Qubit Labs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Landmark Global is a shipping and logistics company based in the United States and Europe. Our development team has designed, built and maintains a transportation and warehouse management web platform. This platform facilitates nearly all of our business and supports a number of sister companies as well. I'm writing this review as the VP of Technology at Landmark.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Qubit Labs, and what were your goals?

We hired Qubit to augment our internal development staff with additional web developers. These developers work within and help extend a backend subsystem of the overall platform that is dedicated to integrating with the services of a large variety of shipping carriers. This is not a short term project, but rather, these developers are part of the team on an on-going and indefinite basis.

SOLUTION

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

After being stalled out and delayed in seeking an augmented workforce via an off-shoring partner in India, we decided to look at near-shoring instead. This lead us to Eastern Europe and Qubit stood out for its ability to provide numerous quality candidates quickly. We had candidates available to interview within days of first contact, as compared to the weeks and months long process we had been dealing with.

Communication was exceptional throughout the recruitment process despite the timezone differences. As the deadline approached to decide between two different firms, it was ultimately the speed of communication and availability of candidates that swung us in favor of Qubit.

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

The work involves backend Laravel (PHP) development within a subsystem in our development ecosystem. This runs on the LAMP stack so with numerous associated technologies are involved as well.

These 3 external developers work within a team that is managed and directed by an internal corporate developer we have based in Europe. The scope of work is dedicated to integrating (labeling, manifesting, tracking, billing, etc) with a series of shipping carriers so we can leverage their delivery services.

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

During the recruitment process we primarily worked with Nataliia and Alyona who guided us through finding, interviewing and ultimately hiring candidates. We also had contact with the Managing Partner, Iva, who personally jumped in to answer questions and assist in a number of areas including setting up the contractual pieces. In all cases, communication was great and as I've mentioned, we had a good selection of quality candidates from which to select.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team was up and running very quickly, being able to meaningfully contribute within a week of training. Performance has continued to be great, to the extent that they got through the original pipeline of work earlier than we were anticipating and we had have other internal teams ramp up to keep pace with feeding work.

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

Our European development lead communicates often via Slack, email, video calls or via one of our development tools like GitLab for coding/reviews and Wrike for project management.

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

The best thing was that they were eager to win our business and willing to go the extra mile to get it. As I've mentioned

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

Because they are a growing company and we are part of a larger one, it took some time for our finance & legal teams to iron out the contractual pieces to their satisfaction. Qubit was helpful and amenable to our requests throughout, but my guess is a larger company would have some of legal language already in place and it could have wrapped slightly more quickly.

Ironing out the payment side was initially a little difficult for our US-based finance team to wire money successfully. But this now has been resolved and things are working smoothly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Floodlight Studios is a software development company focusing on developing SaaS solutions for both our clients as well as our own products and services. This review is written in the capacity as a Director of the company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Qubit Labs, and what were your goals?

Qubit were hired to expand our international development team across backend, front end and UI/UX.

SOLUTION

How did you select Qubit Labs and what were the deciding factors?

We have used oursourcing partners in the past, and were aware of the services offered, and the services we required. On initial discussion, Qubit seemed to meet all our requirements, and offer other services that we had not been offered with our previous service providers.

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

Developers who were going to be joining our team needed to have specific expertise in the programming languages we required. Another requirement we have for all our candidates is a good grasp of the English language.

How many people from the Qubit Labs team worked with you, and what were their positions?

In the last 9 months, we have relied on Qubit to find suitable candidates to increase our team. 4 positions have been filled through them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The calibre of candidates vetted and presented to us by the Qubit team have always been of a high standard, including meeting our requirement of English speaking developers. With each position we have filled, the Qubit team have taken the learnings from the feedback of the previous candidates and used this to refine the searches for new candidates.

They are very particular about who they put forward to us, ensuring candidates meet our requirements. We have 3 new positions that have been created which Qubit have been briefed on to fill.

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

You can expect great communication from the Qubit team, giving you feedback throughout the hiring process. Their points of connection go above and beyond and you can expect to be in constant communication with the team during the onboarding of successful candidates, and post the placement.

