Kaldi

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am co-owner of fishing app, responsible for business development.

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

We hired Kaldi mainly for frontend and backend development of new features, that will be introduced in our mobile app or in connection with our mobile app.

We were first thinking about hiring our own team for this project, but we finally decided for Kaldi due to their broad set of services (e.g. design, UX & UI, QA, frontend, backend, project management).

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

Main factor was how well our teams were instantly able to connect. Other factors were the following: Recommendation received from a colleague, responsiveness, action orientated mindset, young team, transparent proposal.

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

Our project was divided into two major parts:

• Development of back-office for editing the content shown in our mobile app
• Development of web-app, that has similar features compared to our mobile app.

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

Two people worked on our project full time (one frontend developer and one backend developer). However, there were several other people involved when needed (project manager, AWS specialist, designer, QA specialist).

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

We liked the planning phase of the project, where every feature / function was planned in advance in details. This made the development much easier. Deliverables were of expected quality and within the agreed deadlines.

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

We had shorter daily calls and longer weekly calls. Development was divided in sprints using Jira. We used Slack and Zoom for daily communication. Project management was handled very well (future steps were always considered, planning was done on time, Jira was always up to date).

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

Thinking out of the box (not settling on what we had in mind, but trying to upgrade it), relaxed & efficient workflow, owning the mistakes and making sure they do not happen again, strong developers, nice and honest people, and open communication. They are constantly seeking feedback and acting in it, trying to understand what we would like to achieve.

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

Both sides try to improve and act on the feedback received. Maybe responsiveness of the people, that do not work on our project full time could be improved.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a business developer of KALUU, a company that develops and sells smart parking infrastructure for micro-mobility.

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

We hired Kaldi to help us build a software solution and APP that will offer a customer the best possible UX while renting parking infrastructure for micro-mobility.

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

We selected Kaldi based on recommendation of our partner that already cooperated with them on a similar project. After the first meeting we very confident about their knowledge and experiences. They also invested a lot of time in preparing the offer that included a lot of technical specifications. This way we really knew they understand what we are looking for.

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

They designed and developed a software solution that consists of backend, admin panel and mobile app (iOS and Android). We have few meeting already before the start of the project. In that phase they helped us a lot with asking the right questions. After the official start we were in a constant contact when needed, and we have weekly meeting.

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

There were 4 people, one project manager, one senior backend developer, one front end developer and one mobile app developer.

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

I must admit that Kaldi helped us made a much better solution that we wanted at the first place. They helped us a lot not only in technology matters, but also in UX, admin panel functionalities and other stuff.

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

Project management was great. Their project manager communicated everything in time. Even if there were some small delays he communicated that immediately so we could adjust the timeline and plan everything together. We communicated mostly over Slack and Google meet. In testing stage we also get the access to Jira to report bugs and other issues.

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

The communication was really very good. Also during testing, when the team was not dedicated to our project for a full time the responsiveness was amazing which helped us a lot. I need to point out their team energy, it is a pleasure to work with them.

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

I don't have anything to point out here.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director at Virtually There. We’re a virtual office and call answering provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kaldi?

We were looking to upgrade our service capabilities and automate a lot of our manual processes.

I came to Kaldi with a project to deliver a bespoke call center for us. We have quite complex requirements for a call center and needed a fully automated self-service onboarding flow for our customers. It would allow users to sign up on our website and figure out the best service for themselves. We also wanted to automate a lot of our back-office processes, such as billing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kaldi’s work involved building out a bespoke contact center, an onboarding flow, a customer portal, and various backend automation built on AWS. We also use Twilio Flex for the contact center portion, which is a flexible and customizable web app. We also use Form.io integration, as well.

What is the team composition?

I've been in touch with Ales (CEO & Co-Founder).

How did you come to work with Kaldi?

I found Kaldi through a referral. We work with a partner in London who used them. In total, I talked to three companies for this project and chose Kaldi because I was really impressed with their approach. It was very straightforward and they were like-minded to us. They really seemed to listen to what I wanted to do.

