Idyllic Software

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of the founders of the company. We are a start-up that is building a video sharing platform for user generated content.

For what projects/services did your company hire Idyllic Software?

We hired Idyllic to design and develop our web and mobile product using Ruby on Rails and React.js for both iOS and Android.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a production-ready and scalable MVP that we can take to the market.

How did you select this vendor?

I found Idyllic on GoodFirms or Clutch. After speaking with a few other companies, we picked Idyllic for their cost-effectiveness and other references.

Describe the project in detail.

They built API’s, admin backend and mobile applications using Ruby on Rails and React Native.

What was the team composition?

1 UX Designer, 1 React Developer, 1 Backend Developer, and 1 QA person.

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

We have launched in beta on time and on budget and now running tests with real users. Idyllic delivered as promised and we are now in business.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We worked closely with the designers and development team. There was no project manager and we managed it all with them via slack and uber conference calls. I would say, it worked out well. We kept the process slim and deliverables tight and knew what was happening on a day-to-day basis.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We had bitter experiences working with other firms. Working with Idyllic was easy and the most we are happy about now is that we are in production.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were not one of their biggest customers but we got what we needed from them. We had some bugs as we were nearing the launch and a little more testing could have avoided those.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Marketing at Bus 4x4. Bus 4x4 Group of Companies include Bus 4x4, 4x4 Motorhomes and Seat Sense. Bus 4x4 Group is an Australian owned 4x4 conversion company and bus body builder based at Brisbane, Australia.

It is one of the leading companies in Australia that does 4x4 conversions on Toyota Coasters and Toyota Hiace Commuters as well as body builds on Iveco Daily trucks.

We have buses available with mine, tour and standard specifications for use in off-road terrain. We also offer a seat belt safety system called Seat Sense which is one of our popular products in the safety division.

For what projects/services did your company hire Idyllic Software?

We have an in-house Ruby on Rails based CRM which has been developed over the years. We wanted a tech team to take it over, fix bugs, upgrade our Ruby versions, develop new features and carry out maintenance issues.

In addition, we also wanted a team to migrate our new WordPress, integrate API with the CRM. The website was built by another firm, however the hosting and new feature development, bug fixes will be handled by the Idyllic team.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to hire a firm that can take over the technical aspects of our business and allow us to focus on our business.

How did you select this vendor?

I found them online, on clutch or good firms. I spoke with the founder, Jinesh and decided to work with them based on our conversation.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Idyllic is a Ruby on Rails and NodeJS/ReactJS web and mobile design and development team.

What was the team composition?

Idyllic employed two people on the CRM project, one WordPress developer and the founder was involved for high level communication.

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

Our code base was large. For any team to understand it all in few weeks was not an easy task. Idyllic’s team suggested we start with small issues and bugs that needed to fix. The new features which had to be developed would be taken on board once Idyllic fixed all issues.

They started understanding the project one module at a time and were up and running in just a couple of days. We got some of the major bugs fixed very quickly that helped us manage our customer leads and vehicle inventory better, saving us days of time to do those manually.

The consulting firm does not try to oversell. Instead they are always trying to add value and save money. When we proposed billing us for handling our website or maintaining our servers, they said, let us do it and we do not want to charge unless there is something going on. We will do it as part of our ongoing work.

That came as a pleasant surprise and helped build our trust on them. When the WordPress site was handled by another team, they suggested we stick to them as their team would take up a ramp up time.

Though we finally decided to move with them because we like their style, ethics and communication. They are flexible with our payment process and understand the business constraints. They work as a good associate and are quickly making us feel part of own team.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Idyllic lets developers talk to the customers and avoids the project management layer. This keeps the communication smooth. They are always available and aptly follow up to schedule time with our busy schedule. We are on a different time zone and except for a couple of dead time periods, they are always accessible in times of need.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were using another ROR agency but after we moved hosting to the cloud, the old agency was not able to understand the process even after 6 months. Idyllic picked up the brief and was able to start fixing bugs and tweaking within a week.

The team is impressive and proactive. Picking up a complex code base and hitting the ground running so quickly is very impressive. The requirements we provide is not very detailed and they come up with the right questions and helped estimate the time and efforts very close to what it took.

