Ragnarson

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Global Climate Changer GmbH

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We help companies to reduce their CO2e emissions to reach the 1.5° goal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ragnarson to accomplish?

• Build a SaaS platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Ragnarson?

Referral

Why did you select Ragnarson over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Ragnarson were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Ragnarson assembled an agile full-stack development team consisting of 1-5 people. Throughout our collaboration, they demonstrated impressive competence, professionalism, and a commitment to delivering high-quality results. The charts they developed exceeded our design expectations and provided impactful data insights.The drag-and-drop-enabled Kanban board significantly improved our platform organization and efficiency.

Moreover, the enterprise-grade dashboard empowered our product's users with data-driven decision-making capabilities and comprehensive reporting. Ragnarson's timely delivery and reliable project management ensured we achieved our goals within the agreed budget and timeline.

What impressed us most about Ragnarson was their ability to balance hard engineering details and flexibility. They executed our vision and provided valuable suggestions to optimize our solution. Their integrity was evident when they guided us in focusing on validated features. We appreciated their dedication to helping us achieve our goals.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ragnarson's software development for Global Changer's CO2 management platform has resulted in measurable outcomes and received positive feedback. The software delivered visually attractive and functional features, including charts, an intuitive drag-and-drop-enabled Kanban board, and an advanced management dashboard.

Our clients appreciate the platform's robustness, scalability, and customization options that were delivered together with the application being developed by Ragnarson. Overall, all the development efforts have successfully empowered Global Changer to effectively manage CO2 emissions and drive green transformation, meeting the expectations of the project.

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

The project management style adopted by Ragnarson involved regular and efficient communication. Ragnarson provided a dedicated project lead as the single point of contact, and highly collaborative developers were also involved in direct communication to provide valuable insights. Agile development principles were followed, and tasks were planned in sprints, ensuring the timely delivery of features.

What was your primary form of communication with Ragnarson?

Virtual Meeting

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

Ragnarson struck a good balance between complex engineering details and flexibility. They provided helpful suggestions and guidance throughout the project, ensuring we focused on delivering a viable product. Their ability to adapt to changing project needs and commitment to helping us achieve our goals were particularly impressive.

A notable achievement of working with Ragnarson and its tech stack is its remarkable adaptability and flexibility. The tech stack was specifically designed to cater to the ever-changing needs of our clients. This adaptability has allowed us to achieve nearly limitless customization and the capacity to build on it.

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

I can confidently say that Ragnarson has delivered an outstanding performance, leaving us with little room for improvement or suggestions for doing things differently. We are extremely satisfied with their work and would highly recommend them for similar projects in the future.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder at Hiperpool, a recruitment and career development platform that supports candidates and employees looking for opportunities and talent.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ragnarson?

We hired them to redevelop our platform, build new features, and provide maintenance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ragnarson provides us with software engineering. Our system sources candidates and connects them to the right opportunities. This matchmaking platform is integrated with Salesforce. Ragnarson has rebuilt the system using Ruby on Rails and helped with the Salesforce integration. 

We’ve provided them with documentation and the code of the existing platform. The first phase of the project was about maintenance and putting out fires. Then, the second phase was about building new features. Currently, we’re in the third phase, which involves launching the new product. Ragnarson provides application management, support, and maintenance for the platform. 

What is the team composition?

We’re always in contact with two senior developers from Ragnarson at any time. 

How did you come to work with Ragnarson?

We found them on Clutch. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000–$200,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ragnarson has been very good at getting up to speed on an ongoing application, which is fairly complicated. Overall, the developers from Ragnarson we’ve worked with have been very competent. They’ve been able to support us through every stage, and ideally, we’ll launch our new platform at the end of Q1 2023. 

How did Ragnarson perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve mostly stayed on time and budget. Although staying within these parameters is always a bit tricky with software development, Ragnarson has been accurate by and large; they’re better than other providers we’ve worked with in the last 10 years. 

