EltexSoft

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a company with a product that connects email inboxes from different email providers to help improve email reputation. Our product is also a reporting tool that lets users know whether their emails are going to the recipients’ inboxes or spam folders. We work with different marketing newsletters’ sales teams and have over a thousand paying clients. Overall, our product is a micro-staff tool that’s heavy on the technical side as we send millions of emails a month to the network we maintain. 

What challenge were you trying to address with EltexSoft?

We use EltexSoft for our frontend development tasks. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Currently, EltexSoft is working on a brand new version of our platform, building the main architecture of its frontend. Their team also provides us with the best practices for development. I give them backend points and designs, and they figure out the frontend — I don’t necessarily have to give them specific tasks. 

What is the team composition?

We work with a frontend developer and a project manager. The manager makes sure the tasks are running smoothly and following the best practices while meeting timelines and guidelines.

How did you come to work with EltexSoft?

I found EltexSoft on Upwork. They had a ton of good reviews, making over a million dollars on that platform. At that time, I needed a partner who could work full-time for me at an affordable rate. Meanwhile, I knew nothing about frontend engineering and didn’t have the funds to hire an expensive engineer. Luckily, EltexSoft was affordable; they weren’t the cheapest, but they also weren’t the most expensive. As a result, I hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $90,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and the project is ongoing. 

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

We have a stable and working platform. A lot of other people talk about scalability, and we’ve hit that; our platform can hold tens of thousands of users. Through this developer-side platform, we see all processes and progress we’ve made, which is nice. 

How did EltexSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

EltexSoft’s project management is great. I don’t necessarily have to pay extra for it, and they do a great job — I don’t have to manage the project by myself. Moreover, I like that a small team of people works behind their engineers to ensure things run smoothly. That isn't always the case with other providers. For project management tools, we use Shortcut and GitHub. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

EltexSoft’s communication skills set them apart from the competition. They almost always hit the deadlines they set, so there’s consistency as well. On top of that, they work with the same developer for years. This shows that EltexSoft takes care of the individuals that do their work — their developers are happy, so they stay with the team for years. This helps with productivity, too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. EltexSoft does everything that I ask them to do. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Prepare a full scope of work before starting a project to make sure that everything will run successfully. Get everything ready for the EltexSoft team. 

For context, I wanted EltexSoft to start working on our project 2–3 weeks before I was ready. However, they asked me to prepare the entire project first and contact them when I was truly ready. I ended up making changes to the project using those 2–3 weeks. In the end, their request made sense. We would have wasted more time if we started working on the project without a full scope of work. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the tech lead for a software startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with EltexSoft?

EltexSoft was hired to address technological challenges and assist with software development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide front- and backend engineering, help with system architecture, ticket writing, and maintain general technical standards for an existing web application used to capture photos and videos and deliver that content to an end-user. They used PHP, Laravel, React, and more.

What is the team composition?

Denys (Founder) was my main point of contact.

How did you come to work with EltexSoft?

We received a reference from another trusted company. They provided the most in-depth proposal of the companies we considered.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $50,000 and $200,000, but it’s an ongoing operation.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in September 2020, and are still working together.

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

We’ve received positive feedback thus far. In general, their work has been appreciated with low bug rates and high customer satisfaction.

How did EltexSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly use Jira as our project management tool. We also deliver feedback on Sigma. They do a good job with project management, keeping up to date on deadlines, and proactively letting us know where the project is at without having to always reach out.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their desire to complete tasks regardless of the time it’ll take, their insistence on proper technical standards, and their overall communication all stand out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

While their project managers speak perfect English, I run into communication issues with some of their developers who don’t speak English.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am best known as Triathlon Taren online. We worked with Eltex for ongoing development work of our team triathlon coaching web app, our Wordpress site, and our upcoming smartphone app.

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

We hired Eltex to perform the ongoing development work for all our technology needs. We needed a development company that had a flexible bandwidth, a reasonable price, while being broadly knowledgeable in web, web apps, and smartphone apps.

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

After trying several development companies we found Eltex to be the most proactive in suggesting projects that would lead to long term technical stability. They were quick with meeting deadlines and very honest to work with. We consider Eltex a true extension of our company.

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

If you look at teamtrainiac.com the entire platform was created by Eltex.