Unlike other firms, they care about their customers and we never find them on the lookout to get more work, but instead they help identify what needs to be done and what is not required.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We did not have a green field project and hence they could not give us estimations off the ground. I understand that it is difficult to chew up on an already existing code base and estimate the work. It would had been helpful if we had a better work estimate before we started. At the end of the first project, I am satisfied with the work and the time and cost were reasonable.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of Teliax Inc., which provides B2B, commercial, and wholesale phone services to enterprises, carriers, and service providers. I founded the company in 2004.

What challenge were you trying to address with Idyllic Software?

We created a subsidiary company called the Toll-Free Exchange that introduced a novel routing methodology in the carrier marketplace, specifically for the routing of toll-free phone calls. Instead of using a traditional data point called the carrier identification code to route those calls, we introduced the ability to route calls using a RespOrg ID, which opens the market to about 300 companies for competition. We needed technology to facilitate that routing. There were complex databases, replication and redundancy scenarios, high-availability disaster recovery, and routing logic required to make this service work. We needed Idyllic to build a portal, create a billing platform, and help us with writing the software and reporting.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It started with analysis of all the user stories. User-driven development is usually our preferred path in defining the scope of work. Once the scope was determined, we went through a budgeting process and set a timeline. We broke the work down into several individual projects, which were then to further simplified to several tasks and distributed across backend developers, UX/UI developers, analysts, QA testers, etc. The work then began, and we set milestones across the project. The project cost more and took longer than we originally planned, which is typical of a monolithic project like this. We worked through it together and they were very cooperative.

The product is a web app with a model view controller framework. They had to scope out the database structure schema, and there were countless controllers that went into the actual functionality. There was UX/UI that drove most of the data that went into the model, billing structures, and reporting features. All these feature segments were largely treated as separate projects, and they covered all tasks that come along with a complex backend system with a frontend interface.

What is the team composition?

My primary point of contact was the COO of Idyllic, and he was a fantastic communicator. There were about eight people on the team all together.

How did you come to work with Idyllic Software?

We have a team of in-house developers working for Teliax, but all of them were busy on other projects. We’ve worked with several software development companies in the past, both in-house and third parties, and given the ad hoc nature of this project, we opted for a third party. We were considering three different approaches that involved outsourced development, and it came down to a local representative the worked in business development at Idyllic. He explained their process, walked me through pricing, and was ultimately able to accommodate my budget, which is why we went with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $200,000 and $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with conversations in 2014, began to work on the platform in 2016, and we completed it in 2017.

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

Idyllic can take on complex, large-scale projects and produce great results. Their team is very capable and were flexible enough to meet the needs of our project.

How did Idyllic Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Their performance was excellent. There can be language barriers and/or cultural differences when working with an offshore group, but that challenge can be overcome if you’re working with a capable project manager. They certainly delivered on that front. We communicated daily via instant messaging, phone, and email, while also interfacing with the team through our ticketing system and bug tracking system. We provided a project management system called YouTrack and adhered to an Agile methodology loosely. They had a very open-door policy, and it was always easy to communicate with them if something came up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were able to adapt to the complexity of our project. Our developers helped them to do so, but their execution was exactly what we were looking for.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s challenging to manage expectations regarding budgeting and timeframes, and in hindsight, that’s the piece that could’ve been handled better. However, the project was done to our satisfaction, and now we have a solid product that we’re very happy with.

Advice for potential customers?

The more time you spend planning and scoping out the project, the more successful the engagement will be.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of an online social media platform that is based only in India.

What challenge were you trying to address with Idyllic Software?

We are a startup looking to put our products together and understand what we want to take to market. We’re working on building the product the right way and making sure we launch it right in India.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with market research in India to better understand the users, the market, the competition, and the user personas that would potentially be using our product. The second step was around design, wireframing, logo creation, etc. The third step was having them build a prototype for us.

What is the team dynamic?

There were 4 people assigned to the project.

How did you come to work with Idyllic Software?

I met them through my network. I connected with the founder, Jinesh Parekh, and talked about my idea, vision, and strategy around the product. He shared some of his experience and work he’s done in the past, which really impressed me.

