IT CRAFT

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

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

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of digital business and product development for a language service provider in the northern region of Europe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

We’re developing a portal for our clients to access different services, like machine translation and so on. We worked with a previous agency, but they weren’t able to handle the workload, so we needed a partner with more resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT CRAFT immediately took over the previous agency’s project before moving onto our bigger project, which we provided designs for. Most of their work involves integrating different systems together, like our product system or online payments. We have a trained machine translation engine, and IT CRAFT built that connection through the APIs. We also built the frontend for our clients to be able to log into the online order portal. We have thousands of clients logging into the cloud-based platform daily, and IT CRAFT created that architecture.

What is the team composition?

We have three PHP developers, one HTML coder (who also does graphics), and a project manager. We work together on a daily basis. We used to assign tickets to the project manager, who would split them between the team, but now we work so close with the developers that we do that. We know who’s working on what, so we can get the tickets directly to them. The project manager now keeps track of time and other logistical elements.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

I found them through a Google search. They had decent prices compared to our budget and expectations and seemed able to deliver, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $70,000–$90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2017. We launched in steps, but the full platform was launched in November.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This tool has given us a totally different position in our market, which is quite competitive. It has helped us become a unique player that can offer our clients something most of our competitors can’t. Whenever we approach new clients, they’re all interested in this feature, so it’s been great.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

IT CRAFT delivers on time and on budget. We’re really happy with their whole team—they’re professional and transparent, giving us access to everyone on the team. They provide feedback and make suggestions, acting more like a colleague than a hired agency.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Every single person at IT CRAFT, no matter the department, is incredibly professional. Sometimes, you get a company that’s only professional at the executive level, but that’s not the case with IT CRAFT. Our previous company engaged with our work, but IT CRAFT goes above and beyond. They’re spot on every time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I'm really happy with them.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

IT CRAFT can help you with almost any part of your business but keep open and clear communication. If you’re not well-prepared, it will reflect poorly on you and limit what IT CRAFT can do. Take command of the project and have good management on both sides.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I co-founded MyCarrier TMS, which is in the integrated transportation management industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

We are developing a transportation management system for the less than truckload (LTL) industry. The Transportation Management System (TMS) application needs to connect bulk carriers and shippers without needing a middleman or broker.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve developed our application from scratch using .NET in Java and a SQL Server database. The project initially focused on building the app’s customer side, which the shipper uses. We deployed that aspect in August 2017 and then proceeded to work on the carrier portal until completion in November.

Key features include automated testing and onboarding in approximately 10 seconds. This tool avoids the usual 48-hour ticketing to process credentials. Once credentials are up, the customer can: run rate quotes, book shipments, and track deliveries. IT CRAFT has also integrated third party providers to standardize carriers’ APIs, which enhances the customer experience.

Per our business model, we license the software to one of 36 LTL carriers that transport goods for the national shipping companies. We’ve been finalizing these carrier partners, which constitute 98% of the market, to upsell the application to their end customers.

What is the team composition?

We have: one full-time project manager, one full-time senior developer, two full-time middle developers, and one full-time junior developers. The team does fluctuate in size as the scope changes. For example, we’ve occasionally had too much work for one QA specialist, but not enough for two. We’ve also had: one full-time QA engineer, one part-time engineer, two part-time developers, and one part-time designer.

I speak with the project manager and senior developer daily. Discussions with the whole team occur every two weeks to align with new releases.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

We did a three-month search for off-site agencies, specifically targeting Ukrainian companies. Development firms in this country have promising reputations. We picked IT CRAFT from three Ukrainian finalists because they impressed us on manly levels.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $250,000 – $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in April 2017 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although we don’t have live customers yet, we’ve gotten tremendous feedback from industry executives.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re tremendous at documenting progress and follow through. Their diligence gives me more freedom to run my business. For example, they trained a new developer for two weeks when one specialist left the company. That initiative kept the project on track with minimal disruptions on my end.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The design impresses people; it complements the development well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything specific. There were some unexpected responses and APIs, but those mainly concerned the third party vendors.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They make development easy for clients with more business expertise than technical savvy. Based on my past experience with other developers, I recommend hiring IT CRAFT.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of an on-demand laundry service. We offer pickup and delivery services for about a thousand people in the city every month. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

We needed to tackle a big update. IT Craft wanted to redo my entire system because we had a lot of bugs in the older version.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our previous system was intricate and detailed, and I needed a real developer to give me a new, smooth, open-box system. We were already in business and were using a system we had been adding to for a long time. Other developers had done previous work for me, but they all fizzled out. After I made the agreement with IT Craft, I stayed with them because they did a good job.

