Kodius

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of talent at a software development and digital agency in Croatia. We provide services to over 20 countries around the world and have around 180 people working on different projects. We cover most of the contemporary technologies for web and mobile development as well as UI/UX design. Additionally, we work on VR/AR and other projects.

I’m part of the larger HR team and my focus is attracting the best talent in Croatia to our company. I’m also an account manager for some of our projects, in terms of client communication and project management, especially for dedicated teams.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kodius?

One of our clients was looking for Ruby on Rails development, which isn’t a very popular technology and has limited resources. The client was a big fintech company looking to establish a team in Croatia, and they wanted a large number of developers. I contacted Kodius to see if they were interested and had available resources for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kodius offered us one of their developers to work as part of our team. Their developer was one of the first members of our team, so his role was important in helping us prove that we could build an even bigger team for the client. He went through an initial interview process with the client.

What is the team composition?

Kodius gave us one developer.

How did you come to work with Kodius?

I knew Kresimir (CEO) and was aware that Kodius was proficient in the technology stack that our client was looking for.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was around $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Kodius from February 2019–January 2020.

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

We were extremely happy with what they did. Their engagement was crucial for us to build a good relationship with the client. We demonstrated that we were capable of delivering what they were asking for. Their developer was one of the cornerstones of the expanding team. Based on the work that he and the other developers did, we were able to gain some trust from the client. We got the green light to ramp up the team.

Had we not done well in the beginning, we most likely wouldn’t have been able to grow the team. We’re working with the client still, and we’re really happy that they joined us.

How did Kodius perform from a project management standpoint?

We weren’t too involved in this part of the project. It was all done by our client. We worked in a typical dedicated team fashion, where we provided the resources and the client used their own methodology. They had a scrum master on their side, who assigned the daily tasks to our team.

Our obligation was to take care of all the logistics and speak to the people and make sure they were happy. Otherwise, from the point of view of the project itself, it was all the client’s responsibility. We weren’t involved in project management as much as we usually are.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Not that there weren’t exceptional things, but I’m not a technical person so I can’t speak from this point of view. Kodius was proactive and punctual. They answered all the demands from our end, were never late, and got along great with the rest of the team. There’s nothing bad that I could say about them or what they did. The feedback we received from the client was always good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything right now.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They’re really doing well when it comes to Ruby on Rails development. They have significant experience working with international clients. Kodius worked across different time zones and didn’t have problems with that either.

Ruby on Rails is a rare technology and there aren’t that many companies and individuals covering it. If the client is looking for this expertise, I’d really recommend Kodius.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am VP of Sales and Partnerships, in charge of all client and partner facing comms and engagement.

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

Our existing website was not as well designed as it could be, lacked certain functions that we need to manage our pipeline, track conversions, and scale our business with better connectivity as well as better tracking of key metrics.

How did you select Kodius and what were the deciding factors?

We interviewed 4 different web development firms, went through the process of defining the scope and getting estimates. Kodius came out on top because they were swift, engaged, and sought to understand the problem fully before they proposed a solution.

Kodius came in with their project manager and designer and were able to take my verbal and written high level instructions and turn out a beautiful new website. They gained such a good understanding of our business that they were able to make great suggestions. I felt they took ownership over the project, and delivered excellent results.

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

• Analysis of current web presence
• Defining problems, solutions, and goals
• Estimating time for design + development
• Establishing a fixed price for the first version and hosting as well as an SLA for ongoing support and maintenance.

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

We communicated and worked with 3 primary contacts; an executive, a project manager, and a designer. Others were involved behind the scenes for the development work.

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

We were thoroughly impressed by Kodius' work, from ideation to creation, and the feedback that they provided from their position of subject matter expertise was very helpful in bringing the new site across the finish line.

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

By frontloading so much work in the scope-defining stage, we were able to let Kodius work independently, although they were highly communicative when edge cases came up, or when some new information might be relevant to our decisions. We synced up weekly where they reported progress, received approval, and took some basic change requests.

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

I was so impressed at their ability to understand our rather unique and niche business to the effect that they were able to give us support on the design and communications side of things, and not simply on development.

They were very responsive and everything we asked for was

1. first determined to be possible and desirable; and
2. well executed

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

I feel like they knocked this one out of the park. No complaints.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a digital products agency, specialized in building exceptional apps and platforms. I'm in the role of COO.