The HR team they have is wonderful, acting as a point of contact for us to check in and find out how everyone is doing, and get impartial feedback.

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

Service that goes ABOVE AND BEYOND An example of how this team goes above and beyond for their clients is that I have been able to send gifts and flowers to employees through local service providers. They get a brief from you, present a number of options with foreign exchange calculated. All I needed to do was select what we wanted to send.

They have supplied equipment to our employees in instances where they needed equipment, which we did not expect.

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

Our expectation of English speaking candidates initially required some work to refine potential candidates, however this has since been overcome and is not an issue.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Open University is the largest university in the U.K. in terms of enrollment. Our Knowledge Media institute is a multidisciplinary R&D lab. I'm the senior researcher at KMi, serving as the head of a service that offers seamless, unrestricted access to millions of research papers. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Qubit Labs?

As of January 2019, CORE has over 10 million monthly active users and is among top 6k website globally by usage according to Alexa Rank.

What were your goals for this project?

We hired them to provide front- and backend development for CORE, then to add additional development capacity for regular technical operations to deliver CORE.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After exploring our needs, we decided to outsource the work and shortlisted several companies. We based the decision on their ability to find sufficiently skilled staff, offer a reasonable cost of work, and cover fees for office space and equipment. We also demanded clear HR processes, a good balance of staff and employee benefits and responsibilities, and a minimal time zone difference from the U.K. We valued their agility, professionalism, and trustworthiness. 

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project is still ongoing, and Qubit Labs works alongside our team. They're responsible for developing a new UI/UX experience for the CORE service; developing the backend of a content ingestion pipeline and handling its regular operation and maintenance; and managing customer-facing communication and support. 

What was the team composition?

We had two frontend developers, two backend full-stack developers, and a part-time project manager. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We can sustain a widely popular service that benefits users around the world, all while staying within budget. We make free scientific papers available to everyone. CORE manages more than 100 times the amount of textual content hosted on Wikipedia.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We started by remotely managing everything with virtual stand-up meetings and occasional site visits. More recently, we've employed a project manager to provide a better oversight.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I love their flexibility, agility, and professional, fast communication.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Qubit Labs is open to feedback and continuously improves themselves.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of an insurance software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Qubit Labs?

We’re still a very small operation, and staff augmentation is a trend for companies at our stage. We want to grow our team, but we don’t necessarily want to invest in a local engineering force at this point. We looked to Qubit Labs to assist with that staff augmentation process as we continue to build out the first version of a commercialized solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We held an interview with a staffing specialist from Qubit Labs, somebody that had experience finding engineers based on a specific job profile. We identified individual developer or engineer needs and our long-term goals. We wanted to build a team but do it in stages. Qubit Labs provided resumes, and we interviewed the candidates we thought best fit our needs. Qubit Labs operated no differently than a traditional human resources representative. They just happened to be overseas.

What is the team composition?

Right now, we work with just one engineer, but we hope to add maybe two more in the next year. Qubit Labs provides part-time project management services, which we may soon utilize because the time difference plays a role in what we do.

How did you come to work with Qubit Labs?

I interviewed several companies that I found through an online search. Many of the firms offered standard packages that didn’t allow for much customization. Qubit Labs provided a personalized and flexible approach that perfectly suited a company of our size and age. It was reassuring to know that we had options for how we could build our team.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in September 2018 and remains ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are making significant architectural changes to accommodate this distributed engineering workforce. This new staff helps make our platform more robust and scalable. We are now able to think from a more long-term perspective of how we want our technology stack to scale.

How did Qubit Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve been absolutely thrilled with the professionalism and degree by which communication happens.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility and communication are the most important aspects that are relevant in an offshore situation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything has gone according to plan so far. That said, we haven’t worked with them very long, and our staff is still quite small.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients must know what they’re looking for so that they do not waste Qubit Labs’ time. They must also know what they’re getting into. A hired engineer will not be able to produce code on their first day. This practice is no different than hiring somebody domestically that still needs to be trained. Clients must allocate the capacity to properly onboard a developer. There is a lot of client preparation that is required to make this relationship successful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a gaming company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Qubit Labs?

