Idyllic Software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Engineering of Marti Health

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Health Care for Sickle Cell patients

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Idyllic Software to accomplish?

• Improve care for sickle cell patients
• Reduce cost of sickle cell patients for insurers

SOLUTION

How did you find Idyllic Software?

Previous partner on another project

Why did you select Idyllic Software over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Idyllic Software were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

To develop a multi-application platform specializing in the treatment of sickle cell patients. The platform will be composed of two portals - one for patients, and one for providers. Together the two platforms should provide: 

• Risk Identification and Stratification 
• Care Planning and Coordination 
• Patient Engagement and Education 
• Medication Management 
• Transition of Care 
• Follow-up and Monitoring 

The platforms will be built on top of AWS and engineered using React, TypeScript, and the Medplum healthcare developer platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• A working patient portal 
• A working provider portal 
• A working instance of the Medplum API 
• A working instance of the Medplum Admin Console 
• A staging and production environment for all applications 
• A starting base of 200 patients and 1 provider 
• Progress sufficient to secure additional funding to continue development

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Idyllic Software went above and beyond in their service to Marti Health. They provided us with developers, a designer, and a project manager. The provided team was made available at a reduced price to accommodate our funding. 

In the period of ~6 months the team was able to accomplish all of our initial KPIs. This required some weekend work as well as some additional hours from the team - all of which they responded to professionally and completed. 

In particular the project manager, Supriya, was amazingly organized, very communicative, and particularly well suited to managing development projects. I also worked with one of the owners, Jen, who can only be described as a People Whisperer and who quickly became one of the people I respect the most.

What was your primary form of communication with Idyllic Software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I found one of the owners, Jen, to be a very impressive manager who was able to work with an array of different people from her employees, to other managers, to the executive team at Marti Health. 

She bent over backwards to ensure that Marti Health was getting our development needs met even when those needs could have been considered unreasonable. She and her team made many sacrifices to ensure that she was not only providing development resources but to ensure that her company was providing overall success to us.

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

While Jen and the project manager she provided, Supriya, were both excellent communicators, I would have liked to see better communication skills from the developers and more willingness to engage in conversations

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Healthcare, Addiction Medicine, Telehealth - VP Engineering

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Idyllic Software, and what were your goals?

With such a tight hiring market, we needed to lean on consultants to meet our ongoing initiatives. We committed to a team of 5 - 7 on an ongoing (staff aug) basis.

SOLUTION

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

Idyllic specializes in Ruby development, making them a good fit for our tech stack. Beyond that, they were on the higher end of firms for offshore development. We wanted to target this price range, to ensure we got high quality talent.

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

Ongoing work on a large monolithic rails app, with supporting client side work in React. Work involved multiple, complex projects, and require independent work that often required independent investigation and project management without much consultation from our team.

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

• 3 Ruby devs
• 2 React devs
• 1 QA engineer
• 2 React Native devs

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team is great, works independently, and provides clear communication. We set up biweekly calls with them to discuss ongoing tasks and any bottlenecks. We didn't have to provide details notes most of them time, we could point them in the right direction and communicate desired functionality, and they were capable of independently working out the implementation. When we did have a specific implementation in mind, the team was able to meet our requirements without much deviation.

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

Biweekly check in meetings, all work done through Jira. Biweekly releases/sprints with weekly check ins. On average we would expect 4 - 5 tasks per release to be handled via contractors. Slack channel set up for ongoing discussion & support.

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

Ability to work independently without a ton of support. Clear communication.

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

none

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Find My Zen, a digital wellness company that offers virtual and in-person wellness services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Idyllic Software?

We needed their development expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re transitioning from an outdated technology stack to a new one. Idyllic Software has initially supported our development needs by assessing the conversion process and any potential issues we might encounter.

Once their team has concluded the pre-development and research stages, they’ve focused on rebuilding the functionalities of our platform. They’ve modified the code, developed our frontend, and integrated a database and ticketing system to automate our account processes.

What is the team composition?

We work with four resources from Idyllic Software, including their developers, a UX designer, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Idyllic Software?

I’m an investor at a company that they previously worked for.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $10,000–$15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing collaboration started in October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Idyllic Software has done a great job in updating and maintaining our platform. There’s never been an issue that they haven’t resolved — it’s impressive that they know its ins and outs despite not being the original developers. More importantly, they’ve persistently taught me how to work in tandem with their developers to make important changes on my own.

How did Idyllic Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We rely on Trello for project management. Idyllic Software has introduced me to innovative and convenient modes of technology. Additionally, they’re a responsive team that caters to our requests within 24–48 hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Idyllic Software has taken their time in understanding my business model, and they’ve built a scope that addressed the challenges we’ve encountered. I’m impressed with their obvious interest in seeing our product work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The entire process has been smooth so far — we’ve only dealt with a few timeline and communication challenges because of our time zone differences.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take the time to understand your platform and communicate with Idyllic Software often to know what changes they’re implementing — you’ll then have an easier grasp of your new system when you need to make changes on your own.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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. 

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.