When borders were closed, we switched to “zoom mode” – Interview with Ideasoft
Techreviewer spoke with Peter Kolomiets, CBDO of software development company Ideasoft. Learn more about Ideasoft on their Techreviewer profile.
1. Please, introduce yourself and your company. What does your company specialize in?
My name is Peter Kolomiets, I am CBDO of Ideasoft, a custom software development company that focuses on providing not just development services but a complete business solution. One of our main specializations is blockchain development. Our team has been involved in building crypto exchange platforms, issuance platforms, NFT marketplaces, non-custodial wallets, DeFi aggregators, and more.
2. What industries, regions, or types of businesses are you focusing on?
Our main regions are the USA, Israel, and Europe.
We have three primary expertise:
- Blockchain
- Fintech
- Telecommunications
3. What do you think makes your company different from competitors? What are your main competitive advantages?
We have a couple of exciting advantages:
- Most importantly, it’s a transparent attitude focusing on solving real customer needs.
- We are not just a service company; we focus on being a partner in the company's business goals.
- We have a great SDLC (Software development life cycle) process with software for this, like Jira with the latest plugins, that helps us to do transparent software development and reach our estimates in time that we’ve planned.
COVID-19
4. How has COVID-19 affected your company? What challenges has the pandemic added to your and your team’s daily work?
Working remotely was not an easy task for everyone, especially the senior engineers. And the most difficult time was after a couple of months, when they realized that we would not return to a "normal" life. But, thanks to the corporate culture, we went through this together, became even closer and more attentive to each other.
5. How has the pandemic affected your clients?
In the beginning, we saw the challenge of companies reducing their budgets for new features and projects. But right after a couple of months, we started to feel massive growth and grew twice by the end of 2020 thanks to new projects.
6. Has COVID-19 influenced your marketing strategies? What are the leading sales and marketing channels you use to find new clients now?
Our primary strategy was roadshow, so when borders were closed, we switched to “zoom mode” which was even more successful than what we were used to. And word of mouth started to be more and more efficient. For example, we successfully finished a project in Argentina, even though no one on our team has ever been to Argentina.
Projects & Clients
7. What are the key drivers of cost in software development?
The key driver is the cost of developer salaries, in the last months they started to snowball.
8. What are the key factors you consider when making a project estimation and proposal for a new client?
We rely on our ability to deliver what clients need, and sometimes it's a real challenge to come to mutual understanding. Since we have delivered hundreds of projects, we can recommend how to develop a project cheaper and faster. However, each service has its own price and a lot depends on the complexity of the project and technical requirements.
Development Process
9. What are the top challenges your company faces in the software development process most often, and how do you deal with them?
The main challenge is to work with new technologies that nobody ever developed before. For example, talking about telecommunication technologies, we were one of the first companies that started to develop software for 5G servers and towers. But it drives us to solve new challenges.
10. What are the criteria for the success of a software development project?
We are guided by two main indicators of success. The first is to deliver a working product within the deadlines and cost we estimated. 90% of our projects were completed on time, and we do our best to increase this number. The second is, of course, customer satisfaction with the result. The success of our clients is an indicator of the expertise of the IdeaSoft team. It’s very pleasant to receive positive feedback from customers and see how they gain recognition in their industry. This motivates us to work even better
11. Can you provide an example from your company’s experience to illustrate?
Sure. We developed a platform for the tokenization of securities issued by funds, companies, and other entities. This is a blockchain-based project that was very interesting to work with, as it is very feature-rich. The client was pleased with the result and said that he would definitely choose IdeaSoft as his outsourcing partner again. Moreover, last year the project was included in the list of Blockchain 50 Most Promising Companies within the Blockchain Ecosystem by CB Insights. But this is just one of the projects, you can find more cases in our portfolio.
12. From your experience, what are the best practices to attain client satisfaction?
From my point of view, the best way to attain client satisfaction is to provide them with the best possible custom solution that meets the needs of their particular business. At IdeaSoft, we really care about each project and don’t perceive it as just another one. When you care about customer success, it's driving them to feel it and appreciate it.
About Techreviewer
13. How do you assess the role of research agencies like Techreviewer in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?
If you need outsourcing, it’s always a challenge to choose a business partner for the first time, since there are a lot of offers on the market. Resources such as Techreviewer help customers organize information about companies and choose the best option for their business needs. And such features as top listings simplify the choice. Also, this is a great way for providers to tell about their services and become part of the global network.
