Binariks

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Respondent 1: We’re a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting company. We work with businesses to develop apps, and we use Google Workspace to integrate multiple services together for a variety of teams.

What challenge were you trying to address with Binariks?

R1: We were working with a customer that was using a low-code/no-code service that was underperforming and wasn’t scaling to their needs. There was a requirement for a modern web application built on GCP, with GCP services, that would mimic the solution they had in place feature for feature, but with better performance and better scalability, eventually adding on more functionalities for the business needs.

What was the scope of their involvement?

R1: The scope of the work was to recreate functionalities. The app would take data from an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and bring it to a database, instead of a spreadsheet, which was what was being used.

Binariks built the entire frontend to support that backend database, and they had a relatively short amount of time to achieve that, around 6–8 weeks. We’re on week 20 now, still trying to figure out the core requirements of the initial scope and deliver the MVP.

What is the team composition?

R1: They had a program manager, a project lead, a frontend developer, and a backend developer. In the beginning, we briefly had an infrastructure architect and a business analyst.

How did you come to work with Binariks?

R1: I’m not sure how we came across them. We spoke to a few people about the project, and the main differentiator was that Binariks was a Google Cloud partner.

How much have you invested with them?

R1: We’ve spent $40,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

R1: The project is still ongoing.

Dominik Kugelmann: However, there’s never going to be a re-engagement with Binariks.

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

R1: We weren’t getting clarity on why certain things weren’t happening, even when we asked for specific code commits with issues linked to them. They said they didn’t know what that meant. After that conversation, they continued to commit code without issues. The next day, we got on a call with them to remind them about it.

DK: Things went south when I was asked to join meetings, which was mid-March. A deadline had been overrun, and deadlines continued to be pushed without explanation after that. As the primary stakeholder at 22d, having to attend a meeting like that isn’t a good sign for me.

How did Binariks address the challenges that arose?

DK: When they addressed issues and challenges, they kept pushing them back to us. One issue was that we had a new section that hadn’t been scoped out in the beginning. If I look at the code commits, it isn’t clear to me that this was outside of scope and would justify an overrun.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

DK: We required them to work within Gitlab. Their choice would’ve been Jira and some kind of git repository. We measure progress through that, but the results haven’t been fully measured. We’ve measured closed issues, mostly related to user stories, and code commits. Only one-third of the issues have an associated code commit, which isn’t successful in our eyes.

We’ve just engaged a backup team yesterday, which is currently reviewing code and getting stuff up and running. Also, we’re expecting legal ramifications because of the overrunning project.

How was project management handled?

DK: We weren't getting good-enough feedback in the correct channels about how the project is going, when they expected the work to be done, or why they committed to X and delivered Y.

If they were communicating the correct reasons why things don’t work, or if they would’ve shipped a half-ready product without the additional, non-scoped (according to them) part in the beginning, it would’ve been much better. We could’ve shipped and updated it over time, but we haven’t shipped, and we’re 3–4 times over the deadline.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

DK: They’re pretty good at pushing responsibility away, as well as at avoiding conflict.

R1: Otherwise, the hourly rate would be reasonable, but given the results, it’s not. If they had delivered something well, cost would’ve been one of the positive things.

In what specific areas can they improve?

R1: They need to improve their core best-practice development standards. Binariks needs to make code commits that match up with issues and provide tickets to track why something was built based on the requirements. Overall, there needs to be more communication on why certain things aren’t delivered.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

R1: I recommend getting referrals from people in the client’s network, who’ve worked with the specific team, instead of responding to cold calls and emails.

DK: That’s how we engaged with the backup team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director and CTO of Edulab Inc, a holdings company in Japan. We’re in the education industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Binariks?

We were trying to build a product that uses new technology like Blockchain. I needed some technical experts that could build a working product using new technologies.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to release a product that would require data certificates that could be secured by using Blockchain technology. We wanted to be able to use the new technology, learn from it and get further technical expertise in the future by having used it with an expert. I was looking for a capable partner to release a product that actually works.

