Volcanic Internet

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of Almabuena Films, a production company based in The Netherlands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I hired Volcanic to create the website of my company, to showcase the finished and ongoing projects, and also to create a system for registered users to rent or buy the films and watch them on the website.

SOLUTION

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

They were recommended by a friend of mine

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

We had an intake meeting with the account manager, which is one of the founders of the company, to review the scope of the project. The technology to be used, WordPress, with ad-hoc developments was defined after that meeting. Afterwards, we had a kick-off meeting with the UX-UI designer, in which we reviewed the pages and features needed for the website.

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

3 people: Account manager, Web designer, Web developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website is still under development, but it's looking better than expected!

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

We used slack and asana, besides Zoom.

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

We're impressed with their attention to detail, their availability, and their willingness to help us with the process. They have a human touch and the feeling that they were giving me solutions to my problems.

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

As a recommendation for future clients is your duty to have a document with the requirements of your website. Of course, they will help you define your needs, but nobody better than yourself knows which kind of content will be displayed and which features are required.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of an AI-oriented company called Insikt Intelligence, and the core of our business is AI development. We create dashboards, gather and analyze information, and present it to the final users. As a CTO, I’m in charge of all parts of product development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Volcanic Internet?

We were looking to outsource the development of our product because we didn’t have any developers of our own.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Volcanic provides us with front- and backend development, as well as DevOps. They use Node.js for the frontend, Go for the database, and PostgreSQL. For the DevOps, we use Docker and Kubernetes. One of the key features of this product is how it analyzes information and presents the findings on a dashboard. The dashboard has a lot of graphics, interfaces, and tables so the users can filter the information to their liking. In addition, the project is still ongoing, as we continue to develop better versions and features for the product.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Jordi (Co-Founder). The number of developers we work with varies depending on our business needs, but we’re maintaining two backend developers as they are what we need the most in this project.

How did you come to work with Volcanic Internet?

We were looking for companies and a friend of mine recommended Volcanic to us. I talked to them, evaluated them, and ended up with them because of their prices.

How much have you invested with them?

On average, we pay approximately $5,000 per developer.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership started in April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I like the quality of their work and the fact that they’re very flexible in terms of technology — one time, I asked for a certain technology that they didn’t know, so they started looking into it and learned. There was a bit of a learning curve at the beginning, but they are getting better with time. In addition, I have very good communication with Jordi, so we can always talk about the performance of the team. Overall, I’m very happy with our current developers.

How did Volcanic Internet perform from a project management standpoint?

I talk to Jordi and the developers on Slack, and we have a couple of meetings every week. We also have tools like JIRA, but we don’t use them as much as we should.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What we find particularly impressive is their eagerness to help — they’re always available to help or see what my needs are. Whether it’s changing developers or changing technologies, they’re willing to discuss and accommodate my needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything specific right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to tell them your needs and how quickly you need them. What’s good about Volcanic Internet is they make the effort to learn, but it can also take time, so make sure you communicate with them clearly.