Danavero Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a consulting company that primarily specializes in Salesforce and first-product implementation. I’m the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Danavero Inc.?

We mainly operate as consultants, and our customers sometimes ask for additional services that we’re not as experienced with or have the appropriate people available for. To resolve this, we started working with a number of partners, Danavero Inc. being one of them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Danavero Inc. is providing PHP, mobile, and Java development services. They’ve also provided PHP development for Drupal, using the Symfony framework. Other web technologies include AngularJS, Node.js, React.js, and React Native. We have mobile expertise ourselves, but they have Android developers that we've occasionally requested staff augmentation for. 

We’ve also outsourced a couple of SEO projects to them, because we don’t have this expertise in-house. Danavero Inc. has their own project management and testing capabilities.

Over the years, we’ve given them complete projects to handle on their own. In one project, a startup customer requested iOS, Android, and web development. They were building a platform where people could sell their ideas to others. Danavero Inc. was responsible for both the mobile and web components, implementing all features including creating bids, sending requests, and so on. The backend was created using a blockchain approach, which Danavero Inc. has experience with.

Right now, we’re doing a Salesforce implementation for a customer with a product similar to other email marketing platforms. This includes marketing automation and email campaigns. The company also asked us to build a CRM part in PHP. We put Danavero Inc. in charge of it, and they assigned their own project manager, developers, and QA engineers.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about 10–15 people from their team, including project managers. We scale the team up or down, depending on our needs. It’s very convenient for us to not have those resources on a permanent basis. I also work with Alexandr (Founder).

We’re working with approximately 15 people from their team at the moment, across 4–5 projects. They’re contributing to both complete projects and staff augmentation.

How did you come to work with Danavero Inc.?

We were located in the same office space as them. There are a large number of companies in Ukraine, so it’s really hard to figure out which one would be an effective partner. We tried multiple companies several years ago, and Danavero Inc. was one of those. After several projects, we realized that we had the best synergy with them so we decided to move forward with them specifically.

Even though we use other contractors from time to time, Danavero Inc. is the largest team we’re working with as of now. We’re not a very large company in general. We have around 800 people and are trying to grow our expertise in all complementary areas by ourselves. In the end, we decided not to replace Danavero Inc. with our own people.

How much have you invested with them?

We invest between $25,000–$40,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Danavero Inc. in November 2016, and the engagement is ongoing. We’re not planning to stop our partnership with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We typically measure their performance in terms of adherence to deadlines and the number of defects. In some cases, we don’t have in-house QA engineers, so we don’t conduct detailed testing before sending the deliverables to the customer. There have been a couple of positive testimonials from customers regarding the results of their work.

As I mentioned, we’ve worked with a number of partners, but our collaboration with Danavero Inc. has been the most successful. They’re doing a good job, and this is the best engagement we’ve had. We don’t have the headache of managing additional expertise, and they’re able to deliver results.

How did Danavero Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management skills are on a high level. We don’t need to deal with escalations or manage their people directly. They have qualified scrum masters who ensure that the agile routine is followed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s their willingness to go the extra mile. They suggested a couple of things during our engagements that we didn’t expect them to. These suggestions helped us get more business from customers. Danavero Inc. is creative and goes beyond our expectations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t say that everything’s perfect, but I also can’t recall significant gaps.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should let Danavero Inc. understand what they need. They can be very creative and will help you look at some things in a different way. Anyone looking to start an engagement with them should make sure they have enough information in order to utilize Danavero Inc. at their full pace. All of Danavero Inc.'s capabilities will become available because of that.

Danavero Inc. is a very friendly team, and I really like Alexandr. He gets personally involved in a lot of projects and is very experienced and creative. He has an interesting background and can definitely help the client see certain aspects from a different angle, in terms of strategy and approach.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company offers consulting services in IT (Amazon Web Services mainly) and UX. I'm in charge of the UX department and do sometimes have the role of project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Danavero Inc.?

A long date client wanted to migrate their website from a custom CMS to Drupal 8. We wanted to help him but did not have the expertise with this CMS. We hired Danavero Inc. to help us with this project.

