ANODA Mobile Development Agency

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the product manager of a company, focused on creating health and fitness products.

For what projects/services did your company hire ANODA Web & Mobile Development Agency?

We work with several large products in the company, so our in-house team already had too many tasks. Therefore, it was decided to find an agency to work with the new app. We needed help with UI/UX design for an app and watchOS. So we went to ANODA.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We already worked with them a few years ago and had a positive experience. So we decided to contact them again.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

ANODA worked on the UI/UX design of our app, an AI personal trainer with IoT support for the sports equipment manufacturer. The app uses a lot of health and fitness information to provide effective workout plans for each user. It was necessary to create a design that would combine these technologies and a user-friendly interface. It should be easy to use, even during training or running. ANODA did a great job and designed the home screen, training programs pages, advanced user profile settings pages, and so on. Totaly we got more than 75 pages as I remember. And all this was also implemented for the watchOS too.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with several people from their team. Mostly with the project manager. Also, our designers got a Zoom meeting with ANODA's designers to share ideas.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We are very pleased with the deliverables. This is exactly what we needed. ANODA finished work even before the deadline.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I have positive impressions of cooperation with ANODA. They were always in touch, answered all questions, and were attentive to details. Their team has very strong soft skills and their project management style is top-level.

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

Their professional level of design skills. We were very pleased with the interface of our app. It is perfect in every detail!

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

Currently, I see no cons to talk about.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our main focus is FinTech software development services for blockchain technology. I'm the CEO and Founder.

For what projects/services did your company hire ANODA Web & Mobile Development Agency, and what were your goals?

One of our big clients requested a healthcare SaaS platform development for clinics. We asked the ANODA agency to help us and take care of this request.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We met with Oksana, CEO of ANODA agency more than a year ago in a closed entrepreneur business community. We know their work and knew about their problematic customer's experience. Their transparency and communication level were perfect, and we decided to proceed with them. The key deciding factor was that they already had experience in building such platforms.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Technical requirements included: HIPAA-compliant user data storing, SaaS development, AWS deployment, DevOps, Mobile applications development, and store publishing

Project services and stages are:

• Business requirements gathering and SRS creation
• UX journey maps and idea validation
• Application interface design for Web and mobile versions
• User-faced Web application development on React.js
• Back-end development on Node.js, GraphQL, Twilio, and Docker support
• Mobile applications development using Swift and Kotlin Admin-panel for clinics and for supervisors, technical administrators.
• Full-cycle project management
• Milestones and investor demos
• Assisting with technical pitching as a part of customer team

Quality assurance: Penetration testing, Security testing, usability testing, UX, and compatibility testing.

Technologies used: React.js, Node.js, Docker, GraphQL, Twilio, Swift, Kotlin, Figma, Sketch, AWS, IoT, Bluetooth.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The customer has worked with the CEO and project manager almost day by day. We knew about 1 Designer, 1 Business analyst, 2 Node.js Developers, 2 React.js Devs, 3 Swift, and 3 Kotlin devs, and 2 QA. As I see at least it was about 16 people involved in the whole development process, but they didn't work at one time. They were assigned to different phases according to the project stages.

I enjoyed the team technical level, and it was higher than I expected. All developers were Middle+ or Senior level.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

This project was built with Venture funding so, all documents, milestones, and demos required approval from the high-management part of the Investor's team. We were in the fixed estimate of time and money. Each demo was performed in time with specified functionality. Each demo approval was the most valuable process that we can measure here. As a third party, we were glad about end-customer accounting, and we didn't spend a lot of time on project management and reporting.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The most important for us were customer satisfaction and communication. ANODA fully and by their own controlled all communications in email and custom-setup Mattermost chat. They assigned a dedicated project manager, and he created and handled milestones, sprints, and tasks in their self-hosted Jira. All documentation is written in Confluence. Customer feedback and tickets were transferred through Google sheets and email. We used Trello feedback cards for design tasks.

Summary: Project management: some soft mix of scrum and kanban in Jira As we have a big number of stakeholders communication flow was tricky: Slack for communication with us and the Customer team, WhatsApp for urgent questions, email, Google Hangouts for video calls, Mattermost for technical team communication.

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

A huge impact on our project's success made by their CEO. She pitched each demo hand-by-hand with our Customer to the investor's team. At some moment she acted with this project as her own. Oksana and the team provided incredible software solutions for the main application feature. This was a key moment for project investors, and after they gave us full trust credibility.