I’m the only person that’s really involved in this project from my company. I had the original requirements that might’ve lacked detail, but I had something specific in mind that I wanted to build. Before we started the project, I described the user stories so that Binariks knew what I wanted in the web version.

After that, it was everything from making those in specifications, proposing the architectural design, and the one condition was that I wanted to use blockchain. After building, we began testing and reporting every week. It was an autonomous process until the end of the product development.

What is the team composition?

From time to time, it differs, but I’ve worked with four to six people. At the start, we had an architect involved, and I usually had two developers – one for the frontend and one for the backend. I had a project coordinator, a designer, and a quality tester.

How did you come to work with Binariks?

I’ve worked with a lot of software partners across the globe, so I was looking in regions with good developers at an accessible cost. An obvious choice was to look into Eastern Europe.

I went out there to look for possible software vendors that I could work with. I went to an IT event in Ukraine where around 3,000 people gather. I became friends with a young and open technical salesperson. I picked a few companies that were skilled but didn’t fit my expectations.

For the next opportunity, I picked Binariks because of this project’s technical challenge. When I visited Ukraine, I met their CEO and thought they had a good leader. Their company was alive, and they knew what they were doing. They were young and vibrant, so it felt like they were the right fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $130,000–$140,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in April or May 2020. We’re about to release the first version.

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

The technical team at Binariks took my requirements and expanded upon them. After we release the first version to the market and receive customer feedback, we will likely do a version two.

One thing that stands out is that they were very autonomous. From the project lead to the developers, every person on their team is proactive. I never had to chase them around. Their team pushed me.

How did Binariks perform from a project management standpoint?

We used project management tools like Jira. The reason we used Jira and scrum was usually to track the progress of the project and to make sure we were up to speed. We could also change the scope if needed in a timely manner. In their case, they progress very steadily, so I didn’t have to watch the project too closely in Jira.

We also used Box because that’s our standard tool for sharing information. Trello was something we used, in the beginning, to sort out user stories and understand each other. Their team was flexible enough to use anything I wanted.

Our teams also had weekly calls. They would push me to give them information when they needed it. Other than that, they would show me all the demos all the time so that I could see the progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would comment on their autonomy and openness. They’re very low maintenance. They really want to hear what I want, but as long as I tell them, they would come up with their version of understanding. They would go on doing what they needed to do.

On the other side, they were quite open in sharing their ideas on how to materialize those requirements into a product, and they were clear about the challenges they were facing. They also provided me with potential options and solutions. I didn’t have to check on what their intentions were.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of one. I really like them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Leverage their expertise. While they’re not a big team, Binariks knew what was expected of them. They would try to add value at any point in time. I really would recommend leveraging what they have instead of forcing what you think is the right thing. Discuss things with them, be open, and then they will tell you what they have in mind.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product management for axitech. We provide collision management solutions for connected car companies. We’re a startup working on products for car companies.

What challenge were you trying to address with Binariks?

We needed to augment our frontend development capabilities to build a web app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Binariks augments our in-house development team with one frontend developer. Their frontend developer is working to deliver the frontend of a tracking web app for clients. It can be branded for car companies. They primarily work in Vue.js because we use a Vue-Laravel stack.

What is the team composition?

We interact with a project manager and a frontend developer from Binariks.

How did you come to work with Binariks?

I found them by researching agencies with augmentation services that could scale with our growth. We chose Binariks because their team previously worked in telematics, fleet, and electric vehicle charging solutions. They also had UX commonalities

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent $50,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our ongoing partnership around October 2020.

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

Their developer works well as an extension of our core team and takes pride in her work. She’s open to learning new skills as well as educating our core team on her skills. There’s a great exchange between their developer and our internal team. 

How did Binariks perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team integrated into our existing scrums. Their project manager provides bi-weekly reports, oversees their developer, and coordinates assigned tasks. The Binariks team is extremely communicative and meets deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Binariks pays attention to the details. They take a high level of accountability and responsibility for tasks assigned to them. We can rely on them as part of our team rather than an external agency just putting in hours.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At a company level, they can’t do much differently to support us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Share the reason for developing your product with them and give them space to bring ideas to the table. Due to their skills and attributes, they can handle the responsibility of making some decisions on your behalf if you want them to do so.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of engineering for a company that places hourly workers into jobs and shift. So we built a gig-economy platform for shift-based work as well as a more traditional job board that helps users find hourly work.

