Rozdoum

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Brooklyn Berkeley Bridge LLC is company me and my wife started. I’m a managing member.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rozdoum?

I wanted them to assist me with developing a prototype for an idea I had for an app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a prototype of an Android app. The app is designed to make people aware of how much time they spend on their phone and creates an interactive way for them to make a decision based on those results.

How many resources were assigned to your project?

Tatiana was the facilitator. I worked with one developer who was very thorough. He answered all my questions and did a good job.

How did you come to work with Rozdoum?

I was looking for companies in India, but then decided I wanted a company from Europe to give me a good price point. I searched online and based on their reviews and location, I chose them. They had good reviews and they were based in an area that I was looking for. I called one other company and they were a little overpriced for what I was looking for. I was considering three other companies along with Rozdoum.

How much have you invested with Rozdoum?

We spent between $4,000 and $5,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in June 2016 and it was completed in September.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The impact that the project had was I got to see what it was like working with someone overseas using Skype. I communicated what I wanted to do and they translated that to code. Then I gave them feedback and told them any changes I wanted. They would change it and we would share ideas. It was a good learning experience and I learned a lot.

They just did a prototype so the app hasn’t launched yet. My goal was to develop a working prototype that I could play with. I can now gauge what I want to create.

How did Rozdoum perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very responsive which is key. They were great at responding to my emails and translating my idea into an app. They also had the ability to test it.

What did you find most impressive about Rozdoum?

I’ve never dealt with anyone overseas, but they were very responsive. They understood what I was trying to accomplish and were able to take my idea and put it into an app, which I think is impressive.

Are there any areas Rozdoum could improve?

Maybe in a larger project, I could answer that better. Tatiana follows up and checks in. Their customer service was great. There was a very quick turnaround. The price was great. I tried to do the prototype with someone else and they wanted $100,000.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the operations manager of a local yacht club in the New York area. We have around 15 employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rozdoum?

The overall goal was introducing entertainment for our participants. We thought that it would be interesting to bring social aspects to the sailing process. Typically, we would plan routes and follow them, but we wanted to give people the opportunity to share these routes, track what they’re doing, and generally introduce a social aspect into their experience. Specific tracking software is available, but we wanted to give additional opportunities to our clients. We looked at the market in order to see which companies had experience with these types of solutions and found Rozdoum. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The app was built for iOS and Android. We had an initial idea of giving people the ability to plan, track, and share their sailing routes. Rozdoum worked proactively in discussing the whole concept and came up with mockups and a design flow with us. They contributed based on their previous experience with the tracking and positioning capabilities of mobile phones.

We made the first version of the software in order to prove that it could be delivered. Once Rozdoum completed this prototype, we moved forward.

Rozdoum was responsible for the design and development of the app, and they also contributed to the business logic, providing us with the best choices for user-expected actions. The route-planning feature allows users to pick points to visit. There is also a logbook on which users can enter details about their current position such as wind speed and direction, boat speed, and so on. Often, this is done on paper.

How did you come to work with Rozdoum?

I was looking online for companies who had experience in making mobile apps with tracking functionalities. I came across a use case for a previous project of Rozdoum’s that was related to tracking user positions on mobile phones and creating maps of popular places where people run or walk their dogs.

How much have you invested with Rozdoum?

The cost of their work has been between $95,000 and $105,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rozdoum around 2013. We had a few initial milestones and determined that we were interested in extending the platform. We came up with more milestones within the next year and finished almost everything in 2015. We mainly have support activities with Rozdoum now. They fix any bugs we encounter.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

We received user feedback and requests after launching the app. Rozdoum was willing to fixing those items. Overall, we’ve been satisfied with their performance and attitude towards the work.

The app is functional and stable. We really depend on many of its features in relation to our external suppliers and weather updates. If a third-party component changes, it can also affect us and break something in our app. Once these integrations are fixed, we’re stable.

How did Rozdoum perform from a project management standpoint?

Sometimes, we needed to know how to work together and what to expect. Rozdoum took the time to explain issues to us, and, once we passed the getting-to-know-them phase, their project management was foreseeable and reliable. They mapped our expectations and the promises they made. We usually had conversations over Skype once per week or so during development, and we had more extensive talks during planning. They handle support through email. For immediate communication, we use channels like Skype or Slack.

What did you find most impressive about Rozdoum?

I appreciate their openness to contributing knowledge in specific domains. Rozdoum suggested that we use the Couchbase database software, which we didn’t know about before. This gave us seamless synchronizations between platforms, as we can share data between Android and iOS phones, which was quite valuable and new at the time.

