Zaraffasoft

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a creative digital studio.

What challenge were you trying to address with Zaraffasoft?

I had several projects in React and PHP, and needed some help because we didn’t have enough people to work on them all. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They worked on multiple projects because we were short of time. They assisted us with a mobile application for a large music festival. It allows for early bird tickets, fast track access, opportunities to meet some of the stars, private party access, etc. It allows for communication with all the users at the festival site or outside the site.

We also asked them to work on a nursery project showcase website. I wanted to test their React web skills and it went pretty well. The last project is an e-commerce platform based on a CMS that we developed. They worked with a system we had in place and customized it for a new client.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with 6–7 people, with my main point of contact as the founder. We usually work with project managers.

How did you come to work with Zaraffasoft?

We challenged a couple of their developers with some tests to get a good idea of what they’re able to do.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2019 and the work is ongoing.

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

We like that they work in the same technology as we do and that they have the same kind of thinking. They think deeper than just coding what they’re requested to do, and they have a clear process that helps us to follow the project. It's a good ecosystem. Their work has allowed us to be more efficient and productive as a company—it gave me space and helped me to avoid having too much extra internally. 

How did Zaraffasoft perform from a project management standpoint?

Generally speaking, they offer a good quality price. However, my main problem is I have to pay them on an hourly basis, but I first need to deliver the project in order to get paid, so I'm the in-between. Their work is good, but any delays cost me.

Communication is good; they speak fluent English. I should be a little more consistent regarding follow-up calls with them, but we used Notion on our side and integrated them into our Slack teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re always available. They don’t just complete tasks, but put thought behind them as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re developers and know how long things should take. Sometimes I feel they take too much time and don’t ask enough questions, especially in terms of code. They could follow more of our guidelines instead of just trying to reinvent the wheel.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend a little bit more time discussing the quotation to make sure there’s not too much discrepancy between it and reality.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of SIA 3ZD. We lead different social projects with an educational direction. 

For what projects/services did your company hire Zaraffasoft?

We hired Zaraffasoft for to develop an IT platform for an entrepreneurship project.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed help with developing everything from the concept design to the functionality and technical support.

How did you select this vendor?

I knew Zaraffasoft from a previous successful cooperation.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Zaraffasoft developed an IT support system and website with a responsive design. The system and website served as a database for the project. Because I lack technical expertise, I told them what functionalities the platform needed, and they then built everything.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, a designer, and a few coders to create different functionalities.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The European Commission recognized the project later as one of the best entrepreneurship motivational projects in the EU in 2016. Public relations played a vital role in the project’s success, and the IT platform created by Zaraffasoft was part of public relations. The platform remains active.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I received constant feedback about Zaraffasoft’s development progress. We communicated by Skype and emails.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Highly responsible, Zaraffasoft was always ready to assist when needed and accommodate our schedules.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I always want everything faster and cheaper. But Zaraffasoft was excellent to work with, and I have no complaints.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the head of development and engineering at an IT company. Part of our business is running an online contractor/freelancer platform.

For what projects/services did your company hire Zaraffasoft?

We needed extra developers to maintain the platform and develop new features.

What were your goals for this project?

We set out to keep pace with dependency upgrades and security fixes.

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed a few vendors online and gave each of them a test development task. Zaraffasoft produced the best result.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They provided a senior PHP developer to handle programming for us.

What was the team composition?

At first, two developers were sharing 0.5 FTE, but later we switched to one dedicated developer and an additional resource providing some project support.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We were able to outsource a big chunk of the ongoing development and maintenance of the platform, which freed up time for us to focus on business development.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Working with an agile process, we have weekly online video meetings with our developer and the project management resource to discuss issues, results, and next actions. It is a very efficient way to work together.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The administrative overhead is very small. Almost all our time goes into actual development and rather than into unproductive discussions. I absolutely recommend working with them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Twice, Zaraffasoft tried to introduce new developers to spread the “know how” about the project, but neither developer could provide the quality we needed. We ended up losing some time and keeping our original setup.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm CEO of an events company called Meji Media Events.

What challenge were you trying to address with ZaraffaSoft?

I needed to find a web team that could take over one of our websites because we were having problems with our previous developer.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We knew there were some bugs that needed to be solved, so they started by reviewing everything. They did a code review and a full bug check of the Laravel platform. They haven't started adding new features yet, but they will be doing some work to make the site more responsive.

What is the team composition?

I only interact with the project manager. There are two developers working on the project.

How did you come to work with ZaraffaSoft?

