Light IT Global

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Head of Sales as Rozdoum - an official Atlassian Solution Partner and Atlassian Marketplace Partner with office locations in Ukraine and the USA. We offer a full cycle of Atlassian Professional Services, covering consultancy, licensing and set up, upgrade and migrations, custom app development, and support for the whole stack of Atlassian products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We've hired Light IT's developers to work on a project alongside our team. They've worked on the back-end development for a booking platform, precisely the payment processing functionality. Besides that, Light IT has developed IOS and Android apps for our clients.

SOLUTION

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

Our team knew exactly which areas we needed to improve and which tasks we required help with. And the search for a suitable vendor was based on that criteria. Light IT appeared on our shortlist because this company's name wasn't new to us. We've had a chance to check several of their case studies and their blog as well. At the final stage of the selection process, we chose several companies and initiated the communication. Light IT made the cut through their experience and competence. And, of course, our company had done some research and looked at the reviews of previous Light IT customers.

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

Since we were developing a platform for accommodation booking available worldwide, a clean back-end code was a priority. Both or team members and Light IT's experts agreed that Python is perfect for achieving that. The second stage of our cooperation included the iOS application development, which started once we've approved the list of features. The end customer already had an MVP, so the task for Light IT was to turn it into a competitive product. Upon completion of the iOS app development, the customer has requested several modifications for the Android app. This part was also implemented by Light IT.

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

Two Python developers, IOS and Android developers. Their Project manager has also participated in this project from the beginning.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In this regard, we need to distinguish between the impact of our customer's business model and the technical work done. When it comes to all the products we've delivered, the user satisfaction rate has grown by an average of 20%. Moreover, the dissatisfaction with the functionality has been minimized.

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

We worked with the Light IT team as with our colleagues. It was direct communication with the developers. We're glad we've managed to establish confidential communication with everyone involved in the process. Light IT had also regularly provided valuable advice and suggestions. For task and time management, we've used ClickUP. The primary communication tool was Slack. It's also worth mentioning that sometimes the workflow required the work on additional tasks and overtime work. Light IT perceived the situation with understanding and implemented the assigned tasks.

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

We appreciated that the most important thing for Light IT is task completion, no matter what difficulties arise along the way. Their resilience and ability to produce high-quality work impressed us.

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

Not to our knowledge.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I hired Light IT for IT product development, including a mobile app, back-end software, DevOps, web development. The goal for them is to cover the development end to end. I lead the project as a stakeholder/ product owner, and I provide all the designs and the requirements.

SOLUTION

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

I selected them based on a small online research and background checks of the company and a few Zoom calls with them. The deciding factors were: the credibility of the company, experience in similar projects, other customer satisfaction, and skill level of their tech employees.

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

The scope is to develop a B2C product end to end, with a mobile app frontend initially. The product includes iOS and Android apps for the frontend, backend API where all the logic and information lives, AWS DevOps work to run the backend and scale quickly, and a web-based admin panel. I provided specifications in the form of designs and general requirements; they did all the planning, architecture planning, more detailed requirement gathering, and scoping.

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

I work with project manager, mobile app developer, backend developer, devops developer,

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project has not launched yet, but LightIT delivers results consistently with the schedule and plans for every sprint. At the end of each sprint, they demo the results, and I have all the transparency of the results. I also have access to the up-to-date app, which is updated multiple times per sprint.

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

They are very structured and rigorous about the work and planning. All the tasks are precisely defined, and I have access to all the task lists, definitions, and estimations. I can go in and comment, suggest updates, etc. Everything is transparent. They are always very responsive and open to communication. I know what is going on at all times, and with my input, I can quickly impact the direction.

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

I have more than ten years of experience in software engineering, and I have worked with various teams. There are a few things that impress me about LightIT work - they are consistently productive, structured, their work transparent, and they are responsive. I like the most working with LightIT because all of the team members are proactive! They suggest minor and more significant improvements in the app, features, architecture, etc. They always think from the perspective of future users and give valuable feedback. They use their experience to help make my life easier and reach the best outcome.

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

There are minor improvements that they can do that we always discuss openly and are always responsive to feedback, so all of these are fine-tuned on an ongoing basis.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO and founder of a consumer financial analysis software firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Light IT was hired to execute all software development including app user experience, front-end, & back-end design as well as all web design, development and deployment.

SOLUTION

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

I've used Light IT for other projects in the past and was very pleased with their experience, organization, scheduling and deliverables. They have a wide array of skill sets and are an extremely talented group.

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

Scope of work: Web application for financial planning software and accompanying website.  This included all feature and functionality development of the application (
main page, business creation, timeline chart, plan builder, icon view, table view, plan template builder, data importing, results & analytics, complex optimizers, user onboarding, user profile, pricing.  We also went through a website redesign as the project evolved.