They provide to us and customers fantastic communication via their project managers, CEO, team leaders. We finished the project earlier than planned with good quality. They are very respectful and expect the same respect from you for their personalities and professional skills

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

They used to replace a project manager in the middle of a project, as he had some sort of health problems after a COVID-19. It was a quick and good replacement, but we'd like to have assigned two dedicated project managers on a such project from the start. They asked to pay in advance for every 2 weeks of an agile sprint, it would be better for us to pay when each milestone completed. It is a more likely practice in the United States. But we were ok with their request.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a health and wellness tech company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with ANODA Software Development Agency?

We contracted ANODA to develop both our Android and iOS platforms simultaneously as well as the backend. These were exact requirements set out and agreed upon for both platforms.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

They were responsible for building out our app, which broke down into a pretty long list of tasks. A couple of notable ones included implementing a registration process, setting up specific questionnaires, a tutorial, and more.

They also needed to implement edge detection algorithms. We’d already written the actual algorithms, so they just needed to implement a certain silhouette in the edge detection part. That took two weeks to figure out when it should’ve only taken a senior developer an hour to do. 

What is the team composition? 

They had to have at least one Android engineer because one of them quit. On the iOS side, they had three developers. About a month and a half into development, we noticed that two of those developers left our Slack channel and were replaced by other resources, all unbeknownst to us. 

It was very clear in our agreement that they wouldn’t replace anyone without our approval because we needed to know who would be replaced. That was a breach of contract. We decided not to pursue the issue at that point because we had tight deadlines and believed that they would still deliver.

How much have you invested with them?

We agreed to a fixed price of $35,000 to complete several features. I paid them 50% in advance — that’s about $17,500 — and I don’t think they’d even worked on our Android product. This was during the middle of a pandemic when projects and cashflow are important.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from April–July 2020. We had to fire them due to performance and non-delivery issues and just the sheer lack of respect from Oksana’s (Founder & CEO) and Artem’s (Head of Marketing) team.

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

It doesn’t seem like they’re as big of a firm as they present themselves to be. Within the first month, one of their Android developers quit, and they immediately said that this would cause a two-week delay. It’s been three months since, and we haven’t received a single Android release. 

To be fair, we said that the biggest priority was the iOS side, so we were okay with them taking the time to find an Android replacement. However, it’s been three months, and we have nothing to show for it. 

How did ANODA Software Development Agency address the challenges that arose?

When communication fell through with the engineers and project management, it was no longer worthwhile to continue having direct conversations with their team. We sent multiple notifications to have upper management involved in these calls, and they just refused to join.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

It’s been a nightmare. We have investors here who are waiting for this product, and I’ve got a million dollars worth of commitments. The previous demos worked fine, but they weren’t good enough to have an investor sit with the product unsupervised for a whole week.

That’s why our most recent release was super important. ANODA needed to get it right. But, what we saw was that some of the things they did, they nailed. Then, for other things like the edge detection algorithm that took a while and the registration process that had persistent, critical bugs, they missed the mark.

I can’t say for sure, but it seemed like there were senior resources working on the successful parts while junior resources got stuck on some of the other tasks. Half of the stuff is amazing, but the other half makes you think, “What are you doing?”

It was a constant battle with them to explain things, too. For example, we had a weight-loss feature that was five releases in, and we had to explain them how the feature needed to work at each release. At that point, we’d explained it in every different way possible. 

I even offered to have the instructions written in Ukrainian to limit miscommunication, but we still had challenges with toggles going the wrong way and numbers being incorrect. It was just unbelievable. They’ve cost us a lot more than $35,000 in losses. We’ve lost time, investor commitment, credibility, and potential. 

How did ANODA Software Development Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

There were significant miscommunication issues, despite the fact that we recorded all of our phone calls on UberConference as well as having written emails and Slack messages. Every Monday, we would have a conference call, but it was hard to get upper management on the line to support us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think that their CEO understands the dynamic between a customer and a contractor. She’s very direct, disrespectful, and sometimes sarcastic in her remarks. It’s as if she treats us like just another person that she can talk to however she wants.

To be fair, I’ve used foul language in some of our calls — not at them, but just to express my discontent. But, after five releases, how could you not be upset that a team isn’t doing what they’ve been paid in advance to do. They had nothing to show for in the Android department in three months. At that point, we’d run out of patience.

They used that as an excuse to disconnect our app from our backend. We can’t log in, register, or even use the previous releases during a time when we have very important demos with investors. They’re willing to take our technology hostage, which is unfathomable. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive for an education technology platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with ANODA Software Development Agency?

