Gera-IT

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 we’ve 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 it’s working with the developers, creating tickets, or doing QA. I do as much as I can myself in order to keep the cost down. We used Slack as the main form of communication 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 there’s 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 for 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?

I’m unique in terms of the hands-on role I play. We’re doing big things with small numbers, but I believe each client is different.

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 logical—but 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 couldn’t 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 it’s there that we created the majority of the value.

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, handwritten—it 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 might’ve 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 strengths—I'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 would’ve 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.

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

We’ve 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! I’m limited on budget, but we have made it work. They’ve 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 wasn’t 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 wouldn’t 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.