RUBICON

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP & the Head of Engineering, responsible for Product Development and Technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our company is a FinTech start up with a highly rated iOS application. We brought in Rubicon to build the Android version of the Digital Bank from scratch. The application had plenty of banking and lifestyle features in it.

SOLUTION

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

We researched a few vendors who can partner with us in building the mobile application for Android. Spoke with the CEO of Rubicon on a couple occasions prior to making the final decision. The CEO was confident and came up with a proposal about how to make this a successful project. The proposal recommended a lean execution with clear and accurate estimates. We also had the opportunity to review the client references from the past and the scope of their projects prior to the decision.

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

Scope of the project is to develop

• core banking features with checking account
• funds transfer
• P2P payments
• ATM location search
• digital cards
• transaction history
• spend analytics
• digital gift card purchase
• carbon footprint
• referrals

The project was phased into 2 milestones. Tech Stack included

• Kotlin
• Android SDK 23+
• Android Jetpack
• Dagger 2
• Retrofit 2
• Clean Architecture

Other tools are Jira, Firebase, Segment, Google Analytics etc.

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

We actually needed 5 engineers for 6 months but we went with smaller team with longer duration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was executed with super precision and high quality. The finished product had very few issues to report which the team resolved well in advance before the release date. The product appeared like an improvement over its iOS version. The team took care of full SSDLC including documentation and release notes for the final release.

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

The planning for the sprints and the backlog management was done by the product owner from Rubicon, which needed very little involvement from our side during the duration of the project. This saved our company a good amount of time to focus on other projects. The execution was super crisp and things happened as predicted and planned. The product owner communicated well in advance about potential issues so we could course correct without impacting the timelines.

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

The Rubicon staff were self-motivated and result oriented. The sense of ownership and accountability gives a lot of confidence to the clients. We never had to worry about whether the project could be completed on time.

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

Rubicon is generally a very efficient and seasoned bunch, there is not a whole lot to correct. The team time-off management could be improved to simplify client's invoice approval.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm working as an Expert Data Foundation in the Data & Analytics tower at a major chemical manufacturer in Germany. The company belongs to the 50 biggest companies in the country.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We developed an internal data platform to get rid off the many silos existing in our enterprise. On this platform, various Analytics use cases should be enabled to access all enterprise data and process it with automatically deployed cloud services. RUBICON supported us in the setup of a new user interface for this data platform, satisfying the needs of both data scientists / engineers as well as business users to operate in our complex environment.

SOLUTION

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

We got in contact with the RUBICON team at an IT fair in Germany. We were impressed by their agile mindset and end-to-end sense of responsibility (support in ideation phase, great workshops, great product), which were the deciding factors for us.

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

RUBICON joined our project when we were about to setup our data platforms' API and afterwards also the user interface and the connected UI API. We organized several workshops throughout the time, resulting in an MVP definition after each workshop. The features we came up with in these workshops were then implemented by the RUBICON team in 2-week Sprints that were in sync with our backend activities planned in our Sprints.

Key deliverables were the platform API itself, later the integrated user interface with email notifications, permission management, triggering of IaC deployments, push notifications and the implementation of a smaller data catalog solution (handling of requests and approvals of data assets).

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

At the peak of the project RUBICON supported us with minimum 7-8 team members, including Scrum Master, Product Owner, UX/UI designers, frontend and backend developers. Currently we are supported by a Product Owner, one UX/UI designer, and one front- and backend developer each due to the decreasing number of features that need to be implemented.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

RUBICON always delivered high quality increments each Sprint and also actively involved themselves in process improvements e.g. for the shipment of releases. Any bugs were fixed really fast so that we could quickly implement new features into production.

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

We really valued RUBICON's agile setup, from which we learned a lot about our backlog management. Especially the workshops for the new MVPs that we did every few months were outstanding, really well organized and fun. We just Miro boards for these ideation workshops and Slack for general questions. Azure DevOps was used for the backlog management and emails were only leveraged for official budget/invoicing topics mostly.

