Opinov8 Technology Services

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of an audiology company. We produce and sell audiology equipment. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Opinov8 Technology Services?

We’ve hired Opinov8 Technology Services for custom software development. We needed to complete some product development faster than we were capable of doing in-house, so we brought in Opinov8 Technology Services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Opinov8 Technology Services is working on rewriting an existing solution that we have within our current domain. We have had about four updates to our software over the past 25 years, so their team is helping us rewrite the system with modern cloud technology. Key technologies include React, .NET,  and the software runs on Microsoft Azure. 

What is the team composition?

We work with developers and a project manager. 

How did you come to work with Opinov8 Technology Services?

We found Opinov8 Technology Services through a Google search. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about €3 million (approximately $3 million USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure success based on the scope delivery, documentation handover, and quality. We’ve been satisfied overall with Opinov8 Technology Services’ work. 

How did Opinov8 Technology Services perform from a project management standpoint?

They are able to answer questions that we have, and we communicate via Microsoft Teams. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been really impressed with their operating models. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We think they could do a better job of aligning their seniority requirements with clients. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure your scope is crystal clear. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP Technology of LendInvest Plc

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Property finance made simple.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Opinov8 Technology Services to accomplish?

• Augment the team with React engineers, QA's and BA's

SOLUTION

How did you find Opinov8 Technology Services?

• Referral
• Worked with them at a previous company

Why did you select Opinov8 Technology Services over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Talented people

How many teammates from Opinov8 Technology Services were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

The Opinov8 team have worked on a series of key projects as part of the wider engineering team here are LendInvest. This has included front end development of our proprietary technology stack in React for our product engine and calculator service, as well as QA services across many projects including the launch of our broker portal and residential mortgage product.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Launch of our residential mortgage product on time. All website calculators are now powered by the product engine directly and the control centre UI for managing mortgage products.

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

They worked as part of a larger team whose responsibility was to deliver the work in an agile way using Kanban, so Opinov8 weren't solely responsible for the management of the projects they worked on.

What was your primary form of communication with Opinov8 Technology Services?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Access to talented and committed people. Their engineers are excellent, and I have worked with some of them across 2 companies, and for many years. The unwavering commitment to continue to do the best for their clients, even when Russia attacked Ukraine, and the resilience to work under stressful and uncertain conditions - often working late to make up lost hours - was incredible.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Opinov8 Technology Services could have done differently?

With the advent of war, the team has become more geographically dispersed and this is a shame, as it sometimes feels like we are working with a set of individuals from Opinov8 rather than a team. There are pockets of internal collaboration visible within the Opinov8 team, however it would have been good to have more especially across the Egypt and Ukraine teams.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of FDJ Gaming Solutions - UK and the CTO of Sporting Group. We’re merging these two companies, and I will remain the CTO of Sporting Group. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Opinov8 Technology Services?

We hired Opinov8 for development work on multiple platforms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Opinov8 provided our website with a refresh and is continuing to build and add new functionalities. They’ve built and now maintain our app, and provide resources for our gaming system. Key technologies include React on the frontend and .NET on the backend. 

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager, a business analyst, DevOps, and QA individuals. There are other individuals on our team, and we have about 30 people working with us in total. We're also in contact with the founder. 

How did you come to work with Opinov8 Technology Services? 

My company was working with them before I started.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested more than $1.5 million with Opinov8. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any specific metrics, but they’ve been very helpful, and allowed us to continue building a piece of our business without having to go out and find new people.  

How did Opinov8 Technology Services perform from a project management standpoint?

They don’t have the strongest project management. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have good developers, strong technical skills, and they’re flexible. They’re also very helpful and accommodating. They have developers in Ukraine, and even during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, they've continued to show dedication to the project. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We wish they were a bit more proactive and better about bringing issues to us. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you want them to do, and have daily stand-ups to ensure they’re on the right track. It’s true of most developers, but keep checking that they’re doing what you need them to do. If you use them as a development resource, you’ll get tremendous value from them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a manager at a marketing transformation company. I look after all the tools that we use.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Opinov8 Technology Services?

Some of our tools were great for use in a small way but weren’t scalable. We hired Opinov8 to uplift those tools and make them more scalable and available to more people within our business. Part of the challenge was that they’d inherit lousy code and wrong ways of working.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Opinov8 is helping us revamp a number of web tools. They’ve redesigned the entire development process and put together a new UI/UX. The team uses our existing tools to learn what we need. They do all our wireframes and imagery. 