Their communication is good and punctual; we use Slack and have daily updates. Additionally, we use Jira to review the project’s status. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ragnarson’s teammates are hard workers — they strive to get to the bottom of things. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing they need to improve comes to mind. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure the developers from Ragnarson are a good fit for your internal team. Since assigning a developer to a project is a big investment on both sides, it’s important to do some work upfront to ensure they’re a good fit. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder and Lead Product Development of Hexagro - a product-service urban farming platform. We strive to allow anybody, anywhere to access healthy food by increasing the accessibility to soilles vertical farming technologies.

We envision a world where food production can happen anywhere in the city, even in environments once considered inadequate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Ragnarson to develop the frontend and backend of our IoT web application to monitor and control our systems remotely and provide access to our maintenance and installation partners to improve efficiency in logistics and gather important agronomic and wellness-related data.

We had a functional software MVP but needed the right support to help us convert it into a user-friendly layout and stylish user interface.

SOLUTION

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

I’ve been in touch with their impact fund in the past, discussing potential investment in our company. In the meantime we also dicussed about their software services and they turned out to be a very feasible option thanks to their knowledge in AWS (Amazon Web Services), IoT devices and coding in Ruby.

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

The goal of the project was to create a first release version of the Living Farming Tree product line IoT application called HEXsoft, a monitoring and control web app for our team, our maintenance partners and customers. Our UX/UI design team provided them with the old prototype, flow diagrams and mockups and worked together with Ragnarson’s development team on the software architecture to improve the user experience.

The project proceeded from requirements definition, expectations, goals, and acceptance criteria to product development in a speedy, yet flexible, manner. They built a fully functional web application using Ruby on Rails and Vue.js. These technologies were selected for their ease of use, accessible scalability, and performance. They're also providing a backend admin panel where we can manage users and assign permissions and roles.

Ragnarson has helped us architect the app so that it can be updated and modified easily with time and use as well as its capability to be integrated to other future Hexagro IoT product lines. The application is compatible for the 3 kit configurations of the LFT (S, M, and L Kit) which scales the quantity of farming modules and LED lights which parameters can be edited and controlled (individually) by the application to provide full control and flexibility of cultivation parameters to the user.

It also streams sensor data that helps to understand the system’s and environment status to edit parameters, take maintenance actions or improve environmental conditions.

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

Ragnarson provided us with a complete package of dedicated resources who work solely on our project and stay in direct communication to keep us updated about the project development phases. I could communicate directly with the project lead or development team at any time.

We have a project manager to keep in touch about the progress of the work and to discuss the implementation of individual sprints and tasks. She coordinates the hand-ins we give them and then plans the sprints out and does a lot of the communication. The frontend and backend developers were brought in as different skills were needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our collaboration resulted in a new version of our platform that is modern and user-friendly with a great architecture and a new client-facing management system. At the moment, we haven’t had the official launch yet, but they provided us the platform that we needed to validate our business model.

All the features that we required in the initial estimation were developed plus a couple of extra ones taken from our feedback. It’s still a bit too early to talk about measurable outcomes, I don't have any metrics to share yet. Overall, they did a fantastic job, the application has been developed successfully.

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

Ragnarson follows an agile approach to project delivery with emphasis on open communication and transparency. In our project, work was based on weekly development sprints. They have a strong internal team led by an experienced project manager who facilitated the overall communication via Slack and online calls. Communication with the Ragnarson team was efficient and straightforward.

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

Rangnarson is very flexible in adapting to our needs and timelines. Their team always found the most efficient design possible for our web application without limiting its functionality. ​​The overall experience is just unmatched. Everything is swift and work is fast.

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

There’s always room for improvement, but, overall, we’re happy with what Ragnarson delivered. We’ll continue to work with them as we develop our product further.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO and Founder of a vacation rentals platform where people can list and rent a residential property in Greece. We also offer yachts, cars and special deals. It works very similar to Airbnb.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

My goal was to maintain the viability of our legacy code without burning time and budget for the development of new code. I decided to hire a software agency to upgrade the Ruby on Rails application, reduce technical debt and fix bugs in the existing code, since it hadn’t been seriously updated for 8 years. Lastly, we needed to improve the quality as well as the ease of maintenance.

SOLUTION

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

The original way I found Ragnarson was through a referral.

