fireup.pro

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a venture builder focused on Industry 4.0. My role is Head of Engineering

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire fireup.pro, and what were your goals?

We hired fireup.pro to help us with two projects: a fitness tracking app integrated with fitness bracelets / watches and later an industrial monitoring and configuration tool for various kinds of production lines.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were in touch with fireup.pro, thanks to Digital Knights network. We urgently needed a front-end developer, and they had a specialist who could start asap.

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

The fitness trackin app was in the maintenance stage. We needed a specialist who could implement amendments and corrections. After improved features were deployed, the project was passed to another team. The monitoring tool was programmed as an MVP app, ready to take first users.

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

One front-end developer was working with our development team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developer we hired had no problems getting into the existing codebase quickly. All the necessary fixes and adjustments were delivered on time and according to the specification. The code quality was top. He demonstrated good knowledge of both tech stack as well as best practices in the react.js

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

Both projects were managed using a simple version of SCRUM with daily standups and short weekly planning sessions. Back then we used Trello for managing tasks, Slack and Google Hangouts for remote communication, Google docs for docs and spreadsheets

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

Communication with the developer: speaks perfect english and is very proactive in his daily work with both communicating his current progress, obstacles as well as suggesting possible approaches. On top of that, we were assigned a person responsible for our business relation with whom I personally had monthly check-ins. Even though we haven't done any project with fireup.pro in a while, we still talk almost every month and I am enjoying these conversations very much.

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

I cant think of anything that would really be worth mentioning here.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Ten Square Games is one of the biggest mobile games developers in Poland. We create games that simulate the most popular outdoor hobbies. My position is CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire fireup.pro?

Our cooperation started because we needed experienced Java developers who could help us in achieving our quality goals and deadlines. We worked together on developing mobile games and internal tools. Some projects were delivered from scratch, some had been developed in cooperation with our in-house employees.

SOLUTION

How did you select this agency and what were the deciding factors?

Partnership with fireup.pro was recommended by one of our employees, who had great previous work experience with this vendor. We started our cooperation with one person to verify the technical and communication skills. We were not disappointed, so we extended the collaboration.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

fireup.pro delivered individual developers as well as complete teams. They were working on projects that were delivered from scratch, and some had been developed in cooperation with our in-house employees.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We have received several blind CVs of possible candidates, after that we performed technical interviews with all of them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

fireup.pro managed to deliver several high quality projects, including: test automation for one of our games, notification service used for mobile push notification

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

fireup.pro employees were added to augment our existing teams. Their employees adapted very quickly to our workflow and provided significant insights from their own experience

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

The most impressive thing was that every candidate was really superb. We immediately hired first three developers after one interview

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

Not that I can think of

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

9am.health is a virtual diabetes clinic that supports conditions such as prediabetes, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. The program provides patients with affordable lab tests and personalized, compassionate care. Every user can get online prescriptions, meds delivered to their houses, and a team of specialists ready to help. 9am.health offers at-home lab tests to improve the patient’s treatment plan. My position is Co-CEO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire fireup.pro, and what were your goals?

As a new startup in the market, we needed a custom-fit team that would meet the 3 most important requirements: a consistent team, knowing Java language very well, and having experience in from-scratch projects. The project’s goal was to provide people with affordable medications and lab tests that are delivered to patients’ homes. All thanks to a useful, user-friendly service.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I had superb previous work experience with this vendor. fireup.pro has met all of our requirements including team members' skills & knowledge, experience in from scratch projects and flexibility regarding the size of the team.

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

The team’s responsibility was to develop most of the service functions and to deliver the MVP application in the agreed time. After the successful release of the MVP version of the application, fireup.pro team works continuously on developing further features.

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

The core of the team was based on a senior Java developer (team leader) and a regular Java developer. Afterward, we expanded the team with Quality Assurance engineers and a frontend developer. Currently, 5 people are working with us: 2x Java developers, 2x Quality Assurance Engineers, 1x Fronted developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Solution-oriented focused on good collaboration and a healthy environment, best practice.

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

fireup.pro fully adapted to our project management requirements quickly so we noticed benefits immediately. Communication is very clear, using remote tools such as Zoom, Miro, Jira, or email.

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

Great people!

