What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve received good feedback for the work so far. We have the ability to check code and perform reviews from our side. So far, it looks like Diceus is doing a very good job. I have nothing bad to say about them, but I don’t have any metrics to share.
How did Diceus perform from a project management standpoint?
We're working with them on a daily basis and using some tools for project management. They're based in Ukraine, so we’ve had to adjust ourselves to their time zone, but they do great work. We had to take time to understand their culture and everything else, but they've been responsive and we can trust them. After we decide on the timeline and sprints, they work according to those. The performance has been pretty good—we're satisfied with them.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The response time is one of the most important factors for me, along with flexibility, even outside normal working hours. We're in the U.S., they're in Ukraine, and we also have a team in the Middle East, so we need to work across different global time zones. With Diceus, I haven’t felt that I needed to check their work every hour. They are responsible, they appreciate the work, and it’s important for them to maintain long-term engagements. Whenever we have had an issue, they solved it quickly.
We have only been working with them for less than a year, but they’ve done a good job so far. We still have a lot of work to do, but we’re happy with the results up to now.
Are there any areas they could improve?
The biggest problem in working with Ukrainian teams—and something we perceived with our previous company—is communication. Once we found a good way to communicate, we were able to solve most of our issues. It’s not easy to communicate in English—especially for companies in Russia or Ukraine—but we found that Diceus was able to understand us. We could involve their CEO in discussions around strategy.
The previous company we tried to work with was absolutely horrible. They didn’t understand us, even though they kept saying yes to us. This hasn’t happened with Diceus. It took us at least a month to get to know each other and understand their capabilities and pace, but I feel very comfortable working with them.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
U.S. companies working with providers from these countries should make sure that there is a close collaboration during the onboarding process, in order to ensure the partner understand what is being built. Things will work smoothly after a month or two, but the onboarding process takes time. If one person doesn’t understand the client well, it can affect the whole team. We have to be particular in selecting resources, perhaps through interviews. I found that Diceus’ team was able to understand us and that they found the right people.
The solution increased overall efficiency and allowed senior staff to allocate more time to growing the business. The Diceus team was communicative and approachable, capable of sharing technical information in understandable terms. They were also very organized, reliable, and responsive.