We needed assistance to run our back office in Ukraine and hire our needed talent. We wanted to improve our game designs by hiring game designers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They recruited game designers, lead game designers, backend engineers, and content artists. Once they hire, they support the office functions. They provide a full-service office space with all the needed tools like desks and computers, as well as water, coffee, and snacks for the employees. They also take care of paying the employees, paying their social charges, and doing their tax returns.

What is the team composition?

I interface with their managing partner.

How did you come to work with Qubit Labs?

I searched online for companies in Ukraine that provide this kind of service. I found a few and had discussions with them. I selected Qubit Labs because they are professional and competitive in terms of pricing.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything is exceptionally professional and well-handled.

How did Qubit Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re timely, and they work extra hours to make sure everything is as we desire.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re friendly and welcoming. They have competitive rates.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you are looking to outsource a team but want to keep control over management, they are a good solution. They do the necessary administrative work, but they don’t intervene in your business.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lead engineer for a technology-based real estate platform. We provide a roommate matchmaking service that facilitates apartment renting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Qubit Labs?

We were expanding our engineering team and needed talented frontend developers to assist our existing staff.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We currently have a working platform that’s built on Ruby on Rails. An engineer from Qubit Labs is working our internal development team to overhaul the platform’s frontend interface using React and JavaScript. That resource is responsible for coding everything out using React and consuming our APIs. We’re in the process of bringing on another developer from Qubit Labs to assist with this project.

What is the team composition?

In addition to the developer that works with us directly, they assigned an account manager who frequently communicates with us. We also interfaced with another person who sent us candidate resumes based on our technological requirements.

How did you come to work with Qubit Labs?

One of their representatives gave me their business card during a tech conference I attended. We considered other firms that provide similar services, but I liked what Qubit Labs had to offer after speaking on the phone with them. They gave us the resumes and salary expectations of different engineers we interviewed. We eventually found a resource to work with and moved forward.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $10,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first reached out to them in July 2018 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We needed a little augmentation to deliver the frontend, and Qubit Labs provides that for us. Their developer has performed excellently so far. He’s been building out all of our React pages according to the specifications provided to him by our UI specialist. He’s also been working closely with the backend engineering team to program the APIs. We haven’t deployed anything to production yet, but everything is on track. He’s an incredibly talented developer and we’re happy with his work.

How did Qubit Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Their account manager has worked with us from the beginning to describe the process and negotiate terms. She checks in with us once a week and currently handles all of the payments and invoicing. The developer works for us eight hours a day, so we have frequent meetings with him. They have a policy where we can switch developers if there’s an issue. While we appreciate the option, but there haven’t been any problems thus far.

Their responsiveness is tremendous and the invoices are sent out promptly. They make sure to answer our questions immediately. We use Pivotal Tracker to manage out development stories and communicate with their developer via Slack. The account manager usually reaches out to me through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They can accommodate either a fully staffed project or a personalized augmentation. They’re more professional than other firms and have access to better developers. They even offer reasonable prices considering the quality they deliver.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Our interview process enabled us to hire the best resource for the job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Cleary communicate the project requirements and expectations from the onset. We’re developers, so that process was easy for us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of 42 Digital Manufactory

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

42 Digital Manufactory is a full-service digital brand and marketing agency dedicated to delivering smart, effective solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Qubit Labs to accomplish?

• Scale our development team with experienced resources
• Find a company for our staff augmentation needs who will be a reliable partner

SOLUTION

How did you find Qubit Labs?