What is the team composition?

I work closely with two people from Opinov8, the project manager and the account manager. Additionally, we also collaborate with business analysts to get through the requirements, the designers to see about the wireframes, and the senior-level developers so I can understand where we are in the project.

How did you come to work with Opinov8 Technology Services?

I’m new to the company, and Opinov8 joined about a month before I did, so I wasn’t involved in the selection process.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around June 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything Opinov8 has delivered has been great so far. The UI/UX they developed is excellent, and it makes a lot more sense. The team is very good at meeting our requirements. When it comes to budgets, they excel at changing team sizes, determining ways of working, and seeing who needs to have what and when. Working with them has been amazing.

Overall, they’ve been incredible. They’re based in Ukraine, and the first day of the Russian Invasion was the first release of my tool — they still delivered. This wasn’t because we were pressuring them; they wanted to deliver, which shows an incredible work ethic. I don’t foresee us stopping our relationship with Opinov8 any time soon. 

How did Opinov8 Technology Services perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good at project management. With any provider, there's a challenge to understand how a company and its people work, which we’ve nailed down by now. For example, although their communication has always been amazing, it wasn’t in the way our company wanted, so the team made changes. 

We work in an Agile fashion with them and use Microsoft Teams and Slack to keep in touch. Overall, Opinov8 has always been transparent and in constant communication throughout.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Opinov8’s way of working is incredible. Many of them have never met each other, and their team camaraderie and morale are amazing. Even though some of them are still in Kiyv, they have a positive attitude all the time. With other providers, sometimes it seems like they’d rather not do the work, whereas Opinov8 will do anything we need them to do. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Due to a language barrier at the start, there may have been misunderstandings about the requirements and timelines. We both could improve in understanding and setting expectations. Our company was very intent on Opinov8 knowing everything very quickly, and that, unfortunately, wasn’t available. I don’t think it’s a negative, though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to get someone in a room with Opinov8 and go through all your wants and requirements. We had a number of workshops with the account manager, which was really beneficial; they were engaged and understood the requirements. Ideally, we would have done the workshops before getting the whole team involved. However, that wasn’t available for us because of the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have the workshop at the start, you can paint a full picture and understand what’s needed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Hastee, an employee payment application. Through our app, we allow people to have access to their money at any time instead of having to wait until payday.

Most employees get paid monthly, but we allow them to receive money weekly or daily if they wish. We believe that they’ve earned that money, so there’s no reason for companies to keep hold of it for the whole month; employees are entitled to receive it whenever they want.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Opinov8 Technology Services?

As we were a four-year-old startup, we didn’t have a technical team to help us with this project. Our founder just had the idea, and we needed to build the technology and the platform to make it real.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Opinov8 created our mobile app and a whole backend platform that helps us manage the employees’ funds, cashouts, monies, earnings, wages, and payroll. They used .NET and AWS and implemented a microservices architecture, using multiple services such as digital wallets and more.

This platform has two sides, so we considered it a B2B2C (business to business to consumer) product. In other words, we engage with the employers to receive the employees’ data, and we also deal with the employees, who ultimately use our product to cash out their money.

What is the team composition?

Opinov8 has a full-service team dedicated to our project. This team consists of 15–20 people, including project managers, designers, backend and frontend developers, mobile app developers, and HR people. We’ve worked very closely with this team as if they worked for us directly.

How did you come to work with Opinov8 Technology Services?

We found them through an acquaintance of their co-founder. Initially, we looked at the market and got proposals from Opinov8 and another company. Rather than just putting a proposal together, Opinov8 wanted to know more about the solution and challenged our idea. They asked very inquisitive questions whereas the other company just gave us the cost, without showing much interest nor challenging our idea in any way.

How much have you invested in them?

I rather keep the cost confidential, but I can say that we’re paying a rate according to the market for a very good service.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2017, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of our most important KPIs is comparing the amount of code created by Opinov8 versus the number of bugs resulting from that code. Less than 10% of the code deployed by them is being pushed back to their developers due to their very strong unit tests.

Opinov8 makes their developers do unit testing so that we’re not constantly going back and forth fixing bugs. They have great work methodologies and an excellent discipline to which the developers adhere.

