Syndicode

Introduce your business and what you do there?

I’m the president and co-founder of Le New Black. We’re a wholesale platform for fashion brands and retailers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Syndicode?

We needed to stabilize one of our main mobile apps.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Syndicode has collaborated with our internal designers and developers to stabilize our mobile application. We were on the 10th or 11th version of the app, and our designers provided Figma screens and instructions to the team.

It’s a legacy app for brand sales reps to use at fashion fairs, tradeshows, and so on. All of the features work offline, which was a main requirement.

What is the team composition?

We work solely with Alexander (Ruby Developer).

How did you come to work with Syndicode?

One of our shareholders referred them to us. We liked their experience with B2B e-commerce and legacy apps. Also, they seemed reliable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent €60,000 (approximately $70,000).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around October 2018, and it’s ongoing.

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

Before this partnership, the app was unstable, and it crashed often. They’ve helped us stabilize the app, making it more robust and reliable. Also, the response times are much quicker. Their code is clear, self-expressing, reliable, and easy to maintain. We’re happy with Syndicode, and we plan to continue this long-term project.

How did Syndicode perform from a project management standpoint?

They communicate clearly, and it’s easy to talk with them. We use Jira and Slack for project management and communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The seniority and expertise of their developers are impressive. They’re good with complex apps, and they offer reasonable prices.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes they work so fast that minor details get overlooked.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give a detailed list of specifications and emphasize their importance in completing the project. You’re in good hands with this team.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Campsited.com is a consumer facing online search and booking platform camping holidays is 18 countries. As CTO of the company I am responsible for the architecture and delivery of our website.

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

Our website has traditionally been a monolithic Ruby-on-Rails web framework based application and over the past number of months we have been migrating key functions of the app to an api based architecture, making the web application a consumer of those apis. We have also been implementing regular new UX features and products as we strive to grow our online business. The challenge in this time period has been to seamlessly migrate to the new architecture, and at the same time support the new UX features and products implementation which ensuring we have no negative impacts for customer experience on our site.

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

We conducted a search for a partner and selected Syndicode based on their past experience with the technologies that we needed help with and the profile of their resources.

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

High level scope included the following: 

1. Changes to RubyOnRails app to support new features
2. Various production support items such as issue investigations and resolutions, and general systems health checking
3. DevOps changes to support creating and enhancement to automated jobs.
4. Data migration related activities

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

In general we had one dedicated developer, one part-time PM and support from senior architect and account manager if we needed it.

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

We measure the impact of all new features that are implemented on our site - for all new features we saw a positive uptick in conversion rates. In general our bookings grew year on year by just under 100%. Another key focus area for us is site uptime/downtime. In the migration period we say no downtime for the site.

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

We had a check in each morning with the PM to confirm priority items that are to be worked on each day. If required the PM convened conference calls for our team to explain/clarify requirements. Time was efficiently logged and sent to our internal team for sign off at the end of each month. In general the PM engagement was very good.

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

Syndicode's approach was very efficient and professional. The steps taken at project initiation to compile and clarify all requirements had been very effective.

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

In general the project would have benefited from dedicated QA engineer to lead and executed tests before deployment to production. There were a couple of instances where issues were not caught prior to production deployment.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Evrlearn works as a market network, powered by the principle of network effects and cumulative information. On the user side, learners experience a highly customizable recommendation algorithm providing specific search results based on their actual curricula and career goals. They can search, connect with peers and coaches, book courses and provide feedback about their learning experiences. Providers benefit from a publishing platform with management capabilities. They can manage enquiries and registrations, interact with curious learners, publish information on featured courses and get access to relevant market information. I am a Co-Founder and Head of Product.

For what projects/services did your company hire Syndicode?

Building a MDP = Minimal Desirable Platform to launch Evrlearn commercially. We were looking for a partner with a strong marketplace experience and the capabilities to develop a first version on time - Front- and Backend-wise.

What were your goals for this project?

Build a transactional marketplace for a rather complex product / lifelong learning courses.

How did you select this vendor?

We discovered Syndicode through a classical reasearch. We were impressed by there knowledge around the marketplace-business model. We talked to 3 other development agencies.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Syndicode developed the marketplace based on requirements and designs. User stories were written in an agile mode. Syndicode developed the Backend, Frontend and runs the Tech Project Management.

What was the team composition?

At the peak, about 6 people were involved. The average team size was around 4 people.

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

Evrlearn builds the base for a new setup of the lifelong learning-ecosystem and an accelerated (and needed) lifelong learning on an individual level.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was impressive The vendor managed and communicated issues in a proactive way. We work with Jira and Slack. Daily calls build the base for the communication and for build trust with the team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have a very open and transparent way of working. High level of trust.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is very little what they could improve. One thing might be to work more on an advisory level about Tech and related decision. And then communicate these baselines more clearly to the partner.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Kinderlime. We provide preschools with a complete childcare management solution.

What challenge were you trying to address with Syndicode?

