Vention

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP Product Engineering of Gulf Relay

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a SaaS provider of logistics services to enterprise shippers

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create an automation tool to be used by our in-house services division
• Transform that automation tool into a 0-1 SaaS product
• Grow that SaaS product into a mature, enterprise platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

We brought the team in to form what at the time was a back-of-the-napkin idea into a real application. We warned them at the time that the whole thing was an experiment, and they needed to be willing to learn alongside us about what about the software worked/didnt work, and be willing to throw away their hard work and pivot with us if we changed our minds. 

From day 1, we knew we had picked the right partner. Tiffanie was relentless on finding us the perfect team, and was very communicative and receptive to feedback. Most importantly, she was persistent on making us successful. We changed our minds a lot. The teams' commitment to the project never wavered. They always showed up, worked hard, and delivered. 

We just launched our SaaS product to a lot of warm reception because we were able to keep trying again and again to get it right. Recently we threw out some very ambitious quarterly goals, encouraged the team to take risks to get there, and to "build the plane as it flew". 

They delivered on every single ambitious goal we threw at them. Anybody in software development knows, that just does not happen. You never hit ALL your goals - you usually just aspire to hit as many as possible within the confines of the constraints you have. Not Vention. They roll up their sleeves, and they figure out how to get it done.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We brought a new SaaS application to the market from 0-1, that now serves many happy customers!

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

The Vention team consistently went above and beyond the call of duty to deliver on time or even ahead of time. Just this week, we mentioned a nice-to-have tool that would make our customer's lives better. One of our engineers produced the tool and deployed it to production in a single day. They are absolute rockstars.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What makes this company unique is the people. Every person we have interacted with from vention from intake to the lowest-level worker, is all-in on our success. You hear it and feel it in their actions. This is not a job to them. They are committed partners and we wouldn't be where we are today without them.

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

This is a ironic criticism but it looks like they are still figuring out the right format for middle management of their teams. They are trying and I'm sure they'll find the format that works well for lots of different kinds of companies, but in the moment, it's light. This means that as a client, you'll want to make sure you stay involved with the execution. 

The irony is, this creates a lot of great behaviors on our, the client's, side. We SHOULD be deeply involved. Middle management can often be an anchor to productivity. Ultimately this creates a better outcome for the client, and I can testify to those results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of engineering for a UK-based property portal that hosts properties for sale or rent for several real estate agents. The app also has several additional features, including home moving, energy, and broadband services. We also have a service that allows buyers and renters to submit forms to book evaluation and viewing appointments. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We wanted to bring on an offshore team to scale our team up and down where we needed to.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iTechArt Group’s developers work alongside our team on website development. They also work on the backend of our system and handle some other development aspects. Since our company is still young, their team has played a big part in developing each aspect of our platform from scratch. 

What is the team composition?

About 8–10 teammates from iTechArt Group are embedded in my engineering department. On average, each team in my department has 1–2 iTechArt Group teammates. 

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

My CTO and I worked with a few development companies before looking at iTechArt Group. My CTO knew the CTO of iTechArt Group, so we contacted them. We had a chat with them and highlighted our product, what it was, and what we wanted to achieve. 

We were looking for a specific engagement style that wasn’t purely project work; we wanted to embed iTechArt Group teammates into our internal teams. We needed a company that we could partner with long-term that could develop a deep knowledge of our product and our voice. 

After we discussed our engagement plans and the different roles we needed to fill, iTechArt Group provided us with some developers to interview. Those developers needed to have good technical and communication skills. A lot of their team had experience in the type of engagement style we wanted and knew how to scale projects up and down. Also, we liked that iTechArt Group had UK-based managers that we could talk to without worrying about communication issues or language barriers. So, we hired them. 

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve invested about £1 million (approximately $1.3 million USD) with iTechArt Group.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership began in July 2020 and it is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There are no specific metrics I can point to that measure the impact of our engagement with iTechArt Group, but we are happy with their work, and our partnership is continuing. The developers from iTechArt Group have really helped my company build and launch the platform — they continue to ensure the platform runs smoothly. 

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

iTechArt Group’s project management is good — we have a direct people management style. We have regular meetings, and each iTechArt Group teammate has an individual meeting with an internal team lead. They take feedback well and are consistently promoted for their high-quality work. 

We use various tools for communication, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, and a video call platform. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Compared to other companies I’ve worked with, iTechArt Group’s developers are more experienced and passionate about their work. There are a lot of teammates who make the extra effort and work past contracted hours to deliver for us. It makes our entire partnership work smoothly — iTechArt Group isn’t just there to complete a task, they’re building a product with us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be helpful if iTechArt Group and I worked together to set up review meetings every 3–6 months to discuss the overall team, what is working well, and what isn’t. While we do have regular meetings, we don’t often look at the broader picture to see how team growth might help our project over time. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise customers to talk through the type of engagement they are looking for with iTechArt Group and the developers they want. My company spent a lot of time interviewing their team members, treating the early stages of our partnership as a recruitment phase, and I would advise other companies to do the same.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a security company. We’re a spoof identification platform for enterprise business customers. We identify if the caller ID is authentic for inbound call centers to help them detect fraud and increase efficiency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt Group?

