SE7ENSKY frontend studio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the co-founder and supervising manager at Yabl. Our goal is to create a modern media resource that would shake the established market with fresh blood and ideas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SE7ENSKY frontend studio?

We engaged SE7ENSKY to develop front- and backend components from scratch for our news-based website. It’s an online media resource that would apply a current technology stack while keeping the high speed of a web application. We also needed to prepare the project for a full-fledged launch, including the server environment, email and analytics setup, and future project support.

What were your goals for this project?

The fundamental point was to use the correct approach when creating the site structure to ensure a maintainable code and scalable end product. In addition to the site, we wanted to build a functional CMS for editors to better oversee site content.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A few weeks before starting our project, there was a popular education hub event called “Projector” where SE7ENSKY debuted as a new partner. After examining their portfolio along with their founders’ activities within social networks, I presented them to our investor as our main development team. We then discussed the project concept and collaboration terms, agreed on the legal issues, and began work.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

The team took a two-pronged approach for the media resource site: while developing the architecture and structure, we simultaneously worked on the visual parts of the frontend and the logic. SE7ENSKY built the visual components based on our provided prototypes and gradually added more details as design assets came in such as animations. We prioritized the final site to be easy to use, speedy, and viewable across all popular devices and browsers.

SE7ENSKY also helped develop a complementary CMS to manage the site, including all necessary functions to curate and edit content. After finishing development, they tested both platforms, fixed any bugs, and launched the project. The team continues to provide ongoing support and development.

What was the team composition?

The team consists of four developers and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Overall, it’s been a profitable investment. As of today, the project has successfully operated for over six months, and there are more than 1,000 materials published on the site. Our monthly project audience has also increased by 20% each month. The project is constantly evolving thanks to SE7ENSKY’s team.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

At each development stage, the project manager and developers discussed active tasks, reported problems, and suggested solutions. I also received reports on the project status and progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I’m most impressed by their level of competence and approach. They’ve implemented the right technical structure for our project, which allows us to easily refine and maintain the code. Furthermore, they have a positive reputation as a team of great professionals. They draw from their experience to suggest solutions and avoid mistakes.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I wish there were more flexible conditions during the pre-development phase. We spent a significant piece of time negotiating with lawyers, however, in the end, it was certainly worth it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the brand leader at Fedoriv, and we’re a creative agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SE7ENSKY Studio?

We needed help with the development and design of our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They help with both web projects for our own company, as well as our client’s companies. We have an internal design department, but we don’t have internal developers. They’ve used our creative concepts to develop our website frontend and backend on WordPress.

They connected all 3 systems, including a financial system that allows for payment by card, the interface for our webpage, as well as an internal audio solution for which we used their API.

One project we worked with them on involved implementing a web page for the Klitschko venture. We’ve collaborated with them on other projects as well, such as landing pages, web interfaces, and web activations.

What is the team dynamic?

We had about 2 developers from their team working on our projects.

How did you come to work with SE7ENSKY Studio?

I don't recall exactly, but either an employee or a friend recommended them to us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2014, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our team is satisfied with their work. We haven’t had any issues, even though web development is an area where issues often happen.

How did SE7ENSKY Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They generally met deadlines and followed timeframes. We know how tough deadlines can be, and we only had minor delays. We were sometimes responsible for those delays because we didn’t give feedback in time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are friendly and kind, and we feel comfortable with them. They are very responsive, and anytime I need Roman [CEO, SE7ENSKY Studio] to give feedback or advice, he is always available, regardless if they are working on that particular project.

They are also talented with frontend development. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the deputy CEO in a marketplace called eda.ua, which is like Grubhub or Just Eat. We launched our project nearly three years ago. I was responsible for launching, development, marketing, etc., because I was the CEO and it was a lot of work for me. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SE7ENSKY Studio?