Are there any areas Rozdoum could improve?

Rozdoum has good English skills, but our communication with the developers themselves could have been improved. All in all, it was understandable. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide companies with performance coaching and resources as a consulting firm, which includes team training on methodologies and customizing tasks, and knowledge management software. We have five to eight people including contractors.

I am the chief executive officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rozdoum?

We give them Atlassian engineering work for the Atlassian apps as far as configuration, plug-ins, etc.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do engineering work for the Atlassian apps which includes JIRA, Confluence, and Bitbucket. They did a little bit of iOS app development as well.

How did you come to work with Rozdoum?

I found them online. I’ve had many subcontract firms over the last five to eight years and they’ve been the best by far.

How much have you invested with Rozdoum?

I have spent $120,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them for five months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They work really well and we want to continue doing business with them. That’s the best metric I can give you.

What did you find most impressive about Rozdoum?

They usually excel in the things they do and they’re affordable. Their English ability is fantastic. They seem to be able to scale the amount of resources pretty well.

Are there any areas Rozdoum could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am an independent consultant working with clients in the US. I manage the collaboration between clients and the development team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rozdoum?

I've worked on a number of projects with Rozdoum. A specific one was for an auctions portal. The client wanted to develop a platform similar to eBay using non-standard methods like closed auctions, penny auctions, and 6-7 other variations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rozdoum developed my client's platform using Liferay. The project was started completely from scratch. Rozdoum created mockups of the core functionalities and design and provided coding. The team consisted of a project manager, 1-2 testers, and 3 developers.

Rozdoum was involved in the setup for the platform but the deployment was handled by another company.

How did you come to work with Rozdoum?

I commute to Ukraine quite often. One year before starting the work with Rozdoum, I was looking for collaborators and contacted around 10 companies.

I wouldn't approach Rozdoum for smaller projects given that they're too formalized, but they're ideal for larger scopes of work.

How much have you invested with Rozdoum?

The total cost of Rozdoum's services for the current project was between $300,000 and $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Rozdoum in 2010, and use them on an ongoing basis. We have worked on 3 projects together so far.

The platform was launched in 2013 after a one-year development cycle, but it was taken down because of a business decision. I was contacted again 3-4 months ago in order to readjust the project and upgrade it. We plan to relaunch it in another 3 months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

As far as the client was concerned, the platform was successful. They received everything that they wanted. All issues were related to operating logistics, not Rozdoum's development.

We went through performance testing for the system, and it was able to handle 2,000 concurrent users at the time. It was capable of being scaled up, but it never went further than that at the time.

How did Rozdoum perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything required of Rozdoum was delivered on time in 95% of cases. Any delays were usually due to specification changes. We used Jira for our collaboration, which was provided by Rozdoum. I mainly kept in touch with our project manager, but I did have communications with the development team as well, for particular tasks.

What did you find most impressive about Rozdoum?

I find Rozdoum to have an organizational structure more akin to what is found in the US.

Are there any areas Rozdoum could improve?

At times, when we wanted to accelerate certain portions of the project, Rozdoum couldn't provide additional staff. It would be nice to have this, but I can understand that keeping people on staff without assigned work doesn't make much sense from a business perspective.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Rozdoum?

Rozdoum typically keeps to the specified requirements. They do make suggestions in the initial phases, but clients should understand that the work will be done precisely as instructed, which can differ from their actual vision. We've had some delays after the client realized the result wasn't quite what they meant to develop.

BACKGROUND

We are a software company in Germany that specializes in modeling software for business clients. I am the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We needed to find an offshore development team with a deep set of developers. Our goals are to cut costs and augment our German development group.

SOLUTION

Rozdoum provides software development for our core software products. My team provides all the training, consulting and support for the products. I selected Rozdoum because their CEO [Andrey Dekhtyar] used to work for our firm.

He moved back to the Ukraine after completing his studies. Their company has grown a lot in the past decade, and I liked their stability and expertise. They also offered great pricing for our needs. They give us the ability to scale between three main resources up to 20 in busy times. We scale up and down based on our business, which fluctuates wildly at times.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

I am very satisfied with the work delivered by Rozdoum. Their CEO is a smart guy, and the team has barely changed during the past 11 years. Their mobile application for iOS is industry leading here in Germany, and they have produced several popular, industry-leading complicated software tools.

My customers are satisfied with the work they have delivered. They report on their work very well and have strong developers. I often give them more work and responsibility as time goes on. The engagement will probably grow because of the success and history of strong cooperation.