IT DEV GROUP

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a design and development studio run by women of color.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT DEV GROUP?

We were trying to find someone to help us with quality design and project management. We had already onboarded a client with a really big project, and we needed extra hands to help us finish it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT DEV GROUP joined us as an extension of our team to help us with UI design for a web app. We provided them with a journey map, brand directions, and high-level wireframes to lay out the site’s look, feel, and aesthetic. We also gave them a brand kit with elements.

After that, they jumped in and handled the rest. We used Figma to build out the designs. To this day, we still work with them.

What is the team composition?

We work with Anastasia (Project Manager) and a designer.

How did you come to work with IT DEV GROUP?

Someone referred us to IT DEV GROUP. We reached out to them and set up an interview process. They offered a trial to see how we would work together, and we turned out to be a good match. We chose them because their quality standards were the same as ours, which we liked.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and the partnership is ongoing.

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

IT DEV GROUP delivers amazing-quality work, and they have a great team with solid talent.

How did IT DEV GROUP perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great — their project manager is amazing. For this project, we didn’t have to worry about much. They quickly resolved issues — there was hardly any downtime.  Anastasia took over and handled everything. It was the best experience I’ve ever had with a project manager.

We communicate using Slack and Zoom. IT DEV GROUP is super communicative and receptive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive aspect about IT DEV GROUP is the quality of their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s no downside to working with IT DEV GROUP. Overall, they’re good, and it has been a good experience. However, they could probably have more talent available. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Have a plan of what you want done. Also, make sure you communicate with them a lot and do check-ins to make sure everything is going right.

This project was probably different than that of their other clients because we’re also a studio. In that sense, we’re two studios joining forces to take on projects that are too much for us to handle. Instead of having to hire a whole team to do the work, we’re able to merge with them and trust their quality of work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a tech company.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT DEV GROUP?

We needed help with web development for a site that reviews trade credit.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a turnkey operation. We needed someone to do the design and graphic work along with front- and backend programming. The site was completely custom-built from scratch using JavaScript. They did a specifically notable job with the company database, which entailed linking companies to the site from Google’s API.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with a project manager on the work. He managed teams of QA specialists and programmers. We also worked with the designer.

How did you come to work with IT DEV GROUP?

I started working with the designer from their team, finding her on Upwork. She informed me about the company and her husband, who also works for them. I reached out to him and added him to the development.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $25,000–$30,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project spanned from July–December 2019. I plan on continuing to work with them in the future.

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

The site just recently lost, so we don’t have any KPIs active as of now. However, they delivered exactly what I wanted. We’re now in the process of marketing it and garnering reviews.

How did IT DEV GROUP perform from a project management standpoint?

We used email and Skype to communicate. They were very responsive. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The project manager was great, taking care of everything and communicating during off-hours. He brought excellent communication to the table. Throughout the project, he was ambitious about getting work done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. He did a good job. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try to get back to him quickly. He stays on top of the project, and you don’t want him to have to come to us multiple times for information.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an online platforms company that gets purchase and sale requests for luxury watches. We have a network of luxury watch retailers that we deal with, sending them requests we get from the customer side. Customers get multiple offers for the watch they’re looking to buy and sell so they get the best value.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT DEV GROUP?

We’ve been working with them since we had the vision for the company. They built our website and made our ideas come to life.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve been our dedicated web developer from the start. We had specific requirements we needed as a business that aren't possible to have on a one-size-fits-all website.

The customers come to the side and put through a request for a watch, which gets put into a pending state. This sends us an email notification and tells us to do certain things on the backend. The request is sent to retailer and returned with an offer. We can then track these offers based on price, images, and the retailer. Everything is integrated with our 3rd party CRM via an API, including our mailer.

How did you come to work with IT DEV GROUP?

I’d worked with them at another company where they were outsourced developers supporting an in-house team. Where other companies return your ideas all wrong, I was 99.9% confident that IT DEV GROUP would deliver exactly what we had in mind.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $62,000 USD so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since early 2017.

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

They’ve enabled us and given us the opportunity to succeed in this business. We haven’t felt overcharged, and they’ve always delivered. No one has ever had to come in and redo their work, which is fairly common in my experience.

Everything works how it should, and user feedback has been very good so far. We have improvements to make like any website or business, and you can never get to a perfect website, but they always deliver the perfect fixes. Even if we find an issue on a Friday night, they’re willing to stay late and fix it for us.

