unicrew

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a science tech company in the sustainability measurement industry. Our company lets customers calculate the carbon footprint of food production, especially for chickens and pigs. The process starts with sourcing the feed for the animals and goes through the farm to the slaughterhouse. For this whole chain, we calculate the carbon footprint and 15 other environmental factors, such as water and land use.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with unicrew?

We hired unicrew for their development resources. Since we're a small startup, quickly getting resources and scaling them down is essential.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We've hired three full stack developers and one UI/UX designer from unicrew to help us with the engineering part of our SaaS platform. We already had a legacy application that needed rebuilding, so we've reviewed the documentation and gotten the requirements. unicrew has come into the existing product, but they've done many parts from scratch, like the API.

The team leverages React for frontend development, Next.js for the backend, and Neo4j for the graph database.

What is the team composition?

We work with four teammates from Unicrew.

How did you come to work with Unicrew?

When I came to the company, it was almost decided to go with unicrew. Our company founders had the team on their list and were already working with them on another venture. As I took my role, I had two companies to review, and I decided to go with unicrew because they seemed more professional and appealing.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested almost €200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with unicrew in May 2024, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've seen enhanced customer satisfaction thanks to unicrew's work. Our customers love the UI and speed of the application. We've received positive feedback, and there are no errors in the system. We only fix minor UI bugs, which aren't worth mentioning.

How did Unicrew perform from a project management standpoint?

unicrew meets their deadlines and stays on budget. They've finished the API on time, even with tight deadlines. We maintain our project management system and use Shortcut, similar to Jira. Since we're a small team, I take on the role of project manager and Scrum master.

We communicate via email, Discord, and regular stand-up video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're impressed by the quality of developers that unicrew provides. They return with two or three high-quality developers when we need another resource. We've had difficulty choosing between them because they're all so good. This has been nice because we've had to filter out candidates with the agencies we've worked with before. unicrew's developers are outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's nothing we'd have them improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a SaaS company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Artelogic?

We needed help with custom software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Artelogic works with us and takes care of all of our software development needs. Their scope includes gathering feature requirements, developing software pieces, providing maintenance, fixing bugs, liaising with clients, and providing support. Our technology stack includes generic languages and frameworks such as C# and .NET. However, we also use other complex technologies called actor-based frameworks and event sourcing.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with Artelogic’s CTO.

How did you come to work with Artelogic?

We hired Artelogic after doing a series of interviews with various companies we found on Clutch. During the interview process, we met Artelogic’s CTO, and he impressed us. He and his team stood above the other companies we interviewed due to their breadth of talent and eagerness to wanting to develop a relationship with us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $120,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

What we do is incredibly niche, and our service isn’t consumer-focused enough to provide standard results such as customer base growth. However, from a technical perspective, actor-based frameworks and event sourcing aren’t widely adopted areas of expertise yet. Still, Artelogic has been able to learn them very quickly and effectively.

Moreover, they’ve been able to stabilize our whole application and rapidly iterate on the existing code base to get it to a much better state than it was 12 months ago. We’ve made far better progress than we were two years ago with a different team. In consequence, our users are incredibly happy with our product, and we couldn’t be happier with the results.

How did Artelogic perform from a project management standpoint?

Artelogic’s ability to work within our deadlines is perfect; I can’t fault them in that regard at all. Additionally, they’re very responsive, answering well outside of business hours. For certain situations that require support, it’s wonderful to count on Artelogic’s responsiveness. For example, one of their resources has been working with us for seven months straight — he’s not taking any leave until one piece of work is delivered.

We use Microsoft Teams to communicate, where we have internal channels. We also have daily video calls through Microsoft Teams as scrum meetings. Additionally, we’ve provided Artelogic’s resources with their own email addresses from our company’s domain. Their English level is very good, so they provide direct support to our clients on our behalf, which is perfect.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Artelogic’s skill set is fantastic, and their work ethic is exceptional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing Artelogic could improve on — they’re flawless and readily available, and the quality of their work is exceptional.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t bother interviewing anyone else; just hire Artelogic.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Triathlon Ireland is the Governing Body for the sport of Triathlon in Ireland. We manage memberships, events, races, training and various media content via our website. My role was a project executive to facilitate requirements from Triathlon Ireland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our website had become quite outdated and maintenance with our previous provider had become expensive and slow. Artelogic was brought onboard to take over the maintenance of our website, redevelop existing modules to up-to-date formats and also allow us to develop new modules of our website to improve our offering to our members

