Flyaps

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a telecommunications consulting firm. We help businesses and government agencies find the correct solutions from a telecom perspective.

What challenge were you trying to address with Flyaps?

We relied on them to build a custom application for internal use.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Flyaps is building a web-based app with a mobile component. It manages our back office, tracks our frontline sales, and brings the two together. It automates some of our administrative tasks. The backend is in SQL and the team also utilized Python.

What is the team composition?

I am in regular contact with Sergey (General Manager), Andrew (Co-Founder & CEO), Alex (CTO), Oleg (CCO), and Dmitry (Frontend Developer).

How did you come to work with Flyaps?

They were recommended to me by a friend.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $100,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in April of 2019 and it’s an ongoing engagement.

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

They’ve been great to work with. They’ve always hit their projected timelines. They’ve been able to deploy the desired features and modules in a timely manner.

How did Flyaps perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good. Even though we operate with a time difference since they’re based in Ukraine, it never once felt like an issue. They’re always available and are great at following up with us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’d highlight their professionalism. They’re great to talk with, and the quality of work is exceptional. They’re able to deliver a beautiful product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. They’ve met every expectation I’ve had.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make the trip to Ukraine. It’s a good trip, and they have a great, welcoming team. It really helps strengthen the relationship.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of 1dataplan, it’s in the telecom industry. We created a solution to eliminate the high roaming data charges accrued from traveling abroad.

What challenge were you trying to address with Flyaps?

We wanted to create a SIM card that allowed world travelers to use data without paying roaming charges. We wanted our customers to have one single SIM card that they’d pay monthly for. They could then access data across our geographical footprint that grew over the years.

The best-case scenario for us is to have agreements with all worldwide operators. The operators send us a significant amount of offshore invoicing files in a special format called CDR. Those files tell us the usage information of our users. For example, if a user traveled to Denmark, the Danish operator would send the American operator a record of their travel bill and phone usage.

Basically, we needed a way to aggregate all that data. We also needed a way to monitor that data because if a customer reached their data limit, we’d need to cut it off.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Flyaps created the technical platform that enables our business. This platform collects all of the CDR files and aggregates them. Their team created a business intelligence system that allows us to see users’ data records for each SIM card. We also have an alerting system that notifies us if a specific user is using too much data. This allows us to shut the SIM card down.

It was vital that this alerting system operated 24/7 because if it went down, we wouldn’t receive the operators’ records. Then that would mean we couldn’t control our users abroad. It was extremely important that it ran 365 days of the year.

Flyaps created all of this from scratch, including a common requirement specification that they used for the product development process. I’m not sure what technology they used, but I do know they used frameworks. This was nice because it meant they provided some design work for free.

What is the team composition?

There were three people—a couple of developers and a tester. I worked mostly with the developers because I have a technical background. I also did a lot of testing myself so I could conduct testing from both a user and a system component level.

How did you come to work with Flyaps?

I first met their acquaintance at a previous company. Because I worked closely with them, I saw how they worked and developed that project. I knew I’d be safe using them for my own project later on.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2013, and our partnership is ongoing. They’ve been affiliated with the project ever since its beginnings. Over the years, they’ve provided minor support and development.

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

I’ve been working with outsourced developers for many years, and this project with Flyaps has been the most painless. The platform is still running today and has been the most stable of all my platforms.

I’m very happy with the performance of their deliverables. During the development period, they were efficient at estimating what features we’d need in order to ensure stability. They also ensured that we didn’t have any problems with our operators.

I’ve had other development teams that only did what they were told, and that’s not always enough to be successful. I liked the feedback that I received from Flyaps’ team.

How did Flyaps perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been absolutely excellent and have handled everything professionally. We didn’t have a project management tool. But we did channel all communication affiliated with features, bug fixes, and tasks to one place.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with the quality and stability of the platform. I don’t have time to worry about it crashing, and Flyaps ensures that it doesn’t. If I ask them to make something, I know it’ll work. This has always been my experience with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. I haven’t had any problems with these guys.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you’re specific in communicating what you need. Think it through because then you get what you pay for. It’s a good idea to have a tester who can conduct quality assurance on the customer side. Reserve enough time and project management tools to ensure proper testing from the company’s side.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m VP of operations at Media Village, which is the home of the knowledge exchange. We’re a B2B solutions marketplace that works with professionals and different corporate entities, educational nonprofits, and we help them reinvent themselves and move everything forward for the coming years.