How did IT DEV GROUP perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had a main guy who acts as the overseer, but we’ve also had two project managers. We were worried when the first one told us they were leaving, but both of them have been very good. They’re obviously doing something right in their recruitment process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their execution is great, from IT to development. They understand us and our business, even if they didn’t have any idea about it beforehand. Whenever we have an idea for a new feature they deliver exactly what we see in our minds. Whereas, in other experiences, people have told me they can do something, but then the result is nothing like I thought it would be. IT DEV GROUP understands your ideas and bring them to life.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We currently get a monthly breakdown of the hours they’ve done, but we’d like to get it on a weekly basis.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend them and advise people to be clear in what they’re looking for. Sometimes, we just chuck ideas at them and they have to work out what needs to be done, but we should give them more details of the tasks.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Bitband, an app developer.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT DEV GROUP?

We needed an outside development team to implement our app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re our sole development partner. We create specifications and they do the development and any feature updates. We use PHP and multiple frameworks with server-side code. Our hosting is through Heroku and AWS.

What is the team composition?

They provide anywhere from one to four resources at any given time. We work with a project manager.

How did you come to work with IT DEV GROUP?

We found them on Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2017 and the engagement is ongoing.

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

I’ve been very happy with the quality of their work. Since they’re in Europe, they typically work overnight my time, which means I can raise issues with them and get a response by the following morning.

How did IT DEV GROUP perform from a project management standpoint?

We typically talk once a week or every couple of weeks. Otherwise, we communicate through Slack, as they’re part of our internal Slack channels. We use Asana for project management and keep a list of outstanding items. Our process has been fine-tuned by input from both sides.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provide high-quality work and they have a fast response time. They’re one of the top teams I’ve worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a reliable method of communication. Slack worked well for us.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founded in 2017 Alienbuild Ltd provides white label web and software development services. I am the owner of the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire IT DEV GROUP?

We were contracted by the UKs largest online and in store retailer and saw an opportunity to help improve their internal development processes and project management. IT Dev Group was bought into the project and played an integral part of the development and delivery of the solution.

What were your goals for this project?

Focus of the project was to deliver a custom prototyping system where other developers and content editors can prototype pages for the large ecommerce site. Roughly 1000+ pages are created every week and each one has to be developed, managed, edited and tested.

How did you select this vendor?

I have worked with IT Dev Group for the past 4 years on various projects. I initially hired them on behalf of another company via a freelancing website. They stood head and shoulders above the competition and I found myself continuing to return to them because of the excellent work quality and communication.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

IT Dev Group developed the project management system and it's custom manager page. In addition they also developed and helped out on a variety of functionalities including various custom manager pages, integration of Content Blocks into the ticket, trello API integration, site refresh statistic graphs, various media sources, commenting system, CRM, multi context setup and access control policies.

What was the team composition?

Various developers and two project managers were involved for the duration of the project.

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

This solution allowed the ecommerce giant to develop pages in a much more rapid and efficient way. Their current .net process was a slow and cumbersome way of working taking a full day to develop just one page. With this solution they were able to develop pages within 10 minutes, with no knowledge of coding needed. They were then able to pass pages around to various teams for approval and feedback with the use of the solution and make changes where needed without going through their entire manual process again.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was very impressive. Communication was mainly done via email and skype, which we had instant access to developers and project managers at all times during the project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their knowledge of PHP, particularly MODX content management system, is unparalleled.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I was more than happy with this project and all other projects completed for me by this company.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager for a company that’s developing a craftsmen IT tool. Our platform allows both administrators and on-site workers to register materials and work times.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT DEV GROUP?

About six months ago, we decided to relaunch our entire platform. We had great backend developers in-house but lacked the resources to do frontend work. As a result, we needed people who could understand our documentation and use it to develop the frontend; rather than just turning an image file into a website, we needed them to dive deeper into the code using more expansive technologies.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Since onboarding them, they’ve provided extensive frontend work, including writing and implementing code. We’re currently still working on launching the new platform, but we want to continue working with them for the foreseeable future.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with one of their full-stack developers; however, we're able to communicate with everyone involved with the project via Slack. This allows us to ask them questions one-on-one.

How did you come to work with IT DEV GROUP?

We originally posted an ad on UpWork. At the time, we didn’t have extensive experience hiring external developers, so we needed a vendor that could keep that in mind and navigate any ambiguities or pain points. Out of the numerous companies that approached us, we considered two companies, including IT DEV GROUP, and tested a few small tasks with them. IT DEV GROUP performed well on the trial and seemed like a good fit. They were really approachable, understood our requirements, and had all the skills that we were looking for. This helped develop the foundation for our partnership.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $25,000–$30,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work began in November 2017 and is ongoing.

