We build great online products [Ruby Experts]
"Gera-IT is one of the best IT outsourcing companies I've worked with in my 25-year career ..." #client_always_right
Gera-IT is a digital studio established in 2006.
We develop fantastic apps to help businesses become more profitable and cost-effective.
Our clients say that we:
- š„ work fast,
- š communicate proactively like sitting in one space
- šØāš» develop features in a much better way then they imagined before.
At Gera-IT, we:
- build web & mobile apps
- create UI/UX design
- performs business analysis
- build prototypes.
72 clients selected us to develop 135 awesome projects šŖ.
Most of them were delivered in industries like:
š©āāļø Health tech,
š Education,
šµ Finance,
š IoT and
š business automation.
If you face incredible technological challenges āļø, we are experienced to handle advanced tech like:
- big-data,
- high-load,
- optimizations,
- data analysis and more
Top 4 facts about us:
- work with businesses and startups differently
- create the empathic, human-focused design
- bring innovations ("Innovate" - create something new or improve existing unusually - Wiki) that add value to your business
- team smartness, dedication and skills to make the results awesome š
š¬ Words of the mouth of our clients:
"they were quite flexible in organizing working hours."
"communication is great."
"mature mindset of team members."
"they always deliver what they promise."
"Very professional in delivering a personalized service"
We'd love to talk to you too š!
Contact us to discuss your project!
Focus
Portfolio
Shop2market, Storyful, SafeInHome, BeImmunized
SimpliDeferred
SimpliDeferred isĀ a platform with the catalogue of Qualified Intermediaries within the USA. ItĀ helps both user groups - intermediaries (Qualified Intermediary owner (or manager), who are looking for a potential clients) and customers searching for a reliable agent.
From the customers' side the platform provides an easy access to reliable information with the chosen parameters about Real Estate Intermediaries with verified references and reliable rating.
For Qualified Intermediaries who want to grow their brand trust and to find new customers - this product is a lead generation and promotion tool. It offers:
- 3rd party verification of QI information and rating;
- tool to configure and maintain extended profile to promote benefits;
- ability to rise the visibility among other Companies using sponsorship payments
The SimpliDeferred service will also save time with providing confidence to the Tax 1031 processes.
Ā
Shop2market - AdCurve
Online platform for data feed marketing.
This is an unique space where shop owners can collaborate with channels. With just a single data feed, you are directly granted to many channels among comparison shopping sites, search engines, online market places and affiliates networks.Ā
Application architecture is designed to hold millions of tracking requests, store and work with big amount of statistic data. Cluster of 15-20 instances is used in Amazon Cloud.
Integrated Online Campaign Management platformĀ
- Data Feed Management
- Conversion Attribution
- Tag Management
- Data feed Driven Search
- Affiliate Management
- Campaign OptimizationĀ
- Price Watch
Technologies: Ruby On Rails, Mysql, hBase, Hadoop, Map Reduce, Capistrano, UnitTest + Shoulda + Cucumber (Webrat), Daemons + RufusScheduler, Resque, Mongo DB, Amazon Cloud (S3, ELB, EC2, Route53, EMR, EBS), Rackspace, BackBone.js (Jasmine)
Web-site: https://adcurve.com/nl/shop2market/
SchoolHire
SchoolHire advertises facilities across the UK that are available for hire. Whether you are looking for a swimming pool for a birthday party, football pitch for your local team, the classroom for your business or dance studio for your clients, SchoolHire will find you the facility you require.
The site has been built as a two-sided marketplace bringing together customers and venues in a more efficient and streamlined way. Each customer and venue will be able to manage their account to allow them to complete the required actions to either make or accept bookings.
The project has a complicated multi-server structure to provide the top level of security and safety. It is successfully developing in the production environment within the last year.
