Program-Ace

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the business director of a visualization agency that operates in Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg. We are active in Europe and all over the world. Our company uses 3D technology to create visual products — such as 3D animation, configurations, and interactive experiences — for all sorts of customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Program-Ace?

We hired Program-Ace as a subcontractor.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Whenever we have a shortage in operational capacity, we turn to Program-Ace. We have around 120 developers in the company who specialize in different technologies, but when we have too many projects on my progam or in my planning, I partner with Program-Ace to address our lack of developers. 

Our projects involve using 3D technology, specifically Unreal Engine and Unity, and web development software. This is because the 3D projects, in particular, require three main building blocks:

• Creating the 3D artwork;
• Making the 3D artwork move; and
• Integrating the 3D animation into a website.

For each project, I provide the Program-Ace team with concepts and ideas, analyses, and whatever initial product we have already come up with on our side. All that’s left for them to do is to execute the ideas and plans that are laid out by me and my clients. 

A lot of our projects are long-term, which means that it takes a while to complete everything. Once Program-Ace finishes the product, I deliver it to my clients and it’s out of my hands. 

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Olga (Strategic Partnership Director). During the acquisition phase, I’m usually in contact with 2–3 people, and in the production phase, I’m in touch with two. The number of people they have internally and how they organize is up to them, as I prefer to interface with only a few people. 

How did you come to work with Program-Ace?

I was looking for a high-end partner in Ukraine or Russia through LinkedIn. We wanted somebody who shared our vision, technology stack, and way of thinking in terms of innovation. 

When I found Program-Ace, I immediately contacted them and was received by two very professional-sounding people. This gave me confidence that I was talking with the right company, so I decided to work with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

Thus far, we’ve invested between €100,000–€200,000 (approximately $116,000–$232,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the partnership in October 2020 and it is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working with Program-Ace definitely gives me the flexibility to handle more projects, which means that, down the line, I could get more revenue with their help. 

How did Program-Ace perform from a project management standpoint?

I can’t complain about their project management. During acquisition, I usually send them any information I have available via email and we subsequently arrange a formal call to discuss the project. When we’ve come to an agreement, the team will then send me a project quotation. 

Program-Ace then appoints a project manager and sets up a Slack channel. During the actual development, we share files via Google Drive. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Program-Ace really has the capacity to handle projects that we can’t handle ourselves. They’re very professional and well-prepared for everything, and I’m very happy and confident with my choice of working with their team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could communicate more frequently with us. Other than that, though, there’s nothing for them to improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a producer at a 3D reality platform. We’re essentially a SaaS company working on mixed-reality software and cloud-based services.
 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Program-Ace?

We needed content development for one of our clients.
 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Program-Ace has helped us with AR and VR development. First, a client approached us and requested a solution involving a mixed-reality training that they wanted us to support. Then, we used Program-Ace as an outsourced vendor to produce the content for us. 

They provided wireframes and the first drafts of the content, and then they delivered the final content once we had approved it. Program-Ace created these assets from scratch.

What is the team composition?

It depends on the project, but it could be anywhere from 2–5 resources. Some of the team members that we have worked with are their programming director, a project manager, and a lead developer.

How did you come to work with Program-Ace?

We searched online for augmented reality developers and found them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2020. We’re still working together and have weekly meetings.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re efficient and skilled with Unity. Their flexibility in adopting new software has been a big help to our projects.

How did Program-Ace perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re solid in this regard. We normally communicate over Slack, email, and Zoom meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility stands out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing. I believe they’re doing a good job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know exactly what you need will make the onboarding process easy. Also, have good communication as a client.
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of 3Mind Games. We develop video games.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Program-Ace?