Project steps: Requirement elicitation, marketing research, architecture design, UI/UX design, planning, development, testing & deployment

Key deliverables: Marketing research, specification and user stories, UI/UX designs, functional overview, development plan, technical architecture, backend and frontend code, integrations, test cases, check lists, unit tests, automated tests & releases.

Technologies:

• Frontend: React.js, Next.js, Netifly.
• Backend: Python, Django/DRF, Rest API.
• DB: PostgreSQL.
• Integrations: Quickbook, Chargebee, Stripe.

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

There were 5 people on the team: a program manager, a designer, a front end developer, a back end developer and a QA engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Light IT team was very accurate with their cost and deliverable estimates.

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

Light IT uses Jira and Confluence to track development and to communicate/report progress to the customer. Their process is comprehensive, efficient and provides for maximum confidence.

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

Their team was highly engaged and continuously offered suggestions to enhance the user experience and to make the product better overall. Their organization and continuous communication exceeded my expectations.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Manager of a product company - Precoro. Our firm provides small and medium-sized businesses with Procurement Software

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have already had a working platform for almost 5 years. Our business was developing, but our ambitions were greater, at a certain moment we decided to move to a fundamentally new level, add several cardinally new factions, and conquer the market with an updated product. We could not achieve our goals with our own developers, so we turned to third-party developers

SOLUTION

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

From the very beginning, we wanted to consider developers from Eastern Europe, in particular from Ukraine, because we are familiar with this market and see its effectiveness. But the applicants had to be focused on the global market. We searched the internet, paying particular attention to directories. Having determined the final list, we contacted 7 companies.

We settled on light it focusing on their technology stack, past projects, customer impressions, after seeing the expertise, we realized that our views coincide and that Light It correctly senses the potential of our platform

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

First of all, we combined our experience and the expertise of LIght IT, thus we came to a common understanding of what kind of project we want to create. After discussing our goals, we decided on the technology stack, fortunately, we managed to choose the tools we work with ourselves - PHP, Vue.js, MSQL, TypeScript, CSS3. Then Light IT started to create UX, UI design.

Light IT has been redesigning and improving the reporting mechanism; adding the function of integrating data from third-party accounting platforms; the Approval Workflow mechanism; 3-way match

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

Our guide in this project was PM, he solved our questions and connected us with the right people. We ended up working with 11 people, mostly PHP developers, DevOps, Designer, QA, and Product Owner

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The result is a little blurred by the fact that along with the platform update, we made marketing efforts. The most important result that we finally managed to achieve is that over the last year we got as much sold as we had in our entire history before that, i.e. from the 16th year to the middle of the 20th

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

Jira was our task creation and time management tool, and the workflow was completely transparent. We tried not to use it, but PM was in touch even after hours. The main communication took place in Slack, but at the same time we exchanged contacts and periodically knocked on instant messengers. At different stages of the project, we held daily / weekly meetings Several times there was a lot of trouble in time, but firstly, we were warned, and secondly, we agree with the reasons why there were failures in the schedule

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

It seemed to us that they are no less interested in the success of our platform. The team has not only completed tasks, but they've also made proposals. One of the owners of the firm even participated in the control of the project. In the course of work, the task could be modified, which could cause a new round of discussions, but we never had any pretensions to the final result. They provided solid QA support for all of their results.

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

New proposals came from them, after which we made adjustments, this had a positive effect on the final result, we got more than we wanted, but this made the workflow more complicated

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product and strategy for an organization that’s essentially a marketplace that brings brands together, for creative and development needs with agencies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Light-it?

We needed someone to produce our technology platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Light-it is essentially our development team for our React web-based platform. The platform is where our clients can create their projects, which are then shared with agencies that can perform the work. The team took over our initial MVP, and they’ve been helping us develop its features and functionalities over the last 18 months.

What is the team composition?

We work with four people from their team and they consist of front- and backend developers, a QA resource, and then a project manager.

How did you come to work with Light-it?

I don’t recall how we initially found them, but we hired Light-it because we found that they were very competent in the languages that our app was built on. They also have a good sales process where they understood our app and challenges, and they came back with a good response at a reasonable price.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between the range of $60,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Light-it always performs at a high-quality level. They’re good communicators and they keep us updated on the progress of the development’s timelines, budgets, and cost requirements.