TestCaseLab
TestCaseLab boosts the overall performance of your QA team with top-notch
technologies, incredibly fast and responsive design. It is a low-cost and easy-to-learnĀ product which will accumulate testing activities in one single place. Everything is simple: you create test cases, gather them in test plan and process everything in run.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails, Angularjs, PostgreSQL, redis, faye, rspec, capybara
Web-site: www.testcaselab.com
Mediaforta
Mediaforta is an advanced platform than joins together Content providers, Curators and Content Customers. It includes rich content management for Editors, Collaboration tool between editors and news agencies, integration with multiple news services.
Technologies: MySQL, .NET
Web-site: www.mediafortaservices.com
EvoLux
Evolux provides a unique service to order single or shared flights on helicopters.
It provides a convenient platform for Operators and Landing ports to increase their flight orders and manage their operations in order to bring efficiency to their business. Clients have chance to organize into groups and share flight expenses.Ā
Technologies: Ruby On Rails, Ruby Language, PostgreSQL, stripe, munin, monit, rspec
Web-site: www.evo-lux.com
CallMD
CallMD is a custom CRM solution for doctor service via phone and online. The backbone of CallMD service is medical call center staffed by licensed nurses who coordinate all calls and ensure accuracy and quality. Additionally, CallMD's physician group comprises state-licensed MDs and DOs, providing services across all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Technologies: delayed_job, rspec, capybara, CoffeeScript, Ruby On Rails, unicorn, MySQL, Ubuntu, Ruby
Web-site: www.callmd.com
ReadingWise
Readingwise is a unique online application to teach English. Patented methodology
promises to cut down over 9 months to 20 hours. ReadingWise is made up of five
different modules. Two are just for teachers or support workers ā they help you deliver
the course and give you a highly effective dashboard on which track your pupils'
progress. The other three are for your students and deal with the alphabet, visual
phonics and comprehension.
Technologies: Ruby On Rails, unicorn, resque, faye, linode, capistrano, ansible, rspec, capybara,
cucumber, jQuery, github, Ubuntu, Ruby, elasticseach, PostgreSQL, munin, monit
Web-site: www.readingwise.com
BeImmunized
Application provides single place for Parents, Providers, Schools for tracking and sharing children's vaccination data. It has advanced schedule engine which allows building of unique schedules depending on child specific catch ups and needs. The application consists from three main parts:
1. Consumers. Part for individual users (parents). It helps parents not to forget about due and upcoming vaccinations of their children.
2. Providers. It provides ability for providers to work in groups and manage vaccinations of patients in single space.
3. Schools. In this part schools can monitor vaccination statuses of their students.
Most interesting parts in the application from engineering point of view are:
ā¢ Integration with SMS gateway;
ā¢ Implementation of schedule engine;
ā¢ Working with big amount of data (up to for millions of physicians in the system);
ā¢ OAuth integration with Permission system for Schools.
Technologies: RoR, iOS/Android, Ruleby, Deamons, Resque, Sphinx, MySql, Haml, NPPES/NPI registry,
REST, OAuth, Cucumber, Private Cloud, Ubunty
Web-site: www.beimmunized.com
SafeInHome
SafeInHome - is a monitoring solution that analyses variouse data like temperature, motions, etc from sensors installed in home and generates alerts based on customizable rules.
Audience for this app is families where some relatives need to be under constant monitoring - grandparents, children, recovery, etc.
System includes:
- Extended admin sideĀ
- support for various sensor types
- many useful rules to analyze situation in the house
- self-monitoring features
- high availability of service
- API
- IOS and Android apps
- customers dashboards
- integration with sensors platform
- interactive voice calling flow
Technologies: RoR, ios/andriod, mysql, custom cloud, integration with call and sms gateway, integration
with various sensors, resque
Web-site: www.safeinhome.com
Storyful
Storyful was founded by journalists who wanted to curate the real-time web. In other words, separate the useful news from the river of noise flowing through channels like Twitter and YouTube.Ā
We have created comfortable but highly interactivetool with lots of functionality and availability of application for 24/ 7.Ā
We have done:Ā
- Backbone was used to manage tons of JS code in the project .Ā
- Rails based API to offer our clients and mobile apps to deliver and manipulate with data.Ā
- Managing of multiple data flows
- Complicated widgets grouped in multiple tabs on single pageĀ
- Real time updates (persistent connections)Ā
- Consuming, parsing and delivery of large twitter stream (thousands of accounts)Ā
- We have utilized extended twitter stream to perform its parsing and deep analyses
Technologies: ROR, RSPEC, Heroku, Tweeter API, Youtube API, S3 Amazon, Javascript, backbone,
mongoDB, postgresql
Web-site: www.storyful.com
Reviews
the project
Medical App Development for Tech Consulting Firm
"Gera-IT gives a lot of attention to satisfying our requests."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
Iām the principal partner for a high-tech consulting firm.Ā
What challenge were you trying to address with Gera-IT?
