Nareia

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Solutions ITW LLC, a software development company in South Carolina. We’ve been in business for 19 years this past May. We create POS software specifically for the thrift industry. Currently, our primary client is a large thrift store.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nareia?

I wrote the application in 2005, 19 years ago, so it wasn’t written with 2024 in mind. We had done a lot of hacks along the way to ensure it was enterprise-level. Since it wasn’t designed to be enterprise-level, it was difficult to maintain, update, and ensure everybody stayed on the same version.

We sat down with our development team and discussed what we needed to do to get where we needed to be. We came up with a list of work that needed to be done and realized we didn’t have the bandwidth in-house to do it.

We had to choose between looking for software developers, reviewing, onboarding them, and hoping they worked out, or finding a team online that was already vetted or approved. Ultimately, we decided to head down that path and look for a vendor.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Nareia has rewritten our application using C# in the Xamarin framework. The app stores all the data locally in JSON files, which flows to our SQL central server using a Ubuntu-based web server using PHP API. Then, we push all the data into Azure’s Power BI platform.

They’ve strictly worked on development; we handle the design in-house.

What is the team composition?

We initially had 6–7 developers assigned to the project, but the current team is different.

How did you come to work with Nareia?

I found Johann (Co-Founder & CTO) on Upwork, and we verified them together. We initially discussed what Nareia was able to provide. It was difficult to see what they had done because we couldn’t test it. We could ask for a reference, but it could’ve been someone’s brother. There was no way to know if they would work out, so I based my decision on Johann’s technical prowess.

We established a rapport and camaraderie, and I believed that if he could speak well, understand the business problem I was presenting, and get along with me, we could accomplish great things. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in May 2022 and are still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Nareia has lived up to our expectations. In software development, you have a person designing the solution, a person writing the code, a person doing the tests, and a person rolling it out. Nareia does the writing, but it’s a team effort between the writing and the testing to ensure the quality gets out the door.

We initially had a 70% bug or rework rate with Nareia because our QA wasn’t solid. Our QA got stronger, and now we’ve cut that down in half. We’re under a 35% bug rate.

How did Nareia perform from a project management standpoint?

We do the project management; they don’t do it for us. However, Nareia can solve problems even if we put them through challenging situations. Nikolai (Software Engineer) and Felipe (Xamarin Developer) do a good job of figuring out how to fix issues, and Alexander (.NET and Mobile Developer) does a great job running the team. We also have a DevOps manager, but Alexander manages the developers, keeping everybody on the same page and accomplishing what we need to get done.

Moreover, one of the things we appreciate the most is that Nareia has been willing to come into our communications environment. We can speak to them during the day like they’re part of the team. We can talk to Johann, Diego (Co-Founder), or Alexander; it doesn’t matter. They join us for our meetings, and we don’t have to send an email and wait for the response. We just send it through Slack because they’re part of our ecosystem.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Alexander, Nikolai, and Felipe have done a tremendous job for us. Moreover, Johann started the entire engagement and occasionally steps in. When we changed our leadership, he stepped in for 1–2 months to lead the team. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have other contractors working for us in other areas, and Nareia’s professionalism distinguishes them. Not to be mean, but many people know how to write code. What sets Nareia apart is that they’re willing to work in our environment and become part of our team.

Overall, they’ve been wonderful to work with. We really appreciate Nareia.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we first started, the leadership staff was giving Nareia little feedback. They told them the tasks we needed to complete, but the quality was terrible. I looked at our leadership and asked them if they were giving Nareia feedback about the quality we wanted. However, they were telling Nareia that they were doing great because they got everything done quickly.

When that leadership left, we came on board and told Nareia that the bugs had to go away. We still loved them, and they fit within the team, but we started telling them what we expected, and they stepped up to the challenge. It wasn’t that they weren’t doing a good job; they just weren’t getting the feedback on what they could improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you hire a development team to do software development for you, let them run it. If they’re part of your team, you must express what metrics are essential to you. Be clear about what you want and specify when you want it done. Moreover, you must provide the opportunity to give feedback via weekly meetings to discuss where you stand, what isn’t going to work, and what needs to be redesigned.

In general, anybody who works with a development team needs to clearly state what they expect and communicate frequently to ensure they stay on task.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former CEO at Roundit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Nareia?

We needed to outsource development services since we were working with an Indian service provider that didn't meet expectations. Our goal was to keep our mobile app current and bug-free and ensure users were happy. We also wanted to add channels for different causes to the app to increase incoming donations and round-ups. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Nareia scoped UI/UX design and web and API development services. The team also supported the redesign of our mobile app. We had a series of meetings to define the scope of work and set up a general cadence where we listed out our business priorities. The team used C++, .NET, Microsoft Azure, Angular, and TypeScript during the project.

