Zfort Group

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Hivex

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Software development company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Zfort Group to accomplish?

• We brought on Zfort to help with the creation and upkeep of our banking application. Our goal was to find an outsource partner who could supplement our existing internal team for a substantial financial technology initiative.

SOLUTION

How did you find Zfort Group?

Online Search

Why did you select Zfort Group over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing first our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

What was the size of Zfort Group’s team?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

At the initial meeting, I conveyed our project specifications to ensure that Zfort would assign the appropriate developers who could fulfill our project needs and goals effectively. The meeting was followed by additional video conferences where we went into more depth about the project plan and scope, assigned duties, and responsibilities. They have been involved in the project from the design stage through to the development, deployment, and ongoing maintenance phase.

The final outcome of our collaboration is a cutting-edge financial technology solution in the form of a mobile and web banking app that is currently available in the market. We have continued our partnership with Zfort as we want their developers to be readily available to us whenever we need support with fixing bugs or implementing updates to our product.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• We are very satisfied with our choice to hire developers from Zfort. It has been a positive experience to enhance our internal resources with the help of experienced external developers.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

That is the responsibility of our internal manager.

What was your primary form of communication with Zfort Group?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email
• Messaging App

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

Their commitment to our product is outstanding. They worked tirelessly to produce the best possible outcomes.

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

Nothing, we’re more than satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the office manager for an applied behavioral analysis (ABA) service provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zfort Group?

We needed help with developing our website. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zfort Group built out our custom internal site, creating new functionalities and updating the aesthetics as needed. Our website uses a massive database that our employees add and remove content to and from. One key feature is manipulating how we use reports, such as modifying content, adding reports, and changing labels.

The site uses SQL and PHP. Zfort Group was able to update the previously sloppy code to work on our project. We’ve completed two sprints together and are now in our third.

What is the team composition?

Galina (IT Project Manager, Zfort Group) is our project manager, while Darya (Business Development Manager, Zfort Group) is our account liaison. We’ve worked with a few other people, but those two are our primary points of contact.

How did you come to work with Zfort Group?

We ran into a lot of challenges with working with individual developers. Those projects often suffered from a failure of communication and responsibility. So, we decided to go with a company instead. 

We looked into lists of the top outsourced PHP coding agencies. We wanted a team that could communicate fluently in English and submits to our checks that they are a legitimate agency. Zfort Group met both criteria and was highly communicative and flexible throughout the process.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $5,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in September 2019 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working with Zfort Group has been a very satisfying experience. If we ever need them to make any edits or to tweak something that isn’t working the way we want it to, they’ll get it done within the hours we’ve committed to the project. 

We paid for about 159 hours of work, and when the work we asked for ended, Zfort Group let us know that we had 19 hours left to use. They could have easily attributed those hours to scope creep, but instead, they offered to do more work for us at no extra cost.

How did Zfort Group perform from a project management standpoint?

Zfort Group has really dedicated themselves to our project. I can’t stress how great they are at communicating. Whenever we changed the requirements on them—adding or removing a task or moving a timeline—they got it done quickly with no complaint. It makes working with them so much easier. 

The time difference between our teams also hasn’t affected communication. We have a brief window to exchange emails every morning, and Zfort Group always responds quickly. We also communicate over calls, Skype, and Trello. Trello has made remote work a breeze—we don’t need regular updates; we can just see a task’s progress in Trello. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication and willingness to accommodate us stand out. Zfort Group really wants to please their clients.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish I can work with Zfort Group during the day or take night shifts to operate on their work schedule. But I’m not going to ask their team to stay up late at night just to stay in touch, especially since they’re already phenomenal at communication.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront about your scope from the get-go. If you give Zfort Group the full picture of what you’re looking to build instead of handing them task after task, you’ll see a better result. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Sable International. One of our offerings is a visa immigration and nationality business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zfort Group?

We hired Zfort Group to develop a web-based passport service.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The website is an online assessment tool that helps users process British nationality claims. Zfort Group built a multi-generational family tree feature with key dates. The site then matches the information to a set of solutions we’ve programmed into the database. That functionality enables users to identify claims and request a formal assessment with a specialist.

