Vention

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 Senior Engineering Manager within a Fintech company. I am responsible for the payments processing software teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were working on a project to roll out our product to the US. Part of the project involved developing a new payments architecture. For this we have four engineering teams focussing on different areas of the architecture. iTA provided both Go & PHP developers to build up our engineering teams.

SOLUTION

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

I was referred to iTA by the head of our business unit who had made initial contact with iTA.

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

The team worked on the development of new micro-services as part of our new payment architecture. This involved development in GO. In addition iTA provided one PHP developer to work on maintaining our existing solution.

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

We had 6 engineers from iTA, from relatively junior software engineers through to senior engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The iTA team members worked successfully within the teams to successfully deliver a quality solution (very low number of bugs) on schedule.

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

The teams worked as agile scrum teams. Each team has a dedicated scrum master. Jira was used as the project management tool. The teams followed all the standard ceremonies for scrum.

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

We were able to specify our requirements. iTA worked hard to understand our exact requirements, including working directly with their delivery manager, to ensure that the candidates provided met our requirements. In addition I met bi-weekly with their business manager who at all times was very helpful and enabled us to mutually provide feedback to each other.

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

Nothing

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is named PhoneWagon and we do call tracking for marketers and small businesses. We also provide a communication tool for our clients to contact their potential leads. I’m the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We needed to build and MVP product to show investors. iTechArt Group provided resources at a good cost to build out this product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a web application. After we developed an MVP, they helped us optimize what we already had in place. They helped us create a better version, fix some technical issues we had, move to a newer tech stack, and include new features.

We initially built everything off of Twilio, so they worked closely with us on that. Our MVP was written in .NET on the backend, and they helped us transition to a Clojure backend.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager that is local. Then the team fluctuated between 1–2 members during the duration of our project.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

It was difficult to find Clojure developers. We went through a program called Techstars, so they were recommended.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in May 2018 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were successful, and were able to raise a little over $2 million. Revenue continues to grow, and we’ve been able to deliver features that customers ask for. All of our projects have been successful. We’re happy working with them and want to continue to work with them. Without them, we’d probably be paying double for the resources.

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re based in Belarus, but our local project manager was easy to communicate with because he was in our time zone. We also met face-to-face a few times. We touched base once a quarter.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One resource in particular added tremendous value to the team. Their training and experience was great. Using their network, they were able to find someone who knew Java and could work in Clojure. So they had a pool of resources to recruit specifically for our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing stands out.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Interview the developer you want to bring on board to make sure that they’re able to communicate well and understand your domain and the problems you want to solve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former owner of an applied physics company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

They were responsible for building out the entirety of our API and tech infrastructure.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After determining the best market fit, we built out the entirety of our technical infrastructure. That included API integrations and documentation. I visited their offices to build rapport and hand-pick the team of engineers myself. We requested that they create the infrastructure using Python and MySQL. Our team provided them with designs, and they handled the technical end of the work. 

We built a large database of consumer information. Companies were able to use it to gain insight into their callers’ demographical information. For instance, an amusement park could use it to see if a single person was calling rather than a mother of three. We provided insights and data that way. They created that from the ground up. 

What is the team composition?

We started with one developer but scaled up to a team of eight people. They assigned a project manager to the work to keep communications streamlined.  

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

I found them through my network after I was referred to them. Over the years, I got to know their team. Because of my positive experience with them, I’ve referred them to several startups in my network.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2014–2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything was completed on time and any delays and downtime were very rare. I was really impressed by that, previously thinking this was unachievable. 

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated with our project manager over Skype and email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been burned by outsourced groups before, but I can always count on them to get the job done right. They created an extremely robust, complicated project reliably. Similarly, none of the companies I’ve referred them to had anything but a positive experience. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their communications were handled particularly well. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We’ll continue working with them into the future and recommending them to others.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of hotdot.tv. We’re a startup and have been in operation since 2014. We make videos clickable through an iOS app with a web client browser extension which allows links to be switched over streaming videos. When a user clicks on them, they can find out more about the item and if they want to, they can buy it online.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt?

We used them pretty early on in our process in order to take our prototype and make it commercial, build out the backend, and flesh out the frontend. Originally, it was just the iOS app and then we expanded to the web client. They also built both database and administrative pages. They were a virtual extension of our team and they operated very much that way.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iTechArt brought to the table creative ideas on how to improve the product, but they were mostly in charge of executing. We had a working prototype and specs for additional features. We also used Pivotal Tracker quite a bit for smaller issues. If it was a pretty big part of the project, I would write a spec and we had graphics and wireframes. In some cases, I would fly out to Minsk and use a white board. iTechArt was fairly attentive even with low-level implementations, although we did collaborate on things like the scheme and overall architecture. They also recommended particular frameworks that they felt comfortable using and I was fine with that.

