content to users while retaining effective security and user permissions. Also, the system should retain copyright information and should not be easy to share on various websites. These requirements could not be met by the more traditional, e-book-focused library systems, and DevCom helped us create a system that would satisfy them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our project was fairly small, with only 3-4 resources from DevCom assigned to it in the beginning. As we progressed, that number shrunk down to one developer and a project manager. DevCom was not familiar with the technology that we wanted to use, so they did some background research. We use a backend platform called Adobe Digital Server, which is a DRM [digital rights management] system. DevCom added layer functionalities on top of it, essentially creating a user interface by exclusively using ASP.NET MVC with an SQL server backend. The Adobe Digital Server is a SQL-based application itself, but it uses Apache Tomcat. As part of our application, DevCom also built a Windows service that could process tasks in the background. We also have our own bug tracking software that DevCom accessed for the main bug list.

How did you come to work with DevCom?

We typically outsource our development needs to a different company, but they were already maxed out with our other project. One of my colleagues looked at a few companies and we ended up choosing DevCom.

How much have you invested with DevCom?

We have invested around $20,000 in DevCom's services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We're not developing anything at the moment with DevCom, but we can contact them at any time for any new additions to the system they handled.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the product is new and does not have a huge user base, it's hard to convey too much end-user feedback. In terms of the DevCom team itself, they've been more than willing to research answers to anything they're not familiar with. DevCom did this before we even signed up with them. The product itself has been very good and there were minimal bugs in the system. The user interface is as we wanted it, so we're generally happy.

How did DevCom perform from a project management standpoint?

I acted as project lead during the initial phase and helped draw up specifications. Given our budget and needs, DevCom specified what was and was not included on their end. We worked on a fixed price for the initial project, but we also added additional features which DevCom quoted separately. As far as budget goes, everything was as expected and there were no major issues. DevCom was generally on time, with only a couple of occasions where the work slipped by a week.

What did you find most impressive about DevCom?

I appreciated DevCom’s approach when it came to working with a new technology. They were more than willing to learn what was necessary to deliver the solution we needed. On many occasions, DevCom presented ideas for moving forward. This was helpful because, on several occasions, we knew what we wanted but didn't know how to implement it.

Are there any areas DevCom could improve?

There's nothing that really stands out. It was a simple project, compared to our other developments. Everything went as expected and there were no big problems or delays.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the president of a retailer and distributor of airsoft related products, one of the largest in the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevCom?

I started working with DevCom around six or seven years ago or something like that. I was looking for an offshore opportunity, and they seemed to have the right talent and right prices. I’ve been working with them ever since.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done both maintenance and development work for us where it’s not just maintenance for improvements but also custom coding from scratch. The website as it stands right now was developed by DevCom. We were involved; we have internal resources as well, but probably 60% of the work was performed by DevCom. It was a site built from the ground up. It was Java, Tapestry, Apache Tomcat, HTML5, JavaScript, all of that.

How did you come to work with DevCom?

The owner and I used to study at the same college, so we ran into each other at one of the events.

How much have you invested with DevCom?

Under $200,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them for about six or seven years, and we are working with them currently. In fact, we continue to spend more money with them every year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

No, we don’t do that. We don’t measure their success based on metrics or our website performance in any way, so I wouldn’t know. It would be hard for us to say that for anything. Our success online is tied to so many different things.

What did you find most impressive about DevCom?

I think that their developers are really good. I think that they care. At least the ones that we work with seem to care about quality, which is always good. I think that these are all pluses.

I’m happy with their billing practices and with how they approach things. If we agree on something being a fixed project, which is not often but happened a few times where it’s a fixed cost, they never came back to me. Even though a couple of times they underestimated, they never came back to say that that was the case and they need some adjustments to be made, which is not that common. In general, I think they’re more than fair in their billing and how they account for developers’ times and things like that.

Are there any areas DevCom could improve?

I think that they could do a better job estimating how much time a project would take.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated on May 17th, 2019, by the client. The original star ratings were: Overall - 4.5, Quality - 4, Schedule - 3.5, Cost - 5, NPS - 5. New content is below.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Pyramyd Air, a designer, retailer, and distributor of sporting goods.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevCom?

We were looking for an offshore development team that could help us grow our business. We wanted to invest more into our software infrastructure, including both frontend and backend work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DevCom is directly or indirectly responsible for most, if not all, of our frontend development work. They’ve built several websites for us, and their team is currently using infrastructure that they created to migrate web content for a company that we own. They’ve also implemented an order management system that we now use.

