Interview with representatives of the Arts Foundation
We invite you to read the interview with Member of the Board, Ms. Agnieszka Wargowska-Dudek and Ethnoexpert, Chairwoman of the Foundation's Program Board, Ms. Joanna Dziadowiec-Greganić about the EtnoStoria project and our cooperation.
What is the ARTS Foundation?
Agnieszka Wargowska-Dudek: The Foundation operates in two areas. The first is civic activity and support for non-governmental organizations and the people associated with social movements. The other one is focused on activities in the field of heritage protection, archiving art, but also support for creators, local historians, and more.
What is the EtnoStoria app?
Joanna Dziadowiec-Greganić: The application fits, as we have already outlined, very strongly to the foundation's activities, including the area of protection and all activities related to the broadly understood heritage.
There is no tool or mobile application that would strictly serve the broadly understood area of cataloguing, archiving, digitization, but also promotion in the different areas of heritage. The application is intended to be a kind of first-aid tool. It is absolutely not a tool for professional archivists. Although it can be as well. However, in principle, the basic functionality
of the application is archiving. Through the "archive" button, we can create a multimedia record by adding content such as: movies, audio files, photos, creating galleries and labeling.
With which problem did the Foundation turn to ImpiCode?
Agnieszka Wargowska-Dudek: I'm gonna start, Joanna, before we get to the search for ImpiCode because there's also an interesting story. We cooperated with a foundation that deals with this type of thing, and the first stage of this cooperation went really well. Workshops were conducted using the design thinking method. This was the first stage of work on the application, which in my opinion went very well. And here, unfortunately, the problems began. Work on the application itself, as we see it now, stretched over a year and a half. Well, now you can see the difference when we work with you. We had time pressure related to the settlement of projects, with the settlement of individual tranches and we had started to panick a little bit, because communication did not meet the requirements of good cooperation. The other party agreed with our decision that we had to look for another company that could possibly take over the project. We pitched a few suggestions and luckily we came across ImpiCode. But that's probably what Joanna will be talking about.
How did the Foundation get to ImpiCode?
Joanna Dziadowiec-Greganić: Of course, we searched in different ways. Firstly, of course we searched through word of mouth marketing. I discussed our needs with various organizations. I was also looking on the Internet and well, you among the others caught my attention. The first contact was made and it was very positive.
What made you decide to start cooperation with ImpiCode?
Agnieszka Wargowska-Dudek: The first selection was made by Joanna based on her own experience, her own intuition and interviews. We focused on communication, how we will communicate with a provider and how all kinds of changes, corrections and so on will be communicated to us. And here Mr. Grzegorz was questioned by us from every possible angle. He spent his time giving us explainations over the phone and providing us with e-mail information. I also received recommendations for ImpiCode and of course I used it. I called and asked. You can learn a lot by talking to reference persons because they will tell you what the cooperation looked like. And even if it is a selection of clients, you can still learn a lot from them. So I got all the information I wanted and needed.
How does cooperation with ImpiCode look like?
Agnieszka Wargowska-Dudek: This two-month long cooperation, put together an app that runs on two systems. All the biggest, most important bugs have been eliminated. As for the communication with Mr. Miron, who dealt with our application, I wish I had such communication with everyone around. Any problems that were reported by us were not only resolved really quickly, but also very empathetically. All the things we had no certain knowledge about were clearly explained. All the email communication was great. To every email, no matter what subject, we got a quick reply. We had regular meetings once a week, when we could, to first discuss all our doubts and we got answers to all our questions. We were told what was needed, so I was able to find people who will take care of particular things. We also got information on which servers to use. We have also been advised strategically how to choose the server based on expected number of users. And thanks to that, we were able to choose the specific option that is optimal for us. We also got a lot of other application-related information.
Joanna Dziadowiec-Greganić: At the right moments, you were also delegating various people with whom we had worked. For a company like yours, it's really important to have a structure, because different specialists are needed. On the other hand, we can really praise all the aspects of Mr. Miron. As a programmer, he was really great, both in terms of communication, explanation and patience with us.
How do you evaluate cooperation with ImpiCode?
Agnieszka Wargowska-Dudek: At the moment, there is no area where my level of satisfaction falls below 99.9% . Working with you is an extremely positive experience for us. We received a lot from you. On the one hand, very professional cooperation and work on our application and on the other hand, such a very human and not only business view of our activities and our vision of creating this application.
Joanna Dziadowiec-Greganić: I know we're describing everything in bright colours only, but, well, that’s the truth. That actually we are really happy with the cooperation. We were in a really difficult situation and you gave us such a quick shot that helped to put the project back on it’s feet. The second thing is this form of cooperation, which we were missing with the previous provider. In fact, we can confidently recommend working with ImpiCode as a model of cooperation.
Would you choose ImpiCode for your next projects?
Joanna Dziadowiec-Greganić: We declare our willingness to continue our cooperation. We want to continue the development of the application. And we would like to do it with you.
What could we improve in working with the Foundation?
Agnieszka Wargowska-Dudek: I don't really think I have any bad observations. I am aware that it was a difficult time for us and that it was two months of very intensive work. And they were like,100 percent successful. Probably, if we cooperated longer, misunderstandings could arise as a result of fatigue But at the moment, really, even if it sounds overly sweet, I have no complaints about the collaboration. Cooperation with you sets us up very well for the future.
Summary
ARTS Foundation approached us with a problem in the form of a mobile application not completed by the previous supplier. We were asked to complete the work and make the app available to users with all planned functionalities. The whole process was successfully carried out in about two months.
The application is realized in React Native and Node.js technology and is available on Google Play and App Store. Thanks to the app, everyone can independently document the treasures of local culture, digitize and archive interesting objects, places, cultural events and much more, and share them with other users. Our cooperation went very smoothly and we are both very satisfied with it, as evidenced by the above interview.