Newsoft

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of a software company. We do mobile app development, e-commerce, and video streaming software.

What challenge were you trying to address with Newsoft?

We've been trying to scale but the demand during COVID-19 clamped up a little. Suddenly, we had an explosion of growth. We were in need of new software engineers to help keep up with specific projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Newsoft engineers to come in and help us scale. Usually, when we first onboard engineers, they do an audit of the code base, and they detect certain things that they think that we could improve upon. Most of their engineers are very self-sufficient and they do fantastic work. Onboarding has been very easy.

One of the projects is a social networking mobile application that we've been working on. We needed help doing some refactoring and building up new features for their Android app. One of the developers has come in, taken a look at everything, and given some good suggestions on things we could do differently or things we could add — that's been very helpful.

Another project we've worked with them on has been an e-commerce startup. They've helped us out with the Python backend rework for that e-commerce system.

What is the team composition?

We started with working with one engineer, and we've expanded to four people working with us at the moment.

How did you come to work with Newsoft?

Normally, we get flooded with outreach emails from people who are trying to sell outsourced development. With Newsoft, the owner reached out to me and I chatted with them.

What stood out was that the owner came from an engineering background. He used to write iOS software. Newsoft’s team are engineers first. They really understand how to build and grow engineering teams. That's really the reason why we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

I think we're coming up on $200,000 at this point.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Newsoft in January 2019 and it’s still ongoing.

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

We started with working with one engineer, and he did such a great job that we immediately asked for more — if I could hire more people from them for specific roles I have open, I would. We haven't had a bad candidate from them yet, and that's almost unheard of in the industry.

How did Newsoft perform from a project management standpoint?

Their engineers were integrated into our team Slack channels. We do asynchronous communication since their time zone is a little bit different. We do a little bit of project organization, planning out tickets ahead of time using Jira to get the sprints organized. While our United States team is sleeping, they've got tickets to do and they can submit all requests through GitHub that we can review the next day and get feedback on. There's also a three-hour window open in the time zones where everybody is online, and that's where we get most of the communication done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From an engineering standpoint, both the consistency and quality of their talent have been perfect. Newsoft integrity is also a standout. We've come across situations where they could have taken advantage of a payment error on our part but they came and talked with us to set things straight.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's nothing on the engineering side. I have recommended them to a bunch of other startups that we work with and they are super happy with them. I shouldn't be giving this review because then other people start using them and then I can't get their engineers.

The only problem that we had is that it's difficult to wire money to Ukraine. It’s a little bit of a hassle figuring that out, but once I got that automated, it was fine. I think it was probably the only difficult thing about the entire thing.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be very upfront with the problems you're trying to solve and let them give you the feedback they need to give you. If you're on the phone with Roman (Python-Dev.) and he recommends you do something or change something, you should trust that because he's probably right.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a consultancy and software development agency that specializes in the gaming industry. We work within the online casino and sports betting arenas with clients located around Europe and America.

What challenge were you trying to address with Newsoft?

We were looking for an Android resource to supplement our team.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Newsoft assigned a Kotlin developer who could assist us with native Android development. We have a lot of technical expertise in-house, so we really only needed a few extra hands to augment us.

What is the team composition? 

I work with Oleh (Android Developer). He’s done a couple of projects, and I’m happy with the quality provided.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Oleh has been working with us since May 2019.

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

Oleh is very committed, professional, and self-organizing. He’s also reliable — that’s what I liked the most.

How did Newsoft perform from a project management standpoint?

We handle the project management ourselves, so they aren’t responsible for that. Although, Oleh is very communicative.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Oleh delivers a high level of code and is fairly autonomous, both of which are good for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m happy overall.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about your requirements. Not thinking things through enough is one of the biggest problems when outsourcing.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am working as a Deputy Head of a public company. Our company is taking care of our district community (Skala-Podilska, Ternopil region). It includes organization interesting events for us, managing some holidays, build playgrounds and recently we have started to develop IT solutions for our community. Our main goal is to increase the level of living inside our community.

