Wirnex

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Technology at an online advertising network that services several different types of customers, both big and small.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had an aging lead tracking platform with limited functionality, and an outdated series of customer portals, both of which needed replacing. Due to the size of the project we decided to supplement our in-house dev team with a couple of developers from Wirnex in 2016.

Building these new systems would mean we could scale much more easily and offer features that would draw more customers, both generating more revenue for the business.

SOLUTION

How did you select Wirnex and what were the deciding factors?

We searched online for remote developers and presented them with a couple of quick tests. A handful of them came back positively so we hired several of them.

The developers from Wirnex were the only ones that ended up working out long-term due to their solid code quality, consistent delivery, and good communication. They integrated into our team seamlessly and joined us for our daily scrum meetings.

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

We used our video scrum meetings as a primary form of communication and planning. We had already started work on aspects of the new system, so it was a matter of them getting up to speed and working with the team to complete tickets.

Within a couple of weeks, they were tackling the more complex tickets as if they worked with us for years. They did proprietary full-stack development. The backend consisted mostly of NodeJS microservices deployed on Kubernetes in Google Cloud Platform, with a bit of PHP/Laravel in places. The front-end mostly built in Angular. The databases were mostly MariaDB and Redis for caching.

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

A lead developer was our primary contact, along with an additional full-stack developer. Both were a part of our daily scrum meetings.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We went from having a disjointed customer experience of several different dashboards into a single dashboard per customer type, which we received a lot of positive feedback and clients wanting to license our product for use in their advertising networks.

Aside from our company experiencing increased revenue from existing business, releasing our new tracking platform opened up different types of lead generation for us, creating major branches to our business that otherwise would not have existed.

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

Each of the developers joined our daily scrum stand-up meetings, as well as our sprint planning, backlog refinement, and retrospective meetings. The meetings were done as video calls through Google Meet, and we communicated in between on Slack. We used Jira for ticket/sprint tracking, and GitHub for code sharing/repositories. Out sprints were one week in length each.

We had code reviews as a mandatory step before a ticket was considered done, and we practiced continuous integration, with good unit test coverage. The Wirnex developers would let us know in advance of any time off requests, and we made sure to always have some overlap in our working hours with timezones factored in.

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

The Wirnex developers impressed me with the amount of in-depth knowledge the have across multiple languages and various aspects of programming and databases. There were times during the project that we needed to pivot, and they usually were able to teach us something new. They introduced us to design patterns that we hadn't thought of.

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

All developers make mistakes and bugs. But because they were so involved with our team and in our scrum process, providing feedback and addressing problems was no issue at all. They take feedback and suggestions very professionally.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re primarily a printing company but also offer graphic design, web development, and marketing services. I had a personal interest in computer programming, so I built an application that manages all my print orders. We serve clients with multiple business locations. Our clients often get inundated with their locations requesting printed materials. Our platform allows each location to access its own catalog of printed projects and route requests through the business manager. Much of the back-and-forth can be managed by the application rather than our clients.   

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Wirnex?

I’d coded my application myself, but I was getting restricted by time. I had to focus on my business, so I reached out to them to execute tasks and clean up issues to make the app suitable for client use. They do development work for me and function as a part of our team for some client development projects as well. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They took over work on my web app that allows clients to place orders for print products. I gave their team my Git Repository, and they created the development environment. They created the platform based on the deliverables I asked for, executing and providing the links to review their final work. It was crucial that they were able to dig into the code and work that I’d already completed.  

The most recent project that we’ve completed together was a website for a client. The client wanted a WordPress site on an Angular platform, and their team was able to provide a creative solution that tied WordPress into an Angular and JavaScript platform. In that process, I gave them the wireframe and list of requirements. They were able to put it together.  

Currently, they’re helping me put together a SaaS solution for a few of my restaurant clients. 

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with the owner as well as several developers.  

How did you come to work with Wirnex?

At a conference, I met a local developer that helped me with the development of my website. They referred me to Wirnex, and I was introduced to Igor (CEO & Software Developer) and his development group. We’d worked with Silicon Valley companies that were pricey and had a complicated team structure; we’d also worked with more inexpensive developers that didn’t work at the speed or quality we were looking for.   

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since mid-2015. COVID-19 has slowed our work down a little, but we’re still working on solutions for our clients together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provided strong value on a reasonable timeline. I was able to trust their work and focus more on my day-to-day. At the end of the engagement, I wasn’t surprised by a huge bill either. I was happy with the amount of work they accomplished within the time frame. Their billing has always been representative of the work they’ve done. Clients are impressed by how quickly they’re able to turn projects around and the quality of testing and fine-tuning. 

