Evergreen

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Head Of Digital Marketing in Premier Hotels and Resorts, that is the #1 hotel chain in Ukraine, a collection of hotels graded from 5 to 3 star, different in their own way but equally welcoming and cosy. All hotels share a common distinctive feature - professional and high quality service.

For what projects/services did your company hire Evergreen?

Virtual assistance chatbot for instant messangers (Facebook Messenger, Viber, Telegram) and our website.

What were your goals for this project?

New channel of communication with guests.

How did you select this vendor?

We have very positive discussion and I realise that these guys can do nice solution for us.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They started with scenario creation and then have done the development. Chatbot or “virtual concierge” created by the Evergreen team based on Corezoid and Sender, they also provided Kwizbot - their own chatbot orchestration and management service that allows creating chatbot interfaces in a convenient visual editor.

What was the team composition?

Project Manager Back-end developer QA engineer

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

Thanks to the chatbot, you can find out the availability of rooms for the required dates, book a room with certain requirements - the number of rooms, beds, where the windows open - and immediately receive confirmation.

With the help of a chatbot, guests get instant access to many hotel services and can in a few clicks: - order food in the room - call the maid - ask for towels- laundry services, etc. All of these services can now be ordered online. The chatbot system has 540 answers for various cases.

You can reach the chatbot on the Premier Hotels and Resorts website and in the Facebook Messenger, Viber and Telegram instant messengers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We do it with fixed price. Everything on the project went fine.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Flexibility and partnership approach.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything was fine. Maybe a little bit more communication to understand all technical details.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of the Ukrainian Philanthropic Marketplace (UPM). UPM is Ukraine’s first independent nationwide social online philanthropy infrastructure. We provide a unique service for Philanthropists and for those who need help.

The ubb.org.ua platform is the largest fundraising platform in Ukraine. We work with big TV networks, so the peak traffic can reach up to 7 thousand simultaneous website visitors.

For what projects/services did your company hire Evergreen?

Online marketplace development, where any company or organization can find and donate to a charity project

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a prompt and high-quality platform design for creating an effective and user-friendly donation platform to support social and charity projects. Also, it was crucial to increase platform stability in handling heavy traffic.

How did you select this vendor?

Evergreen was recommended to us. We chose the company, based on the price-quality ratio and their experience in high-load solutions and working with complex projects.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Solution consulting, Architecture development, UX design, and then software development.

What was the team composition?

Team includes:

• Technical lead
• Account Manager
• UX designers
• 2 senior back-end developers
• 2 front-end engineers
• QA engineer
• Project Manager

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

Increased platform stability allowed to extend user time on site and increase the donation page conversion rate because of reducing unsuccessful donor sessions. Also, new functionality allows s to grow and automate routine tasks.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project was cut in several stages, each of them was completed according to fixed price to fixed scope logic. This approach helped fit into the project budget and achieve our goals successfully. We have a lot of personal meetings and discussions, that allow us to select better solutions and make the right decisions.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team was involved in the project, and we liked their willingness to proceed with the most complex tasks. Quick response, high-quality troubleshooting.

Are there any areas for improvement?

To be honest I want more documentation and better testing of complex cases

Please describe your company and your position there.

Since 2007 the key activity of “Financial Solutions Center" is successful development of professional retail financial network under the brand – “KreditMarket”™ in cooperation with integrated licensed financial company LLC “Financial Company" «Financial Solutions Center» - FC FSC

1500 employees, Chief Information Technology Officer

For what projects/services did your company hire Evergreen?

We wanted to developing online channel to give loans to our clients and had serious problems with fraud detection in our online application process. Our solution was to create process with automate facial detection of our applicants for loans, and we hired Evergreen.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to obtain online muching process with faces library in our clients data-base and Credit bureau data-base with fast results and clear cut rates due to detecting fraud.

How did you select this vendor?