Additionally, he talked about a team that he has that helps people like me—who are looking to start up a new product—with conducting deep market research to really understand the consumer and the requirements of the market so that we can get a model first before the product is developed. I really liked that approach. Before we built the product, he highly recommended working with the team to do a good amount of market research so we understand the product, the consumers we want to build it for and the market we want to build it in. That’s one of the reasons I started working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000 and will spend more as we extend the product.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2017, and they completed the deliverables. We’re now talking about an extension for phase 3.

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

We haven’t launched the product yet but we hope to do so in 3–5 months. The biggest impact has been on our own team, which got a more robust understanding of how we need to go deeper into knowing the market and the users’ needs and then weave that into the product design and its features. It’s been pretty exciting for our team and our investors; they’re impressed with the quality of the product and the amount of research that has been done.

How did Idyllic Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Part of the challenge is that they’re based in India and we’re in the U.S., so we’ve had to collaborate early in the morning or in the middle of the night.

Project management has been extremely effective and efficient; we’ve used things like WhatsApp and online platforms like GoToMeeting. They use a lot of client collaboration tools which has made life easier for us. I haven’t had any issues with the time zone difference, with being able to track them down, or with getting a commitment on delivery.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their approach to guiding the client to what’s really important is very impressive, as opposed to being a firm that’s more excited about just building the product whether or not there’s a market fit. They wanted to spend a good amount of time at the beginning to make sure that they understood the users and the product, and discussed any changes to meet the goals. That approach is different from what I’ve experienced with other companies in the past and I think it will be helpful in the long run. They do a good job, and I would go back to them for additional projects.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have better presentation skills as U.S.-based companies of the same size can market products better and make them look a lot fancier. Idyllic has all the skills, tools, and a good understanding of the process, but it would help them to build their business if they were able to market their work a little better.

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

We're an online wealth-management platform helping people invest and save for retirement. I am a co-founder and the chief technology officer of the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Idyllic?

We had a branding project after refreshing a number of our brand assets and designs, including fonts, color schemes, and our logo. We wanted to roll that out across the site, as well as make new designs for some of our main landing pages. The core team was focused on delivering internal functionalities for clients, like account opening and other interactive features, so I looked to an external partner for a quick turnaround. We had a deadline of about a month for a number of marketing initiatives, and wanted to make sure that we were using our new branding, and not the old one.

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Idyllic was responsible for delivering a set of new landing pages which had already been designed by our internal resource. Idyllic's developer was able to turn around an initial result within a few days, based on which we iterated further during the rest of the month, in order to clean up the work. We managed to get everything delivered on time.

We primarily worked based on static image mockups created through Adobe Illustrator, accompanied by all other broken-out image assets to be used in the pages. Idyllic implemented them directly on the site. We worked with them through our GitHub repository, and Idyllic submitted pull requests which we could review. Our site was built through Ruby on Rails. We worked with one developer and a project manager from Idyllic's team.

How did you come to work with Idyllic?

I posted a general inquiry on LinkedIn, and looked at a number of options, Idyllic being one of them. I check references for most of our partner companies, and those for Idyllic specifically mentioned that they had a good turnaround in terms of results. We came to find the same thing.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost of Idyllic's work was around $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Idyllic at the beginning of January 2017, and finished the project by the end of the month.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We haven't done any direct A/B testing, since we wanted to launch the new brand, and weren't going to keep the old websites up. I don't have any numerical values, and the problem with comparing the work to the past is that we launched in the middle of our busy season, so there is naturally a lot more traffic around this time of year. The landing pages have been operating without any issues.

How did Idyllic perform from a project management standpoint?

The collaboration was fairly straightforward, especially for the nature of this project. We were able to communicate specifically what we wanted, and have a back-and-forth, either through pull requests or chat, in order to convey the changes we were looking for. We were in touch with Idyllic's team daily, or almost daily, throughout the project period. We received new deliverables every one or two days, review it and request any changes or provide more details for the next page being worked on. We didn't really need to take a lot of time for each step, but we preferred to add our own notes.

We had one call over Skype, but the rest of the communication was done through Slack and GitHub Issues

What distinguishes Idyllic from other providers?