What were your goals for this project?

Deliver a multilingual Drupal 8 website, on time (delays were quite short), with respect to our UX and technical specifications.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found Danavero Inc. on Upwork. We got another partner to evaluate their Multilingual Drupal 8 portfolio. He told us that it was good work and I found communication with Danavero Inc. very easy from Day 1.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We did all UX and UI mockups and all communications with the client on our side. Danavero Inc. provided these services:

• Migrated multilingual content from custom CMS to Drupal 8
• Developed custom Drupal 8 theme
• Developed backend
• Helped with Go Live

What was the team composition?

We were in contact with a QA Engineer, Frontend developer, and Backend developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For us, working with Davanero Inc. helped us learn a lot on Drupal 8. The project was delivered on time, with really good quality.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was assumed by the QA Engineer. She was my main point of contact and we used Slack to communicate between us and teams. I think she did a terrific job.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were really engaged with my project's success. They made sure they were sticking to the deadline, while giving a lot of attention to details.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I already told them that their development quality is great, but they should work on their "defensive design". For example, if a section is empty, we wish the title to be hidden. Small things like that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former director of professional services at Blue Water, a marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Danavero Inc.?

We are a relatively small company, and we were looking for a company to outsource our web and app development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Danavero Inc. was pretty much our development team. We had frontend developers in the office that worked with them, but Danavero Inc. did the most demanding work on many projects. They have a solid background with different technologies such as PHP, the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP), and .NET. I worked with them on a lot of PHP projects, Drupal websites, and some mobile applications.

One project involved a website for an incubator that promotes young entrepreneurs trying to start a business. Those entrepreneurs would come and submit their ideas through the website. The incubator would then select 10 participants from all the entries. Those participants went to the incubator's office for three months, where they would work together to help entrepreneurs build their startup. The incubator then picked one winner at the end. 

It was a very challenging website because we had to integrate with the client’s learning system. We worked with Danavero Inc. on different approaches to the set-up and the plan for success. The client also wanted to be involved, so we built each feature in an agile way so we could show them as they were ready. This workflow gave our client confidence before we launched on a quick turnaround. Finally, the website involved a lot of different integrations. We ended up launching it as well—a sign of the project’s success.

The biggest project we ended up working on with Danavero Inc. was for St. Jude’s, a pediatric hospital. They came to us looking for a website to help fight pediatric cancer. We approached the project with the audience in mind and the desire to give users a journey. Danavero Inc. helped us come up with different ways to accomplish things. The team was involved in the whole approach—including a critical UX component that they understood well—and getting everything up to speed.

Our projects together covered a massive range of website types. Danavero Inc.’s team members were sharp, versatile, and had a broad skill set. However, if they didn’t necessarily have the skill on the team I was working with, they brought in other people. We appreciated their versatility.

What is the team composition?

Danavero Inc. initially set us up with a project manager. However, with the way we work as a team, we felt we didn’t need a project manager on their side. They were an extension of our team, and we worked with them directly.

How did you come to work with Danavero Inc.?

We started with a few different offshore companies with very mixed results. These firms often wanted to be very accommodating in order to get our business. As a result, they always said yes to our projects no matter how difficult the task was, so they often couldn't accomplish the job on time or on budget. We wouldn’t find out until the end when we couldn’t meet our client’s deadline. While that makes you feel good as a client, it isn’t good for business. 

We decided to look for a different company. Some people that I had previously collaborated with were familiar with Alex (CEO, Danavero Inc.), who’d worked with those people in the past. We started to work with Danavero Inc., and we immediately noticed an improvement in our results. They weren’t just an outsourcing company where we assigned them work and left them to do it. They integrated into our team, and we treated them as such. When I came to them with work, issues, and challenges, they analyzed the work and the goals I was trying to accomplish. If something I said didn’t make sense, they would come to me with different solutions. Their suggestions gave me so much confidence in their skills that I would invite them to some of our customer meetings. I didn’t do that with past vendors.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around $500,000 during that time.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them from 2016–2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Every time we launched a website, we went back and talk to the customer to get a review. We always wanted to make sure that we delivered what they wanted, and we wanted to maintain these relationships. Every project was overwhelmingly successful. We didn’t have a time where we missed a date. 