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

The team's contributions have allowed us to focus on our own tasks without worrying about the frontend work. They also understand our objectives well enough to proactively provide recommendations. For example, if I have an idea that would take three weeks to implement but forgot that I had a conference in a few days, they would remind me of the time constraints and offer an alternative, faster solution.

Additionally, their team always gives good feedback. Because we haven’t worked with external developers much, we occasionally forget that external teams won't have an intimate knowledge of our product. As such, we’ve had a few issues describing certain tasks. Rather than moving forward blindly, they’ve been really good about reaching out to us for clarification, which has benefited us greatly.

How did IT DEV GROUP perform from a project management standpoint?

Their lead full-stack developer has done a great job at managing their team. While some developers understand our product and UX/UI vision better than others, they organize their team to their strengths. We work with the people who understand our project best and delegate smaller tasks to the others.

In terms of communication, we use Slack for day-to-day chats, inquiries, and jokes. It was important to me that IT DEV GROUP wasn’t just an external company. Rather, we wanted to know who their team members were and have a more personal relationship.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team is full of good people, and we’re able to communicate openly with everyone. The more time they spend with our product, the better they understand it. We gave them access to our previous system as well as screenshots of the new iteration. Initially, most of our documentation was in Danish, so they had no idea what they were working on. Both our teams and theirs have to communicate in a different language, which poses its own difficulties. Despite this, they’ve taken up the challenge and have even suggested new technologies for our product and ways to optimize our environment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

While we enjoy working with their developers, every now and then, one of them will go on vacation, and we’ll work with someone completely new. As a result, the code quality can suffer because they don’t have an in-depth understanding of our product and goals. We then have to revise a lot of the code, which takes time. We recognize that a person cannot learn everything in a week, but we do expect frontend experts to provide high-quality work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any external developer, do more documentation than you think you need.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

QQ Moving provides quotes for moving services.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT DEV GROUP?

I’ve been working in the industry for more than 3 years, and I’ve had issues crating files for dispatchers. I came up with an idea for improving the process, and started to do research and save money since online projects can be expensive. I noticed many of the alternatives were not satisfactory in terms of saving time for sales representatives to process information accurately and give it to the next party.

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT DEV GROUP built a lead generator for me to be able to process high quality files which can be transferred to a database. Users don’t need to enter every single item or piece of information from the emails generated by the QQ Moving website. Instead, they can simply double-click the information and proceed to the customer with just a couple clicks. 

There’s no need to spend 20-40 minutes with a single customer for a moving service just to get all the details. By making it possible to spend only 10 minutes on the phone, it allows us to show the customer that we’re professional and have the tools to make things right. This ultimately helps us expand our business. 

The platform will also feature professional advisors in the moving industry for customers to receive help from. Additionally, they will build a calculator that can be used as a separate mobile application by estimators onsite for gathering customer information.

IT DEV GROUP conducted research on their end on how the product could be expanded. We have talked about this, and there will be more projects coming up for a CRM and dispatching system that will all be connected together.

What is the team dynamic?

I was in contact with their SEO representative, a project manager, and another member of the company.

How did you come to work with IT DEV GROUP?

I received three quotes, which is the minimum amount for anyone looking to build a price list. I then spoke with representatives from different companies on multiple occasions to give them small design tasks. Some of the companies didn’t feel right because they promised a lot and told me not to worry about anything. This is a red flag for me as a sales representative. IT DEV GROUP didn’t talk about themselves this way, but they instead educated me about many things I didn’t know. Initially, I heard about them from a previous customer who had been satisfied with the company. 

I had no idea how many systems could be used to create good websites or CRMs. Creating an actual website or program requires more than one technology, and they actually expanded on my idea. We started talking like partners, and I didn’t feel that IT DEV GROUP was trying to sell me something, but rather standing alongside me to take my business closer to what I desired. 

Their quote was the highest, but I accepted it simply because of their process. They walked me through the reality of it all by explaining the best and worst-case scenarios, including how we had to launch the website and handle SEO.  

How much have you invested with them?