Online Search

Why did you select Qubit Labs over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Qubit Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Our company is an e-commerce software development agency with 5+ years of solid presence in the industry and a large set of impressive success stories in the portfolio; since we have a quick growth in projects, we decided to add a remote team to handle part of the projects and start working with Qubit Labs. 
Our main aim was to find matching Shopify and Magento developers quickly but without spending too much of our internal operational resources on recruiting, vetting, and match-making. With the Qubit Labs team, we discussed launching a team of two developers and then growing it slowly to have time to onboard everyone successfully. Since they have their onboarding plan and provide full HR support, we developed it quickly. We currently have a team of 5 developers working full-time on our projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A great thing for us is that we can introduce our management process and include dedicated developers in our in-house team as one unit. So we can manage delivery from our side and see if the work is successful.

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

The team is excellent; from the first point of communication, they were responsive and considered all our requests. The delivery is fast, and we know that we are covered if we need to scale the team quickly.

What was your primary form of communication with Qubit Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Considering that they find developers to set up a team for a client for every project from scratch, the level of match and the speed are impressive. We received the first CVs in a few days. The other great thing is that a recruiting team also checks each candidate's soft skills and see if they match a client’s work culture, which positively influences a turnover rate and improves delivery.

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

At this moment, we are 100% satisfied with their work and plan to hire more staff with Qubit Labs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the COO of an enterprise virtual communications platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Qubit Labs?

We needed highly technical support staff for our virtual production studio software, for European time zones and weekend coverage.

SOLUTION

How did you select Qubit Labs and what were the deciding factors?

We wanted someone to recruit and screen technical support specialists so we could trust the new employees and have a local group to help them as valued employees.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We recruited two technical support specialists. We ran a typical interview and hiring process as we wanted them to be and feel like full team members. After interviewing a number of qualified candidates, we selected the candidates that best matched our criteria.

We then proceeded to onboard and train them like any other team members. After training they were integrated into our support team and worked in tandem with our US based team.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

See above.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The employees were reliable, skilled, communicative and valued. They were a fantastic addition to our team, and if the need arises, we would hire them again.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Extremely effective.

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

We've felt like they are an extension of our team. Exactly what we were hoping for.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a mobile game studio specializing in 3D casual games

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Qubit Labs?

We've worked with freelancers before but the communications where always tricky, so we decided to augment our team with a more permanent artist to help us ship our title.

What were your goals for this project?

Create an amazing 3d mobile title on time and on budget with great KPIs to boot, to secure a seed investment and grow the studio.

SOLUTION

How did you select Qubit Labs?

We talked and reviewed a few alternatives. In the end decided to go with Qubit for their transparent pricing structure and great value. Unlike other providers, they do not bore you with 1000 documents to sign before they even begin headhunting, and the process is fast, simple and efficient.

Describe the project in detail.

A 3d mobile game

What was the team composition?

So far we only hired 1 artist with plans to expand the team as we secure more funding and grow our revenues.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On the first day, our artist became productive and starting delivering assets per our CCO requirements. His art was integrated into our product in the following week for players to see.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Transparency on the pricing structure. They come to get the job done and get your candidates to help the company ship.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Tech Lead at a startup headquartered in Dubai, UAE, working from Beirut, Lebanon. We serve our corporate clients in the MENA region.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Qubit Labs?

We needed to expand the feature-set of our product and deliver the best quality at a rapid pace.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to start offering our product

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had three options, each with a different model. Two of them worked best for us, one of them was Qubit Labs. They showed dedication and professionalism at recruitment and were understanding to our needs and they were able to meet them at all costs.

 This gave them the lead and we finalised our deal in no time. Then we went through the hiring and training process. From their on Qubit Labs followed up closely to ensure we are satisfied with the choice.

Describe the project in detail.

We expanded our feature set with a SaaS model, opening it up for our clients to use on their own rather by going through us.

What was the team composition?

2 backend engineers and 1 frontend engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Employees delivered at their best of their potential and were able to contribute to the well-being of the code-base, by introducing state-of-the-art coding practises and following community guidelines.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We were in direct contact with the developers but they made sure that it was always positive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are on top of their responsibilities. They are always ahead of others in the market in quality and treatment. They are always observing their staff to make sure they notice if anything is changing in their behaviour and will talk to them about it and notify us the soonest. They are professionals in all that they do.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is always room for improvement. Recruitment is the most critical part and usually takes the longest of all the processes