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

Well organized, super motivated team with a diverse set of skills and characters that fit well in a digital product team and also to our internal team colleagues. Despite the regional distance, we felt as one team with the RUBICON colleagues working on one shared goal.

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

To move towards a real end-to-end service: RUBICON supported us from the ideation phase onwards to the implementation of a high quality data platform product. It's understandable that RUBICON sees its USP in the delivery of such software products, but for an end-to-end service a cool process for handing over their product to some kind of maintenance support or even offering it themselves would be "the icing on the cake"

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m working for an international industrial and consumer products company that produces adhesives, beauty care, laundry, home care products, and more. I’m part of the internal IT team that oversees all business functions. Currently, I’m heading a team of analysts, and we’re implementing analytical, descriptive, and predictive use cases.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with RUBICON?

We wanted to transfer from our legacy platform to the Microsoft Azure cloud because we weren’t happy with how some things were built. We needed someone to help with the migration process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

RUBICON conducted creative online workshops to help us understand the complexity of the new cloud platform. First, we described the feature set we had and demoed the tool. After that, we decided what we would redevelop on our own and what we would assign to RUBICON. We handled most of the hardcore backend work and tasked RUBICON with the middleware and the entire frontend development, including UX and UI.

We’re now close to completing the application, so we’ve extended our contract with RUBICON to include more features.

What is the team composition?

During the workshop phase, there were 3–4 people involved from their team. During the implementation phase, we started with 5–6 people. We’ve scaled up to 7–8 people with different skill sets, but it all depends on what we’re working on at the moment.

How did you come to work with RUBICON?

They’d already done projects with our company in the past, so my superior suggested working with them again. Selecting them wasn’t my responsibility, but everyone’s been happy with their work. Our team decided to give them a try, and it has been successful.

How much have you invested with them?

Up until now, we’ve spent around €400,000 (approximately $477,000 USD) with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off the workshop in March 2020, and we’ve been working together ever since. The end date for the project was initially planned for June 2021, but we’ve extended the timeline because we’ve added a new feature.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can see the number of bugs they’ve produced compared to our backlog, which is pretty low. They deliver high-quality work and have a rigorous procedure for aligning the features they develop. We’re really happy with their work.

How did RUBICON perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a Scrum master who guided us in every sprint review, planning, and so on. We used an online board for the design part, and I believe they used a MIRO  board - for the workshop sessions.

To structure all the work, we used Microsoft Azure DevOps. Overall, they’re highly professional in this regard.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of maturity is outstanding. They have a strict methodology for running projects, and it works absolutely smoothly. We haven’t had any hiccups. It's one of the best projects I’ve ever been involved in in my 20-year career. Overall, it’s incredible how well-organized they are as a company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, no. All plans were well executed and delivered on time, within budget, and with high quality. They should grow as a company and stay consistent with their level of quality and passion. RUBICON has a bright future ahead, and I’m amazed by them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Run a creative workshop first for your project, no matter how long it takes. Also, listen to them and give them the freedom to work without telling them how to do things. They have great ideas and the skills necessary, so tell them what to do, not how to do it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder of a healthcare tech company that enables people to search and find healthcare options for complicated care options across the United States based on condition, location, and pricing options.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Searching for Healthcare options can be overwhelming. The process is complicated for the average person searching for the right care. There is too much information to search through and if it very difficult to know if you are reading reliable information.

Rubicon built a system that allows for searching for healthcare in a much more simplified way. I needed a custom made solution to simplify this process and provide state-of-the-art solution within a reasonable budget and timeframe to execute the project.

SOLUTION

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

I searched for companies throughout the entire world from different parts of Asia, Latin America and Europe. As someone with a global network and friends in tech, I had several sources of information available to find the right development partner.

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

The scope of work combines searching for information using multiple sources of data to provide the best results for a user and the entire system is fully integrated with CRM to automate to manage the communication process with the user.

I'm not a technical person so I did not ask about technologies used in the process, I focused on ensuring the deliverables were what was promised and needed.