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

My main points of contact are the CEO, Denys, the main Project Manager, Xenia, and their technical lead Iliya.

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

Our development process is now ongoing with Eltex. We have eliminated our technical debt, completed a half a dozen large sprints, and are in the process of re-architecting the entire platform to allow for smoother development cycles in the future.

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

Eltex is so flexible in how much work we can request from them, and they've taken on this project as if it was their own business.

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

Eltex is flexible when it comes to client requests and they've taken on this project as if it was their own business.

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

Over the course of this year sprints have taken longer than expected because the original developer combined the back end and front end into one code base while using Yii 2.0. Eltex suggested (they admit they should have suggested this sooner) that we re-architect the entire site which we're doing now.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Timealy is a London based online click-and-collect food platform connecting customers to restaurants on real time basis.. Timealy aims to revisit the food ordering cycle adapting it to the new Circular Economy vision and make the overall takeaway experience more sustainable for both the Restaurants and Customers.

For what projects/services did your company hire EltexSoft?

Once the concept was validated we started looking for a Software House which could develop Timealy into a native mobile app. At that stage we had just a break down of the Functional and Non Functional Requirement of the app envisaged within a series of wire-frames. We needed someone who could look after the following: - Design - Back End development - Front End Development - QA - Testing

What were your goals for this project?

The main goals of the projects were to develop a disruptive and solid application to be released in large scale on a number of European markets.

How did you select this vendor?

We approached several vendors in central East Europe, with a focus on Ukraine because we felt that there was a strong talent and expertise in technical skills such coding and programming. We overall approached 10 vendors in different Ukrainian and Polish cities. In a second stage we shortlisted 3 of them which fit the parameters of experience, size and price. After few discussions we decided to appoint Eltex.

Describe the project in detail.

Timealy is a real time Click-and-Collect food platform offering flash deals on fresh meals.The marketplace works in real-time, allowing restaurants and groceries to offer deals on-the-go.The focus is during off-peak hours or at end of day. The stack of Timealy was agreed with Eltex on the basis of building a native App for both IOS and Android. The project started with the finalization of the Branding identity with the designer followed with the launched of the coding by the Back End Engineers. During the project constant discussions were held with the Etltex BAs and PMs. The following steps involved the front end effort to optimize the UI and UX aspects of the Application. For each stage of production UAT and QA was performed by Eltex team.

What was the team composition?

Eltex team was made [email protected] - 1 PM - 1 BA - 1 IOS developer - 1 Android developer - 1 Front End developer

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

The App was released and on-boarded in Apple Store and Google Play at the end of the project in a seamless way. The Application was fully functional since day 1 and available for download in all United Kingdom. The few bugs identified were addressed on a timely manner and no structural problems impacted any of the features within the App. The feedback of the early adopters was extremely positive in terms of design and UX.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Eltex team worked very efficiently with an adequate level of supervision and monitoring in the activities.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The level of professionalism and the strategic mindset of the company stood out. Those are the two main values that impressed me throughout the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Working with Eltex has been a very pleasant experience and the quality of the deliverable has been excellent, i wish Eltex can carry on in such journey by developing the communication skills of the developers (e.g. english) the more operational members of the staff.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of a 3D printing manufacturing platform. We manage the workflow and process 3D printing orders from design to delivery to the customer.

What challenge were you trying to address with EltexSoft?

We wanted to find a cost-effective business partner to focus on features while we handled customer interfacing, platform maintenance, and upgrades. Our ideal partner would allow us to focus on the reactive and hands-on side of the business while letting them create feature son an ongoing basis with minimal distraction.

What was the scope of their involvement?

EltexSoft is responsible for the development side of our business. We design features and create documents that show the customer view of the item. Then we create a draft of the engineering design. The EltexSoft team reviews the draft, creates a scope based on the complexity of the project, and develops the project. Our team sets biweekly goals for them to accomplish.

The EltexSoft team is fluent in full effect development. Their team is made up of specialized experts. We work with database Python experts who also help with UI, business platform logic developers, and front end developers who can create very interactive interfaces. Part of the benefit of working with them is that they have various members that understand the different layers of the stack in detail. They have the expertise in-house to take a feature, implement all of the various interlocking pieces, and deliver a completed idea.