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

More expertise in the healthcare domain (and associated regulations), and maybe native mobile development

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

mySugr (member of Roche Group) specializes in app-based, all-around care for people with diabetes made by people with diabetes.

mySugr creates simple, effective solutions that serve people with diabetes, as well as organizations that manage populations with diabetes. My position is Head of Technology (CTO).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire fireup.pro, and what were your goals?

At first, we hired fireup.pro as a backend expert support. That project is focused around the company's main application, which is supported by a substantial backend component.

Later on we decided to expand our cooperation so the database expert joined our team which is building ETL solution integrating data from two databases (located in two different places) into one data store.

The latest project we are working on together is product’s brand new website.

SOLUTION

How did you select fireup.pro and what were the deciding factors?

We were in the need for experienced Java engineers who could support our local teams in creating and implementing complex integration processes. The vendor was recommended by someone from the local IT environment. That person used to work together with fireup.pro’s developers. After the recruitment process we decided to give that cooperation a try.

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

There are three projects we are working on together right now:

1. Backend solutions project and implementation focused on our main app (Java, Hibernate, Spring, CXF, MySQL, Amazon Web Services)
2. Global data warehouse integrating data from databases located in different places (ETL processes based on AWS infrastructure)
3. The product’s brand new website (Web frontend, HTML, JavaScript)

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

2x Backend Software Engineer (Java), 1x Data Warehouse Engineer, 2x Web Frontend Engineer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Fireup.pro team members are working as active members of mySugr's development team, therefore seamlessly extending our development capacity.

The collaboration with fireup.pro works smoothly on all levels (highly skilled individual contributors, seamless integration with development teams, professional management of the collaboration on the procurement/administration level) and gives us the confidence of working with a reliable and strong development partner.

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

Fireup.pro fully adapted to our project management requirements quickly so we noticed benefits immediately. Communication is very clear, using remote tools such as Slack, Jira, Google Hangouts, or email. All questions or requests are processed promptly and with a high degree of professionalism.

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

The collaboration with Fireup.pro is unique in the sense that the vendor team works really hard to understand our requirements, which are often very special due to our domain (healthcare/medical), and is extremely passionate about fulfilling them to our best expectation.

People on all levels are motivated, easy to work with, compassionate, and actively participate in open feedback and discussion.

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

Two things I could wish for at this time, and with which fireup.pro could bring even more value to us: first, mobile developers with the same degree of experience and understanding, and second more domain knowledge in the healthcare/medical area. This would allow us to extend our collaboration even more

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is a start-up that wants to provide consumers with scientific-based data on the environmental, social, and biodiversity impact of grocery products to influence daily shopping choices. My position is Product Manager & Co-Founder

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire fireup.pro?

In retrospective, the main part of the project was the development of our mobile app that is currently released as a beta version to a limited amount of test users. Initially, fireup.pro was hired to build a web version of the mobile application as well as a user interface for backend operations.

What were your goals for this project?

In the beginning, the goals were to build the web application, consisting of the following layers:

1. Backend algorithms to allow passive tracking of consumption behaviour
2. Databases
3. Backend UI
4. Frontend Web-App with User Profile Creation

Quite soon, we switched to React Native, allowing us to build a native mobile application for both Android and iOS. All backend services could of course be neatly integrated without additional efforts. The backend algorithms (1) where continuously improved throughout the course of the project.

SOLUTION

How did you select fireup.pro?

The vendor was recommended by our CTO, who used to work with fireup.pro before.

Describe the project in detail.

The initial prototype covered a few layers as mentioned before. The backend was developed in Python/Django and for the passive tracking algorithms we mainly built on serices from AWS. A scraper for advanced product search was written in Scrapy. mySQL and ElasticSearch were used for data operations and as a querying/matching solution. The Frontend was initially written in React, but very soon development was continued with React Native in order to build a proper mobile app.

What was the team composition?

2 Python backend developers, 1 frontend developer, 1 data scientist

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project developed in cooperation with fireup.pro was quite urgent for our startup since the application itself is crucial for our business. The prototype helped us to gain external funding and the mobile application put our ideas and values into practice.

Our main goal is to make the impact of consumption more visible to consumers and thereby help mitigating ecological and social crises. The developers who were in the team showed great interest in the project and came up with their own ideas by means of a proactive style of work, which was always highly appreciated.