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

When we approached them with our issues, small little things in the application were not working right. After a short on-boarding process, they began eliminating some of our legacy code to make new feature implementation more manageable. First of all they upgraded Ruby and Ruby on Rails versions in our existing code, then they focused on fixing all the bugs we struggled with for a long time and made our app functional. At last they focused on speed and performance optimization.

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

The team we work with is varied in size depending on the stage of the project, but overall included three developers and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Rgnarson rewrote some frontend parts of our legacy code, upgraded Ruby and Ruby on Rails backend to the newest available. Our security features were upgraded, and the legacy code was refined. The design remained pretty much the same, except some parts of the frontend that were unintentionally changed as a result of the updated libraries. We have a more secure platform now which is also scalable - we can finally start focusing on adding new features.

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

We had regular calls and tended to discuss questions and issues over Slack. The development team used agile sprints, and I gave them feedback on the project flow, budget, and schedule. We also used GitHub for task management, and regular emails for more formal communication.

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

Ragnarson takes ownership of mistakes or miscommunication even when they don’t have to. If something happens, their team will look into it, fix it, analyze what happened, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I appreciate professionalism and objectivity. Ragnarson really does care about their clients and goes above and beyond to meet their needs.

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

They underestimated legacy code in the scope and that impacted the project's timeline and cost. However they agreed to cover that which I very much appreciated.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as an IT and marketing consultant for the Latham Group Consulting, a consultancy firm based in New York.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I’ve been looking for a software agency that could help us maintain and support the development of our products, picking up the job from where the previous vendor left off, and help us build a stable development process.

We needed a skilled and reliable development team with strong communication skills and the flexibility to adapt the number of hours to the evolving needs of our partners while also continuing to keep a high-quality function and service on a day-to-day basis.

Ideally, we wanted a partner who’d continue to support our development needs for the years to come.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ragnarson and what were the deciding factors?

As a boutique IT and Marketing Consulting organization, we rely on a number of trusted partners to help us with project delivery. I had worked with one of their developers in the past and knew they’d do a good job on this project. He now works for Ragnarson and suggested that I should speak to them.

I was happy with our pre-sale collaboration and support, their excellent communication skills, and their attention to detail. One week later we signed the deal and added Ragnarson to our stable of trusted partners.

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

Ragnarson primarily supports us with Ruby on Rails application development. They’ve handled some technical debt, refactored what we already had, built new architecture, and made sure security was locked down. This includes Ruby on Rails migration to the latest version available but also updates on outdated gems, libraries, and other frameworks we use.

Besides that, they helped us to implement new features and improved Salesforce integration between microservices.

Today Ragnarson continues to help us prioritize feature development and advise us on architecture choices, like migration to Heroku. Aside from the development work, Ragnarson also helps us with product strategy and design.

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

We have a dedicated project manager who is our direct point of contact regarding the overall cooperation. Over the course of our relationship, I also interacted with two developers from the Ragnarson team.

Lukasz helps me with the web development tasks and Piotr is engaged to migrate our applications to Heroku. The team was very good and able to understand our requirements clearly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ragnarson gives us more than what we expect, and the quality of their work is outstanding. After migration to Heroku, we’ve noticed a significant speed and performance improvement. There was no downtime which is unusual.

The platform is a key component of our business offering and is used by our partners as well as internal teams on a daily basis.

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

I handle the project management, and they develop everything. Our relationship developed organically based on their vision and what I was hoping to get out of the project. We use GitLab for task management and occasionally jump on a call to discuss the more advanced features.

They joined our team on Slack and part of the communication also went through email. I had direct contact with the whole team and despite the time zone difference, everyone involved was fast on a reply.

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

The quality of their work has been outstanding. Ragnarson demonstrated professionalism and dedication from start to finish. There's a lot of flexibility involving hours and commitments, without the restrictions of rigid rules.

I also appreciated the genuine interest that every staff member and executive took in finding the best development and business solutions for us. We want to extend our cooperation soon.