For what projects/services did your company hire Newsoft?

Our company noticed that the Skala-Podilska community is very touristy. We have come up with the idea to create an IT solution for that. The main goal is to popularize our city and historical locations around.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to increase the touristy level of our community in an interesting way.

How did you select this vendor?

Actually, we have opened a public tender. Newsoft was one of five companies that were potentially suitable for our needs. We have selected Newsoft because during negotiations they really dived into our idea and come with a few new features for our project.

Describe the project in detail.

This is a travel application that has to encourage tourists to visit the best places in the Skala-Podilska community. The application suggests the range of different places, local excursions, and upcoming events. You can find places in which you are interested, such as history location, nature or even agro. During the trip, you can find a quest with QR-code. Once you scan the code you will get to know the right answer about this location.

Main features:

• Routes. Visit existing routes and create your own with places that you like the most.
• Rating. Raise your own rating by visiting different locations.
• Excursions. It gives a chance to look through possible excursions and order one you are interested in.
• Places to stay. You can easily find out what you need for a comfortable trip and where it is located.

What was the team composition?

4 people. It was two android developers, QA engineer, and UI/UX designer.

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

For sure. We have successfully launched on the Google Play market. Second our success is involving other districts into the project. By this time we have contracted with 3 heads of the district.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team which was assigned to our project was communication and really friendly. In so short period we have become so close. Anyone was set up for quality and fast work. We connected through skype or Telegram at least two times per week.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have impressive experience in Mobile Development. We have managed to prevent a lot of problems before they come. Their team was very proactive and met our strict deadlines.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can not come up with something in particular. Everything was good for me.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're a biotech company strongly active in the agro-food industry. Since its foundation in 1997, we have been developing rapid testing solutions for the food security. We have built a strong expertise in the detection of contaminants by means of a unique multiplexing approach.

For what projects/services did your company hire Newsoft?

To commercialize a new product, we needed a Android application to ease the use of our new device. The main problem was the lack of documentation of the protocol to be able to interface the device with the phone.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to connect the device with the rest of the world and especially with our servers collecting the data. The device was used through an old Windows software and linked to a computer with a USB cable. We wanted to ease the use of the device by allowing the user to control it with its smartphone through a BlueTooth connection.

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a Ukrainian software freelancer on a well-known website because we were already working with a Ukrainian. And by luck, we found out a great professional software engineer working quickly while meeting all our requirements (even if the project was kind of obscure at the beginning but he was very adaptive).

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

He designed and developed a complete Android application using Kotlin and communicating perfectly with our device through Bluetooth or USB. The application is very responsive and easy to use.

What was the team composition?

There was only one software engineer but he did all the job very efficiently. I was the project leader and was telling him what to do but he was also very proactive by proposing many changes which was beneficial to the project.

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

We were able to launch our product and acquire more clients because our device was ahead of the concurrency because of the newly developed application.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It was a one person project but he managed it very efficiently and very professionally.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was very impressed by the proactiveness, flexibility, and ability to work quickly while delivering quality code.

Are there any areas for improvement?

While there is always room for improvement, I can't see one are in particular.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of Lootr, Lootr is a shopping browser that locates the best deals and coupons in real time when.

For what projects/services did your company hire Newsoft?

Newsoft has developed and maintained the the products from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

To develop fully functioning iOS and Android applications

How did you select this vendor?

I interviewed several companies and was impressed with with Volodymir

Describe the project in detail.

The project started with defining both ios and android apps, we moved to development after a month of back and forth about the complexity of the project and what are the ways to resolve them Within 3 months of development we have launched

What was the team composition?

We had ios developer, android developer and backend developer

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

The team was very dedicated, and the communications were fast, the team was able to meet deadlines. Both ios and android app are live in the app stores and have users

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was great, we used asana as task and bug manager

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I would say their communication and the ability to meet deadlines are impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We had some bugs but mainly it was out fault due to lack or correct product definitions, in any case the team was fats to respond and fix them