iRonin.IT

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an IT Services company, building, developing and supporting digital solutions & products for our customers.

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT?

As part of our growth strategy we planned to expand and improve our customer-facing app. However, we did not have enough internal development resources to meet our goals - so we turned to iRonin’s outsourcing service to augment our team and ensure we had the people we needed.

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

We’ve known iRonin and their CEO professionally for some time, although we had never worked with them before. We were looking for expertise in the key tech the project was built on - Ruby on Rails. We met in person with iRonin’s key team members as part of our DD and we instantly felt they could deliver. With their assistance, we were able to source the people we needed to meet our goals.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project was quite involved, requiring work on the backend to prepare for new service delivery and a new front-end app to better serve our customers. We needed several developers to help us build out and test the new functionality and ensure the app was ready for real-world operations.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We talked with the CTO first, then a potential team lead and other key developers. We met with them in person. For technical qualifications we trusted in iRonin's promise of top talent and best value, and on each step we saw evidence of this so we pulled the trigger.

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

With the help of iRonin’s outsourced developers we have successfully developed and integrated a new booking platform. As a result, our plans have not been affected by the skills shortage that is common to the IT industry as a whole - and we are able to keep moving forward with our business strategy.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Satisfied with the skills and experience of the iRonin team, we allowed their lead developer to take the lead in terms of strategic app decisions. We also had a product manager to collect business requirements and to manage the expectations of our stakeholders. The overall project was managed using Kanban with Jira scrum boards. Day to day operations were managed using Slack instant messaging, or with regular video calls on Google Meet or Microsoft Teams.

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

The code we've received was of high quality, requiring very few revisions or updates. We were particularly impressed by how quickly the iRonin team was able to achieve project milestones.

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

Nothing really.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of an early-stage startup that is focused on helping aspiring homeowners to save for their home.

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT, and what were your goals?

iRonin worked with us to implement a mini-application embedded into our home page, and integrated with a tool for the automatic generation of reports, which would then be sent to users by email. The main goal was to get visitors to our website to join our email waitlist by giving them access to free, personalised information in the form of a report.

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

We researched various startup-friendly software development firms recommended to us and listed on review websites like Clutch, predominantly situated near and off-shore. iRonin was personally recommended to us by an experienced peer in the technology field. We then spoke to a shortlisted set of firms, including iRonin. We were impressed by how well iRonin’s account and sales manager seemed to understand our business and needs as an early-stage startup. We decided to move forward with them based on the above.

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

First, we discussed the objectives of the project, both from a user and business perspective. We also shared our concept for the teaser in terms of what layout and elements should be included. The UI/UX designer mocked up some designs in both desktop and mobile formats, which we went back and forth on. Upon agreeing a final set of designs, the team began scoping out the tasks required for the front-end, back-end and integrations.

The engineers then proceeded to work independently on their respective tasks. Once finished, they came together to make sure the back-end and front-end elements were fully integrated. Finally, the QA engineer was involved in testing the system before it was handed to us for testing. After going through a series of bugs fixes, the system was eventually deployed into production and made available on our homepage for public access.

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

Those involved on our project on were a project manager, a UI/UX designer, a back-end engineer, a front-end engineer and a QA engineer.

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

The system went live on our homepage fairly recently, so we’re waiting on more data points before determining its success. However, we have received some initial feedback from people that the end-to-end journey is smooth and intuitive, and the report provides valuable information based on their inputs.

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

We were in constant communication with the project manager and engineers via weekly calls and email updates. A project management tool set up by us was also being employed by us and the iRonin team to organise, manage and communicate daily tasks, statuses and deadlines. The account manager also made herself very accessible for questions and concerns related to our engagement. This direct and open form of communication and the flexibility has allowed for a very fluid workflow.

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

iRonin made genuine efforts to understand our product objectives including the user requirements in spite of the complexities and evolving nature of our product. They have been extremely flexible in terms of being accessible, working around our timelines, managing resources, adapting to changing project priorities and requirements. They demonstrated great tenacity in finding solutions to the more challenging aspects of our product. For example, for a particular functionality they were less familiar with, they researched and analysed various approaches and eventually proposed their recommended solution. The engineer had to quickly learn new tools in order to implement this functionality.

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

There was a particular functionality we wanted to implement that the team was less familiar with. Having the knowledge and expertise around the implementation of this could have helped save us some time and cost.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of development for The Dyrt Inc., a company that develops software for campers to search, reserve, and rate campsites in the US.