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

No, I don’t think so. There was the usual time challenge that comes when working remotely overseas, but I’ve always had a great experience with them and found them to be responsive when I needed them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a platform that offers video hosting and streaming services to the medical community. We also broadcast medical conferences to multiple users who can interact with the speakers during seminars.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I wanted to develop a working MVP of the video streaming platform. The work had to be completed within the budget, but at the same time, we didn’t want to sacrifice any of the required features.

We had a limited time to get the MVP launched ahead of an important medical conference, which served as a foundation to test with our core user base. Since the platform and community around it would define our company, the MVP needed to be failproof.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ragnarson and what were the deciding factors?

I was considering either hiring freelancers or outsourcing the work to the software development agency. Ragnarson was recommended by my CTO, who had a great experience working with them in one of the biggest automotive start-ups in Germany. After additional research online and their suggestions to what we already built, we decided to pursue the project with this provider.

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

Their outsourced team built the product based on the prototype almost from scratch. We decided to use React.js for user interface and Ruby on Rails for the application backend. They haven’t provided much design work for us; everything we’ve sent them needed to be figured out beforehand.

They continue to provide maintenance and development on the product. We chose JW player for the streaming and hosting services.

The platform’s key deliverables include a user account, watchlist feature, recommendation engine with personalised content based on the user preferences, search engine, video tags and nearly 50 video categories.

There are also comments and questions sections available during the conference live streams. It pretty much works like Netflix for doctors.

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

We work with the frontend developer from Ragnarson. She works hand in hand with our product designer to produce particular pages and shares lots of UX/UI good practices during the creative process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ragnarson has met all of our deadlines, including the launch date. The platform is up and running and received a great deal of positive feedback from the early users and conference attendees. They like the platform’s design and find it easy to use.

We’ve done a lot of work, but there’s a lot of work still to be done. The scope of this project is so big and is coming along well, but so far, more than 15000 Swiss medical professionals decided to use Docflix.

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

It’s great, I’ve been impressed with the team reliability and quality of work thus far. Ragnarson uses an agile methodology, which makes it quite easy to work with them. We use Trello to keep track of development progress easily. We communicate daily using Google Meet and email for project development and management.

The engineer that we work with handles most of the communication making sure all assets are in place. Any time there was a misunderstanding or confusion, Ragnarson made sure to clarify everything. We always discussed compromises ahead of time to avoid delays or surprises along the way.

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

We have been impressed with their thoughtfulness and dedication to software development as a profession. Rather than just following directions, they have the mindset and work ethic to innovate like a top start-up team.

We are ourselves a fairly technical organisation, and we recognise and appreciate the standards to which Ragnarson holds themselves, along with their clear communication and flexibility to change course when necessary. We are going to use their services again once we secure funding for the future development and marketing activities.

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

Everything can always be done better or faster. The project was not an easy one, as we were working with some existing parts of the platform, but we are highly satisfied with the quality of the work Ragnarson has done for us. They are as good as you can get, I suppose.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Founder of a DTC Cleaning Supply brand avoiding plastic through innovative cleaning and washing supplies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our Website was mainly Shopify basic when we started. We hired Ragnarson to individualize our frontend as well as setting up a frame where we can build up on in the future.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ragnarson and what were the deciding factors?

We heard about ragnarson in our network and get in touch afterwards.

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

We had a kick-off meting to discuss our goals and objectives from there. We're also having bi-weekly calls to priorise the next big topping and the roadmaps and timefrime to get them done. All in all perfectly monitored and transparent.

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

We have a project manager coordinating all steps from our view as well as a UX/UI Designer and 1 other employee building the design frame.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After laucnhing our website the user flow was way better and through new customised section we were able to explain our product more properly and faster.

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

They are working with Github. They communicate if they can achieve the given deadlines or not.

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

They are very integer as well as if they are quite interested about the person building this business. That was quite a good feeling and also builds a lasting business relationship.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Saying first that i have no comparables at all. But regardless of that i don't see any.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of an ed tech marketplace that matches startups with mentors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Ragnarson to build out a Ruby on Rails Web App with Vue.js frontend. Our goals were to have a fully functioning MVP to go to market within 6 months.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ragnarson and what were the deciding factors?

