New Line Technologies

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Since 1979, Evan-Moor Educational Publishers has provided educators with practical, creative, and engaging PreK–8 materials to support and enrich the core curriculum. We strive to produce educational materials that are aligned with current standards and best educational practices—and with student interests and motivations. We pride ourselves on our ability to create products that not only build and reinforce basic and complex skills, but that develop a curiosity about the subjects in which those skills are taught.

I am in charge of all technology product development and IT services. I've been with Evan-Moor since 1998.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire New Line Technologies, and what were your goals?

Our subscription based online application, Teacherfilebox.com was released in 2011. The site was not mobile friendly, had very poor SEO, and due to being a single-page application had very little analytics. We made the decision in 2021 to retrofit the web site.

SOLUTION

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

We have been working with Newline Technologies for 12 years. No matter what the challenge, Andrew and his team of extremely talented developers and project managers pull through one-time and under budget. I would never think of looking anywhere else.

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

I submitted mockups of the project to NLT for budget considerations, benchmark dates, and possible launch dates. Once we had the budget approved, NLT began back-end work and brought on a front-end developer to work through making the site responsive and mobile friendly. We had key benchmark dates to kick off internal testing, and then company-wide testing. We launched on-time, and within budget.

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

This particular project has:

• 2 full-stack developers
• a project manager
• a front-end developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site retrofit was launched on-time and on-budget less than two weeks ago. We now have analytics as well, so site traffic and click-throughs will become more apparent as time goes on. The team continues to support the launch with post-launch refinements, and will carry on support into the future.

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

Daily check-ins using Google Chat, Skype, emails, and calls. Case management is through Slack. The lines of communication are always on.

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

No matter the project objectives, Newline Technologies endeavored to find the absolute best solution. They are also there long past the launch to continue with support, and make improvements as technologies evolve. Additionally, due to our long-standing relationship, they know our customer base, our business, and our in-house personnel.

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

As with any release, post-launch fixes are a part and parcel when you're in the technology industry. This is a shared responsibility though. As our relationship continues to evolve, we are always striving to improve our testing environment, our communication techniques, and our development methodologies together.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner and CEO of IT-Services company. We provide custom software development services to the variety of businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire New Line Technologies, and what were your goals?

We had an urgent need to run and deliver a project in the area of event management for US market. The goal was to make an MVP in 2 months and then a full functioning product in the following 6 months.

SOLUTION

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

NLT was selected as they had relative experience in their portfolio and project estimate was in-line with the estimate we had internally. Also, while discussing the possible solutions we have been on the same page and tech solutions we were thinking of were aligned.

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

After we have signed all the papers we made a kick off meeting, outlined all stakeholders and agreed on the process work. We had Product ownership and requirements owner on Efisco side and delivery team and tech management on the NLT side. 1st Step was MVP and proof of a concept. 2nd step was developing wide functionality to allow end users to fully operate with the platform. The technologies were used: Laravel as the back end, React as the front end. The whole setup is running on AWS. MySQL was used as the BD.

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

A team of 5 people was delivering.

• Team Lead / Back-End developer
• 2x Middle Back End developers (Laravel)
• 1 QA
• 1 DevOps

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have successfully managed to deliver MVP in December 2021 and launched the whole project on the 1st week of June 2022. All the projected features were implemented and release was very smooth. Well tested and carefully set under AWS hood.

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

Mutually, we agreed to use the following set of tools: Trello as the Kanban board and issue tracker Confluence as doc management Clockify as time management and billing. We worked using Agile like style with 2 weeks sprints, dailies, retros and proper sprints planning. We are confident with the result as we have been part of the process all the time.

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

We were impressed with their agility, flexibility, proficiency, and transparency in all project stages.

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

Well, you can always find how to do everything better. But if NLT keeps to the current standards they have, Efisco would definitely use them again and again.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a business called Welcome Travel AI Inc. We’re a venture-backed startup, and we’ve created a mobile app that has been featured by the New York Times, Apple, and a bunch of other services.