We had hired some animators to work internally but it didn’t work well. We were almost at the end of the project and we needed to hire animators right away because we had plenty of animation still to do. We decided to hire a firm and our budget was pretty low because we had spent a lot of money on the animations already.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Program-Ace to do the animations. They built tons of animations that we had on our list. We had done the animation for all the characters on our side. We had a list of all the animations that we wanted on an Excel sheet and this was divided by the numbers of characters. We provided them with descriptions of what animations we needed for each character. To give them more information, we had a call with the producer over there and spoke with them about the kind of animation we wanted for the characters.

We hired them to do some of our mechanics as well. We don’t have a lot of programmers internally, so we decided to hire some of their programmers to do some UI implementations for our games like saves, menus, all of that kind of work as well.

What is the team composition?

We had one point of contact for each department that we worked with. 

How did you come to work with Program-Ace?

I found them on gamedevmap. We did a lot of research in Ukraine and Poland where we knew it wouldn’t be as expensive. I clicked on their website and it looked professional. We contacted them as well as another five or six other companies in Ukraine and Poland. Overall, their price was better than everyone else and we decided to go with them.

How much have you invested in them?

It will cost approximately $40,000–$45,000 once the project is complete.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2020, and we are supposed to finish at the end of August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We would not have been able to do all the animation internally because we had 50 to 75 animations to do. Internally, we can provide maybe one or two animations per day, but on their side, they produced five or six per day. We were able to finish the project faster with them. 

On the development side, it is more complicated because they have to understand the project and code. Our game is made with Unreal Engine and Program-Ace had to dig into our blueprint and codes, so it took onger to get started with because they had to understand everything. Now that they understand the project, it’s been going pretty well.

How did Program-Ace perform from a project management standpoint?

In the beginning, we signed a contract and we established the timelines right away. They are right on track and will finish the development by the end of the month. The animation went faster than I thought it would. As far as project management goes, if they don’t understand something or if there is something on our side, we just have a call with them. We also used Slack for communication with them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

When they provide something, we need to approve it. We have a list that we share with them. When they finish something, they put a tab to the animation example for us to review. On our side, we will review it and then we approve of them. For all of the animations they have done, there was not much that we didn’t approve of. Overall, they did a great job. On the development side, sometimes they had difficulties in understanding what we wanted and there was a lot of back and forth with them, but it ended up working well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is a little bit of a language barrier. It can be hard sometimes because they don’t speak English that well, but it isn’t their first language, and it isn’t mine either as my native language is French. It was okay overall, and we understood each other.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a good plan at the beginning with the dates and prices. When we add a price to the contract, they respect that price. For example, if they said it would take a certain amount of time, they won’t charge more for it if it goes over. 

Have a good way to communicate either with Zoom, Slack, or Discord and follow up with them with some sort of sheet. We use Excel, and they can see when we have changed something on the sheet right away, and when they modify something, we can see it on our side, which is why we use Google Sheets instead of Jira or Trello.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Radwin. We are a broadband wireless access vendor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Program-Ace?

I needed help developing a new software solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve developed software using Node.js, Python, and Angular. The software is a planning solution for transportation and communication for metros and trains. Users can open a new project and design a new communication for a new line of train or metro with the functionalities Program-Ace built. 

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager and two developers.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020 and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The deliverables they provide meet our expectations. We have tested it using automation frameworks and we’re satisfied with their work.

How did Program-Ace perform from a project management standpoint?

We work in scrum. The ceremonies and planning, sprint reviews, and retrospect take place on a daily basis. They’re very communicative and responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand the context of the project, such as the use case and value expected to be provided to the end customer. They’re professional, easy to work with, accountable, and ramp up quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I highly recommend working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of Totem Learning Ltd. We make serious games that are learning programs for companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Program-Ace?

We were creating an assessment game for a military client. They were training their personnel in satellite communication. The game was to assess whether or not their personnel had adequately learned the material. Program-Ace was brought on to help us develop the game.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Program-Ace team developed the learning module using UNITY. We had to do most of the game design and redevelopment from the material that was sent over from the client.

How did you come to work with Program-Ace?