How did Light-it perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, the feedback for their performance on the project management side is positive as well. They tend to stay within the deadlines and budget, and they tell us whenever there are variances. In addition, we communicate daily using Slack and Skype, and use Jira and Asana as our primary project management tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say it’s their clear and consistent communication, especially when it comes to the progress on the development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing springs to mind at the moment. In terms of development, there are always challenges of doing things faster and cheaper, but that’s not entirely specific to Light-it. Additionally, we’ve been able to work through the challenges we’ve had in the past.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would just say to have a clear and well-defined brief on what you’re looking to achieve. I think Light-it is quite competent in terms of understanding requirements and developing a team to match that through.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager for a medical software company. We don’t engage in patient-facing activities; we build software for doctors to use in clinics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Light IT?

They custom-built our software — it’s a dosing calculator application that links to electronic medical records (EMRs). It also stores patient info and was built around HIPAA and the Common Security Framework (CSF).

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we started, we had some screenshots of past systems we liked, as well as an Excel file that contained our algorithm for dosing patients. They helped us build version one of the application relatively quickly with limited resources. We were in a hurry to get it out; they were a bit on their own in terms of coming up with the scope, except for the guidance we provided them.

We’ve come a long way since version one; I don’t know how many releases we’ve had in total, but the tool has grown a lot.

The dosing calculator is comprised of two screens and combines certain data sets regarding the patient to arrive at the correct dosage. We’ve also added a feature called that allows providers to ask medical questions to our training providers on staff. It’s a form they submit electronically, and they’re able to hold a conversation in the application. There’s also a dosing report — and our reporting capabilities continue to expand. Light IT is currently working on an inventory feature, and, obviously, since the tool is built around HIPAA and CSF, we have two-factor verification, automatic lock-out, and account notifications.

What is the team composition?

Our original contact is no longer with the company, and we’re currently working with a provider named Yuri. I check in with him every day; I don’t know what I would do without him.

How did you come to work with Light IT?

I previously worked with another company, and one of the project managers at that company moved to Light IT. They were a good group of people that we thought would be a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent upwards of $250,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since February 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We receive reports from Jira, but the biggest metric we have is that our product didn’t exist before Light IT, and two other companies we worked with weren’t able to develop it either. It’s a complicated project, and Light IT was the first company to ever be able to help us. And they did it quickly, as well.

Most other dosing calculators aren’t user-friendly, and we’ve gotten great feedback on it. They’ve successfully built an API with an EMR company to cut down on the “negatives” about using a supplementary tool in conjunction with an EMR. Their work has proven to work out for us long term.

How did Light IT perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira integrated with Clockify and GitHub. We’ve had two project managers since we started with Light IT, and we’ve liked both of them. We couldn’t do it without them, and especially Yuri. He’s been the best fit by far.

He keeps everything organized for us, including the Jira backlog and our Scope, which lives in Google Drive. The estimates are also easily accessible for our executives, who may not have the time to get into the weeds. They do what works for their team and they also help us attain the transparency we need.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Light IT does their best to do whatever we ask for, even if it involves some scope creep or is a bit stressful for them.

Hands-down, they’re the best at shifting priorities and incorporating new asks into the scope. They do whatever is necessary to meet our needs, even if it means telling us what we’re asking for isn’t possible and developing an alternative. They go out of their way to come up with a plan of action that’s feasible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Communication can be an issue and cause delays at times. It’s rare that it impacts their understanding of the scope, but it has happened.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go into the project knowing what you want and having some sort of plan. Light IT is good at making suggestions, but it will be faster if you know what you want.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CTO for a cybersecurity startup. We help companies to improve their cybersecurity posture.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to develop a POC for training platform. Aimed to develop a platform in a very short period if time while having no compromises with security.

SOLUTION

How did you select Light IT and what were the deciding factors?

Shortlisted 5 companies, did an internal tender.

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

Had a planning week. We provided majority of mockups.

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

Light-IT team consisted of PM, 1 back, 1 front and 1 QA. Back - Python Django. Front - React. PM - used Jira. Very structured with sprints, they follow Agile Scrum methodology.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have successfully launched a POC platform and started getting traction on the market.

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

Had weekly standups with the team and pretty much daily communication with PM. Used Jira to create tasks and manage hours.

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

Their structure. Great job by PM and the team, conducting meetings and keeping everyone accountable. Great communication by the team as well, always keen to make the best job possible.

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

There is always room for improvement, but nothing specific worth mentioning here.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a Biomedical startup specialized in Next Generation Sequencing and Analysis.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our goal was to build a scalable, robust cloud computing based solution, that would be able offer multiple complex services online, including e-commerce and high performance computing.

SOLUTION

How did you select Light IT and what were the deciding factors?

We began communications with LightIT 6 months before project start time since we were doing other work in parallel.

When it was time for the project to begin our communications were extremely professional and fast and we felt that LightIT was flexible and understanding to our functional, legal, and financial needs.