Danavero Inc. gave us the ability to turn around these websites in a much quicker fashion than we were before. They also gave us confidence in their quality of work because our director of development reviewed their code and found it to be consistently top-notch. We worked closely with their team at all times. 

How did Danavero Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a daily stand-up meeting every morning as a modified scrum. We would talk about their issues, what they are working on, and if they had any obstacles in the timeline. Some of these deadlines were exceedingly quick, and we built things in record time. Other times, we had the luxury of a longer timeframe. I met with them frequently, sometimes in the morning and sometimes at night. We had an agreement with them that they would stay on until about 12–1 p.m. our time. It worked well for us—we had them on hand for half a day, and if an issue came up, we didn’t have to wait until the next day to solve it.

Alex checked in once a week. Over time, he became a good friend and someone I could trust and rely on. They acted as an extension of our team; they were always willing to come up with a better solution and to jump into the work without hesitation. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with how Danavero Inc. got involved in improving the overall approach. They helped us understand the pros and cons of doing such things. The team also got work done much faster than some of our previous vendors and helped with our success rates for delivery.

When we pitched challenging projects that we had never done before, I had confidence that I had a strong development team behind me. Danavero Inc. delivered quality products and had a lot of pride in their work. Their ability to deliver on time, their overall approach, and our resulting confidence were the most impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we first started working with Danavero Inc., they would tell me straight away if they thought my ideas were horrible. I have a thick skin, and I understand that there are different ways to handle things, but there was a language barrier. In the end, I appreciated them being blunt—I would rather them tell me upfront whether a solution was going to work or not. They had the confidence to suggest better ways of doing things, and I never had that from an offshore company. However, they could have said their criticism a little more nicely. I ended up working with them on their delivery a little bit.
 
Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you want a development team that will be an extension of your company, delivers quickly, does the more difficult tasks, and guides you, I would go with Danavero Inc. Another shop may produce something that isn’t exactly what you want.

If you prefer a prescriptive approach where you give tasks to a vendor for them to turn around, there are so many other companies to go with. However, you won’t get the same results and the same rate of success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the chief architect of a Canadian business called One Human Service Network. We’re an IT company that deals with a variety of industries, including social services, social housing, diocese, and the archdiocese.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Danavero Inc.?

In addition to our primary offerings, we also have a side product, which is a CMS with content sharing capabilities. A consulting firm built the multi-tenant CMS platform for the Archdiocese of Toronto. That platform was based on SharePoint, which was discontinued in 2015. We required a vendor that could develop something practical and modern in its place.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We relied on Danavero Inc. for every aspect of the build, from discovery to production to launch to the scaling of the system.

We engaged with them, and they began the discovery phase without any requirements written for the previous system. Because we were attempting to substitute one product for another, we were faced with either doing a lot of reverse engineering or talking with a business analyst from our end. We didn’t have either of those in place, so Danavero Inc. went on the journey of gathering high-level business requirements and metrics before narrowing them down to use cases. Once we identified the use cases and prospective clients, we broke the development process into sprints, where Danavero Inc. managed the UI/UX creation.

Once the development process wrapped up, we had a couple of requests for changes. Danavero Inc. helped us prepare the demonstration to clients, and they helped us cross-check the product with the old system, finding the gaps, and identifying better ways of dealing with specific UX issues. We conducted QA tests during the sprints and the user acceptance testing phase. The system had to be scaled to be used by prospective clients, so Danavero Inc. gave us three options that would allow our product to accommodate larger staffs with more complex requirements. We selected the best one and have since continued making updates of various sizes since its launch.

What is the team composition?

We worked with around 10 people, which included a business analyst, an account manager, a QA resource, and their development team.

How did you come to work with Danavero Inc.?

