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    Kyiv, Ukraine
    +380963664726

Enterprise Software Development Company

4.8
8 reviews

Diceus is a leading enterprise product development and service company headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Kiev, Ukraine.

Established in 2011 our company has a strong physical presence in the region and an enduring investment in its infrastructure and people.

At Diceus we have extensive experience in developing and maintaining large enterprise solutions. After years of implementing successful solutions for well-known customers, our strong team has put all the best architectural practices and concepts together in a unique approach to any type of business solution.

With over 5 years of experience in large-scale solutions, we serve our customers in over 20 countries across North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia.

Find more information at www.diceus.com

Our Advanced Services:

Enterprise software development

The main focus: CRM, ERP, SCM, EAM. 

Re-engineering migration maintenance

We help to expand, modify and add new functionalities to current systems.

Web development

Diceus provide end-to-end solutions for all web related necessities. 

Mobile development

Great experience in creating beautiful looking, functional, and user-friendly native or coss-platform mobile applications.

Training & Consulting

Complex consulting services: software architecture; enhancement advisory; research and rapid prototyping; application design reviews; project rescue.

READ MORE...
 
$5,000+
 
$25 - $49 / hr
 
50 - 249
 Founded
2011
Show all +
Kyiv, Ukraine
headquaters
  • Diceus
    Ivana Lepse Boulevard, 4
    Kyiv
    Ukraine
    +380963664726
other locations
  • Diceus
    Konstitucijos pr 23B-305
    Vilnius
    Lithuania
    +37068392895

Focus

Service lines

  • Web development
  • Custom Software Development
  • Mobile app development
SHOW ALL +

Client focus

  • Midmarket ($10M - $1B)
  • Enterprise (>$1B)
  • Small business (<$10M)

Industry focus

  • Financial services
  • Manufacturing
  • Health care & life sciences

Mobile platforms

Mobile focus

Frameworks and CMS

Programming & scripting

Ecommerce systems

Application platform

BI & big data focus

BI & big data solutions

CRM functions

CRM solutions

Portfolio

Key clients: 

BriteCore, NEXTCOM, TEAMBase, Total Image Group, Connector.org, SimpleTix, WebSpin360

 

HR/Benefits Administration Solutions

Organization chart page - users with permissions can see who corresponds to whom inside the company. 

Insurance Broker Solutions

Solutions for: Policy administration, Claims administration, Census administration, Company administration, Flexible Spending Accounts, Medical/Nonmedical claims, Carriers/Insurers administration, HR/Employer/Broker/Insurance companies portal, Insurance package administration, Medical network/Clinics administration, Employees and Dependents administration

E-commerce solutions

Multi-website E-commerce System with dynamic content configuration based on Umbraco, Magento, Sitefinity. 

Construction and Financial Management Solutions

Financial management system for the construction industry.

Insurance Solutions

BenefitNet is a cloud based solution designed for insurance companies, insurance brokers and employers that automates key business processes such as census management, invoicing and premium reconciliation, management reporting and members self-service access. The solution has been successfully deployed with several brokers in the region and currently services more than 150,000 users.

Diceus eBook: How To Create Multitenancy Cloud Framework

"How To Create Multitenancy Cloud Framework" 

After years of implementing successful solutions for well-known customers, our strong team has put all the best architectural practices and concepts together – and now we’re announcing a book: "How to create a Multitenancy Cloud Framework" for any type of business solution based on Microsoft technologies.

Along with everything mentioned above we are going to share some more important points about Azure.

Join us to receive early eBook sections and presentation materials:
http://ebook.diceus.com/

 

Social Networks

Connector.org is a social network that provides tools and technologies for the Christian community. YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9acux49Ll0pFvnAk-8FDog

HR/Benefits Administration Solutions

Teambase HR is a cloud based solution that will enable you better manage staff, simplify HR and other corporate administration processes and help improve internal and external collaboration and efficiency. If you need a cost-effective and flexible solution that will assist with operating your staff and key business processes then Teambase Corporate Suite will meet your needs. Kindly see presentation of this project:  http://teambase.cloudapp.net/en-GB/Temp/ClientSummary

 

Reviews

4.8
8 reviews
Sort by

.NET Development for CRM Systems Integrations

"We don’t have a lot of time to describe tasks thoroughly, and Diceus has not taken up much of our time."

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5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
4.0
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$200,000 to $999,999
 
2012 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Diceus focuses on .NET development and integration tasks. They led a two-way synchronization between a custom CRM and SugarCRM, among other custom backend work, often including extra helpful features.

The Reviewer
 
11-50 Employees
 
Oslo, Norway
Steinar Talmoen
Co-Founder, NextCom Evolution
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

Diceus learns and performs processes well. Their work is reliable. A language barrier is present, but has become better over time, and they can handle complicated tasks without needing much direction, if any.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Nextcom is a Norwegian CRM provider. I am the head of development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Diceus?

