JazzServe

Introduce your business and what you do there?

I’m the head of studies at iKnow, an English school.

What challenge were you trying to address with JazzServe?

We were looking for someone to help us create a platform because we didn’t have internal technical resources.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We explained our vision to JazzServe, and they provided us with full-stack development services to create our platform. It was initially built as a tool for one-on-one video calls to improve teacher-student interaction, but they’re currently working to create a group video call capability.

What is the team composition?

Eugene (CEO) is our main point of contact, but their team consists of six people.

How did you come to work with JazzServe?

We interviewed several companies and felt the most comfortable with JazzServe. We thought that they were the right fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

JazzServe has made our ideas come to life. Before working with them, we didn’t have students, but we now have 100. Additionally, we’re extremely comfortable with our partnership, and we haven’t had any problems so far.

How did JazzServe perform from a project management standpoint?

JazzServe is extremely responsive to tasks, as well as to any issues that need to be fixed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

JazzServe is reliable in every way. They’ve provided us with good results, unlike other companies that we’ve hired in the past.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a great company to work with, especially for clients who don’t know how to perform technical tasks.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of server engineering for Percona, a database platform. I’m in charge of cloud development. We provide services and support across databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB.

What challenge were you trying to address with JazzServe?

We had some extra work, so we decided to use an external company to help with these tasks.

What was the scope of their involvement?

While we have our own staff that works on similar tasks, we didn’t have enough people to support us in-house. Hiring is a bit problematic in the COVID-19 world, so we decided to use JazzServe to help us.

We gave them three independent tasks about the engineering of Kubernetes operators. We have operators that serve as plugins for Kubernetes that help run the databases. For those operators, we asked them to add three different features. We also needed to run additional Docker containers with the main container.

The second task involved embedding point-in-time recovery for MongoDB operators. We have another tool that needed to be integrated within the Kubernetes operator. Their team performed custom software development, writing code to make sure everything worked correctly. We provided them with additional details, and they added additional code to make it more robust.

The third project involved the prevention of unsafe behavior. We had some things which allow or disallow unsafe behavior of Kubernetes operator, and we asked JazzServe to make it smarter.

What is the team composition?

We spoke with the CEO at first. After that, he delegated the work to the lead developer. He mentored two others that worked on our project.

How did you come to work with JazzServe?

JazzServe emailed one of our executives saying that they could help. After a call with them, we provided them with a product requirements document. They asked the right questions to understand the task better and then provided us with an estimate for each task.

How much have you invested with them?

For this main task, it was $3,600.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started mid-February 2021 for the point-in-time recovery task, and it was completed in April 2021.

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

We had good input and output. We have internal developers and QA. Their proactive team asked the right questions. When we did a code review from our side, everything was good.

How did JazzServe perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was fine from a project management standpoint. We have no issues with communication; it was clear how long everything would take and what the expectations were.

To prevent unclear technical information, we used Zoom and a shared Slack channel.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their input and output ratio. Sometimes there can be too much communication in a project, but with JazzServe, the output was as expected.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I really recommend JazzServe.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of the IT department at Alpen Pharma Group which is a pharmaceutical company.

What challenge were you trying to address with JazzServe?

We needed a partner to help with the development of internal software and updating our old CRM.

What was the scope of their involvement?

JazzServe started the engagement by updating our CRM. Their team then switched to focus on the development of our budgeting system. It was a financial project.

After building the system, they helped develop software for product management, logistics, analytics, and marketing. It’s like an ERP. While our users see a web page with services, our teams see front- and backend tech stacks. To build it, they used Golang and PostgreSQL. Their team provided complete development and deployment services. Their team still provides updates and maintains the software.

What is the team composition?

Ihor (Team Lead) manages the project and works on analytics. We also work with Eugene (CEO) on any finance or project status questions. Another member of their team works on our project too.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent €150,000 (approximately $178,000 USD) on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2016, and it’s an ongoing partnership.

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

They’re responsive. If we have any questions or issues, their team responds within an hour. We usually don’t have to wait more than one day for a response.

We don’t track any analytics. Rather, we base the success of the engagement on their support and the tasks assigned to them. The quality of their work’s good, so we rarely have any issues. While more than 90% of their work’s fine, the other 10% may have bugs. However, JazzServe fixes them free of charge because we have an agreement.

How did JazzServe perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through their analytics platform where we either accept or decline tasks. That’s the formal method of communication through which we work. I like the process we have with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work and their price are great. JazzServe is very responsive to any issues, getting back to us quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although there aren’t critical issues, they could improve the quality of 10% of their code.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a written form with tasks to be realized and delivered to you. Describe all of the project’s details before JazzServe starts their work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a financial platform. Our initial goal was to stabilize a global currency, dealing mainly with central banks.