Our team works with a couple of partners we use in other parts of the world. We knew they could do the work for less money, but we weren’t sure of their technical skill. Program-Ace had the technical ability we needed. We chose them because we needed a partner who could move quickly and be up to grade.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about £100,000 (approximately $126,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from June–November 2019. We still communicate with Program-Ace on a frequent basis but work with them on a project-by-project basis. In fact, we spoke with them two weeks ago about an upcoming project. We look to work with them when we need to scale up quickly, especially if the work is more technical or complex. There’s no doubt that we’ll work with them again in the future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was very complex, and the client was quite challenging to communicate with. By usual standard, we were late and over budget, but it wasn’t Program-Ace’s fault. The quality of their work was very high. We put them under a lot of pressure, and they were very flexible about working extra hours when we had tight deadlines.

Their team’s technical skill was high and their attitude toward getting work done was very strong. Overall, I’m happy about the engagement. The project was difficult from the start, and they stuck with us through it.

How did Program-Ace perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated on a daily basis, but towards the end of the project, it was closer to 5–6 times a day. Our teams used Skype for correspondence and SharePoint for document management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was very impressed with their commitment to being flexible with the wording in the contract. They knew things needed to get done and get done quickly. Program-Ace worked with us as a true partner rather than just an outsourced contractor.

Their team strived to get things done on time and to good quality. On the whole, they were easy to get ahold of and were always available. They were an extension of my team rather than just another vendor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They had a change in project managers halfway through the project. However, I don’t think they could’ve done much about that because someone left their organization. It was just bad timing because it happened just as we were going full speed.

We got a new project manager we had to pick up and it was a bit challenging for everyone. I’m not sure what Program-Ace could’ve done about that though. Other than that, I’ve found them an absolute pleasure to work with. They’re professional, hardworking, and their work is of high quality.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise potential customers to enthusiastically pursue an engagement as soon as they can. Program-Ace is the best partner I’ve worked with outside my own organization. They have a good work ethic and project diligence.

My other advice is to make the most out of the project’s early stages. Give them a professional amount of notice and information before the project starts; that goes for anyone. They’re easy to work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a representative of the Doctrina IT School in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Our company provides educational courses in programming, design, and photography to both kids and adults.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Program-Ace?

Our company was in need of a reliable partner for developing an educational game based on our proprietary animation franchise. Program-Ace suited us because their team featured not only programmers, but also skilled artists and animators capable of working with 3D graphics. We developed a cross-platform application with Unity which was available for Android and iOS and consisted of a casual game with levels of varying difficulty. This application is currently being used internally at Doctrina.

What were your goals for this project?

The project aimed to teach children and young adults the basics of general programming, Unity development, and design.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We took our idea to multiple service companies that were well-known on the market of educational games and featuring other education-centered projects in their portfolio. Program-Ace was among these companies. Program-Ace demonstrated an impressive result in a test task, so we entrusted them to deliver a small increment of the project. Once again, they produced satisfying results, and we assigned the entire development process to them.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The game involves an experience where the user travels between several thematic rooms representing various skills that they will need in their education at Doctrina IT School courses. Each room features an individual set of levels, along with unique gameplay and game mechanics. The Program-Ace team created the user interface, art, and character 3D models from scratch, relying only on provided reference materials. They were also fully responsible for implementing game mechanics. We worked closely with analysts from Program-Ace in testing the game and the balance of level difficulty in particular.

What was the team composition?

The development process involved a team that included 3 mobile developers, two 3D artists, as well as one UI/UX designer, Project Manager, QA engineer, and business analyst

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Launching this application allowed us to increase our students’ engagement in the learning process. It also became easier for us to analyze students’ progress and identify issues in our learning programs.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

adapt very well to our different needs effectively manage different timezones We are very satisfied with the quality of project management provided by Program-Ace. They were quite flexible and adapted to our changing needs. We did not encounter any time-related issues and our communication was always effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Program-Ace demonstrated a deep and nuanced understanding of educational mobile app development. This was evident not only in the design and graphics of the final product, but also in the way that the game logic was built, how the story was presented, and how characters evolved.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We did not encounter any notable issues with the development process. We are quite happy with the final product and would wholeheartedly recommend Program-Ace as a company to cooperate with

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are South East Asia's Leading Publisher of Specialist and Focused IT News. We run several focused IT news portals. I am a founder of the company and currently work in the role of Group Publisher.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Program-Ace?