The team focused most of their work on current builds, and the other part focused on future needs. Nareia made customization that made it possible to start building future work. We were looking at different payment and donation options to integrate a functionality to the app, and Nareia supported us in that. 

What is the team composition?

Johann (Co-Founder) was our main point of contact, and when he got too busy Nareia assigned us a different senior engineer. We also worked with a UX designer.

How did you come to work with Nareia?

Our company's CTO found Nareia through a work community, and we ended up engaging with the team long-term.
How much have you invested with them?

We spent close to $50,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Nareia from August 2020–April 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Nareia's work, our app's bugs went down, and the uptime increased, which was a huge success metric for us. The quality of Nareia's work was high and exceeded our expectations. 

The team went above and beyond and offered different budget and outcome options for us to choose from instead of trying to sell us the most expensive service like other service providers usually did. Nareia let us choose our future and how we wanted to shape and revise the engagement. We weren't their biggest client, but they never made us feel like we were. 

How did Nareia perform from a project management standpoint?

The project's budget was fluid because we kept giving Nareia more work. The team delivered work on time, and if they were blocked, the team told us why they were blocked. In one instance, I had to escalate an issue to Johan because the first engineer assigned to our account wasn't helpful. Johan quickly replaced that teammate with a different engineer who properly supported our business, which was great.

We had weekly status meetings with Nareia to track work. We also had a Slack channel to communicate with the team and help them resolve blockages as soon as possible. In these meetings, we discussed features we wanted to build in the future and received feedback from the team. We also collaborated with Nareia via Jira, and the team had access to our GitHub repository.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Our UX designer's work was amazing and provided a lot of support. She went above and beyond for our UX requirements and was thoughtful and able to pull out knowledge from other experiences, being a key member of our project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by Nareia's responsiveness, which was always really high. The team was great at communicating and ensuring we were on target.

Are there any areas they could improve?
Johan was great at making us feel like our business was important, and when other leaders were placed to lead our project, we lost that feeling a bit. However, Johan was quick to correct the course of the project. 

Additionally, working with a service provider from a different country who isn't fluent in the client's language made the project challenging at times. Sometimes, language barriers slowed our work, and we had to allocate a teammate fluent in Spanish to resolve the issue that needed to be unblocked.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Climatize Earth, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Climatize is a platform where everyone can invest in climate change action.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Nareia to accomplish?

• Launch a beta version of our mobile application with support for donations, to gather early user feedback
• Launch the MVP of our application with investment support, incorporating beta user feedback.

SOLUTION

How did you find Nareia?

Referral

Why did you select Nareia over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Nareia were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

When you engagement started with Nareia, we had a codebase which we had purchased for a different mobile app, which had functionality which was very similar to what we wanted to launch, although with a different look and feel. The first deliverable from Nareia was to refresh this app with our branding, remove any extraneous functionality, re-wire existing donations functionality to use our own corporate accounts, and launch a beta app with these changes. 

The second major deliverable was to launch v1.0 release of our app with a totally re-vamped UI, support for our users to invest via the app, while making sure that all compliance rules were met. Creating a UX/UI design which took into account our target user base, desired tone of voice, and the functionality required for v1.0 and beyond was a critical milestone of this deliverable.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Nareia was able to meet all the objectives of the various deliverables on time and with extremely high quality. The beta app launch enabled us to show early users a portion of our vision for the future. We were able to gather critical feedback from users around usability, tone of voice, and specific feedback on some of the more challenging flows through our app. 

Furthermore, launching the beta app sent a strong signal to the VC/angel investor community that we were capable of executing to our vision and launch a user facing app which led to multiple new investments in our company. The redesign of our app in preparation for the launch of our 1.0 release accurately captured the tone, and design needed by our target audience while also accounting for all the government regulations we had to comply with. 

We continually hear from our current users about how beautiful our app is, and all of this is due to the skills and attention to detail of the Nareia team. The 1.0 launch itself was extremely well received by our target audience. The UI was simple and intuitive, and the app itself was very responsive and stable. 

This has led to us raising $1.4M from our users in the first 6 months of launching the app, beating our company goals for the year. I attribute this success to the hardworking and meticulous designers, engineers, and management at Nareia! They've been great to work with.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

During our initial scoping of our project and the work required we worked directly with their CTO. He dove into our mission and use cases to get a deep understanding, and was able to help make many critical product and technical decisions to make sure that we could deliver the functionality needed in time, and on budget. 