We needed help with integration tasks. We are a small company, with few developers available internally.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, we had a single task for Diceus. They performed well, so we continued working with their team, hiring two developers on a fulltime basis for two projects. We mostly use them for .NET development.

One of our functionalities is two-way synchronization between our CRM and SugarCRM, which are both large systems, with more than 1,200 tables on which information can be entered, for order processing, customer information and so on. It was a large task, but Diceus performed well, and the synchronization is up-and-running for many of our customers.

They have also completed a large integration with a large ERP for a German client. They have a modular product hierarchy with no fixed product IDs which we could import into our system; everything is built using separate modules which are selected by salespeople. The customer wanted an integration with this backend system, which would automatically update our product register, as well as perform different calculations around distances between telephone centrals. If someone is closer than 2,000 meters to a central, they can obtain a certain speed, compared to being 5,000 meters away, and so on. The whole product integration is 100% dynamic, meaning that our customers don’t have to maintain product registers in two different places. The system submits orders back-and-forth, and connects to our backend in order to check statuses and make updates according to their own system.

How did you come to work with Diceus?

We went through a process of finding a company that could work on our task, and with which we could potentially create a partnership. We posted a job on Freelancer(.com), but the task wasn’t properly described, so we received replies from 100 Indian companies which offered to deliver exactly as we wanted, but there were also two companies which mentioned that the task description was wrong. One of them was Diceus. We chose them for the task after multiple calls with Diceus and the other development firm. We didn’t want to choose a company which simply charged us hours for bad work, but one which actually understood what we wanted, and which wanted to do a good job. Diceus was suited for this task, and they included extra features in the integration, which we hadn’t thought of in the beginning.

How much have you invested with Diceus?

The cost of Diceus’ work has been between $50,000 and $150,000 annually. We are currently using three developers, who are up-to-date with our systems. Two of them are working on a fulltime basis, and the third is kept on standby, for when we have extra tasks to execute.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Diceus in 2012 or 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There’s not much I could provide in this sense, since many of our clients aren’t publicly-known. The combined number of people using Diceus’ integrations is around 2,000 per day.

How did Diceus perform from a project management standpoint?

In the beginning, I was working a lot with Diceus’ project manager, but we haven’t needed to do this lately. The developers understand our requirements very well, so we can assign them documentation directly. They know our system, and can develop what we need.

Diceus has been mostly on time. In the beginning, our developers’ English levels weren’t very good, which led to mistakes in the communication, but it’s become much better over time.

What did you find most impressive about Diceus?

One of the good benefits for us, as a small company performing a lot of work with few employees, has been their team’s ability to understand tasks on their own. We don’t have a lot of time to describe tasks thoroughly, and Diceus has not taken up much of our time. I’m very happy with the relationship.

Are there any areas Diceus could improve?

Not at the moment. Diceus is working well on our current tasks.

5.0
Overall Score We are a very happy customer.
  • 4.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    Some of the estimates have been wrong at times, but not very often.
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    They’ve delivered at the same speed we would expect from developers in Norway, but the cost is much lower.
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    We are happy with the quality of the work. Diceus can understand our tasks easily.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer
    I would definitely recommend Diceus.

Microsoft Stack Cloud Development for Software Provider

"They have certainly contributed to our growth, and I’m happy with the collaboration."

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5.0

Quality: 
4.5
Schedule: 
5.0
Cost: 
4.5
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
1,000,000 - 9,999,999
 
Feb. 2011 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Diceus conducts development of cloud-based products for a UAE software firm, providing full-stack coding, QA, and project management resources to support a growing customer base.

The Reviewer
 
11-50 Employees
 
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Robert Koval
Managing Director, Teambase DMCC
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

The collaboration has increased by as much as 25% each year, thanks to Diceus’ technical capabilities and quick feedback adoption. The team’s professionalism, cost-effective rates, and consistent delivery continue to support both the engagement and product end-users. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Teambase is a Dubai-based solutions provider. I am the managing director of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Diceus?

We needed help building one of our cloud products. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Diceus is working as an outsourced provider for our company on the product development side as well as on project execution. We’ve worked with Diceus on two products, one of which is a cloud-based solution for the insurance industry, specifically brokerage. The other is a cloud-based HR package. Diceus has provided development power, both on the backend and the frontend, and quality assurance. The product management is done on our side.

In terms of language and platform selection, we’ve been focused on the Microsoft Stack: C#, ASP.NET, and Azure. There wasn’t a lot of expertise in terms of cloud implementations in 2011 since the field was not very developed. But, as our collaboration grew, Diceus has become more mature. We have been working together with them on this journey and have been fairly aligned in terms of capabilities from the beginning.

We execute project-related work for clients, and Diceus has provided coding, QA, and project management resources on this side as well.

How did you come to work with Diceus?

We found them through a recommendation. We were a relatively small company and were looking for someone who could provide cost-effective, good-quality solutions. We worked with Diceus on an initial trial basis, and the collaboration grew from there.

