SamsonOS

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

HappyCommerce is the owner of several beauty e-commerce projects in Ukraine. We have seven employees. I am the COO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SamsonOS?

We needed support on existing web projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SamsonOS developed our e-commerce platform from scratch. We had a complex system with many features like a bonus system, online payments, and Gmail-integrated ticket support for customers. We are currently working on an integration between our customer relationship system and the website. We are using a Russian CRM platform

How did you come to work with SamsonOS?

We made an online search for Ukraine-based IT developers and had around 15 meetings before choosing SamsonOS.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SamsonOS in 2015, and have an ongoing relationship. We are in the process of launching our new web shop.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been deeply impressed with SamsonOS' energy, attentiveness, and willingness to make a contribution to our growth, so we had no hesitation in contacting them when we had new web projects. We have worked with several other IT developers before finding SamsonOS and had a difficult development process. Our system has many different components, and it is being used by non-IT staff. It was important for us to find people with a willingness to understand our needs and translate them into an IT solution. We're happy to have found such a company in SamsonOS.

How did SamsonOS perform from a project management standpoint?

A few deadlines were moved because of changes we requested, but SamsonOS delivered on time, overall.

What did you find most impressive about SamsonOS?

I'm not an IT person, so it's difficult for me to discuss these matters. From a business point of view, our e-commerce site is working, and we've gotten everything we needed from SamsonOS.

Are there any areas SamsonOS could improve?

None.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

StyleLike.it is an Instagram shopping tool. I am the founder and CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SamsonOS?

In the beginning, our main challenge was to develop the software platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SamsonOS helped us create our platform and integrate its database with Instagram's APIs. It's an Instagram shopping tool on which digital influencers can link photos from the social network for their clothes, shoes, and accessories, allowing their followers to make purchases. Figuring out how we would achieve this was a challenge, since Instagram doesn't allow direct linking with e-commerce shops, or putting affiliate links in comments. The solution was to build a landing page for every Instagram influencer, to which their followers could go and see the same photos as on Instagram, but with pricing and purchase buttons. We don't have any products in stock, so we just link to other online shops.

The platform uses a custom content management system. The backend was built using PHP. We use Amazon Web Services as a backend hosting solution.

How did you come to work with SamsonOS?

I found SamsonOS through a referral from a friend who had used them. We had discussions with other suppliers as well but ended up choosing SamsonOS.

How much have you invested with SamsonOS?

The cost of SamsonOS' work was around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SamsonOS in December 2015. The project ended in March 2016. We have continued to work with SamsonOS for a market influencer project, which is currently ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within two months, we reached over 60,000 unique visitors per month. The software helped, but the result was also due to our marketing. We were very happy with the traction we gained, and have been able to get an angel investor on board.

How did SamsonOS perform from a project management standpoint?

SamsonOS met our deadlines without any issues.

What did you find most impressive about SamsonOS?

It was a bit tricky to use the Instagram API, given its limitations. SamsonOS had to come up with some workarounds in order to reach the results we needed. They were very flexible in finding solutions, unlike typical developers who only do what they are told.

Are there any areas SamsonOS could improve?

Everything was fine. I cannot think of anything for SamsonOS to improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a peer-to-peer, digital, secondhand marketplace for luxury watches.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SamsonOS?

The problem that needed solving was for users to conduct transactions between each other without ever having contact. The best example of this would be eBay, where a buyer and seller don’t have a form of communication whatsoever between each other, and they don’t send the goods or money to each other. We would function as a clearinghouse for both money and goods. We’re able to do that though pre-verification of everything that gets put on the site. It becomes quite complicated quite fast, but that’s the main unique selling point of ours. The main challenge is building the entire platform, which is a very large, complex issue that we’re solving.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SamsonOS provided all the development capabilities and built the platform from scratch. We have people who go through the code and check on what they’re doing, but we don’t have the capability to build the platform ourselves. We did handle the marketing.

SamsonOS had three or four people full-time working with us. We have had a been a bunch of different assets throughout—designers, project managers, coders, and even the founder, Vitalii, got involved since there are so many phases that you go through in a project like this.

How did you come to work with SamsonOS?

We were looking at five or six other web developers and had used other developers before to see where things were going before we decided to go with SamsonOS. The reasons we went with SamsonOS were their transparency, workflow, and communication. There’s been an honesty on promises versus deliveries throughout the entire process. Given that we’ve been working on this for so long, that’s unique. We got the sense that it would be like that quite early.

How much have you invested with SamsonOS?

It was a substantial amount of money, especially for a startup, but it was money that we felt we needed to invest in building a secure platform.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2015. SamsonOS has been our developer since day one. We’ve been working on this project for the past two years, and it’s been quite extensive. We’re still building the platform, but we’re going to be launching in beta within the next couple of weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their honesty is great; they deliver on what they say they will do. My experience with other developers is they say they’re going to do a lot of things, it ends up taking a lot longer and not looking the way that you thought, and then they sugarcoat why it wasn’t. Normally, the reason for it not ending up the way you thought it would usually is because of lack of skill rather than them having found something that is better. They’ve never promised that they can do and solve everything.

How did SamsonOS perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done their job well. The only reason we haven’t launched now is on our side. Vitalii has been very involved in this personally as well.

What did you most impressive about SamsonOS?

The main trait I like about them is that they’ve delivered on what they’ve said that they would do. If they say that something will take longer or that it’s more complicated than expected, they give a heads-up and make sure to keep you, as a client, in the loop of what’s going on.

Are there any areas SamsonOS could improve?

They can improve on expectations management. If they had better designers, it would be great. What I’ve experienced from that region is that they do coding fantastically, but the design is lacking a little bit. So I wouldn’t say that they used bad designers. The product works fine and ends up looking great if you’re designing out of simple WordPress templates, but we built everything from scratch using open source. We had to go away from templates. But I knew this going in, though. Other than that, I wouldn’t say there’s anything they should improve upon.