What challenge were you trying to address with iRonin.IT?

We reached out to iRonin.IT to have them deliver an integration layer with other reservation systems outside of our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Property management systems (PMS) require an interface to be developed to allow our product to create, search, and reserve campsites within the PMS.

Each system is unique to the other, so iRonin.IT is helping us build a custom software to expand our reservation capabilities.

They mainly use Ruby on Rails, but they also utilize JavaScript in the development.

What is the team composition?

I directly interface with Bartlomiej (Delivery Manager), Daniel (Ruby on Rails Developer), Pawel (Senior Software Developer), and Krzysztof (Senior Software Developer).

How did you come to work with iRonin.IT?

I believe we came across their company through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve approximately spent $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in December 2021.

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

We’re using an Agile method for the discovery and implementation of the work, and we’ve accomplished about 90% of the scope of the first project, 75% of the second, and a very small amount in the third integration.

We also measure the success of the process through live demonstrations and testing to verify if the use cases have been delivered. 

How did iRonin.IT perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform very well as they go out of their way to communicate with us through live chat, a ticketing system called Shortcut, and Slack.

We also have weekly meetings with their engineers to discuss the progress and plans for the coming weeks and so far, they’re very responsive when it comes to providing feedback.

Apart from that, they’re very timely on the delivery and I’m very happy with our continued collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical expertise exceeds all of our expectations and they’ve been very good at identifying solutions to complex problems with very little guidance.

They’re able to overdeliver some of the projects in a very professional manner, which I feel will be useful to us in a maintenance capacity.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t find any faults in their process. The team is very open to constructive feedback and they’ve delivered everything we’ve asked for.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say to come in with a solid plan and crisp understanding of what your needs and requirements are. I also advise you to prepare all of the technical documentation and implementation details before you engage with the team.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of an early-stage startup that is focused on helping aspiring homeowners to save for their homes.

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT, and what were your goals?

We had a functioning web prototype that we were looking to redesign and develop into an MVP. We engaged with an external design agency for the design work and iRonin for the implementation of the new designs, development, and enhancement of certain features.

Our main objective is to develop a web-based MVP, optimised for mobile, that demonstrates the core value of our proposition. This involved:

• Implementing a newly conceived landing page, onboarding journey, and interactive dashboard
• Building upon existing algorithms and calculation models powering our platform
• Enhancing existing features
• Adding new features

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

We researched various startup-friendly software development firms recommended to us and listed on review websites like Clutch, predominantly situated near and off-shore. iRonin was personally recommended to us by an experienced peer in the technology field.

We then spoke to a shortlisted set of firms, including iRonin. We were impressed by how well iRonin’s account and sales manager seemed to understand our business and needs as an early-stage startup. They went the extra mile to address our questions and concerns and promised to source an experienced backend engineer with knowledge of our existing tech stack.

Lastly, they produced a preliminary estimate for our project that seemed quite reasonable. We decided to move forward with them based on the above.

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

First, we discussed the objectives of the project, both from a user and business perspective. We walked them through the flow of our existing prototype so that the iRonin team would have a better appreciation of what had been built thus far. We decided to engage with iRonin while working with our design agency to conceptualise our new vision for the MVP.

The purpose was to obtain feedback on the new designs from an implementation standpoint and ensure that we had not missed out anything fundamental. While the design process was underway, iRonin assigned a backend engineer to the team to focus on some of the backend tasks that would not be affected by the design work. This included some refactoring of our existing work, and optimising third-party API integrations.

As soon as design work for key sections was completed, a front-end engineer was assigned to the team to review the new set of designs, outline the tasks involved and provide a more accurate estimate for front-end implementation. This began with our landing page, which was custom-built, followed by the platform itself.

Before committing to work on a new section or feature of the platform, iRonin would produce and discuss with us a proposal for that piece of work and seek our approval for it. They would only begin the next piece of work once we were satisfied with their proposal. They also regularly seek and incorporate the feedback they receive from us on their output at the appropriate stages.

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

Those involved in our project on a day-to-day basis are a project manager, a senior backend engineer, two senior front-end engineers, and one QA engineer. Initially, we had one front-end engineer but were later assigned an additional one due to an increase in the scope of our work. From time to time, we also liaise with an account manager.

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

Whilst our project is still ongoing, we are pleased with how the elements are shaping up: namely our landing page, aspects of our onboarding journey, and dashboard. We’ve received positive responses to our landing page thus far.