We needed some custom web development done.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided the requirements for the backend, and their engineers came up with the solutions using Ruby on Rails. They were responsible for the code base, and QA. They also took it into the production environment. They also did work on our WordPress website, built on PHP.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people on the project.

How did you come to work with Syndicode?

They were recommended to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $150,000 - $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March 2017 – March 2020.

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

They accelerated our backend release cycles and made the platform fundamentally better. They provided high-quality work.

How did Syndicode perform from a project management standpoint?

They did well regarding setting expectations and planning. They communicated clearly about when and how the delivery of specific tasks would come in. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are good partners who understand their clients and work well alongside them. They have a good spectrum of engineers available. We were able to lean on them for any engineering or development needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we were very happy with the engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clearly present requirements, product, and customer needs, and work closely with them. This allows them to better understand the project in its entirety and build the best possible code base, and product, for you.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a company that offer different home services to individuals. We have 2 marketplaces, with 2 different target groups. One focuses on young couples/families, and one for elderly. These services differ from cleaners to caretakers. For our cooperation with Syndicode, my position was Project Manager.

For what projects/services did your company hire Syndicode?

We wanted 2 custom-made marketplaces platforms, built from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

With this project, the goal was to attract more users to our website, that would end as paying customers. Furthermore, we wanted a user-friendly platform, that would distinguish from competitors. Syndicode is the pary we chose for, and that helps us integrating all features we want and need in order to reach our goal.

How did you select this vendor?

Before choosing for Syndicode, we researched several companies that are experienced with building software /marketplaces. We had several interviews, with 4-5 companies , outside Syndicode. Syndicode was the company that we felt really understood what we wanted ,and had the capability to help us succeed and reach our goal, by being able to built a marketplace from scratch, with every feature we can think of. They also came accross as trustworthy during the interviews.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We offered the team in the beginning of the cooperation a document with our goals we want to reach with the platform and our wishes and needs. The team built the marketplaces from scratch. From the UI/UX design to a working platform.

We had many technical requirements, such as automated invoices and reminders, automated bookings, filters, possibility to choose different services and many more. The team of Syndicode was responsible for all the tecnical features of the platform. Furthermore, the team took care of designing the Jira environment in such way that all tasks were clear for everyone.

What was the team composition?

There have been many developers involved on this project from Syndcode. I believe we have had 2 UI/UX designers, 3 Seniors backend developers, 1 Frontent Senior developer and several junior developers. We also had a QA manager and a Business analist. At the moment we work with 2 BE Seniorrs, 1 junior BE, and 1 FE Senior.

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

The project is not live yet, so the impact cannot be measured yet. However, we do not hesitate it will have an impact on the time-consuming activities we work with at the moment - these activities are now more automated, which leads to more time on our hands at the office, for more important issues.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used Slack, Jira and Google Hangouts for communicating with the team from Syndicode. These methods were very useful, as we could share all documents needed, make different teams within the team and also divide the project in tasks and milestones.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The number of employees capable of building any feature from scratch was very impressive to us. Furthermore, the involvement of the CEO was also very appreciated.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We believe the price and time estimation could have been more thoroughly thought of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We promote holiday rentals of villas, apartments, yachts, cars, and other travel services, based on the island of Lefkada in Greece.

For what projects/services did your company hire Syndicode?

We needed API development services for our website.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have an easy and reliable interface for our new potential customers.

How did you select this vendor?

We did a lot of research online and saw that they had good reviews from many clients. Our initial communication was clear and precise.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They developed a RESTful API interface for our web portal, using the Ruby programming language.

What was the team composition?

There was a project manager and two developers.

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

The new API interface gave us direct access to many more customers and businesses.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It was very successful and effective; on time and on budget.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by their good communication and managerial skills. They did a quality job.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

Please describe your company and your position there.

BlueApple Design is a graphic design team based in Silicon Valley. We provide services comparable to an in-house design team for growing tech companies. Our services include branding and identity, web, and marketing material (online and print) design. I am the principal and creative director.

For what projects/services did your company hire Syndicode?

We have an ongoing relationship with Syndicode where they help us implement and maintain websites that we design for our clients.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals are to achieve pixel-perfect implementation of our approved designs with best web implementation and optimization practices in mind. We want to build sites that are easy to edit and scale.

How did you select this vendor?

Syndicode was recommended by a trusted collogue, but I have interviewed a number of companies with similar services. Syndicode was very easy to communicate with, had clear responses and recommendations, and came absolutely at the top of the list during our evaluation.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

For the last six months, Syndicode has been providing implementation and maintenance services for my clients with no glitches. 

With each project, they typically establish a timeline for the site implementation along with any clarifying questions. Once we resolve all the details, they develop a WordPress site according to our provided designs and functionality requirements. I then have the ability to review their work to make comments or corrections. After completing the implementation, their team deploys the site to the client’s server and ensures proper functionality.

What was the team composition?

They’ve assigned a project manager and a few developers.

