IT CRAFT

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of development for a company that provides staffing solutions for hospitals and manages per diem workers. We started out as a marketplace for nurses to sign up who were interested in working at hospitals. As we allowed nurses to sign up and acquire their talent, we migrated away from this and joined up with a handful of hospitals. From there, they can use our platform to do all credentialling and the like.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

We needed an all-in-one solution for software development. We were looking for a team that could come up to speed quickly and could change size as needed.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We work on two-week sprints where I write up tickets and put the design and functionality specs there. Then, the development team accesses what we’re going to get done and we’ll do a release at that point into our demo environment. A day or two later we’ll turn to our production environment and just follow that workflow the entire time.

Most of the design on the original project is finished up now. We’re currently doing a lot of expanding and merging the new technology from the company that we merged with. Right now, we’re just a web app, but hopefully, by the summer we’ll start building a mobile app and use them for that.

What is the team composition?

We work with about 10 people on their team right now, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

We interviewed a number of different companies based on experience, price, and the age of some of their teammates. We called up a few clients and got testimonies from them. Based on that, we decided to go with IT CRAFT.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in February 2018 and the relationship is still ongoing.

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

Our business has seen a lot of growth. The number of nurses that we’ve had year-over-year (YoY) has been expanding quite a bit, which is driven by our technology. We’ve gotten over 1,000 nurses with our new system so far.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job with that. I have a daily scrum meeting with the whole team every morning. We communicate on the phone and also through Slack. The team handles small questions and any onboarding of new teammates effectively. I haven’t had any problems with their management. For the team, we use Jira, Confluence, and Trello.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re always available. Their development team in-house works 24/7. If there is a problem, which isn’t often, I can contact them at any time. One time we had issues with one of our releases; the volume of users we got with a new client was beyond what we expected, which caused it to slow down. They brought their team together and worked through the weekend to get everything back to working smoothly. Whenever I had a teammate leave or transfer to another project, they were able to bring in a resource without there being a learning curve. The team makes good suggestions that not only make their life easier as a developer but also make the product better in the long run as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there is nothing they could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you do your research on what’s out there and make sure you find somebody who has knowledge in all the different technologies that you plan on using. Hiring a bigger team makes it easier to bring in other resources that you might need, compared to hiring a smaller team that doesn’t have those resources.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an independent contractor, and I have my own company. I’ve been working on the same project for One Mission Society for a little over three years.

What challenges were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

I’m the architect for a product that One Mission Society wanted to digitize. I hired IT CRAFT to act as the implementation team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

One Mission Society is not a software development company. They’re a mission organization that has seminaries. They contracted both myself and IT CRAFT to help digitize a paper-based system to make it available on smartphones, IT CRAFT does design, implementation, some testing, hosting, and administration of the product. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with several people, but my main point of contact is Artem (Developer). 

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

One Mission Society found them and arranged for the business relationship. 

How much have you invested in them?

I think that about $75,000 has been invested in IT CRAFT’s services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

IT CRAFT was retained prior to my starting on this project. We’ve been working together since 2017, and the work is ongoing. 

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

They’re a fairly skilled team, and they’ve removed my need to jump into the implementation aspect of the project. I just take care of the requirements. As a result, we have a relatively hands-off relationship, but it’s worked out really well. I trust them. I don’t think we would have this product without their help. 

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

There are several stakeholders from One Mission Society that we work with. The product owner takes care of the business side, and I deal with the technical side of things. One team member from One Mission Society manages their timing, does the billing, and I direct IT CRAFT’s implementation efforts. We meet weekly to review the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

They’re great at communicating about technical concepts. Even though English is not their native language, we’ve never had an issue with misunderstandings. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have different management styles. I like to have regular feedback sessions every day or so. They’re doing all the work they need to, but they aren’t as communicative about it. However, that hasn’t had a negative impact on the project. It’s just my own anxiety. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Artem’s consistent support of the project has been instrumental in our success. Even though other developers have come and gone, the longterm partnership with at least one of their team members has been very helpful. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an internet marketing entrepreneur.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

Back in 2017, I wanted to start an app marketing campaign and needed Android developers to develop apps for me.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our teams worked closely together for a few months to build an app based on a list of specifications that I provided to them. The app itself aggregated financial technical analysis and news on a daily basis and offered quotes and real-time graphs for users in stock trading.

They built out all of the capabilities and UI/UX, including the APIs for pulling data, the login and user portal, and backend. The technology they used is a hybrid language that fits both iOS and Android.

What was the team composition?

