Vention

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a startup company that challenges the social media industry with a different business model and a reimagined experience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

I needed to create a next-generation social media application. In the beginning, a friend was helping me with coding, and then I worked with freelance developers and development agencies. I didn’t have a good experience, so I was looking for a different development partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iTechArt Group is developing a mobile and web application for Apple devices. The mobile app is iOS native, and the web app has been built using React.js. Initially, I gave iTechArt Group access to our existing cod. They looked into it and made suggestions according to our project’s requirements.

Our app looks like other social media platforms, but on the discovery side, it has a custom architecture to address the most common issues of social media, including filter bubbles, click-bait behavior, and extremist content. 

iTechArt Group conducts performance reviews to ensure each teammate fits the role correctly and rotates them accordingly. 

What is the team composition?

We started working with two engineers from iTechArt Group, and our team has grown over time. Now, we work with a team that fluctuates between 27–30 teammates, including developers, project managers, account managers, and QA engineers. 

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

I contacted several agencies and got on a call with iTechArt Group. I explained our situation with that previous agency who just increased the price and kicked us off. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with iTechArt Group in August 2019, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We conduct internal reviews about our code’s quality and the app’s performance. iTechArt Group’s score has improved over time. We have a successful functioning app that we’re about to launch to the public.

iTechArt Group cares about our project and their performance is great. After a bad experience with a previous development agency, I didn’t trust other companies and wanted to work with two partners in case something went wrong again. iTechArt Group has changed my mind and earned my trust. Our relationship has grown over time, and they’re my only development partner now. 

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

iTechArt Group meets deadlines and stays on budget. They’re always on track, and we decide together our next move. We use Jira for project management and Notion for planning. We also use Slack and Zoom for communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with iTechArt Group’s top-notch work value, considering their price. Sometimes getting this quality of work is more expensive, and iTechArt Group provides excellent value to our company — their integrity is unique.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for iTechArt Group to improve. When we started working together, we had to figure out some things, but the fact that we’re still working together shows we could figure them out. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend having a project manager manage the relationship with iTechArt Group. I also recommend conducting one-on-one meetings with your developers to address problems early on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Croquet. We provide multiplayer infrastructure for the gaming industry, the metaverse, Web3 projects, and the emerging multiplayer web. Our technology enables users to build games and virtual worlds that are instantly multiplayer and can be customized for a specific application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We needed support to develop a project for an end client. We needed assistance from a company with expertise in Web3 development projects and 3D design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iTechArt Group designed and developed custom software for an end client. The discovery phase was realized in conjunction with the end client, our company’s product manager, and iTechArt Group’s team. 

After we determined the end client’s requirements, iTechArt Group started the design and development phase. The project also required the design of multiplayer full-body avatars that could travel between different environments through portals. 

The software developed by iTechArt Group used Blockchain.com and Coinbase as authentication methods. iTechArt Group will also provide ongoing maintenance.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three teammates from iTechArt Group, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

iTechArt Group is constantly searching for leading-edge new technologies. They approached us interested in getting trained in our metaverse development tool as part of their awareness program for future technologies. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with iTechArt Group from October 2022–January 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our end client was highly satisfied with iTechArt Group’s work, which was our number one metric. We also evaluated iTechArt Group’s ability to use our tools and were impressed with their initiative to go beyond the minimum scope and deliver a functional project. 

Moreover, iTechArt Group designed original avatars and a 3D world, one of the project’s key requirements. Our end client also asked iTechArt Group about the possibility of customizing these designs later on. 

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

iTechArt Group’s project management was excellent. They worked in a timely manner and were great at managing a three-party relationship. We had close and clear communication with iTechArt Group — we felt they were part of our staff.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with iTechArt Group’s collaboration and technical skills. We work in an emerging industry, and iTechArt Group worked with technology they hadn’t used before. During the project’s development, iTechArt Group was required to invent solutions in order to resolve problems, and they figured out answers quickly. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for iTechArt Group to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be transparent and straightforward about your project’s requirements, and iTechArt Group will perform a great job and give you the best possible delivery. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Software Development Manager for Sungage Financial, a solar financing company that partners with solar installers and home owners to help them finance their loans which enable solar panel ownership for home owners. We partner with leading solar installers to help make their solar, battery, and roof work more affordable. We help homeowners capture more of the financial benefits of going solar.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We needed Salesforce expertise to maintain and build new features to support our existing platform, on which we’ve been working for 11 years.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iTechArt provides us with a group of remote engineers who work on our Salesforce platform continuously. We’re currently building a new platform using Node.js, so we also have some engineers from their team helping us with that project as well. iTechArt provides us with additional resources to support our current staff with our development projects, so we constantly go to them for our staffing needs.