I didn’t provide a tight specification for the project but rather needed a company to help me flesh out the idea and build out the specifications for the system with me. I wanted to feel comfortable, and have a good connection and relationship with Kaldi because we were going to be working quite collaboratively together. I also liked the size of their company. They were big enough to have the resources available for what I needed, but not too big to get lost among other clients.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent £120,000 (approximately $170,500 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in October 2020 and the work is ongoing. The initial phase of the project will end in June 2021.

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

The system that Kaldi has designed is excellent and we’re really impressed with what they’ve accomplished. As with every tech project, we’ve had several milestones, which has made us miss few deadlines and exceed our budget. However, from a functionality point of view, we’ve figured everything out to achieve our goals. We’ve received positive stakeholder feedback.

How did Kaldi perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through email and Slack, and we talk  2–3 times a week. Kaldi uses Confluence and Jira, and they’ve given us access to those tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Kaldi is incredibly easy to work with and very capable. The team knows how to listen and understand the business challenges. In the past, I struggled with some developers because I needed an analyst between us to translate everything —  I’ve never felt that way with Kaldi. They have an open and transparent way of working and we have direct access to the developers on our project. They’re also involved in all the discussions, which makes things very easy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Kaldi’s weakest area is probably their reporting. I’ve been very involved on a day-to-day basis, so they don’t feel like they need to report more formally to me.

Any advice for potential customers?

Anyone who wants to work with Kaldi is going to get a similar experience to me; it will be very personal. The person who has an initial meeting with the team will understand what kind of company culture they have. People will also know quickly if Kaldi is a good fit for them or not.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

During this project, I was a project manager and scrum product owner at an engineering firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kaldi IT?

The agency working for us hired Kaldi to develop a rather complicated product that needed API backend development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kaldi was brought in to develop a specific component, but they ended up building the whole web platform from the bottom up. It has user profiles and advanced 3D modeling. The design was completed by another party.

They used multiple technologies, including HTML and JavaScript. The site is hosted on Azure.

What is the team composition?

The scrum master and designer were from the agency that hired them. On Kaldi’s side, there was one person in charge of frontend development, a manager and backend developer, and an Azure specialist. 

How did you come to work with Kaldi IT?

We had requirements for a platform to serve data, and our main agency didn't have a solution in place. The agency turned to Kaldi to take over the work.

How much have you invested with them?

I don’t know how much they’re paid by the agency. We just have a contract with the main provider.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Kaldi in July 2019, and it’s ongoing. I believe that our main provider has gotten most of the assistance they needed, and they’ll take over at some point.

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

The feedback on their work is really great. Any problems that have arisen were on our side, with data quality, and not on the development side. Everything built by Kaldi works perfectly.

How did Kaldi IT perform from a project management standpoint?

We managed the project on our side, but Kaldi IT performed well and was very organized. We had 15-minute daily meetings, and all the changes we talked about were taken into consideration. I got a very good impression of their work from my side. We used Azure DevOps for management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We became really good colleagues, and the conversation was always relaxed. We could have a chat or quick meeting whenever we liked, and they made suggestions for improvements. Kaldi IT truly cares about the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Some things weren’t tested correctly, and I’ve had to do testing on my own. They could do some additional checkups on the code before delivering them to my section, for user-acceptance tests.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

My advice is for clients to be honest and be themselves.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Kamino is a tight knit agency from Ljubljana that focuses on mobile design and development. With 5+ years of experience in building and shipping mobile products and a team of bright and talented people we bring a strong focus to anything being worked on. I am the CEO of Kamino.

For what projects/services did your company hire Kaldi IT?

We needed redesigned website and Kaldi was perfect match for it.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to let our customers and potential new co-workers know what we are doing and why we are perfect match for them.

How did you select this vendor?

Through couple of initial meetings with different companies, KaldiIT showed the most enthusiasm to deliver what we wanted. Also Aleš, CEO of KaldiIT, was very helpful with suggestions on how to solve specific problems.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We wanted new website to give our visitors more info about us. We have provided designs of the website and KaldiIT prepared beautiful and functional frontend and stable backend.

What was the team composition?