We needed MVP software development for our startup but had a very limited budget. As a result, we sought access to the most talented engineers we could find at the best price for our company. We also wanted to find engineers that had a good mix of doing what was asked of them while knowing when to push back. They needed to know when to add their own input and offer commentary.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Since day one, they were our sole developers and worked with us through every challenge. They helped to build our website, including all the frontend development work as well as everything on the backend (e.g., the database and infrastructure). They also did the programming for our matching algorithm.

What is the team composition?

We worked with between 1–10 team members over the years.

How did you come to work with iTechArt Group?

My former co-founder worked with them at a previous company, so he already knew them and their work quality. When it came time for us to choose a firm, we defaulted to them because of his previous good experience.

We needed people with a pretty good command of the English language, which is also an issue when you’re dealing with outsourced developers. I felt that we got all that we were looking for from them.

How much have you invested in them?

We invested around $25,000 per month for 60 months.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project from April–September 2013. Overall, the collaboration has spanned around five years in total. We currently don't have any projects with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We used the product they built and got into a startup accelerator called the Y Combinator with it. We had over 100 customers, including large, well-known companies. Everything our company provided to the marketplace in our legacy tool was the direct result of iTechArt.

How did iTechArt Group perform from a project management standpoint?

It was pretty good. My former co-founder was responsible for managing them. We communicated multiple times a day. They were as good as any onshore or in-house team that we worked with. Some things were outside of their control. For example, because of our time difference, they didn’t have an opportunity to ask us the right questions in time. However, at max, we only lost 10% of efficiency given the time zone difference and the language barrier.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re good engineers. Anyone that has employed people has always dealt with challenges in managing attitudes and mentalities, not to mention bringing in external stress and frustration into the job. But iTechArt truly had some of the most professional people I’ve worked with. They were as much of a model team as they could have been, considering they weren’t actually on our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. They were transparent with billing. The team was talented, and the price was very competitive. They even invited us to their office in Belarus, and we went out there as a team for two weeks to meet. Konstantin (Vice President of Business Development, iTechArt Group) personally hosted us, took us out to dinner, and showed us the city. Everything was top notch, from their professionalism and customer service to their billing structure. If I ever use a service like this again, they will be my first and only call.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It would be helpful to have a relationship manager in the US to help bridge the gap and get the appropriate people upfront. This would allow us to get the most out of the relationship, making sure that expectations are managed, especially if there are several developers. If you are looking for one or two people to do short-term project work, it’s a straightforward process with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own an offshore software consultancy agency that has domestic project management and overseas development teams. We’ve been working with different teams for 15–20 years.    

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt?

Since we have a 100% offshore model, we are always looking for reliable vendors. At that time, we were looking for a team that could provide top-notch development services, professionalism, and stability. It was also important that they had the leadership to maintain quality. It was a huge challenge.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Currently, iTechArt is the primary team that we work with. They handle a wide variety of web and mobile projects. Each project starts differently. Generally, we’d start with a spec or we’d do an Agile iteration process. iTechArt does a lot of Python development and some .NET and Java work. Other projects include financial services technology and an online gaming platform. In the past, iTechArt did some pretty challenging app work as well as very complicated, mission-critical side migration tools.

iTechArt has a large number of developers who can handle most development needs. I would sometimes fly out to work with the team and help it grow. We use anywhere from 2–20 on a project. Sometimes, they would just find resources for the project for me since the requirements change all the time. We communicate with them daily. We have one top-level contact, and we also work with different teams. They have permanent staff in the U.S., which means they have the ability to execute non-disclosure agreements and other agreements under U.S. jurisdiction.

How did you come to work with iTechArt?

We’re in the business of choosing offshore teams. Some of the factors we looked for are stability, quality, good retention, solid leadership, and good processes. Like most clients, we tried a few teams before finding the right one.

How much have you invested with iTechArt?

We’ve outsourced millions of dollars’ worth of software projects to iTechArt.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered with iTechArt repeatedly with great success. iTechArt has now completed many projects for us.   

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can say that iTechArt has a 100% success rate, and that's rare in the software world. What sets iTechArt apart is that the company is managed well and highly stable. It doesn’t suffer from the same level of attrition or other challenges that impact quality at so many companies in the IT space.

Most of the specific results were for our clients. We’ve experienced a lot of growth and profit throughout the years we’ve worked with them.

