Adastra

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are part of a large financial company operating in North America. I am the senior developer in an AI research lab leading several AI and data science projects. The team spans the entire life cycle of an AI product, from ideation through scientific research to production at a massive scale.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Adastra?

We want to implement CI/CD in our AI practice and develop scalable applications on GCP.

SOLUTION

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

We chose Adastra because of their background in Information Management, GCP and AI. We needed a partner that understands AI and software development to support the development of our DevOps strategy so we can launch projects as secure and scalable applications on GCP.

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

Adastra initially supported the establishment of a CI/CD pipeline and best practices for our team. Adastra then helped design, develop, and deploy our applications to GCP. Their team helps us manage GCP resources and support our AI team in deployments of our data models.

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

Technical Lead, Account Manager, 2 Cloud Consultants

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Adastra’s CI/CD solution and best practice guidance allow our team to collaborate in development and deployment activities more efficiently. Adastra’s use of serverless services for applications helps increase cost efficiency while guarantees high availability and scalability of our applications.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The Adastra team has integrated seamlessly into our team. We experience flawless collaboration as Adastra joined in as part of our team’s established daily stand up. Their team always supports us not only for the projects they are engaged with, but also with any kind of GCP issues in other projects.

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

Adastra cares about the success of our team and is a reliable delivery partner. They respond quickly to our needs and their consultants regularly offered feedback and valuable insights during the design and development process.

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

Nothing specific but just keep doing the great work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am working in Commerzbank AG Germany as head of reporting Intensive Care.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Adastra?

We are going to improve our management reports and deliver them via an web application.

SOLUTION

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

Commerzbank AG is already working with Adastra and was supported by Adastra in several digitalization projects. So we selected Adastra due to their experience.

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

We improved decision making for the operational units (recipients of the management reports) by providing digitalized reports and gain better insights for the quality of the data. The new app will be the single point of truth and saves time for creating the reports.

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

One single person, BI consultant (Qlik developer).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The data itself is confidental. The project was established succesfully; all goals were reached in time. The outcome of the partnership allowed us to get better insights in our data and improve the quality of the analysis.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Due to Corona, we communicated most of the time via phone or MS Teams. Questions were answered quickly and in good quality. The collaboration was very effective.

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

They provide tailored solutions for our demands on every level.

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

We improved the way of collaboration during the development process. So the difficulties due to Corona restrictions were mastered properly and in a very good way.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a large retail company operating in North America. I am a Senior Technical Project Manager leading Data monetization program.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Adastra?

We wanted to replace an existing data platform with a collaborative BI solution that help us drive insights, make smarter decisions, and deliver measurably better results. We engaged with Adastra to support us in this endeavor.

SOLUTION

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

Adastra appeared as the best option for our needs and mission. Adastra was chosen for this project, because of their extensive large-enterprise background in the Information Management. We needed a skilled partner, who would design, develop and support a professional and highly secured analytics solution.

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

Adastra initially supported our in-house BI development teams. They performed code reviews and proposed ideas how to optimize the performance of our platform. Adastra helped us optimize our cloud investments. They build a cost optimization services that drive cost insights beforehand and enable us to act accordingly.

Not only their team supported us to execute our CI/CD pipeline, but also upgraded our CI/CD strategy by implementing a custom process for automated deployment of multiple BI applications. Adastra’s cloud consultants ensure high availability for our architecture. They provide 24/7 monitoring and support to the production environments as well as incident management by handling customers’ requests.

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

5 Cloud Administrators, 3 BI Consultants

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their deployment solution automated manual efforts and ensured high scalability of the entire CI/CD strategy. We now execute much faster deployment for all the BI applications. As an outcome of the cloud cost optimization, on average, we experience 30% faster queries execution time as well as significantly reduced cost per query. They ensure the high availability of our infrastructure and 24/7 incident management.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Throughout time, we have built an excellent collaboration model. We have daily standups plus a couple of triages a week. All these ensure seamless information flow across all parties. Adastra’s global delivery teams are very easy to work with and they provide 24/7 support.

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

I am truly impressed by the mindset of their team members. They do not miss any chance to consult us on strategic platform enhancements which drives tremendous outcomes in the long run. I also value the quick response time and feel we there is someone reliable on our side if we need it. They embrace our mission as their own.