They custom-built our entire system. They added route management, CRM [customer relationship management], email notifications, recurring orders, and scheduling. They also developed an Android mobile app for our drivers. In an on-demand service like ours, everything is based on time and location. For instance, if we have 20 people ordering from 6–8 a.m., we’ll sweep the city and get all of those orders before moving to the 8–10 a.m. customers, then the 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. customers, and so on. IT Craft automated our system based on having 3 or 4 drivers in the city at a time. Previously, the route management was basically its own entity and would automatically go to the driver’s phone.

What is the team dynamic?

Generally, the same people from IT Craft remained working on our project. Recently, I haven't been doing as much with them, so they transferred me to another primary contact, but he’s just as good as the first, so I have no complaints. They’re responsive, which is what I really want. When I’m dealing with somebody overseas, I want to know who I'm talking to.

Our primary contact had 2–3 developers under him. He understood my project intimately and spoke with the other developers. Sometimes, we would meet with the developers when we had something major to discuss, but I generally like having a single contact person.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

IT Craft was the fourth development company that I went to because it was hard to find somebody with our targeted set of skills. They were very professional. We decided to go with them after interviewing a bunch of people.

What is the status of this engagement?

The product is live, and we’re still doing business with IT Craft. I think we started working together 3 years ago, around 2013–2014. We constantly had new launches with the product because we were always implementing new features. I just had a single rule: never launch anything on a Friday. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

IT Craft excels in this industry, and I’m happy with them. They’re not perfect, but no vendor ever is. I’ve dealt with enough developers to know what to expect. I appreciate that IT Craft communicates properly, understands me, and cares about the project.

They’ve automated some of our work processes, so I’ve been able to save time and reallocate resources. I used to have somebody managing the route, and I don't need that position anymore. Every time a customer makes an order, it goes into an automated schedule since everything is done online. I really like the new system, and it works perfectly.

We have different settings. On the weekends, we can plan for lighter traffic than during a weekday. Our system is integrated via API with Google Maps and a company called Routific for the route synchronization. Everything is recorded online, so when the driver scans a bag, the item is recorded on the backend, indicating which driver scanned which item and at what time. We pretty much get to see everything, even though we’re not there.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

IT Craft is honest and straightforward. They’re a good partner to work with. I’ve spent a lot of time with them, and I've dealt with development companies extensively. With IT Craft, I can speak to my contact person every day. I used to Skype, instant message, and talk to him all day. I felt like he was part of our team because we would go back and forth. He offered great feedback based on our requests.

The whole team is skilled. They have a lot of people involved, from what I understand. The person I dealt with came to New York once or twice to meet us. I appreciated that level of normalcy in a programming company.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re professional and usually deliver on time. I don't know how programming works. All I know is I want a certain task done by this date. As they worked, I could see that everything was working and clicking together. As a consumer and an end user, that’s all I really care about. As far as the quality of their coding, I have no idea. All I know is they charge me exactly what they quote upfront and accomplish every requirement. Sometimes, they lose money, but they’re more careful with their quotes. They’re definitely reliable, which I appreciate. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a religious non-profit agency that has been around since 1901. We deliver digital material and information that has traditionally been delivered in print media. We use it for training in different countries around the world and for delivering those materials in different languages, depending on what the needs are.

As more people have access to technology, it becomes more important for us to move into more countries and languages using that medium. I’m the director of information systems. I’m also the publisher of a set of materials. I oversee all the activity and the development and publication distribution for those materials.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

We needed help with various development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the guys on one of the IT Craft development teams got a hold of the materials we use and created a simple HTML prototype as a vision and presented it to us. It was a good idea. From that, we started working with IT Craft. Everything was pretty much done from scratch.

The biggest project is a web-based app to convert and deliver printed material. We have a series of 63 booklets that cover different subjects that we train on. We’ve created a way to not only display those and deliver them, but to create a relationship management tool for training one-to-one and one-to-many. That’s been a two-year project so far. It’s developed to the point where we can use it to deliver other types of materials as well. It’s probably something that’s going to continue. We’re just now starting to get user feedback. As more of that comes in, it will drive the direction of the project in the future.