What challenge were you trying to address with Binariks?

They augment our staff as needs arise, whether it’s through attrition or because we need to increase capacity, we use them to find full-time resources.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Right now, two of their contractors are working alongside our scrum team. One is working on our mobile team and is converting our website to a progressive web app (PWA) that can be deployed on native technology. When we’re building new features so we don’t struggle with feature parity in the native app.

The other contractor is working on the website, focusing on marketing and acquisition. He works on our frontend pages that help employers and workers make decisions on whether they want to create an account and register.

Both contractors are working in our tech stack, which includes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The frontend of our platform is in Angular and the backend is Node.js.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with a project manager and a couple of different account managers.

How did you come to work with Binariks?

Our company already uses some third-party vendors like Upwork to supplement our workforce. When we began looking for someone to fill one of our positions, we found Binariks as an agency on the platform and began working with them directly.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $40–$50 per hour. We’ve spent a little less than $200,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our initial engagement began about a year ago, in March 2020, and is ongoing.

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

Everybody they’ve brought to us has been excellent. In the past, other contractors we’ve worked with have needed strict guidelines to work with, which is time-consuming for us. In contrast, I’m able to bring Binariks in as a part of the team. I just need to give them a general idea of what we’re trying to develop. They consistently deliver work that is on-par with what we ask for. They even go above and beyond by suggesting alternative options.   

The first contractor we started working with is now completely embedded with our team. He helps keep the project on track and ensures that everybody is following the same process and standards.

How did Binariks perform from a project management standpoint?

Whenever I have new needs, I reach out to one of our account managers. They provide weekly updates, but we also have monthly check-ins to make sure everything is going well. They’re very transparent about tracking their hours and when they’re taking off

They’re based in Ukraine, but despite the time difference, they’re pretty flexible. They adjust their hours to work with our East Coast team.

Because they’re embedded in our team, they follow the same timelines and meet the same requirements as anyone else in our company.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We trust their resources and are able to rely on them. They’ve helped our team grow.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we have an open position, we really want to fill it as fast as possible. Binariks does a good job providing candidates quickly, but selfishly, we would still like them to be a little faster. We also have a lot of special requirements for the positions we’re looking to fill, and they’re very accommodating.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you’re looking for and what expectations you’re setting. Because we’re working with them as full-time resources, we benefit from working with their team and growing our partnership. Binariks has always done an excellent job at meeting the skills we need in each position.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m head of procurement for Pelican Procurement. We’re a procurement company that also offers procurement services. We have specialized software that helps with the order process from purchase to pay.

What challenge were you trying to address with Binariks?

We wanted to scale up our development team to help with additional development in a cost effective and flexible way.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Binariks became part of our team, bolstering our internal development capacity. They offer actual development resources that act as our own resources. Their developer works on the same code base as our other developers, so there’s no separation. They take small and big projects.  Binarik's developers will either work on a task on their own or work on it with 2–3 other people depending on the sprint.

What is the team composition?

On the development side, we work with one person from Binariks. We’re looking to increase that number. There’s also a person on their side who manages the project from a business perspective.

How did you come to work with Binariks?

Binariks became our partner before I joined the company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000 at this point.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Binariks in March 2020, they remain a partner and we are expecting to expand our collaboration with them further in 2021.

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

Binariks brought quality skills that match our internal team’s skill level. The developer quickly understood our complicated code base that’s, unfortunately, not as well document as we would like it to be. He understood what we wanted to do, so it’s a great fit. We’re able to take advantage of his skills and basically, he’s one of our top performers.

How did Binariks perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re an Agile team, working as one development team in two-week sprints. We have daily stand-ups and follow a standard sprint process. The developer delivers all of his code with quality on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Binariks brings real value to our business with their contributions, and their positive and “can-do” attitude.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about the skills you require. We gave Binariks specific technical skills, and they provided us with a developer who met our requirements.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of IDkollen, an IT company. We work primarily with a national electronic identification method that allows companies, banks, and government agencies to authenticate people online or over the phone.