SOLUTION

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

We went to tender online and following a review of the providers, their portfolio and pricing we chose Artelogic

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

Artelogic have carried out a huge amount of scope across our website including but not limited to development of a new membership platform, development of a new finance module, building out our backend capabilities and moving our website host to a more suitable option for our traffic demands and also shifting platform to WordPress site to allow enhanced in-house control of content. v

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

We liaise primarily with a project manager from Artelogic who then coordinates the developers and quality assurance team. This facilitated an easily managed chain of communication and also ensured we were provided information in an understandable manor via the project manager rather than jargon from multiple developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website’s overall functionality has been improved both in frontend possibilities and user experience as well as backend aspects of website management and financial monitoring. These are not easily qualitfiable but there has been a net gain in available staff hours for alternative projects as a result of improved website abilities reducing workload.

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

The primary communication platform I’ve used with Artelogic is Slack for day-to-day communication, we also utilised Trello for providing and managing scope and development with invoicing being issuued via email. All responses were very efficient and language was never a barrier.

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

Response time and customer service. Very quick response to all queries and whenever there was an issue caused by our older modules Artelogic were extremely rapid in offering support and deploying fixes even in out of office instances

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

I have never been found wanting with Artelogic, their team and service level is brilliant.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We provide booking solutions to businesses operating in leisure, hospitality and entertainment. I am CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had a legacy system built over a number of years and needed a company to completely refactor the code as well as develop a number of new features.

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed a number of providers, Artelogic really understood our requirements and had an experienced team to help. It was therefore a no brainer to go with Artelogic.

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

It was decided to use laravel as a framework as our legacy system wasn't built on a framework. Initially they had to review, audit and understand the current system. Then break it down into a number of different modules and sub tasks before commencing the project.

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

We currently have the below: One Lead Developer, One Backend Developer, Two Front End Developers, One Mobile Developer, One QA Tester, One Project Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our platform has been refactored to Laravel ensuring the code base is more stable, easier to maintain and easier to add new features.

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

Project management has been great. Using a remote team it's always a concern initially but it has never been a problem. Regular stand ups, status calls, sprint planning and reviews ensure the project runs smoothly.

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

Their professionalism and quality of work have stood out in the partnership. We have had the code audited by a 3rd party who was extremely complimentary of the work.

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

I don't have any suggestions here, we have been extremely happy with the project and will continue to use them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CFO and VP of IT for a national moving company that specializes in smaller interstate Household Goods moves.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Artelogic to provided additional design and development resources in support of on-going maintenance and enhancement of our custom web-based order management system.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking for a broad range of expertise in web design and development as our system handles everything from lead management to accounting. We were also looking for a vendor that could assist us in support of our infrastructure(Azure, SQL ,mobile application).

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

The Order Management system is the backbone of our business. We utilize the Agile process and create biweekly sprints which are assigned out to the development resources. Even though our team is not located in one place we hold daily standup meetings to discuss each days activities and to plan testing as well as deployments.

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

We have a project lead and a full time developer. In addition for special projects we may bring on a project manager and special expertise such as a UI designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our business simply wouldn't function without the Order Management system. We have made numerous functional and performance enhancements that has increased productivity and allowed us to maintain double digit growth without a substantial increase in staffing.

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

We have daily stand-ups via video conference with the developer and project lead. We also utilize Slack through out the rest of the day to communicate. They are always extremely responsive and meet whatever goals are given to them.

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

Their communication and transparency. Everyone I have dealt with in the company has been extremely helpful and honest. They are all very good people and I feel they are a true partner that cares about our success.

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

Any concerns I have had over the last few years have always been addressed immediately. I think the team works very well together.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of IT at MiniMoves, Inc. We’re a transportation company that specializes in moving small household goods. We service all 50 US states, have partners in all of the major metropolitan areas, and do about 3,000–4,000 moves each year.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Artelogic?

We had an outdated custom-built order management system that we needed to replace with new technology. We bought a base .NET system that had basic transportation management functionalities, such as being able to enter an order, rate the shipment and assign transportation. However, we operate a bit differently from other moving companies, so there was a lot of customization required in order to make the system fit with our current business model.

We hired Artelogic to customize the system and serve as our primary development team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Artelogic assisted us in redesigning and refactoring the base order management system to fit with our model.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager, who oversees the development team, and a lead developer.

How did you come to work with Artelogic?