How much have you invested with Diceus?

The cost of Diceus’ work will be in the range of $500,000 for 2017. We’ve been working with them for a number of years, and the involvement started fairly slow since we didn’t have as much work at the time. On average, we’ve grown the relationship by 20%–25% per year. The workload does tend to fluctuate, but our biggest growth has been in the last three years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Diceus in February of 2011.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can’t share any specific figures. But, especially on the product side, we’ve mainly relied on Diceus, out of the three vendors we’re using. They have certainly contributed to our growth, and I’m happy with the collaboration. In terms of delivery quality, communication, cost, and all other remaining factors, we’re happy with Diceus. Like any relationship, there are a few glitches here and there, but the partnership is working very well.

How did Diceus perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re fairly effective on this front. We primarily handle the product side, but Diceus does execute a couple of project-related tasks, and I’ve been happy for the most part. In terms of project management methodology, we’ve basically provided Diceus with our framework. They adopted it fully, at least as far as our projects were concerned. Everything from meetings to timesheets and project summaries is managed on our end. Diceus has been able to adopt our approach quickly. In terms of the timeliness of their response, we’ve never had any issues.

Especially when outsourcing to a third-party, we’re always a bit nervous, and we did have an initial handholding period of nine months. After that, we were able to take a step back and have Diceus take the lead, directly communicating with the client.

What did you find most impressive about Diceus?

My overall feedback for Diceus is very positive. They’re a good provider, and the company is still young and hungry. As such, it can be very accommodating and easy to work with them. In a previous capacity, I’ve worked with several outsourced players; by comparison, the experience with Diceus is very agile and nimble.

Are there any areas Diceus could improve?

Some of Diceus’ members could improve their communication skills. This is not a huge concern for us since we tend to communicate with the team through their leads. Their English communication is good, but not as good as it could be. I’m sure that Diceus is working on that.

We’ve been working with Diceus for a long time, and we’ve managed to iron out the majority of our issues. We pass each other feedback, and I’m happy with them. 

5.0
Overall Score The underlying theme is that I’m very happy working with Diceus.
  • 5.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    In terms of availability, I’ve never had concerns about Diceus. The projects we’ve executed with them were always delivered on time and within budget.
  • 4.5 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    Diceus is not the cheapest, but we chose Ukraine because of their communication skills and quality of delivery. Diceus isn’t asking European or American rates, so, for the value that we’re getting, I rate them highly.
  • 4.5 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    We’ve been working with Diceus for a number of years because they’re a good provider. The overall quality is good, but I don’t want them to be complacent. Diceus has some improvements to make in frontend expertise. We complement that, so I’m happy.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer

Internal Python Development for Insurance Software Firm

"I was looking at an [internal] estimate in the $100,000 range, but Diceus is likely to wrap the project up for around $60,000."

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4.5

Quality: 
4.5
Schedule: 
4.5
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$10,000 to $49,999
 
May 2016 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Diceus created an internal budgeting application in Python. In the process, they adopted new data transformation processes per the client's specific requirements.

The Reviewer
 
11-50 Employees
 
Springfield, Missouri
Phil Reynolds
CEO, Britecore
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

Diceus picked up unfamiliar technologies and used them effectively to deliver satisfactory quality code in line with client's timeframe expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We build property casualty insurance administration systems. I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Diceus?

I needed overflow capacity for some internal projects that were ongoing inside our company. My internal development team is very dedicated to our primary product, BriteCore. Diceus helped me develop an administrative application that allows me to effectively produce cash flow forecasts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Diceus built a cash flow projection application for budgeting. I asked them to build it using our team’s technology stack. They had to learn how to use Python, Flask, and AWS deployment from scratch. We also did monitoring and logging through CloudWatch and CloudTrail. They’ve done a great job of picking all the up very quickly.

I started out with a graphic designer and a programmer. Then, as we made our way past the initial screen concepts, I was working with a single programmer.

How did you come to work with Diceus?

Since I run a software company, I get daily emails from outsourcing firms that want to do work for me. I normally delete them, but I have a standard response that I send back asking the would-be contracting firm to complete an engineering code challenge that we have posted publicly on GitHub. No one ever follows through, but the Diceus team accepted the challenge and completed it to prove their abilities and commitment to a partnership. They did a great job which showed a lot of initiative and I really appreciated that.

How much have you invested with Diceus?

We’ve paid $40,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started 6 months ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My engineers provided a ballpark for how many hours they thought the project would take internally. I was looking at an [internal] estimate in the $100,000 range, but Diceus is likely to wrap the project up for around $60,000. That’s a huge win for a small business.

