Existek

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Executive Officer of RD2

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a leading Crypto Marketing Agency that spicializing on community and investors engagament for Crypto, NFT, Web3 projects and helps them to stand out from the crowd. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Existek to accomplish?

• We hired Existek to create a web application admin and customer-facing panels for one of our blockchain projects. They had specific expertise in business intelligence applications development, so we decided to use their resources and knowledge to deliver the project.

SOLUTION

How did you find Existek?

Referral

Why did you select Existek over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Existek were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Existek is a full-cycle software development agency, so they were hired to create architecture, design UI/UX, and develop and test a web application for an enterprise client. The application is a sophisticated ERP business intelligence software that covers general ledger, manufacturing, CRM, and other aspects of the client's operations. It also incorporates the smart contract component for streamlined collaboration with buyers and suppliers. Thanks to the Existek team's extensive experience in creating enterprise applications, we were able to deliver robust solution in time and within budget. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Existek stayed in touch with the client through the discovery and delivery processes to ensure that the final results would meet expectations. We created a fully-fledged admin panel and customer-facing web application that streamlined the ordering process and increased the client's sales results. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Existek assigned a dedicated project manager who was always ready to communicate with us, answer any questions, explain the development process, and address any concerns we had. The entire process was documented in JIRA with great attention to detail, which added transparency and helped us see the progress almost in real-time. Overall, the project management was excellently organized.

What was your primary form of communication with Existek?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Over the years, Existek has built a very impressive ability to understand workflows and processes in various business domains and transform them into custom-tailored applications that exceed customers' expectations. 
Their technology expertise and execution are up to the highest standards, which is really important but hardly unique to our business. What makes them truly unique is how they transform clients' business requirements and always find elegant solutions to all the challenges while building a new product from scratch. 

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

We can't think of any areas for improvement. The whole process was characterized by clear communication and excellent delivery. We completed the project within the budget limitations and on time. The software that they built passed all the security audits and adheres to all golden industry standards of UI/UX.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a technology company located in Norway. We create accessibility tools related to assistive technology, specifically software for people with reading and writing difficulties. I am a product manager for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Existek?

Some years ago, we were having difficulties supporting our applications and started looking for specific APIs for this purpose.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Existek developed our solution based on our specifications. We initially assigned them a text-scrubbing component to develop. It went well, so we've given them the full scope of the Windows application in all its details. They have also worked on the mercantile side of things, like order and license handling. That is a web-based solution running on ASP.NET.

Existek has been working with us for a long time, so they've come to know our solution well. They can make suggestions and improve our specifications. Sometimes we listen to them, and sometimes, we don't.

We have been working with a full-time team of three people from Existek for the last few years.

How did you come to work with Existek?

I looked at companies in Romania, India, and China, but never found a satisfactory option, either because of too much staff turnover or because the collaboration simply didn't work well. We found Existek in Ukraine, approached them and gave them a task to which they responded amazingly well.

How much have you invested with Existek?

The cost of Existek's work has been around $100,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Existek in 2009. The work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have become the number-one solution of our kind in the field. Assistive technology is a different kind of animal, and it requires much more integration than normal. I rate Existek on their ability to provide this, but it's a hard stat to quantify. We've had a new major release recently, and we are pleased with the results.

We have done market studies among customers and those who recommend our product to customers. Nine out of ten people would recommend our solution over that of the competition.

How did Existek perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication is one of our more difficult parts since we are using a single manager to convey our requirements to the rest of the team. We need to be clear and ensure that there is a good understanding of what we want. Deadlines are always adhered to. We use GitHub, JIRA, Bitbucket, and other tools of this kind.

What did you find most impressive about Existek?

Existek is a very honest and credible team. They are people I would always trust, and I am completely confident that they would do everything possible to fix any potential mistakes in the work.

Are there any areas Existek could improve?

I would have liked it if some of Existek's developers had better English skills. The most difficult thing has been communication, but our main contact is fluent and can translate our requirements to the rest of the team. Some of the product and project management issues have also been due to our side. Existek could gain more knowledge on methodologies for this area, but this is also true for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and CEO of a company that provides consulting and development services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Existek?

I was the main developer, and I needed more developing resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I already had previous experience working with Existek, so I started the engagement by working with one of their developers. I’ve added more resources as my business continued to grow. Right now, I have four full-time developers from Existek. They are providing several kinds of development, mostly for custom-tailored web solutions. They also do app development and Excel integrations—everything that’s related to the products we deliver to customers. The products are administrative systems on the backend for the customers—internal websites as well as customer portals. On the backend, there are a lot of statistics. They help integrate information from Excel and different Android apps, which is mostly what our solutions focus on. We’re using Microsoft .NET, Excel, and AngularJS.