The people who we bought our software from recommended Artelogic.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in November 2015, and it’s ongoing. We are looking forward to launching the system in October.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have been involved with all aspects of the project from architecture and major modifications to bug fixes. 

How did Artelogic perform from a project management standpoint?

The lead developer has been on this project since the beginning, and he’s been an instrumental liaison to me. My team creates the requirements and assigns the work, and then we work with the lead developer and his team. We follow the Agile methodology and work in sprints. We have daily standups.

Although they’re remote, communication is great, and their team works well with mine. We communicate over through instant message or phone every day and utilize  Azure DevOps to track sprints and assigned tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed by their work ethic and how they put me as the customer first. They’re always ready to jump in and go the extra mile. They put great effort into communicating to ensure that tasks are updated in a timely manner. The team keeps us apprised of exactly what they’re working on.

Working remotely often poses various challenges, but I feel that working with Artelogic is a seamless process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. We’ve had a really good relationship with Artelogic. Communication is key, and they’re very good at it.

Any advice for potential customers?

This applies to a lot of these types of projects, but make sure you spend your time on the requirements before handing them over to the development team. Then, establish a good assignment process in whatever methodology you’re working in.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior digital manager for Bigfood Group, which consists of several food production companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Artelogic?

We hired Artelogic to provide IT staff augmentation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their software developers work concurrently on multiple projects. Artelogic primarily uses PHP, MySQL, and the Yii 2 framework. For one project, the team does internal knowledge management via an application for our in-house chefs’ recipes. They also handle our electronic data interchange (EDI) tool, which collects our clients’ orders.

What is the team composition?

Each project has one project manager and up to four developers. Currently, we’re working with two developers.

How did you come to work with Artelogic?

Artelogic responded to our online posting for a small project. The team did an outstanding job.

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 September 2016 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We occasionally disagreed about the code and process. Artelogic was self-critical during these exchanges and didn’t charge us for the time. In the end, the team’s quality deliverables have created value for cost. The EDI tool generates significant daily revenue and helps us solve order collection issues.

How did Artelogic perform from a project management standpoint?

Artelogic invested time to understand our needs and has subsequently proposed appropriate solutions. The team keeps us informed via summaries and daily stand-ups. They use Jira to manage projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver quality solutions in a professional manner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take time to speak with the team because they have great advice. They’re a great partner for discussing the project scope.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide a SaaS [Software-as-a-Service] enterprise solution which will be used in order to disrupt the moving and household industry. We aim to change the way in which moving is done in the US and hopefully worldwide by introducing containers which perfectly fit inside of freight trucks. Our solution is better than movers loading and unloading trucks and producing damage to the goods.

We also address the capacity problem. There aren’t enough drivers for all trucks, so we tap into freight lines in order to transport items from terminal to terminal, allowing local dealers to drop off and pick up deliveries as well as help consumers with the loading and unloading. Basically, we are eliminating unnecessary handling of items. If someone is loading their goods into a container, those goods won’t need to be moved again piece by piece. This makes it much quicker to load and unload, it’s less damaging, and containers also have many tracking sensors on them, including ones for GPS, humidity, and so on.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Artelogic?

I have been working with them for many years. Artelogic is my number one resource, especially for projects of such magnitude. They’re helping us put this system together.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Artelogic has provided programming, QA, and design for pretty much all the module applications we’re using.

Our system uses ASP.NET MVC. We use Microsoft technologies and operate in the Windows environment. We have five cloud servers, including two web servers, two database servers with load-balancing and failover, and a Linux server on-premise behind a firewall. We use Microsoft Server as a backend and Amazon Web Services for storage.

We have apps for iOS and Android for both customers and dealers. Customers are able to download them and initiate the inventory process. We then know how many pieces they have based on which we will offer quotes. Dealers are able to see what job orders are assigned to them, their details and inventory, and change statuses. All apps were developed by Artelogic.

For the last 5 or 6 months, we have been working on a new calculator which allows our beta tester to go in and generate live quotes by collecting data from each dealer, and also by pulling API data from freight companies. The system allows users to choose which freight company they want to use for transportation.

Right now, we don’t have a consumer-facing model. Our beta tester is a container company and we are a software company. We’re trying to merge with them. At the moment, their dealers are testing everything themselves. Once everything is covered and the pricing becomes consistent, the next phase will be to create a consumer-facing model which will allow people to book moves just like they would book airline tickets. The system is already doing this on the backend.

How did you come to work with Artelogic?

