Rolique

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CPO for a company called Luckabox AG. We specialize in last-mile logistics and freight forwarding between customers, retailers, and carriers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rolique?

We needed a good frontend development team to help us build our application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rolique built the entire frontend of our SaaS application from scratch, using React as the framework. They worked together with our internal team on building out its components, design, and features, as well as conducting QA and implementing the necessary improvements. They also helped out with the backend, which was developed using Node.js.

What is the team composition?

We work with three people from their team — two frontend developers and a QA specialist.

How did you come to work with Rolique?

They were found by my predecessor, who hired their team based on their competency.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about 150,000–170,000 CHF (approximately $180,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2021, and our engagement is still ongoing.

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

Overall, I am very happy with their work — they’ve been delivering on their promise while meeting our quality standards. They also work so efficiently, which makes us feel like they’re really part of our team.

How did Rolique perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style is great. They manage everything in an agile fashion and work closely with us making sure that all deliverables are being tracked and delivered on time. For instance,  their project manager holds weekly meetings to address all internal problems, including the paperwork, and always stays in touch with us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m very impressed with their strong sense of teamwork. Despite being in a remote setup and never meeting one another, they’ve managed to create a collaborative environment to ensure a successful outcome.

Are there any areas they could improve on?

I can’t really point out anything specific that they need to improve on, but they can perhaps start thinking about how to prototype ideas faster. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t hesitate to hire them! They’ve been such a solid partner; they have an amazing team, and they’re really good at what they do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering for an online fintech company. Our team consists of both in-house and outsourced developers, and I oversee the development process and technology direction. I also work closely with the product team to scope out the projects that we’re working on as a team.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rolique?

We’re scaling an online platform to support 100 times the lead volume it previously provided. Our teams are integrating it with our parent company’s ecosystem to better serve our customers. Overall, we want to maintain the existing software while delivering valuable new features to our end users. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rolique provides us with full stack developers who help us build the app for our end users. Apart from that, their team also provides us with product management services. 

Our platform provides invoicing and payment features, bookkeeping functionality, business insights, and human assistance. To develop these features, we use a wide variety of technologies, such as Node.js, Vue.js, Docker, PHP, and AWS microservices. In all of our projects, we provide their team with the documentation of the tasks that we ask them to do. 

What is the team composition?

We use around 12–13 teammates from Rolique, including engineers, senior engineers, team leaders, and architects. 

How did you come to work with Rolique?

I wasn’t involved in the original decision to hire Rolique. However, we decided to continue working with them because of their professionalism. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent more than $1 million over the years we’ve worked with them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2019, and the partnership is ongoing.

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

Rolique developers take ownership of the tasks that we assign to them. Moreover, they do well in learning the business context behind our product, helping them provide better feedback to us for scope and ideas. On top of that, they generate ideas for new projects. In fact, several of their senior members have taken the initiative to improve the software even if that’s not part of their scope of work. 

For example, one of their developers has decided to speed up the responsiveness of our frontend, which has resulted in a better UX design. That developer has also come to us with suggestions on what we should be doing, and our team happily supports him. It’s been both a sign of growth for that developer and an improvement in our software. On top of that, one of their architects proactively finds scalability issues in our software. That architect also coaches not only their own teammates but also our in-house developers to improve their skills. 

Overall, we’ve continued doing business with them because they truly believe in working with us as partners — they don’t just complete tickets; they own the broader software platform. 

How did Rolique perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is good. The Rolique team has good communication skills, and members are always open to feedback and improvements. In other words, they take their job seriously. 

Moreover, we have regular sync-up meetings to find or address problems. Their team breaks down projects, executes them, and communicates their status over time using Slack, Jira, and video calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Rolique’s initiative is the best part of working with them. They don’t wait to be told what to do and members come up with their own ideas as they bring their experience to the table.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only struggle we have is the difference in our time zones. That being said, Rolique finds ways to make the engagement work for us. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront and transparent. The Rolique team is highly eager to correct issues and improve their processes. As a result, as long as you’re open and transparent with them, they’ll help you find good solutions.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a three-year-old computer software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rolique?

