SmartApp

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a freelancer that’s associated with several companies. I have business in digital signal processing and cryptocurrency.

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartApp?

SmartApp developed an advanced web portal.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had a cryptocurrency project that was an online pooling solution for collecting and managing funds from several sources. SmartApp started from scratch. We sent over what needed to be done, and then their team created a few wireframes for implementation. They initially used PHP, but at our request, the platform was later redone in Vue.js.

Our intended users for the platform were individual traders that wanted to participate in the acquisition of ICO crypto tokens from different startups. It was targeted at a final user with a customer system for tracking and registration, along with the transaction handling portion.

What is the team composition?

While I communicated with three people initially, there were more involved. I was in touch with Sergei (Co-Founder & CTO), one of the programmers, and a designer. Sergei made sure everything was correct, and the programmer answered all of my technical questions.

How did you come to work with SmartApp?

They were recommended to me through several sources. I knew them from some time ago, but I thought that they didn’t specialize in this field. I asked a few other companies for their quotes and what the conditions would be. Ultimately, SmartApp was chosen.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of the project was $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with SmartApp in February or March 2018, and we finished up in August or September of that year. There was some maintenance work after that.

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

I was very happy that the team could work without my direct involvement. After I specified a few ideas, they worked on those, and then came back to me to ask more questions. They made decisions on UI elements and filled in the blanks when needed, and the end result was excellent.

How did SmartApp perform from a project management standpoint?

We’d normally have Telegram or Skype communication. I’d throw some ideas to Sergei, and he’d make some sketches and come back to me in a few days. I’d discuss things further with him, and when the actual implementation of the details started, I’d receive messages from their programmer directly.

The entire process was comfortable for me. I only interacted with a few people, and always had continuity. They asked relevant questions that made things move forward pretty fast.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with many outsourcing companies where our situations operated similarly. There would just be a few aspects done wrong between the lines. What I really like is the amount of responsibility and ownership on SmartApp’s side.

They have a big picture understanding of what it should look like, and they really owned the process. I didn’t have to correct and pinpoint them to functionality issues. That’s the most precious quality of this collaboration.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As far as my side goes, it went without glitches. The communication was very clear. When something was at the edge of not happening, they’d catch it beforehand and ask questions that notified us of any problems. We paid them a decent amount, but I’d work with them again.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

First of all, I’d say that it’s best to have a set form of communication and tell things as they are. The first thing in working with SmartApp is to have them sign some form of NDA to disclose all of the pieces. We did it this way.

Since they were looking at the bigger picture, they helped us with some things we didn’t ask for and found problems within the system. The important thing is clarity of communication. Whoever hires SmartApp should give all of their trust to the company. If they have an overview of what needs to be done, there’ll be no problems whatsoever.

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Aliaksandr Kot. I am a lead software engineer in IT company providing Web, Mobile and Enterprise software development services.

For what projects/services did your company hire SmartApp?

We were working on the Drupal 7 website for one of the largest American organic food suppliers, along with our in-house development team. But at a certain point, it became clear that the number of tasks was growing and we needed more resources. Recruiting new developers is never an easy process and it is very time-consuming. That’s why we decided to find a development partner to help us with the project. We reached out to the SmartApp team as we could vouch for their competence

What were your goals for this project?

We were working with one of the largest organic food suppliers from the USA. The company owns a Drupal-based website. We were involved in web and e-commerce development for them. the largest organic food supplier from the USA. The team was involved in e-commerce development based on the Drupal 7 CMS platform.

How did you select this vendor?

SmartApp team are Drupal experts. They helped us mostly with backend and server configuration. The company was involved in e-commerce development for the client. They assisted in new features development and adding. For instance, they enriched the online store with an opportunity to modify the order. They also helped us with landing page development and constant on-call website monitoring.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

SmartApp provided backend development services for the largest organic food supplier from the USA. The team was involved in e-commerce development based on the Drupal 7 CMS platform.

What was the team composition?

We were working with Eugene, a full-stack developer.

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

SmartApp showed itself as a reliable and experienced partner. Their excellent development and communication skills were impressive. They are result-focused and skilful. All the assigned issues were solved just in time. The partner is fully satisfied with the collaboration.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Brilliant, and I am not joking. They were online no matter what and kept us informed on every development stage. We communicate via email, skype, zoom and chime. When working together we did several types of calls: daily status calls for 15 minutes, 1 hour calls for backlog grooming 1 time per week and also sprint planning calls every two weeks. Task management was run in Jira and Mindtree.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

SmartApp team is Drupal know-it-alls. They are experienced, talented and curious. They keep all the latest technologies under the radar and implement them when working on the project. They were always available ready to fix problems, add new features, mentor our developers and share their experience. We were very impressed with the quality and speed of their work.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is always room for improvement. So we wish SmartApp move forward, grow and extend their experience.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Alconost, we’re a translation and localization company.