I posted a request on Elance for an upgrade from classic ASP to ASP.NET. I’m an ex-programmer and there were certain things I could not figure out. I was getting 30–40-hour quotes, but then Artelogic offered to fix my problem in 30 minutes without upgrading to .NET. I accepted the offer and continued to work with Artelogic from there. I liked the fact that they were honest, offered good quotes, and had skill sets right down my alley.

How much have you invested with Artelogic?

The cost of their work has been above $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Artelogic in 2009 and we continue to build the system.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have raised $1 million for the beta testing solution. So far, we’ve spent a little over $300,000, and have seen beta users starting to book moves as of two weeks ago. If this merger happens, we will raise another $10 million for building containers. So far, the experience has definitely been positive. It all depends on whether or not we will merge with our beta tester.

How did Artelogic perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very organized and use JIRA as a platform for managing phases and iterations. We use Moqups.com as a visual aid and we mostly communicate through Skype. We have 2 dedicated people on the management side from Artelogic who are constantly involved in calls and manage pretty much everything internally. We’ve come a long way since 2009 — the workflow is much more stable and there are processes in place in order to ensure that everyone is doing what they’re supposed to do. Everything is being tracked.

For anyone that needs to find a company they can trust for major enterprise projects, Artelogic can bring plenty of experience for putting together a team and putting the right communication and management modules in place.

What did you find most impressive about Artelogic?

It would be very hard to point to one thing. For systems of this caliber, the main aspect is ensuring that the communication is flowing well, especially when working with different cultures. The tools and systems are completely different in the US compared to the ones in Ukraine.

Artelogic adapted to a number of concepts they were not familiar with and have communicated these to the developers, making sure that everything would be done as expected. Anyone can program, but maintaining control of such a project is not easy. It can become monstrous, and we need to make sure that the system won’t crash.

Are there any areas Artelogic could improve?

They’ve always gone out of their way, but having physical representation in the US would bring Artelogic to the next level as a company. I cannot point to many things on the business development side. Artelogic is great and I will continue to do business with them.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated on June 25th, 2018 by the client. New content is below.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is Akbosh Media Network. After working on the first project with Artelogic for a couple of years, I left the business to start my own company, Auto Transport Plus. I’ve engaged them for smaller-scale development and online marketing projects since then. Our current focus is Cloudvanlines.com. 

What challenges have you been trying to address with Artelogic?

After working as a programmer for 15 years, I decided to start outsourcing all of my development tasks. I didn’t fully trust anyone at the time and figured that in the worst-case scenario, I could continue the work myself. Since I first hired Artelogic to fix my website, they’ve become my primary resource. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Most of our projects have used a SaaS model. Until recently, we used Microsoft tools which align with my background.  We’ve recently pivoted from .NET to ASP.NET MVC with Microsoft SQL Server as the database. Artelogic built the entire platform for this transport-car brokerage firm, which operates in the U.S. We shifted the model to SaaS to increase sales and added components for transporters, customers, and brokers. 

Cloud Van Lines launched in 2013 after investment and development inconsistencies. Now, we’re rolling out a new system that aims disrupt the household moving and storage industry. This phase involves buying our own containers and placing them across the U.S.

A notable mobile app Artelogic built was for a buyback program. Manufacturers like Ford, General Motors, and Ally Financial give cars to rental companies and repurchase them after users are finished with them. Our app helps inspectors evaluate minor damages to determine whether vehicles qualify to eventually be pushed to auctions and sold.

What is the team composition? 

When we started in 2009, Artelogic only had a couple of employees. They currently have over 30 people on their team, 15 of whom have engaged in one of my projects. Since last time, project management and development resources changed. Using a thorough review system, they take their time before making a hire. They let go of that employee quickly if issues arise and continuously follow up with us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $300,000 across all the projects we’ve done since my last review. 

What is the current status of this engagement?

We’ve paused development a couple of times but are currently working on Cloud Van Lines. Many development companies from Ukraine and Russia approached me after the first review, but I don’t plan to use them anytime soon. I have a group that works well, so there’s no reason to make a change. 

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

After Artelogic developed our BuildMyMove project, we raised $1.5 million in investor capital.   We’d started with $100,000 in capital to position ourselves to attract new investors. This influx of funding after the first development they completed grew our business from three to 70 people within an eight-month period.

