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Gordon Cook
COOK Network Consultants
431 Greenway Ave,
Ewing, NJ 08618
USA (609) 882-2572
Internet: cook@cookreport.com
http://www.cookreport.com
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The COOK Report on Internet thanks Arcadia
and Anna Khotina, sources of outstanding web
site design and development, for bringing these
pages on line within hours after the news was
received from base camp. We have been working
with Arcadia since 1994.
http://www.linkeverest.com/html/cybercafe.htm
* * *
I have known Arcady Khotin since the spring
of 1994 when he had three employees and have
been very impressed to watch Arcadia develop
over the past five years to its present size
of over 70 employees. My obeservation of Arcadia
has been via the internet and no less than five
visits to St Petersburg where I have spent time
at his head quarters and gotten to know some
of his employees. A remarkable and dedicated
crew. Mr Khotin is an excellent manager who,
in partnership with Philip Schwartz of Gainsville
Florida, has grown Arcadia to the point where
it remains highly effective and productive and
has become a very serious player in the off
shore programming business. His ability to find
and hang onto excellent managerial and technical
talent is quite impressive. Having an American
citizen as partner and business manager in Florida
from the very beginning gives Arcadia a competitive
leg up in access, and operational and fiscal
stability. Last summer's fiscal upheaval seems
to have affected him not at all. He has become
a very good friend and since I view him as a
person of the highest integrity I have no hesitation
in putting my owen reputation on the line by
endorsing him and his business. Let me make
it clear that while I have no financial or other
interest in his business he has done some excellent
work on my web pages. I have a PhD in Russian
history. Therefore I have some understanding
about the importance of the success of his and
other businesses for the future prosperity and
stability of the Russian nation.
Eino Rantala
Managing Director
Technology Agency Oy Technology
Agency Oy/SWA
Tekniikantie 12, 02150 Espoo, Finland
tel. +358-(0)9-3487 1070
fax +358-(0)9-4780 2240
web: http://www.techagency.fi/swa/
e-mail: tea@techagency.fi
Software Agency, the IT-department, of Technology Agency Oy, provides software
production and network administration services of which a part using offshore services
of software programming.
Software Agency's customers consist mainly of privately owned companies ranging from
small and mid-sized companies up to very large enterprises. Each assignment is carried
out as a separate project and the size of the programming tasks varies a lot. To be able
to manage these projects cost-effectively and to ensure good quality of the software
products Software Agency has developed a Software production process. In the
offshore business it is important to have reliable contacts at the site where the actual
programming is carried out.
Our experiences of the co-operation with Arcadia Inc. in st. Petersburg are very good.
The company has a skilful and motivated staff with whom software projects have been
successfully carried out. A highly developed project management ensures their effective
and well-organised software production. An additional mark-up to the projects is gained
by the innovative approach the Arcadia staff has to solve problems.
All assignments are started by making a detailed technical project plan that enables the
calculation of needed resources for the project. These project plans are made together
with Arcadia Inc. We have found the company to be very flexible in allocating resources
needed for the projects. This is a very important characteristic in the software business
where timetables often are tight. The fact that we can rely on promised due dates and
that deadlines are kept even if sudden changes occur makes Arcadia Inc. a valuable
partner in our off shore business.
Another important issue is the quality of the software products. High quality of the
software products can be obtained at Arcadia Inc. because of appropriate testing and a
highly developed documentation system. In our co-operation with the company testing
activities with a common Bug Tracking System are used. In this system the bugs found in
the software are reported to a common database using a secure channel on the Internet.
The system makes not only fast corrections of the code possible but is used in the
documentation process. The entire coding process with each change and correction is
recorded to make a complete report of the assignment. When the software is ready and
has passed all the testing it is handed over to the client together with the documentation
material. The software produced by Arcadia Inc. has always been of high quality.
Our satisfied customers form the best indicator of our functioning collaboration. Working
together with Arcadia Inc. has helped us to develop our business towards continuous
business relationships. This is important for a company that measures its success by the
success of the customers.
Technology Agency Oy is a project management company that links together various
organisations in different research and development projects.
Victoria Vaksman
Director
Shared Objectives (Pty) Ltd.