As part of the service to our customers, we create downloadable specialist IT content such as Guides, technology Assessments, and White Papers. We needed a portal which acted as a back end to our news portals to manage the process of "gated downloads" of our special guides and ebooks.

This enables us to have one central repository of all details collected from every download from every one of our news portals. it allows us to also serach and analyse the data from the download information we store. Finally we need to link this download portal via API's to the customer databases of some of our large customers.

So that if we host a docuemnt for a customer and someone downloads and provides details they want to share, those details are automoatically populate din our database and at the same time into our customer's database.

What were your goals for this project?

The solution needed to be user intuitive, simple to manage, problem free, robust and cretaed in a way which made future enhancements simple to implement.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have worked with Program-Ace for many projects over the years. they are expert in ensuring they understand the brief in detail and have always delivered on time and successfully. We have built trust with them over the years, so even though we went out to tender, as their price was competitive we had no hesitation in choosing them for this project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We designed the high-level architecture of the portal and database. Program-Ace reviewed high-level design suggested changes. Program-Ace created detailed design document, project plan and quotation.

We signed off Program-Ace did full software development Program-Ace created sandbox test environment Program-Ace did all QA up to V1 pre release We conducted final bug test on V1 Pre-release

We went Live stage 1 Program-Ace reviewed API SDKs from our customers Program-Ace designed integration architecture for API project Program-Ace developed API integration to our customers system Program-Ace conducted all testing for this integration Customers signed off and we went live Program-Ace provided written user documentation for our inhouse users

What was the team composition?

Project lead Development team QA team

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The front-facing part of the project is absolutely critical part of our business, capturing valuable information about our readers and matching readers with IT vendors.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We use program-ace internal project management tool combined with skype and google docs to manage all aspects of the project day to day. Conference calls and web meetings are conducted only when needed

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very good at getting a deep understanding of the deliverables you need. This means when V1 is delivered it meets the exact specification you had in mind at concept stage. They are very straight and honest, if something cannot be done they are very clear in explaining and setting the expectation correctly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No major areas for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of the co-founders of a mobile marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Program-Ace?

We first hired developers from Program-Ace to support and enhance our mobile application suite of services.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed expertise on all aspects of application and system development to support our current services, but for all future needs as well.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed 5 different vendors to thoroughly evaluate their capabilities. Program-Ace stood out with price, expertise, and resource flexibility.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We initially were focused on application development, but then got into DB services, and system management.

What was the team composition?

We have been able to expand our dedicated team as our application needs change and based on what type of resources we need.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been able to have an industry leading suite of services in mobile marketing with the support of the Program-Ace team.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The Program-Ace team has been able to adapt very well to our different needs. We have been able to effectively manage different timezones, language barriers, etc through a combination of online communication tools and services.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We find that the resources are highly skilled and knowledgable with great attitudes towards driving the right solutions.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Proper communication is vital for this and all projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We were formally a gambling firm that splintered from another company. Now, we work on creative media and independent game development. I'm the creative director and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Program-Ace?

A couple of our employees went on temporary leave. We wanted to fill that gap while matching the fidelity of the original designs. We decided to outsource to fill that need.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a primary character in one of our games. They modeled, animated, and are currently texturing that character. They were given character turn arounds, narrative descriptions, style guides, and a tech document to work from. They conform well to all our standards. First, they sent a set of blocking, then advanced to more detailed sculpts. For the detailed sculpts, they use 3ds Max. They have some capacity in Maya, but they prefer Max. 