Idyllic is the first outsourcing firm I've worked with, so I don't have many comparison points. Almost all our other work has been done with people in our office, but I found it easy to collaborate with Idyllic, although the approach was different.

Is there anything Idyllic could have improved or done differently?

Our main problem off-the-bat was that Idyllic jumped into the project with a proof-of-concept, in order to show us that they could do the work quickly. We kept iterating from there. The problem with this was that the code was developed in isolation from our main style. It was a fair bit of work to bring it back to our standards. For example, Idyllic developed through Bootstrap, which we don't use. We gave them some specific instructions for how to lay out our page, since I knew that it was typical for outsourcing companies to use a more outdated style. We were using the latest browser layout styles and didn't want to suddenly have an inconsistent approach. I found that the extra work wasn't a huge problem, and we were able to get there quickly. Given that we hadn't worked together at all with Idyllic before this, getting to a result in a month seems good to me.

Do you have any recommendations for others considering working with Idyllic?

From our perspective, it's definitely easier to isolate a part of the project and work on it autonomously, since we are using external resources. This minimizes the amount of direct back-and-forth and coordination necessary for a team operating in an entirely different time zone. This is one of the only potential challenges I can identify in this area. Finding projects which can be separated from the rest of the group, in order to be worked on by an independent, is pretty important.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Sears is a well-known retail chain with e-commerce, integrated retail, home, and commercial divisions. I am the director of software engineering. My role includes managing business solutions and application platforms. Specifically, I handle business solutions for the Monarch and Apparel business units. I have been with the company for a decade. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Idyllic?

We needed to find an outside Agile team that could get started as quickly as possible, so when Idyllic was hired they became an extension of our internal project team. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We are currently working with Idyllic on building an internal CRM [customer relationship management] system that will replace our technology stack. The backend uses Ruby on Rails and has direct Salesforce integration. Our pre-existing data will be migrated to the new platform.

Idyllic's team has varied from only two engineers in the beginning to 6–8 resources at peak capacity. Right now, we are using one of their lead engineers and an AngularJS developer. We have access to the entire team and we are planning to scale the team up to six developers.

How did you come to work with Idyllic?

We first engaged with Idyllic while setting up our software division in India. Idyllic went through the procurement steps of our office in India in order to become a preferred vendor. Our recruitment team evaluated candidates through a rigorous interview process, after which Idyllic was brought onboard in order to test the waters. Once we felt comfortable, we started engaging them more.

How much have you invested with Idyllic?

The cost of Idyllic's services has been between $200,000 and $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Idyllic at the end of 2014. Idyllic's core team worked with us for 5–6 months. After our own team was stabilized, we reduced Idyllic's involvement to one lead developer. The relationship continued until the end of 2015. We have recently started a new project with Idyllic.

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

I was amazed at how quickly Idyllic could comprehend the business aspects of what we were building. They asked the right questions and didn't waste our time. Idyllic gave us good inputs and helped us improve the design, rather than being a run of the mill company that builds software based on the requirements given. Idyllic never behaved like a contractor. They tried to solve the problem, working with us in order to achieve our goals and making sure that the business was satisfied. Idyllic delivered good-quality code with speedy execution, usually before the deadlines. Since we pay a lot of money for contractors, I expect them to perform better than the internal team. When averaging our collaboration, Idyllic has always performed up to my standards and even exceeded them. This is the main reason we are still using Idyllic one year later. I consider them a part of the core team.

How did Idyllic perform from a project management standpoint?

Idyllic was very proactive in terms of project management. They set up daily calls, took part in our Scrum meetings, and made sure that they knew exactly what needed to be done. We were using Mingle but have moved on to JIRA. Idyllic's team always let us know proactively about the issues they were facing and what information they needed. It was easy for me to onboard Idyllic into the other departments of the company and have them work with inter-functional teams.

What did you find most impressive about Idyllic?

Most developers tend to say yes to everything, but Idyllic's team didn't shy away from telling us what they excelled at. Every one of their engineers is very smart and able to get work done.

Are there any areas Idyllic could improve?

Idyllic could do a better job of marketing their company. 

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Idyllic?