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

An important customer had a new project lined up for us, but we didn't have enough resources internally at the time, so we decided to seek outside assistance to handle the back-end part of the development (as our internal backend teams were fully booked), whereas we kept the front-end part of it internal.

How did you select Kodius and what were the deciding factors?

Through the previous connection with our CTO. In the beginning, we went through the probation phase for the concept build. Then a 6 - month contract for the first MVP during which the main functionalities were implemented as a precondition for further development. That was enough for us to continue our cooperation.

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

Kodius built a platform consisting of a swath of API integrations, optimized for response time and heavy load. They managed to consolidate variously configurable on third-party platforms into a single, easy-to-use interface from where one can dictate a complete marketing strategy within just a couple of clicks.

Additionally, the platform also has a robust payment and billing system (with extra functionality such as the ability to credit/debit or give coupons to various clients at the admin's whims). The platform also includes smart priority queueing, and they built a secure and safe authentication system into it as well with all PII concerns in mind.

The two-way marketing integrations also required great care during the architectural phase so the various metrics, settings, and other data that are being processed and audited can be displayed and further used for analytic purposes.

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

At its peak, we worked with 4 people from Kodius -- who did backend development, with our internal team doing the frontend development part. Additionally, project management was split between both sides.

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

The project was finished in the planned time, with all the features delivered, and released for internal testing as MVP, which met the client's expectations. The work on the project is moving forward, including more features and integrations, and is planned to be released to production this year.

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

We cooperate in an agile way. We communicate on a daily basis through standup meetings and reports. Kodius works very closely with our team. With every facet of the project, there’s communication and agreement first. The communication is absolutely exemplary.

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

We are most impressed with the communication and the commitment to deliver. They are always available for us and even worked overtime when the need arose. I can truly say that the word “No” doesn’t exist in their vocabulary, except as part of the phrase "no problem".

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

Nothing bad in particular, we haven't experienced any major issues, just minor things that are part of regular software development and management cycles. Any issue that popped out was resolved in a short time.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager of Worcon. We’re a software development agency that also offers a magazine with blog posts about machine tools. We have multiple products. Worcon is a B2B platform that has buyers and suppliers. The buyer has the demand to produce something in industrial machinery. Suppliers are companies who provide that work.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kodius?

Initially, our company didn’t have many developers or experienced developers who could build the app from scratch. We wanted Kodius to develop our web application from scratch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We utilized Kodius to build the whole architecture of the application. Then, we extended that project to the backend and frontend. Kodius utilized a new stack. On the backend, they used Node.js and NestJS. On the frontend, we used ReactJS. For the database, we used PL/SQL. The solution is on AWS, so it's cloud-based.

We had Kodius give us the architecture so we can bring in our developers. That means our two teams worked together in building the app. We worked on a biweekly basis to give them new requirements. The app is a small project management tool to run small CNC shops.

What is the team composition?

To begin, we had a team of five comprising three developers — one backend and one frontend —as well as a designer.

How did you come to work with Kodius?

They were recommended to us by an external partner. We selected them because we liked their approach. They were the best offer financially, but that wasn’t the biggest reason we chose them. They were the best fit because of their expertise and willingness to work with our internal team members.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $68,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was from June–October 2020.

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

They did a great job of managing the design, UX, and storylines. It wasn’t the whole product, it’s a project management tool. I was surprised and amazed while working with them because they really caught on quickly, and it was agile. Everything went really well. We were amazed by what they did in the end.

How did Kodius perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great. Their team delivered on time. They utilized an agile approach as well as Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Overall, it was a great experience. I thought it’d be worse than it was but it was really refreshing. There was a lot of success. We changed the scope and initial designs, so the price was 5–10% more than what we originally thought.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our junior project manager could have been a little bit better. We gave them the go-ahead to run everything, but we wanted to be involved. We learned something from them, and their project manager probably learned something from us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try them. We got a quote within 24 hours of contacting them. I’d recommend them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and president of Active Citizens, a nonprofit with mainly social worker students and young professionals as members of my organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kodius?

We wanted to raise awareness of social issues. We already had a website, but it was very old and we needed something new. We wanted people to be able to reach us easily and we needed it to be very visual for users.

