ITRex Group

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a social justice startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ITRex Group?

We hired the ITRex Group to complete a business analysis and customer software scope.

What were your goals for this project?

Develop a user-friendly mobile app to stream video, send text and emails, establish a GPS location audit trail, and tie into a back-end admin panel, customer service center, and stripe billing system — all on a budget.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I completed a formal RFP and selected ITRex Group after consulting with several onshore and offshore custom software shops in the US, India, Argentina, and former Soviet Union countries.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

An excellent business analysis case to help develop an MVP for launch and custom software solution from soup-to-nuts.

What was the team composition?

I managed the product for my company. A mentor provided technical assistance and insight. ITRex Group provided project management, all coding, QC, and testing, and launch support and coordination with all third-party services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product has scaled well from zero to several hundred users with very few bugs, none significant. I have been very pleased. I'm raising a seed round on the strength of our launch.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was excellent. My project manager went above and beyond the call of duty.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I have managed technical projects for larger organizations in my professional life and rarely have I been satisfied. ITRex Group came in on budget and in a reasonable time frame given our challenges in the process. ITRex Group has a sincere investment in my success that goes beyond our business relationship.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I feel very comfortable airing concerns as they arise and we have quickly settled differences and concerns in a true win-win fashion.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of a company that buys cars from people.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITRex Group?

Our website was essentially a prototype, so we wanted to take it to the next level. We were looking for a company to review the code for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our website is built in WordPress and has a lot of custom PHP and Java, so ITRex Group reviewed all the code and let us know if there were any gaps or errors. Then, they provided their suggestions on how to rebuild the site. It was a very collaborative process, so we had a lot of back and forth communication.

What is the team composition?

I worked with their owner, a project manager, a sales person, and an IT specialist.

How did you come to work with ITRex Group?

They had good reviews on Clutch, an impressive portfolio, and previous experience in the automotive industry. Also, I liked the fact they're from Belarus, so I gave them a chance.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between September–October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We found their feedback and analysis of all the technology very valuable. Based on their recommendations, we'll need to rebuild the website from scratch. We were happy with their work.

How did ITRex Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very responsive and delivered everything on time. They're great communicators and were willing to work with our schedule despite the difference in a time zone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very thorough and detailed. They invested their time in developing the recommendations that would work best for our company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I was happy with everything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate clearly to them what you want to accomplish.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder and CEO of CRERAYS. We’re a cloud-based platform designed to facilitate leasing for commercial real estate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ITRex Group?

I approached them to design and develop the entire website and cloud platform from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

I wanted to have a fully functional site and communication tool, which, to the best of my knowledge, was the first of its kind in our industry.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I received recommendations for several companies and vetted them. After interviewing the principals at ITRex Group, I found them to be the most honest and intuitive. It was easy to get along with them.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

I provided information regarding my vision and concept for the site. After explaining my requirements, they designed and developed the platform, integrating all of the requested communication tools. They're currently in a support and maintenance role.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a senior project manager, a project manager, and associate developers. I worked directly with the senior project manager and project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Because our business is completely web-based, we needed a functioning site to be viable. The platform works as expected and now boasts a thriving user base. We've helped lease over 20 million square feet so far.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was great. They were easy to communicate with, and we had scheduled chats on Skype. They were also extremely responsive to my emails.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were conscientious and kept to the established schedule and budget.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

In terms of the development, they couldn’t have done better. However, since they’re a foreign company, it was a little inconvenient to submit payment via wire transfer. It’s not a huge hurdle, but I would’ve appreciated an easier payment mechanism, even to a U.S.-based bank.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal architect at an IT consulting company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITRex Group?

During crunch time, we need additional software developers to help our in-house team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They help us with various projects, including frontend and mobile development. We’ve used Java and .NET.

What is the team composition?

Yury (Co-founder, ITRex Group) is my point of contact. We don’t engage their project managers, as we only ask them to provide software developers.

How did you come to work with ITRex Group?

I had a personal relationship with Yury, whom I’ve known for the past 20 years.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent between $250K-$500K on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the summer of 2013, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve helped us deliver our projects on time, including those that had to be completed within two months.

How did ITRex Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve delivered within the dedicated time frame and budget. We communicate via email and Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are our preferred vendor for software development because of their quality and price.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of PotentiaMetrics, an advanced healthcare analytics company. I oversee all technology and software development. We deliver actionable insights to our customers that improve patient outcomes, accelerate contribution margins, and decrease healthcare spending.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ITRex Group?

We primarily hired them to assist with the development of our patient reported outcomes data gathering tool called MyPROSE. We also needed assistance with our infrastructure and database work.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to move the tool from v2.0 to v4.0 and implement critical new features desired by our customers and sales team.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I had a previously-existing relationship with ITRexGroup, having worked with them on other projects. They are a trusted partner for offshore development and testing expertise.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

ITRex Group developed custom software development using PHP and JS. They provided infrastructure support through Amazon Web Services (AWS). They also performed database analysis using SQL Server, MySQL, and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). 