Our most significant success yet was selling Auto Transport Plus for a seven-digit figure. We were bought out four months after completion and invested much of that revenue into Cloud Van Lines. In a little under two years, we showed the investors who gave us $1 million to roll this out that our model is profitable. Thanks to Artelogic, we have all three parts of our project in place and can launch our service in full force. The system works, and users can now place orders.

I’m consistently humbled by Artelogic’s performance. Projects of this caliber are hard to outsource. Teams come and go, and this type of work almost never gets done. They’ve kept their priorities straight as they’ve grown and always deliver. I’m lucky to have found them.

How did Artelogic perform from a project management standpoint?

They have an effective method of breaking down projects. We understand each other’s style and communicate clearly and well together. They’re a well-organized team that accomplishes tasks as promised and is always there for me. Most of our communication is one-to-one, but we use Google Hangouts for group discussions. We supplement Jira, our primary project management tool, with Google Docs and Dropbox for tasks like mockups. 

We often speak directly with the developers for updates. I was glad to see that even under new management, we never experienced a slowdown.  I understood the position the new developers were in as we taught them about our system. I give them kudos for how well they’ve adapted and dealt with the learning curve.

What do you find most impressive about them?

They’ve grown significantly since 2009. After learning from our explanations, they understand our business much better now. Many concepts were utterly new to them at first. For example, there are no moving companies in Ukraine, where they’re located. Instead, people usually ask friends and family to help them out. 

Pretty much everyone on the team now speaks English. Only the leadership used to, so I’d dealt with every task through one key point of contact. In the last 1-2 weeks, though, Artelogic’s developers even Skyped people from the U.S. side of our project to give demos of work they’ve done recently.

Artelogic is skilled at other technologies besides .NET. They’ve also done WordPress integrations using PHP on a smaller scale so far. I used to refuse to use anything but Microsoft. When they got too busy to provide enough of those developers, I gave PHP a try, and they delivered just as well. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, none that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Don’t hesitate to bring Artelogic in as more than just a developer. New clients should be open about the company’s goals. Share internal challenges so they can allocate the necessary resources.

When we lost one of our investors, I kept Artelogic in the dark because we didn’t want to stop the project. At the same time, we couldn’t afford to have them continue development. This pause was a hit for them. They had to allocate teammates to other projects or let them go if there were none available. When we resumed the work a few months later, we had to start small since it took time to find new developers. We should have been more forthcoming about the possible challenges we faced. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a director of a company dealing mostly on UI/UX [user interface/user experience]. We do a lot of design for the financial industry, and some of it ad based. A lot of it is interfaces for banks or banking systems and things like that. Also, we do a bit of work for real estate. Basically, we've always been doing UI/UX design for the most part. We often sought and worked with development partners, and that's where Artelogic comes in. We have a relationship with them whereby they handle a lot of the departments, particularly when I’m overwhelmed with the work our own staff might have.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Artelogic?

To begin with, I really was just going out of house because I didn't have the capacity in-house for a job. It was really quite simple. I think it was for WordPress based work and they were very good. Really things sort of developed from there. I had reached out to one of the principals there who was working freelance at the time, since Artelogic was still in its infancy. I think I've been working with him now for about four or five years. Over time, they have grown and they've been able to suit us a lot more with the sort of work that needed to be done.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The work is becoming more intense and it’s taking a lot longer. One project, for example, has been ongoing for a year. A new one that I started with them, probably about three months ago, will go on for years I imagine.

How did you come to work with Artelogic?

I believe it was through an online freelancer platform; oDesk actually, which has now become upWork. The guy, Alex, who I guess is one of the principals, came up as being extremely highly recommended. I think he was five stars all the way. As you well know, it's not just about their skills. It's the ability to provide exceptional service and fast turnaround. He checked all the boxes. We started a relationship from there.

How much have you invested with Artelogic?

By now, it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars, I suppose, not millions. We started out very small, but they've taken on a couple of rather large jobs for us which would be sitting close to $100,000 each.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I guess the best metric is to say the work that I've done with them has always led to repeat business. The clients which we have are continuing to work with us on an ongoing basis. It's not like our project starts and stops and we move on. There's a few like that. Our larger projects are continuous. Clients are continually investing in them. I'm absolutely happy with the outcome and the quality of the work that's being done.

How did Artelogic perform from a project management standpoint?

As they've grown, they've gotten better and better at that. They've always been very good at keeping me in the loop of what's going on. Now, I have a project manager who's pretty much dedicated to the work that we're doing. I have a relationship with her on a daily basis. It works out exceptionally well. She's very good in terms of keeping me abreast of where things are at on a weekly basis. We have reports and I fully understand where the hours are going, where the risks could be, and if the milestones are on track or not.