They’ve also been instrumental in achieving all of the complex integrations that our platform requires, leading to our business transformation. Additionally, their delivery speed has been very good, showing a strong set of skills on their end.

How did Opinov8 Technology Services perform from a project management standpoint?

Opinov8 has daily scrum meetings to which we attend. We’re constantly part of the project and the solution because if we didn’t collaborate with them, the outcome wouldn’t be what we expected.

We have two-week sprints and work on an Agile methodology. Additionally, we have a Kanban board for integrations, and we manage the project daily.

We also have some in-house developers in Spain, and Opinov8 now manages that team simultaneously. Now, we have an extensive team with members in Kyiv, London, and Spain working on this project, and all of them are being managed by the project manager and business analyst from Opinov8 in Kyiv. It’s all working great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Opinov8’s work ethic is impressive; they work hard, and they’re very responsive. I can call any of them on a Saturday afternoon if I have a problem, and they will fix it immediately for me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be good if they improved their communication because their language sometimes isn’t great and some things get lost in translation. However, we’ve already got used to it, so we know how to ask our questions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be involved in the project. You can’t just expect them to deliver what you want based on your idea; you have to help them understand your requirements and plan the project. Additionally, plan upfront before starting the sprint cycle and ensure that the requirements are adequately documented. You have to be very clear upfront, and everything will be fine.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m responsible for software engineering at a logistics services company that’s in the process of merging with another company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Opinov8 Technology Services?

Initially, we hired Opinov8 to jumpstart the development of a mobile app for bringing greater efficiency to our tracking process for the freight that we managed. Then, we partnered with them to develop a new transportation management system (TMS), which is the core software system for our business process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we initially engaged with Opinov8, our processes were somewhat immature. As a result, their team filled the gaps in our processes with theirs. That included meeting us face to face on-site multiple times and walking us through the business process to clarify requirements. This helped us establish a relationship between our teams. 

Since then, we’ve used Opinov8’s agile process in software design. We use Jira, and they work within our system. This has helped us accelerate our software development process, too. Moreover, we’ve already had product management tools in place, and their team has brought in their expertise in React Native, which is the primary technology we use for our mobile app. At the same time, they also adapt to our technical standards.

In other words, our contributions are pretty much split; they bring in their frontend experience, and we bring in our backend experience. They conform to our backend standards, and we give them free rein over the frontend. For the TMS project, our team has initially been dependent on Opinov8, but they’ve eventually led the way. As such, the Opinov8 team’s role is now more about augmenting our internal front- and backend team.

What is the team composition?

We work with 25–30 people. 

How did you come to work with Opinov8 Technology Services?

One of our former leaders and Craig (Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer) had a working relationship in the past, and they had achieved success. As a result, we reached out to Opinov8 and explored their services. We didn’t do any formal comparison between them and their peers; we simply gave them a small project to gauge how they would perform. Their strong performance in that initial project and their willingness to be our partner gave us high confidence in choosing them for a larger and more strategic project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere around $2.5 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off the engagement in March 2019, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While there are no specific metrics that speak to the quality of their work, our team truly sees them as an extension of ourselves. There’s no “us and them” mentality; we see them as people who we can trust to do the work. Their resources are willing to do tasks and non-exciting work that needs to be done to move our projects forward. 

How did Opinov8 Technology Services perform from a project management standpoint?

There aren’t any clear project managers because there also isn’t any clean separation between our teams. Rather, Opinov8 members expand our staff, filling the gaps we have. They may assign a scrum master or a product manager that defines the user stories, or they may provide a business analyst to assist us. They also augment our actual software developers and engineers. Simply put, their team is meant to address our weaknesses as we matured as an organization; they’re not a standalone group. 

Moreover, in high-profile projects that take a long duration of time like ours, points of stress and weaknesses typically manifest themselves. Certainly, there have been points of stress, but finger-pointing and disgruntled emotions never manifest between our teams. There’s a strong bond between us, and we’re grateful for Opinov8’s support all the way. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Opinov8’s ability to listen and adapt to our needs are the best parts of working with them. A lot of software engineering and consulting firms pride themselves heavily on their processes. They usually offer turnkey solutions since they’re in control of every aspect of the development cycle. We understand that, but our company needs have been hard to define and somewhat nebulous in the beginning. Yet, through being patient with us and listening carefully, the Opinov8 team has found ways to help us. 