What was the team composition?

We mostly worked with a single developer but had additional resources for database work depending on our need.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

MyPROSE was one of our flagship products, and ITRexGroup was instrumental in moving us forward to the latest part of our product roadmap. Their code was readable and well documented. We are exceptionally pleased with their work and the results of this project.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

This project was critical for our small company, so I directly managed ITRexGroup development resources. They worked quickly and updated us frequently. Their developers and company leaders were universally available. They went out of their way to make sure I have what I need. From our perspective, the whole process was extremely effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

ITRexGroup developers were experts in their trade. They knew their stuff and learned new skills quickly. They listened closely to our feedback and worked hard to understand our requirements. They even improved their English language skills to better communicate with us. They were thorough and pushed back on bad decisions. I loved working with these guys.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re in the mobile sweepstakes space, gamifying the sweepstakes experience by providing our audience with daily lotto and scratch cards to play and win real cash and prizes. I’m the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITRex?

We approached them because we were looking to quickly develop our product. They had the resources available and provided us with the opportunity to quickly grow our team offshore and move fast. We had in-house developers but needed additional developers to augment our internal team. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped develop our mobile app for Android and iOS. We started off on the Android app and they did really well. We decided to bring on some additional iOS developers, as well as additional backend engineers. From there, we brought in a QA [quality assurance] and a project manager. It’s been a great relationship. We even recently went and visited the team in person. 

What is the team composition?

It’s ranged from 5–10 people on the team. There are mobile developers, backend developers, project management, and QA resources.

How did you come to work with ITRex?

We found them through a friend in Los Angeles. We selected them because we saw their previous work and they made it really easy to communicate. We trusted them early on and built the collaboration from there. We tried another developer but they weren’t as professional and they didn’t build good technology at all. That’s why we decided to move to ITRex.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2016 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the code is solid.

How did ITRex perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job at hitting our goals and meeting deadlines. We use Jira to manage the tasks and the project and they assigned a project manager to us. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re great communicators. Their communications are always very detailed. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more in tune with the top technologies to work with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Happenly is a location-sharing social network that allows you to see what's happening nearby and see your friends in real time on a live map. Users can interact with their surroundings, purchase tickets, order Uber or other services, and use Yelp, all within our app. It's a product of Liveseen Inc., of which I'm the CEO and co-founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITRex Group?

We couldn't find a solid coder to take on the complexities and the sophistication of our software. ITRex showed us that they could be sufficient and provide us with high-quality work at a reasonable price.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They've taken our project from A to Z. They took our previous wireframe, stripped down the old code, and rewrote it from scratch. They also helped us with design work. The backend work is done here by our CTO, who is a local engineer. They built us an iOS application, and they've told us that they can provide support to transfer over to Android once they're ready.

In Happenly, the user interacts with other users and posts from places such as businesses, restaurants, and live events. They can order Uber, who is our partner, and interact with their friends in real time. We have a private live chat feature for group chats or one-on-one. We have plans to include event ticket and merchandise purchases.

What is the team dynamic?

We have 3 people involved with the project: the project manager, who is U.S.-based and the front person for the company; the project manager lead, who is in Ukraine where they're working; and our lead coder, who is the most important person in this project because he does all the work. We're in constant communication and contact with him.

How did you come to work with ITRex Group?

There was a good list of companies we were considering, as there are many that provide this type of service. ITRex immediately understood our technology and showed that they were capable of handling this type of project without hesitation. They understood it, were available, and were able to communicate not only with us but our CTO as well for the backend, and that synergy was important.

How much have you invested with them?

I've spent around $25,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since August 2016. We're very happy and satisfied with their work. They're going to handle some updates that we want to push.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to validate exactly what we wanted to do by getting the app approved by Apple, and now we're in the App Store. Users are coming on board, and once able to use it and know what to do, they start to use the app for what it does. All these are positives, validation points. From that, we're going to move on and build up from where we started.

How did ITRex Group perform from a project management standpoint?

The time difference hasn't been an issue or roadblock in any way because they're very attentive, always readily available to us via Skype, phone, or email. They are hands-on, efficient, and get a lot of work done in little time.

They also don't waste time. They get back to us not only when it's pressing, but when we have general questions, they respond within the hour, which we like.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their quality of work, attention to detail, and level of their skills are unparalleled and unmatched. The work they've provided so far, regarding engineering and coding, is superb.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They've hit the nail on the head with every problem we've had. My only issue with them is they like to get paid up front. But based on the work they've provided and its quality, we don't mind because they're consistent and provide exactly what we anticipated or requested.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them: the process, their skills, and experience. Give them a shot. We've been through many bad engineers and teams that were not responsive or skilled enough, and ITRex, for what they charge and the work they provide, is a win-win. Don't hesitate, but go all the way because they've proven themselves time and again.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and head of product at Showgo. We're no longer operating, but our app let users chat about  TVs they’re watching, and all comments were timed to episodes to prevent spoilers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITRex Group?