Face libraries was old and with poor quality images so Evergreen was the first company to propose to us AI process which makes these images ready to effective face detection and with clear cut rates.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed AI engine to detect face on image from face library and online photo made by applicant for a loan and crop and transform image areas in order to muching them via Face++ cognitive services. They also developed API integration with our systems (WEB, Core Decision Making).

What was the team composition?

The project team had about ten people. Our business and fraud scenarios convinced them to suggest an agile development aproach, which led us quickly redeveloped AI engine to made desired cut rates solution and trusted online loan service for our clients.

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

Our solution was developed in time and now we had matched over 3th. applicants. We reduced fraud volume to minimum level and now looking forward to use this AI engine in documents detection in our other decision making processes.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project managment was very effective with real timing, good forecasting and very transparent.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're a new-generation vendor with appropriate pricing and a versatile, creative IT team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are waiting for behavior matching AI engine for face recognition process which allows to create behavior rules for online photo process.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm project manager in "Djerelo". Distance Learning Centre "Djerelo" is a fully accredited online school with a lesson plan, exercises, and teachers, where children can learn from home.

For what projects/services did your company hire Evergreen?

We completed several projects that are parts of bigger goal: own eLearning platform for remote education of school students

What were your goals for this project?

The result of the work should be deployed high load e-learning platform that fits our processes and goals. We have a lot of requirements, like realtime chat, interactive whiteboard, custom test types, online payments, etc. that can't be achieved with boxed software like Moodle. So we decided to do our own platform.

How did you select this vendor?

By referral

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They provided us with all the necessary consulting and then development. What has been developed: UX design and development of a chat for communication between students and teachers; online course management system; school administration system; integrations with our Moodle LMS and an interactive whiteboard. Some features are currently in development.

What was the team composition?

Team includes:

• technical lead
• 4 back-end developers
• 2 QA engineers
• Project Manager
• 3 front-end developers
• 2 UX designers

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

The final result is a full-featured learning system, which helps us streamline the educational process. We set up an interaction system between teachers and students. So their daily routines are much easier now, and the learning activities are way more simple.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used mixed Agile and Waterfall approach to manage the project. Within sprints, the executive team completed the planned amount of work and made it ready for review. When the results were successful, we agreed on the next backlog of tasks. Hence, the management was highly effective, with no need to rework tasks. The whole process has been consistent as we expected, the final result contained no errors.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are our real technical partner! We trust them! The level at which communication took place and the general decision-making idea is perfect. The way of making things user-friendly has been well-thought-out before I even managed to think about it.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I'm quite happy with them, but several times releases were not good. More attention to integration tasks and working in a tight schedule.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CEE in Stylefy, furniture eCommerce shop that operates on markets of Germany, Austria, Switzerland

For what projects/services did your company hire Evergreen?

We need to create custom eCommerce modules for an existing platform like labeling software and logistics partner integration. We also do UX design with them.

What were your goals for this project?

As a growing business, we needed improvements to existing systems, that our in-house team was unable to do in a tight schedule

How did you select this vendor?

reference

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

1. UX design: they started with audit ad UX testing and do several hypotheses that we implemented on our eCommerce platform.
2. Labeling software: they did detective work and consult me with good, fast and reliable solution and then integrated our labeling partner by API with our ERP back-office system
3. eCommerce improvements - front and back-end development of our web platform

What was the team composition?

PM, devops, back-end developer, support engineer, QA, UX designer, Front-end developer

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

We raised our operational effectiveness and have some conversion growth.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We work on an T&M basis with them. The Project Manager implemented daily and weekly stand-ups and reviews. It was good and effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to understand ideas and propose an effective solution. With this labeling software I mentioned befor they did it 5 times (!) faster then my previous supplier estimated.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Maybe communiation a little, but all is fine especially the result.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the owner of pulti.ua. We’re a wholesale retailer of remote controls for home appliances.

For what projects/services did your company hire Evergreen?