We started working on the Node.js project with full-time engineers here in Boston. Some of our iTechArt Salesforce engineers that have been working on our existing system are now being trained in Node.js so that they can transition to our new platform work. They have valuable business knowledge that they will bring to the development of our new platform project.

Whenever a new resource from iTechArt joins our project, we provide them with documentation to read and get up to speed. Additionally, the new resources have access to lead engineers from their team who are in charge of guiding them, so they basically train each other at this
point.

In addition to training, we have teammates from iTechArt pairing with each other, so they check in and work with each other to bring newcomers up to speed. Initially, we give them small tickets and pieces of work, and we give them more and more work over time.

What is the team composition?

Currently, we work with four senior Salesforce developers, a Salesforce consultant, two senior QA engineers, a regular Salesforce developer, a senior software engineer focusing on Node.js, and a regular software engineer also focusing on Node.js. The Salesforce consultant also works as the lead engineer and our main point of contact. Initially, he was the only lead engineer, but we now have other engineers from iTechArt working in that capacity. Moreover, we’re now getting ready to hire another software engineer.

From iTechArt’s administrative side, we work with a business manager with whom I interact all the time. She constantly checks in to ensure we’re happy with the staff they provide us with and address our concerns.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

When I started working at my company, we already had a relationship with iTechArt. Originally, my boss did research to find a good firm that had talented engineers with expertise in Salesforce and found iTechArt. However, I don’t know how.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent hundreds of dollars across various projects but less than a million dollars overall.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with iTechArt since 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sungage has been growing and the engineers that work for us from  iTechArt has enabled us to quickly add the features we need to our product in order to achieve constant growth. We have an amazing group of engineers from iTechArt working for us. They’re very knowledgeable
and have an amazing work ethic. As we bring on new engineers, I’m committed to continuing using iTechArt due to the quality of work that our current engineers have demonstrated.

We started our engagement with them for Salesforce support. Once we started working on the new platform, we decided to bring in new resources from iTechArt because we were very pleased with their Salesforce engineers.

The iTechArt team is becoming so proficient at working on our development projects that some of their Salesforce engineers are now moving over to the new platform development project.

They have a lot of industry knowledge, so we’re now training them on using our new tools because their work is very valuable to our organization.
Moreover, iTechArt always provides us with excellent candidates for our staffing needs. Half the time, we hire the first person they recommend. Still, they always have backup candidates if, for whatever reason, the first option doesn’t convince us.

Additionally, our internal team is very happy with iTechArt’s engineers. They write high-quality code and understand the instructions very well to do their work. Whenever they have doubts, they ask the right questions, and they come to us with issues if needed. Still, they’re very independent.

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

iTechArt engineers participate well in our Agile environment. They are active participants  in our agile meetings and project planning. They help define and break down the work for tasks, groom and point tickets. Once we assign them a task, they do it within the agreed timeframe and meet their deadlines. 

The engineers from  iTechArt that have joined our team since I’ve been working here have come on board very quickly. Our experience with iTechArt engineers is that they always high-quality engineers that work very well with our team. They’re great team players and they work well together as w, and their English is very good, too. Overall, they’re great to work with, and we see them as part of our team.

On top of that, all the billing hours I get from iTechArt’s accounting department are always correct. They’re also very accurate and ethical, and they’re there for us when we need them. A lot of their engineers work until noon (EST), so they make it very easy for us to collaborate with them. Some work later hours as well in order to accomodate our schedule.

For example, some of those engineers work in a different time zone, but they still work late so that they can accommodate our time and join our meetings.

As for collaboration tools, we use Jira to manage the project, as well as Slack and Google Meet to communicate. Our Google Meet meetings include stand-up meetings, planning sessions, and retrospective meetings. Moreover, we communicate via email occasionally and check in with the business manager once a month.

What did you find most impressive about them?

iTechArt offers the whole package. They’re really talented and smart people who work well as a team and bring important issues to light. They know when to involve our onsite team and get our input, but they still work independently, so they always come to the table at the right time.