What challenge were you trying to address with Flyaps?

We needed someone to help us with publishing our content.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve been working with Flyaps for 5-6 years. They did the original upgrade of our website from a basic website to more of a CMS. We’ve grown it more with paid content behind the firewall and things like that. They also created a lot of our logos.

Currently, they do everything from web development, analysis, SEO, brainstorm new ideas for the site to make it more user-friendly. Most recently they just released new pull-down menus for the five sections of information we have available. We told them how we wanted it to look color-wise, and what it should say, and they put it right on the site.  They’ve also been refining all of our search features.

Our site focuses on bringing our clients to the forefront and they each have their own landing page. Our pet project is advancing diversity, and that’s one of our bigger pages that Flyaps helped us set up with logos and content.

What is the team composition?

I work with 7-8 members of their team and have 1-2 main points of contact.

How did you come to work with Flyaps?

We received a couple of recommendations and interviewed all of them. Flyaps wound up getting the contract out of that pool.

How much have you invested with them?                                                             

We’ve invested $40,000 – $50,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in December 2014, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

We have a dashboard to see the metrics of our content and how well it’s received, but I’m not sure we can tell how much of that success is because of their work.

How did Flyaps perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good with deadlines. We have a weekly backlog call and we talk all the time even though they’re six hours ahead of me.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re not a big company, so they add a personal touch to everything they work on. I feel it whenever we’re on the phone, I’m impressed with their level of communication considering English isn’t their first language. They’re always on top of everything.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always room for improvement. Sometimes the changes they make don’t look exactly like I want them to, but it’s more of a preference issue.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a global communication and intelligence company for mobile operators. I'm the CEO of my division, and the Chief Product Officer of our whole company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Flyaps?

They work with us on one of our subsidiaries, and they were engaged with us from the beginning as our sole outsource development team. Initially, we wanted to create a web-based roaming analytics solution for mobile operators.

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the start, we had a very limited time frame. They stepped in and helped us reach our goals within about four months. The technologies changed over time, but we started with a Windows desktop application. The tools are different now, but I'm not completely certain of all of the technologies we use. The current solution analyzes billions of call records for roaming partners.

When mobile users roam into other countries or networks, there has to be an agreement between providers on a wholesale rate. This solution takes tens of thousands of files a month and creates predictive analytics and recommendations to manage those relationships. It's also useful for financial settlements between companies, and it represents billions of dollars in transactions.

What is the team composition?

We have one primary development lead, which is a major advantage. Staffing can go up and down as we need, and the team is around 11 people at the moment. We hope to expand our solution significantly next year, and that number is likely to go up.

How did you come to work with Flyaps?

The relationship existed before we acquired this subsidiary. I believe they were originally recommended by a business partner. They had experience in the telecom area, and they were an attractive development shop because of that previous experience.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $250,000-$300,000 a year on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We acquired the company in 2016, but the collaboration goes back to 2007.

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

They act as our development shop, so we don't track the metrics the same way we would if they were purely an outsource agency. There are occasional fixes, but their work is very good overall.

How did Flyaps perform from a project management standpoint?

The relationship we have with them is great, and they understand the industry and the solutions extremely well. When we provide requirements, they give feedback and make recommendations. They go beyond our requirements, and they put a lot of thought and creativity into their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of engagement and their ability to meet requirements are both very good. They give us a lot of input, and they bring their experience and knowledge to their collaboration with us. I'm particularly impressed by their web design and the UX they create. Both are better than the work we've seen from other companies. Their math skills are also exemplary, which is particularly beneficial for us in this type of solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We'd love to see zero bugs, but that's somewhat unrealistic. We've focused on the relationship over the past few years, and I can't really think of anything they should change.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any outsource development company, give detailed requirements and be clear about your timelines. Know what you want from your solutions, and work with them closely. We have a support team in the same building as them, so our working relationship is very close.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of two startups, GlossaryTech and CV Compiler. The first is an online glossary designed for recruiters and non-tech professionals to better understand technical terms. CV Compiler is an automated CV checker that gives users immediate suggestions on how they can improve their IT résumés. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Flyaps?