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

4 CEO, Design Head, Project Manager and Lead Engineer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product was not only delivered on time and within budget but more was delivered than I originally thought possible when building the MVP>

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

Slack and email for communication. Weekly video call for status update and discuss actions items and strategy. All action items were resolved quickly by project manager following up on everything.

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

They delivered more than the scope of work stated and more than I thought was possible. They were a very talented team and worked on time as promised at the highest level of quality.

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

No, for me, the project is a 10/10, no questions asked.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company manufactures speakers, and I’m the project manager. We have eight internal team members and then several external suppliers who help with software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with RUBICON?

Our team needed to develop an app that’d control our speakers. We wanted it to have onboarding features as well as search and general remote capabilities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

RUBICON built an app that has essential speaker functionalities. The solution allows users to set up, configure, and manage their speakers. Users can also connect their streaming services such as Spotify, Tidal, and QPlay. RUBICON worked from scratch and developed the app for iOS and Android.

What is the team composition?

There are about six people on their team. We mainly correspond with the product owner. However, that person has changed three times during our engagement. The turnovers have been fine though, we haven’t had any issues.

How did you come to work with RUBICON?

I’m not sure because I joined the project after they had been selected.

How much have you invested with them?

We invest around €25,000 (approximately $27,000 USD) each month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership began in December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At the beginning of the engagement, there was a lot of communication between our teams. We discussed our expectations for the app and RUBICON was very involved. They provided great ideas that were based on their experience with developing similar apps. I liked that they were well-informed as well as provided a lot of solutions and ideas.

How did RUBICON perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira for project management; it works really well. Each week, the RUBICON team presents what they’ve accomplished and how far along they are. This is simple but very transparent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their scrum methodology works very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure both parties are aligned on task expectations. It helps to have a common overview of the amount of time a task will take, before actually starting it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the COO of an award-winning data analytics software company whose products serve the global financial services industry. We are a rapidly growing start-up with approximately 40 staff.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire RUBICON?

Creation and maintenance of a suite of automated tests for our software user interface.

What were your goals for this project?

Improve product quality to reduce late cycle rework and customer issues and ultimately produce higher customer satisfaction.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Referral followed by due diligence of their capabilities with other previous customers.

Describe the project in detail.

Creation and maintenance of a suite of automated tests for our software user interface.

What was the team composition?

Two (initially) and then increasing to three (mid project) developers and one part-time project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Rubicon's test automation resources all had a strong software development background. Their work resulted in well-structured test scripts that our in-house developers found easy to maintain and extend.

Rubicon's automation of a lengthy manual testing process reduced our time spent for each development cycle, standardized our process and resulted in higher quality product for our customers.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Weekly project progress meetings Weekly catch-up with between managers Daily interaction via dedicated slack channel

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Wee previous comments

Are there any areas for improvement?

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a mental health and addiction startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with RUBICON?

We hired RUBICON to develop the MVP of our mobile application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

RUBICON developed our wellness and fitness app for users navigating the 12 steps of recovery. The app is to strengthen the relationship between sponsors and mentees. It helps people meditate, journal, and process the day-to-day business of their well-being.

In house, we had a blueprint of specific features, but we relied on RUBICON to take our ideas to another level. We had a vague scope, but they helped us a lot. We relied on RUBICON to do everything from the full-stack backend development to the frontend UX. They also helped create payment solutions and help us launch in the app store.

We continue to work with them on app updates.

What is the team composition?

I only interacted with four people, but the team at large included a project manager, a UX engineer, 10 developers, and a testing resource. Their CTO was also involved for some of the more complex tasks.

How did you come to work with RUBICON?

I searched for companies from nearby countries and found RUBICON through a Google search. I scheduled a call with their CEO and felt convinced that they could help with the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The bulk of their work was completed June­­–November 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We believe that we have received an excellent product for the price we paid. We’ve gotten positive feedback from users who are thrilled with the UX. I’ve been very impressed with the quality. We’ve also had zero errors or crashes in production, which speaks to their testing capabilities.