In addition to web development, they provide QC, design, and architectural planning for a variety of projects. DevCom also identifies opportunities for us to enhance our IT offerings and refine our product development processes.

About two years ago, the team expanded into mobile app development for iOS and Android devices. So far, they’ve completed numerous projects using an array of programming languages, including Java, Perl, and PHP. They also provide system administration for our Linux OS and updates to our ERP.

What is the team composition?

There’s a project manager, a QC specialist, and several developers.

How did you come to work with DevCom?

I went to college with the owner of DevCom, and we ended up connecting on LinkedIn. He saw a post that I made about my search for an offshore development team and reached out to learn more. We began our partnership soon after that.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with DevCom in 2010, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

DevCom is directly responsible for our success as a company, and we attribute much of our growth to the numerous services that they’ve provided to us.

How did DevCom perform from a project management standpoint?

Their management team is top notch, but we’ve had some mixed experiences with different project managers. We typically communicate via Slack, email, or phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Most recently, I’ve been impressed by their flexibility and commitment to our success. We recently finished phase one of a mobile development project, and we found ourselves in a position where we had to decide if we wanted to continue with phase two. It made sense to pause development because we were waiting on another project that was going to be finished another couple of months. At the same time, we were worried about losing our development team to reassignments during this gap.

We discussed our concerns with DevCom, and they were willing to begin development on phase two so that we could keep the same developers. They offered us a favorable set of payment options and terms that let us avoid the costs associated with onboarding new developers. This was completely unexpected and showed the type of committed partner that DevCom is.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. Right now, I’m very happy with our partnership.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate with their leadership frequently and have very open discussions with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We operated a search engine that helps ad technology and e-commerce companies target their customers better. As of summer of 2016, the business isn't currently active, but it was founded seven years ago.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DevCom?

I needed to create a proof of concept for my idea. I had an idea for how to collect information and needed someone to write the code. Ultimately, I knew this meant I would need a partner, but price was a huge factor, so offshoring was the best option.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

DevCom proposed a design for the software architecture and then wrote the code as a deliverable. After the initial success of testing, they continued to work for me during the course of seven years iteratively refining the prototype into a platform consisting of multiple web applications operating at scale.

The work itself fell into a few areas: developing different types of web crawlers, database development, improving performance of software to collect more information, more quickly working with different APIs [application programming interfaces] to integrate services from other software, creating an email feature, devops for the system, and many custom reports and interfaces for individual clients.

The size of the team from DevCom varied from three to eight people. I interacted with them directly and through a project lead. The nature of the interaction varied according to the task. The project lead was always available to me, helping as needed.

How did you come to work with DevCom?

A trusted friend referred them to me. DevCom was the top choice from the start.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost with DevCom has been around six figures.

What is the status of this engagement?

The most recent project completed with DevCom was in April 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

DevCom directly contributed to my success. Without them, I wouldn't have had a functional website that, in turn, would not have led to the customer loyalty that drove the sale of my website.

How did DevCom perform from a project management standpoint?

DevCom delivered the work within time and budget. We used Assembla for project management at DevCom's recommendation. They also introduced me to agile software development.

What distinguishes DevCom from other providers?

I appreciated the collaborative nature of the relationship. Even though DevCom was technically a contractor, and I was just another client for them, I felt a strong personal connection. They were enthusiastic about their work in a way that went beyond just being professional.

Is there anything DevCom could have improved or done differently?

It was inevitable that we'd encounter challenges with people on DevCom's team and because we had a very good relationship resolving those challenges was a lot less painful than it could have been.

Any potential customers of DevCom should be specific in their requirements as possible. DevCom will do what is asked of them so, the more precise a client is in their phrasing and in establishing what it is that they want and how it could work, the less opportunities for the miscommunication or misunderstandings that slow down projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a media agency based in Germany. We mostly work for clients in our country, as well as ones in Switzerland and the UK. We were founded in 1999, so we’ve been in the market for a long time. We mostly develop medium and large corporate websites and platforms used for workflow management.

What is your position?

I am the owner and founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DevCom?

We were developing a tool that helps us synchronize our work. It works like a project management platform.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We are the project owners and inventors of the platform, but DevCom acted as our scrum team, doing all of the heavy lifting in creating the different parts of the project, coming up with solutions and providing a good workflow. The project was developed using the Symfony 2 framework. DevCom has been straightforward to work with, always on time and always friendly. They provide a high quality of work.