We’ve created a tool that allows other people to find the best recommendations when exploring their city or traveling.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with New Line Technologies?

We were working on mobile development when we hired New Line Technologies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

New Line Technologies acts as an outsourced mobile development team for us. They do native mobile app development and I’ve been working with them for about three years. 

In terms of processes, we've provide design and backend API documentation, and they build the mobile client. Regarding features, the app has mapping, videos, and social user sign-up. It also has deeper technologies on the server-side that we send data to — we take advantage of the most modern app frameworks available.

Additionally, they build everything from a very detailed spec using Swift, and the app is exclusively available for iOS.

Their efforts also include QA for reviewing code and doing tests.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about 5–6 people from their team over three years, including mobile developers.

How did you come to work with New Line Technologies?

We found them through a reference.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $500,000–$1 million with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2018, and the engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They're an incredible team that builds great tech — their technology has been featured by New York Times, Apple, and TechCrunch! They helped us make the courses, and without them, we wouldn't have been able to build what we've built.

How did New Line Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very vocal and great overall; we have effortless communication and support with them. Regarding tools, we use Zoom, email, and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're an incredible team, and I think they're fair with their pricing. They also adapt to our needs; we can scale up and down effortlessly with them, and we appreciate that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything they can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be specific with your wants and needs — the more specs and details you have, the better the results. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the co-founder and Director of Strategy, we are building a blockchain based super-app for sub-Saharan African countries

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire New Line Technologies, and what were your goals?

New Line Technologies has excellent and diligent senior developers across the whole stack, they came recommended via our CTO. They would be involved in the implementation of the full stack, from mobile through to the backoffice. Since then we have also used them for web development, as well as smaller and highly technical adjunct projects.

SOLUTION

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

They came recommended word-of-mouth, and then after giving them some pilot projects, we incorporated them into our team a lot more closely, including bringing on board their senior analyst and QA team. Following a successful implementation of our pilot, we scaled the team out.

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

They have used predominantly Microsoft ASP.NET technologies and the C# language, although also across the front-end they are familiar with a multitude of new and established technologies - mainly React, HTML5 and AJAX, Bootstrap. We have also employed them to build out both our apps across both Android and iOS platforms, starting in Java and Objective C but then migrating into Kotlin and Swift technologies

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

17 in total - Senior analyst, Junior analyst a C# fullstack team, two blockchain developers (C++), Testers and QA staff, Front end development staff as well as iOS and Android team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This was a complex and multifaceted project involving many disparate technologies. As well as the core projects (Web frontend, apps, Backoffice) NLT built up a full CI devops and monitoring/logging for this. Generally we found them to be a dedicated and loyal team, that could deliver what we wanted within the timeframe.

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

Our analyst Sergey was excellent, really understood the underlying need for our various requirements, and provided us with a single point of call for the project deliverables and to resolve any issues. The communications started over Whatsapp, but have since migrated to Slack, with integration with Atlassian tools (Jira/Confluence etc). Gitlab is used for CI flows and source management, and a Dockerized infrastructure hosts our devops. Their team has full knowledge across all these development support tools, and will on occasion work weekends to catch up.

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

They communicate well, across the board, and can work within the budget and timelines given. They will even stretch their own time to ensure what is delivered is exactly what we wanted. Their technical skills are excellent and they do know how to approach other issues such as when it is time to refactor or work in more advanced maintenance. They place an emphasis to get good documentation before a project starts, and then all the way through delivery.

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

You will need a design resource to keep them on-cue with design subtleties, as they are very technical but if you need specific look and feel you will need to ensure you provide your own design resource for this

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a fintech company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire New Line Technologies, and what were your goals?

The key challenge was to harness our skills and knowledge to the specifics of the financial industry in general and to its specificities in a particular country. A particular technical challenge was to develop the system as quickly as possible and launch it from almost the first week. To complete the task, we spent a week of continuous work on the project to release POC (Proof of concept) in Live.

