Saritasa

What was the scope of their involvement?

It has been a very collaborative partnership. On my team, I have data scientists and analytics experts. What Saritasa provided was mostly the development side and helping us figure out how to rebuild a platform, through which we could provide our clients with the data that they need. We worked together to build this platform. They did the actual development work, my team did the analytics work, and then it was all integrated together in order to come up with the final product.

What is the team composition?

Stan (Manager, Client Engagement), who was the account manager, basically held our hand from the beginning to the end. He was there the entire way, and he just made sure everything ran smoothly. We had standups three times a week via video chat. The account manager was there every day, and we also worked with Chris (Project Manager). He was also absolutely fantastic. He was there for anything I needed or if I couldn't get ahold of somebody. He kept me on track with our hours and the budgeting. They were just really on top of everything.

For every standup, we were in contact with Dmitry (CTO). He was the lead developer and also really acted as the manager of the whole project. He had an entire team that we met at the beginning, but because they were mostly in other parts of the world, we didn't have daily contact with them. Dimitri knew everything that there was to know about the project. Between these three gentlemen, we were able to work through and get any questions answered, any problem taken care of, and any additions needed. We just worked with them incredibly well.

How did you come to work with Saritasa?

We didn't have an internal development team, so I looked externally. Saritasa checked all the boxes of somebody local that I could go and physically meet with in Los Angeles, as well as their very in-depth surveying of our needs. Their proposal was very comprehensive, so they turned out to be great partners in that respect. Also, a big part of why we chose them is that they were a full-stack dev team. They could do anything we needed, from start-to-finish. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking to them at the end of last year, and we went and saw them in person in January 2020. They had to do an assessment, go through our system, and come up with a proposal. Then, I had to run it by my leadership team. Once all of that was approved, we were able to start working together at the beginning of February. 

I believe they’re finishing this week, and then, there will be testing and realistically some back-and-forth. The platform will be done in 6–7 months.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The original contract started with eight priority tasks—the blight items we wanted to address on the website. We executed those tasks appropriately over the course of a two-month period, and essentially concluded the contract with them.

One of the specific features we were looking for on the development side was setting up our Google Analytics, so that we could track individual information on each of the web pages: our click rates, how long people were viewing our information for, and our download rates.

Another important one was to have a live-feed structure. We post updated information about our company, including the events we attend and reports, and general market news and information. We wanted to set up more sophisticated navigation around the searchability for that live-feed structure, using a “see more” functionality, dropdown menus, categories, etc.

Related to that, we started developing podcasts to put onto our website. We had Saritasa link our current Soundcloud podcast structure and incorporate it into our live-feed system.

We also integrated our social media platforms, with special icons on specific web pages.

They helped structure a sort of template web design for custom pages. We have certain pages that follow a certain template, related either to publications we’re releasing or to the general research category we’re looking into.

One neat feature they had was a development site, which was essentially a copy of our website, where we could view changes before they went public on the production site. We didn’t have the capability to do that before, and it was really helpful. We knew exactly what the output product would be once it was published.

What is the team composition?

I had a technical project manager.

How did you come to work with Saritasa?

At the time, we were in an office space with a much larger company, and Saritasa was a client of theirs. The company recommended them, and we did our due diligence looking at several other web development companies. Saritasa had a pretty good pricing model, and it seemed to work out for us.

How much have you invested with them?

The total investment was $7,500–$10,000 over a three-month period. The original budget we estimated was around $7,500, but we had a couple of tweaks and additional questions upon the completion of the contract. I believe we spent an additional $1,500 on those.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Saritasa in mid-October 2019, and we had some breaks during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Development started on November 7th, as we were trying to figure out the logistics of information beforehand. We concluded in mid-January 2020. There were a couple of follow-up technical questions, and they were very responsive. They provided everything I needed to manage the site myself.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Saritasa reviewed our app and then advised us on what part of the platform would and wouldn’t work. After the initial assessment, they didn’t scrap the whole project. Their team took over and maintained full responsibility for the platform.

Their team spent most of their time refactoring the existing platform. They fixed bugs but also managed feature enhancements. Their team advanced the backend using .NET. They also helped with our server infrastructure.

We eventually changed our requirements. Their team created an application for a large event. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager who was local, which was a tremendous help. We also worked with a technical project manager who supported the project for 2–3 months. The rest of the team included Android, iOS, and backend developers. They also had SysOps, DevOps, QA people on the team.

How did you come to work with Saritasa?

We looked for local software development companies. Our CEO found Saritasa either online or through a recommendation. Our previous partners were remote, so we wanted a local partner to keep more up to date on the project. We spent a lot of time, money, and resources into the app, but didn’t have results. Their team’s close proximity was one of the biggest factors in our decision. Another factor was their great reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $25,000–$50,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started in November 2019 and wrapped up in June 2019.