Much more impressive than the cost however, was their ability to learn our tool stack. Prior to this engagement, Diceus’ online portfolio and resume stuff was all .NET. They were mostly a Microsoft shop, but we’re open-source guys using Python and other languages. I told them, “I would love to give you a shot, but I need you to work in my toolset. If I ever have to take this project back to my internal staff, I want it to be in a stack in a framework that we’re familiar with.” They took the time on their end to become familiar with our environment, our programming languages, our design patterns and did so at an impressive pace. A month or so after our initial engagement, they were pretty much up to speed enough that they could move forward with the project at a rate that I am pleased with. That’s another huge success story. They were willing to learn a totally new technology stack, workflow patterns, and tools that they were not familiar with.

Despite the time difference between my home state of Missouri and their location in the Ukraine, they have been great about being available when I have time during my business day. That was one of my major concerns, working with a team that was remotely located many time zones away. Their flexibility is a third impressive factor in our engagement.

How did Diceus perform from a project management standpoint?

I served as the business analyst/project manager for the project. I’ve asked them to use all of my toolset which they’ve readily done. We utilize Slack in our company for internal messaging and they have participated there actively. They have required ongoing direction as any project does, but they have responded positively to all of my feedback.

What did you find most impressive Diceus?

One of the biggest challenges in the project is that I did not want them to utilize a standard SQL database for storage. In the budgeting app, we established budget categories by month and there are baselines that you can project forward and things like that. Instead of storing each of those records in a database table, I wanted them to utilize DataFrames through the Pandas library. Using Pandas, we can perform ETL [Extract-Transform-Load] and data transformation easily, but it requires the adoption of new paradigms. No one inside of Diceus had used Pandas before, but they deployed the environment and my data model that I articulated very, very well. Not only did they learn a new tool, but they deployed that tool in the way that I asked them to. That’s something that’s not very easy to do.

Are there any areas Diceus could improve?

This is something we’ve already worked out with them. At the very beginning I was driving the entire process and that required a lot of my time; I’m a busy CEO. I had a sit-down conversation with them about 2 months in and said, “We need new processes for communicating here.” They were very responsive to that and established new processes.

4.5
Overall Score They have done a great job doing what I asked them to do.
  • 4.5 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    I’d give them a 5 for availability because they’ve always been immediately available. We had some initial scope challenges, but those were cleared up quickly.
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    They’ve been able to deliver the software I expected at a price point that I think is very advantageous to us.
  • 4.5 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    They’ve done an excellent job. The quality of the code and the adherence to business direction has been excellent.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer

User Interface Development for SQL Server Specialists

"Diceus is No. 1 when it comes to meeting the deadlines compared to dozens of other providers we work with."

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5.0

Quality: 
4.5
Schedule: 
5.0
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$50,000 to $199,999
 
Apr. 2015 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Starting with a small trial run project, Diceus has earned their place as the largest development partner for a company that produces database solutions software.

The Reviewer
 
51-200 Employees
 
North Carolina
Operations Manager, Development Firm
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

The largest pro may be their dedication to on-time and on-budget deliveries. The only downside is that their initial project estimates can be off base if devised too hurriedly and without sufficient forethought.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is a developer of value-added software solutions for SQL Server. We cover the needs of both database developers and DBAs [database administrators] with our products. I am the operations manager. I cooperate with all of our product development teams to ensure that we have protocols and systems in place to continuously prospect the market's needs, to plan new product roadmaps, develop products efficiently, and ship them out to production. I have been with the company for almost 10 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Diceus?

We needed to augment our product development velocity with help from external resources. We were looking for a company or team that can provide holistic software solutions for our product requirements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have cooperated with Diceus on several projects so far – the latest one being complete front-end/user interface development for one of our products. Our developers prepared requirements and functional specifications while Diceus provided a solution that we can utilize within our product quickly.

How did you come to work with Diceus?

We cooperate with multiple external software development companies and teams. However, Diceus is our largest provider so far. We selected Diceus for a larger and more complex project. Previously, we did a trial run with them using smaller projects where they were able to finish them ahead of schedule while meeting all our requirements.

How much have you invested with Diceus?

The latest mentioned project budget is about $53,000. We're unsure about the exact manpower on the Diceus side as they are providing us with complete turnkey project management, and they are assigning new resources for each new project we spinoff. Our budget for all Diceus projects in the past 12 months was more than $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April of last year [2015]. The latest mentioned project started in late August or early September of this year and will be finished in December. We are currently on schedule, and Diceus is meeting all agreed milestones.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

That is not applicable because we utilize solutions provided by Diceus only as parts of our larger, proprietary products.

What did you find most impressive about Diceus?

The number one reason why we keep coming back to Diceus is their dedication to delivering on or ahead of schedule, which is very rare in software development.

Are there any areas Diceus could improve?

They could improve the accuracy of initial project estimates by dedicating more time to estimating the projects up ahead and asking more questions to clarify uncertainties.

5.0
Overall Score Diceus saved us a lot of time and have sped up development timelines for many of our projects.
  • 5.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    The highest score possible because Diceus is No. 1 when it comes to meeting the deadlines compared to dozens of other providers we work with.
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    We have never had a situation where costs exceeded the original project cost agreement.
  • 4.5 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    We're happy with the quality of the work, although we occasionally need to polish projects off at the end.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer
    They are our best provider of additional development bandwidth and have never said no to a project.