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

Work was conducted in 2-3 week sprints, with clear long term plan and ongoing flexibility from one sprint to the next.

Due to the high complexity of the project both sides benefited from an iterative process where we feel we got the best functionality/time/cost balance for the work.

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

We had a team of 8 people working with us across the different project requirements. Communication was extremely good, with great reporting and clear overview of the progress.

All questions were answered from both sides, and no loose ends were ever left in the process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Project was completed as expected, on time and on budget, with technical specifications even better that the original requested profile. Product is continuing into user testing phase. To our mind the project was completed successfully with excellent quality.

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

Project management team was great with constant communication. Tools used included Email, Slack, Google docs, Zoom, Google meetings, Figma, etc.

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

Flexibility, quality, and responsiveness. We always felt that the project team was working on our behalf and our tight collaboration produced excellent results.

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

No significant points here. Every project is complicated, and ours is no different. There were points where there was confusion, mostly on our side.

A complicated project is difficult to run, but LightIT made sure all issues were addressed and excellent discussions with LightIT allowed us to take the best decisions during those challenging moments.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Process Quality Manager at TestFort - an experienced software testing services company. TestFort has been providing a full range of outsourcing software testing services: manual and automated testing, dedicated testing teams, QA and QC support.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

One of our clients wanted to create an AI-enhanced mobile application for facial landmark recognition, analysis, and advanced reporting.

What were your goals for this project?

We realized that such a complex app required strong AI expertise, which is why we reached out to Light IT.

SOLUTION

How did you select Light IT?

There were 2 deciding factors — their technical expertise and transparent communication. Light IT proved themselves as highly skilled machine learning experts and mobile app development professionals.

They clearly understood the demands and were proactive in justifying their approach to choosing between native or cross-platform development. Their clear communication made them stand out from other development companies we spoke with.

Describe the project in detail.

The scope included backend development, mobile development, and AI-engine development. They started from the planning stage, gathering the project requirements, creating app documentation and a prototype, then moved on with the development. They used Python for backend and the app’s machine learning component as well as Flutter for mobile app development.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a backend developer, data scientist, frontend developer, and designer. Project management and QA was covered by our in-house team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team performed well and the app was developed according to the specifications. The project was delivered within the time and budget estimation Light IT provided during our initial negotiations. Our client was more than happy because the app reduced a lot of routine work they used to do earlier.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Light IT used Scrum methodology with bi-weekly sprints. Together, we used Jira for task management, Confluence for documentation, Slack and Zoom for communication, and GitHub for code management

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team’s high technical expertise and clear communication were probably the most impressive things for us. We were constantly updated on the project status and given valuable recommendations throughout the development process.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We enjoyed working with their team and will likely work with them again if a similar project comes our way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company that provides a talent acquisition solution to IT companies. Our product helps automate and streamline the interview and talent alignment skill set process.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Light IT?

We needed a technical partner that could both build our software and improve our ability to deliver value to our clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Light IT provides software and web development services for our talent acquisition solution. Some of the core technologies include Python and React with Google Cloud Platform as our server. We also have a PostgreSQL data synchronization with our CRM. At times, we’ll provide them with UI/UX designs and wireframes to get started, but other times they’ll develop their own designs in response to our requirements.

What is the team composition? 

We work with about 7–8 people, with the main point of contact being their Denis C. (Business Development Manager). The rest of the team consists of back- and frontend developers, a UI/UX designer, a QA engineer, and a project manager, and an account manager. Their CTO acts as our strategy officer.

How did you come to work with Light IT?

I found LightIT by looking at the top outsourced software development companies on Upwork. Denis was genuine and authentic when I spoke with him, and his company’s technical experience aligned with our technology roadmap.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, it’s been roughly $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall, I just have really good feedback. They’re a great team that writes quality code, and I highly recommend them.

How did Light IT perform from a project management standpoint?

The way they use Jira is excellent. They provide continuous updates and are transparent and detailed in their reporting for every invoice. The cost estimates at the beginning align with the development results, too. When it comes to meeting deadlines, they exceed expectations. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve always felt that they’re aligned with delivering good quality value because they care about their clients’ success. The team is dedicated to being a part of something — when I spoke with their developers, it seemed like they all wanted to be a part of something big and to work on a cool project. These are professionals who are excited to be working with us. All of these components have created a good experience for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve done everything excellently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It can be hard to know what your requirements are when you’re figuring them out as you go. But, if you can provide better requirements, then you’ll see a better output.

I’d also recommend people to go on Upwork and interview the top companies in the service you’re looking for to create a shortlist and then vet them from there. That can help you decide which provider is the right fit.