They’ve consistently brought high-quality resources for whatever our needs are, whether it’s QA testing, UX design, or front- and backend developers. Their resources have been willing to work with us as we evolve our processes as an organization. They’re always ready to help. Overall, they’ve never been a burden as a partner, and that has built our trust in them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bring the Opinov8 team as close to you as possible. If you look at them as a traditional software development team and keep them at a distance, you won’t get the most out of them. However, if you bring them in and trust them enough to treat them as part of your team, you’re going to get much more value out of the relationship. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and co-owner of Doxy.me, a telemedicine platform for doctors. We’re one of the leading telemedicine providers in the US, by volume.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Opinov8 Technology Services?

Our business grew rapidly in the first half of 2020, following the start of COVID-19. We were looking for an outsourcing partner that could help us scale up our operations while we got our in-house hiring processes and software development team up to our standards.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we started working with Opinov8 in 2020, it wasn’t just about bodies in seats — they had the expertise we lacked. We were immature in how we were building the software, and we leaned on them a lot in learning and maturing our overall software practices and standards. Since then, our engagement has continued to evolve.

We’ve matured a lot over the past year, but the relationship has been very strong with Opinov8, and we happily continue to work with them. They have expertise that we don’t have in-house, so we still rely on different staff and experts from their team. We’re a full JavaScript stack, on both the front- and backend, and Opinov8 has lots of highly qualified and skilled people on that stack. They also specifically help us with DevOps and system architecture.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 20–30 people from Opinov8 in some capacity.

How did you come to work with Opinov8 Technology Services?

I found them via my network. I’m based in Kyiv, Ukraine, and so is Opinov8. We’d started to do some work with a very large competitor of theirs. It was a large and expensive company, and it wasn’t a positive experience —they had really great presentations, but not a lot of substance.

I got introduced to Opinov8 a few months into our engagement with the competitor, and we had a one-day workshop with Opinov8 where we did a deep dive. We’d done the exact same exercise with the competitor, except that it took three weeks and we paid them $10,000.

During that one-day engagement, Opinov8 pulled their best people into the room to meet with our best people, and we hashed it out. It was much more efficient, and the outcomes were much cleaner — we decided that Opinov8 made a lot more sense for us than that other team.  

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent upwards of $400k with Opinov8. Our costs scale with the size of projects — for instance, we scaled back a side project last month, though we've kept steady our main expenditures.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Opinov8 in July 2020, and we have a long-term contract with no end date. Although we have side projects that start and stop as needed, our main work with Opinov8 is continuing — I think that we added another person to the team yesterday, in fact.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Broadly speaking, the expertise of the people Opinov8 is bringing us has been great. We evaluate their team performance based on qualitative metrics, and a lot of our assessment is based on comparisons to the other vendors we’ve worked with. 

For example, another provider we were working with was consistently trying to put people on our team that was well below our standards. Maybe those would’ve been okay two years ago, when our standards were lower, but we’ve basically stopped hiring with that team now because they can’t bring us good people. We haven’t had that problem with Opinov8, because they are bringing us great hires.

How did Opinov8 Technology Services perform from a project management standpoint?

We work in Scrum, with some modifications appropriate for our organization. Opinov8 takes an approach to communication that’s a bit different from most outsourcing companies. They’re very project-oriented and have strong opinions about the workflows.

That was fine for us initially, but, as we grew our operations and started to have in-house processes, we needed Opinov8 to adapt to those processes and tooling. They’re working within our systems at this point, at an individual level.

Communication depends on the project and whether or not we have 35 other developers that Opinov8 has to fit in with, versus the standalone engagements we’ve done with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their management really understands what we want and is on the same wavelength as us. That’s been the best thing about working with Opinov8. 

What initially attracted us to them is that they’re really smart about how to build software the right way. When we started with them, we were less knowledgeable than Opinov8 about that. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve learned a lot from Opinov8, but as we've matured as an organization we have increasingly been interacting with them as an outstaffing agency, where we just asked for the people we wanted. They’ve brought us good people, but to keep our business and business of companies like ours they need to be providing more and more advanced services and specialized knowledge, not just staffing. I've had a conversation on this exact topic with their leadership and we have a joint interest in taking things in that direction, but it has not been an easy shift.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The advice I have for working with any outsourcing organization is to make them really understand what the product should become. If the client thinks that the provider is going to read their minds, they’re wrong. That’s just not the role those companies play, and thinking it is is the fastest path toward failure and wasting money. Make sure that whoever is on the team interfacing with Opinov8 has a vision for the product and uses that as a resource to accomplish their goals.
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the global director of software engineering at United Language Group, a translation and interpretation company. 