White Labeled .NET Development for Software Startup

"We’ve been really pleased with that working relationship. I have a lot of respect for these guys and like them personally as well..."

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5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
5.0
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$200,000 to $999,999
 
Apr. 2016 - Onging
Project summary: 

The development partnership began with a single .NET resource and has since grown to include a three developers, a business analyst and a tester.

The Reviewer
 
2-10 Employees
 
Memphis, Tennessee
Managing Partner, Development Firm
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

The client is happy with the quality of their work and has given Diceus increasing amounts of responsibility and autonomy. They have delivered upon their promises, though some timeline estimates are rosier than reality.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide software and digital marketing solutions to the automotive market, basically dealers in the United States. We are branching out to other industries very soon. I am the chief operating officer and one of the owners. I’m basically the business developer so I provide the storyboards and business requirements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Diceus?

The biggest challenge was that since we develop software, we needed a software provider and a developer team. We looked around and worked with a couple of different companies. We were somewhat satisfied, and that’s when I found Diceus and looked at some of their work. We started a small project with them and it’s grown, and we’ve been really happy with their development work so far.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As a startup, cost from our company’s standpoint is huge and development costs are very high, especially in the United States. So we had to look for lower cost options. We were introduced to Diceus via a freelancing website.

We were wanting to build out a set of business intelligence tools with leaderboards and stats, and a competition system that was from our software. We wanted to build those metrics to help dealers incentivize their salespeople to use our system. So we bid that contract out and Diceus won.

Since then, we’ve given them basically everything. They’re my extended team. They’re just developers, and whether they’re sitting next to me in the office or overseas, they carry out my vision of what kind of software I want to build. One of the things that our base system was built in was .NET, so we needed someone that was still familiar with that base. They were, so that was one of the things that were key. Other than that, we just wanted someone that had some experience in building out leader board stats, competition type systems with graphics, and business intelligence that also could work on websites and other types of software. As I interviewed them and looked at their prior work, I knew they had a lot of people on their staff that could help us and they had different skill sets, so I knew I wasn’t just going with someone that had two or three developers. At the time, I believe they had over 20 employees. So I knew they had a lot of skillsets. I know they coded for us in PHP and other languages, but I would be starting to talk above my skill level.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started reaching out to them in March or April [2016], and then after that project was successful, we gave them another project. They quoted the first project, and after really liking working with them, we made the decision to have someone assigned to us that would be on our team and that we would call our own developer. From the planning perspective, it allows that if something goes over, they’re not under the gun trying to come up with the exact price. We’ve got someone that’s working for us to build stuff out and we can build a relationship with that person. That’s what we did. Then from that, we were getting great results and so we added two more. And then, we added two more again. So we’re continuing to add people. We still have a lot of remaining work to do, but we’re probably on pace to do $300,000 with them this year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A lot of that is driven by sales. I would say that we’ve had multiple deployments. They have been successful.

We’ve continued to ramp up resources as we built trust and confidence in their abilities to develop and internally manage the work. We’ve been really pleased with that working relationship. I have a lot of respect for these guys and like them personally as well, so it’s been a really good relationship.

How did Diceus perform from a project management standpoint?

We have developers, the business analyst, and the tester. We use two main pieces of software. JIRA allows you to enter tickets and plan sprints from an Agile perspective. We’re using more of an Agile type model blended with Waterfall, but still more Agile. We also use Microsoft Project Manager, and the business requirements are typically sent over in Microsoft Projects, PowerPoint, or Word and Excel. We Skype every day.

What did you find most impressive about Diceus?

When I look at working with people and hiring them, I determine whether they have the skillset I need, the work ethic, and a good attitude. It’s hard to know work ethic and good attitude until you have a relationship there. They definitely have the skill set, but what I’ve been really impressed with is their work ethic. They’re super hard workers and super smart. They’ve got great attitudes. They’re very dedicated to my company’s success. I think they feel it as a win-win, and they’re working on something that’s a win for them personally and wins for their own company. I think it’s been a great business relationship. I’m super proud of the decision we made to go with them. I can’t say anything but good stuff.

Are there any areas Diceus could improve?

It’s easy to not take into consideration unexpected things. From an overall planning perspective, it takes a little bit longer than you might expect in the beginning, and it’s because you start peeling back that onion and you’re like, “Oh, I didn’t know this was here. Of course, it would’ve planned differently.” It’s just not knowing what you don’t know, which they could’ve done differently because they don’t know our systems. If anything, if they said in the beginning stages it was going to take three weeks, I probably should’ve said five just to make sure. But other than that, I can’t think of anything. We’ve made a couple of adjustments on the team with personnel after we saw a couple of guys doing good, but maybe not as good as we thought. They’ve been proactive on that. In hindsight, it’s really more about expectations and planning and that’s just as much my fault as anybody's.