We didn’t have internal developers and needed someone to build our mobile app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ANODA Software Development Agency developed our Android and iOS apps.

What is the team composition?

There were four people on the team. They provided an Android developer, iOS developer, designer, tester, and a little bit of project management.

How did you come to work with ANODA Software Development Agency?

We found them on Clutch. I talked to them on the phone, and I liked the CEO. The price was the right fit for us. We tried the engineers with some code reviews at the beginning and it was what we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January–June 2020. We’re still a little bit involved together for small bug fixes.

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

I’m super happy with the company, especially the developers. Their coding is super.

How did ANODA Software Development Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t require much project management from their end. Our team handled it internally and that was easy for us. They did do excellent on their part of project management. We used Zoom, Slack, and email to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The engineering quality is super high. Their team is really skilled and knows what they’re doing in coding. They were super fast too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m really happy with them, which is why we’re continuing to work with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just go for it. I highly recommend them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with ANODA Software Development Agency?

We were searching for a company that could develop our mobile app. The goal of the project was to create a beta version of our application to show to potential customers and investors. It wasn’t about creating a finished application ready for market launch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with the iOS version. We wanted to create an AR application using Apple’s ARKit. The idea was to use some kind of unique scannable dot codes, similar to QR codes, that would enable users to download or view content in AR. Additionally, it was a location-based application, meaning that every piece of content uploaded to it was stored in a specific GPS location.

The project was milestone-based, with four milestones for the app development. We started with the design, but they didn’t make any initial wireframes. We had our first graphic design of the app presented to us, and we thought that it would’ve been a first sketch of the app design and the arrangement of the app. We were actually happy with that, but we expected that there might be a bit more professional design. In the end, it turned out that there wouldn’t be any improvements to that.

What is the team dynamic?

I don’t know how many people from ANODA worked on the project. I was only in contact with a few of them, but it seemed that there were more people involved. Our first contact was a project manager. After having several issues with him, it seemed that he got fired. There was a second project manager assigned to us, and we were also in contact with the founder and CEO of the company, who jumped in several times here and there.

How did you come to work with ANODA Software Development Agency?

We researched Eastern European companies on Clutch and found several companies of interest. We had a three-step selection process. First, we prepared a questionnaire and sent it to every potential partner on the platform. The second step was to have Skype calls with the candidates, discussing several questions we had about the project and the company’s profile. The third and last step was a personal visit to their facilities to get an idea of how they worked, how they organized, and what their culture was.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent €20,000 (approximately $22,090 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

The kickoff was in August 2018, and the end of the project was in March or April 2019.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

There was always a lack of transparency in terms of what work had been done, what was still to be done, and what we were getting invoices for. We sent them a debriefing at the beginning of 2019, at which point we faced the first major issues with the project.

We got to the point where we more or less had application functionality, but we still had the really poor design. Additionally, we were never officially asked to accept the design. There was not a negotiation process, where we’d ideally be presented 2–3 designs to choose from. We were faced with a design that we ultimately never approved.

We started pitching the app to potential partners and investors, stating that a proper design would cost additional money. We hired an external designer on our own, and they were able to create a proper design for our application. After bringing it to ANODA, they asked for additional money to implement it, which was one-third of the cost we’d already paid.

To give an example of their professionalism as a company, we found our application under a different name on a site where they were showing their references, even though we’d signed an NDA. The design, which is still online, is pretty close to our application design, which was made by the external designer we hired.

How was project management handled?

We had contact on Slack. The expertise of the developers was okay, as far as I was able to judge it. We were in contact with the developers about several functionalities. In my opinion, there was very poor project management on the project. Project managers only showed up when they wanted us to pay additional invoices; it was never about having routine check-ups. 

When we began to struggle with the quality of the design and to complain about the project progress, they offered to do weekly calls to improve the situation, but those calls never took place. The project milestone list, which we created on Excel so that we could check the app’s functionalities, the invoices, and the project’s progress, was always out of date. They repeatedly told us they’d send us a new list. It was never 100% clear to us which functionalities we’d already paid for, or which we had to make additional payments for. It was a very chaotic and unprofessional process. There was definitely a lack of project management.

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

The actual coders were capable in their field. Everything around that was a bit messy.

In what specific areas can they improve?

The design was the most obvious problem. They can’t publish a reference with a slightly different name than that of our app, with a design that comes more-or-less from an external designer we hired, and post it online.

Then, when working on design, the first thing to do is make some kind of mockup, and not directly implement the design on the application framework. They didn’t ask us to approve the design before moving on to the next step. We were constantly talking about the possibility of working on the design, so we thought that that might be some kind of development process, and that it was just a rough framework of the app design, but we were never asked for final approval.

