Leobit

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of technology for a veterans’ service organization. We help disabled veterans navigate the VA process to get the compensation and benefits they deserve. My role oversees a lot of our product development, digital infrastructure, data architecture, and more.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Leobit?

We’re always looking to invest more into our clients and the veteran community, and we were looking to create a custom, client-facing portal. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were previously working with another development firm, and their deliverables came up short. After assessing the market, Leobit was the top contender. They picked up the project from our previous vendor to tackle different portions of our backend, database, and infrastructure (Microsoft Azure) to help us come to market.

We provided Leobit with our business objectives and what the other vendor had accomplished up till that point. We work collaboratively with Leobit, providing guidance as they create the mockups, and then they go away and develop the build. It’s very symbiotic.

What is the team composition?

The development was the primary part of our relationship, so Leobit assigned a dedicated team to us comprised of 2–3 backend developers, three frontend developers, and several QA team members. There are 8–10 people involved from their side.

How did you come to work with Leobit?

We used Clutch and a few other tools to narrow down our options of companies that focus on Azure and .NET development. After narrowing our short-list to five, we met with all five and chose Leobit.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost is around $300,000 at this point.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since December 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the biggest metrics is that they brought us from where we were to live in the market in less than four months. Initially, we onboarded over 19,000 clients and 100 of our employees. Our previous vendor had been working on this for a full year before Leobit stepped it and carried us quickly to the end. Their overall efficiency, transparency, and communicative nature have been nothing short of spectacular.

How did Leobit perform from a project management standpoint?

We work with a number of other vendors, and Leobit’s transparency and communication have really helped us all stay aligned. We have morning meetings daily for 15–30 minutes to check on our progress, and then we’ll do longer sprint planning every few weeks.

We manage everything in Microsoft DevOps, including user stories, bugs, and new features. Communication also happens over Slack for real-time conversations; we have a dedicated Slack channel for them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There’s nothing they don’t do remarkably well. Leobit hopped right into the project; the senior solutions architect they’ve assigned has been excellent since day one. He got right in the middle of our issues to understand them. What’s remarkable is that they’re always on top of deliverables, timelines, and bug-fixes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve delivered everything we’ve asked of them. We asked to see weekly progress reports at the beginning to show where our hours and money were going, and they started printing them the next week. This put our CFO and leadership at ease. Leobit has addressed everything we’ve brought up over these past nine months.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do your due diligence to ensure that your needs fall within Leobit’s expertise. Definitely meet with them and be prepared to share your business and necessary deliverables. We’ve been very transparent since the beginning of our relationship, and they’ve been upfront about what they can or can’t do. This has allowed us to be confident that they’ll deliver what we need them to deliver, which is a great foundation to build a relationship on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a SaaS company and marketplace network based in London, focusing on the jewelry sector. We’re a team of 55, and I’m the COO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Leobit?

Our business model is to enable B2B supply chain trading for the jewelry industry. There are three parts to our software where one is putting people together to select products together. The second part is getting the best price, and the third is allowing them to trade and do procurement. That third part is our most important and valuable piece of the system and the biggest impact we’re going to have on the industry.

In terms of previous development, we hadn’t embarked on developing this particular phase three of the software. We were debating whether to try and do this internally or to outsource it. We have two additional teams but felt it was going to be extremely difficult to assemble a highly capable and technical team of up to 10 people in a short time. That inspired us to look outside of our company to do this.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In February 2020, we wanted to put together a team of seven developers, with a QA person and project manager to kick off what we had already documented as the order system. We wanted to meet with every individual member of the Leobit team and get an understanding of how this was going to work because it was something that was quite new for us.

We gave them a presentation and a lot of the designed product of what we were looking to develop. In the first month, they got familiar with the intricacies of the jewelry supply chain procurement system and how it should work without necessarily focusing on too much on development. This is a mini SAP in a sense, so it’s an extremely technical product.

The staff members had no previous experience with jewelry or building supply chain software, but they did have the technical knowledge of how to put this together. We spent that first month making sure they understood how the product was meant to work. We ensured they were organized effectively so they could be led by us.

Since February 2020, we’ve worked on about eight different large software suites, ranging from a full-blown mobile application to a full-blown web application outside of this system.

What is the team composition?

I work with the head of finance operations as well as their CTO, an architect, and senior, mid, and junior developers.

How did you come to work with Leobit?

We have 10 engineers who work alongside Leobit for project management. All of us flew to Ukraine and spent a week with them. We met every single member of the team as we did with other companies in the region to screen them. Leobit ultimately came out on top.

How much have you invested in them?