The initial estimate was $130,000, and I have paid $100,000 already. We’re almost there, and the last payment will be made by the end of this month when everything is finished. I am pretty sure this product will cost even more. The cost of the calculator app will be between $25,000-$30,000 for iOS and Android.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with IT DEV GROUP in June 2016. The website has been launched for a couple months already, but it’s not fully functional in terms of SEO. A year ago, they told me I would not be sticking to my original idea and would eventually want to make changes. I didn’t argue with them since I saw them as professionals, so we kept going to see the outcome. I eventually conducted more research and asked them for the changes they predicted. IT DEV GROUP was always willing to help make those changes. 

By the end of August 2017, I will be bringing 2 marketing people to the New York area. I’m still working with IT DEV GROUP part-time for testing, but right now, we’re in the moving season in the U.S., and I’m looking for more partners. The platform will be finished in 1.5-2 months, which will be exactly the time when I’ll be ready. It will be a good time for me to represent my product then. It will be a lead generator initially, but eventually, it will become more than that.

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

The platform is not 100% finished, and I haven’t onboarded clients. I’m the only one testing it at the moment, but I plan to provide the platform for free to 22 people in order to receive feedback. 

How did IT DEV GROUP perform from a project management standpoint?

From my understanding, the project manager is supposed to take information from me. This aspect went well with IT DEV GROUP, and I never had to worry about the programmers. I knew my emails would be replied to, and never had to wait more than 24 hours for an answer. Communication was done mostly through Skype, while other tasks were done by email and Trello. 

In 2016, I had a chance to speak to 3 people including a project manager, principal, and programmer. My PM knows what she’s doing. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

A large part of my decision to go with IT DEV GROUP was their experience. They didn’t just try to sell me a service, but tried to turn my idea into a real business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

IT DEV GROUP needs to set up an office in New York. I believe they’d have huge success in the U.S.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

DYMC, Inc. is the biggest supplier of doors and hardware in the U.S. We have a manufacturer in Europe, and here in New York we’ve got a distribution center and manufacturer as well. Most of our sales happen online. We also have wholesale, which is like Drop Ship Inc.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Dev Group?

The manufacturer has a very complicated production system which is hard to understand. Each individual order contains materials like a lacquer, veneer, wood, hinges, screws, and how much we need to buy for each order to process. We needed to integrate both the ordering and financial systems to make it happen, which are separately licensed and operated, plus Excel and QuickBooks. When we worked manually, we lost a lot of money due to human error.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s an algorithm, a system that has helped people place orders correctly. It helps us create the orders automatically and set them up in our production system. Human error during this process was costing us a lot. Now that the orders are automatically going through our production system and our financial department, we’re not seeing the same mistakes. There was also the problem of people placing orders on our old website, which wasn’t set up with this new system.

Now that everything is integrated and human steps have been removed from the process, customers can also log in and see their order status, what’s included in the order, and everything. There are no problems. Before, the customers would see our order through Excel, like a quotation, and then in QuickBooks, and then the whole document. I don’t know how IT Dev Group did this; it was very complicated.

The project was complete in May, and we fixed a few minor bugs after that. We’re not working together any longer, but maybe if we need to do something else, we will come to IT Dev Group again.

What is the team dynamic?

I’ve never been there, but our manager, Alex [Aleksandr Rudenko, CEO, IT Dev Group], told me we had around 30 people on the team. I was in contact with 2 different people. Both of them were very professional, as was Alex. I have a lot of varied experience working with different offshore companies; IT Dev Group is one of the best.

How did you come to work with IT Dev Group?

I have a guy who used to work with me, and he recommended them. I have 6 years in this market, in internet sales, so of course I have a lot of experience with other companies. There were so many companies we considered for this project. I can’t even tell you the number. We used to work with many companies, but this last half a year we’ve been working only with IT Dev Group.

We have some internal people that help us with coding and programming, but exclusively for special projects like advertising. In terms of full scope development, we always get the service outside of our own resources.

I had IT Dev Group try a small project for us, a calculator-like plugin to make a simple order, and they made it on time, which is kind of unusual. So, we decided to keep going with them. We agreed that they were pretty good and we liked them.

How much have you invested with them?

$15,000-$17,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them January 2017 until May 2017.

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

When we finished, we had some little bugs, which they fixed right away once we told them. People stay on the website more than they did before. Traffic has more than doubled (about 2.2x) as soon as we launched the new site. This could also be partially due to some new design things we did, but still, conversion has gone up.

Other companies in competition with us could probably replicate our project in a year or 2, but compared to these other suppliers, we have a production process nobody else has. I don’t see any companies who can even compete with us in the market at this point.