We had an ongoing development project to build a medical application. We needed capable engineers to bring a solution to life that we could then sell.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Our solution consisted of two parts. The first was an iOS application for patients, while the other is a server-side application for care providers. The server-side application records patientsā data and allows care providers to access medical information.
Gera-IT built the mobile app in Swift and the server tool in a variety of different technologies. Because both apps need to comply with HIPAA, Gera-IT had to meet several requirements in their development.
We use a continuous development model to work with Gera-IT. The process lets us rapidly produce a prototype for both apps, but because of the speed, we do get more rough edges that need refining. We balance this by creating some practical mockups and wireframes before each sprint, and we can point to specific areas for Gera-IT to work on after their part is done.
What is the team composition?
We work with data specialists, mathematical analysts, graphic artists, web design specialists, and app developers experienced in working with iOS and XCode.
How did you come to work with Gera-IT?
One of our longtime business partners had a lot of successful experiences working with Gera-IT and recommended them to us for the work we were looking to do.
How much have you invested with them?
Weāve spent about $200,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project started in August 2018 and is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Gera-ITās work has met our requirements so far. The continuous development process works well for us. Weāre in a testing phase and expect to have more work on enhancements for them in the future.
How did Gera-IT perform from a project management standpoint?
It depends on our time and availability. For the heavy engineering parts, we communicated with them daily. The fact that Gera-IT is off-cycle from the US because of time zone differences is a big plus. We can submit revisions during our day, and then Gera-IT will send those changes in time for us to review them the next morning. Itās been an efficient relationship.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Gera-IT gives a lot of attention to satisfying our requests. They have a high level of expertise and excellent English language skillsāwe can communicate with little difficulty. When it comes to continuous development, theyāre very comfortable with the process. Gera-IT performs as well or better as other teams Iāve worked with in the past, both in the US and abroad.
Are there any areas they could improve?
While Gera-IT has been very quick and responsive, there have been times where their responses didnāt match the level of urgencyāhigh or lowāthat we needed. Thatās as much our issue as theirs, though. Iād encourage clear communication on both sides.
Any advice for potential customers?
As with any engineering team, you need to have a discussion between your users and the vendor. Gera-IT is an excellent group that understands the projects, offers relevant and deep skills, and does their part.
the project
Ruby on Rails Dev for Discount & Coupon Company
"The team was friendly as well as highly efficient and transparent; they made the collaboration seamless."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
Iām the owner of an online discount and coupon business. We collect and distribute coupon codes for over 200 online stores.
What challenge were you trying to address with Gera-IT?
We engaged Gera-IT to build our websiteās backend in Ruby on Rails.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Gera-IT developed the siteās framework from the ground up in Ruby on Rails. They implemented new features as well. We wrote a spec of what we wanted, and the team built the new backend to our specifications.
What is the team composition?
I worked directly with a Ruby on Rails developer.
How did you come to work with Gera-IT?
We were looking for high-quality coders who perform cost-effective work. We found Gera-IT through a colleagueās recommendation.
How much have you invested with them?
Weāve spent around $12,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project lasted from 2015ā2016, but Gera-IT continues to provide support services and new releases.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The site now has a robust backend and lacks significant issues and bugs. Weāre moving forward with revamping the frontend based on the excellent framework that Gera-IT built.
How did Gera-IT perform from a project management standpoint?