How did Wirnex perform from a project management standpoint?

Once I provided them with requirements, they were able to respond to my needs in a timely manner. We’ve used different tools for different projects. I’m able to add tasks that they can track and set priorities for. We were able to manage our monthly budget through those platforms as well. 

Recently, we’ve used Trello on our projects with them. They’re flexible, so it was comfortable to work with them. We communicate mostly on Slack, and they’ve always been very responsive.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

I didn’t want a lot of handholding from an expensive development company. Instead, I just wanted to talk with a developer and get the job done. Their value matches the speed of their work, and everything has been working great. It’s hard to find a good company that’s honest with their time and billing, but they were excellent. When they’ve gone over their budgeted hours, they were very gracious in not charging me extra for the time they worked beyond my bid. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great to have some more consistency with their developers. At times, we don’t have enough work to sustain a single developer on their end. So, we’ve worked with several different developers rather than a consistent teammate.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Tell them what you want in plain English. They’ll be able to deliver and perform against both budgetary and timeline needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m working as a university researcher in forecasting and estimation sciences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Wirnex?

I received a grant to make a forecasting platform for various research projects. I hired Wirnex to develop the platform, which was basically an application that tracked predictions and their accuracy. For this project, Wirnex provided us a programmer, who did most of the work for about a year. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, much of the project revolved around setting the platform’s server up. Wirnex implemented the backend using a GraphQL server, which was one of the application's most important parts. We also used PostgreSQL, a database management system. On the frontend, we used React and ReasonML, a language that could be converted to JavaScript.

Wirnex also did the business logic and set it up on Heroku. Roman (Former Full Stack Developer) worked for 30–40 hours a week for much of the engagement while setting up the details of the server. Moreover, Wirnex helped build a bunch of pages. They put together the platform’s UI based on the drawings they’d come up with to make it functional from one end to another. 

What is the team composition?

Igor (CEO & Software Developer) helped me out on the first and second day to set up the engagement. He got Roman up to speed and ensured that they could make the application run. After that, we only worked with Roman for the whole time.

How did you come to work with Wirnex?

I posted a job ad on Upwork, and Wirnex applied to it. I interviewed everyone who responded, and the Wirnex team was one of the strongest candidates, especially in relation to their price point. They set up very quickly, and our first weeks of working were quite positive, so we continued along. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project from March 2019–March 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I evaluated the project weekly, reviewing the code and looking at its functionality. I saw that they created a fair bit of work in terms of functionality. They basically created the product from scratch, and we didn’t need much of a performance improvement. Later on, the product was used for a few forecasting experiments. 

Overall, we knew what platform we wanted, and Wirnex set it up. The project was quite straightforward, and the code was fine. 

How did Wirnex perform from a project management standpoint?

Roman and Igor were great. Igor was the project manager, and he did a very good job when we were still onboarding. 

After that, I was in touch with Roman most of the time, and he was good and pretty responsive. He was around on most days, so if I asked him a question, he’d get back to me within an hour or two — it was fast, even though we weren’t in the same timezone then. That being said, English wasn’t his first language, so we had translation issues at some points. Other than that, Roman was pretty good. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed when they were able to get up to speed quickly with ReasonML; I wasn’t expecting Roman to be familiar with it. On top of that, they worked fairly quickly and were able to get many functionalities done in a relatively short amount of time, which was very valuable to me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would have been useful if Roman spoke English better. Moreover, he had to leave the agency, and it was a bit frustrating. However, I knew things like that happened, so I was fine with it. After all, I did have a full year of working with him.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Wirnex is a good fit if you know what you want, especially if there’s a language barrier. If you lay out everything about the project, they’ll do it well for a good price point. 

However, if you want something more sophisticated with a complicated architecture and a lot of back-and-forth conversations, then you’ll need to find a more expensive provider.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company focuses on developing custom software solutions for Municipalities. I'm one of the Directors of the Company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Wirnex developed several backend microservice applications that run in the Google Cloud infrastructure. Using provided API specification and projects documentation they developed the initial MVP.

SOLUTION

How did you select Wirnex and what were the deciding factors?

We selected Wirnex for their efficiency in communication as well as their technical understanding of what was required.

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

We established several steps to take care of the project, detailing the tasks for each deliverable. Wirnex delivered in time and quality.

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

We worked mainly with Igor Pletenev and Stanislav.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The objectives were all achieved in time, and the quality of the code was excellent. They think in a modular way and follow best practices.

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

Their communication is very efficient, they know what to ask and when to ask it, which makes the project more enjoyable and easy.

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

The quality of their work.

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

Everything was great and we're very happy.