Also, different solutions were constructively discussed to find the best path towards a certain goal.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Project management was handled by me, I organized the scrum ceremony, plannings, demos, dailies, and retrospectives. fireup.pro’s developers were collaborative, responsive, and helped to reach effective management. We mainly used Slack, Jira, GitHub and Google Meet for communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

A young dynamic team that proactively came up with solutions and contributed to the product vision of our company and massively helped to shape our initial app. I experienced collaboration with fireup.pro as very respectful and friendly and also during stressful times everyone stayed calm and focussed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

For a startup without a complete scrum team it is often hard to estimate the scope of a sprint correctly.

Although the initial phase of a startup is never without disturbances, we would have had an easier time with regards to internal planning and goal setting if developers would have given more updates on how reachable certain goals are, especially when it already becomes obvious that specific tasks cannot be reached because of too ambitious planning.

To be more concrete, a very rough number such as "one more day", "half a week" or "one week" until completion, including a rough estimate about the risk of that number, would already be more than sufficient.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Data-driven marketers value Searchmetrics for its ability to deliver the predictable success that enables them to reach their search and content goals. Searchmetrics and its clients share a belief in the power of insight and an understanding that data makes decisions better.

Founded in 2005 as a boutique digital agency, Searchmetrics has grown into a global provider of the data, software platforms and expertise that drive online revenue and elevate brands. Searchmetrics develops long-term solutions that tackle the challenges of the online world. We do this by delivering customer-focused products and results-driven consultancy that create tangible value for our clients.

Searchmetrics offers an integrated software platform, the Searchmetrics Suite, consisting of four core products: With Searchmetrics, customers can get the insights they need to analyze online performance, set priorities and drive success. Searchmetrics’ software is backed up by its services division, the Digital Strategies Group. Expert consultancy teams leverage the power of the platform to develop and implement sustainable strategies for clients and maximize their business potential. My position is VP of Engineering

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire fireup.pro?

We needed additional professionals who would support us in migrating services into the cloud, rewrite services into Java services, and later on, we decided to continue the cooperation with fireup.pro because of the skills and experience they are delivering. Their engineers are currently part of some of our existing product teams.

What were your goals for this project?

Firstly, our main goal was to move to the cloud with dispatch in estimated time. We planned to move quite a few services, and we needed professional support.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The vendor was recommended by our internal employee working for Searchmetrics. That person used to work together with fireup.pro’s developers.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Fireup.pro has done a few projects with us. however, most of them were focused around service migration to the cloud. Fireup.pro’s role was to provide the highest quality of programming and architecture skills.

What was the team composition?

During the widest moment of cooperation, there were 7 Java backend developers and 1 frontend developer working for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Experienced developers with wide competencies and excellent communication skills and culture supported us in reaching our goals.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Fireup.pro fully adapted to our project management requirements quickly so we noticed benefits immediately. Communication is very clear, using remote tools such as Microsoft Teams, Jira, or email.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It was easily possible to integrate them into our workflow. The culture, values, and engineering mindset is mostly similar. They added from the first day on value to our engineering department.

The management has a good understanding of how to motivate and grow their team. And definitively that has a positive impact on our environment too.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I don't have anything that they could do better.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a project manager for the Trans.eu platform. We provide modern working tools integrating the transport community. My role is to lead project delivery and integration.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire fireup.pro?

We wanted to enter a new market in the transportation contract sector and we needed an outside vendor for architecture and development.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted our finished product to meet the demands of the market.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We needed Java and JavaScript expertise and we’d worked with fireup.pro previously. We helped them select a development team that could meet our requirements.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They collected and analyzed data about companies for the TransRisk Recommendation Module CBIF, a central database. Other services included invoicing, integration with telematics, integration with external vendors, system infrastructure, and an API gateway.

What was the team composition?

We worked with 15 backend developers, three frontend developers, four QA testers, a DevOps engineer, and a software architect.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen a reduction in customer complaints regarding TransRisk service in the parts of our products which are already live. We expect the final delivery will have a major impact on our company and the market we operate in.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They manage the project using scrum methodology, and we’ve seen the benefits that system provides. Communication is very clear, using remote tools such as Skype, Jira, Google Hangouts, or email.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They clearly communicate, they have great development expertise, and they adapt quickly to changes.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a product owner in Trans.INFO, a news portal that reports the latest in transport, trucks, logistics, and forwarding. We post reports, guides, articles, and video materials.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire fireup.pro?