I found them on Upwork. Because of the problems I’d had with the previous developer, I was looking for a firm that would be highly responsive and deliver results on time. I liked their answers to my interview questions. Also, their price was very good compared to what I might get in the UK.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, I’ve spent about $7000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in April 2018 and is ongoing.

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

The site is already faster. It feels a lot cleaner. It's less buggy. I've already commissioned ZaraffaSoft on another Laravel website that’s been having problems. They’re going to redevelop the whole thing and upgrade the code.

How did ZaraffaSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

I've been impressed with ZaraffaSoft. The way they do everything is very organized. They give me a bug report every week of what's completed, broken down into high, low, and medium priority. The project manager uses Slack to communicate with me, which has been helpful. I can also communicate with the CEO via Skype if I have any issues or anything I want to address. I like that we’re not just using email so things don't get lost.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very thorough. I get email notifications whenever they’re doing testing so I can see how much time they’ve dedicated to it. I like the fact that they test as they build, rather than wait until the end of a project. It leads to a better experience. I also like that I'm not having to check over code in terms of the functionality because there's somebody there in the middle between me and a coder.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes relationships start off well but then the firm starts to slack off as the relationship becomes comfortable. I hope to see them carry on as consistently as they are now.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Tekalon, a company in the healthcare industry. We have the ambition to create operational applications for businesses that fall short of resources in the market. The goal is to know the business and create an application, not only for that organization, but also to bring it to similar types of businesses.

What challenge were you trying to address with ZaraffaSoft?

I needed to develop a software application that my industry lacks. Hiring developers or software companies in the U.S. is too expensive for me.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They are developing my healthcare business analytics and operations app. Apps like this don’t exist in the industry. We’re using PHP Laravel framework. They built it from the ground up.

The app connects to any database over the internet with a DSN connection and builds an SQL generator. You don’t need to write any SQL codes on the frontend. You just select the fields of what you want to be the parameters to be, and it builds the entire SQL script for you. It does all the analytics. It also has a dashboard module that puts all the data in front of you.

Additionally, we have a communication module that can print thousands of letters in one click of a button. It also has live chat and video with clients.

We’re still developing the platform. We plan on releasing the app to production in the next few months.

What is the team composition?

There’s a frontend developer, backend developer, a Scrum master, and a QA person.

How did you come to work with ZaraffaSoft?

I wanted an organization that has stability in the industry. I traveled to Ukraine to meet ZaraffaSoft. It was a fantastic experience meeting the COO, CIO, and all their developers and coordinators. Everybody is phenomenal. I chose them because of cost-effectiveness and because their developers were very flexible in understanding what we needed. I worked with ZaraffaSoft on a smaller project first to see their approach, integrity, and work ethic. Once they proved themselves, I went full force with a couple of big projects with them.

How much have you invested with them?

This project cost over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2016 and the work is ongoing.

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

So far, it’s running great. I discussed the platform with industry leaders and they all want to be a part of this project because it’s unique. ZaraffaSoft comes up with innovative ideas and gives me feedback on how to make it effective or more efficient. I love that about them. They don’t just do what you ask them to do.It’s been phenomenal.

How did ZaraffaSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re fantastic. Their Scrum masters are very open to working with me continuously on my needs, my timeline, and how to handle obstacles. I’ve never had any issues with them. I hardly find any bugs in their work. My experience with them is once you lay out your plan and the design, they’ll build it exactly to your specifications without any bugs. They offered to use project management software, but I chose to have weekly updates. I have little time to be involved in project management so I let them manage it entirely. They communicate with each other very well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have an understanding of our idea. As soon as you say something, they catch it. They are constantly thinking about if there are resources on the outside and whether they’re available to integrate within your app. I love them for this. They’re very knowledgeable in terms of resources available and what framework would be the best for the app. Even if you suggest a framework, they’ll give a comparative view of what would be more effective and efficient.

When I was running low on funds, I asked if they could do minimal coverage with the charges. They’re so considerate and did it. They work with clients to make the project successful. They’re great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear project or app goal before speaking with them. Set up a great timeline and stick to it to complete the project. ZaraffaSoft completes the work within the time frame.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of The Culture of Art. We’re an online marketplace for luxury, handcrafted home decor and furniture from around the world. Our pieces are exclusively handcrafted by the finest artisans from various countries.

What challenge were you trying to address with Zaraffasoft?

We built the initial version of the platform with another agency, but it turned out to be quite a disaster. The platform had a lot of bugs and it didn't work properly, so we needed someone to fix it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They had to practically rebuild the whole website, from the backend to the frontend, on Magento 2. They had to fix a lot of bugs, and one of their core tasks was to optimize the performance of the website, because it was extremely slow. They also added new features, to both the admin panel of the marketplace as well as the UI.