The biggest challenge was creating a digital database for technical terms and making it scalable since there are new terms popping up every day. For CV Compiler, the challenge was creating algorithms for analyzing résumé content quickly and with decent quality.

What was the scope of their involvement?

For GlossaryTech, Flyaps worked mostly on the backend of the software, focusing on building the core engine of the product. The first version scans the web page or the DOC or PDF file and analyzes the technical words used.

For CV Compiler, Flyaps helped us build résumé checking algorithms that look into word counts and the number of pages, create summaries, and so on. They used Python as the core language with the NLTK language processing framework. Flyaps also helped us build the Chrome extension of the product. 

What is the team composition?

We typically work with one dedicated developer, but Flyaps assigns more people for particularly complicated tasks. I have a technical lead/project manager on their side who helps us from a business perspective and suggests ideas. He's like a sparring partner, giving us suggestions on how to make the products better. From time to time, they've assigned additional developers for specific tasks like creating the Chrome extension, synchronizing with the database, or other specialized tasks.

How did you come to work with Flyaps?

They were referred to me by a friend that had worked with them before. I really like how Flyaps helped make my idea even better during our initial call, especially in terms of technical implementation. They suggested a few ways we could do it and how to make it scalable for the future.

I liked that they really thought about the product and it made me feel like there was someone on the other side of the call that was really putting themselves in my shoes. They gave me a quote, we discussed the technology and deadlines, and we decided to get started.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve been working with them since 2017, so it’s definitely not a small amount, but it’s also not in the millions of dollars range. They send me invoices for the work done on a monthly basis.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Flyaps around March 2017, and they continue to support the product. The Chrome browser is continually getting security updates, which has caused some issues for us, so they assist on that front. I’ve also gone back to Flyaps for implementing the feedback collected from CV Compiler’s users.

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

I’m not a technical person, so I can’t speak directly about the quality of their code. For us, the important part is that the products work, are scalable, and they don’t crash.

We’re upgrading the products all the time, and we haven’t had any issues adding features or improving them. We did run into issues with the Chrome browser changing some policies, but Flyaps researched the problem and fixed it on time. They’ve also provided accurate time estimates for the assignments we’ve done, and have notified me whenever they need to spend extra time on research and development. 

How did Flyaps perform from a project management standpoint?

We use messengers for daily contact through which I send them my thoughts on things to improve. We usually schedule calls to go through all the ideas when I create a new assignment for them. They give me estimates for the tasks and I give them feedback once a task is done.

We usually use Google Sheets to track the assignments for the month instead of specific bug tracking systems. We aren’t developers, so we don’t need complicated things like Jira, which would likely make our lives a bit harder. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The biggest difference is that they really take care of my products and really try to understand them. They inquire about what’s going on with my user traction and also monitor our Google Analytics. They really care about the software they produce in terms of how it affects my business and act as our internal developers by striving to learn about the product.

I also really appreciated the ideas they suggested during our first meeting regarding what the product would be like in three or six months, and what we needed and didn’t need to do at that time. I can rely on Flyaps as a kind of external CTO, and I give them all the freedom to decide what to do on the technical side.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. When I give them a new task, it feels like they really enjoy doing the work. I’ve worked with internal developers before, and Flyaps has been way more motivated than they were. They challenge themselves to complete the assignment even if they don’t exactly know how to do it, taking time to research things fully. They definitely care about the product from a technical perspective. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

First of all, clients should let them know what they want to build from a business perspective. If it’s not just a simple website and it involves working with tech stacks, data science, and natural language processing, then they need a partner for the research part.

I recommend going to Flyaps if the client is a business expert in their domain but isn’t sure if something is technically possible or if they want to bring their offline expertise to the online world. They’re definitely the right partner for that. We can brainstorm with them and determine how to make things possible in terms of software.