Having never built an app, we needed iOS and Android versions developed from the ground up.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We spent 3–4 months building the MVP, which was sufficient for iOS and met our standards. We then started development work on an hourly basis after iterating a version with ITRex that was created by a different designer.

Showgo recreates the excitement of live-tweeting a TV show, even when watching a recorded episode at a later date. The app features a sync button, akin to Shazam, that “listens” to an episode. After identifying the episode, it provides timed details about exact moments and shows corresponding comments from other users.

The most challenging facet of development was the syncing mechanism, which worked with Gracenote, our audio fingerprinting vendor. Getting the app to listen to, identify, time, and attribute comments to a show was a very technically involved step.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with a 6–7 member development team. We started with a project manager, a backend engineer, frontend engineers for both iOS and Android, and 1–2 QA's. As our project expanded, we eventually brought on a second project manager.

How did you come to work with ITRex Group?

A friend in L.A.’s entrepreneurship community suggested hiring ITRex Group for development.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid them about $175,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project lasted a year and a half, from November 2015 to June 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I measured success based on their ability to adhere to the majority of tickets and sprint in our region, and regularly put out new releases. Since I’m not an engineer, it was difficult to assess the quality of their work. I focused mainly on the app’s usability, and occasionally sought the opinion of a consultant.  

User feedback is overwhelmingly positive, especially through social channels like Twitter. Active users gave four- to five-star ratings on the App Store and Google Play. The app was  featured in Entertainment Weekly, and won a $15,000 contest for USC entrepreneurs.

How did ITRex Group perform from a project management standpoint?

In the beginning, they were regimented and organized, but we experienced some difficulty as time went on. I notified them whenever I felt the project was getting derailed, changing hands too often, or the sprints weren't being adhered to. In response, they would do everything in their power to continue functioning at a high level. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team was very efficient and effective, and their ability to observe Scrum was admirable. Their greatest strength is educating customers who have no experience developing an app. Their greatest strength is their patience to educate someone who've never developed an app before. They had the patience to teach me how to write things I’d never endeavored, like tickets and detailed technical specs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I've had occasional reservations about their rate of progress. To their credit, they mitigated this problem by assigning a new project manager to the team. 

Advice for potential customers?

It would be helpful to have a manager exclusively devoted to product. I struggled with this task, because my attention was spread thin. As difficult as it can be to independently lead a team of eight developers, it’s critical to consistently move forward with them all. If not, they’ll need to seek other contracts, and you’ll lose them. Another suggestion is limiting the scope of work. This is advice applies to everyone not exclusively for ITREX. You can’t expect things to progress smoothly without a flexible team that’s capable of supporting the desired features.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a mobile application that lets motorists to pay for parking.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ITRex?

We needed a more hands-on deck and a new version of the application. It’s a mobile web, back-end dashboards, and API integration.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were taking over the entire work of the product. We signed on a new client; they would implement the technology needed to make sure that they’re good to go. We finalized everything, but they would do a mock up design, new mobile applications, new backend portals, one API integration and make some new developments for the system in whole. Now they are just support. It was a whole new application, available for iOS and Android.

We worked with a project manager, a QA, an iOS and Android developer and a back-end developer. Version 1 that we had was basic, version 2 that we created was pretty complex. We had a vision, and they implemented it, but definitely it was no walk in the park.

How did you come to work with ITRex?

I was referred to them from someone else that used their services. We looked but trusted more a referral than trying to find it on my own.

How much have you invested with ITRex?

We spent more than $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s being a long time, not sure about the date. It started on 2015, but they still do the maintenance and support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I think it’s over the 99% reliability, which is huge for mobile applications. For our market, we had most five-star reviews on the app store, can’t remember exactly how many, but it was pretty significant.

The difference between the first version of the application was huge. The interface, the functionality, the way we communicated with the (06:57 inaudible), our integrations, pretty much everything was new.

How did ITRex perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really good; they even took phone calls with our clients. The communication was streamlined through one person. The time change is difficult to overcome, but they were very good regarding scheduling.

What did you find most impressive about ITRex?

In the world of looking for outsource development, it’s pretty difficult to find people you know and trust, and I would totally use these guys again.

Are there any areas ITRex could improve?

