xtream

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and head of technology for a fintech company. We operate in the non-performing loans market and do business with non-performing loans. We recently became a bank, which was big news here in Italy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and head of technology for a fintech company. We operate in the non-performing loans market and do business with non-performing loans. We recently became a bank, which was big news here in Italy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

xtream provided software development services. The work consisted of uploading a set of non-performing loan positions into our core systems.

Initially, we provided them with one page, but it was minimal. Nonetheless, together with the explanation of the project, they managed to write down the documentation successfully. Then, we managed the coordination of the overall project. It involved different actors — our team was one, xtream was another, and there was an additional system integrator.

Their team helped us develop a modern tech stack. The deliverable was a piece of software, so they had access to the code repository. It wasn’t an easy task because we had to align different data from different sources, and they helped us build this module. Additionally, there was a basic frontend component in this module, and they designed it.

We used a typical stack for web application development. It included modern web-based technology based on JavaScript, which included TypeScript, React, and NestJS.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 1–2 people, including Alberto (Founder & Web Architect) and Luca (Founder & Head of Web and Mobile).

How did you come to work with xtream?

I knew them from before because we had some professional links from previous activities and other colleagues. In Italy, there is no other team like xtream for web development. As we already knew each other, we knew that we could do good things together, and we did.

How much have you invested in them?

We invested around €15,000–€16,000 (approximately $17,000–$19,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project from June–September 2021. We’ll definitely work with them again as soon as we can.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had to do very few corrections and wrap-up calls because xtream was really autonomous in doing the job. Basically, we only had to do the kickoff call with the project explanation, and then they went on by themselves. It was of great value, especially since my team and I manage a lot of projects at the same time.

Therefore, having a good partner was extremely helpful. They were reliable, and when they said they’d have something by a specific date, they delivered.

How did xtream perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really good. We got them into our Slack channel, but the main communication channel with Alberto was the phone because it was easier. They were brilliant, so a few words were enough to make them understand the points.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were independent. They didn’t need to be managed that much, which was a really great and valuable thing for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, everything went really smoothly. We don’ have anything to complain about.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you make them understand precisely what the project is, it’ll go smoothly. You probably won’t have to manage them at all, but you have to be clear from the beginning. Therefore, you have to communicate the project’s features precisely and with a lot of details. Once you do that, you can forget about them for a while, and xtream will deliver the result.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Eficode is the leader in DevOps in Europe. We offer both professional services to improve software development practices, as well as managed services to manage tools for software development lifecycle. We are writing this review together as Chief Marketing Officer (financial decision-maker), International marketing manager (project manager) and our Academy headmaster (product owner).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have an existing "card game" that is used to educate and inform software development professionals and decision-makers about the concept and benefits of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD). This game is played face-to-face with members of the DevOps community and our current and future customers, facilitated by a DevOps professional from Eficode. As pandemia prevented this game from being played face-to-face, we needed to move this game online, where we could continue to use the format of a game to make the topic both entertaining and approachable. Because we intended to open source this application, we wanted a partner that can develop a game using methods and tools that are well-suited with the open source community. We also wanted an architecture that automatically could scale to fit the needs, without costing a lot in idle mode.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking for a software development partner who uses modern development tools and methods. Because we were refactoring a physical game into a digital format, we wanted a partner that can co-create the game with us. We knew Xtream from the past because we knew that they had done prior work for some other businesses, but we had not worked with them before ourselves. We selected Xtream due to their customer and technology understanding and their collaborative way of working. Their inputs and questions when we were in the selection process made us confident that they understood the game we wanted to create. We also appreciate that their price level was competitive, although it was not a deciding factor.

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

First, we defined the product requirements from different user personas: facilitator of the game, player, as well as sales and marketing. We then reviewed these requirements with Xtream and defined a scope for the Minimum Viable Product. Based on this scope, Xtream wrote a Statement of Work and a commercial proposal. After the commercial negotiations and agreement, the project team started working in a 1 week cadence, with a meeting every week for clarifying the feature scope and design.Their designer integrated our style guide into her suggestions and made large efforts to keep the look and feel of a real card game. They build the app using Google cloud functions and Firebase for storage, and React af the frontend library.

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

We worked together with 4 people, plus a Co-founder for the commercial part. Juliane was in charge of UI/UX design. Gabriele and Luca worked with us to specify the scope of the actual application, and defined MVP with us. The Co-founder of Xtream (Gabriele) worked with us to specify the project scope in a high-level. Luca and Alberto were the primary developers on the game, and the ones demoing progress every week.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The game was delivered on scope and on schedule, and is available at https://eficode.com/pipeline-game. The game has been successfully used in a number of engagements with our current and future customers, and the general feedback has been extremely positive, both from our facilitators as well as from the players.

