Reflection Infosys

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the VP of engineering at a financial analysis provider. I manage several engineering and DevOps teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed help with the collection and integration of data from several blockchains in addition to what we were supporting at the time. The goal was to add more blockchains to our data collection processes, and in an open-ended, ongoing agreement with reflection Infosys continue to integrate more blockchains.

SOLUTION

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

I was not employed at the company yet when the decision was made to select them. the skillsets of the engineers on the team were an obvious part of the decision process, but the cost of the service was also a significant component. Finally, the geographic proximity to the founding engineer was probably a small factor in making the decision.

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

The work involved accessing the APIs of a selected blockchain, and write the software needed to retrieve the data required for us to provide analytics for curated NFT collections, their trades and valuations, etc.This included interfacing with and using MongoDB, MSSQL, AWS Lambdas, and a variety of APIs provided by blockchain projects, NFT marketplaces, API service providers, as well as directly interacting with raw blockchain data for a variety of different blockchains and web3 technologies

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

We had 4 people working on this project.

• One project manager
• engineering lead
• 3 software engineers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In general the deliverables were of good quality, and well thought out. The NFT and blockchain industry is not known for high reliability, and is often endemic with the 'break things fast, and iterate', but the work from Refelction Infosys was always well-tested and met our requirements.

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

Management style was very flexible, both when we needed to add and remove people from the project. We would use Slack and online meetings as our main communication tools, and Atlassian Jira as our project management and documentation system.

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

Their professionalism and flexibility were impressive to me. They are always willing to make on-the-spot changes as needed.

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

Their brief was not involved with looking at higher-level problem-solving, so it is excusable that they did not focus on that aspect of the project work, but rather on implementing what they were asked to implement. I would have enjoyed their perspective on some of these areas. Of course other customers might not want that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lead developer for a digital marketing agency that works with other businesses to create their websites, social media presence, and more. We offer a full range of SEO and PPC packages as well. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Reflection Infosys?

We wanted to create a customer portal that would function as a one-stop-shop for everything our clients may need to do with our team. Whether that be editing their websites, paying invoices, or review analytics and reporting, customers can access everything in one place. We hired Reflection Infosys to build that solution for us. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re developing the customer portal from scratch and integrating it with APIs such as Google Analytics and Stipe. I served as the project manager on our end, so I gathered requirements and presented them to their team to discuss possible solutions.

 After we crafted an implementation plan, we set up a wireframe. Our team designed all the components and pages. We gave those designs back to their team, and they turned the designs into code and started implementing the required APIs and functionality. They broke each section of the project into phases, using .NET and Microsoft Azure to execute. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Nikolay (CEO & Founder), Radoslav (Web Developer), and another developer. Nikolay coordinates the engagement and the developers implement. 

How did you come to work with Reflection Infosys?

Their owner had a past relationship with our owner. They’d worked together on a project years ago, so we reached out to them. Because they had such a great relationship, we didn’t consider other vendors as much as we normally would. After explaining the project, their team affirms that it sounded like something they could do. Their price was reasonable as well, so we decided to hire them. 

How much have you invested with them?

The first phase cost us about $30,000. The second phase is estimated to be an additional $15,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since around October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After we provide the designs, they implement them into code very quickly with few questions. They did a great job of talking through our ideas and figuring out what’s realistic. From there, they carved a direct pathway to meet our goals. They didn’t hit any roadblocks, so we didn’t have to compromise on anything we wanted. We achieved everything we wanted with them so far.   

How did Reflection Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

They worked very quickly and did a great job for us. I would simply send them a requirements document and designs in Figma, and they would create code.  

We communicate back and forth with their team on Slack. Despite our time zone difference, they communicated all the time. It was easy to get ahold of them through Slack or on a Zoom meeting. They were attentive and easy to work with in all of our communications.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s easy to work with them. Other companies might try to steer their clients away from certain avenues. However, they listened to what we wanted and implemented it according to our needs. They brought their opinions to the table when there was an issue, but they prioritized our requirements. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything because it’s been so easy working with them. There are probably more things for us to improve on our end. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clearly define your project and create your requirements before engaging them. They can handle designs and development, but the project went smoothly for us because we had a very clear idea of what we wanted. If you have your plan laid out before engaging them, they’ll knock out the build quickly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of attn.live. We are a voice technology company and we provide distribution as well as NFT audio.

For example, for someone who does podcasting, announcements, or events through audio, we provide knowledge and distribution of pure audio content on social media platforms as well as home devices like Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and others.

My job is the management of the technology as well as managing the development of technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Reflection Infosys?

We needed someone to help us with the development of the software itself. We had created a very simple sample product to be able to test to make sure that the idea was feasible. We were putting together matchsticks and breadcrumbs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have been working with them to build a full-fledged program that is actually quite powerful. They are also doing all the integrations with social media platforms as well as YouTube, Audioengine itself which allows the translation of voice into live streaming content and the distribution of it.

There are a lot of different factors that they have been involved with. They have done a great job on all of it. I believe it has been developed in .NET.

What is the team composition?

Currently, we are working with Nikolay (President & Founder) and one other team member. I know for a fact that he can expand beyond that.

How did you come to work with Reflection Infosys?

This is the second company I have worked with Nikolay on. While we have been working together on this project for about a year, I worked with him for 10 years when he personally managed over a 100-person team over five different cities.

He oversaw the development of a SaaS-based marketing platform. He ran everything and he was the very first person to come on board with that company 10 years ago.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them on this project in August 2019, and we are very much still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The company I am currently with is still in its growth phase. We are in the process of bringing on our first round of investors so growth rate is still in beta and we aren’t looking at mass growth there; however, I have no doubt that this technology we are developing would have been slowed down without his expertise.

One of the biggest factors, and something I think is probably the most important thing; when you work with a developer, you need to expand your tune as your revenue increases or your scope of work increases. It is often difficult for me to pick someone in an area that you can trust you will be able to expand your team.

As soon as we get our first round of investors, I have five to six developers already that we are ready to bring on. I have complete trust in his abilities to be able to expand without any issues. I don’t have to worry about where the money is going or worry about getting bad people. I trust him because I have done this before. Reliability of expansion is probably one of the biggest factors.

How did Reflection Infosys perform from a project management standpoint?

We are in touch every day on where we are with technology, with any integrations, where we are with core planning, and what we are working on next. Nikolay is very good at communicating. Because he knows the area, the technology, and the people, he is extremely good at bootstrapping it. I have seen him be able to do it all. We work primarily through Slack, and we also do Zoom calls.

Nikolay not only managed the team but did a majority of the actual coding itself. I have no higher respect than for that man. He is not only a good programmer, but he is also an incredible manager when it comes to the technology and he builds entire teams out there. He is very good at what he does.  He is able to source developers from other areas and also be their point of contact.

He is also an incredible coder. We would ask him to do something, and he would blow our mind with what he could do. One of the reasons we have stuck with him is because we would say to do A and B, and he would do A, B, and C and do it better than we thought. He is very good at what he does.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A lot of times when you ask a programmer to create something that kind of looks specifically like something else, but certain things aren’t the best or not what you expected. Their team is able to push beyond what your expectations are.

He will bring you something that not only involves making it work, it also involves creativity and understanding what the customer needs more than just a backend that works beautifully. It is being able to deliver above expectations and provide that UI that so many developers either don’t know or don’t deliver at times.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. He is great at communicating, programming, management, and great with finding good people.

When we first started, we went through several developers until we found someone that we knew would do what we wanted and who we could trust. Obviously, we wouldn’t have kept someone around for over 10 years if they didn’t meet those expectations.