Some time ago, we had a product that had been designed by junior developers, but we weren’t satisfied with it. We work in the visual communications industry of designers and printers, and our products didn’t reflect what our company could be capable of. We started looking for a company that could rebuild and/or redesign our software products.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rolique worked on UI/UX design, provided DevOps consultancy, and executed mobile and back- and frontend development. The team provided 100% of the recommendations and knowledge to this project. They used a MySQL database and Laravel for the backend. We were previously running our frontend on Angular, but we transitioned to React.js — where they also worked on mobile development. We used AWS for hosting services.

What is the team composition?

I worked with seven people: two full-time frontend developers, two full-time backend and mobile developers, one part-time designer, a project manager, and a business analyst. 

How did you come to work with Rolique?

I did some research online, and they were recommended as well. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested €68,000 (approximately $82,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from October 2020–March 2021. Rolique completed the original scope of work, but they have gone on to become our tech team. Our company is establishing the marketing team in the same city as Rolique, so we are developing a very close working relationship.

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

We offer guided demos that go straight into a converted sale — we don’t offer free trials. Since our engagement, the uplifting conversion rate has been phenomenal. Previous clients who had rejected subscribing to our product are now doing it because of Rolique’s efforts.

Our customers understand our product perfectly thanks to the intuitive UI/ UX design provided by the team. We weren’t sure about investing in UI and UX designers, but Rolique suggested it, and I think it’s the best decision we made. 

How did Rolique perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed excellently. I hadn’t had great experiences with other software development agencies, but Rolique was incredibly accurate in estimating timeframes and making sure all processes and systems were running in place. I communicated through Slack and went to their offices at least one week a month.

At the beginning of the engagement, I went to Ukraine to spend one week doing discovery sessions with the team and kickstarting the project. The process went so well I ended up staying for three weeks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Rolique not only had a swift understanding of the technical nature of our product but also came back with comprehensive reports where they listed areas for improvement. They were flexible at finding solutions and always worked toward making us happy. 

In the initial conversations I had with the team, it was clear that they were very experienced people, who were not just good developers, but were commercially aware as well — and that’s very difficult to find. 

One important factor for us when choosing an agency was that the partner needed to be an extension of the team — Rolique completely met this requirement.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get clear on what you want before starting conversations. Rolique was incredibly good at extracting the information that they needed, however, the more prepared you go into the project, the more you will get out of it. The team helped me improve my briefing processes and see the value in being as prepared as possible.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Plann, a social media scheduling and analytics tool. Since 2016, we’ve grown to over 2.5 million users, helping people across different products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rolique?

We have them work on our mobile apps.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team helps us with our apps for iOS and Android.

What is the team composition?

In total, we’ve probably worked with 10 or 11 people on the project at various times. We have two developers on each app. Throughout the year, we’ve had a product manager. We’ve also had several QA testers and an account manager.

How did you come to work with Rolique?

It was through a referral. We’ve known them since 2017, but they kept in contact with us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with their team in January 2020.

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

We’re very satisfied with their work. Their work quality is high, and we haven’t had any issues. They give us a product manager on their side. While he works on several projects, we’re one of his primary ones. He gives very proactive thoughts, which makes him part of our internal team. They don’t just deliver good work, but they actually think about how to improve it.

How did Rolique perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they’re seamless. They run their team efficiently, and we don’t have to chase them at all because they know what needs to be done. The product manager ensures things get done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their proactive thought makes them stand out. They contribute well, expressing their opinion when it’s helpful. In my experience, not a lot of teams operate that way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they’re great. I have nothing negative to say.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For me, it would be to set your expectations clearly. We knew what we wanted, and we asked them to be members of our team. We encouraged them to share their opinions. That’s a good way to get the most out of them because you’re allowing them to contribute.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of WorkClub. We work in the hospitality industry, offering spaces to freelancers, B2B clients, and B2C clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rolique?