What challenge were you trying to address with Binariks?

Before working with Binariks, we had a functioning platform but it was built on PHP and Java and wasn’t stable enough. We needed our platform to be very secure since we’re working with the national identification solution. Binariks rebuilt our existing platform from scratch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used Java backend and React frontend to develop the new platform. Using the existing system, they developed an understanding of how the platform should work.

From there, we started to develop a project plan. We provided the mockups and the descriptions and met with them regularly to discuss what we needed. They worked on developing of the first version of the portal for 4–5 months. Then we continued working with them to improve the platform and add functionality.

What is the team composition?

There’s a project manager, one lead backend developer, and a frontend developer. The Java developer is a very senior developer and has been working with us throughout the project. We’ve also worked with the same project lead throughout the entirety of the project.

How did you come to work with Binariks?

We needed a really good development partner that could understand our business model and could deliver quality work quickly. We needed a proactive partner who could see the whole picture.

I did some research online and found them on Upwork. They were one of six companies that we approached. We gave all the companies access to some of our Git repositories. Then we evaluated their skills and how they proposed to solve our problem. We chose Binariks because they understood everything better than the other companies we considered and asked the right questions.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $100,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a photography company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Binariks?

We needed someone to develop a mobile app that would help small business owners.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Binariks first developed an MVP for our mobile app. Our team is in charge of the server-side, and Binariks is fully in charge of the development of the app. They’ve used React Native for both iOS and Android. They also helped with project management services as well as the final steps with QA.

We launched the MVP a few weeks ago, and we’re now in a phase of first feedback and then they will do the improvements accordingly. Our goal is to continue with the next version of the app with them.

What is the team composition?

Initially, we were in contact with their CEO. We’re mainly interacting with the developer and a project manager now.

How did you come to work with Binariks?

We found them through Upwork. We went through a phase of tests with different agencies and Binariks did a better job.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent $10,000–$49,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and the work is ongoing.

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

I’m very happy with them. The developer is really professional and responsive. The quality of their work is good, and we’re satisfied.

How did Binariks perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very flexible between full and part-time depending on our needs. Their communication and ability to meet deadlines are very good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It feels like they’re part of our team. I’m very happy with their services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their QA service is an area where they are limited in the number of devices where they can offer testing of mobile apps. It’s a very minor thing with the overall project, and in general, I’m happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have your plan ready and have your product specifications finalized before you start the project. This will ensure high-quality service.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product of a configured price quoting (CPQ) platform. Our platform that allows companies to generate quotes easily and includes internal workflows, digital rooms to publish the quote, and lets users see the buyer’s signal and intent.

What challenge were you trying to address with Binariks?

We needed to scale up our development resources.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re using them for development. They’re helping us migrate our existing applications from AngularJS to the latest version.

What is the team composition?

We started the project with two people — one to work on the frontend and another on the backend. As we’ve refocused our project, we’re just working with one on the migration project.

How did you come to work with Binariks?

I found them through a project-oriented website. We had several conversations and they had very good references. We also tested them to assess their knowledge base.

How much have you invested with them?

It was around $70,000–$80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2019 and the collaboration is ongoing.

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

I’m satisfied with their work because they were able to execute what I wanted. Their coding was good. They’re good at what they do. It was definitely a big challenge, and we’re now hitting the first major milestone in the project. It is something that we’re proud of.

How did Binariks perform from a project management standpoint?

I was really happy with the interaction. They were there every time we needed them, whether that was to make improvements or make clarifications. We’ve collaborated very well. We use Jira and Bitbucket.

It took a bit longer than I expected, but only because of things that can happen in any development project, so overall, I was satisfied with the timeline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical expertise and responsibility for the project really stood out. They keep their promises and deliver what we need.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If the project is similar to us, and the customer is managing an outsource team, I would advise them to treat Binariks as an extension of your team. Go into the engagement with a serious plan complete with milestones — just like you would internally.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of Mothership Tech. We’re a technology organization looking to build out products with a focus on marketing and technology.

