Deviark

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and owner of My Evil Twin, which I started in 2011 and now use as a shell company to develop special projects.

What challenge were you trying to address with Deviark?

In the early days of the App Store, there was a fairly successful mobile word game that was number one on the charts in 2011. It attracted the interest of educational companies to make alternative versions of it.

After its initial success on iOS, I brought the mobile game to a number of other platforms. However, its development had become somewhat dormant between 2014–2018 when I began to reinvest in the game personally. I reached a point where I couldn’t get enough done on my own and was looking for outside help.

I approached Deviark to develop the game and give me the necessary leverage to pursue the broader business strategy that I was going for.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The game had gone through lots of iterations for 4–5 years before it went dormant. When I brought it back to life, I also brought in Deviark to continue the development. Their team is iterating on the current, Native iOS codebase that was originally developed in 2011, and we have put out 40 updates over the course of a year. 

The app is written in Objective-C and the designing and improvement of the interface is done using Interface Builder. We began to integrate a little bit of SpriteKit as well, which Deviark has led the effort on. We also have a new account management system, now built into Firebase, and a web administration interface where I can manage player accounts. 

Deviark is also helping me code dynamic UI for the support of different screen sizes. 

What was the team composition?

I work with an engineer and met with the director to set up the project.

How did you come to work with Deviark?

I found them on Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably invested about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together for a year. I approached them in February 2020 and initially set a specific amount of time to do the development work, but the relationship was so good that I have continued working with them indefinitely.

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

So far, the outcome of the work has been extremely positive. I set the strategy and devise the features that Deviark is developing, but I wouldn’t be anywhere close to the throughput without their help. The game has doubled in monthly recurring revenue over the last year as a result of our combined efforts.

The Deviark team has been immensely valuable to me in terms of UI design and recognizing major errors. Early on, I was struggling with a particular UI functionality, so I asked the engineer from Deviark to take a crack at what I had been working on for hours. He was able to fix in 10 minutes and has done a great job on the UI designs I’ve sent him since.

In fact, we’re doing a big change right now to make the app support landscape mode, which it has never been able to do before. I would’ve never tackled that without the level of comfort that I had in their UI design skills. 

The team has also proactively reviewed some of the code I’ve written, even when we didn’t have a formal review process set up. They found a mistake that would’ve caused a bug that could only be found once everybody was using the app. This has led to us instituting a more formal review process, through which they’ve caught a lot of issues.

How did Deviark perform from a project management standpoint?

We work fluidly so we don’t have specific deadlines or initiatives, but at times I would ask Deviark for an estimation of how much effort, flexibility, and time a larger project will take. They’ve generally been close to accurate.

Their team has also worked over the weekend and late at night to deliver on deadlines that have come up. I very much appreciate that they go the extra mile, care deeply about their work, and do what it takes to get everything done. 

We use Slack, but occasionally use Skype for video calls. We correspond pretty much every day, and the written communication is excellent despite our different native tongues. It’s also very efficient and effective when we get on the phone to walk through a particular initiative. 

We don’t do sprints but we have a ticketing system on Airtable, which I’ve set up to be similar to Jira. Deviark also has someone on their side doing QA, and the QA process I set up with them has been very effective.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Deviark’s skill is absolutely there, but where I’ve seen them go above and beyond is in proactiveness. My impression is that they really care and are focused on doing good work. They think about user experience and the health of the codebase. That, to me, is a level of investment that I didn’t expect from a third-party provider. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve exceeded my expectations so much, so this is not really a criticism, as it is somewhat on me as well. Sometimes, when we start bigger projects, I’ll be busy and forget to schedule a kick-off videocall to go through the specific implementation that I’m looking for. Sometimes we will also skip steps and get sidetracked, which leads to work not getting done the right way. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

From my experience, it is important to have someone on your team that has the technical knowledge, because having Deviark do the entire architecture will not give you enough vision of where the project is going. Our engagement has been successful, in part, because I have a strong understanding of the codebase and how it works, as well as a strong sense of the direction I want to go in.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of Arcane People, a consultancy firm that provides services for different companies. We develop software and IT architecture.

What challenge were you trying to address with Deviark?

Deviark is our mobile app developer. So far, they’ve built two apps that have been published in the App Store and Google Play Store.

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the apps that Deviark has developed is called Vixinity, which is a social platform for residential areas. The app is integrated into our full-blown real estate platform. It has been developed for iOS and Android, and Deviark has also been responsible for the UI and UX design for the applications.

The customers are real estate owners, but the end users are actually the residents. With the platform, residents can do a lot of things when connected to the hardware installed in their household. For example, Deviark created a laundry booking system. To create this system, we showed them pictures and videos of how it would actually be used so that they could better understand our goal.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with different people. Normally, we work with 3–4 people, but at times, there have been 5–6. Usually, there’s a UX designer and developers. We also work with the owner of the company.

How did you come to work with Deviark?

We searched for a partner through Upwork. We found 3–4 interesting partners and compared them. We had some initial talks with each of them and went further with two parties: one from India and Deviark. Lately, we’ve been moving everything over to Deviark because they are much better compared to the team from India.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent approximately $25,000 USD, if not more.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in December 2018. They're continuously developing the platform, and we have deliveries each month.