SOLUTION

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

We found them through Clutch after researching various custom web development firms. We liked that they had experience in our industry, and they also offered competitive pricing and had a very professional website.

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

New Line Technologies team developed the platform from scratch. Based on the existing core, they implemented all the features, including onboarding, compliance, and blacklists/anti-money laundering checks.

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

We are working with a team of 6 people. They are experts in work with Azure, .Net Core, Angular, ASP.NET, MSSQL and C#.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My general feedback is that they were really adept when it came to understanding complex requirements, and adapting to existing systems. I am also encouraged by their exceptional design and stable and reliable coding.

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

New Line Technologies performs very well, and they have delivered on every milestone on time. They have great availability and transparent communication. Additionally, they always look for ways to support their customers and ensure their satisfaction. They provide us with reports whenever we need them. Everything works great. We use, JIRA, Confluence and Slack

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

Most importantly, they’ve taken ownership of the project, are quick to address concerns, and have proactively addressed any issues. That’s why we’ve been so successful. They’ve structured the project, so we stay on track to meet our goals.

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

In terms of improvement on New Line Technologies sides, there is practically none. I’m more than happy to continue doing business with them for the foreseeable future.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a bespoke business software consultancy based in the UK

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire New Line Technologies, and what were your goals?

We are well established in web development but for mobile and some of the unique integration requirements this project required, we needed specialist assistance which New Line offered.

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed many vendors but the experience, communication and general attitude of all the New Line employees shone through immediately.

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

The project required integration from an iPad app to industrial based weighing scales. The integration was via bluetooth through to an RS232 dongle that was connected to the various scales at various sites.

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

5 developers, all at senior levels.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After prototyping and launching at site one, our client demonstrated the applicant to many of their clients and the solution is now installed at the majority of main retail towers across London where waste recycling and management reporting is now a mainstay.

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

We used online chat/screen sharing/video calls and emails. The project initially was agile with daily catch-ups and prioritisation/testing.

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

Their tenacity and can-do attitude are impressive - this project was a challenge with many disparate technologies coming together.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Superfy, a startup that offers an iOS application that allows users to ask questions about any topic. The app connects you to a relevant person to answer it in real-time, and users receive their answers in a live chat. It’s the only place online where you can get live answers from real people in just 20 seconds.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with New Line Technologies?

We needed someone to develop our iOS app. We had one, but it was built in C++, so it wasn’t smooth enough.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

New Line developed our iOS app from scratch in Swift to ensure it supported a large scale of users. It was a very complex AI-based technology, so there were a lot of challenges to make it work properly and run fast. It had a lot of animations and add-ons that were more sophisticated than the regular iOS app.

The first phase was to rebuild the application from scratch. Once it was up and running, they sent us the main challenges or things they had to do overtime. First, we talked about dealing with bugs because the app was working slowly and was complicated to use.

Then, New Line did some code refactoring to make the software easier to understand. We talked about the logic and added new features. Additionally, they had to rebuild the architecture, migrate to a local database, and work around navigation within the app a few times.

As far as technologies, it was written in Swift, but they’ve also used Realm, AWS, Firebase, AppsFlyer, and so on. It looks like a chat app, but it can do a live chat. Users have their profiles, in which they have a profile gallery and can share the app. We have plans to do the Android version, and they do maintenance on an ongoing basis.

What is the team composition?

We have two iOS developers and a project manager. For specific issues, another developer helps us, and we’ve also used some of their designers.

How did you come to work with New Line Technologies?

We received a very warm recommendation from another Israeli startup that’s worked with them. They said they did quality work and delivered fast.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay $3,500–$4,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We currently have 300,000 users on the app, which are primarily from the US. Also, user feedback has been good; we haven’t received complaints. We’re rated 4.6 in the App Store with over 9,000 ratings.

We had a lot of bugs throughout the year, but most of them were fixed immediately. We used to have many more crashes on the app, but now 97% of the users have a crash-free app experience. There were a few more complicated bugs, and New Line’s team was very adamant about finding the problem and solving them.