Not really. The only issue we had was time difference, but you are going to get that anywhere.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is in the healthcare industry with a focus on hygienics. We monitor the hand washing of hospital staff to ensure that their hospitals are compliant with all required cleanliness and hygienic standards and procedures. We have many mobile and remote devices and those communicate with each other and then collect that information back into the cloud. Then, we analyze that information and provide data, graphs and so forth on that hospital's performance. I am our company's chief technology officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with the ITRex Group?

We needed a couple of developers to build out different parts of our platform and our Android app. We needed developers who could work on a flexible schedule right away. We have many different components, so we needed someone to do a bit of Android work, some JavaScript work and some work on both the front-ends and back-ends of our platform. These tasks change a bit from time to time, so we hoped to get a pool of people who could switch from one specialty to another. We're too small to hire a dedicated person for each goal, so we thought outsourcing would be the best way to go.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Although they have offshore developers in Belarus and Ukraine, I mainly worked with the team and team leader here in Santa Monica. They set up all the contacts for us, and we can reach them via Slack, create tickets and set them up with GitHub. They have made it easy to reach them. They handle weekly reports and billing – all those issues. We worked with four main developers and another one who did a bit of technical work and some management.

One of the big benefits of working with the ITRex Group is that they make sure the right work is being done at the right time by the right people. They bridge the gap between the fact that we're here and their developers are offshore. We still want to be able to get quality work and have some assurance that things are going to work out.

I think that's the biggest value, knowing you can hire the people we need. This is much better than finding individual people directly on Elance [now Upwork] and not knowing if the project is going to be outsourced again, if they're committed to it or what the quality of the work is that they will do.

How did you come to work with the ITRex Group?

I've worked with them previously. When I started as CTO, we needed some developers. We considered getting someone local, but then decided to try outsourcing since it's obviously a less-expensive solution. We figured we'd give it a try and see how it goes. Right now, I think we have three or four people working for us, and it only costs roughly what one and a half or two people would cost here.

How much have you invested with the ITRex Group?

We've spent about $10,000 a month for three or four months.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have the ability to hire a developer full time and, at the end of the month, they bill us. They could work overtime, of course, but we tell them to work 40 hours a week and stop after that. They're available for more hours, but we figured people are more productive when you work only 40.

We don't have an end date. We're just trying to build an entire product. If anything, I think we have greater ambitions to keep building. The more we build, the more we think of what we can build. I think an end date may be when we get big enough that it makes sense to get a couple of local people. Maybe at that time, we would need to scale back how many people we have remotely. I don't really foresee us having to scale that back down to zero, especially because they have a couple of people that are dedicated to us, and they keep on working on the same pieces over and over again, so they know those pieces well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They're very proactive about closing tickets. Even if I need to have a conversation on Skype or over the phone, they're very good about taking the task I describe verbally, creating a ticket from my description and tracking the progress. It is very easy to see what's being done, and that's quite nice.

In one case, we had a developer who didn't work out. ITRex quickly took care of that and did a good job. They gave us some free time to make up for that problem, so everything worked out for the best. That sounds like a negative, but I think the way the problem was handled worked out well. That's exactly the kind of problem that mitigates any issues working with someone remote.

That's probably the biggest selling point – knowing that when you hire them, you're actually going to get something valuable. You can use the deliverables and not be stuck with something that doesn't give you anything.

How did the ITRex Group perform from a project management standpoint?

In some cases, they'll do the project management. They'll be more hands-on, create tickets and manage details. In our case, we do the project management ourselves because we know what we want. We're involved in creating our tickets and breaking everything down. We don't use them much in terms of their project management. I think we only talk to the management side if we have an issue. We try to minimize that as much as possible.

What did you find most impressive about the ITRex Group?

I think it's the accountability. I've worked in other companies where we've had a consultant come in and do work for us, the work was generally quite bad but there was no accountability for the code quality. We never knew who was doing the work. We never had any contact with the individuals doing the work, and it was all run through a couple of layers. We'd wish we could just talk to the developers and actually communicate with them, get them to understand what we're asking for. We would just end up with something we didn't want and have to rewrite 80 percent of the code anyway. Those were poor experiences.

I think the difference here is we can talk directly to the developers, have daily Skype calls, have them on Slack, communicate with them, and create tickets. It's like working with an individual we know. They just happen to be somewhere else. I think that's why it works. We can keep talking to that person. That person can learn about our business and what we're trying to build. I think that's the only reason it does work. In general, this kind of thing is difficult to pull off successfully.

Are there any areas the ITRex Group could improve?

I think the organization in Belarus isn't quite as accountable or responsive to issues as the group here is. My review is about our group and how they are doing business here. I think they have a sister company in Belarus, and they are a little bit less helpful responding to things. If it came down to just them being over there and us not having any kind of local support, I don't think we'd be able to make it work. It's good enough because they have the team leader here, and that's what makes it work. When we did have that one issue with the developer, Belarus wasn't especially helpful until he actually stepped in and fixed the problem for us.