Iyrix Technologies

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of a health-care company providing our clients healthcare analytics using mobile apps and smart devices based in San Diego, California USA.

For what projects/services did your company hire Iyrix Technologies, and what were your goals?

Our goal was to develop our top quality mobile applications for both iOS and Android platforms, and Iyrix Tech is developing iOS and Android apps for our healthcare company and providing us both frontend and backend development services to build our iOS and Android platforms. We transfer knowledge and requirements to the Iyrix Tech, and their team executes the app’s development.

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

We looked for many mobile development agencies, and found out Iyrix Tech to be very professional and one of top mobile app development agency. We contacted them to get the estimation for our project, and really liked their quote and portfolios. Our selection process was a bit long and time taking, but Iyrix Tech proved to be a very patient and expert agency in mobile development and helped us in deciding what’s best for us based on the true facts, so we decided to work with the Iyrix Tech for our mobile app development project. Iyrix Tech team discovered the platform's complexities, as well as the app's sophisticated and domain-specific nature. They then chose which technology to design and develop the solution. Following that, they collaborated with us to build a development and testing plan."

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

Iyrix Tech developed our iOS and Android app from scratch. They created all the designs, moqups and also the development of the API as well. We provided them with the logos, images, assets and the requirement specifications. Iyrix Tech provides daily-standups and weekly updates about our app development and it looks very professional and informative to us.

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

We are working with 3-4 dedicated developers and a project manager who manages all the work and deliverables. There is a Senior iOS Developer, a Senior Android Developer with a UI/UX engineer and a quality assurance engineer.

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

It's a complicated platform that's tailored to a certain healthcare industry. We presented and provided them access to the requirements and specifications. Their development team subsequently developed a comprehensive knowledge of the product's complexities, which astonished us. We’ve already spent about more than $120,000 on their development services, and are thinking of spending more on some complex features. We started our partnership in November 2020, and it’s ongoing. Up To now, 80% of the project work is finished, and we are in the testing phase and hopefully in the coming weeks, our apps will be completed.

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

We communicated through email sometimes, but primarily through Slack. We use a Slack channel to interact with the development team and the project manager. We used Slack to address any difficulties that arose on our or their end. Jira is also used for task tracking, and we have all the documentation on the confluence. Bitbucket is used for managing all the code.

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

I think we just only utilized a portion of their services. However, We are aware that they are also skilled in web development, cloud solutions and data analytics. We have been so satisfied with them that we intend to use their other services in the future. They manage the project development, which allows us to think deeper into ideas and see them come to life. This is really important for us, as we see our new ideas to be implemented. We believe the final result of the applications is going to be a pixel perfect solution of our ideas and requirements.

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

I think overall development has been really great and top-notch, we are very happy with them and from the beginning trusted them they will deliver the solutions as we have expected. One thing could have been done better, is that we could have more face-to-face meetings but we believe due to the covid-19 situation that was not possible, so we had mostly meetings on video calls. In short, Iyrix Tech is able to work with the strict guidelines and rules.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a very small organization that focuses on technology consultancy and gamification solutions for the e-learning industry in Spain.

What challenge were you trying to address with Iyrix Tech?

We needed help with software development for our technology company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Iyrix Tech (Iyrix) has delivered some of the software pieces that we typically use as part of our products. We've split the project into parts, and we've given them that responsibility.

They use PHP, MySQL databases, and GitHub. We have some other platforms that we use in order to manage the demand in general. It’s quite simple because we use Amazon in order to do the deliverables, but that responsibility falls on our side. They develop the software based on PHP, and we deploy the solution as part of our software pieces. Most of the time, the QA process is part of our activity, so we’re responsible for it.

What is the team composition?

There are between 2–3 people working full-time on the project. We have one key contact person, and we work directly with some of the programmers as well, but it depends on the topic.

I manage the local resources from Iyrix in a time and material model. It’s not a software evaluation and software assessment for one specific group of deliverables; in this case, it’s much more of a continuous effort of a number of resources that we hired on an ongoing basis almost two years ago.

