ZERF

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an executive for a luxury travel and media company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were launching a landing page with a new partner. We needed to ensure maximum functionality (on an archaic backend architecture) and continue building new functions to meet the obligations of the contract.

SOLUTION

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

We were working with another firm that was no longer providing the services required to complete the project. This was a referral.

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

We had a kick-off meeting, and then continued to have daily stand ups to ensure that we were all aligned and approval was happening at the necessary stages.

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

We had a project and product manager, full stack engineer, QA, and UX/UI.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've loved working with Zerf. So far we have had high conversion on the site and continuous improvement.

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

We use email, slack, click up and figma for our discussions.

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

They are open to all challenges and enjoy the work they do - always with a problem solution mindset. They care about the work they do, and it shows.

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

There were moments of miscommunication (assumptions that either my team or Zerf made). All teams (ours included) have been very open to feedback to ensure alignment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a digital health company based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to develop a mobile App that allowed conscious thinking and reflection for users, around their own mental health, as well as providing group stakeholders with intelligence and actionable insights to enable positive impact and change.

SOLUTION

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

We were given ZERF's details by a connection and for us, technology skills and capability are globally ubiquitous. We considered these necessary skills to be just the start of the conversation. In addition, we were looking for alignment around core values such as flexibility, long-term outlook, consistency, true customer-centric behaviour and the ability to grow together.

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

ZERF worked with us consistently to help design, develop and deploy a mobile App on iOS and Android, providing an end-to-end safe pair of hands to work collaboratively to deliver successful outcomes. We now have an agreed set of long-term deliverables, features and functions that are both innovative, attractive and easy to use and work is ongoing with the growing team.

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

We have now worked with approx. 10 resources from ZERF over the initial duration of the engagement ranging from designers, developers and product managers to their senior management team and owners.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We achieved our MVP within just a few months, launched within 6 and developed a roadmap for the longer-term. As an organisation, this has now allowed us to transition at our own pace, into the customer acquisition and business development stage in both B2C & B2B.

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

They use all of the recognised industry standard tools (Clickup, Slack, Email, Googlemeet etc)

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

This team are a different class. They are highly competent across all disciplines, hugely consistent, and collaborative (which is often overlooked). They have essentially taken on the identity and role of our technical team. They have shown they can be trusted throughout the customer engagement process and crucially, they genuinely care about the customer. A lot of people say this but do not demonstrate the right behaviours to back it up.

The best way to summarise the relationship to date, is that ZERF are working WITH us, not FOR us. This will ensure that we both achieve long-term success and that we share the challenging moments as much as we do the successful ones. A true partnership and one that I cherish and value.

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

I honestly couldn't be happier. All of the things I would want to achieve are limited by our own organisations resources and not those of ZERF. They are simply outstanding!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of Boutique Homes. I oversee development and also get my hands dirty in the code a bit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I am a member of a team that acquired Boutique Homes, and its legacy software. The legacy system was in awful state and required a complete re-write. I brought on ZERF to write our new back-end, as well as our admin and supplier portals.

SOLUTION

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

One of my partners had used ZERF on a product in the related industry and was happy with their work.

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

Unlike most of their clients, we came to ZERF with an extremely clear idea of what tech stack we wanted to use: namely, NodeJS, with NestJS (a highly opinionated back end framework), and NextJS as a UI framework for the portals.

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

ZERF has given us a project manager, two developers in charge of the backend, and one in charge of the UI portals.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are still deep in development, but thus far I am astounded by the talent that ZERF has delivered. They had planned on a somewhat simpler backend system, and I believe there was a little uncertainty when I pushed for NestJS. They took to it immediately, instantly surpassing my own familiarity and expertise with the platform, and wrapped it all up in a monorepo that exceeded my expectations at every level. The work they've delivered is nothing short of enterprise-grade.

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

The project management style is exactly the way I like it — very loose and conversational. We do all of our meetings on Slack, and have regular and irregular calls and conversations. (I'm sure ZERF does more structured project management with other clients, that's just not my personal style.) They have not missed a single deadline, if anything it is my internal team that is the bottleneck.

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

Their capabilities are so much more than I expected. I knew they would be capable of producing basic RESTful APIs via NextJS, and was afraid that leveling up to NestJS would be a hurdle. It wasn't, at all. If anything, they sell their talents short. Also everyone on their team is friendly and a genuine pleasure to talk to.

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

I'm trying to come up with some kind of jokey response, but really, I have none.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of an organization called Menta Health. Our platform works as a marketplace where health providers and therapists can deliver their services to customers and patients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ZERF?

We were looking to grow our development team through outsourcing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had already built the software for our product, so we decided to just add more team members from ZERF to further develop and design the web app. We’re using MongoDB for our database, React for the frontend, and Node for the framework. We also use the scrum methodology and accomplish our tasks in two-week sprints.

What is the team composition?

Our initial point of contact was Gonzalo (CTO), who was then proceeded by Santiago (COO).

How did you come to work with ZERF?

We met them through a partner of mine from my previous company, who was looking for development companies in Argentina. I interviewed ZERF and found that they already had experience working on a similar project.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested around $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in July 2020, as we just signed a flexible contract with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We divided the projects and implemented some milestones. They finished our first milestone, which was to build the architecture on the therapist side of the product, and we’re now moving on to the second phase.

How did ZERF perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great from a project management standpoint because they’re easy to talk to and they respond quickly. Sometimes I’m the one delaying the project, but that’s only because I’m handling more than one company at the same time. We use Slack to communicate and get feedback about the development process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We like that they’re very engaged with the project. It makes me want to work with them more because I trust them as a team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be nice to have a more cost-efficient solution, but I understand that quality comes at a price. They could also improve more on the design aspect of the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would first suggest figuring out what their experience is before hiring any company. Our relationship with ZERF has worked out so well because we both understand and come from the same industry. However, if they just want to create an app and aren’t sure about their experience, I would recommend trusting ZERF because they’re a good company that does great work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a CEO of a cloud ERP located in Chile

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ZERF?

UX/UI for a new plataform

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We ask to a partner company with who they work there UX/UI

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Preparation of documentation for designer UX/UI of the plataform Design the onboarding process Deliver of documentation for the devolpers with the respected card for agile development

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

1 Senior Ingenier 1 UX/UI

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are very satistfied for the work deliver. All the process was in order and on track.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excelent, have a good Senior Ingenier and use there metodology was easy to comunicated to both parts.

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

Excelent execution and deliver

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

Important to have 2 meeting of 30 min to follow the project