We wanted to find a team with the right expertise to help us build our app in three months.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rolique built the app from the ground up, handling the front- and backend development, the deployment, the code repository and pipeline, and the management of how we fixed bugs moving forward.

We had an idea of what the app should look like, and they worked with another agency on the look and feel of the app.

What is the team composition?

There were six people from Rolique involved: two full-stack developers, a project manager, a team lead, and a tester.

How did you come to work with Rolique?

We got a recommendation from our product team. I’d also spoken to them months prior.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent just around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rolique in January 2020 and completed the app in late February. It was a two-month project.

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

Rolique’s work helped us close more deals with the clients we provide spaces to. Our branding is on point, and we’re up to speed in terms of what’s on the market. We’re now a good competitor against quite a lot of our space partners.

How did Rolique perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated with them every day, and they were very thorough in terms of project management. It was less of me worrying about how things were going and more of them updating me on the success of the weekly sprints. It was driven by weekly sprints, and it was well-managed. I really didn’t have a lot of involvement in managing the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand how to build products well. Adhering to timelines is probably one of their core skills. They have good knowledge of the system they’re building, and they were able to work as an extended team. That’s something they’re well-versed and experienced in, compared to other developers. There was no need to bring Rolique up to speed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be a bit stricter around goals and targets. Aside from that, they’re very good.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should make sure they fully agree on the scope and end product. When there’s a clear plan in place, Rolique will deliver.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and CTO of Zest, a knowledge-building platform for professional marketers. We’ve been in business for two years, and we have products for the web and for mobile platforms.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rolique?

I was trying to quickly scale my development team through different technologies, and I needed additional technology and resources to solve the problems I was facing. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rolique performed front-and-backend development. Initially, I worked with one of their Node.js developers for two-week sprints lasting six months. Then, I asked the developer to work with React on the frontend. 

At that point, we started working on a mobile app together. Due to a delay close to the app’s launch, I asked Vlad (Managing Director, Rolique) to join us as he is an Android and React Native developer. He brought on two other React developers, one with an Android focus and one with a web focus. Since then, we’ve decided to work more closely. The partnership has had three phases so far.

Technologies used include Node.js, React, React Native, and PHP.

What is the team composition?

The team from Rolique consists of Vlad, one Node.js developer, an Android developer, an iOS developer, a React.js and PHP developer, and a project manager. Not all of the team members work fulltime. 

How did you come to work with Rolique?

I met a German scouter where we’re located in Israel. He asked if I was looking for a trustworthy company in Eastern Europe. Based on poor experiences in the past, I told him no. However, he insisted that Rolique was a reliable team. 

I started to consider whether our development could be done remotely and how remote employees would affect my company culture. I was afraid a remote service provider wouldn’t have a flexible schedule.

In the end, I decided to meet with one of their engineers, who introduced me to Vlad (Managing Director, Rolique). We talked about a small test project, and they suggested making an app. They delivered it quickly, and so I decided to hire one of their Node.js developers for two-week sprints. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve paid them $25,000 or more so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rolique around July 2018, and the collaboration is ongoing.

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

Prior to our work with Rolique, scraping content from the internet was a lengthy, expensive process performed by human employees. After Rolique’s scraper improvements, we’re spending 30 seconds scraping an article as opposed to 5 minutes per article. We still need human resources, but we’ve significantly reduced the time necessary for processing content.

How did Rolique perform from a project management standpoint?

If I let them do the scheduling, they would take longer to complete the work without asking us for deadlines. To make the process more efficient, we integrated them into our project management tool, Asana, and we’re sure to set very clear deadlines. I speak with them on a daily basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a strong dedication to their work. The team is committed to delivering what they promised. We have a long-term relationship because Rolique has proven itself to be a company that can help us in tough situations. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our communication could be improved. Their English isn’t that good, which makes it hard to collaborate at times. I’m still testing them, so I can’t say for sure.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Future clients should start small and then get a bigger team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a Berlin-based SaaS company. We offer a solution that automates the meal planning process for catering and healthcare companies, as well as provides individualized diet and meal plans for patients, residents, seniors, and others.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rolique?