How did iTechArt perform from a project management standpoint?

The client usually determines the schedule and budget for each project. iTechArt is extremely proactive about issues such as changing requirements on our side and changing resources on their side. They plan long-term and ensure that the best resources are in place.

What did you find most impressive about iTechArt?

This is a company that is serious about maintaining quality by providing great leadership and management. They put a lot of time into keeping their teams happy, which is one of the main keys to success in this business. The management does a really good job of keeping morale up. They help their developers keep their careers on track, making sure they’re working on interesting projects. They have a strong sense of direction. They know where they’re going and what they’re doing.

Are there any areas iTechArt could improve?

Not really. They’re the number-one software vendor that we work with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide an online collaboration platform for people that manage, work in, and live in residential high-rise buildings. I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with iTechArt?

We wanted to build a local application that could use local storage and sync to our website. The app would be suitable for buildings and countries where the Internet isn’t fast enough to use a web application. We also had a lot of mobile app development needs. Our own staff was stretched much too thin to be able to get everything done.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

iTechArt worked on multiple difficult projects for us, including a web application. They built the local WPF [Windows Presentation Foundation] programs using the local Microsoft SQL Express, linking the background and web services to Microsoft SQL Server. This is a touchscreen-enabled version, with a local database of our web application that syncs with a cloud database. They built native iPhone and Android apps for us. They also built a local application that integrates hardware so that it can be easily accessed by a web browser from a printer, webcam, or fingerprint scanner. They built us a middleware product called Connector that mediates between the hardware installed on a PC and web browsers running on that PC. They’ve also done QA work.

We started with two engineers and now we’re up to 23. We communicated with the project managers. One was for mobile, while the overall project manager ran the desktop and Connector and WPF. There were 5–7 resources that we would talk to on our conference calls when we needed a full team meeting. All of the people were developers, including the project managers.

How did you come to work with iTechArt?

I was tracking this company that had a really cool iPhone app that lets you create iPhone apps. When they went out of business, I tried to hire the founder. He recommended I hire iTechArt because they are the ones who built the app.

How much have you invested with iTechArt?

We’ve spent over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since November 2013, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The biggest metric is the fact that we’ve grown their staff more than our own, and that we’ve shifted work that we were doing with our own people over to them, including the QA stuff. They’re doing QA for us on the work that we’re doing. Their part of the company is growing faster than our company.

We build unique products. This product called Connector is really a unique product that Microsoft should have built. You ought to be able to click on something and see all the hardware on your computer—what’s working and not working—be able to test it from one place. The success story is that we are a third of the way through converting our 3,000 clients to this Connector platform, where the web browsers talk to the hardware, and it’s running beautifully. We’ve had almost no problems with the installations. Without Connector, you’re reliant on all sorts of ActiveX and plug-ins to make your browser talk to hardware, which is not what browsers natively want to do. I would say the install has been beautiful. The drop in support calls on Connector has been very noticeable. The clients that have installed it have had almost no service support calls regarding hardware talking to their browser. We also have some very good initial success on a new mobile OCR [optical character recognition] package receiving app we’re working on that is in the early development stages. iTechArt does good work with us on innovative products. Customers find these products exciting because they’re innovative.

How did iTechArt perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very methodical and very professional. We do two-week sprints. I would say that progress has been within good expectations. A lot of things that they’re working on are challenging, and we don’t always have a clear method for how to make it happen. We have no complaints.

What did you find most impressive about iTechArt?

They are serious engineers. They like to build things in a way that they understand and that they think is the right way to build it. They proceed professionally—no cutting corners, no ambiguity, no rushing into things before they know what they’re doing. They define themselves as being suited best to people who know what they want to build and are ready to build it, versus somebody with an early startup idea.

They have very good processes. If somebody wants to talk to them about starting a project, they are methodical enough to step through the decision processes to decide if it’s a good fit, both for you and for them. They do a reasonably serious job of understanding enough what a new customer wants and making sure that they are able to deliver it before accepting the work. They verify that whatever job they’re undertaking is the kind of job with the right expectations. At the end of the day, they make sure that the customer will happy with the results.

Are there any areas iTechArt could improve?

Not really.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of Product Development of DAQ Electronics

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Integrated Security and Utility Automation Solutions

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Adding developers to our team

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

Great culture fit

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.

.NET Windows UI development, embedded Linux application development, SQL server applications.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ability to work as a team, manage shared source code brances and produce incremental product changes quickly with a steady and stable automated software build and release updates to end users.

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

They're responsive to issues reported from fielding new development, agile and creative with new requirements, and interpreting required solutions.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Quality of developers, talent and skill.  Great work ethic and attention to tasks and work load.

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

No only that we could be more helpful at providing improved requirements, use cases and information that is needed for effective results.