Their team covered all aspects of the project, ranging from a project manager and a business analyst to a programmer and a designer.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

I did the usual shopping around for developers in Ukraine, and I actually came across IT CRAFT on Clutch. They seemed like a good fit, so we moved forward with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a total of $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from November 2017–February 2018.

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

The success of this project encouraged me to work on numerous other things with them. The rest were mostly smaller projects, consisting of web and WordPress programming, but the quality of their work across all of those was really fantastic. In the first project in particular, they delivered everything that I requested in the app without any glitches at all.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

You can really get a wide range of quality from outsourced project managers, but their team is absolutely on the VIP service end of things. They make sure that the specifications for the work are very, very well-defined on the frontend, and that everything is organized so as to avoid any potential misunderstandings. That approach was incredibly refreshing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When I insisted on having an experienced programmer, they not only found one for me but they also introduced us and let me sit down and talk with him a little so that I could understand who was actually working on my project. I didn’t feel like I was being compartmentalized, but that I was being taken care of with a level of personal attention that most companies simply don’t provide.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their hourly rate is a little bit expensive, and you can definitely get cheaper, but the price is worth it. If you ask them to do something it gets done. But their billing system is a little bit too rigid and could probably give a little bit more room for maneuvering to smaller projects that need to be a little dynamic.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you have a big project that is well defined and needs to be handled from scratch, they are most likely the perfect partner for you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the COO of tourschain.com, a travel startup. We build various travel technology systems for operators.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

We were building a B2C site and only had a backend engineer. We wanted a polished frontend application so we were looking to outsource the work. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT CRAFT built both the front- and backend of our site. The site was an intuitive trip planner for travelers that was predominantly a membership site that features a drag and drop itinerary planner.  Their team used React.js and Node.js for the site and created our database using MongoDB.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, a QA engineer, and 2–3 developers. IT CRAFT would bring in people as the workflow increased, but it was usually two.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

I found IT CRAFT on Clutch after reading their reviews. With an IT project, there’s a lot of information asymmetry and I didn’t have any technical background. Some companies might take advantage of that and give higher quotes, but IT CRAFT was really transparent. I spoke to the business manager, IT manager, and some developers on the phone and decided to work with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $60,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with IT CRAFT ran from January–June 2018.

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

Our B2C website wasn’t as successful as we would have liked. We had about 1,000–2,000 users because we ended up not spending a lot of money on marketing. We pivoted to a B2B product and sell our technology to travel agencies.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

Despite some communication issues, our project manager was overall pretty good. At times, it felt as though he was uninvolved, but once we raised our concerns they rectified the issue. We also had a communication issue with their business manager. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

IT CRAFT has high standards, and it shows in their work. They’re doing a great job.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had some issues with communication between our teams. The project manager wasn’t always in sync with the rest of the IT CRAFT team. Sometimes I would have to jump over him and go straight to the developers with my questions. Due to our communication issues, we had to add additional hours to meetings and went a little over budget. They weren’t always responsive and there was a language barrier. Another issue we ran into was our timeline and budget estimations. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a web agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

I needed a company to handle my web development projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I usually begin by establishing the scope with the client, which sometimes is only an idea. We then come up with a solution together with IT CRAFT. They help us with many different parts throughout the process: they do development, design, and project management.

What is the team composition?

There are five people on their team.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

I’d previously worked with a similar agency based in India, but I was having issues with them and started to look for a more professional team. I searched through different freelancer sites, looking for a high-quality team even if they were a little more expensive. I contacted five options and I got the best feeling from IT CRAFT. We began with a trial period and we’ve been working together ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2018, and the work is ongoing.

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

We receive compliments for a lot of the work they do. Recently, we got good feedback for a design of theirs, giving a new, important client of ours a really good impression of us. That’s really significant because the first impression can set the bar for the rest of the project.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve been doing most of the project management and they’ve been focusing on programming and providing me with resources. However, we recently had a meeting in which we decided they would also take over most of the project management. They’re really professional, helpful, plan clearly, and document their work well. We communicate multiple times a day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re professional and keep everything in order. They’re very good at listening and then coming up with solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

All of our issues have been handled really well. They have an account manager that I really trust and have never had an argument with; we talk and find a way to solve any problems in the best way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Allow them the freedom to handle the project in the way they see fit.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company works with other businesses. 

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

IT CRAFT has supported us with multiple projects. Most recently, they helped us develop an extensive website for our company.

We needed to find a way to create numerous forms for all of the services we offer. Each one requires a client to go through a five-step process which involves filling out many forms.

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT CRAFT designed a website with many complex features.  After leading us through an amazing discovery process, they began product development. 