We decided to go with Ragnarson instead of the myriad of other options due to the seriousness from which they approached the engagement. We had a meeting with them where they asked the right questions, which showed that they cared about the long term success of the project. We saw that they worked on past projects that shared similar functionality with what we were trying to build.

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

We started the engagement by flying to their office in Poland and meeting the team. They had broken down the whole project into components with an estimate (hours) next to each component. The first thing they did was build a responsive frontend based on mockups designed by us.

Next came the design and development of the backend application. Dynamic features and integrations - e.g. schedule a call from the page were included in the MVP. After the launch, we've drastically increased the feature set of the application without any hiccups.

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

We've worked with a few developers but always have had a dedicated project manager to facilitate the weekly Scrum meetings and deal with any issues as they arise.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we launched, over 5,000 calls have been booked on the platform and we've had wide spread positive critical acclaim. What started as an MVP build, developed into a full production product which is now profitable.

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

Ragnarson likes to use Pivotaltracker for product roadmapping and also we use Google hangouts for our weekly calls. They setup a dedicated Slack channel for our team and we can ping our developer whenever anything occurs. This has been very convenient for us.

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

Definitely their values. One time we had an issue with one of the developers and they went over and above to help rectify it. Sometimes, things go wrong, that's normal. But it's how you deal with them that defines you as a professional.

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

Just keep doing what you're doing!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a co-founder and the CPO of HeyJobs - the online platform that enables recruiters to receive quality candidates again and that provides a digital career advisor experience to job seekers. On the front end, it looks simple, but under the hood, we use a combination of machine learning, marketing automation, and a matching algorithm to deliver more quality candidates at a lower cost than any other platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ragnarson?

We engaged Ragnarson for the ongoing development of our AWS infrastructure in conjunction with our ongoing business operations and web application development.

What were your goals for this project?

We reached a tipping point and decided to begin re-architecting and rebuilding the cloud infrastructure. Our development teams remained very autonomous across the last years. The main challenge with that was the different teams have been using various cloud solutions and approaches suited for themselves. At the time we lacked the manpower so we started looking for a vendor to partner.

Our internal team was also overwhelmed with the ongoing work, to say the least. We required a high-skilled developer with operations background and experience to join our existing DevOps team in no time and help us maintain and improve our application and infrastructure.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We knew Ragnarson from other projects and had a good experience. At HeyJobs we use Ruby on Rails so we’ve been in touch with Maciek from their team discussing potential cooperation in other areas.

However, at that time we were more interested in DevOps optimization. Once it came out Ragnarson brought in the technical team in the discussion and my team liked their approach. They visited our office in Berlin and after a few conversations we moved forward with a project and things have gone very well.

Describe the project in detail.

We wanted to build a team that keeps all DevOps infrastructure under one umbrella, in a more planned and transparent manner. We focused on establishing a refreshed cloud-native architecture leveraging AWS infrastructure and platform services for our development and R&D teams. This especially applies to machine learning and big data operations.

What was the team composition?

Ragnarson provided consultants who were able to understand our needs. They were responsible for architecture, shared organization software, and tooling. They were dispersed among our teams to provide technical leadership and make sure the recommended solutions are going to be implemented across the organization quickly and flawlessly.

Currently, we work with one of Ragnarson senior consultants. He is hired as a full-time employee and is an internal part of our organization. At one point he has helped us a lot with the recruitment and onboarding of new DevOps employees.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At the start of the project, we brainstormed together and set clear milestones with the exact timeline. Ragnarson helped us update and optimize our AWS infrastructure, build and deploy new highly available, distributed services that enabled high levels of process automation and reduced overall cloud costs. We work side by side across several of our development teams planning and executing optimization strategies.

Currently we are focused on more cost-effective and scalable infrastructure. The solutions are very stable, and we've never had any downtime. If there is a glitch, they're available within a few hours.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There are many separate development teams, each working on a separate or semi-separate product stack. That was the biggest challenge - to unify the operations towards more scalability and automation. With that being said the workflow between our internal teams and Ragnarson consultants was effective and efficient.

Their communication at all times was impressive and they were always ready to deal with any new issues that cropped. We worked as one team and got a lot done.