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

The app is available for anyone to download, but real estate customers are the main audience. For example, if a neighborhood joins our platform and has 200 apartments, then all of those apartments could also join our app. It’s very controlled, so even if there are 10 million people living in Sweden, only the real estate companies that are connected to our platform can download it.

How did Deviark perform from a project management standpoint?

There have been deliveries made ahead of time, and there have also been delays. It’s a mixture. It depends on the complexity of the task as well. Since it’s not a straightforward app, the project estimates might not be 100% accurate, but that’s the life of software. I know that estimates are never fully guaranteed. Regardless, we’re happy with their work. We communicate through Teams, Trello, Skype, and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re adaptive. Their developers understand and pick up things quickly. We integrate a lot of cloud-based services, and some of them have prior experience with them. This has been good because then we don’t have to educate the developers on that service. If they’ve already done payment, marketplace implementations, or voice and video conferencing before, then we can use their experience, which is a huge benefit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve made changes as we’ve worked. At first, there was more of a fixed budget and fixed prices, and now we have more of a per-hour setup. We’re still trying that out. 

In terms of areas to improve, they could have more developers available. I think they need more people because they’re busy. Maybe it’s a priority issue as well because we don’t always keep all the developers occupied, so they go and work on their other clients’ tasks. I understand the situation, but obviously, in a green scenario, we would just have developers waiting for our tasks.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a proper initial dialogue from a business point of view with the owner of the company. Then, before the implementation actually starts, have a technical set-up run-through of each area with the developers, not just with the management. That has helped us a lot.

We didn’t do that at first. Later, we started video calls before each task began to go through what every task and small bit meant in detail, and what the end goal is. If they are developing a unique platform, they need to know how the app would actually be used in real life. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the General Manager of ITeQ SA. We are a marketing technologies firm specialized in the Pharmaceutical Industry.

For what projects/services did your company hire Deviark?

We wanted an Android application that would work in the backround and detect barcodes scanned. The application communicated with a database in the local network. The application pops up a notification message based on the barcode scanned and the information retrieved by the database.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to develop a plug n play application that would be easy to install and maintain.

How did you select Deviark?

My team researched all applicants who were intetested in our project. We used Upwork to attract the best talented developers. Deviark, gained our trust and although their offer was more expensive than others', their approach was professional and the key driver of our final decision.

Describe the project in detail.

We have tablets installed in Pharmacies and wanted to use the same tablet as a price checker for each pharmacy's needs.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a prohect manager, who assumed the responsibility of communicating with our team. He had technical and communication skills to master the project's management.

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

We have installed the application in more than 500 pharmacies and it works as designed to.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their project manager kept tight timelines and even worked with us on weekends.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They show respect to customer's needs. They deliver what they promise and they exhaust their effort for the best outcome.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I do not thing so.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Senior IT Consultant / Project Manager with ALTEN GmbH. I am leading different IT related projects for large automotive OEMs like Audi or MAN.

For what projects/services did your company hire Deviark?

We had a project with native mobile applications, which has been ongoing for years. Different software engineers have changed and we have faced with the number of different problems - technological debt and inconsistent business logic in the code. So, we hired specialists from Deviark to handle it.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to see that the communication with the end users of the mobile application is seamless. Our application sends notifications about accidents to the service providers. So we demanded to decrease the response time and, thus, increase the quality of the service.

How did you select this vendor?

Our team searched for a several opportunities within and outside of the company. Deviark seemed to combine several optimal qualities - fare price, highly professional software engineers and flexibility to travel and work in our premises.

Describe the project in detail.

Mobile24 is a solution for truck drivers which ended up in the accident, or require some help from the car mechanic, while they are anywhere in Europe. Using mobile application for truck drivers, they can create an instant notification distributed amongst the nearby certified car service providers. By using Mobile24 app, they are able to get the service request, accept it and manage the problem.

What was the team composition?

Initially we have involved iOS developer from Deviark, and later Android developer.

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

The application is now functioning successfully in production with thousands service providers using it. Response to a call time has decrease, and thus, the idle time for trucks has decreased as well.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We established sprint planning and sprint review meetings since the very beginning. So, each week our team members communicated and had at least one major meeting per week. Other routine questions has been tackled in one-to-one calls.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by the smooth communication with everyone from Deviark. They used to work in agile environment, and they understood very well the mechanics of requirements' management on all levels of our organization.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are and were satisfied with everything so far.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of Custom Software Development Company.

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

The design and development of a companion mobile app for a transportation dispatch system.

How did you select Deviark and what were the deciding factors?

Found Deviark on Upwork. After interviewing at least 7 other vendors, we chose Deviark and never regretted it.

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

Web design, Android Application design, and development.

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

We work with 4 people on the team: Project Manager, UI Designer, and Android Developer Tester.

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

The first version of the  product was delivered in 8 weeks. With Deviark's help, we moved the client's business from paper to electronic format, increased compliance, and streamlined their operations.

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

Quality work, frequent iterations, fast deliveries, and fast bug fixes. Great team communication 24/7. 

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

The team cares, working nights and weekends if needed.

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

Setup office in the US.