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

Having a reliable implementation team I can consistently rely on allows me to offer a much wider set of services to my clients. It also gives me peace of mind that they’re there to take care of implementation, deployment, and maintenance as well as all other dev-related issues.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Communication is always clear, punctual, and reliable. I have a great project manager who communicates with me on almost a daily basis, giving me progress reports on where things are and what parts can be reviewed. From there, I have the option to give comments and make any corrections. They deliver everything on time and on budget.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Syndicode’s work makes me and my company look great. The team is very responsive and responsible. They’re great at communicating issues and coming up with solutions. Having a capable team like Syndicode allows me to focus on design and client management while knowing that all my dev needs will be handled.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, there’s nothing that I can suggest.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a company that is developing a content creation service.  

For what projects/services did your company hire Syndicode?

We hired them to develop our SaaS service.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to become the leader in our market by offering a high-quality product. We also wanted to become a streamlined SaaS company that knows how to attract and convert leads effectively.

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed a lot of options before selecting Syndicode.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Syndicode handles almost all of our product development. We are building an interactive content creation service for polls, quizzes, surveys, slideshows, and more.

What was the team composition?

We’ve worked with three excellent developers.

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

They’ve had a tremendous impact on the business in the last two years.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management is great. We have daily phone talks and ongoing communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Syndicode strikes a balance between getting the product out quickly and keeping it high-quality. We can trust Syndicode to get the job done.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, there’s nothing specific that I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of SalesValue. We develop a SaaS-based sales enablement solution.

For what projects/services did your company hire Syndicode?

We needed help with developing our SaaS solution. We were looking for developers who could work in close collaboration with our in-house designers and software engineers. 

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to find developers who could work as an extension of our internal team. It was essential they had high-quality skills for Ruby on Rails, SaaS, and integrations with other business applications. Additionally, they needed to have extensive knowledge about the graph database Neo4j.

How did you select this vendor?

We visited Syndicode in Kiev, Ukraine and selected them after interviewing several other vendors. They had the right capabilities and were an excellent cultural fit.

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

Syndicode provides Ruby on Rails development and works with a Neo4j database.

What was the team composition?

We work with a lead developer and an architect from Syndicode. Some additional resources from their team also provide support.

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

Syndicode is helping us build the core of our business. Everything they’ve done has made a substantially positive impact.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our company is responsible for project management, which works fine for us. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I most appreciate Syndicode’s flexibility, openness, and quality of skills. They're a good cultural fit for us.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Overall, I am very satisfied. Their English skills could always improve, but that hasn't negatively impact our work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Wecam.co is a marketplace connecting video producers to business clients, including startups, event organizers, marketing companies and so on, that need custom video content. We have a model similar to Upwork, but we focus exclusively on video content and production. I am the founder of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Syndicode?

The company was started one year ago with a simple WordPress website. As we grew and started running campaigns, it became clear that we needed a more complex solution. Unfortunately, we do not have the talent internally to build and transition to a more complex solution. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Syndicode designed and developed our Ruby on Rails website from scratch. They assigned 4 people to our project, which included both designers and developers. I acted as the main contact, and we didn't have a project manager assigned to us by Syndicode.

How did you come to work with Syndicode?

I am originally from Ukraine and wanted to work with a company from the region. A friend recommended Syndicode based on their previous work experience. I also approached another company, but I liked Syndicode's pitch. One week after our Skype call with their chief executive officer, we started the work.

How much have you invested with Syndicode?

The cost of our project with Syndicode has been around $16,000 [15,000 euros].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Syndicode in May 2016. The site was launched in September, and we entered support mode. We plan on using Syndicode for further development at the end of 2016.

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

There are still some user experience improvements we want to make to the site, so the main marketing push for it will only come after this. I do not have any meaningful figures to share now. 

How did Syndicode perform from a project management standpoint?

The process was straightforward. I wanted to maintain daily contact with Syndicode's developers. They worked well as a team. Our backend and frontend developers were involved in design conversations, for example. Whenever Syndicode's team had a question, they called me on Skype. I also received support from Syndicode's founders, who asked for feedback and provided good market knowledge on how I could start quickly. They consulted with me on how we could transition users from the old WordPress website, giving me a feeling of confidence in our expected outcomes.

We used Trello, as well as Excel for tracking work hours. Syndicode has been systematic and transparent in time tracking. They've also shown flexibility; our mockup person was only used when needed, for example.

What did you find most impressive about Syndicode?

I really appreciated Syndicode's responsiveness. Recently, I made a misconfiguration on the website, causing it to go down. Syndicode asked their developers to fix it over the weekend, which I didn't expect to happen. This pretty much sums up my experience with them. Syndicode also cares about code quality.

Are there any areas Syndicode could improve?

The pricing for mockup work has been a bit high, compared to backend development. I also would have appreciated having a discovery phase, in the beginning, helping me, as a client, better onboard. If Syndicode plans to grow, this is something that they should take care of. Otherwise, everything has been fine.