We found it more cost-effective to provide the project management in-house, which Gera-IT happily accommodated. We used a ticketing system to keep track of new tasks and continuous progress. The project proceeded smoothly from start to finish. The team started work immediately and implemented small fixes diligently.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The team was friendly as well as highly efficient and transparent; they made the collaboration seamless. Gera-IT turned around many items very quickly, kept track of every detail, and provided regular updates of their progress.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, we were highly satisfied with their work.
Any advice for potential customers?
Give them a chance; they are excellent Ruby on Rails developers and worth at least a try.
the project
Ruby on Rails Development for Directory & Reviews Platform
āThey listen incredibly well and execute on what you want.ā
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
Iām the founder of SimpliDeferred, a directory and review platform for qualified intermediaries (QIs) who manage tax-deferred exchanges between investment properties and estates. Because QIs are largely unregulated and are, therefore, sometimes involved in fraud or other misbehavior, we established our site so that people could do due diligence and choose from different QI options.
What challenge were you trying to address with Gera-IT?
I don't know how to code, so I needed help building our platform.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They developed the whole project using Ruby on Rails. I worked with the CTO at the beginning to set the scope, articulate the use case, and brainstorm ideas. They managed the whole process from design to development, including the UI/UX.
The site has an admin dashboard that tracks all user activity and is easy to navigate. We can see whoever signs up, manage their requests, and approve or deny those requests. We can also track the client reviews and requests for information about QIs, which allows us toĀ easily follow up.
What is the team composition?
My main contact was the project manager, but I worked with up to eight people, including designers, developers, UI/UX specialists, and the CTO.
How did you come to work with Gera-IT?
I had some friends that recommended I outsource to Eastern Europe, and I searched via Google before finding them on Clutch. I contacted about five different companies and interviewed them.
Some of the larger vendors suggested that I use theirĀ more out-of-the-box packages. However, Gera-IT seemed to be more open to different ideas and processes. They were also smaller, which I felt meant they werenāt working on a large number of projects. Rather, theyĀ wouldĀ be more focused on each project, which I liked.
How much have you invested with them?
I spent around $30,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project lasted from FebruaryāJune 2018.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The platformĀ is the foundation of our business. Itās not as if we already had a functioning business platform for them to impoveāthey built it from scratch. The software they developedĀ was the start of the business, so they had a massive impact.
How did Gera-IT perform from a project management standpoint?
We communicated via Skype, usually in the mornings and at the end of the day. We also used Google Docs for sharing materials.
The project manager was excellent; everything I asked for was completed more or less exactly the way we discussed and in a timely manner. They did everything perfectly.
I would give my requests to the project manager. They would provide a scope of work for me to review and approve, and thenĀ they would execute it. We brainstormed together and really collaborated. They also integrated their own ideas and suggestions, which I generally liked.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I appreciated their accuracy and precision in execution. That level of competency is pretty hard to find. They listen incredibly well and execute on what you want.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Not really. They nailed it.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Have a plan coming into it. Be clear about what you want and be able to discuss that with them.
the project
Ruby on Rails Development for Online Booking Platform
"They took my vision and turned it into reality."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
Weāre developing an online booking platform for school building facilities. Iām the managing director.
What challenge were you trying to address with Gera-IT?
We had an idea and a clear visionĀ butĀ were struggling to find the right development team to make it a reality.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We worked based on tickets and tasks. I had the ideas about what the platform needed to do and relied on Gera-IT for technical questions and anything related to development. They designed and developed the whole website from scratchĀ and took care of upgrades for it. Ruby on Rails was the main coding language.
What is the team composition?
I worked with a project manager and with three developersĀ at different times. There were 1ā2 main developers working on the project.
How did you come to work with Gera-IT?
I attended an entrepreneursā networking event which featured a question about the challenges everyone was facing. I said that I had an idea but didnāt have a development team. Someone came over to me and put me in touch with Gera-IT. The rest is history.
How much have you invested with them?
Iāve spent $250,000 since we started.
