Last year we needed some extra development, and started looking for resources. We had no intention of looking outside the UK, although an outsourcer in China had contacted us so we thought we would follow up with them, and see if it was a possibility.
The Chinese outsourcer was very quick to get back to us. We set them some development tasks to do and sent it off.
We then posted a few job postings for developers on some of the jobs boards. Gumtree because it was cheap, and a few of the free rails boards.
And boy did the onset of emails begin. About 50 mails from individuals, outsources (USA, China and India mainly) and recruiters. I quickly developed a filter system of Yes/No/Maybe and started cutting down the mails. It soon started taking over my life.
Fortunately a small company based out in Cracow (or is that Kraków) with a affection for muffin logos dropped us a mail. We sent off the same home work task and got on with filtering the emails.
Applicake completed the homework within a day or two, and impressed our in house developer. A few skype chats and a phone call later we took them on as our development team.
2 Weeks later the Chinese outsourcer replied to us.
Our in house developer decided to move onto some work of a different technical nature leaving Applicake as our primary development team, and if I said we were happy with their work, I’d be lying.
We’re ecstatic with their work.
Technically they are fantastic, and we’re really glad we have such a great team working with us.
But as anyone in project management and technology will tell you, there’s lots of good developers out. A good team is more than their technical skills. And Applicake is aces.
Here’s an example. Every Tuesday they break early (where early is 6pm) and the whole office goes to a group Business English class. This says a lot to me as a client. It says they are dedicated, they focus on improvement, and they want to serve their clients better.
I’ve never met such a hard working team who act as if they are part of the company, not as a vendor. The amount of times they have worked late hours, or weekends, or helped out in a emergency are too numerous to mention, and again shows we made the right decision in picking this fantastic company.
I was lucky enough to meet all four founders, (3 of whom I work with) Pawel, Agata, Ela and Bart in the last few weeks as they were all in London. Agata and Pawel even worked from our offices for a few days of a big release which was great. A nice group of people you couldn’t meet.
Applicake have just release their own product in the web space called Pipejump which is online sale software. If you make deals or sell stuff, you’ll want to check this product out.
Other than I can only say
Dzięki Applicake, jesteś fantastyczny zespół. Czekamy na długi związek z wami chłopaki.
Wow! Just read this post! Thanks so much for all these nice words.. this does not happen often to me (and anyone who knows me will confirm that ;-) but it seems I am out of words.
A mere online presence won’t serve the purpose of reaching out and impressing your target audience, to beat the competition you need a well designed website with a good search rank and for that you need help of companies which provide complete solutions in website designing and development and search engine optimization.
Outsourcing site that has more than just the normal government projects listed. Looks good.
i was starting to think i may possibly end up being the only gentleman that thought about this, at the least at present i discover i’m not mad :) i’ll be sure to look at a few various other posts right after i get my morning caffeine in me, it’s tricky to read without having my coffee, i am gonna mess around a bit and go to play with my myspace poker chips cheers :)
It’s funny that you finally spoke up! I have been waiting for someone to bring this out to the open! Anyway… nice post. I will be back.
Cool! Do you think this trend will continue? Would love to hear your thoughts. Cheers!