For example, they redesigned the way shipping rates are calculated and they made sure that, for each product and country that we ship to, the shipping price is shown directly on the product page. So, if you view it from the United States, you see one price directly on the product page, and if you view from the UK, you see another price. It brings transparency and helps consumers understand that it's quite cheap and fast to ship our products to their country.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people, but my main point of contact was Alex, the CTO of the company. There was also a project manager, a backend Magento developer, a frontend developer and a development operations, server-side developer.

How did you come to work with Zaraffasoft?

I found them on Clutch, and I selected them because they have good reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $15,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2018.

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

They made sure our website was optimized. Page speeds were about 30 to 40 out of hundreds on Google Insights, and now they're at about 90. There was a list of tasks that they had to do and they did it; that’s the only metric really. They’ve helped a lot in everything from SEO to UX.

How did Zaraffasoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well and did what they had to do, despite certain glitches along the way, which had more to do with the fact that they were working with a broken website. The deadline had to be moved because of those issues, but in the end, they fixed everything and the website is working well today.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The main thing I really enjoyed was the personal commitment from the CTO. It’s incredible how invested she was in the project. She would work overnight on numerous occasions just to get things done. She was constantly available, even late at night.

They seem very honest and you certainly feel that you can trust them because of their technical expertise, but also because of the fact that they don't overcharge. If there’s an issue they’ll fix it. The pricing is transparent but often they fix certain things without even including that in the bill.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As we were working on the project, they actually made changes in their organizational structure by eliminating the project managers. Before, I used to work through a project manager. But later, we moved onto me communicating directly with the CTO and the developers, which was much faster and much more agile. They implemented the change that was required already.

Any advice for potential customers?

If you communicate the task very well, then it is very likely that they will deliver. If the task is somewhat vague, then they will take the initiative to see how it can be clarified. But it will certainly make the process much longer.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of an online jewelry store.

What challenge were you trying to address with ZaraffaSoft?

We needed specialized Magento developers to revamp our existing e-commerce website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used management tools to create and implement a development plan that pushed the product forward. Using Magento, they added backend features to decrease load-times and improve site productivity. They increased site security and continue to maintain and support it. They’ll likely begin developing relevant API’s to increase functionality.

What is the team composition?

I initially interviewed one of their managing owners. He was our main point of contact for the first 2–3 weeks. After that, we were assigned the project manager who currently works with us. I’ve interacted with many of their developers, project managers, and graphic designers throughout our engagement.

How did you come to work with ZaraffaSoft?

I found them by researching vendors on Clutch. I reached out and met with them. First, I asked them to review my site and communicate any feasible improvements they could make. Then, I gave them a small project to complete, and they did so to my satisfaction. As a result, we hired them for full-time support and development.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The site redesign took place May 2017–June 2017 and our relationship is ongoing.

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

The optimized site has decreased our load times per page from 9 seconds to 1 second. It looks graphically superior and facilitates efficient customer engagement. Additionally, they recommend improvements and integrate new features quickly. The quality of their work is reliable.

How did ZaraffaSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is fabulous. We have hour-long meetings with them, twice a week, where we discuss tasks that have or haven’t been completed. We use Google Docs and a dashboard system to maintain task lists.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver what they say they’ll deliver. Other companies make promises and don’t deliver.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At first, communication wasn’t happening as fast as necessary. However, that was rectified as soon as I approached them so I can’t recommend any improvements.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understanding what your business needs is crucial. If you have a well-defined goal, ZaraffaSoft will help you accomplish it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of an e-commerce site in Denmark. We sell to consumers, and we work as a marketplace like Amazon where we have various vendors that can edit their own products. We take payments and do the marketing, and they get their cuts for selling on our website.

What challenge were you trying to address with ZaraffaSoft?

We were moving from a WordPress-based webpage and going from a content-focused website to an e-commerce site, and we needed to merge a lot of content from the WordPress site.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We did 2-week sprints where we set goals and they did the development. In the beginning, they converted the data we had on the current site from WordPress to Magento. Then they started doing a lot of custom modules and implementing design on our webpages. They work with our internal developers, who do the styling, and installed some continuous integration so we can release every day, if desired.

They helped convert Magento 2 into the marketplace. Vendors can upload products and do custom shipping based on zip codes, and each vendor can set up different prices and shipping types for each product type. We’ve now moved from developing mode to support mode.

What is the team composition?

We interacted with the project manager and the developer directly. I told the project manager all the tasks that needed to be done, and I had direct communication with the developer in charge of each ticket via Slack regarding the assignments.

How did you come to work with ZaraffaSoft?

