NIX

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the director of operations for CarSoup.com, an online automotive parts and car dealership.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire NIX Solutions?

We worked with NIX to develop a new company website.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted an updated website, database, and other processes to increase the speed, SEO, and overall UX.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We explored several different options for this project,k including an in-house development team and offshoring the project. Once we decided to outsource the project, we evaluated developers by their capabilities, client list, and reputation. We chose NIX because they had a large staff of skilled developers that specialized in the areas of development we needed.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They handled project design, iteration, and implementation from the ground up, transferring no code from our old system. To help develop web content, they consulted with our president and me.

What was the team composition?

Their team is comprised of project managers, business analysts, UI/UX developers, PHP developers, quality assurance professionals, Elasticsearch developers, and others.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We’re seeing record website traffic and user engagement as a result of the rebuild. Our website is faster, stable, and has better SEO.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their project managers and business analysts handled project management. We used Jira and Trello to keep track of progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The entire team at NIX was welcoming and easy to work with. The level of customer service and dedication of the staff is amazing.  Finding developers is not complicated, but finding ones that work well with your team is a difficult encounter.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Although NIX made minor mistakes in the development process, their team learned from them and implemented procedures to avoid future errors.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder and head of product for a free career-preparation service. We arrange mock interviews for software engineers to practice speaking with recruiters. We observe the live interview and connect promising developers to top agencies with available career opportunities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NIX Solutions?

Our company was in its early stages and we have a relatively low budget. We wanted to accelerate our research and development processes and get a product on the market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Nix worked with us on our brand visibility by creating public web pages for digital marketing. The team designed the platform’s entire experience and helped plan peripheral product features like the onboarding, scheduling, interviewing, and feedback processes. They programmed our system using MongoDB and Node.js for backend work and TypeScript, React.js, and Redux for frontend work. At one point, they were providing SEO guidance, but it was hard for us to get the results we wanted using an external service. The NIX team is now working to improve the platform and add new features.

What is the team composition?

NIX allowed us to choose the project structure. We could either have a single point of contact and a black-boxed development process or we could choose several engineers to work as part of our extended team and manage them directly. We chose to work with a full team that consisted of a project manager, frontend designer, backend developer, QA specialist, and a web designer. We let go of two additional engineers during the project because we had to consistently review their work to check for quality.

How did you come to work with NIX Solutions?

A friend’s colleague was connected to the company. They initiated our interaction, then we started working together directly.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent between $150,000—$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with NIX around January 2018 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since this was only an implementation project, we don’t have any metrics to quantitatively assess NIX’s impact on the project. They leverage their technical skills to overcome engineering challenges with alternative designs. Their work is reliable if done through the right process, but that adds cost and time to the project for both sides. Early in the project, we ran into quality issues. NIX’s developers were not able to work independently and they were not improving as the project moved forward. After replacing the necessary team members and bringing on a QA specialist, the level of work improved.

How did NIX Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Trello, Slack, and GitLab to track progress and bring attention to necessary changes. Time zone differences hindered overall communication, but there were additional and frequent instances of miscommunication with the NIX team. Their engineers are technically strong but lack ownership of their work and responsive communication skills. The team writes good code, but preemptively starts projects without clarifying any points of ambiguity. Their outputs are solid, but usually not what we originally requested. Their work is inaccurate to the extent that a significant amount of our time is spent on reviewing and editing rather than on further developments.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Because they are a full-service agency, it is easy to bring in new resources on a case-by-case basis. They have been relatively accommodating of the workflow by allowing us to add or drop team members as necessary. The NIX team is reliable and sustainable, though not always accurate with their work on our project.

Any advice for potential customers?

NIX is the perfect solution for early businesses trying to find technically skilled software engineers at a low cost. I would recommend that anyone working with them set their expectations immediately and be extremely clear with task requirements. We might have had different results had we worked under a different management style, but in my experience, only the project manager understands and communicates efficiently. No matter the initial approach to team organization, in the later stages it is beneficial to work solely with the project manager and have him handle all interactions within the NIX team. Overall, potential customers should be proactive with communication and enter the engagement with a hands-on approach to timeline maintenance and team management.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of North Two Five, an agency that builds software as a service (SAAS).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NIX Solutions?

I needed a vendor to rewrite an entire frontend for one of my clients. Another client asked me to fix a broken iOS app, so I reached out to NIX Solutions to resolve those issues and also help run one of their web apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

NIX Solutions provides turnkey support. In my role as technical project manager, I send the team requirements to work from. They managed all the business with sprint planning and dev meetings. The team’s developers initially programmed with Angular and PHP.  Since then, I’ve had them use many other languages throughout different projects. Their server support and maintenance division set up all my infrastructure on platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and DigitalOcean.