Recently, we have been able to see the effects of connection between backend and frontend in terms of how the underlying calculations are driving outputs based on inputs entered on the user interface. This seems to be working quite smoothly so far.

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

We have been in constant communication with the project manager and engineers via weekly calls and email updates. A project management tool set up by us is also being employed by us and the iRonin team to organise, manage and communicate daily tasks, statuses and deadlines.

The account manager has also made herself very accessible for questions and concerns related to our engagement. This direct and open form of communication and flexibility has allowed for a very fluid workflow.

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

iRonin makes genuine efforts to understand our business requirements and the ins and outs of our product in spite of the complexities and evolving nature of our business. We have seen a great degree of professionalism and have been impressed by their can-do attitude.

They have been extremely flexible in terms of being accessible, working around our timelines, managing resources, adapting to changing project priorities and requirements. Not only is the team technically sound and experienced, but they have also shown tenacity in finding solutions to the more challenging aspects of our product.

For example, after getting briefed by us on a particular feature they were less familiar with, they researched and analysed various approaches and eventually proposed the right solution. They quickly ramped up their learning to produce a quick prototype that demonstrated how the feature would work. This gave both them and us the confidence to proceed with implementing the full-fledged version.

Finally, we also appreciate getting their honest opinions on the features they believe are essential to include in our MVP and the ones that can be postponed.

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

When preparing proposal estimates, iRonin should consider all the technical elements that are necessary for the feature to function. In the case of one of our features, estimates were originally provided separately for backend and frontend implementation, without factoring in the work required to connect the two to produce a functioning solution.

Once the implementation of the front-end tasks began, we later found out that the designer had created the designs based on multiple frameworks. This led to additional work whereby the designs had to be ported by the front-end engineer to a single framework.

o avert this in the future, iRonin could potentially set some best practices and provide some rules of thumb prior to the design work getting underway.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work in engineering for a DDI software vendor.

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT, and what were your goals?

Our DDI solution is built with a robust DDI interface and we are working to build out our partner ecosystem. We had a need to integrate with The Foreman Project and had no resources available in-house.

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

iRonin IT came highly recommended from members at The Foreman Project. They had knowledge & experience on the Foreman Project and had completed other projects like ours. We knew that they would be able to handle our request.

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

Our project was a single proxy service that required ruby expertise. The entire project was slated for a month of development & QA.

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

We had a team of three: Filip , Michal , Kumil . All were proficient and easy to work with.

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

We had a need for the plugin to be ready for install in a time-frame of 1 month. They made good on their commitment

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

Due to the extreme difference in time zones, we utilized slack as a means of communication and tracking. Due to the small size in our project this was sufficient.

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

They over-communicated. When working across national boundaries, this is a must. They would let us know about project updates and obstacles they hit immediately. This allowed us to manage through them on weekly calls.

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

None

Please describe your company and your position there.

VARIA is a modern real estate agency using technology to make the process of finding a home more efficient. I am the Co-founder

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT, and what were your goals?

The project was transferred from a previous software development company that we had a bad experience with. So the transfer of the project and continuing it with Ironin presented a challenge. Our goal was to successfully finish the development of the product so we can launch our product to market.

How did you select iRonin.IT and what were the deciding factors?

We found Ironin on clutch. We found they had great reviews and after an interview process we felt like we can trust them to continue the project. they presented accurate estimates and are reasonably priced.

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

The project was a continuation from a previous development company. The technologies used are ruby on rails, react, gatsby, aws

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

3 people, sales, cto, developer

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

We are pleased with the results. The team delivered the project in the estimated range of hours.

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

We had clear communication. We communicated with the sales representative, and the CTO. we had weekly meetings to discuss the progress each week. as well as weekly reports

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

communication, work ethic, professionalism

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

No

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Bitt Inc. We are actively under contract with a bank to develop a digital currency.

What challenge were you trying to address with iRonin.IT?

We needed top-notch developers. We also needed them to be able to speak English well and to be interested in cutting-edge technologies, such as blockchain.

What was the scope of their involvement?

iRonin.IT worked across several languages including Elixir, Java, Python, Kotlin, JavaScript, and TypeScript. They did front- and backend development, backend programming database work, and DevOps among others. They were fully engaged in our systems from source code repositories and Google Cloud environments

What is the team composition?

We worked with three developers. We also worked with a DevOps teammate, who we let go after building up our DevOps staff.

How did you come to work with iRonin.IT?

I was advised to look at teams in Poland because of their general programming skill and education level, as well as their familiarity with English. After doing an internet search, I came across iRonin.IT.