How did RUBICON perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was quite streamlined. They presented us with a detailed project plan and expectations for each sprint. We held weekly sprint meetings and then a demo at the end of every week. They graciously accommodated our requested changes, and they made good use of their project management tools. RUBICON was much better than other companies I’ve worked with in terms of quality and speed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re flexible and exhibit a passion for technology. They’re also very good at onboarding new employees.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they exceeded my expectations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any project, be clear in what you want to accomplish.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a designer and distributor of furniture. We're currently exporting to 30 countries from around the world and we participate in major fairs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with RUBICON?

We needed an augmented reality (AR) app for projecting furniture into specific rooms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our iOS and Android application. We have our own development team for 3D production, but those models didn’t fit AR purposes. We had to map surfaces for around 150 products. We chose eight unique products in three dimensions, with a total of 40–50 items for the MVP.

We participated in a major industry event in January 2018. Prior to it, we were quietly hoping that we could show something to our customers there, but we weren’t confident that this would happen. To everyone’s surprise, we were able to use the tool, albeit with only eight products.

The app is still in development, but we are looking to finalize it with all our models. There are quite a few 3D models to make, which is quite a big investment. We have also discussed publishing the app on our website’s download page, as a browser-based app.

What is the team composition?

I'm not sure how many of their developers were working on the app directly. I’ve participated in several meetings with them involving four to five people. There are around 15–20 people in their team overall. I coordinated with Adin (Co-Founder and CEO, RUBICON) for commercial items and with their senior software architect for technical items.

How did you come to work with RUBICON?

They're located in the same city as us. We are a Dutch and Bosnian company, but we operate in Sarajevo and we know a few software developers there. We have used other providers for our ERP but we didn’t know any companies that specialized in apps, specifically AR solutions. We started inquiring around September 2017, and none of the companies except RUBICON could begin immediately.

How much have you invested with them?

Our initial budget was €20,000. I am not sure if we’ve surpassed it, but we will at one point. I don’t know what the final cost will be, as that depends on the 3D models we will make.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2017. The iOS version launched in January 2018. We launched the Android app at the end of March, beginning of April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has already made an impact. We had a huge advantage during the fair, as we the only company able to show customers a solution like the app. I can’t provide any figures, but there was a lot of interest from salespeople who could use the app on iPads. We've received orders just because we had the app available. It's made it easier to present ourselves as a serious company.

That was the first element of added value for us, but the ultimate purpose of the app is to allow our salespeople to make home visits to customers and show them how furniture will look in their rooms, using the app. Customers will then be able to make orders immediately. We're still in the progress of uploading our 3D models, after which we will market the app in that form. The real success story will come from this usage. We hope that customers will refer others to us because of this approach.

How did RUBICON perform from a project management standpoint?

We gave them a vague briefing, given that we didn’t know what exactly we needed to build. They had an interest in the project, which made the work easier—there was good energy from both sides.

We were able to enter any requests we had into Trello. We had regular briefings about the latest implementations of the app. We had a Slack group internally, but also with the programmers.

Development was stopped while our team was at the industry event, which was between January and February 2018. We've since started working on the second phase of the app. I don’t blame RUBICON for this pause.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They stand out for their flexibility. We started out with a blank piece of paper but they weren’t intimidated by not having worked on a project like this before, or by the anticipated difficulties. They were willing to simply do it. I liked this spirit and the project turned out well because of it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not accepting the simplest briefings—like the one we had—would be an improvement. Because of this, we made some implementations that were not really needed and, as a result, we lost a week or two. We overcame this after a few tries. We had a bad briefing in the case of our ERP system as well, but it was quickly fixed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO at an animal health technology company, where we develop products for animal health.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rubicon?

We needed some support with new software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Working closely with our internal team, they did mostly mobile app development on iOS using Swift, to support integration of our hardware products into a MobileFirst environment. They ensured that the Bluetooth communications between our products, the mobile phone, and the servers all worked smoothly.