This year, it’ll be about $800,000–$900,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started back in February 2020, and the work is ongoing. We want them to continue to work on and develop it more because of the quality and execution.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Initially, our number one metric was to get the product in time and out to market. We’re still on track to deliver that, and it'll be due in about 30 days or so. Everything we’ve been tracking has been to make sure we don’t go too far off that date.

As a result of the recruitment that we do with them and the screening, we've come to find that the level of talent there is pretty exceptional. The way they've introduced us to new staff that we didn’t predict we'd need and have made a meaningful difference to the development velocity and culture of the team.

How did Leobit perform from a project management standpoint?

The Leobit team, even though they are an external team to us, attends our weekly all-hands meetings. Some of them have also been recognized as employees of the week across our own company for going above and beyond and getting to the end of sprints.

Some of the developers attend our board meetings to show demos of where the project is. We have a high level of trust with them on something that’s very sensitive and so precious. We’ve been positively surprised by the impact they’re having.

We had a project manager, but she has only needed to be on the project part-time, which is maybe once a week during a month. That is mostly around just taking care of things if there are any personnel changes or people who are going on holidays or things like that; it is more operational HR than actually coordinating the development project.

We use Google Suite and have them on our chat system. They’re part and parcel of everyone else in the company. Their team can comment on any chat thread and attend any video calls; they’re just totally embedded in the company.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re able to react to changes very quickly. For example, we were concerned about the architect leaving after three months. We wanted him for another month or two just to oversee getting through a couple more sprints. Or, we were thinking we might need more senior staff on this project in the long-term.

It could’ve taken 3–6 months until we found that person, but Leobit has solved all the large problems around personnel and finding the right person with the right skill for us — whether it was just for this project or to help our company.

Their speed of reaction and ability to solve problems, particularly around development hires, is something we predictively wouldn’t have had with others and that’s quite unique of Leobit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If there were any teething problems or communication issues, it’s probably nothing I can mention now because we’ve resolved a lot in the last six months or so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go to Lviv and spend time meeting the team you'll be working with. Really go into detail on the product you want to develop. The more detailed, outlined, and prototyped your objectives are upfront, the better it will be for them.

I recommend having someone in-house that can make sure the person Leobit is proposing is the right person. Typically, Leobit has all the right staff, but it is whether you find the right person at the right level. You need to navigate which one is the right hire for you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a gambling company with locations all over Europe. I’m based in our Estonia location where we develop software in-house.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Leobit?

It’s difficult to find talented people locally. Since it’s a competitive market, we’ve tried outsourcing some of the development work. Our team is building a complex betting platform, with its own CMS.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at Leobit focused on integrations within the backend. They’ve worked on our internal CMS and back-office system. The main application is Ruby on Rails, with Vue.js on the frontend, and GraphQL for some sockets. The platform is on AWS.

People will come and go, but the onboarding involves sitting down with the new person and telling them about the project. Leobit’s team knows us as a client, in terms of what we’re looking for and how we work. Because we have a small team, all the onboarding is done on their side.

We don’t necessarily provide them with a lot of documentation. As far as I know, our approach is to give them access to the code and let them observe it themselves. We try to make the code itself understandable, which was one of the reasons we went for Ruby on Rails.

It’s more of a dynamic, continuous share of information through conversations. If there’s a specific integration, there will be documentation involved, but that’s mainly for external partners.

What is the team composition?

At the moment, we’re working with six of their developers. I had a project manager in the beginning, but our CTO and product owner are mainly working with them directly. While we had conversations to see who would fit, Leobit was mainly involved in the hiring process.

How did you come to work with Leobit?

We got in contact with their team through Upwork. Our team found a great candidate and started working with them, and it turned out that there was a company behind them. Because we had a good relationship, we decided to scale up with Leobit. They were reliable and knew how we worked.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested €250,000 (approximately 273,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Leobit started in September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We appreciate their team’s engagement. The team at Leobit cares about their work. When we’ve had crucial issues or things that needed to go live, sometimes they worked on the weekends. Based on my experience, their strong team cares about company values.

I’m not a technical expert, but everything they’re working on is performing well. They’re delivering senior-level work. Some of their team members have Master degrees in computer studies.

In terms of KPIs, it’s very intuitive at this stage. We’re a small team, and we’re measuring how well we’re working together. A lot of this is done by CTO as well, but not through clear data points.

How did Leobit perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is top-notch. Whenever we send an email, they respond quickly. Their entire team is kind and helpful. They’re respectful and try not to push us, which is another plus. It’s pleasant to work with Leobit.