How did IT Dev Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through Trello. We used Yandex.ru, where you can send a link and they can see upcoming tasks with pictures. Unfortunately, because Ukraine and Russia had problems, the service was closed; we just changed to another one. That’s not IT Dev Group’s fault, but the government’s. We also used Skype to communicate, when we occasionally needed to actually speak with each other. Sometimes we’d send files via Skype as well. Everything was generally put through Trello, which was more convenient for us because we had already been using that application for a long time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We typically experience irresponsible vendors, but not with IT Dev Group. With other vendors, with projects big or small, we would have to increase our budget because they would never finish working on bugs. The only company who is still working with us to improve the finished product for no extra pay is IT Dev Group. That’s why I told them that if they need any feedback, I’ll be happy to help, because a company like them ought to be successful. I feel like I need to help.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If we could move their company to be here in the United States market, in order to have them closer, that would be the only improvement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are the largest representative for companies looking to sell their products to major e-commerce sites. I am the chief executive officer of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with IT DEV GROUP?

We had around 26,000 2-dimensional images that needed to have more depth and be converted into 3-dimensional ones. This was not only a large-scale task; it was also one that we had zero experience with, which forced us to find an alternative solution. That is where IT Dev Group came in. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT DEV GROUP has worked exclusively on converting our images from 2D to 3D formats. I interfaced directly with a manager from IT DEV GROUP's side. 

How did you come to work with IT DEV GROUP?

We found IT DEV GROUP through Outsourcely. The quotes we received from the 4 other groups we contacted were all over the place, with the highest one being $12,000. IT DEV GROUP understood our requirements and created software that could automate conversion process, instead of working on the images one by one, manually. That was specifically what we were asking for from the get-go. We had a similar price quote from another company but gave IT DEV GROUP the opportunity to match it, which they did. 

How much have you invested with IT DEV GROUP?

The total cost of our project with IT DEV GROUP was $650.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with IT DEV GROUP in October 2016. We had a 3-day initial discussion period, but the work itself only took 2 days to complete. Other companies told us that it would take 3 weeks.

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

IT DEV GROUP has performed brilliantly. Everyone who's looked at the site since the project's completion has been amazed. None of our 26,000 files were lost, and everything ran perfectly. 

How did IT DEV GROUP perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated and exchanged documents with IT DEV GROUP through Skype and email.

What did you find most impressive about IT DEV GROUP?

IT DEV GROUP actually listened to what we were asking for and got the scope right on the first try. With other agencies, it was as if we were sold a sedan when trying to buy a pickup truck.

Are there any areas IT DEV GROUP could improve?

No. IT DEV GROUP did a better job than we expected. Our manager from IT DEV GROUP is a big part of why the work went so well. Despite the fact that she's from Ukraine, her communication skills are perfect, which made everything easier.

Please describe your organization.

We're a hosting and telecoms business providing website hosting, domain registration, virtual dedicated servers, and telephony voice-over-IP, as well as other hosted voice products.

What is your position?

I am the managing director of the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with IT DEV GROUP?

We needed custom development work and website design. We needed to outsource the complete projects to a vendor because we didn’t want to incur the cost of having a full-time expert in-house.

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

IT DEV GROUP provided PHP and MySQL development for us, specifically customizations and designs using MODX, CMX, and WHMCS, which is used for our webhost-controlled billing system. They are in charge of our entire web development work.

They were one of a handful of companies that we've used over time, but they're the only ones we still use. This gives an idea of how happy we are with them. Unlike a number of other companies we've dealt with, IT DEV GROUP does what they're asked. They understand what's needed and complete tasks in the timescales they set with us.

How did you come to work with IT DEV GROUP?

We found them through Upwork, which was called Elance at the time.

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

The typical cost for their services is between $1,000-2,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing relationship.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We've used them for a number of projects during the last year and we're about to assign them another $1,000-2,000-worth of work. IT DEV GROUP has always delivered on time and they understand our projects.

How did IT DEV GROUP perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through Skype, without the use of any project management tools.

What distinguishes IT DEV GROUP from other providers?

They do what they say and they deliver on time, which is not necessarily true of many people with whom we've attempted hiring through Upwork. Other collaborators have either not been capable of delivering what they promised, or missed their deadlines. Most other companies took weeks longer than originally promised in order to deliver. This was not the case for IT DEV GROUP.

Any potential customer should take the time to discuss everything as much as possible beforehand. IT DEV GROUP tends to encourage this in any case.