I was keen on a Drupal implementation because I thought it was the most mature platform for the needs that we had. There was a Canadian shortlist of Drupal organizations that could handle the work, and Danavero Inc. was number two or three on the list but number one in Toronto. I contacted them, and we went forward with the project.

How much have you invested in them?

We have invested around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in September 2016, and it is an ongoing relationship. The project itself is over, but stabilization is still current.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We previously had a slow closing cycle, and we usually build after we have a client roughly 75% in the funnel. We make a closed demo product, rolling out the dedicated search engine for their new system, as well as content and documents.

With SharePoint, that activity alone used to take four or five months. There were always issues following that, but now it only takes us half an hour to roll out a brand new sandbox. For us, it has been superb. We can prepare the demo and give them the sandbox the next day, which has been immensely helpful. Further, the usability of the product is so much better compared to what we used to have.

How did Danavero Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They started with the QA resource as the primary point person because he understood the business requirements and was also doing the automation testing. He was able to talk to the developers as he is technical himself, unlike the business analyst.

The project manager was also involved, and he took care of things for the second half of the project. Timelines and budget were always correct, and resources were always in place. Any changes in resourcing were always communicated to us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were happy to finally work with a company that would propose alternatives to our ideas. We’ve worked with vendors in the past that have coded blindly with the intent of making more money. Danavero Inc., on the other hand, suggested a couple of additions to the project that were helpful—ideas we had never thought of. Their experience with relevant technologies proved to be particularly beneficial.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a couple of hiccups in the beginning. Project management never became particularly dire, but that’s because we stepped in to micromanage for a week or so to make sure they understood the requirements. They could have been more proactive in the beginning when it came to communicating.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of InsurEye Incorporated, a platform for reviews of home, auto, and other types of insurance. We are also a mid to large-sized aggregator of insurance quotes, and we provide B2B services. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Danavero Inc.?

In the past, we had worked with several providers who didn’t provide reliable delivery, and the cost wasn’t representative of the quality and speed of work. We wanted a strategic partner who could take over their work. 

We needed someone that could oversee our digital property from the web design and development perspective. As an online business, we make many changes and publish content.

We were also looking for a strong partner in SEO because we rely heavily on SEO and organic growth. We needed someone who understood both the technical SEO component as well as the content part of it.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We initially started small with only one website. They did the website redesign as well as some SEO. They now cover five websites, helping with SEO and web design. They designed some of those websites from scratch. After that, we added the task of doing infrastructure support, such as server management and backend security.

We are also working with them on social media management. They look after all of our social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest across all the properties. 

Additionally, we are doing core development and building an analysis tool that can see any changes on a credit card.

Most of our websites are on WordPress. The frontend uses HTML and JavaScript. The backend uses Apache and MySQL databases. They know all SEO solutions such as Moz and SEMrush.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager who oversees all the work as well as a dedicated web developer. They also have an SEO team, including junior SEO specialists. We have a head of infrastructure, a lead for social media, and people who help us purely with content. When we have multiple projects at the same time, there can be two project leads; one on the SEO side and one on the development side. The CEO is also engaged when we need his strategic perspective or when we want to talk about future opportunities.

How did you come to work with Danavero Inc.?

Someone from my social circle mentioned Danavero Inc. to me.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in March 2015 and it’s an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the platforms is only a year and a half old, but it is the largest review platform of its kind. We have 10,000 visitors a month, which is quite big.

When we started working with them, our organic traffic for InsurEye was extremely low, but we are now approaching 100,000 visitors per month. Thanks to their efforts, it has grown into the largest platform we have. 

We are doubling our growth volume every year. They have been helping us with smaller platforms, and, in two years, our leads are five times what they were previously.