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

Project management went very smoothly, with them taking ownership of making sure they knew what we had in mind in terms of functionality and design. As written above, they took a true agile approach, where focus could shift from one week to another, depending on where it made most sense to see progress for further development. Communication was through our Slack workspace, and they responded almost instantly. Project was delivered on time, and progress was continuously shown each week.

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

We felt strongly that their ability to tap into a game only shown through images, and an initial design idea made on a piece of paper was very professional and strong. What they managed to deliver in terms of look and feel of the project is much better than expected.

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

We cannot think of any substantial feedback to improve or do things differently. It was a successful project on the whole.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a full professor of Social Psychology at the Catholic University of Milan. I do research in the field of communication and behaviour change, with regard to health, wellbeing and sustainability.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire xtream?

xtream covered the technical part of the project, and in particularly they were involved in developing, testing and distributing the PsyMe mobile app for iOS and Android.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to realise a mobile app to collect data from participants in research experiments, asking them first to fill in a questionnaire, then to read a sequence of messages sent them on a daily basis, and finally to fill in a second questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the messages in terms of appreciation and influence on attitudes and intentions.

SOLUTION

How did you select xtream?

My university has a collaboration agreement with the University of Pavia for the development of artificial intelligence tools for dialogue management. A few founders of xtream are former students of the latter university, and they created an innovative and very interesting technological start up company.

Therefore we decided to establish a specific collaboration agreement among us and xtream, to develop the PsyMe app.

Describe the project in detail.

PsyMe is a free app created to support scientific research in the field of social psychology and artificial intelligence. PsyMe was born from the joint effort between the University of Pavia, the Catholic University of Milan and xtream, an innovative start-up based in Milan.

The users of PsyMe are volunteers participating in scientific research. They receive a unique and anonymous code from the scholars involved, which they can activate the app with. Later on PsyMe will take care of proposing two Qualtrics questionnaires, separated by persuasive text messages.

PsyMe has been developed as a React Native cross-platform app and distributed over the Play Store and the App Store for iOS.

What was the team composition?

xtream appointed a project reference person which we were able to interface with, whereas all the development was taken care of by their Mobile & Web team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The app PsyMe has been first tested in an experiment that involved more than 500 participants. The results were excellent, the collected data were insightful about the research goal and allowed the elaboration of a very interesting statistical model. Other experiments are now about to start and we are planning to use the app for a variety of studies.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Together with the University of Pavia team we conducted with xtream a thorough analysis of the requirements and the functions that the app was to perform. The functions identified in this way have been realised by xtream in a very precise and effective way. Altogether we were extremely satisfied by their proactive professional attitude.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The xtream team proved to be extremely competent and attentive during all the stages of the prliminary analysis and also very effective and precise in realising the software of the app, which matched the expectations entirely.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are currently planning some extensions of the PsyMe app to introduce the possibility to send multimedia messages as well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Sofan is a co-watching platform where people can share their passion for TV events in a stimulating and friendly environment. I am the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired this team to design and develop a new website. By doing this we had the chance to increase our user base and increase our revenues.

SOLUTION

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

When I met Federico T., one of the most important entrepreneurs in the Italian country, he advised me to hire Xtream because they are among the best web developers in the market.

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

We had a kick off meeting to discuss our goals. Starting from there the team delivered mock-ups for our website. We used Angular to make it real!

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

There were 2 full-stack developers and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching our website we saw a terrific growth of our user base. Users love the design and usability of the website.

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

We had daily stand-ups with their project manager, who communicated with the rest of the team. We used Trello to coordinate all the activities.

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

They are young technology enthusiasts, passionate learners, and unconventional consultants. This is very impressive.

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

They did a great job. We are very satisfied!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a SaaS company. We developed cloud-based equipment management service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired xtream to support in developing our UI to strengthen our team and speed up the development.

SOLUTION

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

We chose the vendor based on a good review.

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

We scoped the elements for the development, iterated together with the team and our designer to ensure that outcome was spot on.

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

We worked in total with three collaborators from vendor's team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Delivery was well executed, and the progress during the project was well communicated. Delivery was as scoped and with high quality.

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

We had a weekly status and open line of communication on the way. The collaboration worked well and we knew constantly where the project was going.

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

I was very impressed by the ways of working and satisfied with the style of collaboration.

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

No, not really anything to do differently.