What challenge were you trying to address with JazzServe?

I was looking for a vendor to do some coding to change my existing product from a centralized database to a distributed ledger.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had a working prototype, including an Android application. I wanted to replace two-thirds of the original product with a new code to move it from a centralized database to a distributed ledger. Instead of running on a proprietary server, the payment service would move to Stellar, a DOT product. This would enable consumers to transact in a stable, low volatility currency, the antithesis of cryptocurrency.

JazzServe built the first prototype within a few months. From there, it evolved as they tried to build a better user interface. Eventually, it became a web app. The original product was written in Ruby and native Android. They wrote the new product in Go.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Eugene (CEO), a project manager, and coders.

How did you come to work with JazzServe?

They were recommended by my friend who had used their services. We had several in-person meetings to discuss my concepts for the project before deciding to work together.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April 2017–January 2019.

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

The project was put on hold due to a lack of product-market sense. The collaboration was a good fit, and I enjoyed working with JazzServe. I was happy with the quality of the web app. On the server-side, I observed interaction with the external APIs, and it was solid work regarding reliability and response rates, etc.

How did JazzServe perform from a project management standpoint?

Our dedicated project manager did great with scheduling as well as keeping track of schedules and deliverables. They were quite responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

JazzServe was approachable and proactive in suggesting solutions they felt would be a good fit. They understood that I’m not a coder and therefore didn’t know the intricacies of what should be in a new product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As they grow, I hope they’ll maintain the close-knit community feel.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give a broad helicopter view of the project to help them understand the entire scope and goal, even if they are only doing part of it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a startup developing a user-friendly data-driven app that helps food businesses boost their profits, streamline operations, and reduce food waste. We started in May 2020, and we’re running with 17 business locations now.

What challenge were you trying to address with JazzServe?

My background is mostly in operation efficiency and hard engineering, not software. I have no coding experience, and we didn’t have someone to support us on that side. That’s where JazzServe came in.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave JazzServe the scope of building a cross-platform application. We were using a waterfall methodology at the time. They gathered our requirements and ran an analysis. Then, they did the development, QA testing, and deployment. The design came mostly from us. The initial contract was for three weeks.

The initial requirements included user access roles for the apps, with admins, store managers, and general users. There are functionalities specific to each access role. We have store and user management modules, which handle registration confirmation emails, password changes, and so on.

The core of the product is an app with three pages: today, forecast, and history. There are a lot of database elements and calculations on the backend. We pull information from different external APIs, which go either in the database or directly to the app.

We have an internal data science team in charge of forecasting, and JazzServe helped us display that information on the app and arrange it in the database. They do a lot of quality control and track and issues or bugs that come up.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with a project manager, a full-stack developer, and a frontend developer from JazzServe.

How did you come to work with JazzServe?

There are a lot of developers out there, and the only differentiation between one and the next is whether they have people vouching for them or not. We stumbled across JazzServe through someone in our network who runs a company in Singapore and had used them for development.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly €12,000 (approximately $14,000 USD) with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with JazzServe in June 2020. It started out as a one-off project, but we’ve gotten 12 invoices with them so far. The work is ongoing.

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

We don’t have anyone else supporting us on the tech side, so JazzServe is fully responsible for keeping our app running 24/7, without any major bugs. That’s a really important metric for us.

We had only a few pilot customers initially, and we now have five-year contracts with 17 businesses. They’ve been quite happy, with the general feedback being that they knew it was going to be useful but didn’t know it was going to be that great. It’s a combination of how close our team is with the users and how fast JazzServe is with the development of the service. So far, it’s been working great.

How did JazzServe perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project manager is there during calls, and she always responds to my requests. I’m also in close contact with the full-stack developer, with the project manager in CC. I have standups three times a week with the project manager and the main developer. We communicate on Slack throughout the day. Communication is definitely important. JazzServe has people on standby to fix any issues there might be.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s their transparency. They always let us know how certain things can be improved, such as a wireframe or design that doesn’t work. Having that is very important for us, especially since we don’t have a tech lead in place. JazzServe’s ability to up their game and advise us has been really important.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s more on us to put in a structure and follow up with them. I don’t know whether or not we’re too pushy but it’d be nice for JazzServe to update us briefly on the progress, without us having to ask about it. The three-day-a-week meetings definitely help. There are some communication barriers with English not being their first language. I haven’t had issues with that, but maybe others might.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to create a structure and set expectations with them in the beginning, before starting the work. It should be clear what the expectations are on project management and updates.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of R&D and production for SystemGroup, a leading system integrator in Ukraine. We specialize in the development and integration of innovative solutions for retail, transport, and logistics.

What challenge were you trying to address with JazzServe?

