Naissus technologies

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm co-founder of PianoCal, a CRM and appointment/schedule management web app for piano technicians.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Naissus to add new functionality and implement many improvements to our web app. They performed all updates and maintenance to the app as it was used live in production for over six years.

SOLUTION

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

We selected Naissus after meeting in-person with Djordje and finding him to be a capable and trustworthy partner.

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

Naissus reworked the algorithm for calculating when clients are due for service and callbacks, streamlined the application setup in Azure and tuned it for better performance, improved the client self-booking workflow, resolved issues with email reminders and technician scheduled time-off in the calendar, and resolved various other issues that came up from clients and in response to changes to the Azure platform itself.

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

We had a team of 3 initially and later worked primarily with one developer when we were more in maintenance mode.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been able to support our subscriber base thanks to the efforts of the Naissus team.

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

Djordje endeavors to keep his clients well-informed of project status and flags scheduling issues if they occur. We used the Microsoft platform for code repo and feature tracking/issue management; communication was done primarily via email and Skype.

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

They had a great work ethic and a sincere desire to see their clients succeed.

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

As a smaller client with intermittent requests, particularly in the later maintenance phase of the project, it sometimes took extra time to fit us in. Djordje generally kept us well informed to set expectations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

HLF Briskeby is a nonprofit organization working with the rehabilitation of clients with otological disorders, and the education of professionals as to how a work friendly environment can be facilitated for hard-of-hearing colleagues/employees/students. I originally worked as a speech-to-text reporter (STTR) but am now engaged as a project manager in many projects related to accessibility.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Naissus to help us develop new STTR software. Our goals are to provide STTRs with an easy and affordable way to transmit captioned text wirelessly to hard-of-hearing clients present in the same room as the STTR.

SOLUTION

How did you select Naissus technologies and what were the deciding factors?

We selected Naissus mainly due to their honest and sheer interest for our concept, something other potential developers were lacking. They also gave a realistic but fair ballpark estimate early on in the hiring process.

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

The initial goal was to build a proof-of-concept for wireless text transmission using Bluetooth, something Naissus delivered quite quickly. Naissus then began implemented desired STTR tools, key tools being macros (the ability to turn few keystrokes into full words or sentences) and the ability to use multiple macro lists simultaneously.

Naissus also implemented multi-captioning tools early on, meaning up to 9 people can use Blåtolk at the same time from the same machine. Privacy is important for the clients of this solution; Naissus added PIN protection to prevent irrelevant third-parties from accessing on-going STTR sessions - a very welcome feature. Blåtolk is a Windows exclusive application built using the .NET framework, with Winforms used as the GUI library for building the user interface.

Naissus built receiver applications for both iOS and Android to receive the text transmitted from the Windows application. Bluetooth is the technology used to transmit text to receiver apps on clients' smart phones.

More technologies for transmission were planned, but we did not receive financing to do so, so the implementation of those are therefore currently on hold.

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

There were 5 people in the core team. All members of the team are software developers, both front-end and back-end. Djordje Mitic, the CEO of Naissus, is the architect behind the solution. He was our direct contact during development, and continues to be so. Miodrag Radojkovic was the development lead at Naissus, and communicated with us in later stages of the development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sadly, the corona pandemic has lead to a rapid and comprehensive change in how captioned text is delivered to clients. Blåtolk is designated for on-site captioning for clients and is not enabled for web-based transmission of captioned text - whereas now, most STTRs use web-based solutions due to having to work from home.

We have seen some usage and benefits among the target group of our solution, but not nearly enough as we had hoped for. This is of course to the aforementioned force majeure.

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

We communicated and continue to communicate mostly through Skype. We have also used the job procurement platform UpWork to communicate, but mostly for handing over documentation during the early stages of development. Naissus uses GitLab as their DevOps tool and git repository. This platform has also been the de facto project management tool, but we at HLF Briskeby are not comfortable with using GitLab for this purpose and have mostly conducted project updates through Skype and emails.

The team is small, so requests and feedback given to the architect or development lead have reached all members of staff quite quickly, along with a potential fix for any given problems.

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

Due to the corona pandemic, Naissus at times only one person designated to work on the project but still managed to deliver a beta as promised.

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

Solely from a design perspective, a different framework should have been considered more thoroughly, as we feel the look of Winforms makes the end product look a bit old-fashioned. We hope Naissus will consider adding more UI/UX designers to their ranks to part-take in the front-end development and digital marketing of future projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a nonprofit organization that focuses on public health.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Naissus technologies?