It was important for us to find more young people who are looking to make changes in their communities. It’s also crucial for us to give students and members a concrete experience about how the labor market will be and how we can help people with special needs, in addition to helping social issues like homelessness, mental illness, and others. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had an initial call with them and, in this meeting, the main goal was to get to know each other. We gave them an overview of the organization, and what our mission and goals were for this redesign. After that, they set up a strategy around our needs and introduced it to their developers and their designers.  

From there, Kodius designed and developed our websites — they did everything for us. After a bit of time, we received some mockups and high-fidelity wireframes of pages, which were incredibly easy to understand. 

The next step was the actual design along with screenshots, which were immediately approved. Then, the development team took over the build of the website very quickly and completed it. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with the project manager. Also, I communicated with their CTO, a designer, and a developer.

How did you come to work with Kodius?

I met their CTO a few months ago and I told him about my organization. From there, they offered to help us.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement ran from September–November 2020.

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

I’m amazed by our new website they created — it’s everything we needed. I measured the success of the website by showing it to our members — members are the heart of this organization and they all really loved the website. The website is newly online, so I don’t have results yet aside from those positive opinions.

We feel more confident about sharing our website now and we’re very fond of the visual aspect of it. The site better represents our agency — some of our members already decided to post about our work. Kodius was really trendy in their work and updating content has become a breeze for us. 

How did Kodius perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager listened and adapted to meet our needs. She always communicated the timeline and expectations — I always knew what they were doing and what to expect.

She also provided quality service and brought in their development team whenever something required a technical explanation. Since I’m a social worker and didn’t know anything about technology, I had a lot of questions. Additionally, the whole project was quickly finished. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were a very hardworking team. The small team that worked with me was so responsive — I could call or email them at any point. They were easygoing and I didn’t have any fear of asking questions. It was very easy to build trust with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve — they were absolutely stunning. I have a little experience with developers and designers and this was something new for me; everything went smoothly and the cooperation was great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as open as possible and build trust. Any issues should be mentioned so that the developers can understand the scope, which was very beneficial for us.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a partner at the law firm Babić & Čibarić. Babić & Čibarić was founded with the goal of of-fering its clients the best possible legal consulting and representation. 

For what projects/services did your company hire Kodius?

Web development, hosting and maintaining.

What were your goals for this project?

We initially wanted to simply refresh our existing pages while retaining our professional look and style. However, we also felt a need to give our audiences a more in depth look into how we work - giving them an insight into articles and case law we accrued through our own experience. This eventually also expanded to upgrading to more up-to-date technologies.

How did you select Kodius?

We had already been co-operating for 6 months at which point we also decided to have Kodius do an upgrade of our web pages

Describe the project in detail.

Kodius helped us do an upgrade of our web pages to the latest technologies available. They scope of their involvement included planning/estimating the project duration, grooming tasks and finally implementing the solution. Kodius is also hosting our web presence in the cloud and handles issues surrounding SEO as well as various other things to improve our web presence.

What was the team composition?

We interact with Krešimir, CEO as well as one developer working behind the scenes.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Kodius did a great job of creating the architecture we were looking for. It was a great experi-ence. Our developer was smart and kind and was willing to work with us to offer the best possi-ble experience. Overall, they executed perfectly, and we were really happy with the work the team did.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Kodius worked collaboratively to deliver products in a timely manner and within the deadlines and budget. Additionally, they were willing to be adaptable and flexible, being open to changes and offering us the best solutions.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Kodius was very easy to communicate with. The team was quick to understand exactly what we wanted, so we didn’t have a hard time explaining to them what needed to be done, which was incredibly helpful.

Are there any areas for improvement?

-

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Chief Editor and Director of Dnevnik.ba, which is a Media/News company in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For what projects/services did your company hire Kodius?

As one of the biggest News portal in the region, you are under constant pressure to be always available and have the content ready for your readers even before the news happened. So we had to find for a professional web development agency which can solve and anticipate new problems.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to find somebody who can increase the security and availability of our application.

How did you select this vendor?

It was a reference from one of our owners who worked with them before.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

With dnevnik.ba our goal and ambition is to be available 100% of the time and be the first portal with new content.

The process of working with Kodius started with a need, we had an urgent problem which had to solved ASAP, one of our owners referred Kodius as a team of experts. We have contacted them, told them everything about our problem and the urgency of it.