We needed to develop an online shop on OcStore and integrate it with our existing systems.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to migrate our products, clients, and their orders from the old site, develop a new website on the open source CMS, OpenCart, develop a dealer's admin where they purchase products wholesale and re-integrate the new shop into Microsoft Navision and our retail CRM.

How did you select this vendor?

We met with several candidates in-person.

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

They provided services including UX/UI prototyping, web design, frontend development, and online shop development. They also integrated our existing systems: a Microsoft Dynamics ERP, called Navision, and our Retail CRM. They also migrated data from the old shop to a new server and database, which saved our photos, product descriptions, attributes, and models.

What was the team composition?

We had a project manager, as well as a web designer, two developers, a QA tester, and an account manager.

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

The system integrations have decreased the manual work of copying and pasting data from different systems. Our number of online orders has quadrupled as well.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They organized the project in a such a way that every part was independent, and could be complete separately from every other part. It helped to estimate the results of each stage and then decide what should be done next, rather than following the original roadmap without any revision.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They drilled down into my business processes and tried to understand how the entire system worked.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Their length of delivery could be shorter, but that wasn’t a big deal in this case.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the strategic communications officer at the European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) Ukraine, which is a non-executive mission of the European Union. EUAM Ukraine aims to assist Ukrainian authorities by forging a path towards a sustainable reform of the civilian security sector. 

For what projects/services did your company hire Evergreen?

Evergreen helped us design and develop a new website for the National Police of Ukraine (NPU).

What were your goals for this project?

Until the end of 2017, the NPU had an outdated website that didn't function properly or comply with modern technical requirements. We hired Evergreen to create a new communication tool for the NPU to help the agency's communication policies and standard approach adapt to current trends. 

How did you select this vendor?

We found them the tender procedure and according to award criteria matrix.

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

Evergreen created a new website for the National Police of Ukraine.  The scope of their of services included web design, web development, and setting up and launching a production server except for content creation. The team also migrated three years worth of archived news from the old to the new website. Lastly, they provided support to our system admin with setting up servers during the website launch.

What was the team composition?

Evergreen assigned us a team that included web developers, a team lead, web designers, testers, and a team lead, project manager, and account manager. 

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

Evergreen helped my company fulfill a critical part of our cooperation with the NPU by funding and launching the institution's new website.  The team used new technology and techniques to improve the agency's online presence. The site they delivered facilitates better digital communication with the general public.   

Evergreen delivered a modern, technically stable online platform for the NPU to communicate with citizens. The new site increases public awareness about ongoing reforms and demonstrates the NPU achievements, which will strengthen public trust in my client as a whole.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

This project was fixed-price to fixed-scope. Evergreen used the Waterfall methodology to deliver the new website on time and within the allocated budget.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Working with a government agency can be challenging, especially when it comes to IT series and web development. Evergreen overcame bureaucracy and a lack of software, hardware, and IT expertise resources to produce a satisfying end deliverable. ​

​​​​​​Are there any areas where they can improve?

They could always be more flexible and responsive to the client’s needs.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a co-owner of LuxCarte, a restaurant management company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Evergreen?

We have hired Evergreen to provide custom development for a restaurant resource and operations management system, including chat-bot, alert, and payment capabilities.

What were your goals for this project?

We want to simplify and integrate all of the operating activities of our restaurants into a single management system in order to avoid manually monitoring routine tasks. After first testing the system in our Argentina Grill restaurant, and then scaling the system to our other establishments, we want to create a ready-made SaaS subscription product for other restaurant businesses.

How did you select this vendor?

We held several personal meetings with a few development companies; of them, Evergreen impressed us the most with their professional approach.

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

Evergreen’s development has included: cloud-based software that reaches mobile and web-based clients; notification and staff group messaging functionality; descriptions for business processes and employee positions; staff scheduling and modifications; employee attendance capabilities; automated reports concerning enterprise performance; customization for each particular restaurant.

What was the team composition?

The project team includes one technical lead, one account manager, one UX designer, two senior backend developers, one QA engineer and one project manager.