DevCom has provided a technical project lead with whom we maintained communication. Technical resources were also included in our Skype calls from time to time. We’ve had a good understanding of DevCom’s team.

How did you come to work with DevCom?

We found DevCom through eLance.com. When we look for development partners, we usually consider offshoring solutions, so we have a good experience with onboarding new teams. We did provide DevCom a small test project in order to see if they would perform and deliver on time, with the quality level demanded by us. DevCom succeeded, so they became part of the scope of the developers used by our company.

The other candidates for this project were all offshore developers. We’ve had some bad experiences working with Indian companies, so we leaned towards Ukraine, which only has a one-hour time difference from Germany. We have frequent video conference calls because it’s important for us to be face-to-face with our partners.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost with DevCom was around $40,000. The initial investment was between $10,000 and $15,000 for a minimum viable product. We expanded DevCom’s involvement more and more from that point.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with DevCom for over a year. The minimum viable product was delivered after three months of development. Since then, our relationship has gradually evolved. We have worked on the same tool with DevCom, but it has grown bigger and bigger over time. We are making some changes under the hood, but the frontend part of the platform has stayed the same.

We are currently discussing two more projects with DevCom, but they haven’t been started as yet.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

DevCom does the heavy lifting for us, and I’ve appreciated the fact that they don’t bother us. DevCom has a good quality assurance process. They publish work from a development server directly into a production system. A huge part of our operations are run through this system. We’ve never had downtimes or any other issues. For the money that we’ve invested, working with DevCom has been a huge success.

How did DevCom perform from a project management standpoint?

DevCom worked as if they were a part of our company in developing our tool. I can pitch an idea to them in five minutes. DevCom will discuss it with their development team and present a minimum estimate within one business day, on which I can base my decision. All they will need from me then is an approval to start the project.

DevCom is using the tool that was conceived by us for project management. Billing is done through it, so DevCom is communicating with us through the same platform that they developed, although they could have worked with any other project management tool. DevCom tries to make the process easy for the customer.

What distinguishes DevCom from other providers?

DevCom is very proactive. Whenever we have an issue, we can reach out to different resources. There was never a case in which I felt like I needed to escalate an issue to a supervisor. We’ve liked working with DevCom.

RATINGS

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I am the founder. We are a big data company focusing on geographical information and simulation systems by which infrastructure is planned and simulated for various uses, like gas stations, fiber networks, gyms, supermarkets and so on. The company is comprised of only 3 people. We run databases, sales, and model development implementation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DevCom?

Our software development is outsourced because we don't have the skill sets here internally. DevCom is one of our suppliers. We manage them directly. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We design solutions and determine what we need in terms of data-in and data-out, after which we discuss the actual implementation with DevCom. They take into account databases and any special software.

DevCom is able to develop with almost any technology, but we've focused on standard Microsoft stack, SQL databases, web services and browser-based systems.

I don't think that they have expertise in geographical information systems, but they are adept at optimization problems. DevCom has also started focusing on machine learning implementations. They have very good mathematicians within the company and are not afraid of trying anything. DevCom is comprised of quick learners. They're also shop-minded, with an understanding of data structures and business logic.

Our first project consisted of a system which was built with DevCom's help. It worked very well. We have been in the development phase for 2 other solutions for the last 3 years. One of those has been very difficult to develop and has taken 10 months on its own. Whenever plans don't work out, working with DevCom is still good. They don't give up.

How did you come to work with DevCom?

They were referred to us by another supplier for specific mathematic algorithm optimization problems, which is a specialization of theirs.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost so far has been between $75,000 and $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship with them. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence could you share to demonstrate the impact of their involvement?

Compared to Danish programmers, DevCom has a productivity of about 300%. They deliver on the contract constantly. We rarely discover bugs in their deliverables and the solutions they develop have unparalleled performance speed. We've been very impressed with their technical competence and that's why we continue to use them. 

How did DevCom perform from a project management standpoint?

DevCom has a team of professional, engaged and ambitious people who speak perfect English and are certified in project management. They are also very polite and interesting people; the best software team I've worked with. DevCom tries to understand the work from our point of view and deliver what we need.

Software development entails a complex relationship between the client and the vendor. There is always an element of risk involved. During the testing phase, there will always be elements which we decide to change.