The interface and database not only contains the content of the app, but also stores any sort of interaction that happens between a trainer and a trainee, notes, questions, and the state of an assignment. We had to figure out how to make that happen without crashing.

The other significant part of this project is that the materials are now available in 40 different languages. We had to figure out how to create a system through which we could easily translate the content. Every bit of text in the web app has a tag or a reference number assigned to it. We had to figure out ways to import and export translated text and add other languages. That’s the most significant feature; it allows us to quickly convert the app to another language.

We have an IT consultant who acts as the interface between us, the managers of the project, and the developers working directly on it. He would know more about what platforms were used.

The second product is a one-page web service to replace a complex download system that existed on another website. We’ve consolidated it into a simpler product that creates a download log and gives users more flexibility in terms of the different languages and types of booklets that they can access.

The third project is a simple landing page that directs people to a couple projects and some audio and video files.

What is the team dynamic?

They started working on those projects with three different people on their team. As time goes on, some people get shifted around and some people leave. A couple of the guys have moved onto some other companies or immigrated to another country.

Currently, the developer on their end that’s been primarily involved with us picked up some tasks for the other two projects. We’re starting to see some significant back and forth in the development progress of those projects.

There’s another guy that works with them on other projects who has always challenged them to learn new things. We’re doing stuff with native script development and some new platforms, like GO. We’re always looking for ways to push the limit.

I’m not completely familiar with their structure. The people that I’ve worked with have been consistent. Any inconsistencies have been on our part, like when we request extra hours in a certain month. Sometimes as projects progress, there can be lulls, but on their part, it’s been consistent.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

IT Craft had a prior working relationship with one of the guys that directs information services here. As more opportunities became available for us to engage in development work, he started introducing IT Craft to the projects and the other people in our organization.

How much have you invested with them?

About $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2015 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There’s been a pretty big bump in usage in the past month. Part of that is because we added some people during a training event. We currently have about 500 users. About 50 of those are our Spanish-speaking users. We’ve started to roll it out to some of our main leaders and trainers in South American countries. We also have a small contingent (20-30 users) in India that’s using the app in Hindi. We’re planning to roll that out in a larger scale in the coming months.

The download page is up to about 150 users. These are primarily leaders and trainers of organizations that want access to the materials in order to use it for their ministries, churches, and conferences in different parts of the world. That scope is smaller, but the significance is that all the clicks are now on one page, whereas previously there was a cumbersome process by which they had to enter information and go to multiple pages thereafter.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

From the onset, we tried to fragment the requirements in a way that would show milestones along the way. We wanted to see how one thing built up to another, rather than handing over a list of things to do and telling them to make it happen. IT Craft is very responsive to our requirements, and our effort to specify those milestones increased their understanding of the projects.

I worked for a few years testing software for a company, and we didn’t have a system like that. We just had one big list of requirements. Fragmenting that out in a way that was easy to understand and taking small bites of it was much better. We’re mainly using Pivotal Tracker and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the differences for me was paying for an estimated number of hours per month in advance, and then comparing that with the actual hour report. It’s a different style than I was used to. It’s fine; it helps me think a little bit more in advance about what I anticipate.

Sometimes in a project, you don’t really know what to anticipate unless you’re doing a waterfall kind of development. In this project, we used key Agile processes to learn how to develop the solution as we went. That’s scary for a lot of people and they look at it as a black hole. For the vision that we had for the product, it worked very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Early on, one of the things that was a little difficult for us to figure out was the time difference. They’re eight hours ahead of us. Our window of overlapping worktimes is only very early morning. We’ve kind of worked through this. More recently, more of the guys there have been more flexible, and adjusted their hours so that we would have more of an opportunity for real time communication on things that we needed. That was a bit of a struggle initially, but it’s gotten better.

Do you have any tips for less experienced buyers?

For people who want to use developers in another culture, taking time to get some basic understanding about that culture is helpful. For us, that’s kind of normal because we work with people in a lot of different countries and many of us have lived overseas. It’s not hard for us, but for a company that doesn’t have people with that type of experience, that might be a bigger obstacle.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a bookstore with an existing but outdated website. I am the co-owner and have the full responsibility for this website project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

We wanted IT Craft to design and build a modern, mobile responsive website for us from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided a 50-page specification document for them to build in Magento. They designed and developed our website.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

We went through a tender process via Upwork.com. We had a shortlist of four companies that we had discussions with and checked references for.

How much have you invested with IT Craft?