5.0
Overall Score I think they’re awesome.
  • 5.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    They’ve always said to not let a time zone be an issue. If I need them at midnight their time, they will be available.
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    They go above and beyond. I’m paying for full time employees, but they’re definitely giving me more than 40 hours a week. It’s not that I’m asking for it; they just want to. They definitely have a fair price for our negotiated rates.
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    When I provide screenshots, my drawings, or my own business requirements, they always do what I ask and then they make suggestions to make it better which is what I want them to do.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer

Backend Redevelopment for Home Rental Site

"They want to understand and empathize with the issue to solve it as effectively and efficiently as possible."

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5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
5.0
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$10,000 to $49,999
 
Oct. - Nov. 2016
Project summary: 

Diceus inherited a custom CMS that was not documented and very unstable. Their goal was to understand the code, support it, stabilize it, modernize it and integrate acquired businesses' onto it.

The Reviewer
 
Sole Proprietor
 
Charleston, South Carolina
Michael Ostack
PM Consultant, Four Shore Consulting
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

Pros of the partnership included professionalism and work ethic.  The decision makers ultimately elected to work with an onshore team purportedly due to the urgency of their change requests, but Diceus had made themselves available during the client's business hours.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Four Shore Consulting is a company that works with businesses to provide project management, information systems consultation, and Professional Development training.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Diceus?

Diceus was brought on to take on somebody else’s source code and the development of a custom CMS [content management system] for the website, and my role was to work with them to fix bugs in it, as well as upgrade it for another company that is a vacation rental company that utilized that CMS to populate their website. I was working on behalf of the property rental site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We would meet daily and we would collaborate in Basecamp software on the issues that were coming up on the website. Diceus would work with their development team to repair those issues. Diceus successfully repaired many issues and was instrumental in migrating new business acquisitions onto the CMS platform. The CMS would make API calls into the end-client's software to pull reservation data, photos and pricing. The program then added additional graphics, reviews and other information into a database that was to be displayed on the company's custom website. Some of the program was also responsible for providing information for email campaigns from the database.

How did you come to work with Diceus?

After a 45-day interview process, the company I worked for introduced Diceus as the development company I'd be working with.

How much have you invested with Diceus?

It was about $35 an hour for development and project management time. They were contracted at $10,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement was cut short due to the vacation rental company taking negative advantage of a probationary clause on the last day before the contract renewal. It was no fault of Diceus that the company chose to change developers. Diceus was just getting up to speed on the inherited programming when their opportunity was cut short.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was very pleased with the attitude that they had, being unfamiliar with the industry along with their ability to understand code that wasn’t created or commented on, which got dumped in their lap to unwind and figure out. They were “nose to the grindstone” as far as working extra hours. I would say they overworked the hours they got paid for due to the learning curve on the front-end. They definitely gave their effort at maintaining this project. It was no fault of theirs that the management decided to move to a different company. I would recommend Diceus’ aptitude and also their professionalism in any kind of development going forward.

What did you find most impressive about Diceus?

They did especially well partnering with the business itself. They’re truly a partner that will help solve the problems, and they’re not somebody that are just billing for hours. They want to understand and empathize with the issue to solve it as effectively and efficiently as possible. Given a fair shake, if they were able to utilize their best practices to rework the software, they would’ve excelled at that. But the management company never allowed them the ability to do that with the urgent and overbearing expectations they had.

Are there any areas Diceus could improve?

I don’t think so. They were very responsive. They overworked the hours to get the job done. They were accommodating to the 7-hour time difference. They had a strong command of English and worked hard to make sure they communicated with us. If they didn’t understand something, they worked with me to ensure they could understand. There was no real huge communication gap because they had a strong aptitude and technical understanding of what they were doing.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 5.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    Anytime I needed them, they were always there. They even solved emergency problems in the middle of the night that weren’t really emergencies in the first place. Their dedication to the task at hand was exemplary.
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    If you’ve ever priced American firms, $35 an hour is pretty good, so their cost and value is a five due to them also being a partner with the issues and not just trying to bankroll their hours.
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    Sometimes the difference between the business lingo and the technical lingo is challenging. But they always tried to ask specific questions so they knew they were doing what the business needed.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer
    They would be on my short list of able-bodied developers that are understanding of the newest technologies and also capable of understanding the older technologies that they were handed.

Backend Resources for Microsoft Stack Legal Website

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4.0

Quality: 
4.5
Schedule: 
4.0
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$10,000 to $49,999
 
Jan. - Apr. 2016
Project summary: 

Diceus customized a content management system for an end client in the legal industry that was using a Microsoft technology stack.

The Reviewer
 
51-200 Employees
 
New York Metro Area
Andrew Kagan
CTO, Planet Technologies
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

The work product was excellent and the team was responsive to changes within the project. However, the client wishes that Diceus' design efforts required less back and forth. They may have had a talent issue at one point but that was resolved or overcome.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is an internet marketing and development consultancy. I am the chief executive officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Diceus?