We do written translations for whether it’s medical claims, legal documents, website localization, or anything that is translated in written form. We also have an interpretation division which is video and voice interpretation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Opinov8 Technology Services?

We needed help modernizing our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Opinov8 helps us with custom software development. We focus on API driven development, starting with services first. We don’t do a top down approach where we build screens and then do more of a tier-type solution. 

Where Opinov8 has helped us out is to establish the right security protocols, not just authentication, but authorization with web apps post APIs. They’ve also helped us expose our services in a B2B type environment as well as our own applications that we offer our clients. They do integration and frontend design. 

We have React developers on the frontend. We have a designer. Our entire stack is Microsoft like Azure, SQL, functions, service buses, API management. They’ve helped us out in all those areas.

What is the team composition?

We now have three scrum teams with them. There are UI designers, UI engineers, backend engineers, project managers, system analysts/business analysts, and application architects. We scale up and down. We average roughly 15 people. 

However, we do have other projects that are more time boxed. They are working with two different initiatives with us. We view them as an extension of our team. They did all the recruiting. We didn’t do any of the interviewing. The team they assembled for both sides of our organization have been very successful.

How did you come to work with Opinov8 Technology Services?

I worked with them at my previous employer. When I moved over to this company, I again engaged with them based on my previous experience with them both on the mobile and web cloud platforms. 

I felt they were a good fit. It was a great relationship. They have great skill sets. They were exactly in line with what we were looking for.  

How much have you invested with them?

We typically spend $530,000 per year in addition to $500,000 for a project with a start and finish.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2020 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Some of the metrics we use are code coverage, number of bugs, scope changes, etc on a point system 1-5. We measure our velocity with how many points we complete during a given two-week sprint. 

The other thing we measure is scope change, which is the percentage of stories that are reintroduced. We also measure how many stories aren’t completed and how many rollover points we have. 

From a software standpoint, we look at login and if we’re able to go back to see the details of a transaction. We look at validation and security, as well as at performance, if we’re caching properly, and if we’re always going to disk. From an architectural standpoint, we measure if we’re providing solutions to the problem or just looking for templated systems. 

The work that Opinov8 does has a positive impact on our business. The metrics are extremely positive. When I came to the company, we were working on a small project. Due to the success of that project, we’ve actually transitioned completely away from our historical partners and have invested more in the Opinov8 partnership. It’s been very positive.

How did Opinov8 Technology Services perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re always on time for meetings. They’re very accommodating. There are times when it’s later in their day and they’re always accommodating. Communication, both written and verbal, is very good. 

The team articulates technical information very well. We have a lot of our Opinov8 teammates in front of our business. It’s not just IT. They’ll meet with our business account managers all the way up to our VPs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A lot of consulting firms want to take on the whole project. The thing that stands out about Opinov8 is we don’t have to outsource the entire project. Our processes aren’t mature enough where solution, solicitation of feedback, and all those things that go into agile development just haven’t been established yet. 

Where Opinov8 is unique is they’re able to take their engineers, project managers, BA’s, and are able to exist in that kind of hybrid world. It’s not a list of instructions on what to build. They’re working with us in creating templates and strategies around how to build it. That’s what differentiates them from other consulting firms out there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always an adjustment period in every engagement. I think in the beginning  we weren’t as clear with how our roles were defined. We had a couple of conversations early on to level set on how an Opinov8 role translates into a United Language Group role. 

We had some discrepancies around project management because every company is different. We went into the engagement pretty quick because we were asking them to help rescue some of these projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have your process well documented. The way they place some of their consultants is based on the engagement. Be clear on what your environment is like so they can align their resources accordingly. 

For example, if you’re asking for an engineer and they find one that’s used to a very structured environment but your environment is still a little erratic and not well defined, that engineer isn’t going to be very successful. 