The website has had several iterations as we refine services and address user needs. For example, Zfort Group created a matching functionality for different family trees over six months that expedites the report writing process. The partnership includes several-month spikes and drop-offs based on need. We recently rolled out a new version of the site.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 5–6 team managers since the partnership started.

How did you come to work with Zfort Group?

A colleague recommended Zfort Group after a successful web development project. I reached out because I knew the team’s rates would be lower compared to other international markets. They respond quickly and provided good quotes. We got started right away.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent £150,000 ($196,458 USD) over the last two years, which included the site rebuild.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2011 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Currently, 26,000 clients have leveraged the family tree. We can easily contact them via email and text alerts. The site achieves 3,000–4,000 monthly registrations, which translates to 100 strong daily inquiries and 15 new clients per day. As a result, our visa revenue has increased from £800,000 ($1,048,204 USD) per year to £3.5 million ($4,585,892 USD) per year.

The influx of traffic and qualified leads is instrumental to our business’ growth. Furthermore, the stable site reflects the team’s strong coding skills and grasp of our business.

How did Zfort Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Lync for Business on a daily basis during busier periods. Otherwise, we communicate via phone and log tasks on Trello. The latter works well for our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team is responsive and hits every deadline. What’s more, they are friendly and affordable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, because they’ve met all of our requirements.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Detailed briefs make a difference because they ensure that both sides are on the same page. Clients should invest time early on to make specs as detailed as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director at Ideal Flatmate, a matchmaking website. We help people find roommates.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zfort Group?

We needed app development that would support a matching platform to bring together compatible people, along with thousands of available listings.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They took on a live project and improved the stability of a PHP web application to support the development of new features, including a new platform for premium properties. They’re currently developing a mobile app in React Native. The group feature brings together prospective renters to find properties. Other services included the development of an algorithm to identify and root out fraudulent properties and a rebuild of our search function in React. They also implemented Elasticsearch for the backend.

What is the team composition?

Their involvement has expanded from two backend developers to four backend developers. We also work with a frontend developer, a project manager, and a designer.

How did you come to work with Zfort Group?

They were recommended by another company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The functionality is very clear and easy to use, and our search function has gotten faster. Not only are they very adept developers, but they go the extra mile to figure out how best to work with us. They care about the project and they put in the effort to understand what we need. They’ve performed their role very well.

How did Zfort Group perform from a project management standpoint?

I rely on their project manager to communicate with team members on our side who need fixes and changes, and I know that she’ll make sure it’s done. I’ve been very impressed by their determination to deliver the best service they can. We also got along well with the developers. All of our communication was good, and their team has been quick to react to any problems we’ve had. They’ve adapted to a very fast pace of work and schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve taken a personal interest in the project and have come to us with suggestions. Their guidance of the project has included taking initiative to upgrade technologies and make changes. It’s like having an internal team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re completely satisfied.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get on a call or on a plane to meet them. They’ve got a lot of talented people. Just make sure you’re happy with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of RealNYC. We're a review website for New York City property.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zfort Group?

We needed a company to help us develop a website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a website in PHP, based on my instructions. They managed the design and added maps, review buttons, and star ratings on the frontend. They also developed the Admin console on the backend. It's now hosted on Amazon Web Services.

What is the team composition?

I mostly work with their business development representative and a developer.

How did you come to work with them?

I was looking for Eastern European developers and I interviewed five or six of them. Zfort Group was the most responsive and dedicated in terms of the resources.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2018 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website is live and I'm very happy with everything. They're very responsible, professional, and have reasonable rates. Also, they work very efficiently. I gave them a rough idea of what I wanted and they did a great job translating it into a finished product.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very responsive despite the difference in time zones and resolve urgent issues immediately, even when it's the middle of the night for them. We usually use Slack, Jira, and email to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their prices are reasonable and they're very responsive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The design could be slightly improved. Also, there was a language barrier, so I had to change some terms and phrases. But we overcame that challenge successfully.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They're a good team and I'd definitely recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of a company that's building an ad tech tool for digital advertisers who work with platforms like Facebook and AdWords. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zfort Group?