What is the status of this engagement?
I started working with Gera-IT in February 2016, and the collaboration is ongoing. The main site has been live for 20 months. Weāre still improving it and are also building a site for a spin-off business, which will be launched in the next couple of months.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They took my vision and turned it into reality. The feedback we got from our clients is based on the product weāve built, and Gera-IT is very much a part of that building process. I have a good relationship with them, and I trust the people on my team.
How did Gera-IT perform from a project management standpoint?
I take a hands-on role when it comes to project management, whether itās working with the developers, creating tickets, or doing QA. I do as much as I can myselfĀ in order to keep the cost down. We used Slack as the main form of communicationĀ as well as Jira for tickets.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They really bought into the idea and believed in it, especially during the initial development, when we had no customers or revenue. It was more than just a job for them.
Are there any areas they could improve?
When something takes longer than expected or when thereās a misunderstanding, the risk is born 100% by me, as the customer, as opposed to being spread more evenly. If a task was supposed to take 10 hours to complete and it takes 20, perhaps I should only pay forĀ five out of the 10 extra hours. This could simply be how teams like this work, and they did explain their rates.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
Iām unique in terms of the hands-on role I play. Weāre doing big things with small numbers, but I believe each client is different.
the project
Server Development for Clinical Trial App
āIāve hired hundreds of development teams, but this group is the best, by far.ā
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I am the CEO of a company that develops healthcare applications for the U.S. market.
For what projects/services did your company hire Gera-IT?
We hired them to develop the server component for the Apple ResearchKit.
What were your goals for this project?
Our goal was to develop a prototype so that customers could see what was possible.
How did you select this vendor?
I have worked with Gera-IT before with satisfactory results.
Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?
They helped build a Ruby on Rails enterprise application that complies with HIPAA requirements. Our product targets the clinical trial industry and the requirements for a focused multiple sclerosis eye exam.
What was the team composition?
We worked with a project lead.
Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?
I captured an important contract because of Gera IT's excellent work product and process.
How was project management arranged and how effective was it?
It was managed with great disciplineāthey gathered requirements in a focused manner and provided good documentation. They delivered on time and within our budget, with no bugs or quality issues.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
Weāre impressed with their speed and quality. Iāve hired hundreds of development teams, but this group is the best, by far.
Are there any areas where they can improve?
Since they are based in Ukraine, paying them canĀ be a bit complex. However, itās something outside their control.
the project
Port Planning Tool for Information Technology Company
"[I was impressed by] their analytic skills....Ā [A]ll the work was done efficiently."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I was the owner of a Belgian IT company, for which I subcontracted large projects to Gera-IT
What challenge were you trying to address with Gera-IT?
One of our projects involved building a planning tool for the Vlissingen (Flushing) port in the Netherlands
What was the scope of their involvement?
I handled the client analysis and subcontracted the whole project to Gera-IT. They handled all programming. We had a SQL database and used Microsoft Silverlight. The tool worked with smartphones, which was less common in 2008. Every worker in the port could see their tasks in real-time and plan for the following day. The same was true for the clients, who could see certificates.
It was a rather complicated projectāwe were generating certifications on one side, and data inputs for invoicing and salaries on the other side. The platform was linked with 4 or 5 other systems in the outside world.
What is the team dynamic?
I had a 7-8-person team from Gera-IT, but I was only in contact with their project leaders, who distributed the work internally. I have visited them onsite twice before, and met the whole team.
How did you come to work with Gera-IT?
I had worked with a few of their competitors in Ukraine. Gera-IT was 40% more expensive than those other companies, but they were better suited for such a complex project. Together, we made an initial analysis of the full parameters in order to ensure the database would perform optimally in the end. Most providers would start right away with a small project, and only after realize that they have to rewrite the database. This analysis was the main reason for assigning the project to Gera-IT.
How much have you invested with them?
The cost of their work on this project was around ā¬600,000 [$700,000]. Overall, Iāve spent ā¬1.5-2 million [$1.75-2.3 million] on their work.
What is the status of this engagement?