We needed a relatable partner to assist with development initiatives.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rolique supported us in building a user-friendly web application and interface using a variety of technology, including Python, JavaScript, and Angular 2 Beta. At that time, most industry players were working with AngularJS, so our project was a bit experimental.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a full-time Angular developer, a part-time supportive developer, and a QA resource.

How did you come to work with Rolique?

We considered several vendors but ultimately chose to partner with Rolique. Being able to meet some of their team in person definitely influenced our decision. Vlad (Managing Director, Rolique) happened to be visiting Berlin with some of his teammates, and we spoke with them. The first thing I looked at was their internal team structure, taking note of how they allocate working hours, if they assign resources to more than one project, and if they have good inter-team communication. From my perspective, they checked every box. They seemed to be a healthy, modern, and growing company, which is what we were looking for in a partner.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €81,600 Euro (approximately $92,678 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

This specific project lasted from January–March 2017, but we’ve continued working with them on other initiatives.

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

We set a pretty ambitious deadline for the project—we wanted to go to market within three months. With the Rolique team’s help, we finished and released the final product on time. After just one year, we attracted a little more than 4,000 business clients. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback, praising the software for its usability and current designs.

Some of our clients have been conducting internal business analysis to compare their efficiency before and after implementing our product. Based on their reports, our software cuts their work time between 40%–90%. Rolique did a lot of work in the product’s interface, which is the primary way our clients interact with the software, so their work was paramount to our success.

How did Rolique perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is top-notch, and every teammate has a good command of the English language. We spoke primarily over Slack and used Jira to track the project. Even though we’re in different regions, we had a great working relationship. I related to everyone from Rolique on a personal level.

What did you find most impressive about them?

At one point in our collaboration, we had to onboard a new developer. It proved to be a bit difficult, and we were struggling to make progress for about two weeks. Once Vlad noticed, he took charge of the situation and assigned a senior developer to the project to support the new developer until everyone was up to speed. It was a very positive moment and cemented our loyalty to Rolique.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, we are completely satisfied. There are a lot of good development agencies out there, but Rolique routinely meets our expectations.

Any advice for potential customers?

Clients should work directly with the developers rather than rely on a project manager to be the intermediary. They have a great team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Billy App, an accounting platform for small businesses and freelancers.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROLIQUE?

We initially engaged ROLIQUE to migrate the code from our Danish parent company to our own servers. It was an enormous task that involved dealing with over 50 microservices and thousands of MySQL columns and rows.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Coordinating with our Danish developers, ROLIQUE migrated our code into our servers, writing export/import scripts and scrubbing the code in the process. They also fixed any bugs found in the original code. We've since engaged their team to continue fixing bugs and work on product enhancements for our Node.js web platform.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with five people on their team, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with ROLIQUE?

We worked with a firm that helped us find a few of the top development vendors in Eastern Europe. After interviewing each company, we felt the most comfortable working with ROLIQUE.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since December 2017, and the collaboration is ongoing.

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

Thanks to ROLIQUE's efforts, we've been able to rollout highly-requested, important features every two weeks. Their work has helped our business a lot.

How did ROLIQUE perform from a project management standpoint?

We use a Kanban agile model, which allows their team to thoroughly manage estimates, use story points, and train us as needed. We also use Jira and communicate through Ryver.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're currently working with a very senior, impressive developer. The fact that we can actually afford a developer at his level has helped our business a lot. Their team has also been able to find bugs that even our original developers weren't able to spot, which has added a lot of value.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took a while for us to get the resource we're working with now, but that's not their fault; he was working on other client projects and only recently became available to work on our account.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager for a marketing company that specializes in influencer campaigns.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROLIQUE?

After our previous provider dropped out of the contract, we approached ROLIQUE to continue development of a web tool for us to use internally.

What was the scope of their involvement?

