Top App Developers Interview: Arateg

Andrew Volchek is the Co-founder and CEO at Arateg - Custom Software Development Company. Arateg is an award-winning outsourcing vendor for custom software development. The company helps startups and SMEs maximize the value of their products, work smarter and grow, providing expert software engineering, design, and consultancy services.

Founded in 2014 in Minsk, Belarus, Arateg has already delivered a myriad of IT projects to clients from eCommerce, eLearning, FinTech, InsurTech, Entertainment, and other industries.

Andrew, tell us about the main focus of Arateg services.

Arateg is focusing on building custom web and mobile applications for startups and SMEs and business automation solutions both for startups and enterprise clients.

In general, our long term goal is to make people's lives more comfortable and the work of organizations more efficient with the help of modern technologies.

How could you describe your client persona?

It's tough to define a specific client persona since we’re working both with startups and enterprise clients. In general, I’ll define two customer segments:

those who have an idea and want to transform it into a top-notch product;
those who already have the software and want to scale, re-engineer, and support it.

For instance, we’ve been working both with an Irish startup that wants to simplify money transfers all over the world and make them transparent and with a Fortune 500 company that needs help scaling their internal product.

What can you name as the main advantages of Arateg, why customers choose Arateg rather than other vendors?

Our main features are Agility, Security and Transparency. And it is not just words for us. We have our own internal system called AraIS that allows our project managers and clients to have clear visibility and full control over the project at any stage. And we use VPN for all the interactions with clients and our own IT infrastructure to ensure data security.

Moreover, Arateg is an award-winning software development company recognized by AppFutura and other trusted IT resources.

What helps you ensure 100% workflow transparency for your clients?

First things first, in any project there is a dedicated project manager to manage all the communication. If the client wants to communicate directly with the team - that’s perfectly ok too.

Secondly, as I’ve already mentioned we have our own internal system - AraIS where our clients have real-time access to:

daily and weekly meetings summary;
automatic weekly reports where project status and challenges are defined;
other project information.

Besides, we keep track of all the fulfilled and ongoing tasks in popular project management tools (Jira, Redmine, etc), hold constant video meetings, and show regular demos.
This allows our clients to be 100% sure about their project status anytime.

What can you tell about the projects your company is proud of?

I would highlight the following recent projects:

Feel free to check more case studies in other niches on our website.

On what projects is your team currently working?

Right now we’re working on: food delivery mobile application, data visualization tool, and programmatic marketing solution. Unfortunately, I cannot share detailed information due to the signed NDA.

Besides, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect increasing demand for entertainment, eLearning, eCommerce, and delivery applications. We’ve received more than 5 applications on these directions within a week.

What is the average budget of your projects?

It depends on the project we’re working on, client objectives and cooperation model, for instance:

MVP development for a startup usually takes us ≈3 months and 30-50k US dollars.
Cooperation with enterprise clients usually require larger teams and last more than 12 months so it’s hard to give any estimates.

How much time does it usually take to start up a new project?

We’re ready to kick off the project within 10-15 business days.

What can you tell about the technologies Arateg uses for building custom web and mobile apps?

In each project, we select a tech stack that best fits business requirements. In general, we focus on TypeScript and React for front-end, Python for back-end, and React Native for mobile development.

How can you characterize the impact of COVID-19 on your business?

Currently, we’re not experiencing significant challenges working with clients: both on business and production point of view. All our employees are working remotely in constant communication with the client and direct managers, and we’re receiving new orders for mobile delivery, eCommerce, entertainment and social solutions development.

What do you think about the IT Outsourcing (ITO) market perspectives and trends?

IT outsourcing market will grow year-by-year since companies outsource not only to control costs but also to solve capacity challenges and drive innovation. IoT, Data management and AI solutions demand will be growing fast in the next few years. Web and mobile solutions development will hold the ground.

Could you share some plans of what Arateg is going to do?

Sure, I’ll share some key points:

We’ll be expanding our team not only with engineers but also with marketing, sales and HR managers to streamline all business directions and provide a high level of customer service and support.
We’ll continue to broaden our geo presence delivering high-end IT outsourcing services to new business niches and markets.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ll renew our business trips to current and potential customers.
We’ll go on developing our company’s blog to help C-level executives and business owners make informed decisions on software development covering specific business needs.

Feel free to read Andrew’s recent interview on why you should choose a Belarusian IT outsourcing partner.

Go to AppFutura's Arateg profile to get more data about them.