We wanted a platform that would be a staple in the industry. We noticed that the transportation industry was lacking a news source. The platform had to follow a new concept.

What were your goals for this project?

Our company desired an updated version of the platform to increase active users. We needed a development team to transform the portal by designing new architecture and implementing new technologies.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

One of our partners referred fireup.pro to our company.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

fireup.pro created a modernized information portal that presents content. They selected a software with a scalable architecture that allowed for rapid development of the system. Their team built the functional requirements including access points, content creation tools for users, and social media integration. They also migrated data from the previous version of the system. Their team provides support.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a senior software developer, junior software developer, and a backend software tester.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since fireup.pro began working with our company, traffic has increased. The updated platform strengthened our position in the market, and we are preparing to implement a paywall.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We use Scrumban methodology. Their team works in a different city, but the process runs smoothly with all deadlines being met and the scope followed. We perform communication tasks and management services through Jira, Skype, and HipChat.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

fireup.pro’s commitment throughout the engagement has been a delight. Their team is proactive, proposing ideas for technology, user experience, and business.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are none I can think of. I’m satisfied with fireup.pro’s work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

byrd is a pan-European e-commerce fulfillment platform that gives retailers access to a scalable logistics solution. Our core technology is the WMS system that connects the warehouses and enables our online merchants to fulfil their orders at the same quality level as other online giants such as Amazon or Zalando. As the CTO & CoFounder I'm responsible for the product development and the wider R&D team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire fireup.pro, and what were your goals?

We have a large number of integrations both on the carrier and shop side. The people from fireup.pro are supporting our integrations team to develop new integrations, as well as maintain and improve existing integrations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We have worked with a few different vendors before, but were never fully happy with their service. fireup.pro was the first Vendor that managed to hire highly qualified, competent and friendly developers who are a great addition to our internal team.

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

They have worked with our internal team on multiple carrier and shop integrations. This does not only include developing new integrations, but also maintenance of existing integrations and fixing bugs and issues as they come up. Another big part is monitoring and debugging. We are working in an agile environment with 2-weekly sprints. The technology used in the backend includes Python, PostgreSQL, Redis and SQS. Some tools we are working with include Github, Jenkins, Jira and Grafana.

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

There are 4 people, all of them working as Python backend developers including 3 mid-level and 1 senior developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Without the people from fireup.pro we wouldn't be able to develop the number and quality of integrations we have today. Over the last year we integrated 9 carriers and 4 shops. On top of that there were numerous smaller and bigger improvements of existing integrations.

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

The project managers from fireup.pro are very friendly and proactive. I feel they really understand what they are talking about and that they really care about their employees.

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

fireup.pro was the first Vendor that managed to hire highly qualified, competent and friendly developers who are a great addition to our internal team. We really appreciate the open and honest conversations. Also, I really feel that they care about their people. They see them as human beings and not just as a resource. This is really important to us as a company, our people are the most important asset and I feel fireup.pro is sharing the same values.

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

We had a few topics over the time, but we were always able to address them with fireup.pro and resolve them quickly. Nothing that you wouldn't expect when working with people. Overall there was never a bigger issue that we were facing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CLOUD & SERVER EXPERTS We specialize in IT services such as server solutions architecting, cloud computing implementation, and servers management. We help to increase the data security and operational capacities of our customers. My role is Growth Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire fireup.pro, and what were your goals?

As a group of IT companies willing to grow together, we wanted to create an online place that would help us to educate local society, organize events and cooperate. This is how the website was invented.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We’ve known each other for years. When it came to getting things done, They had the resources and energy to deliver the website.

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

The team designed and developed the website, and then tested it. We were expected to deliver content and test the website after the release.

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

There were 3 full-stack developers and a graphic designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website was delivered within 3 months without delay. Communication was great as well as team engagement.

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

The project workflow was based on effective communication, therefore it was a success.

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

They are partners in every detail!

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

There is nothing in particular that comes to my mind.