What is the team composition?

We have one project manager who has dedicated 1/3 of his time to this, and then we have two full-time developers.

How did you come to work with Rubicon?

They are based in Sarajevo, Bosnia, which is a part of the world that I know quite well, so I already have contacts out there in this industry. We wanted an organization that was not massive so that we could get high-quality work and service at a reasonable price. They were recommended to us and their website looked good, and we visited with them and two other companies in Sarajevo and chose them because they had more experience with the specific technologies we were working with.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship began in August 2017 and in ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They delivered what was asked of them within the timeframe and budget. We were happy with that. We've had very positive feedback on the app from some beta testers.

How did Rubicon perform from a project management standpoint?

They've done pretty well. I think there's probably a little bit of room for improvement. We have had a few minor hiccups along the way. We use Slack to communicate as well as Clubhouse.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their capabilities compared to price makes for a good value. They're a friendly, young, dynamic team. For a company like ours, they're a pretty good partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

With one UI/UX suggestion they made, they were asking for more resources but didn't do a good job explaining and articulating the purpose. In the end, it was a good idea, but it was pretty unclear to us why. I think it would be better in the future if they built more of a story around their recommendations for what we need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and co-founder of Making Moves. Our main product is called Assessment-Training.com where we help candidates prepare themselves for job offers through assessments. We sell a package on the site, that users can use to improve their scores on assessments. We offer this in four languages and are selling in more than 20 countries. We received an investment in January 2017 from a venture capitalist, and are currently working with 12 people.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with RUBICON?

We were searching for developers to partner with for our assessment platform. Developers are tough to hire in The Netherlands because the market is small and there are many headhunters recruiting them. Even if we hired someone, they could move to another company, where they would get paid a better salary. It’s tough to keep good-quality developers, especially for startups. We decided to outsource our development to RUBICON.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rubicon provides us with a dedicated team working on our projects. For our platform, we have used an off-the-shelf system, WordPress, but wanted to build our own .NET code. RUBICON helped us migrate the whole e-commerce platform, with existing customers, running in the Dutch, English and German languages. Our main products are assessment tests, and we had a database for them which needed to be migrated to another format. It was a tough challenge since we didn’t want to do a lot of data entry ourselves, but just to do it automatically for thousands of questions. RUBICON’s skills were useful since we didn’t have anyone on our team who could do it.

What is the team dynamic?

They are located in Sarajevo, Bosnia. They assigned a product owner who organized sprints. We had weekly sprint-planning meetings during which we set tasks. All developers were present for the Skype videocalls, along with our team in Amsterdam. We have used JIRA for planning tasks, and we decided how many story points we would set every week. Each task had a story. The sprints ended with a demo meeting, during which RUBICON would show us what they accomplished. During sprints, we also had meetings which we call “backlog grooming”, where we check which topics will be prepared for the next sprint. I also have daily contact with the product owner about different topics, identified bugs and so on.

How did you come to work with RUBICON?

I’d had some previous experience with them. Before founding the current company, I had developed some iOS applications with RUBICON.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost has been around €150,000. [$180,000]

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with RUBICON in May 2016. The project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new site has been launched. I don’t have exact numbers, but our Google index ranking has increased, given that we’ve built better code and search optimization for the product. This has had a direct impact on our conversion rates.

The speed of our development is higher now than before. We are building more products, with the improved system. They built a complete noting language system which allows us to translate any test in whatever language we want, and upload it to the platform. We are faster with releasing tests in multiple languages.

How did RUBICON perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s important for us to know exactly what they are doing, based on the JIRA planning system. I am happy with the level of communication. RUBICON was always available on Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with multiple outsourcing companies in India and China. Quality and communication are the words which come to mind when I think about RUBICON. I still have products in India which are not finished, because our partners there stopped responding. I’ve had bad experiences with other companies, but not with RUBICON.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We work with a dedicated team, so I see them as colleagues. No areas for improvement come to mind right now. We give them inputs on the product, and they come up with ideas on how to achieve it.