We have invested $19,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They successfully completed the project slightly ahead of time. We are now working with them to make small improvements to the website that were outside of the initial specifications.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website was completed slightly ahead of time. I am the main internal stakeholder and I’m very pleased with IT Craft. They have a professional approach to project development and have been easy to deal with despite them being in Ukraine and myself in Australia. Our customers like the new website as well.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. They have their own very efficient project management software and they're always available on the phone or Skype if necessary.

What did you find most impressive about IT Craft?

They are very professional and they have excellent project management skills. They have a reasonable price and are speedy; items were addressed within 24 hours. IT Craft provided a realistic schedule at the beginning and ended up being a few days early.

Are there any areas IT Craft could improve?

Not really. I have had a number of unsatisfactory minor website projects through Upwork. However, IT Craft has been excellent throughout. I am still working with them on this website and would go to them with any new projects.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

We have built a micro-consultation marketplace which allows users to register, build profiles and start billed consultation calls. We handle everything from scheduling to invoicing between clients and experts. I'm the CEO and owner of the company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with IT CRAFT?

We had built a lower-quality prototype with another supplier and needed to expand upon it. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We gave IT CRAFT the existing work we had done. My team developed the final deployment processes and the data center invoicing functionalities; the rest of the technology was built by IT CRAFT based on our technical specifications. The main technology used by our platform is WebRTC.

We had very detailed requirements, but IT CRAFT challenged our previous work and took it to a completely new level. They were able to increase scalability by re-coding certain aspects deemed unnecessary or inefficient.

IT CRAFT built a solution that ensured that our video connection, which is based on a standard WebRTC setup, is much more stable and suitable to be used for permanent billings.

The size of IT CRAFT's team has varied from 5–9 people depending on the type of work being done. We interact with them through a project lead, but we always make sure that the whole team is present for our discussions, in order to ask them direct questions.

How did you come to work with IT CRAFT?

We went through an RFP process with companies in Eastern Europe. We gave the same project to three groups, and IT CRAFT delivered the best outcome.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with IT CRAFT in November 2016. We still need quite some time until we're done since we have a massive stack of technology to implement. We have no intention of canceling the collaboration with IT CRAFT; we've been very happy.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We went live 2-weeks ago and have participated in CeBIT, the largest computer fair in the world. With the smallest proof possible, we have created  50–70 very big leads who are highly interested in our platform. It's really based on what IT CRAFT has built in a short timeframe. We have gotten feedback from some of the largest clients in various industries, from publishing to agriculture. We have agreements in place that would not have been possible without IT CRAFT.

It would be difficult to provide metrics at this time, but we have increased our team, and continue to be happy with IT CRAFT.

How did IT CRAFT perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management is very well done. Their approach is clear and the lead on the project is both capable and committed, which is echoed by the team of subordinates. 

In the past, we have worked with Indian companies where there wasn't a cultural fit. Those scenarios can negatively impact the project outcome. In IT CRAFT's case, our cultures fit very well, with only some minor misunderstandings due to us not writing down everything in detail. These were all minor issues, nothing that would keep us from expanding IT CRAFT's team. They have delivered everything faster than we expected.

What distinguishes IT CRAFT from other providers?

I believe it's a part of IT CRAFT's slogan, namely that "the customer isn't always right". Their customer base appreciates that: you want a developer that can come up with a better solution. IT CRAFT can do this much better than other companies, who simply build what they are told to and don't question requests when it's necessary to.

Is there anything IT CRAFT could have improved or done differently?

I have been impressed by how fast IT CRAFT delivered our more complex features. I would have assumed that there would be off-the-shelf solutions available for our more standard functionalities though. I'm not sure how IT CRAFT is building them, but they have taken longer to complete than I would have expected, at times. in general, IT CRAFT is a transparent company, and I've liked working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I do business development at a company that provides passport, visa, and legalization services. We provide embassy consular services for different embassies, so people can expedite their travel visa application through us or process other legalization documents.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

Before we started working with IT Craft, we didn’t have an e-commerce website at all. We were looking for a new website from scratch for our website services. We had to host the website and build it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had the frontend done externally, so we had IT Craft build the backend, the admin panel, and things like that. The site has all visa countries on it. Users apply for their visa through the online platform, and then the embassy form would be completely filled in through the website and sent to the user. We send the user a checklist and the embassy form, and then they send us all the necessary documents so we can provide the visa application for them. We originally hired IT Craft for just the main website, but we’ve now expanded their work to include new features and services within the site, too. 