Our point of contact was their project manager who then worked with frontend and backend developer. Everything was done so smoothly we only had sync once per sprint.

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

Our website is our first contact with everyone out there. Now everyone can check our key member, our services and our references instantly.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had be-weekly sprints and while the projects was not too big meeting once per sprint was enough.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They estimated the cost precisely and delivered the website on time. No need to say more.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a Slovenian logistics company that received European funding for developing a project. For now, we employee six co-workers and operate all over Europe.

For what projects/services did your company hire Kaldi IT?

We cooperate with Kaldi IT on UX, design, software development, software implementation, and everything about system configurations/implementation.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to build software which will connect warehouses all over the world and will allow on time bookings.

How did you select this vendor?

We chose Kaldi IT because of a good reputation, excellent engagement, and interest in our project. Partners also recommended Kaldi to us.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

First, we did the whole project roadmap, then we design wireframes and make tests. Our next step was designing MVP, and now we are in the phase of implementation and testing.

Kaldi take care of the whole design and system structure. Kaldi also take care of implementation and connection with other third-party providers to connect in our project ( like payment system ).

What was the team composition?

The project team counts four developers. In case of particular need, other developers attend if was necessary.

We have a project manager who takes care that we are on time with roadmap and work go smoothly, a designer who makes things lovely, Front end developer who takes care that things are connected and Back End developer who takes care that all together works.

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

The project is new, and for now do not have a business impact. Because of Kaldi's good planing, we are very early allowed to get first users and received test results which will help us in the future.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management is very organized. Team all the time achieve goals. We use software for communication which is new for us ( Jira, Slack ) and proved to be good.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Most impressive is the engagement of all team members. We have feelings that they don't work just for business but that they are really in the project, connected to the project, and doing their best that project will be a success. They're willing to share their knowledge and connections if you need anything.

Are there any areas for improvement?

For now, there is no outstanding thing that should be improved

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Giro Car Share. Our startup’s mobile app is users who want to rent a car like they would rent an apartment on Airbnb. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Kaldi IT?

We needed help with backend development so we could create the products our customers wanted. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kaldi IT executes backend development for our app based on the requirements we provide. They manage the flow process of orders. The app lets users reserve vehicles. It tracks upcoming, current, and finished trips based on the cars that have been submitted, customers or users that have signed in, and the information each of them has saved. This data shows the entire history of what went on during the rental procedure.
 
Kaldi IT helped integrate our website with other third-party services. We had a basic landing website already, and they synchronized it with our app to store information from when users log in. They’ve completed the MVP at this point. Currently, we’re working on a few additional features. The entire project should be complete within a month. 
 
What is the team composition? 

We mainly interact with Ales (Co-founder & CEO, Kaldi IT). 

How did you come to work with Kaldi IT?

Kaldi IT came as a package together with our frontend development company. We found them on a few different sites. Based on their recommendations, they were one of the best vendors in regards to price and performance. We didn’t make a bad decision. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €20,000 (approximately $23,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2018, and the work is ongoing. 
 

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

Surprisingly, the app has very few bugs. Kaldi IT communicates at a high level and completes their tasks in a timely manner. We’re very satisfied with their work. 

How did Kaldi IT perform from a project management standpoint?

I’d give them 9.5 out of 10 for project management. We have weekly meetings. Tools we use include email, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and phone. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Kaldi IT is very quick to understand what we want. The team follows instructions very well. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise potential clients to try working with Kaldi IT. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and director of In516ht. We're a consulting company focused on business intelligence solutions. We implement solutions in terms of data warehousing, business intelligence tools, and planning tools.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kaldi IT?

Our clients had difficulty in managing their master data in an analytical environment. The solution needed to allow our clients to work with their master codes and data flexibly. We wanted to create a solution that was quick to implement for our clients, but we didn’t have any internal developers to create those solutions. Additionally, it would have been too costly and time-consuming to develop this in-house.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborated in defining the requirements and how the solution should look regarding our input and output. Their team created multiple prototypes, and we discussed each iteration and brainstormed as a group. They developed the entire solution, from the UX design to the database design. Kaldi IT performed front- and backend work and implemented the product on the cloud and on-premise. The app can be customized and allows users to input and update data, and upload it to a data warehouse for analysis. They developed the backend using Javascript and the frontend using React. We are now collaborating on the future version of this product. 