We're doing a lot of PHP type stuff. We've done animation work, too, which I think went well from that [project management] perspective. They did it extremely well. The latest job is basically .NET. [Historically,] I've had quite a few touch points with a number of their staff. Now, I'm just dealing through the project manager rather than with their quality assurance specialists and all of that sort of stuff. Generally, it's a better way of working.

Was that .NET work more on the enterprise application side?

Yeah, it's a really technical development. The project requires being able to sift through data from sensors that are through a whole lot of farm type devices, and be able to create dashboards, and visualize what's coming in, and create alerts, which are both visual and also like SMS. It's really technical and these guys have done really well, actually, with getting up to speed quickly with us and being able to put solutions in place that are solid and are working.

What did you find most impressive about Artelogic?

Really using their initiative is something that I appreciate. Again, this is coming back to the project manager who is basically starting to really come back with a lot of thoughts on, "Hey, I think this could be done better. What about instead of going down this path, why don't we look at this?"

I'm quite used to developers, in particular, not necessarily having a lot of initiative. People are just like, "Here's the framework. Here's what we've got to do." They just do it. Often there are a lot of misunderstandings and miscommunications coming in. I think what's setting these guys apart is that they really are getting involved and seeing the project as something that's important to them and looking at new ways to solve problems and putting us forward. You never want to leave people that do that sort of stuff.

Are there any areas Artelogic could improve?

I honestly cannot think of anything. We've obviously had bumps. We've had challenges as we've moved through, but they are absolutely dedicated to solving those problems and making sure they don't repeat. They are constantly improving the way we work together. They have a real keenness to be the best I guess. They are always saying, "How do we sort this out? How do we fix these issues so that they don't happen again?"

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated on June 6, 2018 by the client. New content is below.

How has the scope of their involvement expanded in the past two years?

Over the course of our engagement, have built different microsites, as well as sites that they have built on PHP, EDM creation and all sorts of ongoing projects for the same client.

Has the team composition changed?

I’ve worked with two different project managers. They assign us different teams whenever we have multiple concurrent projects. I’ve met some of their newer hires and am still working with teammates who’ve been there from the start.

Artelogic seems to have a strong retention rate. We haven’t had to constantly bring new resources up to speed on our projects. Having a long-term ongoing relationship with the same employees is just one the things I’ve really enjoyed about working with them.

How much have you invested with Artelogic in total at this point?

We’ve spent about another $200,000 over the last two years.

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

We’ve gained continuous value from working together in the long-term rather than switching to a different team. I can see our work flowing more seamlessly together as we build trust and realize the extent of our capacity as partners. Lately, Artelogic has started using some of our UI services, as well. We have a nice relationship going, and they always confirm that our work method is effective.

For example, our .NET project is for a startup client who just received a significant investment. Millions of dollars came into this project as we were working through it. Although this wasn’t just our doing, our in-depth involvement in developing their platform gave this client the time to solicit substantial investors. In fact, they’re still raising more capital right now.

How did Artelogic perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re in constant contact. Last year in Hong Kong, we actually got to meet up a couple of the owners and face to face. They’re based in Ukraine and we’re in Singapore. Our three core communication methods are through email, Skype, and Google Hangouts. We’ve also used Basecamp, Jira, and their own software extensively.

They’re a youthful team. Two of the project managers just graduated when they first began working with us. Clearly, they’re strongly supported and well-trained based on their problem-solving skills and best-practice methods. The team is dedicated to finding new ways to improve productivity and find a smoother workflow. Working with Artelogic feels more and more comfortable as we go along, almost like breaking in a good pair of shoes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Commitment, dedication, and talent are their greatest strengths. The team definitely puts the client’s requirements and needs first and foremost. They really care, and I always get the impression our work together is more than just a job for them. We speak regularly outside of their working hours. Artelogic has the depth of talent to deliver extremely good service for any client request.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We work in dual roles within our partnership to consistently improve our working relationship.

Do you have any new advice for potential customers?

Staying on top of the project and prioritizing communication are both keys to success. Artelogic’s brilliant project managers take a lot of work off my shoulders, but it’s critical to stay in touch and be kept up to date. Holding regular Skype calls will help ensure that is everything is working. While the team speaks strong English, confirm that they understand your explanations since it’s not their native language.