Using PHP, IT CRAFT developed an extensive backend admin panel on a Laravel framework. It’s entirely for internal use and processing orders. They created a vault within a custom database to store form questions. Rather than programming each new version, we can duplicate copies to modify for slightly different types of services at any time.

The system lets us control every aspect independently, including how orders are displayed and the channel we use to send clients order confirmations. In addition to emails, it generates additional styles and layouts for the invoices. 

Since the product launched, they've continued to add new features and modify the forms to prevent duplications. Based on interesting responses and follow-up from users, we improve the questions and remove conflicts we identify. 

What is the team composition? 

We’ve worked with about five people from IT CRAFT. They assigned us a project manager to serve as our main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

IT CRAFT contacted a former boss of mine for many years. Once I started working with the team in my previous role, I immediately appreciated how well they operated. They set up their business manager, designers, and project manager to run in a very efficient manner.  For this more recent project, I felt completely confident they were the team I needed. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We completed the first website in two months last year. Since then, we've built another site and started another. The newest website we've been developing is much more detailed, comprehensive, and technologically robust. 

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

All of IT CRAFT’s deliverables have been beautifully executed and exceeded our expectations. The team is amazing; their technological skills and teamwork are superb. They understand how to effectively plan projects ahead of time. Delivering this project was an impressive accomplishment in light of the complex build. I feel very excited about and confident in IT CRAFT’s abilities based on the work they produced.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager from IT CRAFT was an excellent leader with a background in programming, so he was very well-versed. He was available 24 hours and stayed on top of every task. We could always reach him.

IT CRAFT always delivers solutions within less than a week. For every feature we wanted to add after the site launched, they provided accurate hourly estimates and completed them on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've used many offshore vendors, and I’ve never seen as professional and skilled of a web development team as IT CRAFT in my entire career. The team’s breadth of technical knowledge is up to par with the best companies on the market. 

IT CRAFT helped us achieve the best success we could have hoped for. They executed the project perfectly, promptly, and at a competitive price point.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind that they need to improve. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a SaaS analytics company. Our product manages link redirects and requires creating a number of new technologies to make it work. 

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

Our partnership started with an R&D project to create an automatic installer that installs our software onto our clients’ servers. From there, the relationship has expanded to cover all sorts of other dev projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT Craft built the web app from scratch, using PHP and MySQL. The installer enables someone to install and set up databases remotely. All they need is the STP information, and the product sets everything up on wherever the website is hosted. They also built technology that allows the site to communicate in real time and send analytics back to the SaaS dashboard. IT Craft configured all of the databases, working with some pretty complex analytics.

What is the team composition? 

The team’s ranged anywhere from one person to 15. I usually work with one developer, but I’ve also interfaced with a systems administrator and project manager.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

We found them online.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first partnered in 2005, and the work is ongoing. 

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

We’ve been working with them for the past 14 years, so that should show how great of a partner they are.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

I do most of the project management, but they have excellent communication and provide accurate quotes. They work according to our schedule and implement best practices.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with a lot of providers, and IT Craft has been one of the most reliable. They have specialists in all fields of their work, and the staff is completely loyal. I’ve had the same people on my team for the entire 14-year engagement.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.
 
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If you have a big project, hire a project manager. You can adjust the size of the team depending on your needs.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a business process startup. Our mission is to improve the operation efficiency of businesses and thus, increase their revenue.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

We needed a development partner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our software using .NET Core on the backend, which is written in C#. On the frontend, they’re using Electron while the database is MariaDB. The software optimizes business processes.

What is the team composition?

We had the main project manager, a business analyst that writes the specification for every button and process, six developers, one QA resource that does automated QA, and two that do manual QA. We have a part-time designer as well who designs all the buttons, logos, and every screen.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

We read several reviews on Clutch and reached out to some companies. I went to Ukraine with my partner and met with eight of them. We chose IT Craft because they had the infrastructure in place, they demonstrated background skills, they were a medium size company, their price was in the middle, and they seemed like a very knowledgeable group of people. They had the project manager and the lead developer ready for us when we met them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $50,000 a month. I’m very happy they offered a flat price, which many other companies didn’t.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2018, and the work is ongoing.

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

Our internal team is continuously testing what they provide to us and we’re very happy with how things are going. They have the knowledge of what tools to use for each task.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re happy with the way they interact with us, and the communication is very smooth—we have two status calls per week. They’re on time for these, and all the relevant people join. They’re very responsive too, so if anybody needs to get on the call, it’s immediate. We get a full report of what’s going on.