Their team consisted of Alina, who was running my project along with two team members, Sergei and Alexandra, who do the technical stuff. I mostly work with them. Then there’s Kate, who does finances for us.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

I posted the assignment on Elance and deliberated between a few companies. It was tied between a Canadian company and IT Craft. After speaking to IT Craft, I was really happy with the way they approached my project and the way they explained everything to me.

How much have you invested with IT Craft?

I think we’ve spent about $30,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since April 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before this, we didn’t have an online platform at all, so this is the first e-commerce service oriented platform that we can provide. That’s done a lot for our company.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

They use a tool called Redmine, which is an open-source project management tool. Our typical work arrangement consists of me drafting a document of the features and services that I need; they look at it and they provide me with feedback and questions. Then, fairly quickly after that, they provide me with an estimation of what it’s going to cost once they’re sure what my needs are. They usually deliver within an acceptable range of their original estimate, and almost no rework is needed, which is impressive. There’s some updating once the project is implemented, but that’s to be expected.

We also communicate through Skype and Slack, and they’re always really fast. That’s one of the reasons I like working with them. If I’m on Slack and there’s a real urgent question, Sergei or Alexandra will answer my question. If they’re not there, I can always bring the issue to Alina, and they’ll always make sure that there’s a timely answer.

What did you find most impressive about IT Craft?

They really provide excellent service for the price they offer. There’s no other company that I’ve worked with up until now that always exceeds my expectation. With most IT companies, it’s the other way around and you don’t get what you needed or what you expected. IT Craft always seems to go the extra mile.

Are there any areas IT Craft could improve?

Maybe they could improve on frontend implementation and visuals. They can do anything I ask them to, but if I have to get their opinion, their frontend suggestions could be a bit better. Sometimes I go to a different designer for frontend work done first and then show that to IT Craft so they can work on it further. It would be nice if I could get it all with one supplier.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the founder of a startup that developed a brand marketplace. Designers can offer unused brand concepts or specially researched and developed brands for sale to small and medium businesses. We’ve since sold it to another company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Craft?

I needed expertise in building everything from the front-end code to the backend development. We had made some high-fidelity mockups and wanted to make them a reality. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT Craft has been responsible for 95% of our development effort over the course of 4 years. The design was done by us in-house. IT Craft handled all the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript mock-ups. The site was built on a PHP platform created by IT Craft. We had a front-end system allowing users to upload designs, make edits, assign meta descriptions, and set their prices. We were able to review and approve uploads, notifying customers of their status. Users also had the ability to purchase domain names and logos sold by designers, distributing funds through PayPal or other platforms to our site.

How did you come to work with IT Craft?

I chose IT Craft because they had good ratings. We gave them a smaller project to start with.

How much have you invested with IT Craft?

Our initial contract had a price of $30,000, but the overall development was between $100,000 and $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with IT Craft in the beginning of 2008 and worked together until the company was sold in 2011. Since then, I've used IT Craft on separate smaller freelance projects. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we sold the company, the site had close to 50,000 users from 55+ countries. Our total sales were in excess of $1,000,000. Any downtime was always server-based and not related to IT Craft's code. We had no issues or complaints, and the site was able to scale.

How did IT Craft perform from a project management standpoint?

Because IT Craft is a remote service, we needed to be more hands-on than when working with in-house developers. I never ran into any management issues. In fact, we worked with several developers from IT Craft over the course of that period and always received the same results. Our main contact was always easy to work with and spot-on in terms of estimates. IT Craft understood our goals. Even though they usually didn't come up with the same solutions we were thinking of, that ended up being a good thing.

What did you find most impressive about IT Craft?

I was always impressed by IT Craft's ability to get things done when I didn't think it would be possible. As an example, an arm of our company involved custom design work. We had an idea for a visual feedback tool that would allow users and designers to make comments on images. It was built into our project management system and was a fairly new solution at the time. We discussed what it could entail with IT Craft and the team was able to put it together in 48 hours. IT Craft didn't seem to have any glaring holes in their ability to build features.

Are there any areas IT Craft could improve?

The biggest feedback point was IT Craft's QA, which needed to be more extensive than it would be for an in-house team. This is standard, given that we didn't work in the same room with IT Craft.

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

Clients need to make sure that their goals and product are as well-defined as possible. IT Craft is great at executing what the customer is trying to achieve. But as with any remote worker, going in with a wishy-washy goal will lead to lesser results.