Village IT Services Private Limited

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of a social networking platform that matches service providers with customers based on their geographical location.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Village IT Services?

We had a prototype of a code for our mobile app, but we needed a developer to revamp it and synchronize it between our mobile apps (iOS and Android) and website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Working off of the basic coding framework we purchased from another vendor, Village IT rewrote the entire application using Angular for our mobile apps (iOS and Android). The app gives users access to real-time databases, image/video uploading, profile creation, and other tools. They also helped develop the design and backend for our website, which is hosted on Amazon AWS and uses Firebase for authentication. They continue to provide maintenance across platforms, ensuring that we're satisfying requirements for Google and app stores, including privacy and security updates.

What is the team composition?

We work with four to five programmers.

How did you come to work with Village IT Services?

I posted the project on Upwork and Village IT was one of the first vendors to reach out to us. I liked their responsiveness and communication style compared to others. Their services were also quite reasonably priced.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested close to $15,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around February or March 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've received positive feedback both internally and from users regarding the functionality of the apps. We're happy with their work overall and the fact that there are few errors or issues with their codes.

How did Village IT Services perform from a project management standpoint?

While the project was established and is paid for through Upwork, Village IT uses Trello to manage projects and Bitbucket to manage coding work. We also stay in touch through email and Skype when we need to go over projects in more detail.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm most impressed by their ability to scale access to highly qualified people when we need them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

While they have a strong team of programmers and designers, I think their team would benefit from having one resource focused entirely on QA and testing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It helps to have a formal document of requirements to ensure nothing is overlooked. Sharing that on a platform like Trello is very helpful for their team, so everyone has access to it and is on the same page.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Joker Guy, which is an education startup. We help primary school children improve their knowledge in various subjects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Village IT Services Private Limited?

When I planned on working on my own startup, I was able to paint the idea in terms of the UI designs and the user journey. However, I was working with a freelancer who was unable to stick to the commitments so I had to drop the contract with them and needed a new partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our initial contract was for purely UI resources and no backend work so we only worked on the frontend. When I felt comfortable with them, I hired more resources in different areas.

They provided development, testing, and QA services for web and mobile apps. I initially took ownership and made the key, gradually stepping back when the team was able to make decisions on the tech stack. They also started giving suggestions.

We’re using a large tech stack, the key one being Firebase for the cloud functions and messaging. The backend that we’re building is mainly NodeJS, but there are other components like integrations with Payment Gateway and Stripe, as well as with SendGrid and Mongo.

What is the team composition?

There are 10 or 11 people working with me. There are a few people to analyze the data, a couple of front- and backend developers, and testers.

How did you come to work with Village IT Services Private Limited?

I was having some bad experiences with people from Upwork, but later interviewed six or seven people. I decided to give Village IT a try.

How much have you invested with them?

$25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2017 and the work is ongoing. I plan to work with them long term.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m quite happy with them. There haven’t been any conflict or challenges. There have been delays, but due to technical difficulties or changes in the scope. When I find that an idea isn’t going to work, I tend to change the scope to fix the problem.

We’re launching the beta app next week for some users. My plan is to launch it in mid-June to the public. There are still a couple of pieces that we’re trying to sort out. I don’t want to be hasty because I want to make an impression.

I have no doubt about the capability of their resources. You can’t measure the capability of each on the same metric; what matters is how they work as a team. I’m a very detail-oriented person and go into the code to do code reviews. They’re able to respond back positively to all my questions.

How did Village IT Services Private Limited perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m doing the project management, architecture, and the UI design. They have someone who manages their resources but I oversee the timeline, task allocation, and priority planning. We initially used Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket until my server crashed. Then we moved to GitLab and Trello. The video conference tool we use is Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been guiding them from process to process. Their adaptable and quick learners. I’m happy with what they've done.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You have to be committed to your project to get the maximum out of a decent team.