I needed a development team that could take direction well, solve problems, and function independently. I didn't have enough time to continually follow up on their work. My co-founder, who had been the technical expert, left the project and I didn’t have any other development resources. Rather than detailed instructions, I provided an overview highlighting my priorities for Zfort Group to build upon.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zfort Group worked remotely and completed all the development for this project. I contributed wireframes for the design and explained our business idea during the first few meetings with their business associate. He wrote detailed specifications that described each feature and its intended function. During the second round, I designed new wireframes, and we adjusted the scope slightly. Taking my total budget into consideration, we cherrypicked functionalities to include in the MVP.

From there, we arranged the order in which to develop and implement each aspect of the platform. Zfort Group used APIs from AdWords, Google Analytics, and Facebook. They integrated the platform with AWS. I offered pointers for platform options but had their developers make the final decision, so they had full ownership of the final product. I gave them general directions and had them fill in the blanks based on their technical expertise.

What is the team composition? 

We’ve worked with many people from Zfort Group at different points. In the beginning, we were most closely involved with the business analyst and relationship manager. Three developers worked on our project during the height of development. We’ve scaled down to a core team of two engineers supplemented by the occasional email from either the business associates or client relationship and sales resource. 

How did you come to work with Zfort Group?

I initially found a project manager based in Romania. I tasked him with the heavy lifting of creating a development team that had a good track record of working together. He chose Zfort Group based on their comfortable dynamic, and I approved his decision. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent between $25,000–$30,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We held initial talks in January of this year and officially started the project in February. Our project is currently ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our MVP is live, but it's not quite ready for primetime yet. The platform Zfort Group delivered is suitable for beta testing. This process will help me cultivate a better understanding of the product. I've let our beta testers know that the platform is still a work in progress. It’s not a tool that I can charge money for yet; that's a bit further down the pipeline. 

I don't have the capacity to conduct a code review, but the MVP looks like a solid deliverable. Zfort Group defined the specifications based on my requirements and wireframes and worked cooperatively. They delivered what they promised to complete, and I'm very happy with the result. We haven't tested the scalability yet to see how it will perform when we have 10,000 clients. As far as the core functionality and the user experience, they've met all my expectations. 

How did Zfort Group perform from a project management standpoint?

My project manager in Romania was Zfort Group's development team's day-to-day contact. He also took care of the testing. I typically provide the requirements and track their work using Jira. We communicate using Slack. They translate the features I request into tickets. The developers help me refine our prioritization and timelines. I have the option our area of focus going forward. 

I started this engagement expecting to work using Agile. Since Zfort Group is working remotely, we're using a method closer to waterfall with shorter increments than usual. It’s been working very well. Running Agile with an external team is extremely difficult, but we're starting to segue into that style of development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Zfort Group is very process oriented. They have a better sense of detail than I do. Interfacing with the business analyst was especially useful. He asked insightful questions that I hadn't considered. Since my specifications were somewhat vague, they made sure to ask the right follow-up questions to stay on track. Zfort Group helped me think more precisely about my objectives as the product owner than I usually would.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I'd like more insight on their processes, but I can't fault the team for this since I've never requested it. Right now, I don't have anyone on the internal team who could who could provide that level of information. Going back to the work method, maybe I should have made sure they were comfortable using the miniature waterfall style in the beginning. I've seen the benefits of working this way with an external team, but I know they have a preferred method. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the managing director of Emotional Positioning System LLC. We are a marketing services company that primarily focuses on consumer insight and its applications. We create market research software and license it to larger companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zfort Group?

I worked exclusively with Zfort on software development for a recent project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built the market research software for my most recent project.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a terrific client services manager and an even more terrific project manager. I have also communicated with many of their developers through either the client services or project manager.

How did you come to work with Zfort Group?