In the end, we had an app with functionality that more or less met the requirements — that’s the reason why I actually give credit to the coders themselves — but we had a really messy design. After the application was 60% done, they added a lot more cost to redesign it, which wasn’t in our budget. It was very disappointing working with them, given how their project management worked and communicated with us. The project management only showed up when they had another invoice for us. The organizational stuff never took place.

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

I’d recommend to anyone working with them to have clear project management, to have control over objectives and key results, and to never make a payment in advance. In the end, it can be messy to work based on trust and to make payments in advance. We thought that there would be some improvements and more work on the design, but it turned out that that was it. Our money was gone, and the design was bad. It’s important to clearly control the results and the work that will be done for the money.

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company provides Pre-Purchase Survey & Mechanical Inspections, including Insurance Surveys to my customers purchasing boats in Australia. We inspect on-site, and create professional reports that can be used assessment and negotiation of marine pleasure crafts. I am the founder of the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire ANODA Mobile Development Agency?

I hired ANODA to design and build my in house application from scratch. I did not have any plans, just a vision for what I wanted the app to be. My challenge was that there were no applications currently that could include all the time saving and design/flow ideas for writing reports, and output a professional report in the style I wanted.

What were your goals for this project?

Create an application that makes my job quicker, easier and more accurate, whilst keeping an easily accessible database of past vessels inspected.

How did you select this vendor?

Selection was done online. Originally I scouted the platform "UpWork" and found ANODA to have very high ratings. I received quotes from 2 companies in Australia, then went online and received another 2 quotes from companies online. I picked ANODA based on their past work, professionalism and reviews found online.

Describe the project in detail.

The project consisted of building an iOS application from scratch. - Design, including wireframes for the entire project - Development of manuals, detailing the features in the wireframes - Development of the app as per wireframes. As development came together a number of things were changed along the way - Bug fixes and updates as the application was tested over the course of 3-6 months The application is quite comprehensive. It has the ability to create a customisable report from a base template that a PDF is generated from to be sent to the customer. Features such as base templates, photos, defects, ability to edit photos inside the app, automated fields, database of reports, cloud uploading, exporting to PDF and sharing, customisable signatures and more. ANODA was responsible for suggesting improvements to all of my original ideas/strategy which they have done with an excellent result. Th ne continuous support has been fantastic.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of two parts: 1. Design 2. Development Throughout both stages, I was assigned a project manager who led the team. I would make contact with them weekly and they would update me on what was going on with the project. I believe there is a number of team members working with the project mangers, but am unsure as to how many.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The main outcome was time-saving, in which the time taken to generate a report has been considerably improved. I would say a 20-30% increase in efficiency overall, as well as features to label the reports more thoroughly and generate them with less mistakes. The application had minor bugs and flaws that were all overcome before leaving this reveiw.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The entire team as a whole performed brilliantly. There was excellent communication along the whole project. Every time they were taking a schedule holiday I would be told with ample notice. We used a combination of Slack for workflow, Crashlytics for app testing and Gitlab for code sharing. ANODA was great in taking on feedback and being fair. There was a particular glitch that took some time to fix, and we would have regular meetings until it was rectified. Although I was initially nervous there may be a language barrier, the team were very intelligent and I was quite impressed with how they interpreted all my request and also took on feedback. I do not feel there were any issues created by a language barrier, only things that would have come up regardless due to the complexity of the application.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The strengths of the company are creating quality applications. They have created something which I am very proud of, and interpreted my vision as a whole. Sure, there were times when I was asking for the "impossible", but they would always find a way.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't believe there were any areas I would change. Sure, as time goes on I will realise there are updates I wish to proceed with, but these are ideas I had not thought of until actually developing the applciation and using it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and owner of a web development agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with ANODA Mobile Development Agency?

We engaged ANODA to help with a variety of development projects, including mobile app and web development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ANODA provides development work support, which has mainly revolved around native and hybrid apps for both iOS and Android. Their team works on behavior flows, documentation, wireframes, design, and development for various startup apps from scratch. They've also helped with some web development projects on WordPress.

What is the team composition?

We mainly interface with a couple of project managers, who work with a team of designers and developers.

How did you come to work with ANODA Mobile Development Agency?

My business partner and I own another company that we had hired ANODA to help build an app for. Based on our previous experience with them, we wanted to work with them for our other business as well.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested close to $100,000 over the last year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around June 2017 and the relationship is ongoing.