We needed timely software development for a COVID-19-related product, and we were not able to source the developers we needed internally or domestically.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Naissus technologies developed a web-based application for helping with COVID-19-related calls, making sure that they were captured for a callback by the health system. The team worked with Google Sheets and Microsoft-related software. 

What is the team composition?

I've worked directly with Djordje (CEO), and my team collaborated with 2-3 of his developers. 

How did you come to work with Naissus technologies?

My colleague found them, so I was able to get on a call with them. They were very responsive, and I personally was able to speak to Djordje. I found him to be an authentic person and responsive; he was able to help us in a pinch. 

How much have you invested with them?

I invested about $30,000 in the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together for six months, starting in March 2020 all the way through September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I thought they did a good job. Naissus technologies worked well with my technology team. As a vendor, they did everything that was asked of them and delivered everything in a timely manner. From a deployment point of view, situations that didn't work or the times when we had problems were not on their team; it was on our team. 

How did Naissus technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was one of their strengths. We used Slack, Jira, emails, Zoom, and Skype to communicate. Djordje was a good project manager because his team worked on the decided budget and delivered what they said they would on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The responsiveness of the team was great, and the interpersonal relationships that we formed were something I appreciated. Sometimes, technical teams lack the communication skills to match their development knowledge, but with Naissus technologies, it wasn’t like that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This has nothing to do with the project they worked on. However, they came to us with another project that they wanted us to work with. We worked on the legal and documentation side of it, but then it didn't materialize. We didn’t receive any closure with that. 

Any advice for potential customers?

You can rely on Naissus technologies. They're going to get back to you, letting you know their time and availability.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Bricknode is a SaaS provider within financial business systems and I am the founder, CEO and CIO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Naissus technologies?

Developing various applications on top of our base platform called Bricknode Financial Systems. The projects have been varying with regards to scope but mostly we have worked with .NET C# and WebAPI projects with Angular clients.

What were your goals for this project?

Various administrative applications to manage financial administration of securities, investment funds, currencies etc.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We searched on various sites for vendors that showed an interest in our projects and where we could find experience within financial technology.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We provided detailed specifications for projects during the start where we specified both business requirements and technical design. During the years we have been able to make the technical specifications lighter as the team has learned more about our platform and our API.

What was the team composition?

The team ranged from 1 people projects to 7 people projects with back end and front end developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been able to launch several applications in our Marketplace at Bricknode that solves many problems for our customers in an efficient manner. Both within regards to financial regulations and administrative matters.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The projects were managed in JIRA/Confluence with specifications written with Axure.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The speed of how quickly projects could be started and teams assembled according to our needs with very short notification was impressive as well as great access to people during and outside of the regular workday.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not very much, as long as the requirements are detailed and domain knowledge given everything works great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a precious metals marketplace. We connect with precious metal dealers and shop out orders for retail distributors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Naissus technologies?

I hired their team to work on our retail platform and portions of the core system. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Naissus technologies provides full-stack development. They run the full spectrum of the software development lifecycle. We start with requirements gathering before moving to design specifications and architecture overview. Naissus technologies then implements the front- and backend. After that comes long-term maintenance and ongoing iterations on the various platforms that we have.

The front- and backend are built in .NET. We also use MySQL and have a proprietary service-oriented architecture that we use throughout our platform.

What is the team composition?

The team has fluctuated from 8–14 people. When we have 14, they’re working on 2–3 projects under the direction of senior teammates.

How did you come to work with Naissus technologies?

I’ve been using Djordje (CEO / Owner) and his team for a very long time. I found him on Upwork back when it was called Elance. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $3.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in September 2010 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve done remote development for decades, and I usually have a lot of problems dealing with remote schedules. Naissus technologies doesn’t have a 9-to-5 attitude; they’re there any time, day or night. That’s really important to me because they support several of our critical production systems, particularly on the retail side. 

How did Naissus technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very professional, prompt, and easy to work with. Because they’re incredibly intelligent and we’ve been working together for so long, I can have a 30-minute conversation with their team and they’ll take it away.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I admire their general competence, methodology, and skill set. Above all, it’s that Naissus technologies is there. They’re more of a partner than a vendor. They care about my business, and it’s reflected in their behavior.

Are there any areas they could improve?

To be frank, I tried to use their frontend developers 2–3 years ago, and I think they were just developing those skills. But I haven’t seen their work for other people or their skills in that area since then. They may have improved.

Any advice for potential customers?

I strongly recommend them. Djordje is incredibly intelligent, competent, and easy to work with.