We decided to increase the engagement after a huge milestone. We appreciated the effort that their team put in. Our team asked their management to buy a cake for them at our expense. I thought they wouldn’t charge us, but they did. Our communication was mainly through Skype and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re internationally-oriented. It’s good that an international company should apply modern, Western business practices. What stands Leobit out, in particular, is their developers. I find their way of engaging themselves with the project to be a great aspect of the company, compared to others we’ve dealt with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The cake incident is the only small thing I can comment about, but there weren’t any huge issues. That’s the only thing that stands out.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should be open and explain their needs. I wouldn’t treat Leobit differently than any other organization. They’ve helped us proactively, thinking about ways to improve the delivery of resources. I have nothing negative to say about their team. The same standards and expectations should be applied to Leobit as with the client’s internal team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO of Realized Technologies LLC. We’re an online marketplace for real estate investments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Leobit?

We hired Leobit to create a proprietary online investment portal with a solid UX for our clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our in-house team designed and architected the web-based portal. Leobit then provided full-stack development services based on our wireframes. The team utilized .NET, JavaScript libraries, SQL databases, and Bootstrap. During the build, the Leobit think through the flow charts to ensure accuracy of data and the optimal site speed.

What is the team composition?

The scrum master manages the 5–6-person team. They mostly work behind the scenes, but we engage with the whole team about once a week.

How did you come to work with Leobit?

Received a referral when we were looking to replace our old vendor. Interviewed them and then gave them a small project.

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 June 2016 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re happy with Leobit because they identify issues and make improvements in an effective manner. The team’s insightful advice makes the solution more efficient and user-friendly.

How did Leobit perform from a project management standpoint?

The team’s communication and time management skills are great given the complexity of full-stack development. We communicate via semi-weekly conference calls and Jira regularly; the teams also email one another.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Leveraging expert resource allocation, Leobit assigns the right people to the appropriate tasks. The portal experiences very few bugs as a result.

Are there any areas they could improve?

More regular reporting would enhance the partnership, as wells as detailed hours and roadmaps for where we are in the process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should scope out the project thoroughly ahead of the engagement because Leobit’s development team will work fast and surface several issues that weren’t thought through appropriately.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and managing director of Sportif AS, a consulting company. Our main focus is on the commercialization of sports broadcasting rights, event planning, and project management. We specialize in finding digital solutions for public health issues.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Leobit?

We hired Leobit to develop our web and mobile apps. Our goal was to stand out from our global competition and get our product used in prominent sports events.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Leobit developed our web, iOS and Android apps. We began the process from scratch and their team built it according to our vision. The first part of the project has been completed, and they continue to offer different services and support us.

What is the team composition?

There are 5-8 people from Leobit working with us.

How did you come to work with Leobit?

We used Leobit in the past, so we knew they were a reliable team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2018 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site and applications will be launched soon. Through the tests we’ve run, the feedback has been positive. We feel confident in the product so far and anticipate seeing a better impact once we launch.

How did Leobit perform from a project management standpoint?

Leobit has been professional to work with. We primarily communicate through phone calls, email, and Skype. We use a separate company to manage the workload, so Leobit worked well with that team. Whenever there are issues, they collaborate effectively to find a solution.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We value that everything is delivered on time and they’re responsive. They also stayed within budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Being well prepared is helpful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a company that runs a SaaS quoting platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Leobit?

We needed to augment our internal team for development and testing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our platform already existed; we just needed Leobit to work with our in-house dev team to develop and test new features and automations. The full stack developers work in Angular, .NET, and C# to develop modules for the platform, which manages incoming requests for quotes, helps users calculate quotes, sets pricing, and provides an online shop for buyers to accept or decline a quote. Leobit also integrated cloud storage into the platform.

What is the team composition?

They provide a project manager, three developers, and three QA analysts.

How did you come to work with Leobit?

We found Leobit online. They were a good fit and had an attractive price, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since June 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their testers are reliable and bring technical know-how to the project.

How did Leobit perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re reliable and work independently now, even though they’re remote. The entire team is organized and manages their tasks well. We communicate via Jira and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work diligently and take responsibility for their parts of the project. They have a pool of experts that we can always call on when needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we're happy with the partnership.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Afairi AG

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Insurance machine learning operations (MLOps) software

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Leobit to accomplish?

• Product research
• Design
• Frontend and Backend development

SOLUTION

How did you find Leobit?

Referral

Why did you select Leobit over others?

• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Leobit were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Build a backend solution to generate customer journeys.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Product Management to structure everything

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

Yes. They were super professional and agile.

What was your primary form of communication with Leobit?

Virtual Meeting

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

Range of skills from UI to development. Flexibility.

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

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