In the beginning, we asked SE7ENSKY to create our marketplace, the frontend part. The scope of the work evolved from there.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The website’s framework is created in PHP, and we created the connection between the frontend and backend. I think SE7ENSKY was briefly integrated into our system, and they integrated the frontend with the backend. We had our own backend developers who worked with SE7ENSKY. Nothing was special or difficult about the website they built for us. People could order food directly on the website (it’s a marketplace, e-commerce). I know that eda.ua continues to work with SE7ENSKY, because they’re good and they do their job well. 

What is the team dynamic? 

From their side, there were only frontend developers. We did not work with project managers or anyone else. We were just working with the CEO of SE7ENSKY, and he helped us to create the website. We were just communicating with him. I know that there were two frontend developers who were working on our website, and they created the full frontend development in one month. 

How did you come to work with SE7ENSKY Studio?

We looked at five development companies in Ukraine. SE7ENSKY showed their frontend work from other projects to our backend developer, who was both backend developer and CTO so he could tell they had the cleanest frontend work he had ever seen. That’s why we started working with SE7ENSKY. We considered the other companies, but SE7ENSKY has the lowest price in the market and the best quality.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working work SE7ENSKY in 2013. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We wanted to boost our website and make it faster, and they had to work with scripts but they created a light page. Two years ago we had a Google PageSpeed score of 85 out of 100. We didn't get any feedback about the frontend from our users, so it’s hard to tell how it has worked for the end users. There were not a lot of bugs. It was good. There were not many bugs, but we did have some issues in the mobile version of the site. It’s adaptive, so we just need to test it on several devices.

How did SE7ENSKY Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through Skype; All projects were loaded to Git. We also communicated with them through e-mail.. They respond within several hours, so it’s easy to communicate with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like that they take their work from us and turn it around quickly. If we give them some design, they just take it and give it back to us in the span of  hours, not days. The quality was really good, so we didn't need to check anything again, and the quality assurance team from our side was happy to work with them because it was easy. They just get the template, upload it, and that’s it. I worked with a lot of frontend developers, and they can say it was the best experience in Ukraine to work with SE7ENSKY.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CPO [chief product officer] of a company developing an energy management system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SE7ENSKY?

At the moment, we didn’t have any frontend developers in our team, so we decided to outsource that part to SE7ENSKY.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SE7ENSKY has worked on a regular website with order forms. We provided its design and structure to their team and they were responsible for the frontend coding.

We have several products listed on the website with Buy buttons. Potential customers can read about the products and go to the Shopify order page.

How did you come to work with SE7ENSKY?

I was looking for a good web studio and made several searches, contacting several frontend developers in the process. We found a lot of information and good reviews about SE7ENSKY. They had worked with several big names, including the Ukrainian equivalent to DHL, as well as big creative studios.

Several of my friends also told me that the company can provide good quality and that they have experience with frontend development. I spoke to some technical people from their company and ultimately decided to work with them. SE7ENSKY had the right expertise as well as good prices.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost was around $2,000 for the frontend development.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SE7ENSKY around six months ago, at the beginning of 2017, and the project lasted two months.

They haven’t provided any additional services but we're considering building an admin panel. It’s currently in the concept stage, and we will start working on it in about a year with SE7ENSKY again since they delivered quickly and with good quality.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had several suggestions for improving the functionality and SE7ENSKY implemented them fast. We have a simple functionality on the site, consisting of only 3 animations and a responsive design. There were no complex issues.

How did SE7ENSKY perform from a project management standpoint?

I communicated regularly with the project manager. Whenever I had a suggestion or question, I could write to him. The work was delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their developers can work with different frontend frameworks. Before using SE7ENSKY, we had tried to find a company which worked with certain frontend frameworks, but none of them had good quality. SE7ENSKY showed me different examples of how they’d used D3.js, among others. It was a web application with a complex structure and functionality, which was fast and worked fine. They have experience with not only simple frontend development, but also with more complicated tasks.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not at this time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I used SE7ENSKY for development projects for a variety of clients when I worked at a marketing agency. I was the director of development there, so I was responsible for digital strategy and any development that had to be built for campaign purposes for our clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SE7ENSKY?