My tip is for clients to wear the hat of product owner while also considering the end-users of the solution. This can give a lot of self-realization around what is being built and why, providing more passion for the work. Having the right mindset will yield many opportunities for business growth and for attracting sponsors.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide service relationship management software to the commercial asset industry, heavy-duty trucking companies, and so on. I am the chief technology officer of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Idyllic?

In 2012, we were looking to move a number of our service modules from Java to Ruby on Rails. We are a software-as-a-service provider [SaaS], so all our development work is done for internal use.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Idyllic was initially contracted for small Ruby on Rails projects involving pricing and QR [quick response] code generation functionalities. Our bigger project involving the Java migration was started once we became comfortable enough with Idyllic.

We have worked with up to 4 developers, with the typical team size being 2–3 resources. We interact with them directly, but Idyllic initially assigned a project manager. Idyllic's management team was in charge of assigning resources.

How did you come to work with Idyllic?

We were looking for internal Ruby on Rails developers. Idyllic's founder [Jinesh Parekh] contacted us, offering to take on the work. Since we were not looking for outsourcing companies, we didn't contact other companies. Since Idyllic is a specialized Ruby on Rails shop in India, we decided to try them. Their portfolio looked interesting enough, and Idyllic was competitive in terms of price.

How much have you invested with Idyllic?

The cost of Idyllic's services was around $2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Idyllic in 2012. The collaboration ended in 2016 when we moved the project in-house.

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

Idyllic delivered exactly what we specified. The reason for moving the work in-house was obtaining a better integration of those service modules with our core platform. Our internal resources were in a better position to perform that integration. Idyllic's team was on par with our internal developers.

The resources assigned to us moved to other companies on 2 occasions. We mentioned to Idyllic that they should have a better idea of when that happens and warn us about it. Idyllic was able to replace resources at no cost to us, though. The second time this happened, it didn't come as a surprise to us, which was nice and demonstrated that they had learned their lesson the first time around. 

How did Idyllic perform from a project management standpoint?

Our technical project was incrementally moved forward, with a good interaction from Idyllic. We had weekly calls and used email, JIRA, and GitHub as a source code control system.

What did you find most impressive about Idyllic?

Idyllic is a very specialized and talented Ruby on Rails shop, which was not a common model at the time. They have a solid understanding of the mechanics we use.

Are there any areas Idyllic could improve?

The only concrete feedback I can give is having better resource management on Idyllic's side. Giving fair notice to customers is important.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Idyllic?

Clients should start small, build a relationship, and go from there. This approach worked out well for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Project Travel was a software-as-a-service platform which worked with education offices, helping students travel abroad for study, volunteering, and so on. Our aim was to remove the paper process and digitize it for a more seamless experience, helping more students travel abroad. 

I was the founder and chief executive officer of the company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Idyllic?

There were other companies offering pieces of what our platform was, but we were the first to provide a product of this type. We were pioneering new territory in terms of covering the overall experience of a student wanting to plan their trip through an application. The technical challenge was creating a platform without an existing example. It was built from scratch, from our brains, and through user testing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Idyllic has worked on our web-based app. One of the reasons for engaging Idyllic was that we knew we'd be able to achieve the web coding piece, from an architecture and planning perspective, up to the deployment of the code. We had an internal designer, but we also worked with Idyllic's design team. They also provided a business analyst, user testing, and quality assurance services.

We also had some developers which worked alongside Idyllic's team. Idyllic ensured that we would be able to deliver a complete deliverable, instead of only a piece of one.

Idyllic's coding was mostly on the backend, coordinating with our front-end person. We provided them our wireframes and documentation as a basis, and we had also built an alpha product. Idyllic was working on the beta version which could be put through user testing.

How did you come to work with Idyllic?

Our startup was based in Boulder, Colorado, but we met with Idyllic through our network in Chicago. We heard some great reviews about the company, but also interviewed several local shops.

There's always a stigma of using a non-US company, but we stayed open to what was possible. We met with Idyllic's founder and some of the team and found them to be thoughtful in their presentation. They understood our platform and gave us a good vibe. We knew the cost would be lower, but it was also important for us to find a company which could offer a long-term collaboration. For the same price we paid Idyllic, we would have bought one month of a US shop's time. Using a long-term partner would allow us to deploy code, interact with users, get feedback, and implement it. 