How much have you invested with them?

I spend $30,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in early 2019, and we plan to launch the product at the end of September.

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

The developers get along well with everyone else. They are excellent to work with. iRonin.IT was so good that they became more engaged in our day-to-day development processes. The quality of their work has been great, which I’ve been able to see through our unit tests and automated testing systems.

The code that iRonin.IT writes is consistently some of the best code that we get and it works well. They are conscientious developers, and it always shows up in the documentation that they provide. Their work habits and commitment to quality are very good.

How did iRonin.IT perform from a project management standpoint?

They are fantastic team players, and we consider them our own employees. They integrated into our Jira and Confluence ticketing systems. They’ve also integrated into our team and have enthusiastically embraced our coding standards and company protocols. 

They do a good job of communicating through Slack and email, and they’ve always made themselves available, even when it’s late at night for them since there’s a time difference. The team also communicates well in English. When they commit to a task, they do their best to get it done on time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the developers we’ve been working with has been fantastic. Their manager has been available when there are any questions, and they’ve been responsive to questions or concerns. 

The whole company has been good, and their bills and hourly records have been clear and concise. The developers keep track of all of the tasks their working on, which makes billing easy. Everything from our relationship to the financials has been excellent. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions. iRonin.IT has been excellent, and I wish every other company was like this. They know the business and have been great to work with. They care, and I feel like they’re interested in my company’s success.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

All of the developers have been high-performing, so you need to have well-organized project leaders than can keep the developers well-fed with tasks and the information they need to do the development. Be responsive to them when they need clarification. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

The company offers an advanced e-learning platform with AI functionalities and live webinars that can be organized through the platform at any time. The product is build upon an innovative approach for online education and LMS solutions.

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT?

We hired iRonin.IT for further application development and features enhancements. Our cooperation was short but we needed an additional developer and expertise to join our team and support us in reaching our business goals. We needed someone to join our team urgently and the iRonin.IT business team was able to provide the right kind of developer within a week.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to have an experienced developer with hands-on knowledge in Python development and help us with the following tasks: introducing important features enhancements implementing an URL shortener providing further development of the REST API for webinar management

How did you select this vendor?

I’ve met Monika from iRonin.IT Sales Team during one of the startup events. We got a positive impression and she understood our needs.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The platform offers a video streaming solution with advanced interfaces for live webinars and online courses. Various options added to the system allow organizers to share virtual meetings, real-time webinars and courses with participants in appropriate time slots.

What was the team composition?

During our cooperation iRonin.IT company provided 1 Senior Python Developer.

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

The iRonin.IT’s dedicated developer delivered all of the tasks on time and we’re satisfied with the outcomes. He implemented an URL shortener for our platform which was a crucial part of our cooperation.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had no issues while communicating with the developer. The communication was seamless thanks to daily conversations on Slack.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their commitment and flexibility were most impressive. We needed someone in a short period of time and they provided us with an experienced developer who met our expectations.

Are there any areas for improvement?

From our perspective it all went super! Especially considering the limitations of these trying/Pandemic times

Please describe your company and your position there.

We offer plant-based solutions for women in menopause. Our company was founded in 2019 and started selling in February 2020.

For what projects/services did your company hire iRonin.IT?

We needed a scalable web application that could integrate a headless CMS, a questionnaire as well as an eCommerce solution like Shopify. This would allow us to launch XbyX as a business.

What were your goals for this project?

The solution needed to be flexible and scalable. We needed a custom design as well as some custom features, like a Questionnaire that would have a complex logic to give women best individual advise.

How did you select this vendor?

We knew the iRonin founder through the founders kite club.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They developed the entire custom web app, which integrated the headless CMS as well as the questionnaire logic. They also implemented all of our custom frontend designs and made sure everything worked well on different devices.

What was the team composition?

We always had a reliable project manager, Weronika, who would be available for questions and always very responsive. On top, we had a lead developer and several other developers that joined the project when more capacity was needed.

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

The solution is working smoothly and we are getting very good customer feedback. The CMS structure is great in terms of performance and flexibility.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had a dedicated project manager. Working with her was very effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The iRonin team is very responsive and really tries to help you out with your requirements. They make great suggestions in terms of simplifying features or finding better ways to solve problems.

Are there any areas for improvement?

For a project with an original estimate (range of budget) there could have been better communication about when the budget would be exceeded. But we found better ways to avoid that for future projects with iRonin and they were very open to feedback and different pricing solutions.