As NIX Solutions was fixing my client’s iOS app, they discovered the information scraper was broken. One of their Python developers resolved it and got the app up and running again. 

Another partner had a specific vision for their digital fundraising platform for schools. NIX Solutions wrote this solution in PHP and built it from scratch on Laravel with a MySQL backend. They included all the features we requested like social media sharing integration and sign up processes. I was just the oversight manager, so they handled all the business analysis and project management. 

What is the team composition?

I work with the director of project managers in the small and medium size project departments. I’ve worked with two other project managers, three other business analysts, and about ten different developers throughout our partnership.

How did you come to work with NIX Solutions?

My limited experience with outsourcing companies had been subpar based on code quality and lack of trust. My director’s contact had used NIX Solutions in the past and recommended using them. Initially, I felt pushed into this partnership and asked my director not to. I was pleasantly surprised by NIX Solutions and have built my entire business on their services at this point.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $250,000 on their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The fundraising platform just launched this past spring. We’ve only run one school through it so far, and we’re going to make some adjustments. The products NIX Solutions delivered work well and have money for the schools we partner with.

For the other Angular platform, they delivered, we’ve rarely had any unforeseen problems like downtime at all. The few issues we had at the beginning were not their fault. They set up new infrastructure for us, and it’s run flawlessly ever since.

How did NIX Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication and project management has been excellent. We use Jira for project management and Confluence for future signoffs. We use a variety of Google Docs for questions, answers, and some preliminary things that we do. Google Docs works well for estimation line items, too. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I highly recommend them, even compared to U.S. teams. “NIX Solutions exceeds most comparable dev shops in their communication, documentation, and follow through.”

Are there any areas they could improve?

I had to have a conversation with 1-2 of their developers about how they structure their databases, but it was very minor. Whenever I’ve asked about any issue billing or hours, they’ve always made it right. They address everything right away and even take a pay cut if they have to. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I wouldn’t recommend outsourcing unless it’s with NIX Solutions. Get some consultation from someone who can provide code review and make sure it looks good. I haven’t seen code from every codebase that they develop in, but I have a good project manager. Treat them as part of your team instead of like an outsourcing company, and they’ll treat you the same way

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work at an integrated quiz-based knowledge platform. We provide cultural institutions, museums, and galleries with a means of making and sharing quizzes in order to engage visitors.

What is your role at the company?

I am the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with NIX Solutions?

We needed a reliable and consistent development partner – specifically for the iOS and Android applications on our platform. We'd been through a variety of contractors and small development companies and were becoming very frustrated with the lack of consistency and quality.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

NIX Solutions built out the iPhone and Android apps and integrated them with the back-end data platform [Parse]. There was also associated development work with the cloud code and, in general terms, integrating the data and analytics components of the platform with the apps.

How did you come to work with NIX Solutions?

We had previously tried a number of developers via recruitment platforms like Elance [now Upwork] and through people that we knew but were not satisfied. It was a "make-or-break" moment in the project, so we went through a very extensive selection process before deciding on NIX Solutions.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost will be between $10,000 and $50,000. The project and our partnership with NIX Solutions is ongoing.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial phase was around three months, and we've continued to work sporadically with them for the last few months. We're gearing up for another development push soon, which will last for an additional three months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The product has been developed to a point where we can make initial sales. There was much to do and NIX Solutions did it very well. Since that initial push, we have been working on a more fluid and flexible basis regarding feature development, which has also been working well.

What distinguishes NIX Solutions from other providers?

Initially, I was skeptical about the role of the project manager on their side, but I think having a liaison one step removed from the development team has worked excellently. It has made it much easier for us to coordinate and understand one another.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

NIX Solutions has many of their technical bases covered, but the addition of some Python programmers would be good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for a management consulting and software manufacturing firm.

What is your position?

I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with NIX Solutions?

Our software runs on servers in the cloud, and we were looking for a way to manage that 24 hours a day.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

NIX Solutions manages the infrastructure of our servers. They monitor the updates and handle any issues that arise.

How did you come to work with NIX Solutions?

My company does a lot of work with the Ukraine, and we were referred to them by a colleague.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

This project was in the $10,000 to $50,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been with them since 2008 and have done multiple projects with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

NIX Solutions has benefited my business by allowing us to have additional expertise on call. We've been able to supplement our existing staff and it has allowed us to avoid having to hire more people. They became an extension of our own internal setup. They were there as an additional resource.