We have too many projects for our development teams to handle. Due to recent legislation changes, we need to work faster. We sometimes invite external companies, including JazzServe, to support us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked on several projects with JazzServe. Currently, they’re designing and developing the UI of a cloud-based solution for fiscal equipment, namely cash registers and so on. They’re involved in building the overall system management part of the solution.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with a team of 6–7 people from JazzServe, including developers, documentation writers, and architects.

How did you come to work with JazzServe?

When I need development support, I usually ask my friends who work in the IT industry for recommendations. For this project, I got two recommendations and interviewed both before choosing JazzServe.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration started in July 2019 and it’s ongoing.

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

JazzServe has done a perfect job. They’re very professional. Not only do they meet our requirements and complete tasks on time, but they also offer solutions to improve the work.

How did JazzServe perform from a project management standpoint?

Deadlines are important to us and JazzServe always delivers on time. We’re also able to reach them at any point.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They study the subject area for each project so they understand our needs. That’s particularly important to our projects because our work is closely tied to local legislation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m happy with JazzServe; I can’t think of anything for them to improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Working with JazzServe is the best decision we could have made.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO of Alpen Pharma AG, a wholesaler of pharmaceutical products. We’re spread over 20 countries.

What challenge were you trying to address with JazzServe?

We needed help with comprehensive and difficult development projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re our IT partner and handle software solutions for our logistics, finance, and bookkeeping. The main challenge is describing what we need. We understand our business logic pretty well but it’s not easy to explain and prepare documentation in the way that an IT developer can realize our ideas and needs in a software. JazzServe has helped us improve the ability to understand what we need.

We have super important groups from different departments responsible for different processes. Their team gathers all this information. They then structure it and prepare the draft. JazzServe has some abilities to produce this prototype and the first implementation to address within our organization. They make these important methodological parts.

Their team explains to our people what they’re going to do with our ideas and business logic. Then, they turn it into the software. They have to make functions. The first one is to gather the information to prepare, to make the methodology, and then understand it. The second one is development.

JazzServe used Java and Ruby on Rails. They now use PHP and other languages. Their team utilizes different languages depending on the tasks and software architecture. They got rid of Java because it costs a huge amount of resources on servers. Then, they chose something that was better.

What is the team composition?

There are 15–20 people.

How did you come to work with JazzServe?

I can’t recall how I came to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $170,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2016, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

Everything has been successful. JazzServe understands our front office, processes, and needs and they turn it into software. The software works and can be used. We had people test the software, and it was exactly what we wanted. It’s possible to buy such software on the market but the price offered by JazzServe is better. Their team listens to and understands what we need. They produce good software customized to our needs. Half of our software products have been developed by them.

How did JazzServe perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is good. They use good technologies. We always know what they’re working on and why we’re being charged certain amounts. They manage the project for us. JazzServe has a good structure, and their team is transparent. They proved why they took particular steps and why they cost a certain amount.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their transparency is the most impressive thing about them. They deliver good work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We provide input on the methodological side, and they don’t always understand it 100%. JazzServe still manages to turn this knowledge into a good software. They’re good in the transformation from customer knowledge into software.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend them 100%. My problem is that I shouldn’t because if I recommend them, they become more expensive and may disappear. I don’t want to lose them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Principal Support Engineering Coordinator in a database performance company.

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

We have a web-based database performance monitoring tool: Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM) that many of our customers use. It is very helpful when we resolve their urgent performance issues. However, not everyone can give us access to their PMM instance due to security reasons.

Therefore we need a way to export data from the customer's PMM instance and to import it to our local instances, so we have access to the customer's performance metrics and can help them. JazzServe is working on this project.

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

I work as a Product Owner for this project. I was not a decision-maker for selecting this vendor.

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

They developed the solution in the Go language. We already had design requirements when they started working. They implemented everything we asked for.

We split the project into a few stages:

1. alpha for the working prototype
2. beta for the full feature set
3. RC for fixing minor bugs
4. GA for delivering the final product

We are currently working on RC.

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

There were 4 people in the team, including managers and two senior developers.

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

We were able to launch the planned versions on time. Bugs and not properly working features that we identified, were fixed quickly and did not add delays to the project.

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

We communicate with JazzServe on Slack, they have access to our Jira issue tracker. When needed we jump on the Zoom calls. But most common communication tool is Slack and Jira issue tracker. Every issue we had was resolved in a timely manner.

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

They are very responsible, care about product quality, and propose solutions for improvement.

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

We had a few very minor issues when JazzServe started using our company tools, such as Jira and GitHub. For example, we have integration between GitHub and Jira, so if someone mentions the Jira ticket number in the commit message, they are automatically linked.

JazzServe engineers did not always follow this rule at the beginning of the project, so I had to link the Jira ticket and commit manually. But this could be something to improve on our side as well. E.g. we could have better documentation for external contributors.