The company that hired me chose Zfort for the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project from January 2015–February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Right now there are two pieces of evidence that point to success on this project. First, the third party who hired us to create the software already has a massive amount of technology in place, and Zfort has been able to insert my products directly into that system. Second, we have received comments that the product is easy to understand and visually appealing.

How did Zfort Group perform from a project management standpoint?

Zfort was great at communicating even though they are headquartered in Ukraine. I am lucky to get ahold of some of the market research companies I work with past close of business hours, but Zfort answers practically any time of day or night. We worked primarily through a proprietary project management system, but I often spoke with them over the phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have been either writing or commissioning software since 1968, and—in terms of personality and skill—Zfort is the best team that I've ever worked with. The difference with Zfort is that they care about the quality of the work and whether it meets your needs, and they continue to care about whether or not you're succeeding with the outcome of their work.

Additionally, because English is not their first language, they go the extra mile to translate back and restate your requirements so that there is a higher level of clarity at each step of development. I have dealt with a lot of people over the years, some for decades, and they never engaged as strongly as the Zfort team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It is necessary to do the planning step with the project management. That is when the clarification and back translation happens in order to overcome any cultural assumptions, and to ensure your understanding of what you need matches their understanding.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your main goal or objective for working with them?

The reason used is there’s normally a cost, normally cheaper and easier to find. There’s more stuff than in the UK. We did find that, in this case, they were exceptionally good. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. We've been quite happy with their results.

SOLUTION

Can you speak a little more on the projects themselves?

The whole thing. From design to back end and front end. I kind of led the specking and the designs of the product, but they put it all together for me.

What specific technologies were used in the project?

I think they were mostly LAMP. They did some front end and some mobile work for us that was done in HTML. Full for mobile. However, that was about three years ago.

How long ago was the most recent project completed?

About six months ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How happy were you with the results?

Very happy. Always happy with them. They are an amazing team.

Is there anything that stood out to you as being unique or special when working with them compared to other developers you have worked with?

They're extremely good at project management and their developers are competent communicators, too. If there’s a problem, they let you know about it because sometimes the client is sitting there waiting. They were very proactive about identifying and discussing problems.

Also, they are very professional. They thought the issue out pretty quickly in a professional manner without getting personal and pointing fingers.

Looking back on the work that they’ve done for you is there anything that you’d do differently a second time around, or think they could improve on?

I think I’ve been pretty lucky in having a really good experience with them. I haven’t had any negative situations.

BACKGROUND

Can you provide some background information on what your company does?

We are an English-based team, and we offer English training programs to individuals
as well as companies. In 2003, we started a platform called English-Test.net, which is the
largest platform for people who want to test and improve their English. This is the largest collection of free interactive exercises and materials catered to people who want to prepare for tests, such as the TOEIC or TOEFL test.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your main business goal or objective for undertaking the project with Zfort?

Since I am not a programmer, I had to employ programmers to build our website. Unfortunately, when the website was built in 2003, there were not many content management systems available, so they hard-coded the website. This meant, at some point, we needed professional help. We used Elance, and hired a number of companies using their services in maintaining the site, as well as creating new applications. In 2011, I finally found Zfort, and it has been the perfect match.

SOLUTION

What the process for discovering and choosing Zfort to work with?

I placed a couple of ads on Elance and got several responses. In order to see what the response was, and also to see what these companies were capable of, I gave them mini projects. Zfort was very responsive, and also dedicated to quality. Everything that I was looking for, I found with them.

Can you tell me more about the scope of the project?

Well, that's not easy because the website is very complex and, unfortunately, there is not much documentation. It means is that you have to dig deep into the code, and you have to get an understanding of the server structure. Not many companies can do that. What they usually do is just look at the site and say  "it's too complex and too difficult for us to maintain. What we can offer is we can rebuild it from scratch."

But, this was not a viable solution for me because this would have meant rebuilding from scratch, I needed to keep the existing site up and running, and at the same time, then I have to think about how to rebuild maybe a new site. Most companies took a look after I gave them access to the server, and said, "Unfortunately, we are not able to guarantee that the site will be running. It's too difficult a job for us to undertake."