Tel: +27 11 652-5122
E-mail: main@sharedobj.co.za
We have worked extensively with Arcadia,
Inc. (Planet Software,
Inc.) on our company's software projects.
We have found them to be technically very competent
and run with a great deal of organization. The
Arcadia staff has demonstrated expertise in
project management, configuration control, software
testing and general design. We have found them
to be a company with great integrity and high
business ethics. They have been extremely customer-oriented
in our dealings with them. The solutions they
have offered to us have been of a very high
quality and at very competitive rates. We have
no hesitation in recommending them to any potential
client and we plan to expand our own business
relationship with them in the coming years.
Anna Kassner
Executive Director
SPIBA (St.Petersburg
International Business Association)
http://www.spiba.spb.ru
I would like to take this opportunity to recommend
Arcadia Web designers at Westpost to anyone
who seeks an intelligent and creative web
site for their business. I first met with
designers from Arcadia in the spring of 1998
when I was looking to redo the St. Petersburg
International Business Association's (SPIBA)
then drab and typical web site. After some
discussion with designers I was impressed
by the proposed ideas which in our case helped
to promote our professional business image
while blending it with our location and our
place in the St. Petersburg community.
Although I am not well informed or experienced
with the world of web design, the designers
at Arcadia educated me as to the multitude
of choices available and provided me with
those alternatives that best met our organization's
needs. Beyond designing the site, Arcadia
provided SPIBA with domain registration services
as well as listing SPIBA's web site with all
the major search engines to ensure greater
exposure for our site.
SPIBA's web site is designed mostly for our
existing members and provides them with updated
information regarding SPIBA activities and
news. As a result, I send updated or new material
to our designer via e-mail every week. Although
I send the files in regular MS Office format,
the Arcadia designers convert my files into
the proper format and post my changes within
a few days. Their flexibility and readiness
to keep our web site updated and relevant
recommends them very highly to anyone seeking
an innovative and reliable partner in designing
their company's web site.
The prompt, professional service provided
to SPIBA by Arcadia, in combination with their
low and flexible prices makes it a pleasure
to work with Arcadia.
Steven
J. Serenska, President
Landmark Development Company, Inc.
BangZoom Software,
Inc.
401-333-8884
sjs@bangzoom.com
Landmark Development Company, Inc.: Consulting
Services and Packaged Software for the Banking,
Securities, and Insurance Industries
BangZoom Software, Inc.: Shrink-wrap software
for the Home Consumer.
Please see our complete product line at www.bangzoom.com
Planet Software, Inc. and its affiliated
entity in Russia executed two software projects
for us on behalf of a consulting client of
ours. We found Planet's work to be excellent.
As both a service provider and a software
publisher, we value the following from our
offshore developers:
1) Timely delivery according to previously
communicated estimates.
2) A demonstrated understanding of our business
problems, including the ability to interpret
our written specifications without an undue
number of questions and misunderstandings.
3) Flexibility in terms of the development
toolsets used.
4) Ability to contain development costs.
We found that Planet excelled in each of these
areas. Planet's work is normally delivered
in a two phase approach with the first phase
amounting to a beta release. All issues we
discovered during the first releases were
resolved by the second. After nearly one year
in use by 1,000 users, we have found Planet's
code to be stable and reliable.
Finally, no reference for a service provider
would be complete without an answer to the
question, "Would you hire them again for future
engagements?". The answer in Planet's case
is: "Definitely".
If you have any other questions about Planet
Software, we may be contacted through Planet.
Christian
Courbois
General Director
86, Neskij Prospekt, Dom Aktera, St. Peterburg,
Russia
PO Box 8, Lappenranta, 53501, Finland
Tel: (812) 327-32-11
Fax: (812) 275-08-06
WESTPOST
westpost@westpost.ru
www.westpost.ru
Arcadia, Inc..
provides WestPost with comprehensive administration
and services for our webserver and website.
We have been working for four years with Arcadia,
Inc.. and have always been impressed
with the level of service, their resourcefulness
and the skills of their staff. They have provided
resourceful solutions to many of the challenges
that our company faced.
We will continue our relationsship with Arcadia,
Inc.. and I recomended worcing with
this company without hesitations.
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