We’re using Jira and Confluence for documenting everything and to keep track of all the tasks and features being built. We can see everything in real-time. We also use Slack for daily communications, which means we don’t have to wait a day or two for somebody to be available.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a research and development scheme where if the lead developer doesn’t have a current project to work on, they put that person to a special team where they can raise their level of knowledge while they’re waiting for the next project. This is all paid for by the company and it means that developers are really happy to play with some interesting things such as AI or AR.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m 100% happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No, I can't think of anything.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development for International Fintech UAB. We help clients open corporate bank accounts in Europe and then help them manage these accounts with fully-integrated online platforms.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

We engaged IT CRAFT to develop new systems to expand our banking portfolio.

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT CRAFT provides ongoing development services for us. The team works with our CTO to flesh out new technical ideas for online platforms. They then develop the front- and backends of those platforms and fix bugs in completed systems.

What is the team composition?

We work with four developers.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

We searched online for agencies based in Ukraine and Russia and found IT CRAFT. They have an office in Ukraine—where I’m originally from—which made direct communication easier. I reached out to their contact person, and we discussed their service offerings. We also collected feedback from IT CRAFT’s other clients and partners. After several chats, calls, and interviews, we signed a contract to work together.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $20,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2018, and the partnership is ongoing.

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

We’ve switched all our requests and product development to IT CRAFT, and we’re looking to scale up the number of developers in 2019. IT CRAFT consistently provides exceptional quality work on time and at reasonable rates. We’re highly satisfied with the partnership.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

The project has run smoothly since the beginning. IT CRAFT supplies everything we need—from developers to invoices to information—with speed and efficiency. My point of contact responds to queries rapidly. Whenever an issue arises, I can get in touch with someone 24/7.

What did you find most impressive about them?

IT CRAFT makes the collaboration both effortless and enjoyable. Their team of highly experienced professionals completes work quickly without sacrificing high quality. They also check on the managers assigned to our project, which saves our side the effort of doing so ourselves. We’ve never encountered an issue working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything. We look forward to growing alongside IT CRAFT as we continue our partnership.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

We initially had a project manager, but we decided that we prefer to communicate directly with the developers. However, other companies might find it helpful to have a point of contact that guides them through the process and helps them translate their needs to the developers.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a medical company that manages an online healthcare portal for patients and care providers alike.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

My team had developed the fundamental technical documents for a custom PHP software that we wanted to implement. We designed everything in HTML, from the screens and flow to the user experience. However, I needed additional qualified and skilled developers as well as business analysts who understood my vision well enough to execute it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

As I’ve mentioned, my team crafted everything that we wanted for the site in HTML, which we gave to their business analyst. She converted our documents into a format that their developers could use. They then built the platform using PHP and MySQL. The site featured credit card and user sign-on functions as well as audio and video integration. Currently, they’re developing four more iterations of the software before finalizing the project.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with around eight members so far, including a business analyst and a team of developers. The analyst serves as our liaison, conveying our ideas and vision to the rest of the team.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

I was looking for agencies in Ukraine and reached out to about 20 of them. IT CRAFT had a strong company profile, so I included them in my list of potential vendors. Initially, I gave them a small-scale test project to gauge their skills, and they came back with strong results. It was more than easy to communicate with them, and I was impressed by their proactive approach. They suggested solutions to problems that I hadn’t even noticed. Once they wrapped up the beta test for that project and completed another one, we decided to entrust a large portion of our development to them.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent about $30,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work began in January 2018 and is ongoing.

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

From a qualitative perspective, they’ve done such a good job that I’ve quadrupled my involvement with them. We haven’t completed the software yet, but they’ve gone through multiple iterations so far. We’re actually going to ramp up their involvement on a larger scale over the next year as the software iterations get larger and expand.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

The team collaborates closely with me to understand exactly what I wanted to build, and they manage their time lines beautifully. I can also talk to them as often as I need. Typically, I work with the business analyst on a daily basis to review the developers’ builds. Beyond that, they hold weekly meetings as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Besides their open communication, I appreciate their ability to understand what I want to build and then accurately create it. I also enjoy how proactive they are, the strength of their development, and the business analyst’s efforts.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. In fact, I wouldn’t have increased the development to this extent if they couldn’t deliver what I needed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Everyone has to figure out their workflow themselves. However, I suggest being optimistic with IT CRAFT because they’re able to deliver. Despite our initial skepticism, they pushed right through and handled the work. If there are any problems, more often than not, it’s because the client hasn’t communicated the development requirements properly. Once they understand what’s needed, they’ll deliver it.