Moreover, iTechArt’s business manager has been fantastic, nice, and helpful. She’s the person I go to when I need new resources, and she always comes back with great resumes for us to look at. She always knocks it out of the ball park by bringing high-quality people, which is impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

iTechArt is very good. The only thing that would make them better would be if they worked with us on-site. They’re a great group of people, and it’s a pleasure for us to work with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know the type of skills you’re looking for and share them with iTechArt’s business manager. Additionally, understand that they’re in a different time zone and have clear expectations regarding working on different schedules.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I'm a department lead at Urban

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide at home wellness services like massages, beauty treatments, osteopathy and physiotherapy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire iTechArt Group to accomplish?

• We needed an experienced iOS developer and a QA Automation Engineer to extend our team.

SOLUTION

How did you find iTechArt Group?

Online Search

Why did you select iTechArt Group over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

What was the size of iTechArt Group’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We needed an experienced iOS Engineer to work on improvements and new features of our iOS apps, as well as to lead the Apps discipline inside our team. We also needed a QA Automation Engineer to build the foundations of our BDD tests workflows.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• In regards to the QA Automation Engineer, we now have automation flows for BDD tests that run all our happy paths, giving us an improvement on our previous setup of E2E tests. This has also brought the rest of the team into starting to take an approach based on BDD tests.
• The iOS Engineer delivered great quality work right from the start, implementing features to a high standard that have been resulting in conversion improvements, but also bringing his knowledge into the discussion of new features and improvements, contributing with very valuable inputs.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Both engineers integrated very well in the team, contributing regularly to any discussions and planning sessions, bringing great suggestions and delivering work of great quality.

What was your primary form of communication with iTechArt Group?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email
• Messaging App

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

They listened to our needs not just on the technical side but also in terms of personality and approach to work. Besides someone with great technical skills, we needed engineers who could be active in discussions, contribute to planning and great in communication, and that’s exactly what we got from iTechArt.

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

Nothing to mention here.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of digital transformation of a rail health solutions company. We do non-destructive testing of railroads to keep the railways safe. We look for cracks in the rails and find them before they get dangerous so the track can be maintained.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We were looking to improve the method that our analysts use to look at the data we collect to make decisions. We wanted to create a new top-level UI/UX design to look at the data.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially worked with iTechArt Group to design the UI/UX system and create a design together. Then, they gave us a cost and project plan to develop it, and we went ahead to build the UI/UX.

Most of the discovery process was interviews; iTechArt Group led the process and ultimately came up with a detailed technical design. We used Figma to visualize what they’d produce. Then, they moved on to the main project to build from that design.

We’ve also commissioned iTechArt Group to develop various web technologies and a web app for the interface. We’ll do a beta version next month, and our goal is to have a usable version by April.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with eight teammates. During the design process, we were in contact with the CTO, a senior project manager, and a lead designer. Now that we’re in development, we’ve added a senior developer, a QA specialist, a business analyst, and a web designer.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

They were recommended by another third-party software design company that specialized in cloud computing. We’d worked with them for some time, and they knew we wanted to do UI/UX design. They did some research and recommended iTechArt Group.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent £30,000 (approximately $36,000 USD) for the design, and it’s been £175,000 (approximately $210,000 USD) for development so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the partnership in December 2021. The project started in July 2022, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ll find out the impact of the tool in a year, but it’s already apparent that it’ll be a significant change in the way we operate. Moreover, the process of working with iTechArt Group has been fantastic. They’re very organized, and the development process has been good. We expect the resulting tool to revolutionize how we do our analysis process.

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

So far, everything is coming in ahead of budget. iTechArt Group has also done well on time, although there have been delays because we change some things or don’t supply the needed information. Overall, communication is good. We have stand-up meetings, weekly reports, and biweekly updates. iTechArt Group is good at identifying minor issues before they become big, so the project management has been excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They stand out for problem-solving. iTechArt group is great at identifying issues and suggesting solutions. They prepare suggestions on how to solve the problem before we start addressing it so we don’t slow down.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. They have an excellent process, and we have a great project manager.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

First, outline your specifications. Then, ask iTechArt Group to do a discovery process with your stakeholders and experts to come up with detailed specifications; the process is very valuable.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m Head of Developer Experience at Upvest. We enable businesses to build great investment experiences for their end customers – seamless, secure and across international borders. Our single investment API and digital infrastructure streamline the whole process empowering customers to focus on their core business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Multiple teams at Upvest have used iTechArt employees. We have used iTechArt employees to help us with the development of our services, treating them as equals to our internal employees. iTechArt employees contribute to every part of the development lifecycle including product design, product development and release as well as product maintenance.