As the product manager, I provided ROLIQUE with the tool’s design and outlined the functionalities we required it to have from a business perspective. They finished building out the backend using MongoDB and implemented the frontend design. The tool is a web app that functions as a database to aid our campaign management efforts. All 20 of our project managers use the tool for tasks related to budgeting, planning, and tracking key performance indicators (KPI).

When we handed the project over to the ROLIQUE, the software could only perform the main functionalities required to plan campaigns. This meant we could basically only enter information into the database and filter it. Their team greatly extended the tool’s functionality by making it capable of exporting data, extensive support of the project management, KPI analysis and reporting creating. They’ve also fixed bugs and enhanced the processing speed. These improvements enable us to evaluate more KPIs that inform our decisions. More features are being developed as we continue to expand the software.

What is the team composition?

They assigned us a project manager, three frontend developers, three backend developers, and two QA resources.

How did you come to work with ROLIQUE?

Our previous vendor found ROLIQUE through another company that recommends technical support agencies. Once they dropped out of the engagement, they recommended ROLIQUE as a replacement. We decided to accept the suggestion.

How much have you invested with them?

I don’t have the current numbers, but we’re planning on allocating a sum in the low sig figures to this project by the end of the year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We hired them in November 2016 and the project is ongoing.

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

It’s hard to measure the entirety of ROLIQUE’S success, but we’re really happy with their work. We consistently request more complex features, so they add more developments and handle the scaling process well. We have an external consultant check their code quality and assess the app’s stability. According to that resource, they perform excellently compared to other agencies within their region.

How did ROLIQUE perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project manager does an adequate job of addressing issues as they arise. However, she manages multiple projects, so her responses sometimes take longer than we’d prefer. We primarily communicate via Slack but also use Skype when necessary. Both of our teams use Jira to perform management tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We communicate daily, so it never feels like they’re an outsourced team. We’re happy with the engagement as it has turned out better than we expected.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We experienced some issues when they added new developers to the team that aren’t entirely fluent in English. Having to deal with a language barrier slowed down the process. However, we’ve learned to work around that over time. Also, their ability to accurately estimate product delivery timelines could be improved.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a food takeaway platform. Users can build and create their own food and then choose a restaurant, instead of choosing from menus.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rolique.io?

We needed someone to develop our app systems for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They build three apps for us: one Android, one iOS, and a partner Android app for all the restaurants. They built a backend admin panel for us where we can handle orders, pay restaurants, and create new restaurants.

We made wireframes and detailed descriptions and then showed them to Rolique.io, who came back with input. They gave us feedback that improved the app’s screens, so we changed them before we started building.

What is the team composition?

We worked with five to six people in total, four developers and a project manager. There was also a fifth developer at one point.

How did you come to work with Rolique.io?

A guy from our network recommended them. I met the owner, Oleg, through Skype. He seemed to be really professional.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $47,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2017 until April 2018.

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

From a business point of view, we have a proof of concept, which has helped us develop partnerships. We’re collaborating with 50 restaurants right now and we have orders every day. The app is simply working. It’s smooth for users and easy for restaurants. We can cancel orders and pay restaurants; everything was made out perfectly. It’s quite easy for us to handle, even though we’re a small organization, because of the way it was built.

How did Rolique.io perform from a project management standpoint?

In the beginning the CTO of the company communicated with them every day with the scrum methodology. We also had small Skype chats and sprint meetings once a week. The CTO took over communication after the wireframes were made. We visited them in Ukraine twice to make the process easier and that was really great. We didn't have the detailed description done when we started, so, from the outside the project looked easier than it actually was. We went a bit over time but there wasn’t much to do about it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It's difficult for me to say, because I haven't done apps before, but we didn't have any problems with communication at all. I was surprised that their level of English was as high as it was, which made everything quite easy.

They gave us honest feedback and I was really satisfied with their developers. Even though we went about a month over, the developers were always working hard, even on the weekends, just because they liked to code. I thought that was quite cool.

Any advice for potential customers?

It depends on the complexity of the product. If a person wants to build an app that’s as complex like ours is, then you definitely need a CTO. If someone was asking about outsourcing, they need to make sure they’re being exact about everything and take care to explain what they want.