I had a client that needed a website redeveloped around a content management system that would provide better exposure in organic search for them. I reviewed a number of candidates. I used a couple of websites to find suitable candidates based on a request for proposal. Diceus was one of the companies out of the top three that I ended up selecting.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They worked with platforms that the client was already using. The client wanted to stay with a .NET platform and that seemed to be Diceus’ specialty as they’re a Microsoft Certified Developer, so they’re conversant with Microsoft framework technology. They had also done a lot of work in the medical and insurance related verticals, similar to this client. 

When I said the project started in 2015, it was because we did a fully realized wireframe and design spec that was done in advance of the programming beginning. So they were handed off the design and were executing the background programming using the template that we provided. They really only interacted with me, and the client’s database programmer had some interaction with them as well.

How did you come to work with Diceus?

I thought they were equally qualified to the other two shortlisted companies, but in addition, their specific skillset and industry experience was the most appropriate for the client.

How much have you invested with Diceus?

We have invested $12,000. They came in on budget.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their involvement was from January to April 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I think they delivered exactly what they were expected to deliver. That was a positive. A lot of projects that I’ve worked on, especially with CMS customization, have a tendency for people to oversell their customization ability. These guys definitely showed a high level of programming expertise that I was looking for. In that sense, it was a success because the project was delivered on time and the client was very happy with the result. I think the overall result for the client was meeting their expectations in a way that was a positive experience for them. So often it goes the other way. The [end] client was not forced to accept any compromise in their expectations, which for me was a huge positive.

How did Diceus perform from a project management standpoint?

I think they performed very well. They’re halfway around the world. We were doing all of our conversation by email and Skype. There were milestones that I had set and they met all of them. When there were adjustments to be made to certain details of the project, they were responsive to those adjustments. We had a good turnaround when changes were made. They’re better than other non-US development teams that I’ve worked with in the past. The other thing that worked well with them was that there wasn’t as much of a language barrier as I’ve experienced with other outsourced teams and countries where English isn’t the native language. I worked with one of the owners of the company initially and then was assigned out to a specific developer. I didn’t require a really large team so they were only doing the programming aspects of the website. There wasn’t design involved and things like that. In the end, one person was able to handle it and once I was working with him. I think he was assigned directly to this project exclusively.

What did you find most impressive about Diceus?

They demonstrated a very high degree of expertise in the type of programming and the product environment that they’re working in, which is exactly what I was hoping to find. I would say their core competency was having a very strong depth of programming expertise and knowledge within this particular market, and also within the platform that they were working on.

Are there any areas Diceus could improve?

I think the only downside was that there was a bit of a language barrier, especially in communicating in terms of them executing visual content in such a way that it would match the description of what was specified. I don’t think they had an intrinsic design knowledge, and that required me to spend a little bit more back and forth describing visually what we were looking for when they were asked to execute something without having it predesigned for them. But I think that’s more of a cultural difference than anything else, and I was expecting it to happen. It was resolved successfully. It’s always a problem working with offshore resources on a cultural basis more than anything else. I feel like they were not resistant in any way.

4.0
Overall Score Only due to a certain cultural barrier and slight problems with communication because English is not their native language.
  • 4.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    Even though they were meeting deadlines, there were occasions where they weren’t as responsive as I’d hoped. But when they got back, they definitely met the deadline. I think that may have just been a resourcing issue.
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    They met the budget without exceeding it even when there were changes in the process.
  • 4.5 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    The quality of work was excellent. They did require certain things that I felt they should’ve understood. We had some back and forth on a design basis. Their core strength is really in programming. They need a little bit more guidance in the design area.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer
    I would recommend them without hesitation.

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5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
5.0
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$50,000 to $199,999
 
2014 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Diceus has provided full Microsoft stack development for an online marketplace, utilizing design principles to repurpose Azure Table Storage as a relational database container in a unique way.

The Reviewer
 
2-10 Employees
 
Atlanta Metro Area
Tim Archer
Founder, Connector
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

Pros included a strong sense of partnership and investment in the outcome of their projects. Their deliverables have been on time and the client highly values their work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a small company. We have a website that’s an online marketplace that sells e-learning curriculum and then there’s an interactive e-learning platform that runs in cloud services. I am the founder and owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Diceus?