I worked with Gera-IT intensively over 6 or 7 years, and the first project was 10 years ago. I have recently started a new project with them, working directly with them for my own project, not a clientās
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We tracked the bug count on our projects. The more complex a project became, the more bugs we had, which was logicalābut once a tool was up-and-running, the numbers stabilized.
How did Gera-IT perform from a project management standpoint?
They had a planning tool in place for tracking activities and tickets, which made the interaction with me and my client more efficient. The client would generate tickets based on screenshots and bug findings, and Gera-IT handled those errors and interventions.
During critical periods, we had 15-20 tickets per day. We had weekly reviews over Skype where we went through all open topics. Every 3 months, my project manager came to The Netherlands, or I went to Kiev.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their analytic skills. We revisited a couple of projects, but all the work was done efficiently. Gera-IT could, in a short timeframe, correct any area where an analysis was not properly done.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Their pricing is on the higher side, but I couldnāt really complain.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
Take enough time for analysis. As a client, I had the tendency to be less patient for this, but Gera-IT insisted, and itās there that we created the majority of the value.
the project
E-commerce Application for River Cruise Company
"I have worked with other companies before whoĀ were average-to-good, but never on this level."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am a self-employed web developer from Germany and have been in the business since 2005.
What challenge were you trying to address with Gera-IT?
I wanted to outsource development to try to expand my capacity. Gera-IT helped with the development of an e-commerce app.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Iām contracted to maintain and expand the online shop for a river cruise company. I had been working on the project for a long time, and my hiring company wanted to extend our collaboration. I proposed expanding my team to them in order to get more work done, and my hiring company was fine with it. I previously had good experiences with Gera-IT, and I inquired if they would like to take over some of the work. Gera-IT found a good developer for me, and he had been working on that project with me ever since.
It is a Ruby on Rails application. The front end is Cuda bootstrap, and the backend is MySQL database. There are a few background workers, but it is mainly a pure, complex Ruby on Rails application.
What is the team dynamic?
I had up to three developers working on this project.
How did you come to work with Gera-IT?
For this project, Gera-IT was my first choice, and I havenāt regretted that decision.
How much have you invested in them?
I spent approximately $45,000-$50,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working on this particular project together last year, and it was approximately a 3-4 month engagement.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The customer was very pleased with the relaunch of the existing website. It had a completely new design and front end which Gera-IT partly worked on.
How did Gera-IT perform from a project management standpoint?
For this particular project, I mainly did the project management tasks, and spoke directly to the developers instead of their project manager. We communicated mostly through Skype.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I feel good working with Gera-IT, because they know what they are doing and have the capacity to instantly increase developers, QA, or whatever the case may be. I have always had a good experience with them. The developers I worked with spoke English well, they understood what I needed and wanted, and they are very good at what they do. I was happy that I could reach them directly and almost instantly through Skype. They are very fast in picking-up new projects and new situations. I have worked with other companies before, who were average-to-good, but never on this level.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, I have been pretty happy with them.
The only advice I have to a potential client would be to approach Gera-IT, give them what you need, and they will come back with a very good and accurate estimation.
the project
Custom CRM for Non-Emergency Medical Service
"They really helped separate themselves from anybody else we used by becoming extremely knowledgeable of our platform."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
We are a telemedicine organization. We provide telemedicine services, that is, medical consultations by different electronic modalities, whether it's telephone, email, or video consultations.
What challenge were you trying to address with Gera-IT?
We have a portal that the entire business operates on, and we needed a company that could maintain and continue development on that portal, and thatās what Gera-IT did for us. We've used other companies for development as well.
It's not so much customers and it's not so much features; our entire corporation is operating on this CRM [customer relationship management] portal. It's everything. My nurses' consultations are set up in it. Doctors access it to complete the consultation. Nurses develop the consultation form, which is an HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act]-compliant medical record storage. It's literally the backbone of our entire organization.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We got the big development out of the way, and now we are enhancing small features regularly. I met with them recently for the next set of those. Not only are they doing maintenance and bug fixes, but they are still doing additional enhancements.