We also create Android apps. As the product manager, I work with the product owner to provide business requirements. For the Android applications, we get data from the backend and use reader technology to scan things and gather information, then report back to the main server.

I’ve been working with the Existek developers for four years. I don’t provide the detailed specifications, but they can work from any specifications. We work our way through the different features. I have the ideas and layout, and they basically design every page. They’re not designers, but we come up with a layout that they use for all the pages and modules they develop. I provide the design, but they make it look good.  

How did you come to work with Existek?

I had worked with Existek since 2010 when I was with a previous company. I didn’t consider any other companies at the time.

How much have you invested with Existek?

I spend around $200,000 per year on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our current relationship began in April of 2013 and is ongoing. We’re currently working on a global solution that will roll out worldwide.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been increasing our staff because the customers are very satisfied with our work. My clients are particularly happy when we’re able to provide a solution to a specification within one day. The developers at Existek are a key value for my business since their work is excellent. They make me look good. I’m very happy with the developers as they are.

How did Existek perform from a project management standpoint?

I work with the team from Existek every day. I’m in daily contact with all the members of the team via Skype and email. We’ve also used different task tools. For example, we’re using JIRA right now. We have daily Scrum meetings, and I’ve been to Ukraine many times to meet with them. They’re very good with deadlines. Our Agile approach and how they solve things are above my expectations.

What did you find most impressive about Existek?

Their ability to deliver on time, reliability, and availability are all impressive. The developers are very committed, even working nights and weekends when required. If there’s anything we need to resolve, they come online very quickly. I have continuous conversations with the team. They never say "no", and they always do whatever they can to fix things. I’m extremely happy with their availability.

Are there any areas Existek could improve?

I think there are always things you can improve. The team is performing exactly how I want them to, so if there’s any needed improvement, it would be on my end.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an IT consultancy specializing in custom development projects and managed services for small and medium enterprises. I am a principal consultant.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Existek?

We needed .NET developers with experience in imaging and real-time processing of QR codes to produce loyalty card system for a café franchise. Existek worked with our internal project manager and our internal developer, and we tested the builds on our end with our hardware and reported back any issues.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed to devise and implement and easy-to-use solution for nontechnical users that would enable the production of loyalty cards as well as quick, reliable scanning and tracing of loyalty card usage. Existek devised the solution and developed code, then pushed out the code to production. They continued to update the solution as bug reports came, and added additional functionalities as requested.

To get started, we built a scope document that covered the existing hardware, existing limitations, requirements for speed, and versatility. The product was built using a combination of image processing libraries for video and .NET, and we worked with two people from Existek’s team.

How did you come to work with Existek?

I found Existek through Freelancer.com. They answered my tender succinctly and directly, and they followed it up with good pre-sales support.

How much have you invested with Existek?

The work has cost around $60,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the work in 2014 and delivered and updated the solution in 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The café franchise has loved the work. The solution has very little downtime and processed thousands of loyalty cards. Customers love it as well as users.

Customers were very engaged by the loyalty card process; they found it fun and reported this back to the owner. The café owner loved using the software as it was very stable and never crashed or broke down, and could be relied upon in any circumstance. It also did not involve costly hardware solutions or contract lock-ins, which they viewed as a success.

The end product was highly usable, very low maintenance, and highly reliable.

How did Existek perform from a project management standpoint?

Existek asked very detailed questions and produced great code in a very quick timeframe. They also had excellent documentation. The team was very easy to work with and had great English language capacity.

Existek met all our deadlines perfectly. We largely spoke via Skype chat, conferencing, and email.

What did you find most impressive about Existek?

Existek was very easy to work with, very professional, just amazing in every way.

Are there any areas Existek could improve?

No! I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a software company that provides treatment tools for therapists.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to migrate from another development team so it required coordination with the other team as well as getting up to speed on someone else's code. We wanted Existek to continue development as we expanded product functionality.

SOLUTION

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

Ease of communication with their CEO was a big factor. Having the right skill sets on call and a reasonable price.

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

Firebase backend with React frontend. We needed enhancements to our iOS and Android apps as well as a web front end.

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

There was a 4-person team at Existek ranging from the CEO to a UX designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They delivered the required functionality in a reasonable time frame. I felt the quality of the work was good and their productivity was too.

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

We used Jira and Figma to communicate, manage and plan, as well as weekly Zoom calls and daily Slack messages. It worked well and was low overhead.

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

Their flexibility to bring in other team members with different skills as needed impressed us.

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

No, I was really satisfied.