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

Most of our projects are still in the prototype phase, so we don't have any metrics to report. However, we've been very happy with the quality of their work and effective processes overall, which is why we continue to work with them.

How did ANODA Mobile Development Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

I've never had any issues reaching them; they're very accessible and responsive, despite the timezone difference. They're also very transparent in their approach.

What did you find most impressive about them?

ANODA's thorough workflow sets them apart. They take the time to map out behavior flows, wireframes, and create great designs before the development takes place, making them more efficient with their time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I have no qualms with anything they've done thus far.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the chairman of Outingz, an entertainment platform to connect people and find them things to do.

For what projects/services did your company hire ANODA Mobile Development Agency?

We needed an iOS application. We wanted ANODA Mobile Development Agency to develop the frontend and execute the UI designed.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to launch the app.

How did you select this vendor?

We had multiple discussions with different vendors before selecting ANDOA Mobile Development Agency.

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

The team designed the UI, made a few iterations, and then developed the frontend.

What was the team composition?

We worked with one development manager, two UI designers, and 2–3 iOS developers.

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

They launched the app on time and within our budget.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The two UI leads and one code development lead created an effective and smooth workflow.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team was knowledgeable and timely. They did not commit to deliverables they couldn’t execute within the timeline.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

As an offshore vendor, ANODA Mobile Development Agency could improve communication.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of ShiftMe Inc.

What challenge were you trying to address with ANODA Mobile Development Agency?

When we first approached ANODA Mobile Development Agency, we already had the concept in place for our app. It's a B2B platform for hourly employees to easily swap shifts. We hired them to develop our MVP.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We envisioned an app that allows hourly employees working to trade shifts. For larger companies with multiple stores, users can work across locations, rate the stores, and have the stores rate them.

Our team provided ANODA Mobile Development Agency with detailed requirements including documentation and wireframes. Next, both teams scoped out the project and iterated on the wireframes. They developed the MVP as a B2B app on native iOS and Android platforms and did subsequent testing.

What is the team composition?

We worked with about six people, including the project lead.

How did you come to work with ANODA Mobile Development Agency?

My CTO and I screened the team after finding them on Upwork. ANODA Mobile Development Agency was sound from a technical standpoint. We picked the team because they were very transparent. We appreciated that they posted a lot of their work publically and sent samples of their code.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from January–July 2018.

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

The app was functional; we were very happy with the quality and clean setup. The product is awesome.

How did ANODA Mobile Development Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They provided timelines and stuck to each deadline. However, the team went dark every so often, and communication suffered as a result. Regardless, I’ve worked internationally before; ANODA Mobile Development Agency did a great job with time zones. We communicated via Slack without experiencing a language barrier.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their offering and quality of work created value. The team went above and beyond to ensure the technology worked properly, made sense, was efficient, and had a good UX.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should address the communication gaps.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of an online jewelry store. We've expanded into an app that we offer to our users for meditation.

What challenge were you trying to address with ANODA Mobile Development Agency?

We needed help with application development for our online store.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were trying to increase our customer engagement. We had a good number of users that we had gathered from our online store, but we wanted to offer our customers something else to further our brand’s presence. We felt that an app would be a very good way to do that.

It is only an iOS app right now. We determined that an iOS app was a lot more critical to our user base as we are mainly targeting US customers. We have Google Firebase integration with our system that hosts everything and also acts as the interface. Our authors can log in to manage their own meditations and view statistics. It is all managed through Firebase as well as on the application.

What is the team composition?

I worked mainly with Oksana (Founder & CTO, ANODA Mobile Development Agency). I also worked with Roman (Project Manager, ANODA Mobile Development Agency) and another person.

How did you come to work with ANODA Mobile Development Agency?

I had found them through Upwork. I had some sketches and ideas, then posted the project. They presented a very nice proposal including wireframes and screenshots. It was a lot more in-depth than any of the other bids I had received which was one of the main reasons I went with them.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June 2017, and the work is still ongoing in terms of regular maintenance, the addition of new features, as well as work the Android version.

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

They have done quality work. We finished a month later than anticipated due to changes in specifications, but it wasn’t a problem. They've produced great work, and I like what they do, which is why it's still ongoing.

How did ANODA Mobile Development Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Things went well most of the time. There were times when communication was a little lacking and I wasn’t really sure what was going on, but it all worked out.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They speak very good English which really mattered to me, as it made me confident that things wouldn't be lost in translation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I needed to remind them of deadlines. I was never really sure what was on schedule and what wasn’t.