How much have you invested with Idyllic?

The cost of our project was around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Idyllic in October 2014. We originally had a 3-month project with Idyllic. The time span increased by one month as we added new items. After this, we continued to work with one of Idyllic's team members directly for another 6 months. The project ended fully in August 2015.

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

Because Idyllic was mindful of cost, they worked with us in taking the platform to the next level, while still taking the time and cost factors into consideration. Many shops promote doing things right out of the gate, which will translate into doing 100% of the testing and perfecting. We mainly wanted an app which could survive for a year and generate user feedback, so we were okay with it not being fully buttoned-up. Idyllic was receptive to that. They delivered good results and didn't simply code based on their individual egos, giving us things which we didn't need. Idyllic worked based on our business goals, listened to our instructions, and took initiative appropriately.   

The quality of the site was in line with what we discussed and expected. It may not have been the perfect site based on other people's standards, but it was perfect for our needs. Nothing was overbuilt or reaching beyond our business goals.

How did Idyllic perform from a project management standpoint?

Outside of the technical aspects, Idyllic showed us how to best work with a remote team. We came upon the normal challenges of collaborating in this fashion, but Idyllic was very good in terms of coordinating and taking feedback. I have used these methodologies for building a relationship in other third-party collaborations.

In an Agile world, the meaning of deadlines gets a bit lost. Idyllic delivered sprints regularly. Because we had a large time difference, I had calls with the team at night. When our local developers were wrapping up for the day, they could make notes for Idyllic's team and see the progress the next day. I don't recall having issues with deadlines, beyond the scope creep on our side. There are no perfect relationships in development, but Idyllic did a good job of being conscious of timelines, deployment, and communication. 

What did you find most impressive about Idyllic?

After spending time with Idyllic's team and their founder, I've come to value their integrity and leadership. Whenever we had any concerns or questions, Idyllic's principal responded to us. I could tell that his team believed in his leadership and followed the integrity he set in terms of how to work with clients, how to follow their needs, what the code quality standard is, and so on. Idyllic's principal does an excellent job in exuding his passion for technology. I've come to look for the same elements in other relationships.

Are there any areas Idyllic could improve?

Because of our specific position of building a second beta while still pioneering a new product, there were many questions for which we didn't have an answer. Idyllic's team was excited to join us in this adventure, which made us too excited at times over what was possible. There were a few times when we stepped into a certain story, only to discover that it was bigger than we'd realized. Idyllic could work more with clients in ensuring that last minute client ideas don't become distracting, which is a hard task.

I'm very pleased with the relationship overall, and I put the responsibility of figuring things out more on our side. Idyllic's team could have said no to us on more occasions, but that would have impacted our path to innovation. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an end-to-end health-food school catering service. We serve 25,000 meals every day to 300 public and private schools in California. We make partnerships with schools in order to become exclusive providers and communicate with the families in those communities. Parents can visit our site and pre-order meals up to 50 days in advance. Our differentiator is this technology, giving users the ability to order meals via mobile and the web. I am the chief technology officer of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Idyllic?

We were looking to make some changes to our online business model and wanted a refresh of our various ordering technologies. I wanted to find a partner who could not only assist us in the conceptualization and design but with the actual execution of various parts of our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our applications were already existing but the iOS version had not been updated since late 2010 while the Android version was made in 2014. They had some age and needed to be overhauled once we adopted a new business model. Idyllic rebuilt them from the ground up, using a similar business logic. Idyllic maintains the JavaScript single-page application that serves as our ordering calendar. We worked with a 2-person QA [quality assurance] team and 2–3 web developers from Idyllic at any given time, including 1 resource for iOS and Android, respectively. They also assigned a designer in charge of creating the look and feel of our apps. We were working with another database developer, as well as with 1 for our backend Microsoft stack.

How did you come to work with Idyllic?

A few years ago, we were looking for a team that could redo our main site including its backend. I was considering using the Ruby on Rails platform and Idyllic came to the top of my list. We did not proceed with the project but when the time came to find someone for our most recent one, I called Idyllic. I learned that they had grown as a team and added iOS development services.