One example of a feature EltexSoft completed was a new style of fittings items together for shipping. Our backend algorithm was separate from the system and we gave them an overview of what the customer interface should look like and what the business logic needed to be at a high-level pseudocode. They did the vast majority of implementation, unit tests, and integration of this additional packing information into our platform.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with the same three members of the EltexSoft team. They’ve been flexible about assigning an extra person or two to our project when our schedule demands it.

How did you come to work with EltexSoft?

We had been working with a contractor, but they did not have enough staff to give us the support we needed. They recommended that we get in touch with EltexSoft because they were better equipped for a project of this scale.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with EltexSoft began in October 2018 and we renew our contract on a monthly basis.

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

They produce high-quality work for us. EltexSoft does a good job of asking the right questions to get clarity about a feature at the beginning of the process, that way they can do the minimum implementation without adding unnecessary functionality. Their team is good at scoping and getting clarification early on in a project, which makes the rest of the project run very smoothly.

How did EltexSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job of managing projects. EltexSoft reliably joins our daily stand-up calls and regularly updates tickets with information and examples. They’ve integrated directly into our ticketing system but are still able to function independently. 

We use Clubhouse for internal development and Zendesk for external development. I send a weekly email to our business contact at EltexSoft just to check in on our status and how to best move forward. They are responsive to us asking them for steps to reproduce a project and always give us information on how to test new features. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

As a startup where we all have to wear many hats and take a lot of responsibility, it’s been helpful working with another provider with the same attitude. They have a strong feeling of responsibility and ownership. EltexSoft is very willing to work at all times to solve a problem. Their team takes ownership of bugs and solves emergency issues. They have also taken responsibility for the quality of the code and become our key collaborators for delivering results quickly and well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m actually quite happy with them. You can always find details that could be improved, but there’s a reason we continue to renew our contract every month for the past 12 months and for the foreseeable future. They just do a great job. Overall, they are excellent partners who we will continue to work with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have clear specifications and user cases upfront to reduce the number of times that you need to answer the same question. Having a clear location for them to work from gets them moving faster and reduces turnaround on repeated emails.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re developing a language learning app that uses movie clips. I’m the founder of our startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with EltexSoft?

We needed a developer for programming and technical work for this project.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The app is built on a PHP backend with a database. They developed both front- and backend, and did frontend integrations with the designs for our website. They built a user control panel, and a moderator and admin panel into the backend. They were also responsible for the iOS version.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is our project manager, but we also interact with a backend programmer, an iOS developer, and the owner of the company.

How did you come to work with EltexSoft?

Another part of this project is a desktop tool for video and audio processing. We used another expert for that element, and he recommended EltexSoft to do the development.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2018. We’re in the process of transferring the project to our own team, but they’re still working on it.

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

They produced our entire system, which works well. We’ve had no issues beyond the expectable small bugs, and we’ve worked everything out over time. I enjoy working with them, and we have a pleasant relationship.

How did EltexSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is strong. We chat on Slack daily, and they use Jira to track all our action items. They’re very well organized and responsive, and the documents they produce are all in very clear English.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re smaller than some firms, so their work feels more personal.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The project resources changed over the course of the project. The same team would have been better throughout, but that’s the only thing I can think of to change.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If I had to do it over again, I would have written clearer specifications and provided more input at the beginning. The scope evolved for the better, but we would have had a more complete picture if we thought everything through upfront.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager at a food startup. We provide everyday meal programs for growing companies. I oversee all software development efforts, as well as partnerships and any other contracted projects.

What challenge were you trying to address with EltexSoft?

We wanted a fully developed web portal for our clients to create accounts, view upcoming menus, and place orders.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When I came on, the web app was mostly developed, but we worked to refine it. EltexSoft produced mockups and designs of proposed features, and then we’d go over them together to work through any challenges we foresaw. They mostly used PHP, JavaScript, and Python. The web portal is currently in use, but we continue to add updates as we go.

What is the team composition?

My primary point of contact was Alexandra (Project Manager, EltexSoft). I also worked with Dmitriy (Full Stack Developer/Team Lead, EltexSoft). 6–7 people worked on our project.

How did you come to work with EltexSoft?

They were already our primary software consulting team when I came on.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was completed.