After a couple of months as they knew our set up and company so well, we trusted them to manage the multiple projects we had on the go with themselves, with no need for us to chase or push them for updates on progress. For us, this is a very valuable work experience, as we were able to look at our internal infrastructure and DevOps processes from the outside.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I am really impressed with their technical capabilities. The team is quite knowledgeable and ready to accept complex challenges. I also appreciate their communication process and the way they make sure that their customers are happy. However, the huge personal engagement in that project is something that really blew us away. I look forward to upcoming opportunities to expand our current partnership in the near future.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really. Their ability to deliver the right solution, on-time every time was brilliant. They excel in AWS as well as deep knowledge of the rest of DevOps services. I would recommend them to anyone looking for a partner with deep experience in cloud architectures/platforms.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as a software engineer at a university.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ragnarson?

At the University where I work, we develop free, open-source software called Madek. Being scarce on developers for our in-house software, we decided to get external help. We needed more manpower to add new features and improve the user experience. We pay a great deal of attention to the interface and usability as the software is being developed. Striking a balance between numerous functions and ease of use is a major challenge.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to improve the functionality of software we own — by adding new features — and to receive advice on the most efficient solution.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were referred to them by a colleague who had a history with Ragnarson and spoke highly of them. I'm glad that he made the suggestion. We went with them because they had the skill set that we needed. We ended up hiring 3 Ruby on Rails engineers.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Ragnarson has been involved in all of the actual builds, including the design and implementation of the system, eventually taking over the development of the project from the in-house team. Initially, they helped with the development of the admin management system using Ruby on Rails and efficient SQL queries. Afterward, they involved in API written in Clojure. Now we also use React.js to build the app’s frontend. On account of its features, the software sits at the interface between institutional repository and digital asset management. It serves as a media sharing platform for users and makes different media types - images, audio, video, and documents - available in the same place and on the same terms. Our platform offers differentiated administration of access rights - a system of users, groups and access authorizations so that media can be shared. It's like Flickr, Vimeo, and Soundcloud combined with a built-in drag and drop file converter. The original documents can be imported in any standard format for integration and transcoding. The file is also saved and a playback version is made available. This means that authors can always access the original at a later date or for archiving purposes.

What was the team composition?

We partnered in 2013, and the work is ongoing. At the beginning of the process, we worked on the admin panel with multiple developers from Ragnarson, who collaborated closely with my development team. The platform is complete, but they maintain and update it as necessary. Their current engagement is shifting to operational support, but we also regularly add new features and functionalities. Our product owner and testers are in direct contact with the lead developer for new requirements, feedback, and support. Despite the long-term character of our relationship, the team remained fairly consistent, which is rare in software development. As a University, we have a large IT team, but with so many projects we currently develop we're pretty reliant on Ragnarson on this one.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The first project went well, and we've been working together since. The Ragnarson team has been engaged throughout the process, responsive to our needs, and collaborating on business goals and solutions. At the moment, our platform is actively being used by 3500 users. Over the years, they have created 2200 groups and imported 85 000 files. The whole project is open source, and I'm proud to say that a handful of other organisations in Europe use our system.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I think the management was really good; I can't remember any major issues or misunderstandings during the process. We use an agile approach and regularly meet with the development team to provide feedback on features and add progressive requirements to the application. This was effective as we could increase our functionality while having the application work seamlessly from its early stages of development. Our team uses a Scrum methodology with two-week sprints, daily meetings, and retrospectives, which Ragnarson fits into well. They joined our meetings and gave daily and weekly updates. Over time we replaced daily stand-ups with weekly status calls. Besides that, we use a collaborative tool and sometimes email and Zoom and Slack for communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Ragnarson excels fairly well at the tasks they're given. That's a key reason why we've had a long term relationship with them. It's particularly helpful that we don't have to micromanage every bug and task, as this allows our team to focus on other pertinent work. They listen to our needs and work closely with our team to make the partnership easy and effective. They've done everything in their power to ensure that the resources initially assigned to us stay with our team. On top of that, they have excellent Ruby on Rails knowledge.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are always some areas for improvement, but Ragnarson is a comfort to work with. I take part in many software projects at a time, and this project was very straightforward.