They were professional and approached the problem with urgency and proposed a perfect solution for it. They have solved the problem in the next few days and with that they have passed the test and we have continued to work with them.

After that they have transferred our stack do AWS and did a bunch of other minor upgrades and fixes to increase the security, availability and future scaling of our application. There was a bunch of other features and minor fixes during our working collaboration like placing ads on perfect places inside articles.

What was the team composition?

As we did not have a constant development tempo there wasn’t a team reserved only for us, but we had a person who could be contacted at any time and our problem would be solved ASAP.

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

Our availability and security has increased. Also, we are sure that now we can scale without any potentional future risks.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

As we did not have a constant development tempo there wasn’t a team reserved only for us, but we had a person who could be contacted at any time and our problem would be solved ASAP.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were impressed with their commitment, speed, and knowledge.

Are there any areas for improvement?

N/A

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of FlexCareers. We offer a career employment site focused on women returning to work as well as anyone who’d like to work flexibly. We connect job seekers with progressive employers who are happy to offer flexible work arrangements. We work with a slew of Australian companies, as well as with multinationals operating in Australia and New Zealand.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kodius?

We’re in our fourth year and we’ve hit a stage where we want to grow a bit more rapidly, so we needed a new digital agency.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with Kodius on a large migration before we started the official collaboration with them. We went from a single server in Singapore to the AWS platform, across two different geographic locations. That was one of our first challenges.

We’ve accumulated two years’ worth of sprints in Jira since then. We’ve done a lot of UI/UX work with them, especially in terms of mobile optimization.

Another large project was launching a large searchable database, where employers can search for potential job candidates. That was a challenging project involving a bunch of external APIs, a Ruby on Rails backend, and a lot of testing.

What is the team composition?

We had a five-person team when we started, and I believe the current team has between five and ten people.

How did you come to work with Kodius?

Ruby on Rails is a relatively specialized skillset, and it’s not easy to find quality developers. As I was going through some due diligence, I saw an interesting blog by Kresimir (CEO, Kodius) on the benefits of Ruby on Rails. Something I noticed was that, despite it being a niche topic, it had over 1,000 social reactions. For a technical article to have that kind of buy-in from other developers showed me that these people must be pretty good at Ruby.

I engaged them and got them in touch with our CTO, who put them through a real evaluation process to see if they could be our long-term partner. We decided they could handle all of our development as we scaled out our platform.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $300,000–$350,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Kodius in October 2016 and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Security is an important consideration for us, and we’re working with a US-based company that scans entire code structures for vulnerabilities. Data breaches are a concern for any company, and we’ve been fortunate to not experience any. I put it on their expertise and diligence.

They succeeded in getting us onto AWS, a platform that could handle our rapid growth. We took a small site with a small number of users and employers and put it into a world-class infrastructure that’s helped us scale. I believe we’ve quadrupled in size in terms of employers since we started working with Kodius.

Our database had 18,000 job seekers in 2016, and we have since grown to a database of 110,000 candidates. Kodius has built a platform that’s allowed us to scale up our job seekers by a factor of five. We’ve monetized our searchable database.

How did Kodius perform from a project management standpoint?

We run scrum projects with them, with sprints every two weeks. We use Jira to track stories, which give Kodius the full brief. We touch base with them daily, as part of our development cycle, to get updates on releases and other matters.

From my perspective, no sprint has been significantly delayed, the story points attributed to each ticket have been done accurately, and the execution has always been within budget. They make accurate estimates of time and cost.

We’re communicating through an extreme time difference. They’ve made it work well and smoothly. Kodius can work easily with anyone, without having to be in physical proximity. We didn’t know if we’d truly be able to understand each other, but that’s ultimately been fantastic. It’s been a real pleasure working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand what we’re trying to achieve as a business, and they support us in that respect. There have been a lot of instances where they spotted the business issues that we missed. They thought two steps ahead when we only thought one step ahead. They proactively seek out and suggest things that can be beneficial and drive our business further.

They’re not simply someone executing an order from us–they look at things in a holistic way, in order to understand our business goals. This really comes through in the entire process with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients shouldn’t keep their cards close to their chest. If we give Kodius a detailed brief and immerse them in what we’re trying to achieve, we’ll definitely be better for it. They can add a lot of value in areas we hadn’t thought of, so we don’t look at them as just an execution team. They’re a team that can understand our business and help it grow.