Once we started executing to our plans, we worked with a Technical Lead/Manager. He helped translate the project into granular milestones and sprint deliverables. He was very responsive to my management style and expectations of how the sprints should be run, and we quickly found a rhythm of operation which both companies were happy with. 

When there were resource, or technical issues, our lead was extremely responsive to understanding my perspective of the issue, suggesting potential solutions, and then executing rapidly to implement the solution. At times this meant rapid expansion of the engineering team, and in other times it required pivoting our technical approach to account for new learnings.

What was your primary form of communication with Nareia?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The most impressive part of Nareia was how dedicated they were to aligning their team to our goals. This enabled them to create and execute a plan that was very efficient since it responded so closely to what we needed from them. I felt like I was working with my own employees.

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

Can't think of anything to say here. We were a very happy customer.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Revaso

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Revaso, a triple-impact B company whose mission is to offer reusable and returnable food service options for events to avoid the use and disposal of disposable materials.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Nareia to accomplish?

• Adding technology to the service
• Offering immediate feedback solutions to our customers
• Having more metrics on the usefulness of our products

SOLUTION

How did you find Nareia?

Referral

Why did you select Nareia over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Nareia were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Development of an application for the return of our products. Meetings between teams evaluating the possibilities, following all the steps to evaluate usability. Evaluation of possible options and solutions for the implementation of the technological solution. Processes, paths, objectives and tests.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Designs and development of a beta possibility for testing.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Great team work and dedication. Perfect understanding of the objective, and on-time delivery of each of the agreed Processes.

What was your primary form of communication with Nareia?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I was impressed by Nareia's team and their good disposition.

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

Preliminary budgeting of work - number of hours and cost.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of MiHalcon S.A.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

MiHalcon is a drone-based service company, that provide a Autonomous  Flight Drones to security companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Nareia to accomplish?

• An app that interact with control flight system in cloud.
• Challanging implementation deadline

SOLUTION

How did you find Nareia?

Referral

Why did you select Nareia over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Nareia were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Nareia developed Mihalcon app for iOS and Android that allows property owners to receive alerts and monitor when a drone service is invoked to surveil his/her property/home. The property owner can see the videos and images of the property in near real-time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Apps ready on time and fully functional

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Nareia is a well-organized software house that keeps projects under control, share advance on time and deliver what they promises on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Nareia?

In-Person Meeting

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

Everything was good.

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

no

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Business Projects Coordinator of Matriz.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Matrix, technical assistance and services. Service center purchased from the ANCAP group

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Nareia to accomplish?

• Take control of the application
• Stabilize the application
• Evolve the application in a quality framework

SOLUTION

How did you find Nareia?

Previous reference

Why did you select Nareia over others?

Background and previous experiences

How many teammates from Nareia were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Versions of the application with new features
• Evidence document
• Stabilization and bug fixes
• Technological update and security

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The results were very good, and the objectives were met. High quality of service and results obtained.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Excellent regarding the technical aspects. It must improve a lot in terms of commercial management.

What was your primary form of communication with Nareia?

Virtual Meeting

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

• The quality of the people, the knowledge, the tools.
• Very specialized resources in each aspect of development (code, testing, UI, PM).
• Their commitment and compliance with dates were impressive.

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

• Commercial management.
• More flexible consulting models that allow scaling and reducing costs.
• Greater adaptation of internal methodologies to client methodologies.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Data Officer of ALLJOY Data

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

ALLJOY Data aligns business processes with technical strategies, architectures, and implementations to help your company achieve its goals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Nareia to accomplish?

• Create a backend content management system
• Create a world class website
• Create a world class mobile application

SOLUTION

How did you find Nareia?

• Online Search
• Upwork

Why did you select Nareia over others?

Very competent and motivated resources

How many teammates from Nareia were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Collaborate with Team to create a world class website and mobile application that will serve the customers of Summit Motorsports Park. 
Key Deliverables 

1. Customer Database 
2. Content management database 
3. Website dynamically driven by content management database 
4. Mobile application dynamically driven by content management database

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Data quality improved from 80% to 99%+ 
• Website has never crashed during a major event
• Website went from mediocre to world-class 
• Delighted Customer

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Delivery was on-time and on-budget

What was your primary form of communication with Nareia?

Virtual Meeting

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

Johann. He is a owner and the best programmer I've ever worked with.

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

We were 100% thrilled with the delivery and budget of this project.