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

It was a fairly successful project. We had a few hiccups and bugs, as is the case with all new software, but EltexSoft was quick to respond and fixed everything.

How did EltexSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

When developing a new feature, I’d give their project manager a proposal, and they’d come back to me with an estimate. I’d then use a Jira account to monitor the sprints. I had Skype meetings with both Alexandra (scheduling updates, timing, budget) and Dmitriy (future feasibility and technical requirements).

They were realistic regarding budgets and time estimates and were quick to alert me if there were any problems that required changes. Our CEOs were in contact.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We built an outstanding relationship with them. They put a personal touch on their projects and tailor their solutions to their client’s needs. I was blown away by their ability to intuit features. As soon as we discussed a new feature, they were telling us everything we needed to make it happen, including things we hadn’t thought of ourselves.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The language barrier was challenging at times, but the project manager’s English was superb. Calls with the developers could have been more straightforward, but working through our point of contact went very well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure everyone is on the same page, and that the project’s directions and features are laid out clearly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an online marketplace platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Icemint Media?

We were looking for a company to help us develop a web platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handled everything–from building out the wireframes and the design to managing front- and backend development. It's a marketplace platform that has dashboards, billing and scheduling tools, payment tracking, and a CRM. There is also a chat integration. They used Java, PHP, APIs, Stripe Connect, and QuickBlocks to develop the platform.  

What is the team composition?

We had a full-time team consisting of a lead developer, front- and backend developers, a QA person, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with them?

I came across Icemint when I was looking for developers that built WayUp.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in 2016 and the main development was completed in 2017. We're still working with them to add new things to the platform.

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

We're a multimillion-dollar platform. The quality of their work was great, so I'd give them the highest mark.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They were responsive despite the time difference (they're based in Ukraine). Even when I contacted them at 1 a.m. their time, they responded immediately. We mostly used Jira and Slack to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very professional and knowledgeable. They're not the type of developers who implement what I tell them. They know what will fail and what will work, so they make recommendations and come up with their own ideas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you're looking to build a sophisticated marketing platform, use the full team from Icemint. I don't recommend getting an outside designer and having them do the development work. Use their team for everything because things will happen quicker. They're a great choice for building a web platform, especially in a B2B and B2C marketplace.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a passenger rights portal where customers can submit their claim within a couple of minutes. I am the founder and CEO of the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Icemint Media?

We used Icemint Media to set up the relevant questionnaire and data flow into our database to automate, evaluate, and process cases quickly.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to launch a query form that is interactive and well-structured for the customer. We wanted the frontend and backend processes to correlate with one another.

How did you select this vendor?

Our online marketing agency recommended them to us.

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

Icemint handles all aspects of the development process. They make all necessary adjustments to both the frontend and backend of the website.

What was the team composition?

We have a project manager that leads all of the communication between the developers and our team. Their team of developers also includes a lead developer who handles all critical tasks.

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

The development of the query and database structure was a fundamental cornerstone for the success of the growth of the business. It is difficult to quantify the improvement based on their work.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project manager takes over the responsibility of communication, including teaching me the most effective ways to monitor and coordinate tasks. We also use a variety of project management tools.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team is humble and reliable. They always have the project under control and never over-promise or let me down. They are proactive in terms of suggesting new ideas and making helpful improvements.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I am happy with the project so far.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a scalable assistant platform, which could be considered a marketplace. Our company easily connects with companies’ work tools like email, calendar, Slack, and texting, allowing individuals and teams to outsource nonessential tasks like scheduling meetings or doing data entry. Highly educated human assistants handle the work. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Icemint?

I started building the platform just like an MVP with a sole developer. He was helping me as a side project. We worked together for about 3 months, and he was building at an adequate pace. Then, he disappeared. I was left with unfinished code and needed to find a brand-new developer. I also needed to do a full-scale code review. I don’t know much code at all since I’m more on the sales, marketing, and operations side. I do handle all the product design and UX. At the time, I had something of an MVP, but I needed another feature to launch. I reached out to Icemint to build out this final feature so I could launch my MVP. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

I gave Icemint the code, which was jumbled and not in great shape. We couldn’t even get it to deploy at first. We worked on a flat negotiated rate, but they ended up doing quite a bit of extra work in the beginning to put me at ease and get to a point where they could start building. To do that, they spent over a week doing free work, which wasn’t part of the scope of work that we initially discussed.