SE7ENSKY basically helps us with any development project. I used them to replace my previous developers; I've had such a good experience with them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first project we did with SE7ENSKY dealt with a pretty complex animation that needed to be seamless within a Christmas campaign website that we built for a client. It was a pretty unique project. We built a winter wonderland village, and SE7ENSKY animated the village in a way that allows the user to kind of fly into the different sections of the village. I thought was great.

In terms of the CMS [content management system] recommendations that they gave us, there was only one and it was for one of our clients. In general, we tell them what CMS we need to work with and they make it work. That’s usually because our clients have a CMS already developed in-house, and they need us to work with it or they need their team members to understand how to work with it. We kind of have to work within those parameters.

One thing I love about working with SE7ENSKY is that they go above and beyond. For instance, when I'm putting together specifications about what needs to happen for a button or an animation, I don't have to tell them exactly what to do. I don't have to source the JavaScript or the animation and tell them, “It has to look exactly like this.” They will take my directions, they’ll go with it in a cool way, and it works 99% of the time, which I love.

How did you come to work with SE7ENSKY?

We were looking at other development shops before we chose to work full time with SE7ENSKY. I have a friend in Ukraine who helps me find developers there because they have such a great development community. He reached out to SE7ENSKY for a project that we desperately needed help with. We needed special help involving animations. He reached out to them first to see if they could do it, and after a little back and forth, we ended up working with them. Since then, we’ve worked with them on a bunch of projects.

How much have you invested with SE7ENSKY?

I try to get SE7ENSKY to do projects at an hourly rate. I think they’re currently at $35 an hour. What they typically do is give me a lump sum and say, “We’ll do the entire project for this,” and that rate is based on wireframes, a project brief, conversations we’ve had, etc. We’ve been working together for so long that now they’ll say that they can do projects for $8,000, $10,000, etc. In terms of price, they’re in the mid to lower range.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve been working with SE7ENSKY for about a year. Before them, I worked with a development company for three years. For SE7ENSKY to come in and unseat the developers I had been working with speaks to how well they do their job.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have tons of reports and analytics, but it’s all proprietary data for the client. SE7ENSKY’s products definitely are reliable, but they do have bugs.

How did SE7ENSKY perform from a project management standpoint?

I think SE7ENSKY has around 10 developers at their disposal. There was one project manager and about 1–3 developers on our projects at any point. Their project management is pretty good. I have to get tough with them sometimes, but that’s ultimately an issue for any project. When they make promises to me, they’re good about following through and providing products that are ready for clients. If we have a specific date to present a website that SE7ENSKY agrees to, they will stick to that date, and when we get to that date, I'm not surprised by the level of quality they’ve provided.

What did you find most impressive about SE7ENSKY?

The quality that SE7ENSKY provides us, and ultimately our clients, is night and day compared to what I was dealing with before. What they’re able to come up with is pretty great.

Are there any areas SE7ENSKY could improve?

One area SE7ENSKY can improve is truly testing their products across devices. This is a problem for all development companies. They say they have robust testing, but problems still fall through the cracks.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a project manager at Chapps Digital Agency. We provide design services for web and mobile applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SE7ENSKY?

We're a design agency, but sometimes we need help with implementing HTML mockups.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have worked with SE7ENSKY for a French company which provides t-shirt and other types of printing. They developed some animated landing pages, as well as other small sites.

I'm not a technical person, so I can't provide many details. I know that SE7ENSKY has worked on animations and website implementations. I have usually worked with SE7ENSKY's two project managers directly. They have assigned our tasks to the team. They are in charge of picking which resources work on our projects.

How did you come to work with SE7ENSKY?

We found SE7ENSKY online, possibly on Facebook. We gave them some client mockups to implement and continued working from there.

How much have you invested with SE7ENSKY?