They did all the software development for my site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Everything is designed in Microsoft technology, and it all runs on Microsoft Windows Azure platform cloud services. I had a few unique factors that made it a challenge. I wanted to make it a very scalable solution. By that I mean I wanted it to be relatively inexpensive to run during the startup phase but be able to scale up to be relatively large without any issues. Also to be relatively inexpensive in the larger scale as well so that I could have a low overhead operation. To do that I built a lot of it around the Azure Table Storage which is a No SQL database. It’s inexpensive compared to SQL Server for example. So, I put all the user information - user database and registration in SQL Server, but I put most of the content in the Azure Table Storage database. It’s a tradeoff in that the Azure Table Storage is not necessarily built for having a relational database and there are certain design principles that you have to use to make it work correctly. So, if you use it correctly, it scales up to massive sizes pretty well. But if you don’t know how to use it, it can be a disaster. I started the product with a different developer, and that developer failed because once they did the original NoSQL database design, I ran some performance testing on it and it wouldn’t pass, and they could not make it pass. So, I switched the development to Diceus, and we laid out the same design, and they went through it, and they were able to make it work. I’ve been working with them for the last 2 to 2 ½ years.

It has a social network aspect to it, so we built a small social network and the e-learning platform as well as the online marketplace for selling them and a few other little services there. It’s all built in Microsoft MVC technology - ASP.NET. That’s the main application platform that we used for it. It runs in Azure, and it runs in Azure’s platform as a service which is also a little unique in terms of being a bit different than just running in virtual machines. We had to develop it all and make sure that it doesn’t fail in the platform as a service environment. We used Windows Identity Foundation for all the security and developed a custom security token service that runs in MVC. We couldn’t use the standard out of the box WIF because of that. That was another unique challenge that we could work through.

How did you come to work with Diceus?

I found them through Freelancer.com. When you’re going through those crowd service platforms, it’s very easy to get linked up with the wrong company. A lot of them don’t know what’s going on. They will just post out their bids. Half of them will just use robots, and they’ll post a bid quickly, and you must know how to evaluate a company to make sure they truly understand the scope. You don’t just click the button.

My project was a little different because I had the unique technical challenges and some technologies that no one has used. If I was just doing MVC on top of a SQL Server database with no specific security requirement and no NoSQL it probably would’ve been a little easier. But I had to go through an interview process. I was able to interview Illia [Pinchuk] who runs the company at Diceus and talk to him. He could give me a complete work breakdown and estimates of the job. Through that, I could see that he had a really clear understanding of the work. He sought to understand my business whereas I interviewed with a few other companies and they just tried to do a sales job on how great they were, but demonstrated no understanding of what I was trying to accomplish or the technologies. They just tried to say they were great and they’d done all these other jobs successfully, and it wasn’t very compelling. The first thing Illia did was he dug in and understood what we were doing and what are the challenges you’re going through. I liked that, and once I went through it, he went and showed me some stuff that he’s working on that had a lot of similarities to what I was doing. One of the things that struck me is that he was very passionate about the work that he was doing, about the technology, and about what he was working on. That was a stark difference from some of the others because I could tell right away it was much more of a teamwork and a relationship that was going to be built there. That’s what made me select them.

How much have you invested with Diceus?

$75,000 to $85,000 in total but I started with another company. I’d say my investment with Diceus is around $60,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s up and running. We went live in August this year. I was running more beta testing for a year. They were supporting me through that. I went live in August regarding starting to market. I don’t think I have any metrics to share.

How did Diceus perform from a project management standpoint?

We run an Agile process on this. They were accustomed to doing it in Agile. We tend to plan one iteration at a time, and they would work with me on that. We’d agree to scope and everything, and then we’d do that iteration. They did a very good job. We’d have standup meetings, and they’d keep me up to date on what’s the latest status on a regular basis. We used Microsoft Team Foundation server. We used the online Team Foundation service for it, so I had my project already set up in there, and I just gave them access to it. They did a great job of tracking the task status - where they are and everything that I asked. They did a good job especially from the up-front planning which is the most important part - just breaking down the work and estimates, etc. but then just following through on everything regarding task updates and reporting status, etc. And then the billing has been perfectly seamless as well.

What did you find most impressive about Diceus?

Even beyond everything else that I told you which is what you hope for and expect but what has been over and above and what has surprised me is they do a good job of adding value as a team member. A lot of times when you outsource something they just do exactly what you tell them. We don’t always really know what we’re doing. No matter how much experience we have as a business, as a technology CTO, development manager or whatever - you don’t always know all the right answers all the time. But most outsource companies will just do what you tell them. What I liked about Diceus is their team - you put out your designs, but they’ll come back and say, “Are you sure you want to do it that way? What about this?” They share other ideas. It makes you better as a solution and as a company. That’s what’s been the part that I’ve liked best about working with them.

Are there any areas Diceus could improve?

No, I don’t think there’s anything.

5.0
Overall Score Everything’s been great. They add value and work with you as a partner.
  • 5.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    They have been perfectly on schedule every time.
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    They’re exceptional in cost. They have a low rate considering if you go to Europe and some other areas. You can find those kinds of rates but with that level of expertise and quality is just an incredible value.
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    Sometimes I’ve specified something, and as we implement it we want some changes. Some developers just don’t like it. Diceus spent time on weekends without me asking because they got excited about the project. That kind of things makes it an absolute 5.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer
    I’m an advocate for them for sure. They like what they’re doing.