What is the team composition?

They've provided two teammates for the project, and I'm the project manager for my team.

How did you come to work with Kaldi IT?

We considered multiple local web development companies. After looking through portfolios and considering our connections, Kaldi IT came referred to us.  According to other companies they worked with, we could tell they have the skills to accomplish our needs.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent around €20,000 ($24,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the project in June 2017, and the work on the next version is ongoing. 

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

We’ve been pleased with their work; they’ve made quality suggestions throughout the process. The backend that they developed has proved to be flexible in allowing for modifications, which was part of our goal.

How did Kaldi IT perform from a project management standpoint?

We had regular meetings and communicated through the phone and email. We used Jira to track significant milestones throughout the process. It was easy to stay in contact as we live in the same city.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their extensive knowledge of the architecture and development of the front- and backend is essential for us. We didn’t need to have multiple people onsite because of this, which was an advantage. Their open-minded nature and advanced, tech-savvy skills make them a valuable partner.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be helpful if they provided additional testers in the testing phase, but overall, we’ve encountered minimal issues.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of 28labs Inc. We are a startup operating in the healthcare space.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kaldi IT?

We needed additional help on the backend os we were looking for a partner to help us on that part. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a series of meetings to outline requirements, plan the scope, and organize the initial documentation. Kaldi IT developed the backend for our iOS mobile app using AWS Mobile, MongoDB, and Java and connected it to our API. We plan to create an Android iteration in the future.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one representative from Kaldi IT.

How did you come to work with Kaldi IT?

We came across them on the Clutch website and were impressed by their portfolio of past clients and their positive reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

We expect to spend between $25,000­–$50,000 on this engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2018 and the partnership is ongoing.

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

Because we are still in the process of development, we have no quantitative data, but we are happy with their work ethic and approach to our partnership.

How did Kaldi IT perform from a project management standpoint?

We met in person a couple of times at the start of the project, but now we consistently communicate via Slack. Their team is quick to make any changes or necessary bug fixes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate Kaldi IT’s easy-going and adaptable workflow. They like to keep things simple.

Any advice for potential customers?

Potential customers should avoid wasting their time looking at other agencies or freelancers and just hire Kaldi IT.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a top-level registry for .si. That's our core business. We provide EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port) and other access to register .si domains and also run DNS (Domain Name Servers) services for .si. The company is a network of Slovenia. The network is an internet provider for schools, faculties, universities, etc. Registry is a small part of our organization. I'm a technical adviser for the main registry business.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kaldi IT?

When we started our business as a registry, some colleagues from Kaldi worked at our company. They left and started their own firm. Since they knew how our system works, we hired them to help us with software development of our systems.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do software development for us. They use Git for version control, so use GitLab as an environment. The code is developed in Java. We have the EPP server which is running in the background, and it's socket-based. There are two more web-based applications, both developed in Java as well. They are using a framework to do the graphics in the browser.

We've used Jenkins for building from source into packages. The application server we use is Payara GlassFish. They designed the UX. The database under these applications is structured with the domains, transactions, contacts, hostnames, and billings. We use PayPal to do the transactions. They helped us design the database. The database is MariaDB and Java connects to the database.

What is the team dynamic?

With this project, four people help us. We have connections with one.

How did you come to work with Kaldi IT?

We chose them because they knew our system before they left our company. They were also less expensive than others, and they do a very good job.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around €200,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in January 2013. We're still working with them.

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

Response times are according to public tender. They help our internal development team.

How did Kaldi IT perform from a project management standpoint?

They are responsive to our correspondence. We specified response times in public tender and they respond to us the way it was specified or even faster. We used a ticketing system, but we are not developers, we are system admins, so we don't know all the technologies that are used in the source code.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work and help with our system are very good. Everything works. The whole project is successful; that's the most impressive thing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think so. We are quite satisfied with them.