How did NIX Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We have never had an issue.

What distinguishes NIX Solutions from other providers?

NIX Solutions has a very good customer management approach. They have one person we deal with, and he keeps the relationship fed and watered. The staff is very easy to talk to and get on with. They have a good team, and they've formed into a good structure themselves.

Is there anything NIX Solutions could have improved or done differently?

There isn't anything that could be improved upon.

BACKGROUND

Please briefly describe what your company does and the role that you play there?

I am the founder and director of Stories360. We create GPS-based audio tours.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached NIX Solutions?

We have been building our business strategy for the past couple of years and are just about to launch the applications in May [2015]. Our challenge was solely development based. We had technical project management capability, so we just needed a competent development team.

SOLUTION

Can you talk about the scope of the project, what were the exact services or methodologies NIX Solutions provided or implemented?

We had detailed specifications for several pieces of technology that we wanted to build and NIX has provided that development and project management for us.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms or personnel work hours?

Our project has two separate components the iOS application development and the Web application development. We have spent about $70,000 with NIX Solutions so far.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

When working with them, was there anything unique or special about them compared to other companies with which you may have worked?

The NIX Solutions team is very responsive, upfront, and strive to deliver on time and on budget.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that they could improve upon or that you would have them do differently?

One thing that could improve is the management of bug reporting. The process could be more streamlined. NIX Solutions was happy to manage bug reporting in whatever form we proposed, which was nice and flexible. However, it probably would be more effective if they proposed a method of managing bug reporting that they preferred.

BACKGROUND

I'm the president of a company that provides a free live streaming webcam website to an audience of tens of thousands of visitors per day since 2009. The site works on a 'freemium' model whereby users can pay a fee for access to additional tools and services. Our company is based out of Canada and the United States. Our marketing and strategy head office is located in Canada, servers and hardware management in the United States. Programming and technical aspects are handled in the United States and outsourced abroad. Our target audience is 18- to  60-year-old Web surfers in the webcam entertainment market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

The launch of Facebook in 2008 signaled a new era in ecommerce that we wanted to be a part of. We wanted to provide interactive social media via webcam streaming to replicate the social aspects of Facebook, but go another step and include live visual interaction.

SOLUTION

In 2009, we hired NIX Solutions to develop the webcam platform for us. The work appeared consistent and on schedule. However, the quality of the work provided by NIX Solutions became readily apparent, on the day the site launched to a live audience. It crashed under the initial traffic, which was no more than a few hundred visitors to the site.

We continued to grow the website while routinely dealing with site crashing, intractable bugs, delayed development, and poor support for three more years. By that time, the window of opportunity afforded by being a 'first-mover' had evaporated and our business had been leapfrogged by newer efficient copycat versions of our platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Since outsourcing our needs to an alternate IT [information technology] company, development has been smooth and productive. It's taken a long time to repair the damage that NIX Solutions did to our business, but we've done it. NIX Solutions compromised and undermined our business [so much] that it is only through sheer will and some luck that our business survived. We would not recommend NIX Solutions to a company seeking IT services.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Fullstack Team Leader of a software company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Unmanned Traffic Management systems

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Develop interactive map ui and backend applications

SOLUTION

How did you find NIX?

Referral

Why did you select NIX over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from NIX were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

Develop web and backend applications.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

New applications being used as part of our platform.

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

Yes indeed.

What was your primary form of communication with NIX?

Virtual Meeting

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

They provided regular checks to ensure the project is going well and to see if any assistance is required 

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

I don't think so.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Backend of a cybersecurity company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Cybersecurity automotive

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Front End development
• Backend Development in AWS environment
• UX

SOLUTION

How did you find NIX?

Referral

Why did you select NIX over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from NIX were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Working on AWS based systems providing full stack solutions with emphasis on Front End + relational databases

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Deliver on time with good quality

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

We had multiple projects. Some were managed by NIX PM, in others we only took developers. Either way it worked fine. Great communication and on-time deliveries most of the time

What was your primary form of communication with NIX?

Virtual Meeting

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

I like the flexibility. We were impressed with the ability to find great resources for very short timed projects (2,3 months). We could always return resources if circumstances demanded, with an adequate up front notice.

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

I do not have any specific points. NIX's team was usually forthcoming and helpful and most of the situations that could develop to a crisis, somehow did not. The handling was professional.