How much have you invested with Idyllic?

The total cost of our project was around $180,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking with Idyllic in January 2016 and started the work in February. The project had a fixed duration and once everything we needed was built, it was done. I keep in touch with Idyllic for additional tweaks.

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

Idyllic did a great job over a short timeline, without a lot of deep QA. Given the changes we've made to our system, I would have otherwise needed to spend more time and energy on internal and external QA, but we didn't have those resources. Idyllic did good work for our price range. Our previous build from 2012 was done by another vendor and had all kinds of browser problems. After a few bug fixes during the first weeks, we've had very few issues with what amounts to a complex Ember.js-based platform. The Android app has been solid. The iOS one has had some crashes, but this may be due to the nature of the operating system. I wasn't as pleased with it, but Idyllic did a great job overall of meeting my expectations.

How did Idyllic perform from a project management standpoint?

We elected not to go with a formal Basecamp arrangement, partly because of the timeframe. I am a hands-on technology person and knew our product the best, so I had daily calls with Idyllic's team in order to review progress and discuss any questions. Slack was a great daily communication channel as well. We used Jira as an Agile process workflow. I could put in user stories for how the platform needed to work and logged issues and bugs along with the QA team.

What did you find most impressive about Idyllic?

Other groups that I've talked to, both US-based and offshore, wanted for us to specify what we needed to be built and to let them build it. Idyllic cared about doing the work right, the first time. I worked with a UX [user experience] designer for the first 6 weeks, building mock-ups. I brought the material to my own team and we walked through it, asking questions and refining the design. We also had 15 hour-long user interviews which led to a lot of insight about how the design was working. This was a differentiator which I didn't expect from an offshore company.

Are there any areas Idyllic could improve?

Early on, we didn't have a proper cadence of communication with Idyllic, which led to projects being developed blindly without my involvement. We were able to address this and started having daily calls with our teams. As with any offshore team, once we started going down the chain of technical resources, the communication was not as good as it would be in the case of native speakers. I'd give Idyllic's team a 6/10 in terms of English skills. I could definitely understand them, but I did ask them to repeat things. Communication through VoIP calls can also make things difficult. It's something to sacrifice when paying a third of US prices or even less.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

BigFuture is a cloud-based application that allows users to see what they own no matter where the investments are located. BigFuture also provides sophisticated retirement planning models and financial literacy.

I'm the chief executive officer of BigFuture responsible for our commercializing efforts and am deeply involved in the daily project management of the application.

What challenge were you trying to address with Idyllic?

Eighty percent of Australians do not have a financial planner, nor are they very financially literate. BigFuture aims to empower individuals to become more knowledgeable about their money, being able to see how their total wealth and investments change over time. A user should be able to see their asset allocation and individual securities. 30% of Australians weren't born in Australia, so it was important that they could see overseas assets and that BigFuture was multi-currency (mapping assets to Australian dollars) but also multi-functional currency (measuring all assets in a different currency other than AUD).

Once a user knows what they own, it is important that they understand their finances, so we wanted to embed educational features into the application itself. We have built over 20 animations and written education modules.

Finally, everyone will have different savings and expenditure patterns as they move to retirement. We wanted to build a model that can produce a stochastic outcome of likely financial results and show this against the spending patterns a user may have in retirement.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had Ruby developers in-house and wanted to have the services of a company that could provide Ruby on Rails capabilities for the front-end. We also needed iOS and Android developers for the mobile companion apps. Idyllic completed all the front-end development and also designed and developed our native mobile experiences.

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

Idyllic was extremely professional in supplying their services. This was a greenfield build with sophisticated requirements of pulling in data from 3rd party suppliers and interacting with a sophisticated database.

Idyllic kept costs under control. Had we used an Australian developer, we would have likely gone bankrupt as we had, as is usual, many changes to the scope.

One of Idyllic's greatest benefits was that they could solve problems proactively. We encountered many challenges, and each time, Idyllic came up with a practical solution.

My only caution is that Idyllic had more resources it could apply to the project than we had to manage it. If I had my time again, I would have slowed up the project in the early days so our developers could keep up.