SOLUTION

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

Whilst ramping up our engineering organisation, we needed to move quickly. We carried out a vendor selection process and ultimately iTechArt was chosen. We were attracted to iTechArt because They have lots of relevant experience as well as a global footprint. iTechArt came with some highly relevant references in the industry.

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

As part of our product engineering teams, iTechArt employees have worked on:

• User onboarding process
• User account creation
• Tenant configuration management
• Fee collection
• Authentication
• Authorisation

Within Upvest, iTechArt employees have utilised many technologies, including:

• Go
• Datadog
• Kubernetes (LinkerD, Terraform)
• Kafka
• PostgreSQL

Delivering this functionality included performance optimisations, platform components contribution, implementation of observability and traceability of the flows. Some of these solutions are critical to the overall quality of the API. We focus on dependability and performance. Every team member needs to bring an excellent sense of code quality to the table. We both expected and got that from iTechArt employees.

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

In total, we have had four people from iTechArt working on tasks in various engineering roles within our Product Engineering group.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Together with iTechArt employees we’ve built and are supporting 19 microservices. In our test environment, we’ve successfully onboarded more than 500,000 users.

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

Within the teams where iTechArt employees are contributing we work in an agile manner. We have ceremonies such as daily standups, sprint planning and review, and retros. We use Slack as a communication tool, Linear as a task management platform and Slite as a knowledge base.

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

The most impressive thing is the way we work together. iTechArt engineers are fully integrated within Upvest and contribute to many aspects of our product. iTechArt engineers have challenged ideas and demonstrated a product mindset. Not only have they executed the tasks given, but they've also shown an understanding of the product's impact and developed the functionality taking into account the domain requirements and user experience.

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

Adjusting fully to the way of working we've adopted, with the iTechArt employees fully integrated into the team, took a little while.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Director of Engineering at Choco. We build software to help companies in the food-industry (restaurants, vendors, etc.) move to more sustainable food-systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were ramping up a new team and additionally needed quickly the support of more developers in specific functions like mobile and web. We hoped to bring more value to our customers in a shorter time frame with the support of ITechArt.

SOLUTION

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

Our main criterion was speed. We needed to staff up our teams quickly and were happy that ITechArt was just as fast in providing us with help without having to blow up our budget.

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

We have two native mobile applications written in Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android. On web, we built our web app with Microfrontends using React. Our backend is an AWS-managed GraphQL service called Appsync. The client developers built several features in collaboration with their teams and across teams and functions.

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

We had two Android, two iOS and two web engineers supporting Choco's development efforts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the engineers were spread across teams/projects, I can share no key metrics. In the end, we did manage to deliver the outcomes to our customers in a timely manner. Without the help of ITechArt we wouldn't have been able to achieve this.

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

The engineers were included in our teams just like any other developer. The would have their team rituals, break down and estimate their tasks and communicate their needs and progress within the team. The engineers who supported Choco had fantastic communication skills. On top of that, we admire the execution mindset and dedication each individual brought to Choco.

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

We are impressed by the flexibility and the close collaboration we have had so far. Things can change rather quickly and ITechArt is a great sparring partner to have alongside a quick-growing, fast-paced business.

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

The quality of engineers really varies. Not all of the engineers worked out over the course of the year. Primarily due to communication skills but also some lack of seniority. While different companies have different needs, I would recommend that every engineer has a good set of English skills.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of a startup company. I am responsible for all technical architecture, personnel, and product decisions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired iTechArt to develop our initial product, from scratch, through MVP. The product was a relatively complex system with many cloud components.

SOLUTION

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

The deciding factors in initial selection were reputation, cost, talent, and availability.

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

The scope of work started with product definition and specification, included architecture specification, and ultimately implementation. The implementation details included selection of FE and BE programming languages, the DB architecture, and security components.