What is the team composition?

We work with one representative, but we receive updates from about four or five team members.

How did you come to work with Program-Ace?

We reached out to some of our contacts, and a few of them recommended Program-Ace. We also found them through a web search. They were one of the first companies we came across, and their portfolio demonstrated that they could cover a diverse style set. We had some small iterations with them before bringing them into larger projects.

How much have you invested with them?

At the moment, we've been invoiced for about $20,000, but the scope of the project is closer to $40,000-$50,000. Since we have a highly iterative process, we suggested opening an escrow account where we could disburse funds as the scope shifted or advanced.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2019, and our collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their fidelity is very good, and they're on par with our senior artists. Due to importing, moving, and handling their assets, we only lose an hour or two as compared to our internal art team.

How did Program-Ace perform from a project management standpoint?

We started communicating through Skype, but they offered several tracking systems that we declined. As the collaboration becomes more diverse, we would recommend using a project management tool like Redmine or Trello for similar projects. They provide aggressive updates, but a tracking tool might help.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to match any style is impressive. They're also very tolerant to iterations. They conceptualize during the process and resolve issues we hadn't considered, without any added cost or complaint. They make suggestions for certain design goals and are very helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We'd like to move to a consistent delivery platform. They currently work with distributed upload services or Skype, but that could be problematic in a larger project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Their biggest strength is in their fidelity to design. Make sure the materials you give them are thoroughly prepared beforehand. They can work quickly and will adhere to references. Those materials will ultimately save you time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the COO of Whow Games GmbH. We are a social casino that offers entertaining and money-making games.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Program-Ace?

We have found it challenging to scale our team locally, so we engaged Program-Ace to provide outsourced development support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Program-Ace helps us with our core product—a social casino. At first, we primarily relied on them for maintenance. As we’ve grown in our partnership, we’ve expanded their role to include development.

They work alongside our in-house team to create vital features of our product—processes that sometimes take several months. Our casino has versions for Android, iOS, and a web application—which all use the same backend of PHP and Node.js. Their work also involves MySQL and MongoDB databases, along with Redis and Memcached for caching layouts. We also rely on Program-Ace to further develop our frontend features related to displaying content, animations, fonts, and so on. In doing so, we use Angular, HMTL5, and CSS. Additionally, we’ve decided to outsource our customer care. We tasked Program-Ace with coding that admin panel, which bundles multiple services and functionalities.

What is the team composition?

We have four full-stack developers and one test engineer at the moment. We’re in the process of adding two more people to their team.

How did you come to work with Program-Ace?

I met Program-Ace’s team at a conference, and I was confident enough from that interaction to select them for this work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about €100,000 (approximately $112,200 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our collaboration began in October 2018 and remains ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Program-Ace has simultaneously helped us cut down on our backlog of tasks while improving the quality of our product. Their involvement has allowed us to dedicate more time to expanding our product’s features.

How did Program-Ace perform from a project management standpoint?

We recently invited them to Hamburg for a kickoff on a set of tasks—a meeting that was productive for our teams. They have integrated well with our in-house staff.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We experienced various problems working with freelancers prior to finding Program-Ace. They’ve set themselves apart by learning our system and proving that they can handle our complexity. That’s impressive in itself.

 Are there any areas they could improve?

Each team went through a growing process as we learned to work with each other. They are our first external team, so we’ve had to do our homework in terms of documentation and onboarding, but we’re now to the point where we’re happy with our processes and workflows. The quality of communication can always improve on both sides, but overall, Program-Ace is doing a great job.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to let the provider know what to expect in terms of speed and quality and how each element can be affected by the other.

We have found it valuable to meet in person when we can. Those meetings have made it seem like we’re no longer working with strangers. We can put faces to the names, and we’re working more as a team.

Additionally, I would advise future clients to invest in high-quality communication technologies. We made the mistake in the first week together of using tools with poor connectivity, which became frustrating for both sides.