My advice is to do enough prep work before you engage and this would be for any consulting company whether its onshore or offshore. Be able to articulate the type of culture you have so they can properly resource the roles you’re looking for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I act as a virtual CTO in several firms. Those companies include a financial firm, a security networking technology company, and a startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Opinov8 Technology Services?

We needed good developers to help augment our team and build our engineering capabilities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They help with ReactJS development, .NET core development, and a number of other different areas. They’ve brought on a project manager to coordinate some of the projects I’m working as well as direct development where we dictate the project management. It depends on the engagement and what we need them for.

What is the team composition?

Generally, we work with three members from their team. We try to keep the number around the “Amazon pizza size”.

How did you come to work with Opinov8 Technology Services?

I’d worked in Denmark for a number of years and they broke off of another firm that was based there that we used to work with. I continued to work with them after they split off.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent in the range of $50,000 – $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2019, and we’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been terrific. Their engineers really hit the ground running and have really figured it out. One thing that really impresses me is their ability to take an old problem and come up with new solutions.

They’re very capable of innovating inside the space. I also appreciate their willingness to get engaged with new ventures, not just the ones they’ve been working on.

How did Opinov8 Technology Services perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great. They’re flexible and meld to the project management style of your organization. Once they find that fit, in terms of project management style and needs for their organization, they work very well within that framework. They can also set up a framework if you don’t have one too. We use Jira extensively.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their service really stands out. They have a great ability to quickly act upon our challenges. They can come up with quick fixes and long-term solutions as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always little things with any team, but generally, they’ve been very good.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be prepared. You really need to present them with the problems before they can come up with solutions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at InstaMotion Retail GmbH, an e-commerce car company. Customers can buy a car online and we’ll register it for them and deliver it to their doorstep. They have two weeks to try it and can return it for a full refund if they’re not satisfied.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Opinov8 Technology Services?

We needed help hiring a large number of developers from Ukraine because the market is broader and more cost-efficient than in Germany. We had an aggressive plan and needed to move from three developers to 30. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide full-cycle recruiting services from sourcing candidates, sharing their profiles, doing interviews, and then helping to decide which candidates to manage. They came up with a hybrid model that included myself and my colleagues so we could also check if the person suits our needs. We outsource all of the office space and connection to retention culture to them; they are deeply integrated.

What is the team composition?

There are 11 people. Initially, we had three different teams: a team onsite in Munich focusing on the core business, a hybrid team, and a fully remote team in Ukraine. We’ve now moved all three teams to the distributed team and half is in Kyiv and half is in Munich. We have three product managers in Kyiv and three in Munich, two UX/UI designers in Munich, a designer in Kyiv, and a project delivery manager in Kyiv to help us with the processes if needed.

During the hiring process, I was in contact with the head of recruitment and their head of IT to discuss to do it. I was in contact with all the different levels, including the founders.

How did you come to work with Opinov8 Technology Services?

I worked in a previous company where we chose them as a nearshore partner. We tried with a distant provider for a couple of months but we decided to work with Opinov8 Technology Services.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay them ‎€45,000 a month (approximately $50,800 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m really satisfied with the development and operations (DevOps) team they put together. Previously, I had a small DevOps team, now 11 members, that helped me move to AWS. They were really professional and they built all the AWS infrastructure. Then we did a migration of all the legacy stuff to AWS. It was cool and something that struck me as being well executed. 

Only one person has left the team that we started with. Unfortunately, we changed the team three times until we settled down with a team that worked for us. 

How did Opinov8 Technology Services perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style is pretty professional. They consult with us in a lot of cases with what might work and what might not work, according to their experience with previous clients. They’re proactive in trying to help us and sometimes provided a presentation to show us how to do something differently based on results with other clients. They commit and deliver on time, which is my major merit on performance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The founder is always present at kickoffs and tries to understand what we’re doing; I appreciate their presence.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was one issue with an architect on the calls who was being really technological. Instead of stepping in my shoes as a customer and trying to help me from the business perspective in providing better solutions, he went in the direction of doing really technological and expensive solutions. I wanted more consultancy and help and they did more of an up sales approach. I provided feedback and I hope they can improve on it. They struggled in hiring some positions but with others, they were pretty fast getting proper candidates. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open about your business challenges and where your company wants to be. They have pretty good business sense and can help. For example, when we visited them onsite once, we had a good whiteboard session with their founder. We discussed some issues in our company and they really helped to come up with a possible solution.