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartApp?

We had a major client that we’d been building a continuous localization process for. However, we needed someone to help us with the infrastructure and full-model development because our team didn’t have any experience with that.

What was the scope of their involvement?

SmartApp deployed and supported the solution’s infrastructure model. They handled the custom development of an API for a Moodle platform that was vital to building the continuous localization process. Their team also built a custom plug-in for Moodle, and we’re planning to opensource it. 

What is the team composition?

There were about five people, including a project manager. We usually collaborated directly with the developers.

How did you come to work with SmartApp?

They're local to our company because they’re located in Minsk as well. I heard of them through word-of-mouth. They fit the project very well, and we had no doubt about their abilities to complete it.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from May 2019–March 2020.

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

The project was successful, and they completed everything our client needed. I give them five out of five stars.

How did SmartApp perform from a project management standpoint?

There were no issues with project management and if there were, they were fixed quickly. We communicated through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Communication was easy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything was okay.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a good partner for backend development. I highly recommend using them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Wematec is involved in distribution&consulting businesses: 1, car wrapping and protecion PVC and PU films (tutoring the technology and distribution of materials and equipment 2. interior and exterior design and decoration 3. clothes and accessorioes design 4. visual communications (digital printing etc)/. My job is Vice CEO

For what projects/services did your company hire SmartApp?

Wematec decided to made completeli new corporate website with on-line shop, informaion , delivery, online support services etc

What were your goals for this project?

To be visible in the web, to provide new approach and servives to Company"s customers.

How did you select this vendor?

We met them at the exhibition at the "SEO Development conference"

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They created and developed completely new corporate website (portal I would say). Starring for analysys of Wematec businesses, its areas, internet activities, competitors etc. Then they offered several possible variants of design and performances. When we chose the version we liked more= they started to adjust it up to final condition

What was the team composition?

There were four team members from our side- sales, IT, logistics and financial depts and six from SmartApp side: design , 2 programmers, content-manager , business analyst, project manager.

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

We managed to increase out sales up to 50% within 6 months after launching the new web site. It was significant and more we had expexted

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It was completely new for us that time starting to use the online project management portal Trello. So we could see every task in progress at every time we want to/. We could monitor processes and made our fixings and corrections properly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are really tough professionals with a very honest and open approach. I would say they became our techers in some fildes (web development and IT solutions)

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is no limit to perfection) web development is very fast growing and developing area and there is always something to improve here

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of the IT department for Firebird Tours. We are in the travel market and organize and sell tours, as well as train tickets.

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartApp?

We needed help to develop a website for train ticket sales.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had an existing website that SmartApp helped us develop new features for. They did some new integrations with different kinds of data providers and worked on the back office as well. It was mostly backend work. They used PHP and Drupal 8.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with anywhere from 1–3 developers.

How did you come to work with SmartApp?

We are based in the same city as SmartApp so we found each other locally.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent about $50,000 USD, although I don’t remember the exact amount.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2019–March 2020.

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

It is hard to measure success, but I am very happy with their work. Their specialists are very strong, and they provided us with a very good level of service.

How did SmartApp perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t use any project management tools, as we had internal project managers. Their developers were good, though. They were very responsive and would get back to us on the same day. Communication was done through Skype and was very good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their quality of work was the most impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could expand their range of services.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would highly recommend hiring them because they provide really good quality of work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product owner for WorkFusion, a software company that provides intelligent automation products. We offer solutions that utilize machine learning and robotics to automate processes in the banking, healthcare, and insurance industries.

What challenge were you trying to address with SmartApp?

We have a digital product team that’s responsible for the development of our corporate website, our educational platform, and our internal/external portals. SmartApp provides additional web development, web design, and digital marketing support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have customer-facing solutions like our corporate site and automation platform, but we also have internal solutions, such as a Partner Portal. SmartApp helped with development on both sides.

Utilizing Moodle and coding in PHP, SmartApp enhanced our website which is built on Drupal and WordPress (and hosted on AWS). They also built new products—like a Use Case Navigator and a Partner Portal—from scratch. They focused on UX/UI design for a lot of it.

Last year, we launched localizations for all of our digital projects. It was a large and sophisticated project that targeted the Japanese and Spanish markets. They assisted in the technical side of website translation and other elements.

Now, in addition to all of the development support, their team even conducts SEO and helps us boost our marketing.