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

The number of vendor team members varied from 4 to 8 at various points on the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The MVP was extremely well received by customers and investors, enabling the next phase of company growth.

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

Project management was an Agile variation, with 1-week sprints. Typical PM tools were used for this - JIRA, Slack, Figma, etc.

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

The level of technical talent is generally very high, however the higher-level client engagement function is exceptional. There are regular team performance reviews which includes the account manager as well as the local engineering manager. Problem areas are immediately acted upon, and the vendor team is very good at maintaining a very high level of team performance. The flexibility and ability to staff unique needs on a very tight timeline were world-class.

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

The technical performance and result were remarkable and left little room for improvement. The company specializes in technical work however, and as a client of the vendor there is a significant obligation to provide high quality product leadership in order to achieve the best result.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of a fintech called Remotiv. We specialize in Retirement Readiness and Financial Wellness services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We initially hired iTechArt to design and develop a new mobile application and that evolved into an ongoing full-stack relationship. They currently provide design, PM /analyst, mobile development, UX, back end and QA resources across our suite of services.

SOLUTION

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

We were initially enamored with the design work on some projects we reviewed. This led to a deeper vetting through conversations with the team and a few referrals. They provided a thorough project proposal after reviewing our specifications and we were happy with the proposed tech stack, resource plan, and estimated cost for the project.

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

The project was to deliver a new mobile application for ios and Android in React Native. This included an api layer in C# and a backend administrative portal in React, deployed using CI/CD on AWS and our existing SQL Server database infrastructure. Based on our requirements a detailed specification was written by our iTechArt analyst resource, the designer developed a prototype in Figma and the developer resources were off and running after the sprints were defined. Our relationship evolved to enhancing our existing platform on the same tech stack as described above.

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

We currently employ 6 resources:

• 1 PM / analyst
• 1 designer
• 1 QA,
• 1 full stack developer
• 1 back end developer
• 2 mobile developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were very happy with the initial specification, the design prototypes and the accuracy of time estimates on the sprints. The app was completed and we decided to continue the relationship. The app is still in beta mode however we are well on the way on the 2.0 release.

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

The PM has been a great resource for us and we communicate daily via Slack and have a couple video meetings a week to review any open issues, requirements and design prototypes. JIRA is used on the backend to manage the open issues and sprint details.

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

We decided on them based on the design of products they delivered and were equally impressed with the design work they did for us. The full stack engineer is very well versed in devops and the AWS stack that we use. We are very pleased with the work they have produced for us and continue to provide quality work for us.

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

Communication was a big concern due to the offshore nature of the relationship. While this could always be better I am happy to report that it exceeds what our initial expectation was. The biggest hurdle is the time difference but we are managing this accordingly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of a fintech startup operating in Africa providing an API to business to be able to issue physical and virtual debit cards to their customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire iTechArt Group?

We needed back-end developers, business analysts, UX designers and QA testers to augment the small in-house team at Union54.

SOLUTION

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

iTechArt approached us when we concluded our Y-Combinator seed round - they made the process of scaling up the team painless and quick, whilst providing high quality resources.

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

The API was architected as a serverless, event-driven system that needed to scale effortlessly and provide a performant transaction processing capability. We therefore initially needed back-end developers with AWS serverless experience to add scale to the engineering team, as well as QA testers to ensure a quality product.

As the system grew in complexity, a business analyst was added to the team to help with the specification of new features. We also need to build an admin web interface, and at that point needed to add a UX designer to the team so our front-end developers had a well specified design to work from.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

Initially we discussed requirements with the account manager, providing an outline job description for each of the roles. We were then able to interview the candidates and set them a practical exercise to assess their skills. Upon a successful result to the exercise, we agreed start dates and simply signed appropriate SOWs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to put our MVP into production within 3 months of inception and continue to issue new releases on a regular basis. This has allowed us to capture new clients on an ongoing basis.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

A daily standup helped to keep everyone up-to-date on each other's workloads, and we used a shared Jira kanban board to allocate workloads and check overall progress and move requirements from initial definition, through development, QA and into production.

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

The breadth and depth of talent that they have on tap is impressive, account management is also excellent - if any issues arose, they were swiftly dealt with in a positive manner.

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

As with all offshore / nearshore resourcing, sometimes English was a barrier to efficient communication, but with the addition of a business analyst with excellent English skills, this problem was actually addressed.