I worked with them before on different projects that were also Magento-based. For the first project, they were in competition with the other companies, and they did the best-performing job.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$199,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February of this year, and the development ended in October. ZaraffaSoft still provides maintenance work.

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

Going from WordPress to Magento, our average page load went down 64%, which is important for our SEO. We also did an external code review, which validated that ZaraffaSoft did a good job.

How did ZaraffaSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They did well. There’s always a big challenge working with new products and projects that have a long time span. Compared to other providers I’ve tried, it went okay. The biggest issues are always clarifying the questions or the tasks. All of our miscommunication has been on task clarification.

We communicate daily via Slack and Redmine.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like that we could see everything in real-time. We would follow the development on a day-to-day basis for any task and budget. ZaraffaSoft isn’t just a passive bystander; they also made suggestions for improvements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They need to better communicate to Nordic clients. In Ukraine, they’re more direct and short in their communication, which works well with a U.S. company. In Denmark and Nordic countries, you need a lot more elaboration when you write to each other. It’s just understanding the cultures they’re communicating with.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They’re really good at onboarding and starting projects fast. Set aside time to do a call (not an email), and have your idea defined.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder a branch of Athena Solutions, a web marketing company. We take care of web marketing projects for our clients, mostly in the travel and hospitality industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with ZaraffaSoft?

We needed help in the development of some websites. We needed an additional outsourcing resource as we were very busy with our in-house team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We explained our challenge and what we were looking for. We shared information about their way of working in terms of technology and task process then came up with an agreement together. They provided website development in HTML based on our graphic designs. They developed the pages of our website and the tools that plug into the website through WordPress.

There’s a dynamic map with geolocalization of hotels and the highlights at a destination. There are also links to our booking engine. They are still working on some websites for us.

What is the team composition? 

We made the agreement with Alex [CEO, ZaraffaSoft] and the project manager. They are our direct contacts and they have a tech team that we don’t manage directly. 

How did you come to work with ZaraffaSoft?

My business partner knew a company that had worked with them. When we were looking for a partner, they reviewed them as a professional company and we got in touch with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

Less than $10,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2016 and the work is ongoing.

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

We have no complaints, which is the reason we’re still working with them. 

How did ZaraffaSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

We are very happy with it. They are efficient and give quick answers. Our contact is always very accommodating and well organized. We use Skype for quick communication and email or Google Drive to exchange documents.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our goal was to have external support to help us when we have too many projects to manage in-house. It’s great that we can work with an outsourced team in a very similar way to how we do with our internal team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Make sure to have the full picture of how they developed the backend of the website because after they delivered it, we have to take care of the maintenance. Sometimes they develop with different codes and our team requires their input when we need to do maintenance on the websites. This needs to be improved a little. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re building software for managing real estate insurance. Our main objective is to make the process of users leasing their homes or other properties more organized. I’m one of the owners and CTO.

What challenge were you trying to address with ZaraffaSoft?

We weren’t finding a highly valued developer in-house, and we didn’t want to invest in hiring people initially because we had no external funding. We needed to keep costs low, so we made an MVP [minimum viable product] here, and then outsourced a large part of the development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a SaaS [software-as-a-service] platform which focuses on automating processes concerning lease agreements, real estate reporting, costs, etc. Currently, they handle almost all development for both our frontend and backend. They used PHP to build the backend on a Symfony framework. Also, for quick installation and continuous iteration, they used Ansible, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and Vue.js for the frontend.  

What is the team dynamic?

At present, we have 1 project leader and 1 full-time developer. We had 2 developers at one point, but eventually scaled our resources down.

How did you come to work with ZaraffaSoft?

We were searching for similar projects that had taken place in Ukraine. We did some test projects, and through those results, we eventually selected ZaraffaSoft as the best choice.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $30,000–$50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them on a full-time basis since January 2017.

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

We’re starting to get some clients now, whereas before, the software wasn’t finished and fully functional in the way our client wanted. I’m happy with the code they provided, their feedback, and the way they organized the project. The system looks and works better than similar products, and we have specific functionalities that others don’t.

How did ZaraffaSoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. Sometimes, they helped me manage the project since I have so many other responsibilities. We mostly communicate through Skype, and are able to hold video conferences if needed. They are responsive in communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver quality work for a very decent price.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The developer we were working with was very good with backend development, but less so with the user experience. We may hire a user experience expert from them to cooperate in the project, but we haven’t discussed that yet due to cost. We’re also hired a graphic designer outside of ZaraffaSoft.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to have internal processes that coordinate with ZaraffaSoft’s and to communicate with them in order for everything to go smoothly.