What challenge were you trying to address with Binariks?

We built an application that is at the crux of marketing and technology, and Binariks helped develop that product with new functionality. They will also be part of our development team to take that progression forward.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s a full end-to-end solution. The current sprint we’re working on is feature-driven. They’re enhancing what we already created. The second phase that we’re about to start with them is focused on modernizations. They’re rewriting code to enhance our closed-service offerings.

The frontend is HTML 5, CSS, and JavaScript. On the backend, we’re on MySQL and PHP. The hosting environment is AWS.

What is the team composition?

There are five people on our team, including a frontend developer, a front- and backend developer, QA engineer, and project manager.

How did you come to work with Binariks?

During COVID-19, we started to struggle with another service provider and started to look for other partners, focusing on eastern Europe. We focused on Ukraine, Poland, and Romania because of the product stack we were looking to work with.

We looked at Clutch for feedback and selected five organizations. From there, we ran an RFP and selected Binariks because of cost, quality, and online feedback.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent just shy of $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2020. We’re still working together.

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

We’re really happy with what we’ve achieved with their team. We’re winning business as well, which has been exceptional considering the global pandemic.

We’re hoping to expand the team as well and are thinking about bringing on two new backend developers from their team.

How did Binariks perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage our tickets through Jira and they track the sprints. We have two stand-ups per week. We have calls every Tuesday and Friday, and in between, we get varying updates via Skype and email.

They’ve been pretty on-the-ball. There haven’t been any communication issues and they’ve been very agile.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication has been spot-on. They’ve been transparent about how much time they spend on each sprint as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always room for improvement, but I can’t think of anything specific. We’ve had to go through a few iterations after testing, but that’s the nature of developing software.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear on the scope you want to engage with the team. You can’t just send the work to an outsource partner, you need to work hand-in-hand with them to ensure that they know your goals. With that information, they can help create a plan to get you there.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a fashion sharing application.

What challenge were you trying to address with Binariks?

We needed someone to develop an MVP. I only had a concept. I didn’t have any of the UI/UX developed and needed a company that could do that.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Based on my concept, they created an MVP that included every aspect of the Android application. They were very supportive. We're now in the first round of testing. They will continue to add updates and then it will go out to more users to test it. At the moment, there’s nothing for them to do until I give them feedback.

What is the team composition?

There was a project manager who I dealt with day-to-day. There was an Android developer, a backend developer, QA engineers, and a UX/UI designer as well. 

How did you come to work with Binariks?

I initially went through Upwork and spoke with three companies. Binariks was my favorite. They were very keen on speaking to me right away. They set a video call with me and were very helpful. My background is not app development in the slightest. They instilled a lot of confidence in me on the phone. I told them what I wanted and they gave me unique suggestions that would work. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent £30,000 (approximately $40,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2020 and the work is ongoing.

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

They’re great, and, as a result, have 20-30 initial users. They’ve done everything I’ve asked of them. 

How did Binariks perform from a project management standpoint?

I liked having a project manager as my key point of contact throughout the project. They give us weekly reports. Even though they’re in Ukraine and are three hours behind, they’re very responsive. I email them at 5:00 my time and they email me that evening. I couldn’t be happier with them. They keep on top of the hours and cost for me. They managed the budget well.

Every two weeks, they planned the fortnightly number of hours they were going to spend. They emailed me with their projections on how many hours and people needed to get through the milestones in that time period.

They would always check with me if I was satisfied with spending that amount of money. If I wasn’t, they’d cut back on the hours and delay it. If I was willing to spend more, they’d add a few more hours. They manage the project very well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very helpful being that I don’t come with any app development background. They explained everything. I asked them a lot of stupid questions and not once did they criticize. They explained everything to me. They made me feel comfortable with the decisions. They made a lot of alterations and have put a lot of input into it based on their knowledge.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The project was slightly delayed due to COVID-19. They prioritized me when I needed them to. They’re very good.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take their advice when they offer it. They have the expertise to know what they’re talking about.