We have used project tracking tools with DevCom but, if the mutual understanding between the teams is high, there won't be a need for micromanagement. DevCom is capable of creating fully-documented project reports. They are a certified scrum company, but I didn't care very much about these capabilities.

What distinguishes DevCom from other providers?

DevCom is a very friendly team. They are not tough business people, but actually enjoy what they do. They really have a personal touch. They're not a big organization with many rules.

Is there anything DevCom could have improved or done differently?

Improvement can be found on both sides. I should plan more and be more specific with what DevCom needs to deliver. Whenever I gave them easy tasks, DevCom delivered on-schedule. For more difficult things, I have to expect that the process won't be a straight line. I've always had the impression that DevCom's team try to do their best, which is the factor by which I judge them. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We have developed an aggregator that looks for the best route to market for a total-loss vehicle. If someone was to have an accident, his or her insurance company would write him or her a check and then dispose of the salvage. They would do this within one of two large auctions in the United States. For the United Kingdom market, we've devised a way of gathering information on what a salvaged vehicle would sell for within different locations. We enable companies to choose between dismantling a vehicle for parts or sending it to a particular salvage auction. We achieve this through multiple methods, one of which being that we scrape data from other sites, which is legal in the U.K. We have information about every single salvaged vehicle in the country in terms of where it's being sold, for how much, and what are the fees for the sale. We use different algorithms in order to determine the best route for the vehicle. An insurance company can use our software in order to work out how they can make back the most money on a vehicle. I initially wanted to develop the project for the U.S. market, but I've since sold the intellectual property to a U.K. company.

What is your position?

I am a shareholder in the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DevCom Consulting?

I started a project in the U.K. and needed developers for it. I decided to reach out to DevCom.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

DevCom has helped me develop the aggregator as a web-based application. They've built our SQL [structured query language] database on top of which lies a .NET and PHP architecture. We have also used DevCom to build our CRM [customer relationship management] system that helps our client companies manage their assets as they work through the system. There's a significant amount of functionality across multiple systems that were developed by DevCom. Depending on the type of user, interfacing with the application will be different.

DevCom assigned us an average of four full-time resources during a two-year period. There have been times in which the team size varied, depending on various items. The app is now live, so we keep a smaller team for support and enhancements. DevCom provided an on-site project manager who acted as a direct interface with the developers, but I also interacted with the resources directly.

How did you come to work with DevCom Consulting?

I was introduced to DevCom by an American business partner.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The average yearly cost of DevCom's development was between $100,000 and $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project had a two-year development time. I have an ongoing relationship with DevCom for maintenance and support. It wasn't my original plan, but I found that it would be economical to leave the project with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We've received extraordinary feedback from end users. The product has just been launched, but it has proven to be a massive disruptor for the industry. Companies are aware of what we've created, so this may actually change the way in which trading is done in the industry. We have a monopoly at the moment.

When we were developing the algorithms that were going to be used in order to determine where different vehicles should go, we looked at both the U.K. and U.S. markets. One of the U.S. insurers to which we were talking sent our code to the Harvard Business School in order for them to analyze whether the forecasts were accurate. The team there validated that what we were doing was fantastic and would work perfectly.

How did DevCom Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management from DevCom is very strong. I did have a very small issue with the previous project done through their company. The project manager I was using at the time had a willingness to please and said yes to everything. That project didn't go anywhere.

For the current project, I've worked with two separate project managers who were very easy to work with and happy to tell me if they disagreed with something. I've worked with many offshoring firms. If I gave them requirements to, for example, build me a table, and they came back with a completely solid block with no legs, they would justify that through the fact that I didn't explicitly request the feature in the specs. This would never happen with DevCom. They would presume that I wanted legs, most likely four of them. They push back consistently and politely when they feel that the requirements are lacking. Because we develop using an agile methodology, documentation is sparse. This means that a project can only possibly work if the people at the other end know what they are talking about, make note of the things that will not work and find solutions. This is a skill that the project managers from DevCom have had.

One of our project managers moved to another company six months ago. Even though I was happy with the initial one, having a different point of view from someone with whom I wasn't friends was a refreshing change.

What distinguishes DevCom Consulting from other providers?

I like the size of DevCom. I've visited their offices in Ukraine 10 to 12 times during the last couple of years. They're big enough not to be dependent on our project, but they're also small enough to care about it. DevCom is the right size for a company of our size. They're located in a university town and have a huge talent pool to choose from, which means that they always had the right talent for us. When we moved from MySQL to SQL Server, or to a .NET architecture, there was always someone in DevCom's building who was fully skilled and knew what they were talking about. We've never had to outsource development tasks to another company as a result.