Zfort was a company who spent hours analyzing the structure and the code. They came back with a solution whereby they said that it will take a certain amount of hours per month to keep the site up and running, and to fix certain things. At the same time, they made an offer as to how the site can be rebuilt. So, that's why they were my choice.

Can you give a general cost estimate for the project? 

So far, I've spent probably $12,000 in total with Zfort, but it's now close to the $20,000. That includes the maintenance, which is one of the ongoing projects and it's a great challenge, as well as some new projects. It's been roughly 1-1/2 years so far.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

It sounds like you're pleased with the results so far?

Absolutely. Yes.

When working with Zfort, is there anything that you find unique or special compared to other developers that you've worked with?

I would say they go out of their way. They are able to put  themselves into the customer's shoes. There is a saying in English that goes, "You don't know what you don't know." I've probably worked with a dozen IT companies. With all of them, on various levels, the problem was always that they said, "You have to tell us exactly what to do." For me, without an IT background, we speak different languages. I speak, let's say, a user's language, so I describe to them what I want. Then, usually, they would come back and would say to  break it down into all the steps so that our developers can do these tasks.

With Zfort, I could talk to them in my language. I can tell them what the problem is from my perspective, and then they translated it into developer-speak. Then, the developers can work with what kind of documentation Zfort creates for them. This is very important for a company like mine where, as of now, I don't have my own IT development department. So, it's very simple. I can send them an email, and I can speak to them, I can tell them what the problem is, and then they come back, and they offer me a variety of solutions that I can pick. Also with them, they sometimes tell me things – they test the site, they test a few things, and tell me what could be improved, and I don't have to see these things myself, which is also very important.

That is something you usually don't find with an IT company. They expect you to have documentation, to have a project description, and then they do exactly what you describe. But, sometimes, it's impossible for you to describe everything, so you leave certain things out, or it's not clear enough, and they would not ask. With Zfort, there's a task that I describe, and they say, "Do you really mean this and have you thought about this?" So it's really more a partnership, rather than a customer-client relationship.

Is there anything that you'd do differently a second time around, or you wish they could improve upon?

That's really a difficult question because, as of now, they really have been the best company I've
been working with so far.

Because most of their clients are B2B clients, they work with Web development agencies and larger companies – big companies where you have a budget maybe of $50,000 and more. They'll usually have a technical department that can already describe the project on a large scale. Sometimes, this is something that I have problems with, and they've been doing an excellent job.

But, maybe, what they could do is if they also target consumer companies, like myself, then it would be even easier. I'm helping them now with German clients, and there is this communication thing where the Germans usually don’t speak English while, at Zfort, they speak very good English and also Russian. Other than that, it's really difficult for me to say what I would do differently.

BACKGROUND

Can you give a brief description of what your company does?

There’s more than one company. We run a dating site including two top-10 hit-wise dating sites, the last of which we sold in May of last year. Zfort had been working on that for us and, more particularly, on a white labeling system for that. That went with the company. That’s now owned by a different company. That’s something they built for us and ran for us during the period of a couple of years. That was a big dating project and needed to be white labeled rapidly, especially since we could just decide on a URL, decide on a type of user we wanted to segment in our large dating database, and within seconds, we could have a new dating site live. It might be a dating site for divorcees, for instance. Then, we can automatically segment the database and, in hours, completely reformat the site. We color the site, have some graphics throughout, and all of that will be much of the bridge.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Is this basically to expand into different markets?

Yes, it’s exactly that. To be able to deliver more specific offering to people who wanted it. That was done, and it’s now live with many sites, running off of that platform. It’s now owned by Global Personals Ltd, who is the largest white labeling company in the world. They still have the team that we built with that for. We have more than one team. So. they effectively bought that team from us, and run the team with Zfort.

SOLUTION

How long ago was the project completed?

It never really is completed. It’s an ongoing thing, competing with other dating sites. It’s constantly being upgraded. But it was launched about a year ago.