They have a QA layer, but I did the full design layout. All the designs that I provided were in Photoshop, so they could actually recreate everything themselves. I’d give them some guidance as far as what kind of text and images to use and what layout I wanted. We worked with Envision and things like that. I learned how to use Sketch recently, which is starting to make the work more streamlined.

The backend is in Python, and the frontend is all Angular JS. I believe the database is SQL. They first worked on email integration by doing IMAP and SNTP integrations and some API work as well for Google. Now, we’re doing feature development and improving parts of the backend. We did a public beta launch, but it wasn’t necessarily large. We’re also building to scale more easily.

How did you come to work with Icemint?

I interviewed 20 developers before I chose Icemint. A lot of people wanted to charge me for a week of code review, but for that price, I could’ve built a whole extra feature.

How much have you invested with Icemint?

I’ve spent $17,000 with them so far. It’ll probably grow to $35,000 or $40,000 by the end of the year. In 2018, we’ll probably add another person.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together for 6 months, but we took a 2-month hiatus while I started selling the MVP. We’ve just been working on the product again for the last 3 months, and we’ll be working on it for the foreseeable future. 

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

By using Icemint, I haven’t had to find an in-house developer. I’m actually able to put resources into hiring an account manager and operations resources. I didn’t think that would happen before meeting Icemint. I felt in control of the process in the sense of telling them what I wanted. I QA-tested everything before we went live, and I gave the authority to launch.

We launched with no bugs, and the platform has never gone offline. I have all the core competencies that I need on my end. Because they’re in Ukraine and I’m in New York City, it’s really important for the basic things to work, especially at 6:00 PM. I’m getting to a point where I have certain clients who actually take up to 40% of my revenue, so if I lose that client, it’s like I’m back at square 1. Icemint did a really great job of making sure that everything is sound, even when starting with code that they didn’t make from scratch. They did a great job of putting me at ease, especially on the small business side. Right now, the company is made up of myself and another person, so every penny counts. I really appreciate the way that Icemint handles things.

In terms of monthly growth, we’ve been live for 5 months and had 65% growth every month so far. A lot of that is due to the product quality. The space I work in is somewhat competitive, but the clients like the features and the technology behind the platform. We haven’t really gotten any complaints about anything not working. Our team is doing a lot of work on the backend to start automating things.

I’ve funded the whole company. Icemint has built something that we can sell. Now that we actually have enough recurring revenue, we can bring Icemint on board almost full-time. Right now, they’re working 30 hours a week.

How did Icemint perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very communicative. I have a project manager that I solely work with, and she’s amazing. We message multiple times every day. Nobody’s dropped the ball, and everybody knows exactly what’s going on. At the end of the day, we get an update, even if they’ve only worked for a couple of hours. They tell us when things are moving and when things are stuck. They saved us time through their suggestions and the workflows that they put in place.

What did you find most impressive about Icemint?

I liked that they’re an agency of full-time employees. Even when we weren’t working together, we built the MVP on a flat rate. I think I paid them a little bit more after that, and then I didn’t have any money left. I told them I was going to try to sell it and then come back to them. Even for small bugs that weren’t even their fault, they would do fixes here and there for free. We didn’t have a contract at the time. They didn’t know if I was going to sell more in the future or if I was even going to be a future client. They probably believed in the product and were generally helpful.

I wasn’t necessarily taking full advantage of their expertise. They know how to do everything. This platform has a lot of integrations, and some of them aren’t APIs. We’re thinking about doing a Zapier integration. I’m somewhat technical, but I don’t know how to code. Once I ask for something, Icemint is really good at providing estimates and explaining the process. They’re very transparent. They’ve never gone over budget.

Are there any areas Icemint could improve?

They’re a core part of my business now. There’s nothing I would change about our partnership. They’ve already adapted to what I needed.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Icemint?

Connect with them on the overall scope of where the platform’s going. After a large push, they’ll ask what the next 5 steps are. For example, if I tell them I want to build out these 15 features and I know it’s going to be $100,000, I’ll ask for their ideas on how to skip a step for efficiency. I suggest being upfront with Icemint and making a connection with them instead of just viewing them as an outsourcing firm.