We usually ask SE7ENSKY to provide a fixed price, since it's ideal for clients. Our current project includes full HTML mockup implementation. It has a cost of $7,000 and is scheduled to be delivered in two months. Our other project was split into four stages and had a cost of $800 per week.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SE7ENSKY around one year ago. The collaboration is ongoing. We have two active projects with SE7ENSKY.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We like working with SE7ENSKY and find them to be a professional company. We have experience with other developers, and by comparison, SE7ENSKY is the best company we've used. They can work perfectly based only on our job descriptions. Our clients are happy with SE7ENSKY's design work.

How did SE7ENSKY perform from a project management standpoint?

SE7ENSKY has delivered all of our projects on time, which made our clients happy.

What did you find most impressive about SE7ENSKY?

SE7ENSKY can handle complicated tasks. We had a particularly difficult project a few months ago, featuring animations. We sent requests to a couple of other companies, but they were not able to do what we asked in the timeframe specified. SE7ENSKY did it even faster, which was really impressive.

Are there any areas SE7ENSKY could improve?

So far, everything has been good. We communicate with SE7ENSKY on a daily basis, so if any issues arise, we can simply send them an email or a Skype message.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

New Strategies Group is a digital marketing agency working with a number of international clients like Kimberly-Clark, Philips, and Panasonic, providing services for their brand and digital assets. We handle everything from marketing strategies to media. We have a team of 25 people, and can be found online at nsg.agency. The agency has three locations in Europe: Zurich, Moscow, and Kiev. I am the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SE7ENSKY?

Our group has internal project managers but we outsource development to partners. We have worked with SE7ENSKY on particular HTML programming projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SE7ENSKY created the brand site for one of our international clients. We took care of design, strategy, and marketing components, and had SE7ENSKY take care of the HTML and all other programming needs for the site. They’ve done this type of work for most of our projects.

How did you come to work with SE7ENSKY?

We had a very large project for Johnson & Johnson, as well as other work for global brands. I believe that we found SE7ENSKY through a contact. The group was using the best available technologies for mobile responsiveness and other emerging trends. This has now become the norm, but four years ago, SE7ENSKY was among the few companies which understood the importance of mobile.

How much have you invested with SE7ENSKY?

The cost of SE7ENSKY’s work is between $10,000 and $30,000 per year. We have two or three large projects, and several smaller ones each year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SE7ENSKY in April 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Quality is the most important factor for us. We try to look through the eyes of our customers and choose our partners carefully. SE7ENSKY has done testing and they provide great customer service. We appreciate everything about them.

Any issues have mainly had to do with communication, which was due to our side as well. Our account and project managers don’t always write specifications down properly, and the client can also modify features and functionalities.

How did SE7ENSKY perform from a project management standpoint?

They provide a project manager who stays in charge of everything. We have one contact point between our own project managers and SE7ENSKY. The feedback from our own team has been good. We use project management software for the collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about SE7ENSKY?

The flexibility of the team has made SE7ENSKY stand out. They are open to making quick changes based on client needs and have worked additional hours, even on weekends, whenever we had an impending deadline. SE7ENSKY is flexible in terms of scaling, without losing the quality.

Are there any areas SE7ENSKY could improve?

Communication is a constant improvement process, and we’re improving our side of it as well. SE7ENSKY has been fine overall, and they provide good quality.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for an international IT product company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SE7ENSKY frontend studio?

We hired SE7ENSKY to develop our corporate website as well as a site for generating dynamic logos.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended by our colleagues.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Aside from our corporate website, they developed a program that allows our employees to generate vector logos, depending on the text.

What was the team composition?

I only talked to the project manager. I don't know how many developers were involved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Using an automated and intuitive process, our employees can now generate personal logos without involving designers. As a result, our company image has improved and received favorable feedback from stakeholders.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I submitted the terms of reference and contacted the project manager. We communicated at key points of the project to discuss my feedback.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed with their speed, professionalism, and independence.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I was pleased with their work.