How did you come to work with Gera-IT?
They worked on some other projects that we had, and they've done a pretty good job. Once we found out that they had a team that could work on Ruby [on Rails], they were the obvious logical choice. It's not easy to find Ruby on Rails developers, and Gera-IT has some very good people on that technology.
Ultimately, Gera-IT ended up becoming the champion or the most knowledgeable about our products or our platform in a very short period of time. They really helped separate themselves from anybody else we used by becoming extremely knowledgeable of our platform, which is fairly robust and complicated.
How much have you invested with them?
It's well north of $300,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
They still maintain the site, and they do more than that.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We were in a bit of chaos for a fairly long period of time, close to 6 months. The CRM marginally met the requirements originally. But when we switched our business model, it went from marginally to almost not supporting us at all. Running my company was a nightmare. We were running this company with Microsoft Word documents, with spreadsheets, everything was manual, handwrittenāit was just horrible.
Finally, after about 6 months of real, hard development, and listening to us on why it wasn't working, we are now in the best shape we've been since this company was formed.
How did Gera-IT perform from a project management standpoint?
They had a project manager assigned to our project; he's my primary contact. I have almost daily interaction with them. We used Skype, Slack, and a portal where we create tickets to monitor their progress. We used GoToMeeting with them, and just a multitude of different products.
They were good at making sure that, if someone on their side mightāve had a language barrier, their project managers were IT-savvy and didn't have a language barrier. You can tell that English is not their first language, but it doesn't hinder our ability to communicate.
We've had 3 project managers over the years. In terms of developers, there's not many. I have no idea how many are around our team in total. We don't have an internal team of developers. I'm the COO and a minority owner of the company. Myself and the person that manages my call center are the liaisons from our side. That's one of their strengthsāI'm not a technical guy and neither is the person that manages our call center. They are able to speak to us in the manner that we need to be spoken to, in non-technical terms, and convert it to what they need to do on their end.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The reality is, when we were going through tough times with our organization and the software wasn't meeting our needs, it was a very stressful time. They had to deal with me when I wasn't always the nicest guy to deal with, and probably not the most rational, and enforcing unrealistic deadlines. They came through that like a champ. I think a lot of companies wouldāve thrown in the towel given the amount of pressure we were putting on them, but they kept coming back for more and ultimately solved it.
Are there any areas they could improve?
The one thing they wished we would've done differently, and it ultimately becomes something that they might have done differently as well, is a lot of the QA testing. We don't have that resource allocated to us. We don't pay for that resource on their end, so they are dependent on us to do the testing.
Being a non-technical team, the testing that we do would best be described as woefully inadequate. I don't need to tell you that doesn't work out really well in the long term. They're doing development, we're not doing great testing. Ultimately, it results in more development that probably didn't need to be done.
The only thing that they may do better is to really insist that a QA manager or a QA consultant is part of the team. In other words, you have to have them. Although that's a double-edged sword, because if they forced it on me, I probably wouldn't have gone with them. I do know that it would be an enhancement, but I also know it's a cost, and a lot of companies just can't absorb that cost.
Advice for potential customers?
If you're going to do QA, you've got to really do it. You're either going to pay them to do it or you've got to have someone on your team who is capable.
the project
Web Development for Language E-learning Company
"The entire team at Gera-IT is very proud of their work and holds itself to high standards."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Please describe your organization.
My company works in schools to impact literacy rates among children.
What is your position?
Iām the Chief Executive Officer.
What business challenge were you trying to address with Gera-IT?
We had gone through a proof of concept phase, done some research, and a randomized control trial. We knew our process and methodology was very effective, but the technology was not scalable. We needed help with development.
Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.
We had Gera-IT help with both front-end and back-end Ruby on Rails development. We drove the process, and they provided the skills.
How did you come to work with Gera-IT?
Our CTO already had a relationship with them. He thought that the quality of their code was very high. We felt that we got great results for what we paid for.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?
The projects range from $5,000-$20,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
Weāve been working with them for two years and are currently still working with them.
Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?
The team is very tight, so there are rarely bugs in the system. Not only is that because they run a very tight process, but also because they have great quality assurance. Our customers have grown month to month.
How did Gera-IT perform from a project management standpoint?
Project management was very good. We collaborate using Slack and have regular conversations. Thanks to the way we communicate, we know the wider team, not just the people involved in the tech side of things, but those that deal with customers in our team. They know what theyāre doing and why theyāre doing it which is important.
What distinguishes Gera-IT from other providers?
Weāve worked with five or six members of their team and it is clear they have a real commitment to their trade. The entire team at Gera-IT is very proud of their work and holds itself to high standards. Thatās a good quality to have in development and coding.
Is there anything Gera-IT could have improved or done differently?
The employees that are higher up at Gera-IT could check in with us a bit more frequently. I tend to initiate with them, but thatās a minor issue.
the project
Application Development for Gaming Company
"They were proactive in recommending new things to try."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Please describe your organization.
Our company is Fenway Games. Our first product was a game called Snap Bet, which allows users to bet on whatās going to happen in the next 60 seconds of a live sporting event.
What is your position?
I am the founder and Chief Executive Officer.
What business challenge were you trying to address with Gera-IT?
The challenge was to build out the initial concept. Iām not technical, but I had an idea. Gera-IT took my idea from a PowerPoint presentation into an initial product for very little money. Iāve stayed with them over the last few years to build the app into a go-to-market product. Gera-IT has been fantastic and helped all along the way.
The main technical problem in betting on the next 60 seconds was delivering the data very quickly. We receive data feeds from suppliers, quicklyĀ process that information, process players who are playing, and tie that all together with people winning or losing. All that happens within seconds.
Please describe the scope of their involvement.
First, they developed the strategy for how to take my idea and turn it into a product. They developed a web version but it became apparent that it needed to be a mobile app. Itās on iOS and will be submitted to Apple in the next week or so. Weāre having a couple of conversations with B2B [business-to-business] clients and corporate clients who might want to own it themselves in certain regions. Weāre only delaying submitting it to Apple over the next few weeks because of those discussions.
How did you come to work with Gera-IT?
I decided to use oDesk (now Upwork) to find them, and Gera-IT was the most professional in their approach. A lot of freelancers would just tell me how much the project would cost and leave it at that. Gera-IT organized a Skype call, listened to what I wanted, told me what could and couldnāt be done, offered recommendations, and then gave a quote. Because Gera-IT really bought into the project and wanted to understand it before giving me a price, I decided they would be the best fit.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?
Weāve spent $22,000 to $27,000 working with Gera-IT.
What is the status of this engagement?
Itās an ongoing relationship. Weāre still using Gera-IT to update the backend, basically, everything that surfaces through the API that they built into the mobile device.
Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?
Weāve received two industry awards in the last three months. There is a gaming organization called Ice, who gave us an award for "game to watch" in February at the European Gaming Conference. Additionally, the accounting firm KPMG ran a gaming conference in Gibraltar, and we won there as well.
How did Gera-IT perform from a project management standpoint?
Gera-IT did a fantastic job! Iām limited on budget, but we have made it work. Theyāve always made deadlines I've given them.
What distinguishes Gera-IT from other providers?
Gera-IT really believes in the product. I have a limited number of people to play and test the app, but one or two of their developers would play as well. I wasnāt paying them to do that, which helped me a lot. They would turn up and play for an hour or so as a gesture of their support of the game.
As a result of their involvement, they wouldnāt just do the work that I laid out, but would make suggestions about what else we might do. They were proactive in recommending new things to try.
Is there anything Gera-IT could have improved or done differently?
I can't think of anything they could do better. In terms of backend work, they have been fantastic. The design, look, and feel could be slightly better. That being said, I am happy with the work they've done.
Gera-IT has delivered according to the clientās expectations so far. The team produces high-quality development work quickly and within budget. Their team shows a deep skillset and fluent communication, enabling a smooth workflow.