How did Danavero Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They manage their projects through Redmine. Through Redmine, I can see where they stand with every task. Additionally, they set up specific communication for us because we have so many different platforms. We use a shared spreadsheet to discuss what has been done for each platform daily stand-ups. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take care of their team, so there is no turnover on their side. They don’t change the people who are working on our projects. They know our business as well as we do. They are an extension of our company. We know them by name, and they are members of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As a CEO, I want someone who challenges my opinions and comes up with additional ideas. They contribute ideas for how things can be improved, but there could be more of that.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I have recommended them, and those people were thrilled with them. Once you start working with them, you get an idea of the quality and value they bring. If you aren’t sure, do a small project with them and see what the experience is like. After that, see how you can increase the scope of work. Working with them is a personalized, enjoyable experience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of an insurance company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Danavero Inc.?

We used Danavero Inc. for staff augmentation. They supported our in-house team on several development projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

On a variety of projects, Danavero Inc. provided development support. They used Drupal for their backend logic tasks, helping build out a marketing site and other platforms. Most recently, they assisted with a design implementation project. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with an array of people at Danavero Inc, including their project managers, developers, and Alex (Owner, Danavero Inc.)

How did you come to work with Danavero Inc.?

A different vendor we work with had an existing relationship with Danavero Inc. and recommended them. 

How much have you invested with them?

For the implementation project, we spent between $40,000–$50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project ran from March–June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working with Danavero Inc. allowed us to increase our capabilities and take on more work. We were able to get our work our quicker and launch rebranding efforts more efficiently than we could do in-house. 

How did Danavero Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

Depending on the project, we worked with different teammates but their project managers were always involved. Together, we managed the workflow using Slack, Jira, and Confluence. We communicated clearly and they were able to deliver. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were a completely ethical, honest team that delivered what they promised. There’s typically a lot of smoke and mirrors in that industry, but Alex ran a strong operation. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

During the last project, it took a few weeks to get the ball rolling because they didn’t have the assets we required. It’d be better if they could kick-off the work quicker, but we’re still going to use them in the future and there weren't any other issues.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure your business requirements are clear and solid. As long as everything is well-documented and you don’t rely on developers to make all the decisions, you’ll have no problems. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Blue Water is a digital agency located in Washington DC. Managed day-to-day operations to support the growth and add to the bottom line of the organization. Focused on strategic planning and goal-setting, and directed the operations of the company in support of its goals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Danavero Inc.?

Danavero became our off-shore development partner and immediately increased the company's bandwidth and improved the quality and time to delivery of our implementation team. In addition, Danavero supplied Blue Water with subject matter experts in additional platforms.

What were your goals for this project?

We sought a more consistent off-shore partner with a wide array of expertise in web development and mobile applications development that could handle the scalable workload.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

By visiting with the principals of the organization, as well as on-site visits, we gave Danavero a limited engagement. When the delivered as promised, we increased the workload and entered into a long term partnership.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Web design Application development SEO

What was the team composition?

The teams were typically comprised of a project manager, front end and backend developers and QA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Danavero delivered on time and within budgets on a consistent basis allowing Blue Water to compete for larger and more complex contracts.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was implemented by using typical software development tools and procedures and by engaging in scrum/agile development techniques.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

As VP of Operations, I was able to work closely with Danavero. I felt they were part of my team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I find that Danavero is continually self-improving after each project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Account Manager of User Friendly Systems Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an IT Managed Service Provider

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Danavero Inc. to accomplish?

• To take over development of a custom application
• Ongoing support of custom application

SOLUTION

How did you find Danavero Inc.?

Online Search

Why did you select Danavero Inc. over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Danavero Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The scope of work was to take over the support and development of a custom CRM application, which includes a desktop app, a web app and five background/automation apps. The applications are written on ASP.net and C# and Visual Studio Pro.

The main goal was to work on a priority list of items that need to be fixed or modified.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The measurable outcomes that demonstrate progress/success were in testing the solution after implementation of each measurable item and the ongoing follow-up meetings to gauge progress.

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

They documented the project tasks and kept track of and communicated progress. They also responded to ongoing requirements and issues in a timely manner.

What was your primary form of communication with Danavero Inc.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I find them to be very friendly, knowledgeable, and understanding of our needs and requirements.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Danavero Inc. could have done differently?

My experience so far with Danavero has been very satisfactory so I'm not able to think of anything they could do differently.