They delivered a well-built iOS app and a good web client and web extension. I assembled the team along with them and each time we added somebody to the team, I’d have a chance to look at some resumes and give my feedback.

We also had a structure in the beginning in which a specific team leader managed the team. Eventually, as I became more comfortable with them and vice versa, I worked with the developers directly. The team size varied; we started with 3 resources and had as many as 5 or 6 at one point.

I had multiple contacts that I talked to, including an account rep that handled all issues related to business or contracts. Sometimes, we would all meet together and I would talk to the whole team. In the latter days of the project, we would talk either as a group or individually multiple times a week.

How did you come to work with iTechArt?

At the start, I wasn’t inclined to go down the outsourcing route. The main issue for me was quality; outsourcing often seems less expensive than having an employee directly on payroll, but if the product ends up being unfit for market, then it ends up being a waste of time.

I talked to some other startup CEOs who recommended iTechArt highly. I’ve done quite a bit of work with outsourcing in the past and had mixed experiences. I had concerns about how much trouble it would be to work with a remote team and that we wouldn’t get the quality that we needed. However, I was pleasantly surprised with iTechArt — they always did their best to make communication easy.

How much have you invested with iTechArt?

We’ve invested over $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2015, and the relationship ended earlier this year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team delivered reliable work and did their best to meet their commitments. I would gladly recommend them and be happy to use them again. We were accepted into the App Store on the first try and had very few crashes reported. We’ve had nothing but positive reviews.

How did iTechArt perform from a project management standpoint?

At the beginning of the project, when I was in Europe, we were only an hour or so off, so it was easy. Then, when I was on the west coast in the U.S., we were 11 hours apart so that made things a little more difficult, but it all worked out. I would talk to them early in the morning which would be their evening.

Everybody had email addresses at our company and we would have meetings a couple of times a week over Skype. I visited them half a dozen times in Minsk, so we worked closely together but project management was mostly on my plate. The developers did their best to estimate the work and to manage the project, but I think that this is pretty typical for other teams that I’ve worked with.

What did you find most impressive about iTechArt?

iTechArt seems to have access to a big group of talented and hardworking developers. Hiring talented and hardworking developers in the U.S. is not the easiest; it’s a very competitive market and it’s expensive to get somebody good. iTechArt made it easy for us to have quality people and if we needed to ramp the team up or down, it was straightforward and seamless.

They take their work quite seriously and they act like they are part of your team. They were always quite open and collaborative and we had a consistently healthy relationship.

They structure their projects in a smart way, which makes their team more dedicated. They get paid by the hour and behave very much like part of your team, which is the healthiest thing for a long-term commitment. It may not be the right thing for somebody who just wants a game built in a month, but it was exactly what we wanted. We wanted to have a real engineering asset, and that is what they were to us.​

​​​​​​Are there any areas iTechArt could improve?

Nobody’s perfect, but I think there’s nothing unusual about them — they’re a strong team. Everybody can look back and want to do things differently, but that’s been true for me even at Microsoft and other companies.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with iTechArt?

Potential clients will get the most out of iTechArt if they do their homework. If you have a clear idea of the product and an architecture already laid out, that’s going to be the basis for a good, clear conversation with iTechArt and less time will be wasted. If you’re building a product for the US market that has particular cultural elements, it’s not fair to expect that a team in Belarus will figure out what that market wants. The job is on you to figure out your product and product market fit.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Software Development Manager of Euroflorist

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Gifting industry with a focus on flowers online

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Vention to accomplish?

• Establish a new e-com platform
• Gain efficiency and outcome

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Vention over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

During a 13/14 months we built a new ecom platform - using the composable architecture utilized by Commercetools and Magnolia and switched market by market over to the new platform. Key deliverable was to have conversion rate at the same level or increased. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Delivered in a timely fashion.
• Conversion rate the same or higher compared to old platform.
• Decreased number of incidents with new platform. 

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

Vention with Pawel as our primary customer contact, was extremely attentive, always available, always delivering to our needs and bringing us great candidates whenever we had a need. 

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

A feeling of familiarity. Pawel are able to create an "us" athmosphere where achieved things together. 

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

None. They delivered at the highest level. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Blender Networks Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Online Marketing and Search Arbitrage

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Vention to accomplish?

• Maintaining current codebase
• Create new features and functionality

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

Online Search

Why did you select Vention over others?

Good value for cost

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The project consisted of maintaining and improving our existing code base. Since this is an ongoing project, the key deliverables would be stability in our overall system and web properties, along with creating new features and functionality in a timely fashion, while self testing everything.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Measurable outcomes were overall performance and stability of our system. Timely releases and overall low number of bugs createad.

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

The team was very auto functioning on its own and our project managers at Vention were very responsive for any of our needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

We've been impressed by their flexibility and response time in finding engineers for us

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

Pricing could be more competitive but they are worth the cost.