How did you come to work with Iyrix Tech?

I got in touch with them. We came to an agreement to manage local resources as part of our organization in order to deliver the software components.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2019, and we’re still working together.

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

I must say that there has been a significant transformation and improvement in the software component delivered by the Iyrix team.

Typically with software vendors, you always have a period of time to bring the team to their best performance, in kind of a ramp-up process. At the beginning, I was working with a fresh team, and it was a little bit complicated. The time to market wasn’t that good and not all the quality aspects were well managed. The team has been improving the quality and time taken to deliver; their performance is better.

Also, they have plenty of flexibility to learn new software abilities, programming systems, and packages. I feel much more comfortable now working with the team because it’s much more flexible, and I can engage them in many other things. I think we have a very good structure now, and we can deliver many different products.

How did Iyrix Tech perform from a project management standpoint?

Typically, I don’t have much time for project management because our final customers aren’t really interested in those kinds of methodologies.

We use Trello as a key tool in order to handle requirements. I collect the demand directly from the end customer, and I source part of that demand to Iyrix. I explain to them what to do and how to do it on the Trello platform, where they provide feedback as well. We communicate daily with them, and they feel like part of our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I know that we could get better resources, but it would be much more expensive in the local market. However, over the last few months, we have felt comfortable with the relation between cost and quality. Before that, it was more of an investment; we would ramp up the team in order to get the right quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As part of the delivery process, I define the demand and manage the architecture, but I think that they could help with that as well. They could understand the challenge or real purpose of the project and design the solution, instead of only doing the deliverables when the software is properly specified.

Also, when needed, they could be in touch with the final customers. This is something that we have to do directly because Iyrix can’t interact with the local end customers due to language constraints. It's quite difficult to be in touch with the end customer in Spain when you only speak English. It’s a real issue because I have to spend a significant amount of time bringing the demand into something that the Iryix team can understand. Since I’m very detailed, I’m doing a significant part of the delivery process by doing that. We have discussed it, and they have it in mind, but it isn’t that easy to bring people on board in the local market.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I could look for some alternative vendors in Spain, but if you start working with other vendors, you have to invest a period of time in order to bring the people up to the level you need. This isn’t easy to handle because it’s a waste of time.

Managing many different vendors isn’t easy either, so we have some alternative solutions, but we only use them when we don’t have the right level of capability from their organization. For most companies in the software industry, it’s quite difficult to bring people on board with the right level of knowledge, know-how, and expertise who could also be very productive in the short term.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Bestplant, is a specialized company on change management support for Industrial Transformation projects and the development of digital solutions 4.0

Our working methodology is focused on the initial analysis of opportunities for competitive improvements in production plants and the definition of a Comprehensive Plan for Continuous Improvement. We have a suite of applications ranging from the definition of manufacturing processes, collection and treatment of plant signals, real-time piloting of production, quality and maintenance, and monitoring of the deployment of improvement plans.

For what projects/services did your company hire Iyrix Tech, and what were your goals?

Support our organization on a major transition to a new User Platform considering the latest developmnet tools and new I4.0 technologies.

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

We select through LinkedIn and the criteria was base on technological knowledge, methodology and cost.

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

it was an initial phase of explaining the need from our side, and they start produicing a muck-up and more detail specifications. The developmnet team started their work inmediatly after this initial phase. We are expecting to have a first solid version after 14-16 month of work and them we are going to extend and additional period of 8 month to finish all related applications, test and user documentation.

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

4 persons are involved, 3 are developing and 1 is specifying and managing the team

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

We still on an early stage to assess final results, but the projects follows at the right speed, as initially planned.

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

We are having regular meetings every week with the project review, progress done and issues to resolve. All is documented and we have a regular follow-up using Jira tools. In paralel we are having management meetings to further discuss progress and we openly manage all related issues. Very open spirit and right collaboration with all team

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

Openess to changes, flexibility. They are considered as an extended part of our organization.

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

Frankly, I believe it was the right decision and I am sure the results will be there soon, at the right quality/cost.