How did New Line Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re always very proactive. They don’t wait for us to complain or raise issues — they monitor it themselves.  The team provides good estimates and sticks to the schedule. They also check from time to time to make sure everything is working correctly. Overall, they’re professional, and their service is excellent.

We mainly use Telegram to communicate, but we also have Zoom calls. Their English is really good, and they’re always very responsive — even on weekends if there’s something urgent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the developers is good. We’ve worked with other outsource companies, but their developers weren’t as professional. New Line is very committed — it’s important to them that we’re satisfied.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes we feel they’re not as familiar with something, so they try to learn it quickly. Their team needs to continue to learn new technologies.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about your targets and needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT manager at CCF Centro Commerciale GmbH, a wholesaler of commercial Fiat transporter cars. Our customers are mostly business customers. We’re not only a seller of cars, but we also have a service station to have your car repaired, replace your tires, have an oil change, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with New Line Technologies?

We had a lot of different projects and our IT department was too small to meet the needs, so we decided to outsource our projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have four different projects. We built an online webshop where we offer specific cars and our customers can order the cars directly for special conditions that are much better than if they placed an order in our company directly.

Another project is to build a mobile application for our customers. The application tracks if any customers are in the range of our service stations. If we have a service station, we can create special offers and push notifications to our customers via this app. The notification targets them that if they come right now, we can change their oil for half the price, for example. The mobile app is not started. We have three other projects though.

Before we hired them, we had a very big project and it took almost three years for us to do. One of our projects with New Line Technologies is to renew this big project. We’re not yet done but the estimation of this project is much faster than if we made it ourselves.

What is the team composition?

There’s one developer and one UX/UI designer for one project we have. Our UI/UX designer is the same designer for all projects. I’m in contact with five developers and designers. I’m also in contact with Serhii (CEO) and a technical architect.

How did you come to work with New Line Technologies?

We found them on Clutch and looked at a few companies. We were looking at Ukraine because I came from Ukraine. I’m often there and I know there are a lot of good developers there for cheaper money than we’d pay here in Germany. New Line Technologies left the best impression and we felt they were the best choice for us. The other two were also good but they were better.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about €30,000–€40,000 (approximately $35,000–$47,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2019 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re very satisfied with the quality of their work. I’m very happy with them. Since using them, projects have gone faster.

How did New Line Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We make calls in Microsoft Teams or Google Hangouts and share our display.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the software is much better than it was. It’s also much cheaper and faster.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not every developer communicates at the same level. If we have to communicate with the director of our company, who doesn’t speak Ukrainian or Russian, we communicate with them in English. It’s not really a problem or something they need to improve, but communicating in English is a bit harder in general.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

 the manager responsible for the clients relations and projects success

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire New Line Technologies?

We’ve got a request for the team extension to speed-up mobile banking app development both for iOS and Android. For this particular project, the client-consultant has decided to go with Native App development, and we addressed this request to our partner New Line Technologies as we have great experience working with them previously.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for development firm with a proven track record to join a team and speed-up the development regarding pretty tight terms.

SOLUTION

How did you select New Line Technologies?

We have already worked with New Line on another app development project before and were satisfied with the work they have done.

Describe the project in detail.

From the very beginning, we were looking for the trust partner who can dedicate developers in a fast manner. In this project, the client kept management on his side and New Line devs were integrated in a bigger team.

What was the team composition?

From time to time the team composition varies from 2 up to 5 developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a client’s project and New Line provided a team extension for the specific stage to speed-up development to reach deadlines. New Line devs were integrated to the existing team, and we’re satisfied with the onboarding speed and their project involvement.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

In this project, the client kept management on his side and New Line devs were integrated in a bigger team. I got a positive feedback only.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

New Line was able to provide skilled developers in a short span of time and the onboarding process was amazingly fast.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They are clearly understand their strengths and areas where they need to push more. I like it and highly recommend New Line Tech.