Can you provide a little more information on the technologies used?

The technology we’ve used for most of the stuff we’ve done with them has been the same. There’s another company we’ve built with them that is a real-time market research business. That had been incredibly robust because third parties plug in varying API, and call the site for every page that they render on their own websites. So, it gets vast amounts of traffic. For every page called on any one of our partner sites, we effectively serve the load. So, we also are an aggregate of all these sites. They’re vast sites, too. We have a large newspaper company in the United Kingdom that’s 250 sites, and various other companies that are connected via this API, and delivers real-time market research via these networks of sites. So, when someone asks a survey on Usurv, it’s distributed across the network, and they get instant results. That’s a project that we’ve been building for the last two years. We launched that at the beginning of last year. It’s doing very well. That, and the dating stuff was all built on .NET SQL and Microsoft SQL IS. They’re also working on a project for us now, another dating project. That’s the PHP/MySQL project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

It sounds like you’re pretty happy with the results so far?

Yeah, we’re very happy. I think we’d been working with them for as long as five years now. We had many bad experiences with outsourcing before. In fact, we’ve pretty much given up on outsourcing. I think we’ve spent probably in the region of $100,000 to $120,000 just testing the water with outsourcing with three companies. We have never used anything that these companies have done for us because, ultimately, it was not of sufficiently high quality.

A friend had been using Zfort and said we should give them a try. I was unsure because I’ve had some bad experiences. But, as that I had a very strong recommendation, I tried them. We’ve had a very positive experience. We employed a number of teams. We employ permanent programmers with them. That’s our approach. We don’t do it project by project. That’s pretty much all I can speak to because that’s my experience with them. Extremely technical developers, very hardworking, conscientious, and at the fraction of the price.

When working with Zfort, is there anything that stands out as being unique or special compared
to other outsourcers or developers you’ve worked with?

Compared to other outsources, they produce stuff that we could actually use. That’s not the result of about everybody we’ve had previously. They were very professional from day one. They were flexible. We had very specific demands. For instance, I wanted to be able to talk to all of my programmers even though they’re based in the Ukraine. I don’t speak Russian. These men had to provide us with English-speaking programmers. They did so in so far as they were able to, and they hired after that. They found us several English-speaking programmers. The hiring process cost us nothing. We didn’t have to commit to six months or a year of business with them in order to get them to hire these guys. They were their employees. They had the responsibility for them. We had our 30 days’ notice, so from our point of view, an incredibly flexible position to be in. They were doing lots of work, taking lots of responsibility to get us the people we wanted. The cost and responsibility to us if we had done that in the U.K. in terms of employee responsibilities, legal responsibilities to employees, hiring cost, and HR cost would have made that whole process massively more expensive if we hadn’t liked the developers.

Is there anything you’d do differently a second time around or that you think Zfort could improve upon?

We need to improve upon some stuff. You kind of have to learn how to work with outsourcers. It isn’t the same as having guys in your office that you can shout across the table at. You have to explain things in more detail. It becomes less true if you’re using a team like we are, because just like having guys in your office, they just get used to your ways, and what you’re doing. So, now my head programmer over there, I’m going to talk to all the programmers, but my head programmer over there is like my right-hand man. I barely need to finish a sentence before he knows exactly what I want. It took a while for him to get to that point, of course, just as it would with an employee. But, we got there. So, now the communication is super rapid.

We very foolishly took an approach early on, not deliberately, that they were kind of black box. We typed in to Skype our instructions, and then these instructions were carried out by robots at the other end. We didn’t really think of it as these people are employees; they’re totally devoted to us, working on our projects. We never bothered at that stage to try to get their buy in to the projects, which is really naive of us. As soon as we did, as soon as we worked that, everything was perfect. They started to care. They’d start to come back to us with ideas that were more than just developers. They were then part of our team.

We were the kind of clients that never tell them anything, expect them to work really hard, and treat them like they’re robots. They’re not. They want to get excited about their job. When they do, they’ll reward you.