I have run a previous project that I couldn't give to DevCom because it required Ruby on Rails, which wasn't one of their skills. Ruby on Rails hasn't worked out as well as everyone thought, so they ultimately bet on the right horse.

The first project for which I used DevCom was a database one, so I didn't need design resources. I did mention that I would need to deploy that database to Ruby on Rails at some point, which DevCom clearly mentioned was not a capability of theirs.

Another good thing about DevCom is that they give me access to their senior management. Many of their principals have stayed involved in the project and checked in with me, making me feel a bit warm and fuzzy about the relationship.

It's easy for DevCom to work on U.K. time because of their experience in U.S. projects. We're closer to DevCom in terms of time zones than they would be to a U.S. company, but I never had the impression that we were working on a different schedule.

I've always received ridiculous amounts of notice about employees taking leave. DevCom also has a very courteous and polite team, which I've discovered is true for most Ukrainian people.

Is there anything DevCom Consulting could have improved or done differently?

From a design perspective, I haven't found DevCom's skills to be the best. I have outsourced this part of the work to another company. We built a series of prototypes at DevCom, but we never addressed how they would look. From a usability standpoint, the material produced by DevCom was very strong, but they don't claim to be designers. I contacted some U.K. designers that I'd used in the past. DevCom integrated them seamlessly. They were comfortable in working with a designer whom they never met and implemented the work easily.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is a software applications designer. We design custom software for different markets.

What is your position?

I am the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with DevCom Consulting?

We needed additional development resources.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

DevCom has developed around 9 applications for our company over a period of 16 years. We handle the design work and create algorithms, after which we work with a project manager and/or programmer in the Ukraine directly in order to develop the product. Mock-ups are sent to DevCom using Balsamiq and we interface with them on any question through Skype.

For example, we have developed a web-based PC application for running a scheduler. The result was quite effective. Other products have been medical, beauty shop, point-of-sale, employee tracking applications, and so on.

Our applications were developed using C++, C#, Microsoft SQL, HTML, and numerous other technologies. DevCom appears to be familiar with all development languages and we've been happy with their output. DevCom has the expertise to do the work. Someone in their organization will always be up-to-date with newer technologies. We've recently converted many of our applications to smartphone and tablet versions.

How did you come to work with DevCom Consulting?

In 1998, we were working with programmers for C++ and Pascal. We couldn't find any resources in the US, so we ran an online ad. One of the principals at DevCom contacted me. We did consider two local companies, but our main issue with those was that they ended up interviewing us instead of the other way around. We had written a statement-of-work specification for the software, so we knew what we wanted and what the final product should be.

We had devised an algorithm which was sent out to all prospective applicants. It had to be solved within a limited time. DevCom was one of the few companies which solved the task right and on time. The algorithm had been written to interface with Pascal. It was worked out in such a way as to fail anyone lacking expertise in that particular language.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The average annual cost of DevCom's development services has been around $20,000-30,000. This cost is for

What is the status of this engagement?

DevCom is currently developing a new application for us which will run on mobile devices.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Over the years, most of the products developed by DevCom have had a 99% score. We've developed an application for medical offices which can run in Windows 10, even though it has been developed more than 10 years ago. Microsoft is changing their platform all the time, but we were able to run our software on a modern platform without modifications. An application not only needs to be bulletproof, but it has to have an effective table and memory management in order to perform.

Security is another area in which DevCom has performed well. Our products, or parts of them, will never be found in other competitive applications, which tends to happen with other offshore companies in India and China.

How did DevCom perform from a project management standpoint?

We receive weekly reports for DevCom's weekly cycle. A lot of the work is hard to estimate until the specifications have been made and we have an algorithm in place. Part of the software development business is choosing the best tools for each project.

DevCom uses internal project management tools, but we don't submit tickets to their system.

What distinguishes DevCom from other providers?

We focus on Pascal and C++ development. These languages seem to have the ability of doing virtually anything in terms of development. DevCom is quite good at web development as well, and in comparison to other firms, they actually can do the work. Whenever we tried to test other groups, we ran into communication issues which we didn't find in DevCom. Any technical issues are pointed out quickly and we know when there's an impediment.

Is there anything DevCom could have improved or done differently?

DevCom develops applications for us, while we handle customer support.