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

This project is—within itself—a startup. In order to test the application, we release individual portions of functionality to small focus groups of real, daily restaurant guests. Recently, we launched a chat-bot that allows customers to use their Viber messenger to call their waiter, who would receive a wristwatch notification. Recent tests have shown that this feature is unpopular with guests; therefore, we are now working on adding a streamlined, online cheque payment system.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We are developing the project on a monthly scrum basis. For 3-6 month strategic planning, we use a Trello board, where we input all of our global modules. For 2 month tactical planning, we use a simple Google Spreadsheet roadmap. Each sprint is followed by hands-on application testing with customers, employees and administrators. This approach has cut excessive spending on unnecessary features. All communication is conducted via Slack and personal team meetings.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I have been satisfied with their partnership-like approach to development.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I would suggest more flexible pricing.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of a cost-per-lead (CPL) network currently under development.

For what projects/services did your company hire Evergreen?

We hired them for the custom development of the network and an auction website for selling leads to clients.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to create a Russian-based system for generating applications for renovation and construction services based on the Post Affiliate Pro program. We want to elevate CPL business to a new level by researching and developing leads through our call center so our service businesses—mostly contractors—are not surprised or duped. We believe that our auction model is the best solution for providing targeted and enriched leads specifically prepared for our clients.

How did you select this vendor?

I found them on Corezoid, a business process engine platform.

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

They have been providing web development services for six months now, and the project is ongoing. The network is integrated with the following functionalities: Corezoid, a business processes engine; AmoCRM, a leads management system; Post Affilate Pro, an affiliate management system for webmasters; NLU-service Dialogflow for parsing descriptions of inquiries from leads; a WalletOne payment processing system; an online custom auction solution based on a Laravel PHP framework; and a web chat for webmasters to collect leads.  

What was the team composition?

The team consists of a technical lead, two senior backend developers, two QA engineers, one mid-level frontend developer, a UX designer, an account manager, and a project manager. 

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

We are still a startup in the minimum viable product stage, and not yet an established business. We will begin seeing metrics when we start testing our auction on a small group of real clients (renovation contractors) in the near future. 

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They use a simple Google spreadsheet roadmap to manage the scope. The project is divided into sprints with established fixed budgets and delivery dates. We are finishing up the second of three sprints, after which we plan to launch a live beta version of the auction.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We are impressed with the quality of the work and their detail-conscious product logic. 

Are there any areas where they can improve?

They can improve their QA and testing, specifically the percentage of test coverage. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the product manager of DreamHomeCreation, a firm that provides home-building and design services for designers and architects at every project stage.

For what projects/services did your company hire Evergreen?

We hired Evergreen to develop our web portal at dhc.global.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted our platform to serve many purposes: provide a communications hub for designers and their clients; offer a designer’s catalogue; create a personal portfolio space for architects and designers; create an online store for interior design products.

How did you select this vendor?

We selected Evergreen based upon the quality of their past projects.

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

The company wrote SRS and drew prototype graphics before going through and drawing out a 140 page layout that covered important elements within the web interface. Evergreen developed project, article and specialists catalogs, specialist profiles, an online store, product inquiry forms and online payment mechanisms. They also developed the API for integrating the external databases of products, categories, attributes, orders and clients.

What was the team composition?

We worked with one technical lead, two senior back-end developers, one front-end developer, two QA engineers, one project manager, one account manager, one UX designer and one UI designer.

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

The business is an early stage startup that just launched its web-platform one month ago; therefore, there is little to no measurable impact.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was executed in three stages. First, we speculated on ideas and formulated projections; second, we focused on web design; third, they conducted web-development sprints that lasted 2-3 months each. This approach kept the project in-budget while still succeeding on our goals. We communicated via Skype, Redmine and personal team meetings.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I found the company’s strict adherence to deadlines—and their incredible competence executing the technical tasks of this project—impressive.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

There’s really nothing to improve on, we are happy with the work.