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

We are extremely happy with the work that Adastra is doing and will be happy to work with the company going forward.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Project Manager, Vehicle Finance Company. Our Vehicle Finance company is active on the Belgian market, and offers various vehicle finance related products such as operative / finance lease, vehicle loans and car dealership financing products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Adastra?

Adastra was selected as a reliable vendor which would help us create our enterprise data warehouse and build a robust BI solution on top of it.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals of our engagement have been to have our company's information easily accessible and build a single source of truth for our data. It would serve as the foundation for an improved decision-making process and allows to source other systems in an automated way.

SOLUTION

How did you select Adastra?

We received a direct reference from one of our shareholder companies which short-listed Adastra as a preferred IT organization. Adastra already successfully participated in a number of IT projects at this shareholder company.

Describe the project in detail.

Adastra created a new enterprise data warehouse in order to address the different reporting needs and enable enhanced decision-making process in our organization. Their development team participated in all the stages of the project, starting from the analysis, going through the modelling and the design, and finally the implementation and testing of the solution.

Adastra’s BI consultants collaborated closely with business users and data analysts on our side, discussing and evaluating the business requirements, in order to create a significant part of the needed reports and visuals.

What was the team composition?

The team we worked with consisted of a Technical Lead, Data Modeler, ETL and BI developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As a result of this collaboration with Adastra, we have an excellent consolidated view of our data and we will be gaining important business insights.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Both parties worked closely, constantly communicating, discussing, and analyzing the ongoing topics, focused on the timely delivery of the tasks. In general, I would say we managed to achieve a smooth and effective collaboration, which led to the desired project results. The project was done via near-shoring, in which the Adastra Technical Lead made regular on-site visits.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They offer a diverse set of skills which were readily usable to support us throughout this project. Even while the circumstances with the COVID pandemic were less easy (on-site visits no longer possible), targets were still met and the project continued as foreseen.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a Financial Services Company providing Asset Finance products to both retail and wholesale customers. I am a Project Manager leading a number of Information Management and Reporting Projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Adastra?

We are being supported by Adastra in multiple Information Management initiatives, as a vendor that delivers both technical expertise and valuable IM consultancy services, based on vast international experience.

As a company that relies on data to support the decision-making process and complies with numerous legislation requirements – being able to manage, use, and trust our data is of utmost importance.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals of our projects have been to improve the decision-making process, comply with all reporting requirements, and gain better insights into the quality of our data.

SOLUTION

How did you select Adastra?

As Adastra was already part of the preferred vendor list of our parent company, we received a direct reference that we could trust. We felt that Adastra took the time needed to understand our needs and really treated them as their own.

Describe the project in detail.

In all projects, Adastra is involved in the analysis stage and contribute to defining the lists of requirements. The Technical Lead then develops the solution design which is synced with our Data Analyst, involves business users and the teams who own and manage the technical environment.

During the implementation and testing activities, regular status calls are scheduled in order to help drive communication both ways, track status progress, and deal in a timely manner with any unforeseen complications. UAT is performed by our business users and supported by Adastra, as well as any documentation and instructions which will support the operation of the solution.

What was the team composition?

For planning future projects, we work directly with the Adastra Account Manager and Technical Lead. The Technical Lead is responsible for providing, leading, and mentoring a team that is capable of successful delivery.

During the course of the projects, the Technical Lead and development team interact with our Data Analyst and subject matter experts in order to capture and clarify all requirements and business-related specifics. Adastra also provides us with Quality Assurance services in order to guarantee a high quality of delivery.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All projects where we have worked together with Adastra have been delivered successfully and have met their goals. As an outcome of this partnership we have started using our data more intensively, have gained better insights into it, and have improved its quality. Adastra helped us in the journey of becoming a data-driven company.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

On top of the technical expertise which Adastra delivers, they put a lot of effort into deep-diving into the business aspect of our operations, which ensures effective communication on all levels. Whenever we need advice or clarification on any project related topic – we always receive a response in a timely and effective manner.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The feeling that we are not in a vendor-client relationship but a partnership. Adastra measures their success by the success of the companies they help.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We continue to review the way we work together with each new project to ensure that we have the optimum model in place that gives us flexibility and agility.