What is the team composition?

We currently have several teams of 4–5 developers, overseen by a project manager, on different projects. SmartApp has also provided us with designers, QA engineers, and SEO specialists as needed. In total, we work with around 15 people.

We interface with both the project manager and CTO, but we also communicate directly with the developers. We use Slack.

How did you come to work with SmartApp?

In preparation for the launch of our Moodle-based system in 2017, we were looking for local Minsk companies to help us with development. We found SmartApp after doing some market research.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay them around $250,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration is ongoing; we’re currently engaging them for different projects of varying complexity.

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

With SmartApp’s help, we were able to launch several platforms this year alone. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without them; their dedication and involvement have been stellar.

We’ve been especially pleased by their eagerness to accommodate our needs. Even if they don’t have the precise competencies for a complex project, they’re still ready to learn and provide the required skills. We’re completely satisfied with their work.

How did SmartApp perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent at ensuring that we hit all deadlines and milestones. We manage projects through JIRA and use Confluence to create checklists and workflows for each project. By handling operations and DevOps completely by themselves, they’ve facilitated processes. Daily communication has made the engagement seamless.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m more impressed by their readiness to adapt and change for us. Even though we initially engaged them for the sole purpose of creating our Automation Academy, we’ve since enlarged their responsibilities.

When we created websites and developed new platforms, they picked up skills along the way to provide us with SEO and content marketing work. It’s been a true partnership; we develop together, instead of them developing for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything. Because we encourage inter-team transparency, we’ll hold a retrospective after each project launch. We’ll openly share areas of improvement to implement in the next project. It’s been a very beneficial process.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients shouldn’t hesitate when choosing SmartApp. Any customer will be impressed by the results since their team is eager to make the project a success.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a senior product manager at a tech company.

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

We've outsourced development of LMS system's backend, system design and integration with front end to Smart app.

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

We selected Smart App because of their prior experience in LMS Moodle.

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

They developed IT architecture, API layer, and customized back-end system. Also, they helped to integrate with our Front end.

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

3 people. Business analyst and two backend developers.

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

Actually, it's one of the best experiences working with outsourcing companies ever. They were almost in the timeline, and the quality of code is very high standard.

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

We used JIRA Atlassian for scrum, and weekly status calls.

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

I was impressed with the high quality of their code.

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

Feedback loop could be shorter. The backend dev could change his headset as it was sometimes low volume of sound.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of Non-tech IT Academy.

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

We wanted to add 2 custom pages on our cite.

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

I came by the recommendation

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

We discussed the hole project and then started to delivery it step by step.

How many people from the Smart pp team worked with you, and what were their positions?

About 4, web-designers and developers

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

Truly experienced and skilled professionals. The project was completed on time, all our ideas and improvements were promptly discussed and added.

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

But the most important thing is the manner of communication and project management. Very polite and delicate staff. They follow the deadlines, remind them gently, and do not miss the tasks. After work, only positive emotions and a good working project remained.

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

The most pleasant and friendly communication.

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

Don't know such areas

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a project manager at a software development company.

For what projects/services did your company hire SmartApp?

Staff augmentation for website development.

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

Recommendations from colleagues in the industry.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Online trading platform website development.

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

We worked closely with their management and 2 software developers.

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

The websites they delivered have been performing well so far.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

SmartApp are quick and easy to deal with. Their developers were flexible and adapted very well to serve clients' changing needs.

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

Their ability to respond quickly and intelligently was impressive. All in all, great service, professional, outgoing, and customer-oriented staff members, efficient communication and processes. Recommend without hesitation and will be happy to pull them back in on other projects in the future.

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

Not that I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Project Manager at the Marketing Department of PandaDoc. I'm in charge of the website development process, release\requirements management, performance analytics.

For what projects/services did your company hire SmartApp?

WordPress application audit.

What were your goals for this project?

Improve the onboarding process into the project. Get 3rd party view of the architecture of the application. Find out strong and weak spots. Code review.

How did you select SmartApp?

SmartApp had the expertise we needed that moment - custom website development based on WordPress CMS.

Describe the project in detail.

NDA

What was the team composition?

We defined certain steps for the application audit, made estimations of the main parts, SmartApp provided us with a dedicated developer who reported on the progress on daily basis. So if smth urgent would be found we could respond immediately.

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

SmartApp provided us with a detailed report including Action Items sorted by priority as well as possible solutions to solve them.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Short daily sync-ups worked very well.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

SmartApp has amazing possibilities to scale our development capacity. Once their developers are integrated into our project it gives much flexibility to manage our dev performance.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nope.